Roberts Burns B-day

Many of you probably didn't realize it, but this weekend was Robert Burns' 250th birthday. For those of you wondering who on earth Robert Burns is...I will tell you in as few sentences as possible. He was a poet and lyricist and is considered the National Poet of Scotland. In addition, he is regarded as the pioneer of the Romantic movement. He also had somewhat of a reputation for being a 'ladies' man.

I bet you are wondering why we would want to celebrate this dead poets birthday huh? The answer to that is simple. Our friend Brian loves Scotland. He is in love with Scotland and all things Scotland. He spent 6 months there and revisited again for a month later on. Therefore, we had to celebrate Robert Burns B-day. He has been talking about having a celebration for as long as I have known him.

Here is Brian all decked out for the big day. (Don't worry, he is wearing something underneath the kilt)


As part of the tradition we required music from a tin whistle to be played during the presentation of the haggis. Thank you Dave for your wonderful musical talent.

Then the reading of the 'Ode to Haggis before our meal of Haggis, Turnips, Tablet, Potato Leek Soup, Olive bread, Scottish Beer, and more. It was a unique meal, but good, and I left stuffed.
We finished off the evening watching an episode of 'Chewin' the Fat' which is a Scottish Sitcom. Parts of it were funny, but only when I could understand what they were saying.

After this party, we headed to another party to celebrate Australia Day at one of the Australian's apartments. This party wasn't quite as themed, but there was plenty of Australian decor. I left my camera in the car so I don't have any pictures of this. We didn't stay very late though. It was a Sunday evening and work in the morning. Overall a fun weekend though.

Skiing in Tahoe

I took these pictures old school with a disposable camera so it took me a little bit to get them developed and picked up. We had a few ski pics from last year on the camera too so it was good to finally get to see them. Moria brought her digital so there are more pictures, but I will have to get them from her later.


The trip we went on was awesome. It was a Stanford sponsored event for graduate students. This 'Powderbound' trip was designed for those who haven't been skiing/snowboarding very much. Kevin has been skiing quite a bit so he decided to try out snowboarding. I've really only been skiing once last year so I thought this trip would be good for me. We took a big bus up to Tahoe early last Sunday morning and arrived to rent our gear. After that we all got lessons and our instructor was great. After that, we had the rest of the afternoon to ski on our own. The best part of the trip was the fact that it only cost us $45 each!!! An amazing price!! We only had to buy food the rest of the time.

It was pretty warm that day, about 50 degrees so our layers quickly came off. I really felt like I was improving on my turns and had a blast. Last year I took a lesson, but it wasn't very good so I spent most of the time just trying to figure things out on my own. I feel like I've improved so much and I am excited to go skiing again and do more difficult slopes.

I think Brian and Moria also had a pretty good time. Brian had never been on skis before so it was a great opportunity for him. I don't know if he loves skiing yet like the rest of us, but hopefully we can get him to come back again. There is another 'Powderbound' trip for beginner/intermediate in Feb or March so maybe we could do that. Kevin's lab group is also planning a weekend ski trip so we may do that instead.



My new job is going pretty well. I love my co-workers and it feels great to not just be a student anymore! Plus, I just got my first paycheck (just one weeks worth of work) yesterday and I was so excited. This job pays so much better than the bookstore!!! We celebrated by going out for Thai food last night.

New Job

I finally started my new job yesterday at the Palo Alto Medical Foundation. It is such a relief to finally be starting my career and I realize how blessed I am in this time of economic crisis when so many people are losing their jobs in this country. It has been only orientation these last two days, but I've met a lot of great people already. Everyone has been so welcoming and I can tell that people really enjoy working for PAMF. I start in the lab tomorrow and I can't wait to meet more of my coworkers.