Four Days to Takeoff!

Those of you who know me well know that I love keeping countdowns of days (hours and minutes, when available) left until important events in my life. While there are still 11 days left until my summer at Berkeley starts, I fly out to San Francisco this Friday, which means that I have to have everything in order and taken care of within the next few days, and there's so much to do!!! Even though school finished and I came back to NJ for a little bit, finals stress is catching up with me. I should probably just grow fur and a tail the amount I've been sleeping, because at this point I'm pretty much a cat! So, unfortunately, I haven't done much since school ended.

Today, however, that changed! This morning I curled up in bed with my neuroscience textbook for a little while! The program requires that our labs have sent us background reading for our projects so that we're not completely lost when we get there or spend time learning about our project when we could actually just be jumping right into research. My homework consisted of two review papers, two journal articles, and familiarizing myself with the tactile system in a neuroscience text. I read the reviews and journal papers right away in case I had really pressing questions, but saved the book reading until school was finished. Being the overachiever that I am, and given that I really miss molecular neuro, which I haven't taken in depth since the beginning of sophomore year due to my brief focus on marine science, I'm reading much more than is necessary in the text. I'm currently working on the chapter focusing on the development of the nervous system and the brain, next I will move onto all of the sensory systems, then read about behavior, and if I didn't get a good enough idea about it from reading all of that, I'll go back and look at the chapter on neurotransmitters. I'm sad that I've forgotten a lot of the things I had learned in my Cells and Systems Neuro course (which I used this text for), but it's all slowly coming back to me and I'm SO excited to be preparing for this neuroscience research experience. I was reading all throughout waiting times during my various doctors appointments today, too. My dentist told me I should give my mind a break, to which I replied that a two day break was enough and I was excited to go back to learning!

I got some additional information from Berkeley today regarding the program. Berkeley provides a GRE prep course for those who are interested, solely for Amgen Scholars. I was originally planning on studying on my own and maybe taking a class and then taking the GRE before I left for wherever I'd be for the summer (this was back in January when I didn't know where I'd be). But, with the high stress semester I had, there was no time to study, and it's a great opportunity that Berkeley provides this class for the Scholars. Since it's a class just for the Scholars, I'll be with people similar to me and hopefully being in that type of environment will push me to improve even more. I'll take the test at the end of the summer.

I also found out the name of my Graduate Assistant (GA). Each Scholar is assigned a GA to help out with social and academic components as well as support for all the other aspects of the program. They help  to make sure you're on track with your research during the summer and help you through any roadblocks. GAs are basically like peer mentors to help guide you. It will be especially helpful for me to hear my GA's take on graduate school, applications, etc, especially since I probably will end up applying to Berkeley for my graduate studies. The email from the program director said our GA will contact us soon, and I haven't heard from mine yet but I'm looking forward to hearing from her and learning about her!

I've been chatting a lot with the other scholars through Facebook. Like I mentioned in my first post, I love exploring all the sweet-eateries in new cities, and when I mentioned that to the other Scholars, everyone got really excited about it! Besides the ever popular Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop, many other names of recommended places have come up which I'm very excited to try! I'm also really looking forward to the non-eating activities that have begun to pop up. Several of the girls have mentioned concerts, which I usually love to go to, but I don't know these artists very well, so I'm still thinking about whether or not I want to go. The 75th Anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge is the weekend we arrive at Berkeley, and I believe there was a general consensus (read as: likes on the suggester of this activity's post) for those of us who are there early enough that weekend to go and check it out. And of course, to get to know the other Scholars better, there's nothing better than a friendly game of Apples to Apples. I've always brought this game along whenever I go to programs, and everyone loves it, so I'm excited to play and get a good laugh of red card choices! Based on all of the posts and conversations, it really seems like a great bunch of people to be around this summer!

The last point I'll mention in this post is PACKING. Regardless of where I'm going, I take way too many things with me. Usually this has never been a problem, since wherever I'm going is close enough to drive to. That changed last summer when I flew to NC. Somehow, for the first time, I managed to pack what I considered to be "just the essentials" into one very large suitcase and one very large duffel bag, which weighed just under 50 pounds each. Coming back home, I ended up having the same suitcase situation plus I mailed back a 20 pound box. Guess I collected too much stuff down there, whoops. I haven't bothered to unpack or organize anything since coming back from Boston, so there are piles of things all over the floor in my room which need to be sorted and repacked before I leave on Friday. I'm absolutely thrilled thinking about having to do that! I don't know what sorts of things besides my clothes to bring, and I'm worried that I'll forget something silly which I might end up needing! Really not much more to say on the subject besides reiterating the fact that my packing is a tad bit out of control.

I'll finish this post with one last short story and two photos. I love stuffed animals. At college, my bed is half filled with stuffed animals, and I actually get sad and miss the ones I have to leave in NJ simply due to space constraints in dorm rooms! Anyway. During the time I was 7, I got two special stuffed animals (in addition to the many I already had at that point in my life!). One is a squirrel from the field trip to the zoo, named Clappy for her velcro hands, the other a Pikachu from the mall as a birthday present. Clappy and Pikachu are best friends, and for whatever reason, I'm more attached to them than most of my other stuffed animals (besides Lumpy, my giant heffalump, but he's unfortunately really big and would be impossible to bring on a plane! Also, yes, you did read that correctly, I do indeed have a giant heffalump!). Anyway - due to this attachment, Clappy and Pikachu have come with me on almost every vacation or trip I've ever taken. Yes, they are essentials, and they poke their heads out of my purse when I travel! And, just like me, they're in love with flying. We can't wait for Friday :).