Some updates, ladies and gents. I've graduated and convocated! As proof, I present my refrigerator:
My Bachelors of Applied Science in Nanotechnology Engineering. Mickey's is there too.
Don't worry guys, I haven't gone back to the exceedingly far east or anywhere like it. In fact I've gone to the west coast, first to LA and just a little bit backwards to Pasadena, California. I've found a new academic home at the California Institute of Technology, or Caltech. Now I know I said I wanted to go to Princeton or Berkeley or MIT in my last post, but come on guys, Caltech is in (or at least very near) Los Angeles! LA comes with some perks such as being 25-30 degrees and sunny 350 days per year. Hollywood, Disneyland, Long Beach, Comicon, need I say more? If I do need to say more, its arguably the best science and technology school in the world.
Besides, Princeton is in New Jersey, everyone at MIT is depressed (hopefully excepting my good friend Farnaz) and Berkeley is a STATE school (sorry Simon :-\).
So at the rate I've been reviving this blog, by the next time I post, I'll have finished my PhD and be moving into wherever I do my post-doc. Hard to move up from this place though. I think this place will become a pretty great home for the next 4-8 years.
I've become such a goddamn American already. Mickey got a big TV and American's Got Talent has been on for the last 3 hours.
Balls.
Pretty much what Caltech is like. Courtesy of NUMB3RS.
I've been here for about a week, and I've got to say that its been quite great. Everyone has been incredibly friendly, even by Canadian standards. Moving in with my furry friend presented me with no problems, and the apartment is a veritable mansion by Japanese standards. I walked into my bedroom, and its maybe double the size of my entire house in Japan. And theres a WHOLE APARTMENT outside!
I live about a three minute walk from my lab, which is pleasantly situated in a basement's basement. At least it'll stay cool during the long, hard summers? In this lab, I'm working on super hardy, super specific AND super general artificial antibodies for HIV diagnostics. Wrap your mind around that one. It'll keep me busy at the very least until September, when my classes begin. At which point I'll have to prove my mettle to all the genius-level intellects running around this Institute.
Its SoCal guys, the infinite corridor can be outside. (Also a frequent filming site for NUMB3RS, see above)
I've become such a goddamn American already. Mickey got a big TV and American's Got Talent has been on for the last 3 hours.
Balls.