Day Twenty

Today was one giant day of safety training. Fire extinguisher training was actually pretty fun though which was a relief. We had sassy fire marshals helping us the entire time - my favorite went by the name "Mr. Easy." Remember how I joked that we'd all have to put out a fire? Guess what? We all had to put out a fire. They ignited a controlled gasoline fire for each of us to douse with the extinguisher. These were not small fires (as seen in the photo below), and they totally freaked out the poor UPS drivers that drove down the street only to have flames shoot up next to the truck.

No, this isn't me. But I did put out a fire just like this. Mr. Easy
is hanging out in the back in the blue shirt.

After training we all had an hour of free time and nothing to fill it with, so I went to explore the labs where my desk will be located (with the Brodbelt research group). All the current grad students are swapping desks, so I have no clue where I'll end up in their maze of rooms. Then we had two more seminars before lunch break, which provided me with another hour and a half of free time that I had no clue what to do with. So...I explored all the science buildings! I learned that the Molecular Biology Building is super fancy on the inside, but not as fancy as the Bill and Melinda Gates building across the street. Obviously their building is made of giant glass windows and fancy sculptures, because that is the most practical of buildings to have. It looks awesome, but I would not want to be in there during a big thunderstorm.

The last part of orientation today was three and a half hours of lab safety training. Oh my word...it was as exciting as it sounds. The worst part? The teaching labs we were lectured in were waaay too cold from air conditioning. By the end of the training, my teeth were chattering and I could feel my core temperature slowly dropping. I never thought I'd be so happy to walk out into 97 degree heat and just stand in it for 15 minutes to warm back up. Everyone was high-stepping out of the lab just to get feeling back into their stiff legs. We looked ridiculous. But we were all three and a half hours safer than we were earlier today. Success.

Tomorrow I don't have to go in until 10:30! I get to sleep in! I don't have to drive in morning traffic! And my dad flies in tomorrow evening! So many things to be happy about. I also go to my first session of Analytical Lab TA training, which I'm pretty excited about. But I'll have two more hours of dead in the middle of orientation, so I'm sure more campus exploring will ensue. Hopefully I don't get completely lost and miss the second part of the day. But I know the day will end well, because my dad will be back in Austin and we'll be eating delicious barbeque. I can't wait.  :-)