Bush Man (Berkeley, Day 4)
Day 4: Day four began with a very yummy breakfast at the Rose Garden Inn in Berkeley, CA. Soon after, we piled into our bus on the way to a tour of Bayer’s Berkeley facility. Once there, we met Sam, our dashing tour guide, who would take us on our Mr. Rogerslike adventure through the Bayer facility to see just what goes into making clotting factor. And boy, does a whole lot go into it! Seeing how intensive the production process was for such a minute yield (a year’s worth of clotting factor produced is about 200g!) truly puts the astronomical prices into perspective. It was very reassuring to see just how much care is taken to ensure that as safe a product as possible is placed on the market. I was further impressed with the stress placed upon employee safety. Specifically, every pedestrian intersection we came across had these strange pedestrian crossing signs. Apparently, gentlemen cross in style on Bayer crosswalks. Along the way, Sam stopped to snap some photos of our lovely group. Some of them were less serious than others.
After a tour of the campus from the outside, we went into the production area and were doubly gowned (twice!) to see the nitty-gritty of factor making. First, they take cells engineered to externally secrete factor and reproduce them. Then, they rinse them with a great amount of water as well as nutrients to sustain the cells. The water carries away any cell waste, as well as the factor byproduct. Then, through many series of filtration techniques, the volume of the flushed product is decreased as impurities are removed. Eventually, just the factor remains, which is freeze dried, inspected, and packaged. I must admit that I felt like a little kid watching the crayons come into being in the Crayola factory on Mr. Rogers’ TV show.
After the tour, we had the rest of the afternoon to ourselves, so we met up with Aviva (a friend of Dorothy’s) and she and Leslie showed us around the bay area. This included Berkeley College, where we got to see Mary Poppin’s building and the base of the clock tower (closed L). Then we made our way over to the wharf, where we had an amazing view of Alcatraz (which is an uncannily beautiful island).
While tromping away from Fisherman’s Wharf on a secret mission to Ghirardelli Square (home of the world famous sundae), Dorothy, Aviva, Jordan, Shelly, Leslie, and I happened to chance upon a local delight. Unbeknownst to Dorothy, the Bush Man (something of a local celebrity) happened to be hiding behind artificial sprigs of shrubbery, playing an exuberant game of peek-a-boo to scare unsuspecting tourists. The rest of the group (Aviva, Jordan, Shelly, Leslie, and I) were paying more attention than Dorothy and thus noted the loud noises coming from the strange bush to the right of the sidewalk. When we passed by as a group, the Bush Man sprang forth yelling. Dorothy ran clear from the sidewalk into the street, narrowly avoiding an oncoming biker. I may not wake up tomorrow, after she hears that I posted this, but in the interest of unflinching honesty, I could do no less.
No trip through the Bay Area could be complete without some pictures in front of the Golden Gate Bridge. After fully sating our touristy needs and then our empty bellies (at an amazing restaurant called House of Nanking), we retired to the (now less creepy) inn.
