Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Cosmos
Day 1

Class began at 9 a.m...unfortunately we had to leave the dorm at 7:15 to eat breakfast. Seriously...who really takes an hour an a half to eat? Getting up at the crack of dawn wasn't too exciting, especially since I finished my breakfast in 10 minutes. I basically just killed time talking to a bunch a people.
Oh, and not to get too far into my adventure for the day...I'd like to make a few statements about my roomies. I live with 3 other girls who are all quite nice. My actual roommate is Patcharin. She's my age and is pretty quiet, but is a real clever cookie. She's my age and can always be found doing summer homework at her desk. Jackie on the other hand is always out. It's difficult to get a hold of her; she has a lot of energy. I think it's because she's the youngest. Stephanie, who is an upcoming senior, is one of the coolest cats on the block. She and I hang out a lot and have taken several bike rides together.
Anywho...where was I? Oh right...class! So, we showed up to class about 20 minutes early. We beat the profs! Lol. Our writing teacher, Mr. Delgado or Danny, arrived a few minutes later. Finally our profs entered the room and what was supposed to be an hour and a half lecture turned into a period of introductions! First, Prof. Tantillo or Dean spoke. He's pretty amazing, though the white streak creeps me out! He gave us a mini molecule building kit. Prof. Allen or Toby, was next. He's the Aussie. It was so fun to listen to him talk! He has a very handsome face and piercing eyes too. Oh! And Danny gave us all grapefruits. Random, I know. Lastly, Prof. Franz or Annaliese introduced herself. She's a vibrant young woman of 34 who has obtained her PhD and studied quite frequently at Harvard. I can't wait to take her wet chemistry class!
After introductions, we had time to kill. Then we went to lunch...I don't know if you can call 11:30 lunch though...Anyhow, after that we entered writing class which Danny taught. We didn't do much; just a writing game. Then we went to a computer lab class taught by Rebecca and Josh (both are grads). They taught us how to properly cite journals and such. However, we were supposed to be in class for three and a half hours, but since most of us knew how to cite stuff, class ended an hour and a half early. Insane isn't it?
I just went back to the dorm, walked back for dinner...oh let me pause right there!
Walking back and forth (15 minutes each way) is a serious pain in 90 degree weather...On top of everything else, there are always bicyclists whooshing past at 80 miles an hour. Freaky. Thankfully, they'll let us ride our bikes in a few days. Okay, I'm done ranting.
Then at 6:30 p.m. I went with Stephanie to play Sardines (opposite of hide and seek). It was fun until we found out the hiding place was behind a bajillion garbage cans. I was surrounded by filth...Steph and didn't play the second game; we went bowling. It was really fun! We then left with the Sardines group.
When we arrived back home, it was around 9:15 p.m or so. Steph and I just talked until about 11 and then crashed.
Overall the day was a 7/10. Oh and my parents dropped off my bike too! :D

9 comments:

  1. Thanks for the post Moni. And stay away from garbage cans!

    Dad

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  2. so much for not having time to blog, that was practically a novel! haha jk
    hope you're havin fun!

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  3. Are you using CSE as your citation format? Where are days 2 and 3? Where's the SCIENCE? Why is Patcharin the only one with summer homework? When you said that Mr. (not Dr?) Delgado gave everyone grapefruits, I thought perhaps you were going to make batteries. Given enough grapefruits in series, hooked up with a galvanized nail and piece of copper wire stuck into the pulp of each, you can light a lightbulb. MORE SCIENCE!!!!!!! MiKe

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  4. Well, Mr. Delgado is a TA that teaches our writing class. He teaches at Christian Brothersn and does not have his PhD.
    Yeah, I thought so too. But oh well...Yeah, Patcharin has summer homework. Don't know why. I think the other two just have summer reading like I do.
    I'll get to days 2 and 3 today.

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  5. That's funny. My old nome plume, Nos, popped up when I logged in. But back to the questions: Did you get any books yet? If so, what are the titles? What projects and/or papers are you going to work on? Remember to use primary sources as much as possible when citing sources. Peer-reviewed journals are the best! You should check out Dr. Tantillo at http://blueline.ucdavis.edu/. His accomplishments are impressive! Acutally, he's all over the Net. So is Dr. Allen: http://ion.ucdavis.edu/. You should spend some time checking out each of your teachers and become more familiar with their respective areas of expertise. Dr. Allen's research on membranes and channels is really interesting. You might ask him if the class will learn about x-ray crystallography, nuclear magnetic resonance or molecular dynamics simulations. I'm guessing a bit at the last two, as he only has abbreviations NMR and MD on his webpage. MORE SCIENCE!!!!

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  6. Final comment for the time being: REMEMBER THAT YOU ARE THERE BY GOD'S GRACE AND AT TAXPAYER EXPENSE. No pressure, no pressure...

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  7. I suspect the bicyclists are passing you at between 10 and 20 mph. Unless, of course, Sam Whittingham is on campus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Whittingham

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  8. Well, we haven't received any books yet. Surprisingly, we have a lot of free time and our first lecture is going to be tomorrow.
    Each prof gave us a project and we must choose one to do. I'll update you on that a little later since we won't actually begin doing research until next week.
    I find Prof Tantillo to be a very energetic person. I think I'll check out his site.

    Yes, and I can't thank you enough for the opportunity. :3 and that push that got me here.

    If Mr. Whittingham hit anyone, they'd explode into thin air. He'd plow right through 'em.

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