Checking in...

I'm alive! I promise!

I finish up my multidisciplinary training area studies this Thursday, and then I'm on the home stretch towards finishing my first year of grad school by giving a research presentation at the end of June. After this week I have sooooo much to post! Check back soon!

World Trade Center after 5.1.11

As promised, here are the photos I took in the crowds at the WTC site today:

You can see one of the memorial buildings being built in the background of this shot. The fences that lined the construction site of the memorial were lined with different things people had posted since the death of Osama bin laden.

Clippings of the news of his death:

Flowers and notes dedicated to loved ones who passed on 9/11:

This one says: "They got him T.J. I miss you and I love you."

Notes of thanks to President Obama and all of those that were involved in helping with the aftermath of 9/11:

And of course there were lots of patriotic people there!

The streets were blocked off due to the enormous amount of news coverage in the area--there were giant satellites, lights, news anchors, the works!

I am like 95% sure I was on some sort of news channel tonight. I stood behind these guys and took pictures for like 10 minutes. :)

I wasn't there too long--crowds get me anxious! But it was awesome to go down and see this, as I think its a pretty big moment in American history. The feeling here was a lot different that what you see on the news going on in times square and in other places where people are just screaming and running around going crazy celebrating Osama's death. This place had a lot more reverence and emotion, and was more about the memory of people who had passed away on 9/11/01. It was very respectful. It had a really somber feeling of remembrance and of patriotism. I'm so glad that I went. :)

HI!

Ok, I'm done with my blog hiatus.

The past bit I've been in a bit of a "slump" when it comes to blog posting. All I can post about are just pictures of something we went and did that weekend--and I swear a lot of people think thats all I do--wander around the city and live this glamorous NYC life. If only, right?

So we've just been pushing through school and pumping out all of the visitors that stop by. I can honestly say that school has been going a lot better! I am final in my specialized classes (no more general biochem/micro/genetics classes!) and am finally studying advanced immunology. I have to say my grades/scores/time put into studying skyrockets when I'm studying something I'm interested in. The workload is the same, but at least its slightly more enjoyable!

I also made a pretty significant discovery in lab, and now have a foundation for my thesis, and am working my way to producing supporting data in order to publish in a journal (this may take the rest of my time in school). It feels so nice to finally have made some progress! My PI was very happy and excited to see my data (a total first) and has started having other people in the lab start on collaboration projects with me to help me get my data faster. Muahahaha... I own them! Just kidding....! It feels good to have my project now a priority project of the lab. Plus I'm the youngest and most inexperienced in the lab, so it feels awesome to produce good data, like I've finally earned my place in the lab, you know? The only downside to this is that I will have to be spending even more time in the lab (and this summer!) to get this project moving along.

Seth has finals this week and next week. His school always finishes before mine! I don't get out of school until the end of June...whats up with that?! That really bites because I wanted to take some sort of trip this summer for a break, but by the time I get out of school, he'll probably have already started some sort of internship or summer classes. Ugh.

Anyway, so a ton of people have been asking me about the events and things going on here in NYC since the news of Osama bin laden's death. The truth is, I try to stay away from the insane crowds and huge events here in NYC (New Years in Times Square, Christmas/Easter/4th of July...etc) as per the advice given by native new yorkers--99.9999% of the crowds are crazy tourists and things are completely nuts. But I actually wanted to see what was going on here in NYC for this historical event! I waited 2 days to let the crowds die down a bit, and today after school I headed down to the WTC site. It was pretty crowded, but that was most likely due to it being rush hour in the business district (bad idea!). It was interesting to see--there were a lot of notes and little memorials for people who passed on that day. It was a very emotional place. The streets were also covered with news teams shooting footage of what was going on. I haven't resized the photos yet, but I will post them up today. The site is still just construction, but things are moving on schedule for the memorial to be done by 9.11.11. I can't wait to see it!

PS. Seth's birthday is on Friday! Wooohoooo! Make sure to wish him a happy birthday! We are going to have a super fun celebration!! :)

Central Park Stroll

Our Sunday walk is something to look forward to during the week. I still can't believe how big Central Park is, and it always seems like there is something new to see every time we go. This week we went north of 72nd street instead of south towards midtown, and just wandered around to see what was happening today. It was actually pretty warm today, so there were loads of people out too!

The first thing we randomly stumbled onto was Belvedere castle, next to the Great Lawn, which was this giiiiigantic lawn, which seemed to be the hub of families today. Everyone was picnicking, throwing frisbees, flying kites, taking naps, etc. It was such a fun place to be! We made a note to bring a blanket and some food next time. I just want to bring a blanket to lounge in the sun and take a nap!!

There seemed to be a lot of old man baseball games going on. It was pretty fun to watch.

There are tons of flowers blooming in CP! We ended walking from 70th street to 104th street up to the Conservatory Gardens and saw all of the blooming flowers!

We seriously spent like 4 hours walking around CP! My feet actually were getting the sore feeling that you get after a day at Disneyland or something. So after stopping at the reservoir to admire the view, we walked west to catch the train back home, and ran into the Upper West side Spring Festival!

Everything looked so delicious. I wish it ran more than just today--I love me some freshly grilled chicken!

Next week we want to head there with a blanket and a bag full of delicious snacks. Yum. If only Fatty was here to spend the day with us! There were soooo many dogs running around--I know he would love it here.

This next week is just a regular week for me, no test/quizzes/assignments due this week!!!! Yesss! You have no idea how happy that makes me. :)

Have a great sabbath!

Trip to Brooklyn

Winter semester is done!

It actually finished two weeks ago, but its taken me this long to recover from it. Spring semester started before the winter semester finals were over, so I didn't really have a chance to take a breather before starting up new classes and projects. So this last week I minimized as much work as I could in lab and tried to go off and relax as much as I could!

The first thing I wanted to do was burn everything that reminded me of the last two semesters, but after I realized that I actually needed my notes and textbooks, I decided to venture off to Brooklyn with my friends instead. :)

So we met up at City Hall and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to get some Grimaldi's pizza and hang out at the park at the other end!

Thank goodness for these two girls. I would lose my sanity at school without them. It felt soooo good to get out and laugh and just hang out with them and talk about everything BUT school and our lab work!

We waited for ~1 hour to get into Grimaldi's pizza, but I can honestly say the wait was worth it. Delicious pizza! Lombardi's was better, but it was just a fun experience to try something new. They are both from NYC and have never walked across the bridge and eaten pizza here, so it was awesome! There was a huge park next to the river and it had the most amazing view of Manhattan. I could have lounged there all day long. It was so relaxing!

Every girl need girl time! It is sooo necessary! And its nice to talk about shopping and clothes and cupcakes and other stuff that guys don't ever care about--haha! Plus these girls totally understand what I'm going through in school and vice versa. They work in completely different fields (I'm in immunology and they are in cancer and developmental biology), but they all relate and we can all complain about our work loads and PI's.

This day was so much fun! We need to get out and do stuff like this more often--I can't wait until summer!!!!!!