I will be in Toronto next year! I have decided on Toronto's medical school because I think the program suits me best and it means I will be living with Justine. I am unbelievably estatic about that.
However it does cause me to reminisce about when I last shared a living space with my sister, when we were 12? And the arguments we had were just crazy: they were loud, and they were unfortunately, not uncommon, often ending with both of us getting spanked. Aaaahhh...the good ole' days... Let's hope this second go at living together will turn out better.
Funny how my sister tried to convince me to go to Toronto too. She mentioned picturing myself cooking a lot for the two of us. Oddly enough, this does appeal to me quite a bit.
And it will be nice to finally live in a "home" for the next 4 years. At Queen's, I never fully invested myself to any living space because I knew it would be so temporary. I can't wait to decorate our apartment and to furnish it with quality utensils not purchased at the dollar store. I am already looking for items here in Finland.
Perhaps we will even have a house-warming party! Look out for an invitation...
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Thursday, May 18, 2006
What do you want to be when you grow up?
ahh...a question that never gets tired. It can be asked to anybody, no matter how young, boy/girl, black/white.
What did I want to be?
in grade 2 I wanted to be a marine biologist or a vet
in grade 5 I wanted to become a teacher
in grade 9 I thought I wanted to be a doctor, a cardiologist just like my dad
in grade 10-11 I wanted to be a policy-maker or an environmentalist.
in grade 12 I wanted to be a doctor again,
and in grade 13, I applied for and accepted a place at the prestigious Queen's school of business
I have done lab research, field research and have worked with single cells, whole plants, and whole animal systems. I have taught english pronunciation and have found that being Don was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
In my final year of university I looked into pharmacy, dentistry, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, engineering and plant biotechnology as possible postgraduate options.
I am now in Finland doing DNA analyses on trees affected by greenhouse gases.
And now the age-old question is more real. Because I am done my undergrad, real life is creeping up on me. So what's next?
Well, if you have not yet heard, I have finally settled on...MEDICINE!
I got accepted to three medical schools: Ottawa, Toronto and Queen's! And I have to say I am very excited. I am very happy and am exactly where I want to be, feeling no regrets whatsoever. I took a very confused path to get where I am, it wasn't hard really, just windy (as in curvy, not in terms of weather) and every experience was worth having.
So now the next big decision...which medical school?
What did I want to be?
in grade 2 I wanted to be a marine biologist or a vet
in grade 5 I wanted to become a teacher
in grade 9 I thought I wanted to be a doctor, a cardiologist just like my dad
in grade 10-11 I wanted to be a policy-maker or an environmentalist.
in grade 12 I wanted to be a doctor again,
and in grade 13, I applied for and accepted a place at the prestigious Queen's school of business
I have done lab research, field research and have worked with single cells, whole plants, and whole animal systems. I have taught english pronunciation and have found that being Don was one of the most rewarding experiences of my life.
In my final year of university I looked into pharmacy, dentistry, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, engineering and plant biotechnology as possible postgraduate options.
I am now in Finland doing DNA analyses on trees affected by greenhouse gases.
And now the age-old question is more real. Because I am done my undergrad, real life is creeping up on me. So what's next?
Well, if you have not yet heard, I have finally settled on...MEDICINE!
I got accepted to three medical schools: Ottawa, Toronto and Queen's! And I have to say I am very excited. I am very happy and am exactly where I want to be, feeling no regrets whatsoever. I took a very confused path to get where I am, it wasn't hard really, just windy (as in curvy, not in terms of weather) and every experience was worth having.
So now the next big decision...which medical school?
Monday, May 15, 2006
Feeling Hot! Hot! Hot!
So it is Monday after my second weekend here in Finland. It was a great weekend and here is what I have been up to:
1) Went to the library. I love libraries. The Suonenjoki library is great for such a small town. It is clean and has a very modern feel. One of the advantages to a Finnish library is that it has a limited selection of english books, and you are probably thinking "huh?", but because of this, the english books are all significant works of literature, that I should probably read anyway. So it really helps me narrow down what to read, whereas in an english library, the choices are endless. So I hope to read a lot this summer, if life doesn't get in the way. I also borrowed a french book and two other books entitled, "Finnish for foreigners1&2", it will be my new summer project: to learn finnish!
2) Sauna for the first time! It was Hot, hot, hot! But quite relaxing. I have to be careful next time though because midway through I noticed my glasses and hair clip were heating up very much and burning my face. But the best feeling of all is stepping out into the cool crisp air. It is just very refreshing. And surprisingly, the naked issue, well...is not an issue at all! I have never felt that way before, but you just don't think about it I guess. The hope is that you talk about more meaningful things and just don't realize you are naked, which was the case for me:).
3) We also did some home cooking this weekend: Finnish summer soup and apple cake. It was surprisingly traditional and surprisingly simple and most importantly, surprisingly delicious. And people here are quite clever, when buying herbs, they are always sure to sell it to you with the roots and a plastic pot, so you can then grow it yourself afterwards. I don't recall seeing this very often in Canadian grocery stores. Anyway, so besides a good, hearty meal, two new plants (a chive plant and a lettuce plant) have also been introduced into our home.
4) There is more for me to do in the lab now also which is a great relief. I am now amplifying the samples which takes about two days. The people in the lab are extremely, extremely nice and though it is frustrating sometimes because of the language difficulties, they are very well-natured and try hard to include me in everything they do. I am used to just tuning out when they start talking Finnish- before, I used to pretend that I was interested, but I have realized that that is just a very phoney thing to do, since everyone knows I do not have a clue!
5) Went to a horse show. It was a little disappointing because I thought it would be a little more formal, a little bigger than it actually was. But it was nice to see families out enjoying themselves with local events.
6) Had a BBQ! Though this was last week, it is definitely worth mentioning because I had too good of a time for it to go undocumented. We started a fire in the woods (in a designated area of course) and roasted some good Finnish sausages. It was delicious. Annukka and Susanna are great housemates, we do everything together! They are always keen to stay active like me and we just get along very well. How lucky I am to have them with me. We then followed up on the meal with toasted marshmellows...yummmm...
All in all, Finland is treating me well. I hope to do some more outdoor activities since the weather is beautiful here...most of the time. On Saturday, I was caught in the middle of a hail storm and got home very very wet and very very cold. I am told by locals to expect ice with the rain and even some snow this month! Funny that I left Canada when it was finally getting warm to come to a place that is colder - A very counterintuitive summer move!
1) Went to the library. I love libraries. The Suonenjoki library is great for such a small town. It is clean and has a very modern feel. One of the advantages to a Finnish library is that it has a limited selection of english books, and you are probably thinking "huh?", but because of this, the english books are all significant works of literature, that I should probably read anyway. So it really helps me narrow down what to read, whereas in an english library, the choices are endless. So I hope to read a lot this summer, if life doesn't get in the way. I also borrowed a french book and two other books entitled, "Finnish for foreigners1&2", it will be my new summer project: to learn finnish!
2) Sauna for the first time! It was Hot, hot, hot! But quite relaxing. I have to be careful next time though because midway through I noticed my glasses and hair clip were heating up very much and burning my face. But the best feeling of all is stepping out into the cool crisp air. It is just very refreshing. And surprisingly, the naked issue, well...is not an issue at all! I have never felt that way before, but you just don't think about it I guess. The hope is that you talk about more meaningful things and just don't realize you are naked, which was the case for me:).
3) We also did some home cooking this weekend: Finnish summer soup and apple cake. It was surprisingly traditional and surprisingly simple and most importantly, surprisingly delicious. And people here are quite clever, when buying herbs, they are always sure to sell it to you with the roots and a plastic pot, so you can then grow it yourself afterwards. I don't recall seeing this very often in Canadian grocery stores. Anyway, so besides a good, hearty meal, two new plants (a chive plant and a lettuce plant) have also been introduced into our home.
4) There is more for me to do in the lab now also which is a great relief. I am now amplifying the samples which takes about two days. The people in the lab are extremely, extremely nice and though it is frustrating sometimes because of the language difficulties, they are very well-natured and try hard to include me in everything they do. I am used to just tuning out when they start talking Finnish- before, I used to pretend that I was interested, but I have realized that that is just a very phoney thing to do, since everyone knows I do not have a clue!
5) Went to a horse show. It was a little disappointing because I thought it would be a little more formal, a little bigger than it actually was. But it was nice to see families out enjoying themselves with local events.
6) Had a BBQ! Though this was last week, it is definitely worth mentioning because I had too good of a time for it to go undocumented. We started a fire in the woods (in a designated area of course) and roasted some good Finnish sausages. It was delicious. Annukka and Susanna are great housemates, we do everything together! They are always keen to stay active like me and we just get along very well. How lucky I am to have them with me. We then followed up on the meal with toasted marshmellows...yummmm...
All in all, Finland is treating me well. I hope to do some more outdoor activities since the weather is beautiful here...most of the time. On Saturday, I was caught in the middle of a hail storm and got home very very wet and very very cold. I am told by locals to expect ice with the rain and even some snow this month! Funny that I left Canada when it was finally getting warm to come to a place that is colder - A very counterintuitive summer move!
Thursday, May 11, 2006
My Work Project
So today I met with two of my three supervisors, Elina and Sari. They explained more of what I was doing and gave me an overview of what the experiments, of which I am a part, are all about. So here is the shimmy:
There is a field experiment in Wisconsin that involves growing Aspen, Birch and Maple trees in 12 large areas designated in the field. Each circle is exposed to a different treatment of greenhouse gases: CO2, O3 (ozone), and ambient air. What our lab is asking goes as follows: how do trees respond to changes in environmental gas conditions? To find out, we look at gene expression. What genes get turned on or enhanced, or turned off and down-regulated when trees are exposed to high levels of toxic gases will tell us what proteins are being made and what molecular pathways are being activated in response to the greenhouse gas stress.
What gets more interesting is that CO2 is actually beneficial to trees as they need it to produce energy via photosynthesis. However O3 is very harmful, so by subjecting trees to both gases at once, we can also look at the interaction of these two gases and their effects on tree growth, leaf health and overall productivity. Would their effects cancel each other out? These are the questions being tackled in our lab.
So where do I fit into this large picture? Well, my particular role is to analyze what genes have been affected by the treatments. So I will extract the RNA from the leaves, purify it, amplify it and finally analyze it. It is that simple...sort of. The procedures can be complicated and very expensive to run. But I am sure that I will learn a lot even though at present I am not doing much. We will be using very modern techniques that can analyze thousands and thousands of genes at once (a microarray). It is very impressive.
So there you have it, my experiment in a nutshell! I am glad to see advancements in our field put to good use. Everyday we are finding out more and more about our environment and how to preserve it. And for me, it is nice to know that I am making positive change, no matter how small.
There is a field experiment in Wisconsin that involves growing Aspen, Birch and Maple trees in 12 large areas designated in the field. Each circle is exposed to a different treatment of greenhouse gases: CO2, O3 (ozone), and ambient air. What our lab is asking goes as follows: how do trees respond to changes in environmental gas conditions? To find out, we look at gene expression. What genes get turned on or enhanced, or turned off and down-regulated when trees are exposed to high levels of toxic gases will tell us what proteins are being made and what molecular pathways are being activated in response to the greenhouse gas stress.
What gets more interesting is that CO2 is actually beneficial to trees as they need it to produce energy via photosynthesis. However O3 is very harmful, so by subjecting trees to both gases at once, we can also look at the interaction of these two gases and their effects on tree growth, leaf health and overall productivity. Would their effects cancel each other out? These are the questions being tackled in our lab.
So where do I fit into this large picture? Well, my particular role is to analyze what genes have been affected by the treatments. So I will extract the RNA from the leaves, purify it, amplify it and finally analyze it. It is that simple...sort of. The procedures can be complicated and very expensive to run. But I am sure that I will learn a lot even though at present I am not doing much. We will be using very modern techniques that can analyze thousands and thousands of genes at once (a microarray). It is very impressive.
So there you have it, my experiment in a nutshell! I am glad to see advancements in our field put to good use. Everyday we are finding out more and more about our environment and how to preserve it. And for me, it is nice to know that I am making positive change, no matter how small.
Wednesday, May 10, 2006
What Sarah does when bored in Finland...she blogs
It is strange being here. In a way it is lonely because no one understands you really and everyday is spent acting happy and enthusiastic. This is probably what is most tiring everyday. But it is no one's fault. The main problem I think, is that there is actually very little for me to do at work. Being bored really drains any life juice you have. I ran two experiments over a course of three days. Both experiments could have been combined into one day and had such long wait times that for hours I was left just sitting around with nothing to do. Today is particularly bad as both my supervisors need to prepare for a trip they are making on Friday to the big city so they can not spend much time training me. I just feel like I am wasting resources (money, space, time) by being here and doing nothing. On a happier note, I will run my own experiment on Friday which should give me something to do.
So what does one do when bored out of their wits? What does Sarah do? Well, I looked up festivals that are in nearby towns with the thought that perhaps over a weekend, I might muster up the courage to travel to another city on my own. This actually took quite a bit of time because some festivals are not very well-organized so I question whether I should make the effort to actually attend. I then looked up different people I have met here, one in particular is a professional golfer, Alpo, who has lived in America playing golf for almost 40 years. But he is not very famous for a google-search resulted in no hits. I then tried to translate some finnish dialogue into english using an online dictionary. That was interesting and actually quite difficult really. The Finnish language has suffixes on the words that confuses the dictionary because you are supposed to only look up the root word. Finding the root word is difficult for any foreigner. I then flipped through my planner seeing what things I would like to do this weekend: cook something perhaps? Or maybe I can go for a swim?
Anyway, you get the idea, I sure hope I get more to do soon! As you can tell from this blog, I am going bonkers!
So what does one do when bored out of their wits? What does Sarah do? Well, I looked up festivals that are in nearby towns with the thought that perhaps over a weekend, I might muster up the courage to travel to another city on my own. This actually took quite a bit of time because some festivals are not very well-organized so I question whether I should make the effort to actually attend. I then looked up different people I have met here, one in particular is a professional golfer, Alpo, who has lived in America playing golf for almost 40 years. But he is not very famous for a google-search resulted in no hits. I then tried to translate some finnish dialogue into english using an online dictionary. That was interesting and actually quite difficult really. The Finnish language has suffixes on the words that confuses the dictionary because you are supposed to only look up the root word. Finding the root word is difficult for any foreigner. I then flipped through my planner seeing what things I would like to do this weekend: cook something perhaps? Or maybe I can go for a swim?
Anyway, you get the idea, I sure hope I get more to do soon! As you can tell from this blog, I am going bonkers!
Sunday, May 07, 2006
A Finnish Weekend
So this is my first weekend since coming to Finland and it has so far been quite nice.
Yesterday we went to my supervisor's house for dinner. She has a family of 4 including two children, a boy and a girl. They live quite the ideal Finnish lifestyle I think. Their house is by a river and they just bought a new canoe. The children climb trees and play for hours on this huge trampoline they have in the backyard. Trampolines are all the rage here, but you must be careful, Sari was telling me that her nephew died from a trampolining accident. The night was very fun, informal and filled with good conversation that ranged from being a biologist in Finland to bird watching. It is great to see kids who are active and not cooped up all day in front of the computer. They also aren't afraid to get dirty and that is the kind of childhood that I think is going extinct in our technology, stimulus-driven world today.
Sari's house was just amazing. It had two old-fashioned Finnish stoves and they heat their houses with furnaces in which they burn wood and paper waste that they have around the house. It is quite resourceful actually and very efficient. Sometimes I wonder why North America has never implemented such environmentally-friendly practices into its workplace and homes.
We then had a nice BBQ in the backyard: chicken with grilled veggies. It was just such a pleasant evening. I am glad we went.
Today I went to a bog! It is really really wet. You can tromp around all you like in this bog and in the proper attire (heavy-duty rainboots) you won't get wet. I am not used to having the ground sink beneath me when I am standing still. The bog is also a home for a lot of different wildlife. We saw many different types of flowers and berries and I have been told it only gets better as the summer progresses. I love nature, though unfortunately I have been told that this amazing weather we have been having will be short-lived and that I should expect rain soon.
We are looking at attending the Savonlinna Opera Festival next month. It is a great festival where operas are held in a stage built right in the centre of the castle! The tickets are not cheap, but I think it would be worth it all the same. So far, all the shows for Carmen are sold out. My hope is that we find tickets for the Magic Flute.
To make sure I am getting the true Finnish experience, I am also reading a book called "The Egyptian" by Mika Waltari, a very famous Finnish author. So far it has been quite an interesting read. It is about Egypt oddly enough and slaves and Pharoahs. Who knew that the most important Finnish book of the century was based on a land so unlike Finland and in fact so far away. I cannot say that I am enjoying the book too much either. It is dark and full of hardship for the main characters, but then again, many classics are like this so I can not be surprised.
Wow, this update is much longer than I had intended so I will end it here. Stay tuned for the next episode of Sarah's Finnish adventures!
Yesterday we went to my supervisor's house for dinner. She has a family of 4 including two children, a boy and a girl. They live quite the ideal Finnish lifestyle I think. Their house is by a river and they just bought a new canoe. The children climb trees and play for hours on this huge trampoline they have in the backyard. Trampolines are all the rage here, but you must be careful, Sari was telling me that her nephew died from a trampolining accident. The night was very fun, informal and filled with good conversation that ranged from being a biologist in Finland to bird watching. It is great to see kids who are active and not cooped up all day in front of the computer. They also aren't afraid to get dirty and that is the kind of childhood that I think is going extinct in our technology, stimulus-driven world today.
Sari's house was just amazing. It had two old-fashioned Finnish stoves and they heat their houses with furnaces in which they burn wood and paper waste that they have around the house. It is quite resourceful actually and very efficient. Sometimes I wonder why North America has never implemented such environmentally-friendly practices into its workplace and homes.
We then had a nice BBQ in the backyard: chicken with grilled veggies. It was just such a pleasant evening. I am glad we went.
Today I went to a bog! It is really really wet. You can tromp around all you like in this bog and in the proper attire (heavy-duty rainboots) you won't get wet. I am not used to having the ground sink beneath me when I am standing still. The bog is also a home for a lot of different wildlife. We saw many different types of flowers and berries and I have been told it only gets better as the summer progresses. I love nature, though unfortunately I have been told that this amazing weather we have been having will be short-lived and that I should expect rain soon.
We are looking at attending the Savonlinna Opera Festival next month. It is a great festival where operas are held in a stage built right in the centre of the castle! The tickets are not cheap, but I think it would be worth it all the same. So far, all the shows for Carmen are sold out. My hope is that we find tickets for the Magic Flute.
To make sure I am getting the true Finnish experience, I am also reading a book called "The Egyptian" by Mika Waltari, a very famous Finnish author. So far it has been quite an interesting read. It is about Egypt oddly enough and slaves and Pharoahs. Who knew that the most important Finnish book of the century was based on a land so unlike Finland and in fact so far away. I cannot say that I am enjoying the book too much either. It is dark and full of hardship for the main characters, but then again, many classics are like this so I can not be surprised.
Wow, this update is much longer than I had intended so I will end it here. Stay tuned for the next episode of Sarah's Finnish adventures!
Thursday, May 04, 2006
Hei (means hi)! Yo (means yes)! Kiitos (means thank you)!
Hello everybody! I am now in Finland! Crazy eh? I am living in a great guest house on site and we are 5 km from Suonenjoki, a very comfortable bike ride away.
Today I ran my first RNA gel. It is very similar to the work I have done two summers ago and so I feel quite comfortable so far. The lab is clean and spacious and my supervisor is incredibly caring and nice. I am really grateful for that.
Today I swam in the pond...it still had ice on it. Cool eh? (excuse the pun...teehee) Everyday 5-10 people do this and all it involves is them slipping into the water, paddling for maybe 20 seconds and then hopping out. It is quite invigorating I must admit, but whether or not I pick this up as an everyday routine thing is yet to be determined.
Tonight we are going to go orienteering. This is where they give us a map and a compass and we have to figure out how to get to predetermined checkpoints. My sense of direction is atrocious but hopefully with the help for my housemates, we won't get too lost...unlike yesterday. Yesterday, our one hour hike turned into a three hour hike as we desperately tried to find our way through thick forests and snowed-in paths to get back to METLA (where our house is). But it was an adventure!
This weekend I think I will lie low and get more settled, perhaps read. The library in Suonenjoki is really really nice. Very modern actually. But next weekend perhaps I will start my travels. Any suggestions on where to go? Oulu has Nokia in it, and Tampere has a castle. Choices, choices, choices! (to quote my dad)
Today I ran my first RNA gel. It is very similar to the work I have done two summers ago and so I feel quite comfortable so far. The lab is clean and spacious and my supervisor is incredibly caring and nice. I am really grateful for that.
Today I swam in the pond...it still had ice on it. Cool eh? (excuse the pun...teehee) Everyday 5-10 people do this and all it involves is them slipping into the water, paddling for maybe 20 seconds and then hopping out. It is quite invigorating I must admit, but whether or not I pick this up as an everyday routine thing is yet to be determined.
Tonight we are going to go orienteering. This is where they give us a map and a compass and we have to figure out how to get to predetermined checkpoints. My sense of direction is atrocious but hopefully with the help for my housemates, we won't get too lost...unlike yesterday. Yesterday, our one hour hike turned into a three hour hike as we desperately tried to find our way through thick forests and snowed-in paths to get back to METLA (where our house is). But it was an adventure!
This weekend I think I will lie low and get more settled, perhaps read. The library in Suonenjoki is really really nice. Very modern actually. But next weekend perhaps I will start my travels. Any suggestions on where to go? Oulu has Nokia in it, and Tampere has a castle. Choices, choices, choices! (to quote my dad)
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