This week at SDSU is the first of many fun weeks I will experience in the lab. Specifically, this week was an acclimation period to learn the ins and outs of what the lab works on and contributes to. I am part of a three-man team of interns who will take over an experiment that plays a part in the lab’s research. As a group, we learned about Phage Isolation and DNA Extraction. Then, we went through the processes to allow us to practice our experiments in the future. The experiment our group has been tasked with is to reproduce a media with food ingredients as substitutes for the typical compounds. This will contribute to the effort in India to spread education curricula to schools across the country, allowing them to create media to show the children why each compound is needed for a specific media. 
I am working under Dr. Forest Rowher, the lab’s professor, who can create a fun and welcoming environment, making many jokes I still cannot understand. Recently, we had a going-away party for the great people from a nonprofit that came to see firsthand the research that is done. The party was at Forest’s house, and it was fascinating. The house was filled with taxidermy animals that he had hunted in Africa. When walking into the house, you are greeted with a massive buffalo, and under it is none other than Pumba (from The Lion King) himself. He also has a dog named Asti, short
for Astatine, and a tortoise that all neighborhood kids love. Outside the lab, I have been working out daily and using the pool at my apartment complex. I have mostly explored the SDSU campus, which is very beautiful, though the surrounding area is almost a desert. Though close to the beach, I haven’t been able to go, but I look forward to surfing and building the biggest sand castle I can. 
I have made friends with many people, and hope to make more and partake in more activities just as silly as the ones from my pictures.
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