It’s July!! Now that I’m looking at my calendar from July instead of June, my time remaining in Madrid suddenly feels a bit short. However, we’ve been planning lots of fun things, and I just finished off a hectic week- the big event being a visit to London to visit my parents!

This weekend trip threw me for a loop, to be honest. It all started when my plane took off from Madrid early Saturday morning. I spent the flight napping, only to awaken with a searing pain deep in my ears like I’d never felt before. I was rather alarmed, and the pain faded and returned periodically until to my relief we landed in London. However, even though we were no longer at 30,000 feet one of my ears still felt clogged and muffled as though we were still in the air, with the other returning to normal. I navigated through the London airport and metro until I got to the warm welcome of my parents at Paddington Station, glad to see them but still concerned about the fact that I couldn’t hear very well out of one ear. 

I had a hospital visit (great London sightseeing, the inside of the urgent treatment center) and saw a doctor, who told me the scary news that if I took another flight with my ear problem- which he believed to be a dysfunction of the inner ear tube causing it to close when it shouldn’t be closed- my eardrum could rupture. Naturally I didn’t want that and so luckily he was able to prescribe me medication to relieve the pressure in my ear, which worked enough that I was able to fly back to Madrid at the end of my trip.

(Unfortunately my ear is still kind of clogged, but I’m crossing my fingers that these ear drops the doctor gave me do their thing and I don’t have to go see more doctors…) 

It was my first experience dealing with a health issue abroad, as a tourist, and while it was intimidating and a bit scary to not know instinctively how to go see a doctor, get medicine, etc, the international healthcare people were very helpful on the phone and my parents were with me the whole way, thankfully. 

Aside from that, the London trip was great! My family and I did all the touristy sightseeing and double-decker bus riding and got to spend lots of time together, and it was my first time leaving Spain since I’ve gotten here – it was unexpectedly difficult to switch from Spanish to English for the weekend. I was glad to return to the familiar Madrid public transportation, the euro instead of the pound, and to sleep in my own bed. 

Now that I’m back in Madrid, work continues on after my quick vacation. It’s been exciting recently, as we’ve had some graduate students return from their own study abroad programs (in the Netherlands and USA) so I’ve been getting to meet some new faces and collaborate with them on new projects in the laboratory. This week, I’ve been learning the protocol for microalgae oil extraction- it’s a lengthy procedure that takes two days, but it’s been fulfilling to complete. What tries my patience the most is that you must weigh the samples of microalgae powder between every step – the four vials must be the exact same weight, down to the hundreth of a gram. It can get tedious to go back and forth between the workstation and the weighboat again and again, but what makes it more enjoyable is that I get to work one-on-one with a graduate student. We chat as we work or we simply take turns, alleviating some of that frustration that bubbles up when you just can’t get the right number. 

I’ve also gotten my chance to try a partially virtual, partially in person work day. This came about because one of the online softwares with which we analyze peptide sequences wouldn’t work on CIAL company Wifi, so I got to go home a bit early to finish the job at my host family’s house. The whole day concluded nicely, although I’m sure that I still prefer in-person days. That way, I can go home and completely stop thinking about my work for the day, versus thinking about it on the bus. Plus, sitting down on the sofa or at my desk to do work tasks feels suspiciously like homework- which is definitely not my activity of choice when I end my internship day. We’ll see if I have any more of these half and half virtual days in the future!

Ciao, Katherine