Sunday, April 29, 2007

One year down: How many more to go?

John is officially done with the first year of school. We still don't know how he did on his last test- I am just glad he is done. I can already tell that he is a little less tense. I have to be a little reserved though because even though he is done with one year there are many, many more to go. The other big news of the weekend came from the NationalStudent Research Forum John participated in this weekend. He did a poster presentation of his work from his rotation last summer with Dr. Barral. This is one of the pictures from his poster. He drew this structure using some computer program for bioinformatics. I am not sure what it is, and John made it sound like it was too complicated to explain in the blog .... Probably it is a model of the protein chaperone, Hsp 90 The process go like this... He stands by his poster for a couple of hours while experts in the field of Neuroscience come around and ask him questions on his project. They ask how to prove further his hypotheses, how to improve his work and next steps, and check to see that he understands his project. Then they grade him on his knowledge and the actually poster format and presentation. I think it would be nerve wrecking!
Anyway, the long and the short of it is that he is graded and compared with other people in his field and then compared with everyone in every subject overall. He did very well- taking home the second place prize of everyone in the competition. Here he is with his award at the awards banquet. It is really good because he was up against over 250 applicants from several different countries. Can you tell I am proud?
In other news, we are moving this weekend to the new house. Yippee. We are so excited to get out of the apartment. Moving to the city is bad enough, but then having hundreds of next door neighbors makes it worse. We have been slowly packing for the weekend, regardless it could be stressful for me because I have two tests this week and two finals next week.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi,
I'm excited to note that I am the first to respond to this new blog!!! That has never happened before. I wish we could come along with your folks, but Grandpa said he better stay because of the cows having their babies.

I love reading your blogs and I enjoyed the picture you sent your Mom. I passes it around. Love you both. Erika we will pray for you this next week and until finals are over. In fact, we do pray each morning and as I am wakened up at night.

Love you both,
Grandma Butch

Anonymous said...

Gracen was looking at the picture of JOhn by his poster, and I asked her what he was doing? "he's playing with toys!" something like that, right??

I'm so proud. I might steal a picture to boast on my own blog.
Cristy

Erika said...

Yes, Gracen, you are exactly right. Your Uncle John plays with proteins like toys. He even has a favorite. We call those people "nerds".

aunteem said...

Congratulations to you both! Wish we could sneak off this weekend to help you move.
Praying for you with all you have on your plates right now.
Love, Aunt Marchel

Anonymous said...

Hey Erika! So I've just caught up on the last few months of your life--looks like things are really going well for you guys! Very exciting about the new house, but I understand the stressful moving--I've got some of that to do myself in a few weeks. What are your plans for the summer, do you guys have to go to school or anything? Shoot me an email sometime or give me a ring! Hope all your finals go well!

Jackie :)

Anonymous said...

Great job John! We were so excited to hear of your achievement. Love you both and see you Friday!
Mom Ensz

Anonymous said...

Hey Erika, I got your message and tried to call you back but it said all the lines were busy, then I had things the rest of the evening, and it's late now so didn't want to wake you up! I'll give you a call tomorrow over lunch!
Jackie

Anonymous said...

thanks for the nice birthday card! Cristy

Anonymous said...

well i hope that your week finished up well and the tests and projects went well!! jeremy still has one more week of classes. i think it is kind of ridiculous how late this college gets out, compared to others. give john a BIG congrats on his placement in that competition!! that is quite amazing...a huge accomplishment! good luck with the move!! can't wait to see pictures of it all put together! love you guys!