Dad's Visit 1

Dad came to visit to me since he was able to come down to California for work.  We met up around noon, and walked through the Claremont Colleges towards the village in order to find something for lunch.  To my surprise, the village was full of booths in some sort of street fair.  It was huge, maybe even bigger than the Fremont fair, at least the way I remember it.  After lunch, we walked around the fair to do some shopping.  I came across a great booth, which had a lot of beautiful steampunk jewelry.  Dad bought me one of the necklaces, which was great!

Made out of the pieces of an old pocket watch.

After we finished exploring the fair, we headed back to campus.  I showed Dad my dorm room, and then we left for Target.  I was in desperate need of some new food, so I stocked up so that I have a substantial supply which should last me a long time, hopefully until winter break.  Then, back to campus to drop off the food.  By this point, it was getting late into the evening.  We went to a nice Mexican restaurant, where I had some delicious flan!  Finally, back to campus for the night to finish up some homework before Sunday's excursions.  Ultimately a satisfying day, thanks Dad!

New Classes and New Professors

The first half semester of college is over.  Which means a shift in both classes and professors.

Instead of writing, I am in special relativity, which consists of two class sessions a week, and one lecture.  While the class seems kind of interesting, I prefer the lecture because the professor is more interesting which makes the topics more engaging.  But in both, the information seems kind of weird and against some of the regular information we have learned before.  Professor Townsend opened the first lecture by saying that everything we learned in earlier courses of physics are not entirely correct.

Also, I am not longer in chem Energetics, but Structure instead.  This transition was great because my new chemistry professor is much younger and more interesting, and she seems a lot more friendly overall.  Not to mention the fact that structure is inherently easier then energetics, especially since the energetics class assumed that we had a non-existent background in structure.

While my math class is the same, there is a new professor teaching this half semester.  She seems kind of nice, but I prefer the teaching style of Prof. Yong from last half semester, so the net change is negative.

Everything else (Physics Lab, Computer Science, and Spanish) remains the same as before - though Prof. Ran is teaching CS again, thankfully.  I think in the grand scheme of things, I will enjoy this semester a bit better.  Things are always changing, which ensures that nothing ever gets boring or redundant, thank goodness for that.

Pigs

Okay, yes, I admit it.  They are very cute.  But this is getting a little bit ridiculous.

Now, I don't actually have all that much change since I buy all my meals with my student ID and I haven't actually spent that much time off campus.  I love getting packages!  It is wonderful to go in all the time and have another present waiting.  So by no means do you all need to stop sending them.  But maybe refrain from Piggy Banks for a while, I'm running out of shelf space.

I think I will try to brainstorm new uses for them... we'll see what I can come up with.

End of the Week

I mentioned how this week was going to be absolutely crazy, and I am here to confirm that it was.  Besides the wild amount of homework (the majority of which is due to the two essays) I've found myself staying up a bit later than usual this week.  Yesterday, for instance, I did not go to bed until 1:30.  Now, lucky for me I do not have classes until 1:15 on Thursdays, so that really was not much of a problem.  Tonight will be just about the same, with another full evening of Dr. Who.

In preparation for my trip home, I had to do a bunch of laundry, which I have been slowly working at all day long.  Tomorrow afternoon I will pack (hopefully) everything that I need for the vacation, but in the spirit of things, I will probably end up forgetting some major homework piece.  Oh well, that's what Tuesday will be for.

Now, I know that homework was really the only thing I have had to talk about this week, but for something more fun, a package arrived for me yesterday!!

The hint before his arrival: "Think Halloween and Bacon"  However, I don't think he has much bacon...

 

It was a really fun surprise and I have enjoyed getting presents from everyone, though I will eventually run out of space at this rate.  Thank you Aunt Alice!!  Even your bacon packers tape fit the theme, hahaha.

Now, back to work.

The Last Week of the 1st Half Semester

The end of the 1st Half Semester signifies a number of important facts.

1. It is time for midterms, since we have been in school for a full quarter year.
2. Two of my classes are reaching their ultimate conclusions, so it is time to wrap up.
3. Together, this equals work.

When it comes to midterms, I have not had a huge load, but in combination with everything else, it seems like a lot of work.  A couple weeks ago, I had my first Spanish test, which went very well.  The teacher is wonderful and prepared us all well for the test, so it was not much of a problem.  This past weekend, I had my math midterm, which was a bit more exciting.  While I did study for it, and I think that it went fairly well, there were a couple of points where I had a bit more trouble.

On top of the midterm, there is the problem of the end of classes.  Since my writing and chemistry classes are only half semesters, the last class is on Friday.  This means that I need to finish two essays for my writing portfolio, and start preparing for the chemistry final which will be available after Fall Break.  So, I spent the weekend revising both essays multiple times, taking the exam, and then working on the normal amount of homework which is assigned for every class.  All in all, it was a rough weekend.

And of course, it is not over yet.  I've spent a couple hours revising my essay yet again, and there are still more revisions to come.  Along with Spanish, math, chemistry, and CS homework - I am sure that this week will seem both really fast and agonizingly slow.  If it helps at all, add a flu shot to the list and you basically know my plans for the next week.  The break will not be here soon enough.

A Nice Big Update

Okay, I know I am supposed to update this thing every couple days.  But that is so hard to do with everything being so busy.  I promise I will try harder to update more often.

Now, the majority of my time is spent working on homework, which is not all that exciting.  However, every class assigns it, and it is going to be pretty bad for the next couple weeks as the end of the half semester and a couple of my courses approaches.

The other part of my normal routine are the trips to the Hoch for meals.  Unfortunately, the food is completely boring.  There is always salad, pasta, and burgers, but this is very repetitive.  Also, the food is not of any amazing quality or variety, so I am getting pretty sick of eating there.  There is one meal that they serve which is delicious!  'Muddgolian' noodles - although the line is long, this would be one of the best things that they serve.

Next, an update on the more fun portions of the last week or so:

Thursday September 30, 2010:
The village of Claremont put on an event inviting all of the colleges to the village.  There were a bunch of stores up that night which were giving out free food, promotions, or other fun stuff.  It was sort of like trick-or-treating in that we walked around to each store collecting goodies.  It was a lot of fun and there were a good number of people that went to the village to do it.  The overall point was to introduce the stores in the village to the students.  It was great because now I know a bit more about what kind of stuff is available and I know more about all the stores.

After this event, we had a dorm meeting, which really was not all that interesting.  But following the meeting, as always, there was Thursday Night Dr. Who.  I am really enjoying this show and it is great to hang out and watch it with other people in the dorm.  Normally, the turn out is pretty small, with just a couple of the frosh and mentors.  However, a lot of people came to this showing for some reason.  It was crowded, but fun to have more of the dorm present.

Friday October 1, 2010:
In the evening, Katie invited me to join her and a bunch of people from a different dorm to play 'Milk Pong'.  Earlier that day, that had gone out and purchased eight or so cartoons of milk and then took a bunch of cookies from the Hoch.  A bunch of people came at the beginning, but since only four people can play at a time, people did not stay for very long.  It was really fun to play though, however, I was pretty sick of milk by the time it was over.

After that, we went back to the dorm and watched some TV.  However, it was late enough and everyone was exhausted from the heavy 'drinking' that we went to bed pretty early.

Monday October 4, 2010:
I was really excited because my new Woot shirt and my Threadless shirts came in the mail!  From Woot, I got the cute penguin one with the bunny disguised as a penguin.  I like it, it is super cute!  The one I got from Threadless is really cool!  It is the best rocket shirt I have ever seen, I love it!

From Threadless.com

Then, that night I ended up hanging out with a bunch of my friends (who are also in Atwood).  We stayed up pretty late watching Inglorious Bastards, which was fun even though the movie is definitely violent.  It was great hanging out though (and nice since I generally finish my homework pretty early).

Tuesday October 5, 2010:
I slept in pretty late since I did not go to bed until about one o'clock.  Besides homework and classes, I have not done a whole lot today.  I went to the innertube waterpolo game, which was boring since there were not very many people attending, so it was a quiet game.  But we won!

Also, today was the first day of Humans vs. Zombies.  I am not actually playing, but it is hilarious to watch.  There are people wandering all over campus with huge nerf guns and creepy together in packs for protection.  I am dying to get some pictures of it, so I will post them once I do.  It is so amusing, and apparently Mudd makes up the majority of the people around the 5Cs who are playing.  It is good to know that the school is so intensely reading for a zombie invasion.  I am sure it would be safe here, should a true apocalypse occur.

Now, I will watch some TV or something before bed.  The days are going very quickly since there is always so much going on, which is crazy.  I promise to post again soon.

New Music

I generally listen to music when working on math or computer science, and because of this habit, I have listened to almost everything on my iPod multiple times, to the point where I really was getting tired of some of it.  The only solution to a problem like this, is to get new music of course.

Today after classes, I walked into Claremont to locate the music store.  It was a great place, with a lot of used stuff for cheaper.  I bought myself four new CD's which will hopefully help with the amount of stuff available to listen to, but of course, I am always open to suggestions.  And there is always new music to be found.