早上10点，Kwon Group 12个人三辆车满载着烧烤的食物和装备出发了。饶过UCLA后面的山脉，从高速公路进入Malibu，然后拐进我们的目的地Malibu State Park.

 

Hiking了2个半小时，途中爬了山，过了桥，看了水库，走过布满岩石的崎岖小道。领略了这个干旱的海岸山地公园的独特景色。路上可以零星地遇见骑马休闲的人，垂钓者，年过花甲仍然充满活力的自行车运动员，更多跟我们一样的徒步远足者。美国人确实比较懂得享受生活啊……by the way, 他们骑的高头大马可真不是一般的高大阿。

 

烧烤吃了好多，韩国牛排，汉堡，自制沙拉，冰激凌蛋糕，火腿肠（呵呵）……大家在暖洋洋的下午阳光中休闲地聊天，玩飞盘。

 

回来的时候和Dayarona, Hannah一起坐着Gardner的车。我们走上PCH（太平洋海岸告诉公路），右边是大洋，左边是高山，景色那个壮观啊壮观……Malibu的山上点缀着星罗棋布的别墅和私人城堡---这就是类似香港浅水湾的地方吧，Hollywood的大腕们不少都住这。语文水平烂，无法形容那种感觉鸟……

 

我们驱车南下到了Santa Monic，号称西海岸最好的海滩。下车游览，发现就是扩大版的香港赤柱，沿路有光怪陆离的卖艺人，纹身商店，酒吧餐厅，那种欢闹和relaxing的气氛感染着每个人。

 

那是个巨大的海滩，我们脱下鞋奔跑在柔软的细沙上。面对前面浩瀚广袤的太平洋，一切烦恼琐事都可以抛之脑后。天气比较冷所以没有下去游泳，而加勒比女孩Dayanora还是下海了，我们三个则是躺在沙滩上静静地看着海浪，海鸥以及夕阳。我保证以后我会经常来这里的，太美妙的感觉了。

 

等太阳差不多消失在海平面那边之后，我们上车穿过灯红酒绿的Santa Monica市区，回到了安静祥和的Weyburn Terrace.

 

照片日后奉上……

 

看完可能大家会觉得我过得很爽呵，其实不然……我是那种心情好才来blog更新的人。这个星期对于我来说很糟糕了，TOP没过，自信心打击很严重。然后带第一堂TA,压力大紧张，好歹勉强完成任务……然后发现ESL地口语课和TA的任务冲突了，必须解决这个事情……虽然不会很困难，但是这个星期总是很艰难的，幸好周末可以这样肆无忌惮地放松疯狂玩一把。明天早上要和 stoddart谈话……我还是去看看他的文章吧.

 

 

 

今天是TA conference，赶紧趁机会训练口语。做了microteaching, 练习了如何用英文在UCLA讲课，it sucks....

 

又跟Justin去游泳了，这次蛙泳了500米，但是更冷了……下次不来了吧，呵呵

 

回来我们两个一起煮饭，我首次成功煎了一个不知名的海鱼，味道不错。并且还教会了Justin炒蛋炒饭，很有成就感阿！！！

 

得到了Stoddart教授热情洋溢的回复，让我选个时间和他谈研究……

 

sounds not bad

选导师....麻烦了麻烦了！原先接受offer得时候光顾者兴奋，原来选导师也是这么痛苦的事啊：没有一个完美的，让我中意的老板了。

 

太多要考虑的东西：老板的经费，人品，实验室的工作环境，自己的兴趣，是否好找工作，是否有回国发展的前景，好不好毕业，老板的idea好不好……最后还有一条，我选择了他（她），他（她）会不会选择我？？？

 

基本上，可能会选择Kwon, Stoddart, Jung其中之一。这些人各有利弊，各有千秋。Stoddart是大牛，有得诺贝尔奖的趋势，在他们组吃穿不愁，可是做的东西我不很感兴趣，而且怕是应用起来不容易，工作难找。Jung和Kwon都是做合成，工作应该没问题，我也比较喜欢。可是Jung的组不好进，而且不知道会被分派什么课题，还有一点让我不爽的是他们组发文章通通是老板第一作者……而Kwon没拿到tenure，比较push而且不知道未来会不会一直留在这里，她给我的课题貌似还不是那么困难，有一定的基础……

 

哎，一直不能下决心！下面几个星期可以参加不同老板的组会并且可以和这些老板开诚布公地谈了，希望能找到自己满意的答案。

 

 

   其实也没有标题所描述的那么兴奋了，财政危机解决了，稍微缓解了一下郁闷的心情而已。晚上又恰好收到Cici同学亲自送来的封装在可爱信封里的美刀（虽然是还的钱），一下子有得救的感觉。

 

   晚上我那刻苦学习的室友Justin同学居然有空，带我去游泳。我们开车（其实是他开车了）来到sunset游泳池。很有小资的感觉阿：开车去游泳——做惯了穷人，跑到美国来丢脸了……我们在慢速道稀里哗啦地游，我又是慢道里面最慢的，又给中国人丢脸了……

 

   今天见到了我们和蔼可亲的graduate advisor Heather Maynard小姐。真是很好的一个人。要不是她做的方向太偏高分子，我肯定跟她了……

 

   

 

今天收到了Dell寄来的电脑，终于可以敲祖国的语言了！！！兴奋啊

 

一天的orientation, 其实还是很轻松的。认识了不少同学，绝大部分是美国人——包括美籍华人们。UCLA是一个真正的多元化的大学，各个种族分配很均匀。基本上黄种人可以占到1/3，因此，你很难在这里体验到被歧视的感觉。

 

可想到下星期的口语TA考试，心理上怎么也轻松不起来。现在努力联系口语，抓紧机会和同学聊天。加油加油！

 

 

 

I cannot even image before that we can dispose all the test tubes after column chromatography. Besides, of course, syringes, pippets, rubber stoppers, vias and so on---are all disposable! Nobody considers solvent and celite recovery. We have an huge storage of test tubes, synringes, needles and vias, extremely amzaing! It reduces the laboratory labor work significantly. Yes, that's what we are doing here: saving time and human power; wasting resources. Sounds sweet, huh?

 

Today I had an extensive talk with the boss about the project. Her main point is: get the target molecule regardless the cost. We have ran out of a starting material: ethoxyl ethynye. We can order it from Aldrich, but when I saw the price: ~50 $/2g, I decided to prepare it by myself. In fact, I need 5 g at least. But when boss known that, she just signed an order form and submitted a purchase for 4 bottles of ethoxyl ethynye: that was more than 200$.... And she said: you're welcome to order them, our target is to get to the final product, so don't worry about the starting material.

 

We gotta synthesize a diene intermidiate and the yield was not that satisfied. I asked Dr. Kwon whether we can improve the yield by searching for another route like wittig reaction. She answered: to improve the yield of intermidiate is the work for industrial chemist, in total synthesis project, what we need to do is just look forward to reach where we can reach, and then explore the unknow area. So, I don't need to worry about the moderate yield, just one repeat of the reaction will give me sufficient product.

 

OK, what I want to summarized here is: America is a rich country.....

 

I've waited for almost 2 weeks for the bank card, yesterday I decided to go to the counter. They said they've send it last Thursday, OK, it has been lost..... I can't believe that only 2 blocks distance will lead to mail lost......

 

But life is going on. I bought bed today, it's a hard mattress with box which Costed me 280$. After I set it up, it looks great! I don't need to sleep on the air mattress anymore!

 

The big problem is compure, no card-no compure. but I found a BIG deal today, that's in dell/ucla-- Intel 2 Core Duo, 1 GB, 80GB hard disk, 8X DVD+burn, 15' XGA laptop computer, only 500$, it's unbelievably cheap-but I cannot buy it. I'd to wait until I receive my card.

 

 

I’ve gotten involved in the lab for couple days. Well, organic lab in UCLA is not as tough as I imagined. People here are happy and mild. We got Chinese, Indian, Korean, African American, White guys. The lab is always full of laugh and hilarious sound. Guys here work for about 10-12 hours per day; it’s not that bad, right?

Yesterday I attended the first group meeting since I’ve been here. We enjoyed pizza and juice together and talked chemistry relaxing. Everybody have to give a 2-5 minute brief report for their research. Then, one person in duty this week will present his/her report for literature or work for more than 1 h. It’s pretty helpful. I found that I’m still in a very beginning level on the way to PhD. I have to learn more and more and more and more….

 

Maybe I should say something about life here again. I’ve exchanged my money in the band here but the rate is really low, so I suggestion you just exchange money prior to your departure in China. I’ve also applied a BankofAmeric account, hopefully I can receive the card next Tuesday. SSN is also done, all I need to do is just wait for it mailed to my address after 2 weeks. As soon as I got SSN, I can expect my salary to be deposit into my bank account.