I am currently in San Francisco, recruiting for the AIChE conference. I have had a lot of fun- and at times not so much fun- on this trip so far. Here's a wrap-up of the last few days... I arrived Saturday around 4:00 p.m., only to find that American Airlines had sent my luggage, along with a few other people from our group, on the next flight out of Dallas. We went through the process of filing out paperwork for lost luggage just incase, and hoped to Hell it would arrive or we would have to recruit in smelly jeans and t-shirts that we wore on the plane. We take the BART to our hotel, only to find that our reservations were screwed up. On Thursday of last week, I called the hotel to let them know that some packages would be arriving for me. They informed me that our reservation had been cancelled. No one is really sure how that happened, but finally the person I spoke with on the phone 'cleared everything up'. They had already charged the room to a credit card, so the room was definitely paid for. But once we arrived, they said (again) that the reservation had been cancelled. They managed to work it out, but we got one of the crappiest rooms I have ever been in. Melanie, Yaritza, and I were all packed in like sardines in the tiny room. To make matters worse, Melanie and I still didn't have our luggage yet. That evening, I decided to pass the time by meeting up with my friend Aaron. We went to Oakland and I met his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend. We all went out to an excellent sushi dinner, which made my day better. :) I didn't stay with Aaron long because I was exhausted from travelling so much, and the 3 hour time difference from SC to CA. I made it back to our hotel, and our luggage still hadn't arrived yet. I was completely wiped out, but some of the Grad students convinced me to meet them at a sports bar. I think I stayed for about 5 minutes. Around midnight, Melanie and I went back to our hotel, and our luggage still wasn't there. We decided to run to Walgreens to try and get some items we needed. Around 12:30, we came back to our hotel- the luggage had just arrived. (Sigh of relief!!) Sunday was the first day of recruiting. We woke up early, grabbed some breakfast at Cafe Mason *(high quality food!!) and ran over to the Hilton to set up our booth. The first part of the morning kind of sucked, because we had too many USC people at our booth and kept getting passed up by potential recruits. The afternoon, however, totally made up for that. We ended up getting around 30 people to give us their information so we can follow up with them for Graduate school (or REU, in my case). I felt very refreshed after that session because we got quite a few people interested in our department. Hopefully we'll have more people apply this year!! Sunday afternoon, we went to Pier 39 and did some touristy
things. We saw the sea lions, ate some excellent clam chowder, and went to Ghiradelli square. Later that night, we traveled to Berkeley to meet up with Janine, a former student in our department. We went out to dinner with she and her boyfriend. It was nice catching up with her- she seems to be enjoying life out here on the West coast. After that, we were all exhausted again, so we made it back to the hotel and crashed until the next morning. Monday, there was a poster session from 12:30 to 2:30 at the Hilton, so we walked around recruiting more people. That was a lot of fun, too. I saw 7 of the 2006 REUs, and one from 2005. One of the students from last summer won 2nd place on her poster from her time as an REU with us, so I was very proud!! After the poster session, we went back to the hotel, sat down for a few minutes, and then made arrangements to go celebrate my birthday at the Cheesecake Factory later that evening. It was a blast!! I had an amazing Kobe beef hamburger, and they brought me a little ice cream sundae for dessert. (It wasn't cheesecake, though... what the heck!?) Finally, the group bought me a piece of raspberry cheesecake, as requested by Casey, for our 8 year anniversary of the night we met, as well as my birthday surprise. It was a really nice and thoughtful gift... I got a little teary-eyed over it, actually. Good memories. :) Monday evening we decided to go around the Hilton to different hospitality suites to get free food (and alcohol). There were a few that were REALLY nice, and we ended up staying at them for a few hours. I met some people from KU and KSU and had a fun time chatting with them. It was a good night in general- with the exception of a few people in our Department saying a few comments to me at the end of the night which got me pretty upset... I won't go into detail, I'll just say that they were drinking, I was drinking, something come out pretty rude, and I ended up crying. I'm planning on talking to them about it later, and I'm sure everything will end up just fine. Whatever... blah. Other than that situation, the day went fairly well! Today, I decided to tap into the artistic side of me and walk around to take pictures. I'm glad I did. I hope they turn out the way I planned... and I'll be sure to post some when I am able to- probably Thursday. It's been an exciting trip so far and although it's had its ups and downs, I'm certain that something good will come out of it- even if we get only one REU or one Grad student, it will be worth the effort. I'm going to go take a nap, because 3 hours of walking around town has kind of worn me out. I'll update later! -Ash
I am currently in San Francisco, recruiting for the AIChE conference. I have had a lot of fun- and at times not so much fun- on this trip so far. Here's a wrap-up of the last few days... I arrived Saturday around 4:00 p.m., only to find that American Airlines had sent my luggage, along with a few other people from our group, on the next flight out of Dallas. We went through the process of filing out paperwork for lost luggage just incase, and hoped to Hell it would arrive or we would have to recruit in smelly jeans and t-shirts that we wore on the plane. We take the BART to our hotel, only to find that our reservations were screwed up. On Thursday of last week, I called the hotel to let them know that some packages would be arriving for me. They informed me that our reservation had been cancelled. No one is really sure how that happened, but finally the person I spoke with on the phone 'cleared everything up'. They had already charged the room to a credit card, so the room was definitely paid for. But once we arrived, they said (again) that the reservation had been cancelled. They managed to work it out, but we got one of the crappiest rooms I have ever been in. Melanie, Yaritza, and I were all packed in like sardines in the tiny room. To make matters worse, Melanie and I still didn't have our luggage yet. That evening, I decided to pass the time by meeting up with my friend Aaron. We went to Oakland and I met his roommate and his roommate's girlfriend. We all went out to an excellent sushi dinner, which made my day better. :) I didn't stay with Aaron long because I was exhausted from travelling so much, and the 3 hour time difference from SC to CA. I made it back to our hotel, and our luggage still hadn't arrived yet. I was completely wiped out, but some of the Grad students convinced me to meet them at a sports bar. I think I stayed for about 5 minutes. Around midnight, Melanie and I went back to our hotel, and our luggage still wasn't there. We decided to run to Walgreens to try and get some items we needed. Around 12:30, we came back to our hotel- the luggage had just arrived. (Sigh of relief!!) Sunday was the first day of recruiting. We woke up early, grabbed some breakfast at Cafe Mason *(high quality food!!) and ran over to the Hilton to set up our booth. The first part of the morning kind of sucked, because we had too many USC people at our booth and kept getting passed up by potential recruits. The afternoon, however, totally made up for that. We ended up getting around 30 people to give us their information so we can follow up with them for Graduate school (or REU, in my case). I felt very refreshed after that session because we got quite a few people interested in our department. Hopefully we'll have more people apply this year!! Sunday afternoon, we went to Pier 39 and did some touristy 
things. We saw the sea lions, ate some excellent clam chowder, and went to Ghiradelli square. Later that night, we traveled to Berkeley to meet up with Janine, a former student in our department. We went out to dinner with she and her boyfriend. It was nice catching up with her- she seems to be enjoying life out here on the West coast. After that, we were all exhausted again, so we made it back to the hotel and crashed until the next morning. Monday, there was a poster session from 12:30 to 2:30 at the Hilton, so we walked around recruiting more people. That was a lot of fun, too. I saw 7 of the 2006 REUs, and one from 2005. One of the students from last summer won 2nd place on her poster from her time as an REU with us, so I was very proud!! After the poster session, we went back to the hotel, sat down for a few minutes, and then made arrangements to go celebrate my birthday at the Cheesecake Factory later that evening. It was a blast!! I had an amazing Kobe beef hamburger, and they brought me a little ice cream sundae for dessert. (It wasn't cheesecake, though... what the heck!?) Finally, the group bought me a piece of raspberry cheesecake, as requested by Casey, for our 8 year anniversary of the night we met, as well as my birthday surprise. It was a really nice and thoughtful gift... I got a little teary-eyed over it, actually. Good memories. :) Monday evening we decided to go around the Hilton to different hospitality suites to get free food (and alcohol). There were a few that were REALLY nice, and we ended up staying at them for a few hours. I met some people from KU and KSU and had a fun time chatting with them. It was a good night in general- with the exception of a few people in our Department saying a few comments to me at the end of the night which got me pretty upset... I won't go into detail, I'll just say that they were drinking, I was drinking, something come out pretty rude, and I ended up crying. I'm planning on talking to them about it later, and I'm sure everything will end up just fine. Whatever... blah. Other than that situation, the day went fairly well! Today, I decided to tap into the artistic side of me and walk around to take pictures. I'm glad I did. I hope they turn out the way I planned... and I'll be sure to post some when I am able to- probably Thursday. It's been an exciting trip so far and although it's had its ups and downs, I'm certain that something good will come out of it- even if we get only one REU or one Grad student, it will be worth the effort. I'm going to go take a nap, because 3 hours of walking around town has kind of worn me out. I'll update later! -Ash
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