Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo here,
This week we come to you right after our final finals (and bar night with Dr. Mom, The Cultured One and Kilo)... It is a seriously bitter-sweet feeling looking back at the last four and a half years and looking forward to whatever comes next. This week we are saying goodbye to us, tragic we know! There is no way for you to really understand what it means for us to be leaving and going our 'separate' ways. To even begin to understand, you have to understand how we came to be...
Who would have thought that two people not getting into their 'perfect' school, the economy crash making it hard for two college sophomores to find co-op jobs, and an unorganized cold room could bring two people together? Seems insane but we like to believe that it was fate. Marco wanted to go into biology at U of M and Polo was applying to the Naval Academy in Annapolis. Had either of us gotten into our preferred school we would have never met, would have never been given the opportunity to work in the biochem department at Kettering and would have never moved into the Hobo House.
Even though we have a few classes together our freshman year we never really talked and we could hardly be considered friends (Polo was afraid of saying Marco's name wrong so basically avoided even saying hello for fear of calling her by the wrong name). It wasn't until we were both accepted as co-op students in the department the summer of our sophomore year, along with Whirly, that we even began to talk. The first Friday of work found us cleaning/organizing the cold room in the department... Doesn't sound so bad but we were elbows deep in pseudo-formaldehyde liquid bagging cow eyes and throwing out molding cardboard boxes (this was not a job for the faint of heart). It was over those buckets of cow eyes that we bonded, after all, "there are some things you can't share without ending up liking each other" (J.K. Rowling: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone). After that horrifying bonding experience we really started talking and by the end of that work term we did just about everything together within the department, a dynamic that has just gotten stronger the longer we know each other.

Macro and Polo reminiscing in the cold room
with a bag of masterfully sorted cow-eyes.

Since that fateful day, elbow-deep in cow-eyes, we've been inseparable. So inseparable that we've had professors tell us that we are basically the same person (yet they won't let us take tests together...go figure...).
   While we are sad to see our time at Kettering come to an end and to be saying 'goodbye' to the places and people who have helped us become who we are and have encouraged us to stop riding the lab coat tails and find our own adventures, it is the harsh realization that our lives may lead in very different directions that makes today an almost apocalyptic crisis in our lives.  Over the last term we have had to come to terms with saying, not goodbye but...

Stay nerdy and hope to see you (and each other) soon,
Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To The Biochem Dept

Marco and Polo here,
   We can officially see the light at the end of the tunnel, or maybe that's just the train?  In light of our feelings of impending doom... Er we mean ecstatic accomplishment, we take this time to say goodbye to the place and the people we have come to call home over the last four and a half years.  The Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry and the arguably insane but undoubtedly brilliant faculty and staff residing there.

The window into the department conference room,
where the weekly meeting of the minds occurs
(if the world is destroyed or saved in the near
future the plotting will probably happen here)

It is impossible to accurately express how much of our lives has been spent learning, labing, laughing, crying, eating, sleeping, hyperventilating, studying, working, scheming, nerding, and generally surviving within these walls over the last four years.  You think we're kidding or over-exaggerating, we thought so too until a janitor recognized us in the parking lot as 'those girls who live in the Biochem department'.  That moment made us pause to re-examine our lives...  After brief consideration and little debate we agreed to change absolutely nothing, a decision we have yet to regret.  Our love and dedication to the department has less to do with the amazing instrumentation and demanding schedules and a lot more to do with the incredible faculty and staff who are there arguably as much as we are.

Our board to introduce the professors and provide their schedules
for those souls who do not haunt the halls

• Dr. Adamantium: The impossibly sweet and brilliant professor of inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry who had the misfortune of putting up with the shenanigans of Marco, Polo and the Kid during our ambitious and nearly manic research phase
• Alchemik: There is no one better to go to if you want to hear about how chemistry used to be done.  Trust us, if you are worried about BPA, GMOs, or carcinogens be glad you were never a chemist in Poland...  And if a story about the good-old-days doesn't cheer you up there is always his kitten slideshow as backup
• Beaker: The first professor to break ground in the Chem E program
• Mrs. Captain Von Trapp: A chem E professor who doubles as Dr. Mom's sidekick and partner in crime
• La Catedratica: The MVP of Marco and Polo's 'faculty therapy team'...  Let's face it she is a good part of the reason this blog is not brought to you from within an asylum or is it?
• Chief: The glue, rubber band, and duct tape that holds the department together and who has survived the creation of Marco and Polo and the madness that has ensued since
• The Count: A genius of a P-chem professor, who spends much of his time convincing students his math isn't really magic, that we really are getting smarter, and that P-chem is any self-respecting-chemists favorite class...  We aren't drinking that Kool-Aide (which is a generally safe practice in chemistry since it's usually not Kool-Aide)
• The Cultured One: One of the first Applied Biology professors.  Who caught on to the ridiculous-ness which is Marco and Polo much to fast for our liking and who gave us one (or several) final swift-kick-to-the-ass
• Inspector Gadget: Kilo's right-hand-man and general lab Guru, who earlier this term attempted to make himself bionic while playing at home improvement.  He also gets a little sassy after five
• Kilo: Our primary candy supplier and landlord of our future desk-fort/home (she also puts up with way more Marco and Polo than anyone should have to)
• Lord of the Benzene Ring (LotBR): An ingenious, or possibly just straight-up genius, Organic professor...  Let's just say we hope he never joins the dark side and always remember 'There's No Crying in Organic Chemistry'
• Dr. Mom: Marco and Polo's crazy aunt and psuedo-mom all wrapped up into one insane package...  She's the person to thank, or maybe blame, for bringing about the dynamic duo of Marco and Polo
• Speed Racer: Our very first chemistry professor who taught us the importance of things we didn't fully appreciate or understand until now, not to mention the really important things like how to sleep in class, chemistry is just mixing drinks, and the real difference between a PhD and an MD
• Waldo: The tallest ChemE professor to ever walk the halls, quite possibly the tallest professor period...  We have spent the last few years trying to figure out a way to get him to wear red stripes in order to play the ultimate game of Where's Waldo

We cannot express our thanks to all of our professors, those listed and not, who have helped us reach this point.  We can only hope that we can make you proud and use everything you've beaten into...  Er we mean taught us over the years.

   Though finals week is just around the corner and students and faculty are buckling down for the storm there is still time for a little holiday cheer with a nerdy flair (really did you expect it any other way around here?).

This is the department's chemistree (made by Chief)!
Yes those are round-bottom-flasks.

This is our NMR (just about the coolest instrument in the school)
it's all ready for Christmas.  One of the students has even re-written
'Oh Christmas Tree' as a tribute to this nerdy decoration

   It is with heavy hearts and souls that we will be saying our last goodbyes and leaving this place that's become home and these people we call family.

As Always Stay Nerdy,

Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Kettering

Marco and Polo here,
   We hope everyone had an exceptional Thanksgiving holiday Marco and Polo were not saying goodbye to anything last week but have returned to school for our last few weeks.  Which for you, our readers, means a few more weeks of saying goodbye.
   Very much like the city of Flint, and Michigan itself, Kettering has deep roots in the motor industry.  Yes for those of you who haven't figured it out we are Kettering students.
       A Brief History of Kettering:
         There once was a small car company called General Motors (GM), it decided it needed engineers and business majors so built a University to mold their employees minds both in the classroom and in the workplace...  This little school (GMI) would, many years and a downsize in GM later, become Kettering University.
   Since those early days of engineering and business Kettering has expanded its educational horizon to include majors such as: computer science, physics, mathematics, and of course our very own biochemistry/chemistry/applied biology majors.  It also became the place Marco and Polo would find their serendipitous meeting.
   Here for your viewing, and reading, pleasure are just a few of the things that make Kettering unique:

The front of the Academic Building (AB),  in case you can't see it
General Motors Institute of Technology is written across the top,
 is the home of many of the majors at Kettering.

This is the bell tower, it is hardly EVER chiming at a rational time...
The year it was built the student body was also wanting a pool,
in that honor the cement area it is built next to is called the Pool by the student body.

Meet General Determination (a.k.a the Bulldog)
Kettering's trusty mascot who moonlights as a billboard...
Behind him you can see the lovely beach.

   Though we have a serious love-hate relationship with Kettering, this is our school, in a sense it is the place we have called 'home' for the last four and a half years.  Without our experiences here we aren't sure where we would be, or who we would be today.  For all the friends we've made, for all the things we've learned, for all the moments we've shared we own Kettering a proper goodbye.

Stay nerdy and we'll see you next week,

Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Flint

Marco and Polo here,

   This week we say goodbye to our city, a place we have lived for the last four and a half years.  For those of you who haven't solved the great mystery of where this friendship and this blog was born and have managed to completely miss the extremely subtle hints,  we say goodbye to Flint.  For our readers out there who have never been here Flint is an old city with a lot of history and though in recent years it has taken hits, and trust us those hits show all over the city, this city has character, a personality.  As we thought of just how to express the soul of a city and better yet how to say goodbye to a home we decided to let the city speak for itself.  After all a picture's worth a thousand words:

Flint has a very rich history,  history whose roots are entangled in the very heart of General Motors (GM)

A stones throw from campus stands this
memorial reminding people of this history

Welcome to Flint, Vehicle City

A city where downtown still has a red brick road

Where the churches are masterpieces in their own right 

Where ads are a part of the city itself

Where a giant glowing ball in the sky
can predict the weather, using a rhyme of course:
When the weather ball is red, higher temperatures ahead.
When the weather ball is blue, lower temperatures are due.
Yellow light in weather ball means they’ll be no change at all.
When colors blink in agitation, there’s going to be precipitation.

And where despite everything the people have seen,
trust can still be found

A city is not built solely on its history and landmarks, a city is nothing without the places that bring people together.  Places that for us, and our stomachs, were a comfort and break from the insanity of college.

Westside Diner is something you can only find in Flint, Marco and Polo have spent many a lunches, or breakfasts, or dinners, in their fifties style booths

Of course what is a city without its people?  The people in Flint are what give this city its character, its soul.  While Marco and Polo do in no way condone graffiti as a form of vandalism (or any type of vandalism) there is no way to live in Flint and not see how graffiti can express the soul of a city and bring buildings to life. 

The Flint Block, an icon in Flint always covered in different paint designs and messages

This is our city, a city of history, of art, of flavor, a city of people.  It is all of these things that you must remember when you hear all the dark things about Flint because hidden beneath the shadows this city has soul.  After all "happiness can be found in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light"  (thank you J.K.Rowling for teaching us all the important lessons in life).

Stay Nerdy,
Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Roommates

Marco and Polo here,
   This week we would like to take the time to say goodbye to all of our incredible roommates.  Some of them you have already met, like our not-gay-gay-best-friend Tex, and the secret genius Ace, and the other you haven't.
   Our first roommate, the Addict, takes a little of explaining.  We assure you he doesn't need any sort of intervention...  Well maybe he does but for nothing illegal, just a nasty caffeine habit.  Now Marco loves her coffee and during finals can consume more coffee than water but compared to the Addict she's a lightweight.  The addict mainstreams coffee and converts said coffee into pure and crazy physics and mathematical genius.  Seriously people, we've seen him do math and it's magic.  Dark magic, black magic, voodoo magic, we're not sure, he might have sold his soul to the math gods...  His addiction to coffee is not the only reason he has been deemed the Addict, he also has the worst ideas/suggestions to ever be spoken in the hobo house.  We think it might be his way of trying to steal our own souls to sacrifice to his math magic.  His suggestions became so infamously bad that we had to make a rule to NEVER listen to his ideas, especially while drinking (it's one of the sacred hobo house drinking rules).  On the rare occasion that he emerges from his math-den and his mouth isn't busy consuming coffee or trying to inadvertently sacrifice the roommates, he says some pretty hilarious things:

We figured this was an appropriate photo for
the Addict since we're sure it's what his internal
organs are slowly turning into.

• “It was like I met God...  Because there was coffee in the pot”
• “Little bit of jazz hands too...  That’s how you know it’s serious”

  Ace you met briefly amid the chaos that was Loki, he has recently been deemed the Carbon of the department by La Catedratica, because of his 'cool' demeanor and subtle genius.  We kid you not, Marco and Polo have spent many a chem class feeling utterly inferior and completely inadequate compared to the genius that is Ace.  In another Marco and Polo stroke of genius (we really need to stop having these people) we asked Ace to wake us up at 6:30 am to do morning yoga twice a week...  Genius right?  Get a light exercise in the morning, wake-up a bit, and get the blood flowing for those way-too-early 8 am classes...  Ya that's what we thought until we had the rude awakening of pounding on our doors at 6 am and the discovery that the only yoga Ace knows is the kind used in P-90x...  It was like morning torture, we finished our half hour 'light' work out drenched in sweat, exhausted, and more sore than after a 5k.  Superior intellect and yoga torture aside Ace never fails to keep us entertained with his crazy antics, strange eating habits, and unique humor:

Ace chopping onions on a plate with Marco's lab
goggles to protect from crying

• “Did you try just talking to her? That’s always my approach but then again I’m very single”
• “I was bitten in the ovaries by a radioactive spider”

   Tex you've known for a while now, and we've already sort of said goodbye, but how do you say goodbye to someone who wears so many hats, and yet no real hats at all.  Over the years Tex has taken up many a hats, these include (but are by no means limited to) a ninja warrior, a drill sargent, and a dish fairy.  Once upon a time, Marco and Polo became obsessed with American Ninja Warrior, a competition to complete the world's toughest obstacle course. We watched the show religiously and one day decided that Tex would kick ass if he competed.  In one of our shining moments of intelligence we convinced Tex to attempt one of the obstacles that we could mimic in the hobo house. This resulted in Tex climbing up the underside of the spiral staircase, probably not the safest idea we've ever had... but he was awesome at it! Another of Marco and Polo's bright ideas was to have Tex accompany us on a run, figuring he'd be a motivator/inspiration, boy were we wrong. Tex was more of a drill sargent, yelling ultimatums as he lapped us and stepping on our heels to make us run faster. Needless to say we haven't gone running with Tex since.  When not being a hard-ass-ninja-warrior Tex moonlights as the dish fairy.  This hat entailed doing all the dishes at the Hobo House (you'd be amazed the number of dishes five people can generate) at random intervals.  With the beginning of our final terms and the migration to the Hobo Apartment (yes Marco and Polo have left the Hobo House, or were rather rudely kicked out, which ever you prefer) we fear this particular hat has been lost forever... Or was possibly destroyed since it seems we have all misplaced our various dish fairy hats.  We're thinking of placing the kitchen under quarantine soon people.   Even one hat short Tex still never ceases to amaze us in his own Swiss-army-knife way.

• "Are we gonna start a moonshine band? I can go get a banjo"
• "Look at the frickin' mountains! They're just standing there!"

Tex and Marco at a Chinese dinner with the roomies

As Always Stay Nerdy,
Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To Awkward Conversations

Marco & Polo here,

We find ourselves in the middle of 5th week and frankly we're not sure how we got here...  How can our final term be half over already...  In honor, or maybe terror, of this we have decided to write this newest blog on one of the people who has been here with Marco and Polo since the very beginning.

Dr. Mom was not only there in the dark ages of pre-Marco and Polo but she is arguably one of the catalysts [due to extreme emotional circumstances this story will not be told until the end of this series, so stay tuned].  Over the years Dr. Mom has been many things but eloquent has rarely been one of them.  She has a way of saying things that is on par with a bull in a china shop strapped to a malfunctioning jet-pack.  As such there have been many a conversations had with Dr. Mom that have never been had before between student and Dept. Head, and should never ever be had again...  Ever.  No seriously, there isn't enough Bleach in the world to properly scrub our brains with, people.  A frequent observer and occasional commentator to these awkward conversations is, Dr. Mom's partner in crime, a chemical engineering professor, Mrs. Capt. von Trapp.  Though rarely an instigator, Mrs. Capt. von  Trapp, has never hesitated to scale up the conversation, like any self-respecting chem-E would.  There are far too many conversation had and words spoken that are better left partially bleached and un-repeated but here, for your reading pleasure, are some PG-maybe-13 bits (cause bits are Dr. Mom's favorite):

• “I could star in those videos”
• “Create a standard curve” [that's five data points... We'll let you decide what the "data" is]
• “They better put that shit on my tombstone”
• “It’s going to be a continuum of no’s, from now until infinity”
• “You need to do less, better”

Get your minds out of the gutters people, they're not all what you think they are.  For all the conversations that can't be un-had, we'd never trade Dr. Mom for anything.  Being true to her name she really has become like a second (or third) mom to Marco and Polo.  How, you ask, does one join the ranks of Marco and Polo Mama-hood?:

• She's always there when we need a hug, a hug only a mom can give and ours are too far away
• Awkward conversations aside she's always there with at least a few wise words
• She never fails to listen to the seemingly endless panic attacks we seem to suffer from
• Never running out of interesting career advice
• Not to mention advice in our personal lives

Like the many members of our 'faculty therapy team', in her own unique way, Dr. Mom was always exactly what we needed when we didn't even know it.  We can't count the number of times when a few minutes with Dr. Mom could turn a no-good-very-very-horribly-bad-day into a fit of tears from laughing so hard.  For that we don't know how to even begin to say good-bye.  So here's to you Dr. Mom, for just being you, and letting us see a glimpse.

Marco, Polo, and Dr. Mom posing for Dr. Mom's Christmas snow-globe [2011]

Stay Nerdy and Study On,
Marco and Polo

Marco and Polo Say Goodbye... To "Free" Therapy

Marco and Polo here,
   Seven more days come and gone and we're still here.  This week we take time to reflect on all the "free" therapy we have had access to over the last four years (tuition aside of course).  We like to think that we have assembled our very own Faculty Therapy Team.  They cover all our bases, from career, to stress, to life, and although the advice isn't always welcome it is always exactly what we need to hear.
   In an attempt to widen its horizons the department has begun an applied biology program, just in time for Marco and Polo's graduation :( ...  As a result the department family has welcomed two new victims...  Er we mean faculty... One of which has quickly become the newest member of Marco and Polo's "Faculty Therapy Team", we'd say we took a vote but it was more like she shangheid the whole damn boat out from under us... The Cultured One has been the swift kick-in-the-pants that we have needed to begin planning our lives post-graduation.  Barely two weeks into knowing us she gave Marco and Polo deadlines for job applications, the deadline is today in case you were curious, and became an unsuspecting business consultant for The Helix (for more information on how you can become a consultant yourself read Marco and Polo Make Life Decisions... Again).  It's not all nose to the grind stone with The Cultured One though, she supplements her drill Sargent ways with a slew of witty quotes and an easy laugh in Microbiology:

• “Carbon knows he’s cool, if Carbon were in this class he would be sitting in the back corner and yet we would all want to be his friend”
• “If you get a Nobel Prize for it, it can be described as sexy”
• “There’s no magic in micro”

Marco, Polo, and The Cultured One

   Kilo's office has become Marco and Polo's very own white padded room...  Having a bad day?  Visit Kilo for some rant time and candy.  Have a ten minute break from class?  Visit Kilo for some 'pick-me-up' candy.  Marco's doing research or Polo's in P-chem?  Visit Kilo to pass the time and candy.  Kilo not in her office? Hunt the department until you find her for some candy.  You may notice the theme here...  Kilo's pretty awesome!  Between her sheer awesome factor, the candy, and fun nerdy toys (like bobble-head-Einstein, Schrodinger's Cat, and the ACS Mole) she has to put up with a TON of Marco and Polo. We have spent many a days losing track of (precious) homework and study time in the vortex of Kilo's office.  Kilo stars primarily as our "stress" therapist, listening to and even joining our ridiculous rants when being a biochem and dealing with people (usually not-biochems) is just a little too much.  Hidden (or maybe not so hidden) among the irrational rantings of Marco and Polo we've participated in a variety of discussions ranging from our favorite TV shows (Kilo's got excellent taste) to where mermaids come from (cause you know the stork doesn't do underwater deliveries).  In recent events Kilo has finally agreed to, or rather has conceded to the immovable logic that is Marco and Polo, the idea that we will be living under her desk for the rest of our lives.  [Want to read more?  Read Marco and Polo Spread Christmas Cheer]

Marco, Polo, and Kilo (with the ACS Mole)

   The most veteran member of our therapy team, La Catedratica, was there to witness the beginning of Marco and Polo and has been right there Gibbs-slapping us (only when necessary) everyday since.  From the early days of O-chem freak outs, to the final days of graduation freak outs (cue the tears people...  We need tissues) La Catedratica has been there holding our hands, kicking our butts, and making us laugh when we may have wanted to cry.  What do you write about someone who has been like a mom, a mentor, a sister, and a friend for the four most stressful years to date?  We can tell you one thing, whatever we manage to write will never be enough to express how we feel and who La Catedratica is to us.  Just today we spent a good hour having a patented 'Life Chat' with La Catedratica in the chem labs.  It is a nice change of pace from our everyday lives because she simply wants us to be ourselves and be happy, or as happy as anyone can be.  The passion La Catedratica brings to class and to chemistry in general, will always serve as a reminder to us of what it's all really about... Being nerdy (of course)...

Marco and Polo with La Catedratica in her natural habitat (the Organic Lab)

 With that we'll leave you with one of the many life lessons we have learned from La Catedratica:

“The more you know, the more you realize you don’t know anything.”

As always Stay Nerdy,
Marco and Polo