I'm Trapped in the Network.

Chantilly, Virginia.
2009 host of the Leadership Alliance National Symposium.
Here I sit in the lobby of my hotel: The Marriott. It's one of the nicest hotels I've ever been in, except for one fault. There isn't any free internet in the rooms....it costs at least $16 to get the internet in the rooms. But there is free internet in the lobby. No poor college student is going to pay that fee when then can just walk out to the lobby and be inconvenienced. None that I know at any rate. So the conference has been going well enough. We left Hanover around 6ish on Friday. I was riding in AB's car with R. I attempted to do some GRE studying on the way, but I'm not sure if I got very far. I'm a little terrified that I'm not going to be ready. There is no possible way that I can memorize the other 125 words that I've got left to go for vocab or do over 100 pages of practice problems. I really really would have preferred to get more practice in. Ugh.

We got to the airport right on time, and got through to security without any problems. So apparently I don't pay attention to the rules about what things are allowed on planes. I should have just checked my suitcase, but I thought maybe it'd be easier to just use O's carry-on. I should have thought about the things that I put in said carry-on. Then I wouldn't have had to have my bag searched and a bottle of anti-static cling confiscated. As if I knew that wasn't allowed on the plane. *shrug* Oh well. It only cost me $1.45 of something. I'm not worried, but the guy looked at me as if I was gonna try to blow up the plane. We took off with no problems, flew with no problems, and then landed going too fast. It was actually kind of scary because it was like the plane had to slam on the brakes harder than normal, but that only lasted about 20 seconds before we were totally stopped on the tarmac. We got lost in the airport trying to find our contact and our bus. We finally got all that figured out and we got to the hotel. We checked in. Everyone was rooming with someone else from the program except for me. I don't know how it works out that I'm always the one getting left out from everything group oriented. Actually, my roommate is kind of great. She's doing summer research at Cornell, and she's really really nice. I'm glad that I got to meet her, but it still would have been nice to actually be on the inside for once. I signed in for the conference and got my free stuff!!!! We got these really nice portfolios and sticky notes and the program made us a couple of sheets of business cards to hand out as we network. We went to lunch at the hotel tavern. My sandwich was so small for the cost; it was ridiculous. Luckily, the program is going to reimburse me. We had this random orientation/starting networking thing in the afternoon. We had to give a 30-45 second elevator speech about ourselves. Obviously the elevator I was in got stuck somewhere on the way to the ground from the 8th floor because Ethan and I chatted for a good fifteen minutes about pretty much anything. So I made my first contact and he was quite nice.

After this session, I went back to the room for a bit to take a nap. Getting up at 5am is not exactly my idea of fun. I slept like a rock. I was totally out. When my alarm went off at 6:30 telling me that it was time for dinner, I was not pleased. Dinner was actually really good. N and I sat at a table with some new people and AB came to join us. I've got this really nice coin that I'm supposed to put on the table that signifies that I get the vegetarian meal. So I had a salad, some alfredo and cheesecake for dessert. It was delicious. During the end of dinner, they had the opening remarks and had this little exercise to get us involved. They read through all of our home institutions and we had to cheer when ours, or the school of a friend, was called. Let's just say that there were only 4 Ohio schools called and 1 Indiana school called. I cheered pretty loudly for me, but I was not crazy like some of the other people that were there. After dinner, they had this panel that was supposed to talk to us about grad school and get us to make informed decisions about our futures and whatnot. Three people, 2 professors and a woman who works for the FDA, talked to us about their research and what they can do with a Ph.D. in their field. It was kind of interesting, but I think it ran too long. After the panel, I sat out in the lobby for a bit using the free wireless with my friends and I went to bed pretty early. I didn't fall asleep right away, but when I did I was totally out.

We had to get up pretty early on Saturday. Breakfast started at 7:30 and that's when everyone started putting up their posters. Before the poster session had even started, I'd already fielded a question by a non-science major. They asked what C. elegans was and this was an easy question. I hadn't been nervous about the whole conference until about 10 Friday night. This totally put my mind at ease. I could do it. I knew more about asymmetric cell division and apoptosis than any of the other undergraduates here. What could possibly go wrong. I was actually presenting at the second session, so I walked around the first session. I listened to one poster, but the guy wasn't clear at all so I didn't stick around. Then I moved to another poster. I picked people that didn't have anyone around. I wanted to be super supportive of everyone else. This guy was K. He's an undergraduate at Cornell and was also doing his research there. His poster was about Golgi tubulation and I didn't know anything about it, but he was really friendly and answered all of my questions. We chatted for at least 20 minutes. I gave him my card, but he didn't have his because he's not as cool as me. He promised to stop by my poster and listen to my spiel since I was pretty much the only one at his poster. I figured I'd better get moving if I wanted to finish walking around before my presentation at 9:45. Let's just say that I got really into the next poster. This was E. She's doing her summer research at Harvard, but she's originally from George Mason. Her poster was all about tuberculosis and this genetic screen that she's doing. We chatted about everything for about half an hour. We exchanged cards and I had to go get ready to present.

When I got to my poster, this group of people were standing in front of my poster. I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to butt in and be like get the heck out of my way. AB saved me by asking me to walk her through my poster and then asking the people to please move. After she left, the first person came up to my poster. This guy was a real talker. I think he really got into what I was doing because he asked a bunch of questions as I went and I think he really wanted to understand what I was doing. In the end, he finally introduced himself to me. Apparently he works at St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital and he totally tried to recruit me. He wants me to consider the University of Tennessee for graduate school because then I could come work at the hospital. And he told me that even if I choose to go somewhere else for grad school that I should consider the hospital for my post-doc. I about peed my pants. I couldn't believe that he was serious. We exchanged cards and I think I'll either stop by his table at the recruitment fair tomorrow or send him an quick e-mail thanking him for his interest in my work. Next I talked to one of the graduate students at the conference. He's from the University of Maryland at Baltimore. I think. He let me walk through the poster and he asked a bunch of questions, but I'm not really sure he was grasping the whole idea of what I was doing. I really had to keep trying new ways to explain the suppressor screen. Sandy came up and asked me to go through my poster with her, so I did. I actually think she probably got the best explaination of everyone because I knew she didn't have as strong a science background. As I was talking to her K came up and listened to my poster. After I answered all of Sandy's questions, she bailed so I could chat with him. He'd heard most of my presentation, so he didn't ask me to go through it again. He asked a few questions and I gave a little bit more explaination and then we parted ways. I saw two more people during the hour. Another graduate student came up and asked me what my project was about. I gave her two sentences and then she worked her own way through my poster. She asked one question and then moved on. At the very end of the hour another girl came up to my poster. They were trying to force us out of the room so she got the quick down-and-dirty version. I was really really surprised when she told me that I was the best presenter she had seen. I really wanted to ask her if I was the *only* one she had seen. But she said that I had been very clear and really emphasized the key points. So I'm going to take that super well. :)
After the poster session ended I came back up to the room for a nap. I had a killer migraine and my shoes had really pinched my toes. I feel bad because I skipped the entire first session of orals, but I did go to one every other session after that. Lunch came next. The food was significantly less interesting. I'm not even sure what I ate. I had vegetarian soup. It was actually really good, but a tad on the salty side. Then I had this really weird vegetable rice pastry. I was so confused about what it was, but I ate it anyway. They had this really pretty white cake with strawberries for dessert.

After lunch I went to the oral sessions to see some talks. It's actually breakfast time now so I'll have to finish my update later, probably when I am back in Hanover. Today (Sunday) is the networking fair and I am more than pumped. Hopefully my network will expand to more than 5 people. haha. talk to you later!