Almost a month

I'm almost a month in Chicago. Time flies!

They say moving abroad changes you, it makes you a different person. I've already moved to a far away place, leaving my loved ones behind and now I am doing it again. You must think it should be easier for me to get along and not to . But I am experiencing that the feeling of leaving everything behind doesn't change. I miss the Netherlands. I miss my friends, I miss the structure, the food and even the rain.. I miss my uncle, my other family, the parties. Ohh man..
Don't get me wrong, I really like it here! I've already made loads of friends and the weather here is great! The sun is shining, it has been 70 + degrees Fahrenheit (I have no idea what that is in celsius but it's "not wearing a jacket" warm). But I am working full-time (40+ hours per week) and do not have a lot of time to hang out during the week. Traveling to my internship takes me about 1,5 hour one way, this makes the time I have left per day even less. But weekends are all about walking around in Chi-town and eating healthy vegetarian stuff and shopping and going out and meeting new people. American's are really friendly, although nothing tops Japan, but yeah they do beat the shit out of the Dutch when it comes to being friendly. "Have a good one" that's how we greet people here, meaning have a great day. The American city people are also not as fat as the Dutch promote. Nah, I haven't seen extreme overweight people in Chi-town. I've heard its more a southern America kind of thing, like going to Alabama is eating friend peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. What the hell...!

Now I am going to tell you a little bit about my research. I am trying to find out what protein causes heart growth when patients get a myocard infarction (or heart attack). This is really interesting, since the results of my research project can be an onset to a new medication. If they can find a blocker to this protein, patients heart can be protected against a heart attack and they won't have to live with the damage a heart attack can cause. So yeah, I am trying to make a change in the world ;). I am working with the mouse's heart to get results and to find the answer to my question. And for that I have to anesthetize them. Slowly I am improving my skills to do the surgery, although I still can't stand killing them.

But yeah moving abroad does change you. I went from hating mice to thinking they are way to cute to kill them, I went from being totally into hip hop to totally being into techno (hard style), I went from a meat loving person to a vegetarian. But 1 thing will probably never change, I still love shopping :) and for this America is perfect! And probably none of these changes are permanent ;)

 The system in which I hang the mouses heart and try to keep it alive 
Silly me showing where I hang the mouse's heart

No comments:

Post a Comment