TGIF?

Today was my last day at the Curie Institute. It's hard to believe that it's almost been three weeks here in Paris and that my internship is already over! Even in these last couple of days I've learned so much. I was completely on my own on Wednesday when it came to the whole process of acquiring a tumor from a mouse intestine. Yes. The WHOLE process. This bumped my "sacrifice" count to 3 mice. I opened the mouse up and cleaned the intestines (some tricky business, and not very pretty either). Then I cut the intestines into smaller sections and cut them longitudinally so that I could see the inner surface of the intestine. Sure enough there was a small hard mass of tissue that was indeed a tumor. Many processes later these very tumors were cut in thin slices and put on slides for viewing under the microscope.

On Wednesday we also got to see the Louvre. I personally was not disappointed when we saw the Mona Lisa. True we couldn't necessarily get close, but it lived up to its name. Mystery galore. Anyway, for Casey's sake, I won't get too into it. Then we must have found the only restaurant in France that served American food (but with a French twist). There were fried chicken wings, burgers, and chicken fijatas, and last but not least tiramasu au nutella. YES. tiramasu (which is AMAZING) + nutella (which is delicious) = best dessert I've had during the whole trip.

Yesterday there was a going away party! It was actually just a coincidence that it was my last week too. There were interns finishing their Master's as well as a group leader who was retiring. It was amazing to see that scientists had lives outside of the "bench". They slowly emerged from the building into the sunny courtyard and enjoyed ice cream and cake just as you and I would. Veronique, who was working with the rest of my lab group, was one of those departing. She had gone to Stanford for a year so she got to tell me all about it, and kept telling me how much she had enjoyed it. She got me really excited to go to college next year! Overall I had a really great experience at the Curie and hope that others will be able to go next year!

Yesterday we also climbed the Arc de Triomphe and the Eiffel Tower. Of course I benefited from my handicapped privileges (I got to ditch the stairs to ride the elevator up the Arc de Triomphe), but Mrs. deHorsey gets her props for reserving tickets to the Tour Eiffel. We didn't have to wait in line or anything! We had wonderful views of Paris. We also dined at restaurant that was right across from the best view of the Eiffel Tower. And I had macaroons for the first time! I must say they are surprisingly delicious (raspberry and caramel flavor anyway).

On a side note I had a mini-escapade sans bequilles (without crutches) and it turns out that I can kind of walk. But after that my atrophied crippled leg was quite sore, so maybe I will delay further rendezvous sans bequilles until I get back the United States.

----Heydi----