Awesome Day

What a great day yesterday was.

A week ago, I was told there would be a lecture/seminar on insects in Silliman. I told this friend of mine that he should attend. It was perfect for him because he had plans on pursuing graduate studies on insects after his undergraduate. He got this idea because he noticed that the marine science field is already saturated. Too much competition. Plus, there's a lack of terrestrial scientists specializing on insects. I kept on telling him this is a great opportunity because maybe he could talk to the lecturer (who is by the way, a professor from the University of Florida) about doing his masters at the University of Florida. I mean, there isn't any harm in trying to talk to him. Although I was half-expecting Dr. Emmel not to entertain anybody since he'd be busy with questions about his McGuire center, talking to his Stanford peer Dr. Alcala, picture taking, etc.

Still I pushed my friend to just do it. A few days ago, he found a book written by the lecturer himself on Lepidopterans in the SU library. Perfect! He could use it and let Dr. Emmel sign it for him, even though it wasn't his. I told him I bet Dr. Emmel would be so happy a book of his found its way to the far reaches of a third-world tropical country.

But I didn't go to the lecture. I was proctoring my adviser's freshmen bio33 class exams. Three classes! But the heck, I enjoyed it so much. Especially in the psychology section. ;)

Luckily, I was actually able to reach the last few minutes of the lecture. After the gamut of nonsense questions thrown by ignoramuses, I pushed and shoved my friend to go up to Dr. Emmel. While I was getting my certificate, he was up there, showing Dr. Emmel the book. And guess what? They had an extremely looong conversation afterwards. And I mean long.

All I expected was an exchange of email addresses but they went all out, talking about a fellowship my friend could attend in the University of Florida next year August, to the application process, to the visa and to his dissertation! Dr. Emmel was scribbling voraciously on a notepad every strip of conversation they were having. God, was I right.