University of Guelph Bacterial Genomics Day 31: TASTE THE BISCUIT
Hello people!! Today is July 30th, which has a few important things to cover: final poster presentations, SSP’s Got Talent (Canada edition), superlatives, and of course: Subway sandwiches. The day started with a morning shower and a skipping of the Guelph breakfast. I was running a little late (which is totally out of character for me), so I used the knowledge of my good friend Mr. Pythagoras to traverse across Johnston Field and make it to the lecture rooms on time. It worked, as I had saved 3 minutes, but it had the side effect of soaking my shoes with morning dew.
After that, we went to room 1304 (aka: the lecture hall) to practice our final poster presentations (uh oh). [shoutout to Joy for using her elevator door-opening powers, we would’ve never made it up and down without her]. My lovely roommate Videh (shoutout to him) was very kind and bought me an iced matcha latte, so I got to indulge as I waited for our group (12!) to be the second-to-last group to be called up. It was very rewarding being almost done, and at 10:40am a few words were said that had never been uttered at SSP before but were greatly appreciated: “You guys will have a break before lunch.”
Speaking of things that have (probably) never been said before, I’ve been compiling a list of humorous sayings that have been spoken here at Guelph. To keep it brief, here are a few (some context included):
- “I was spamming Ws in the chat and then I broke my W key” = Ekam or Ken I forgot (does this need an explanation?),
- “I thought you were singing a cult song” = Grace (after listening to a surprise rendition of the Star Spangled Banner in the hallway),
- “Me when cerebrospinal fluid = Abeeha (yup),
- “Hey, can I get some of that glucose there?” = Joy (thoughts of a tree, perhaps?),
- “Thief is the comparison of joy” = Aiden (me) (after attempting to contribute to a very heartfelt conversation),
Anyways, the point was that before lunch was majestic. I went back to the dorm, took a much needed nap, walked around for a bit with Joy. Lunch was pretty good. Guelph has a Subway, so here is the best possible order you can get: one foot-long Italian bread, order the Great Canadian Club W/O cheese, toast it, add Chipotle Southwest sauce, Sweet Onion Teriyaki Sauce, Mayo, and Smoky Honey Mustard. Then, get olives (and ask for extra like twice because they only add like three olives at a time, and then top with lettuce, and voilà the best sandwich ever made is complete. (Trust me it tastes good) Another pro-tip: save 1/2 of it for dinner, others will be jealous of your sub.
After that delectable meal, we had our final poster presentations. This was honestly much better than what had in mind, and it was very rewarding being able to share the findings we had worked 5 difficult weeks for, and learn about all the effort others within our cohort and Biochem put in as well. We then another short break (wow, two in one day?) and I went back to the dorm to change into more comfortable clothing. Then, I had dinner with Videh, Joy, Aaron, and TA Faizaan, and we had a philosophical debate on if water is wet or not (our table was divided 3-2 in favor of water being wet, if it matters).
Next, we went over to a new building that became the host venue for SSP’s Got Talent (Canada edition). Every single person did amazing with their talents, so here is a quick summary of every talent shown:
- Dr. Messner and Dr. Fletcher performed a rendition of “Taste the Biscuit”, featuring Dr. Correa who modeled a sign,
- Joy and I wished Christopher Nolan a happy birthday through piano + singing,
Baked goods were given out (shoutout to Chiara for blueberry bars, Videh for strawberry tres leches, and Abeeha for the nonexistent focaccia bread!),
- Grace showed everyone some very cool magic with cards,
- Louise displayed some art of various New Orleans landscapes and they looked life-like,
- Nicole + Constance sang a tearjerking rendition of “For Good”, phone flashlights were waved,
- Oscar can tongue-click very loud,
- Ekam + Yuvraj danced a very cool dance together,
- Chemostat Dance (so this is basically impossible to describe, but just imagine 7 people being chemostat vials spinning, a media, drug, and waste bottle pumping fluids in and out, and a Birds of a Feather solo during the autoclaving section of the chant) (if you want to join the chant, here’s a snippet: = “Who are we? Who are we? We are the chemostat!”),
The TA Trio (TAs Evelyn, Sam, and Jasmine) did an amazing performance of Hallelujah, using the violin, guitar, and the larynx, respectively.
- Sion taught at least two people how to successfully Finger Snap in his presentation titled “What’s Up?”,
- Laura performed a very cool song in Portuguese using an instrument called the asalato!,
- Garrett played an extremely complex song at the piano that sounded majestic,
- Elise (aka the smooth salmon or lil-ez) and Elisabeth (The Big Strong Grizzly) rapped an entertaining freestyle about SSP,
- Jess showed her artwork, one of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, she also helped paint WC murals in Mexico,
- TA Sam played a solo of a song called “Entolomology” on the guitar,
- Dr. Zhao (Joy) held the final lecture of SSP on Mongolian throat singing, filled with some very wacky slide transitions, too many Mongolian fun facts, and a story of an orphan child who heard whistling of the wind and became the real Mongolian throat “pro”,
- Ekam did a solo dance this time ft. the bamboo stick,
- Basant and Gavin performed some very questionable? magic that featured teleporting wands and teleporting bouncy balls,
- TA Faizaan taught about 2 out of 30 people how to properly moonwalk,
- Alex played a heartwarming rendition of “The Rainbow Connection” from the muppets,
- Aidan was able to demonstrate his perfect pitch on the piano by correctly guessing the notes played,
- Oscar had his extremely evil speech, while wearing his Guelph grandpa sweater, thanking every individual person at SSP who has helped him (very wholesome and sweet),
- Ken et al. did a piano man performance and 6 min video of all memories here at Guelph over the past 5 weeks (many people cried),
The day finally ended with SSP superlatives. It was great having everyone in the lounge together, laughing at the superlatives given to people. Some notable winners: Team 11 winning both most aseptic and most septic, Elisabeth by far winning most likely to get banned from the elevator, and Videh winning most autoclave (autoclave as in the adjective form used to describe a person, of course).
This whole blog was written on my flight back to Orlando and on the drive from Orlando to my hometown, and all I have to say is that I will miss SSP for the rest of my life. I’m not typically a sentimental person, but spamming “Creep” by Radiohead, “Piano Man” by Billy Joel, “White Ferrari” by Frank Ocean and “IT’S NOT LIKE THAT ANYMORE” by Tiffany Day on a three hour flight is probably not healthy if you want to get rid of feelings of longing. I think I caught the SSP psychosis plague as well, as I keep on hearing the voices of people here at SSP EVERYWHERE, but when I turn to look, it’s no longer a familiar face. I never thought I would get so close to the people here at Guelph, but now future meet-ups are already being planned and I honestly can’t wait til then. Every time I hear the words “larp” or “chud” or the song “Boo’d Up”, I’ll think of SSP and the best summer I’ve had in my life. Thank you to everyone at Guelph for making this experience a great one and hopefully our paths cross again some point in this life
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Aiden
SSP Participant
Hello everyone!!! My name is Aiden, and I am a rising senior from South Florida. I’m really interested in science, mainly chemistry + physics. I also love studying languages in my free time (like Norwegian and German), playing tennis, exploring different music genres, and getting drinks from Starbucks. I’ve had a great time here at SSP in Guelph, and I’d recommend anyone reading this to apply
