candidate chalk talks

I had a little chat with my professor yesterday. We talked about this recuitment of our new faculty. I asked her about the chalk talk since it's not open to the public. I originally thought it was like a test to see if they could teach. In fact it was something totally different.

Basically only the literally 'chalk talk' part is as what I expected. The candidates were given a dry erase pen and a whiteboard. They were asked questions as if they were in the qualifying exam or thesis defense. They were also asked about their 5-year plans and proposals if there were to be one of our faculty members. I told my professor it was way more scary than I thought.

meeting faculty candidates

Our department is recruiting a new assistant professor. We have 6 candidates this time. Of course we students have no power deciding which candidate is to stay. We are, however, privileged to meet with each candidate at lunch time.

So we have one candidate coming to campus every 3 to 4 days. This candidate talks to (or I should put 'is interviewed by') our faculty members for 30 minutes each. Then we take him to lunch. After lunch, he continues his interview session, and then gives a seminar by the end of the day. There's also a chalk talk the next day, but it's not open to the public.

We have had 5 candidates so far. I was actually pretty struggling whether or not I should go to the lunch meeting. I know it's a great opportunity for me to meet with the candidates, to learn how these postdocs or young researchers think about their own career, since I'm close to getting my degree. The only problem was that I was still a bit too timid to talk to new people, especially faculties, and well, in English. I also knew not a lot of students would be interested, so there would be maybe, 3 or 4 going. Then I would have to speak a lot, I mean, A LOT. Anyway I still went, and now I'm really glad I did.

So far I managed to go meet 4 of them. The only one I didn't go was the one when I had to go to the Canadian Consulate to get my visa. We had one American, one Dutch, two Chinese and one German (of course they had at least their PhD degree or postdoc experiences in the US). The meetings were very casual. You didn't even have to talk science or ask difficult questions. In fact, all our candidates are immunologists or neuroscientists, and I know nothing but the knowledge on the immunology textbook. The conversations were partly about our work and the candidates' work, but most of the time we talked about other stuff like food, Southern California, traveling experiences. One time I even mentioned my recent failure on making desserts.

I was very thrilled by the whole process. The candidates had very distinct but amazing personalities. Most of them were very friendly and outgoing. I was also glad that my fellow students, J and R, went almost every time. They could just easily mingle and talk to people about whatever was brought up. That's the kind of quality I don't have but should really have. I kinda realized if one day I happen to be at the position, how knowledgeable and enthusiastic I should be.

I'm still very far from that point.

Sometimes recipes don't work (on my hand).

making kasutera

I always like to try new recipes, especially dessert recipes. Most of the time the outcome is great, and I am more than happy to share them. However sometimes the taste is just not that impressive. It could be that the recipe itself is bad, change of some ingredients makes it bad, or the person who is cooking it (that's me) is bad.

I tried 2 recipes that turned out to be not so good. One was kasutera (カステラ, a kind of Japanese sponge cake). I got this recipe from a dessert cookbook I recently bought in Tokyo. Basically it's just eggs, sugar, honey and flour, and it's very simple to make. What surprised me a bit was that it called for 100g flour, which to me was too much (we only needed 3 eggs in this recipe). The result was just as what I expected. The taste was good. It has very delicate honey flavor, but the texture was awful. The cake was chewy because of the flour.


berry strata

The other was berry strata from Giada's show, Everyday Italian. She is one of my favorite chefs and her dishes are always big hits on the table. However, this time was not the case. A strata is kinda like a bread pudding. It's also very easy to make. I happened to have most of the ingredients on hand and I really wanted to use the frozen berries that had been in my freezer for a while. The only thing I needed to get was ricotta cheese. So as soon as I saw this episode, I decided to make it. The strata baked beautifully, but it was the ricotta cheese that ruined the flavor (I think). The ricotta cheese didn't really blend in the whole eggy fruity flavor. Instead it tasted a little like some sweet lasagna (ricotta cheese is the major ingredient in lasagna). It's still sitting in my fridge now. I probably won't finish it.

stop sending me junk!

I receive about 10MB of forwarded mails per day, mostly from one source, my former boss. I don't mind if people forward mails to me. I'm happy that I'm not forgotten. I'm a bit concerned this time because it feels like it's the wrong person (a principal investigator, or to be easier, you can call him a professor) doing the wrong thing.

This started a little over 3 months ago. I sent a Christmas card to my former boss like I did every year. I then received an email from him about two weeks after. He wanted to make sure this was the email address I normally used and he would like to send me a manuscript about the experiments we did a few years ago. I replied promptly. The rest is what you see today: an average of 10MB forwarded mails every day! I opened and read each mail in the beginning, hoping that I didn't miss any important information he might leave in the mail. Not long after I got tired. He's not gonna send me the manuscript he claimed he had. Yesterday I checked my mails through Outlook, and I found I had over 200MB unread. I know I should be a bit more appreciative, but this is a bit too much.

I guess you need some luck to see cherry blossom

I think I'm a little too obsessed with the whole cherry blossom thing. I basically travel to Tokyo (on the way back to Taiwan) every year and usually it's in winter. The original plan of my latest trip was to go last December, but I was so busy that I had to postpone my trip twice. I finally made my decision because Ayu's Taipei concert was announced. I decided to go back in March.

I never saw cherry blossom in Japan before. Actually the only cherry blossom I saw was from the backyard of our old house. We had a cherry tree. This was the first time I was so close to see that in Japan because of the warm winter this year. The weather bureau estimated the cherry trees would bloom on March 18th. However, there's sudden drop of temperature during my visit. It was very cold like winter never left. My dream of seeing cherry blossom was therefore shattered.

Here's a picture of ONE cherry tree we saw in Yasukuni Jinja (靖国神社). We were supposed to see sakura fubuki (桜吹雪)!



Anyway, I'm now back to the US. What I can only do is to have some sweet sakura tea and look at my little souvenir lol.


sweet sakura tea. It's got real cherry blossom in it!


little souvenir from Yasukuni Jinja. Look how pretty it is.

one of a kind

I am finally back in Taiwan. This trip to Tokyo was fantastic, although my Japanese wasn't much better than it was last year (lol). This time I tried to take my time to listen to what people said instead of freaking out. I found at least half the chances my guesses were right. When they started to look a little confused, I would just say "日本語が あまり できないです". That's probably the best expression other than smiling (lol).



When I first arrived at the hotel in Shinjuku, I saw this and couldn't help laughing. There was a huge line in front of a store, and it was Krispy Kreme. A lot of us Taiwanese people are big maniacs of Japanese stuff. We have the latest Japanese trends. We can probably find any kind of authentic Japanese food in Taipei. Many are even big fans of Japanese celebrities and dramas. About two years ago, a donut chain, Mister Donut, started their business in Taiwan. It was a huge hype. You had to wait in line for hours to get into the store, and most people usually bought 20-30 donuts at a time. Then I just saw the same thing. Tokyo people were in line for donuts! The only difference was they were after an American brand!



The next morning we stopped by the nearest Starbucks and tried to wake ourselves up. There was still a line. I started to wonder how long this hype would be.

bad timing

Weird things always happen untimely. I probably have been in my 'freakin out' mode for the last couple days. In order to feel less guilty while getting on this trip, I've been doing lots of experiments. My professor also wanted to resubmit a manuscript (I was the second author), so there was endless discussion and proofreading. I just felt exhausted. One good thing is that she is going on a vacation too and serendipitously, our vacation times are almost the same. I feel even less guilty (lol).

It's tax season and I still haven't received my W-2 form (It's the form that tells you your total income and the amount that is withheld). Instead I got a 1042-S form last weekend. You get a 1042-S form when your income source is only scholarship or fellowship (Now I'm working in the lab as an RA, which is more like a job), and there's no withholding. It said my gross income was $10,054. I never got this money! I would be really happy to pay tax if I had extra 10,000 dollars, but I didn't! I'll probaby pay $1,000 tax for the money that was never in my pocket.

I wrote to our personnel assistant and told her about the situation (not getting W-2 and getting this weird 1042-S). She gave me a weblink so I could log on and download my own W-2. That part was solved. She also said she had no idea about the 1042-S and suggested me to ask the payroll office. Since I really had my hands full that day, I decided to go there in person first thing the next morning.

The trip to the payroll office lasted only 15 seconds. People there were nice, but they wanted me to ask the Graduate Division. What the heck.

Fortunately, before I went to the Graduate Division, I got an email from the International Student Office. They said that the Graduate Division and payroll office found possible mistakes issuing 1042-S forms and wanted us not to file tax return at this moment.

Well, alright. I was kinda hoping I would find a $10,000 check in my mailbox (lol).

winter's gone

The temperature hits 90 degrees three days in a row. I guess it's not gonna cool down until next winter comes. It's the typical southern California weather. There's no distinct spring or fall. It can be really cool one week, and the next week it'll be hot just like today.



By the way, what the heck is happening to the gas price? I understand the gas price was going up because of the cold weather in the east coast. But over $3 a gallon? You gotta be kidding me! The crude oil is not even as expensive as what we had last year.

Now I miss the past winter more. At least the gas was cheaper.

Why is everybody coughing?

LM didn't come to the lab yesterday. I realized she got a cold. She came in today because she had some big experiments to do. she looked pretty sick and was coughing all the time. And since she had to do stuff here and there, she was literally coughing everywhere. That make me concerned. The cold was passed on one by one in the lab, and more than half of the members got it. I really don't wanna be the next one.

I made some hot chowder tonight. I also took some echinacea and had lots of liquid. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

behind making chocolate mousse

I made Ellie Krieger's 'dark chocolate mousse' last summer (see my other blog). I liked it a lot. It was tasty, and chocolate and tofu matched really well. However it's just not the real thing.

I came across this chocolate mousse recipe from the Food Network website. I happened to have some leftover whipping cream (from making mashed cauliflower, which was very delicious) and decided to make it. My only concern was the fat content from the cream cuz I suffered a little indigestion from that cauliflower.

Anyway, I made it, and it was a big success. It was chocolaty and creamy (evidently), and the texture was just like what you got in a nice restaurant (see my other blog). I actually hesitated a little bit before tasting it. One reason was that I was somewhat lactose intolerant, and the other reason was the use of raw eggs. The eggs were not really 'raw' raw. I whisked it over a double boiler. The steam was supposed to cream the egg mixture and heat it up at the same time. The recipe called for a 3-minute whisking and I think I did more than 10 minutes. I hope that was enough to kill all the bacteria. It's been a few days, and I think so far I'm alright.

Maybe I should persuit my career as a pastry chef (lol).