Let's not do that ever again

For lo and behold I have finished my hellish two weeks and I am still here, with one tentative job offer (provided that I can secure funding for my project prior to joining the lab) and a blue belt. But really, LET US NEVER DO THAT AGAIN because the whole 6 hour+ interview then fly back for a full work day + 2hour of martial arts combination is awful and I doubt I have the stamina to last another week. (I might need to work on stamina, but I am considering this the idle way that I contemplate about working on my pain tolerance -- yes it would be useful, but do I REALLY want to go through the experience?)


In other news, I was unfortunately rejected by my favored lab at SF. I did ask the professor I interviewed at for feedback afterwards (since I might as well learn something for all the time and effort I put in) but he said he liked my presentation and the only negative thing anyone had to say was that some of the lab members thought that I could be more enthusiastic. In my defense, this was the 7 hour long interview (lunch time was spent talking to two professors over food, so I cannot exactly describe it as a break) with 10 different people and I was exhausted. In their defense budget IS tight and they ARE a very high profile (famous in the entire field of neuroscience sort of high profile) lab, who get a lot of applicants and can probably afford someone who's chipper on 80 hour work weeks. But, alas, their lab is prestigious and the most well-funded and good-for-career-resourced lab that I'm interviewing at, and rejection always stings.

Lucy, I think was the only one who was witness to the minor disaster surrounding my interview in Portland (this is the tentative lab, by the way, so I do have some reservations, but I also need to have a job offer before my current professor will let me graduate), because I texted her after I realized I was effectively stranded on my own in a city where I don't know anyone. It was just... poorly planned out. The direction to the shuttle was off, so I ended up waiting far too long at the airport before I got the info desk to track down the shuttle for me. The shuttle AND the inn I stayed at had the wrong name AND the wrong phone number for me, so they couldn't find me from their end. The person normally in charge at the tiny inn and staff took the weekend off for Easter, and forgot to let the guy who stayed behind know that someone was coming --- so I essentially arrived to find the place locked down with no one in and no one I could reach with either the regular number or the emergency number that was posted. To top THAT off, this campus was...sort of isolated. Everything there except the hospital proper was closed due to Easter. The transportation that would take me from campus to actual downtown (where hopefully there are people and food) is also closed. It was about 4 hours before this mess was sorted and my stay at the inn concluded with my exit, the morning of my interview, to the manager who told me how much she liked it that Portland was full of "orientals" because "all orientals are so well-mannered".

Lucy, who has actually been to Portland before, assures me this is not the norm. I am still a bit more apprehensive about moving there though, because THAT was the reason I am such a control freak when it comes to planning trips. (Not: the Portland trip from the shuttle to the lodging was planned by the prospective professor.)

Right now though, I'm just sort of marveling that I made it through these two weeks. I'm behind on some things, to be sure, but it's...all things that I can catch up on if I just had a whole day to catch up on stuff (which means that I will spend a few hours each day the next week playing catch up, because when was the last time I had a whole day for anything?). Life continues. I have prevailed. I bought myself a fancy cupcake from the new shop down the street to celebrate and have already had two cups of tea today.