I Have Arrived

Today's date is May 31, 2010 and I have officially been in Tennessee for one full day! My mom and I turned the road trip into a two day affair. We drove for fourteen hours the first day and just a little over three hours the second day. Mapquest said that the trip would take 18.5 hours. I guess we showed them!!

Tennessee is beautiful! The landscape is so green and there are so many trees. There are some amazing gardenia trees with huge blooming white flowers. I think my mom would be tempted to move to Tennessee just so she could have a gardenia tree in her front yard. Despite her love affair with these beautiful trees, I am convinced that the temperatures in Tennessee will persuade her to stay in Colorado. It is HOT!! Ever since I was given this internship everyone has warned me how warm it will be in Tennessee. I see now that they did not emphasize the change in temperature enough! It is warmer at night here than it ever is in Gunnison! Even when it's raining, it's hot! Hot hot hot!!!! Ok, that's enough ranting.

The apartment I have moved into is much like any on campus apartment. Kind of small and a little grungy, but livable. I share a room with a girl named Austin who attends Brown University and the second bedroom is occupied by a girl named Mary that goes to MIT. They both seem very friendly and I look forward to getting to know them both. I am also looking forward to interacting with other students in the program. We have not had much chance to spend time together yet, but the welcome BBQ being held today should make it easy to meet new people.

My mother had yet another early morning today. We both had to be up at 4:00 am so that I could take her to the airport. I can't say enough how thankful I am for all the help she's provided in getting me here. The drive here would have been treacherous on my own and the moving in process would have taken far longer without her assistance. I was sad to see my mom go this morning, but I suppose it represents the beginning of a new adventure. May the ten weeks of fun in the sun (and in the lab) begin!

The name goggle lady

After reading this blog you will find that my blog signature is goggle lady. I have chosen this name because I was persuaded to begin a blog page by a professor who promised to give me a new pair of goggles in exchange for sharing my summer adventures via blog. Persuaded may not be the right word to express our agreement; bribed may be more appropriate. All the same I have been given a new pair of tortoise shell goggles and I have now begun a blog page.

In all honesty, I am very excited to have this opportunity to share my summer adventures. I leave for Tennessee this Saturday and I cannot wait for the program to begin. I have had the good fortune to be awarded an REU at Vanderbilt University doing research alongside Professor Polavarapu. For all you none science readers out there, REU stands for Research Experience for the Undergraduate. While at Vanderbilt, I will be studying drug chirality. Chirality is a fancy term for right and left-handedness. Two drugs can have the exact same components and be mirror images of one another, and, yet, still have very different effects on the body. I am sure that when I have completed my research this summer I will be able to explain this information to you in much more detail and with much more grace. In the meantime, all I can say is I'm excited for all the learning and adventures that await.

Thank you for reading my blog and I will do my best to keep it updated. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather!