Lava Hot Springs

So 2 weekends ago I went with the other REU interns to Lava Hot Springs. It was really fun and very relaxing!

We also found a secluded spot and shot potato guns. These felt more like rocket launchers than guns though!

All in all a fun weekend. This weekend we are going river rafting for the fourth of July. I will try to get pictures!

Love ya

Happenings and such

Yes, it has been awhile since I blogged. I feel like I only have the same things to tell though, so I don't really feel like blogging about the same things.

Last weekend I went to Idaho Falls with some of the other interns This is my roommate Monica, and she is totally awesome! And one of the nicest people I know.Here are Ian and Zac. They are pretty funny and fun. We play video games together and talk about particle physics and super heros. Super heros seem to be our most favorite topic.

On our way home from IF we saw a really pretty sunset.



So yeah, nothing else has really been happening lately other than that. Richard is doing really well in the MTC so far and is excited about going to Portugal in 3 weeks. Supposedly this Friday they are going to have a special devotional and Richard thinks the prophet is coming. I'll update you on that if it really happens.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I have only a month until I'm done with my internship. It's going by so fast! But it is so much fun. I am learning so much and am making friends with a lot of people.

Well good-bye til next time!

Wii fit!

So my roommate Monica brought her wii from home last Sunday, and brought wii-fit. It is the most fun I have ever had exercising in my entire life. I wake up every morning at 6:30 and exercise for 30 minutes then head off to work. It is really refreshing! It did tell me I was overweight though but hopefully after a few weeks of exercising I will be in the normal BMI range :)


Richard sent me some pictures the other day. He looks so happy and tells me that he really loves it in the MTC. He got to hear a talk from Elder Bednar on Tuesday, and I'm jealous! But yeah he is doing really well and only has a month until he goes to Portugal!

Lab and Apartments

Here is the building that I live in. This part that you can see opens up to a 24 hour computer lab and then there are classrooms opposite from the apartments.


Here is the lab that I work in most of the day. I put bacteria on plates right there!

I got my new projects last week. I will be doing an experiment with one of the other guys where we make a bacteria culture and let it grow til it is growing its fastest (exponentially) and then treat the cultures with different amounts of antibiotics. We then put some of the cultures on a plate before the antibiotics, right after, 30 min after, 1 hour after, 120 min after. Supposedly there will be 2 curves for how the bacteria die so we are trying to re-create that.

I am also going to work with the effects of radiation on the environment, and I'll be doing that in another lab.

So far I have made friends with the other interns, and we've had a blast. We watched the movie Up together last weekend, then the other day we all played Lord of the Rings Monopoly for like 4 hours. ( I lost, no surprise there)

I am looking forward to doing more research, but also to coming back home because I really want to see you guys again.

Richard in the MTC

For those of you who didn't know, Richard went to the MTC on the 13th. He's been there almost 2 weeks. I was bummed cause I hadn't gotten any letters from him yet, but today I got two! It was a very happy moment to say the least.

So here's an update about Richard in the MTC.

He really likes the MTC so far. He says that his companion is a cool guy, and his teachers are nice and are really trying to prepare them for the field. He gets to go to the temple every Friday, but his first week they were only able to look around the grounds. His ward has about 30 people in at and they are all going to Portuguese speaking countries. Last week on Tuesday they had a devotional and Dennis B. Nuenschwander spoke to them. Unfortunately he didn't get to shake his hand. He is having fun in all of his classes but he is getting a little discouraged with Portuguese. He can also send email on his p-days so if you want to I can give him your email address and he can email you.

That's about it for now. I will update soon about my internship. I will learn more about my nuclear projects on Thursday.

Love,
Nyssa

Bacteria: the only culture some people have

Pocatello is pretty cool. I must say that it is actually a very pretty place. If I wasn't going to BYU-I I might attend ISU. They have an awesome microbiology program.

I started my first real research day here. I learned how to use a micropipetter--which is a device that sucks up stuff so you can put it in little test tubes. I also learned how to make the stuff on the dishes that becteria like to eat. It is easier than mixing a solution in chemistry! I also learned how to dilute bacteria samples and put them onto dishes so that they can grow big and strong and have bacteria families of their own :)

So it was mostly preliminary stuff but soon I will be doing research on bacteria that are very radiation resistant. Dr. De Veaux, a microbiology professor at ISU, and her team discovered the most radiation resistant bacteria ever known. We will be trying to figure out exactly why it is so radiation resistant, and also if there is a way to make other things radiation resistant. Pretty cool huh? It makes me kinda want to switch my major to microbiology. Instead I might just have to engineer better lab equipment for microbiologists.

All in all it was a very brain-rocking day. I learned a lot, and I finally got internet access!

Temple :)

Richard and Zac went through the temple last Wednesday night. I was able to wait in the lobby while my parents went with them. It was a good experience for me even though I really wish I could have gone through myself. Afterward, we went to Applebee's to celebrate. It was yummy.

I can't wait until I can go through the temple myself. You could tell when they got out how happy they were and I knew that the temple is a place we all should strive to go.