This is my first post and the quarterly update. I will share multiple of these each year, coinciding with things that happened, my thinking, and things expected. I’m Hui Chong, a bioinformatician studying the microbiome. You can also follow me on Twitter, GitHub, and Google Scholar.

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This autumn one big thing I’ve made is that I started working at Big Data Biology Lab at Fudan University, under Luis Pedro Coelho’s supervision. My work is still all about the microbiome as I expected before. Accordingly, I moved to Shanghai and rented a decent house. The house is very expensive in Shanghai and I paid my 1/3 salary to get this living space.

My works at HUST haven’t been ended. Two of them are continued but none of them get published during this autumn, other projects were just abandoned because no one can give them any time/effort. Even it is today, I still cannot understand why a professor thinks he can give an undergraduate so much work and expect that he’ll be working nearly all the time. Also, if I have to do a lot of work as much as I cannot have a good night/weekend, I will start to doubt what life is about. I believe I’m not the only one in this way, but everyone like me in China is just cheating himself/herself. Also, they are cheating their bosses/supervisors. They got used to social activities when they are working. I can always see someone is checking his/her Moment (similar to Twitter) or Taobao (similar to Amazon) and I really don’t think this is a good idea. Let me just borrow a sentence from Luis: work is work, and life is life.

My work here has been started for three months. It’s really amazing to work here. I got paid a decent salary that can support my whole life (although buying a house in Shanghai is impossible) but not too much heavy work. This may be the most old-people-friendly job in Shanghai (don’t be so serious). I really enjoy this kind of balance between work and life.

I expect to submit a manuscript in the next few weeks and start preparing my examinations. Like all other Chinese students who want to go abroad for a degree, I have to prepare the TOEFL and GRE testing. Today I also talked with Luis about this and he gave me a lot of helpful suggestions. So thank you, Luis!

Btw, this is the first time I put myself in a pure English environment. It’s a new journey. Let’s see.

See you next time.

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Autumn 2021 Update