this has been a fun few days.
so the HRPNers were in town for the NIMH-COR conference, which just so happened to be here in Bethesda this year. I talked with the training director before and offered to help out. So i got to give a tour the first day they were all here of the NIH campus on their buses. I was sooo excited not just cuz i got to give a tour of the NIH for the first time (and I've missed giving tours!) but i also got to see the group for the first time in months (and the newbies for the first time)....i left work a little early to go down to the auditorium before the tour and found the group and sat next to Jun; the others were sitting in the row in front of us and hadn't seen me yet. he said they'd been up since 6:30am and had gotten in late last night after some delays. and the presentations that were going on were getting a little tiring...i saw most of them had dozed off. even Dr. Leon. and it wasn't like, subtle sleeping, it was full out dozed off, head down, really not paying attention. When they were given a break, i finally got to talk to them and meet the newbies. they were excited to see me =) and i was way excited to see them again. after some more time, we finally got to give them the tour; Nic and i were on the same bus and we mostly read off the script we were given, but for me, it was just a trip giving a tour again. i really like doing outreach things like this.
after that and lunch with the lbc'ers i took off work early to help the training office with recruitment at the fair, at the hyatt in bethesda. the first day was brutal, so many people came up to the three of us and i got to talk to a lot of students about my experience so far, the application process, the program, and the perks of working on the Bethesda campus. the uci kids came up to me and had questions too, and we spent time talking and catching up with everybody. after the fair i took them out to dinner in Bethesda. now, i hadn't been out too much so my knowledge of good restaurants and stuff was pretty limited, but we found an Indian restaurant in the city that turned out to be very good. we all ordered different dishes and had a familiy style dinner, and all the dishes that were ordered were delicious. some were a little spicy, but i dealt with it. they had some yogurt drink thing that kinda attenuated the spicyness.
after dinner they wanted to go out and do something, and Jen had mentioned wanting to play pool. i knew where we could do that - Babe's in Tenleytown, where Jenn and Banjo had taken me a number of times. So we hung out there for the remainder of the night, playing pool and drinking a bit. I go so jealous to find that Greg and Ted were going to New Orleans on saturday for Neuroscience (where most of the LBC is now too..kinda like a small vacation for me!). Gosh, i've missed hanging out with the hrpners at these conferences. The guys are so sweet and the girls are a lot of fun. And we're a bunch of nerds. So the newbies are Jen, Imitri, Vandai, Julie, Synda, and Anh, to join Jun, Tony, Ted, and Greg. They were excited to talk to me cuz they've heard about me from Dr. Leon and Dr. Overly and the HRPN website (which hasnt' been updated since graduation, so the senior achievements are still up there. google me and you can find it =) hehe, Ted even said Dr. Leon had mentioned that i was really excited and happy to be here and to see everyone, but i was already a generally happy person. hee. it's funny sometimes to hear what faculty say about you.
We left to catch the metro back after picking up some ice cream and candy from CVS...i saw them off to the Bethesda stop and went home. The next day i did as much work as i could to make up for lost time and got something to work on PCL. I was way excited. The pictures showed up followed by the fixation cross. That made me happy. Then i left work early again for day 2 of recruiting, but it was much, much slower than the previous day. Ted, thankfully, stayed around to get me while the others left to see DC while it was still light out (it was a beautiful day, cold, but beautiful). Margarita let me leave after an hour and we headed to the city to catch up with the others. We walked around the Mall, chatting, and caught up with them at the Vietnam memorial as the sun was setting. We all walked to the White House, took some pictures, took the metro to the Capitol, took more pictures, and went to Dupont to meet up with some more people for dinner. On the way to Dupont though, we had a slight pair of scares. First, we had rushed to catch the metro train and thought we had everyone, but as the train left we found out that we had left Imitri behind. (Flashbacks of the Frankfurt train entered my brain at this moment!) So we rushed off at the next stop only for Jun to realize he had left his wallet on the train. We were really freaking out. After some time, we got in touch with Imitri and she headed over to meet us, but we worried about Jun's wallet cuz it was probably at Dupont already without him. But by some miracle, good karma cuz it was his birthday, or an angel watching over him, a lady on the train who had seen what happened picked up his wallet, got off the train and took it back to our stop to return it to him. That was the most amazing thing that i have seen in this city. When does goodness like that happen? Everyone was so grateful we invited her to dinner with us, but she respectfully declined.
Vandai's friend was in DC for UCDC and she took us to this Italian restaurant that was really nice to us and the food was great. (the best part about hanging out with them was that they paid for my meals - they were all gonna get reimbursed anyway :) we had wine and lots of desserts because it was Jun's birthday and Vandai's birthday the next day. I had lobster ravioli and split a chianti bottle with Ted and Synda. Some of the others had Merlot. Afterwards we walked around Dupont a bit, looking for a place to hang out, didn't find any, so we took the metro to Adams Morgan. I just wanted to show them the neighborhood cuz it's a cool place not really seen in other cities; i didn't think it would be wise to hang out at a bar/club there, cuz some weren't 21 yet and some weren't in the clubbing/drinking mood. We walked around the neighborhood, and i pointed out some bars/cafes/diners that i had been to, but it was really crowded everywhere cuz it was friday night. So we just had a bathroom break at Maggie Moo's (kinda like Cold Stone) and Ted got me a smoothie cuz i let him use one of my metrochecks to get around the subway (he's so sweet, i love it). We all decided to just chill at the hotel, so we went back and we played games late into the next morning.
That was way fun. Ted went to sleep early cuz we found his presentation was at 10 and not 1 like he thought, but the rest of us stayed up late. We played BS, and then Tony taught us this game, Egyptian Rat Screw (i think that's the name). it's a game where you have a number that cards must add/subtract to. each person has some cards and they put down cards one at a time, not knowing what cards they are putting down, and when two consecutive cards add/subtract to the number decided on at the beginning of the game, the players must slap the pile to get the cards (the goal is to get all the cards). So it's a little hard at first cuz you have to think about what the cards are adding up to, but it turns into a pattern recognition thing (especially with the face cards, you learn to associate a face card with a number card to slap the pile).
Being the nerds that we are, and in our late night delirium, we somehow managed to think that the game would be a great experiment to find out the way the brain functions as the game progresses. It reminded us of the Packard and McGaugh study where rats trained on a T-maze changed from spatial learners to stimulus-response learners, and we were wondering if it was done in humans somehow (using this game), could we find similar activity in the human brain, using imaging? would more activity be found in one brain area as the game begins but then more activity would be found in another as the pattern recognition kicks in? either it's a great idea or we were really delirious. (i'm gonna bring the idea up with Pat when he gets back from Neuroscience, and maybe run it by Christa back at UCI, cuz Stacy's doing something with the T-maze and immediate early gene activation associated with the task)
At any rate, we got 3 hours of sleep to get up for Greg and Ted's presentations. I was dying later that afternoon. Greg's presentation was a little unpolished, but it went well; Ted's was great, he talks so eloquently and his stuff's very exciting and easy to understand (Ampakines..i'm gonna run that with Pat too). He's really interested in the business aspect of the science as well, which is very cool. all new to me, but still very cool. After chatting with Dr. Leon afterwards, he took us out to this French cafe down the street for some food and more chatting. It's always cool when we eat with Dr. Leon cuz he talks a lot and he's interested in what the students think about the various professors. So we gossiped about that for a while, talking about classes, structure, and all that, and he and i told them about the honors class. funny thing is, sometimes i've heard him say the same things many times...from classes, freshman seminars, class structure, and things in the honors class...sometimes it all sounds very familiar. I also talked neuro with them, and how much i loved the neuro classes and the subject in general, compared to the other bio classes. Vandai was nice to get us all a big fruit tart to share for dessert, and again, all paid for by HRPN.
Ted and Greg were leaving later that afternoon for New Orleans so i hung out in their room for a bit before saying goodbye to them. Those two are so nice, it was really good to see them again. And they're going places...if Ted doesn't get a Fulbright Scholarship (wow!) he's thinking about the postbac program at the NIH:), and Greg's interviewing at med schools now. Tony's interviewing like crazy for med schools, every week, and Jun has top dental schools contacting him for interviews. It amazes me sometimes how i got into the HRPN program with my numbers, sometimes i think i didn't deserve it. (Maybe it's cuz i don't have many expectations for my future - will i have interviews like them lined up when i apply, considering my numbers?)
I took Jen and Imitri out to Dupont again after that to take them to H&M (cuz i swore that i thought Dupont had an H&M, i saw it somewhere!), but after walking around for a long time, didn't find it. It was a nice walk though, they enjoyed the scene and it was another cold, beautiful day. Imitri commented that everyone here looked so trendy, even the guys (they weren't sloppily dressed with their boxers showing, etc), and everyone looked so cool in their coats and scarves - nothing like that is seen in cali. So we went to Chevy Chase and tried on dresses for the banquet that night. I went back to my place to change (i bought a black dress) and i was excited to try it out with my wine colored pashmina that i got in italy. it looked good! and it kept me warm. i rushed back to the hotel, losing an emerald pendant in the process (lesson: NEVER RUSH to catch a metro train - i dropped a glove and rushed back to get it and then realized that my neckalce wasn't on at all, and the pendant was gone) and got ready with the girls.
the banquet was it's usual fare, dinner and some thank you's. the 3 hours of sleep was taking its toll - i was super tired at that point. I said goodbye to Dr. Leon (they were all leaving at 6:30am the next morning) and hung out for a little bit with Jun and Julie before saying goodbye myself. And i slept for 12 hours when i got back.
All in all, it was really nice to see familiar faces again, and i had an excellent time hanging out with everyone. They were really grateful to me for taking them out, it was my pleasure to do so, and it gives me ideas for what to do when other people visit me. And everyone gave me hugs, it was great.
so the HRPNers were in town for the NIMH-COR conference, which just so happened to be here in Bethesda this year. I talked with the training director before and offered to help out. So i got to give a tour the first day they were all here of the NIH campus on their buses. I was sooo excited not just cuz i got to give a tour of the NIH for the first time (and I've missed giving tours!) but i also got to see the group for the first time in months (and the newbies for the first time)....i left work a little early to go down to the auditorium before the tour and found the group and sat next to Jun; the others were sitting in the row in front of us and hadn't seen me yet. he said they'd been up since 6:30am and had gotten in late last night after some delays. and the presentations that were going on were getting a little tiring...i saw most of them had dozed off. even Dr. Leon. and it wasn't like, subtle sleeping, it was full out dozed off, head down, really not paying attention. When they were given a break, i finally got to talk to them and meet the newbies. they were excited to see me =) and i was way excited to see them again. after some more time, we finally got to give them the tour; Nic and i were on the same bus and we mostly read off the script we were given, but for me, it was just a trip giving a tour again. i really like doing outreach things like this.
after that and lunch with the lbc'ers i took off work early to help the training office with recruitment at the fair, at the hyatt in bethesda. the first day was brutal, so many people came up to the three of us and i got to talk to a lot of students about my experience so far, the application process, the program, and the perks of working on the Bethesda campus. the uci kids came up to me and had questions too, and we spent time talking and catching up with everybody. after the fair i took them out to dinner in Bethesda. now, i hadn't been out too much so my knowledge of good restaurants and stuff was pretty limited, but we found an Indian restaurant in the city that turned out to be very good. we all ordered different dishes and had a familiy style dinner, and all the dishes that were ordered were delicious. some were a little spicy, but i dealt with it. they had some yogurt drink thing that kinda attenuated the spicyness.
after dinner they wanted to go out and do something, and Jen had mentioned wanting to play pool. i knew where we could do that - Babe's in Tenleytown, where Jenn and Banjo had taken me a number of times. So we hung out there for the remainder of the night, playing pool and drinking a bit. I go so jealous to find that Greg and Ted were going to New Orleans on saturday for Neuroscience (where most of the LBC is now too..kinda like a small vacation for me!). Gosh, i've missed hanging out with the hrpners at these conferences. The guys are so sweet and the girls are a lot of fun. And we're a bunch of nerds. So the newbies are Jen, Imitri, Vandai, Julie, Synda, and Anh, to join Jun, Tony, Ted, and Greg. They were excited to talk to me cuz they've heard about me from Dr. Leon and Dr. Overly and the HRPN website (which hasnt' been updated since graduation, so the senior achievements are still up there. google me and you can find it =) hehe, Ted even said Dr. Leon had mentioned that i was really excited and happy to be here and to see everyone, but i was already a generally happy person. hee. it's funny sometimes to hear what faculty say about you.
We left to catch the metro back after picking up some ice cream and candy from CVS...i saw them off to the Bethesda stop and went home. The next day i did as much work as i could to make up for lost time and got something to work on PCL. I was way excited. The pictures showed up followed by the fixation cross. That made me happy. Then i left work early again for day 2 of recruiting, but it was much, much slower than the previous day. Ted, thankfully, stayed around to get me while the others left to see DC while it was still light out (it was a beautiful day, cold, but beautiful). Margarita let me leave after an hour and we headed to the city to catch up with the others. We walked around the Mall, chatting, and caught up with them at the Vietnam memorial as the sun was setting. We all walked to the White House, took some pictures, took the metro to the Capitol, took more pictures, and went to Dupont to meet up with some more people for dinner. On the way to Dupont though, we had a slight pair of scares. First, we had rushed to catch the metro train and thought we had everyone, but as the train left we found out that we had left Imitri behind. (Flashbacks of the Frankfurt train entered my brain at this moment!) So we rushed off at the next stop only for Jun to realize he had left his wallet on the train. We were really freaking out. After some time, we got in touch with Imitri and she headed over to meet us, but we worried about Jun's wallet cuz it was probably at Dupont already without him. But by some miracle, good karma cuz it was his birthday, or an angel watching over him, a lady on the train who had seen what happened picked up his wallet, got off the train and took it back to our stop to return it to him. That was the most amazing thing that i have seen in this city. When does goodness like that happen? Everyone was so grateful we invited her to dinner with us, but she respectfully declined.
Vandai's friend was in DC for UCDC and she took us to this Italian restaurant that was really nice to us and the food was great. (the best part about hanging out with them was that they paid for my meals - they were all gonna get reimbursed anyway :) we had wine and lots of desserts because it was Jun's birthday and Vandai's birthday the next day. I had lobster ravioli and split a chianti bottle with Ted and Synda. Some of the others had Merlot. Afterwards we walked around Dupont a bit, looking for a place to hang out, didn't find any, so we took the metro to Adams Morgan. I just wanted to show them the neighborhood cuz it's a cool place not really seen in other cities; i didn't think it would be wise to hang out at a bar/club there, cuz some weren't 21 yet and some weren't in the clubbing/drinking mood. We walked around the neighborhood, and i pointed out some bars/cafes/diners that i had been to, but it was really crowded everywhere cuz it was friday night. So we just had a bathroom break at Maggie Moo's (kinda like Cold Stone) and Ted got me a smoothie cuz i let him use one of my metrochecks to get around the subway (he's so sweet, i love it). We all decided to just chill at the hotel, so we went back and we played games late into the next morning.
That was way fun. Ted went to sleep early cuz we found his presentation was at 10 and not 1 like he thought, but the rest of us stayed up late. We played BS, and then Tony taught us this game, Egyptian Rat Screw (i think that's the name). it's a game where you have a number that cards must add/subtract to. each person has some cards and they put down cards one at a time, not knowing what cards they are putting down, and when two consecutive cards add/subtract to the number decided on at the beginning of the game, the players must slap the pile to get the cards (the goal is to get all the cards). So it's a little hard at first cuz you have to think about what the cards are adding up to, but it turns into a pattern recognition thing (especially with the face cards, you learn to associate a face card with a number card to slap the pile).
Being the nerds that we are, and in our late night delirium, we somehow managed to think that the game would be a great experiment to find out the way the brain functions as the game progresses. It reminded us of the Packard and McGaugh study where rats trained on a T-maze changed from spatial learners to stimulus-response learners, and we were wondering if it was done in humans somehow (using this game), could we find similar activity in the human brain, using imaging? would more activity be found in one brain area as the game begins but then more activity would be found in another as the pattern recognition kicks in? either it's a great idea or we were really delirious. (i'm gonna bring the idea up with Pat when he gets back from Neuroscience, and maybe run it by Christa back at UCI, cuz Stacy's doing something with the T-maze and immediate early gene activation associated with the task)
At any rate, we got 3 hours of sleep to get up for Greg and Ted's presentations. I was dying later that afternoon. Greg's presentation was a little unpolished, but it went well; Ted's was great, he talks so eloquently and his stuff's very exciting and easy to understand (Ampakines..i'm gonna run that with Pat too). He's really interested in the business aspect of the science as well, which is very cool. all new to me, but still very cool. After chatting with Dr. Leon afterwards, he took us out to this French cafe down the street for some food and more chatting. It's always cool when we eat with Dr. Leon cuz he talks a lot and he's interested in what the students think about the various professors. So we gossiped about that for a while, talking about classes, structure, and all that, and he and i told them about the honors class. funny thing is, sometimes i've heard him say the same things many times...from classes, freshman seminars, class structure, and things in the honors class...sometimes it all sounds very familiar. I also talked neuro with them, and how much i loved the neuro classes and the subject in general, compared to the other bio classes. Vandai was nice to get us all a big fruit tart to share for dessert, and again, all paid for by HRPN.
Ted and Greg were leaving later that afternoon for New Orleans so i hung out in their room for a bit before saying goodbye to them. Those two are so nice, it was really good to see them again. And they're going places...if Ted doesn't get a Fulbright Scholarship (wow!) he's thinking about the postbac program at the NIH:), and Greg's interviewing at med schools now. Tony's interviewing like crazy for med schools, every week, and Jun has top dental schools contacting him for interviews. It amazes me sometimes how i got into the HRPN program with my numbers, sometimes i think i didn't deserve it. (Maybe it's cuz i don't have many expectations for my future - will i have interviews like them lined up when i apply, considering my numbers?)
I took Jen and Imitri out to Dupont again after that to take them to H&M (cuz i swore that i thought Dupont had an H&M, i saw it somewhere!), but after walking around for a long time, didn't find it. It was a nice walk though, they enjoyed the scene and it was another cold, beautiful day. Imitri commented that everyone here looked so trendy, even the guys (they weren't sloppily dressed with their boxers showing, etc), and everyone looked so cool in their coats and scarves - nothing like that is seen in cali. So we went to Chevy Chase and tried on dresses for the banquet that night. I went back to my place to change (i bought a black dress) and i was excited to try it out with my wine colored pashmina that i got in italy. it looked good! and it kept me warm. i rushed back to the hotel, losing an emerald pendant in the process (lesson: NEVER RUSH to catch a metro train - i dropped a glove and rushed back to get it and then realized that my neckalce wasn't on at all, and the pendant was gone) and got ready with the girls.
the banquet was it's usual fare, dinner and some thank you's. the 3 hours of sleep was taking its toll - i was super tired at that point. I said goodbye to Dr. Leon (they were all leaving at 6:30am the next morning) and hung out for a little bit with Jun and Julie before saying goodbye myself. And i slept for 12 hours when i got back.
All in all, it was really nice to see familiar faces again, and i had an excellent time hanging out with everyone. They were really grateful to me for taking them out, it was my pleasure to do so, and it gives me ideas for what to do when other people visit me. And everyone gave me hugs, it was great.
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