Intro and Background. I'm such a scientist!

Hello, world! As you probably have gathered from the about me, this will be my blog where I can write all about my adventures this coming summer at UC Berkeley where I will be a participant in the Amgen Scholars summer research program. My internet self is a little shy since I haven't ever (personally) blogged much, and I've stopped posting like the plague to my Facebook page as of last December. I am part of a blog at school (The Nerve Blog), which you can visit to read all sorts of things in the field of neuroscience, including posts by me!

Last summer, I was an awarded an NSF REU (Research Experience for Undergraduates) at the Duke University Marine Lab in Beaufort, NC. I had one of the most enriching summers of my life. DUML is special, I felt, in that they really focused on "learning by doing." There were so many times that I felt like I wasn't spending enough time in lab, but instead going on too many field trips! I was exposed to so many different local habitats like marshes and nearby islands, and got to visit places like The North Carolina Aquariums and The Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Hospital. I got to interact with some of the most inspirational people I've ever met in my life (specifically at the sea turtle hospital!). Long story short, I had an incredible time. The one thing I do regret though is not keeping some sort of record (besides in photographs or writing my experimental procedures in my lab notebook) of what I did during the summer.  I wish I had kept some sort of blog to be able to write details of all the amazing experiences I had, not only to look back on but to be able to share with friends and family during the course of the summer. I will thus be keeping a blog during my upcoming summer experience.

Out of the many blogging sites in the vast realm of the internet, I was about to create an account on another website, but then discovered that I can run Blogger off of my email. No need to have social media accounts on so many websites when I can consolidate them and run them off of one account! So here I am, on Blogger, which now joins my Google account along with my GMail/BU mail accounts, my Youtube account and Google+ profile. Google really is taking over the world my internet usage. Awesome!

I've been to California many times before (specifically San Francisco twice, in 2003 and 2008), but have never lived there or gotten to explore all the local nooks of the city. One of my favorite things to do in new cities is explore all of the local cupcake shops, bakeries, or anything really having to do with yummy desserts - thus, the Ghirardelli Chocolate Shop as my profile picture! This summer is especially important to me because I would really love to go to graduate school on the west coast, so I hope to meet new people in the (geographic) area who are in my field, and make connections so that when the time comes to apply next fall, I won't be completely directionless!

Just so I don't make this first post too long (...or take away from study time for finals, which I really, really should be doing right now, since it's the last week of school and we're in reading period!), I will end my intro post here. I am going to continue to write in the upcoming weeks updating on all of my pre-departure excitement. I fly out in just over two weeks to visit family in the area, and after spending a week with them, I will move to Berkeley where I will spend the rest of my summer (well, 10 weeks of it!).

Here's to a wonderful summer of making new friends, having a great research experience, and basically just having the time of my life! :)

View from our hotel during Summer 2008 visit to San Francisco