watch the skies

First of all, congrats to you all for posting more times than we did all last summer. yay, success! I'm glad to read that all of your summers are going well so far. Your adventures are all amazing and hope they continue in that magnificent fashion and that you'll share the exciting news with us all.

It only took me forever, but I'm finally mostly adjusted and settled here.. My room is approximately 1/3 of my room at LMF, with a sink, and a view of the bus terminal, another dorm, and one of the buildings I work in. The weather is still unfailingly hot and humid, but thankfully it cools down when it rains. Speaking of which, the thunderstorms here are epic!! and occur fairly often. Thunder that grumbles and cracks, shaking the very core of my soul, as it wakes me up in the early hours of the morning with the sunlight peeking over the hill making the sky just bright enough for my bleary eyes to know that it's morning, but not bright enough to motivate me to keep them open for much longer, and they wander back towards sleep.. and then FLASH! lightning covering my entire vision, just before my eyes fully shut and jolting me awake. so I fumble for my glasses to see what absurd hour this thunder has demanded I wake up. My watch reads 6:02am. Ehh, close enough to a normal time to wake up, and upon closer inspection of the chaos that lingers outside my window, I notice the unsettling lack of rain falling from the sky. And so it continued, this bizarre rumble and flash combination for 2 hours before the sky properly opened and poured its guts to allow the waterfall to come down. and continue pouring, and pouring, and some more because you can obviously fit that much water in those ominous grey clouds, and then when you think it's almost done, it falls even harder. Needless to say, I didn't exactly want to be drenched, so I spent part of the day marathoning Doctor Who and reading Diary of a Wimpy Kid.

Here are some pictures of Singapore that I owe you all, but unfortunately I don't have any of the thunderstorms, not that they would turn out all that well. Most of the photos I have are pictures of orchids from visiting the orchid and botanical gardens last weekend, like these.
What would you call this color?








And we went exploring in the the forests in Sentosa... and as a result, I obtained many bug bites [not pictured: large, flying bugs that like to eat me]. This is a weird/cool plant in the forest... There is also a large copy of The Thinker, statue of the Merlion, Universal Studios, beach, luge-type ride, and other touristy things in Sentosa.







This is the top of a Hindu temple that we saw, while wandering through Chinatown looking for dim sum.












This is the Art and Science museum at Marina Bay Sands. It's the one that looks like a flower, not the hotel on the left. There was a really cool exhibition on Van Gogh, who now automatically reminds me of Doctor Who. On the right are a few buildings from the financial district.







Work is alright, learning some stats analysis to study cortisol circadian rhythms, how to read different MRI scans and identify strokes, infarcts, atrophy, etc. Every Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon, I get to be a wallflower and observe in the memory clinic and watch doctors determine whether or not patients have dementia. My keen observational skills have allowed me to conclude: Some old people are really cute. Others are not. Many are demented. Most have memory problems and are cognitively impaired. And a few are just plain delusional or depressed or cranky, but not demented. :] but you all already knew that.

I finally got around to trying the bubble tea (specifically caramel milk tea and plum green tea), and I do have to say it's absolutely, fantastically, brilliantly, wonderful and now I have ridiculously high standards and utterly addicted. ^.^

Also, last night I was lucky enough to finally get to see a lunar eclipse!! :D well part of it: at 3am, I woke up to see it disappear from 2/3 full to nothing, but there was an unfortunate large cloud that came in just as it was fully eclipsed, so I wasn't able to see the rest.. All the photos I tried to take turned out horrible, so the moon turned into a splotchy, whitish unknown shape. But in essence this is what I watched for 40+min: The grey stuff is the large, annoying cloud eating the moon and disrupting my view.

Laura in Germany

Yo. I am in Germany.

This is how I got here:

In case you can't tell, that's plane, airport, plane, train. Then there was another train, but it was uglier, so I didn't draw it. The train that I did draw was pretty cool. It went along a river which may have been the Rhine. Sometimes if you looked out the window there were castles. No big deal. I didn't take pictures of them because I didn't want the four bike-tripping Hamburgers (not hamburgers) I was sitting with to think I was THAT much of a tourist. But they were pretty cool, which is why I drew you a picture.

I arrived here after two nights of sleeping on airplanes. Because I couldn't get my key from the housemaster until the beginning of the next week (surprise!) I stayed with an American exchange student who was nice enough to put up with me for the weekend. Then on Tuesday morning I went and talked to the Hausmeister in German and got my key and moved into my very own room. I am living in a dorm and it smells like smoke and sometimes looks like it too, and I am not sure how to flush the toilet properly all the time. Fortunately, the smell of cigarettes reminds me of Europe and Costco, and I am getting better at the toilet thing, so I am quite happy with my situation. My room has a sink and a view of the park. Also, after an hour and a half-long wash cycle in the German washing machine, my socks have never been cleaner.

It's a pleasant half-hour stroll into the city, made pleasanter by a stop at the bakery for some breakfast bread, where I've been going every morning for German classes-- our real work hasn't started yet, so things are pretty chill. In the afternoons, sometimes we go on planned adventures.

I don't have any good pictures of the climbing forest. As you can't see, the climbing forest consists of obstacle courses suspended from trees, including lots of logssuspended from cables, ziplines, a sled, and other scary things. I did not fall once.

Last Thursday we went to the three country corner. I don't understand why this is a big deal, because Europe has lots of three country corners, but it was fun.

See? This was the best of three attempts at a heel-click photo. You can't see my feet, but it is safe for you t

o assume that my heels are six inches off the ground and clicking. As you can see, the three countries represented were Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany.

The three country corner happens to be a stone's throw away from the highest point in the Netherlands, 327.5 meters tall. I have climbed the tallest mountain in a whole country. Shh, don't hate.

We climbed a tower while we were there, because, as the reverend Mother said, "Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream," and she was right. We were greeted at the top by this dreamy view:

The red thing pointing towards Belgium is a telescope.

From the tower we could also see a rooftop upon which a multitude of obese cats were napping. I have included a picture of them, and also one of some friendly German cows we encountered, because cows and cats are kind of a thing for my posts.

Abundant adventures in Ann Arbor

Hey y'all! I've been back in Ann Arbor for three weeks now, which has proved to be enough time to make me feel completely at home - ie, I went through the crazy motions of seeing everyone I needed to the first week, and have been able to rofl about and do nothing for the last two weeks. This is only partially true, however, as I have been doing some manner of things...

Two weekends ago I went down to Chicago to visit two friends of mine at UChicago, which was a blast. I will add my testimony to the beauty of its campus to that of countless others - it's gorgeous, although I'm told it's only this pretty in the spring/summer. Ah well. We went out for food on that Friday, where I had the most delicious thing called tartare, which y'all have probably heard of, but I hadn't. I totally didn't know that raw beef was a thing, but it's delicious.

In my time at home, I spent a good week or so watching Doctor Who almost continuously. For the first couple of days I took breaks every now and then, and for the last couple of days, I gave up on the breaks idea and just watched episodes. So now I am all caught up and madly in love with the series. I also feel that Doctor Who has re-awakened the part of me that loves little-kid things - I spent last night re-reading all the kid lit in my small bookshelf in my room (The Secret Garden is one of the best books ever). Oh, and whenever I watch an episode I'm able to shift my speech patterns slightly British which drives my sister crazy and makes my mother look at me somewhat askance. Fun stuff.

I have also spent a good amount of time wandering around the UMich campus. When I say that three weeks has been enough time for me to feel at home again, I really mean that I finally have time to hang out on campus again (I kind of grew up on campus, so...). It's made difficult by the filming crews that are not supposed to be everywhere, but have been everywhere I've tried to go... they're filming some rom-com involving Jason Segel and Emily Blunt around here. When I saw the fake snow lying around I was confused, and when I saw the Psychology Building sign moved to the front of the graduate library I was perturbed. Also, there's always a bunch of people watching the film crew, which is a little bit like running into a band of tourists in the Infinite in that I really want to tell them to get out of the way but really shouldn't do that... so I don't. Thankfully they haven't invaded the math department, so I have consumed an inordinate number of bubble teas in the Math Common Area, which is my favorite place to get work done.

Because yes, I have work. Specifically, I've been trying to prepare for Germany. We were told not to do too much preparation until the schools got back to us and okay'ed our proposed modules, but the schools just got back to us last week. So now I am going to develop 5 modules in the next week. But that'll be fine. :) I have had several skype-meetings with my Germany team, which are usually pretty long because we get distracted. For example, the other day we started talking about aliens, and then aliens who speak Chinese...

Anyway... can anyone help me think of ways to make my modules fun? I'm teaching RLC circuits, Gyroscopic motion with applications, basics of relativity (like Lorentz transformations), aerospace applications of mechanics, and genetics. Personally I always have fun taking notes with an enthusiastic lecturer, but I'm under the impression that my students this summer will want something more interactive... any suggestions would be welcome.

Adrienne told me I had to be the first one to post twice, which I have now accomplished. In other news, I will be back in Boston on Tuesday, and I will fly out from Boston on Thursday. I'm very excited to see the summer residents, which I believe will be Shaun, Juan, Ben, Sophie, Daniel, and Anna at that point in time. :) Things I need to do before then include finishing my packing, cleaning my room (it got messy again), finding my passport, and playing tennis.

Greetings from a little-known place (MIT...it's funny, cause you all live here during the year...see?)

Hi all!  It’s Sophie.  I apologize in advance for what will surely be a very VERY long-winded and possibly incoherent post.  In order to minimize hazardous effects (perhaps?), I will divvy it up into artificially constructed categories: UROP, cooking/music/other junk, and campus/LMF people and adventures.  See?  Not so bad.

UROP:  This said thing is going alright.  For those of you who don’t know, I’m working in a course 1 lab, specifically, the Laboratory for Atomistic and Molecular Mechanics.  It’s a group that does computer simulations of molecules.  The grad student whom I am working for is doing a project focused on defects (specifically, atomic vacancies) in carbon nanotubes, and how these defects affect the overall mechanical properties of the tube.  The motivation is that, in order to use CNTs for most practical applications, like materials for instance, you’ve gotta scale up from single tubes.  However, as soon as you start crosslinking multiple tubes, you’re going to introduce defects into the single tubes... question is, can the ultimate material still have the desirable properties of CNTs, in spite of inherent defects?  From what I understand, the ultimate goal of simulating these defects is to better understand all this stuff.  We’re also trying to see whether St. Venant’s principle (utilized mainly for large engineering structures like bridges) holds for CNTs as well…if you wanna know what this is, ask me and I’ll try to explain.  No guarantees though…I’m actually pretty ashamed at how superficially I comprehend the project.  But moving on…so far, my job has been this:  Take pre-written script for perfect CNT that stretches the virtual tube and outputs stress strain: delete random atom from coordinate file (i.e the “defect”).  Run simulation.   Wait 4 hours.  Graph stress/strain in excel, both for entire CNT and just for defect region.  Look at visual representation of simulation run in molecular visualization program.  Take pretty snapshots of said visualization.  Rinse and repeat, only with more deleted atoms.  Annoying thing was, the code my supervisor gave me did some funky things…instead of just getting stretched to the breaking point in the axial direction like it was supposed to, the tube just looked at me, and was all like “what up, dog, you think I’m gonna follow a SCRIPT??  Think again”, and instead promptly kinked 90 degrees and exploded into a million little carbon atoms (made for some entertaining visualizations though).  I take great comfort in the fact that this was NOT MY FAULT.  In any case, we finally got it running “correctly” (note the quotations) yesterday, so at least we’re starting to make some progress.  It’s interesting work, though sometimes the slowness, and the fact that I’m not making huge leaps and bounds doing ultracool things, while not at all surprising, is a tiny bit frustrating.  My subconscious self has gotten a kick out of some of the conversations Shaun and I have had about our UROPs.  They go something like this (I’m paraphrasing just a tiny bit).

Sophie:  What did you do in your UROP today Shaun?

Shaun:  It was amazing…I disproved the theory of ultra-dilation of the neuronal octagonal cortex and read 20 peoples’ minds today. [like I said, paraphrasing, coming from a layperson completely clueless about cog sci.  Translation to said person’s brain: REALLY AWESOME COOL STUFF]

Shaun:  What did you do today Sophie?

Sophie:..Um, well, today, the nanotube bent counterclockwise.  Yesterday it bent clockwise.

Ah well.  It’s still pretty cool, in spite of my jabs.  My direct supervisor (i.e the grad student) is super chill and just an all-around pleasant person to be around.  Also amusing at times.  Case in point:  A few days ago, I realized after I went home that I sent a simulation to the wrong directory, and emailed him asking him what to do.  At 2 am I got this reply:

“We’ll deal with it tomorrow.  Just got back from the Bruins game.  Half drunk.  We won 8-1.  WAHHOOOOOO!!!!!”

Like I said.  Awesome guy.

And now for some nanotube pictures:

Before breaking

Mid-break

Cooking/Music/other junk (this section’s shorter, I promise):  So, this Summer I’m cooking exclusively vegetarian food (still eat meat at restaurants though).  So far it’s gone fairly well, though I’m getting a bit sick of tofu and tempeh stir fry.  Next up is fried rice, then spaghetti squash.  Note:  Mashed sweet potatoes with a bit of cinnamon are AMAZING, fyi.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of Marilyn Manson (nee Bryan Warner) lately.  Most of his original songs are absolute garbage, but he does some nice covers.  I’ve also watched a few interviews with him, and he actually comes across as a moderately intelligent, well-spoken, almost polite man.  Go figure.  I always find it surprising when modern celebrities appear to have IQs higher than two year olds, specially an, ahh, interesting celebrity such as himself. 

But for more interesting music-related news:  When I went home after finals, my mom showed me some youtube videos of the band Dog Leather.  This is a “music group” (that’s not the right word for it, but sure, whatever) lead by my second cousin, Max.  They’re actually moderately successful and recently toured in Europe if I’m correct.  They’re…fascinating…don’t know what else to say.  My dad’s response for one of the videos was this: “Ellen, reboot the computer…something’s wrong with the sound.”  Mom: “No.  That’s the music”.  Here’s a link to a music video they did.  My cousin’s the guy with the dark hair and moustache…watch at your own risk. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9S1Ket6-gTk

And you guys wonder about my little quirks.

And finally, campus/lmf people:  Ok, so I’m actually kind of sad about how little people seem to interact here over the summer.  I was hoping to, ya know, be all social-like and meet some cool friends outside of LMF, but most people keep their doors shut all the time here.  The two events organized by our RA were canceled due to lack of interest (Shaun and I were the only people who expressed interest in going to the zoo…seriously, guys??).  Hopefully it’ll pick up as more people arrive on campus?  I dunno.  In any case, Shaun, Ben, Daniel and I are back on campus, and Juan and Anna will both be here by Saturday.  Then Sumin’s coming in a week…super excited!! J  Also, Shaun, Ben and I had an exciting adventure around Boston last night (see facebook for details).  We also came to the conclusion that, out of all the possible permutations/combinations of 3 people in the world, the group of Shaun, Ben and Sophie is quite possibly THE WORSE combination to go out into the city together without external supervision…none of us will make decisions.  As a consequence, when we get lost, knowing can decide which route to try or who to ask for help, so instead we just keep walking (the earth’s round…we’ll get back at SOME POINT, right?)  Nevertheless, it was very, very fun, and hilarity and ridiculousness abounded.

Ok, that’s finally it (whew).  I miss all of you guys a lot.  Keep posting!  <3