1. Go to church.
The sermons these past couple of weeks at Reality | LA have been about Job and his response to suffering. The majority of this book is a discourse between Job and his three friends, Eliphaz, Bildad, and Zophar. After Job loses his family, his wealth, and his health, these three friends come to mourn with him. However, instead of being a comfort, they catastrophically end up condemning Job, saying that his misfortunes are a punishment for Job's sins. Job is a righteous man, however, and rebukes them saying that 1) they're "comforting words" aren't helping and that 2) they are no different or any better than he. Yet, in his grief, Job remains righteous. Everyone around him is telling him that God forsook him because he was bad, but Job stays faithful to God. (:
Tl;dr - Life can be #thestruggleisreal, but struggling is not always a punishment for some huge secret sin. Sometimes it's God's way of refining you and making you stronger.
2. Learn to dance the Tango and the Samba.
The Ballroom Club offers beginner lessons every Sunday afternoon. Attending a class had been one of my bucket list items since I was a prefrosh, so a friend and I made it a goal to go sometime this year. After I saw the email last week, I decided regardless of my workload planned for the day, I could afford the two hours to learn something new.
Because it was close to midterms week, the class was fairly empty. (Okay, so basically my friend and I were the only undergraduate students there. Advantages of being at a small school--the 3:1 student-to-faculty ratio for even things like the tango.) The tango was fun to learn, but difficult to master. The style is just so specific... In any case, I enjoyed learning to dance alongside my friend. We both have very little prior experience, and it was definitely a different type of learning than what we're used to in our classrooms.
Tl;dr - Ballroom dancing is fun and makes you feel super sophisticated or something.
3. Apply to a really cool summer program.
I just submitted my applications to the Amgen program in Kyoto and the summer undergraduate research fellowship (SURF) exchange program in South Korea. As always, I'm a big fan of lists...
My Tentative Kyoto To Do List:
Take pictures of local temples like Kinkaku-ji, Kiyomizu-dera, Ginkaku-ji, and Ryoan-ji.
Write songs and poetry while wandering through Arashiyama and Sagano district.
Feast on Japanese food.
Meet students from all over the world.
Karaoke in Gion or Pontocho.
See Kyoto at night from the roof of Kyoto station.
Drink lots of tea.
Learn some Japanese.
As for the research, Professor Akiyoshi’s and Professor Hagiwara’s research each seem like projects that would offer me the chance to explore a fascinating topic. When I first took organic chemistry two years ago, I quickly fell in love with the dance of the electrons and the elegant applications of creative synthetic ideas. I have not had the opportunity to work in an organic chemistry lab yet, but I have taken two organic chemistry courses and their corresponding lab courses, so I am fairly prepared to try my hand at organic chemistry research. We'll see how this goes!!
The program in South Korea is at the Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology. Gwangju (광주) literally means "light province." According to the best of all sources, it's the sixth biggest city in South Korea.
My Tentative Gwangju To Do List:
Eat food, especially at Yangdong Market.
Go to Universiade! (It's in Gwangju this year. What are the chances.)
Visit all of the local museums!!
Follow the tips on this handy dandy website.
Just from a cursory glance through the websites, I was able to identify at least seven labs of which I would be grateful to be part. Upon closer investigation, the research conducted by Professor Jang-Soo Chun and Professor Gwangrog Lee stuck out to me the most. The former focuses on arthritis and potential drugs, while the latter studies nucleases and DNA-binding proteins, which is similar to the project I worked on last summer.
Professor Zee-Yong Park’s research in functional and medicinal proteomics seems the best fit for my goals to apply chemical research to biomedical advances, but I am not very familiar with the field. Professor Chunghee Cho’s research in reproductive biomedicine also offers a similar focus on the biochemistry of medicine but with a focus on DNA rather than proteins.
I am also very much interested in drug development and discovery research that seeks to understand the chemistry. Professor Yong-Chul Kim and Professor Darren R. Williams work on projects like that. Professor Youngsoo Jun works with viral processes, which also fascinates me because it focuses on what happens at the chemistry-rich membrane of cells.
Needless to say, there are lots of projects abroad that peak my interest, and stepping back and looking at the world from the perspective of a hopeful undergraduate student, eager to go places and do research in cool fields... is a pretty awesome way to spend a Sunday evening.
What are y'all looking for to fill your summers? It's never too early to start thinking and looking.
take care and keep lookin' up,
jenny.
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