List of potential researchers

The Part II Neuroscience curriculum at Cambridge requires me to spend Lent Term working in a research lab—a requirement to which I am very happy to oblige. The University posts a list of projects to choose from during Michaelmas Term, but if I do some extra legwork, I can arrange my own project or pick another lab that's not on the list.

I've spent two summers and two semesters seeing a project from start to finish in a fundamental research lab at Brown, and as a result, I have had rigorous training in the scientific process. However, I have also discovered that my interests lie much closer to translational "bench-to-bedside" research than to purely fundamental research. My goal is to spend Lent Term working on a translational (possibly clinical) project.

I'm not really sure how receptive Cambridge clinical researchers are to undergraduate students, but I'm going to compile a list of the ones I'm interested in working with anyways, so I know who to pester come October. I will amend the list as I find more neuroscience research labs.

I'll list the researchers after the cut.

American confections

One of my friends at Brown invites me to Russian Tea every Friday afternoon. It's a laid-back, small social gathering in one of the dorm kitchens, where she serves tea with Russian chocolates and biscuits (one type of biscuit is so hard and dry that we call them "teething rings for Russian babies"). Us non-Russians always pore over the variety bag of Russian chocolates, asking, "Which one should I try?" The event is a great study break, and I almost always meet someone new.

Which got me thinking, it would be nice to hold these informal tea gatherings when I go to Cambridge next fall. Socializing over tea is such an ingrained part of British culture that it wouldn't be too strange, but I want to add a touch of "America" to my tea gatherings by offering confections that are unique to the United States.

However, I had a hard time coming up with a list of American candies that haven't already been mass-marketed all over the globe. Things like Kit-Kat Bars and Snickers are already international brands, so it wouldn't be very exciting to bring them. Less popular brands of candy, such as Mars Bars or Whoppers, might be harder to find in the United Kingdom, but (in my opinion) they don't taste all that great, and I wouldn't even want to serve them.

I was talking about this at Russian Tea this afternoon, and they suggested that I should bring peanut butter candies. I didn't realize it before, but peanut butter is, in fact, a distinctly American foodstuff. One girl told me that when she was traveling France, she was craving peanut butter, but she had a hard time tracking down a jar of peanut butter in their grocery stores. She eventually found it in the international foods section. Crazy, eh? Maybe I should make peanut butter cookies and fluffernutter sandwiches to serve at tea time. Peanut butter cookies and fluffernutter sandwiches are fucking delicious.

I was also thinking of bringing confections that are distinctly from the American South/Southwest, since (I am from Texas). Pecans pretty much don't exist in Europe, so I can introduce some Brits to southern-style pecan pralines. Maybe I'll just pack a bag of pecans into my suitcase and bake pecan pie and and pecan sandies. Maybe I'll bring a Paula Deen cookbook.

My tea gatherings are going to be amazing.

Why are they tempting me

The more I think about it, the more I want to join Cambridge's taekwondo club.

I used to have a knee-jerk reaction of "AW, HELL NO" every time someone suggested that I join Brown taekwondo (TKD). It was simply too time consuming, and the idea of getting a new injury every week wasn't very enticing. But after seeing all the friendship and close camaraderie at the end-of-the-year Brown TKD banquet... I actually really wanted to join. And I already know a full third of the Brown TKD members anyways.

I think, during Freshers Week, I'll try out both the fencing club and the taekwondo club at Cambridge. I'll see which one I click with most and join that one. My motivation for joining an athletic club is mostly for the camaraderie, to be honest, and not so much the competition. The only advantage of picking taekwondo is that it'll be something that I can continue doing when I get back to Brown. This is because Brown only offers varsity-level fencing, and nothing less intense than that. Boo.

(God, I can imagine the ridiculous amount of "likes" I would get on Facebook if I joined the Cambridge University Taekwondo group.)

For the record

Things to do:

• Keep a photoblog
• See all the sciencey stained glass windows
• DNA, Venn diagram, neuron (Gonville & Caius dining hall)
• Cross-section of plant stem (Pembroke library)
• Get a Pembroke College scarf
• Walk over these bridges:
• Mathematical Bridge
• Clare College Bridge
• Bridge of Sighs
• Go punting on the Cam
• Go pub crawling at least once (probably during Freshers' Week)
• Take up fencing again at the CU Fencing Club
• Fight Oxford at the Varsity competition
• Publish an article in the Cambridge TTH
• Visit Nicole/William/Luis at Oxford
• Visit Marie at UCL
• Visit Caitlin at King's College London
• Guy Fawkes Night fireworks and bonfire
• Attend evensong choir at Trinity College chapel
• Attend the Boat Race between Cambridge and Oxford can't go because I'll be in Europe
• Volunteer-bake at the Cafe Project
• Strawberries and champagne on a punt, at sunset

Places to go:

• The Eagle pub
• University Museum of Zoology
• Whipple Museum of the History of Science 
• Fitzwilliam Museum
• Cambridge University Botanic Garden
• Visit as many coffee/tea shops as possible
• Ely
• French market
• Ely Cathedral
• Fitzbillies Bakery (52 Trumpington CB2 1RG)
• The top of St. John’s Tower (the highest vantage point in Cambridge)

• All the UK tourist spots (London, Stonehenge, etc.)

Eat these foods:

• Scones and clotted cream
• Jellied eel
• British/European candies and chocolates
• Yorkshire pudding
• Treacle tart got five-pennied for this one
• Chelsea buns (from Fitzbillies) 
• Huntingdon fidget pie
• Scotch pie (in Scotland)
• Stargazey pie
• Eccles cake

The journey of a thousand miles begins with

...one of these things.

Actually, it's about 4,752 miles. Or 7,648 kilometers.

YEAH WINDOW SEATS ALL THE WAY.