My Internship Journey

Research life is all about puffy eyes and dark under eye circles 😜

 Hey guys, I was in lethargic state for more than three months and just got to realize that my writing skill is fading off slowly 😂. Well, that's a crystal clear example of my laziness ☹️."My laziness is exactly as number 8, if it lays down, it becomes infinite".So, to prevent the prolongation, I made a cup of coffee, downloaded some of my favorite songs on my phone and set up the laptop at the balcony to acquire inspiration from the ambiance to write this blog post.

Let's dive into story mode 😀

BTW, this is an impromptu post in which I want to share about my internship journey in Agro-Biotechnology Institute, National Institute of Biotechnology Malaysia or shortly known as ABI-NIBM.

 My internship period was three months which was from February to May (I know it was short but trust me guys I've learnt some stuffs that are related to my field). To be very honest, my internship journey was a wholesome experience as I did realize the importance of being independent and begin to explore the true sides of my life. I stayed in a rental house at Serdang and traveled to my intern place daily via Grab (yes guys! Grab. Because at that time, I did not have the confidence to drive myself ). My working hours were from 8.30pm to 5.30pm everyday from monday to friday.

 There are three departments under ABI-NIBM that includes food biotechnology, animal biotechnology and plant biotechnology. I was placed in the food biotechnology department and that was a little disappointment for me as I wanted to be placed in the plant biotechnology department (I՚m an anthophile 🌺). Basically, I have worked in two different labs, the food analysis and the food safety laboratory. Food analysis lab is more to physicochemical analysis of the food products. For examples, determination of total phenolic content, total titrable acidity, absorbance rate and pH measurement of the sample. On the other hand, food safety lab is more to microbiological analysis that are inclusive of enumeration of aerobic plate count, coliforms, yeast and mold and also the isolation of Salmonella and Shigella. (I don't want to zoom into the specific procedures, let's keep it simple and understandable 😉).

ABI Building

One thing that made to organize my lab works was the log book that has been provided by the ABI administration for all their intern students which was intended to record all the lab works that are being conducted in the lab. 

The log book.

Finally, let's end this with an emotional note. My internship story will not be fulfilling without my support system.

My support system.
P/S: I’ve tried to match up their height by wearing slightly higher shoes but it did't turn out as I expected 😛.

• Nur Haziqah a.k.a Ajiqah (my course mate). She was so supportive throughout my internship. She was placed in the animal biotech department and we both were separated during working hours as I was placed in the food biotech department but we always hang out together after work to have our dinner together. She even drove me back sometimes whenever I couldn't book the Grab. Thank you so much sweetheart 💛.
• Kak Azizah (my intern supervisor). Kak Azi was so gentle in teaching me the lab works. She was like a motherly figure, corrected my mistakes in lab and gave the full freedom for the research plan execution. She is so soft like the cotton candy 🌸.
• Piqah (my lab mate). Piqah is an intern student from 'Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia' and we both were associated in an additional research project that was centralizing shelf life study of sugar cane juices from the vendor. To be very honest, it was very tiring until I started to rant about random stuffs in the lab (I know it sounds silly 😬) but Piqah was a great listener. We both had a good bonding that we used to share our personal stories together. Thank you for lending your ears Piqah and I miss you so much 💚.

THANK YOU FOR DECORATING MY INTERNSHIP JOURNEY WITH DIFFERENT FLAVORS 🌹.