Dan Luu '15

Hi Friends, Quick update:

 

Sorry for the overdue update, but this is probably the craziest semester I’ve ever taken in terms of the amount of work I’ve received. Part of it is due to my immunology class, but the amount of knowledge I gain from it is well worth it. The other part is trying to assemble cover letters and resumes so that I can actually apply to job! Oh boy. Then I need to add my research and I have compile a theses and a talk together to present all the work I’ve done over the past 3 years in Professor Webster’s lab.  I’m also doing a big project for a site that will probably be built in a year or two (long after I’m gone unfortunately) and I’ll tell you guys about those details later! I’ve been having trouble managing all of it, but that’s okay because I just sacrifice some sleep. Sometimes when I’m super stressed I procrastinate sometimes, okay maybe more than I should be! (hence why I’m writing this). The typical senior semester isn’t supposed to be as hectic academically for a lot of my peers and friends but I chose this myself and I’m not regretting it yet.

Despite the craziness that has been overwhelming, I’ve been taking some of the best classes I’ve had this semester and I’ve been to some great places. I’ve had some amazing food. I also chatted with many of my friends online and caught up with them while playing games together. As soon as I crush some big projects and upcoming exams I’m going to try and start applying for jobs and writing cover letters. I want to then try and write some more detailed blogs, but I don’t know how well that will come from it, haha. That’s it for my updates now, if you need to contact me personally with any questions regarding senior life, please don’t hesitate with emailing me at ddluu15(at)g.holycross.edu! I’m graduating so soon, and it’s scary not knowing exactly what I’m doing yet, but I don’t even have the time to be worried and scared because I have so much I already have to do for classes!

 

Best,

Dan

Hi all! I’m finally on my last semester of Holy Cross!

Sorry I haven’t had the time to post much updates, but Senior year has been hectic and crazy. I hope you can forgive me, I’m back on campus now and preparing for the big northeaster that is about to come. I had so much fun over my break and reconnected with a lot of my friends and we did a lot of things I used to do before I started school. Firstly, I got to watch all the Hobbit movies which I really liked and then I got to play Magic the Gathering with my friends which we hadn’t done in a really long time. I went around Boston and it’s suburbs for food and I ate so much good food. I visited the Museum of Science again even though I had gone last year. I drove around many more parts of Boston than I had before in the past and I got to eat at my favorite place, Anna’s Taqueria, for the best burritos. I also got an awesome Tissot watch, cologne, and new tea for my birthday and Christmas and I loved using all of it! I also started helping my friends to bake and helped out making macaroons and dinner rolls! It was super fun to use the Kitchen-Aid one of my friends got for Christmas!

 

I really didn’t want the break to end because that means I’m going to have to go back to class and the impending search for a job is looming over my head. Other than that I hope this semester is better than my last, and I’m taking really interesting classes that I seem to like so far. I’m taking Immunology with the same professor I had in my first year at Holy Cross, Evolution, which I love to talk about, a seminar with my architecture professor I had last semester and research for credit. Let’s hope for the best in the last year!  Here are some of the foods I had over break!

All you can eat Sushi Buffet at Sakura. We got a boat because we ordered so much

 

Korean Beef

 

Sea Urchin Sushi at a Japanese Restaurant

 

Eel Clay Pot

 

Homemade Dinner Rolls! It’s super fun baking bread!

 

Fruit Custard from Finale

Time has been flying by and this Halloween I had my senior photo taken. I’m 1.5 semesters away from graduating and that’s a scary thing to think about. I met so many people throughout my college experience and taking my picture for the yearbook on Friday was something that I definitely feel anxiety about, especially when they put us in a cap and gown! So far my semester is going okay. I’m taking an East Asian Architecture class, and I really enjoy it so far because I have been visiting a lot of museums like the MFA, MOCA, Clark Institute, and Peabody Essex Museum. Even though I live in Massachusetts, I haven’t been to any of the museums in my home state since I was a child, and the most recent one I went to was the museum of science last year with my friend Jess. This year has particularly been interesting because I’ve connected with a lot of my older friends and have been busy enjoying time with them, hanging out and shooting the hay. I apologize I haven’t had much time to write, but I will do the best I can to keep you updated, and my phone is still having issues uploading photos so I will have to save those for a bit later. I hope you all enjoy Halloween and enjoy this fall time because the trees in New England are absolutely magnificent and beautiful. I unfortunately couldn’t really get to dress up for Halloween as I have a pending Biochemistry Exam on the 4th of November.

Best,

Dan

Hey guys, been very busy and hectic when I got back to school, even though I’m only taking 3 classes (and research for credit). I will update you as soon I finish my paper and get some time to study biochemistry. Lots of cool stuff going on my senior year and fun all around and some really awesome visitors!

 

 

-Hope all is well,

 

Best,

Dan

Hey guys, so I thought I’d just update you on a few things going in my research.

So this summer, I continued my main lab’s project on mechanosensation. Mechanosensation is basically how you would interpret the physical stimulus you receive from your surroundings, like touches and vibrations. I work with Drosophila, or the common fruit fly and I wanted to test their behavior for possible defects in their mechanosensation. Their bristles are very similar to the bristle (hair) cells we have in our inner ear.

Everyday, I would work on creating mosaic flies that would have florescent GFP (Green florescent protein) on the fly bristles so that I can put them through this behavioral assay. I would test every bristle that showed florescences and I tested around 8 different types of bristles. I would touch their bristle once every two minutes using a thick piece of my hair under the microscope and measure to see if they would elicit a grooming response, which is them scratching where I touched their bristle. I’d do that 5 times and the record all the data.

After all that and around 40+ flies, I compiled everything to see which bristle responded the best, and I found that the post-alar bristle was the best responder, responding at a 40% rate, which is better than the other bristle types. The post alar is also good in that in all the individuals I’ve tested all of them at least had some type of (one) response in each test. The purpose of this is to find which is the best bristle to use so that I can use it (test that one) when I am looking for mutations in different genotype flies. – a fly that wouldn’t respond (like) the wildtype, or typical, fly would be considered having an effect on mechanosensation. So with that all done, I’m still reworking my techniques to get better results and test different bristles and look at their response.

 What’s next? This fall i plan to actually start testing new mutations after two years of getting ready!

Best,
Dan

 

Hey all how has your summer been so far? I’ve been super busy with research and other things that I’ve been doing. I’ll give you a quick update:

My research hasn’t been going too well recently and we’re already half way through so I hope it gets better. Otherwise my day has been super busy of driving over to my friend’s house and going to work out with him. After that we usually cook together and then wash the dishes which amounts to 10PM by the time I’m done and on my way back to HC. After that I stay up for a few hours catching up with my friends and then I’m already headed to bed. Thus I haven’t found the time to study yet as my weekends have usually been ‘action’ packed with working out or doing chores and attending summer events along with catching up on some lost sleep throughout the week. Nevertheless I’m still feeling nervous about the test but I’m going to try and see what I can do about that soon.

My mom’s birthday also just passed and I haven’t been able to do anything with her yet, but I will soon when she is done with her volunteering at Temple as that is where all her time has been taken up. She’s getting old now, but still pretty awesome in my eyes. I’ll be excited to take her to dinner in a few weeks. The world cup is also going on and I’ve been watching that on and off, less now that the US has lost and out of the race, though we put up one heck of a fight! Again my camera on my phone has been buggy still so no pictures yet but one day I’ll have them up.

I hope you all have a great independence day and I’ll update you all soon again

 

Best,

Dan Luu

Hey guys!

So with the last semester of my junior year over, I’m officially a senior now. Wow, that’s scary, to think that 3 years ago I was a freshman and 2 years ago this time, I finished my first year of college. Time flies. I did better this semester than last, still could have done better overall, but I’m semi-satisfied with my grades. I move in back to school today to begin my research session with Professor Webster and start studying for the MCAT as I’ll be taking that. This next year will probably be busy with me and planning my future for what happens when I graduate… I hope all your summers are well and starting off on a good note! I know mine has been. The 2 weeks I had home has been blissful and just relaxing and working out at the gym along with playing catch up with my friends and games. I enjoyed it, but now with June finally here, I’ll need to buckle down to work and study hard for the rest of the summer.

I have tons of picture to show you all, but my phone is really messed up and I can’t upload them correctly (Also why I’ve been postponing making a blog for so long) so once I get that I’ll probably be doing recaps of what happened between my last few weeks/months? of my Junior year.

 

Best,
Dan

That dreaded time, last week of classes, everyone is either itching to be done or twitching from having too much coffee, pulling all nighters to finish papers, study for exams, finalize thesis or term project. We’re there. I have so much I want to say, but I’ll leave that for now. I’m living in Williams next year (senior apartment) unfortunately no city view but still very nice. I’ll be here for the summer still blogging and I hope you guys are doing well. To the incoming freshman, welcome, I hope to see you soon. Lots of updates, lots of stress, and a lot of wrapping up to do.

 

Best,

Dan

Hey guys sorry for post in awhile, but I’ve been occupied with many papers that are due this week and I have a lot of pictures that I’d like to share but I have not found the time to upload them yet so please bear with me until I have the time. I will try my best to get up a double blog post about St. Patrick’s Day weekend for me as well as what’s been happening with my life at HC.

 

I hope all is well,

Best

Dan

Hey everyone! Long time no see, my old laptop had problems and I’ve been having some issues on that so sorry for a late update.

 

So that the end of last semester, I didn’t do so well. However, knowing that, I didn’t really let myself get down because of the fact that I was just glad to be done with the heavy semester. It was also my birthday time, so I celebrated by going to New York to hangout with some of my friends and I stayed with them. I had turn 21 and just when I got to my friends house and ready go out into the city, I got incredibly sick and was pretty much knocked out for the first two days of my trip. However, after that I had a jolly good time, and I went ice skating in Bryant Park and even sneaked in photos even though I wasn’t allowed to. I went to karaoke and sang my terrible voice out, and then just walked around the streets of New York and explored, I even got caught a random stranger taking a picture of me and did plenty more. New York is weird. And yes, being 21 meant that I could legally drink now. I’m not a big drinker as many of you know already (or just found out now) and let me tell you, I just got a drink so I could be carded and showoff that I was 21. It was exciting however I quickly discovered alcohol is not for me and I prefer to keep drinking my water, tea and juices. I ended up on the New Year feeling queasy and having a huge headache, however I persisted through the night. The rest of my trip was just hanging and talking with friends I haven’t seen in awhile, catching up on life. When I went home, I also ended up going on the day of a big snow storm so I came home in the middle of the storm and barely made it before it got to be really heavy. I spent my day home shoveling snow.

 

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Bryant Park ice skating rink, long wait, but super fun and I had to take the photo quickly. Then on the right is me on New years eve, excited for the party and still playing my games on my laptop though. On the bottom are one of my many friends who joined me and on the left is Jasmine where we sneakily took a selfie on the rink, then on the right is Cindy when we she took me out for Sushi with a super long wait also, but it was really worth it and tasted awesome.

 

 

For the rest of the break, I worked at the Y like usual teaching little kids how to swim, cover guarding shifts, and babysitting whenever they needed me. I also experienced my first club, which my cousin had taken me to, and let’s just say clubbing is also not my type of lifestyle. I prefer the sit and talk about life conversations or parties where everyone plays video games or board games. I also went out with two of my older couple friends and they took me to an awesome place to eat and we then we watched a movie at their apartment and talked about stuff, and break was pretty much over. No pictures here…

 

 

Then school finally arrived and thus began the last semester of Junior year, can you believe I only have 3 semesters left?! That’s crazy how time flies. My roommates and I went out and we played some intense games of Jenga and then we celebrated my birthday with some expensive but awesome tasting lobster sushi. Then a week after that, another 21st birthday in room was celebrated on a Monday night at Applebees. So now 3/4 of the roomies are 21 and the last one turns 21 two weeks before finals.

Before that I had a lab lunch with my research professor where all the alumni (that could make it) that were a part of our lab came to her house to enjoy a brunch and catchup with everybody. It was a surreal day for me because it was so cool  to see HC alumni come back and just visit to see where everybody is at. One is in his third year of medical school, another doing research, and one is in nursing, it was awesome to talk to previous lab members before me and this was one of the best Sunday afternoons I’ve had in a really long time, wish we could have taken a picture. Then on the 4th of February, one of my roommates, my friend from WPI, and I went to Brighton Music Hall to see Brazilian Girls preform live and it was an awesome show. We got to talk to some of the band members after and they were really down to earth and chill. This was also on the day another huge snowstorm was supposed to come. Luckily we made it back before the storm hit and that was the best Tuesday probably out of my entire college experience so far that I know of.

 

Intense game of Jenga the roommates all participated in on night, expensive delicious sushi for my birthday, then we all go out for Vuong’s 21st on Monday and he’s pretty happy to be 21. Then from left to right, my friend Vinay (WPI), Jayson, Sabina (lead singer of Brazilian Girls), and I chat it up after their performance and Sabina was really cool. This was a great Tuesday night and we all had an amazing time, made the other 2 roommates jealous from the snapchats we sent them.

 

So there you go! A very long update from me, due to the difficulty of the blog edditer to get all the photos correctly and I just had a lot I wanted to say. I left out many more things, but hopefully I’ll get another one out soon. Remember if you have an questions you’d like me to answer, ask them in the comments or send them to me at ddluu15[@]g.holycross.edu. I’m going to try to focus more this year on improving my grades and plan for the summer right now. On the weekends to do laundry, drink some more tea, clean and play a few games with my friends to just relax at night. I have a lot of other plans I’d like to unfold and HC is beautiful in the snow if you can get past the cold. I hope all is well with your New Years and you enjoy whatever stage of life you’re in while you can because that too will probably go by fast.

 

Best,

Dan Luu