Garvan Institute of Medical Research

I just finished my first three days of internship at Garvan Institute and I already like it so much! I have my own desk, computer, lab bench and even my own mug. The people at the institute are all really friendly and I get along perfectly with my supervisor. She’s a funny, goofy woman who likes to laugh, is laid-back and she knows what she’s doing. I also met the Prof. Dr. Jonathan Sprent, head of the Immunology department at Garvan, with a huge reputation on that particular field with many high impact publications in prestigious journals such as Science and Nature. I felt like meeting a celebrity! I also got to read medical articles as background information for my project and I felt like I was in my comfort zone. Who would have thought that reading medical articles would make me feel comfortable and secure. I mean, everything here down under is different: scent of Sydney, cheese, bread, people, milk, thickness of rain drops, ducks (really, they’re weird with long beaks!), etc. But medical articles will always be medical articles. I am so happy that my internship started, because it puts so much more meaning to my stay here.

The project is really awesome and I feel like I am going to contribute something useful, which makes me feel useful. Consequently, all my uncertainties prior to my stay here are swept aside now that I enjoy being present at Garvan Institute. Medical research is all about solving puzzles. Once you throw yourself in the matter and start reading background information you become more and more intrigued by the research question that you’re trying to address. Everyone who says: ‘’I don’t want to do medical research because I don’t want to keep pipetting for the rest of my life’’ don’t really get what research is all about. Once you understand the research problem and you’d manage to set up experiments in order to approach it, your pipet becomes your best friend. Okay, for the sake of maintaining my high blog readers count I am gonna stop blogging nerdy.

( I’ll call Lianne later on for some more geeky talk, as our similar Australian mobile provider allows us to make free phone calls! ). I’ll treat the uninterested-in-medical-research audience (shame on you!) with some exciting hot stuff, as an attempt to maintain my loyal readers. ..

Just when I finished my working hours I grabbed my bike to head back home like any other day. I arrived at Centential Park, when suddenly out of nowhere huge, dark clouds speeded up above me with roaring thunder! It was insane! Rain drops in the size of Ping-Pong balls attacked my body and made my bicycle movements S-shaped. I reached a complete state of wetness saturation within 10 seconds. Upon the alarming sounds of thunder I squeaked a girly scream and kicked the bike pedals with maximal force. (Although all the other Australian citizens remained strangely enough calm) Everywhere I looked at lightning bolts were being evoked, and the ground was shaking like a maximal routs per minute centrifuge mode of a dryer machine gone wild.

Mother Nature went mental! I am used to some rain as I am from the Netherlands, where it tends to fall down from the sky in a more chronically fashion. But this was nothing like bad Dutch weather; it was an Australian tropical storm!

I shouldn’t be alive…

Weird duck with long beak