Woo that was a week!

I got back from the group retreat on Friday night.  It was so much fun!  I have tons of pictures, but those will have to wait until later like all of the other pictures... maybe I should just steal an internet chord from work.... hmmm.....  Anyway, we went boating on the lake and had tons of fun.  Though it was freezing basically the whole time.  Then we had delicious sandwiches with butcher meat and cheese from a special cheese store.  MmmmMmmm.  After that we payed games and hung out until it was time to make dinner.  I made twice baked potatoes and Eric made stir fry.  Leila (my officemate)  made an Iranian dish that she grew up with.  I don't think many people liked it.  But she was very excited and it was worth seeing her happy.

After dinner we played a fun trivia game with a huge board that will buzz if you get the questions right.  It was a riot!  After that, Alex FINALLY got there.  He had been at a workshop that helps with presentation skills.  Then, we had a whiskey tasting. I had only had Jameson before, and I thought it was pretty good.  So, I figured I would like higher quality whiskey more.  WRONG!  It was gross.  It smelled like smoked meat which made me not want to drink it in the first place.  And it tasted smokey too.  It was gross.  I got -1 point from our technician Frans for not finishing all five shots of whiskey.  Yes five whole shots!  Apparently tasting (which normally gives about a quarter of a shot or less) to Jeoron meant get everyone drunk. lol.  oh well.  I didn't finish even one shot.  The next day we got up and had a light breakfast and went out to farmer's golf.  You get a wooden shoe on a stick and hit a mini soccer ball around a course.  The holes are buckets dug into the ground. lol.  It was great.  I also have a lot of pictures of that.  I really should get that internet cable....  After that, we went on a pirate themed ship to eat Dutch pancakes.  It was really cute.  I had one that was half apples and cream and half bananas and chocolate.  delicious!

Well, I should get down stairs to the lab.  The laser should be all warmed up.  Yes something that can burn things must have time to warm up or it's just not as good.

Well, that sucked.

The conference in Germany was definitely one I'll remember.  Not so sure in a good way.  the train there was ridiculously long due to construction.  It only takes 2-3 hours to drive, but I got a 7 hours train trip.  Also, one of my trains was late, causing me to miss a connection and get to the conference an hour and a half late.  Oh. And you can't forget the car that almost hit me!

The lectures were intellectually stimulating, but most didn't stress the main point enough to really get what they were talking about.  It was also aimed to an audience with more background knowledge than me.  So I only understood about half of what was going on.  However, there were 15-20 people out of about 60 that have less background knowledge than me.  These were the people who told me that my poster was the only thing in the WHOLE conference they understood.

So, I was the only Bachelor student there.  And apparently, that was a problem.  NOWHERE does it say that I CAN'T come or even that I SHOULDN'T come.  But I got treated like a child and an idiot by almost everyone there.  NORMALLY when someone presents a poster, other people come over and talk to them about their project and ask them to explain the poster and clarify a few points.  I had people come over and QUIZ me on what they think I should know!  Just who do they think they are all high and mighty?!  I also had someone come over, fully intent on asking questions, he asked what degree I was pursuing.  I told him, and he left!  Just left!  Apparently I wasn't WORTHY of speaking with.  And after word got around that I was a bachelor student, not only did a lot of people refuse to speak to me, some even wouldn't make eye-contact.  How ridiculous can you be?  I am a student who needs to learn!  You should be teaching me!  I can deal with not being respected as a scientist because most of the people there knew a lot more than I do.  But not to be respected as a person?!  COME ON!!! GET OVER YOURSELF!!!!!

Ok.  That's enough ranting.  I did find a few people to bond with who were quite nice, a little on the awkward or unexperienced side, but nice.  I even got to practice a little Japanese (Lord knows I need that!).

Needless to say,  I will definitely NOT go into this field in Europe.  Maybe I'll find a conference in the states and hopefully it's better there.

Well, tomorrow we leave at 8:15 am (gross!) for the group retreat.  That means a purely social retreat with my colleagues.  We're going boating and playing a traditional Dutch game which is called "Farmer's Golf." It involves a typical wooden shoe on a stick and a large ball. lol.  I can't wait.  We're also going to a pancake restaurant on a pirate themed ship.  Too cute!

My poster went great!!!!

I got an honorable mention at the conference.  That means I was in the top three and just barely missed beating ALL of the PhDs at there posters. hahaha.  The judges really liked my title and innovative lay out.  Hopefully the next poster will be received with equal enthusiasm.  That is, if my supervisor ever approves of it!!! grrrr... I want to get it printed already!

List of Schools

Here's my narrowed down list.  I was down to 31, but then I found a few more that I had to add on. Alabama A & M University

Boston University

California Institute of Technology

Case Western University

City University of New York, The Graduate Center

College of William and Mary

Colorado School of Mines

Colorado State University

Florida International University

Georgia Institute of Technology

Harvard University Massachusettes Institute of Technology

McMaster University

Montana State University - Bozeman

North Carolina State University

Old Dominion University Rice University

Southern Illinois University Carbondale Stanford University

Stevens Institute of Technology

Twente University

University of Alabama at Birmingham University of Arizona

University of British Columbia University of California Berkely

University of Central Florida

University of Chicago University of Colorado at Boulder

University of Connecticut

Unviersity of Maine

University of Manitoba University of Maryland - College Park

University of Michigan

Unviersity of Nevada Las Vegas

University of Nevada, Reno

Unviersity of New Mexico University of Rochester

University of St Andrews

University of Virginia

One down. One to go

I've officially sent off my first poster to the printer!!! woo!  I've started my second poster, and I am on track for studying for the GRE.  However, I am going to have to work a little harder than planned on the GRE today and Sunday bc Domi is coming over tomorrow!  It should be really fun. We're not that close, but we always have a good time together.  I've convinced him to go to a Dutch pancake restaurant.  MmmmMmmmm.

Also, I found Mac 'n Cheese!  It's "Magic-a-Roni."  It's not great, but it does the job.  It was in the Mexican food aisle. lol.  They have no idea what they're doing.  And I ate "Texas-flavor" pizza the other day.  It was pepperoni.  And it was Texas bc it was big. lol. 

Part way there.

My poster that needs to be done on Thursday is almost done.  yay!!!  I have one typo, two mistakes, and one "making it look pretty" thing to fix.  It does look quite good.  I also wrote and turned in my abstract for my second poster (which will probably have very similar graphs on it as the first).  I had a major problem yesterday while aligning my setup, but I fixed it.  I did all the calculations.  So I should be able to just put almost everything in my set up, align two mirrors using my calculations, and then put the rest of the stuff in at the calculated places.  I really, really hope this works.  This is by far the most precise way to do it.  Hopefully I didn't make a calculation error.  It would suck trying to find that.

In other news, my room smells like roses courtesy of Alex.  They're really pretty.  It's starting to get cold here which is sad, but I'm still holding out in my light jacket and flip flops.  My office mate wears two jackets and has a space heater. haha.  I think I'm going to make bacon wrapped scallops tonight.  Hopefully they turn out well and Alex likes them... maybe we should pick up a frozen pizza just in case. lol.

Just so you know.  This wasn't the real test.  It was a practice test.  Don't worry.  I still can theoretically get into college.

I Failed the Test

Yes, you heard right, I got about a 20% on the test.  Since the test is scaled that means I got about a 40% which isn't much better.  So, I've been working my tail off studying and I have a new plan that will hopefully help things moe efficiently.

The anniversary yesterday was nice.  Alex bought me roses and some pretty silver earrings that match the necklace he got me for my birthday.  I ended up getting him a polo, a recipe book and a ton of different kinds of black licorice.  You think there's only one kind bc you're in the states, but nooooooo.  There are at least six different kinds I know of and I hate black licorice.  Also, red licorice is super hard to find :(  But I did finally find a place that sells oreos and resees.  Also, the chinese stores sell baking soda and crisco. How funny!  Anyway, Alex and I planned to go to bowling, the to dinner, then do a movie.  But the practice test ran a little late, so we went to dinenr first.  Then since we both didn't sleep very well the night before and had tiring days, we were too tired to go to a movie.  So, we played a couple of games of pool and a bar near the resturaunt we went to.

For the first time since starting this blog, I am on my lap top with my camera handy.  Theoretically I could download images, but the internet is acting too much.  So, no pictures yet.  Also I brought my camera to our anniversary, but I forgot to take pictures! ugh!  We were even dressed up.  Oh well.  I'll have to take more later. :)

Planning for the future without planning for the present

Yep.  You read that right.  I am way ahead of myself right now.  I have things done for months ahead.  I have my trips in November and December planned but not the one happening in a week and a half or in two weeks.  I have just bought Alex's xmas present, but I haven't bought his 3month anniversary present for tomorrow.  Well, looks like I'm either working backwards or I'm not really planning on living life until after the GRE.  Since I don't really have a life because of the GRE, that's kind of true. huh......