Week 5: More Work and Prague

Hallo!

This week was long.  More hours in the office going over the manuals, protocols, and general research stuff, but even more hours in the lab, as I am now in charge of the fate of the majority of the cells.  Every week, I will be seeding a new batch of NT2 cells into as many dishes as possible with 3-4 million cells in each (so I have to count them), leaving enough for another 3-4 million cells to pellet and store for RNA isolation, and enough for a 1:10 dilution into a new flask.  So each week will become more and more busy because the number of dishes for which I need to change the media and add uridine and/or retinoic acid  to will increase, on top of the already numerous number of dishes and flasks that need to be seeded for different experiments.  On the bright side, I have passed the stage where I am in constant fear of messing up months of work worth’s of research!

On Friday after work, I went to Prague – or Praha – in the Czech Republic.  They have a different currency there, the koruna I believe, that is worth roughly 1/30th the amount of the Euro, and they speak a completely different language, Czech.  I was slightly disappointed that I couldn’t practice my very weak German while there, but at least everyone spoke English; Prague being such a tourist center, English is basically the universal language, so Germans, Spanish, French people, would mostly communicate in English as well.

Prague was quite fun!  And very beautiful, as I am learning nearly all European cities are.  It had a lot to offer, with its bustling city center, a mystical river splitting the city, and a quite impressive castle (which I learned was actually a Cathedral surrounded by a Palace).  Here are some pics:

St. Vitus Cathedral – the largest and most important church in Prague. It is in the center of the Castle, and houses the tombs of several Bohemian Kings and Holy Roman Emperors. I had to back up all the way to the wall in the back of the square, and still couldn’t fit the whole thing in the frame.

View of Prague from the Castle area. You can see the Czech flag in the foreground, and old town in the background (to the left).

One of the hundreds of suits of armor displayed in the Golden Lane next to the castle.

The river with a view of the Castle and Cathedral in the background

The clock tower, with a really cool astronomical clock! We went to the top of it of course.

View of the crowd (likely all tourists) watching the the clock tower do its not-so-impressive show(?) on the hour.

Church of Our Lady Before Tyn in Prague’s Old Town Square, view from the clock tower. One of the towers is supposed to represent Adam, and the other Eve. Which is which is still under debate.

Prague at night!