Final Presentations

My final presentations ended today, though we had two days of presentations, so officially everything was done today. When I went back to lab after presentations, I was greeted with the usual "why aren't you out enjoying the sun?" Because I love the lab too much and don't want to do anything but be in lab now because I'm going to miss it too much when I have to leave!!!!!! I finished up all of my final data analysis this afternoon and I really really can't believe everything is over. Next week when I'm still in Berkeley I guarantee I probably will aimlessly wander into the lab at least once, sad and in denial.

Anyway.

Monday was poster session! Most of the people who stopped by mine were people I knew (my mentors, PI, other scholars) but I had a few non-program affiliated people come and talk to me. I'm really happy with the way my poster turned out, but now that I have some more data, I probably will fix it a little before I present it again at BU's Symposium. 

Charlie, me, and Jorge, matching in pretty pastels!

Below: Phil and I, matching in purples, with our posters, and me with my poster!!!!!!!!!!

 Below: Bonnie, Dean, me, and Phil, the four purple buddies, plus me and Phil again!

Brittany and I, matching in ruffles, plus me and Audrey, my program director. 

Annie, Jorge, and I, the sexy neuroscientists!!!

Roomies! I'm actually taller =P

Wednesday I gave my oral presentation. Why it didn't occur to me to have someone take photos of me presenting or record it is completely beyond me, and I wish I could have had it on recording to share with everyone. But that is in the past. I think my talk went well, except for when my program director started making these crazy arm motions at me from the back of the room, and I was still giving my talk while simultaneously trying to figure out what on earth she was telling me I was doing wrong (I never did really figure it out). Sure, I stumbled over some words, and probably could have explained some things better, but overall, I think it was a good presentation and I was able to successfully present my research and my findings of my projects. 

Me after my presentation :). 

Today, after all of the presentations were over, I was walking back to lab and happened to be going by the Campanile. It was at noon, one of the three times a day there is a bell concert (I love this school, so much). And what was playing was so perfect, so fitting, to everything that I've felt here this summer.

Weekend in Yosemite

Remember everything I said about Mt. Tam? Yes, it's all still true, but we can forget all about it for now  as I gush about the newest most beautiful place on earth. National parks are designated so for good reason.

My amazing gov loves and I planned to go to Yosemite this past weekend. Yes, the weekend before the hectic crazy week of presentations and end of program responsibilities, but it was so worth it. And how could I say no to a weekend with two of my favorite govies? Three, if you count the head that will pop up in several of these photos. We tried to convince one of our other gov loves, Gawain, to fly out to CA just to go to Yosemite with us. We clearly didn't do a good enough job, so instead, I printed out a photo of his head and brought it to Yosemite and took lots of pictures with it :).

Friday, I finally got my poster printed. That did not mean I was done with responsibilities in lab at all, I'm far from it, but, my immediate responsibilities for Monday were complete (I still have an oral presentation to write and practice for tomorrow morning, yet, here I am writing about Yosemite and missing it way too much!). Anyway - once my short-term responsibilities were finished, I met with my friends to make the long trek out to Mariposa, about an hour outside the park, where we were staying. We of course got there late, hung out for ages, got to bed late, etc. But I've never really been on a road trip with close friends before, and it was a great experience for me to be jamming out in the car for hours, hanging out late talking and having a good time, and just being happy with my friends. :)

We spent our time in Yosemite hanging out in the Valley. We didn't have much time to explore elsewhere, and both days we got off to pretty late starts. Everywhere you look in the valley are giant ROCKS. Might not sound that appealing, but I can't even begin to describe how beautiful all of the formations are, and these pictures do it no justice at all. Yes, some forms of man-made things like architecture are pretty in their own ways, but nothing, nothing ever, can beat how beautiful nature is.

Right away after our drive into the park, we were greeted with El Capitan, one of Yosemite's notable rock formation, and right across the way, Bridalveil Falls, looking very sad at this time of year.

As we were driving through the valley, we got incredible (for now) views of Half Dome, probably Yosemite's most famous rock formation!

Our first day we did a 7 hour trip through the Mist Trail. The trail starts in the valley, and, if you have the permits and health to do it, all the way up to half dome. We did about 4 miles of it, to the tops of Vernal and Nevada falls. The part we did was about a 2,000 ft elevation change from the valley floor, and 6,000 ft above sea level. It starts out pretty tame, with paved or dirt-through-the-woods trails (below)...

YOSEMITE HAS SO MANY SQUIRRELS <3

...and then come the stairs to get to the top of the falls. I have this weird fear of heights or cliffs when there is nothing separating me from a fall to my doom, and these stairs are indeed right on the edge of a cliff with barely any support. Not my favorite thing, at all. But a necessary evil to get to the top of the falls. 

Vernal falls. Beautiful. 

 We stopped on one of the rocks overlooking the valley for a quick rest and bites of snacks. Look at that VIEW.

Also, this is what happens when you bring me into Yosemite. 

The photo below is by far my favorite of the whole trip. We'd gotten a little further to the falls (and to a set of quite scarier steps), and I looked down (something I rarely do when I'm on cliffs) and was greeted with what you see here. It looks like something taken right out of a fairy tale. How I didn't appreciate this the last time I was here is completely beyond me. How could you not fall in love with this immediately and want to stay here forever? Every time I see something more beautiful in the world, I'm in that much more awe that these things exist and that I'm lucky enough to see them. Also, I'm so proud of this picture and in love with it too much, that I have protected it from the internet by sticking a watermark on it. I'm sure that won't prevent it from getting around somehow, it is the internet, but at least my name is all over it. I'm also sure that won't prevent it from getting edited back to normal somehow, but it makes me feel better to have stuck it on there. 

The base of Vernal Falls

 After many more scary stairs, we finally made it to the top of the falls! And oh, the view...

Three of my favorite govies! Even though one
is only a head... :)

 From Vernal Falls we continued up to Nevada falls. Although the first part of this was through the woods, the rest of it was climbing up "stairs" that were actually rocks strategically arranged to look like a trail and have stepping points in them. While this did not fly well with me, again, it was a necessary evil. I was also, by the way, really really sick for the entire trip, so all of the uphill climbing was making me really exhausted really quickly. I have very few pictures from the Nevada Falls trail just because I was so tired and not thinking about taking photos. Regardless of how badly I was feeling on the way up, I don't regret for a second that I had to struggle so much to make it to the top. Absolutely 10000000% worth it.

Nevada Falls from the trail

 We finally made it to the top! We hung out on a ledge overlooking the whole valley. There was a rock formation in one direction....

...and the whole valley in the other. How could you ever tire of this view? How could this not be the most breathtaking thing you've ever seen? It's just nature, mountains, rocks, trees, out until the horizon. Simply stunning. Please just bring me back to Yosemite and I'd hike up a thousand times again and this would take my breath away every single time. 

Nevada Falls...falling. 

A pool at the top of the falls

These little blue birds were everywhere in the park!

We didn't stay long at Nevada Falls, and after taking in the view for a little while, headed back to Vernal Falls mainly so that I could swim in the beautiful lake!

Surrounding the lake was an area of rock that the water flowed down. And guess what that meant? NATURAL WATER SLIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!!!!!!!

We eventually made our way back down to the valley, in time to semi watch the sunset over many of the rocks!

The next day, we drove up the mountains to the Glacier Point area, with beautiful views of the valley, especially Half Dome. 

You can see Nevada and Vernal Falls on the right!
I hiked that!!!!!!!!!

 Glacier Point itself has a popular rock you can sit on to get right next to Half Dome (left). We also had a gorgeous view of it from the rock we stopped on to eat lunch (right).

Our Sunday hike was from Glacier Point to Sentinel Dome. We won't go through how relatively easy of a trail this was and how much of a struggle for me it was because I was that worn out, but oh my goodness, these views. We had a 360 degree view of the valley from the top of the dome, and I could have stayed up there forever taking in the view and chasing chipmunks.

The group with El Cap as the backdrop!

My trip to Yosemite: one of the best weekends ever with the greatest group of people ever. Apologies if the writing here was a lot of repetition and gushing instead of substantial things about why Yosemite is amazing. It's hard to know what to say or post pictures of that does any justice to this beauty and how it makes you feel. This only serves to prove how beautiful it is in the mountain-filled west and how I yearn to come here for the graduate school and then the rest of my life. 

We came back to Berkeley yesterday night, when I had to resume taking care of my responsibilities. Our Amgen poster session was this morning, I will post more about that after our talks on Wednesday are over, as right now I actually should be finishing WRITING my talk and practicing it for my practice in lab meeting in the morning! It is not allowed to be the last week of the program, I do notnotnotnotnot want to ever leave Berkeley... 

LA Part 2

What a short weekend in LA! I wish the conference could have been longer. The reason for these wishes may or may not be so that Amgen could have sponsored a trip to Disney, not that I don't love listening to speakers, or anything. 

Me all dressed up for the second day of conference!

Sunday morning started with select student speakers presenting the worth they've done this summer. I was naturally in the neuroscience group, and our two speakers talked about their research in bioengineering and endocrinology. I must say that at least for the bioengineering one, it was helpful to have known one of the scholars at Berkeley who was doing something (methodology wise) extremely similar, so I understood all of the engineering-y things that were going on. Having taken a Neurobiology of Motivated Behavior course last semester helped me to understand some of the things that were going on in the endocrinology project. Both very interesting talks. 

Next we had two sets of talks (we got to pick two out of a whole bunch to attend), about the heart and soul of Amgen - drug discovery. The first I attended was about drug design, and how Amgen discovered ways to improve drugs currently on the market to make them better for patient use - for example, less frequent doses. The second talk, very informative, was about phase 1 clinical trials and how drugs make it through the testing process. What I really liked about this one was that the speaker was very interested in incorporating lots of statistics into the talk, which is exactly why I signed up for it to begin with, so that I could look at it from a math standpoint instead of a biology one. I was very pleased. 

Our next talk, and by far my favorite of the day, was titled "Expanding Frontiers: Becoming a Scientist with a PhD," given by Dr. Charles Craik of UCSF. He discussed the traditional old-school view of getting a PhD, and the new current views on all of the different paths you can take as a scientist with a PhD. He was a very informative and engaging speaker, and I really loved the talk. He quoted the 1967 Nobel Laureate in Medicine, George Wald, who said (and I had to look this up on the internet just now, I didn't write down the quote but remembered the gist of it):

A scientist is in a sense a learned small boy. There is something of the scientist in every small boy. Others must outgrow it. Scientists can stay that way all their lives.

So very true. 

The rest of the day was a panel of "A Day in the Life" of various scientists, a grad school info session, and another panel about alternate career paths in science (law, policy, etc). 

That evening, Amgen threw us a BBQ, in which there was a giant inflatable slide:

lots of time to spend with gov loves!

PING PONG! Which I haven't played in forever. But apparently my motor memory is working well, because I was doing really well, and having so much fun! I need to find someone to be a ping pong buddy with me now. 

And finally, karaoke! I finally convinced some of my fellow scholars to sing with me, and we rocked out to "This Love" by Maroon 5. Great job to the ONLY group to be brave enough to represent Berkeley in karaoke. 

Then we played on the exercise/stretching machines on the way back to the dorms. 

Next morning, Monday, (don't ask me what possessed me to do this), I got up for a 7am walking tour of UCLA's campus. Here are some more photos I took of campus:

No college campus visit is complete without a hello
to the local squirrels! 

Our final keynote talk on Monday morning, once all of the normal people had woken up, was given by James Heath, who helped discover the much loved C(60) structure, more commonly known as the buckeyball, when he was a grad student. He was a wonderful speaker, and even though the talk was mostly chemistry based, he presented the material in such a way that was easy to follow and extremely engaging. Also, I always appreciate a good science joke, even if it's not in my field...:

During our free time before heading back to Berkeley, I wandered a bit into Westwood for a taste of the LA sweeteries. Diddy Riese is a place much like CREAM that specializes in ice cream sandwiches, and is supposed to be better than CREAM, and I fully intended to get one, but then everyone in the group I was with decided they didn't want them anymore, so I didn't. Probably a bad idea considering there was NO LINE, and supposedly the line is normally at least an hour long. 

Instead, we went to a place a little down the street, which had a much wider selection of ice cream flavors (ones beyond ordinary flavors like the ones found at CREAM or Diddy Riese). 

Also, ultra cheap. I got four scoops of ice cream (two scoops of pralines and cream, two of cotton candy) in a chocolate and sprinkles coated waffle cone for TWO DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

And then, back to work in not-warm-and-sunny Berkeley, where I spent my time finalizing data as well as finishing and printing my poster!!!!