Lab Experience

Despite the popular opinion of my friends and family, I actually did go to school everyday. My program was different than other study abroad programs because I was actually working in a lab instead of going to lectures. After I was accepted to the program through UCEAP (University of California Education Abroad Program), I had to fill out an application for Osaka University. In the application and essays I had to tell them what type of classes I had taken prior that would allow them to place me in the lab they felt I would do the best in. When I logged on to find out where I had been placed, the subject area was listed as 'Chemical Engineering'. Now, reading this I was already nervous to step into lab because I had noted in my essays that I had zero experience in engineering... and now I was placed in an engineering lab for 5 months?? So now my list of things I was worried about had increased by one.

When I got to Japan, the other UC students and I had to go through 2 days of orientation from the UC office, as well as the Osaka University (OU) campus orientation. After those first 2 days though, I went to meet my prinicpal investigator (PI), who is the head of the lab. My PI was a very nice man. He made lots of funny (dad) jokes/puns, one being taking the lab to a restaurant called 'Tenkyu' and in his speech started with "I would like to Tenkyu all for coming." A few days later I met the rest of the lab. I was the youngest student in the lab, as there were undergraduate seniors, masters and doctorate students. This lab was also pretty diverse because there were students from Indonesia, Vietnam, Shanghai, and Korea.

There are several cats that roam campus, the one shown here is Saito-san

A TYPICAL WEEKDAY IN THE LIFE OF DIANA IN JAPAN

In my lab the hours were very lax, so I could come in and leave when I wanted. Being the lazy panda that I am, I would usually wake up around 9 and get ready for the day. For breakfast I usually drink coffee and eat either yogurt or bread then head off to lab. One difference between OU and UCSC is that OU has 3 separate campuses in 3 separate cities. I was lucky enough to be placed in an apartment that was pretty much on campus, so my daily walk was about 5 minutes from home to lab.

Once I got to lab I would work on whatever needed to be done, whether that be working at my desk or doing actual experiments in the lab rooms. During my stay, I worked on one project with the goal of presenting my work to other students in the same exchange program. For my project, I worked closely with one of the doctorate students. She helped to create my project, analyze my data, and taught me how to use the instruments in the lab. Around 11:45 some members of our lab would head out to lunch.

Another difference between UCSC and OU was the dining hall/cafeteria. UCSC has a buffet style dining hall. At OU, there are several lines of different foods such as ramen/udon, curry, daily specials and more. You can pick whatever you want at both places, however at OU you pay for each plate separately, whereas at UCSC you pay a flat fee to enter the dining hall. Although this does sound like it would be more expensive, it was actually the opposite. For a full plate of curry, it was about $2.50. Dining culture is also quite different in Japan. We would all wait for everyone to sit down with their food to start eating, and would wait for everyone to finish their food to leave.

These are some side dishes (such as steamed veggies) you can add to your lunch.

Once we got back, everyone worked until 12:45, which is when we had a quick afternoon meeting. During the afternoon meeting, one student (different each day) would go to the front and tell everyone about any reminders for the week (i.e. journal meeting or weekend discussion). After all the announcements were finished and no one had anything else to say, the presenting student would give say anything they wanted to say. For example, some students would talk about their hobbies outside of lab, part-time jobs they worked, or even updates on the world cup. On Mondays and Thursdays half of the lab was responsible for taking out the trash, sweeping, and cleaning the lab rooms.

If I had nothing left to do that day, then I would usually leave around 5 - 6 PM. The undergraduate seniors would usually leave around the same time. However, some of the master and doctorate students would stay very late to continue experiments or whatever else they were working on. Towards the end of the program, I stayed until 9:30 and a quarter of the lab was still there working!

LAB ACTIVITIES

In Japanese culture, they often have welcome parties for newcomers and farewell parties when people leave. My labs welcome party was both for me and the undergraduate seniors since we were all new to the lab. We all went out to a restaurant where we all got to know each other a little bit. We played an icebreaker sort of game where one student would explain a little about themselves (i.e. their hobbies and interests), then another student would then ask them a question. The restaurant we went to was pretty interesting because at each table there was a small grill, and the waitresses would bring various skewered food and we would cook it ourselves.

Our lab also competed in softball games with other labs from our the engineering science departments. I only went to a couple of them but they were really fun to watch. Of course, this is all happening in June/July which is when its super hot in humid outside. So although I was glad to be getting out of work, once I stepped outside I was ready to go back into the air conditioned labs. I'm not too sure where our lab ended up overall in terms of ranking, but I don't think we were in the top 5. During the last baseball game however, me and the other labmates who weren't playing got bitten by so many mosquitos >.<

Here's me steppin up to bat... Spoiler alert: the ball didn't go very far.

Towards the end of July, we all got together one Saturday and had a lil BBQ on campus. We got to grill a lot of different meats and veggies and it was yummy. The hardest part was trying to get the fires started. It was about 90°F and we had to stand fanning a small flame to get the fire started. It was a lot of fun getting to talk with my lab members outside of lab and see what they're like outside of their working selves. After this event, I feel like it was even harder to say goodbye to them since we all got along so well.

The very last day of the program was the day I had to give my 10 minute presentation about the work I completed during the 3 months. Afterwards my lab had the farewell party for me and the other exchange student from Korea. We all went to a chicken restaurant where we all talked and hung out for the last time. It was really nice talking with them in this type of environment because most of them were 3-5 years older than me, so it was a little hard to talk with them during lab. After the chicken place, somehow a few of them were still hungry, so we decided to go to another restaurant nearby. It was a seafood restaurant and I tried a couple new foods I don't know the name to.

I feel very lucky to have been placed in this lab because all my labmates were very easy going yet hard working, helpful and very kind. I really miss all of them and their playfulness but they definitely made my experience that much more amazing <3