8 sided dice

I just came back from playing Risk 2210AD for about 3 hours. It was very complicated, very long, but can be very fun. I think I just leveled up in terms of nerd-hood!

Tickets!

I just got tickets to the 16th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Informal lecture series. It "honors achievements that first make people LAUGH, and hten make them THINK."

It's gonna be so much fun! Can't wait for academic talk of scientifically irrelevant research!

Peppermint Patty

Trust me. Chocolate fudge syrup + Peppermint Schnapps = AWESOMENESS

The Harvard Club

Just came back from dinnner at the Harvard Club. I feel so entitled and snobby (j/k) Anyhow, it was a really cool event. The gala was organize to facilitate interaction between PhD students and Med Students on both Cambridge and Longwood campus.

While seeing what the old boys club is a very cool experience, two things made the night great. 1) The food wasnt' shabby at all! I had prime rib and it was medium-rare the way I like it. 2) The keynote speaker, George Daley, gave a great speech. Over the last two weeks, I had been bombarded with speeches of how great this institution is, how we are the going to the be the leaders, and how we should be excited about our work and this time in our lives. Well this guy gave a pretty similar speech, but the difference is that instead of just trying to inspire us, he also made us laugh. It's definitely a great departure from all the trite speeches.

Oh yeah, I also got these spiffy business cards that has the my name as well as Harvard written on it. I think I should send it to my family and they will finally believe I am going to school at Harvard. Sweet!

The Harvard Club

Just came back from dinnner at the Harvard Club. I feel so entitled and snobby (j/k) Anyhow, it was a really cool event. The gala was organize to facilitate interaction between PhD students and Med Students on both Cambridge and Longwood campus.

While seeing what the old boys club is a very cool experience, two things made the night great. 1) The food wasnt' shabby at all! I had prime rib and it was medium-rare the way I like it. 2) The keynote speaker, George Daley, gave a great speech. Over the last two weeks, I had been bombarded with speeches of how great this institution is, how we are the going to the be the leaders, and how we should be excited about our work and this time in our lives. Well this guy gave a pretty similar speech, but the difference is that instead of just trying to inspire us, he also made us laugh. It's definitely a great departure from all the trite speeches.

Oh yeah, we also got these spiffy business cards that has the my name

Back from the Retreat

The Retreat at Provincetown was a lot of fun. The weather predictions had been poor so having all the sun at the cape was very much welcomed. For those who don't know, Provincetown is at the very tip of Cape Cod. It's about 3 hours from Boston, and it is super gay friendly. There are more stores for guy's clothes than girls clothes, outnumbered about 5:1. It also has a lot of antique stores and art galleries. The atmosphere is just as you would expect from a East Coast little beach town. Very quaint.

I have some cool pictures. Just thought I'd share them

Outside my room

Along the beach. The people in the pic are some other first-year grad students like me.

Funny signs for the garden! Maybe for my cell cultures too.

Found this in the middle of a Zen Garden store in P-town.

First-years doing "I Will Survive" on Karaoke. Note: Old Guy in the back is one of the directors of our graduate program.

Some Roommate love! Left is Rebecca, Right is Adrienne.

Outside at night. That's a tower, not a light house. There were fireworks too, but those pics didn't come out too well.

So yes, in the end, you can tell we clearly talked a lot about science at this retreat!

BBS Retreat

Tomorrow, I'll be leaving Boston for the weekend. The BBS program has invited all the first years to go on a retreat in Provincetown, MA. Should be exciting.

Update: Here's the link to the place we'll be staying at.

http://www.provincetowninn.com/

More when I get back

Science + Interpretative Dance = . . .

I got to see this after an excruciatingly long poster presentation on the biophysics of integrin conformational change. It almost made those lost moments of my youth worthwhile. Just almost, but not quite.

http://www.cbrinstitute.org/labs/springer/lab_goodies/Turning_on_Integrins.mov

Pub Crawl Success

Hosted Pub Crawl with roommates from Central Sq. to Harvard Square. Nice turn out. Happy about it. My roommates rock!

Boston Adventure

I've been in Boston a few days and it has been great to me. I had orientation yesterday, which was long and brutal, full of boring administrative stuff. However, it was very cool to finally meet all my other colleagues. At night, the program rented out some space at this bar near Fenway Park that had pool and a bowling alley. It's sort of like a D&B, but without all the kids and the arcades.

Today was a free day, which meant some roaming around. I've experienced first hand that Boston is very walkable, but you can get lost easily if you don't know where you're going. That's because many of the streets do not run in a grid. Yes, Boston streets have no civil planning.

Also went to my first Red Sox game. Although the Sox lost terribly to the other Sox, I've noticed that the Boston crowd is really enthusiastic. The atmosphere is definitely more lively than at any of the other three baseball games I've been to.

Here are some pictures from today's adventures

Downtown Boston in the Day


Office Building

Church next to Office Building

Another Church

Harvard Medical School

Inside Fenway Park

Downtown Boston at Night

Ada, I know that you really want to see my apartment, I'll get to those soon!

First day in Boston

A few things

1) Red eye flights suck when it's not a direct flight
My first stop was at Atlanta and it was 2am at LA when I arrived. To make it worst, my insomnia the previous night messed up my circadian cycle. End result: 1hr sleep on plane. On the second leg of the flight, I had ever intention to just sleep straight through. That was until the passenger who sat next to me began to tell me her life story and how she loves her dog. I hope to never become her. Seriously, I didn't have the patience to patronize her.

2) Boston is beautiful
I think I lucked out with the weather today. It was sunny and a brisk low 70s. Driving along the Charles as I exited onto Mass Ave definitely made me love this city already. It feels exciting and lively and very great jogging city!

3) Apartment Location is MONEY!
I'm a block in from Central Square. I have a lot of stores and restaurants at my fingertips. It's lovely to be 2 blocks for a organic co-op market, and 5 minutes from a Shaw's. It's a tad far from campus but the shuttle stop is just a block away. Oh yeah, the apart is smaller than the one I had in LA, but at least I get my own room!

4) Roommates are great.
Finally met Rebecca and re-met Adrienne. Both are super nice. Rebecca put up with me in ikea and getting a bed

5) Sept 1st in Ikea is hellish
Everything is out of stock because that's when EVERYONE is moving in. I missed out on two mattress from Ikea.

6) Bed
I got a pretty sweet bed. It cost a little bit more, but I didnt wanna put up with any more price shopping. It was a bit out of my budget, but the one that was one lower was just crap. At least this one, I definitely like. Best part, I will have it on Sunday!

That's it, peeps, I'll post pictures later.I'm dead tired and functioning on 3hr sleep and 1 cup of coffee at noon. Small victories make me super happy. I'm probably pretty deluded.