PhD Candidate Panda

Happy April Fool's Day! For my April fool's joke, I have decided to NOT post in March! HA! So happy that I can pawn my lack of writing off on April Fool's day.

The past week has been pretty fantastic. We had two proposals and two defenses in our lab, which meant FREE FOOD err'day! It has almost been a week but we are obviously still eating the remaining moldy sandwiches and Diet Coke for sustenance. Everyone passed their presentations, which is great because I WAS ONE OF THEM! So now yours truly is officially a PhD candidate in biomedical engineering. Technically I still need to submit my paperwork, so let's hold the applause and fog horn until all that gets processed. Although the questioning part of the proposal after the presentation was a bit rough, I survived. I still have a lot to learn and do, but I'm happy that at least I am on track to get moving on my projects!

My relationship with my advisor is also improving. As you know, working for Dr. Barbie entails working with Dr. Zebra. I have to admit I had a tough time working with Dr. Zebra; part of it may have been my fault for not thinking in depth about my data as much as I should have. However, in my defense I have taken at least three classes each semester, and this year I have also had to TA a course. You already know that our lab is moving (well, already has) to a different school. I had considered not going because Dr. Barbie is so busy and Dr. Zebra was not necessarily an ideal replacement, and I wasn't getting the sort of mentoring I had desired when I entered graduate school and that was typical of my undergraduate research lab. I definitely don't need a lot of attention or pampering, but I do need a lot of trust and respect. Obviously I am not the brightest crayon in the box (unless I wear my "Say No To Racism" dress) when it comes to engineering and research, especially compared to the amazing researchers at school. However, it is graduate SCHOOL and not graduate FACTORY, which means I need time to learn these things. Anyway, it was tough getting yelled at all the time. I'm generally a very stubborn person and thought I would be able to handle it, but with the progression of my research, Lana Del Rey's "Born to Die' has become my anthem. Although the proposal was not my best performance, Dr. Zebra was actually VERY supportive and stuck up for me when the committee started flinging stones. We ended up having this weird bonding moment the next day where he said he would make my life shitty in lab, but in the end would be my biggest supporter whenever we are in public. Okay, I'll take it. I guess different people just have different ways of mentoring/killing (just kidding, OR AM I) others, but at least we talked it out and acknowledge the situation. Plus, I'm hoping that the move will alleviate the stress and tension that is occurring with everyone right now and we will have a more peaceful environment in the new lab (updates to come!)

Easter has also come and gone, which means I am allowed to eat sugar again, and The Boyf is eating meat! Sunday was truly a glorious day for gluttony, filled with pastries and bacon. I think my body died from happiness and has still not recovered yet because I haven't pooped since then. Don't worry, I'll be fine. And speaking of gluttony and pooping, the new Cafe Intermezzo has opened just a few blocks down the street from our place, which will be so fantastic considering my love for cheesecake and the fact that as an Asian person, I am most likely lactose intolerant. Ah, the joys of life.

Today our lab packed and shipped all the frozen samples. We will have packed EVERYTHING on Wednesday, and the lab will officially shut down! It is hard to believe that I'll be leaving Atlanta soon. I still need to finish up my courses, but am expected to start my first day in Richmond on May 6. I will be rooming with one of the girls in my lab, and we applied for an amazingly huge townhouse along the river. It was too good to be true, and perhaps is. We shall see when I move in, but rest ye easy; I am definitely purchasing a family pack of RAID just in case.

It's bedtime! Tomorrow I'll be helping to pack the lab and hopefully relocating to a new desk in the building next door. I still refuse to relinquish my building access, although I'm sure they will hunt me down at some point to pry the key from my nicely manicured fingers. Toodles!

Panda Enters the [Cell] Hood

First off, I AM SORRY! I know these past few days have been jam packed with new and exciting things in my life as a graduate student, but I keep putting off updating. But here I am now, ready to divulge all details of my official life as a PhD student.

So where to start? Last Monday I started my first day in the lab of Dr. Barbie. I have come to like her more and more, especially when compared to the co-advisor of the lab, Dr. Zebra. Dr. Zebra is an international traveler and flies to and from our lab in monthly-ish rotations. He is in charge of approving our experiments and laying down the law and cracking the whip on lazy grad students. Dr. Barbie is the diva and has her personal golf cart with plastic door flaps that she drives around campus. They are both so different and I love it when they argue. It would be the best reality show.

I haven’t done anything with the grad students outside of the birthday outing I talked about in my last post, two weeks earlier. It is kind of weird because no one seems to recognize anyone else when they are in lab, but apparently everyone hangs out on the weekends together or something. I have no idea. Although I am getting multiple offers to go grocery shopping from people in the lab, so at least I won’t be hungry. Last weekend the biosciences grad club had a party (the pirate one that I talked about earlier), but The Boyf were so exhausted from walking around all day that we fell asleep before we had a chance to put on any eye patches.

So I met with Dr. Zebra last Tuesday, who basically told me nothing about my project but led me on a wild goose chase around the lab trying to find out what it is. Luckily, the chase wasn’t too hard, although at some point I did get entangled in prosthetic penis research (I SWEAR it came up in a search). Anyway, I am working with a 5^th year PhD student, which is nice but also super intimidating, but not really because he is pretty cool and plus it is better than Dr. Zebra beating me like an Amish horse. My project deals with surfaces and its effects on stem cells. It is pretty neat and really similar to what I proposed for my NSF project. But for now, I am stuck at my desk (which is starting to look pretty homely, thanks to a free whiteboard and an excess of mugs) until I complete all the safety training necessary for me to use the lab equipment.

The Boyf arrived last Tuesday night and stayed until Sunday. We had a fun time eating at different restaurants, which is basically the meaning of my existence. I had a great burger at The Vortex, so many free samples at Mary Mac’s, a mediocre country fried plate at Chicken and Waffles, and even sampled chocolate wine! We also visited the world’s largest aquarium, of which I am now a member (although I was kind of disappointed – I guess we will just go to the Coca Cola factory next time, and you KNOW I’m getting a membership there too). We went to church across the street from my apartment on Sunday. Oh, and The Boyf’s friend Danto works in Atlanta, so we all went to Sweetwater Brewing Company for a great/cheap beer tasting. I was designated driver – SO PANDA.

I’m kind of upset that I NEVER go out dancing with The Boyf. I think we have been twice before, but it was like three years ago and he didn’t even dance. I don’t know why he hates it so much. I even sent him a Youtube video of “how to dance in a club for white guys” (or something along those lines), but only offended him (who’d have thought?). I am considering finding a gay boyfriend just so that we can go out together and fake grind on each other. If you are interested, please reply to the ad below:

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WANTED: Faux Boyfriend for Panda Cheng

Qualification 1) Must look like Jude Law

Qualification 2) Must be homosexual

Please email alicethepanda@gmail.com with “Gay Jude Law” in the subject so I know you are not the real Jude Law. If you are the real Jude Law, you can bypass the email and just show up at my apartment instead. I’ll let The Boyf know “something came up”.

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I have finally put my new Beats by Dr. Dre studio headphones to use! Today I decided to boil water for tea, and while I was waiting, listened to some crazy music on the headphones. Unfortunately, I loved it so much that an hour later, I was nodding my head to the burnt smell of my nonexistent tea…To compensate, I had a bowl of white chocolate-raspberry-chocolate chip frozen yogurt instead, with life cereal, almond milk and nutella on top.

Now I’m back to listening to music again! I love these headphones. Oh, and speaking of music, Adele is performing in concert in October, right next door to my apartment building! Tickets are only $75 but have been sold out for a while, so I can only find them on Stubhub. I don’t know if I want to go by myself or coerce someone to go with me who doesn’t want to go…I might just go myself if I find anyone. Everyone in Atlanta is so friendly anyway that I’ll probably find a best friend before the chorus of “Rolling in the Deep” starts.

Tomorrow is my first day of class at Emory! It is weird that Georgia Tech and Emory are on different schedules, so even though it is super cool that GT has “fall break”, I technically don’t get a break because I still have an 8am class that day at Emory. And I’ll probably be in lab anyway since I have already become enslaved to Dr. Barbie and Dr. Zebra. PANDA WANTS TO ROAM FREE! Oh, and on a totally separate but quite related note, I ate bamboo tonight!

Deuces.