Rowing revs up

Or, circuits, rowing, and erging, oh my!

Boats are set for Michelmas term now, which means that not only can't I quit, things are also starting to get intense.  For the first few weeks, it was chill: we rowed two days a week, and that was basically it.  Now we have circuit training on Mondays, rowing Wednesday mornings, erging on Thursday, and rowing again on Sunday.  I love being out on the water, and our boat is starting to get better (I sit at bow, or the back of the boat, so I can see the whole crew rowing, and we are so much more in synch than we used to be!) which is motivation to stick with all the land training, even though I haven't played a sport since freshman year of high school (and if you remember/ever knew what sport that was, we've been friends for a LONG time).  It's good, because I want to get in shape and know I wouldn't do it by myself, and the team is really nice.  All of the girls in  my boat are great, and many of them are undergrads, so it's been a nice way to meet people outside of the MCR (i.e., people who aren't international students or graduate students).  On Tuesday night, the Boat Club went on a pub crawl, which was fun, but I didn't quite enjoy as fully as possible because I had to row the next morning.  It was great to get to see poeple in a more social environment.  As someone put it, watching the girl in front of you move back and forth up the slide is not a great way to meet anyone, so I enjoyed it.  I know many of you still dont believe that I row, so I'll try and take a picture the next time I'm at the boathouse (if it's nice, maybe this Sunday).

Friday Night Highlights

Gosh it's been a long week.  I feel like, the busier I am, the less I write, and then I just get really prolific when I have a free moment, so get ready for lots of posts.

So, going back all the way to last Friday:

As it was the end of the week, I decided to celebrate by rejoining society after my long long illness.  First, we had happy hour at the institute, where you still have to pay for drinks, but they are A LOT cheaper than at a pub, and plus you get to get drunk in your workplace with your colleagues.  What could be better.  It was a lot of fun, particularly when i saw that they have a fooseball table with all of the players' heads replaced with photos of the PIs and model organisms.  When you're goalie is a C. elegans, how can you lose?

Then my friend and I decided to try out the Jewish life on campus by going to Chabad for Shabbat.  Now, I am not a big fan of Chabad in general.  I find all of the Lubavitcher stuff pretty freaky, and I never liked how pushy they were at Amherst.  But, I figured there was no harm in checking it out.  I kind of had mixed feelings about the evening.  It was, admittedly, kind of strange.  Like when the rabbi had his children start reciting facts about the week's parsha.  Or when he talked about meeting the Lubavitcher rebbe when he was 12 as the defining moment of his life. However, the food was good and we met some nice people, so all in all it was a mix of good and strange.  Don't think I'll be going back, but it was nice to try.  I didn't think I'd ever say this, but I totally miss Amherst Hillel!

After Shabbat, we went out with some friends to one of my least favorite pubs.  I dont think it has decided whether to be a pub or a club, because they have pub-like ambiance and seating, but club-like loud annoying music.  It was nice to see everyone, but I went home early.  So that hopefully gives you an idea of a typical Friday night here! I read an article recently that said that students double alcohol consumption when studying abroad.  I think that's fairly accurate.

Matriculation Dinner

So, I spent most of last weekend and the beginning of the week getting over my "fresher's flu."  I think I'm almost there, but not quite yet, which is annoying.  At least life has started to settle down here so I'm not constantly on the go.  I've gotten into the beginnings of a routine, going to work and rowing one morning a week, plus we've starting having house dinners once a week as well, which is nice.

But there are still big fun, formal things going on in college, and this week was one of the biggest: Matriculation Dinner.  This is a dinner for all of the graduate students at the college plus all of the fellows, and is designed to welcome new students, like me, to Cambridge.  It is quite formal, some people even wear gowns, which is quite unusual for a chill place like Churchill.  We also eat by candlelight, to pretend we're in a college like Magdalene or Kings.  Everyone has an assigned seat, and the fellows are also placed  intermingled with the students, which is nice.  I love all of these dinners; the formality and tradition is really fun.  They do the "long graces" in Latin at really special occasions like this, and our Master gave a speech about the great tradition of Churchill scientists (did I mention we have the second largest number of Nobel prize winners after Trinity? well, we do).  The food was not so great (they sometimes have trouble with vegetarian options here) but whatever.  Since this hall was special, wine etc. (and by etc., i really mean it: champagne, plus white, plus red, plus port, plus claret, plus more wine after dinner). 

I also got into somewhat of a, let's say intellectual debate instead of fight, with my dining neighbor.  The nice lady sitting across from me (i think she was a fellow's wife) asked me what I thought of Barack Obama, and I said something along the lines that I really liked him but sometimes wished he was a little less diplomatic and just said what he thought instead of always walking statements back when they might offend people.  And my example of this, probably stupidly, was Park 51 and the planned Islamic cultural center.  The guy next to me started off on how the organizers really should move the mosque and respect the "sensitivities" of 9/11 families.  I happen to strongly disagree (partially because there are a lot of 9/11 families that are in favor of Park 51) and I expressed my opinion forcefully, which I think made him and this lady a little uncomfortable.  oops.  she did ask about American politics....

I was the weird touristy person taking pictures during the dinner, which made me feel stupid, but also means that I have some really nice photos to share with all of you!

The tables set up for Matriculation Dinner.  Seating was assigned so all of the tables were lettered to help you find where to sit.

We had a drinks reception in the Fellows Dining Room before the dinner.

Our table.  Note the candle lighting.

Mood lighting at my place-setting.  Also notice the little glass; that one's for port.

I still don't understand what this is, but I think the fellows put a bean in the jar when they want to come to hall...

Chartwell

Our final freshers event was last Sunday: a trip to Chartwell, Winston Churchill's country home.  Mind you that this was after two nights of heaving "socializing" (read drinking), so getting up at 8 to get on the bus in time was not so much my favorite thing in the world, but it was nice to get to see some of the history that is behind our college.

One cool thing I found out was the Churchill (besides being a prolific writer - won the nobel for literature - and able politician) was an amateur painter.  They have a whole studio of his work there.  I also liked seeing all of the different uniforms and dress regalia he has (Britain has all of this cool formal traditional dress that just doesn't exist in the US).  Other than that, I don't really remember most of the stuff we learned (maybe because I did the kid's quiz tour instead of the one for adults...), but I thought I'd just include some nice pictures of the house and grounds (it was a gorgeous day!):

Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

I love it here.  But even when you love a place as much as I love it here.  Some days just objectively suck.  That was today.

I've been sick as some of you know (I have what we refer to as the "Fresher's Flu, which I did get every time I went back to Amherst, but seems a lot worse here).  This meant that I did not sleep at all last night, because I kept waking up to cough.  During one of these bouts, I decided to go to the bathroom...and locked myself out of my room, for the second time in the middle of the night.  I had to wake my floormate up (sorry Diana!) to get a pair of shoes and a coat to walk in my pjs to the porters lodge (again).  I think this time they realized that I was not in the mood to be made fun of, so they just gave me the key.  That was unpleasant to say the least.

Then I made what was probably the first of my stupid decisions today.  I woke up at 6 am to go rowing. Yes, in retrospect probably stupid.  But it was actually the only good thing about today.  I am really enjoying rowing, even though it makes me feel old because all the girls on the novice team are undergrad freshers, so they are all 18! but it's still fun, and today was the first real day I felt like I knew even a little bit of what I was doing in the boat!

Stupid thing number two happened as I got to work on my bike.  I wanted to ride my bike straight into the "cycle park" which meant going over the curb.  But I wasn't going fast enough so I wiped out in front of the institute.  A really nice Chinese man asked me if I was alright.  I assured him that I was, but in retrospect, probably not. Yay for helmets.

Anyways, then I attended yet another safety lecture (number 5?).  This one was by the same guy as before, but it was two hours (apparently the University has had some chemical safety accidents in the recent past).  I am all for safety, but I'm totally ADD, especially when I'm sick and keep getting dirty looks for coughing during the presentation, so I just kind of wanted to get out of there.

After that I was basically kicked out of work and told to go home and I decided that it was a good time to get some hardcore meds to get rid of this cold.  But first, I realized my morning wipe-out has made the chain come off my bike, so i wandered around for while trying to find someone who would fix it (preferably for free).  I did find that in the end, but it still was annoying.

Then I arrived at the pharmacy.  I looked for my good ol' standby: delsym, but they dont sell that here.  They also apparently don't sell gel icepacks, acetominaphin, or benadryl.  So then I had a conversation with the pharmacist that ended as it always does in my trying to explain that a cough can be both "chesty" and "dry" at the same time and why dont they just have a med that does both?  They also don't have large packs of cough drops here, so every way I have ever learned to deal with sickness is out of the window.  I did eventually find an icepack though.  After two pharmacies, two sports stores, and a department store.

Then I made what was probably stupid decision number three.  Instead of getting myself home and just passing out, I went out to dinner with friends to a Korean food place.  As I was not quite with it today, I got lost twice on my way there.  When I finally got there, it was great, but Korean food is super spicy.  Heartburn + cough does not = good feelings.  Plus when you're sick everyone is paranoid about eating with you : (

Finally, when I got out of dinner, it was raining.  Now, not a big deal normally, but when you have rowed, been thrown from a bike, spent the entire day trying to find real medicine, and are running on like 4 hours of sleep, the rain just sucks.  So I biked home in a really bad mood and then took a hot shower (but the hot water ran out).  All in all a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. I think this is the first time that I've really been truly homesick since I've been here.  Sure I miss Amherst and Boston, but I don't wish I was there instead of here.  Today I kind of just wanted to be back in the States.  It would make like so much easier.  But I guess that's supposed to be part of this experience too.  And tomorrow will hopefully be better...

I want to be an octopus!

So, on Wednesday, I snuck into a lecture at King's (dont tell anyone!) in order to see Sydney Brenner speak.  In general, all I really wanted out of it was just that, to see Sydney Brenner, and I definitely got what I wanted, which was neat.

First though, funny story.  So, in the old uptight colleges you aren't allow to walk on the grass.  They put up scary signs in like, 9 languages, to make sure that you know it is forbidden, and if you do it, you get royally yelled at.

But, there is one exception: fellows of the college can walk on the grass.  And I, luckily enough, was not only with one of my lab mates (a graduate student at King's) but also with her friend, who was a fellow.  So I can say I've had an experience that few others have enjoyed: I walked on the grass at Kings.  The whole time I felt like I was breaking the rules, and many of you will think I'm paranoid.  Except that, immediately after we stepped off the grass, a porter came up ready to yell at us for walking on it.  He was pacified by the fact that we were with a fellow, but it shows you just how seriously they take it!

Anyways, the lecture was fun, but a bit all over the place.  I expected it to be about worm genetics (the work he won the nobel prize for), but I guess once you win the nobel prize, you can kind of do whatever you want, and Dr. Brenner has now moved into studying the evolution of the human genome, which is fine, but not something I understand all that much.  I will say that I was disappointed that the worm was never mentioned!  But he did talk about lampreys and sharks, so i guess it's cool.

He also said something that I found hilarious.  He goes "you know the old story of the hedgehog and the fox?  The hedgehog knows a lot about one thing and the fox knows a little about everything... I'm an octapus, I know a lot about everything."  Here's hopin' that's what happens to you at Cambridge!

Science!

I know I've been posting a lot about all the fun stuff I've been doing, but what I'm really here to do (what Bill Gates is presumably sending me here to do) is to learn stuff about science. As I think I've said before, I love the Institute (not only because the food is amazing) and my lab in general.  Sadly, I haven't really done anything yet.  I go to work, but I spend most of my day in these stupid bureaucratic safety and "induction" meetings that all say the same thing but are each administered by a different branch of the University.  Plus I have basically a mountain of paperwork to do!

But over the last couple of days I've been starting to do some lab work at least. I've been learning how to identify the genetic markers and balancers we commonly use for crosses and I've also learned how to identify flies that are so young that they haven't mated (we call this picking "virgins," let the middle school jokes commence), which is important to make sure crosses are clean.  Today I also learned how to dissect larvae to isolate the brain for stainings or other procedures.  It sounds boring, but it is the only science I've gotten anywhere near since being here, so it is exciting to start laying the groundwork.

Another great thing about being at Cambridge is the huge numbers of lectures that are constantly going on. I can post more about Cambridge science later, but suffice it to say that Cambridge has historically been a center for science (think Isaac Newton, Darwin etc.).  These days, we draw amazing lecturers from all around the world.  I know I already mentioned Sydney Brenner, but today I went with all my lab mates to a talk about microRNAs.  I assumed it would just be some random person, but I walked in and the lecturer turns out to be David Bartel!  He is basically the leader in this field.  Funnily enough though, I know of him mostly because one of his post-docs was on my Rhodes interview panel.  She was kind of scary-amazing and totally intimidated me, so I thought it was kind of funny that his lab would come up in my life again so soon (albeit in much different circumstances)!

Anyways, more science info to come as things start up!