Aaron: The Awesome Edition
So, as always feel free to skip. This is partly so in years to come, I will remember all this.
He recently returned from a 2 week vacation spent overseas. First stop was Bergamo, Italy. A lot of this city is from Medieval times, so he found that pretty interesting. Next was Prague. You wouldn't think it, but it seems Prague is a huge tourist stop, so horrible souvenir stores on every corner and everyone speaks perfect English. Aaron said the architecture is spectacular. All the castles and other "European" buildings you see in movies are often based on Prague, so he said it felt very unreal, as if they were wandering through Disneyland.
But his favorite place was Japan. The culture is so different, he said you might as well be on another planet. So clean, so could eat off the subway floor. In fact, all the railings in the subway are polished every day. (I'm not sure if the NYC subway railings have ever been cleaned. Seriously.) And there aren't a lot of garbage cans around. People just hang on to things until they can be properly disposed. Lots of faux American and French stores. No one speaks English. Vending machines everywhere and in weird places. Like a vending machine in an alleyway, just standing there. He went to an open air fish market where the fish is being brought right off the boat. Pick your fish and they make sushi right there on the spot for you. They went to see Mt Fuji and the weather was so perfect that day that even the locals were taking pictures. They went to see a baseball game, which sounds much more fun than games here. Each team has a brass band in the stands and a full cheering section. Every player has their own personal cheering song, which is sung every time they're up at bat. And instead of one mascot, they are twenty! He can't wait to go back.
Best of all, the one way plane ticket for all three stops was $270. So as a result, it was him, his girlfriend and five other friends. Coming back on Japan, you had to arrange your own ticket, but he has so many frequent flyer miles it cost him and girl friend fifty dollars apiece to return home.
He's already booked his next adventure He and his girl friend will be spending labor day weekend in Iceland.
What else is Aaron up to? He just finished his second semester getting a graduate degree in Biotech at Northeasten. If you're wondering exactly what that is, it's the modification of living organisms or biological system to make products. Specifically, in Aaron's case, making biologic drugs. This semester he took Protein Chemistry, Molecular Cell Biology for Biotechnology and Experimental Design and Biometrics, He got an A in all three which is especially impressive when you realize that everyone else in the class has an undergraduate degree in either Biology, Chemistry or Biochem.
In the fall, he also be starting a highly competitive program in Engineering Leadership, which is also at Northeastern. This is specifically designed to teach engineers how to lead teams and bring major projects to fruition, while considering things such as time to market, cost, functionality, etc. In other words, how to be a great manager.
Soon he'll be working part time in the labs at Novartis, putting his new biotech knowledge to use. He's also currently involved in building a 3-D printer. What he'd like to do is expand his current 3-D printing skills into printing actual cells (I know sounds like science fiction. It isn't.) That would combine his engineering skills and the biotech he's learning, allowing the Boston branch of the company to do research on "printed" organs, especially livers. (Livers are where most drug trials fail, as that's where poisons are filtered out in your body.)
I am constantly blown away by how much he's already learned and done. He's not even 25 yet.
Up in a day or two, delightful Zachary news.
He recently returned from a 2 week vacation spent overseas. First stop was Bergamo, Italy. A lot of this city is from Medieval times, so he found that pretty interesting. Next was Prague. You wouldn't think it, but it seems Prague is a huge tourist stop, so horrible souvenir stores on every corner and everyone speaks perfect English. Aaron said the architecture is spectacular. All the castles and other "European" buildings you see in movies are often based on Prague, so he said it felt very unreal, as if they were wandering through Disneyland.
But his favorite place was Japan. The culture is so different, he said you might as well be on another planet. So clean, so could eat off the subway floor. In fact, all the railings in the subway are polished every day. (I'm not sure if the NYC subway railings have ever been cleaned. Seriously.) And there aren't a lot of garbage cans around. People just hang on to things until they can be properly disposed. Lots of faux American and French stores. No one speaks English. Vending machines everywhere and in weird places. Like a vending machine in an alleyway, just standing there. He went to an open air fish market where the fish is being brought right off the boat. Pick your fish and they make sushi right there on the spot for you. They went to see Mt Fuji and the weather was so perfect that day that even the locals were taking pictures. They went to see a baseball game, which sounds much more fun than games here. Each team has a brass band in the stands and a full cheering section. Every player has their own personal cheering song, which is sung every time they're up at bat. And instead of one mascot, they are twenty! He can't wait to go back.
Best of all, the one way plane ticket for all three stops was $270. So as a result, it was him, his girlfriend and five other friends. Coming back on Japan, you had to arrange your own ticket, but he has so many frequent flyer miles it cost him and girl friend fifty dollars apiece to return home.
He's already booked his next adventure He and his girl friend will be spending labor day weekend in Iceland.
What else is Aaron up to? He just finished his second semester getting a graduate degree in Biotech at Northeasten. If you're wondering exactly what that is, it's the modification of living organisms or biological system to make products. Specifically, in Aaron's case, making biologic drugs. This semester he took Protein Chemistry, Molecular Cell Biology for Biotechnology and Experimental Design and Biometrics, He got an A in all three which is especially impressive when you realize that everyone else in the class has an undergraduate degree in either Biology, Chemistry or Biochem.
In the fall, he also be starting a highly competitive program in Engineering Leadership, which is also at Northeastern. This is specifically designed to teach engineers how to lead teams and bring major projects to fruition, while considering things such as time to market, cost, functionality, etc. In other words, how to be a great manager.
Soon he'll be working part time in the labs at Novartis, putting his new biotech knowledge to use. He's also currently involved in building a 3-D printer. What he'd like to do is expand his current 3-D printing skills into printing actual cells (I know sounds like science fiction. It isn't.) That would combine his engineering skills and the biotech he's learning, allowing the Boston branch of the company to do research on "printed" organs, especially livers. (Livers are where most drug trials fail, as that's where poisons are filtered out in your body.)
I am constantly blown away by how much he's already learned and done. He's not even 25 yet.
Up in a day or two, delightful Zachary news.