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December 14, 2005

Winter hiatus

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In a sea of younglings stood the wise sage donned in red, and while he delineated the traditional games so fondly embraced by his people, his apprentices listened attentively and responded ebulliently to his riddles and sagas. (This description is highly fictional. The wise sage is merely a volunteer describing games his countryfolk play to a bunch of kids in Burnett Creeks Elementary School.)

This will be my last post before going off to London for a well-earned rest.

Erm.. how shall i conclude my first semester in Purdue? It's a pot-pourri of mixed feelings, inter-mingling and sometimes too pungent like a good D24 durian. It started with the intimidating yet exciting flight from KLIA to Indianapolis Airport, in which, for the first time, I experienced more than 36 hours of airborne traveling. For a person who seldom had the privilege to travel by plane, let alone wandering overseas, the experience felt like a storm after a mighty long draught; the rush of adrenalin came incessantly, the urge to look around without missing a single detail, the joy of leaving old sweet home to venture out into the unknown - everything that I knew and were used to were no longer around. Sometimes I wonder if I would survive if I come alone to this foreign land.

Things got better as I accustomed myself with the environment in West Lafayette. Talking to people was extremely difficult intitially (as always), but time provided opportunities to expand my circle of friends. I took a longer warm up time than usual as accustoming to the culture here required efforts more than ever. What helps a lot was the availability of helpful seniors from hometown, both private students and scholars alike. Mingling with them proved to be fun and harmful sometimes, but I learned to keep my integrity straight.

Highlights of this semester? The traveling trips I made together with Peter, of course! Our first venture was driving a wreck for darn 7 hours to Ann-Arbor, officially becoming the first persons in ATU11 to make diplomatic contact with other university (lol). Michigan University, alma mater for chee yong and the gang in 4 years' time, was truly a greay university in terms of architecture and design, the vastness of buildings and equipment, the nice lecture theatres as well as dining halls (shout out to chee yong: East Quad rocks!), even nicer dorms! Umich aside, the duo P traversed numerous places also like Columbus, Chicago (2 times!) and Evanston. More traveling to come in the next semester :)

Contribution wise, I became a volunteer for the International Students and Scholars office to organize and help out in events like presentation in schools and such. The prospect of becoming a guinea pig didn't hold much approval from family and friends, but I went ahead anyway. Currently I'm done with the first part of the research, and the second part commences in the next semester. Last but not least, my precious undergraduate research program!!!! It was not easy to get the lab assistant position in Dr. Fekete's lab; hence I was truly grateful for the opportunity to work with the Harvard-graduated professor and earn credit hours from it. Most importantly, however, is the things that i can learn from the research itself (ear morphogenesis and development in chick embryos, underlying the purpose of discovering the genes responsible for development of auditory cells and vestibular cells in ear, thus in a long run help cure deaf patients and such, but that's really a long way ahead)

One more final exam to go! and that marks the end of Fall Semester 2005.

Lastly,
May good fortune rule over you.
May the stars shine upon you.
And may peace live in your heart.

Posted by peixin at 01:00 PM | Comments (2)

December 07, 2005

Jingle all the Way..

Nothing beats a clear azure sky with white fluffy sky, reflected off the glass panes of Wetherill building. I took this photo with great difficulty, thanks to the frigid weather and my goatskin glooves which bestow me a pair of Orc's hands.

The last of mild weather.. I have seen.

I witnessed the first snow of my life a few weeks back when the white crystallines of water decided to pay a visit to little West Lafayette. It wasn't a torrent of mighty hail then; quite the contrary, the snow was soft and fluffy. One crystal dropped on my hand and for the first time i observed its structure. It was perfectly hexagonal, thanks to the bipolar nature of H2O molecules and the 109.5 degree bond angle due to valence-shell electron-pair repulsion between oxygen atom's 2 lone pairs and covalent bonds to hydrogen atoms. Chemistry bites @$$.

I helped out at the "jingle jog" event this evening, organized by the Purdue University Fitness Association. It basically encapsulates the locals' frevor for running. They just refused to let the weather be a deterrent. Armed with just long-sleeved sport shirts, cotton track bottoms, nice pairs of Nike, Adidas and what not as well as thick pair of glooves, they are ready in action. Kids and adults alike. It was intimidating, I would say. Either they develop very thick epidermis layer through inheritance or they form less temperature receptors in their nervous system I can't tell. But one thing for certain, all 20+ participants managed to cover 1.5 miles (that's roughly 2.4 km) in less than half an hour. They are fit. Seriously.

So, i became the photographer of the event, plus a myriad of other odd-jobs like cookies arranger, cider preparer, and water boiler (lol). When everything was over, I took a brisk walk to the nearest bus stop. Lo and behold! The last bus back to my apartment just left. I was 20 seconds late. So I had my own private jingle jog back haha..

Snow is beautiful..

Posted by peixin at 10:32 AM | Comments (2)

December 05, 2005

珊瑚海

(Jay) 海平面远方开始阴霾 悲伤要怎么平静纯白
我的脸上 始终挟带 一抹浅浅的无奈

(Lara) 你用唇语说你要离开 (心不在)
(合) 那难过无声慢了下来 汹涌潮水 你听明白 不是浪而是泪海

(合) 转身离开 (你有话说不出来) 分手说不出来 海鸟跟鱼相爱 只是一场意外
我们的爱 (给的爱) 差异一直存在 (回不来) 风中尘埃 (等待) 竟累计成伤害

(合) 转身离开 (分手说不出来) 分手说不出来 蔚蓝的珊瑚海 错过瞬间苍白
当初彼此 (你我都) 不够成熟坦白 (不应该) 热情不再 (你的) 笑容勉强不来 爱深埋珊瑚海

(Jay) 毁坏的沙雕如何重来 有裂痕的爱怎么重盖
只是一切 结束太快 你说你无法释怀

(Lara) 贝壳里隐藏什么期待 (等花儿开)
(合) 我们也已经无心再猜 面向海风 咸咸的爱 尝不出还有未来

(合) 转身离开 (你有话说不出来) 分手说不出来 海鸟跟鱼相爱 只是一场意外
我们的爱 (给的爱) 差异一直存在 (回不来) 风中尘埃 (等待) 竟累计成伤害

(合) 转身离开 (分手说不出来) 分手说不出来 蔚蓝的珊瑚海 错过瞬间苍白
当初彼此 (你我都) 不够成熟坦白 (不应该) 热情不再 (你的) 笑容勉强不来 爱深埋珊瑚海

Oh how obtuse of me! Movable Type doesn't support Chinese.. Bleh..

Here's the translated version:

(Jay) hai ping mian yuan fang kai shi ying mai, bei shang yao zhen me ping jing chun bai
wo de nian shang shi zhong jia dai, yi mo qian qian de wu nai

(Lara) ni yong chun yu shuo ni yao li kai (xin bu zai)
(together) na nan guo wu sheng man le xia lai, xiong yong chao shui, ni ting ming bai, bu shi lang er shi lei hai

(together) zhuan sheng li kai, (ni you hua shuo bu chu lai)fen shou shuo bu chu lai, hai niao gen yu xiang ai, zhi shi yi chang yi wai
wo men de ai, (gei de ai) cha yi yi zhi chun zai, (hui bu lai) feng zhong chen ai, (deng dai) jing lei ji cheng shang hai

(together) zhuan sheng li kai, (fen shou shuo bu chu lai) fen shou shuo bu chu lai, wei lan de shan hu hai, chuo guo shun jian chang bai
dang chu bi chi, (ni wo dou) bu gou cheng shu tan bai, (bu ying gai) re qing bu zai, (ni de) xiao rong mian qiang bu lai, ai shen mai shan hu hai

(Jay) hui huai de sha diao ru he chong lai, you lie heng de ai zhen me chong gai
zhi shi yi qie, jie shu tai kuai, ni shuo ni wu fa jie huai

(Lara) bei ke li ying chang shen me qi dai (deng hua er kai)
(together) wo men ye yi jing wu xin zai cai, mian xiang hai feng, xian xian de ai, chang bu chu hai you wei lai

(together) zhuan sheng li kai, (ni you hua shuo bu chu lai)fen shou shuo bu chu lai, hai niao gen yu xiang ai, zhi shi yi chang yi wai
wo men de ai, (gei de ai) cha yi yi zhi chun zai, (hui bu lai) feng zhong chen ai, (deng dai) jing lei ji cheng shang hai

(together) zhuan sheng li kai, (ni you hua shuo bu chu lai)fen shou shuo bu chu lai, hai niao gen yu xiang ai, zhi shi yi chang yi wai
wo men de ai, (gei de ai) cha yi yi zhi chun zai, (hui bu lai) feng zhong chen ai, (deng dai) jing lei ji cheng shang hai

(together) zhuan sheng li kai, (fen shou shuo bu chu lai) fen shou shuo bu chu lai, wei lan de shan hu hai, chuo guo shun jian chang bai
dang chu bi chi, (ni wo dou) bu gou cheng shu tan bai, (bu ying gai) re qing bu zai, (ni de) xiao rong mian qiang bu lai, ai shen mai shan hu hai

I like this song... Jay Chou rocks!!!

Posted by peixin at 01:33 PM | Comments (0)

December 03, 2005

Ah a good old game of badminton!

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I took this photo when Peter was taking the wheels across a hanging steel bridge to Chicago for the second time. Visiting Eric and Sin Yi was elating, but the main agenda was even more exhilarating: shopping!!

Today, a miracle happened. Today, then sun must have risen from the West. Today, I woke up at 6.30am in time for my chem lab! I have a bad habit of squirming under the blanket for half an hour after the alarm rang, but this morning was different. This morning was the last lab session for this semester. *sob sob.. The tears of joy not being compelled to wake up dead early anymore just to sit at the bench as if inebriated in the state of debauchery. Hehe..

So here i went to good old Room 2125 to find only a handful of people inside. What happened? Apparently many people skipped the last lab because the course evaluation allows exclusion of one out of 13 sessions we ploughed through. But I was glad my good old partner David came. Together with a Korean girl Michelle, we scanned through the lab asignment. No wet lab! My god, this is the best way to conclude a semester of boiling, simmering, weighing, mixing, titrating and what not. All we have to do is to go to this website, www.chem.purdue.edu/courses/chm125/crystal and ta-da! all the answers were there (oh btw we did atomic structure ie SC, FCC, tetrahedron holes and octahedral holes). The funny thing was Michelle was cowering all the while we did the coursework. When querried why, she said she's afraid of the spherical atoms arranged together in such a delicate and perfect allignment. She had dot phobia. She felt giddy when looking at those molecular structure, or anything that has a volume of 4/3.pi.r^3. I was like, "what?" coz I have never heard such idiosyncrasy like 'dot phobia' before. Even the phobialist doesn't have that. Imagine, she can't play ping pong (tennis is okay because it's slightly big), can't buy eggs in cartons, has to draw a really big dot everytime she finishes writing her sentence, etc etc..

I went to COREC just now for a game of badminton! Yay, so happy to find something so familiar in a place so foreign. I had a great time brandishing a racket once again and smashing shuttlecocks (the only thing i can find fault in is that the shuttlecocks are all plastic). Met a few more people and widened my circle of ROC friends hehe..

Next time i want to kayak..

Posted by peixin at 01:37 PM | Comments (2)

December 01, 2005

my wish is granted!

Dear Pei,

I enjoyed meeting with you today. If you have any questions
regarding the research that you need answered before making a
decision about working in my lab, please do not hesitate to ask.

Dr. Fekete

P.S. I wanted to let you know that you were correct about our
meeting time scheduled for 9am--I did make a mistake in writing you
into my calendar for 8:30am (see note below).

>Date: Mon, 21 Nov 2005 16:47:59 -0500
>To: plim@purdue.edu
>From: "Donna M . Fekete"
>Subject: Re: Undergraduate Research Program
>Cc:
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>Dear Pei Xin,
>
>Okay, we will meet Wednesday at 9:00 am.
>
>Dr. Fekete

Dr. Fekete is really nice. I was late today for the appointment (the frigid weather screwed up my circadian clock and put me into extra long hibernation mode)but she's still willing to spent 1 hour explaining to me about her projects and experiments (eg ear morphosis and the genes involved). Then she took me for a tour abound her lab. It was so impressive. Lots and lots of cool scientific equipment around, some which i haven't seen before. She asked me to think about joining her and give her a reply by tomorrow.

The thing is I have another professor who promised me a place in his lab doing tasks in perfecting his new method of DNA sequencing.

Choices choices choices..

I'm happy anyway :)

Posted by peixin at 11:35 AM | Comments (3)