Ciao!

The most interesting part of the article was this summary of where this year's students are coming from. 4 from Caltech? Strange to think of it, but I probably have no idea who the other 3 techers are, as it's likely I graduated before they started. 2 from New Jersey? Where my homie at? Average age of 24? Yeah, I guess I already knew I am a bit on the older side.

I guess I should get on with describing my first week of classes.

The best part has definitely been my lab rotation. Since I spent the past year and a half in an immunology lab, I'm pretty comfortable there. The Nolan lab does a lot of FACS work, which I have some experience in. I'm really looking forward to doing some 12 color FACS (if my rotation project calls for it). More importantly, I'm excited to work out what my rotation project will be. I have some vague ideas drifting around that I need bounce off my new labmates. I'll have to use my rotation project to get preliminary data for a grant proposal, which I'm nervous about. I haven't written a grant before (I haven't done much scientific writing since my master's thesis 3 years ago) so I definitely want to do this right.

The absolute worst part of the week was getting around this blasted place. (term of endearment, I promise.) Most of the week, I made Robin drive me into campus as my legs and feet were still useless from the BIOMASS camping trip. And of course, traffic was horrible. I spent a good chunk of my first Genetics class wandering around the quad trying to find a building that didn't exist (I wrote down the wrong number) and when I asked for directions, I was immediately asked if I was a freshman. The final indignity was trying to find a way home via mass transit. I couldn't find the stop for the Palo Alto free shuttle, got passed by when I finally found it, and then spent way too long wandering around my neighborhood trying to find a shortcut to my apartment complex. There are way too many loops around here. And streets that should be labeled "not a thru street" but aren't.... This week, I have a new pair of shoes, and lights for my bike, so hopefully getting to/from/around campus will be easier.

I'm still working on being productive in the evenings (hard after 3 years of leaving work behind when I leave at 5pm). The sheer volume of information being thrown at me is slightly intimidating. I'm used to studying formulas, not inches of text. That said, this text is a lot more interesting than formulas for laminar flow and whatnot.

We'll see if this week is better than the last. It started out right; when I got home tonight, I was greeted by Robin's employment offer, and let's just say the salary is appropos for his ph.d. status. It looks like he'll be a good sugar daddy while I do my ph.d!

Just in time for classes to start!

I went to my first (and only) class of the day, Biosci 230 (immunology). Actually, it is the very first class I have been to in almost 3 years. Thankfully, I did not fall asleep. Even more thankfully, the material is not totally unfamiliar, so I don't foresee that it will be a struggle. The real test will be how Genetics treats me tomorrow.

Then I ate lunch outside with Nancy, a college classmate who is starting her master's in bioscience. It's really nice to have an old familiar face around. It's also really good to have someone to talk to about buying property, juggling kids with career, and other subjects that I don't necessarily feel I can broach with some of my other classmates who are more recently out of college.

I have the afternoon off till the Biomass orientation and dinner, so I'm going to hunker down in the library and do some reading for my lab rotation. I will NOT surf the web. I will NOT play the neat little web game that my husband discovered this weekend. (http://intihuatani.usc.edu/cloud/flowing/core.html if you're curious. muahahaha.)

This weekend, I'm heading to Big Basin with a bunch of other Biosciences students. I don't think many Immunology first years are going, so I'll be hanging out with other folks. I'm curious to see who I recognize from interview weekend.

After a lot of introductions and a tour of the lab, I headed off to a FlowJo class. I showed up in time to see the end of the basic section, and then watched the advanced portion of the presentation. I felt pretty good after that; with the exception of one neat overlay trick and the commands to make movies, I had done most of the basic stuff in the past. The advanced portion was definitely informative, as I hadn't performed compensation via FlowJo previously. I may not have in depth knowledge of immunology right now, but I definitely have the lab experience to jump in.

After getting a keycard for CCSR and picking up forms to register my bike, I rode home. I'm really out of shape; all the walking and biking in the Boston area kept me fit, but I haven't done that in a month now. The half hour ride to/from campus isn't bad at all, but my legs are really tired tonight. I need to get both my mind and my body ready for this coming up semester!

In summary, I hung out with some of my fellow first years, played a lot of World of Warcraft, and took a day trip out to Half Moon Bay.

Oliver demonstrating a mermaid (charades) to Christina's puzzlement.

Xianne tries to identify Mike's frying pan.

Oliver, Mike, and Lori doing a club cranium charades for tofu. Yes, charading tofu means doing kung fu, apparently.

Saturday and Sunday nights, Robin and I spent online, playing World of Warcraft. Our guild has been progressing through an endgame dungeon that requires 40 people. We killed 4 bosses in all, the first 2 of which we had previously had trouble consistently killing, the last 2 of which we had never attempted before. It was really great to be part of a landmark achievement before I scale back my playing time, or stop altogether. At the moment, I still intend to play 1 night on the weekends, but clearly this is a low priority so for all I know, I might quit the game completely.

This is a screenshot someone took of the group who killed the 4th boss, Firemaw. My character is the big furry thing labeled "Jersey".

Sunday morning, Robin and I packed some sandwiches and drove to Half Moon Bay. We walked along a trail by Miramar Beach for awhile, then drove further north to a more secluded beach off a cliff. Turns out that second beach was secluded for a reason.... it was clothing optional! No, we didn't remove our clothing. We would have stuck out like sore thumbs, as the only folks without their clothes were all above 50. I think my favorite guy was the one walking around protecting his bald head with a hat. Protective of one head, not really caring about the other 2 between his legs.

The stairway down to the secluded beach, and the view from my towel.

What, were you expecting a photo of the old nude people? Nice try. Although Robin did grab my camera, turn me around, and proceed to take a picture of me with folks sunbathing in the background. Sheesh.

Tomorrow I'm going to purchase a bike, go out to lunch with an old college friend (who coincidentally will be starting her master's in biosciences this fall, and will be taking an immuno class with me), and maybe do some clothes shopping.

More importantly, I finally got up off my ass (well, alt tabbed out of World of Warcraft), did some research on classes, and registered.

a few thoughts:

you'd think that since my previous schools were Caltech and MIT, they'd have digitized the whole process by now. Go figure.

b) I registered for an extra class, so on top of the basic immunology course, genetics, seminar, and research, I'll be checking out an informatics class. Upon submitting my selection, I got notified that I wasn't able to add anymore classes or else I'd have to pay more tuition. Kinda makes me wonder, given my previous entry worrying about getting back into the groove of classes, whether I'm getting in over my head. Oh well, there's nothing to do but try it.

c) I rather like my schedule. I have 1 class on mon/wed/fri, and 2 classes and seminar tues/thurs. Leaves me nice big chunks of time 3 days a week to play around in lab.

d) NOW I feel accomplished. I've talked to a prof about rotating with him, and have worked out my classes. Somehow, that was more satisfying than unpacking our apartment. Definitely more satisfying than clearing Molten Core.

Driving. Sucks.

Robin always walked to school. I walked to school, and used various bus routes/T lines to get to work. We always lived within a 10 minute walk of the grocery store, and got a granny cart thing to tote our purchases.

But here? We're totally isolated without a car. It's made worse by the fact that we have to live off campus (no pets allowed on campus, and there was no way I was leaving my cat behind) and that there are two of us, so it's more likely that one of us is going to have to travel further to get to work or something.

And you're so... not mobile in a car. If I'm walking somewhere and realize I missed a turn, I just turn around and make my way towards the right direction. In a car, I have to get to the right lane, make a turn, often I can't U-Turn so I have to do some wackass maneuvering.... And then I have to worry about bumping into people (not damaging when you do it on the sidewalk as you walk!) and all that jazz.

And then of course we have car payments, car insurance, and gas to pay for.

What a hassle.

I miss the subway/bus system. I love the weather, love my school, love my classmates, love my apartment, but damn I hate driving.

No, he's not for sale. Not for a billion dollars.

Robin has believed in me from the very start of this process. He quizzed me from flash cards while I was studying for the GRE. He took care of most of the household chores while I zipped around for grad school interviews. He turned down a very good job offer in DC so that I could come here.

He did all those things with the same panache as when he posed for the picture above.

So maybe I'm nervous about classes. But I have a husband at home who knows what I'm going through. That's worth a lot. More than 99 cents.

This leaves me with more time to think about the upcoming school year. Well, maybe it would be more accurate to say that I worry.

I've been out of school for about 3 years now. The last class I took was over 3.5 years ago, while doing my master's at MIT. The last semester I took more than 3 classes was about 5 years ago, during the first trimester of my senior year at Caltech.

This is not to say that I am not looking forward to my new classes. Unlike most of my classmates, I am not coming from a biology background, so I definitely feel that my classes will be useful, informative, and interesting.

But even with all that in consideration, I am anxious. I haven't pulled an all nighter since I finished my master's thesis. I need my 8 hours of sleep. I'm not a young whippersnapper of 21 anymore.

In any case, I like to think that my age at least gives me a bit more focus, and a little added experience about the world in general. I've watched my husband go through the entire grad school experience, and I definitely feel I've learned something about how to be a grad student from him. And of course, my 3 years as a scientist at a company, and then as a lab tech in an immunology lab, will surely help me a ton when I start in on my thesis.

But classes. They still make me nervous.

Almost every square inch of our apartment is covered in boxes. At least Wirt is enjoying his new playground. The crazy cat is climbing as high as he can, playing a solo game of "king of the mountain". He also had fun with my old Furby from college days.... after we dug it out (upon hearing it start up because we jarred the box), Wirt sniffed at it, picked it up by the fur on top of the head, and carried it off.

I hope that we can be unpacked relatively soon. I really should get to a little pre-term reading, and preliminary research on profs I would like to rotate with.

At this point, we're almost as at home at Ikea and Bed Bath & Beyond as at our actual apartment! Today, the last piece of furniture will arrive (a sofa and nighttable), and we won't have to haunt those places anymore.

What really makes me feel like we've moved in is that we've had our first overnight visitor, and gone out to our first social function. One of my best college friends stayed the weekend, and last night we went to a bbq. We even contributed a salad and some corn. However, the way we brought the salad sort of exemplifies our current state of being....

All of our kitchen stuff is in the crate, except for the new set of pots and pans Robin bought (courtesy of my mother's graduation check to him) when we got here.

We're together enough to make tasty salad, but not together enough to bring it in a proper container!

Today, I'm heading into school to check in with Maureen, the program administrator for the Immunology department, to get started on the next part of my transition; school!

This was the first cross country drive for all of us. I did some of the driving, but most of the time, Robin was behind the wheel, while I navigated, and Wirt lay between us.

Wirt spent the majority of the trip asleep in various amusing positions. He didn't have much space back there as we had crammed 4 computers, a litterbox, a suitcase, and our various personal items back there with him... but he certainly made the most of it. Thankfully, he didn't spend much time below the driver's feet, except when he was hot and wanting to avoid the sunlight.

The cat wasn't the only source of amusement. The drive was surprisingly scenic. We drove through the Badlands, Yellowstone, and the Tetons, all of which were beautiful.

Unfortunately, with Wirt in tow, we couldn't spend much time exploring any of the national parks. Neither Robin nor I are fans of "drive by tourism" when it comes to the great outdoors, so hopefully we can return someday, with camping gear.

Now that this adventure is over, our next challenge is moving into our new apartment. The majority of our stuff is in a Door-to-Door crate, being driven cross country. We also need to acquire a lot of furniture, since the only stuff we brought are a dresser and a shelf.

My last day at the Hacohen Lab was last Friday. My husband, Robin, and I have spent the last 4 days packing up our home in Cambridge, MA. Tonight, we had our friends over for the our last weekly dinner get together in the Boston area. Saturday, Door-to-Door will drop off the trailer for us to fill, and we'll sell off the last of our furniture. Monday, we set off in our new car, to drive from here to Palo Alto, with our cat, Wirt, in the backseat.

The lease for our new apartment is signed, our bank accounts have been moved, the new car purchased, our lives packed up and ready to go. Now, we just have to do it.

I am:
- a 26 year old American born Chinese woman
- a born and bred Jersey girl
- a wife of 3 years
- an engineer (I received my bachelor's in Engineering & Applied Sciences from Caltech, my master's in Mechanical Engineering from MIT, have worked on the 2003 Mars Rover and Payload System's Cell Culture Unit that was to go on the International Space Station)
- a biologist in training (I am entering Stanford to work on a ph.d. in Immunology, and am interested in applying systems biology to autoimmunity)
- an amateur photographer
- an avid gamer (both board and video games)