Bacteria, Brazilian Education, and Werewolves

I’m very proud of myself! Today, as is usual, we began class in our classroom with lecture. This morning, our topic was antibacterial resistance - with a focus on the resistance of several specific diseases, including tuberculosis, MRSA, and VRSA. 

Before class started

Following my goal yesterday of trying to participate more in class, I asked a lot of really good and insightful questions today! My favorite was when I inquired about the reasoning behind the evolution for certain capabilities of bacteria, or, more specifically, the ability of certain bacteria to pass along resistance not only within its own strain but to others. Why did this happen? How did it benefit one species bacteria to pass along its resistance to other species?

Dr. Fineschi really liked my question, and we spent almost 10 minutes discussing the topic. Not only did I participate - I also had tons of fun doing so. Throughout the morning lecture, I was able to make connections with the things we were learning with things I learned before. For example, I recalled a lesson from my history class about the dismal conditions of prisons in the US back then being a major cause for tuberculosis outbreaks and the development of TB antibiotic resistance. I was able to connect my knowledge, which, as my teachers back at Pinole Valley always said, is actual learning, as opposed to just memorizing facts.

Clearly, it was a very good morning, and I was almost sad when we headed for the lab for Gram staining, even though I absolutely adore lab work. I think this is the most engaged I have been in lectures since class started. I am clearly getting more comfortable with my class, and it just felt awesome.

In the lab, we did Gram staining, which was extremely cool. We stained the bacteria samples we collected with crystal violet, and the Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria would, long story short, stain different colors. We saw some very interesting things looking at the cultures through the microscope, and I took pictures of the magnified bacteria through the microscope lens.

Clustered bacteria

Rod-shaped bacteria growing in chains

We had lecture again after lunch, but I was not as energetic as in the morning; I think I was a little too excited in the morning and burned myself out. After lecture, we did the finishing touches of the staining. Once we finished, I spent some time talking to the group next to us, particularly an international student named Jonathan.

Jonathan told me about his school in Brazil, where he goes to school from 1 PM to 8 PM and takes around 10 or more classes, with each class only 15 minutes long (they also go to school on Saturdays and Sundays). Their grading system is also very different from ours. I told him about how we use percentages as grades, which surprised him. It was mind-boggling to me how different we are, but it was a nice cultural exchange.

Class over, I returned to my dorm. In my dorm, I did research on the poster project that will be due in the last week of the course. I also went down to the lobby for the linen exchange, where I got a clean set of towels, bedsheets, and pillowcase.

At 5:45 PM, I headed for diner in the dining hall, where I managed to spill my orange juice on the table I was sitting. However, the two people sitting at the same table as me (who didn’t know me) were very nice, and they both helped me clean up the mess. I am extremely grateful for all the nice people I’ve met here.

For the activity of the night, I chose to play a round of werewolf in the second floor lounge. The RA in charge of it was Charlotte, and she explained the rules to us. Basically, there were players selected as werewolves, and they killed the villagers every night. The villagers had to figure out who were the werewolves before the werewolves killed them all. I was one of the five werewolves, and I was the second to last werewolf to be killed. Go me! The game took longer than I had expected, though; it was over an hour long. 

Later on in the night, I accompanied Kara to make her macaroni. It was a risk-filled adventure because neither of us knew how to make microwave macaroni, which might be kind of sad. We even called Kara’s roommate, Olivia. We didn’t end up burning anything, though, so that’s something.

Kara texting Olivia for help

Tomorrow, we will be finishing up our Lake Michigan Water lab; I can't wait to see our final results!