So much food!!!

This morning was great! I worked out, talked to some of my friends back in Iowa, made breakfast, then headed to work! I was in a great mood because it was Special Coffee Morning day! Because I was so excited, I decided to make scrambled eggs again this morning. I also stole a grapefruit from Millie's room last night because I knew I was going to want one for breakfast today... Then I had my fruit juice blend, and some bread! Talk about living the life! :)

Can you say delicious???

Millie and I headed to work and went to go talk to Dr. Jean (as we do every morning) to see our plans for the day. She reminded us it was Special Coffee Morning at 10 this morning, so our day was going to be a little interrupted. She also wanted us to look at our germinating pollen again this morning because some pollen is slow to germinate. Some time later, we would make our stain solution!

The time before Special Coffee Morning was spent looking at my germinating pollen under the microscope. I found nothing. No germination at all. Now I partially know the problem of why it won't set seed! Now I have to check the viability of it by using the staining solution just to be sure! Millie on the other hand found some more pollen grains that germinated over night, so her morning was a success! Mine? Not so much...

Now for Special Coffee Morning! This occurs every other Thursday, so our first one was our first Thursday here! That one was hard to forget because Dr. Jean had us introduce ourselves in front of everyone from ILRI! I should be pretty amazing at public speaking by now right? So this was our second Special Coffee Morning. I don't remember if I explained what happens during this event in my post before so I will here. This is the time where all the new workers and interns introduce themselves, give a little background description of who they are, what they'll be doing while here, and how long their stay is here. It's a really great way to get to know some people. Also, all the people leaving the campus are also acknowledged for their work here, and it's a nice farewell for them. It lasts roughly an hour every time, and there's LOTS and LOTS of food! It's everywhere and it's all so delicious and pretty looking, I tried almost everything! (Let's say I didn't feel too hungry the rest of the day, but I ate my lunch anyway... Of course!) Because we had so many members leaving, there was a cake made for them! It was, by far, the most AMAZING cake I have ever tasted in my entire life! It was so fluffy, there were 3 layers (one layer was orange-tasting, another was chocolate, and another was a white cake) and in between each layer and on the top was delicious frosting! Oh my goodness it was amazing. I wished there were seconds for it, but I resisted because I thought that would probably have been frowned upon... Oh! I forgot to mention! What's a Special Coffee Morning without the coffee?! Of course there is coffee! Everyone gets a cup of coffee right away! You can choose to have tea instead if you aren't much of a coffee drinker though. As we were walking there, Ermeyas (Erm-eee-iss) was talking to us about how no one knows why they call it Special Coffee Morning. It's nothing to special. Just a time to introduce everyone new and bid those leaving goodbye. Maybe that's why it's special? There's coffee that served. And it's in the morning... That's the only reason I can think of the name... I'm not sure though. I took some pictures of it though!

One of the worker who is leaving for
a short term to go to Nairobi

The one's who the cake was made for!
Yummm! Did I mention how delicious
it was? :)

Look at all the food! Well... There was
more, but it got eaten...

Where coffee is served

Some of the people that gathered this
morning

When Special Coffee Morning was over, it was already after 11, and we go to lunch everyday between 12:10 and 12:20. I could tell that when that time came around, I would not be hungry! But of course I would eat my lunch anyway because I love injera that much! In the meantime, up until lunch Marcello (I apologize on the spelling. I know it is not even close. That might even be the wrong name as I am terrible with names. I'll make sure to correct it sometime before my internship is over.) agreed to help us in making our staining solution. Since there wasn't much time before lunch, we decided we would just gather what chemicals we needed and would make the solution after lunch. You wouldn't think it would take over an hour just to find a handful of chemicals would you? It took us roughly an hour and a half before lunch, and then a little time after lunch as well. The building is very large, and there's also many many chemicals here. Also, if a chemical is opened, it's on a different list than the unopened lists. This makes it very complicated to find the chemical as well! We finally found all the ingredients we needed! We found that we didn't have any malachite green, but did some research and found that we could use brilliant green in it's place! The other chemicals we needed were:

• 10 mL 95% alcohol
• 1 mL (of now) brilliant green (1% solution in 95% alcohol)
• 50 mL Distilled water
• 25 mL Glycerol
• 5 mL Acid fuchsin (1% solution in water)
• 0.5 mL Orange G (1% solution in water)
• 4 mL Glacial acetic acid
• Add distilled water (4.5 mL) to a total of 100 mL

Talk about a lot of chemicals to create and add in! Making all of the separate solutions like the brilliant green, acid fuchsin, and orange g, and then adding them into the whole solution took us over 2 hours to do! Because we're now "scientists" (as Dr. Jean calls us) our measurements have to be precise and accurate! No room for error! :) Also, because some of these chemicals are toxic or will stain, we got to wear lab coats and gloves! (No safety goggles though, so I'm sorry Mr. Kremer!) Millie and I felt so official wearing them! She took so many pictures of the two of us, but I didn't have my phone on me, so I didn't get any... I will soon though, so you all can see them I promise! Making up solutions is a very difficult process I learned though... But it was another great learning experience I've had during my internship so far! I love it!

Millie rockin' the lab coat

Mixing up the Orange G!
Careful! It stains!

Something else I learned while making the chemicals is how potent acetic acid is. Oh my. That is overpowering. We measured it out under the fume hood, but it still was overwhelming... Millie and I didn't feel the best for a while, so we opened a window and stood by it for a while to breathe in the fresh air. 

Also, I took another picture of my injera lunch today because I got served some cheese! It had a very different taste though. It was crumbly, and kind of sour-tasting. It was good though! I liked it!

The cheese looks kind of like cottage
cheese!

The amazing rolls I get every day!
They're so moist!

My day finally came to an end, so I spent some time to lay back and do some good reading. I am currently reading Water for Elephants. I just started it tonight, and I already really like it! Also, at 8 tonight Millie and I Skyped with Lisa Fleming, our head supervisor from the World Food Prize! She's the one who sets up all of our internships, so I am extremely thankful for her right now! She just wanted to talk to us for a bit to see how everything was going and talk to us. It was so great, but Millie and I were getting tired! We go to bed around 9 every night if not earlier! 8 was kind of pushing it! :) It was very good though, and today was a great day. I managed not to drop my phone in my food today! That was a plus! :)