Who said going back to school was a good idea...

It's been a while since my last post but not too much has happened in the past week except for starting school and visiting Kansas City.

I've been in class since last Wednesday so not even a full week week yet but so far grad school feels like college but that's only because lab rotations haven't started yet. I'm taking two classes: IBS (insert funny jokes about bullshit here) which is basically all of undergrad biology in one semester and Graduate Immunology. IBS started with biochemistry-type stuff about pKa's of proteins, etc which I actually never learned about at Duke (I'm paying for being a slacker) so I started off feeling really unprepared but I've been keeping up with the material, so I feel more capable now (plus I'll feel like a complete idiot if I fail grad school classes since everyone reminds us how easy they're supposed to be).

Besides classes in the morning, we have a seminar called faculty discussions where two faculty members give 30min talks about their research so that we're better prepared when choosing labs for our three rotations this year. This is one of the aspects of the program I really like because I think it would have been really overwhelming to have had to choose someone over the summer based on just their online bio and out of date picture. The one down side is that theses discussions are making me realize that the program in really immunology heavy (they hid this fact well during my interview) and there aren't many researchers on the microbiology side of things (bacteria, viruses, or parasites) which I'm a little disappointed about. I'm a little worried that I may be restricted in my choice of labs or that I'll have to switch my research interests. But I have until the end of the month to pick my first rotation so I have tons of time to think.

Besides my classes and faculty discussions, I have a ton of down time so I've just been hanging out with some other graduate students in the lounge and trying to be social though I should probably be using that time to study. But I'm sure I'll meet more people, especially older grad students, once I get into the lab. Overall I don't really have much to complain about in the first week of school.

This past labor day weekend I went to Kansas City to visit Louis and had a really great time. He took me around the downtown areas and we did some touristy things, went to Lawrence to the undergrad campus to watch the first football game of the season and tailgate, but overall we just hung out and ate out a lot and anyone who knows me knows that laziness + good food = a happy KA so I had an awesome visit. Kansas City was very charming and I could see it being really nice in a few years once it's more developed. It actually reminded me a lot of downtown Durham so I got a little nostalgic. I can't wait to head back for another visit (maybe I'll get myself a pair of cowboy boots next time).



Ok, I need to stop procratinating by updating my blog and learn about stem cells and proteins.