Shangri-La: a place of mystery & prestige that I thought would only be a passing visit for someone like me. I visited this place in the summer of 2008 and was so impressed by the people here and also the opulence of it all that it has been in my mind ever since. Yet, even as I filled out my application and hit the submit button, I considered this place to be out of my reach, my "reach/hope/dream" place. And so to get an actual invite to visit this place was... surreal.
2-21: Checked into the hotel and poured over my papers to make sure I remembered all the details. Then, a meet-and-greet and mingle with other prospectives as well as first years. This was very helpful as I got some fresh insight and advice from these people. My observation of the first years was that they were all relatively happy to be where they are doing what they do. They also all seem very intelligent and very distinct in their personalities. Dinner was at a local restaurant where two senior faculties were to join us; only one made it, and it happened to be the mentor that I worked with in the summer of 2008. I had expected it to be a bit awkward seeing Goba again, but it was quite the opposite. He was still the kind man that I met two years ago - he asked me who I will be meeting and gave me tips on them all.
The next morning, the air of casualness from the night before all but vanished as we sat in a conference room waiting for Ketu to arrive. Mounds of breakfast foods were available, but I didn't have much of an appetite. Ketu arrived, much the same way as I remembered him from before, poofy-haired and all. He gave us a brief introduction and then went on to tell us about the program, school, classes, etc. Hearing him talk about the curriculum actually made me smile. For so long I had wanted to learn about these topics in depth, but have only had the chance to skim the surface of these things, and now there is a real possibility of being immersed in it? I was the donkey and I could almost taste the carrot in my mouth.
Anil: a quiet man as I remembered. We crossed paths before but never exchanged more than a polite hello. I suppose we were both of the shy kind. He seemed reserved, asking me about my research and my background. We then talked about his research in autism and the animal model in his lab. Overall, this first interview did not give me the confidence boost I hoped for. He was very reserved and did not ask me any challenging questions, but we also did not get into the groove, i.e. back-and-forth, that makes interviews interesting and memorable.
Pabu: a magnanimous man with a booming voice and a booming personality to match. From what I've gathered the night before, Pabu is the no non-sense kind of guy who is also your everyday Mensa. My nerves were a bit high as we sat down to talk about my background. He asked if I had a strong background with qualitative coursework. "Um... Uh... Yes?" My mind blanked out on this question, of all questions. I'm sure he thought me an idiot but nevertheless, he continued on about how he dislikes easy problems. He wants nothing to do with problems that are easily solved; everyone can do them, so why should he be interested in it? What really gets his blood pumping are those conundrums that are seemingly impossible, the ones that people have tried before with no avail. Those problems are the ones that he will put his precious time in solving. I don't know if it was a coincidence, or if it was strategically planned for that day, but there happened to be a sheet of paper on his open desk of a pedigree. As an example of the problems Pabu likes to tackle, he pointed to the pedigree. It showed an Amish family with five or six generations. All generations were unaffected except for the last generation shown, where almost all of the individuals, regardless of sex, were affected by this condition. The question, he posed, is: what is the pattern of genetic transmission? "Um... Uh... .... Environmental?" Put under pressure, the only answer I could come up with was the typical answer that you give when you have no idea what the genetic causes are. If you can't explain it genetically, it must be environmental, right? Fail. As it turns out, there is an established genetic link for this condition, but the pattern of transmission is still unclear. That is why Pabu is interested in it, of course.
Senge: A substitute for the person that was put down in my itinerary, since that person was busy I guessed. Senge is a 3rd year international student, studying at Shangri-La on a scholarship from his government. He talked about how much he loves it here and how lucky he is to have this opportunity. I asked how he will adapt if should his project hit an impossible obstacle. His answer was so simple I was kind of embarrassed not to have thought about it before. To ensure that the final goal will be attained, make sure to have more than one project going at the same time! And also, work really, really, really hard. Duh! He seemed deeply content and totally in control of his work and future, and I admire him.
Zapa: To say that this guy's reputation intimidated me would be the understatement of the century. His credentials are miles long; his accomplishments/discoveries are nothing short of groundbreaking. So, when I learned that I wouldn't be meeting him alone but with the rest of the group, I was so relieved! Although there was a small part of me that wanted a one-on-one with Zapa to impress him, my overwhelming intimidation allowed me to completely forget about this loss. As proof of his success, Zapa's lab spans an entire floor in a building devoted to cancer research, which was a trek to get to too. It ended up being that everyone sat in a conference room with Zapa at the head. He more or less gave us advice on choosing a lab, mainly that we need to make sure it is a right fit. No mention of his research or his lab. Overall, I was relieved not to be in the hot seat with Zapa, but at the same time, I wish the meeting could have been more informative about him and his personality, i.e. would he be someone I could work with.
Kaba: From reading about him and hearing what the current students had to say about him, my expectations of Kaba were that he is your scattered-and-spacey-but-incredibly-incredulously-intelligent-scientist, i.e. your typical "mad" scientist. I expected him to be friendly and easy to talk to, as I'm also scattered and spacey myself. However, I left my meeting with Kaba with my eyebrows scrunched, my head cocked to the side, and a look that read: "WTH just happened?" It started out innocently enough as I was telling him about myself, and then somehow we got on the topic of the future of genetics. Kaba seems to think that the future of the field lay in proteonomics, which I politely disagreed, but not too aggressively; I was still being interviewed after all. It wasn't that our disagreement got out of hand, or that we outright dislike each other (I hope); it was just awkward and uncomfortable! The whole conversation that transpired was slow, disjointed, stop-and-go. It lacked the smooth back-and-forth that I was used to. And that really shook me up. It was the only interview where I left feeling like it did not go well.
Cimba: Given the way my meeting with Kaba went, I was a bit uneasy as I sat down to talk with Cimba. Cimba is very young, but very accomplished. He either forgot to dose up on his afternoon coffee, or had had a really long day, because his eyes looked so sleepy and tired. His style of interview was apparent immediately - he was there to answer my questions, and not the other way around. I shot out all the questions I had in my arsenal - nothing too special, just the ones I've thought of and that know would engage us in a little bit of conversation. I had the impression that he was a bit skeptical about me and my motivations, and I was doing my best to convince him otherwise, but the escort came and we had to end. I wish the escort had come one or two minutes later so I could explain myself better, but oh well.
Ketu: I come full circle, not only in the sense that I met him earlier in the morning, but I've also met him in 2008. This is the guy that could make or break me, so for the entire time I sat on the edge of the seat, trying to remember to breathe as I talk. I also get cold easier when I get nervous, and his office was drafty, so I was also trying not to shiver even though I was FREEZING! We went over the past, when I had visited in 2008, and the things I've done since then. He asked about my family background, and we went into a discussion about Vietnam and the horrendous nightmare that is traffic over there. He talked about his trip canoeing with his son, where the guide was a Vietnamese young man who carried a wok with him. I think at some point my shivering became visible, and Ketu looked bemused and offered me some tea. Trips and fun stuff aside, I really wanted to make sure he knew why I was here and what I wanted. Even if I didn't impress anyone else that day, I had to impress Ketu. I had to be sure that he understood my motivations and how badly I wanted it. He took notes on the flap of a folder through out the entire interview, and without glancing up at me he said: "I'm sure you'll do fine."
*** I'm pooped. ***
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