The next 4 weeks blew by extremely fast. Each weekday was spent learning some new technique, or being able to use some really neat instrument, or meeting some new person. I got to use devices like the X-Ray Diffractometer (which I almost broke 9), the NMR (basically the same as an MRI), and many others. Around the third week, I was introduced to the professor who I was working with in the pharmaceutics lab, and I was told everything about how my research would be applied in the big picture of things and all the other work I had to do. I was increasingly spending more and more time in the lab, but as each day progressed, I felt better and better about what I was doing. I knew the research which I was doing could potentially be helpful to millions of people in the future, and that was a great motivation for me. In fact, the last 2 weeks, I sacrificed breakfast, lunch, and dinner on various occasions just so I could be in the lab to finish up my project.

The best part about it was as each day was getting better, each night was fun as well. Whether we were listening to our director give us advice about how to write abstracts, or give proper scientific PowerPoint presentations, or we were making pottery, going to the mall, eating out (Taco Bell and ColdStone were my 2 favorites), or listening to an enlightening faculty member talk about their respective fields, it was always fun. Particularly, the faculty seminar's were always interesting because each presentation was just so unique. I remember the first one was given by a biology professor who was looking at the biology of frogs, while the following one (the next week) was a physics presentation about the phenomenon Aurora borealis. We also had archaeologists give us presentations, as well as our last seminar, a bonus presentation by our director, talking about the science of Big Foot. I'm not going to lie, he made a pretty plausible argument that creatures who people have begun to refer to as "Big Foot" may exist (yes, there are more than one of them!) in America.

Other than just our normal relaxing down-time during the evenings (even though we could always do work if we wanted to), we had special planned activities on weekends or holidays (4th of July) such as going to an amusement park, going to the beach (where we could do a variety of things), go to a 4th of July carnival, go down by the lake for canoeing/kayaking/ "paddle-boating", going on a 8 mile canoe trip, and so much more. My ultimate favorite though was the Saturday where we went to these caves about 2 hours away. The R.A's drove us there in vans and then allowed us to explore them for a while. A few of my friends and I decided to climb up a small opening in one of the larger caves which nobody entered and spend about an hour and a half trying to get all the way to the end of this opening, constantly hitting our heads on the ceiling, only to find out it reached a dead end. We had to travel all the way back through thick water and mud, but it was such an amazing experience, and one I would never expect from a research camp coming in (mind, I did take about an hour long shower when we got back to the dorm). Experiences like these just show me why SSTP provides such a good opportunity for highly dedicated, intelligent students to learn and have fun at the same time, providing an amazing experience overall.

These were how I spent my middle four weeks at camp. Even though the majority of my time was spent doing work, I still found plenty of time to be with fellow participants of the program and enjoy myself as well (though, no doubt, I enjoyed myself doing research!)