The sun came out while it was cold. The sun goes away and it gets warm(er) and rainy.

England..... I facepalm over your weather. Now it may just be because there hasn't been any sun for at least half a year. Or maybe its because summer never existed in 2012. But whatever the reason I NEED SUN AND WARMTH NOW! As in right now. Please and thank you.

The flowers are just a tease.

Since the last post, I've been on a London adventure for a friend's birthday. Ben and I went up before the celebration and went on one of my London walking tours. So far, I've been on the Covent Gardens one. But a few Saturdays ago, we went on the Mayfair walking tour. I've never felt so poor (that's a lie, but I did feel ridiculously poor).
Along the way, we walked by the American Embassy

We also stopped to get some tea and cake

And if adventures through London wasn't awesome enough, we accidentally stumbled upon Chipotle. I have never been so happy to see a burrito in my life. That's how much I miss them. And now that Ben has been exposed to real Mexican food, Chipotle (which isn't real Mexican, but still quite good) was a nice surprise for both of us.
After our adventure, we headed to a Brazilian Club and enjoyed drinks and dancing for my friend's birthday. We had to leave early to grab the train back home. And I fell asleep on the train. I can no longer stay awake late. I am extremely old, but am completely fine with that.

Then I had work during the week. And work is.... you know... work. Its stressful and I've been especially busy. I was trying really hard to wrap up my imaging experiments in time to bring all of that data to the conference I'm leaving for on Sunday. And guess what- I did finish the experiment. At least, enough to get a pretty good poster out of it. I'll still need to finalize the work, and do more work on it before it is ready for publishing, but I've got a good portion of it done. And I'm so glad for that. I also had teaching this week and I find I'm enjoying it more and more as time goes on.

Last weekend, there was a lot of new Brighton experiences. Craft Beer Co. bar is just a few blocks from my flat, but I had never been there before Saturday. But WOW, I'm so sad I wasted time going to other places. They are more American brewery like than British pub like. And I seriously enjoy trying new and different beers instead of getting the same cheap beer on tap. And Craft Beer has some pretty amazing beers from all over the world. I also adventured to a pub that is a block away from me that cooks Caribbean food. And since we went on Sunday, they offered Jamaican Sunday roast. HOLY... OH MY.... AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH it was amazing. I can't even begin to explain how amazing it was. And now, every day since, I have craved the food. I have been missing such intense flavor and it was so refreshing to find it again.
We also went to a Home Show that had cooking exhibits and food stalls. I had some of the best cheese and salami of my life at those food stalls. And the cooking exhibit was quite interesting... but sadly just made me realize, even more, how badly I need a KitchenAid stand mixer in my life. And how long it will be until I'm able to afford one.

Besides that, time has been punctuated by good food (including trying new restaurants, cafes, and pubs), pub quizzes, and friends.

Here's what I've been eating:
Spicy Harissa Carrot Soup- This has barely anything in it, but is so amazingly good. I made the harissa myself, so maybe that's why it needed so little. The harissa has a lot of different spices and flavors, so the soup didn't need much more. Make it! Its super healthy and delicious.
http://www.thetarttart.com/2013/01/spicy-carrot-soup/
Greek Pasta- This was really delicious as well, but far less healthy.
http://withstyleandgraceblog.com/2012/08/01/gluten-free-pasta-with-sun-dried-tomatoes-olives/
Rosemary Pork Loin with Roasted Vegetables- Ever since moving to England, I've really gotten into making roast dinners. And these veg were extra nice. I think its the sweet potato that makes it so amazing.
http://farmflavor.com/rosemary-crusted-pork-loin/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Vegetable-Medley/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=101745916&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2012-12-26&prop28=CompleteYourMeal&prop29=FullRecipePhoto3&me=1
Roasted Vegetable Orzo- I used the leftover roasted vegetables. So really, I just mixed those vegetables with orzo that was cooked with chicken broth and white wine. Who knew pasta cooked in wine would be so delicious? Did everyone but me know about this??? I kind of wish I never found out. I try to avoid pasta. But its so much more delicious now that I know....
 http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Roasted-Vegetable-Orzo/Detail.aspx?ms=1&prop25=104932590&prop26=DailyDish&prop27=2013-02-06&prop28=CompleteYourMeal&prop29=FullRecipePhoto2&me=1
Spinach Artichoke Risotto- It has the word risotto in it. Does it really need an explanation?
http://rufflesandtruffles.com/2012/12/spinach-artichoke-risotto/

Also- I'm completely naive when it comes to cuts of meat. I almost never buy beef because so many affordable cuts are tough and have little flavor. But I bought "frying steaks" and they are so good!!!! YAY! Finally a good cut of beef. Can anyone let me know- what are good beef cuts? I can always just go to a butcher, but I need to know the names of the cuts!

A Year in Flowers- February

The sun has been out for three days in a row now. THREE DAYS! Do you realize how exciting that is?!?!?! The days are also getting longer. Instead of the sun setting at 4 or so, its setting at about 5:30 now.
One of the things I LOVE about England is the different wild flowers that pop up as the seasons change from winter, to spring, into summer.
The flower year started about this week:

So much sunshine! Makes me sad that I have to be inside and work while its out. It also makes me itch to have an adventure. I'm not good at subduing my wanderlust when its this nice outside!

This past week has been insanely busy. Last Thursday, Valentine's Day, I was working late. So late, in fact, that Ben and I had to call the restaurant  we had dinner plans at and tell them we would be late. It was a stressful time finishing up- but in the end we made it and had a delicious dinner at Plateau.
Friday we had a journal club amongst some of the learning and memory PhD students. The journal club was great- lots and lots of conversation on the paper with everyone adding in their specific skills and knowledge. I'm hoping the next one goes just as well.
I've also been cranking out a lot of molecular data, which was produced Friday and this past Monday. I still need to analyze it all, but I'm very happy that I have mostly wrapped up my molecular work. Just in time to start getting a ton of imaging data. Which I hope to wrap up for good and get a paper out of sometime this year.
Of course, along with all the work, there's been birthdays, quiz nights, lots of cooking, and other enjoyable things going on. I'm currently looking for good slow cooker recipes, as Ben got me one for Valentine's Day. I have one cooking right now! But would love some recipes sent my way, so if you have any, please send them!!!
I'm also having some issues- I've been baking SO much, that I've developed a sweet tooth and find myself craving cakes and cookies. And this is terrible. So I'm off baking, for at least a week, and hopefully it will go away!!!! Because I'm just way way way too addicted to sweets at the moment.
Also- watch this little promo: http://www.mymaxme.net/ Ben is in it and I think its awesome! I'm sure you can spot him (its a close-up on his face.... and he's the golfer).

And finally, here's what I've been cooking:
Eggdrop Soup
http://www.girlcooksworld.com/2013/01/egg-drop-soup.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GirlCooksWorld+%28Girl+Cooks+World%29&utm_content=Yahoo!+Mail
Chocolate Brownie Cookies
http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6756/chocolate-brownie-cookies.aspx

Byeeeee

I am getting SO bad at updating this...

I am sorry. I am terrible at updating my blog. And I feel like I will be saying that for awhile, or at least for the next few posts.
I know I owe you a Paris montage. I know I owe you a proper post on the Christmas trip to California with Ben. But I'm at work right now, waiting for a gel to run, and don't have access to my pictures. So instead, I will update you on the current (past month and a half of) stuff going on in my life.

I got back to work in the beginning of January, eager to start up working again. However, I spent most of that month doing literature review. I'm looking at multiple components of a molecular signalling cascade, which is essentially like trying to put together a complicated puzzle. I've realized I REALLY need to know EVERYTHING there is to know about the molecular players and how they interact with each other if I want to be able to draw conclusions from my data. During that time, I also learned how to do a few key experiments that would significantly increase my time and financial management in relation to work. Now, for every one result I achieved before (which was two weeks worth of work) I can get four results. Now, instead of using 15 animals for one result, I can use 3 animals for four results. THIS IS AMAZING PROGRESS! It saves me SO much time and SO much money that I can now plan future experiments I wouldn't have had the time or funding to complete. And that makes me really excited.
I will be going to Belfast in Northern Ireland for two days to attend the Alzheimer's Research UK conference, where I'll be presenting a poster. I'm hoping to network more and am looking forward to getting an update on what's happening in the field (its so easy to ignore everything that's happening if it isn't exactly relevant to your own work).
My professor and I have also decided it would be good for me to attend a conference/week long course on neuroepigenetics. Since I will likely finish my behavioral, imaging, cloning/sequencing and molecular signalling work by the end of 2013, there's a good chance I'll have time to dabble in some epigenetics. So a week long course in it will be great for me. It doesn't hurt, either, that the conference is in Tuscany ;).
Our group of "Learning and Memory" within the Neuroscience department has started having a journal club amongst the PhD students. So far, we've only had one. Tomorrow we will be discussing the paper that I chose. We shall see how it goes, since I picked something that is beyond what I really do... But its been nice. Its interesting to learn about what else is going on amongst our group, since each one of us does very different research.
In January, one of my friends who was doing her Master's last year came back for graduation. It was so nice to see her, even though she was only here for a few days. It was great to catch up, talk about old times and how things have (or haven't) progressed since she went back to the States. Another friend from last year will be visiting and I'm HOPING more of my friends and family feel inspired to come this side of the Atlantic and either visit or travel!!! There's nothing better than meeting up in a European city with the people from back home that I love.
I've also been taking language classes through the Doctoral School. I couldn't decide between French and German, so decided to give both a try until I could figure out which suited me better. Its taken a month of language classes that I DON'T have time for, but I've decided that I will stick with French for now and try German in a few years. These classes are in preparation for reading articles in their original languages- which is 100% not why I want to take the classes. I'm just interested in speaking other languages. The German teacher is doing a fantastic job at preparing the class to translate papers, whereas the French teacher is teaching the class as if its a normal language class. And its simply the difference in teaching that makes me choose French. I don't have a lot of time to invest in learning another language, and German would take more effort on my part to really get something from the courses. So when I'm not teaching, or not experimenting as much, I'll start up the German classes again. I'm sad to be stopping it for now, but hopefully by the time I finish my PhD, I'll be proficient in Spanish, French, and German. And that would be awesome!
Besides all that, things are pretty much the same. I've been working hard, eating delicious food, and generally trying to make the most out of life and living in another country! Like going to comedy shows, showing Niners pride during the Superbowl, and getting fancy cocktails with friends. Oh, and playing in the snow (for the first time ever).

Snowball fight!

Our snowman :)

I've got a lot of things to look forward to- and not just the conferences or friends visiting that I've mentioned.
Ben and I will be going to a music festival in May and the line-up was just released. I'm currently listening to the bands to determine which I want to see most.
I have friends from home who are moving to Prague, and I fully intend on visiting them (and maybe hitting up Vienna along the way)
I have a summer vacation, that I haven't yet planned, that I'm already waiting for.
Ben and I are seeing the 49ers play a friendly game against the Jaguars in October.
And I will be going to Oktoberfest with Ben and friends for a proper German drinking experience!!!

Here's some of the delicious food I've been eating:
Spicy Coconut Chicken Casserole. Nom:
http://www.fullforkahead.com/2012/12/28/spicy-coconut-chicken-casserole/
Almond Blueberry Granola. (the best granola recipe yet). Nomnom:
http://smallkitchenchronicles.com/2013/01/09/best-chunky-no-stir-wild-blueberry-almond-granola/
Greek Veggie Wraps (honestly can't get enough of these). Nomnomnom:
http://www.annies-eats.com/2012/06/06/lets-do-lunch-greek-veggie-wraps/
Lemon Cake with (homemade) lemon curd filling. Nomnomnomnom:
http://www.abakershouse.com/2013/01/lemon-bundt-with-lemon-curd-filling.html
Vegetable Chow Mein. Omnom:
http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2011/12/vegetable-chow-mein.html
Pumpkin Coffee Cake. (because pumpkin is the most delicious thing ever). Omnomnom:
http://www.heatherlikesfood.com/2-minute-pumpkin-coffee-cake-in-a-mug/
Stuffed Chicken (made this with poussin, my first time ever cooking it). Omnomnomnom:
http://bsinthekitchen.com/roasted-pine-nut-bacon-mushroom-stuffed-skin-chicken-breast/
So much nom-ing. I've also decided to try and work my way through the baking book I got for Christmas. So far, I've made pizza dough. It was nom.

Until next time!
-L

Welcome, 2013!

Hello everyone and happy new year!
I hope 2012 was good to you and that 2013 will be even better. I'm still well behind and owe you all a post about Paris and the Harry Potter London Studio Tour. And I intend to write one on that, but first I thought I'd mention that its new years day. And was recently Christmas, so Merry belated-Christmas to you as well. With that, I'll finally get to the much awaited Paris post:

Paris is AMAZING. I thought I would love Paris and went with extremely high expectations. The city far exceeded anything I imagined. It is one of my favorite cities I've ever been to and that's saying a lot. Why did I love it so much? EVERYTHING you eat is delicious. Even little shack-y places have high quality taste, so it is a guarantee that you will be eating something delicious (chains may not apply to this rule). The city has modern features that far surpass most, as well as an ability to retain its culture. I have not yet been to another big city that retained its culture as well as Paris has. The people are nice and helpful. I know the stereotype that the French, and especially Parisians, are rude. I suspected this stereotype was wrong after I met some amazing, French, individuals; but I can say with certainty now that it is wrong. I didn't face one rude person. I only encountered rude American tourists. Which makes me think- is this rumor spread by the obnoxious American tourists that everyone hates? Because I wouldn't want to put up with them either, and thus may come across rude as well.... And to be fair, probably a big part of why Paris was so nice was because of the company I was with. But the city really was amazing. We also visited Chateau Versailles, which was beautiful. We only viewed the gardens and have decided we need to go back in the spring time to properly view the gardens, as well as go inside the Chateau.

Notre Dame

Sacre Coeur

Winged Victory, at The Louvre

The Louvre

Venus de Milo, at The Louvre

Les Invalides

View from first floor of the Eiffel Tour

Gardens of Chateau Versailles

Chateau Versailles

Those are just a few of the HUNDREDS of images I took. Ben also took hundreds of photos. I will add some of his in a later post.

Only a week later, Ben took me to the Harry Potter London Studio Tour for our 6 month anniversary. There, they have the sets, costumes, etc of what was used in the movies. AND IT WAS EPIC!

Needless to say, I loved every minute of it!
Again, Ben has more pictures from this trip and I will add them in a later post.

I'll get a Christmas adventures post up, hopefully soon. But until then, have a nice beginning to your 2013 :)

Society for Neuroscience conference (New Orleans)

I just got back from a long weekend in Paris and a weekend trip to Harry Potter in London! But before I post those, I still have the Society for Neuroscience conference/ New Orleans trip to post about first.

Society for Neuroscience is the largest Neuroscience society in the world and the SfN conference is the largest global Neuroscience conference. It was overwhelmingly huge. The were a lot of of talks going on for 5 days straight. So many so that it was impossible to hear everything at once. Even with only going to Alzheimer's-specific talks, I couldn't see everything. On top of the talks, most attendees present posters. So any relevant posters are also really good to see, as it is new and unpublished work. There were thousands of posters.

In the sea of posters, I presented my own. I had a good amount of people coming up to look at my research and ask about it. It was really nice being able to field questions and get others opinions. Most excitingly though, there were two professors who want to collaborate with my research. Professors are well-established people in the field, and having someone like that respect my research enough to want to collaborate is a really really big deal. So I am really happy about that!

Mom, Dad, and Danny came at the end of the conference and I stayed for an extra 4 days to explore New Orleans and see the fam. Here are some pictures of the epicness that was New Orleans. Places we hit: Bourbon Street, French Quarter in general, French market, Garden District, Lafayette cemetery, and the bayou!

A long overdue post

Heeeeey...... hi....... long time no see.
And its totally my bad. To be fair, I was busy moving and haven't had internet since the move. So my only internet access is currently while I'm at work. And with mega conference preparation this past summer, I was just too busy.
But now that I have some time and internet access (which never seem to coincide), let me catch you up on the past few months.

My memory is too bad to actually remember what happened all the way back to the beginning of August. I know that all summer long I was working really hard to get my research done for the Society for Neuroscience conference. I also know that this summer was the summer with the least amount of sun that I've ever experienced. I know that I moved and it was extremely stressful. And I know that a lot of my friends moved back to their countries of origin, which made me sad. But I'll try to recall what else I was up to, and touch on the above mentioned in a little more detail.

August
In August, Caitlin and I explored Rottingdean (a nearby town that is ADORABLE)! We went for cream tea, which is quickly becoming something I love. I've always loved tea, but now I like to drink a proper cuppa! Also- scones. WOWY WOW WOW WOW. Especially when the cream and jam are extra delicious. I used to keep the butter low and the cream/milk out of me beverages. Now there's a lot more dairy in my life. I guess this happens when you move to a country where there are a million types of cream. I thought there were three: sour cream, heavy cream, and half and half. But no. There's a million.
Pebbles in Rottingdean was nice, but Talk of Tea in Brighton is still my go to tea shop. They are just the best around!
The big news of August was moving to Brighton. The search for flats wasn't too bad in the end. But the whole process of actually getting in there was a nightmare. The biggest problem was that our letting agent was a complete and total idiot. He lied in response to questions he didn't know the answers to. Which isn't the biggest problem ever, but one of his lies REALLY almost screwed us over. The lie- that my form of income would be fine for renting the flat. So we signed a contract and paid to take the flat off the market. We were then processed by a third party referencing company and I didn't pass the references. Since my finances come from the US, I don't qualify. So I found out (with a week before our move in date and two weeks before my other lease was up) that I either had to pay 6 months rent up front or get a guarantor. NO ONE who I knew in the UK qualified to be my guarantor. That left me with the option of scrapping together over 3k (including deposit) when I had only a months worth of money left on my loan. Luckily, I had saved for the deposit over the summer. But the 6 months up front completely blind sided me. I had to borrow money and was VERY lucky I had the ability to do this. At least now I know what to expect for the next two or three Augusts that I'm in Brighton.

September
September was a real race to finish my research for the conference. I also got trained in fluorescence microscopy, which is a technique I'll be using when I've returned from the conference and have to move away from the molecular work I've been doing. I'm really excited about the FM work because it *should* wrap up the imaging work of my PhD. Which means that's a chapter of my thesis completed (just needs to be written)!
This month also brought in headache number two regarding our flat. The issue with internet. Which still hasn't been resolved. It took me a long time to not only figure out the names of internet suppliers (surprise surprise, its different than the States!), but I wasn't understanding a term they were using for a long time. Each company said they had to "install" a phone line. To me, install means to physically put something into the flat. And if you are installing a phone line, you are putting it in the wall. Our lease clearly states that we can't make any changes to the walls at all- we can't even use tape to hang things, let alone push-pins or nails. So my thinking was "well, we can't go with them". It took me a month to find out that "install" meant "flip an external switch to activate it". Once this was realized, there were options galore! So we signed up for internet and they told us they would activate it... in two months. Wow, how hard is it to activate a phone line? Not hard at all. But this is what happens when you live in the UK. You deal with a million third parties and this slows down any and all housing-related processes you need to do. But I digress.... so, we are still without internet. But we will have it next week! And I am literally SO excited for it.
But there were good things that happened in September, like seeing my friends coming back to University. And getting excited about autumn, which is beautiful in England.

October
I wrapped up September with a trip to Stanmer Park for the Apple Day celebration. For anyone Northern California based- think Apple Hill but way way way less exciting. However, Apple Day was still delicious and it boosted my excitment for everything autumn at least ten times. I love fall- the trees change, you get to start baking again, its ok to put pumpkin in everything, and fall just smells good. You walk outside and it just smells like fall. I don't really know how else to put it.
So not only was autumn starting, but I got my loan money in October as well. AND IT WAS AMAZING! After the fiasco with rent, I had very little money to get by. So, needless to say, I was really looking forward to having income again.
The beginning of October also brought scrambling to finish up research, writing about my data and putting it into a poster presentation, and working on writing a PhD grant with my supervisors. I fit in another, different, behavioral experiment and was training an undergraduate student in basic research methods as well. It was a good but hectic first half of the month!
Then, I went to New Orleans for the conference. The biggest gathering of neuroscientists in the world. With a poster to present that summarized all of the work I've done this past year.
I will do a specific post just on the conference next. And yes, I'll get it to you in a somewhat timely manner!
When I got back from the conference, we finished up writing the PhD grant (which will fully fund my studies!!!!) so please please please send your best wishes/thoughts/prayers/voodoo/whatever else you believe in. Because getting this funding would take off my own personal financial burden AND let me have over two times the amount of money I'm currently working with to fund more expensive research. Which is actually quite crucial for me. It would be absolutely amazing to get this grant.
I also taught my first class EVER the day after I got back from the conference. I'm a tutor (TA) for a beginning neuroscience course and have 15 students to teach during tutorials (discussion sections). I'm excitedly awaiting my first paycheck.... which I just found out hasn't been sent out on time so I won't receive it until next month. But I'm not going to let that squash my excitement!
I also got some training in sample prep for my fluorescence imaging work, so all I have to do now is finalize my protocol and then I'll be ready to do the experiment! I'm hoping to get that finished before Christmas, as well as repeat my molecular experiments completely by Christmas. That means I can get a lot wrapped up by the end of the year. When I will get a HUGE break and get to go back to California. And to those who don't know already- Ben will be spending Christmas with me! Poor guy, doesn't know what he's getting into haha
There was more catching up with friends in October, as well as an epic Halloween night! I dressed up as a strawberry (IT WAS GREAT) and went to my favorite bar, The Mesmerist, for some awesome big band/swing music presented by the band The Swing Ninjas. It was a really fun night.

Posts to look forward to in the future:
Posts that will actually have pictures
Society for Neuroscience conference
Paris trip, Ben and Lenzie's 6th month anniversary trip
Christmas (when Lenzie goes back across the pond and brings a Brit)

Till then,
Lenzie

Spain. Portugal. The Jurassic Coast. Stonehenge. Salisbury. Part 4- The English adventures/ End of the trip

I got back from Portugal on a Thursday afternoon with a great surprise awaiting me! Ben was at my terminal, waiting for me so that I didn't have to take the train back on my own.
And then the next day (Friday) we were off! I really didn't know where we were going- it was a surprise to me. But I found out on Saturday that we were spending the day along the Jurassic Coast.

Poole:

 Durdle Door:

 Lulworth Cove:

Fossil hunting along the Jurassic Coast:

And I found a fossil!!!! If you look closely, it looks like a fish :)

Lyme Regis:

Do you see all the people? Well, Lyme Regis IS a beach town, but its little. There usually aren't this many people. We accidentally stumbled upon a Red Bull sponsored water sports show. So we watched it for awhile and enjoyed the sun.

The next day, we headed to Stonehenge and Salisbury (which is famous for its cathedral):

Stonehenge:

Salisbury:

A cute little town!



Sadly, we made the trek home which means I had to go back to the real world and back to work.

Since them, I've been preparing for the conference in October- This includes hearing that I received a travel grant! Everyone likes a little free money in their life :)! On the sadder side, I've had to say good bye to two good friends- Chad and Fernanda. And besides those things, life has been pretty normal.

I hope you have enjoyed the travel blogs. Sadly, it might be awhile until another one comes around...