August 24: Took the train to Auburn Botanical Gardens, because there was a cherry blossom festival there! Apparently, the same train as Cailene and Cynthia, so when I walked up the stairs at Auburn Station, Cailene quietly walked next to me until I looked back and saw it was her, haha. We waited a long time for the bus that would take us to the festival. Sunny and Angela arrived later as well. The cherry blossoms were beautiful, but for a festival, I didn't think it was that great. It was more like a long street lined with trees, where you walk at a snail's pace, because it's naturally crowded in such a tourist destination (and it was the last day). But still beautiful. I think I prefer magnolia; there was a tree of them there too. They also had wallabies and kangaroos, which I didn't expect, but it was nice. Cynthia told me about rodeos in Texas, and Cailene told me about peacocks that just walk around in her neighborhood, haha. There are quite a few cultural differences between the Netherlands and the US, though. Took the train home with Sunny. Back home, I continued working on my guitar project. I've now got the lid open (thanks to Cailene's tweezers), but the problem was that some strings were rusted and wouldn't come out. After a bit of pushing with a thin hairpin, I finally succeeded, yay! The rest wasn't so difficult: a good clean, new strings, and I was ready to play! That evening, I looked into internships for when I get back; that needs to happen. Mom, Dad, and Arthur have plane tickets! It's crazy to think I'll see them soon, in Australia.
August 25: Took a relaxing day. Worked a bit on my HIRAC for chem lab (that one safety form), played guitar, and called Lieve. She was decorating her new room, which looks great!
August 26: Genome lab was great, another fun time with my group. I finished a bit early, so I quickly popped over to the chem lab to have my HIRAC checked so I don't have to wait in line tomorrow. I worked a bit on my neuroscience project at home, talking about differences in brain signals between short-term and chronic pain. And Fenna called! She was at the beach with Imke, Tanja, Arwen, and Shayna in Palermo, so we had a nice catch-up with them : )
A beautiful guitar. It sounds good. Do you already have a group to play with? Beautiful photos of various trees. Are you running out of time?
The guitar sounds great, of course, not as good as the one I have at home, but it was only $25. Yeah, a fun group of friends with Sunny, Angela, Cynthia, and Cailene! I'm definitely running out of time, so much to do here, and there's work to be done, but exploring is more fun here…