September 2006

Stanford Graduate School Party

Yesterday I decided I haven't spent enough time talking to my family. I feel like I'm constantly doing something, or at an activity, so I miss my chance to talk to my friends and family that aren't at Stanford all day. I called my mom and talked to her on the way to school, I'm not sure if driving and talking is illegal, so I'll have to find better times to get in contact with everyone. I also sent out a general email to all my family members letting them know they can read this blog. It's actually a great way to let them know what's going on. But it's totally impersonal!

It was a fairly short day of classes. I only had one section for the course I'm auditing. It was basically a linear algebra review, which is probably a good area to get refreshed. I also stopped by the Sidow lab to pick up some material to read so that I can get started on the ProPhylER project. I'm getting pretty antsy to get something started, but it's slow to start, hopefully just because the whole quarter geared up and everyone is getting re-acclimated.

After spending some time at MSOB, I went home and waited for my friend Beth, her brother Mike, and his girlfriend Sharon to come pick us up to go to dinner on Castro St. in Mountain View. David met us there. The area is really great, full of restaurants. We ate dinner at a really good Indian Food place called Shiva. It reminded me a bit of home around there, except I can't walk to the area. But it's still not bad! After this we picked up Alex and his roommates Shannon and Sarah. I saw Alex's room, and now I have the definitive answer as to why he knows everything (and why he should be allowed to correct my grammar).

We headed over to the graduate center where Nikesh was a bartender so we went by and said hello. He did a very good job! After this we hit the dance floor. It was pretty hot in there, and crowded. David, Alex, Shannon and Sarah went crazy, while the rest of us were more tame! Ryan ran into a guy he knew well in college, Brooke.
There were some pretty interesting people there, including half-naked men, people doing the train-dance around the dance floor, and various questionable dancing. It was definitely fun to watch! Of course Alex did his best to represent for BMI with his shirt! David was the less conspicuous BMI member, but definitely dancing as much as the rest of them! We headed home relatively early (since I was tired from getting up that morning).

Nikesh's POV.

Group Photo

BMI on the dance floor!

Beth and I trying not to get too hot.

Random half-naked canadians!
I spend most of the day today sleeping, then trying to focus on homework. I have to say, it's pretty difficult to get back into the swing of things, but I definitely made headway. It just took me a lot longer than it would have a year ago, mostly since I just can't focus when Ryan's playing video games in the living room! He was playing this game called Test Drive Unlimited. You basically drive around Oahu in Hawaii, and you can race people, buy cars, houses and motorcycles. The funniest thing is there are other people on the road from other players (it requires internet connection) and you can hear them talk to each other. One group of guys was talking about Chicken Corn Chowder, which apparently makes this guy's mouth water just thinking about it (and David's too)!

I'll leave you with what you're missing by not going to Graduate Student Parties:

I LOVE BMI!

Today was a fun day!

I think I finally have my classes worked out, but that may just be misleading, since I may have to change them again. At the moment I'm taking Probabilistic Analysis, Intro to Biomedical Informatics, and Algorithms in Biology. I also am going to audit a Machine Learning course. While I think it's pretty important, I don't necessarily think I should take the course for a grade, since I think it goes beyond the scope of what I need to learn. It includes mathematical proofs of the various algorithms implemented in machine learning. Since I plan on taking an AI course next fall that includes a machine learning section, I'm assuming I'll get something out of it for then.

At noon was Sam Pearlman's qualifying exam! We all went to his talk. Before the talk Christine Hilliard (the student services officer) brought in the paper where my blog (and the blogs of other PhD first years) was featured. She was being really funny and putting it on the table and pointing it out to people. Of course my reaction is embarrassment, which is just so typical me! The picture does not do the room justice. It was PACKED. Standing room only! He did a great job, and of course passed! I kept David company in Lynx for lunch, where I came to the realization that the increased prices must be from the dishes and silverware, which are pretty nice. I wasn't particularly impressed with the food either time I've been there, and today I noticed it smelled a little like airplane food. To be fair, I've always had previously prepared meals, so maybe it's time for me to buy one of their meals created by a "real chef"!

After this we headed down to our BMI210 class (Mark Musen's) class, where we learned some pretty depressing and scary details about the healthcare in the US! All the first years, aside from Marina who is could be taking her quals this month if she felt like it, are in this course, plus a couple more BMI people (postdocs and a co-term). We all bunch together in one spot. Noah even brings lunch like it's a social hour! Alex knew everything inane in the course, again! For example, he knew that the name for ROC curves came from a World War II reference for determining if a blip on the radar was a bird or a plane. After class we stood around and chatted, and as it turns out, Alex speaks Portuguese with an accent from Portugal, and learned Italian, French and Latin in high school, like all other students in New Hampshire-right?

While we were walking after class, Russ Altman (our program director) was riding by on a bike and as he was passing shouted "I read your blog!" and gave a "thumbs up". We all started laughing! It was pretty funny-but you probably had to be there. At my CS374 class, a student came up to me and asked me if I was Sarah. Turns out he saw the article as well, and mentioned that he was Swiss! I felt too intimidated to speak Swiss German with him, but it's probably a good place to practice. Besides, I love making new friends! Unfortunately he had disappeared by the time I turned and looked over after class. That was unfortunate!

On my way back to MSOB I walked by the CCSR where I saw the hilarious message (pictured) on the top floor of the building. This school is definitely unique! I started work on the MS&E220 assignment, which proved to be a bit more tricky than the course makes it seem! I'll have time to work on it with David tomorrow! We were informed of a post-qual get together in California, which we of course planned to attend.

David and Ryan and I all arrived to join the group at this fun burger place on California Avenue called The Counter. It's a funny place where you pick your meat, bun, and toppings. Maureen also ordered sweet potato fries! They were SO good! The dinner was great, complete with nerdy science references such as glowing pickles, GFP and traditions of drinking alcohol from wetlab equpiment. After that we went to a place called the Nuthouse, about half a block away, where we continued to celebrate. It was so fun! We laughed a lot, swapped stories, and I acquired additional Stanford wisdom (including something called Full Moon on the Quad-which I am too old and too committed to participate in, but is really funny) and learned new great things about all my fellow BMIers! They get better by the minute I swear! Wow I'm up late! Enjoy the pictures below from the night out, I'm off to bed!

Alex trying to show David and Jessie why it's called the Nuthouse

Congrats to Sam (second from left)

Cheers! (To 3 pitchers of beer and Sam's very MANLY drink at The Counter)

David is losing it also...

We're all there, I know it looks really dark!

Pitcher #2 already on the table!

And it's gone already! And by the look on Ryan's face, I can guess where it went!

Marina joins us, and so does pitcher number three!!

I have a conversation with Marina's boyfriend, and future rotation lab-mate Eugene.

Alex...he probably just pulled out some amazing trivia at this point.

Funny stories make me laugh

David shows Nikesh and Alex what I look like on the med school homepage! The resemblance is uncanny!!! Ryan's pouring beer in the back!

HUGE Burritos in a small world

Yesterday was my first full day of classes. I went to my statistics class with Noah and David. Noah was hanging out in the back, looking all relaxed, stretched out with his hands behind his head, and I really wanted to take a picture! But as it turns out he had food poisoning! During our 5 minute break he left the room and didn't come back until after class, at which point he let us know he was going home because it was "not a pleasant place to throw up". I'm glad I didn't take the picture!

David and I hightailed to Daphne Koller's class, which was great. Unfortunately it is one of the 3 classes from which I'm trying to pick. After that evolution class disappointed me, I added the prospect of Machine Learning (CS 229). However, I missed the first class, and the lecture notes look pretty intense. We'll see!

Lunch is usually a seminar, but today there didn't appear to be one, so after some time at our desks at MSOB (there's a picture of what I see when David talks to me from his-it's really funny to look up and see!) David and I headed to Lynx where he got something that looked really great, and I got something that looked a little less appetizing. We also ran into Nikesh, who informed me that 229 is best taken after MS&E 220 (my current stats class). I'm ambitious, but when these more advanced students give me advice, I try my best to heed it.

Maureen has given me loads of it, and it has been endlessly helpful. She was the one I called before making my decision to come here and we chatted on the phone! She was so great! She let me know about different courses, her background, what I could expect, how difficult it would be, but how free as well! She was so great. She really solidified my choice while I was wavering constantly. She even mentioned her Softball team which was a big sell. Even though she's the Czarina, she goes above and beyond her call of duty! Everyone in the program seem that way. Russ Altman spent an hour with me on the phone as well before I made my decision, reminding me of what "studs" the students were and all the available faculty. Both Maureen and Russ could just rattle off names to me for potential faculty that might interest me. It just showed me the network that is really tight here at Stanford! But that's all history!

After lunch we had a meeting with Daphne about potential rotations. It's pretty difficult for me to plan for the rotations, since I have to choose between the various courses that I need in order to come as a prepared student. She said I could come in the winter, but she would have to treat me similarly to an undergrad summer intern, and I definitely want to do my best to maximize what I can get out of it to get a real feel for what the projects are. Ultimately, though, I think I just need to remember that this are really just for getting a feel for the lab and what's in it.

I had two more classes, Mark Musen's BMI course, followed by Serafim Batzoglou's algorithms in biology course. After the latter, I spoke to the TA (a grad student in the Batzoglou lab) to find out what the best course was for me to take. He said the algorithms course would be great to get a feel for what's out there and what's relevant to the lab, but that 229 is a basic toolkit. We'll see what I decide. I think he's right that I may need to focus on my skill set more, before I delve into the more interesting science. Which is unfortunate since I love Daphne's class so far!

Ryan and I went to dinner at Whole Foods. This was pretty interesting since they have a Grocery Pickup. You just drive up and the unload your stuff. We drove by and some woman in her 40s was sitting in her VW Beatle, with this "deer in headlights" look. Her trunk was open and this guy was loading a couple bags in her car. I don't meant to judge her, but it was pretty ridiculous!

Today I went to 229, which was intense, but I could definitely follow it. I'm only concerned it will get more out of hand as I go along. David seems confident. We grabbed lunch at Beckman's basement, where you can get burritos that are the size of your arm. We were joined by some BMI postdocs, which was great! We all sat around and chatted about grad school, computers, classes and funding. As it turns out, Brazil seems to have laptops that are better built!

I went to a pretty useless discussion, as I was sitting under a desk on the floor and couldn't see anything that was gong on. Not to mention I was trying to learn some tricks in excel on my MacBook Pro, which is pretty hard since I'm trying to get the hang of keyboard shortcuts in the first place!
It also turns out that Noah went to school with my cousins on the East Coast! Super small world! He just saw the oldest of the bunch, Adam, at a party a few weeks ago, which is totally unfair since I haven't seen him in over a year! Noah and I seem to be fighting the same battle in trying to get relatives to move to the West coast, although we recently won one over who's attending Harvey Mudd in Pomona! Yeay!

Day One

My first week of graduate school started off at 9am with my first class, Evolution. Stanford has something new to me, "shopping for classes". You're basically given 2 weeks at the beginning of course at which time you can add and drop classes as you please, so you can test out courses and see which ones you enjoy.

Marina and I both tried out Evolution, but as it turns out it wasn't right for us. We chatted after and sat as MSOB (where we have our desks side by side with names and everything!) and decided to check out this developmental biology class at 11. As it turned out, it was a med school class that did not start until the following week. I sat there with about 10 other confused students while the class TAs handed back quizzes.

We stopped by and watched Sam Pearlman's practice qualifying exam talk (the actual one is tomorrow at noon)! It was great to see what would be expected from us, and what kind of support you get from your classmates, lab mates, and even family. Particularly if you have pizza available! The talk was interesting, and I even learned a few things. Sam's a great speaker. I can definitely picture him as a professor, although I'm not sure what he hopes to do with his degree.

Alex, David, Noah and I walked around in the afternoon picking up our books. The bookstore was SO packed, so I waited in line while the guys went downstairs to pick up books (the picture is of the line when I was about half way through). Noah stood at the end holding on to all of them so that when I finally got to the front we just brought them all to one spot. The clerk who directed us to the right cashier didn't seem surprised at all. I guess we weren't the only clever ones that came up with this idea. On the way back we somehow got on the strange subject of cannibalism. Alex, who still knows everything, had interesting stories about foreigners who somehow avoided jail for killing and eating people. He also had a story about a graduate student whose PhD advisor refused to let him graduate, and after something insane like 11 years, the student killed his advisor-with a hammer! I think I have to watch my back with Alex...just kidding!!!

After that uplifting, and not at all morbid conversation, we went to the BioMASS orientation. They went over a few general things we'd heard before about money, rotation, and various other things, but also had some inadvertently hilarious advice about keeping sane. The best student by far told us that if we find ourselves at lab on a Saturday night at 3am, having eaten a jar full of "chocolate covered something" then we've gone off the deep end. I could just picture myself doing that...scary! There were also some great clubs there. I'm pretty sure the MD blogger from last Spring, Kenny, was there!

BioMASS included a dinner, for which Ryan showed up. We enjoyed the free food (wow, 2 free meals in one day-I wonder if I can keep this up!), and each other's company, but weren't particularly successful in the "meet and mingle" portion of the evening. Everyone seemed interested in sitting at tables that were pretty homogenous as far as department was concerned. I guess I'll have to go to the BioX happy hour sometime to get that portion worked out!

Ryan and I went home after dinner, and tried to relax. There were two guys at our gym downstairs watching the game in New Orleans. They were sitting on some equipment beside me while I was running on the treadmill. When I grabbed a mat for crunches, I saw an uncorked bottle of champagne in front of them. One guy popped up, came over, grabbed the bottle, and after apologizing said "This is how you exercise when you get old." I guess in the gym, giving your liver a workout could seem like something healthy!

In the end, nothing relaxes me more than Senator and Mrs. Scoots! They were being super cute under the table!

No longer disoriented!!

Today was a short day. I woke up pretty late (9 am) and relaxed most of the morning before our 3 pm orientation. This was probably a good move since at orientation we were explicitly told today that we are expected to spend 20 hours per week on research, and 20 per week on school, when in reality we are to spend every possible waking minute working without "going insane". We were also told not to kill ourselves over class since we are in school for research, not for classes. I'm glad they think that since that's why I'm here! Russ Altman (the program director) kept joking that he hoped we knew everything in advance. I hope everyone did as well since I would likely freak if something came as a surprised after turning down other programs!

The first years (left to right Noah, Guanglei, Alex, David, me, Marina) were also given basic information like including how to get a PhD in 4.65 years, the basic process with classes, what is required, and how to discuss money with potential research advisors. They included anecdotes from the lives of other students.We also went over the mission statement of the program.

"The mission of the Stanford BMI program I to train the next generation of researchers in biomedical informatics. Our students gain a knowledge of the scholarly informatics literature and the application requirements of specific areas within biology andmedicine. They learn to design and implement novel methods that are generalizable to a defined class of problems--focusing on the representation, retrieval, and analysis of biomedical data and knowledge."

Even though the statement seems pretty straightforward, it's an extremely loaded statement. We went over every sentence and dissected it, like good scientists should. I guess my French literature minor will prove to be handier than I thought!

After the orientation, we chatted a bit, and had dinner. Noah played piano with Amar Das's daughter, who was completely adorable. She had a Hello Kitty coloring book, that sh was playing songs from. It was very cute! She was quite the performer, singing "Miss Mary Mack" for us. Apparently Marina is a good piano player, but she didn't want to demonstrate! Maybe some day. She was excited to play tennis with me, so I'm completely psyched. When I mentioned the tennis team Noah was immediately game for a team! I hope we can convince David and Nikesh as well! Then we'd be 5 and only need to find a few more to get the team of 8. We could get cute BMI shirts

Alex and David seemed to have had a blast at the weekend camping trip. As you can see from the picture, Alex hasn't fully recovered. Apparently Alex is the only honest "Never have I ever" player! But we all now realize that Alex seems to know everything about everything, no matter how inane the subject.

So I'm going to go to bed early. I think I'm tired from just listening to Russ Altman's Olympic Triathlon that he completed today in Santa Cruz (which according to the savant, Alex, was invented in San Diego)! He gave an open invitation for us to ride our bikes down to the retreat in Asilomar this winter, roughly 110 miles. He suggested we start training now. I'm not sure I'm capable of that. I would likely spend the whole weekend in recover if I tried!

San Francisco

Today I took a trip to the city! We went to visit a friend I've known for 13 years (since 6th grade), Beth. She is a graduate student at SFSU and living in the Cathedral Hill district with her college friend Julie. She works in Menlo Park at the VA hospital on post-traumatic stress disorder. She's hoping to get her PhD eventually.

Although I didn't actually get to see their apartment, it sounds amazing. It's a 2-story loft at the top on the 12th floor. We may even have to donate our Lovesac to them, mostly because we don't have the space.

They both have funny stories about walking around that area. Beth had a guy follow her home with his hands on either side of his face, like an open peek-a-boo. Julie was walking home chatting on the phone, when she realized a woman walking directly behind her was repeating every word she was saying. Their friend, Danielle, took the elevator up to their apartment yesterday, and a guy covered in blood rode up with her.

Yesterday was the LoveFest in San Francisco. Hye Jin ventured out during the day and saw fully naked men walking around. I'll leave the details to your imagination. While we were driving in we saw our own set of people. The picture isn't so great since it was night time, but it features a couple bunnies and an Ali G character (which happens to be one of the 3 characters from one of my favorite shows).

We went out to a little Tapas place, which was delicious. While we were waiting for our seat we went to a wine bar. It was very cute. Since I was designated driver, I just had a small sip, but it was quite good, and I am NOT a wine person. After this we waited about 30 minutes for a cab, sang some tunes, and dance a can can.

We went down to the Marina, where we ventured into a couple of bars. They were very packed. The people there were mostly like what I was used to. This is where we met with Hye Jin. She is a law student up here in the city. The picture below of all of us took about 3 takes. The photographer was a good sport though!

There was also a super tall guy in the bar. I decided to stand next to him to see how much taller he was, and Julie snapped a picture. With the shoes I was wearing I'm about 6'1, so that gives you an idea of his height. He was standing at the bar making "come hither" eyes at every girl who was alone. I don't think this was quite what he had in mind.

When we got back to Cathedral Hill, Ryan and I walked to the car. There was a large drag queen standing by an "Adult" club that our car was parked next to. He was shouting extremely animated and obscene comments at Ryan, which I most admit was amusing since they weren't at me. The drive back down to Mountain View wasn't terrible long (about 35 minutes), but I was pretty tired! I can't say I'll be able to survive frequent weekend trips to the city. I'll have to convince Beth to join Julie down in this area occasionally, and make some new friends down here as well. If nothing else, I'll be sure that I can focus!

Ryan shows Stanford love

I got my Mac all set up for internet on campus today, thanks to the amazing skills of Alex our IT guy. He's going to get windows up and running for me. I will be using the parallel environment, so I can have both windows and OSX running simultaneously. I also got a second key today for the medical school office building, and a key card.

Nikesh, the Czar for BMI (the student I can go to for all my questions basically) walked me to the GOALIE meeting, and told me all about the various courses and suggested I take whatever intramural sports I'd like to. He also said that Stanford has a great golf program and it's only 20 bucks for students to play, which for all you non-golfers, like myself, is apparently cheap?! He suggests I take advantage of it. Maybe in winter.

We ate lunch with his wife and Alex (the other first year), then I walked around the booths and spoke to the IM director about tennis. I'm going to try to convince some of my fellow BMIers to create a team.

Today I met with Serafim Batzoglou and set up a rotation for spring quarter. He has some great projects, just like Arend. They are collaborators as I had noted on papers from both scientists. I have quite a few courses I have to take before being able to rotate in his lab.

We also went up to the city to spend the evening with a couple friends. They took us to a bar where we had a blast sitting at a booth, talking, and watching a guy dance the night away. We're all sure he came directly from work, since he was wearing business attire. He had some hilarious moves, including the robot. No one would dance with him so we decided to give him a dollar, which he really appreciated! We left around 12:45 am so that we could get back here at a decent hour. It's hard when I don't live 10 minutes from the action!

Tomorrow our apartment complex is having a free brunch where we are to meet and mingle our fellow tenants. We're going, mostly for the free food though. The majority of the people living here are young professionals or couples, so I'm not sure I really fit in. I've seen a few students, but we are definitely in the minority. If nothing else we can go for a dip in the pool since it's supposed to be hot!

Since I didn't take many fun pictures today, I'll just leave you with a funny picture I took of Ryan when we made a trip to the bay to find housing around Stanford. I think this will be the picture I use for the evite for our housewarming!

My new MacBook Pro!

It's getting busier and busier. Today we cleared out a bunch of our boxes, but we still have a whole lot left to go. Unfortunately I missed the president's luncheon as I had completely lost track of all the events going on this week!

I got a phone call from Alex, who was out there with Guanglei, wondering if I was showing up. I felt like such a bum, but I didn't think there was any point in going since it had already started by the time he had called. I need a secretary, I'm so disorganized! Only Noah is worse...and he knows why!

Alex decided I'm the social networking person, but I don't think so. Alex and David are going on the BioMASS camping this weekend. I would love to go, if it weren't for living and sleeping in the woods with bugs. Shouldn't I be okay with bugs as a biologist?

I did take the plunge today. I bought a MacBook Pro. Shamefully, I am writing this blog entry on my PC laptop! In my own defense, that is only because I don't have all the software. I'm hoping to be able to get some of it from school, either at a reduced price through the bookstore, or for free from a lab I'm in? That would be best!

In any case, this has been a relatively uneventful couple days of furniture assembly. That picture is me with our daily roundup of boxes we drag down to the recycling bins. On the plus side, I finally have internet, so I no longer have to use the local wireless services.

Tomorrow is my meeting with Serafim Batzoglou (it was scheduled for today but cancelled). I am very excited, he is definitely one of my top choices for rotations. I definitely need some course work before being able to rotate through his lab, however I was warned not to take a course I think is vital for his rotation until I've taken a STAT116 level course. Also, I cannot take Daphne Koller's fall course since STAT116 is specifically a prereq! Aaah! So I'm back to searching for courses for the fall. I need to resolve this soon! I'm open to suggestions if anyone has them.

Scavenger Hunt, Lunchbox Wines and IKEA salads

Today was my first event as a Stanford grad student with BMI. We had a scavenger hunt that was loads of fun. I met the incoming class, Alex, David, Guanglei, Marina, and Noah. They're all really great people, funny and outgoing. Of course they'll make this experience really great. They all have unique backgrounds, including professional experience and advanced degrees (beyond a BS).

It's definitely intimidating. But I have to remind myself that everyone's experience in graduate school is unique, and just because you have a certain profile as another student, doesn't mean that you'll have the same experience. Every experience is unique.

I also have set up another meeting for a chat about a research rotation. I'm pretty excited about them all. We were swapping ideas about courses and such during the hunt. It was really fun! We were instructed to go to these various places and take pictures of different BMI-related subjects (DNA, proteins, Chemistry, sequence alignment). Our group (consisting of Shirley, Runa, Guanglei, Noah and myself) was trying to be creative (our pictures are below). They are mostly pretty funny (if you find nerdy science jokes funny). I'd say we did pretty well since we won, although I'm not sure how much of that is simply because I was loud when we had to cheer on our group. I think that's bad sportsmanship, or "huntsmanship", but I felt the need to find out what the prize is. I hope it's not a bad one like, clean the dishes at Darlene's house at the kickoff dinner this Sunday.

The group as a Poisson Distribution

Shirley being hydrophilic

Noah's "Jean" Finding Algorithm

Our version of K-means clustering. (I'm standing in the shape of a K, Runa and Shirley are looking mean, and Guanglei and Noah are a cluster)

Here's evolution in action. Runa's an amoeba followed by Noah's representation of an Ape, while I am slightly more upright. Shirley is the fully evolved, but slightly less intelligent human, while Guanglei is the tech-savvy, PDA using, modern human.

Our lovely visual representation of a multiple sequence alignment. Of course Runa, Shirley, Guanglei and I are the only sequence that is ungapped at that location.

The Stanford Bookstore came in handy for our Open Reading Frame (shown in reverse order here).

Protein folding is a complex problem, particularly when we're working with Subway Roast Beef.

Translational Research, Bench to Bedside (at the International Center)

Search Tree!

Our Greedy Algorithm outside Peet's Coffee

We had a lunch after the hunt, and just stuck around chatting and getting helpful hints from the more advanced-year graduate students. Of course they're the best place to learn a lot of information. I found out I have a box, and that I could get a laptop from the department, but I'm thinking I may just buy a MacBook Pro at this point. Arend had really suggested it.

We headed back to IKEA later on and spent a ridiculous amount of time and money there. Of course we made up for it by having a snack there, again. $1.50 for a salad and roll, we couldn't pass it up (ew that is such a grad student comment)! After the snack we headed down and picked up our eleventy-gazillion boxes of furniture. That cart Ryan's pushing me on was only one of three that we ended up needing to get all of our furniture! Thank goodness we still have our U-Haul, but at some point we'll have to get all the stuff up to the apartment so we can return it sometime tomorrow.

At night I went up to San Mateo to see my cousin Micah and his girlfriend Vincy. We had dinner at a great little restaurant up there, and then went to a crazy grocery store after. Vincy showed me Pinot Grigio in a juice box which I just found completely amusing, so I had to take a picture. We were also talking about a house warming party for us sometime at the end of October where we hope to break out our home-made poker table and try to make up some of our moving costs in winnings, although it will probably just add to the growing deficit.

Even though my fellow BMI first year student, David, seems to have battled the jet lag well, I'm still suffering and so off to bed! Good night!

Roughing It

It's all so exciting! Yesterday we caravanned up to our new home in Mountain View with a truckload of non-furniture items (computers, clothes, dishes, bedding, and cats). The move itself was mostly painless, now of course we're going to IKEA to fill in the gaps (desks and such). In the meantime we were sleeping on an aero bed and actually eating IKEA food, to my everlasting shame. It wasn't bad, and in the words of a true grad student, it was cheap! I was impressed!

At the moment the movers are in the process of bringing in our furniture, so I'm taking the little time out as a chance to blog. I'm so excited. We really do have a beautiful apartment. It doesn't have the convenience of being on campus, and I still have to figure out my situation with getting to and from Stanford, but it's bright and airy, and has a pretty nice view. I'd recommend it to anyone (and of course I get a nice 500 dollar bonus for anyone who signs up in one of these communities)! But seriously, it's great!

Today was my first day at Stanford. I had a meeting with my academic advisor, Terri Klein. I think I really lucked out. I'm not sure if the committee realized she was a major reason why I picked this school, and that's why they chose her as my advisor. She really makes me feel so comfortable. I can be totally candid with her about what's stressing me out. I asked her about questions to ask during meetings about potential rotations, how to choose advisors, and she just flat out answers and encourages me. She's also helping me work out the little administrative things, and led me in the right direction for those types of questions. She also helped me with classes and little secrets to succeeding in grad school.

Julie is now my go-to person, whether she realizes it (or wants it) or not! I went by to ask her about where to get my ID cards and parking, and general navigation issues I was having. She was completely helpful and sweet, and her husband used to go to UCSD, so she's a little piece of home. I get my own desk in the medical school office building, and I'll soon have a second on campus as well!

I had a meeting with Arend Sidow, a scientist on campus here at Stanford, about a research rotation. I was completely blown away by both how friendly he was, and also how he is a scientist that has found the balance of Biology and computation. Even though I think most biologists think I am probably not a true biologist, I still know what motivates me in research, and the Sidow lab will not let me forget that, which is great!

At first I wasn't quite sure if I was what he was looking for. I'm still trying to figure out the whole idea of a rotation. We went through 3 different possible projects, and he said 2 were not going to be ready in the fall quarter. As the naïve first year student, I figured this meant my thesis would have to be on this third project, and while I find it completely interesting, I was concerned I didn't have the background to work on it. I am to get a feel for the lab and an idea for the work that goes on while rotating, and not pick a thesis! This is reassuring and a bit embarrassing all at once, since I feel a little uninformed about the whole process.

I definitely think I chose the right lab for the fall. The work is exciting, and I think it's a great place to be while I get acquainted with the school. I even have a key!!!

Tomorrow is the scavenger hunt. I hope to get a good night's sleep so I can run all over campus. As soon as I get my furniture it should be much easier.

Buon Giorno

I'm moving to the bay in less than two weeks, and I'm currently in Europe (that's me on the left in front of a really old wall at the Colosseum). I decided to have a relaxing vacation so that I can lay all my energy into classes and research when I hit the ground running on the 18th.

Unfortunately the rush to move between the 14th (when we arrive) and the 18th (when I have meetings) may possibly reverse all the unwinding I hope to accomplish while here.

I have been getting emails, first intermittently and now regularly, from the program coordinator letting me know about events that are coming up. The first years have a scavenger hunt on campus the first week. That should be fun! I'm not sure how good I am with maps but I managed to guide my dad and Ryan through Rome in a car on Monday.
My dad drove, Ryan watched for cars that were about to hit us, and I busied myself with the map! Without a team I may do pretty poorly - I wonder if we're grouped.

So I've managed to register for 3 classes for the fall. It's been pretty difficult for me to narrow it down to such a small number. With all the freedom I'm getting in graduate school, I need to force myself to pick. There are just so many exciting options! I am also setting up meetings for rotations. The Stanford faculty is just great! They are very responsive and positive. It's so encouraging! It only emphasizes why I chose this school. At the moment I have 3 professors I will be meeting in the first week, and one I will likely meet later on (I hope to rotate with her in the winter or spring).

I am also taking a math refresher course which started on Tuesday, although I'm not sure if I want to use the hotel internet to access the lectures. I may have to catch up at some later point. For the next week I plan to take as much time to myself as I can, so this may be it until I start my big move!

Ciao!