Yet another apology.

Just realized how many typos I've made in the past and am slightly completely disgusted with myself. While I admit that much of the posts were done at 1 or 2 o'clock in the morning while I was in a foreign everything, there's no excuse. I'll be fixing what I can immediately after I finish this.

Aside from my drowslexia rearing it's nasty head, I've been relatively on the ball lately. It's a good feeling, and  it helps me stay positive despite all of life's curveballs. My new job has allowed me to start worrying about things besides rent, which is both a relief and a chore. Some things, like finally sending off the gifts I got for people while I was in Taiwan or finishing up the follow-on report for the Gilman project, have been long looked-forward to. Other things have not. The ever-closer end of the grace period on my student loans is one glaring example.

Luckily, I've been able to focus a lot of my attention on more immediate concerns. I've started volunteering with a really awesome group here in Seattle called Heroes for the Homeless that does monthly homeless outreach missions. We wake up at ridiculous o'clock, prepare multiple carloads of sandwiches and other supplies, and then hand-deliver them to those in need. It's really well-coordinated and supports a lot of people. To give you an idea of how effective - yet personal - the whole thing is, I'll bet that at least an eighth of the people I've met in Seattle are homeless. I know their names and where I can expect to see them again, but the weirdest thing is that I sincerely look forward to seeing them again. That makes it easy. The hard part is learning about the support services here in Seattle. There is a literal mountain of information of absorb, and that's not including the word on the street about these places. Things like bed bugs don't often get talked about on organisation websites, but that can make or brake a service provider's efficacy.

Finally, I've been trying to take advantage of free advocacy training that is provided by the Office for Victims of Crime. It's long, and I'm trying really hard to tough it out through all the reading materials, but it's probably one of the most challenging things to do well that I've been up to lately.

NCUR Summation

Currently on the train back from NCUR, and it's a real relief. The last week or so has been all sorts of rollercoaster.

Last Monday I had to catch the train from Seattle to Minneapolis, which is easy enough in theory. In practice, my fiance and I forget about Seattle's unique rush hour and then go to the wrong train station. One of the main downtown public transit stations is right next to the Amtrak station, so I ran as fast I could to the fancier station only to find that I had to haul my bright pink suitcase 200 yards back to the crumbling Amtrack depot.

One major lesson I learned about Amtrak last week: It is many things, but it is not fancy.

Also, bring your own food. Otherwise you can expect an extra 40 dollars on your travel costs and some serious concern for your G.I. tract. Seriously, the stuff's nastiness is completely untamed by train's microwaves.

I ended up getting to the station after the train was sealed up, but I was able to beg my way on in the nick of time. Then a tree hit the train. I always thought that trees were stationary, but apparently that's not the case in Montana. Duct taping / Repairing the damage to the train tacked on another three hours to the original 36, and subsequent delays had us rolling into MSP about an hour after my plane had taken off for New York. The tree also messed up a phone interview I was supposed to have on the train by stopping the train in one of Montana's numerous black holes of cellular service. Luckily, my school had also chartered a second plane I was able to sneak on and the tutoring agency accepts malicious trees as an excuse for missing an appointment. I made it safe and sound to my hotel and probably get to look forward to tutoring high schoolers struggling to stay afloat.

After all I'd gone though to get to the conference, I decided I needed to make the most of it, though I found that was harder than it seemed. To give you an idea, Ithaca college is roughly the size of wow and the buildings tend to look like the future. With over a thousand attendees, the oral presentations had to be held during class in multiple buildings. This made it challenging to pick and choose what speeches I wanted to see, as they were usually far apart and congested with both presenters and normal Ithaca students. I ended up running around a lot more than I should have in dress clothes trying to bounce between social science, criminal science, and biology presentations. Occasionally, the presentations were too packed to get in (strangely, that happened a lot with the criminal science presentations) so I had time to check out the art exhibits or the gym that had about 60 posters being presented at any given time. Honestly, the posters may have been my favorite part.

Of all the ways to present something, I think posters are probably the best for undergraduate work. From a reader's perspective, you can easily see if you are going to be interested in what is being presented while having unique access to the researcher. From a presenter's perspective, it allows you the most flexibility to tailor your words to your audience and I think it's a lot more exciting to do. You don't really get any of those benefits with speeches. Most people at an undergraduate conference are going to have very diverse backgrounds and attention spans, even if they do understand what you're saying, they might find out in the first five minutes that they'd rather be listening to someone else. Sadly, this happened a lot for me. If they weren't completely over my head, they were completely under it.

The only reason I tried to go to as many oral presentations that I did was that I'd never really seen any by undergraduate researchers before. Granted, there were also some poster presenters that had to be reeeeel bored. A surprising number of people were either uninteresting or were only presenting preliminary research and planning. I'm really not trying to seem pretentious, but it made me wonder just how far undergraduate research has to go. Maybe it's unfair to compare other's work with my own, but there was at least half a year of hard work backing up my poster. I actually had found something and had something to say. When I wasn't talking about research, I was promoting the trip and the Gilman Scholarship. Most importantly, I still had questions I wanted to answer and was able to learn new possible routes of discovery by talking with my fellow researchers. Perhaps I'm being to critical, but I think if you're flying half-way across the country to a national conference, you should at least have something concrete to show for it.

I'm over it. Besides, there was some pretty awesome work there. One group at the University of Minnesota did a pilot study of a chiropractic remedy for peanut allergy, wherein they found that while the blood chemistry of the subjects (n=6) did not change, they were able to eat peanuts after 6 weeks. Basically, the mechanism of allergic reactions, even anaphylaxis, is more complex than we thought. Another cool project was done by an University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire student who analyzed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in South Africa and concluded that it was ineffective in smoothing over racial tensions that remained after the end of apartheid. One of my favorite projects was probably the criminal science presentation I saw about the CSI effect and it's apparently negligible effect on jury voting. One of my karate instructors was a prosecutor for my county and he had talked about it as a big concern nowadays, so it was nice to hear that the research indicates that jurors are still voting as they normally do.

Now I'm focusing on getting a job. After three months of nothing, suddenly I've an interview at a restaurant on Friday and I get to call back the people at Best Buy when the train roams out into somewhere where my phone gets service. All this is on top of the tutoring gig, a possible job as a temp lab tech (which I almost certainly would have got if I still lived in River Falls – go figure), and, most interestingly, an opportunity to teach yoga and taichi. A local school put an ad up on craigslist and offered scholarships to anyone who is interested in learning and helping them expand into new areas. That last one might take a while, but I'm seriously excited about it. Not only is a great background for naturopathic medicine, but this is one of those things I've wanted to do in the back of my head for a long while.

Presenting-Time.

In roughly an hour and a half, I will present my experiences with study abroad and research to roughly 60 students in Dr. Tim Lyden's Anatomy and Physiology class. I'm a little terrified. It's mostly just excitement that's getting lost somewhere in my throat I think, but I'm nervous either way. Of all the presentations I've done in the past few years, this is the least....research-y.  My normally effervescent nerd-soul will have to be kept on a tight leash, as I'm talking about something besides zebrafish for once. I'll have to whip out all the fancy colloquial words like "ain't" and "nifty".

On a brighter note, my fiance and I have a hotel all set for NCUR. Now we just need plane tickets and the name of a good show on Broadway to go see. AAaaaand a money-tree.

Can I plant this?

Where's my reset button?

I've been home for over a week now, and it's a little weird.

A lot of it has less to do with being back and more with getting ready to leave. The last week largely consisted of sending out more job applications and looking for a place to safely pass out in for a week after driving the 28 hours to Seattle. Some might see it as apartment searching, but after the amount of walking, driving, and flying I've done in the past few weeks, as long as the mice don't mind another snuggle-buddy I'll be happy where ever.

Our goal is to get everything squared away by the beginning of March. Between the planning and the worrying and the arguing and the nerve-racking, I'm about one more bout of food poisoning away from ecstasy. At least I think we've got our new apartment nailed down. We sent them money and called dibs. DIBS I SAY.

There's other things that are weird about being back. Even though Taiwan has a lot in common with the States, I've had to readjust to the things I was used to a month ago. Some things, like the floor toilets and the possibility of becoming road pizza whenever I was near a street, have been left behind fairly easily. The floor toilets provided a Great Fun in trying to not fall into them. Other things have taken longer. For instance, now that I'm diligently job searching, I pretty much need a crowbar every time I want some separation from my chair. Being in my apartment for long stretches of the day is very different from my time in Taiwan and being almost constantly on the move. While it was exhausting to travel and do so much, it was by no means boring.  Even when I am successful in rending my behind away from in front of my computer, River Falls provides only so much diversity in locale. It's a far cry from the kaleidoscope of Taiwan's scooter-filled metropolises, murmuring seashores, and wide variety of architecture and local business. 

It sounds strange to me, as I'm more of the "hide in my cave while everyone else has enjoyable interactions" type, but I also miss having a lot of people around. Part of me misses all the people-watching, but I wasn't exclusively a wallflower over there. It's a good thing too. Almost everyone in Taiwan - and there were a lot of them - was nothing but kind and willing to put up with me masticating the Chinese language into a pulp. Even though it was difficult to get our points across, I really enjoyed being around so many people that were as nerdy as I am. I've worked in a lab with other people before, but not with as many people or with as large a set-up as in Taiwan. Adding to the awesome, most of the people we were working with were brilliant. It was a little intimidating at first, as I am neither tri-lingual, bi-lingual, and I don't even have a master's degree, but everyone there was just too generous for my embarrassment to last for long. 

Now, I'm back to my friends who have no qualms with telling me, "I love you, but you need to actually open your mouth when you talk or quit attempting speech with a mouth full of peanut butter" and other sweet nothings regarding how much of a socially-stunted over-achieving dork I am.

Not having a state-wide snow emergency was pretty nice as well. The heaven's picked the exact worst time to dump it's contents on me. I'm having enough trouble accomplishing everything I need to and squeezing in last minute visits with friends before we go due to my job/apartment/figuring out how to move/packing up things. The last thing I need is being blinded by plumes of snow on a frozen highway.

Until the Midwest road system becomes largely dependent on tunnels, I'll have to make do. There's a small mountain of things on my to-do list, including:

• Find a Job.
• Figure out how to ship things to our apartment.
• Finish my research with Dr. Huang.
• Meet with some bio/chem/tech clubs and a few teachers on campus to give presentations of my experiences
• Prepare said presentations
• Prepare a poster for NCUR that combines my last year of work, including the trip to Taiwan.
• Meet up with friends one last time before going out to Seattle (and convince them to come visit)
• Help out in the play my fiancé is currently struggling to keep afloat.

Fun side note: I can make soy milk now, thanks to the tutelage of Dr. Huang's wife.

Also, I totally typed in "globspot" instead of blogspot and think the former is Much better.

NCUR and other News.

Unfortunately, it's late and I need to break my current insomnia streak. The past couple of days have been mostly fueled by coffee and fear. Before I head off to bed, I have two bits of good news

1. I got accepted to go to NCUR!  Now I just need to figure out how I'm going to get there from Seattle.
2. UW - River Falls is going to be doing an email interview with me sometime soon regarding the Gilman Scholarship.

Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship

I've mentioned the Gilman scholarship a few times on this blog, but I should really explain it better - especially for those from the UWRF SURSCA blog. To properly do so, we need to go back in time, all the way to September.

My research professor Dr. Huang had just planted the seed of a possible research endeavor in Taiwan, leading to me researching all the possible sources of funding that he and I might obtain. I quickly found two things: I was initially discouraged to find that 3 months before the trip was much too late to begin looking into the majority of the international studies grants out there. Then I found the one exception to this rule: The Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship. It was a procrastinator's/late starter's dream. Granted, upon finding it I had all of a week or so to complete the application before the submission deadline. It made for some hectic times, trying to coordinate with UWRF's study abroad office and Dr. Huang - in addition to my normal class and research load. Somehow, I managed to get everything squared away on time with some proficiency. While it all worked out, I must say that unless you really like coffee or really despise the sun, give yourself more time than I had.

A little about this scholarship, taken from the scholarship's website.

"The program aims to encourage students to choose non-traditional study abroad destinations, especially those outside of Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand. The Gilman Scholarship Program aims to support students who have been traditionally under-represented in study abroad, including but not limited to, students with high financial need, community college students, students in under-represented fields such as the sciences and engineering, students with diverse ethnic backgrounds, and students with disabilities. The program seeks to assist students from a diverse range of public and private institutions from all 50 states, Washington, DC and Puerto Rico.

Award recipients are chosen by a competitive selection process and must use the award to defray eligible study abroad costs. These costs include program tuition, room and board, books, local transportation, insurance and international airfare."

Some other good things to know regarding eligibility.

Finally, some things you might not find on the website.

• It's really easy to apply, especially if you plan ahead. Most of the application is online and is used to determine if you are eligible. There were no letters of recommendation required and only two essays (that admittedly caused me a little trouble due to my professional writing having more in common with riding a merry-go-round while attempting to smash a speak-and-spell with my face). The rest of the applications largely consisted of proving that I was who I said I was. Honestly, for a chance at up to five grand, it wasn't a bad deal.
• The program requires recipients to do a "Follow-on Project", which is basically a way to make sure that recipients give back to their college and community in addition to helping promote the Gilman program. This blog is one aspect of my project, as well as meetings with multiple student groups and classes. One unforeseen addition to my project is the welcome, albeit somewhat unnerving, publicity I've been told to expect in the weeks to come before I escape the country. Word on the street is that the UWRF PR dept, as well as the local newspapers want to cover me. Unfortunately, this means that I will probably have to shave and tame the mullet that's been cohabiting my head wear for the past few months.



You'll be missed.

• This is technically on the site, but on average, 1 out of every three applicants gets accepted. I was one of roughly three thousand applicants, and the first student from the University of Wisconsin - River Falls to be accepted in the past ten years.

Ten years. That's ridiculous for one very, very simple reason: Me. 
I seldom find myself to be the sharpest tool in the shed. I don't have a 4.0 gpa. It's close, I'll admit, but I'm no prodigy. While it may help to be the best and brightest, the Gilman program is primarily geared towards the people who want it. In other words, it's is aimed at the people who recognize the importance of a global perspective and developing their standing not only within their own community, but in our ever-shrinking world. In my opinion, it's aimed at everyone, many just don't know it yet.

I got this in the email today.

Dear Gilman Scholarship Applicant:

Congratulations!  On behalf of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs and the Institute of International Education (IIE), I am pleased to inform you that you have been selected as a recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.

During the Spring 2011 application cycle, the Gilman Scholarship Program received nearly 2,900 applications for over 850 awards.

[..]

Congratulations again on being selected as a recipient of the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship.  We look forward to working with you and wish you the very best as you embark on your experience abroad.

Sincerely,

Jennifer Campbell
Assistant Director
Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Program
Institute of International Education




This awesome for two reasons. 


It's money I no longer have to borrow/beg/do backflips for, and then there is the simple fact that I won something. Take that, kids who picked me last for dodgeball.

When you wish upon a star...

You run the risk of being quickly disintegrated and undergoing fusion.
It sucks to be you, Pinocchio.


I have to say I still sympathize with the little guy. Building a trip to Taiwan as rapidly as my PI and I did was really a gamble. When we started the whole process, it was like walking into a casino and winning on ever slot machine you try. The better things pieced together, the more I was expecting Murphy's Law to kick in and shatter everything. I should emphasize that my PI shouldered a lot of the burden involved with planning it all. I helped when I could, but for the most part I was only responsible for figuring out how to pay for things and had much less reason to be afraid. However even now with only two months until we leave the feeling is the same. At least it's not entirely illogical because while almost everything has fallen into place relatively smoothly, all of my PI's and my effort might quickly implode upon itself with a single mishap. Now I just wish I knew what an example of such a mishap might be. One of the few solaces I have is that every passing day brings us one step further away from the destructive plasma of a excessive wishing star.

There's probably a reason I don't write for children.

Unfortunately, the passing of time often isn't as much of a respite from my fears. Early in the game of finding the funds for the trip, I found out after staying up most of the night working on an application for the Fullbright Scholarship that the deadline had passed roughly a year before. After that, I never forgot that the year was 2010, and finished my application to the Benjamin A. Gilman Scholarship in record time. It's partly due to a small neurotic issue I have with being late, but after missing one by a year I've got every other deadline locked down so hard they beg for mercy and leak red tape. However, even when I'm aware of how much time is passing, who or whatever is responsible for my mental health still plays games. About a month ago, my PI informed me that he was inviting other students to come on the trip as well. This was exciting, except that I knew the difficulties they were going to have finding sufficient financial support for the trip. At this moment, we have been approached by five or six students who then decided they couldn't manage to come. Thankfully, it now looks like the two young women who plan to join us might actually stick around. Even more worrisome is that I won't know the full extent of my financial support for this trip until sometime in early December. Hopefully I will be able to schedule a meeting with the local Chamber of Commerce and persuade/beg for them to support us, as that would be fantastic.

It all makes me dislike the phrase, "Time Will Tell", as the implication seems to be that "Time Will Tell How Little Sleep You'll Get Trying To Fix Things".

On that note, Happy Halloween-eve!