Christmas in Utah!

I made the trip back from Cleveland to have a 2 week visit with my fellow Utah peeps! What should be waiting for me at the airport but a "Welcome Home Brigade". When I got there, everyone asked me where I served my mission. (Only in Utah....). :)

What trip home would be complete without a stop at Temple Square. Divinely inspired, the place was covered with red and white lights. Below: Matt and I showing off the red tree. (Note: This does not compare to the awesomeness at Temple Square last year. We are missing 2 of the original 4.)

For those of you who know me a little, it probably doesn't surprise you that I won't back down from a dare. Matt: "It would be great if you would just shove this whipped cream in your mouth." Me: "Okay. Just don't get it on my shirt." Below is the result.

Another goal of the trip home was to get an amazing photo of my mom and stepdad Jim. Needless to say, I think that I succeeded.

The cooking crew. College kids can do one thing well, all huddle in the kitchen and pray that something they throw together in the bowl will have an appealing taste. :)

New Year's celebrations to follow... :)

A snapshot of what I do...well, kind of.

I have become a "professional" brain surgeon over the course of the summer here at graduate school. Well, not really....but at least that is something cool to add to the resume, right?

We study the immune response to microelectrodes (that are inserted into the brain). Below is one of my favorite images that I have taken of the biological response to these probes. Gotta love the pretty pictures.

I present my research for the first time this Thursday. Which makes me beg the question: HAVE I REALLY SURVIVING IN CLEVELAND 4 MONTHS NOW? WOW!

A Free Stamp

Life in the "Cleve" is going great! I have had some chances to go and see the town with other members of the single's branch (church peeps) out here. Here are some shots from recent adventures.

We recently did "The Amazing Race - Cleveland" for Family home evening. Task #1: Find the Rock and Roll Musuem and get your groove on. Our song: 'Going to the chapel'.

Task #2: Pose in front of Severance Hall. (ie. the hall that the Cleveland Orchestra plays at).

Task #3: Find the "Free Stamp". Why people in Cleveland call this art is beyond me!

5 girls in a car can lead to interesting times. We were driving to the stake tubing activity about 2 hours away. If I was a pedo-phobe this might have been an issue.

Meagan and I waiting in line for Transformers 2. Despite massive amounts of humidity...I somehow still manage to keep my hair fairly straight...

New digs...

Well I have officially survived my first week in Cleveland. The new job is great! I am very excited to start working! My training will be done next week and then I can begin surgeries and such. Which the inner nerd in me is really starting to get excited about.

For now, here are some pictures of the new abode:

All the furniture (except the bed) I scored for free! I would say I didn't do too bad!

I love my new bed spread! It is so fun! And the bed I bought is SO SOFT! I love it!

I guess it is finally official...

And then there was a graduate school!

Well... I have officially decided on a graduate school! I will be going to:

CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY



I am super excited. It will be a lot of fun. The university is located right on the east side of Cleveland, Ohio. It is a fun college area--but very different from anything in this part of the United States.

Further, I have decided on a professor to work with and will be starting my research work June 8th. His name is Jeff Capadona. Check out this link: http://www.devicelink.com/mpmn/archive/08/05/002.html It will give you a basic idea of what he is trying to do. Or you could just google his name too...

In general, I will be working on generating polymers to improve device compatibility of electrode arrays. (ie. arrays that are inserted into the brain to allow a way for scientists to translate thought into motion (for people with strokes and such)). I am WAY excited about this project. It is almost the perfect project to match my interests. Further, the professor is very personable and I see myself having a good relationship with him throughout the duration on my Ph.D.

I will most likely be moving to Ohio the first weekend of June... Scary... But so exciting! So if you are around me and want to see me before I leave...you have about a month and a half!

Grad School Search and MORE!

Okay, so now that I have a brief moment, I wanted to take a minute to update the blog. Things here have been so crazy! I have beeen going from graduate school interview to grad school interview. It has been very educational, and I am definitely getting a feel for what cities and schools I could/couldn't be at. But in general, here is the breakdown:

Denied:

-University of Washington

-University of California, San Fransisco

-University of Texas at Austin


Accepted:

-University of Utah

-Washington State University

-University of Maryland

-Brown University


Interviewing/waiting to hear from:

-Arizona State University

-Case Western Reserve University

-University of California, Irvine

-Northeastern University

I am so torn as to where I should go--but in a month I will definitely be able to tell you a more definite answer! Ha ha! (Though any and all input is always appreciated...).



In other news, I came back from another trip to CA fairly recently. Check out the slide show for more details and etc. It was fun to be able to see San Fran again. It is definitely a fun city to visit. Though a 14 hour car ride trip there...I definitely would not recommend it.

The Two Month Update!

So um...it has been awhile. I think it would be an understatement to state that I have been merely "busy". Ever since I have graduated, things have been crazy! But for simplicity, let's just do a reader's digest version of my life in the past few weeks.

First... I am officially graduated. My diploma came in the mail a few days ago. I was so excited! I didn't even take it out of the envelope. I mean, would you want to risk damaging a paper that cost over 15,000 dollars? ...Yeah, I didn't want to either.

Second, I am now working full time as a Lab Technician at the lab that I worked at as an undergraduate. It is really fun! The job has allowed me to further know that I want to research for the rest of my life.

Third.. I am starting to hear back from graduate schools! The outcomes so far:
University of Utah: Interview
Case Western Reserve University: Interview
Washington State University: Accepted with ~45,000 dollars assistantship/year
UC San Fransisco: Denied
UT Austin: Denied

So far it is about half and half. Which I was expecting. So we will see where I go! But I am still waiting to hear back from six more schools...

Okay, now for the picture update! I was lucky enough to spend the week after Christmas with my roommate (Kerianna) and her family (:o) ). It was a lot of fun because not only was it a vacation to a warmer place, but it was also a nice way to celebrate graduating. Below are some shots from the adventure!

First up: A beach shot! Yep, I spent my winter holiday on a beach in "warm" weather. It was way fun! This is a shot of Kerianna and I being our mischievious selves (some things never change...right?)


What California trip would be complete without random-ness that occurs in the car on the way to destinations? Gotta love the fish faces!

I went touring around San Fransisco with 4 native Californians. I am glad that they humored me enough to take a few tourist photos. This is me in Chinatown. (And for the record, this is one of the places where I have never felt so white in my life!)

Ah! I loved this shot. I guess I am a fan of the silhouette shots.

Our high school musical shot...beach style!

Okay, so this picture has a long story behind it, but in short. We went into this chinese "herb" store. But in all actuality, we decided it smelt like rabbit food. This is a picture of some of the stuff they were selling (which was around 75+ dollars a pound). Do you see the hesitation in my face?

Overall it was a WAY FUN trip! I am so glad that Kerianna and her family let me come down and see the coast and visit with their family.

I will be making my way back to CA this weekend to bid Kerianna off as she leaves on her LDS mission. And then it is a bout with grad school interviews. I hope that I am able to get at least one at a warm school....right now, my chances of getting out of the cold are slim to none!