Greetings from the far-away town of San Diego! Just kidding, but if you’re like me, you’re feeling pretty jealous of all the cool abroad adventures that the other VSA’s are having. Hopefully that will be me next year! Until then, I’m here in San Diego for the summer, working at a start-up biotechnology company.
I started working at SKS Ocular about a week ago, and I have loved every minute of it. Just like Steve, I am also under some strong confidentiality stuff, so I can’t really talk about what I do or take any on-site pictures. But, as you can tell by the name, the company is helping treat diseases of the eye, which is such an important field to be working in. I have had an interest in biotechnology for a few years now, and, luckily, USC offers a Biochemical Emphasis to get me on track for the field. I had never narrowed down a specific sector of the biotechnology industry to pursue, but working at SKS Ocular has been such an eye-opening experience (see what I did there?). I am definitely interested in getting involved with the ocular field later on.
Working a full-time job (actually, my first full-time job ever!) was a little challenging at first, since I had never had to work so many hours a day in one place. Additionally, my family left on a mini-vacation to Arizona without me, so I have been attempting to care of myself for the past few days. I feel so adult-like! I felt so proud of the first lunch that I brought to work, that I took a picture of it. Sorry for the bad cellphone camera quality 🙁
But I have still had time to hang out and enjoy my summer back at home. Since I don’t have any cool laboratory pictures from work, I included some adventures from the summer. I have a friend who lives in Oak Park, which is about an hour from USC. She has explored almost all of it, and she showed me some of the cool places. For starters, there’s a place called “The Swing”, which is basically this a little contraption attached to a tree, where you can swing through a creek area. We also found this old building at the top of a hill, which was completely covered in graffiti! I literally walked around for 30 minutes just looking at all of the layers and layers of spray paint. Overall, I have had a wonderful first month of summer, and I’m excited for the next couple months! It’s great to be home, but I do miss USC. Football season 2012, here we go!
chicken, apple and tomato salad with raspberry balsamic! yum 😛
on "The Swing" at Oak Park
some of the walls of the building
