Our hotel was in a great location so we could just walk over to 5th where the shopping was located! We moseyed down the street until we popped into a location where Ryan could browse watches of interest! He finally fell in love with one of them! I was pretty happy! I also spotted a great watch, but unfortunately it turned out to be over 6,000 dollars! The woman told me I could get on a payment plan. I wonder if that includes some kind of 5K discount?! We walked over to FAO Schwartz the store where Tom Hanks dances on the keyboard on the ground and plays music. I'm pretty sure it's not the same one though, it seemed smaller. Ryan and I have this massive Patrick the Pup (6 feet long) from there. But we found many other variants of them here.

There was the Patrick the Pup (and Penelope of course) beanbag.

The Patrick the Pup rocking horse!!!

Remember Raggedy Anne and Raggedy Andy?!?

Smooches!

Two kids playing with the trains

Ryan with his toy-sized sports car

A little New York City and a big kid :)

When we walked outside we found ourselves in the big plaza where the people had waited for the Apple iPhone to come out! We didn't get a chance to go inside, but we recognized the big square glass with the apple sign hanging in it. I decided it was an ideal situation to grab a chair and re-enact that guy sitting there all sweaty and gross after a week in the hot humidity without a shower! I borrowed a chair and sat down, and as soon as Ryan snapped a picture, a security guard was there to tell me I could not take the chair from the plaza area. It actually worked out quite conveniently since he then took it from me and put it back up on the plaza, so I didn't have to do it myself! No lugging in that weather is fine with me !:)

We then had plans to meet up with GlennChris, the Columbia student who had paid us a visit in the winter. He is currently working down on the Columbia main campus with Harmen Bussemaker. We weren't hungry but thought it would be great to go meet him. In our cab ride over there was a GPS screen that mapped our route! Crazy right?!

I had a bit of something to eat at a Mediterranean restaurant, before we headed into the Columbia campus to look around. It's small (everything is compared to Stanford, and UCSD as well), but quite pretty. It has a great courtyard and these gorgeous old buildings. I have to say the charm on the east coast really lies in that they have this great old style of architecture. But it's also sort of crummy in that way, since it's pretty old inside as well sometimes!

GlennChris told us about the various places, showed us his lab, as well as the gym! It turns out he cannot use the main campus gym as a medical school student, but we still got to take a short tour. We had to leave behind "something valuable" to guarantee we would not work out. We weren't quite sure how that would stop anything, but he left his ID anyways. We did play around a little with the basketball we found, so hopefully they won't be too upset!

Columbia courtyard (under construction).

Ryan is definitely not used to the heat here!

The bookstore is run by Barnes and Noble!

The whole place was interesting. It is built above ground, but below the courtyard (which is built above ground level). So it is the equivalent of having a courtyard on the 4th floor, and all floors below it are a gym. The track is indoors and built on a balcony, it's quite an interesting concept. With a gym area below (where I attempted to throw a basket and failed terribly). There is also a pool another floor down, and yet another floor below with aerobics studios! It's pretty crazy!

They also were holding summer camps, just like at Stanford and Brown (where I hear them all day)! The schools bring in money by hosting high school students over summer. It makes sense since parents love to send their kids to high-profile schools, probably in hopes it will improve their chances of getting in. UCSD and Pepperdine both host Nike Tennis Camps. I guess that's what is done at less high-profile schools!

In any case, these students were sitting in a racquetball court watching television (see above)! I'm not sure if this is what the parents intended when they spent whatever amount of money on an Ivy League summer program! The students at Brown seem to be doing better, since they at least are in a computer lab for a portion of the day, but I did hear the girls come out to talk about shopping and coloring their hair for the afternoon activity (there is a pretty popular mall in Providence that my cousin used to drive to)!

After touring Columbia, we headed back to the hotel room where I got to work on my midterm. I had been up pretty late the night before (until 4 am) waiting to get my midterm and take it, but it turned out it was not being emailed to me, but it was actually posted online. I of course did not notice this until my instructor emailed me that it had been up since 8pm Eastern time)! Ryan had the document printed for me and then I took the exam. I even wrote it using the pen from the hotel! Then we had the hotel fax it to Ryan's e-fax at home, which was then emailed to him, and then forwarded to me, so I could send it to my TA! What an ordeal!!!

After my midterm we went to dinner at Sparks for Ryan's birthday! This is a steakhouse famous for its food and having a mobster shot dead int he doorway! It was quite an experience. Really old inside, with very serious waiters who really knew their stuff. Ryan's parents had ordered him a delicious wine, and two desserts! It was a really great dinner! We both enjoyed it.

I decided since we were at a steakhouse in New York city it would be a sin to order seafood, so I actually ate *gasp* some beef, and Ryan ordered a Filet mignon, which was the size of the largest steak I've ever seen! I'm serious! I think it was over a pound! To top it all off Ryan ordered lobster tail and shrimp, on top of the side orders of baked potato and creamed spinach! It was truly an insane amount of food!

I have adopted a new tactic as well to avoid eating too much, which is putting half of my food on someone else's plate, usually Ryan. So in the end he had this overwhelming amount of food in front of him, which no one could possibly eat. Even so, with both of us totally stuffed, we managed to demolish most of the dessert! Ryan had planned for us to go to the top of the Peninsula hotel after and have a drink, but we were both so full and exhausted, that we just headed home and went to sleep instead!!!!

It was a truly lovely dinner!! Doesn't the dessert look so good?!?!?

Can you believe we demolished that, too!??!

The next day we woke up just before noon, and met GlennChris on 5th to go to the park. We had lunch with his friend Leon at a cute little place called Mangia. I'm pretty sure I have seen it on Sex and the City. You get your food like at a cafeteria then sit down and eat it. It had a fish tank that GlennChris said must be saltwater since the fish are so colorful! I think he tasted the water while I wasn't looking! The food was good, but way too much, so I brought what I had left to Jennie, another Columbia student I had met during interviews, over at Central Park.

Ryan being silly and acting the part of host with Leon

Initially we had a Sarah moment where GlennChris thought he had seen Jennie, and I with my bad eyesight had no clue. So I called her name twice, the second time she turned around, and I eagerly waved at her. It turned out it wasn't Jennie at all, and GlennChris claims I had simply shouted so loud that everyone turned around! We found Jennie, and we also met her sister, Cheryl, and began wandering through the park.

GlennChris had said I would be able to give Jennie the food, and that if I did not offer she would eventually ask. I just gave it to her instead, but it was funny because she ate it while we were climbing on the rocks (see picture right)! The entire I time I was afraid of falling, and she was hopping around and eating! She was telling me about her cloning-woes and how she had recently spilled Ethidium Bromide on her hand. Her first week at Columbia she had touched some virus that causes cancer. She's pretty funny with how she is prone to accidents in the lab!

Cheryl and Ryan waiting for me to climb the rocks!!

Ryan showing off his climbing skills!

We walked through what seemed like a lot of the park, but it turned out we barely scratched the surface. The park is pretty varied. There are a few bodies of water (like above) with these amazing views, and there is also this super forested region that is in the center with hills. When you are walking through it there are way fewer people and you can't tell you're in the city at all! It's completely sheltered from the sounds of the city, but also devoid of people, which I find strange, since this does seem like the only way to get away. GlennChris tells me people just love the city, so I guess those people who don't feel that way probably do not come to the park to get away.

There are these fields of grass that are completely covered in people, you can't seem to walk an inch without stepping onto someone. Jennie and I both find it exceedingly strange! Not only that, but there were areas that were not covered in people that way, I am convinced people go there to be discovered! There are also tons of spots for getting popcorn, pretzels, and refreshments!

It was super hot so I felt like a Popsicle (I really wanted Pinkberry since I know they have the notoriously Rat-infested ones in New York City). I opted for a Spongebob one (which just looked scary) and I eventually dripped on my white jeans!! GlennChris suggested I ask Jennie and Cheryl if they had a Tide stick, which I guess I proceeded to shout out. Some woman passing by told me she had one, and started showing me how to use it (since I had no clue). I wanted Ryan to take a picture, since this was some random woman using a tide stick on my thigh, but I think at this point she realized both GlennChris and I thought it was a little strange and allowed me to use it myself.

Ultimately she told me it wasn't working and she was shocked, since that was never the case. Which made me terribly happy about eating it! We walked around some more, through sites that I had seen in movies!It was very exciting! I can see the appeal of Central Park, but I still could not live in this city. I'm not sure if it's the heat and humidity, the smells, or the dirtiness around me, but I feel pretty disgusting after some time there. The park makes me feel a bit better, but I still would feel the need to get away!

I'm pretty sure I've seen this bridge in almost every movie, and there are always musicians in those shots too!

A carnival with the pretty view in the back!

We finally got out of the park and had discussed going to the Met, but Ryan and I were a bit tired by then. We walked by it, but at this point I was so excited about Pinkberry, everyone gave in and we walked over! YAY! Pinkberry in NYC! It was tiny (even tinier than the others). And again it felt dirty, but I scarfed it down! We then walked down to the hotel.

We headed back to our hotel which was about 30 blocks away! Jennie was talking about the cupcake place the whole time. She's pretty funny! A little eating machine! She's so tiny but she can definitely pack it in!!! I guess with all that walking I understand! Ryan managed to get us upgraded to a nice room near the top! It had a pretty nice view from some angles, but mostly it was much bigger!

We spent some time there relaxing before heading down to Little Italy for dinner where we met with Cindy (another girl from the visits who went to Columbia). We had some great italian at a restaurant that had a cockroach crawling in and out of a vent. Which was strange since we had just see a really massive on on the subway earlier! I had also had some mystery liquid drip on my in the subway! GROSS!

GlennChris and Ryan making "rainbow eyes" on the subway...a good way to get my mind off of the 10 pound cockroach!

After dinner we were all super full, but craved ice cream. I looked on in envy as Cindy had some delicious chocolate Gelato in a cone from a place she had specifically pointed out before dinner. They even had chocolate dipped cones! I was dying but so full I couldn't have it! I was so hungry at dinner from all that walking I just ate everything in sight and left no room for the dessert!!

We headed over to Bleecker street, which is (I guess) in the East Village. We stopped by an ATM (since as I had been warned by my mom and aunt that many places in New York City are cash only) and saw a statue of Mayor Laguardia. None of us had an idea he was a mayor, let alone a person. The statue of him is pretty funny, and we independently confirmed that he was pretty tubby, and that he must have been a fun guy since he was okay with having this statue erected!

We went to a little bar that was down in a pseudo basement (you can see we are below the ground level in the picture at the right) with tiled ceilings. It was famous for having many beers on tap. Ryan, GlennChris and Cheryl enjoyed the beers, while Cindy and I opted for non-beer beverages, and Jennie opted out of alcohol all together. We sat around acting goofy until it got pretty late (bars close at 4 am which GlennChris had guaranteed would be the time we leave to get food...but alas that did not happen)!

While we were standing outside there was a really drunk guy who was having trouble walking. I couldn't quite figure out if he was joking our really so drunk, so I was watching him. I guess they are not kidding when they say you should not make eye contact with New Yorkers, because he came up to my face and yelled at me "What are you looking at you ***"!

I of course started laughing, but another guy and his girlfriend came up and were very concerned (they were natives too)!! The guy continued down the street, and as the good Samaritans pointed out, he ended up getting punched in the face further down. They assumed he had said something similar to the wrong guy, or his girlfriend!!! Pretty crazy!!!!!!!

Imitating crow's feet and GlennChris's old facial hairstyle.

Ryan introduces the Mohawk.

Ryan and I headed back in a cab and slept in nicely the next morning and just took it easy. We had lunch, headed over to the Met briefly, then went to dinner at the Waldorf Astoria, right down the street. After dinner I was on a mission for chocolate ice cream in a waffle cone! We walked down to where we thought Rockefeller center was, but couldn't find it. Ryan pointed out the Empire State Building which was about 15 blocks down the street we were on, so we decided to walk there.

It was pretty fun! It started to rain a little, but it was so hot and humid that we welcomed it! We happened by an ice cream place and got double chocolate chunk ice cream on a home made waffle cone (I think the cone actually beat Cindy's)! Ryan and I ate every last bit of it, and waited in line at the Empire State. I have to admit that elevator is really scary! It shakes a bit and goes about 5 floors/second, and everyone sits silently.

At the 80th floor the windows were covered, and they were definitely re-doing parts of the building (although we think the windows were covered to stop people from taking pictures before). We walked up the 6 flights to the 86th floor (picture above), and went outside. The temperature was lovely. It wasn't cold, so we didn't need jackets, and it was drizzlin ever so slightly. The view was amazing at night, we could see all the lights! It was quite pretty!

After we rode down we walked back to the hotel and sat in the bar for a half an hour before going to sleep. Like all good things, our vacation also had to come to an end. We rode the subway down to the Penn train station and ate at the stage deli. After that Ryan took me to the train and I was pretty sad to go! Even though it's only 10 days I really miss him!

View from above!

Ryan at the Empire State Building

Me at the Empire State Building

Ryan looking out our window.

One last glance!

I took a cab back to the Bowen house (I could not brave that big hill in the other direction, especially because I was in a rush to catch Ryan before he got on his plane-since I cannot text from the phone). I relaxed in my room a bit then decided sitting downstairs would cheer me up. I saw Peter and Reese and Marcelo (who was telling everyone to take me out to "cheer this girl up"). We talked about what to order for our big poker night. Now it's super late and I'm blogging in our living room and watching the Golden Girls on TV until Ryan gets off of his plane! Goodnight!!!!

I arrived in Providence, which is an adorable town (city center pictures above). Ben Raphael, the professor with whom I'm working, picked me up from the airport and invited me to his home to have dinner with his wife, Pat. I instantly felt better about my visit! I met his daughter Lilly who is just a treat! She's so cute!!!! They made me a lovely dinner, and we chatted a bit, then we drove over to my new home! I have one of the "sample" rooms on the website for the housing for visiting scholars! It's a loft room. When we got there no one was home, and after Ben dropped me I felt a bit lonely. Thank goodness for the internet because I could chat with Ryan.

Here's a picture of the Bowen house I took:

The next morning I met some of my house mates the next morning on the way out the door (I got a wakeup call just after noon)!!! They were sitting at the table playing cards, all roughly my age, so that was promising! Ben picked me up and drove me to a coffee shop in a smaller area and we discussed the potential projects. Things were looking up even more since these were completely exciting projects, each and every one of them! I was so psyched! I headed back home, but no one was in the house at this point either. So I walked to the CVS pharmacy and picked up some necessities (water, granola bars, umbrella, and nail polish). I must say, in that temperature and humidity, lugging a 24-pack of water is not a good idea, especially not up the 2 flights of stairs once I arrive. Thank goodness my room has A/C!!!!

I sat on the stoop and painted my nails. The house is adorable, but it is old, and my room does not have good ventilation as I only have on window (it turns out I pretty much have the smallest room in the house, but it is still on their website so it must be nicer)! So I did my nails out there. It is so cute here. It rained a bit, and the neighbors looked at me a bit funny! After a while someone opened the door and came outside and looked a bit surprised but didn't mind too much that a stranger was painting her nails on his stoop. Then I introduced myself! He is my very next door neighbor (room-wise) and we share a bathroom (oh no a boy)! The top floor has 4 rooms and 1 bathroom. His name is Marcelo, he is professor visiting from Portugal studying Portugese and Brazilian studies for which Brown is the premier University in the US!

I later on met another housemate, Raoul, from France who is studying applied math. I somewhat forced him into dinner, but I think he was okay with it. I do tend to have an overwhelming personality. I also invited another housemate, Crystal, from Louisiana studying Clinical Psychology! We went down the street and had dinner at a little Italian cafe. It was quite cute. Crystal is unfortunately leaving this Friday, but it turned out they were all at a club the night I arrived, so that was quite promising for friends in the house!

The next day I had a meeting with Ben at 11 am. I woke up at 1:30PM!!!!!! I freaked out!!!! I thought it was west coast time, since I had set an alarm at night! Then I realized the time was being shown on the alarm, which is clearly not PDT!!! I ran out of bed, got ready, ran downstairs, and through the town to Brown (it's only about 6 blocks). I had a whole plan to get coffee, do some work, then head in to work! I got there and realized I had no clue what building! But thankfully Ben called me back and I found my way to his office. He showed me mine which was just huge and amazing! I also got an ID card!

I have been enjoying my new office, and I got a chance to meet a few people in Ben's lab! I spoke with him and asked about lab meetings, so he was inspired to have one! I met his PhD student, Anna Ritz, who is a great girl! She's so sweet! I wish she went to Stanford. She is extremely active in the program as well as in sports, playing softball, tennis and ultimate frisbee! She offered that I could sit in her office if I was lonely, which sounds fun, but I am afraid I would get no work done!

I also met other lab members, including an undergrad and a postdoc, and others Ben works with. We had a great indian food lunch. I must say the food overall has been quite good, with the exception of the sushi. It isn't that it tastes bad, but I had a bad experience. I have met a few more of my housemates as well, and a former "Bowen House" mate, Andrew, who actually grew up in Palo Alto! He was at USC, but moved to Brown with his adviser (also in Applied Math-those smart people)! He's a super funny guy, and reminds me a lot of Ryan's younger brother! Andrew went to grab some sushi with me on Tuesday night, and after we ate most of it, I saw that one of the shrimp was a funny color...which was a bit scary!!

Although Andrew has moved out of the Bowen house, he is around quite a bit. He even drove me and Crystal to the store to get poker chips, and offered to drive other times! We played some poker with him, and Raoul, and another housemate Reese who goes to Vassar (an Engineering student). Peter, another housemate who just arrived, said he would play in an organized game, as would Marcelo! We are setting one up for next week! Unfortunately I broke my phone! This will make things difficult for phone numbers (since I can't see my screen) and also for texting Ryan!!

After poker we walked down Thayer, the cute mini downtown street near Brown that I walk through to get to the university. It is a GREAT street. It has shops and cafes, bars and a bead store! I will have to make myself some jewelry! Marcelo, Andrew and I enjoyed some wine and beer and chatted. It was strange sitting outside and drinking wine, since this is not allowed in California. It was also really nice and relaxing, a totally different experience, very unique to a small town like this! The people are so great it's really letting me enjoy this experience much more.

Yesterday I walked to the train station (it's actually over a hill) to catch my train to New York City to see Ryan for his birthday (he is flying out)!!! I had a slightly strange experience at the Au Bon Pain where I grabbed some food before, where I was approached 3 times by the same man chatting to me. I figured he was just lonely and being friendly, but I am still getting used to this area! So I busily pulled my suitcase and carried my backpack up this hill. I had no clue it was there (the maps are all 2D)! When I got here I was a sweaty mess (see picture right at the train station), but so excited it really didn't matter. I studied a bit on the train, and played my pink Nintendo DS that Ryan bought me just before I left (he's so sweet). I played sim city! That took me back!

Once I got to New York City since Ryan had to make his way over from JFK, I decided to take the subway (I sort of remembered from last year). I figured things out, and arrived, and was very pleased with myself. I waited for Ryan and was so completely happy when he arrived! I waited while he checked in and he got a note from my mom saying happy birthday with his present! He had a special idea to get an upgrade for our room, but unfortunately it didn't work out, since they didn't have any available. Our room is quite nice though!

Waiting for Ryan to check in.

This was our crazy minibar addition that had sensors that could tell when we picked something up. It said we had "20 seconds" to look at the items on that little note!

Ryan looking out of the hotel room window the next morning, not a bad view!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RYAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The one in San Francisco was a unique experience when my grandmother and I came to visit Micah who was attending Berkeley at the time. We were in a strange room called the "pope" room for someone's graduation, and they had a bust of the pope sitting on a "lazy Susan". It was pretty weird! This one was no different. The food is pretty standard, but it's just a fun environment! Unfortunately we had some confusion and were not able to get David his birthday cake and embarrassing moment of singing happy birthday to him! I also had to leave for LA that afternoon, so I could not hang around forever! I think he had a good time!

Ryan and I escaped to LA, where we got to spend a few days with my family. We went to Coupa Cafe in Beverly Hills with my sister (right) and my mom - I had to show them what I was raving about! It was delicious (of course) but not the same as their Palo Alto location! The seating was performed by a hostess (rather than the self-seating at the PA location) and overall it had the feel of a regular restaurant. When I went in the middle of the afternoon to grab some coffee, however, it was completely dead. There was a cute little sitting area in the back with plasma screen TVs. But I think overall LA is not the coffee-shop type place. Who knows, maybe Coupa can transform the city!

We got a chance to drive down to San Diego as well. Ryan's family wanted to see him before his birthday, and it had also been some time since I was down there (probably about 3 months)! Strangely I have fond memories of driving between San Diego and LA. The traffic is generally horrible, and I am usually in a rush to get to LA, or sad I have to be going back to school, but somehow I have great associations with it. That night was no exception since we got our own fireworks show when we passed Disneyland. It's not an exceptionally special occurrence since Ryan and I are in the habit of driving pretty late at night (both to avoid traffic but also since we are night owls it's no big deal).

Once we got there, we dropped by his family's house and saw his parents and Reid and Hannah before heading out to Pacific Beach with two friends, Sahand and Kyle. It's funny how quickly things change! The area had new bars that had dress codes (which is totally abnormal for this beach area). What's funny is while they required pants and button-up shirts, there were no rules about sandals! In general guys can't get in anywhere without nice shoes, but these beach areas tend to know that the San Diego style does not involve dressy shoes! It's pretty amusing. It was a pretty nice place, but it felt a bit like a casino, with palm trees inside, a facade between the bar and the waiting area, and weird cobblestone floor!

After we went to grab food at an old dive-mexican place called "Coti"-of course some things never change.

Kyle liked it!

Ryan did too, although you can't tell!

Ryan went golfing the next day with his dad, and Hannah and Tracy went to the bead store (unfortunately I slept through this-which was actually much needed). When I did wake up I found Reid and we went to get coffee and just relaxed a bit. But as all other things, the day came to an end too soon, and we had to leave for LA again. The next morning I had a nice breakfast with just the ladies, my mom, my aunt, and my grandmother, before heading up. Ryan and I swung by Pinkberry really quickly-I GOOGLED AND FOUND OUT THEY ARE COMING TO THE BAY AREA SOON!!! But in the meantime I needed a fix.

Doesn't it look delicious?!?!?

It was super hot out (although I'm sure our temp gauge was off because I doubt it was over 110) and we were dangerously low on gas, and stuck in terrible traffic near the Magic Mountain area. To make matters worse I had to go volunteer at the NLM meeting registration desk and I had left myself NO time for traffic. I drove straight up, except for a stop we made at the Starbucks just before getting on the 101 (which included a restroom stop). Ryan and I stop here every time, in both directions. On the way down Ryan bought himself a Nintendo DS that he was able to use during the ride! I tried to convince him to buy a pink one, but alas he wanted black!

As we approached the Palo Alto area, we noticed a huge plume of smoke in the distance! Ryan and I were not quite sure where it was, but we both grew increasingly quiet as we approached the exit that would have been ours. I eventually broke the silence and pointed out this seemed terribly close to our apartment and could we drive by. It turned out it wasn't at all our apartment, but actually the Stanford hills that were on fire! Not only that, but I had remembered that Karen and Annie had schedule a dish walk for that day! There were two more fires that week! One at the dish and one on University! It's quite scary! They suspect arson!

David and I manned the registration desk that afternoon. I think we were a couple of friendly faces and we got the job done! It was fun to see some of the names on the list, and see them again (either that day or the next). Jane Peace, the visiting scholar from UW Madison, came to town for the meeting! It was so great to see her again! Ninad Dewal, an applicant last year who is at Columbia's BMI program and acquainted with many people with whom I've remained in touch from my Columbia visit (he's even living with two of them) was there as well! Mike Sneddon, a fellow UCSD-graduate from the Bioinformatics concentration during the same year who did the "interview circuit" with me as well. It was great fun!

David and I picked Noah up from the airport after finishing up! He had been on the east coast for about a week visiting family. He hadn't seen them in nearly a year! I don't know how he does it! I, of course, had to be completely obnoxious and call out "Shmoopy" and run over to him like I was his grandmother who hadn't seen him in years. I think his Sarah-hiatus was sufficient since he seemed to tolerate it with a smile! We met Ryan for dinner at an Indian restaurant, during which I was totally exhausted, even after two large nonfat extra dry cappuccinos (George likes to point out how I use way too many words to order my coffee, but this is how I like them)! We played some weird game with the waiter of "guess our meal". I thought Noah knew the guy, but it turned out he just started guessing for fun. It was pretty funny! In the end I ate everything in sight, then went home to go to sleep!

The next day we had to do our poster session, which was poorly attended, but I got to see everyone! On Tuesday I made the rounds inviting everyone to the night on the town, which I then didn't really attend. I went long enough to see the Columbia students get super drunk! They are new yorkers after all! The conference was good overall. I don't know if it was a success as far as showcasing the reason why Stanford scored the highest on the renewal grants of all the training programs in the country. I hope I added to it, but I don't think anyone really looked at my poster. The few people who asked questions were not even from other schools! My print was also slightly off which Noah said made him feel "a little sick" to look at. He pointed out we seem to be making it a habit to have posters side-by-side, but whereas last time his looked a bit scattered, mine was the dud this time!

That Friday we celebrated Serafim's success by having our lab meeting at a Mexican restaurant! It was REALLY good but the portions were ridiculously large! I have to say I'm just extremely happy in my lab! I'm a bit sad to be leaving at this point, but George assured me my desk would be available when I got back, and I didn't need to leave anything behind to "mark my space". He had officially added my name to that space on the website, which is very exciting! I like that spot, so it's perfect for me! Unfortunately Olga is no longer behind me, so we will see who takes over!

In the afternoon it was back to work, but it also happened to be the same day that the iPhone was being released! It was complete mayhem all around! We had seen people lining the streets (at the most random locations at Page Mill's ATT store-which has no shade) when we drove to the mexican restaurant. George sent me pictures of some people who had been camping out in front of the New York store for a week. It is pretty disgusting when you think about it. What about showers, bathrooms? Hygiene just doesn't matter to these people! It turned out the one guy at the front of the line in New York actually didn't have the money, he does this every time there is a big release just for attention!

George and I decided around 5 pm (the release time on the west coast was 6pm) that we would just head over the the apple store in the Stanford mall and see what was going on. No videos or major pictures had popped up on websites, so we just figured why not go over and see? When we got there, Alain was there as well, with the same thought in mind. We're not willing to wait in line, but if we are still around when the lines clear, why not see if any are available, buy some, and sell them online? As it turned out none of them were ACTUALLY sold out, but I got some shopping in for myself (cheating-I know, but I'm like 3 lbs shy at this point)! I also spent time shopping with George for a suitable outfit for a wedding he is attending in Greece this summer!!!

On Saturday we went out in the city, and I sang karaoke (I don't sing well at all) and we had a pseudo-"Sarah going away" evening. It was nice to hang out with Beth, Julie and Mike and Sharon. But half way through the evening I got really sad about leaving! This whole experience has been forcing me to think a bit about my situation. I can't help but wonder how often I will have to be away. I think in general I will be on trips to places where I am at a conference, and probably largely distracted, but I can still foresee myself getting lonely, and possibly feeling guilty about leaving Ryan alone so often. We will have to see what happens!

On Sunday I went to the driving range with Ryan, Sharon and Mike. I didn't do too terribly, but I shouldn't be planning on becoming a pro any time soon! At one point I actually hit a ball that went straight back into the division in front of me that was holding the balls, perpendicular from the direction it should be going. The scariest part is, it could have actually hit the person in front of me (which actually happened to Beth)!!!! I also had one fall about 2 feet in front of me. I know I'm not supposed to, but I took it back. I just couldn't stand to look at it! It was pretty bad!! Ryan was doing a great job coaching me! By then end I hit a ball about 180 yards!!!

The funniest part was on Tuesday I started to get a pain in my side, and I could not figure out why. I was convinced I was getting a kidney stone! I had been warned before that heavy coffee drinkers are prone to get these, and I am nothing if not a heavy coffee drinker since last August! It turned out I had just pulled a muscle at golf, but it was pretty funny! I just wanted to make sure I didn't end up on the ground in the airport in pain, like a friend of mine had a few years back. Come to think of it he lives in Chicago, which is where my layover is! Thankfully it was nothing, but the doctor, used to dealing with grad student I imagine, told me to "chase coffee with a glass of water" to avoid them! I also learned a trick, if you want to see a doctor at Vaden, say you are having organ pain! We also saw Ratatouille, which was a surprisingly entertaining movie! I don't usually watch cartoons, but I was certainly taken!

While I was on the roll of cheating, I also needed to get some shorts for the assuredly terrible weather on the east coast. Notorious for hot and humid, I was not really equipped to head over there. Also, of course, there is the issue of sales. At this point my deal with myself had just been lost, and I may as well not have a stipend at all! Beth and I went shopping, and we put a truly outrageous amount of clothing into our dressing room! In the end, I did control myself and buy things that were mostly relevant to the whole "east coast heat wave" issue. I also did a good job at returning things the next day!

On the 4th of July, our plans got pretty messy. We woke up relatively late, and went to the chili cook-off that Palo Alto holds annually! We met David, Guanglei, Alex and Noah, as well as Arlo! We stayed for a bit, but it was entirely too hot to eat chili, or stand outside in long lines. Ryan had about two cups, then we gave up. We met Julie and Beth at PF Chang's, and had a very american dinner ;). Then we headed over to our apartment, baked cookies and cupcakes, and tried to watch fireworks from our apartment! Unfortunately they were completely blocked by the other building!!

Ryan enjoying freshly baked cupcakes while waiting for fireworks!

Beth excited about the upcoming fireworks on our balcony!

What we actually ended up seeing was...nothing :(

At least they went home with some goodies!

Today I just finished up by gathering the things I needed for my trip. Ryan was sweet enough to take the afternoon off, we enjoyed a lunch. I am packing, and hope to get at least an hour of sleep! My flight is at 6am, which means we have to leave at 4!!!!!!

I plan to be there for about two and a half weeks during July, and then again toward the end of August through September. I hope I don't miss the first year students that are arriving!! We have to do a welcome weekend activity with them, like we had last year with the scavenger hunt! That really helped me feel like things were coming together, and no one had forgotten us! It was also a great time to ask questions of the other students that are already in the program and get re- or newly acquainted with my fellow first years! I hope I can help out!

Last Friday we had a celebration for the end of our courses! David, Alex and I took our 214 final, and headed out for dinner with Annie! It was great! We went to this place called Mad&5th (where Ryan and I had dinner with his parents when they visited). It is really delicious. We toasted to our first year being over, and had delicious food! Unfortunately Noah could not make it since he had hurt his back (mysteriously) and had fainted at the doctor's office after getting a shot for the pain!!!! This picture is his new method for picking things up from the bottom shelf at the grocery store...efficient, right?

Also, the fancy MSOB coffee machine has been broken for quite some time! Ted warned me that I would have to give it up for awhile when they got it fixed, and the time finally came. Everyone claimed I was conspicuously absent from MSOB after it left, but in all fairness I really was just working harder at Clark! We did get the coffee machine back. I was writing it love notes on my whiteboard, and Mike wrote back on behalf of the machine when it got back! It's pretty funny! He has been a trooper! He's been walking around with a neckbrace for a while now in hope to avoid a serious surgery! I have my fingers crossed!

Yael also had her baby (Idan!!!) which is extremely exciting! She puts the rest of us to shame! While we are all complaining about work and school (or in my case the missing coffee machine-which we finally got back), she is doing it all and 9 months pregnant! It's really insane! I was pretty sure she was having contractions one day, and I drove her to her meeting that she was having. She kept saying it was her last day. Alain has been nice enough to let her use a scooter, but she says she feels stupid using it! I think that's just preposterous! I think she's completely entitled to using it! But then again I'm talking to someone who went through a natural birth and refuses to be resting at home! I hope I get to see her son before I leave!!!

Inspired by my recent shopping spree with Beth. Of course everything I got is lovely, but do I really need any of it? No! I have decided to set myself some sort of goal I have to achieve at which point I will allow myself to shop again. The goal: lose 10 lbs. I am allowed to buy anything that does not go directly on my body (accessories, shoes, purses, even jackets). Now this is quite challenging for me, and also presents a secondary issue, that once I lose weight, I will probably need new clothes anyways, so will it actually increase my spending in the end? In any case, Adele has turned me on to Billy Blank's Tae Bo, which is sort of like kickboxing except it uses these resistance bands, and kicks my butt!!! I'm about half way there at this point, so we'll see what develops! I think I will probably just be super addicted again! I need to go to SA (shopaholics anonymous). Beth does too!! So far I have only cheated once, and not even so badly since it was a pair of shorts (and it is getting quite hot)! However, the dress, I have no excuse for.

On Thursday I found out that Serafim had officially accepted me into the lab, which was super exciting! I heard through George, when he wrote me a message congratulating me, and from Marc who noticed that my status on the website had changed! I must confess I had been occasionally checking my status ever since I had approached Serafim. I had mentioned during a meeting that I was very happy in the lab with the work, of course the people are great, and that I would like to join the lab! He simply needed to talk to Russ about my strange situation with the funding between NSF and SGF. So I was pretty psyched about that!

I also had a chance to integrate myself into the lab that Friday when we had a end-of-year BBQ at my apartment (that's our lab meeting at the right and Marc getting thrown into the pool above). It was great fun! Many people came (even George before he headed off to the Bahamas-to ensure he could maintain his gold status as a frequent flyer)!

That evening Alex, Ryan and I went out with Genaro for some dancing and enjoyment at Nola's. It was very fun! We had a good time, and after we went over to Alex's house to watch a REALLY strange movie with some scary monsters that lead a girl around in a maze. It was pretty freaky. I got too tired and had to go home! The next night we went out with David for his pseudo-birthday party with Rahul! Ryan, Rahul and David had a round of drinks, which apparently were really good judging by the expression on their faces!

While I'm trying to get work done it's pretty hard to coordinate. Finals have left me fairly worn out, in preparation for Brown I feel like a lame duck, and I also have to get a poster set for the conference that we are hosting for the NLM next week. It's just been really hectic. I need everything to wind down! I also want to go see my family before I head out to Providence! I'm going to be missing everyone! I just hope I don't get super lonely!

This just seems to be the theme of the year. When you expect to have downtime, something else seems to pop up, and you are taken away from your research. Overall it's a great experience, but I have definitely been left questioning why I am putting myself through the stress of school and research, and if I am certain that this is what I want. In the end I always come back to the fact that I was so excited and sure of myself when I started the program, and that my setbacks and frustrations are just clouding what I really want. There is really no reason to stop! So I'm gonna steamroll through it all, and know I am really lucky to have love and support all along the way!

In any case we had a great time. Then Alex, in true Alex form, brought water guns, which I used effectively without getting too wet! At one point while we were in the jacuzzi, I was talking to Beth and suddenly heard Kapil laugh in shock. I turned around to him asking everyone "did you see that?!" And he looks at this little girl who's in the pool with us, who has a pretty pouty face. Noah was in shock as well. Then suddenly, she flips him off!!!! We were all in shock!!! Her parents eventually came over and picked her up.

I have to say, there are some pretty strange kids at our building. There was a group of them just hanging around acting like normal kids. When Kapil showed up they came over and kept asking for cookies. The same kid that dipped his crackers in the pool a few weeks back came over silently asking for cookies and grabbing a few at a time then eating them in the corner. But there was one girl who was pretty hyper. And when some of the parents were gone, she got up on the table and started dancing, at which point the other kids jumped up too!!!! One boy was dancing and she spanked him! It was crazy!!! When their parents came back they immediately shaped up, and Noah played handball against the wall again, like normal children! I was so confused.

Beth and I caught a super chick flick after that, and there was an excellent display at the theater with the Simpsons! We sat on their laps and took a great picture. The movie was called "In The Land Of Women". I barely get to see movies these days, so it better be a good one if I go. It was a major chick flick, and not so bad, but of course my need for high quality due to scarcity of time probably is what ultimately lowered it to a 4 out of 5 stars (for girls of course).

My cousins came to town on Tuesday, the same day that our first year talks began for journal club - with Alex. From the pictures he sent me, it was a pretty random talk! It featured a half-naked girl sitting with a steak covering her. It was....interesting. Apparently he featured inside jokes for every first year (except me since I wasn't there). I have to give a talk the week after next as well! I'm a bit nervous! So I picked my cousins (Adam and Daniel) up at the airport in San Jose! I hadn't seen them in so long! We drove them up to the city, walked around the Wharf, went to dinner with a friend of Daniel's at a delicious place in the Mission, then headed back home. They spent the night, and the next morning after breakfast at Noah's Bagels I dropped them at the train to head up to the city to hang with their other cousin.

On Thursday I had an interesting evening in the city. Ryan's brother, Peter(left), was in town (driving down through SF from Rossland, BC to San Diego). He slept in the trunk of his truck (where Beth and I are sitting in the picture above). We went out to a bar in SF with my cousins and him (he met us there) as well as Beth. We had a great time, until Ryan, Peter and I left early to head down to Palo Alto. When we walked back to Peter's car, someone had smashed the back window!!! At first glance Peter was completely confused and it appeared they had taken nothing. He even had a bunch of cash in the car that was untouched, along with a couple guitars and a surfboard. So we got in the car and drove off.

Peter dropped Ryan at his car, I was going to drive with him to PA. Along the way he realized someone took his cell phone, and his iPod charger. On the way to the freeway, he suddenly reached back and looked in the back of the car, and started erupting into a series of expletives! He realized that what they actually took, was his laptop!!!!! It was taken along with his camera that was in it that had all his pictures! How terrible is that!??! I felt so bad and had no idea what to say! I felt so horrible! I've lost my camera before, and all I wanted was my memory card back! But never my laptop.

The next day, after lab meeting, I had to leave early during a chat with Serafim, Andreas and Eugene to head to the airport. I felt really bad! I just up and left. I never know if I'm supposed to let others know that I'm going out of town! It was something I had scheduled months ago, since it is was my mom's birthday on Monday and my cousins were in town. I have to learn how the lab works. It seems so flexible overall, I'm just not quite sure! We met Adam and Daniel at the airport, and flew down together. Look at how tall we all are!

We stopped by my grandmother's house, headed over to the gallery opening for my aunt and uncle's gallery, Circus Gallery. Their art is very different. This time it was a guy who had written "I love you" in intricate shapes. It was pretty cool! After that we went to dinner and to Pinkberry! Unfortunately, the East Coasters were not up for going out so I met up with Shirley and a couple of her friends at Wocano (a sushi place near my house). She taught me that if I take two cell phones calling each other if I put the mouthpiece of one to the earphone of another, and vice versa, then it makes this weird noise. So I put it on speaker. If you spoke into it, there was a strange echo! CRAZY! Or may I was just hyper! Who knows?!?!

On Saturday we went out to dinner for my mom's pre-birthday at a Japanese barbecue place in Westwood. It was quite fun! You cook your own food! After this we went to the Saddleranch bar on Sunset, since Jacob, can come along, where Shirley joined us. He got pretty tired so he left, and we did too to go to Barney's Beanery, which is one of our favorite places. We spent the rest of the evening there, acting completely ridiculous. I have to say, in retrospect I feel like an idiot! I hope I don't get uninvited from visits to the east coast for my antics!!!

Look at how fancy our dinner is, I can sit back and hold my plate! Why do I have so much food on my plate!?

On Sunday we took it mostly easy, I got a chance to get in my Pinkberry fix (again). On Monday we had brunch for my mom's birthday (after I was tortured at the dentist) and headed home in the evening. It was a great little break, but unfortunately because it was during my 214 final, I have to take it at home with Ryan as a proctor. I told Russ that Ryan was my boyfriend, but I have to say I felt completely juvenile. Noah and I discussed how I could not say that he was my roommate, since this somehow might seem that I'm trying to conceal a relationship, but saying partner sounded more serious. I finally wrote boyfriend. I explained this to Russ on Tuesday, and he laughed (he was asking the guys how they thought it was and I pointed out they should not talk about it around me). He said that after they okay-ed my proctor, they basically said okay to everyone else!!!!

Well, I have to say, Ryan takes things really seriously. Probably more seriously than any in-class proctor! Wish me luck!!!

There were TONS of people there from UCSD. Ben Raphael, my undergraduate postdoc adviser, Pavel Pevzner and Vineet Bafna as well as a ton of students, including Erik Corona, who will be joining our program next year (yeay) was there to present! It was a great talk! Also other people from Eleazar's lab. It did feel a bit like a reunion. Also, Ali Bashir was there, one of the most inspirational TAs I've had! He is a Berkeley graduate, so he has to hate Stanford, and even made a comment about how I said something like someone from Stanford! I resent that!!! He had some pointer about grad school, how it is full of ups and downs, and the first year vacillates significantly more than other years. I like that, it's a positive comment.

Eleazar has moved to UCLA, which is pretty cool! He has such a great lab and such great work, I emailed my former summer program, SoCalBSI about him being a potential adviser. Unfortunately he will not be able to coordinate a talk this summer, but I definitely think he is just the perfect example of a professor who needs to be involved in this program! Assuming he has time! He mentioned I should come talk to his group!! I'm so honored, but also extremely nervous. I am down there a lot, so we'll see what I can work out (once I have more results and work). Nuno Bandeira, from UCSD as well, spoke to the program last summer, so this seems ideal!

There were some great keynotes as well. My favorite by far was Jenny Graves from Australia! George and I were laughing throughout the talk, getting strange looks. But the last slide (shown left) was proof that everyone else simply had no sense of humor, and we caught on sooner! She is really great. She showed how Y-chromosomes are shrinking, and that eventually the human Y will disappear, and pointed out that males in her audience are usually quite offended by this (and laughing said she doesn't understand why). She also had interesting theories on speciation, how these changes make the males unable to mate with certain females, so two species develop!!! It was AMAZING!

There were also a couple poster sessions. I have to give out my awards.

Second place goes to the following poster. I know it's hard to see, not so much because George is reading it, but mostly, because it's a small picture of it (in all fairness, it was also redirecting us to its new location).

The winner, with no real excuse, except maybe a lost poster, is the following:

In all fairness, this were both amazing posters, particularly the winner which I think attracted more people because it looked like that, and the author had to explain it! I was very impressed overall! You really do learn a huge amount at these conferences. I told Marina, I think if Russ had a choice of sending us to a conference, or having is sit in class, hands down the conferences win. I learned way more cutting-edge science at this conference than in any class!!

On Wednesday night, we went up to LBL and got the most amazing view of the bay, while munching on dinner! There were some fun toys we got to play around with! Later we went to a pub back around Oakland with students. Sean O'Rourke and Erik from Eleazar's lab joined us, they were both celebrating successful presentations. I also met new people, Barrett Abel from UC Davis, and I even bumped into a student from USC I met during interviews (she is a student there)! It's pretty crazy!!!

Ryan also buzzed his head, after much coaxing! I had him buzz it when we first got together, I think it looks really great! He let it grow long again, and he does have amazing hair, but he is not necessarily willing to put the full effort into keeping it long. I even got him an appointment once with my stylist Guy. It looks amazing...as always!

What do you think?!

My dad was in town over the weekend, before the retreat. We had a good time going to the city, and walking around in the fisherman’s wharf. We also moseyed over to Ghirardelli square where I bought a bracelet, and Ryan bought a couple of amazing pictures from a photographer. They are great pictures from around the San Francisco area. Our moving company that brought our San Diego storage unit up to the bay area has been withholding our framed pictures that we had around our apartment in San Diego! It’s pretty upsetting because our walls are pretty bare because we do not have these pictures, and there are so many amazing places for them! I hope we get them soon, some of them were gorgeous creations like the one on the right that Ryan has taken! He’s a great photographer!

On Monday I dropped my father off at the airport, and went to San Francisco to have lunch with Beth. She goes to San Francisco State University, in the MBA program. It is quite insane! I was impressed when Stanford had a shopping mall, but SFSU’s MBA program where Beth attends classes is actually IN a mall. The Westfield shopping mall in Union Square has a huge Bloomingdales, a 6-story Nordstrom, a Furla store, and, oh yes, a whole floor of classrooms and computer labs for SFSU MBA students! It is absolutely insane. I have noticed some fundamental differences between southern California and the bay area. Movie theatres are sparse, and when they do exist they have a crazy amount of concessions (including pastries, food, and ice cream), which is NOT common in SoCal. There are very few chicken restaurants, such as California Chicken Cafe and KookooRoo and no Pinkberry ice cream stores (which I must say is a very recent addiction for me). I was hoping to open one of these, but it seems that with a 4 month waitlist to even receive information about a franchise, there must already be one in the works in the bay area. And finally, major universities must have shopping malls to prove true prowess!

On Wednesday I had lunch with Alex, Andreas and George (the latter are from the Batzoglou lab). I realize that I have become close enough with Alex, David and Noah to be able to talk about just about anything, however I need to learn how to ease my way in with other people. I think I am far too forward for some people, so hopefully we can find a good middle ground! I headed out to Monterey that evening, for the SAIL retreat. It is in a hotel RIGHT on the beach (see picture of Marina and Eugen), and although it was rainy and not great weather, I could hear the ocean when not in my room! We headed out to a bar at the Cannery, which is a historic region in the area. It was not a particularly classy place, which made it hilarious, and a prime target for the next evening.

During the talks at the retreat I heard some really fascinating stuff! I have not had much exposure to AI, so it was really interesting to me. Talks ranged from autonomous cars to linguistics, and some amazing robotics. Am I in the wrong field? At nights we went out to this bar in downtown Monterey (in the old Cannery). It was interesting to say the least. I've never been to a bar where bartenders drink more than their customers (Cory on the left shared his pitcher, don't worry)! They were taking shot after shot and eventually whipped out this blow up doll, and did some highly inappropriate stuff with it, after flashing their assets to the crowd. Isn't Monterey supposed to be super classy?

This guy is passed out, sitting up, holding a pen... There was also a guy who had his hand up against a dartboard while his friend threw darts at the wall.

We also had a planned entertainment portion of the evening! It was great! Tom (from Serafim's lab) did some amazing yoyo tricks, and there was a game similar to the newlywed game, except it was a student-advisor situation. The best part was that Serafim and Sam won! The runners up were Andrew Ng and his student Rion Snow, for whatever reason people were rooting against them, even though Rion had some great answers. They both agreed that if Rion were a vegetable, he would be a coffee bean! We also had a keynote, Jorge Cham (below), who is the creator of the PhDComics strip. It inspired the following comic strip...notice the little caption in the corner!

Later that evening we headed back to the bar with a much larger group of people. I think we pretty much filled up the whole bar! There were a few other people there, but it was Thursday night. We played a game called hands, the same one as at the retreat, but later we played this ridiculously weird game where you go around a circle counting off to 15. Every time you arrive at 15, the last person gets to change a number to any word, for example, the number 5 was changed to obecron pur C I 8 (or something along those lines, it's from Futurama). Although no one could remember that word, and eventually we started making up our own. One guy started saying "Oh my god, CIA!" With a really freaked out look on his face, it was hilarious. Abe Bassan, from Gill's lab, could not get one number right, and somehow he always had to say it! At one point he would just crack up instead of trying!

All in all it was GREAT retreat! It was in an amazing location with a GREAT view! The keynote was unforgettable. He went over many of his comic strips, which we all thoroughly enjoyed. The science is completely amazing, and I'm so glad to have gained more exposure in the AI field, I have really had none up until this point. I even got excited about it! The food wasn't half bad (notice the HUGE sandwich Andreas made)! Unfortunately since it has been something like 20 years since the last retreat, I'm not sure I can rely on it happening in the future. The Genetics Department seems to have the ultimate retreat, maybe I can get on the guest list somehow? Or just join Gavin Sherlock's lab. He has some amazing ideas!

On Saturday, after I got back, Noah had his annual Beer Olympics, followed by slip-n-slide activities as seen on the left. I was dead tired from my 3 day retreat (that seems counter-intuitive) and needed some rest, so Ryan and I slept most of the morning, and showed up late. It was also raining, which was completely unfortunate.

I watched the events, but missed the best one! We used to have a similar event at UCSD, minus the beer of course. It involves two (or more) teams, who are lined up on one side of the field, with a broomstick on the other end. You run across, pick up the broomstick, spin around like 10 times, and then run back across. Of course, the back across part is the tricky part. Now, in the Beer Olympics you are suffering from impaired balance in the first place (since this is not the first event). Noah had some great videos of people running into the house. At least it wasn't the street.

This was the one event I did get to see.

Most people were soaking wet, but it did not stop the festivities. At one point a Fire Engine drove by, and they honked and waved. A lot of people seemed interested. (What is Noah doing?!)

I think they need more beer!

Ryan and I went out to Rudy's with them later that night, a local, pretty sketchy bar, that is not necessarily my favorite. Saiqa had never been, but we decided to have a drink, and they were so ridiculously strong. We decided it was in order to impair our judgment so we wouldn't be so aware of our surroundings. Noah's roommate's girlfriend, Claire, told people she was getting married, a ploy to get free drinks. From the sounds of it, it worked pretty well. His friend Mark had also bought her a balloon animal with a flashing light in it...It was pretty strange. But apparently this kid that makes it is trying to make money to go to college! I guess he's been on the news.

So tomorrow I start RECOMB! I'm excited to see all these UCSD folks again!!!!

On Sunday we rode our bikes to Castro to get some food, and then we rode it to and from school. The ride is soooo pretty. Larry Fagan gave me a map with the route, and I saw the Donkeys he had mentioned (below). I was really happy and excited about being able to ride in and out of school for the next few weeks. The only problem is that the campus and areas around are INFESTED with Caterpillars! As we were riding there are all of these low-hanging trees and these pretty tunnel-like tree areas (like in the pictures) and I noticed there was a spider-like web on one of them that I ran right into. We rode by this high school, and all these people along the path, and I had to get off at one point, and I look down and I see A GIANT CATERPILLAR on my leg!!!! I froze, and just stood there freaking out until Ryan came and got it off for me!!!!

We rode in, and had a bite to eat at Tressider and a drink. When I went to lock my bike I wasn't paying attention again, and saw a good spot under a tree. I go over, and start to lock it against a rack. As I'm about to do this I notice that the rack is moving. Then I realize, it's not moving, it's just COVERED with caterpillars! I look over at the next rack, and see the same thing, and my eyes follow up the spokes of the wheel to the handle bars, which look like moving foam. My alarm is increasing. I look at the seat, it's moving too! Then I muster up the courage to lift my head, and I'm in a veritable forest of hanging caterpillars!!!!!! How I managed to miss all of them while walking in, I am unsure. But now all I see is a slalom course to dodge these long squirmy fellas hanging from their little webs, thinking they're all sneaky and that I'll be their free taxi to another tree!

I pretty much started spazzing out. I screamed (more like shrieked, I have a horribly piercing scream), and run out of there, Ryan came over and saved Penelope before I dropped her on the ground, and I rip off my helmet and start dancing in a circle to get off the phantom caterpillars. I was so disturbed! With my newfound adrenaline I ran over under the safety of the overhanging walkway and left my bike at a rack over there. Some think they are super clever and hang over the edges of those as well! EW EW EW! Carol showed me a Stanford Daily paper that said they are here until GRADUATION! Possibly even LATER!!!!

So on Monday and Tuesday I rode in, but on Wednesday I had another Stanford South Africa Student Seminar Series. NO ONE CAME on the Stanford end. It was just me, Betty Chang (the coordinator on the Stanford end) and Konrad Scheffler (the speaker) who gave an excellent talk, and the South Africa students via video-conference. Apparently we have a budget for food, so I plan on bribing the students with Izzy's Bagels next time to get them to show up. Unfortunately NO ONE has volunteered to give a talk to the students, so I'm pretty unhappy. I will have to start more serious harassment.

On my rides in to campus I have noticed some strange behavior.
1) People like to walk on the street, even when there is a sidewalk available, and they are always either on the phone, listening to music, or smoking.
2) Just like you are defined by your surroundings, your dislike of other people is defined by your vehicle. I hate bikers when I'm in a car, and I had cars when I'm on a bike.
3) Riding through campus during the hours of 10 and 4 is a bad idea. All the students wander aimlessly and are not paying attention, and people on bikes are either too slow, or too reckless.
4) Of course I am always right ;)

My best experience so far has been the fire line which is a no parking zone...for cars. The lane is probably too narrow to allow any cars or fire trucks to get through because it is LINED with bikes on either side!!! In any case, I love riding my bike. It clears my mind, it makes me feel happy, and most of all, it's an easy way to squeeze in some exercise that really only costs me about an extra 30 minutes of time every day, although I must admit the helmet hair leaves much to be desired!!! Maybe I'll keep a blow dryer in my desk. That would be really funny...or really reasonable.

Ryan and his speeding ticket.

Rainbow welcoming us back to the bay area!

Wednesday I had lab meeting, followed by a talk with Gill. He didn't seem particularly happy with my progress, and was a bit worried about finishing over the next two weeks (at which point I should be switching over to the Batzoglou lab). I spoke with Russ the next day who suggested that I should just go ahead and begin working with Serafim sooner, which Gill agreed was right as well. So I will still be meeting with Serafim next week, and jump right into the work! I will also only be taking one class. It just seems right to do it that way.

On Wednesday night we went to dinner with Tiffany, the accepted student from Duke. She was out here for a Google scholarship weekend. She is still deciding between Harvard Systems Biology and our program. They are so different I am quite surprised that she is struggling. She said many people she knew were going to be in Boston, so I am wondering if that is weighing heavily on her decision. This seems like it should only indicate that there is something pretty important that continue to draw her toward Stanford. We will see! I hope she just goes with her gut in the end, but as I mentioned before, I think it's pretty important to go with the choice that leads to fewer distractions, although having distractions would likely make you more immune to these.

On Thursday night we went to dinner for our friend Hye Jin's birthday (I've known her since 6th grade) and also got to see another friend since back then, Hannah! She just started school in the bay area as well (everyone comes here eventually)! We went to this Iraqi place called Yaya's, and basically got the waiter's number for Beth, and left hers for him as well. He called while we went out afterwards! He seems like a total sweetheart! He's from Sonoma! He put up with our antics pretty nicely.

Friday was Julie Schnitzer's going away party! I'm particularly sad that she is leaving. She was the very first person I met when I got here at the beginning of the year, and she took the time to sit down and show me how the Marguerite worked, and what the best way was to get to the bookstore. She was also telling me how she lived in San Diego and just made me feel completely at home and happy! She's not moving terribly far but it will be sad not seeing her on a daily basis! She claims she will be around so I hope to get to see her at times :)

Mark Musen made a funny!

As usual there was food and wine available there, but there was so much left, and the uncorked wine cannot be taken away, so it is given to the grad students (of course). Amar Das pointed out we had a great life at BMI! We have free food and wine, constantly, showers in the bathrooms, couches, desks, a plasma TV, what more could we ask for?! We lead pretty cushy grad lives! So naturally we took the leftover food, and I ate it (at the right, I'm serving the tray to my fellow BMIer Kaustubh Supekar). The best part was when Rosalind Ravasio brought the wine bottles over to David, Genaro and myself. How could we let the lovely wines go to waste?! Besides, what better way to make students productive than by bribing them with food, wine, and televisions :).

David with the booty!

Ryan and I went up to the city that evening for a dinner with Julie's sister who is in town (I called her MiniFitt and her friend Megan, MiniFittFriend-Jule's last name is Fitt). We had a pretty good time, but had to get back at a relatively decent hour. However, the next day I tried to do some work but just ended up recovering from the last week, month, quarter. I will be getting my cell phone on Monday which is highly necessary! I really hope to be refreshed when classes start, at the moment I am highly unmotivated. I am finishing up some work for a publication with Ben, and doing a literature search for Serafim, but at least I only have one class!

In recovery under the supervision of Nurse Scoots.

Finally, Sunday was my cousin Micah's "12th" birthday party. I says that his actual 12th birthday was cancelled and so he will not celebrate his 31st. I got some dirt from my aunt, who does not remember why exactly it was cancelled, but said that Micah was naughty somehow, and so that was how he was punished. The birthday was a nice barbecue in the park in San Mateo. It was really nice, with tons of friends of Micah's, some of Vincy's family, and of course Ryan and I. We got to play some Bocce ball, and eat some delicious food, and there was also this massive cake covered in sugar!!! It had big balls of frosting of top of it. I didn't eat it but I was thinking about it the whole time! Paula, one of Micah's friends (who is actually considering doing a professional MS from BMI!!!!!) pointed out that there is a place that does Bocce ball and dinner around the area! We are planning on going it should be SO much fun!

We also went on the Monkey bars, which turns out to have been my downfall. We had fun swinging around and everything, but this morning I woke up and I am basically immobile. My back hurts TERRIBLY! As a sophomore in high school, during the tennis season, we were playing a game against a local high school and I tried to hit an overhead smash, which somehow totally killed my back! I couldn't even stand up straight! So my mom took me to the doctor's office who basically gave me some super strong ADVIL and sent me home. It has been mostly okay since then. It definitely is not a perfect situation, so I do Pilates to strengthen my "core" and take some strain from my back, but of course as I have been inconsistently able to sleep 8 hours, I often find myself lagging on these exercises as well! Which is terrible!

Ryan setting a bad example

So now I am feeling the consequences! The doctor prescribed me the same pills again. I was offered a shot of some pain killer, which could make me loopy, so I was not interested. Ryan swears by percocet which he had after an operation, but I took Vicodin once after getting my wisdom teeth removed, and unless it is TOTALLY necessary, I will avoid it at all costs! All I did was sleep!!! Although that is basically all I can do at the moment anyways! We'll see...I have a class tomorrow that I cannot miss, so I will go in for that, and hopefully I will survive!!! Mostly...I just cannot handle being home like this all day, I feel like I'm missing out on the whole world. I also have a lot of work to do. At least it has made reading papers easy. For my work with Serafim he wanted to me to read 2-3 papers, it's more like 6-7 at this point!

On Wednesday we had a good talk in the lab, and I really need to step up my work to finish up as soon as possible so I can move on to Serafim's rotation, who has a really great project suggested. I spoke with him the same day and he believes we may be able to get a publication in the 10 week time!!! I am also very much looking forward to the rotation as Pavel Pevzner, at UCSD, was extremely excited about his work and had encouraged me to try to work with him.

On Wednesday night I had decided to reward myself with some shopping, but as I don't really have the time to window shop, I ended up doing it online. I have decided that online shopping is COMPLETELY dangerous for 2 main reasons! One is that it is so much easier to shop and spend a large amount of money in a much shorter period, since we don't need to go around and try things on, but also there are too many sales incentives that easy to find with minimal effort. The second is that it really does not satiate my desire to shop! I do not feel like I have shopped if I do it online. I think I may have replaced my addiction for shopping with coffee, which is good since I can get it for free virtually all the time, either at school or at home. However, I have occasional shopping relapses! The bag I bought is HUGE (see right). It fits my 17 inch laptop!

On Thursday I drove down to LA, and then spent the entire evening working on a presentation for my talk on Friday at my old high school, Beverly Hills High. Running on 3 hours of sleep, I arrived at 830 AM to give a talk to the Computer Science class of my former high school CS teacher, Mr. Paul. He's really great and has a great vision for incorporating CS into a general high school curriculum, and believes I have a great example of how this has been done and why it is so important!

At 930am I spoke to the AP Biology class, who were so extremely receptive. I have to honestly say that I was NOT this advanced in high school. The students were asking some VERY impressive questions,and were totally interested in the field. I had a 2 hour break until my last talk with the faculty at lunch, and tried to nap in the library at BHHS. I was on the floor until I decided I needed to get some food at the nearby mall! At lunch I gave my talk a 3rd time, and actually had a great conversation with a Biology teacher about a way to integrate some Bioinformatics into his curriculum. Hopefully he will contact me!

That evening I had plans to go to the high school play with my friend, Tracy (it is my last chance since her younger brother will graduate this year)! We first went shopping, then I had dinner with my family, but by the time it was 630, I realized that I was NOT going to be able to go as Alex called me and reminded me I had to turn in our Final!!!!! So I rushed home, and finished up (YAY ALL DONE WITH FINALS!!!!!!!!!) and promptly fell asleep.

I woke up around 11 when my mom was headed to bed, and checked my email. I found a message had been sent to me by my friend Angela on facebook, and it said I should check the NSF website. OH NO! I did NOT want to know! She clearly must have gotten one and it must have been announced! I have no emails in my inbox from the helpdesk!!! (If you all remember, I had to do it for practice in the fall and was certain I had a great research proposal which I slept on for 2 hours and had changed my mind)! I check, and yes, Angela is listed! BUT OH MY GOD! MY NAME IS ON THE FIRST PAGE!!!!!

My left hand ring finger tip instantly tingles (isn't that a heart attack? Didn't I break that finger?!) I look at it about 100 times, and then I look at the number, 931 students, that's about right. It has to be a mistake! I call Angela, and she is completely calm, and we are still discussing the possibility it is a mistake. I look on my account and see a letter drafted with my address. Can it be?! Is IT REAL!? I had just been talking about it a few days earlier, how I was certain I would not get it since I had dreams I might.

I decided to be on the safe side and not email thanks to my recommenders until I was certain I had won the fellowship, but still decided to have a pseudo-celebration, if for no other reason than that the quarter is over, and went out to Jerry's Deli with Shirley and Ryan.

The next day Ryan and I head down to San Diego for an afternoon, and I check my email on my cell phone on the ride, and there it is! The email from Russ! Congratulating me on getting the fellowship!!!!! I guess it is real!?!??!

We spent the evening with his family, eating and helping his sister out with her homework assignment. Later we head out to Il Fornaio and have dessert and coffee with Ryan's former roommate, Sahand (we seem to meet with him at Il Fornaio every time). Ryan decides we should head back to Los Angeles that night, so unfortunately we miss the opportunity to see all our other friends down there!

The next day I had a hair appointment! I colored my hair....dark brown! I had been considering it for ages, and I had finally found the perfect color, Cameron Diaz! Now, I know I look nothing like her, but I LOVE her color, and if he had the nerve to go from platinum blonde to black, I can go from blonde highlights to dark brown! And so I did it! I have never gotten such a strange mix of reaction! Initially everyone is simply shocked! But eventually people warm up to it. Here are some reactions:
My Mother (very calmly and matter-of-factly): "Oh my god, that is dark, it looks like a wig."
My aunt Karen (not calm): "WHAT DID YOU DO?! People pay to have your hair!!" (I pay to have my other hair also)
My uncle: "Karen!!! Sarah, it looks very nice!"
My aunt later said, "you are right, it does make your eyes stand out."
My grandmother: "Oh Sar!" Then about an hour later. "Well, it's still you."
Shirley, Sahand, and Ryan all "LOVE IT"!
Oliver "You should have gone darker"
My friend Joe "What did you do? I love blonde."

It has been such an array of responses, but I have started to realize, that age old adage of "If you have nothing good to say, it is best to say nothing at all" is very true. The fact is, Joe Schmo who meets me on the street will never know that I had blonde hair before, and will like it all the same. The opinion is purely based on the shock and comparison. And when they have a frame of reference, they will say something, regardless, because they can have an opinion since they have both views. I am trying to stay positive! It is pretty scary for me too!!!!

I decided I had to take my "hair out" on Sunday so we went to our local dig, Barney's Beanery. I got some great reaction from people I've never met, including this guy's reaction. Okay, that was actually induced by the Tabasco, mustard, pepper, sweet and low concoction we made him which he drank, but he did say "you are pretty". Although he was so drunk, I'm not even quite sure he was saying it to me! I know it was mean but it's not like we made him drink it, and he was perfectly aware of what he was having because we asked him to guess the ingredients and, while he didn't get the Sweet and Low, he did get the mustard and Tabasco sauce right.

I've had a pretty busy couple of weeks. Last Monday I had to present my work for BMI217, Translational Bioinformatics! I think I did a decent enough job, but somehow I still manage to feel totally inferior to everyone else. I am convinced that my work is not computational enough. It relied heavily on getting biologically relevant results, and unfortunately this meant that I did not have time to invent some test for statistical significance. Fortunately, however, this afforded me time to start working on work for Gill at some point. I was suffering from major lack of sleep so I had to recover on Monday, but on Tuesday I managed to forge ahead.

On Wednesday, I had once again, a South Africa seminar to attend, but I also had to construct a presentation. I was not pleased with my results, but I had also not decided to shirk my duties for the lab, so I was hoping to have time to work on a presentation for the lab. Regrettably, I had to get up very early to go to the seminar, and subsequently ended up focusing my presentation on making a very clear depiction of wha