Status Update

It’s been a while since I wrote anything here, but I have a new excuse: Work!

Yes, since my internship started, it’s been difficult adjusting to this new lifestyle. You know, wake up in the mornings, sit throughout the day in your workplace, get home and you are all tired and ready to hit the sack. I was looking forward to getting out of academia and starting work; I am not sure of it anymore!

A weekend has gone by since the last entry, what transpired in these days? Not much and quite a lot, depending on how you choose to look at it. I made plans, cancelled them, made them again and cancelled them again. Plans to visit Malaysia during the upcoming Chinese New Year break.

I asked a certain someone out for a movie this Sunday. She’s interesting and funny and likes rock and gets my jokes ;-) More importantly, I don’t quite know how to put it, but for the time that we spent together, I was at ease. Hmm.. doesn’t quite describe what I am trying to say but at 11:30 in the night after a tiring day, don’t expect any lucidity!

Today was day one of a two-day symposium organized by SMA. For those who tuned in late, that’s Singapore MIT Alliance, where I am pursuing my masters. The morning session’s agenda was talks, talks and then some more talks. They weren’t boring though! In fact, a talk on the Genome project by Eric Lander was extremely informative and thoroughly entertaining. Lander is a gifted speaker and if you read his bio, you’ll find that his gifts extend well beyond speaking skills :)

The afternoon session was the technical session. Lots and lots of research presentations. And boy were they boring! It required the culling together of all my resources to stay awake during the talks; unfortunately, I faltered a couple of times. I just hope no one noticed my bobbing head!

After the end of the day’s agenda, we all went to what is a very famous seafood restaurant here. This was a special dinner to mark the fifth anniversary of the SMA programme. There was a special table for us veggies :) The food was great and my still heavy stomach bears testimony to that! The best part of the evening was the karaoke towards the end of the dinner. Many of the MIT faculty and quite a few students let loose there vocal chords. Let me tell you something, these profs sure know how to shake a leg ;-)

Well, after that long day, here I am. There’s another session tomorrow morning.. damn.