#beeeatle

Hi all!

I figured now would be a good time to give some updates about where I’ve been, and probably the future direction of this tumblr.

So, it’s been quite a while since I last posted anything on here. In terms of some general life updates: I graduated from college in May, worked on some food microbiology research over the summer, attended my first professional conferences in food science and microbiology/biotechnology, and now I relocated from Illinois to Indiana – where I will be starting my first full time job next week! I’ll be working on infant formulas and training to (hopefully) become a product development food scientist. 

I’m definitely nervous about it, and there are moments where I’m wondering whether I made the right decision to move out here or not (I definitely miss home, that’s for sure!). But to be honest, I need to get industry experience first before I make anymore career decisions at this point; and I’m also pretty excited to try something new for once!

It’s crazy to know that I’ve had this tumblr since 2013, but I’ll still keep it up since I put in so much time into it haha. I don’t know when I’ll actively post on here again, so as of this post: it will continue to be under hiatus. I will be using other social media, so if any of you still want to keep in touch, feel free to add me on instagram or if you want to keep up with my food science stuff, follow my wordpress blog!

Thanks again!

Best,

Study Abroad at National Taiwan University: Update 1

I’m currently about two weeks into my study abroad program at National Taiwan University, and all I can say is that out of the three times that I have been here, this trip has been the most memorable so far, and my actual study abroad class hasn’t even started yet! Those are some people who are in my study abroad program – one from Cornell, University of Maryland, and another student who is also from the same school as me. Each of them are in different labs this month, so we’re all fairly busy; although we do try to meet up whenever we’re all available.

For the first four weeks, I’m working in a food microbiology/biotechnology lab. The professor’s research focuses on different aspects of food fermentation, and bioactive properties of fungi – more specifically Lingzhi, which is a mushroom that mostly grows in Taiwan. I wanted to work with this lab in particular because I took some coursework that’s all about general food microbiology and safety last semester, so I thought this lab would relate to that. I originally told him that I have no idea what I’m interested in, since I’m honestly open to learning about anything!, so he’s allowing me to shadow different students and their experiments. The majority of people in this particular lab are a mixture of PhD and graduate students, and most either have finals or are defending their thesis soon, so most of them have been pretty busy; which is totally understandable). 

There are some days where I didn’t really need to do anything, but so far, I’ve been able to look at red wine fermentation (One student is using a specific yeast), miso fermentation, and how lingzhi can be applied against cancer cells and melanin reduction through different experiments. I’m also learning some basic lab techniques, such as preparing plate media, learning how to use a bioreactor machine, and running actual assays with human cells. Everyone is super nice and hilarious; and most can speak a mixture of both English and Chinese, which is awesome (Because I can only comprehend and speak Mandarin up to a certain point)! I seriously wish I could stay with this lab for a longer period of time after June.

Even though it’s been two weeks, I’m seriously considering looking into food microbiology for graduate school now. Like yeah, it’s bacteria/fungi, but it can be applied to so many things, and it’s so much better than food chemistry (No offense to my FSHN 414 professor – her research is pretty cool, but I think microbiology is more fascinating)!

Hi friends!

I’m studying abroad in Taiwan this summer (I leave in around three weeks!) and will not be on tumblr very often for the next few months. However, I will be blogging on Wordpress during my time over there, so you can check it out if you want!

If anyone also has any tips/advice for having a successful study abroad experience, please let me know! I’ve been to Taiwan in the past, but this is the first time that I’m going by myself for a longer period of time. I’m nervous, but very excited! :)

All the best,

Good luck! You got this!! :)

Hi all!

So from my last post that I made a week or so ago, I mentioned that I will be studying abroad in Taiwan this summer! The program actually starts in July, but I will also be doing an additional research internship with the Food Science department at National Taiwan University, which starts at the beginning of June! So far, I’m set to be working with one of the food microbiology professors – I haven’t heard back from him yet about the specific topic I’ll be working on (I haven’t even decided on it yet!), but I definitely want it to be something within food fermentation or food bioactivity!

I’m studying abroad for a lot of reasons, but to summarize: 

I still don’t know what I want to do in the future: Especially since there are so many different disciplines within food science. I’ve seen what product development, food sensory, and food chemistry are like so far, but I don’t know if I want to stick with those fields. The more experience I get, regardless of location or discipline, then it’ll give me a better idea of what I want to pursue for graduate school! (One thing I do know is that I don’t want to work with the meat industry or food engineering lol)

I graduate soon (RIP): I’m supposed to graduate in May 2018, and there’s really no other time for me to study abroad at this point, which is something that I’ve always wanted to do since I first got to my university. Studying abroad would be such an amazing experience, and I don’t want that opportunity to go to waste!

Even though I’ve been to Taiwan in the past, I’ve only been in Taipei to visit family and that stuff. This time, I get to explore different cities within the island, and also get a chance to work with amazing faculty at a university that my dad graduated from, which is super cool! (He went to National Taiwan University for electrical engineering). 

I’ll be blogging about my time abroad whenever I get a chance (I leave for Taiwan in late May), so if you guys want to see what’s going on and everything, I’ll be posting from the following social media accounts:

Snapchat: moon-shinee

Instagram: @thecassieliu [Expect a ton of food pictures lol]

Facebook: *If you want to add me on facebook, send me a message so I know who to send my URL link to!

Wordpress: TBA... I’ll post the blog link on here soon!

But yeah, that’s just about it! I don’t know how often I’ll update my tumblr blog with that stuff, but we’ll see! I’m super excited for this opportunity, and it’s basically the only thing that’s keeping me going for the rest of this semester lol. Hope you’re all doing well! :)

Best,

Hall of Fame Entries January 2017

Thank you everyone for participating in this cycle’s Hall of Fame! And thank you to all of our members for sharing their creativity and keeping this fandom interesting!

This cycle’s entries are @beeeatle‘s graphic and @paulmcmuffin‘s art, Congratulations! Your posts will be placed in our hall of fame.

In order to make the macbook air lighter in weight, they had to take out the DVD port from the computer. Most people generally use an external disc drive to solve that issue!