Night Market!

Today was absolutely ridiculously busy. Such an amazing day, but completely hectic.

Woke up for class, went to COS and econ. COS was actually pretty fun - I do like regular expressions. They're like mini mind-twisters haha. So many levels! But it's fun - I think this was one of the precepts I enjoyed the most.
Got the econ midterm back. Once again, made a completely stupid mistake which lost me 2 points - completely read the question wrong. The others I lost I actually didn't know how to do though, so whatever. Still a decent score.

And thus started the crazy day.

Grabbed a really quick 15 min lunch, headed up to Labyrinth to pick out picture books! TASA's doing Read, Record, Replay, where we make audio tapes of (usually) picture books and send them along with the book to underprivileged elementary school children. Labyrinth was absolutely amazing and just told us to pick any books from certain shelves. We ended up with 101 books, including Dr. Seuss and Winnie-the-Pooh. I'm so excited for this!

Headed over to East Pyne to start setting up for Night Market. Made a few rather cute signs, with Taiwan-asaurus Rex, Domo, and Doraemon drawn on them haha. Helped string up lanterns - everything looked pretty awesome.

Ran/biked to Frick to give a chem tour. I didn't know much about independent work and the labs, but thankfully I gave the tour with a junior, Emily, who fielded all of those questions. I just really answered any questions I could and talked to people about everything in general. I really just love seeing what people are interested in - I think it definitely helped our tour just in the sense that I was always talking to someone about something haha.

Headed to Dillon Gym for Activities Fair. Saw Frank there!!! Spent a good hour walking around distributing Night Market postcards and essentially badgering prefrosh (and students even) to come to Night Market haha. It was pretty chill - signed up for the Bartending 101 thing too. We'll see if I actually do that; I do think it would be fun.

Went back to East Pyne, set up tables/chairs. We had a one-hour "break" during which we took tons of postcards and shoved them under the doors of dorms haha. Also grabbed a quick dinner at RoMa. Headed back to East Pyne to put some finishing touches and help people set up.

The next 3 hours were a complete blur. Selling tickets, selling boxers, drinking ai yu and eating delicious Asian food, talking to Brandon/Lawrence/Kathryn... Saying hi to people and chatting. There were SO many people. A bit bummed I didn't really get to see the performances, but I DID get to talk to the performers. They were all super nice and thankful to be there, which was absolutely amazing.

Cleaning up was sort of a hassle but TASA works so well together. People were being super efficient helping one another fold/carry tables and chairs, roll marley, scrub the floors... It's absolutely amazing how well we work together - everyone's so supportive and willing to do anything to make everything better. I sincerely love TASA so much.

Had a half hour break before a TASA chilldown, so we actually went to an arch sing in Blair. Had enough time to see the Nassoons and KJ perform before we headed off. Every time I go to an arch, I sincerely wish I knew how to sing... They're just so absolutely amazing; I don't even understand.

TASA chilling was pretty fun. A lot of bantering; we watched a bit of HIMYM and had champagne. Which "doesn't count as drinking, because it's classy." Haha, in any case, I definitely don't like the taste of anything alcoholic, even as mildly alcoholic as champagne. Took a sip just to toast the TASA team, then proceeded to extremely dilute the rest with apple juice. xD

Night Market was ridiculously successful - over 1,100 (we tallied 1,134 but probably missed a few) attendees, the performers were great, the food was delicious (as usual), and it was super amazing. Definitely weird to think that one year ago, I was a prefrosh being insanely excited about Night Market when I learned about it at the Activities Fair, chilling with people I had just met the day before while listening to music and watching performances at this event that I now helped coordinate and set up. Absolutely insane.

Came back and had a pretty nice suite/prefrosh conversation. =]

It's been such a great day, I can't even express how absolutely happy and at peace I am.

Welcome 2017!

Yay tiger cubs!

Got out of lab early so I had an absolute blast painting my face and decorating the Wilson Jungle Cart. I definitely got a bit too excited - I was super pumped orgo lab got out early so I could actually pick up my prefrosh, decided to maybe get a few stripes, and ended up wrapping a golf cart in balloons and streamers, body painting people, and painting my OWN face haha. Ran up to Richardson screaming Wilson and hanging off the side of the Jungle Cart, throwing sunglasses and candy at prefrosh, and having an amazing time in general.

I'm ridiculously happy for the 2017ers. =] I made such amazing friends at my preview, and it honestly just made me fall in love with Princeton. It's an awesome experience, and honestly I'm a bit jealous of the prefrosh for being able to experience the magic of Princeton for the first time. It'll be great seeing the lanyards, string backpacks, and excited new Tigers on campus for the next couple of days!

Flirty Eight (Seven?) Prefrosh!

Trap's "grandzees"

The prefrosh are coming!

Spring from Both Coasts

Love this girl. ♥

Phantom of the Opera

A bit of a chilling tale, but absolutely amazing. Definitely loved Carlotta. Such a sassy and hilarious character. The Phantom was absolutely phenomenal. Christine was good, but the Phantom. Just wow. I definitely loved it, though I do have to say that I think I like Once more, if only for the general vibe and hipster-ness haha.

Had a pretty amazing day today. I spent pretty much all of COS precept and econ lecture (and a fair deal of politics lecture/precept really) sending e-mails and formatting things. Mainly for TASA, but a little bit of PUCS preparation too.

Not that it matters nearly as much as anything else that happened today, but I did pretty well on my econ midterm. Sort of continues the trend of a good day haha. And *almost* makes up for that absolutely horrific grade in orgo. Orgo was so bad I didn't even feel that bad, because instead of "I could have done so much better if I had studied more, done more problems, etc etc," it was more like "Yeah no, I obviously had no idea what the shit I was doing at all." Oh well...

T-1 until Night Market!!! Ahhh clubs. And how they get so busy around Preview weekend...

Speaking of which, THE PREFROSH ARE COMING! Tomorrow! Can't wait to meet mine - I hope she's awesome. ;D If not, I guess I'll just have to convince her not to come aha. Joking, joking. I feel a bit bad, since I'll be relatively busy (sososo much club stuff Friday) and won't be able to hang out with her much, but honestly, I barely ever saw my host during Preview and still had an absolute blast. I'm ridiculously excited for this. =]

Spring is Here!

It's absolutely gorgeous outside, sunny and warm and a little breezy. It reminds me so much of California and just walking around makes me amazingly happy.

Off to see Phantom on Broadway! It's going to be amazing. This week promises to be the most unproductive but enjoyable one yet. =]

***

Got more information on my housing assignment over the summer - this is actually insane. I already get my own bedroom and bathroom, sharing a living room and kitchen with another intern, which is absolutely ridiculous. But then the apartment is fully furnished, as in linens, towels, a TV... And the kitchen is fully stocked with utensils and everything. And we get housekeeping services every two weeks. They wash our dishes. THEY. WASH. OUR. DISHES. What is this, I'm living in a hotel over the summer.

Lunch with Prof. Reider

The guy is amazing. Apparently he actually started the program to have interns, so I have to thank him for that. He also gave me contact names in case I needed anything, told the executive director there about me... And he offered to help me out during the internship too, and direct me to people if I had any questions or problems. Plus he just told me all about Amgen in general, and the program. The people there sound great, and I'm just really excited too meet everyone and work in such a great environment.

I finally realize the extent of my luck and truly how blessed I am - I knew it was insane that I got the internship, but apparently they only have about two dozen chemistry internships across three branches in Thousand Oaks, San Francisco, and Cambridge. I mean, granted there are bio and finance and other sort of internships as well, but this is completely unbelievable. That I, a freshman with pretty much no research experience, who is currently enrolled in orgo/hasn't finished it yet, who isn't even an adult could get such an amazing opportunity.

This just made me so much more excited for the summer. I'm insanely grateful for this amazing opportunity and I completely can't wait! 

***

It's also, once again, an absolutely gorgeous day. =]

A Contented Busy-ness

There's so much to do, but it's going to be super awesome! For once I'm booked solely with things that I actually want to do. =]

***

Grabbing lunch with Prof. Reider today - not exactly sure what to talk about, but I really just want to hear about what he did at Amgen, and learn more about the company. I'm so ridiculously excited for the summer, I just sort of want an inside scoop on what working there will be like.

Heading over to sort out some TigerDeal stuff with Mehek - hopefully it works out well! I'll be so insanely excited if it works out well. Plus today's a beautiful day to be outside, so it'll be nice to grab some froyo or something from Fruity Yogurt after the meeting and walk back.

PUCS prospective major event in Frick from 7-8, which should be fun. Honestly, I'm not completely sold on chemistry. In a sense, I'm afraid that I like the concept of chemistry more than I like chemistry, and that I'm just afraid of not knowing what to do academically if I don't pursue that as a major. I feel like I sincerely do love it though, especially lab; I just don't do all that well in it and I still haven't had any actual experience with what I'd be doing as a career. Hopefully this will help me get a better idea, and this summer should help as well.

Tabling in Frist for Night Market from 8-10! Come get your tickets! They're 2 for $1! (The actual event is free, but get your tickets for food!)

Brief list of what I have for the rest of the week too...

Wednesday: Classes, then Phantom on Broadway!

Thursday: Mainly just classes and work (it's booked enough with academic stuff as is haha), but I get my prefrosh! Plus I need to see how my ceramics thing is coming along - I might be able to start glazing!

Friday: Classes, grabbing lunch with a friend, leading a Frick tour, tabling for TASA at Activities Fair, then a 6-hour shift at Night Market (all of you should come if it's geographically possible!)

If I lose myself, who will find me?

I'm putting life on hold for a little while. The world can wait.

Maybe in a sense, cutting myself off from the world will help me. Maybe it'll help me actually believe in what I know, if I surround myself in my own world and forget about all of these outside pressures. After all, in the end, I define myself, not others. Not what the world believes. Not my grades, not a letter or a score. Not what people tell me, because in the end, I have to say it to myself. Maybe if I listen to myself, really listen, I can figure out what I want and believe in... Maybe then I can heal. 

 I can't help but want to have someone here though. It really is a beautiful night.

It's absolutely gorgeous outside, and its supposed to hit 80 tomorrow! ♥

Hard at Work

I don't even know. We'll see how tomorrow goes.

Edit: Rather poorly apparently. Sometimes my lack of ability really just makes me question things. Why is it that it seems as though I don't love something when I'm not good at it? In fact, do I really know if I even love it? I say that I do, I believe that I do, but as I've harshly experienced in the past, I oftentimes can't trust my own thoughts. How do I know what's real, and what I've deluded myself into accepting?

It's shorts weather!

At least for now. Tomorrow's supposed to cool down again, but then it's getting warm after that! I can't wait until spring haha. Spent a few minutes putting away a few coats and taking my tank tops and flimsy spring clothes back out. =P

Today has been... rather uneventful. This morning was pretty nice. =]

Lots of econ and orgo - I simultaneously feel like I've been doing a ton of work and not doing any work. It's horrible. And needless to say, I'm still completely unprepared for orgo. Slightly more prepared for econ, but it's definitely more confusing than the first test material. All of these different ways to calculate distributions... Honestly it wouldn't be that bad if I actually sat down and cranked out problems and studied, but orgo is a more pressing matter... I never know how to properly divide my time between my classes...

Lisa called today - it was pretty awesome just talking and catching up. I miss that girl like no other.

Tests (blech) and room draw tomorrow! Then back to "normal," slightly less busy Princeton life. No more tests for three weeks. =] I'm prepared to not do any work after 9:30 tomorrow. I'm going to chill. Eat food, watch a movie, sleep. Whatever I want for the remainder of the day haha.

Sunshine and Joy

I actually felt like I used to in high school. Completely happy, (almost) no worries, just enjoying life. It was a beautiful day, and despite all of the work I have yet to do, I felt relatively stress-free. Of course, that might just be because I was busy with non-work-related things, so I felt productive but not worried about upcoming tests... In any case though, it was amazing.

Woke up early-ish around 9:30am, laid in bed and just thought about life and read the Bible a little until 10:30. Headed over to bake cupcakes with Evelyn and Cat for TASweets! It was super fun. Lots of mixing, some flour flying places. Eating pieces of cupcake that we dug out to fill them with red bean paste. Piping icing was pretty fun too, and they turned out pretty well! =]

Studied a bit for econ (which is sososo much better than studying for orgo...) and just relaxed in the afternoon. Matt got 2 hours of sleep; poor guy was busy writing his writing sem revision. Needless to say, he seemed rather tired when he came over to visit haha. But we both had a pretty nice break from work - well-deserved for him, not so much for me. =P Twas fun though. Jenny asked me how many cupcakes I ate (which, at the time, was none). Reminded me so much about how my friends used to ask me what I had for breakfast, or how much candy I'd eaten, or what I was on, just because I was always so hyper all of the time. I feel like part of that has been lost at college, and while it's not necessarily a bad thing given how crazy I was before, I feel like it's a shame that my personality seems to have changed because of work and stress. In a sense, I don't really believe it has, it's just been subdued due to constant worry and exhaustion. But it's good to know that the absolutely bubbly crazy me is still in there somewhere.

Went to the actual TASweets "competition" around 4:15pm - ran a little late but it was completely worth it, especially since pretty much nothing had happened before I got there. Some absolutely amazing confections - apple crisp, chocolate cake, a matcha/white chocolate cheesecake in addition to our red bean/matcha cupcakes. And all of them were absolutely delicious! So much fun hanging out with the TASA families. =]

I suppose now I actually need to do work, but I'll be in a good mood. Back to being stressed maybe, but happy. No promises about tomorrow though, when I have no excuse and actually realize how unprepared I am. =P Life is great, and I can't even begin to express how blessed I am.