Trip to Vegas
Every year, the seniors take an organized school trip somewhere for a night after senior finals week, which in 3rd term is a week earlier than everyone else’s... Read more.
Picnic at the Park
The weather being so nice out lately, my roommate and I began to think of having a picnic one of these days. So we gathered some of our friends in the alley and... Read more.
Trip to San Diego – Balboa Park and Beach Hiking at Torrey Pines
At around 4 in the afternoon we went to check in to our Airbnb, then went to Balboa Park, SoCal’s analog of Golden Gate Park. It is similar yet completely... Read more.
Trip to San Diego – Chicken Flautas and the Beach
The week after Ditch Day, a few of my close friends in my year and I took an overnight trip to my hometown, San Diego. We left at 10:30 in the morning and arrived... Read more.
Trip to Joshua Tree National Park
The Sunday of Ditch Day weekend, my alumni friends and I decided to take a day trip to Joshua Tree National Park, located a few hours south in the Mojave Desert.... Read more.
Quest Through Amsaria
My cough and allergies were hitting hardcore on May 25th, the night before Ditch Day, but there was still a lot of work to be done and limited time in which to do... Read more.
Quest Through Amsaria
Caltech alumni generally come back to help out on their friends’ stacks for Ditch Day. We had invited 8 people for our stack, and they were all going to be... Read more.
Quest Through Amsaria
When I mentioned in my previous post that for the underclassmen stackees, Ditch Day began at 7:45 a.m. on May 26, 2017, I left out the other half of the story: that... Read more.
Homemade Paneer Tikka Masala
My friend Jagriti and I decided to make paneer tikka masala the other day. Paneer is an Indian cottage cheese-like type of protein. Jagriti and I have cooked together... Read more.
Dim Sum with the Alley
As one of the UCCs (Upperclass Counselors) of my House at Caltech, I take my alley (hallway) off campus once in a while for edible excursions. On Saturday I decided... Read more.
A Connoisseur’s Guide to Restaurants Around LA
The advantage of having friends with cars, who are foodies, is the near-unlimited opportunities that arise forpursuing delicious eats and drinks. In Southern California,... Read more.
Aquarium Cookies
There’s been a video circulating around Facebook recently on making "aquarium cookies." My roommate Sandra and I decided to try making them for our... Read more.
Working in Lab During the Year
Hi all, Sorry for my prolonged absence from the airwaves. I’ve been working a lot on my senior thesis this term, and as a matter of fact I’ll talk about... Read more.
Visiting Grad Schools
Friday! It was starting to feel very familiar, this Thursday-Friday-Saturday pattern of grad school visits, so forgive me if I gloss over what happened at Northwestern... Read more.
ASCIT Formal — “College Senior Prom”
As a rebellious teenager, I skipped all high school dances. Some of my friends and I had been thinking of an anti-prom party senior year, but I think we stayed home... Read more.
Visit Grad Schools
For the last part of spring break, I headed off to Chicago again for my other grad school visit. I flew Southwest Airlines into Midway Airport, and so took the train... Read more.
Home Life
My parents bought a box of masala chai tea at the local Indian grocery store to try. This brand, Tea India, had more spices and less tea flavor than other chais... Read more.
Home Life
Unlike some of the other bloggers who are off gaining world experience traveling, I simply went home to Northern California for spring break. It was a calm Saturday... Read more.
Pictures from Ruddock Interhouse 2017
As promised, here are some pictures of Ruddock OPI 2017. On the actual night of the party, the disco lights were on and the dancing was in full swing: Here’s... Read more.
Visiting Grad Schools
Saturday morning! I’d had the ambition to wake up at 10 a.m. for the women in chemistry brunch. It did not happen. I woke up around noon just in time to check... Read more.
Visiting Grad Schools
The Friday at UChicago continued! The dinner event, allowing for more mingling, would be a banquet on the 95th floor of one of the tallest buildings in Chicago,... Read more.
Visiting Grad Schools
Fridaybegan with breakfast at the hotel, where I got to know some more prospective students over conversations about where to find the coffee (it was not located... Read more.
Visiting Grad Schools
I flew out to the Midwest last week for the University of Chicago’s chemistry visit weekend. Grad school visits are organized by department, unlike undergrad... Read more.
Strange Sights Around Campus
Let it not be said that nothing crazy or exciting ever happens in Pasadena, the sleepier sister of the City of Angels. It is true that we do not have the glitzy... Read more.
Throwback to Ruddock Interhouse 2016
The third installment of Ruddock OPI continues. In this post, I will be sharing with you memories of OPI from my junior year, where the theme was Star Wars and everything... Read more.
15 Murals and Much Papier Mache
The Ruddock OPI sequence continues in this installment of "4 Years and 4 Seasons." In this post, I will be talking about painting all of the murals to... Read more.
Triple-Story Dance Floor and a Spiral Staircase
My House is hard at work building OPI, which stands for "Our Private Interhouse." Interhouse parties are open to all the undergrads on campus (and, unofficially,... Read more.
Birthdays at Caltech
At university, students often are away from their families, so it is up to those we live with who have become our adoptive family to step up on special occasions... Read more.
Rare Books and Paintings at the Huntington Library and Gardens
Hey everybody! Last Friday, I visited the Huntington Library as a field trip for the English class I am taking this term, Gothic Fiction with Professor Gilmartin.... Read more.
Homemade Buche de Noel
Hi everyone! Welcome to "Four Years and Four Seasons." As a refresher for anyone who has read my profile, and an introduction for all the new faces to... Read more.
Chamber Music with Martin Chalifour
Living in LA means we’re close to Hollywood, but an aspect I didn’t really consider before coming here was how close we were to the LA Philharmonic.... Read more.
Poetry with Ciaran Carson
Since Caltech is a small, and STEM-focused, school, the amount of humanities offered can be very limited. I really like many of the classes I’ve taken (British... Read more.
Easter Eggs and Tamagoyaki
As the UCC of Alley 6 in my House (we call hallways alleys here in the Caltech Houses), it is my job to look out for the mental health of my fellow students, and... Read more.
Weekend Out with the Roomies
Hi all! Anita here. It turns out that I won’t be able to talk too much about Intel—confidentiality issues and all—but that’s okay, because unlike during... Read more.
Moments of Joy, Part II
Continued… At dinner sometimes, we arbitrarily float people–that is, dump jugs of water on their heads. Most of the time it is for some infraction of... Read more.
Ch4ever
There’s a lab class that most chem majors at Caltech have to take: Ch4. Nicknames include CH4ever–this is the most popular–and, more recently,... Read more.
Ski Trip!
Last Thursday, January 8, was the beginning of Ruddock House’s annual ski trip to Mammoth, CA. Our car arrived late Thursday night after about a 6-hour drive,... Read more.
Important Life Achievements, Just in Time for the End of the Year
Here are some very important life goals I managed to achieve as winter break drew to a close this year: Got my permit so I can finally start driving. I’d forgotten... Read more.
End of the 2014 Fall Term! At Last!
It feels incomplete to jump to winter break without explaining what happened for the rest of fall term, so I shall give a quick, picturesque summary. Weekend food... Read more.
Musings from a Single
As a sophomore, I now live in a single slightly "off campus" in Braun House (ie. literally across the street, rotated perhaps 30 degrees east from Ruddock).... Read more.
Girls’ Night and Formal Dinner
The lovely ladies of Ruddock House decided to compile together a Girls’ Night on 11/14, which would entail watching rom coms, decorating each other, and eating... Read more.
Breakfasts and Baked Goods in Solvang, CA
Hello, readers! The summer saga continues in this next installment of Beyond the Bubbling Mess with my timely holiday to Northern California following the convenient... Read more.
Stalking Pomona
With Friday, August 22nd came the termination of SURF. And so I went home and began my summer vacation for real. As in away from Caltech. (More will follow about... Read more.
San Diego
The first night I went back home to San Diego, my dad and I had a midnight feast. We took out the old expresso machine and had coffee with an apple turnover and... Read more.
San Diego
I went home for a weekend in July because my older cousin was visiting from Taiwan. He’s a software engineer, which gets me thinking…wow, I have a botanist... Read more.
The Stainless Steel Adventures
Once again, it is time for a food post. Summer simply presents me with too many opportunities to cook 😀 Figure 1: English breakfast. A couple of weeks ago, I... Read more.
Fun in Ge1
One of the requirements for graduation from Caltech is what they call a "menu course," a class in a less popular subject to expose people to a field they... Read more.
Ditch Day 2014 (Part 2)
Back at the House, we ran into Sherman, our old president. The tradition is to duct-tape any senior you find on campus to a tree, but we didn’t have any tape... Read more.
Ditch Day 2014 (Part 1)
At dinner on May 14, 2014, Ruddock Dining Hall was packed with the usual attendees, extra seniors who generally didn’t show up, and alumni. The seniors banged... Read more.
Pictures from Spring Break 2014, Part 2
I went to see my old high school orchestra on Thursday. Ugh, what a torture it is to wake up at 6:50 am once more! But seeing the faces of my lovely family of four... Read more.
Pictures from Spring Break 2014, Part 1
Ever since our Ruddock president Sherman had passionately advocated this Thai place on Colorado Street (just north of the Caltech campus), my roommate and I had... Read more.
A Timeline of February Fun
Since I haven’t written for so long, I thought I’d take a post to give a sort of timeline of some things I did in February. February 14–I’ll... Read more.
Soul Food
I was glad that we didn’t have midterms or quizzes over the weekend for once. The past three weeks killed my brain, in a metaphorical sense, so it seemd a... Read more.
The Friday After Halloween, and All Which That Entails
Bottom line: staying up till 4 am doing chem lab reports tends to mess up one’s mood. Post-Halloween and All Saints’ Day aside, it is still Friday. Which... Read more.
Pre-Midterm Productivity, i.e. Hanging Out With the House
Hellooooo! And welcome to the first installment of Adventures of an Ex-Prefrosh! As you can probably tell from other sources of information, my name is Anita and... Read more.
