Pictures of the trip

Seeing something so cool set the trip off in a good mood.

One of my friends from Massachusetts, Kelly. This was before we got onto the boat. I don't have any pictures from the boat because I forgot my camera, and relied on my friends to send me pictures. I will add those later.

Hm... Friends from Illinois [Peter left, David middle] and Massachusetts [Ahbi right]

Waiting for the whale to surface on the water. I never ended up capturing that moment. :(

At the General Atomics. This man was showing us how their generator worked.

Hah, I got this funny look on my face. Posing before some machines in General Atomics.

Toward the end of the tour, they used magnetism to launch a can into the air. Here's the link. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=101042813265779&oid=317746637437

Went to dinner with some friends. Forgot the chaperone's name.. >.<;; But she was Branden's chaperon [back left]. Jon is the middle left. Sunny is back right. We went to some "Mexican" restaurant... hah. Authentic? Nope. Expensive? Yeup. The food wasn't too bad. I have to admit, I wasn't full after eating the meal. So Jon and I ended up ordering deep fried ice cream. o.o We paid more for the decorations than the ice cream itself... which wasn't that great. Oh well, it was fun.

Going out to Bucca de Bepos with Jon and Kelly. :] At the restaurant, my friends told the waiters that it was my birthday, so the whole restaurant ended up sing for me. The restaurant had delicious cheese cake! The other food was so-so. Then again, they were serving mass food, so it was probably hard to balance a lot of food and deliciousness. The restaurant in Seattle is pretty good, though.

Ahbi and I in the restaurant. The lighting was pretty bad... well, and my camera wasn't that good. 

Picture with Francis Collins!! Not sure who the guy in the red is... the rest were my friends. Francis Collins is the guy in the back, with the slightly graying hair, towering over all of us. Apparently he sung really well. I'm not sure if you'll be able to see it... but here's the link:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1292938091043&oid=317746637437

We were showing Kelly, who went on the Birch Aquarium trip, the General Atomics booth. After they demonstrated the magnetism forces crushing the can, I took a picture of it.

Reflection of trip

Though this technically wasn't part of the trip, on my fifth day there, I woke up several times between 5-6 to say good bye to my friends as they left. It made me a bit sad that we didn't have at least one last good bye together as a group that day, but I knew I would be able to keep in contact with them.

Overall, I felt that the trip was too short. I had made new friends that I was truly beginning to appreciate, as well as learning about other people's projects. I didn't get to meet as many people as I would have liked to. During the time on Friday when we were supposed to stand by our posters, I wish we had been given the opportunity to be allowed to go around to other people's posters and ask them questions about their project. Sure, during the power point presentation session, we got to learn in details some people's projects, but what I loved when I was walking around, was that I was able to talk to people who's projects interested me. 

There were certainly many different diverse topics, and many diverse people to go along with it. I got to meet people from places I may never visit, such as Massachusetts, Texas, and Illinois. At the convention itself, I got to learn about interesting topics. Honestly, I had never heard of several different things I was introduced to. Aqua pores? I would probably hear about it in college, but it certainly wouldn't be as interesting as hearing the new and current research that was being done on it. Also, there were several different lectures from different scientists from all fields. If that isn't cool, I don't know what is. Expose to other sciences is like being exposed to different mini worlds. Everything is interconnected, yet so different.

The exhibit hall was my favorite at the convention. The booths there, such as Riken from Japan, the Thirty Meter Telescope booth, etc... I was able to learn a lot about different organizations, as well as new inventions. For one of the booths, they asked us to say why this one company was so wonderful. I'm in it! I don't have a speaking part in it, but here's the link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xIvEmHNC94

It was fun, but on my fifth day there, I went back to the booth part and talked to several different companies. It was exciting, because several times I was asked if I was a teacher or a student. I was told since I was only a high school student, that I could keep in touch with them, or they would keep in touch with me, and that in years time when I was old enough, I could check out the opportunities that they provide to older students. I forgot which companies told me that, but I look forward to it. One I specifically remember is Rikken, the one in Japan.

I thoroughly enjoyed myself over this trip. I learned that I don't find anti matter all that interesting (haha), as well as environmental science. I also found out how much I didn't know, and saw a little bit of how much it takes to become an expert in a particular field. [It takes a lot of knowledge! Almost made my head spin.]

I would love to do AJAS next year as well. I hear it's in DC? It would be awesome if I ended up getting accepted into American. It would be so convenient, haha!

I apologize that this blog took so long to write. I've been bogged with so much homework. And I heard senior year was easy, hah.

I think that any student who's interested in science would thoroughly enjoy AJAS. Thank you for providing this opportunity for me, Washington State Academy of Science! Special thanks to Ms. Jeanne Chowning, for telling me about this. And to Dr. Robert Bates for being there with me. 

Day Four

Day's Itinerary:

Saturday:        8:00 am – 12:00 noon               Attend AAAS Session           Attire-business casual                                       

                       12:30 pm -   4:30 pm                  AJAS Oral Presentations       Attire-business professional

                        6:30 pm – 7:30 pm                    Plenary Lecture                   Attire-business professional

                       8:00 pm -    10:00 pm                 AJAS Awards Banquet          Attire-business professional

                       10:00 pm -  1:00am                    DJ & Dance for Delegates     Attire-casual.

I woke up this morning with a nervous knot in my stomach. This was the day I would be presenting my project to other people. I worked on my power point presentation that morning, putting the perfecting touches on it. I wrote notes on my project, so then I could have a good once-over and, just in case, if I forget something while presenting. I realized that this presentation didn't mean much, since it wasn't for a competition, but I was still nervous. 

I headed to the Marriot with my friends, and then went to the room where I was supposed to be presenting. I sat next to Dr. Bates, where he asked me if I were prepared. I had brought my lap top, but it was unclear to whether there were the proper hook-ups for the projector, so a friend, Ian, lent me his USB so I could put my presentation onto the computer that was hooked up already. I reviewed my notes, and when it was my turn to present, I was able to spit out all the information. I was happy to hear that Dr. Bates could understand my presentation.

Following that, I went downstairs to go find my friends, where we hung out for a little bit. I went to go check out a robotics competition that was taking place at the hotel we were staying at. Following that, I went with some friends to the plenary lecture. The lecturer, one hired Obama, spoke more of politics than he did science. He told us that he hoped to talk more about science, but AAAS wanted him to talk politics. The lecture was interesting, as it depicted the role of science in politics. 

After the lecture, I went to the dinner. Since my friends and I were a little bit late to the reception, we were seated at the table with Board Members. We talked to the photographer of the AJAS trip about his work there. It was a pleasant dinner. After the dinner, certificates were passed out, as well as pins. Being from Washington State, our state was called last. Dr. Bates and I were one of the last people to go up to the podium. After we went up, Canada went up, or something like that, so we weren't entirely last.

My friends and I went back to the hotel, where we went to the dance held by AJAS. It was a lot of fun. I crashed into bed after that.