BEDUS Day 37: Terrifying Ursine Friends (or Happy Valentine's Day from New York)

There are those people who say that Valentine's Day is a holiday for overeager consumers and money-hungry corporations to consummate their marriage of convenience through the distribution of anatomically incorrect hearts, dopamine-inducing pellets of sugar, and plushy versions of our actually quite terrifying ursine friends. They say that true love does not need a day to acknowledge its nature, that you should shower your significant others (and...less significant others?) with affection every day of the year.

And they're absolutely right.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't celebrate love on this day right, because, we should celebrate love every day. And on today, when I was eating a sushi with names like Sweetheart Roll, Sex on the Beach Roll, and Iron Chef Roll, with people I didn't know, I had a moment of intense longing for my sweetheart, and I wished that he could be with me to laugh at the Iron Chef Roll, or the creme brulee that actually turned out to be ice cream or the ridiculously awesome Rockefeller University apartment.

Don't get me wrong; the day was fun, and on any other day I might have just let it go, but looking at my heart-shaped tuna and knowing that 83 miles away, my best friend was not looking at my heart-shaped tuna gave me pause. So before I go to sleep in this intensely hot hotel room, I give you this, my darling. Words cannot say how much you mean to me and how much I miss you at this moment. You've given me so very many happy moments (including tonight!) and I can't wait to see you tomorrow, to hear your voice, and to give you a big hug. So I'll let these grainy pictures do the talking for me.

BEDUS Day 36: For Reals This Time

Ok no more cop-out lame blogs. At least, this one won't be because I'm finally settled back in and have finished my midterm and all I have left is...oh wait, I leave for New York tomorrow morning and I've got to make a poster by Thursday and I've got several books to read. Oh. The life is never done. :)

From the two interview weekends I've had, I can say this: interviewing is exhausting. You've got to have your brain in the right place 100% of the time and your cool face on 100% of the time. It's super interesting to get away from school and see the cool science that's being done out there and the people who are doing it, but it's not a vacation. You're not there to sight-see. It's "figure-out-your-life" time.

The New York interview will be number 3 of 4, and the rest are all visits, which are definitely more like professional vacations, but at the same time, also like business meetings. What is cool is that I'll be seeing the same people on my trips, kinda the Chemistry/Biology circuit, which is super exciting. It's also exciting when you meet people who know the same people as you. Craaazy.

I can't believe it's already mid-February and BEDUS is more than half over. It's been a whirlwind of a semester for sure and I'm excited to have some time to look back at my days and see what I was thinking. It's been really good for me to put something out every day (even when technically, it's the next day), just to capture my frame of mind. And my frame of mind is now this: I've showered, am snuggly in bed, and am going to catch some Once Upon a Time before going to sleep. Leaving in the morning! :D

BEDUS Day 35: Still Counts

Kelsey's Belated Birthday Party
Ate at BAR: Meatballs, Sundried Tomatoes, Mozzarella
Had Cake with Friends who Hid Well
Had Cava (Spanish Champagne)
Talked with Max, Kiara, Chelsea; Fun Times
Freaking Stuck on Midterm
GAH.

BEDUS Day 34: 1:33 AM

It's been a long day. I got back to my room at 1:15 AM and it was a much more relaxed day but more of a walking day than the day before. I have a bunch of thoughts in my mind that are all jumbled up and I've written them down on paper, but in short: I've been impressed. I love the students, love the professors, love J and S and really bonded with my fellow interviewees. I'm going to miss these people when I go back to school, but I also am excited to see my friends at school and Kelsey again and more excited about my prospective future.

Getting up in a few hours so time to get ready for bed.

Will philosophize more to myself later.

BEDUS Day 33: Decompression

Another round of
Interviews. Afterwards I
Decompressed myself.

It's not that I was
Nervous or anything. But
I was. (a little)

Met people I have
Held in esteem. Also those
I know will go far.

Body needs rest, again.
Tomorrow touring, snowing.
Hope my feet stay warm.

BEDUS Day 32: The Most Massive Bed

I'm in Cambridge now, took the Amtrak down, and am currently residing in a room with the most massive hotel bed ever. It's nice having my own room so I have a little bit of freedom as to when to wake up and go to sleep and don't have to be worried about the schedule of another person, especially during interview season, but I realize that having a roommate also keeps me on track. I've been rather leisurely reading about the research being done here (which is insanely cool, oh my goodness) and now, it's suddenly 11:30 and way past the time I should have gone to sleep.

The trip down was nice. I've never taken Amtrak before, and it was...a train with better seats. I would have taken some pictures or something but I ended up in the "quiet car" and it was super awkward to take out my camera when the woman next to me was sleeping. Alas.

I also had a great dinner, which I'm sure I will not remember after this night so I will note it here. There was meat. It was stacked like a jenga puzzle. And blue cheese. And arugula. (You see how tired I am right now). The jenga meat was really good. As was the cheese. (Love me some cheese.)

Alright, to bed, to bed, then to tomorrow!

BEDUS Day 31: Wine, Violas, and Pianos

Today was an absolutely amazing day. Not only did I get to visit Yale's musical instruments collection, I got to have a wonderful dinner while learning about food and wine pairings. So one at a time.

For this week's Treasures at Yale class, we went to the Yale Musical Instruments Collection, which is a little known collection that has it's own home. I've walked by this building many, many times and have always wanted to go in, but I've never had the time (it's only open from 1-4 PM on Tues-Fri and 1-5 PM on Sun). I've been very curious to know what's inside, especially because the Yale Concert Band played a concert with a hecklephone (basically a bass oboe), of which there are only 3 functioning ones in the United States. 

So, I was really excited to go see the instruments. And it was so worth it. Being a string player myself, I was super excited to see the strings. We saw a piccolo cello, so named because it played the higher registers of the cello that weren't accessible to musicians who didn't play higher than third position on the cello, that had a flat back and a lion's head scroll. We also saw (and got to hold) a Stradivarius that had never been revarnished (freaking awesome) and got to see a Viola D'Amore. This so-called "viola of love" had blind cupid inscribed on the scroll, flame holes, seven bowed strings, and seven sympathetic strings which vibrated below the fingerboard.  It was thought that the viola originated from the Middle East and what we call flame holes today were actually reminiscent of Islamic swords. Awesome. We also got to see and hear a piano, harpsichord, and clavichord, which never get removed from the upstairs of the collection.

Finally, at night, I was privileged to be a part of the Yale Reality Bites series, a food series that's dedicated to teaching seniors about food after college. I probably won't be able to afford the likes of the food and wine we ate until long after I graduate, but it was a really nice dinner that taught me a lot about the nuances of wine and the changing flavors that food brings out in wine. We had five wines...

...a Cabernet, a Pinot Noir, a Chardonnay, a Sauvignon Blanc (my favorite), and a Cava (a Spanish bubbly wine). We tried each on its own, then each with a four course dinner consisting of an arugula, pear, and walnut salad with gorgonzola cream on the side, striped bass on a bed of the most delicious white beans I have ever eaten, chicken in a tomato sauce with a crust of toasted and salted bread (so good!), and a spicy lamb stew. It was, in a word, delicious, and in another word, delectable. Also, there was a raffle and I won a bottle of the Cava! Saving it for Kelsey's birthday/Valentine's day!!

That's all for tonight. Tomorrow I go to Boston!