Helloooooo readers readin' mah stuff. I have some really fantastic news about work, I got to cut open some MICE! It was awesome! I don't really like surgical stuff necessarily, these mice were already dead, but I love anatomy. I love it, I loved being able to actually see the parts of the mice's body and Terence even let me dissect and basically tear apart the brain! I helped to collect the pituitary gland, the hypothalamus, and the left and right hippocampus. We also needed to collect the left and right frontal cortex but Terence wanted to do that himself. I also helped with RNA extractions, a new procedure I hadn't done before! I also learned how to kill mice, it was definitely harder and more unnerving than I thought.
And what could be better than the end of a week that included dissecting and extracting RNA? Well a weekend that ends with a trip to Healesville Sanctuary. I went off to the sanctuaty with Erin and Terence, Terence drove us both up to Healesville in his pretty awesome two-door black car, which was a bit hard to finangle at first because the front seat had to be moved in order to enter the back. So....that was fun! :) I was also super worried I would meet them both in the wrong spot but we all ended up in the car. We were soon on our way to the sanctuary....
These are pictures of the platypus handler scratching the platypus and her shaking one of her back legs, just like a dog. THE. CUTEST.
This beautiful love story has many renditions, I have only heard two thus far and the second one is far more family friendly:)
Birdies!
Stick insect!
I saw some koalas, walked by some wallabees, had a bird land on me and learned where platypuses came from. It's a beautiful, yet disturbing, interspecies love story. AND OH MY GOODNESS THE FOOD. We had the most delicious pizza I have tasted thus far, and yes, that is including Pronto's Pizza (that was to clarify for Erin)! I would definitely recommend the Innocent Bystander if you're in the Healesville/Yering area. The area we were in is also home to some pretty nice wine vineyards and I participated in my first official wine tasting! I would only spit out the wine, of course, I'm definitely continuing my not drinking (although does wine tasting count as cheating?), and the wine tasting experience has actually strengthened my resolve to continue not drinking. Well, as some of you may know my palette isn't really refined at all and since I don't drink it was hard to pay attention to the flavors (notes?) of the wines aside from the alcohol. But aside from that I really enjoyed trying the wine, I even liked a couple of the wines, especially one of the white wines.
And we ended the day with cheese and sweets. We had the most delicious cheeses at Yarra Valley Dairy Farm and I even brought some back to the apartment. I had never felt so satisfied with food even though I had eaten too much. I want my afterlife to be filled with the cheeses and other foods we had eaten in Healesville. That was how amazing it was. And if you don't trust my taste buds now that I've admitted how awful they are (I totally understand), Terence and Erin also agreed that the cheese and sweets were amazing.
I will soon be departing for Cairns, and Sydney, and other places for one week! I'm really excited to be experiencing some warmer weather and to see the Great Barrier Reef, the Sydney Opera House and more. I'm sure you guys'll read all about it as soon as I get back. And after that week I'll have only one week left! WOW! Man, do I have bittersweet feelings about leaving...although I have to admit they're definitely leaning on the happier side. I think this experience has been really fantastic but I miss people from home and things like school, and as silly as that may sound to some of you guys, 'tis absolutely true.
Also, this has been my soundtrack for the entire week. I have become obsessed with Sleeping At Last. This obsessed:
While writing this I am trying my best not to get too excited about going to Cairns and Sydney and going snorkeling and eating out and such but it's kind of an uphill battle since I'm leaving in about 12 hours. 12 HOURS! Needless to say there won't be another blog until after next week since I'm not bringing my laptop but I will find my way to Facebook and other such places as well.
Once again, thanks for readin' through everything. I leave you with a song about the color gray or grey. I'm sure I'll see most of you soon back in the states! And I can't wait.
Lots of love,
Syd
