We will have a crazy travel day tomorrow as we will have to leave home in the AM to drive up to Dulles Airport in VA in order to catch our flight to Paris. We are basically done with packing, though I can't shake the feeling that we forgot something important -- it's always like that! Our travel plans and contact info can be found by clicking on "Other Links" to the right, and then "Dec2006-Jan2007TravelItinerary.doc" . We will try to update this blog from France & Singapore when we are able. Shuwen's parents have been working hard to make the necessary arrangements for the dinner in Singapore. Her brother, Wee Kiat, will be back in Singapore on Dec 26th - Jan 9th, so it will be great to spend a week with him -- it has been more than 3 years since Shuwen last saw him!

Marc successfully defended his Masters oral yesterday! CONGRATS, Marc!!! However, the task is not yet complete as he will have to make some revisions to his paper, but soon he will have 3 extra letters behind his name -- M.S.E for Masters of Science in Engineering, which is funny because his masters thesis doesn't involve engineering AT ALL... it's really all economics and policy. His presentation went very well, despite the initial room conflict (the school double booked the room!) and computer/projector issues. The defense also went longer than we all thought because of logistical/technical delays as well as the fact that everyone had good questions to throw at Marc. He handled them well. One of the faculty said "This is a very complicated analysis. In my 41 years I have never seen a Masters thesis like this". Another faculty member said "This is not a usual Masters defense, but we knew Marc could handle it. If it was someone who we know was going to breakdown and cry, it would have been over a long time ago", before he proceeded to tell us about how the smartest guy in his grad program failed his oral defense TWICE because the bar was set exceptionally high for him --- uh-oh -- hopefully Marc is managing to keep expectations down in that case. A number of folks from his department & our friends came to support him. Another piece of good news is that the paper that he revised a few weeks ago has been accepted for publication in the journal Vaccine. double yay!

A few of us proceeded to the Top of the Hill for some celebratory drinks (Marc felt a lot better after a shot & half a beer) before we had to head out for a Holiday party at the Center for Human Science. The meal was great (check out the Croquebouche -- the cook was surprised Shuwen knew what it was!) and it was followed by a White Elephant Gift Exchange. Those are always fun because people always bring crazy gifts, and tend to get competitive trying to get the things they want. We brought two gifts. One was a box with 2 old pans we had replaced, 2 cans of tuna, a box of Tuna Helper, and a bottle of beer. The other included a bottle of beer, and a gift certificate to the Maple View Ice Cream store. The idea is that the 2 people who got these gifts can share their gifts for a complete graduate student meal. Unfortunately, 2 non-grad students got it --- Bibb is the retired professor who started the center & his girlfriend ended up with the two gifts -- well at least it was a couple!

There was quite a lot of strategizing going on with the game. Marc ended up with a golf flag pole from Arizona (he promptly gave it away, thank God!), and Shuwen got 2 small bags of Chocolate covered espresso beans -- weeeeee! Caffeine is good!

Select photos from Marc's defense (sorry about the poor quality -- lighting was bad) and the Holiday party can be found using the links to the right.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND SAFE TRAVELS everyone!

~ Marc & Shuwen