Three Weeks Down (Six and a Half to Go)

Time to update y’all on what’s been going on recently!

This past weekend, a little group of us girls took a day to go shopping in downtown Manhattan. It’s a very small area, but clean and new-looking, and there were plenty of cool little stores to check out. Manhattan is pretty hip.

On Monday, we didn’t have to go in to work at all because we had mandatory field trips and social events all day. It was a double great day because not only did it feel like an extra day of the weekend, but the planned activities were pretty fun too. The highlights of the day were a visit to the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center, which is a newly developed facility on campus that’s doing research on wheat development and genetics, and the next-door feed mill, which was smelly and dusty and not quite as awesome as the wheat center, but the view from the roof was fantastic.

The baby wheat plants at the Kansas Wheat Innovation Center are kept in K-State purple light to help them grow!

A majority of the Squad with our leader, Keith, on the roof of the feed mill.

A view of gorgeous Kansas farms from the roof of the feed mill.

Both my grad student mentor and my faculty mentor are out of town for the whole week, so I’m on my own… Still reading. I’ve developed a method of getting through the articles that I think seems to make the material stick in my brain the most. First I read the article while highlighting and making notes in the margins, and then I reread while typing up the notes and highlighted bits. It’s definitely slow going, but I know that I’ve got the material down pat by the time I’m done. And hopefully my written notes will make writing the final paper an easier and faster process. Reading is basically all that’s going on for the rest of the week.

Lots of love,

Maggie