I made it to Yale.. now what?

Busy never felt like this before. I feel like there is normal busy.. and then there is grad student busy.. and then there is grad student with child busy.. but thankfully I am not that busy. I don’t know how they do it..

During the first few weeks I found myself sitting in my lab space like “I made it to Yale.. now what?” Before grad school, I thought I would begin doing science right away when actually, I am just reading.. so hopefully, I am doing this research thing right. But these past couple weeks, shit got real. My schedule is so full. Not only do I have to learn things in grad classes, I have to teach things, and then go to seminars, and meetings. This leaves little gaps of 20 minutes to an hour in between to do research.. That being said, grad school has been a great learning experience in time management.

So in addition to time management, here are some other things I have learned from grad school so far:

1. No need to buy pricey probiotics from the drug store; you can drink your own fecal sample!

I know... who suggests stuff like that?? This was a real-life conversation that happened to me. In the café of the library on science hill, I learned from a girl (who was being completely serious) how to help my stomach gain back its normal flora by using simple, every-day practices in the lab. First you bring in a fecal sample to the lab and then you place that fecal sample in a centrifuge. Spin it until the globby parts are separated from the fluid parts, decant, and drink”, she made a motion as if she was taking a shot, “It is so simple and inexpensive. It can be done right in the lab!” I thought this was a joke. I laughed. She stared. It was awkward. Then I wondered how she knew this. Oh god. Bad mental image.

2. Some people actually think the library is a good place to bring babies.

To all the grad student parents out there: I know we have a tight budget with our grad student stipends, and if you have a child, it is probably even tighter. But if you can’t afford a babysitter so you can study in the library, maybe you should stay home and study. There is no children’s book section in the science hill library. And there is a lack of carpet to absorb noises in the section with the comfy couches. The library is a quiet place. And I know you think your baby's coos and shrieks of happiness are bringing everybody in the library joy, but truthfully, my biology is set up to become alert and respond to baby noises. I cannot focus on learning Fisher’s fundamental theorem with all those high pitch screeches reverberating around the library.

3. Just because it is Yale, doesn't mean that all the undergrads make good choices.

Trust me, one of my good friend lives right next to a frat house.. I am often at her place when the shenanigans happen. One time we were in the kitchen of her second story apartment and we looked out the window and saw a bunch of mostly naked drunk guys covered in mud tossing a ball on a trampoline.. hmmm

4.  (This one is more serious) it is okay to ask questions.

People say there is no such thing as a stupid question. But, sometimes it feels like questions are a good way to expose my professor and peers to my stupidity. What if the question I am about to ask was covered in the reading, but I glossed over it? Will the professor assume I didn't do the reading? And when I do get up the courage to ask a question and the professor explains it to me, should I nod even though it still doesn’t make sense, or should I fumble around with my words some more.. maybe I don’t even understand it well enough to ask a clear question. I have been forcing myself to ask questions though. I am getting more comfortable, but I still feel my cheeks get warm and my heart race when I go through this internal struggle. But then I am reminded when I am teaching my section, that I like it when students ask lots of questions. I never think that they are stupid even when they ask the most basic of questions. It actually makes me feel like they are interested. Like, they really want to learn the material. In fact, it is more frustrating to get a bunch of blank stares than to get a lot of questions. This is probably one of the more valuable things I have learned so far.

Anyways, although I feel quite busy, I still worked in some fun times this weekend. I went apple picking and then scuba diving in Cape Ann, Mass. I saw seals, lobsters, and ate a raw scallop right from the shell (which was quite delicious) just like an otter :D Speaking of otters, this week is sea otter awareness week!! Yaay! So be aware!

9 poor choices that I make on a (near) daily basis

Hello friends! This past weekend my mom and sister came to visit. It was wonderful to see them. I gave them a tour of campus, my lab, and went to the bookstore and stocked up on Yale goodies (my sister got a hoodie, my mom got my dad a t-shirt.. I am poor and got them key-chains as gifts, but those alone were 7 dollars each!). It was nice having them around and to show them I can do this whole adult thing. But then when they had to leave, I was reminded of how home sick I actually am. No matter how adult I feel, I still want my mommy. This is my first time living this far away from home (3,000 miles). And what is even harder is I don’t know if I will ever live close to home again. On the brighter side, only 3 months until winter break! I can’t wait!

Also while my mom and sister were here, we painted my living room! Yay! Here are some photos of my apartment.

The lovely mansion 

I love the new paint color in the living room so much. It was all white before. It didn’t feel that inviting. Now it is a wonderful place to relax. I just need to get furniture! And there is my sister in her new hoodie!

The boring dining room..

My favorite part of my apartment is the huge kitchen window.

So if I had to give myself a grade on how I am doing at being an adult, I would give myself a B+. For the most part, I feel like I have it down. I pay my bills on time. I clean regularly. But there are some areas that could use some improvement. After reading a buzzfeed article on decisions twentysomethings are bad at, I decided to make a list of my own.

Some examples of the decisions I have trouble with (#8 is the one I struggle with the most.. which is extra bad because is probably the most serious of them all..):

1. Go to bed on time, or watch back-to-back Psych episodes on Netflix until 3 am

2. Immediately address an email, or star it so I don’t forget about it and forget about it anyway

3. Work out at the gym, or work out why my bed is suddenly so comfortable

4. Make a home-made, healthy meal, or make ramen via the microwave and add frozen vegetables to the broth to trick myself into thinking that this is a healthy choice

5. Plan a budget, or spend a disproportionate amount of money on alcohol and clothes

6. Put laundry away right after it is done drying, or let it sit in the basket for a few hours and later try to get the wrinkles out using my hair-dryer.

7. Put my phone on the charger at night, or sleep in because my phone died and didn’t set off an alarm to wake me up.

8. Check that I have all of my belongings with me as I leave a restaurant, or suddenly become stricken with panic as I realize several minutes after I left, I don't have my purse/phone.

9. Eat breakfast at the kitchen table or opt for my comfy bed and then desperately try to wash orange juice out of my comforter with hand soap in my bathroom sink

Seriously! Why do I continue to do these things?? While my life would be infinitely easier if I didn't make these choices, in some ways it keeps it interesting.. like every time #8 happens (which is much more often than you might think) all the sudden my life becomes a scene from an Indiana Jones movie as I race back to the restaurant hopping over tables to save my precious phone from a person with malicious intentions about to snatch it up! Actually, I have never lost my phone or purse this way. Every time it is either still there or someone has turned it in to the hostess.. this restores my faith in humanity a little.

Okay, I am off to get ready with a friend for tonight's Yale speed dating event. Not for me of course. I am happily taken :). But a few of my friends are participating and a few that are not participating will also be going with (plus, it is two for one drinks night!). Apparently it sells out every year, so it should be a lot of fun! As a behavioral ecologist, I can't wait to people-watch this. 

Step aside, I'm a scientist

Hope you all enjoyed your Labor Day weekend! For me, this weekend was full of beach going, paper reading, and more graduate student events/parties including 3 barbecues and one Ivy League douche party. I am not making the name of that last one up. That is literally what it was titled by the graduate student event coordinators. Basically you get all gussied up and fancy, then go to said douche party. A couple friends and I decided this would be really fun to go to because A) we never have an excuse to get fancy and B) the alcohol was super cheap. However, when we got there, we were directed to the stuffy, low ceilinged, pipe-covered basement of the HGS (hall of graduate studies) building.

I reasoned they chose this location despite the hoity-toity nature of the event because this room had air conditioning.. or, did have air conditioning. I found out when I tried to proximate myself as close to the air conditioning unit as possible that it was not working. We had just arrived and paid the 5 dollars for the never-ending refills and thought we should stay and at least get our money’s worth. But it was stiflingly hot. Like, I could taste the body odor in the room. So, I decided to try to fix the air conditioning unit. I pushed some buttons, probed around, and then was tapped on the shoulder. I turned around and a guy (I'd say 24), dressed in a suit was behind me. He said, “Is this unit broken?” I replied affirmatively to which he proceeded with a stern “Step aside, I’m a scientist”.

And with that he won the biggest douche at the douche party award. I told him "uh.. I'm a scientist too". And I realized that my particular brand of science had nothing to do with air conditioners. But neither did his. I asked. He said he was in biology. And how the hell did he know that I wasn’t a scientist? Or an engineer for that matter? When I told him I was a scientist, he realized how douchey and anti-women-in-science he sounded and stopped for a moment. I motioned as if to say “be my guest” and I watched as he followed the same progression of button pushing I did and he came to the conclusion that it could not be fixed.

Have to say I was sort of smugly pleased.. But it was still hot.. 

But besides that incident, my weekend was wonderful: friends, food, taboo.. and my classes this past week went well. Though, something that Yale does that is really strange is what is called a “shopping period” where students sign up for an insane number of classes and attend them sporadically until they find the ones they like during the first two weeks of school, and then drop the rest. This is a brilliant idea for students to get the feel for a course before committing, but I was really not used to it. I was in the middle of class, while the professor was lecturing and students just got up and walked out.. While the professor was talking. Like, mid-sentence. And sometimes in large groups (5ish students) and this was a small classroom of about 20-30 people.

Seriously?! How rude is that? I guess if they decide they don’t like it by the middle of lecture, they bolt.

 Additionally, this past week I settled into my lab space and got my own desk. My little haven of peace and quiet to read :). Also, I know in the case of a zombie apocalypse, my lab’s building doubles as a fall-out shelter. Check out this sign on the side of my lab's building. The shading makes it extra fall out sheltery.

The next highlight in my life is that I found out I get to TF (teaching fellow.. in verb form) an Animal Behavior course (my number one choice of class) this semester! I will lead a group of Yale undergrads in a discussion section starting this Friday. So much excitement!

P.S. if you can't tell, I just figured out how to add GIFs to my blog! Might have gotten a little GIF crazy..