Back To School!

Back to school, back to business! I was anticipating starting school again because I knew that my internship would start-up again also! It took a little while to get back into the lab, I had a little frozen moment when I had to plate my samples and I had to re-read the instructions on how to do so since I haven't done it in a while.

This week would be the first official week for experiment and Josh and I continue to learn more through our findings and plan on re-adjusting the procedures and so on to get the most accurate results and so forth. As I was taking samples of the doorknobs yesterday, I noticed an odd yellowish substance in the women's doorknobs. I got a tiny bit of it on the cotton swab and look forward to going back to the lab tomorrow to see what sort of bacteria is on it. Another thing I'm looking forward to is the research conference in March! it just happened to fall on my birthday and I think it's going to definitely be unforgettable!

Here is the photo of the yellowish substance on the door. I was really grossed out.  Thank goodness for gloves!

Ready for plating!!!

Day Zero results came back clear, as expected. These are the disinfected samples so we are able to watch the growth increase day to day as the samples continue getting analyzed.

For the first time throughout this experiment, one sample came back with too much bacterial growth and I had to write down "too numerous to count" or simply "TNTC" which I never knew was an option in research data.

This has to be my favorite part of my internship, I love preparing the samples and plating them . P.S. I was a little too matchy-matchy today. I usually mix & match. P.S.S. Red is obviously my favorite color! :) P.S.S.S. Thanks to Melina for taking this picture!

I like to add personal pictures to my blog just so you can get a better feel as to what I'm about so here is a picture of me and my beautiful niece who's turning 8 at the end of this month. Auntie loves you! (She asked me for a cat and a trampoline for her birthday. I don't think her parents would approve)

Last but certainly not least, my favorite chocolate in the world. 

This week has been so good to me! I'm getting settled down with my classes and professors. I'm more determined this semester than I've ever been. I'm looking forward to everything that this semester has in store for me. I hope you all had a good week. Check back next week to see what that yellow substance on the door could possibly be! Josh and I also are planning to start identifying the bacteria that we have so far so get excited for that as well! Thank you for reading!

Greetings, Khadidja M.