So, this is the story of my second research project, which has nothing to do with the first one (even if I haven’t told you anything about it, I don’t think I’m gonna write anything about it and you have no f&%cking idea of what I’m talking about). I changed university, city, topic and instead of struggling alone trying to design an experiment and make it work I entered into the dark world of research groups…let’s see if I can do a good summary of this stressful though enriching experience. I hope you enjoy it, I struggled, but I was feeling like Guybrush Threepwood most of the time.
I had already spent a couple of weeks in Barcelona when I decided that was time to look for a research project, given that, finally, I had a roof under which sleep. I had a look at the research opportunities and I found out that I didn’t really like any. Silly me, I had chosen that master because it was in the best university I could afford, instead of looking if they had any research group interesting. As many people said to my friend Corso: valiente, imbécil, pero valiente (brave, stupid, but brave). So, I tried to find something that, at least, made me learn as much as possible and that didn’t give me too many reasons to tear out my eyes with a spoon after a couple of months.
My first trial was with a group dedicated to tarantulas, but the head of the group told me that their approach was pretty much genetical and it wasn’t what I was looking for. Fortunately, he was quite nice and gave me the name of some professors that may have something interesting for me. So, I wrote to some of them and I managed to make and appointment with 3.
It’s funny because I’m a pretty no self-confident person in many aspects (trying to change that) but, after my final year of degree in which I managed to be hated by most of my classmates because of my scores, I felt confident in the interviews and, actually, I was interviewing them instead of them to me. I wanted to see what they could offer to me, not begging for a place. My first appointment was with a very kind professor that offered me a research about the turnover rate of stable isotopes of N and C in various tissues of cetaceans ( I had not f&cking idea of what isotopes had to do with biology in that moment) and she assured me a publication, though I wouldn’t be the first author. It sounded pretty good and I was really tempted to choose it only because she was very nice. However, the time of research was short and I wanted to sweat (yeah, I’m masochist, each one has her hobbies!). In contrast, my next appointment was with a professor that seemed to hate me before knowing me, apparently because my expedient was good or because I wasn’t Catalan, I wouldn’t know what to choose. She offered me a project about Hg pollution in gull’s eggs, which I would carry out, pretty much in a well-known laboratory. I know that she offered me more, but the idea of having to talk with her at least once a month given the face with which she looked at me gave me chills. So, finally, I went to meet another one. I was waiting at the entrance of the department when he finally came to bring me to his office. The first impression was bad cause, instead of greeting me with a handshake he did with two kisses (in Spain is pretty normal, but mainly in more informal occasions, with friends, etc). Along that year I would learn that seriousness and politeness was something weird among scientists, and that I had completely wrong idea of how things worked.
This professor offered me several options, but none with field work, what was mainly what I was looking for. Given that no one offered, I asked a little bit about the several options he offered. The one which rang the bell was a project about trophic ecology of Mediterranean seabirds using stale isotopes of N and C and fatty acid profiles. It wasn’t because it sounded pretty interesting, but because the fatty acid analysis implied a month of stay in another city and, after all, I’m a traveller.
I was asking some questions, as if it could end up in a publication and so, just to compare with the others in a rational and cold manner…but the stupid kid inside me only screamed “trip, trip, trip”, “Ok, ok, you win!” I said her, and after some days pretending to myself that I was considering the other options and that this one was the best one (at last probably was, but I didn’t really have good rational reasons to choose it, just my guts), I agree to meet him again.
He seemed happy under his glasses and quickly typed on his computer to tell one of his PhD students to come. I was pretty surprised that anyone was still there, because it was Friday, I think, and 20h. Then, some minutes after a tiny skinny girl appeared, with black long hair, glasses and face of what-the-f&ck-you-want-now-b&st#rd-?. She was the great Portuguese. He started to tell her that I was a master student who was going to work with them and explained her the idea of the project that he had while she took notes. In that moment I didn’t really know why she would be interested in that information. I was so naïve thinking that your supervisor actually supervises you…After a while they opened an enormous excel sheet in which the details of the corpses of around 700 marine birds, la “Matriu Cadavers”, which would be my everyday companion during that year. He started to look at it and saying which species I would have to analyze… I didn’t know any of them; on that time, the only seabirds that I knew were seagulls and I didn’t have an idea of the different species existent. At the end, I had to analyse 10 individuals of 13 species…or at least try, if there were enough exemplars. And of course, install Dropbox, the best invention of the century as far as we know I don’t remember much more of that day, but a headache and a voice on my head saying “what have you done, assh%le??”.
The day after I went to meet a guy that had worked before with my supervisor and who was going to show me the freezers with the corpses of the seabirds. After some confusion, I finally found him and together we went to the last floor of the building, which was messy, creepy and solitary and that was close to become part of my daily routine. With some difficulties, he managed to open the door of that disturbing room full of freezers of the different research groups. Two of them were our (well, in fact there were also two “jokers” that ended up pretty much full with our stuff, apart from a poor frozen cat without any label). He started to take out birds from the freezer and I felt like in a dream seeing all that animals perfectly labelled in their plastic bags. Then we tried to go to the library, to see if he could teach me a little how to use the Matriu Cadavers, but the informatics room was full. We went out to look for another one but then we met the Valencian, the girl who was partially responsible of my decision, cause she had the same Supervisor and she told me that she was happy with him…I told the guy that I thought that I could handle the matrix and he told me that he hadn’t show me yet the Freezer Chamber, but that probably I wouldn’t need it (ha, ha, ha…), and he left. After speaking a little bit with the Valencian, I went to the department to meet the Portuguese and she explained me what I should do then. Her teaching skills were, even then, pretty laudable. At the end, she gave me the keys of the department and the lab upstairs. I came out of there unable to believe that in a couple of days in that university I had managed more than in 4 years in my other university. Those keys were a treasure for me…though I confess that my first thought was how they were so confident of giving the keys to someone pretty much stranger.The following days I was working on the matrix trying to find the individuals that accomplished the criteria that my supervisor had asked for. When I finally though that I had it, I sent to him by e-mail and, very naively, waited for an answer.
The days passed and one morning, the Portuguese sent me an email to go right then to the Uni so she could teach me how to weight the samples and the patrons for the isotopes analysis. In that time of the year I still hadn’t much to do in the uni, so I spent the morning in my flat till my lectures on the afternoon; so I had to run to the underground and have a half hour journey that separated my cheap house from the university.
Once there I followed the indications of the Portuguese and I ended up in front of the Serveis Cientificotechniques, other place that was about to became a second home. I made a miss call to the Portuguese and some minutes afterwards she went out of the building with her labcoat, a ponytail and opening the door with her elbow so her gloves didn’t touch anything. I followed her through that white maze till we arrived to the chromatography of gas unit, where the valued and accurate balance that we had to use was, surrounded by the Galician, the Belgian (both students of my supervisor) and the technician of the unit, that looked at us very upset and telling the Portuguese to tell our supervisor to not sent so many people there at the same time. It was, actually, a pretty small cubiculum. Then, the Belgian started to practice the measurement, which was a tricky stuff. As tools we had two different tweezers, a small spoon, scissors and a plaque with three tiny holes. As material, a pot full of minute tin pots and the vessels with the standard substances (That the technician repeated over and over again that were very expensive and better that we were careful). With this stressful voice on his ears, the Belgian trembled while trying to put one of the small pots on the balance to tare it and then put it in the plaque to fill it with the patron. Afterwards was my turn…I am very lucky of never having the dream of being a surgeon, because my pulse is like the one of an old man with Parkinson with a caffeine overdose. The technician said that I should give up coffee as she did ( liar!! I saw you drinking it!!), because if not it would be impossible (“What the f%$ck you, b&%tch?” A life without coffee is not my life! Kind of kidding, of course, but still…) At the end I managed to do a fairly nice tin tinny cube with the patron inside. While I was doing it I was having my typical moment of laughing about everything that I usually have when I do something related to biology that I haven’t done before ( I think some people call it happiness). The Portuguese then start talking to me and we were measuring each other about knowledge in a very elegant way (ha!) and probably we found out that we were two f%&cking rigorous and workalcoholic girls (she more than me, for sure) in a chaotic world. So, she told me to have lunch with her and so I did. I don’t really remember what we talked about, but I remember that I was nervous because I was starting to realize that she was my actual boss and I was starting to admire her and I cannot disappoint a person whom I admire.
The day after the Portuguese sent us an email giving us the dates when we had to come back to start to measure our standard substances and advising us to go on Monday early in the morning to book more hours, because everybody needed that balance and each person could use it only 2h per day (FIGHT!). Two days after, I was there with my labcoat (very professional, but for the tag on the backside…), my permanent marker, the lab notebook and the pot with the tin vessels and, of course, gloves. I think I achieved to measure like 4…things that happens when one attempts to have the exact micrograms ( ’).
A couple of days latter and as said by my advisor, I contacted with another professor so he could teach me a technique I needed, the lipid extraction, and I agree to meet him the next week in the morning. Of course, when I went there, he wasn’t on his office and I has to waste the time doing who-knows-what till he appeared. Then we took the elevator and went up to the mysterious 6th floor which I had never visited before but which would also a part of my new routine. After passing in front of the Ecology department, we went into a big room which was a dismantled lab, with all kind of material in every corner (I called it the Jack the Ripper’s lair).
At the end of the room there was a close door from which a loud electronic music came out. The professor opened the door and we found a short blond girl working on the fume hood. She turn the music down and then the professor introduce us and said “well, teach her how to do the lipid extraction” and he left. So, this girl, another master student who has learnt the technique two days ago, showed me how to do the extraction. I was in a hurry because of the delay of the professor and a kind of distracting looking around me and thinking how can anyone could do a serious job in such a messy place, so I couldn’t pay much attention, but I agree to meet her the day after and she was going to mail me the protocol.So, the next day I went up with the Portuguese who also wanted to learn the technique, but nobody was there. We were talking a little while waiting till another PhD student, the Italian, appeared. She was surprise that the other girl hadn’t appeared but, anyway, she explained us the technique and respond to our queries. I didn’t have any, because in that moment I was so lost that I had no idea of what to ask. Fortunately, the Portuguese was there. I will always be your Padawan (yeah, I’m a freak, what’s the problem?)
Well, I wanted to end the Episode I with the Christmas holydays, but I see that I had a pretty long November last year so I gonna leave it here for now…Who would have told me that the same month one year after I would be running after macaques in Morocco?
…Y la nave aún no zarpa, aunque en la otra costa lo haya hecho ya…sigh
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