Head Lab.

Currently listening to: Bowerbirds

Annnnd we're officially done with orientation. Monday was essentially just a ton of paperwork, health stuff, safety precautions, ethics training, blah, blah, and blah. However, it was good to get to know the other people in my program a little bit better, and to explore a little bit of the Medical School. Oh, and I got a sweet ID card that says "Neurology" on it. People will see it around my neck and think that I'm super intelligent.

Today was pretty awesome though. We did a little bit more orientation/ethics training, and then we had our "Meet Your Mentors" session. However, my mentor was super busy today, so she sent her Research Assistant, Tyler, to meet and talk with me, which was great. THIS IS CRAZY: I met someone today who graduated from Covenant. Small world. Turns out, she is Ginny Somerville's sister-in-law, and she lived on Chi Alpha when she went to Covenant. She's a Research Assistant for someone else in my program. SMALL WORLD!

After this little luncheon, I was able to go back to the Head Lab, where I will be working for the next eight weeks. Tyler showed me some software that basically takes MRI scans of the brain and measures the volume of various brain regions. It was pretty amazing, and way over my head. He also showed me some of the spatial navigation software that was used in some pilots of the research I'll be assisting one of the graduate students with.

When Dr. Head arrived, she explained to me what I'll be doing the rest of the summer: administering Psychometric Assessments. AWESOME. For the next couple of days I'll be training myself how to administer two of the WAIS assessments that measure fluid intelligence (WAIS-III Matrix Reasoning) and crystallized intelligence (WAIS-III Vocabulary). It's not as difficult and intense as it sounds, I promise. So as soon as this gets underway, I'll be scheduling subjects to come in and help the lab out with research (administering tests and showing them how to use the spatial navigation software) and begin collecting data. Then, I'll be presenting a poster at the end of the summer on the research.

Oh, and I'll be able to sit in on and observe Tyler performing MRI scans at the Medical School.

Here are some other cool, random thoughts that occurred today:
1. St. Louis is really humid.

2. I got completely lost on my way back to my apartment from the Psychology building. When I realized that I was on the bus going in the complete opposite direction of where I live, I just laughed. Anyway, I made my way back.

3. They serve turkey burgers EVERY DAY in the dining hall. IT IS AWESOME.

4. I went to the gym today for around two hours, and I now feel much better about myself.

5. I have my own desk in the Head Lab, and since the other undergrad research assistant isn't there yet, I got first dibs on the desk. There was a Dell and a huge iMac. Which do you think I chose? :) Oh, and the head lab uses Mac OS and Apple computers. Legit.

6. I don't have to drive to work. I don't even have to walk to work if I don't want to because there's a bus that can take me right to the Psychology building that leaves very close by. However, getting to the Medical School (which I will have to do on some days) will be a different task.

7. I get to make my own schedule. There's a ton of freedom with this job. I don't think I'll have any problems with abusing this responsibility though, simply because I love what I'm doing.

By the way, thank all of you for your words of encouragement and your prayers. It really means a ton, and God has used all of you to motivate me. You don't know how happy it makes me to know that people actually read this thing! :)

Alright, here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I live here.

I got an ID card! And keys! I'm official now.