Departmental retreat at New Hampshire

Just finished my first ever exams in the USA...two midterms on Wed and Thurs, whew. Considering that most of us only started studying the day before I shouldn't complain so much, but just the concern about the exam was weighing upon my head the entire week.

Funny though, I've never felt so unconcerned about an exam, so much so that I was wondering if I SHOULD try and stress up a bit more about them.

Anyways, we had the departmental retreat at New Hampshire last weekend.

It was BEAUTIFUL.








Check out the moon in the centre of the picture. You had to be there.







Everything I imagined the USA would be, in its wonderful outdoors. The resort we were staying in was at the foot of a slope used in the winter for skiiing, and at other times held a great nature trail for hiking. A raging river fronted the resort, and beyond that more mountains to complete our front door view. This was day 1, and we were ready to skip the lectures (well, the whole idea of the retreat is to listen to professors give talks about their work) and go hike all of the next day.







Then on day 2 it rained the ENTIRE day.

Urgh.

Well at least we did manage to spend time together and bond as a class, as well as with the other people in the department. And other activities too...the much dreaded G1s (1st year graduates) vs faculty volleyball game went as badly as we thought it would be, with us losing the first two of a best-of-three series within 10 minutes.

We played indoors as it was raining outside.




















Now who's that dashing young fellow with the ball?

10 minutes of play, final score of 3-15, 1-15. Guess three practice sessions doesn't cut it.

Biolympics with geeky games: Twister but with a twist, had to form a specified DNA sequence the bases of which were printed on the twister sheet; charades of a sort to guess biological terms; guessing what highly magnified pictures of lab equipment were. We revel in our geekiness, seriously...everyone in the class just loves geeky jokes.

Scavenger hunt, didn't do so well in..had to drink a beer every few items, I've never drunk so much beer ever: film a condom ad??; get a professor to sign a body part (my cheek); dress up as ninjas.... and one of my teammates lost his pants.





And just food every few hours (breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner and snacks provided in between).




Halloween party. Catholic schoolgirl outfits drew attention.

Cat in the middle isn't just any cat, she's a Schrodinger's cat! Wahahahaha..... will need to think of a suitably geeky costume next year.






And on day 3, first snow.
The mountains up front have become snow-tipped, which was an amazing change from day 1. We just went out and stared.



We smile, but it was incredibly cold. I think it was colder than the coldest I've ever felt in Cambridge, UK (-2 degrees Celcius for me). Fingers freezing.








The resort we stayed in is on the left.



And with the rain finally over, we had to explore just a tiny bit of the place, to take that little hint of a hike we might have been able to take.







Gushing stream,










obviously missing some posers. Check out the next cover of GQ.


















Isn't it just so inviting?



I wanted to know you so much better.

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Going to meet this professor at Massachusetts General Hospital tomorrow, may be interested in joining his lab, fingers crossed! Need to unwind this upcoming weekend.

Krisflyer!

Been busy with lots of work...am reading papers on Friday night =\ Quite a bit of stuff to post, but for now something I've just discovered!

A friend just messaged about redeeming frequent flyer miles..so I remembered I've got some too...45000 Krisflyer miles in particular..and went online to check what that'll get me: (for my own records too)

Boston - Anywhere in the USA (including Alaska!!!!) -> 2 round trips
Boston - London -> 1 round trip
Boston - Singapore -> 0.56 round trip
Boston - Beijing -> 0.45 round trip
Singapore - Hong Kong -> 1.5 round trips
Singapore - Adelaide -> 0.9 round trips
(But can't travel from Singapore...will be stuck in Singapore while they process my passport and visa =\ )

Need to start planning my vacations!!!!

Mmm....haha ok need to get back to a paper, it's midnight.

Settling in

I've just watched 3 hours of TV straight. The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, the season 3 premiere of Lost (!!!) and the series premiere of some show called The Nine.

It's Wednesday night, ie all my papers and assignments have been handed in for the week.

It's a curious feeling; Wednesday nights feel like Friday nights to me, like I've no more work to do for the week (lab work doesn't really count). The Sunday to Tuesdays are a killer though. But anyways TV was good, it's been a while since I've just sat in front of the TV and watched whatever came, and in the USA we can watch the shows as they're released (as opposed to downloading it a week later...I remember the frantic wait when 24 episodes would show in the states, but only be available in the UK some days later...all of the 24 junkies asking everyday "is it out yet?!").

And I've just realised that my midterms are at the end of the month. Was just discussing them with my coursemate also from Cambridge (Cambridge in this blog will always refer to the original one in the UK; back then ), I'd be studying 2 months before. But now the midterms seem like just another assignment; grades don't really matter to graduate students. It's a curious and liberating feeling; I go into classes with no pressure at all, and still wanting to do well, but more for learning's sake rather than grades? What's more interesting is that many undergraduates take the same classes we do, and THEY are incredibly anxious for their GPAs, many wanting to go to medical school after. In one of my tutorial sessions, there's 1 engineering graduate student, 18 undergraduates, and me. And I'm the one content to lie back and relax.

But it's not that classes aren't interesting; I wouldn't have taken the Mathematics for Biologists class if grades did matter, seeing as how I'm struggling with the maths, and part of it is Matlab programming which I'm totally new at. Learning for learning's sake.

Anyways, halfway through the TV session, I realised I was actually feeling at home, and maybe I've settled in nicely to being a student here. As I said, it's not like Cambridge UK, where the medieval gates and spires just hit you in the face and you step straight into a fairytale. It's more subtle, and I don't know when the transition was, but I now identify myself as a Harvard student.

And even while I was typing the word "Harvard", I paused. Hesitant. As a friend who's just graduated from Harvard alludes to in her own writings (yes you), it comes with a complex series of emotions. You're definitely proud to have gotten in here, but somehow also mollified that others would find out, kind of like coming out of the closet, or admitting that in fact you DO like McDonalds (but worse). And in being hesitant of (or even slightly ashamed about admitting) the fact, I wonder if it also smells of a hint of pretentiousness. I hope not.

One of the entires in The Guide to Harvard Lingo: "The H-bomb"
- One drops the H-bomb by admitting to be a Harvard student in a conversation. Though sometimes used to strategically impress people on the outside, it more often refers to the downside of admitting to a Harvard affiliation, ie it typically kills the conversation.

- Also an edgy student magazine about sex.

Hmmm.

I can see, right now, most readers googling "H-bomb".

Still deciding whether to buy a Harvard sweater; this will be the only place on earth I can wear it.

And back to the TV session; feeling more at home and relaxed, you then are able to venture forth and explore the place. Last Saturday was kayaking on the Charles River; wider and thus a much nicer place to be on the water, but not as scenic as the River Cam. Pleasant nonetheless, in keeping with the tone of the place.

Brought back memories of rowing. One thing I'll do is to learn sailing; we've to pay for lessons here though, unlike that other university just down by the river.

Check out the sky.

The finger in the upper left corner is a bummer, I know.





There's a long weekend coming up; I'm hoping to explore Boston proper, and get some new clothes...there's also a hike in a reservation on Saturday, might go for that too. Lots of chemistry labs are having their open houses to attract students these weeks, and that means free food, always important to a graduate student. All in all, Harvard's giving off a nice buzz.