PhD Degree

Got my degree today in the mail. This has got to be the hardest sheet of paper to obtain in your lifetime!

Boston 2009

This is my first time to Boston, the beginning of America. The brief history is that the revolution of early settlers began here against the British colonialist at the time. It was a bunch of people living in Boston Commons, who held radical views of freedom, that banded together and stood up to the military authorities at the time. Today, Boston is full of history...and oysters.

In fact, Charlene and I are here for the Psychophysiological Society annual meeting. This is the 50th anniversary of the conference and there was much to celebrate. This was my first time to attend this conference, and I was a little unsure of what to expect. Of course, this is not a neuroscience conference, so I did not expect to see the usual crowd. But to my surprise, I actually met a lot of old friends here. A bunch of people from the cognitive aging group, some people from Singapore, some friends from Japan, and a lot of people from Illinois! It felt good that this conference was, to me, more about meeting people than it was explicitly about the posters and talks, although some of those were interesting.

Back to the oysters. Have I ever told you that Boston oysters (which are actually mostly from Maine or at least, further out at sea and are so technically not from Boston), are awesome? You can taste the sea in them. Basically, you should eat these raw. Don't even bother with the lemon, and don't drown yourself in oysters. Have a few, like 3 or 4. And stop. And let the ocean water that was sucked up by the oysters cleanse your body as it permeates your mouth. Seriously, that's really what its like.

Fortuitously, we also met an old Singaporean friend who brought us to an awesome place farther out from Boston (Chung Shin Yuan) for the best bowl of 牛肉面, 豆漿 and 油條 that I have had in a long time.

And now...back home! Yay!

Berlin 2009

After participating for a week in a conference in Chicago (Society for Neuroscience, 2009), Charlene and I headed towards Europe. She was attending another conference (Society for Psychophysiological Research, 2009) and I was attending a vacation.

The origins of this trip to Europe for me, began with quite a lot of trouble. Namely because at the time of thinking about going for this trip, I was caught up in writing my dissertation, flying about between labs, worrying about data, and the future, and about spending money, and going home. But things happened, and I thought that this would be worth it, with the pleasant company (of course that alone is enough!), the seeing of new places, and the partaking of glorious beer and sausages. Besides, some people reflected to me that Berlin is a donut of a place.

This was my first time to Berlin, and my first time to Europe, actually. And I have to say, it was more than worth it. The culture alone is enough to leave a novel thought in my head. And that is saying something! One is reminded of reality, and its depth, which brings a sense of peace. But, enough of such philosophical nonsense. Here's a sample of the most impressionable experiences.

While Charlene was hard at work in the SPR conference meetings, I took a walk around Alexanderplatz and Museum Insel. For those of you who are well informed, Alexanderplatz is where Jason Bourne arranged to meet Nicki, "kidnapped" her in front of a bunch of snipers surrounding the area, brought her to one of the station underground service rooms, interrogated her and frightened the socks of of her to find out some secret info. This photo shows the world clock that is at Alexanderplatz.

We met Koki there and his friend, Goran, works at the Max Planck Institute (which I also visited). Goran mentioned this rather hole-in-the-wall place that sold the famous curry wurst. It is called Konnopke's Imbiss, and is at Eberswalderstrasse. The shop is basically a trailer underneath the train tracks. There is apparently always a long line of people waiting to buy the curry wurst, along with a large family of pigeons. Careful while standing there! The curry wurst is probably not anything special...but in the cold of the Berlin autumn weather, standing around with friends, and with a Berliner Pilsner, any sausage instantly transforms into a gourmet satisfaction.

On the last night of our time there, Charlene and I caught some Berlin Opera in authentic diaphragmatic German. Ich lieber du, Ich lieber du! The Rosenkavalier was the opera. Again, worth watching for its beauty. After that, we strolled down the famous Unter de Linden and saw the famous Brandenburger Tor (not the alcoholic burger, but the Brandenburg gate). Before seeing this, I thought, its just a gate. After seeing it, I thought, wow...a lot of things happened here. Incidentally, there is really a U2 train station here, in coincidence with the U2 band, which played here during the celebration of the fall of the wall.

We also managed to pass by the wall without taking a photo of it...so too bad. This is because the wall is really gone. Nuff said.

Finally, we ended our trip with a belly full of Eisbein (the famous Berlin pork knuckles) and the famous Berlin meat balls. In the famous Berlin restaurant called Standig Vertretung. Which is located at Friedrichstrasse. Incidentally, Friedrichstrasse is where Jason Bourne dashes out from the hotel (also in Berlin, Berliner Zeitung), runs to the train station to evade the cops, jumps onto a boat under the station (which is over the Spree river), climbs back up on the other side of the bridge, and gets into another train and escapes.

Berlin...Ich glauber sie haben mein beir, vergessen!

More photos [here]