Ciba: Day 9-10
Ciba’s ended! Like many of the people at the program, I’m both a bit sad and glad. It’s sad that I’ll most likely never see these people again, but I’m also glad that I’m returning home. I feel like I never really had that much of an attachment to my program-mates (I guess they could be considered). They’re great; each of them has their own good attributes, but I didn’t feel like I could really relate to them. Compared to last year’s volunteer trip as a Chinese translator/leader through the eastern coast, I created a much tighter bond with the other Chinese volunteers. It could be because we were all Chinese so we could really relate to each other in likes, dislikes, etc. and we always had something to discuss. When we got bored, we always had cards to make up for it (even though we weren’t supposed to bring them, but we made up for it by going to a 1-dollar store and buying two packs of poker cards with wanted criminals on each card) since Chinese people are cards fanatics. But with Ciba people, games were different and experiences were very different. I’m not closed to other experiences, but I usually feel a cultural barrier when I’m not with Asians. But it was interesting hearing the Southern accents. It’s funny how they talk slower than northerners, almost like a drawl. Whenever I heard the southern accent, I wanted to mimic it–not as mocking, but it’s fun to mimic (like when you’re reading a book set in the south and when you read the dialogue, you can’t help but break out with your best southern accent).
Anyway, about the days: on Thursday, it was a lot of lectures. We watched a presentation on Bio Deisel and then in a lab, we tried creating it (I think). I remember we got split into groups (and Brittany was in my group yet again–I believe we love stalking each other) and we went to a multitude of lectures afterwards. The first lecture was the NMR lecture (I was a bit tired, so I thought it was a “MRI” lecture, and I thought people were going to get put into the tube-like thing; I was kind of disappointed when it was only putting solution in a tube and then putting it in a machine and reading about peaks). We also created candles after lunch. We went to a ton of other lectures that I can’t remember too well because I was on the hunt for a chair in each room (haha…there was this one room where there was a row of chairs and it was such a relief). I do remember that the last lecture was learning about plastics (I was kind of surprised that the Ciba in NY also had plastic creating machines like those in Delaware, since I thought making plastic materials would only be at a plant). We got complimentary Ciba frisbees and other plastic things (that I hope my mom won’t “dispose” of…I asked Tina where hers went and she said, with a slight chuckle, that mom “disposed of them”).
That night, we ate at TGI Fridays. I got full off of the milkshake and appetizers, which kind of surprised me. I ate one Quesidilla and I was pretty full. It reminded me of the last week I was in China three years ago and I got a stomache for the entire week so I felt full every single day (without eating anything). I went swimming afterwards, and when I returned to the room, I ate two bags of chips (healthiness).
Today, everyone just kept on talking about going home and stuff. Like, “wow, it’s finally over! It’s really over! I just can’t believe it! I loved it, but I’m also glad to go home.” Things like that. But, it seemed like the people from the South didn’t want to go home at all.
Anyway, today, we were split into groups (and guess who was in my group? Brittany! Stalker-chick). We first went to the popcorn lab, which I volunteered whenever the teacher asked for us to do something. I thought that since today was the last day, I should make the most of it and pay attention to everything. By doing something, I wouldn’t get bored (it’s like at the lab at Albert Einstein where I don’t pay attention to explanations of how to perform westerns if I’m not running them at the same time). The popcorn lab was actually pretty interesting. Then, we went to lectures about additives in detergents and other things for cleaning clothing. I felt like that was kind of boring cause it was interesting in the beginning, but the explanations were really long and all I really got out of the 1 hour lecture was that you mix certain things in this water solution (I’m guessing) and you run tests for different percentages and then you test the viscosity with different instruments. And then you’re finished. But lastly, we went to this additives analysis. I know it’s supposed to be interesting, but the subject seemed kind of overdone. I know Ciba doesn’t actually create products, but only create certain additives to make it better (all through the week, we heard that phrase go over and over again). But, the lab that we were doing was really long and we didn’t even finish it because it was so long. It’s like one of those labs which are really long and you only get one result. Like running westerns (I hate taking 2-3 days to create some blots on a film! It’s such a lengthy process). And the result is only something that is a tiny contributer to some bigger picture. I don’t know…I might just have a bad impression of that lab because we stayed an extra 15 minutes there (Ms. Roberts was looking for us and saying that everyone thought our group got lost at Ciba–haha! I find that funny. It would be kind of cool to be lost in a building, but I don’t think anyone would really get lost with stairs at the end of every hall and exit signs pointing every which way).
We returned to watch a student panel. Li Ling Bo was there. I was actually kind of surprised, cause I didn’t know she interned at Ciba. We then listened to a lot of stuff about colleges (which I already knew, since all college students talk to Tina about that and I always seem to be there when they are talking about it). Quite a few people thought Li Ling Bo was my sister cause she’s Asian, she went to Ciba last year, and she got into Harvard. But she looks nothing like me, unless you count the FOB hairstyle.
Afterwards, we ate lunch and we had the student presentations. The first group presented really well! I was really impressed with how fluently they said everything; they would do really well in presenting at science research if they were into dedicating time to finding a mentor, spending countless hours performing research, analyzing data, writing papers, filling forms, creating powerpoint slides, and creating poster boards. Their presentations would be really good. Haha…this really makes me double-think about the competition next year for presenting. Lots of practicing.
I think the “board of investors” got tired of the presentations by my group (the last group) because we had hardly any questions. It might’ve also been that we had a really bad presentation, but I liked the question, “So, what do you think is wrong with your product? Can you forsee anything wrong happening?” (not exactly those words, but along the same lines). All I could think was, “Um…hopefully nothing….” I didn’t want to make the product seem bad by pointing out defects, but it’s also crucial to recognize that something would go wrong and think up a solution for a make-believe problem. Anyway, the first group won and got tote bags.
We then walked back to the hotel and I just killed time going to rooms, watching TV, and editing blog entries (it was quite a surprise when Ms. Vittorio was like, “Yingna, your blog is being spread all around Ciba. Whenever anything on the Internet mentions Ciba, we can track it.”). Yeah…it’s a shocker. Slightly embarrassing, but not so much since I don’t write anything that people would usually say, “Why can’t you keep that inside?” Hehe. Blogging habits work to my advantage.
Mom arrived soon, I got my luggage into the car, and she dropped me off at Ciba. She had to go back to pick up Tina (because she was stuck in a traffic jam, so she came directly to the hotel first). Eventually, the graduation took place and it’s now over.
As a recap, Ciba was a really good program. It taught a lot of things that’s quite interesting. But, I personally don’t think I would go into chemistry. I liked getting my feet wet though. If anything, I would go into biochemistry since I think working with cells makes more sense to me or just go to pre-med. Or maybe not even science at all. Business sounds interesting, too, so I was interested in the group project we had because it had business aspects. I would like to see a business proposal one of these days (the only one that I think I ever saw was on Youtube when Steve Jobs was showing off the Ipod, but I don’t know if that was actually to a board of investors or just an opening).
So, life’s all back to normal. There’s work tomorrow. Yay! Working with little children…and then sleepover with tons of DDR. And a trip to the Palisades on Wednesday. Bowling rocks! But then it’s back to papers, assignments, homework, etc. I’m looking forward to the end of senior year.
(By the way, downloaded Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield. Tina said she knew I was going to download it when she heard it at the graduation)
Before I forget, something slightly amusing also happened before graduating. A bunch of us got onto the elevator at the hotel and we were all dressed up (for graduation, obviously). There was this one lady who wasn’t in our group and looking around, she was like, “Are you guys all going to a wedding?”
Haha! No, someone replied, “No, we’re graduating.”
“…from a chemistry camp.”
“It’s not a chemistry camp.”
“Yeah, it’s just two weeks where we do lots of chemistry.”
That reminds me of when I was learning how to run westerns from Jason before Ciba started (the Wednesday before everything). We were in the dark room exposing the film and while we were waiting, he was like, “So, are you coming to lab again for the summer?”
“No, the next two weeks, I’m going to be at a program for chemistry.”
Some conversations later
“Do you know what you’re going to major in?”
“Not really. I like science, but I don’t really know. I want to test the waters for things first. (side note) My sister is bigger than me in science.”
“Hah, I don’t think your sister can be bigger than you when you’re going to chemistry camp.”
“*laughing* I’m only going there because she went there last year.”
“Oh.”
We’re all nerds at heart. Like at CTY. But this time, no one says that we went to nerd camp.