Last post

I can't believe my 11 weeks have already flown by...I feel like I just got to the UK! Everyone at lab is too nice to me - they threw me a surprise goodbye party last Thursday. It was the sweetest thing ever and they all spent a week planning it so it was completely unexpected. Natalia took me into a restuarant where we were 'dropping off something for a friend' on the way to a bar to meet up with two other post-docs. However, at the restaurant was a huge table with everyone from lab, including the PI! It was a really nice and expensive Thai place and from there we went for drinks and then clubbing!! (The PI dropped out after drinks). It was so funny to see my lab out dancing - they all said I should feel really special because they have never gone out dancing together before. They completely spoiled me - not only did they pay for my dinner and drinks, but they bought me presents. I got an Oxford jacket and a poster for my room - it's called the Oxford Pub Crawl and it has little pictures of 62 of the Oxford pubs and you colour them in as you drink in them =)

I have successfully trained Lucy, my successor, and she's completely taken over my job. She gradually started running all my babies and I will be handing over the word association list for her. I finished scoring all the babies that I could and Lucy will continue to help Natalia and Nivi with that. Natalia and Nivi are both writing up papers for some journals, so hopefully they will all publish in the near future!

Something I learned here is that psychiatry is very different than in the States. Back home, you need to be an MD to study psychiatry, while here that is not necessary. Tomorrow I am going to a hospital close to town to discuss one lecturer's/researcher's work. It's related to psychopharmachology and mood disorders, two topics that I am very interested in. I know she is accepting DPhil (PhD) students in Fall 2008, so we will see what she can tell me.

I fly out on Wednesday afternoon to Miami. This has been the single best experience of my life - thanks again for this amazing opportunity!

Cheers!

Close to the end...

Last weekend, Clarissa and I went to Bordeaux and visited nearby St. Emilion (great wine...thought about smuggling some into the US illegally) and Arcachon. We definitely owe Kanwei for that wonderful suggestion. The Arcachon beaches are beautiful and the view from dune de Pilat (tallest sand dune in Europe) was amazing!

So I finished up my last set of experiments today, but because my lab presentation is tomorrow morning, we didn't have time to actually make any photos =( Basically I don't have any results, but as consolation for having to be in lab 11 hours today, Thomas spent almost an hour at the microscope and took a nice picture of the control to put in my powerpoint. It was really sweet of him to do that, considering it was 9pm already. I can't believe tomorrow is my last day in lab...those ten weeks flew by far too quick. At least I'll still be in Paris for a few more days, and then I'm off to London for a week!

I'm going to miss all my new friends, my wonderful lab...and all the amazing things about Parisian life. Thanks IRES for this wonderful opportunity!

Angelica

Perhaps it's about time for me to post?

G'day from Melbourne, Australia!


I am halfway through my ten weeks of research here and everything is going well...except for the fact that it is winter and I am already fighting my second cold, heh.

During my second week here my dad came to visit. The airport doesn't seem to be connected to public transport very well so I rented the car for the day of his arrival and had an exciting time driving on the left side of the road in a small car like you might find in Europe. Along with sightseeing and restaurant sampling (the best food in Australia!) around Melbourne we travelled to Sydney for a long weekend and guess what we especially made a point to see there?

In terms of accommodation, after spending the first few days in a hostel near the Melbourne Uni. I spent the first month in a shared flat in North Melbourne. Unfortunately the other two students (did they go to class or anything at all? hah) weren't the most active folks and spent a great deal of time with their televisions, and the building unit didn't exactly have central heating...yikes. I was almost dealing with it alright until the landlord mentioned after my first two weeks that the rent would be increased in the next month. Naturally I began my search for something else and ended up in a wonderful terrace-style house on a well-known street in an area of town known as North Carlton, about the same distance away from the university. Along with a good heating system (really does make a huge difference!), the four other people sharing the house are very social and I have enjoyed doing stuff with them.

There are also two other HHMI students here in Melbourne as well and I was able to meet up with them right away (straight away? hah) especially when I didn't know anyone at all upon arriving in Melbourne. This past Sunday we rented a car and travelled to the "Mornington Peninsula" to see some of the Australian coast line and even made it over to a winery tasting right before it closed for the day. Just a couple of weeks ago we also went to a Australian Rules Football game which was a bit different!

My research seems to be progressing slowly... mostly standard techniques so far and there have been some issues with contamination involving a strain of the lab's model organism so we'll see how things go in the coming weeks!

Cheers,
Thomas

My time in the lab is officially done. I was sad to leave because I realized how much I enjoyed being around the people in the lab. I will be in Paris for Fall 07 and they have asked me to come to Marseille and visit them if I have a long weekend. It is too bad the lab isnt in Paris. This has been the greatest experience I have had while at Emory, and I am really grateful that I had the opportunity to be part of IRES. Thanks a lot IRES. I am in Berlin right now. My brother is coming tonight and we will see some of Europe. I am having some trouble with this German keyboard, so I think I will keep this post short. Thanks again!

Cosby

Half a month to go

Hello all,

I know it's been a really long time since I've posted. I've been meaning to write something for awhile but I've been pretty busy here.

Ok, first lab stuff. Things don't seem to be going by so fast for me as they have been for others. Most days I've really only worked about 8 or 9 hours in the day (a couple of times I've been in the lab for about 12 hours). It's never a problem because everyone else works about the same amount, and even if I wanted to work more, I wouldn't have anything to do. Also, most of what I've been doing hasn't been very theoretical or taught me anything advanced. I've had to make a couple of pieces of equipment that we will use for measurement on our samples but all that amounts to is basic construction work, not much advanced physics involved. Also it's taken me a very long time to build those pieces because I've had to wait for all the parts to be constructed by our machine-shop department. I've used some of my extra time to read up on Solid State physics, but you don't learn as much without doing actual problems. However, I am gaining a lot of valuable experience about how to work in a lab. It's the little things, you know, the daily routines and routes one has to take to get things done that are teaching me a lot. Also at least twice a week they have colloquiums where we hear presentations from visiting professors about new research going on in different fields of physics, so I get to see what's being done in the world of physics and what direction might be interesting for me to pursue. Also once a week most people in the department get together to discuss articles or presentations, so that the whole department can keep a current understanding of how the research our department is doing fits in with the research other people are doing. It's really helpful for me in terms of looking to the future.

Unfortunately I just got a phonecall and have to go back to work but I'll try to post again soon when I get the chance to talk about the social aspects of how things are here.

I can't believe I only have two weeks left in the UK. My time here really flew by. On Monday my replacement arrived and I began training her (Lucy). She graduated from Oxford last spring and she has a job with the government in London, but that doesn't start until October. She had my PI as a professor and had asked him if she could work in his lab, which he agreed to. What's really exciting is that I am training her on everything - the post docs and the PI have handed her over to me. It seems so strange because I remember being trained, just over two months ago, on how to work in the lab and now I am the one with all this experience. It's a little sad too that I am leaving just as Lucy came, because she is the only one at lab who is my age (Oxford undergrad is 3 years, not 4) and we have already started hanging out.
Most of my lab is presenting at a psychology conference in Reading, which is about 30 minutes away from Oxford. They each have a talk, explaining their research, on powerpoint slides that they present in front of many individuals in the psycho-linguistic world. They all had mock presentations in front of each other this week and I found out that my two post docs had put my name on their last slide of their presentations, acknowledging all the work I have done - I thought that was really sweet of them!
Within the last two weeks, the town of Oxford has dramatically changed. All of a sudden, wherever I go, I hear Americans. A lot of the exchange programs are here now, including Emory at Oxford. I spent some time with friends this past week who are over here. They are staying in one of the central colleges, which is only a 15-20 minute walk from my accomodation. I must admit, I preferred Oxford when all the Brits where here. Now, all I see are tourists and I feel more like a local than most of the people here. I've learned to save my Oxford University sweatshirt for when I return to the States - no real Oxfordians advertise for their school. Only the tourists wear them.
My lab is going clubbing tomorrow night - I really cannot wait to see that! =)
I really am not ready to leave yet. Even though I still have 2 weeks, I know it will all be ending too soon. There is still so much of Oxford and London I have yet to see! I will certainly have to return here!

So this will probably be my last post from Australia. I have a week and a half left in the lab and tons to do. My advisor is out of the country for my last two weeks so it is just me and the postdoc who does all the computer work. It is a bit scary to think that I am running serious equipment with no one to help me with troubleshooting but I'm actually doing really well and things are actually going smoother than they have all summer.

This has been an amazing experince for me and I'm realizing that I really do like research. At home it is a bit too theoretical for me but here everything is hands on and very experimental...I don't have to think too hard either. I'm working really long hours (12-15 hour) days so that I can get all the work that needs to be done for two papers, which I am really excited about. [I also work that long so I can take Friday afternoons off :)]

Last weekend I went surfing with some friends. They all knew how to surf, but they just told me to get on the board and try...with minimal instructions! It was really fun. I can get every wave I want but I have a hard time standing. I got to my knees, but I think I either need some practice or some coaching before I can stand.

I'm glad to see from the posts that everyone is having a great time! See you all soon.
Cheers!
RC

hi everyone!

Happy belated July 4th everyone! We thought about making s'mores to celebrate, but decided the only accessible open flame - Bunsen burners in lab - would not be worth the repurcussions of getting caught. The weather's been crappy all week....we had a terrible hailstorm today, followed by an hour of sunshine...I'm so confused. I look outside at 11pm and it's still not quite dark, but sunrise is still ridiculously early - by the time 7am rolls around, it's so blindingly bright you can hardly sleep.

On another note, my mentor left for a conference last Wednesday and won't be back until next week. He warned me SOOO many times to be careful around Shigella before he left but I finally figured out why everyone was so concerned about it. Apparantly it only takes 100 tiny bacteria to cause the nasty infection. In any case, it's day 5 of working alone and of course a lot more stuff seem to go wrong. But at least I got to practice taking pretty pictures with the microscope...

Everyone's starting to take vacations now...and most people are gone for the entire month of August. No I'm not just talking about lab people. Restaurants close for weeks. I've heard even the local boulangeries close...where am I going to get my baguettes?! Looks like I'll have to settle for the Monoprix (their idea of a supermarket - absolutely tiny in my opinion).

That's all for now. A bientot!

This is my second to last week in the lab, and I start to feel sad when I think about having to leave soon. I've really been learning a lot while I'm here. The work I've been doing in Marseille has been a great complement to my work at Emory, and my experience here is helping me to better understand the research I was doing at Emory and why I was using certain techniques there that we're not using here in Marseille. I haven't been able to establish much independence here in the lab, which is disappointing. My mentors here work much more closely with everyone (even PhD's and post-docs) than what I'm used to, and I think perhaps they are uncomfortable with the idea of leaving an undergrad on her own.

Last week, I asked a few people in the lab how to conjugate a certain verb in French. It was kind of funny. Nobody knew how except for one person, and a few minutes ago he came to my desk and gave me a very handy book with all the conjugations for French verbs. It was very nice of him and it meant a lot to me.

I need to get back to some lab work, but I'll post another update before I leave Marseille.

Things over here have been quite interesting. I arrived by bus to Glasgow on Saturday evening - the day of the airport scare. Luckily I chose that cheaper and slower option or else I wouldn't have been able to make it to the airport. There was an ERP conference in Stirling, which is a 25 minute train ride from Glasgow. My PI, his wife, Natalia (post doc), Vanja (Ph D student) and her husband had been planning to attend for quite some time. Last week I decided I would like to accompany them and I was pleased when I managed to get a spot at the conference.

It was pretty cool since I had never been to a real psychology seminar of sorts before. It only lasted 2 days but it was from 9am to 6pm and some of the speakers were really dull. I would say about half were Ph. D. students presenting their projects (like Vanja) and the rest were more like PIs, presenting research from previous papers and new experiments. The keynote speaker was actually someone who my PI at Emory looks very fondly on - we even had to read his book in lab, so it was nice to actually get to meet him.

I am leaving for a short holiday to Paris tomorrow and I will be returning Monday evening. My mom is actually really concerned about me travelling with everything that has been going over here, but I've been trying to assure her that I will be completely fine.

Work is still going well, but with all these days off from lab, I haven't been able to finish several tasks I have been given. No one seems too concerned at all though. What was pretty amusing to me was that today the PI was not in lab and everyone knew he would not be in. I had to come in to run 3 babies and only 1 person was in the lab! Everyone else was either on holiday or took the day off. So I came in late, ran my 3 kids and left to go shopping. That doesn't really ever happen, so it was a nice little break!

I am still loving it here so so much! I really do not want to leave in 4 weeks. Thanks again!

Update

Here are some pictures from our fiesta to celebrate all of the research groups moving into the new PRBB - Parc de Recerca Biomedica Barcelona, right on the sea! It began with some sort of um? surreliast act, live music, then a DJ pumping some pretty hard-core techno and of course tapas throughout

My project is coming around, we have been working on calibrating the GC/MS machines to the ions we want and bringing down the sensitivity. One difference with the vivarium here is that I have to change bedding, cages, food and water for my mice and with 80 little fellas that is a lot of work! I love how my project runs the gamut from detecting 162amu ions to handling 45g mice.

I even got to sit in on a human MDMA pharmacology experiment since one of the docs here insisted that I see one before returning to the states. I could write a whole paper about it and the ethics etc. but I will spare you for now -

Naoki

Stuttgart!!!!

Hello! I've been in Stuttgart, Germany for about 5 weeks now, and I've finally gotten into the groove of things. The lab work has been going amazingly, I've been learning so much and I didn't realize I would get to work so independently. The only problem is now I've learned everything in German. Essigsäuerethylester? Triethylamin? I don't know my Lösungsmittel in English!

Everyone in the lab is friends with everyone else and goes out after work at least once a week, so it was nice to have this group set up for me before I came. The lab is also pretty relaxed, we take coffee breaks three times a day! Everyone in the lab is addicted to it. I don't drink coffee and I've been drinking tap water instead, but apparently tap water is taboo here. The first couple of weeks my coworkers would repeatedly (and disbelievingly) ask me if I was sure I didn't want something else to drink besides tap water. And they warned me of the dangers of drinking tap water in countries outside Germany.

I've been traveling on the weekends with other students on different DAAD programs. I went to Geneva a couple weekends ago, which was a total culture shock because everything was in French and I'd never been to a place where I didn't know the language before. I've also traveled around southern Germany a bit, and next weekend I've going to Paris. A lot of the people I travel with are Canadian, and I've started to pick up a Canadian accent. A few times I've caught myself saying, "Eh?"

I'm having an amazing time here. Thanks IRES!