Looking Back...

As I look back on my past summer experience at Sloan-Kettering I can't believe how amazing it really was. I learned so much, created many friendships, and have better prepared myself for a future career in the sciences. I made lifelong memories that I will always cherish, and I got to see first hand how it is to live somewhere (especially in a city) where I knew no one, and did everything on my own. I had to deal with a lot of situations that I never thought I would have to get through, but being alone and working through them with those around me really helped me grow as a person. I will never forget those of you who helped me through one of the roughest times I have been through thus far, and can't wait to see what the future has in store :)

Moving out of my Apartment

So as I sit here in my somewhat empty apartment I am thinking about how much I am going to miss NYC. The last couple of days have been pretty amazing- crazy subway rides, being soaked in the rain, poster presentations at Sloan-Kettering, hitting a person while in a taxi, and having the big piano at FAO Schwarz shut down just so I could play heart and soul with an employee there. This would only scratch the surface as to what I have been doing over the past three or four days. But now we are all forced to move on back to our homes and back to reality. I am actually not leaving NYC today. I am now going to take all of my belongings and take a taxi to the lab. I will work there all day and then take a town car to my post-doc's house on Roosevelt Island. I will sleep on their couch and we will rent a car tomorrow to drive to The Hamptons and there is a party at my boss's house on the ocean-should be fun. Then, I will stay at that house for a night, get into a train at Stony Brook, and then fly out of La Guardia on Monday. I will be home around midnight. So I have a very long long long weekend ahead of me and I am sure this will be interesting since I will be brining very large luggage with me wherever I go :) I will definitely miss NYC and the people I have shared this experience with.

Presentations, Posters, and Paul's Burger

So the past couple of days I have been pretty busy with presentations, posters, and eating ridiculously good burgers. I have to admit that after these 10 weeks are over I will pretty much have a pretty good handle on great food in New York City from burgers to French food, from Japanese to Italian... and so on. So this past Friday I had my presentation for my lab, which I would consider the most important presentation I have ever done thus far in my career. It was a presentation specifically to excite my boss- and it did. I needed to have her excited so that when I left my project would continue and I would be able to have my work published by the end of the year, or at least on track to be published. After the presentation and receiving accolades from my boss, I had a poster that I had to finish by today- I got it in within minutes of my deadline. So this past weekend was a mixture of work and play. On Saturday I went into work and went out to dinner with Emily. We then walked to the East River (gorgeous) and then we decided that I had to try Ferrara's desserts in Little Italy since I have never had it. They are famous for their cannoli- and it was amazing! oh, and we took the subway to get there, which is always an experience. After eating a cannoli and gelato we went to "Rice to Riches" where I bought rice pudding, but had to save it for later because of how full I was. On sunday I went with Emily to The Museum of Natural History and relived my childhood- I LOVED THAT MUSEUM AS A KID. After a good four hours of wondering around looking at blue whales and debating with anthropologists on human lineage we happen to run into literally (very bizarre) another friend and walked to Lincoln Center to try and get tickets for South Pacific- we learned pretty much all plays only do 3pm performances on Sunday :( So instead we took the subway (again- 2 days in a row!) down to Astor place and we went to Paul's, which is a really good burger place and they have $5 1/2 pound burgers- of course mine turned out to be $11 because I wanted cheese, mushroom, and cooked onions. But nonetheless it was great. We then stopped at a Mr. Softee and I had a chocolate milk shake. We went back to the apartment and watched a movie- I had a great time! So now I have only 7 days left in the city. It has been truly an adventure. There have been ups and downs, but I really do love living here and could definitely see myself going to Medical School here in another 2 years. I have learned so much and I have made a lot of new friends who I am sure I will keep in contact with through the crazy amount of years it will take before we all get our degrees. Well, it's now 11:34pm and I have a stupid breakfast meeting at 8:30am- it's pointless.

The burger of my dreams...

I was at lab tonight and my post-doc told me that she saw this restaurant on food network last night that she wanted to try out. So we went tonight to The Stumble Inn Bar and Restaurant. It was definitely a bar since I was carded and I convinced the guy that all I wanted was a burger and I was allowed entrance on the condition that I wouldn't drink (of course that wouldn't be a problem even if I was 21). So we go in and site down. Now I should tell you why this place is so famous. The picture speaks for itself:




I had a burger with cheddar cheese and mushroom INSIDE the burger itself so when you bite it bursts with all of this cheese- out of this world. I will definitely go back again. Another thing that happened tonight included seeing the first glimpse of the feature that was done on me in PBG Lifestyle Magazine. Here is a glimpse below:

Sarah Visits NYC

So yesterday Sarah LaPierre (picture below) came up to NYC to visit me.



She has never been to the city so I had somewhat planned a full day of touring. Our day started by going to Iron Chef Morimoto's restaurant:


IT WAS ONE OF THE BEST RESTAURANTS I HAVE EVER BEEN TO! <- the caps and exclamation mark don't do it justice. The restaurant itself is gorgeous. The entire ceiling is all fabric and the sides are bamboo imprinted walls with lighting that is truly exquisite. I had an ice tea with actual different fruit chunks and seasonings in it (looked like a mohito- spelling?). For lunch I had tempura shrimp roll and angry chicken. The sushi was great! I wouldn't expect it not to be, but the angry chicken was an "adventure." I true adventure. Out of the country sort of adventure. It was a roasted chicken breast, which was seasoned and cooked to perfection over what are called fingertip peppers- (side note: The wait staff were as informed about the food as any food network host would be.) What made this an "angry" dish was that fingertip peppers can be very mild to the point where they are just delicious or can be VERY spicy (Scoville units: 6-8 out of 10), and there is no way to know which pepper is which. Just so you know I didn't know anything about these peppers until after this experience :) The first pepper was very mild and tasted amazing. So I was under the assumption they would all taste the same. I took about a half a pepper and paired it with a piece of chicken. Within three seconds of swallowing- wow. I have never felt as though my mouth was bleeding from a pepper being so hot, but that was the feeling all the way down my esophagus. It was really funny actually. Good thing that there was plenty of water at the table. My mouth actually burned for about 10 minutes and was sensitive to anything I put in my mouth. It was an experience. The waitress told me that a woman once ordered the dish after she informed them about the peppers and started flailing her arms to try and get the waitress to get her milk. I would have enjoyed seeing that. So our lunch was really good and after that we walked to Little Italy (about a 2 mile walk). We went through Soho, Noho, Chelsea, Greenwich Village, and the East and West Villages on our way to Mulberry street and at our destination had a world famous cannoli. From there we walked to Spring Street where we went to "Rice to Riches," which is Ellen Degeneres' favorite "restaurant" in NYC and was in the film Hitch. We ate some rice pudding.



After stuffing our faces with more food we took a taxi to Lincoln Center.



We went into the Metropolitan Opera house and then went into Juilliard's library which had a lot of books about art- duh. We ventured to the lawn roof, which is a building that you can walk on top of it's roof that is a lawn- kind of cool. We then walked to Central Park and spent about two hours meandering around seeing all the major sights including the boat house, Bethesda Fountain, Sheep's Meadow (relaxed here for a good 30 minutes), and we also went to The Mall. After Central Park and walking at that point about 4-5 miles, walked back to my apartment. We watched some shark week and then we were off again. We went to In the Heights broadway lottery and didn't win, but got tickets, came back to the apartment (watched more shark week) and then Sarah had her first NYC pizza and broadway experience- very exciting. We went to Famous Famiglias for a "slice of pie" and then went to In The Heights.



It was good as always (3rd time seeing it). Actually, it was the best out of the three times I saw it- the original cast was back from L.A. I believe. After that we went through Time Square and then came back to my apartment where I slept on the comfortable floor :) In the morning we got up and I went to work. We were supposed to go to lunch, but I didn't have time so she came to my work to say goodbye and she got on a bus to Delaware. It was a great 24 hours! A lot of fun spending time with someone who wanted to come visit me :)

Pommes Frites and a tour of NYC

So on Sunday Night I went on an adventure with Emily. We went to "the other side" of town- Astor place. I went on a subway! I normally never go on a subway, only either walking or taxi, but anytime I go out with Emily (I am inserting a picture for reference)

Anyway, anytime I am with Emily I end up on a subway, which is good I guess because I wouldn't go on it if she didn't make me. Nonetheless, we went downtown to Astor place which has a lot of "hole-in-the-wall restaurants" including the heavenly place called Pommes Frites.



It is a place that only serves French Fries- a comfort food lover paradise. They have over 20 different sauces that you can choose from. I chose War Sauce, Wild Mushroom Mayo, and shared Parmesan Peppercorn. It was amazing! I had my French Fries and a milk shake from a Mr. Softee on the street. We then went to The Strand. A book store with new and used books that has 14 miles of books- there art section was out of this world! It was great. After browsing we went back home- on the subway again :)

Yacht Pictures

So I definitely had fun on the yacht.

A long post-(S)

So it has been a while since I have done a post, and a lot has happened in the past four days. I will start with last Wednesday and Thursday. I worked for a whopping 40 hours in 2 days, though I only did that in order to be allowed to take off Friday and Monday- and it was worth it. On Friday I took a train up to upstate NY to see and stay a night with my friend who I went to Pre- School and Elementary school with. It was great seeing him. While I was up there we went to lunch for my birthday and I asked him to bring me to both of the houses I used to live in. They are below:





The white house is the one I was born in (not literally) and the other one that is now maroon was just painted and looks horrible- it used to be yellow. My mom would have a heart attack! After seeing the houses I wanted to make one more stop. It was the house of a kid who I hadn't seen in eight years. We had grown up pretty much together, but lost contact. I went up to his door and knocked. It was as if I had never left. They immediately brought me in and I got to see his brother and sister who were 9 and 7 years old when I left- it was weird to say the least. I had dinner with them and we talked about how much fun we had when we were younger. We even went to a creek where we would alway fish and swim in:






Oh, by the way this is the kid who I haven't seen in eight years:



It was amazing. We were down by the creek and for the first time in A LONG TIME, even if it was for only an hour or so, I felt no stress at all and didn't remember a thing that was going on in my life. I felt as though I was 12 years old again and that I never left this place- it was amazing.

So after I said goodbye to him and his family, my friend and I went to the ice cream place that I went to almost every week during the summer throughout my childhood: Weirs



After a GREAT ice cream cone I went back and watched movies until like 3am- can I live like this always please? The next day I left my little less than 24 hour vacation by getting back on a train for Manhattan. When I got back I had only a little time because I had to get ready to get on a yacht. I was going on a Sloan- Kettering celebration for the first graduating class. Let's just put it this way- An experience I will never forget. It was a yacht all to us- only like 50 of us. These pictures might explain...

You can eat bamboo?

Okay so I had a really cool experience last night. My mentor and her husband along with their two friends brought me to another country. It is named Flushing, Queens. I have never really had Chinese food ever because I always refused to eat it when my family got it when I was younger and I guess that has always been the case, until last night. First we went to this "mall" kind of thing, which had acupuncturists instead of salons and herb stores instead of clothing stores. We went to their "food court," which consisted of 20 or so round tables all packed with asian- oh, I forgot to tell you that I was the only caucasian in this mall. All of the signs were in different dialects of Chinese with very if any small english translations under them. We walk up to this hole-in-the-wall noodle stand I am watching this very small television at the front of the line that is replaying an episode of some "places you have to eat-thing" on food network and it was all about how amazing these rice noodles supposedly were and how you couldn't get them anywhere other than China- it was pretty cool. So they ordered me something that I still have no clue what it was. All I know it was on top of rice noodles that were amazing (I ate it tonight)- very spicy, but amazing. So after we had this little venture to have some take out for me to try tonight we went to another take out place on the main street and they had bamboo? I never knew you could eat bamboo. Well, I had to try it and it was amazing! Supposedly it isn't as good anywhere else so they told me not to be disappointed if I tried it and didn't like it at another place. So we got bamboo for takeout and at this point I was confused. Were we going to eat this takeout or what? So we walk down the street and we get a table at this restaurant. This restaurant is a very different restaurant. It had no table clothes, just round wooden tables that you would see at a school chili cook-off. The place was packed! Again, I was the only caucasian and no one seemed to want to speak english. So we sit down and I look at the menu: fried frogs, lamb intestine, lamb stomach, lamb liver, live fish- served to the table ALIVE so that you can do what you please with it (where is PETA?), jellyfish, and live shrimp just to name a few. I told them I was up to try anything as long as it wasn't living when I ate it. So they ordered everything in Mandarin and I had no idea what we were getting. But, when it came... it was soooooooo good.

First course:

Fried whole fish. Yes, I ate this, but I supposedly left a lot of the good stuff- that's right, they ate the head.

Second course:

no one really told me what this was, but it was good.

Third course:

bamboo... it was soooo good

Fourth Course:

This was a rack of lamb? Or at least it was their version. It was covered in different seeds and spices that I have never tasted before- very good.

Fifth Course:

Pork, cabbage, and these noodles that were transparent. This was definitely my favorite.

Sixth Course:

This was the weirdest taste of them all. It was their version of goat meatballs in green carrot soup. Very interesting, but a very weird texture. Let's just say it was VERY fresh.

The people I was with explained to me that you couldn't get this kind of Chinese food anywhere in Manhattan, since most of the restaurants there were being run by second and third generation Chinese. Over the years the recipes change to accommodate American tastes. This results in the "Chinese-inspired" food that we are all accustomed to today. It was very interesting and very good food. I still don't think I will eat Chinese food unless I am in a similar situation.


I also wanted to include a couple pictures from the last couple days:


This is Logan (Jonathan and Cat's son) who is showing off the card that they brought me from Florida with all of the CF elementary kids "signatures" wishing me a Happy birthday- it was a huge card.


This was the night that I went to see South Pacific at the Lincoln Center- it was an amazing show and such a beautiful venue.


A couple Central Park Pictures:





A friend of mine from Sloan- Kettering with some of the cast from American Idiot- another show I saw this weekend. Let's just say it was very controversial.

Work and Stuff.

So I have been working a lot lately. Nothing really new has happened. I have been getting a lot of good data though, so that is always a good thing. Other than work I went to trivia night with friends- which was A LOT of fun! I had the best comfort foods. (I ate so much since I didn't eat for a 30 hour duration- no appetite?- weird.. especially for me) I had mac n' cheese with bacon and then had chicken quesadillas. It was soooo comforting :) Then tonight I went see South Pacific. I have seen it three previous times between college productions and the tour, but I have never seen anything like this. It was amazing. One of the best broadway shows I have seen. It was very "old" broadway. The orchestra were all in tuxedos and the audience was all dressed up- it was cool. I was one of the youngest in the audience too! It was truly amazing! I will leave you all with lyrics that I truly apply right now:

"One dream in my heart,

One love to be livin' for,
One love to be livin' for
This nearly was mine.

One girl for my dream,
One partner in paradise,
This promise of paradise
This nearly was mine.

Close to my heart she came
Only to fly away,
Only to fly as day flies from moonlight
Now, now I'm alone,
Still dreamin' of paradise,
Still sayin' that paradise
Once nearly was mine.

I'll keep rememberin' kisses
From lips I've never owned,
And all that lovely adventures
That we have never known.

One dream in my heart,
One love to be livin' for,
One love to be livin' for
This nearly was mine.

Close to my heart she came
Only to fly away,
Only to fly as day flies from moonlight.

Now, now I'm alone,
Still a-dreamin' of paradise,
Still sayin' that paradise
Once nearly was mine!"

Playing catch up.

So I have not updated the blog in a "while," or so I am told. I have been working pretty much every day for many hours trying to get as much done as I can. I went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday and then went to Sheep's meadow. It was nice. Learned my car was in an accident this past weekend. My sister is okay, but the car has some damage so we will see how that all works out. I went to dinner last night with my high school French teacher and her husband, which was fun. Not in a very talkative mood. I guess we will see what happens in the next few days.

Birthday Recap.

Okay, so I am going to vent. I know whining is not a good thing, but I need to write this stuff down and since I can't physically talk about it to anyone at the moment, why not write it down digitally for the world to see, right? Anyway, I must preface today with just notifying everyone that I had a pretty horrible day yesterday... very depressing to the extent of me literally running 2 hours straight in any direction that had the walk-way signal illuminated (I also ended up in Central Park at like 10pm.. not an advisable thing to do).

Today was my birthday. I woke up a little earlier than normal because my grandmother called and left her annual message of her singing happy birthday for me with my grandfather. One of the best things ever, and I anticipate it every year. So I got ready and went to work where I had to prepare for a very important meeting with my boss. Had the meeting and it went well. No screaming or tearing ideas apart, which was a good thing. From there I went for a quick lunch with my post-doc mentor and ate in the park, which was very nice. I then decided I would "reward" myself for my birthday by going to the 15th floor of the hospital and play the piano, which I got to do for a good 30 minutes, which relieved a lot of stress for the moment. I went back to the lab and worked for about 1 hour before I had a lab meeting, which was very long, but they did get me a cake. I then had about another hour of work before I had to go to Journal Club and do a presentation with a partner on a publication for a little over an hour. I have had so much on my mind lately that I feel like I did not do as well as I could have. I couldn't think throughout the presentation, which was pretty bad. All in all, the presentation went okay, but it could have been so much better. After Journal club I had a mission to go out to a nice dinner, that's all I really wanted. Before that could become a reality I had to go back to the lab in order to finish more cell culture and prepare protocols for this Saturday (a good 6-8 hours of work ahead of me). Well, we kept working and before I knew it I read the clock and it was already 9 p.m.. So I walked home and arrived around 9:30 to an empty apartment. I went to a couple rooms to see if anyone was there and no one answered. I waited for about 10 minutes and my roommate came home from dinner. So I decided to venture out on my own, which I have to admit is very depressing, especially on your birthday. Nonetheless, I walked down a couple streets to a sushi restaurant and had a couple delicious sushi rolls... lobster/mango and tuna/salmon... amazing. I then went to get gelato :)

So I guess my birthday wasn't too bad. I got to play the piano, had cake and a nice dinner. The interesting thing I have realized is that is really stinks not having someone to actually share your birthday with. It's one thing to have a million people say Happy Birthday to you, but what makes birthday's the best is making memories with people that will last a long time. I felt like today I really didn't have any of those moments, which is kind of depressing. So that was my day...

Birthday

So today is my birthday. I'm in the lab getting ready for a meeting with my boss. With my fingers crossed the meeting will go well. Then later on today after my day in the lab I have a Journal Club presentation to do. Let's hope this day goes well!

More Plays

So yesterday we woke up and decided to try to see if we could get tickets for another show. We ended up getting 6th and 7th row center to see La Cage Aux Folles for a matinée. The show is by far one of my favorites. After that show we went to see if we could win the lottery at In The Heights, since my sister really wanted to see the show. We didn't win, but instead went to an amazing Italian restaurant on Restaurant Row. SOOOOOO Good! (I had homemade artichoke gnocchi). We went back to the hotel pretty early and my family got lots of sleep- I on the other hand did not. I think I went to sleep around 3 am? We woke up pretty early to go and try out Times Square Church, which was very interesting- I combination between Christ Fellowship and what you would see on TV on the "church" channel. A little too "showy" for me. After that I went back to the hotel and my family went on a walk where they saw that the lottery for In the Heights was just about to end (3 minutes left), so they entered and both my grandmother and sister won tickets so we all got to sit in the front row for a whopping $27.50. This was my second time seeing this show and I have to say that it was great yet again- there were a couple of cast changes and I think some were positive and some were negative. After the show I convinced my family to go to the small French restaurant that Amanda's grandmother brought me to a couple weeks ago- Le Charlot. We just got back to the hotel now and I am really tired. We have been going nonstop. Tomorrow my family leaves and my life goes back to "normal." I have attached a few pictures of my sister's new crush: the guy who is from the original cast of In The Heights... oh, and Corbin Bleu.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears... Oh My

So today my family got here. I was woken up at 10 am from the text from my mother saying that they were here. My sister, mother and grandmother came to somewhat celebrate my birthday (somewhat because they will not actually be here on my birthday). We started the day off with going to the one thing everyone wanted: a diner. We had our breakfast foods and they wanted me to give them a tour of Sloan- Kettering. Side note: my grandmother is on the phone with my grandfather (they have been married 57 years), and she is telling him how much she misses him... and how much she loves him. It makes me happy to know that kind of relationship exists :) Anyway, I gave them a tour of the hospital and lab where I work and then we slept back at the hotel for a couple hours. We went to the Wicked lottery and there were over 200 people all trying to sign up for the lottery. Although odds were against us, I guess the crowd didn't know the power of prayer :) My little 80 year old grandma was in the back of the crowd leaning against a support beam praying and all of a sudden they called her name. Simultaneously the entire crowd looked back and started cheering for her as they parted a way for her to come to the front. It was very cool and my grandmother and sister sat first row center. My mother and I had to pay a whopping $126 a ticket, but we were also lucky since we were in the sixth row center (normally a $300 ticket). All in all it was a great time. My grandmother loved the show and couldn't get over how creative it was. For me, this was the fourth time seeing Wicked and I would have to say they did a great job. Tomorrow we have a full itinerary planned, so I think some sleep is in order. Here is a picture to leave you with.

I'm going to have a day off!

So today was a great... but a little unproductive day. We had seminars pretty much the entire day between the Grad Student presentations and journal club, so I was not able to be in my lab meeting today and really was not in the lab much at all. But what made this day so amazing is that my data for the past week was presented to my boss and she was so happy about how much we got done that I was given the day off tomorrow! Woohoo! My family is coming tomorrow also, so that is going to be great!

Exhaustion

I am still in the lab and I am beyond exhausted. Couldn't sleep much last night and haven't been sleeping very well for the past couple of days. All I would like to do right now is to curl up in a ball in a corner and go to sleep. I have about 3 more hours of work here if I am lucky. I am not sure if I will be able to remain awake for all of that time. Tomorrow is going to be a very long day also with many meetings in the morning and seminars in the afternoon.

In the Heights

So we ended up going to see In the Heights starring Corbin Bleu. We actually won the broadway lottery so we got to sit in front row for $27. It was truly ridiculous. I was actually told by an usher not to touch the stage. Kind of funny. But anyway, the play was great! I went into the theatre thinking that there was no way that Corbin Bleu would be able to pull this part off, and to tell you the truth the first half I really wasn't that impressed with him. The second part though was amazing (in regards to his acting). The entire show was so entertaining, uplifting, and soooooooooooooooo high energy. I was tired just watching. The dancing and choreography was great. Afterwards we waited and I have to say the cast were the most caring actors I have ever seen. They spent SO much time taking pictures with everyone and signing. Literally I think a couple of them stayed for a good 40 minutes. Cynthia (the girl who I went with from the Sloan- Kettering program) and I took advantage of this:

He really was a great and caring person and I have to say he is the first person on broadway I have seen put in his bio in a playbill that he has to thank God. That I have to say puts him above a lot of others, since not many people would have that kind of courage to bring their religion into it. Nice guy.