Just a quick vent about a pet peeve of mine--why is it that some people want to talk to you even when you're in the bathroom, actually USING the facilities? Does anyone else get annoyed at that? I mention this because several women in my building make a point of talking to me if I am in the stall next to them. "Is that Jori?" they ask. Aarrrggh!!
I'm not sure why this annoys me so much, it's just one of those moments where your identity needs not be identified.
'nuff said. Thanks for listening.

I miss Bing. I miss Bing a lot. For those of you who don't know, Bing is (was) the post-doctoral scholar who was in my lab until this past summer, when he moved to Canada (winnipeg). Bing was great. Through Bing I learned "Binglish" which actually takes a lot of talent to speak. Phrases like "I sink maybe too difficulty" and of course, "Impossible, I sink" were common ones when Bing was around. His logic was not always understood by all of us, but some of us were able to see through that anyway. For example, Bing wanted a car. It seemed to be the thing to do when you come to America from China, even if you own a decent bike and can bike to school. So Bing went looking for a car. The first one was bad because although it was cheap, Zhou Li (Bing's wife, also a wonderful lady who just became a Christian recently!!) didn't like the color. ...? So yes, we bit our tongues and didn't say anything. They finally got their car, which Bing described as "silver or guh-REE". This is 'gray' in BInglish. Following the purchase of the car, Bing decided to get his license. After multiple tries, he got it, and for teh next few months I was terrified that we would be on the road at the same time (not even in the same car--just driving at the same time). After seeing how much fun it is, Zhou Li decided that she too wanted to drive. She, however, gave up soon after she plowed into a tree in an empty Target parking lot. Note to reader: Trees don't just grow anywhere in parking lots--they are usually planted on medians--in this case, the median was at least 6 inches off the ground. Another note to reader: By 'tree' in this case, I mean a 7 cm diameter sapling. Zhou Li's logic is also quite remarkable; she turned the corner around the median containing the deadly sapling, but the turn was too sharp. According to Bing, "I tell her 'must braking! must braking!' But she NO BRAKING, she do gas pedaling!!" Apparently the car rode up on the median, and despite Bing's pleas for her to step on the brakes, since the pedal that she had her foot on wasn't working, she just pushed it harder. ...Right. At any rate, the sapling caught the car right between the headlights. Apparently the police came later on, and Zhou Li complained to me later that they laughed at her. I was glad I was on the phone at the time, because it was pretty hard not to even then.
Anyway, that is one of our favorie Bing stories. Too bad I didn't start blogging when he was still around. I would have had a written history of our 2 years together in the lab.
Oh well.
Back to work.

Today was my first day of TAing for an Introductory Biology class. I was kind of nervous about being with undergrads right out of high school, especially since about 75% of them were pre-med (thus, probably smarter than I). They were all very good kids, though, and had actually read the lab manual beforehand, so they easily answered questions like "What is life?" (The correct answer, as you all know, is "That which can be acted upon by natural selection.") It's hard not to laugh when a little undergrad pipes up with that answer, though. There is so much behind biology, and so much that we don't understand about how organisms are made, how they work, why they have the cellular structures that they do, etc., it is quite embarrassing to think that some of us think we have a definition for life. Sure, you can pick apart an organism, put it back together, describe all its organs and organelles, how they function, and possibly even name some of the genes behind it all, but only God knows why and HOW everything got started. That just blows me away sometimes.
My challenge this semester has been initiated by the finding that most of my students are pre-med. I have nothing against doctors, in fact, I tried to be one myself once upon a time. However, if you read Abi's blog, and if you talk to most doctors, you might find that so many of them are so incredibly boring and narrowminded. I am not saying that Abi is--I genuinely applaud her for questioning the way things are done at her school, and I think if she continues to do so, she will be in the minority of doctors who excel in their field yet have not lost their sense of humanity, not to mention their sense of excitement over things like traveling, politics, the arts, and reading (non-scientific books). I would agree that being able to waltz around singing songs while dissecting a cadaver is not normal. Granted, the spirit is gone from the body and all that's left is the decaying corpse that she describes (I won't go into details). Even when you know that, though, it's hard to dissociate that person who used to reside in the body from the body itself. I don't know if that makes any sense, but my point is, keep it up, Abi. Keep questioning the system, and don't let yourself be desensitized by the extreme environment you work in.
Back to my class--so here are all these little freshmen, wanting to become doctors. I think that's great, and I hope they all are able to stick it out. More than anything, though, I hope that they can learn to appreciate biology and creation (although I would get fired if I mentioned ANYTHING that made me sound like I believed someone created all of this), not because they are good at memorizing it and can pull off straight A's, but because it's so incredibly awesome the way everything is made. That is my challenge for this semester--to make them excited about their subject matter. If I can turn on the light in one of my 24 students' minds, I will be happy.
It's so frustrating, though, because in order to share my fascination for biology, I can't help but share about God who created it all.
Anyway, back to work. I am counting mycorrhizal roots. THere are lots and lots of them. With this type of mundane work, I can't help thinking deep thoughts about life, God, and of course, mycorrhizae. Have a great week, everyone.

I am out of practice waking up early. This semester I have to TA for a class that meets MWF 8:00am. I used to go to those classes all the time at Calvin (and even preferred the early ones), but as a grad student, I think I am on terminal jetlag or something...
My morning commute to school has been extended to roughly 20 minutes of extensive hilly biking, ever since we moved downtown to a duplex. The house has nice hardwood floors, which make the piano resonate very nicely (if it were only in tune we'd be set!), and we have a basement, our own laundry facilities, a porch, and a spare bedroom upstairs which, if no one comes to visit soon, will terminally become the 'den', otherwise known as the place to put everything that has not found its place in this world yet. The kitchen and bathroom are smaller than our previous apartment, and although all the doors don't quite shut right, and the light switches confuse the heck out of me, I am glad we moved and I am glad to say this is the last move we will attempt here in State College. So please, please, keep me accountable for that--that's what good friends are supposed to do, right? The move took approximately 2 1/2 days of chaos (as most moves do), and even with the help of dear Manujendra, from Dan's lab, we still pushed the midnight time limit for evacuation from our old apartment.
When you move, you can't but help realize (painfully so at times) how much CRAP you have accumulated, even in one year. It's so sad that it takes almost a whole week to pack up all the stuff you have--clothes, kitchen things, entertainment center, furniture, etc.--when there are so many people who live with so much less. Honestly, they are probably more carefree without all of it, and probably are able to focus on the important things in life a lot better than us North Americans. Sometimes I envy the Amish communities, whose lives are lived in simplicity. Without a cell phone, cable, satellite, video games, and minimal time (outside of work) spent on the computer, I generally consider myself to be non-materialistic, although maybe some would call me electronically-challenged (that may be true as well, but I really have no desire to become de-challenged). :) When Dan and I first moved to State College, we had no TV (we got our first and only TV from a garage sale for free, so there's still that element of simplicity there, right?), and what did we spend our time doing? Well, he finished reading Lord of the Rings (the 4-inch, hardcover version), I started a crossstich (which was dropped once the TV entered our lives), and we took a lot more walks at night, etc. Once we got the lightning-struck TV repaired, we spent more evenings sitting in front of the TV, where, as you know, not a whole lot of relationshipping (yes, that is a word) or talking or any kind of communication goes on whatsoever.
I think the Amish have it figured out. Maybe we should go join their village. The best part would be being able to park the horse and buggy outside of Beaver Stadium. ...yup, we will definitely have to consider that, even if it's just to get a horse and buggy. Of course, Dan would oppose that, since he's set on having a llama and a monkey, but that's a story for another day.