Chocolate show?

I just heard that there is a CHOCOLATE show here in New York city, running from yesterday through Sunday at the Metropolitan!

[Photos taken from Chocolate Show Website]

Seriously?! A show completely dedicated to chocolate? You better believe that I'll be there!

They claim to be the largest show in the US that is dedicated to chocolate.

Events include sampling tons and tons of types of chocolates and chocolate products, as well as cooking demonstrations and a chocolate fashion show.

YUM! I will let you know how it goes!

Woes of the colorblind

Just when I thought my colorblind problems were over...

I stumbled upon microarrays...

(Full paper here)

We have a required class called Journal Club where we discuss papers that are relevant to the current module we are studying. Each person is required to speak about the data of at least 1 figure and how that contributes to the overall findings of the paper....

But what are you supposed to do if you can't read/interpret the figures because they are all in GREEN AND RED?

Answer: You sit behind the TA so she doesn't see you and forgets that you haven't presented on a figure. Problem solved. :)

ING NYC Marathon!

...was today!

Turns out, the finish line was 2 blocks from our house in Central Park, so the traffic and amount of people was intense.

This year the marathon hit all 5 of the boroughs; starting in Staten Island, and going through Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, Harlem, and then ending in central park.

We got a sneak peek of the finish line the day before:

I wonder how you can get passes to sit up here at the finish line..? That would be pretty awesome.

Today it was hard to get through the crowds to watch the end of the marathon, but Seth managed to squeeze in and took some pictures/video.

Isn't this picture awesome? I love the ghost effect!!

Can you believe someone could run 26.2 miles in 02:08:14? Crazy! It makes me want to be able to run that fast!

Oh and I found this picture on Seth's phone. I thought it was pretty, so I stuck it up on here. I love this city.

Cold weather is here!

I am officially starting to experience my first cold winter.

It's only about 37 -50 degrees here, but its COLD to me. COOOOLLLLDDD! Plus its all rainy and windy a lot of the time, which makes it worse!

But I lovvvvvve the change in wardrobe, i.e. jackets, sweaters, scarves, boots, etc.....things I only get to wear when I visit California for Christmas. Its about 37 degrees when I leave for school in the morning, so I layer up with sweaters and scarves, grab a delicious, hot caramel apple spice, and make my way to the upper east side.

And the scenery here is absolutely gorgeous; seeing the leaves change and fall, and all of the holiday decorations are starting to come up.

Ice skating at Rockefeller Center has started, and I can't wait to go! I also can't wait for the lighting of Christmas trees and elaborate decorations to be set up. I feel like I couldn't be in a better city for the holidays. (I could do without the snow though....not looking forward to that).

Anyway, this week I went to a "Dino DNA" party....in simpler terms it was a nerd party with my fellow graduate classmates where we watched Jurassic Park on the tiniest tv ever and "oooohed and ahhhhhed" at the parts where they talked about Dinosaur DNA....hehe.

It was a lot of fun, but I have to admit it has been strange to go from a school where all my friends were LDS to a school where I am the only member. So being the only sober person at these parties..??...not totally my scene, but I feel like I have to make an effort to get to know these people since we are going to be in the same program together for 2 years. All in all, it was fun to take a break from school and hang out with my classmates (even though I just watched a lot of people get trashed!) I didn't want to commute back to the upper west side in the wee hours of the morning (a few weeks ago there was a stabbing at the 96 st train station), so I ended up crashing at my friend Annie's place for the night, and we ended up having tons of fun. What would I do without good friends like that?

This weekend, Pattie and David are here! We've had some great fun so far...even though I had to get up at 7 today to go to lab to finish up some gene regulation experiments (curse lab work on Saturdays!) The NYC marathon is tomorrow, and it ends in Central Park which is just 2 blocks from our apartment, so maybe we'll check it out.

side note: In celebration of my "late Halloween," I feasted on one of these from Magnolia:

I can't wait for the Thanksgiving ones!

Drosophila genetics= conquered.

yyyaaayyyyy! My horrible 3-exams-in-a-row days are over!

Today marked the last exam, which covered drosophila, yeast, and mouse genetics.

Now I can BREATHE again and live a normal life [for a week or so].

You can always tell that I'm in the midst of exam preparation because:

-I have bags under my eyes

-I start to forget things, like my ID or phone (happened three times last week).

-I start to space out!

-Our house is a MESS.

-My lab bench is a MESS.

-I am a MESS.

Take today for example, a few hours after the exam, I have a Research Conduct class that is usually on the 12th floor. I went to the room, sat down, and 10 minutes passed before I realized that I didn't know anyone around me (including the teacher) and that I was in the wrong class. I had also forgotten my phone today so I couldn't call anyone to see where the class was! Oy! [I eventually found it, btw]

I've noticed this pattern over the last few exams, and the next couple days are always spent repairing the damage I've done to my life to study for these exams, such as getting sleep, food, and cleaning up my studying lair (aka table in the corner).

Today, in celebration of finishing my exams in one piece, I treated myself to a cute pair of boots at Target! And, since I completely missed Halloween and all of its festivities because I have literally lived in a lab for the last few weeks, Halloween will be tomorrow........as in I will be eating lots of candy and watching Hocus Pocus and The Nightmare Before Christmas.

This week will be fun: walking across the Brooklyn Bridge with friends, "Dino-DNA party" (to be explained later) and all the sleep that I want!