Author: Jen Kopanic
-
BRCA2 Cycle Path
I love solving mysteries and problems, which is how I would describe what I do for a living. Technically speaking, I am a biochemist – a structural biologist. I like looking at the 3-dimensional structure of proteins and understanding how other things (other proteins, DNA, small molecules, etc) fit into those proteins. And while I have…
-
Our Year Five Began in Paris
Before we moved across the pond, my friend Mary Anne suggested that we should celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary by being in Paris and in the Eiffel Tower. I become fixated on doing this because I thought it would be a very romantic way to celebrate. I was envisioning eating chocolate and drinking champagne at…
-
Remember, Remember
Today is the 5th of November. And to Americans, this is just another day. In England, today is a day to celebrate! And to light bonfires and fireworks! And for remembrance. Today’s post is about history of today and the history leading up to today. First, let’s first go through some historical perspective on monarchies and…
-
Slight differences
As Americans look forward to an extra hour of sleep this weekend, we “fell back an hour” last weekend. I put together a list of things that we’ve noticed so far that are completely different between the two countries. It is a US versus UK showdown! 1. Doors For fire safety reasons (correct me if…
-
Holiday versus vacation
In the US, I never really thought much about the meaning of the words I used on a regular basis. However, nearly every day I’m learning gobs of new words and phrases. Or I am learning alternative meanings for words and phrases (for example, pants aren’t the same thing as trousers). One thing I recently learned was what the…
-
First Trip Through London
We are new to traveling in Europe. We expect (hope) to do a lot of it over the next few years (specifically out of London to the continental Europe), so we need to become professionals at it. When booking our trip to France, we didn’t know that there is a direct train to London Stansted…
-
Pumpkin Spice Lattes
In the US, I didn’t drink coffee like I drink it here in England. Most weekdays, I would drink a cup or two of tea. When we found out that we were moving here, I upped my tea intake thinking it would help me fit in. I couldn’t have been more wrong. For being known…
-
English muffins
I first need to distract you from this post. While writing it up, I couldn’t help but think about a scene in the movie Shrek, in which Gingy (the gingerbread man) is being interrogated by one of the villains, Lord Farquaad (NOT MY GUMDROP BUTTONS!) This leads to further distraction (at least for me) to find the…
-
You alright?
In a quick, high-five styled dinner, a friend who lived in the area for a few years mentioned that locals have a very strange [to Americans] greeting of “You alright?” When Lynn told me about it, I hadn’t experienced myself, yet. I think the way she described it to me perfectly exemplfies how I feel…
-
An enlightening first vocabulary lesson
On the top level of my workplace, there is a wonderful cafeteria. The food they sell is what I would consider to be fairly multicultural, especially in comparison to most American cafeterias. Every day, there are sandwich, soup, and salad options in addition to the hot meal specials. Each week, there are some expected foods:…