Study of the South

As this is my first time in the true American South (although I haven't ventured as far as the Deep South yet), I have been able to make some very apparent observations that contrast from what I am used to.

Granted, these may be specific to North Carolina or even this Wilmington region, since it is a beach town, things are going to be slightly different.

• I am actually the only Asian person I have seen outside of a restaurant. Specifically, there are Chinese families at the Chinese restaurants I've visited.
• I don't think everyone else knows where I came from or what I'm doing here. 
• This resulted in the following exchange with a cashier who I have been seeing the past 3 weeks.
      "Are you ESL? International??"
      ".......................... no?"
  

  

  I think this is how I look in North Carolina...

• Despite this, people here seem to be really friendly. Or maybe only the people I've met are very friendly.
• The FOOD and DRINK are quite different here:
• Sweet tea & pink lemonade are the beverages of choice for many people.
• Speaking of popular beverages, I see a lot of people drinking Sun Drop here. I don't see a lot of people drinking it back home, but I guess it took off here?
• OH, speaking of sodas, Cheerwine is a Carolina thing I heard about and see on menus. Also Mr. Pibb is Coke's response to Dr. Pepper? I did not know this. Now I do.
• Hardee's, Bojangles, and Cook Out are popular Southern fast food restaurants in this area, all of which are based on North Carolina.
• Hushpuppies. People love hushpuppies.
• It is near-criminal that I have not yet eaten grits before.
• Carolina barbecue is a very special and unique cuisine that I need to try very soon.
• Something called Brunswick stew?
• Finally, I am far enough south to encounter people who say "y'all".

These are some. I'm sure I will have many more observations after I spend a little more time. I haven't even eaten Carolina barbecue yet, so I'm pretty excited to try it!

Rats!

This summer, I am working on a behavioral pharmacology study. Specifically, this study aims to look at the effects of MDMA (street name: ecstasy) on working memory.

How do we study this?
With rats.

Harlan Sprague-Dawley rats, to be specific

Getting comfortable around the rats was one of the first orders of business (after I got certified to handle them, of course) when I arrived in North Carolina. After just a few days, I was put on the official rotation and given my own rats, for which I am responsible for feeding and running experiments.

My day has a pretty regular routine:

• 8:30 Arrive at work
• 8:35 Set up olfactometers
• 9:00 - 12:00 Running four squads of rats in olfactometers (each squad for approx. 45 minutes)
• 12:00 - 1:00 Lunch time!
• 1:00 - 3:00 Run my three rats in the arena
• 3:00 - 4:00 Prepare for lab meeting / dilly-dally
• 4:00 - 5:00 Lab meeting / continue dilly-dallying

I won't lie to you, sometimes there is quiet a bit of dilly-dallying. (Including the wait times for when I'm waiting on the olfactometers.) (How do you think I have the time to write this post right now?) 

It's been interesting trying to learn the psychology of the rats. I know there is one line that was ordered from a different supplier, and those rats are a bit more aggressive. Last week, I was trying to take one of them out of the olfactometer, and it just went totally crazy on me. He tried to bite my hand and immediately tried to crawl out to escape. It's strange because Sprague-Dawley rats were specifically bred to be docile, the opposite of aggressive, really. So why did this guy madly want freedom? I was so startled by his rebellion that I actually yelped in surprise. (I start easily.) I was embarrassed but secretly hoping someone heard me and would come to my rescue. The lab tech did and thank goodness.

Sneaky little devils trying to revolt and escape...

The roster has now been changed so I don't have to deal with these strangely aggressive rats, only the nice ones. I was having a good time with my rats except...
... this week, my absolute favorite rat to work with has been acting up. He is my first rat of the day, and he's so nice and soft and loving. He doesn't protest at all when I pick him up and he lets me pet him to my heart's content.
But on Tuesday, when I went to go get him, he was all turning around and trying to nip at my hand. (He actually got my glove at one point, just a little bit.)

What the what? Why?
My favorite rat. Gone over to the dark side.

Maybe it's because these rats aren't used to Asians... no Asians in this town who don't staff restaurants, as far as I  can tell...

OH! But bright side is that my slowest rat who wasn't doing anything because he wasn't hungry enough to be motivated is finally caught up with my other rats. I felt bad doing it, but starving him for about a week finally got him motivated enough.
But my smartest rat is starting to get smart in a sassy way. Have I been starving him? He's so skinny now, but I don't know. :(

Summer 2012 Goals

I saw a friend's summer goals post and realized I never really embraced summer or welcomed it with my goals for the season. Plus, this is my summer blog, so what better place to put my goals?

Here we go!

• Be an awesome intern at my lab in North Carolina (poster? publication?)
• Study MCAT materials for at the very least 3 hours a day (not including practice test time)
• Eat breakfast every day
• Incorporate fruits and/or veggies into every meal
• Cut back meat consumption (but making sure to supplement protein and other nutrients) 
• Drink more water (e.g. finish my 1 L bottle by the end of the workday)
• Take amazing awesome care of my skin (SPF all day err day, moisturizer every evening)
• Write in my blogs more!
• And my personal journal
• Stretch at least once a day
• Work some cardio in there too, eh?
• Spend a bit of time every day to just unwind and relax (meditation? yoga? music?)
• Enjoy time at the beach about once a week (weather permitting)
• Be a better daughter, sister, girlfriend, and friend

Mmm... that seems like a pretty decent list for now. It's not all-inclusive, but these some things I can think of off the top of my head that are definitely things I could work on.

Beautiful New Hanover County

I am in the process of figuring out if I'm allowed to take pictures of the lab so I can share them with you all. (Wait, I'm in the South. I can say y'all! XD)

In the meantime, I would love to introduce you to the really gorgeous area that I have been living in for over a week.

New Hanover County, North Carolina

This is New Hanover County. According to Wikipedia (where I, admittedly, get most of my trivia knowledge) is the second smallest county in North Carolina, but, it is one of the most populous because Wilmington is one of the most populous cities in the state. How about that?

I just have to say that this place is quite beautiful. Obviously, the beach is on the right. I was told that there are three, count 'em three, beaches that I can visit when I see fit: Wrightsville Beach (the most "commercial" one which I visited this past Saturday), Carolina Beach, and Kure Beach (where my PI lives and that I visited last Sunday).

However, notice that New Hanover County is a peninsula. On the left, it is bordered by the beautiful Cape Fear River. When you're driving down to get to the beaches, as you approach Kure Beach you can see the Atlantic Ocean on your left and the Cape Fear River on your right. It's pretty spectacular, if you ask me.

Last Saturday, my PI and his lovely wife treated us to dinner and then took us out to see a Shakespeare play. They've been in the area for a while, so they were telling us all sorts of fun things about the area. For example, we ate at an Indian buffet called Curry Valley. The owners used to work at another Indian buffet, but there were some disputes and now there are 3 Indian restaurants in this little Southern town. All 3 are supposed to be quite good. I was super apprehensive about Indian food, because as one of the most failed Edisonians, I hesitate to get Indian food because the flavors tend to overwhelm my bland old lady palate. I don't like curry, okay? It makes half of Thai food and some Japanese food inedible for me, too, I'm sorry! But I did like my food a lot. Check out my review to hear me rave about how surprised I was that I went back up for seconds (despite telling myself that I wouldn't be a fatty my second day in North Carolina...).

After dinner, we went to see A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Greenfield Lake Amphitheater. That's right, folks. An ocean, a river, and a lake! This beautiful lake has a little cypress marsh, and it's kind of lovely despite the threat of gators. 

Greenfield Lake with cypress trees growing right out of the water (not my photo)

I really enjoyed the show. A Midsummer Night's Dream is not that funny on paper... but when you have actors bringing it to life, it's awfully hilarious. The physical humor is completely lost in translation when you're reading it but not acting it out. As it got darker, we could hear frogs all around us and the moon was so bright... it was a pretty great night. I was so grateful that my PI and his wife brought us out. I never get to do things like this, so I'm really glad that I did.

Then, last Sunday, we were invited to go to their home at Kure Beach to meet some of the lab people before our first day and to eat and enjoy the beach.

Oh man. Despite the awkwardness of meeting new people, it was a fantastic awesome day.

These beach towns are like postcards. Crazy blue sky meeting the outrageously blue ocean in the background of pastel-colored houses. I kid you not, I wanted to make a calendar with what I was seeing.

Okay, his neighbors' houses only had one very colorful one, but I promise you these houses were postcard pretty!

Also, PALM TREES.

Right there in their backyard is the ocean, what?!

Yeah, they also have palm trees. Apparently the farthest north palm forest is in North Carolina. Now you know. And now I know the farthest south I need to travel to see naturally growing palm trees.

My PI's house was, of course, kind of splendid.

It's BEAUTIFULLY BLUE!

This is their view. Ohmygosh.

Their awesome collection of African masks from their international travels.

Not only did we get wonderfully fed, but then we got to visit the beautiful beach right across the street.

I almost hyperventilated. I haven't seen the beach in 3 years.

Sand beneath my feet. The smell of the ocean. SPF 60 freshly reapplied... ahh...

I definitely took advantage of the sand and exfoliated, because I'm really weird and care a lot about my skin. (I've been taking very good care of my skin since getting here...) Exfoliated with beach sand, reapplied my SPF 60... I think I avoided a tan... I hope.

Anyway. The beach was lovely. The water was so warm and lovely. I will definitely spend every nice-weather weekend at the beach if I can help it.

Then we went back to the house to eat a delicious delicious meal.

OMNOMNOMNOMNOM.
Counterclockwise starting from the left: orzo salad, cole slaw, potato salad, salmon filets, ... something yummy, salad, bread, corn chip bits.

So good. So much food. There were also hot dogs but I was too stuffed to eat any. They also then gave us delicious strawberry & blueberry shortcake topped with whipped cream. Ohhhhhh myyyyy goodnesssss the food is so good.

Then we just chilled on the porch watching the sun go down and the moon come out. I listened to everyone just talking about stuff. It was super duper nice. The moon was looking SO spectacular that my PI brought out his telescope and I was able to get some super awesome photos.

LOOK AT THAT. I didn't know I could ever get photos like that. :D
The power of optics, man...

All in all, this was the best welcome I have ever received, I'm quite sure. It's really a beautiful area and I can definitely see how people just fall in love and never leave. A city girl like me probably couldn't spend several years here, but I can definitely see myself renting a beach house here for a summer or so...

ALSO. I finally got pictures of my room to show you all.

Updates on my lab adventures coming very soon!

Arriving in North Carolina

Before I do my recap of ISNI, which was a few weeks ago, I just wanted to go over my adventures in getting to Wilmington, North Carolina. I decided to drive down here because it is the kind of town where you can't get anywhere without a car, and I didn't want to be stranded or annoy other people by constantly asking for rides.

This is my first time in North Carolina. Also, it is my first time in the South. (Technically, Maryland is south of the Mason-Dixon line, but it is more of a mid-Atlantic state than a Southern one.) Also, this marks my first time driving for more than 4 hours. It is a 7-hour drive down to Wilmington, so I set off at about 10:00 AM on Friday, June 1.

I had to turn around because my GPS was acting up. ^^; It was charging, but then the battery would die on me. Granted, I knew that I needed to go south on I-95. A lot. But I wasn't sure what to do once I got to North Carolina, so I needed my GPS to not be dead, no?

At 10:30, with a different GPS, I set out again. (By the way, the different GPS showed the same problem. I should probably try finding a new charger cord while I'm here, because I think it was actually sucking power back out of the GPS.)

The drive down was full of adventures. As I was trying to find new radio stations for Virginia, a weather alert went out for a tornado watch. The second that alert went up, it started pouring.

Fun fact about Starr: I am quite terrified of tornadoes. Needless to say, I immediately got my foot off the gas pedal and started flashing my caution lights while keeping my eyes to the skies, searching for funneling clouds. I was also on the lookout for hailstones that would wreck my dad's car. I managed to get by fine, but I ran into about 5 stormy patches that were pretty scary for me. At one point, the wind was blowing so hard that I had an extremely difficult time staying between the lines! That was the first time the wind almost blew me off the road. (See all my fun little firsts?)

I stopped once to get lunch and stretch before hitting the road again. When I arrived at Wilmington at about 6:00 PM (made decent time!), I gave my people a call and was told where to go. The apartments here are interesting in that some of the Greek organizations can reserve units for their brothers/sisters permanently. Thus, the Greek letters on the outsides of the buildings.

Reserved for their brothers.

Unfortunately for me, the air conditioning was broken in my apartment. It was blazing hot in there, yo. In the meantime, my extraordinarily friendly PI (PI = principle investigator, he's the one running the lab I work in) treated me to dinner at Bdobo, which is a very delicious Mongolian grill restaurant. It's owned by this nice Shanghainese family who immediately identified me as a Chinese person when I walked in. She complimented my height. (I'm 5'8", or 173 cm for international folks.)
(Actually, maybe it's because there aren't a lot of Asians in this town, now that I think about it.) (Actually, not much ethnic diversity at all, when I really think about it...)

When we got back, my AC was still out, so they moved us to a different unit for that night. It was a very swanky dank place. Very shiny new appliances, it was way nicer than my apartment. (Plus they had working AC!) Also, they have housecleaning and provide linens... what is with these universities providing linens and housecleaning to their students? (The residence hall I lived in during my stay in Illinois provided the same things.) Spoiling their kids. I just hope no freshmen live in that building. Freshmen need to build character!

I had no internet because you HAVE to have a UNCW ID to log on if you have no visitor password. (Which of course, we didn't.) So I just showered and went to sleep after meeting my roommate.

That was my drive down to and first night in Wilmington, North Carolina.

Goodness gracious.

What are some must-eats?

So far, I think I'm going to have to go to Cook-Out for one of their milkshakes and maybe hunt down some Cheerwine if I'm feeling up for it.

What are some other things that I can only experience in North Carolina or in the south that you can recommend to me? My boyfriend says I have to find some BBQ, especially his favorite pulled pork sandwiches.

A lot has happened since my last post, so I'll update soon! =]

Introduction

Hello everybody! My name is Starr and, as inspired by my friend Reena, who is also documenting her summer adventures, I have decided to start a separate blog because this summer is full of firsts for me.

For people who are stumbling across this blog by chance and do not know me personally, I am currently a pre-med rising senior psychology major with a minor in neuroscience. I'm originally from New Jersey but I currently live in Maryland, so I will often compare my new experiences this summer to my home experiences.

I'm starting this blog a bit late, since final exams ended mid-May. Lemme break down what my summer has looked like since, and I will try to catch us up to present day:

MAY

• 20 - Class of 2012 main commencement
  

  

  Congratulations to everyone who graduated or will graduate this year!

• 20 - Fly to Illinois
• 21-25 - ISNI (Illinois Summer Neuroscience Institute) 
• 26 - Fly back from Illinois

JUNE

• 1 - Drive down to North Carolina for NIDA internship
• 4 - First day of work

JULY

• Er... I'm still in North Carolina during this time...

AUGUST

• 3/10 - Return from North Carolina
• 29 - Begin classes

SEPTEMBER

• 1 - MCAT

Oh yes, you guys will get to hear my awesome stories of how I am studying. (Hopefully, not stories of how I was supposed to be studying and then... didn't...) 

One of my biggest challenges for this will be keeping up with this blog, my personal blog, and also uploading photos. I have gotten extremely slow with photos this past year because it has become a very laborious process. But I will try my best!

Something else I will try to keep up with are my Yelp reviews. I like reviewing businesses (especially restaurants!) and since I am traveling well outside of my home region, I am adding a lot of diversity to my Yelp page. Instead of writing my reviews here, I will link to my Yelp review if I mention a business that I've reviewed.

Thanks for reading this much thus far!

Have a great summer! I hope I can do the same.

P.S. In Reena's scientist style...

Hypothesis: Starr will have a million experiences to write about, with hopes that she will be too tuckered out to have to talk about them. Also, she will actually study for her MCAT after learning some more lab skills. 

Alt. hypothesis: Starr will just fail at everything and spend all her time doing nothing and writing nothing because she is a lazy butt.