18 June 2006
Sailing
Boston Sailing Center offers Sailing Lessons and Free Trips for those interested, it is at Lewis Wharf. We caught this boat as dusk was upon us. It was a very nice ride with some great views of Boston. Sorry I'm not smiling. This was the third picture taken of this pose. I got a little bored with the smiling aspect - for those that know me, it is a challenge for me to smile on command. 
De Cordova Art Museum
We Visited the de Cordova Modern Art Museum in Concord, MA. This is a photo of me on the roof top terrace at the museum. The art there was a little funky, but overall it was a pretty neat experience.
14 June 2006
14 June 2006: Hypothesis Testing
Today we had, as usual, Biostats in the morning, then a brief lecture by a faculty member who shared some tips on reading scientific papers, then a break for lunch. After lunch we had a presentation by a faculty member in Society, Human Development, and Health named Beth Molnar. We ended the day with another Stata class.
In Biostats class we are working on Hypothesis Testing. Looking at data and forming a null hypothesis and a alternative hypothesis. The goal with these hypotheses is to reject the null hypothesis that would then mean the alternative hypothesis is true. The alternative hypothesis usually suggests there is some correlation or association between data. Today we had exercises that suggested higher levels of blood cholesterol meant higher numbers of heart attacks. We worked with the data provided to show that there was clearly an association (p value below .05) and therefore rejected the null hypothesis of there being no association.
Dr. Molnar shared some interesting information regarding her research on Child Abuse and Child Development as it relates to risky adolescent behavior. It seemed that children exposed to various forms of abuse or neglect were much more likely to participate in risky behavior later in life. Other studies showed child sexual assault increasing the number of adult mental disorders. Dr. Molnar has spent many years focusing on the long term effects of child-hood events. Her interest was created when she was working for a study that was tyring to figure out a way to educated runaway and homeless teens about HIV many years ago. She found, just from speaking with the teens, that many of them had expereienced some sort of abuse or neglect earlier in their life. She then saught to find true mathematical associations between the two factors and look more deeply into the lives of children.
After Dr. Molnar, we had our STATA class and what sticks in my mind the most is how incredibly cold the computer lab was. I just don't understand why that is necessary. Regardless, the lab reinforced the processes learned in the biostat class using the computer. Our teacher is a graduate student who is quite interesting. He shared that he is preparing for his wedding and how it is a pain in the butt. He is "excited to get married, but not excited about the wedding."
After classes our group decided to take a trip to the MFA, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. According to various visitor guides, the MFA is the best place to visit in the city. I wasn't really that excited to go and the only thing that really lured me was the fact that Wednesdays are free to the public. Upon entering the museum and looking at the first several exhibits, I was surprised to find so many objects and artifacts. Past art museums have built a strong association in my mind of only paintings. Boston MFA does a wonderful job to collect furniture, vases, mirrors, tapestrys, artwork, and other things associated with many groups of people. I do enjoy classical (and impressionist) artwork from Europe and America, and spent quite a few hours looking at Sargent, Cassat, Renoir and others. I spent sometime looking at Degas work, but am not as interested in more modern pieces. What I probably enjoyed the most was the egyptian exhibition. There were actual mummies and coffins! I spent a lot of time looking at these amazing relics dated around 2500 BC.
Today we also took a trip to the grocery store, trying to cook more and eat out less. I don't mind eating out, I think it is neat to expereience the food here, but I would rather eat in for lunch instead of going to subway or McDonalds. Usually we eat out for dinner, but I try to cook lunch (when it isn't provided) and breakfast in the apartment. I can not believe that we are almost 2 weeks into the program. Time really is flying by!
Project is going well. Yesterday we had a strong introduction to the exact material and methods we will be using. Tomorrow we will spend several hours working with data and trying to begin the analysis of this COGA dataset!
In Biostats class we are working on Hypothesis Testing. Looking at data and forming a null hypothesis and a alternative hypothesis. The goal with these hypotheses is to reject the null hypothesis that would then mean the alternative hypothesis is true. The alternative hypothesis usually suggests there is some correlation or association between data. Today we had exercises that suggested higher levels of blood cholesterol meant higher numbers of heart attacks. We worked with the data provided to show that there was clearly an association (p value below .05) and therefore rejected the null hypothesis of there being no association.
Dr. Molnar shared some interesting information regarding her research on Child Abuse and Child Development as it relates to risky adolescent behavior. It seemed that children exposed to various forms of abuse or neglect were much more likely to participate in risky behavior later in life. Other studies showed child sexual assault increasing the number of adult mental disorders. Dr. Molnar has spent many years focusing on the long term effects of child-hood events. Her interest was created when she was working for a study that was tyring to figure out a way to educated runaway and homeless teens about HIV many years ago. She found, just from speaking with the teens, that many of them had expereienced some sort of abuse or neglect earlier in their life. She then saught to find true mathematical associations between the two factors and look more deeply into the lives of children.
After Dr. Molnar, we had our STATA class and what sticks in my mind the most is how incredibly cold the computer lab was. I just don't understand why that is necessary. Regardless, the lab reinforced the processes learned in the biostat class using the computer. Our teacher is a graduate student who is quite interesting. He shared that he is preparing for his wedding and how it is a pain in the butt. He is "excited to get married, but not excited about the wedding."
After classes our group decided to take a trip to the MFA, Boston Museum of Fine Arts. According to various visitor guides, the MFA is the best place to visit in the city. I wasn't really that excited to go and the only thing that really lured me was the fact that Wednesdays are free to the public. Upon entering the museum and looking at the first several exhibits, I was surprised to find so many objects and artifacts. Past art museums have built a strong association in my mind of only paintings. Boston MFA does a wonderful job to collect furniture, vases, mirrors, tapestrys, artwork, and other things associated with many groups of people. I do enjoy classical (and impressionist) artwork from Europe and America, and spent quite a few hours looking at Sargent, Cassat, Renoir and others. I spent sometime looking at Degas work, but am not as interested in more modern pieces. What I probably enjoyed the most was the egyptian exhibition. There were actual mummies and coffins! I spent a lot of time looking at these amazing relics dated around 2500 BC.
Today we also took a trip to the grocery store, trying to cook more and eat out less. I don't mind eating out, I think it is neat to expereience the food here, but I would rather eat in for lunch instead of going to subway or McDonalds. Usually we eat out for dinner, but I try to cook lunch (when it isn't provided) and breakfast in the apartment. I can not believe that we are almost 2 weeks into the program. Time really is flying by!
Project is going well. Yesterday we had a strong introduction to the exact material and methods we will be using. Tomorrow we will spend several hours working with data and trying to begin the analysis of this COGA dataset!
12 June 2006
Harvard Square
This is a picture of Harvard Square, right off the T Stop. Harvard University, while concentrated in various locations, is throughout this area, so are a large number of businesses. This is a very populated and toured area, and is fun to just come and walk around.
Public Latin School
The public latin school is in very close to the Longwood Medical Area (that is the name of the area I stay in, go to classes in, and in which the hospitals exist). The Public Latin School is not original to this site but was actually the very first Public School in the United States and remains open today to the public. Students have to take an entrance exam in the sixth grade to try to get into the school as it is very rigorous and demanding. Despite it's exclusiveness, there is no financial cost associated with the school.
Kody @ MIT
Standing outside the main building of MIT, the tent in the background was from graduation.
12 June 2006: The Adventure Continues
Last time I posted I had a substantial amount of trouble with the formatting of the post and the internet was being unreliable. Maybe that is why I chose to not post for several days. Actually, it wasn't really a choice at all. Things move at quite a pace here in Boston. Harvard School of Public Health advertises the program as "relatively intensive" and I'm encouraging the removal of the "relatively." Despite the high speed program, it is quite enjoyable. Over the past several days we have continued classes in Biostatistics, met with various epidemeologists and epidemeological students. Had an introduction to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute and an introduction to their community health / outreach program and what it does. We've met a unique professor in the Department of Society, Human Development, and Health (SHDH) who is truly passionate about tobacco and how it is killing everyone. We have also attended conferences, had question answer sessions, been working on homework for our Biostatistics Class, and continued developing and working on our research projects.
In addition to all of this we've done various social things, this weekend we had a Duck Tour and then went out to eat at Bob's Bistro, which attempts to reproduce cajun cusine. I, being a lover of jambalya, had to try it. I must say it wasn't as promising as I had hoped it to be. These social events never happen without opportunities. Graduate students almost always join us, which gives us a unique time to ask them questions about applying to school and what they looked for in a school. Professors join us on these outings as well giving us other networking and q/a opportunities. Sunday was a free day, and I took some time to tour Harvard University's Cambridge Campus and MIT.
Today, the main focus of the day was a diversity workshop that the Biostatistics Department sponsors. Several professors, lecturers, professionals, and officials in the field of environment protection, research, and remediation joined together to address the question of Brownfields or Environmentally polluted areas in Underprivledged Communities. The workshop attempted to go through the process of identifying a polluted site, reporting it, making sure it was looked into, making sure it was cleaned properly, and so on. Overall it attempted to develop a step by step and broad overview for all. The program went from 8:3o this morning until 5:30 tonight.
The weather has been wonderful the past two days, and I'm hoping it won't rain for a few more. After the workshop today a few of us took a walk up to Northeastern University and went to their Qdoba for some really good burritos. No one around here has or have heard of a fish burrito, I miss them! After dinner we walked back and I worked on homework for a while. We have a reading assignment with questions due tomorrow (which I finished after dinner tonight) and we are continually working on our research projects.
The reading assinment was a series of news articles and scientific papers that followed a couple scientists working in the realm of bioinformatics. They were using mass spectrometry (google it!) to identify various proteins in the serum of peoples blood and use that as a diagnosis for various diseases. This field is called proteomics and seems to be promising as a way to kind of barcode scan diseases with character protein production. The results presented in this collection of papers was very promising initially. The scientists were working on Ovarian Cancer and attempting to detect it very early on. They used a set of known set of females with and without the diesase and ran their blood serum through the machine. One group presented very good results while the other presented 100% correct diagnosis, perfect results. However, later, another public health official reviewed the paper and recognized the use of poor standards or procedures. The group with 100% correct results had run all of the negative tests in one block and all of the positive tests afterwards. The testing was not radomized and the calibration didn't occour throughout the test. Usually, blind radomization is standard for such testing, and when things are shuffeled around, it is typical to see very good results, or at least similar results among the positive blood serums, since they were all tested together.
After the reading, I feel asleep and woke back up to blog. After doing this for an hour now, I hope to return to bed and fall asleep quickly! I've posted some photos taken over the past few days with brief summaries. I hope you enjoy them. Tomorrow we are back to class and various lectures. I hope to give you good information about each specific part tomorrow, and in the future, up date you about the specific lectures and events I summarized in this first paragraph.
Blind & Random!
In addition to all of this we've done various social things, this weekend we had a Duck Tour and then went out to eat at Bob's Bistro, which attempts to reproduce cajun cusine. I, being a lover of jambalya, had to try it. I must say it wasn't as promising as I had hoped it to be. These social events never happen without opportunities. Graduate students almost always join us, which gives us a unique time to ask them questions about applying to school and what they looked for in a school. Professors join us on these outings as well giving us other networking and q/a opportunities. Sunday was a free day, and I took some time to tour Harvard University's Cambridge Campus and MIT.
Today, the main focus of the day was a diversity workshop that the Biostatistics Department sponsors. Several professors, lecturers, professionals, and officials in the field of environment protection, research, and remediation joined together to address the question of Brownfields or Environmentally polluted areas in Underprivledged Communities. The workshop attempted to go through the process of identifying a polluted site, reporting it, making sure it was looked into, making sure it was cleaned properly, and so on. Overall it attempted to develop a step by step and broad overview for all. The program went from 8:3o this morning until 5:30 tonight.
The weather has been wonderful the past two days, and I'm hoping it won't rain for a few more. After the workshop today a few of us took a walk up to Northeastern University and went to their Qdoba for some really good burritos. No one around here has or have heard of a fish burrito, I miss them! After dinner we walked back and I worked on homework for a while. We have a reading assignment with questions due tomorrow (which I finished after dinner tonight) and we are continually working on our research projects.
The reading assinment was a series of news articles and scientific papers that followed a couple scientists working in the realm of bioinformatics. They were using mass spectrometry (google it!) to identify various proteins in the serum of peoples blood and use that as a diagnosis for various diseases. This field is called proteomics and seems to be promising as a way to kind of barcode scan diseases with character protein production. The results presented in this collection of papers was very promising initially. The scientists were working on Ovarian Cancer and attempting to detect it very early on. They used a set of known set of females with and without the diesase and ran their blood serum through the machine. One group presented very good results while the other presented 100% correct diagnosis, perfect results. However, later, another public health official reviewed the paper and recognized the use of poor standards or procedures. The group with 100% correct results had run all of the negative tests in one block and all of the positive tests afterwards. The testing was not radomized and the calibration didn't occour throughout the test. Usually, blind radomization is standard for such testing, and when things are shuffeled around, it is typical to see very good results, or at least similar results among the positive blood serums, since they were all tested together.
After the reading, I feel asleep and woke back up to blog. After doing this for an hour now, I hope to return to bed and fall asleep quickly! I've posted some photos taken over the past few days with brief summaries. I hope you enjoy them. Tomorrow we are back to class and various lectures. I hope to give you good information about each specific part tomorrow, and in the future, up date you about the specific lectures and events I summarized in this first paragraph.
Blind & Random!
07 June 2006
6 June 2006: First Day of Classes
First Off, Sorry about not posting on time yesterday about yesterday's events. While I would have loved to post on time, the internet problems in our living area has been problematic. But, ahhh, they have remedied the situation and we now have internet access in our apartments, which is where I am not, typing this blog. Anyways - on with the story at hand.
Yesterday was our first day in some time to sleep in. We had time at 10 o'clock to read a pre-reading for our first Intro to Biostatistics Class, but it was short, so I had already read it. In lieu of the assigned reading time, I went to the School of Public Health Cafeteria to buy some breakfast. While there is interesting medicinal research being done all over this area, I was doing research of my own. I formed a hypothesis that the cost of the food in the cafeteria would be expensive. My method was a complete trial, making broad purchases from varying areas of the cafeteria, and check out at the register. After talking the cashier into charging me the student price, despite my 'visitor' ID, I was off to a table to properly analyze the purchase. What did I learn? I learned that unpackaged food, such as eggs, sausage, and fruit, are relatively unexpensive at about 40 cents an ounce. Packaged food however, such as pretzels and water, are much more expensive, at about 2.00 a bottle or bag. The conclusion - purchase things not in packaging and drink water from the water fountain (even if Boston water isn't that great, supposedly). While there is more testing to be done to formulate a proper conclusion, this is a good start to some interesting research.
After breakfast, I returned to the classroom for our first meeting of Intro to Biostatistics. The instructor is very engaging. In light that every student has a varying level of mathematical background, he does well to keep us all on the same page, speeding up and slowing down through the course of the material when appropriate. The class was only about an hour today, which was refreshing, as in the future it will be 2 hours daily.
After class, we had a period for lunch so I ran to a local food court to grab some "old faithful." For those that don't know this language, the translation for "old faithful" is Subway (Eat Fresh!). Being a medical area (with a Medical, Public Health, Dental, Pharmacy, and other Health Science Schools along with 3 hospitals and multiple labs and research institutes) there are a fair amount of cafeterias, snack bars, and food courts in which you can eat. Still unfamiliar with the area, I just went to Subway!
After lunch, an Epidemiologist from Channing Labs with a dual appointment at Harvard School of Public Health shared an overview lecture with us about the profession of epidemiology. She is currently working on the Nurses Womens' Health Study, which is an observational study that has been following nurses for the past 30 years. She specifically is studying Breast Cancer and possible exposures, outcomes, and correlations for the diesease. Her lecture was very informative, providing a very strong overview of the different studys and processes epidemiologists may go through to look at the causes of a disease or the presence of a disease in a population.
After the lecuture we had an introduction to STATA, the statistical software that we will most likely use when working on our projects. The teacher was pretty interesting and tried to make learning the software package engaging. The software is complex but fairly intuitive. While you can use only commands, you can also use the variety of drop-down lists and menus to also request the computation of data.
Since we've had internet troubles in our Apartments, we, the students, hung out in the Micro Lab for a while, just working on the internet and researching our projects. Earlier in the day, my research partner and I, met with our Graduate Student advisor to get an overview for the project. The project is about looking for possible Genetic Determinants for Alcoholism. A study was done, called the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism in which more than 1900 participants were surveyed and their chromosomes were mapped in attempt to find some linkage. Participants that make up the study were people diagnosed with Alcoholism using various diagnostic methods, and at least 3 of their family members were also added to the database. The Study is currently very popular, and multiple researchers are try to find, or "not find" a link for Alcoholism in the genes of these people.
After doing some internet research, I went back to the apartment to make a grocery list. A group of us walked over to the local stop and shop and I picked up some milk, cereal, pop tarts, cookies, frozen pizza, mac/cheese, Ramen, fruit, and juice. We don't currently have a microwave (while we have thought of purchasing one) so it is hard to pick things that can be quickly made on the stove. It is interesting to think that not too long ago, the rule would have been reversed. It would have been much easier to only buy things for the stove or oven. The microwave has truly become a staple for the American Kitchen.
After buying groceries and putting them in my fridge, a group of five of us sought out to find a nice place to dine. We decided to go to Chinatown, so we grabbed the "T" and headed off to the Boylston stop, which is only about 7 stops up the line that we are on. After getting off the T, in a somewhat dingy stop, we walked about 2 block through the theatre district to China Town. With the Lonely Planet book as our guide, we sought out a restaurant that served Thai Food. However, the restaurant listed, was no longer in business (or had changed their name) so we went to another one in the book, Pho Pasteur.
Pho is basically vietnamese soup. I choose chicken pho (chicken noodle soup). It had a bunch of broth, which I seasoned with various sauces, noodles, chicken, and herbs. You are also supposed to add these leaves and sprouts to the soup. I was a little uninterested in the leaves and sprouts but the "pho excitement" of one of my colleagues encouraged me to try it. It did modify the flavor and enrich the "pho experience." I'll have to try it again in the future.
After dinner we returned home and had another brief stop at the Shop and Stop. Living without a car, or a basket of some sorts, really limits the amount of groceries you can purchase in one trip. We needed to buy some gallon water jugs, and we just couldn't manage to carry them on our last trip. We returned home with our groceries, and after a night of shopping, and great food, I quickly made my check in with "friends and family calls" and retired for the evening.
Future Pho!
Yesterday was our first day in some time to sleep in. We had time at 10 o'clock to read a pre-reading for our first Intro to Biostatistics Class, but it was short, so I had already read it. In lieu of the assigned reading time, I went to the School of Public Health Cafeteria to buy some breakfast. While there is interesting medicinal research being done all over this area, I was doing research of my own. I formed a hypothesis that the cost of the food in the cafeteria would be expensive. My method was a complete trial, making broad purchases from varying areas of the cafeteria, and check out at the register. After talking the cashier into charging me the student price, despite my 'visitor' ID, I was off to a table to properly analyze the purchase. What did I learn? I learned that unpackaged food, such as eggs, sausage, and fruit, are relatively unexpensive at about 40 cents an ounce. Packaged food however, such as pretzels and water, are much more expensive, at about 2.00 a bottle or bag. The conclusion - purchase things not in packaging and drink water from the water fountain (even if Boston water isn't that great, supposedly). While there is more testing to be done to formulate a proper conclusion, this is a good start to some interesting research.
After breakfast, I returned to the classroom for our first meeting of Intro to Biostatistics. The instructor is very engaging. In light that every student has a varying level of mathematical background, he does well to keep us all on the same page, speeding up and slowing down through the course of the material when appropriate. The class was only about an hour today, which was refreshing, as in the future it will be 2 hours daily.
After class, we had a period for lunch so I ran to a local food court to grab some "old faithful." For those that don't know this language, the translation for "old faithful" is Subway (Eat Fresh!). Being a medical area (with a Medical, Public Health, Dental, Pharmacy, and other Health Science Schools along with 3 hospitals and multiple labs and research institutes) there are a fair amount of cafeterias, snack bars, and food courts in which you can eat. Still unfamiliar with the area, I just went to Subway!
After lunch, an Epidemiologist from Channing Labs with a dual appointment at Harvard School of Public Health shared an overview lecture with us about the profession of epidemiology. She is currently working on the Nurses Womens' Health Study, which is an observational study that has been following nurses for the past 30 years. She specifically is studying Breast Cancer and possible exposures, outcomes, and correlations for the diesease. Her lecture was very informative, providing a very strong overview of the different studys and processes epidemiologists may go through to look at the causes of a disease or the presence of a disease in a population.
After the lecuture we had an introduction to STATA, the statistical software that we will most likely use when working on our projects. The teacher was pretty interesting and tried to make learning the software package engaging. The software is complex but fairly intuitive. While you can use only commands, you can also use the variety of drop-down lists and menus to also request the computation of data.
Since we've had internet troubles in our Apartments, we, the students, hung out in the Micro Lab for a while, just working on the internet and researching our projects. Earlier in the day, my research partner and I, met with our Graduate Student advisor to get an overview for the project. The project is about looking for possible Genetic Determinants for Alcoholism. A study was done, called the Collaborative Study on the Genetics of Alcoholism in which more than 1900 participants were surveyed and their chromosomes were mapped in attempt to find some linkage. Participants that make up the study were people diagnosed with Alcoholism using various diagnostic methods, and at least 3 of their family members were also added to the database. The Study is currently very popular, and multiple researchers are try to find, or "not find" a link for Alcoholism in the genes of these people.
After doing some internet research, I went back to the apartment to make a grocery list. A group of us walked over to the local stop and shop and I picked up some milk, cereal, pop tarts, cookies, frozen pizza, mac/cheese, Ramen, fruit, and juice. We don't currently have a microwave (while we have thought of purchasing one) so it is hard to pick things that can be quickly made on the stove. It is interesting to think that not too long ago, the rule would have been reversed. It would have been much easier to only buy things for the stove or oven. The microwave has truly become a staple for the American Kitchen.
After buying groceries and putting them in my fridge, a group of five of us sought out to find a nice place to dine. We decided to go to Chinatown, so we grabbed the "T" and headed off to the Boylston stop, which is only about 7 stops up the line that we are on. After getting off the T, in a somewhat dingy stop, we walked about 2 block through the theatre district to China Town. With the Lonely Planet book as our guide, we sought out a restaurant that served Thai Food. However, the restaurant listed, was no longer in business (or had changed their name) so we went to another one in the book, Pho Pasteur.
Pho is basically vietnamese soup. I choose chicken pho (chicken noodle soup). It had a bunch of broth, which I seasoned with various sauces, noodles, chicken, and herbs. You are also supposed to add these leaves and sprouts to the soup. I was a little uninterested in the leaves and sprouts but the "pho excitement" of one of my colleagues encouraged me to try it. It did modify the flavor and enrich the "pho experience." I'll have to try it again in the future.
After dinner we returned home and had another brief stop at the Shop and Stop. Living without a car, or a basket of some sorts, really limits the amount of groceries you can purchase in one trip. We needed to buy some gallon water jugs, and we just couldn't manage to carry them on our last trip. We returned home with our groceries, and after a night of shopping, and great food, I quickly made my check in with "friends and family calls" and retired for the evening.
Future Pho!
05 June 2006
5 June 2006: Getting Oriented
Today we were up early once again to meet with the other directors of the
program and get a better understanding of what we will be doing while
we are here. We also met the instructors of the classes we are taking,
had a tour of the area, and had our various IDs made for the buildings
we will be in. The largest and most substantive portion of the day was
spent at a Anti-Racism meeting to which we were invited.
The focus of the group was looking at social determinants of context that
influence disparities in health care that target specific racial or economic
status groups. I had always agreed that economic status influenced the
health care that you receive. I had never thought of racism as a influence,
especially in the various constructs to which they were referring. The
obvious context what that institutionalized racism strips health care from
individuals in a hospital or clinic. Beyond that, racism alone increases
the amounts of stress on an individual actually causing a lower level of
health for that individual. The concept of such social constructs creating
a diminished quality of life in the aspect of health is eye-opening. Such
obviously demands a solution and social reform. The argument that
correcting racism because of the cruelty of it no longer stands solely
- we are hurting people both emotionally and physically with racism.
The main idea that I formulated was that the social system that we have
developed in this country drives people to form into some sort of tiered
social status system made up of specific requirements and levels. This
attempts to squeeze the unique qualities and properties of each of our
individualism and fit them into some "cookie-cutter" social status tier that
just doesn't fit. It applies a stressor that is not satisfiable on a group
of people. Such a stressor diminishes the quality of life and therefore the
health of the individuals. Such examples are getting people to fit in or
get a specific job, achieve a certain credential, or have certain networking
or friends. Such unspoken social demands suggest that we all will go about
achieving our personal success into one of these tiers. This is unfeasible
and is a tough question and problem that has no direct solution.
After the Anti-Racism seminar, we had dinner with the group and then
returned back to the MCPHS. During the day we were also assigned our
research projects, I'll be working on the Genetic Determinants of
Alcoholism. We will use various methods to analyze a large data set of
family traits and diagnosis to track the possible existence of a DNA based
gene that dispositions one for Alcoholism. Tomorrow I'll know more about
the project and the course we will be taking to research it.
Don't Drink!
04 June 2006
4 June 2006: Boston Aids Walk
After living in a residence hall for three years now you would think I would have remembered that schools always used x-long sheets instead of typical twin sheets. However, I didn't remember! I brought these stupid sheets that used to be on my bed when I was 5 years old or something and they kept popping off the edges of the matress all night. I did however get to bed pretty early last night, around eleven o'clock and woke up about 7:30. After shower and shaving and was downstairs with everyone else to eat our quick breakfast and off to catch the T (the "T" is the Boston Subway/Trolley/Bus System).
We took the subway imto town and changed from the Green Line to the Red Line and went over to the Charles River. The Aids walk today was through a part of town called Back Bay, which evidently used to be a swamp, and then around the Charles River, it was five miles. The five miles of walking was not a problem, the problem was the checkpoints they had. Throughout the walk they had 3 checkpoints offering water, oranges, popsicles, snacks, etc. After walking for that amount of time and eating and drinking all of those water based products, you really have to pee! But there were thousands of people there, so the lines for the bathrooms (port-o-pottys) were forever long. I finally had to stop and wait. After a long wait, I relieved myself and was back in the walk. The theme this year was "from all walks of life" speaking to the indisrimination of AIDS. It was moving to see all the people their to support this cause.
After the walk we grabbed lunch at this really good sandwich shop on Charles Street and then were walking through the historical and ritzy neighborhood of Beacon Hill, supposedly it is where John Kerry lives. We made it through Beacon Hill and then into Boston Common, the first official park ever, and over to Downtown Crossing. Downtown crossing are several office buildings where there are retail stores on the first few levels of these tall buildings. One of the main buildings is Fileens, which has reduce cost clothes, rugs, and other houseware items. Even more reduced is Fileen's Basement, which is, guess what, in the basement of Fileens. Supposedly, they have this famous wedding dress sale a couple times a year where people go crazy over cheap dresses. Interesting.
Our visit to Fileen's Basement was to pick up a few more things that people had forgotten or didn't realize we would need. This seems to be a recurring theme over the past two days. I purchased bigger bottom sheet (a nautica sheet set for 8.00 mind you!) and that was it. The most popular forgotten item was a pillow. I remember mine!
Out of Fileens Basement, we traveled to TJ Max for pots and pans, which were too expensive, and then to CVS for some more bathroom supplies. After CVS, it was now about 3 something, and we were ready to cruise on back to the MCPHS Apartments. We caught the Green Line, E Track of the T at Park View station and were on our way back. A few still needed some items so we stopped at this Walgreens that is near the school (which is the one I went to the previous day) and I bought a notebook and some pots and pans for the group. Another student swung into the grocery store to buy some milk. Our idea thus far has been to buy large quantities of cheap supplies that we will all share. It seems to be working since there are only nine of us.
By this time I had quite a headache. I think it was because I haven't had any caffien in more than 2 days, I walked forever, and I've been eating kind of oddly. Back in the room I just crashed and woke up two hours later with an even worse, pounding, migraine. I took four ibuprofen but felt like I needed something more than that. Even though I'm staying in a Pharmacy School, there weren't any better remedies readily available (har har) so I took a hot shower to calm the muscles in my head. After the shower, my roommate had returned and he and I decided to head out for dinner.
We swung into this little pizza/italian place called IL MONDO. The food was very good and a pretty good price. A 12 inch italian sub, toasted, and a water was only 7 dollars. After dinner we decided to start walking the neighborhood and find out what was around. We walked in the direction of some stores we were told about and found a movie theatre. We've decided to go see Mission Impossible 3 sometime in the coming week. The threatre has great late showing times and is within walking distance.
We continued walking and found various shops, restaurants, Fenway Park (which we will go see a game at soon too!) and various churches and landmarks. Guiding us was the tall prudential center in the distance. Once to the Prudential Center, which is a tall building with a mall on the first floor, we went in to start looking around. We spent all of our time in Barnes and Nobel reading through books. On our way out we noticed the book, An Inconvienient Truth, by Al Gore. The Program Director, Dr. Ryan, has been talking about her desire to see the movie, and I believe we are going to see the movie this Friday Night. This however is the book version, but like the movie is about the traumatic effects the climate change is having on our earth. It has lots of pictures and graphns to support the claims that they have in the book.
While looking through the book, I noticed it was signed, I figured it was one of those stupid printed signatures. I grabbed another book to check. It was signed too, but it was different, so I grabbed another, it was also signed, and also different (slightly of course), and the fourth book, well, it wasn't signed, neither were the other ones. After speaking to the manager, he shared that it was a possibility that Al Gore signed the book at one of their off-site events, but he didn't know for sure. The books were signed in a manner, that suggest it was real. I bought the book for the content (and the signature!) and have it in my possession now. I just looked up Al Gore's signature on Google, and guess what, its a match!
After the prudential center, we grabbed the T and headed back for the School. Upon arrival, I grabbed a computer in their library to type this, and am currently doing so. I'll head up to the room in a minute, probably make my bed, clean up a little bit, and head to bed. Tomorrow is an even earlier morning as classes are starting.
I haven't been able to get my computer online yet, but will be able to on Monday. When that happens, I'll have photos loaded onto the blog!
AL GORE!
We took the subway imto town and changed from the Green Line to the Red Line and went over to the Charles River. The Aids walk today was through a part of town called Back Bay, which evidently used to be a swamp, and then around the Charles River, it was five miles. The five miles of walking was not a problem, the problem was the checkpoints they had. Throughout the walk they had 3 checkpoints offering water, oranges, popsicles, snacks, etc. After walking for that amount of time and eating and drinking all of those water based products, you really have to pee! But there were thousands of people there, so the lines for the bathrooms (port-o-pottys) were forever long. I finally had to stop and wait. After a long wait, I relieved myself and was back in the walk. The theme this year was "from all walks of life" speaking to the indisrimination of AIDS. It was moving to see all the people their to support this cause.
After the walk we grabbed lunch at this really good sandwich shop on Charles Street and then were walking through the historical and ritzy neighborhood of Beacon Hill, supposedly it is where John Kerry lives. We made it through Beacon Hill and then into Boston Common, the first official park ever, and over to Downtown Crossing. Downtown crossing are several office buildings where there are retail stores on the first few levels of these tall buildings. One of the main buildings is Fileens, which has reduce cost clothes, rugs, and other houseware items. Even more reduced is Fileen's Basement, which is, guess what, in the basement of Fileens. Supposedly, they have this famous wedding dress sale a couple times a year where people go crazy over cheap dresses. Interesting.
Our visit to Fileen's Basement was to pick up a few more things that people had forgotten or didn't realize we would need. This seems to be a recurring theme over the past two days. I purchased bigger bottom sheet (a nautica sheet set for 8.00 mind you!) and that was it. The most popular forgotten item was a pillow. I remember mine!
Out of Fileens Basement, we traveled to TJ Max for pots and pans, which were too expensive, and then to CVS for some more bathroom supplies. After CVS, it was now about 3 something, and we were ready to cruise on back to the MCPHS Apartments. We caught the Green Line, E Track of the T at Park View station and were on our way back. A few still needed some items so we stopped at this Walgreens that is near the school (which is the one I went to the previous day) and I bought a notebook and some pots and pans for the group. Another student swung into the grocery store to buy some milk. Our idea thus far has been to buy large quantities of cheap supplies that we will all share. It seems to be working since there are only nine of us.
By this time I had quite a headache. I think it was because I haven't had any caffien in more than 2 days, I walked forever, and I've been eating kind of oddly. Back in the room I just crashed and woke up two hours later with an even worse, pounding, migraine. I took four ibuprofen but felt like I needed something more than that. Even though I'm staying in a Pharmacy School, there weren't any better remedies readily available (har har) so I took a hot shower to calm the muscles in my head. After the shower, my roommate had returned and he and I decided to head out for dinner.
We swung into this little pizza/italian place called IL MONDO. The food was very good and a pretty good price. A 12 inch italian sub, toasted, and a water was only 7 dollars. After dinner we decided to start walking the neighborhood and find out what was around. We walked in the direction of some stores we were told about and found a movie theatre. We've decided to go see Mission Impossible 3 sometime in the coming week. The threatre has great late showing times and is within walking distance.
We continued walking and found various shops, restaurants, Fenway Park (which we will go see a game at soon too!) and various churches and landmarks. Guiding us was the tall prudential center in the distance. Once to the Prudential Center, which is a tall building with a mall on the first floor, we went in to start looking around. We spent all of our time in Barnes and Nobel reading through books. On our way out we noticed the book, An Inconvienient Truth, by Al Gore. The Program Director, Dr. Ryan, has been talking about her desire to see the movie, and I believe we are going to see the movie this Friday Night. This however is the book version, but like the movie is about the traumatic effects the climate change is having on our earth. It has lots of pictures and graphns to support the claims that they have in the book.
While looking through the book, I noticed it was signed, I figured it was one of those stupid printed signatures. I grabbed another book to check. It was signed too, but it was different, so I grabbed another, it was also signed, and also different (slightly of course), and the fourth book, well, it wasn't signed, neither were the other ones. After speaking to the manager, he shared that it was a possibility that Al Gore signed the book at one of their off-site events, but he didn't know for sure. The books were signed in a manner, that suggest it was real. I bought the book for the content (and the signature!) and have it in my possession now. I just looked up Al Gore's signature on Google, and guess what, its a match!
After the prudential center, we grabbed the T and headed back for the School. Upon arrival, I grabbed a computer in their library to type this, and am currently doing so. I'll head up to the room in a minute, probably make my bed, clean up a little bit, and head to bed. Tomorrow is an even earlier morning as classes are starting.
I haven't been able to get my computer online yet, but will be able to on Monday. When that happens, I'll have photos loaded onto the blog!
AL GORE!
03 June 2006
3 June 2006: Summer Internship Day One
This morning was a little rough. I didn't go to bed until probably 3 in the morning. Every time I would begin to doze off, I would jump to my feet to recount and review the items I had packed. It is hard packing for a month - well, it is hard to choose a week and a half worth of clothes that you can wash and reuse for 4 weeks. After finally going to sleep, I was up around 8:15 and in the shower. I loaded up the car and Jon took me to the airport, we left the house around 9:00 and go to the airport around 9:45. My plane didn't board until 10:45, but I figured it would be good to have enough time to make it through security. What I had not configured into my time estimation was the fact that I was departing from Asheville Regional. It took about 5 minutes to get through security, and I even had a nice conversation with the US Airways Agent about my 360 degree rolling luggage.
The plane didn't board until about 10:55 and we were in the air about 11:30. The stewardess left a little to be desired, she was just kind of bland and rude. I shared some time talking to the person across the aisle from me about where she was going and what she was doing to pass the time. The flight landed around 12:00, which gave me 15 minutes to get to my gate before the plane boarded. I swung into BK for a quick bite and was off to the gate (which was in a different terminal).
My second flight took off much later, but the captain was hopeful to make up the time, and he did! I tried to sleep a little bit, after downing some giger ale and honey roasted peanuts. Near the end of the 1.75 hour flight (shorter than predicted!) I began talking to the lady seated next to me. She was on her way to Paris (connecting in Boston) and was actually from Asheville. Turns out that her and I were on the earlier flight but had not seen each other. She and her grand daughter were supposed to have left the day earlier, but due to the monsoon of rains flushing the east coast, she wasn't able to get out of Asheville.
Futhermore, she was raised in Boston and had lots of great information to share about the city and what to expect. It was very neat to bump into her.
After arriving in Boston, I made it to the baggage claim. The one advantage to having your connection flight show up late is that your luggage is usually the last put on the plane, therefore, the first to come out at baggage claim. I grabbed my luggage and was off to catch a taxi.
The handy signs at the airport helped me find my way quickly (thank you!) and I was soon seated in the back seat of a somewhat rickety old ford taxi. My driver was Haitian and had lived in Boston for multiple years, he now has a wife and four daughters. His initial move to Boston had been to go to college, something that wasn't financially possible for him to accomplish. He was very interesting and took the time to point out various things as we made our way into the city. He made but one wrong turn, our language barrier, my southern draw and his remaining Haitian accent conflicted, he took me to Longwood Apartments instead of 174 Longwood Avenue. But, we made it there in the end.
Isabelle, the assistant program director was awaiting my arrival (as well as the other students) and helped me carry my now cumbersome luggage to my 6th floor room via the very fast elevators. She provided me with a subway pass good for the month of June, a lonely planet guide to boston, and a shirt for the Boston Aids Walk that will be occouring tomorrow. As her and I were setting off towards the room a second student arrived. We went up to the rooms and I began to settle in. The rooms are apartment style with two rooms (each doubles) sharing a common living room/kitchen and a bathroom off to the side.
After realizing a few things I had forgotten, my new space mate (he is not actually in my room, but in the apartment) headed off to CVS and Stop and Shop (a grocery store). It has been raining in Boston for some time, and packing as I usually do, I wasn't completely prepared for the wet rain outside. At CVS they were out of umbrellas but had the other things I needed. I grabbed a few snacks at the grocery store to have in the room, but the umbrellas there were way too overpriced, 14.99 for a cheap little umbrella. I think a chest X-ray for the possible pneumonia would be cheaper than that!
Once back at the apartment I continued unpacking and made my bed, in just a while the entire group got together and met the RA and the program director. There are 9 people in the summer program, five girls and four boys. They are from all over and in various phasese of their undergraduate carreers. Out of respect for their privacy, I'll take care from now on not to mention their names. After introducing ourselves to each other and learning about the rules of the residence hall, we were off on our tour of the building. We are actually lodginig in the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It is a neat builing and just down the road from the Harvard School of Public Health, where the majority of the classes for our program will take place.
After the tour we walked just down the street to this italian place for dinner. We dined and continued our ongoing conversations to get to know each person better. We spoke about our phobias, where we came from, what we thought college was all about, grad-school opportunities, just various topics from humorous to serious. After dinner we returned to the depressing freezing drizzle and walked back to the residence hall. Isabelle "borrowed" some toilet paper from one of the public bathrooms in the building because our apartments did not come stocked.
Once in our rooms, my roommate and I lowered my bed for fear of my falling in the middle of the night. It was a task, but worth it I'm sure. In opposition to the Chest X-Ray, I would mind falling off the bed in the middle of the night, like I used to with the trundle of my younger years. My spacemates and I rearranged the living space and contemplated purchasing a TV to use with one of the guy's playstations. We will probably wait for the verdict on that one after our first day of classes on Monday.
Tomorrow we will be up early to begin the Boston Aids Walk at 10:30 (thanks too all those who supported me!). It should be great to get a dryer view of this city that so many rave about.
Things are getting off to a great start, everyone is very nice and the people are very engagaing both intellectually and socially. I'm enjoying it very much!
To Bed!
The plane didn't board until about 10:55 and we were in the air about 11:30. The stewardess left a little to be desired, she was just kind of bland and rude. I shared some time talking to the person across the aisle from me about where she was going and what she was doing to pass the time. The flight landed around 12:00, which gave me 15 minutes to get to my gate before the plane boarded. I swung into BK for a quick bite and was off to the gate (which was in a different terminal).
My second flight took off much later, but the captain was hopeful to make up the time, and he did! I tried to sleep a little bit, after downing some giger ale and honey roasted peanuts. Near the end of the 1.75 hour flight (shorter than predicted!) I began talking to the lady seated next to me. She was on her way to Paris (connecting in Boston) and was actually from Asheville. Turns out that her and I were on the earlier flight but had not seen each other. She and her grand daughter were supposed to have left the day earlier, but due to the monsoon of rains flushing the east coast, she wasn't able to get out of Asheville.
Futhermore, she was raised in Boston and had lots of great information to share about the city and what to expect. It was very neat to bump into her.
After arriving in Boston, I made it to the baggage claim. The one advantage to having your connection flight show up late is that your luggage is usually the last put on the plane, therefore, the first to come out at baggage claim. I grabbed my luggage and was off to catch a taxi.
The handy signs at the airport helped me find my way quickly (thank you!) and I was soon seated in the back seat of a somewhat rickety old ford taxi. My driver was Haitian and had lived in Boston for multiple years, he now has a wife and four daughters. His initial move to Boston had been to go to college, something that wasn't financially possible for him to accomplish. He was very interesting and took the time to point out various things as we made our way into the city. He made but one wrong turn, our language barrier, my southern draw and his remaining Haitian accent conflicted, he took me to Longwood Apartments instead of 174 Longwood Avenue. But, we made it there in the end.
Isabelle, the assistant program director was awaiting my arrival (as well as the other students) and helped me carry my now cumbersome luggage to my 6th floor room via the very fast elevators. She provided me with a subway pass good for the month of June, a lonely planet guide to boston, and a shirt for the Boston Aids Walk that will be occouring tomorrow. As her and I were setting off towards the room a second student arrived. We went up to the rooms and I began to settle in. The rooms are apartment style with two rooms (each doubles) sharing a common living room/kitchen and a bathroom off to the side.
After realizing a few things I had forgotten, my new space mate (he is not actually in my room, but in the apartment) headed off to CVS and Stop and Shop (a grocery store). It has been raining in Boston for some time, and packing as I usually do, I wasn't completely prepared for the wet rain outside. At CVS they were out of umbrellas but had the other things I needed. I grabbed a few snacks at the grocery store to have in the room, but the umbrellas there were way too overpriced, 14.99 for a cheap little umbrella. I think a chest X-ray for the possible pneumonia would be cheaper than that!
Once back at the apartment I continued unpacking and made my bed, in just a while the entire group got together and met the RA and the program director. There are 9 people in the summer program, five girls and four boys. They are from all over and in various phasese of their undergraduate carreers. Out of respect for their privacy, I'll take care from now on not to mention their names. After introducing ourselves to each other and learning about the rules of the residence hall, we were off on our tour of the building. We are actually lodginig in the Mass. College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. It is a neat builing and just down the road from the Harvard School of Public Health, where the majority of the classes for our program will take place.
After the tour we walked just down the street to this italian place for dinner. We dined and continued our ongoing conversations to get to know each person better. We spoke about our phobias, where we came from, what we thought college was all about, grad-school opportunities, just various topics from humorous to serious. After dinner we returned to the depressing freezing drizzle and walked back to the residence hall. Isabelle "borrowed" some toilet paper from one of the public bathrooms in the building because our apartments did not come stocked.
Once in our rooms, my roommate and I lowered my bed for fear of my falling in the middle of the night. It was a task, but worth it I'm sure. In opposition to the Chest X-Ray, I would mind falling off the bed in the middle of the night, like I used to with the trundle of my younger years. My spacemates and I rearranged the living space and contemplated purchasing a TV to use with one of the guy's playstations. We will probably wait for the verdict on that one after our first day of classes on Monday.
Tomorrow we will be up early to begin the Boston Aids Walk at 10:30 (thanks too all those who supported me!). It should be great to get a dryer view of this city that so many rave about.
Things are getting off to a great start, everyone is very nice and the people are very engagaing both intellectually and socially. I'm enjoying it very much!
To Bed!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)