So much has gone on in the last week that I don't even know where to start. First of all, for those of you who don't know,
I GRADUATED!!
So, now I'm officially an alumna of UC Berkeley, BA in Molecular and Cell Biology with an emphasis in Genetics. And I also FINISHED MY THESIS! I didn't think that day would every come, but it has been approved and turned in and that entitles me to get a nifty little "honors" on my transcript and an equally nifty little seal on my diploma. So I guess this qualifies me to go out to into the world and become an accomplished scientist. But that can wait. As for the immediate future, I need a break from RNA and northern blots, suppression genetics, hybrid dysgenesis, and the like. But if you, the gentle reader, want to learn more about "The Effects of Supercoiling on the Transcription Rates of
Escherishia coli Supercoiling Sensitive Genes," let me know and I'll email you a copy of my theis! =P
I'm feeling really uninspired right now.... I'll have to leave the sentimental garbly gook for a later day. Right now, my horrendously messy apartment, unpacked boxes, unwashed laundry, and gnawing hunger are preventing me from producing anything meaningful. Stay tuned...
Skeletor is hot. I'd do him!
-Eva Chu (aka Fast n' Easy)
Top 10 places on campus to fall asleep while attempting to study/learn:
10) Cubicles in Main Stacks
9) Soft leather chairs in the VLSB library
8) Soft leather chairs in Main Stacks
7) Soft leather chairs in Morrison Library
6) While coding in Soda
5) Memorial Glade (weather permitting)
4) During lecture in Wheeler Auditorium
3) Between the moveable shelves in Main stacks (BYOP = bring your own pillow)
2) In the Evans elevator: because it takes so dang long....
1) During a Phi Sigma Pi chapter meeting.
Now I can start studying.
It feels like it's been a long time since my last post. But it's actually only been like 5 days or something like that. See? Blogs are only good for procrastinating. When I have lots of time, I don't post as often. And when is it that I decide to write an entry? When I have to study for my final, pack my stuff (my parents are coming this Friday), prepare to present my year's worth of MCB research to my professor and the rest of my lab all within in the next two or three days. Ahhh, the things we busy ourselves with when we really have no time to waste.
Yesterday, I went to the Psych and English graduations to see Kalyan (my PSP bro) and Audra (my roomie from way back when in Foothill): the first two ceremonies of this commencement season that I attended. My commencement ceremony is this Friday. Which got me thinking: what DID I learn in my four years here?
1) A $4 La Burrita burrito can be considered its own food group.
2) I can now buy $180 worth of textbooks for ONE CLASS and not blink an eye.
3) Buy one get one free sales at Safeway are so cool.
4) Chips, salsa, and dessert can be substituted for "dinner"
5) I've become too lazy even for email.
6) Unless I want to get a PhD in molecular biology, my degree is pretty much useless (and I don't even get a B.S.!!! grrr.... stupid B.A.)
7) Working in a lab is not as glamorous as I previously thought.
8) As much as I like going out and doing fun things, it is equally fun to just sit on my ass at home.
9) Moving back home after I graduate is a perfectly acceptable career choice.
10) I'm not all that special. I just counted and over 500 people will be graduating from Berkeley with a degree in MCB this year.
But despite all of this, meeting all of you has made my stay in Berkeley worthwhile. You know who you are. Shout outs to my Dessert Night girls, to Party Crew, to everyone I ever lived with (Kim, my 7B53 suitemates), to my PSP bros!! I expect all of you guys to keep in contact with me while I'm in Japan! I promise to get better at the email thing! =P
This is the Birthday Boy!
Didn't I warn you, Danny, that I would use this photo when I had the chance?? =P
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my cousin, Danny!
(and for you non-koreans, "noona" is the term a younger male cousin/brother uses to refer to an older female cousin/sister)
heliozoan chan: oh my god....
heliozoan chan: just got back from watching the matrix
Greend16: NONONONONONONONONNO
Greend16: DO NOT TELL ME ANYTHING
heliozoan chan: [insert smiley face here]
heliozoan chan: ok, i won't
Greend16: thankya
Greend16: we shall discuss tomorrow night
heliozoan chan: are you going to see it tomorrow?
Greend16: yes
heliozoan chan: oh, by the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Greend16: hahaha
Greend16: gee..thanks noona
heliozoan chan: don't forget to eat CHOCOLATE CAKE
Greend16: what?
Greend16: that better not be a matrix HINT
Greend16: GRRRR
Greend16: NOONA
Greend16: [insert angry face here]
heliozoan chan: [insert smiley face with angel halo here]
heliozoan chan: no, i just thought that you'd like some cake for your birthday
heliozoan chan: that's all
Greend16: hahaha, riiiiight..
Again, it's 1:40 AM and I have a paper due tomorrow which I have not started and I should really get cracking on my thesis (which I actually DID manage to start! hurray!), but I found these old pictures and I thought I HAD to share them with you...
This is me in 6th grade. At Astro Camp. Note the really super cool "91350" sweatshirt. I was the height of fashion back then.
Here is me, Eva, and my roommate Audra, "studying" in the common room in Foothill Hillside, Suite 7B53. We thought it would be cool to pose as if we were hyper-studious Cal students. I still have yet to achieve that status of "good student."
Eva and me again, freshman year in Foothill. The guy on the far right eating a banana is Brian Kim. He is at Havard Law School right now. He's a REAL example of a "good student."
Finally, here is a pic of Mike B., Cliff, and Eva. Three years later and she hasn't changed. Well, neither have I, apparently. I'm still procrastinating like mad.
So it's 2:30 or so in the morning. And what, you may ask, am I doing at this time? Well, I SHOULD be writing my thesis, or my Southeast Asian Studies paper. But instead, I'm playing with my new Snapfish account. Hopefully, this works:
PSP Banquet... everyone out on the dancefloor. Where's David Mew?
Eva, Ali, and me.
Hanging out with 2/3 of the male half of Party Crew.
Woohoo! It worked! More photos soon to come.
Maybe I can actually go work on that annoying thesis thing now.
They say you learn something new everyday and they also say that college is a time for trying new things. And as my college career draws to a close, I have to ask myself, what was exactly was I supposed to get out of this whole experience? Did I make the most of my time here? And who are "they?" And why do "they" keep telling me what to do?
In any case, I did learn something new today and I did get to try sometime entirely new for me.
For the first time in my life, I got to try durian fruit. Being the last lecture of the semester for Southeast Asian Studies 10B, my professor brought the class all kinds of Indonesian snack foods to try. There were the more normal ones that aren't too different from East Asian snacks: crackers that taste like fish, spicy sauces, little fried anchovies. Nothing too weird. But durian was quite another story. It was exactly how I had expected it to be in some aspects and completely different in others. Here is the breakdown:
Appearance: looks kind of like what I had in mind. It's rough and spiky on the outside (as I'm sure you've all seen: a la Chinatown or Ranch 99), but the insides are soft and mushy. A lot smaller than I thought it would be. And the flesh is kind of yellow. It's the consistency of candied yams and the color of sweet corn.
Smell: EXACTLY as I expected. It's pretty strong, and not in the I'm-chopping-an-onion-and-it's-making-me-tear-up way. It really does smell like dirty socks, BO, a locker room in a gym--you get the idea. It's really hard to get past that point, but if you do...
Taste: ...it's actually pretty good. The fruit itself is really sweet. Again, sweet potatoes or yams come into mind (partly due to the consistency). But the smell is a little disconcerting. As they say (look, "they" again), taste is greatly affected by the sense of smell. Which is why we can't taste most of our food when we're sick and congested. So while it tastes sweet, it smells pretty bad. Left me with a strange feeling afterward.
If you haven't already, I recommend that everyone try it sometime, if given the opportunity. By no means do I guarantee that you'll all like it, because I'm not even sure if I do. But it's really not as bad I anticipated. As "they" say, variety is the spice of life.
[insert Anjali's AIM SN here]: hi grace, are you there?
heliozoan chan: hey!
heliozoan chan: guess what?
[Anjali]: what?
heliozoan chan: Chancellor Berdahl left me a comment in my blog!
heliozoan chan: although, he was kind of mean about it
[Anjali]: really? no way.
heliozoan chan: yeah, I mean, who does he think he is?
heliozoan chan: he totally dissed me
[Anjali]: what a jerk.
heliozoan chan: yeah, totally.
Don't think I'm not onto you, dear.... =Þ
Today's topic: Kickin' it with the Chancellor.
So, Anjali and I were invited to go hang out with Bob at his place today. I must say, he has great taste in decorating. Loved the look. Beautiful mahogany wood furniture, immaculately varnished, not a scratch or a dent in sight. And no detail was too small: fresh flowers everywhere, artwork on the walls, doilies under every vase. And he even surprised us with scrumptious hors d'oeuvres, straight from his private kitchen. We got to chill in his living room, sit on his comfy sofa, and enjoy the live jazz ensemble. Yeah, we're that cool.
No, actually, we were there with about 200 other graduating seniors. Everyone who had donated money to the Senior gift fund was invited to a reception hosted by Cal's one and only, Chancellor Robert Berdahl. Anjali and I went just to see what the inside of the University House looked like. It was pure curiosity. I'm sure you've all seen it from afar. The beautiful house nestled in the trees behind Giannini Hall. The giant clock made of flowers and shrubbery. And his garden! You can't actually see that from the front; it's only visible from the inside of his house (and I got a glimpse, since I was cool enough to actually go inside his "humble" abode!). We were just commenting on how it would be the perfect location for a small and very cute outdoor wedding.
I can just see it now.
Fast foward to 2013:
Grace: Hey, Robert! How's it goin'?
Chancellor Berdahl: Hi. Who is this?
Grace: It's me, Grace. I made a generous donation of $20.03 to the Senior Gift Fund, oh, about 10 years ago. You remember me, right? We TOTALLY bonded over our 30 second conversation after we took a picture together.
Chancellor Berdahl: umm....
Grace: I'm that MCB major. That's GOT to jog your memory.
Chancerllor Berdahl: actually....
Grace: My friend is getting married soon and she was asking me if I knew of any places that she could hold the ceremony. And I was like, "yeah, totally. Robert and I are tight. We're thisclose, yo." So I decided to call you up. So, yeah, how does that sound? You up for it?
Chancellor Berdahl: How did you get this number? Stop harrassing me.
*click*
See me and Anjali "hanging out" and the Chancellor's:
Sitting in his couch
Standing by the garden
With the big man, himself
Not that I have nothing to do. I have lots to do, in fact (like say, start and finish my thesis). But now that I am mostly finished with my Historian duties for PSP, I have this HUGE void that I temporarily need to fill with things other than imperative school work. I love online quizzes--God only knows why--and I find that they are some of the biggest time wasters out there. Yet I can't stop taking them. Here is an especially interesting one. What level of
Hell do you deserve to be sent to?
I got lucky and I will be sent into the first level of Hell, Limbo, with all of the virtuous non-believers. I guess giving bums spare change every now and then has allowed to me squeak by and not spend eternity in torment. For those of you who have not read Dante's Inferno.... I highly recommend it. It's pretty interesting and I give props to Dante for coming up with such creative punishments for those deadly sinners out there. If he were alive that is....
Anyway, here is a description of where I'll end up in my afterlife. Tell me where you'll end up and maybe I can look you up 80 years from now...
"Charon ushers you across the river Acheron, and you find yourself upon the brink of grief's abysmal valley. You are in Limbo, a place of sorrow without torment. You encounter a seven-walled castle, and within those walls you find rolling fresh meadows illuminated by the light of reason, whereabout many shades dwell. These are the virtuous pagans, the great philosophers and authors, unbaptised children, and others unfit to enter the kingdom of heaven. You share company with Caesar, Homer, Virgil, Socrates, and Aristotle. There is no punishment here, and the atmosphere is peaceful, yet sad."
NEW AND IMPROVED!!
Now you can tell me
EXACTLY what's on your mind. Tell me how long
YOU can gargle with Listerine. Liked the squirrels? Leave me a message from the convenience and privacy of your own home. You'll never have to pick up your cell phone or close your AIM away message window just to talk to me ever again!
Think you can challege Eva to a burping contest? Let me know and I'll arrange for a contest! Sorry burritos not included....
Eva, upon eating a pretty hefty burrito, indulges me with her eloquent critique of the Mexican cuisine:
Eva: BRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAPPPPPPPPPP
Grace [looks up from working on the digital yearbook]
Eva: Now those are some
BEANS!
See what I have to live with? Not only does she dabble in nasty--thought strangely intriguing--animal pornography, she is crude and vulgar and lets out belches like yesterday's stinky-poo trash! Never a dull moment over here in our humble southside apartment...
haha.... Just kidding.... I love you Eva, complete with burps and squirrels.
