I'm in the middle of a lab report for biochem at the moment (diligently, of course), so naturally a blog post is in order.
It's been a while since I posted, mostly because life is happening a little too fast right now and isn't showing too much of a break. So here we go:
Top of the month: revist at MCW. Got a great chance to meet some of the faculty and current students, as well as some of the prospective students. Here are the highlights:
Faculty:
Had a bunch of great meetings with faculty at MCW. The biggest problem I face is picking from them - all of the labs seem so superb. Lots of very passionate researchers doing tons of great things. A future PhD's dreamworld, really. I did get to meet with Dr. Stephen Gauld, and it was a pretty interesting talk. He works with autoimmunity (a la B-cell Anergy), a current interest of mine. Basically went something like this:
So, uh, you should be pretty familiar with this stuff...
Yeah, I'm not. I suck at Immuno. But I'm not completely worthless, I *love* biochem
Oh great, you'll fit right in.
Awesome, and learning some Immuno along the way can only make me a better doctor!
Great.
And so on. Really, really interesting work in an area that I am strongly deficit in. Time to branch out a bit and explore!
Also, sat next to the brand spankin' new dean of the graduate school, Dr. Ravi Misra at dinner. Very bubbly guy, very well informed and completely on top of things. Perhaps the best thing about the dinner was that I was instilled with a really strong sense of direction and purpose as far as the grad school goes. Really good thing.
You really can't say enough about the students at MCW. They all LOVE what they are doing and they seem really interested in the future students. Obviously, a great sign for someone in desperate need of all the help he can get his hands on. Oh, and there's an MUHS grad to boot (LTF, Rick Lennertz).
Future students were a good mix, had a great group feel. Met a future roommate of mine, Chris, which is always great! It's always a bit unnerving to jump into a new group with no idea what to expect, but this was really smooth. As for the remainder, it's hard to say since I don't know who will actually be coming to MCW. All the same, they're all bright and motivated...blah blah blah, all the stuff you expect from Mud Fuds. We'll know the full list of matriculants, uh, soon. -ish.
Since then:
work work work! So much stuff to do at UW before I peace out. Topping the list:
Honors papers for Human Sexuality (exceptionally unstimulating), honors paper for African Storyteller (dear God, literary analysis makes me want to run for the hills these days), exam for Biochemical Methods, 3 lab reports for the same (and I want to do this the rest of my life?!), final exams, coordinating research rotations, finding a place to live, thinking about a car (well...that's slipped to the back burner for now), social life (a what now?)...the list goes on. And that's before the real work even begins.
The good news though: Ramani has been really on top of living arrangements for next year (did I mention we're going to live together next year!?), so that helps a ton. Might have found a place today, Ramani's going to go scope it out tomorrow and give us the deets on it. Praying it's not shady, because it looks like a good fit. Pray for us.
Also, they're going to give me a vacation! HURRAY! Probably the last one I'll ever REALLY get (completely free of commitments...well, ok mostly....ok sort of...yeah, no) for the rest of my life, so I'm hoping for a great week. Word to people staying in Madison: I'll be couch surfing, so show a brown man some love?
All for now, time to get back to this lab report so I can enjoy another great day in Madison tomorrow!
