My First Week As An Intern

        My first week of being a UMaine food science intern (well that's what I've called myself) has gone so quickly! My Uncle sorted everything out for me, to give me experience so I can decide whether I am interested in studying food science at university, either at home or out here. I've started working with the loveliest girl called Brianna, who is currently undertaking her PhD, and am assisting her with her study on abalone.

        The first couple of days were the normal, safety training, getting to know the labs and the building - which is a complete maze to me, which I know will get worse when there are hundreds of students wandering the halls as well. Yesterday we started some distillation and titration, which is a gorgeous colour change experiment, that showed how much ammonia is in the sample, therefore allowing us to determine how 'off' the abalone are.
       Today was my first day of doing micro - using a stomacher to squash the samples and then adding solution them to create different levels of dilution. These slides are now being kept to allow the bacteria to grow, and next week these will be counted and recorded.

      The University of Maine campus is completely stunning, and I haven't even explored a quarter of it yet. The hall I am working in is really central, and near the Union; the walk between the two is great, green grass, flowers and trees surround it, with the quaint, Georgian style buildings posing perfect backdrops.

        Term begins early September, so the campus will soon fill up and overflow with new students. However, the benefit of this is that classes will start, and I will get to experience what university lectures are like, and get more of an insight into food science, and other topics - hopefully biomedical sciences. It also means that there will be new people, my age, who I can meet and hopefully be friends with... if I build up the courage to actually talk to any of them.