University of Guelph Biochemistry Day 23: Catching the Falls and Something Else
Catching the falls and something
At a bright and early 6:20 AM, we rolled out of our beds and prepared for our Niagara Falls field trip. I caught this beautiful sunrise from our dorm window at Maids Hall, a place that’s felt more and more like home. We were provided a breakfast of apple turnovers, juice boxes, fruits, and granola bars in the basement before boarding coach buses. Since I woke up feeling slightly unwell, I chose to skip this meal, which I later regretted after getting extremely motion sick on the bus. While I didn’t get any pictures, the scenery outside the bus never fails to impress me, from the rolling green hills to the towering city towers of Toronto.
After arriving at Niagara Fall(and feeling the lovely un-moving ground), we got to take some awesome group pictures, like this girls-half pic:
And this one with friends:
At this point, I kind of regretted wearing shorts because it was quite cold, but we don’t have many opportunities to wear them. Nevertheless, we got some great pictures of the falls and of my lab partner, Kushad.
Shortly after this short stop, we prepared to get on a ferry boat that would take us right up to the falls.
They even gave us bright red ponchos! We got a lab group 7 (best lab group) picture too:
It was really funny to be wrapped up in these ponchos, especially with the wind billowing around us. Not sure why, but I kind of felt like a grandma. At least it was getting warmer though.
On the ferry boat, the upper level was quite crowded, so I ended up staying on the lower level with my roommate (Malak), Vedika, Dr. Chan, and Dr. Greene. We were all a bit wet after reaching the main falls, which were absolutely gorgeous.
Peeling off our wet ponchos, we were set free in a very flashy street near the falls with a lot of haunted houses and gift shops. Interestingly, many of the gift shops had the exact same products; I ended up buying a snow globe for my sister.
We also found a really cool Go-Karting place called Niagara Speedway. I’m proud to say that I didn’t come dead last and I didn’t cause any crashes (don’t ask- I have a history.)
After our race, we had pizza, generously provided by Mr. A, our site director. The pizza was very good, but I’d been feeling more and more sick throughout the day, and it was starting to get a bit bad. I’d been suspecting that it was just being tired or stressed from labs and worrying about a 20 uM standard deviation value, so I hadn’t really said too much.
Our next stop was at an aviary, which I wish I got to enjoy more because I felt like dying the entire time. I don’t think the bird poop smells helped with any of the nausea still lingering from the bus ride. I can’t remember most of the museum portion; I think I stumbled through until I found our TAs. I’m really grateful for Elizabeth and Larkin for helping me out of there and staying with me. Mr. A gave me some medications while we were waiting as well. I also want to thank my friends for being there during that time as well.
Luckily, I got to go back with Mr. A in his car rather than the bus (thank lord). The rest of the day was very blurry for me after I got back to the dorms around 4 PM. Mr. A brought me some saltine crackers since I missed dinner, but it was really hard to make myself eat them.
Today was definitely an adventure (in more ways than one), and perhaps a lesson to take care of my health more. Coming to SSP has definitely brought my attention to properly managing stress, especially in a highly intensive program
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Annabelle W.
Participant
Hello! My name is Annabelle and I’m from Maryland. I love making coffee and friendship bracelets, and I’m thinking about going into pre-med.
