Leadership Alliance

Hey all,
Sorry I haven't written in so long, I've been busy. Nothing really exciting to report. I work five days a week 9-5 or 6. Have GRE study class two days a week 6:30-9 and journal club one day a week 6:30-9. Between all these I try to fit in an hour work-out a few days a week. On the time we do have off, usually our PI (primary investigator) have assigned extra reading or we are working on posters or papers we have to write. Basically all of us get home exhausted. On the weekends are surf activities and studying for the GRE. I decided not to take it at the end of this summer but instead, at the end of September. I'm glad I didn't sign up because students just now are realizing their test date is in 1.5 weeks and no one has really prepared because we are so busy.

My project is coming along. I'm thankful for this experience because it's taught me that two months of this kind of work is enough for a lifetime. I will not be going into a biology field as I thought I would all through college. While many in the program are trying to convince me not to give up all hope, I don't really see a very good job in this field where you don't have to do bench research, type 90-page long requests for grants, or be publishing, peer reviewing, or keeping up on very technical articles. I'm still interested in biology as it relates to health but on a more macro level. Well very macro.. I'm interested in population diseases. So now I've discovered the field of public health. Some of the jobs you can do would be to have a combined public health/public policy degree and go to DC and become an advocate for different healthcare issues, run a clinic, work for the Center for Disease Control, National Institute of Health, or head up other government and private programs. However, I just decided this so it's a little late to start taking more health related classes and participating in more specific internships, considering applications are due to graduate schools in December.

Also, I finally completed my Peace Corps application! It was about 100 pages long. I discovered a really cool program they have called Masters International. Specifically in the field of public health, the PC has a combined program with 13 schools where you can attend a few semesters and then receive credit hours towards your degree for your PC service and you write your thesis while you are there. However, you must get into both the PC and the school separately. This is perfect for me because I would get my degree which fulfills the education component but I feel I lack the experience so I think PC service would give me more field experience. And it turns out the schools are some of the top ranking programs. I will probably end up applying to a few really good schools' masters programs as well as a few of the Masters International programs. And hey, if I don't get into the Peace Corps but get accepted to one of the Masters International schools, I can still attend that school.

I think the people here are somewhat disappointed in my choice because the whole point of this program is to increase minorities in the biological PhD world, but sitting all day long with little person-to-person interaction is not me. Plus.. I have this weird need to wear lose fitting clothing, holding poor, dirty kids, and save the world. I think I could accomplish that better as a public health professional.

Besides that life-altering realization, I also went to Virginia/Washington D.C. this weekend to present at the Leadership Alliance Conference.

This is me presenting to a man dubbed "the mean mean man from Brown" who was extremely critical of everyone's posters. Since my protein that we were testing was a fairly new discovery, when he launched in to all these other experiments we should do, it was very easy to defend because he was absolutely right. I told him that yes, further testing should definitely be done to understand the function of this protein. He didn't expect that and really had nothing more to say. I think I stood up well against him.

The Leadership Alliance is primarily for minorities. While our program at Dartmouth is a member of this alliance, the alliance paid for the four minority students to attend but Dartmouth had to pay for our other 4 white students to attend. However, most of the schools didn't opt to do that and only sent the freebies, so the conference was 98% black. This is probably politically incorrect but honestly, it was a really good experience for me to see all the well-spoken, well dressed students from traditionally black colleges like Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard as opposed to the rap-singing, saggy pants wearing men and women who say they are expressing their black pride. Their fellow blacks may call them too white or something with a similar connotation, but black pride does not have to consist of reinforcing steriotypes, but can also consist of being educated and classy.

Besides presenting my poster, they also had panels of everyone from previous graduate admissions professors to a key note speaker who told us that we might be out of a small town, the ghetto, etc but it's not just our job to get out, it's our job to go back and bring at least two people out with us. I thought it was really inspirational, and reinforced what I had been thinking all weekend about public health. The graduate admissions panel also reinforced the idea of your applicaton being a whole package. While I'm always worried about 0.03 change in my GPA or getting a 1400 as opposed to a 1350 on my GRE, they told us that they look at the overall package. If you don't get in, it's not because of a minor thing. It's because several things about you are not in line with that certain program.

We got back late on Sunday and woke up for work the next morning.

Mailing Address

I'll be in Hanover until August 19th. If you'd like to send mail (which is always appreciated) you can send it to:

Briana Coles
c/o George O'Toole, PhD
Dept of Microbiology
Rm 505 Vail Building
Dartmouth Medical School
Hanover, NH 03755

Thanks!

We have the Leadership Alliance Conference in a few weeks where we have to prepare a poster and present it to those walking by, science fair style. Since most schools that get their funding through the Leadership Alliance are on the semester system, they began their SURF programs in May and they are coming to a close. However, since Dartmouth is on the quarter system and this program didn't start until June 24 (which was perfect for me because it gave me plenty of time to travel around Europe with my mom) we will have only done about three out of the ten total weeks of research. When we present at the conference, it will mostly be about what we plan to do. And.. the conference is in Virginia, I've never been there so that will be exciting!

Some of the students jumped right into research either because they already knew what they were doing (as I'm the only one who hasn't been doing research at my college for the last two years) or their graduate student is intent on them being very involved. I have neither so we'll see how this summer goes. I am supposed to present a project tomorrow to the rest of the students in the program (8), but I don't have a project yet... so, we'll see.

Our GRE classes start tonight. Instead of costing each of us $1,200, it's FREE-NINTEY-FREE. That is a really nice perk to this program. Thank you government and private foundations for funding this program. Now the real research starts. The program is no longer taking us to free dinners and planning weekends away. Instead, it's meals at the dining hall and researching 24/7.

I'm completely confused about grad schools. These are the questions I want to ask someone. Apparently science majors don't have to go through the Masters to PhD track. Most just get their PhD. And apparently you don't pay for your PhD, you are an employee of the school and get health benefits, they pay your tuition and fees, and you get about a $25,00/year stipend. More for better funded schools. This was all just introduced to me about five months ago. So then I'm thinking, why would I pay for a masters if someone will pay me to get my PhD? But, without a ton of research experience, and slightly above average grades, would I even get into any PhD programs? Or maybe I should work in a lab for a year and then apply to a PhD program that way 'll have more experience. Or I should apply to a Masters program and then after getting some experience apply to a PhD program and not finish my Masters? After meeting the kids here and seeing what I'm up against- they know exactly what concentration they want to go into, what graduate schools they are applying to, have years of lab experience, and some have even published articles already. If these are the kind of people that are going to be applying where I'm applying, I need to bring something amazing to the table. It's all very confusing and like most things with school it's different every person you talk to. Everyone takes a different track.

On top of this, now I'm thinking, am I really cut out to sit in a freezing cold lab ten hours a day with me, my petri dishes, my ipod, and a microscope? The first few days here I've been somewhat intellectually understimulated (aka bored).

6.29 Woods Hole/Martha's Vineyard

My roommies: Ruth, Anna, me by the shore

On Monday and Tuesday of this week we went to Woods Hole, Massachusetts. There we toured the Marine Biological Laboratory which is not an aquarium but they use marine animals as models for human problems.

We went to some great seafood restaurants where I chose turf over surf and got steak. I might be getting adventurous with food but I'm not crazy. It was a good chance to get to know the other students. We are quickly becoming friends. Although, there are already some tensions within the group.

On Tuesday we went to Martha's Vineyard where everyone, including me, came back crispy as a lobster. We basically just walked around, played on the shore, rode the carousel where they actually had the rings that you could catch to try to get a brass one, and had lunch. It was fun and I can now check another place off my list of places I haven't been.

Today we stared lab. It wasn't all I hoped it would be but I'm hoping it will get better. I found myself thinking, "I should have majored in Spanish."

Boise then Dartmouth

My time in Boise went like this:
Leave London at 3pm London time, which was 7am Boise time, where I sat by a girl who was airsick the whole time, and she clearly knew she was going to be. You'd think that with all the modern technologies available to her, she wouldn't subject those surrounding her to sounds of her gagging up her vegetarian meal if she could help it.
Arrive in Boise at 11pm
Airport pickup, unpack... somewhat, and get to sleep at about 2:30am
Woke up, for no apparent reason at 5:30am where my mom and I began the daunting task of unpacking 6 months of studying abroad and three weeks of European adventure
Straighten hair in preparation for haircut
11am dentist cleaning appointment, no cavities yay!
Jacob's Birthday celebration/seeing family at 12pm at Star Cafe
Haircut
Booster immunization shots
Go home, begin packing
Shower, dinner and movie with Robby
Home to pack until 3am
Get up at 4am for a mad frenzy of packing
On plane at 6:15am Boise time, 8:15 New Hampshire time
Arrive in Boston at 5pm, arrive at Dartmouth at 10:00pm

I WAS EXHAUSTED!

My program consists of eight other students in addition to me, Amorette who is the coodinator that we love, and the professors that have dared to take us on. So far we have been wined and dined to the fullest. This includes free hotels, free dinners and breakfast, and SWEET swag like top of the line safety goggles.

I have a two room tripple. Already our room has been established as the hangout place. Already we, as a group, are going out to things together that weren't organized by the program. We got up this morning and half of us went running together, we've made random trip to Wal-Mart for those that forgot stuff. A few of us are going to a movie tonight. I think I found my new group of temporary friends!!

We have $400 for food, but after finding out a meal on campus is $8-13 we realized our meal card isn't going to go very far so we are figuring out how to cook or eat at cheaper places. Our room has already been established a hang-out place, which is convenient, and also hard to get a moment's silence because we don't really have anything else to do as of now.

6.19-22 Last London Adventure :(

My mom told me before she'd even arrived that she had a surprise for me that I would love. My mom has surprised me several times and usually it's with something I had asked for on a whim and then forgotten about, so I was a little wary of what was to come. When she arrived she told me we were going to see the Phantom of the Opera matinee on the 20th. This ended up being one of my favorite London days.

I didn't even have time to think of Phantom until the day of. After coming back from Dublin so late, the next day we spent relaxing and we were still in my dorm room so we had to try to pack up everything from my five months there as well as all the souvenirs and new things that we had, we donated a lot of my books that had accumulated, my bedding, and anything else that wasn't really important. We packed a bag for our last few days in London and everything else was carefully packed in the larger bags in preparation for the trip to America. We left on the bus that morning and found the hotel by noon. Checking out of accommodation went easily.

This is where things got crazy. We wanted to dress up some for the play. I had forgotten to put nylons in my little bag so we had to tear apart three of the big bags to find them. My mom needed some little thing then I needed another thing. By the time we left in a hurry for Phantom, the hotel room was a mess.

Phantom was AMAZING. I am not usually emotional, but I actually wanted to cry during the play. It was all surreal. Not only that I was there, but that it was so good. I'm used to going to those small-scale productions put on by high-schools in Boise, this play actually had costume changes and the chandelier in the theater actually began to swing at that part (for anyone who has seen the play/movie) where it comes crashing down on the audience. The voices of the singers were amazing. It was just all around wonderful.

After the play we wondered around London for awhile and wanted to go out to a fancy (maybe that's not the right word... different maybe?) dinner. There are so many options in London that it makes it hard to find one. We ended up picking a Thai restaurant. Now that I've tried Thai food, I love it as long as it doesn't taste like peanuts. We had cocktails and chicken satay for appetizer and I had pad see ew. It was so good and in true European fashion, we ate for at least two hours. We went home and crashed.

The next day we were determined to go on the walking tour of London. Turns out it's by the same company that did the walking tour that I loved so much of Edinburgh. Our tour guide was Emily. She was a theater/drama major and she worked solely on tips so she was very animated. You'll have to check out the pictures for the run-through of the tour. We ended up seeing a lot of really random things. There was a parade of veterans where they laid wreathes on a war memorial. We couldn't get close enough to see which memorials specifically. It made me really sad because they had them divided by marines, air force, etc. and after those walking there were men with canes, and then at least half of teach group was in wheel chairs and they were followed by oxygen tanks and medics. It was really sad that those that risked their lives had to suffer old age. They also had a small group of nurses. We also saw the band that does changing of the guard at Buckingham paraded down the street which our tour guide says she's never seen them do before.

After the walking tour, my mom and I walked around to finish my souvenir shopping list. We stopped and had a tiny lunch at this amazing cafe. We split a ham and cheese croissant. I wouldn't mention it, except this was the best best cheese I've ever had in my life! It was a hybrid between butter and cheese. It was amazing. We didn't realize that it was Sunday and that everything was going to close early (man we could have used Barcelona's time table right then) so we were wondering around town planning on spending the last of our money on shopping and maybe eating out somewhere for dinner when we started noticing all the shops closing at 5pm. We wanted to make one last run to Primark but we were out of luck. All the stores on Oxford street closed. Put out, we went back to our hotel, ordered room service and undertook the major task of repacking.

My mom had to leave the hotel at 3am while I had to leave at 12pm so she headed to bed. I followed soon after. It wasn't too long before we met up again in Boise for another whirlwind. I will always remember the time in Europe traveling with Stacy and Jansher, Carly and Kaylin, Britney, and with my mom. Thanks to all who supported me.

6.18 Dublin

Are we there yet?!
After returning from Barcelona at 7pm, we were off the next morning at 3am on a two hour bus to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight to DUBLIN. I remembered that my mom mentioned wanted to go there. Since it hadn't worked out to take a weekend there in the short time we had, I thought a day trip could be fun. I didn't realize how strenuous it would be, especially after coming back from Barcelona late the day before. I got an amazing deal, the plane tickets were only about $30 USD per person. What a steal!

We arrived in Dublin exhausted! First we checked out Trinity College. We got a Hop On Hop Off bus (the red, double-decker ones you always see in London) ticket and rode that throughout the day. We did a little shopping. Coming from London where the fashion is expensive casual and Barcelona where the fashion was varied but people really worked their style, Dublin was kinda a dud. People were wearing bland clothing all in the earth tone family.

For lunch we went to an amazing little pub where they had live music (which sounded so Irish) and good roast beef. It was a quaint atmosphere. At this point I was wearing down. It started pouring rain. I put my scarf over my head and ended up looking like a beggar child.

We went to the Guinness factory as well. I had been to the Heineken factory before, so all beer is pretty much the same. It was interesting to see, much like how Detroit was built around factories, Dublin was built around the Guinness factory. The entire town revolved around this beer making industry. Also, I loved seeing the old advertisements. One said that pregnant mothers were prescribed a pint of Guinness because it makes you "robust" and healthy. How time have changed. Also the political incorrectness of racism apparent in the ads is also interesting.

We continued to the airport at about 7pm, exhausted. We got back to London at about 11pm, exhausted. We took the bus home and got back to Hatfield at 1:15am, exhausted. As tiring as it was, I was so happy to go. We were planning on going (once again) to the walking tour in London the next day. That didn't happen. We slept in and read our books all day and relaxed after two days of intense traveling. This is the point I realized I would have been in Barcelona, London, Dublin, London, Boise, and Hanover, NH all in a seven day period.

6.07-6.17 Barcelona

There is so much to say about Barcelona. We left early Monday, June 6th. We got to the Girona airport which, much to our chagrin, is not the same as Barcelona International, and is instead a tour hour bus ride away from where we were supposed to be. It was more expensive than we imagined so we didn't have the correct cash. We tried to use the phone for about thirty minutes and it wouldn't work. The vacation wasn't starting out so great. Although, compared to the fifty degrees and rainy weather we had just left in England, arriving to 80-90 degree weather was really nice. Things started looking up from there.

My mom and I rented this amazing little apartment which actually ended up being cheaper than a hotel and it allowed us to cook our own meals. We didn't feel too comfortable going out at night so we spent a lot of time playing Gin Rummy. My mom always won :(. We really enjoyed watching Spanish TV because we had no idea what they were saying, so my mom and I made up complete back stories for the characters.

We got our groceries most of the time at the "Big Store" actually named El Corte de Ingles. It was a department store, hardware store, and grocery store all in one eight story building. Don't even get me started on the fruit man there. I stood there, looking stupid, catching his eye multiple times and trying to order fruit. You can't touch it. It is all in a pyramid around the fruit guy, and you have to order it from him. However, as it turns out, you have to take a number. By the time I realized this, I had tried to order at least three times and he just kept turning away right before I could get the words out of my mouth. I gave up and opted not to have any oranges because by this point I was so embarrassed, my pride wouldn't let me order anything. He was probably thinking look at this girl, she's so stupid, she needs to take a number. When I went back and saw there was a new fruit guy, I took a number and ordered like I was a pro- tres naranjas por favor!

And on that note, after 3.5 years of Spanish, I can't say a thing. First of all, Spain has two strong dialects of Spanish, only 1 of which is the Spanish I've learned. The other almost looks like a Spanish/French hybrid. I didn't even recognize some of the letters. Spain also has a few Portugese speakers and of course Basque is totally different as well. So part of it wasn't my fault as I didn't speak the same Spanish as half the population. Also, it was that Spain Spanish has different pronunciation than South American Spanish. "C"s sound like "th"s. The other part is just that I clearly haven't learned anything in class. I could read subtitles (like in the show my mom and I watched about families being sent to live with indigenous tribes) and figure out what was going on, but as far as listening to people speak, I could only make out the general idea.

The set up of Barcelona is amazing. It is all alley-ways surrounded by tall buildings with stores on the bottom story and housing up above. If you passed a store you were interested in, you better shop then because there was no finding that same store again. It was amazing just to wonder through the maze of alleys finding eateries and shops. My mom and I also did some retail therapy. My favorite purchase- a new leather jacket!

I could really be happy in Barcelona. You can walk everywhere in the main downtown. My feet were hurting by the end of some of the days. The nicest thing about Spain was siesta. Stores open late, 10am, and they close for lunch 2-4pm. Then they open back up from 4-9. In a complete reversal from the rest of Europe, stores open later in the day and they stay open later. My mother and I, even though we weren't working, went home and had lunch and a nap everyday at about 2pm. It was so relaxing. I was exhausted and ended up sleeping for almost the first two days.

I can't include or even remember every little thing so I will highlight a few of my favorites.

My first experience with tapas- My mom and I went to a tapas restaurant. I loved the atmosphere. It was on an island in the middle of the road. We ordered wine (yes! I can drink wine now, although in Europe I could have been drinking it 3+ years ago.) Sipping wine, people watching, and having little, inexpensive dishes brought out every so often was enjoyable. They had the best cheesecake ever and their four cheese risotto was amazing. I also tried croquettes for the first time. It was really fun to share with my mom and get full off of several different things.

The "Naked Man"- must see photo on Picasa. A 60+ year old man was walking around with a Speedo swimming suit tattooed on his bum and a face tattooed on his front. He was walking down the main street in Barcelona. My mom and I walked behind him for at least ten blocks. I don't know what was more amusing, the sight of him, or watching everyone triple blink when he walked past and start laughing. It was hilarious to watch people eating at restaurants or walking the opposite direction to do a double take.

Putting the freshness back into markets- Barcelona also has (sometimes disgustingly) fresh materials, fruits, meats, breads, etc. I loved the fruit market. It was indoors and you could get pureed fresh fruit juice or a huge container of strawberries or 1/4 a pineapple for just 1 euro. In the same market, they had skinned rabbits, a fish bigger than me that they would cut a hung off of, eel, stingrays, and every other kind of exotic meat you could think of. My mom and I ate at least 10 baguettes while we were there. We felt very European stopping every day on the way home from lunch at the local bakery and getting a baguette for sandwiches. We stayed away from the butcher though and opted for prepackaged meat.

The Arc and Park- The location of our apartment was amazing. It was in the Gothic quarter and the architecture is amazing. The Arc of Triumph leading to the big central park was only a five minutes walk away. At about 5pm, the old men congregate there to play Bocce ball. We watched for over an hour and things got really intense. Some men had a long string with a magnet so they didn't have to lean over and pick up their ball. They had little fancy bags to put their balls in. Some had little rags to wipe their ball off with after each turn. The kicker came when some men were contesting something and one of them whipped out a measuring tape! My mom and I are thinking, "it is not that serious." Apparently it was, they had to call over someone from the adjoining pit to come make the ruling on who'd won. That wasn't the last time the measuring tape made an appearance. Very few young men, mostly older men played. We wondered where the old women were and turned to find they had set up card tables and were gambling. The whole scene was so quaint, yet hilarious. We continued on to more to the athletic park area where running teams were getting their workout as well as individuals. There was a platform set up where dreadlocked people were doing yoga and in every quiet place there was a couple participating in inappropriate PDAs. The whole scene was so relaxing and low-key.


Blood and gore galore- We went to the famous bullfighting arena. We were under the impressions that it was banned. Even now, searching the internet, I see many articles from 2003/2004 saying Barcelona planned to ban bullfighting. We spent a lot of time goofing around, as you can see from the pictures, and taking photos in the arena. However, bullfighting is not banned. While at the stadium, we saw the bulls being held there. I was thinking to myself, that's weird, until I saw the blood streak from the arena to this garage looking thing. GROSS! It was interesting to see the tiny museum that they had there which had old outfits that they wore. We also saw the chapel right before you enter the arena, for bullfighters to pray for their lives. What a cruel sport, but it was pretty intriguing to see the timeline of something that was such a huge part of Spanish history.

Ca-ble-car! Ca-ble-car! We took a cable car up Montejuic which is a big hill. At the top was a castle, one of many that was saw in Spain. It was set up entirely for defense. There weren't even rooms in it, it was like a big fort. It made for amazing scenery to take photos of though. The castle overlooked the port to ward off sea attacks and it had a view of the whole city. My mom was really excited to do the cable car. That also had a view of the whole city. Check out the pictures on Picasa.

Gaudi is not overrated- Antoni Gaudi is a famous architect who designed a lot of things that look right out of Babes in Toyland in Barcelona. He designed la Sagrada Familia. I can't even describe it. He really believed in mixing art and architecture. Every little detail means something symbolic. You'll have to look at the website as I don't have enough time to even begin to describe it http://www.sagradafamilia.cat/sf-eng/index.php. The main thing is that it still won't be finished for 30 more years. Building began in 1882. Think about that. It has these huge spikes out the top and you can see it from anywhere in town. At first I wasn't that impressed, I was thinking oh great! Another church. After listening to the symbolism of each facet of design and after seeing the museum of how he did the architecture using small scale models instead of mathematical equations, I couldn't help but be impressed. I also made my mom trek all the way to Gaudi's park. It was so worth it. It was the weirdest thing. I can't even describe it. Check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parc_G%C3%BCell

I was so happy there. Each time you walked up the stairs or up a path, there was another strange structure to check out.



From the lady urinating on the main street at 7am, to meaning to jog but instead waking up at 11 am, to the unspoken memo that I missed about all the beaches being topless, Barcelona has left its mark in my heart.