update!

OK, so everyone's been asking me to update. . .but seriously I don't have anything to say yet!
So. . .well, hmmm. . .
OK, so, a couple cool things:

last week of August: Went camping with my dept. at the Angelo Reserve where my lab does most of their research (I'm still not sure if I'll be doing my research there too.) Was invited to a Chao family event: his mom's birthday. It's weird, I feel like it's the first time I've been truly acknowledged by his family, and I've been dating him for almost 5 years. (OK, it's not that drastic, but the first time I really had dinner with them was probably this year also. . .and when he graduated from his masters.) (Oh, and yeah, I guess 5 years sounds like a long time. . .but it seems like less since we've been long distance for 2. Oh, and I've figured out a cool way of knowing how many years. Basically we started dating in 2000, so it's the last number of the year. Why didn't I think of this before?!?!)

Last day in August: I saw a couple talks on Darwin's Galapagos island finches by Peter and Rosemary Grant. That was pretty cool!

Labor day weekend: Went shopping with family in SF (lunch at Japantown - yum!) and Labor day BBQ at my aunt's house.
Isn't Japantown pretty in the fall? I have almost the same picture from the Spring. I'll post it later.

Last weekend: Went to Princeton. Went shopping around the area, saw my sister play field hockey. (Her team won the first and lost the second game.) Didn't end up going to NYC, sorry, so not much to report there.


This week: I got to see the British science advisor, Sir David King, answer questions on global warming. VERY COOL, very scary, but also promising.

My lab space: I have a small desk in my (provisional) lab in the big bio building on campus, but don't spend any time in it because I don't do anything yet. It's a little crowded in the room, because the lab is huge (people-wise in relation to lab space on campus) and because most ppl do their work in the field. I also have been offered space at the Richmond field station (where my other possible prof's lab is), and that place is HUGE!!! Like really big, like a whole building big. Nice view of SF from there too. BUT, it's off campus, and I'm not sure what I'd do there either.

Research: I don't know what I'm doing yet, I barely even know if I'm staying in the labs I'm being put into right now. Don't ask me about thesis work or topics until I get to next semester. I hope I figure out something soon though, because I'm getting bored of classes. (Maulik, btw, that article about the sea anemones. . .I almost worked with that Prof at Davis. . .but they didn't accept me!)

Classes: . . .are kinda slow in the semester system, I've noticed, in comparison to quarter. While I took at least 2 pages of notes during a class in the quarter system, I maybe take a page of notes in a class here. It's weird. Also, I'm stuck with upper division undergrad classes, because my dept. doesn't have any grad student class requirements. I only HAVE to take evolution. So I'm taking a lot of classes, where I'm not completely bored, but wishing it would go faster. BUT I have a grad student class, (ecological modeling) that makes no sense to me because it assumes I know more than I do! There's no in the middle classes. I'm half bored and half clueless, and that's not a good combo! I'm going to wait to see if I will still take the modeling class. If I drop it, I'll just hope I find out what I want to do with myself research-wise sooner rather than later. I'm going to be tagging along with a few people to their field sites to get a feel as to what I want to do, so that should be good. I won't be TAing until Spring, when I teach the Cell Biology class.

My apt. space: I moved into an apt. on campus, grad student housing, basically with the same set-up as I had at NYMC. Two roommates, ones' crazy clean (like my mom, so I guess I'm used to it?), she's a Spanish Ph.D. and she went to UC Davis (2002! our year!). My second roommate is from Texas, but originally from China, she's Civil Eng., and she brought a cat (although cat's aren't allowed. . .now she has to find a home for it, because she got caught).
The kitchen and living room. My roommate who's lived here for the past three years (the one from Davis) decorated before we got here, but I think it looks pretty nice, yes?


Berkeley in general: I like the place. It's really different from home and what I'm used to. It's actually living in a city, and there are so many different types of ppl. and places. BIG PLUS: the food. I could eat at a different place everyday and not run out of places to eat for months. BIG WEIRDNESS: The biggest thing I noticed was the diversity, as well as the lack of it. So, there are a lot of random people on the streets (you hear about all the "characters" they have here) but then when you go on campus everyone is dressed ridiculously well. Or more like it looks like they thought about what they were going to wear today, whether they look like they were trying or not. It's kinda creepy. I feel like a lot of ppl are dressed to make a statement, and trying too hard at it. Also everyone walks around all trendy with ipods in their pockets. Again, almost freaky how many people do this.
Funny school of law picture. It's half a bagel, not a big macaroni noodle, like I had originally thought!


OK, is that a good update? So that was more than a couple things. I'll be home this weekend if anyone reads this before the weekend actually technically starts!
:)