This seems to be a summer of firsts…and now I have another one to add – sushi! I finally got up the nerve (wasn’t that hard after Day Five!) and decided to try it with a little encouragement from my research mentor. I had the (imitation) crabmeat, cucumber, avocado, and cream cheese rolled up in rice and toasted sesame seeds. Not bad…not my favorite cold food, but not bad.
Everywhere I go on campus I am told of somewhere else that I must eat before I leave Stillwater…I’m only here for 60 days! If I eat at all of the establishments that are recommended, I’ll have to drop my lizard research for cuisine research…and I don’t think they’re paying me for that. But I’ll give it a shot….
Right now most of my meals are prepared in the dorm: granola bars and yogurt for breakfast, sandwich and fruit for lunch, and then I usually grab something fast for dinner or something I can heat in the microwave. As a group (there are 12 of us here in the NSF REU program), we are going to eat together here in the dorm one night a week. One of our group really enjoys cooking, so each of us – without consulting with the others – is going to provide an ingredient for a meal and he is going to combine it into something we can all eat. Sort of a pot-luck without the pot. Should be interesting to see what he whips up!
We had a “meeting” with SSA students this evening. I love the way they tell us what’s going on…what’s SSA? After we got there, we find out that the Summer Science Academy students are freshman and sophomore high school students…no problem…and that WE are the panel for the panel discussion about the transition from high school to college! Talk about a surprise! But we took it all in stride and fielded questions from some very smart young people, who I hoped got some positive feedback from us.
I have an early morning of animal care tomorrow and some more research reading to do, so I will bid you goodnight.