Freshman Escort Service

Sincerely exhausted. I haven't been this tired by 11 (or as tired as I was by 10, or 9) since... elementary school. It was a good day though, super productive, pretty fun. Have to get up at 5/5:30 tomorrow though, so not too much time (but actually not enough brainpower) to write a full post tonight. Should get better by Monday... Sorry!

Anyways, memorable moments time!

~ Eisgruber coming to talk, us giving him the "OA" cheer and him looking completely confused

~ Rick and Elan singing "40's going to be a great Frosh Trip"

~ Playing all of the OA games (Captain's Coming, Little Sally Walker, Fleas Flies Mosquitoes, Entourage, Bananas) with the OA leaders and being the awkward purple shirt in a sea of red

~ Welcoming the freshmen! And seeing Frank! And finding out that he's in my jurisdiction haha

~ Buying tons of stuff I wasn't planning on getting at CVS because I kept getting coupons

~ Jump-shaking Elan and him actually doing it super dramatically around 10:00pm when we were all super tired

Me: "Our Freshman Escort Service only has one customer."
Kathryn: "I guess we're not that attractive in our sweaty and disgusting clothes."
(Background: The unfortunately named "Freshman Escort Service" is basically Command helping late-arriving freshman find their OA groups.)

Rick: "Erica has melted into the floor."

OA Leader: "So we have a backpack without a brain..."
Me: "Oh, it's okay. I hiked without a brain [last year]."

Kathryn: "When in doubt, we don't count."

Sleeping Bag Mountain!

An actual 12-hour day today. Didn't have a non-Command related task at all the entire day.

Pretty tired, so I guess just a brief summary of the day and some highlights and memorable quotes. Packed a lot of food boxes, called a lot of people (got to use the walkie-talkie!), made signs, handed out Epipens, sorted out gear... It was a pretty busy but also fun day. Lots of bonding over stuff like chucking oranges into a box haha.

Highlights of today:
~ Gave Elan three hugs! =P

~ Getting to say "Erica for Elan. Over." and calling/sending Support vans everywhere

~ Making food signs and decorating them with polka dots and tiger stripes

~ Getting a Crazy Creek! Well, sort of. Have yet to pick it up (but thanks Elaine!)

~ Pulling sleeping bags out of other sleeping bags and essentially jumping on and collapsing into a really soft mountain of sleeping bags

~ Chilling with Rory, Richard, and Ryan in Trap's new and *huge* room!

Elan: "Have any of you driven a Prius before?"
Aoi: "Well, it's Japanese, isn't it?"

Rick: "So if you've never used disc brakes, they stop really hard, really fast."
Elan: "It's the opposite of Rick's car."

Late to Sleep and Early to Rise Makes Erica Tired

Oh Command. So physically and mentally taxing.

Spend a few hours testing satellite phones. The signal absolutely sucked on campus - I sincerely hope (and I think) it's better in the woods, or else absolutely no one is going to be able to communicate using them. Ran sims in the Command Center too, which was... interesting. And got our OA shirts! They're purple for Command. =]

Highlights of today:
"Can you confirm that the cheese has been located? Over."
"Rocky is the one that's particularly Hogwarts-like, and Mathey is the one that's... less Hogwarts-like."

Command Center

Stressful, super busy, but pretty fun. The people are awesome, and it'll be interesting to learn what happens not on the trail during the trip. =]

I am a bit frustrated with the seeming lack of organization though. Stuff would go so much faster if I was actually told what I was supposed to be doing. And in my opinion we spend too much time sitting around in anticipation of someone needing help, but never actually being needed.

But after pre-trip, the actual trip should be more interesting. Setting up meetings, talking to leaders... It'll be fun!

Also, did I mention I'm in charge of Hansen's group? =P

132 1927 Hall

It's a sick room. That's all I have to say.

Going back, going back, going back to Nassau Hall!

It's been an absolutely amazing summer. Working with some of the coolest people I've met, being part of a wonderful family at GrX. Had enough time to hang out with most of my friends too, even though we were about an hour apart.

Now for Princeton Part II!

Farewell Interns

Grabbed one last dinner with the remaining interns. As always, Andrew Yelped the place.

I'm really going to miss everyone. I'm probably going to cry again.

The Boss

The last day of a 12-week adventure today. 

Joshua P. Taygerly: one of the chillest, funniest guys I have ever met, and an absolutely amazing person to work for. I still remember how, in the first week, he told me to take days off to go to the beach if I wanted, took me out for 2-hour lunches, bought me a $600 modeling kit, and briefed me on where to get free food.

I've had so many amazing memories from this summer. The project I was working on, of course, which was pretty exciting and allowed for a lot of interdisciplinary exploration. Snapchats of him going slightly crazy at 3am in lab during scale-up. Discovering that some Sharpies are double-ended. Learning that to commit to something is possibly the worst thing to do, and that laziness is an art. Walking me through pretty much everything I did this summer with tons of patience and just as much enthusiasm.

It's sincerely been amazing. I still can't believe I'm done. But off I go, with some new experience and new friends, and I know our paths will cross again someday. I've been so wonderfully blessed.

Take Me Out to the Ball Game...

Giants v. Pirates today! We lost but saw some great innings (sadly, most of those weren't in our favor...). It was a wonderful night though!

Last day of work tomorrow. Wow. Such bittersweetness. It's honestly been incredible. I couldn't have asked for a better manager, coworkers, mentors... I've learned so much and thoroughly enjoyed myself. I guess it's back home for a few days then off to reenter the Orange Bubble!

Beauty for Ashes

I had such a wonderful time of worship tonight with brothers and sisters from GrX. Just singing and worshipping... Sharing our fears and praying for one another. It was beyond words.

God has blessed me so much with this family. He's doing wonderful things in my life. Praise the Lord.

"Wait! ...I forgot my shoes."

And Then There Were Five...

It's so lonely in the apartment without Lucy! It's absolutely ridiculous.

Had a really nice lunch out today at Specialty's! Dragged Paul along too haha. All of the guys were there, it was pretty awesome.

I can't believe it's my last week already! Insane to think about... And I'm flying out three days after my internship ends. It seems so rushed... The summer actually flew by. At least I was sort of prepared for it to do so. It's been truly amazing, and I'll definitely cherish all of the time I've spent here, and the four days I have left!

Andrew and I are definitely cooking dinner together this week. Cooking for two's a lot easier than cooking for one haha. =]

CalAcademy!

Had an absolutely amazing day today!

Grabbed an early brunch/lunch with Andrew and Lucy at Nopalito, a cute and slightly hipster Mexican restaurant.

Met up with Daniel and Elizabeth (!!!) at the Academy, and proceeded to have an absolutely amazing 4 hours seeing tons of different animals, walking through aquarium tunnels... Butterflies and birds and so many different types of fish. It was sincerely amazing. I honestly love aquariums so much - there's no way I could maintain one, but being able to just stand and have fish swim all around you... It's absolutely great.

Had a wonderful service today, about covenants and covenant relationships. Really meaningful and I hope I can really implement it in my life.

Ate a delicious dinner at Beretta and finished it off with some tiramisu and chamomile tea.

I can't believe Blane and Lucy are leaving tomorrow! Work this next week is going to be so lonely... =[

Adventures in SF!

Absolutely wonderful day today. Super tired, so just some highlights.

~ Witnessed first-hand a Zhihong-Josh confrontation.

~ Work BBQ! And alcohol in test tubes.

~ Lucy's "prize" for finding Josh's hidden MySite message.

~ Meeting Karlie!

~ Dinner at Dosa. Super delicious, finished my food and Will didn't. HA.

~ Finding a nonsketchy cafe at midnight. Because apparently there are only Mexican bakeries and bars open that late.

~ Mexican hot chocolate. Mmm.

~ (walking down the up escalator with Blane and Andrew)
BART employee: "Hey, where are you guys trying to go?"
Andrew: "We're trying to go down. Is there a way to get down?"

~ Talking about taxes on the BART ride back.

It was Lucy, Liz, and Blane's last day! Super sad - not sure if I'll ever see Liz or Blane again... Hopefully I'll see Lucy since we're relatively close to one another...

Cuff Earrings!

Lucy and I went to the mall today! Bought cards for our bosses, ate at Sarku Japan, got some froyo. But we got cuff earrings! I've always wanted one of these - they're super pretty and fun. Also sort of painful/troublesome to put on/take off but still awesome.

Also got a pretty cute navy blue headband with gold birds. =] Lucy's last day tomorrow (along with Liz and Blane). I can't believe the summer's almost over!

Common Core

The debate over Common Core seems to have resurfaced lately. I'm not an educator, nor am I at a school level which falls under the Common Core curriculum, but here are just some honest thoughts on the debate, based on personal experience.

I've looked at sample questions and standards, and yeah, they're harder than they were when I was in 3rd grade. There's extraneous information, and arithmetic on the kindergarten standards.

Yup, the standards are more intense. But these arguments that they're too hard? Too hard compared to what? The old standards? The fact that 1/3 of NY students, who are accustomed to the looser standards, didn't pass? I call BS.

Adults argue that even they would be confused by some of the questions on the standardized testing for Common Core. Now tell me again, why is that an argument against it? It's not that the questions are unfair. They're not even particularly confusing. They just require soem time and thinking. Isn't the fact that adults can't think their way through a problem more reason for Common Core?

There's a pretty controversial sample 3rd grade math problem (one which prompted the argument above) going around. 54 apples placed uniformly on 9 trays. If each of three classes gets an equal number of trays, how many apples does each class get?

Sure, it seems wordy. You really just need to divide 54 by 3. But that's not all that's being tested - they're checking critical reasoning and logic too. The information about the trays is completely extraneous. Is that too much to expect from 3rd graders? Perhaps, but should it be? We have so many *adults* who can't distinguish between unnecessary and essential information, and that's such a critical part of being an efficient worker.

Are our kids too delicate to handle some pressure and expectation? A little bit of criticism and a dose of harsh reality? There's the whole concern that expecting too much would turn kids off from learning.

I remember my parents requiring me to know my times tables up through 12 in first grade. I remember that period being possibly the worst math-related period of my life, even including the horror that was multivariable calculus this past year. I cried night after night at my mom's bedside, unable to tell her what 9x7 was. But math remained my favorite subject until high school, when I decided I liked chemistry/biology more.

Should we be afraid to fail students? To give them a 30% and tell them that no, sorry, you aren't superb?

I say no. Getting good grades in elementary school continued through the rest of my education. From an early point, it became my identity. I became defined by test scores and report cards. I never failed; if I failed, I was a failure. I remember crying all through break during middle school after a math test which I hadn't had time to finish. A math test which, ultimately, I got a B+ on. I was so dependent on good grades to tell me I was worthwhile, because that seemed to be the case in elementary school, that without them, I was worthless. Failing something in elementary school would have been hard, yes, but it would have allowed me to see something which I do now, but which was concealed from me during my entire public school education: I am not defined by my grades. Failing a test shouldn't be such an earth-shattering, confidence-crippling event.

And sure, people can argue that I'm from a Chinese family, that I undoubtedly grew up with pressure and an emphasis on doing well in school. But what's wrong with that? If America's going to complain about Asian students forming a majority of the population at many good colleges, or that Chinese immigrants are flooding into the workforce... Why are we against pushing our students to do better?

You can argue that I'm "an Ivy kid," obviously I would have done well under Common Core anyways... And that might be true. But there's no reason other people can't either. I was easily one of the top students in my class every year, but it never took much effort. I grew up thinking that everyone who took calculus was a genius. But I did, and did pretty well in the class even, but believe me when I say I am far from it. So why do we have that mindset?

Common Core is hard, yes. Students will fail. They might be discouraged. But kids are much more resilient than we may imagine, and eventually, under stricter standards and by expecting more of our children, they'll acquire skills that many of the adults of today lack.

Theremin!

Josh got a theremin a few days ago and let me borrow it for tonight! (Or, as he put it, as long as I want.) I might keep it over the weekend - it's actually super fun to play with. Also insanely frustrating. I really want one someday. Just tinker around with it until I can actually play songs haha. =]

Dramastically

~ Sean combined "drastically" and "dramatically" today.

~ The column finally worked! Sort of. Better than it was before...

~ Taught Andrew how to use the NMR machine!

~ Got mochi as a lunch dessert. Nutella, green tea cheesecake, and black sesame. Mmmm. 

~ Playing with Josh's theremin! He let me borrow it for tonight. =]

Hayes Valley

Pretty good day in Hayes Valley with Lucy, Andrew, and Liz. =] Ate at a cute little shop called Straw. Pretty delicious. Headed over to Smitten for some delicious liquid nitrogen ice cream too!

Do you even lift?

Because I definitely don't. Went to the gym for a bit today - ran, biked, used some of the weights machines. Pretty short workout, but it was good.

Best moment was when this pretty buff guy walked into the weights room while I was using the leg machine, and started doing yoga. Somehow I feel like our activities should have been swapped.

Watched Chronicles of Narnia and Pirate of the Caribbean on TV today. Cars is on now so I'm off to read for a little bit.

Super chill day, I feel amazingly unproductive.

Grad school shall be fun...

Onto the Next Step!

Poster session went decently today. Two hours of nonstop explaining a project I don't even fully understand... Pretty fun though haha. Obviously got asked questions to which I didn't know the answer. Felt a bit embarrassed at times, but on the whole, it seemed to go okay.

Grabbed lunch with everyone! Was really awesome, we took a long hour and a half or so break haha. Also came up with a nice startup idea involving jeans, the Higgs boson (loosely), and "ingenious." I would tell you more, but Andrew needs to patent it first. =P

Ran tons of TLC on column chromatography fractions. Crappy separation on all of them. Whelp.

Grabbed dinner at BJs with the interns again! Super fun, talked about tons of random stuff. Can't believe that 3 of us are leaving next week! Then 3 the week after... This is insane. I sincerely hope I can see everyone again...

Chilled at the guys' watching Shark Week and being ridiculous. I honestly have loved this summer. Such amazing people and really interesting work on the whole, though the details got a bit tedious at times (so much NMR!). And I still have 2 more weeks! =]

Dynamic Binding Simulations

Poster session tomorrow. Tiredddd. Stayed until like 8pm today printing out the thing on a *huge* Plotter printer. Josh came back before I left haha. He gave me some Haribo gummy frogs!

Going to run through the poster with Lucy later and just ask each other questions to prep for tomorrow. This shall be interesting.

♥

So ridiculously tired...

Work It!

- Poster's coming along nicely. Got some pretty 2D metadynamics plots!

- Went to the gym with Lucy for about an hour today. I can already sense the impending soreness.

- Trying to eat marginally healthier... I'm seriously so out of shape it's almost laughable.

- T-2 days until the poster session! Still need to hopefully make diaminoparacyclophane, run the CB7-TMS binding to determine Kd by NMR, maybe test a few predicted compounds from the Aldrich screen...

- Only 3 weeks left in the summer; where did all the time go?

- Super excited to go back to Princeton, but scared at the same time. Am I ready for the academic grind again? Most likely not... Thankful I have such a strong support group there.

- And of course, thankful that I can count on Him no matter where I am. =]

Bye Auntie! Thanks for visiting! =]

Pandora

Came back to an absolutely gorgeous Pandora bracelet yesterday! Just two charms so far - we'll see if I get more in the future. Thanks Auntie! =]

Went shopping today. Didn't buy anything though (other than food), which is just as well because I have *way* too many clothes. Oh dear. I do like to browse through heels and fancy dresses, just because they're so beautiful. I would actually never wear them though. But sometimes I like to pretend. I think my princess phase came like a decade later than most girls'. But let's be honest here: I'd be miserable if I had to care about my appearance all the time.

Off to Costco (food shopping, yes!) tomorrow, then back to the apartment. T-5 until the poster session!

As Life Moves By

I think one of the reasons I love night cityscapes so much is the similarity they hold to looking at the stars. It seems a little paradoxical, but it's really not. They both remind me of how small and insignificant I am. They remind me of how the world keeps moving on, not just regardless of how I am, but completely ignorant of it. It reminds me what little of a part I play. But they also remind me of how amazing it is that despite the billions of lives on this one planet out of who-know-how-many I've met so many wonderful people and heard so many amazing stories, and wonderful this little piece of happiness I have is.

Planetary Cakes

Can I have one for my birthday next year? These are honestly amazing. ThisIsColossal is seriously the best; I can't even comprehend how people make the art that gets posted on there...

Honestly, lately I've just been musing at how beautiful life is. How beautiful He makes it.

But at the same time, I'm so unbelievably exhausted. I'm perfectly content, and I'm having a wonderful time with friends and at work, but I feel so physically and mentally drained every night and even when I wake up in the mornings.

I find myself losing touch with God as well, which is frustrating because I seek rest in Him. It's a seemingly never-ending downward spiral - the more tired I am, the less I look to Him, and the more tired I become. I need to find the faith and the willpower to seek Him regardless of my mental and physical state. I need to embrace the fact that He's all I need.

Poster Time!

Time to start freaking about the poster that is. Or the lack of poster rather. This is going to be interesting... I'm simultaneously trying to get data and format that data in a comprehensible fashion. Woop.

Went up to the city with Lucy and Blane today. We were going to go shopping but really just ended up grabbing dinner and gelato haha. At least it was delicious. =]

Back to poster session stress tomorrow!