In Another's Shoes: The Grad School Blogumentary, 1.22

1.22 T?t (Lunar New Year)

Con: XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) lab equipment broke down and experienced errors when I was training on it... typical. Also I got 5/6 on my first x-ray spectroscopy home work assignment--UGH, it should be 100%.

Pro: Just an overall great week and week-end with 8-month and 8-year reunions with great friends and family!

This week's post is titled, "In Another's Shoes" for various reasons. To comment

• VERY BRIEFLY in the cleats of the American football craze in Houston this weekend.
• This week in my shoes at Rice.
• This semester in the close-toed lab shoes of old friends at Texas A&M.
• In the house-slippers of Vietnamese culture as the Lunar New Year party continues!
• A word on any other people's shoes around the world.

So firstly I just want to say that Super Bowl Sunday has been quieter than I thought it would be here in cloudy Houston. Maybe it's that most Rice students here are less enthused about sports (clearly shown by the lack of enthusiasm at the Owls' own games of any athletic event). Really, it is actually hard to tell that any extra people are in our city at all. But then again, Houston is arguably as sprawled (if not more) than LA... Of course, being 2.5 miles away from the action and vowing not to hit the roads today has its benefits. But checking Google Maps at 3pm anticipating a 5:30pm kickoff, travel times to NRG have doubled--15-ish minutes for a normally 7-minute drive sounds about right, I suppose, for the largest sporting event in America. With the Patriots practicing at U of Houston's stadium and the Falcons practicing at our own Rice stadium, there has been no shortage of anticipation for today's game from actual football enthusiasts (I consider myself mildly attached).

Although, I think from my international roommate's perspective, it's been a rather anticlimactic conclusion, especially after I told her the hype around it, particularly with how much the average American will pay for just 1 ticket to the coveted game (shown right, source: TicketCity and CBSsports.com). Quote, "If you want to go big and don't go home, you can also get a 400-level suite for the low, low cost of $358,000," says Will Brinson of CBS Sports. And for me as more of a college football fan, and from my college football experience, there is nothing absolutely no feeling like a Gator game or feeling connected to a student body and team even though we don't know each other. NFL for me is more about the multi-million dollar commercials.

As for the rest of the world, life goes on. In the academic sliver of this week, I have started lab training on the XPS and properly on the SEM (scanning electron microscope). Putting my big-girl shoes on, I have been reviewing some old concepts and learning some new ones in the classroom. In Crystallography, we are going over 2D and 3D Bravais lattices and translating, rotating, reflecting these structures. In Micro/Nano-Evolution, we have been learning to model diffusion flux in a finite system through differential equations and also through COMSOL computer modeling. In Biomimetics, we are learning about gecko feet and adhesion to surfaces, as well as the math behind it--a clip from Mission Impossible - Ghost Protocol with Tom Cruise was shown to reiterate the actual physics behind the fictional sticky-gloves used in vertically climbing the Burj Khalifa:

The study of such things requires a lot of research with multiple papers being published in the area, and even Stanford professor Dr. Cutkosky has his own Biomimetics lab devoted to nature-inspired robotics:

As the weekend cues in, so does life outside of the academic bubble comes a-knocking, and reunions with old friend and family ensues.

Now a snapshot into what life's like in the life of a Gator-turned Aggie, we have gator grads Karli, Christa, and Jacob, who were part of the tight-knit circle of about 30 students in the Materials Science and Engineering class of 2016. An MSE reunion in my blog post 1.9 on Oct. 17, 2016 with gator grads in industry jobs, now is an MSE reunion with gator grads in academia! Dr. Jones did say, after all, that we were a good group and I trust his judgement, so a cute bunch like us of course kept in touch post-graduation! Some of us that ended up in Texas got ourselves a mini MSE-reunion at my favorite cafe Common Bond Bakery (P.S. Sorry we missed you Stephanie, but hope all is well in your new Israeli adventure!):

It was so amazing to meet these guys again, just 8 months ago we were walking across that stage together, and now the chattery conversation flowed vibrantly and warmly just as the lavender latte did down my throat. With our bellies full of flaky croissants, Korean barbecue, and Cubano sammies, the variety of food was in no shortage as was the variety in our chit-chat (from thermodynamics challenges to boyfriends, just to give you an idea of the range we have here..) Reminiscing now, it's like we blinked and we were all transported to Texas trying to fashion ourselves a new life with new prospects.

Karli is now a PhD student at Texas A&M studying biomedical engineering and taking classes on tissue engineering and nanomedicine--she wants to help with technology for cancer treatment(?); a lot of the bio stuff is over my head, but I know Karli is looking to making the health world a better place!

Christa is now a PhD student also at Texas A&M studying computational materials science and engineering but under the discipline of civil engineering; she is doing modeling work to help design better concrete and predict when it is about to crack.

Jacob again at Texas A&M, is studying aerospace engineering, and more specifically working on shape memory alloys (heat to change, cool to recover) for space applications since the drawback of these materials is a slow recovery rate upon cooling.

Until we meet again, Aggies--here's to meeting new challenges with wide-open eyes, like old Leila meeting this tiny puppy for the first time:

And the reunions don't even end there! On Saturday I paid a visit to my uncle's cousin's place in Austin to do a late lunar new year's celebration. I haven't seen these (sort of) cousins in 8 years! With an expected party of 50 Vietnamese from all over Texas and even some members across the seas from Vietnam (and 5 doggies from far and low) it was about to be a wild gathering with plenty of food and laughter. As per Vietnamese tradition, the onset of cooking holiday foods and cleaning the house ensued as soon as I arrived. But not too long after, the 5pm to 12am party was in full swing:

I assisted firstly in the eating. Then I helped Kim (my "cousin" closest to age to me in that family; she is a cool cat who now is earning her master's in accounting after doing her undergrad in finance!) a bit in the frying of at least 4 different foods. I of course had to taste each and every fried item multiple times for no other reason than quality control.

Bánh rán / bánh cam (mung bean and coconut-filled sesame balls).

Hoành thánh (pork wontons); which is interesting because the pronunciation in Vietnamese is very similar to the Chinese pronunciation and the American spelling of these famous dumplings.

Bottom right dish is bánh ph?ng t?m (fried shrimp crackers). I cannot remember the names of the other dishes!

Ch? chiên (a "fried ham" with chicken and pork typically).

Some relatives from Corpus Christi even brought freshly-caught oysters to share!

By the end of the night, the Asian tradition to gamble is to be kept alive. Many Asian cultures believe that with the new year brings in fresh new luck. To the right is what used to be my favorite game as a child, b?u cua cá c?p or "squash-crab-fish-tiger." This street game played among kids is very popular; the game board depicts a stag, gourd, rooster, fish, crab, and shrimp while 3 six-sided dice have the same pictures on them. Upon rolling, everyone places their bet on whatever characters they like, and if 1/3 of the die turned up what you bet on, you lose nothing, 2/3 you win double your bet, and 3/3 you triple it. Simple, effective, and unfortunately addicting especially when you are a kid holding all those ones! Personally I was never good at it. I hated losing my ones so I tended to spread my dollars on 3 animals at a time so I had a 50% chance of keeping what I had.... I was never good at statistics, never will be....

And finally, another Asian tradition that I am apparently too old for is lì xì (lucky money). Getting little red envelopes filled with a dollar or two from all the adults at a new year party was a highlight as a kid. (left image borrowed from VietnamOnline.com). And as I got older, the 1 or 2 dollars turned into $5, $10, $20, even $50 as I was in high school. But as soon as you're in college it is ZIP. Zilch. Nada. It's like they think I have a real paying job now! Ah well, it was good while it lasted.

So with a full belly, good company, and well-wishes for the future, my new year was off to a great start! I texted Isaac a picture of my new year's party plate and he texted me one of his. While his Italian party was full of antipasto classics like prosciutto, olives, and cheese, mine was full of Vietnamese specialties like g?i ?u ?? (papaya salad), g?i cu?n (spring rolls), and bánh cu?n (literally "rolled cake" but more like thin rice cakes sometimes filled with meat or shrimp).

I always thought it was something really special when you can share two worlds, two cultures (or more!) and commingle to find a balance of the best of each. Be it Vietnamese-American or Vietnamese-Italian or you-name-it. I've been thinking about this more and more not just because it is relevant in my life, but because it's been an ever-pressing topic as of late with interaction between so many different variables in America and beyond. Personally, life with my Italian mate has never been an easy journey as cultural differences between the West and the East were a bit more of a point of contention than I ever anticipated between us. But with an open mind, it is nothing that can't be overcome or even improved. You live and you learn, and as you are exposed to more diversity and trials, you come out stronger and with more empathy. It is certainly not an easy discussion with anyone, but as a daughter of very thankful immigrants to this country, all I will say now to end this discussion of intermingling cultures in this week's blog post is that a Cherokee tribe of Native Americans once warned,

“Don't judge a man until you have walked a mile in his shoes.”

Best wishes for the new year, or as we Vietnamese say, chúc m?ng n?m m?i!

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program under Grant No. 1450681. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.