The land of the free and the home of the internet

The land of the free and the home of the internet The ADD recap of my Christmas break: Ohio. California. Maine. I am finally back from Maine, where I managed to survive on only dialup AOL (seriously, 41 kbps? WTF.) for five and a half days. This is probably the longest Ive gone without real internet in a very long time when I went to Jamaica for a week sophomore year with my friends Rose 05 and Swapna 05, at least I had internet cafes. To all of you on dialup, I sincerely apologize for the large size of my blog banner. Holy cow. To be totally honest, the major reason I was freaking out about the loss of the internet wasnt my inability to write amusing new blog entries or chat on AIM. See, Im starting to get interview invites from some of the graduate programs to which Ive applied, and since many of the programs are Far Away, I need to make travel arrangements. Im supposed to be in LA in two weeks to visit UCLAs ACCESS biology program and they havent given me the name and number of their travel agent yet. (One reason to go to grad school rather than medical school: Grad schools pay for your airfare and hotel when they invite you to interview. Med schools dont generally.) So maybe Ill just have to walk to LA. Im sure it will be awesome. At any rate, they need to get to me soon I just checked the Boston-LA flight Id need to take, and there are only two window seats left! Random thing I meant to write about a long time ago: At the end of this semester, I was glad to open up WebSIS (our online student information system) and see that Ive finished all 17 of my General Institute Requirements (GIRs). Done with humanities classes! No more communication-intensive classes! No more Institute Labs! (Allow me also to take a teaching moment regarding my grades: first semester freshman year, I got three Cs and a B. True story. It is possible to succeed at MIT even if your high school preparation, shall we say, sucked.) Question Time: 1. Although were certainly not censored here on the blogs I think naked pictures of Timur might be cutting it a bit close. Hee. 2. Chris asked how I spent my summers. The summer after my freshman year, I lived in Washington DC with Rose 05 and worked at the National Institutes of Health, which was a great first lab job. With the NIH experience under my belt, I got a UROP in Professor Shengs lab, where Ive worked for the past two summers (and, for that matter, the past two IAPs and the past five semesters! and a bunch of federal holidays too). I thought about getting an REU, or an internship in pharmaceuticals (or going back to the NIH), but ultimately chose to stay in Morgans lab for both summers. I certainly know people who have done REUs and really enjoyed them, but for the career Im looking at (academic biology research), staying in one place/getting published variety in lab jobs. Plus I have my own set of pipetmen in Morgans lab. 2. Anna agrees with me that the LA to Boston red-eye sucks. I think they ought to turn off the TVs after midnight or something. (Sort of unrelated sidenote: Adam almost lost his Mitra-designed Brass Rat on the flight. But some helpful flight attendants helped him locate it a few rows away.) 3. s asked if its necessary to be computer-proficient to come to MIT. Its definitely not, although I get the feeling that most people pick up a certain degree of proficiency once theyre here. Personally, Im not really all that computer-savvy I keep my computer in tip-top shape and all, but I write terrible HTML. And my darling boyfriend 07 cant even run a virus scan on his computer. I guess MIT is an environment where you can learn anything and everything about computers, but what you choose to pick up is your own concern. (And, may I add, for those times when disaster strikes and your computers magic smoke is leaking out, we have an absolutely fabulous team of student computer-fixers/magicians at the Computing Help Desk. They saved my beloved desktop last summer.) 4. Jennifer, like any rational person, bailed on the Rose Parade after about 3/4 of it had passed, which is pretty much what we did too. My brothers band was about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way through the parade, and the band booster group left en masse after they had passed. I felt bad doing it, but ohhhh, so much rain. My brother, incidentally, was completely unfazed after his five-mile march through the monsoon. Sometimes Im not sure if he and I are related. 5. Anonymous asked if I had heard from any grad schools yet. Well, I have two interview offers one from UCLAs ACCESS program (linked above) and one from Michigans Program in Biomedical Sciences. Most programs had deadlines of Dec 15, so Im not planning to hear from most of my schools until late January. Keep your fingers crossed! 6. My notebook, like Erics, is not actually portable. In a generous mood (and hoping my parents will get me something sleek and lightweight before grad school), I gave my clunky dinosaur of a laptop to my brother, who was enthralled. One mans trash and whatnot, I suppose.