Tuesday, November 1, 2011

It's been a while..


.. would be an understatement.. I have been caught up in the general business of settling down, finding my feet, gaining a foothold and such.. The last time I posted, I had been trying to choose the lab I would be rotating in. I have since completed two rotations and am doing a third. The rotation reports however, are yet to be completed.

The first rotation was a great experience.. The people in the lab are great and I got along with almost everyone. There are three grad students- one of them, a girl who is a year ahead of me in the grad program and who is now my BFF. Let's call her Smiles. The other two have been here for six and seven years each. Let's call them Pretty Boy (PB) and Pain. As you may have guessed, it's Pain I cannot get along with. He is an eccentric, egoistic, misogynist and to top it all off, is a huge gossip. Then there are three research associates. One of them is an adjunct and since he's stayed in Britain for a number of years, his name will be Brit. One is Canadian and will be called Can. He is another person in the group I haven't been able to build a rapport with. I guess it's because of his truly whacky sense of humor, which I don't always get. The third is a serious blessing and I consider him my mentor though I haven't told him so. Let's call him Mr.+ve since he is always so enthusiastic and optimistic. Then, we have a Chinese lab manager, Big guy. Nothing in the lab would get done if he wasn't there. Finally, the Boss man, a great guy, extremely caring and approachable, a genius and a visionary but unfortunately does not worry about the pace at which his projects are progressing.

The second rotation was a bit of a shock for me at first. People were not as talkative as the those in the first lab but then again, English was a second language for all of them and they were not very good at it. That was probably the reason why they didn't talk as much. However, this lab was one where I received the most guidance and appreciation for effort and/ or long hours invested, a very rare thing in this Ph.D. business. The female boss is extremely strict and has extremely high standards for work but like I said her level of involvement in the projects going on in her labs and her guidance were invaluable to me. There are two post docs, one Korean, the other Japanese, both very sparse with their words but extremely helpful and truly nice people. And finally, there is a senior graduate student. And that was it.. A small lab, cozy, nurturing atmosphere where things get done extremely efficiently. I am extremely satisfied with the amount of work I got done there in three months.

'If the lab was so fantastic, why would you leave it to do yet another rotation?', you ask. Aah.. The carrot that was dangled in front of this donkey looked so delicious.. But the story of the third lab and my rotation in it deserves a separate post me thinks..