hurricane!

Haha, the hurricane didn't really do much here, but I figured you might be more inclined to read if this was my title. David was home and said that it rained and was a little windy but overall not bad. Unfortunately our power did go out for a time (who knows why) and the outlets with all of our computer stuff are not working.

Meanwhile, I was in Asheville, NC near the mountains for the cell biology retreat. It was gorgeous the entire weekend and I was pleasantly surprised with how great Asheville is. When you come and visit (you all will right?) you should stop in Asheville and have some good southern food. The only problem was the actual retreat. It consisted of us listening to many presentations and looking at many power points and posters of current research in the department. First of all, the cell bio department at duke has only a couple of cell biologists, the rest are developmental biologists. Don't ask me why, I don't really understand it either. I have a feeling I'm going to end up in the general bio department of the pharmacology and cancer biology department, which isn't a problem. I just wasn't expecting it. Duke needs to reorganize it's medical departments. Second, I couldn't understand most of the talks. As a first year, I don't understand most of what they are talking about, especially for developmental biology. Also, many of the speakers were foreign and I literally couldn't understand them. Very frustrating. Alright, enough of that rant. There are a lot of researchers here that I love and I still love Duke, just everyone that I like is not in the cell bio department.

When I returned home I had a lovely package waiting for me on my desk. It was a MN state fair package!!!! My mom sent sweet martha's cookies and some other trinkets from the fair. This is the first year in my life that I haven't gone to the fair. I think I'm going to plan all my summer trips to Minnesota at the end of August. Thanks Jason, you have already set that up for next year!