New York!

Dear jumjum...

By pure graces, I was accepted as a summer student at a Bioinformatics and Systems Biology lab at Columbia University. When I first applied, the prof didn't respond, but coincidentally, he gave a talk at HKUST, and my prof personally appealed to him to consider taking me. Fast forward 4 months and some anxiety over my visa situation (overthinking on my part), I've now been here for three weeks!

I took the cheapest flight available from HK to NY, which involved layovers at Tokyo and Chicago. I've always wanted to experience overnighting at an airport, and I consider this the best phase of my life to do it- while I'm young and childless. I was pleasantly surprised by how much cheaper things were in Tokyo, and I definitely want to properly visit sometime. I had to stay up to look after my luggage, so I alternated between studying, watching movies and strolling around the airport.

Haneda airport.

Sitting outside the apartment!

I arrived in New Jersey, and had pre-booked a shuttle van straight to my rented apartment. I've never felt as sleepy as I did in that one hour ride. I was nodding off and jerking myself awake every few seconds most of the way. My flatmate knew when I was arriving and she told me she'd be in, but after 10 minutes of doorbell-ringing and knocking, I was panicking and convinced that I was at the wrong apartment (streets and apartments in NY are numbered, not named, so I felt it was likely). After looking through people's mail to confirm that I was at the right place, I sat down outside the apartment to wait (no roaming or wifi). I was so glad that I bought water at the airport, and my luggage was full of Japanese matcha snacks. I also had wet wipes with me, so the only inconvenience I had was that I really needed to pee! My flatmate showed up an hour later, apologizing as her PhD defence ran overtime.

I love my room, it's spacey, bright and simple. I live really close to the university, in a very convenient area full of eateries, with a pharmacy, supermarket and train stations close by. I find it so surreal to be here, partly because I grew up reading the Princess Diaries. I was obsessed, and I have all 11 books. (sidenote: I bought the last one as an obligation when I saw it at the bookstore last year, and I was cringing and struggling to finish it. It was too corny for my liking...or maybe it's because I'm so much older now) Anyway, Mia lived in New York, and there are many references to places and the culture in NY, and I was always fascinated. I chanced upon Greenwich Village last week, and it was as if I was visiting a historical landmark!

Greenwich Village

On my first weekend, Will toured Raphie and I around the campus. He told us that there is an owl hidden in the alma mater statue, and legend has it that one cannot graduate unless one finds it. xD

My lab is basically an open plan office space, and out of my ~20 labmates, only about 5 of us took Biology as a degree, and only 2 of us are girls. They are mostly computer scientists and mathematicians. I was so glad at the end of my first week when they introduced me to their wetlab collaborator, and I now split my time between experimental and computational lab.

View from the workplace.

The plan is to explore NY every Saturday, and cook in bulk for the week on Sundays (saves so much $$!) Hoping that I'll keep the blog updated! :)

*atm*