Sighting

I am back (and not dead)! I got caught up in studying like the good student I usually am not. Now, though, no more summer school! After the final, I said my goodbyes to the supervisor, HPD, the rest of the lab, and my genetics buddy and headed to the apartment to finish packing. There was a lot of, "Oh! This! I want to take this to India! Crap...there isn't any more room...well, maybe if I took all my makeup out...I could buy new makeup when I get there. It'll be cheap..." and even more "I hope this bag is under 50 pounds."


My roommates sent me off from the bus stop with a goodbye that rivaled 12 of my relatives coming to drop us off one time on the way back from India. There were only 3 of them. So, taking the bus takes approximately 2 hours (horrid, I know) and involves changing buses twice. During that time, I watched a lot of people out of the corner of my eye (and some of the creepier ones, lacking my adept peripheral skills, not-so-subtly watched me back) as Something Corporate blasted loudly enough for everyone within 3 feet of me to hear. My observations were such:

1. The incidence of heels in downtown is significantly higher than elsewhere around the city. None of the women wearing them looked happy. Not one. Most were frowning.
2. Strange Indian people will stare at you openly when they can't tell by your skin color whether you are also Indian or by your dress whether you're a fob.
3. Sometimes, small children will try to climb out of the open windows in moving buses when their parents aren't looking.
4. Airport staff deal with a lot of awful terrible shit from idiot travelers. I tried to be extra extra nice to the poor man who checked my bags in because the guy before me was an Axe-clouded, hair-spiking, fake tanned bag of douche.
5. Homeless people get away with smoking weed straight up on the street while police officers walk by without a second glance.
6. People exist who cannot figure out how to access airport Wi-Fi (by opening your browser). These people will ask you really nicely for help though, so you can't even be amused by their ineptitude without feeling like you just lost a lot of karma points. Which you probably did.
   

Overall, this all was enlightening. And though the airport check-in man was the bearer of bad news (2-hour flight delay), he gets the prize for "favorite person I met today". As he changed my flight to an earlier one so I could get home before 1 am, he told me I reminded him of his daughter, who had just come home to visit, and with whom he was looking forward to spending his weekend. How sweet, right?

And now, back to one of the best movies of all time, The Emperor's New Groove, as I hope to the good lord this flight boards on time, though it's looking unlikely.

Next stop, Colmar!

I've been fantasizing recently about travel. My trip to India coming up really soon, and all the "getting ready" that I've been doing has forced me to revisit the travel bucket list and subsequently, travel blogs. Doesn't really help that many of my friends and colleagues have been off gallivanting around the globe this summer.
Of course, my number 1 destination is still the UK, namely London,

but, the pretty little town of Colmar, France is climbing the list pretty quickly as I read more about it.


It looks so quaint!

This picture is basically straight out of my imagination of the towns in which fantasy books are set.

The clouds make the colors stand out so nicely.

Scratch visiting. This is the new dream home.


Ah, so pretty!

Colmar served as an inspiration town for the town in Hayao Miyazaki's Howl's Moving Castle. The guy who designed the Statue of Liberty was from Colmar, and the people there are damn proud of that. Also, the city has a library with a huge collection of preserved printed works from before 1500 AD, which I think is pretty legit. This might be a strange thing to say, but I can only imagine how wonderful that library smells. Mmm.
Unfortunately, I should probably focus first on getting a visa and malaria pills for India. But, I will certainly take my fantasy trip across Europe one day and visit this adorable place.

Lust List Monday: MAC

Well, once again, it's Monday evening, and I'm exhausted from work/class all day, mainly because I vegetated all weekend and watched all of Firefly and Serenity, both of which are absolutely amazing. Highly, highly recommend.

See, even the LOGO is cool!

Something interesting happened while at lunch today. I was eating my Rubio's burrito on the chairs outside, enjoying myself because it was sunny, breezy, and beautiful.

[Girl from next table comes over. I am halfway through taking a huge bite out of my burrito.]

Girl: Sorry, if this is awkward, but I just wanted to say I think you're really pretty.

Me: [around a mouthful of burrito]...huhh?

Girl:Yeah, I think you're really pretty.

Me: [shifts eyes around to make sure I'm being spoken to] uh...thanks?

Girl: No, really, I thought maybe you'd noticed that I kept staring over here cause you're seriously, like, gorgeous.

Me: [having chewed and swallowed by this point] haha, thank you.

And then we proceeded to have a nice little conversation about life. Of course, post-conversation, I was a little paranoid of the possibility of it being this situation (0:20-0:36) from Mean Girls, but then I felt bad for thinking that. That all being said, today's Lust List is makeup related!

I've been meaning to try gel liner for a really long time. I've always used liquid, so I'm curious to see the difference.

I wonder if these actually work the way they're advertised

Every girl should have a dependable red lipstick.

Rouge is a must.

Seriously, how adorable is this bag?
Honestly, though, as much as I would like to buy/use these things, my normal makeup regimen takes all of...2 minutes. It goes like this: Foundation, eyeliner, blush, trademark DP chapstick, done. I like it because it's practical for me (and possibly that I'm too lazy to do more), but a girl can dream, right?!

Pimped!

Let me tell you the story of how I was pimped out:

"Hot Postdoc (to supervisor): I'm thinking about getting a student volunteer to work with me. Do you know what the best way is to go about getting one?

Supervisor: Umm...well during the year we can put out ads on campus, but the summer is usually hard to find people...

HPD: Yeah, PI suggested this girl, but her resume worries me. She has a 4.0. When kids have 4.0s, I worry that they're using me and will always put school first.

Supervisor: [laughs] Well, Mugdha here's not going to be doing that much in the next couple weeks, but she's good and she knows the lab layout and stuff. You can have her.

HPD: Oh awesome!

[Supervisor and HPD continue to discuss how many hours he will get to have me and what skills I have while I sit right there.] "

Good thing? Bad thing? I'm unsure. I think if I play my cards right here, not only do I get to work with HPD, but I might go back to having some semblance of a project since somehow I've been devalued in the last month from project-having,knowledgeable,super-intern to little lab bitch girl. Eh, I guess that happens though when every PCR you've done in the last week has not worked. Will work harder.

Lust List Monday: Urban Outifitters

There is nothing better after a long day than some sourdough bread and fresh brie cheese and some guilty-pleasure-style browsing of one of my favorite stores.

Charmant, non?

Um, I don't think I even need to comment on this one.

Kick-ass leather jacket!

These would be adorable in a bathroom.


Eep! And it's teal! And last, but not least:

Because I am oh-so-mature and find this amusing.

Well, back to MCAT prep. Ta!

Master of the Cold!

I just got off work. 10 hours after I started. You know why? Defrosting a freezer. So, I normally half-brag about the fact that I have to do very little cleaning/maintenance at my lab job, but this is the third freezer I have had to defrost within a year. We only have four -20 degree freezers for Christ's sake! God forbid I have to defrost the fourth soon and start all over from the first one. I swear, it is one of the few completely thankless jobs in a lab (could I possibly be overusing the italics?). Not to mention that you end up totally wet, cold, and unhappy by the end.

In other news, we had an earthquake today! It lasted about 15 seconds or so, during which I mainly watched the glass on the windows ripple. Point being, I'm probably going to die because as the building collapses around me, I will be staring fascinated at the window glass bending like a sheet of plastic.

[5.9 magnitude earthquake has just happened. Note: There is basically construction happening for 100 ft in every direction around our building. ]

Hot PD: Aren't we supposed to go outside to the designated meeting spot after to make sure everyone's safe?

Rest of Lab: Probably. [shrugs and continues work]

Me: Does anyone here even know where this meeting spot is?

Hot PD: Knowing how much the school cares about our safety, probably right in the middle of the construction.

Happy Fourth of July!

I really enjoy the holiday spirit in this country. My family isn't all that keen on doing holiday spirit sort of things, but I think I am going to do them. I like them.

This Fourth of July,

I watched at least 20 different sets of fireworks

in the LA area

from the top of a parking garage.

It was pretty amazing and I wish I'd been able to take a panoramic picture, but, of course, I only have my camera when I don't need it.