done and done

It's official. I have finished the final exam for my last class in my 2nd year in grad school. 2nd year of grad school is considered the hardest year of grad school because its when people typically take generals. Well, my year was typical and I took generals, and I passed them. I am now ready to enter my third year in grad school, the easiest year. It is considered the easiest year because one has passed generals, but writing of the thesis is still too far away to contemplate. It is like a breath of fresh air to know that I don't have any more milestones or hurtles for at least 1 year.

black tie optional

Last night was the annual Grad School Formal. It is a black tie optional event, so it is super swank. Since I sprained my ankle last week, I was sad because I wouldn't be able to dance much. It was still tons of fun. Luc was my date (obviously) and he wore his tuxedo, with his new tuxedo shirt that I bought him (because I turned his old one pink trying to wash it). He looked spiffy. I wore a black dress (the only dress I own) and sported a very nice ace bandage around my ankle.

I had a lot of fun. Danced 5 songs: two with Luc, two with Peter (who actually knows how to waltz so dancing with him is awesome) and one with Tom.

Pictures from the night have been uploaded to the folder "April 2008" which you can find on the "photos" page. Enjoy the pictures!

feeling positive

It's been a tough few months. I may have mentioned that one or two times before. When something consumes your life, it's all you can think/talk about. I'm feeling good now, though. Things are looking up. I'm beginning to enjoy going to lab in the morning. Have all these ideas in my head that I want to try out. Excited to learn again. My days are good now. Full of friends and life and happiness. Full of promise, excitement. Winter is almost over. Spring is coming. That is exciting to me.

My weekends are becoming jammed packed with fun things to do, places to go. Classes are really good. Learning all about the chemistry of how proteins are formed and how they interact. Finally starting to understand statistical mechanics (this is the 3rd time I've taken the class). I feel in control again. Volleyball league started up, so now I can be active again. My muscles were so sore from last week's game, and it was absolutely wonderful. I loved the pain lacing up my thigh muscles every time I walked up stairs. I hope to start up with Taekwondo again soon. I'm going to look for some schools in the area.

I put up a few pictures from this weekend. Mart came down to visit, because I got her opera tickets to see Carmen in NYC for her birthday. The show was Saturday night. On Friday night we went to a student belly-dance performance. One of my friends, Jess, is in the troupe. They put on a good show. I took a few pictures for Jess. Then Saturday we hung out in our PJs until about 2 pm, then we got ready to go to NYC. We took the train in and went to dinner at an Indian restaurant. It is called Sapphire and is near Columbus Circle, in case anyone wants to know. The only drawback to the evening was that Mart's shoes decided to slice off parts of her foot. Mean shoes. We stopped by a drugstore to buy some band-aids and performed some surgery by the Poland Springs display. Poor Mart. She still couldn't walk well, but at least more skin wasn't being sliced off. The show was really good. We could see pretty well, despite being in the last row in the topmost balcony (balcony 5 of 5 or 4 of 4 ... I forget). Mart brought binoculars, so we could see better. We caught the 12:42 am train back to Princeton and were soo happy to get into bed. Mart left around 1 pm today, so we just had breakfast together. Luc came over too. Travis called and I got to say "hi". I haven't talked to him since he left for Iraq in November. He should be coming home soon though, which is good. I know that Mart misses him.

With that, I think I'm going to go join some friends at the D-Bar ... even though it's a school night. I'm a rebel.

i'm in a band

Yes. That is true. I am a drummer in a 4 person rock band. Didn't know I played the drums? Well, I didn't either. I am quite good though. The band's name: Rïtzenhauß. How did we come up with such a clever name? Well, at our first band practice, we were having a lot of trouble, so Luc picked up a nearby coaster and read it. It said "Ritzenhoff". We changed it because we wanted to add cool characters like an umlauted "i". Rïtzenhauß was born. We are originally from Stockholm. Other members of the band: Luc (lead vocals), Josh (guitar) and Jess (bass). We've been touring Europe lately: Amsterdam, Paris, London. The usual. Although we just played a gig where we won a jet, so now we can tour other continents. Next stop ... maybe Boston ... maybe Seattle.

Yes, I am in a Rock Band* (like Guitar Hero) band .... just look at the comic. We are awesome.



* For those of you who are not so video game savvy, Guitar Hero is a video game where you attempt to play a guitar, matching the notes (or buttons) on the screen as they scroll by. Play it well, and the song plays, play it poorly, and the crowd boo's you off the stage. Rock Band is a new version of Guitar Hero that incorporates multiplayer play. Instead of just one guitar, there is now a guitar, bass, drum set and mic for singing. Play songs together, get money, fans, win things, keep touring. It's fun.

so I passed ...

In case you didn't know, I passed my general exam. What that means is that I am officially a Ph.D. candidate now and get awarded a Masters degree. I think that is a pretty worthy milestone. I think everyone already knows though, because I sent out an email to practically everyone I know. Here are some of the responses I received:

"Congratulations!!!! I knew you would pass. Best wishes for continued success."
-Dr. Lucia

"Yay!!!!! Go Meg! :)"
-Sue Brassard

"YAY!!! Congratulations!!! Of course you are awesome, we all knew THAT! I know this has been a tough and stressful semester, and I am so happy that it worked out so well for you!"
- Kate Coleman

"as if there was a question as to your awesomeness :D well done madame bellows. next time you're around, i'm buying you a pizza. no but seriously that's awesome!"
- Chris Piecuch

"WOOO HOOO!!!!!!!!!"
- Malissa O'Donnell

"and ever the modest one, as well, ms. bellows. :P hehe that's GREAT news! i'm proud of you, my princeton-dwelling friend! celebration in RI? hmmmMMM?"
- Brian Dowdell

"Good work meg!!! I am super proud of you, but really, no one ever doubted you would pass with flying colors. I think a bellows knows only one type of color, and that is the flying type."
- Ben Potter

"WOO HOO from the chilly tundra"
- Aunt Janet

"Congratulations Meg"
- Uncle Jim

"Dear Meggie, Nice going, I always knew you would, you are such a hard worker and great achiever. Uncle Bob and I are very proud of you. Keep up the good work."
- Aunt Marilyn

"Well no surprise that you did so well in your general exam. Congrats Meg!! You ARE indeed awesome! Best of luck in your next few years as an official Ph.D candidate!"
- Ana Franco

"WOW! That is great! Now you have increased my bragging rights again. Not everyone has a genius for a flower girl!"
- Sandra Marston

So thank you to everyone who helped me though this semester, especially my family and Luc for putting up with my nervousness and sense of worthlessness. Still hasn't quite sunk in that I am through it, but I really appreciated having you all there to talk and whine to. :-)

On to more challenges ... or rather, a hopefully calmer and more relaxing semester+summer.

i'm so high!!

So high up in the mountains. Yup. I am in Salt Lake City at the Annual American Institute of Chemical Engineers Meeting. I am in quite good spirits right now because my presentation is all finished. It was this morning and it went great. It was on reserach I did at URI with Dr. Lucia, not research I am currently doing at Princeton, so I was worried that I wouldn't remember what I did, but I did fine. Tomorrow I hope to take a tour of the Great Salt Lake. Did you know that it is saltier than the ocean? I didn't. Here are some other fun facts about Salt Lake City, UT (ok, these are actually silly laws that are still on the books):

1. A husband is responsible for every criminal act committed by his wife while she is in his presence.
2. Birds have the right of way on all highways.
3. In Utah when a person reaches the age of 50, he/she can then marry their cousin.
4. It is against the law to fish from horseback.
5. It is considered an offense to hunt whales.
6. It is illegal not to drink milk.
7. It is illegal to detonate any nuclear weapon. (You can have them, but you just can't detonate them.)
8. No one may walk down the street carrying a paper bag containing a violin.

So Martha, if you ever come here and bring you violin, be sure that it is not in a paper bag. Also ... no whale hunting. Interesting in a land-locked state. Maybe there are whales in the Great Salt Lake. Perhaps I will find out tomorrow. I have apparently already broken a law here, as I have not had any milk since my arrival. Must remedy that soon. And now, for those curious readers out there, here are some real facts about the Salt Lake City area:

1. Elevation: In the valley, the city's elevation is 4,330 feet above sea level, and in the foothills reaches 5,200 feet. The Wasatch Mountains to the east are 11,500 feet tall, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west are 9,500 feet high.
2. The Great Salt Lake, 17 miles west of the city, is only about 45 feet deep, and its water is 5 to 15 percent salt. The Lake is 48 miles wide and 90 miles long, making it the largest lake in the U.S. west of the Great Lakes. The Great Salt Lake is part of an ancient lake known as Lake Bonneville that used to encompass part of Nevada, which today is made up of salt flats.
3. Salt Lake City was founded in 1847 with the arrival of Brigham Young and the Mormon pioneers who sought religious freedom. The settlement was originally called Deseret, and within three years of their arrival, the Mormons founded the University of Deseret, which is now the University of Utah.
4. With a population of over 179,000, Salt Lake City is the state's largest city and the capital city.
5. As a whole, the state population of Utah is the nation's youngest and healthiest.
6. The population boasts the highest literacy rate, highest percentage of high school graduates, and highest percentage of college-educated people.

Ok, those are enough facts. I am taking some pictures while here, but did not bring my USB cable, so they will not go up until I get home. So stay tuned. In the meanwhile, I did upload a few other pictures that my friend Sareh posted from our homecoming weekend celebration in Rhode Island. Those are in the "October" album, if you wish to see them.

phd comics

For those of you who don't know, PhD Comics are hysterical comics about graduate life. The author of the comics, Jorge Cham, spoke at Princeton a few days ago, and I bought the first volume of comics and got it signed by him. So, in the spirit of this being on my mind, I discovered I can post the comics to my own website! Therefore, there is now a new feature. Towards the right, bottom of the page are the latest comics, and this gets updated automatically, and more frequently than I update this page (so it seems), so you can enjoy a nice comic strip while awaiting my posts.

I'll probably have a good post this weekend telling about how things have been, and upload pictures I've taken over the weeks, but just haven't had time to. Until then, enjoy the comics.