I'm finally done with classes! No more lectures, tutorials, written tests for the rest of my life...at least from this end. Today I got an email about an undergraduate course starting in the fall, asking for teaching fellows. How interesting to teach PCR and DNA replication to undergraduates, who've never heard about them. And as I've been warned, how potentially dreadful it could get, given that rabid Harvard undergraduates fight tooth and nail for every quarter point in every problem set and every test. After all, each and every one of them wants stellar grades to get into medical/graduate/law school. Some insist on several-hour-long tutorials late into the night.....imagine, "Night of the living undergrads"...
And it's commencement time now; they've put up a huge tent with hundreds of chairs in the middle of the yard, and dozens of banners representing the different houses and departments. Some of my friends doing Masters are graduating. Farewell, and good luck with the real world! I overheard some guy talking to his friend while in the kitchen; she was in the Hague and talking about how things work there. Wow, what a different world. I'll be staying here in my bubble for quite a while longer.
Joined a lab! i.e. where I'll cry, sleep, eat (when no one's looking) and enter catatonic states when my results don't make sense for the next 4/5 years. It's a weird feeling knowing I'll be working at that bench for half a decade. But the principal investigator has some interesting ideas, and finally! I might be able to create knowledge rather than just regurgitate it as I have most of my life.
Moved to a new room for the summer, to a dorm building across the road from my old one. It's twice as big, and more importantly has an air-conditioning unit attached! Take that, hot muggy New England summer.
I'm flying back to Singapore this Friday. My postdoc remarked that I didn't seem excited at all; I'm not. Not that I dread going back, but I just don't feel homesick at all. I've been away 10 months, but nope, nothing. Explained to her I've been away since I was 12. Can't beat one of my friends though, who did not go back to Singapore once during his entire undergraduate degree. If anyone in Singapore is free to meet and catch up, over lunch, dinner, coffee or booze, drop me a message!
I drink lots of booze.
Went to New York again a few weeks ago. The famous bull in New York, from a not so famous angle.
And in the Museum of Modern Art, a classic manga shot.
Feeling kinda random this evening. Maybe it was the 6.30-8pm nap.
I drink lots of booze.
Went to New York again a few weeks ago. The famous bull in New York, from a not so famous angle.
And in the Museum of Modern Art, a classic manga shot.