This term I'm enrolled in Bi1, Principles of Biology. The first half of the term was focused on basic biology -- transcription, translation, three kingdoms, what defines life -- and biological techniques/experimental design. Some of the topics were review, and it all went really well with the lab work I…

Back in high school, we ran 2.5 miles every other day, and the whole school ran a 5k at the end of every year as our final fitness test. Keeping up with running in college is a little harder. First term, I ran every morning with two of my friends,…

I like having default things -- default favorite color, favorite food, favorite book, favorite movie -- and I don't step far out of those boundaries. Moving from Illinois to California hasn't shaken most of those, but it has changed my food boundaries. For the most part, it's been different Asian…

Friday, May 22, 2015 was the real senior Ditch Day, and it was glorious. Below I will chronicle the day’s events. We woke up, jittery, around 7:15 a.m. (at least 2 hours earlier than usual, for me), keeping our ears on alert for any strange noises, getting geared up for…

A cappella funtimes, you ask? Isn’t a cappella always a fun time? Well yes, we have our rehearsals twice a week, occasionally hang out at Teaspots or Chouse afterwards, and have a lot of fun singing and chatting as a group. Recently, however, we’ve had some inter a cappella events…

Ever since the Pipettes began, we’ve been looking forward to watching Pitch Perfect 2 together. All girls group, a cappella, mashups? Right down our alley. The May 15 premiere seemed infinitely far in the future, but as the months flew by, our dreams of singing all the way to the…

Every year, Ruddock frosh hold a party during third term. Since the workforce is purely frosh, it’s much less ambitious/involved than Ruddock interhouse. This year’s theme was America. Each category of the party was headed by one or two frosh — some of my friends put together 4 hours of…

My last post on the delights and despairs of my graded work had an assortment of first and early second term examples. Halfway into third term, I bring you the latest installment. Second term, I took Chem 3a, an introductory chemistry lab class that is one of the core requirements.…

Freshman year has passed by so quickly — I repeatedly find myself surprised that events happened at my high school already. One of those milestone events was May 1. Last year, I was pretty set on attending Caltech after Early Action decisions, but for many people, the college decision struggle…

Two Tuesdays ago, to celebrate “the third week of the third term and us being the third alley both in number and alley rankings,” Alley 3 drove to Denny’s for Jim’s UCC office hours. It was our first major food outing since walking to The Counter first term, and once…

(Everything is an adventure.) Too often do I stay in the house during weekends and eat BCD tofu starter packs or C-store udon (both amazing options, believe me). I try to switch it up — tofu soup for lunch, udon for dinner on Saturday, then the opposite the next day.…

At the beginning of the year, we had club fair. Excited first term frosh as I was, I went around signing up for all of the clubs (there was a lot of free food…). I must have put my email down for at least 15 clubs, from Chemistry Club to…

I was not a very active prefrosh, so I went to very few of the house events during Prefrosh Weekend and Rotation. My participation in Ruddock Greens, a mini golf course that goes through all of the alleys in the house, consisted of me walking over mini golf course obstacles…

Many rooms have couches or huge beanbags or other extra sleeping areas. We have the floor. Despite this limitation, my roommate and I both signed up to host prefrosh for Prefrosh Weekend. Last week, when we were confirmed to have prefrosh, we started planning. Chloe had a big blanket that…

What did I do this spring break? Eat… Here’s the rundown. First off, when we came back from Malibu, some of us headed to Ramen Yukinoya in Arcadia to indulge in some large serving sizes. We all had the Tan Tan Mein, which was a little too creamy, but decent:…

This is how cooking class went last term. Every Tuesday night, I and my fellow Rudd frosh, Tim, would walk over to Tom Mannion’s house at 6:30 p.m. Our group would sit around, listen to Tom teach a short lesson on the theme of the day, watch his demos, then…

This year, I celebrated my first birthday away from home. On top of that, it was the first day of spring term. Happy birthday to me! But thanks to friends and family, it was one of the best ones yet. At Ruddock, we celebrate birthdays at midnight in 1.5, the…

One day, I was having breakfast in Fleming dining hall during rotation. A girl I had talked to once before came up to me and asked, “Hey, wanna start an all-girls a cappella group?” And so the Pipettes began. When Preethi, the girl above, talked to people about the prospect…