Chinese New Year was on Saturday January 28. The date is based on the lunar calendar. Unlike New Year’s Day which marks January 1st, Chinese New Year falls on a different day each year. This year is the year of the rooster. You can read more about the twelve zodiac years here.
In this post, I will talk about Caltech’s dining plan and special themed dinners - specifically Caltech’s Chinese New Year themed dinner. I will share some of my family’s Chinese New Year traditions and celebrations in a separate post.
Hi friends, I have a special treat for y’all: a guest post! This one’s from Daniel, myfriend who is also a senior and majors in physics but knows a lot about everything else, too. Last term, he tooka really cool class on remote sensing that took him to the heart of JPL and space missions. If you’ve done Science Olympiad, perhaps you’ve heard a bit about remote sensing. (If you don’t do SciOly, don’t fret–a lot of Techers haven’t, either!) When I was in high school, I somehow took up that event and ended up taking a test about satellites and other remote sensing topics that I really should have studied…
For those of you who are new to my blog or don’t know/don’t remember, I hail from the small, sunny town of San Marino (read: 10 minutes from campus). So, I had a fun and relaxing break at home, which is still super close to Caltech. I mostly met up with old friends and hung out with the fam. However, I also went to Florida for a week, which is primarily what I’ll talk about in this post! I’ve been to Florida with my family before, but this time I wentalone to visit friends, so it was quite a different experience! I did a lot of touristy things like going to Disney World (Epcot), Miami beach, and taking a boat tour of the Everglades. My friends and I also saw Rogue One and went on another friend’s family’s boat for a day trip out on the water. My favorite thing about Florida was the weather - it was in the high 70’s and low 80’s the whole time I was there - much warmer than it was in So Cal. For all you East Coast readers - remember that I’m from So Cal and I’m a huge wimp when it comes to cold weather! I barely noticed the humidity (although I hear it gets very humid in the summer months). My least favorite thing about Florida was the mosquitoes. :(
Hey friends, Lastterm I took L 106, the intro Japanese course. I lived in Japan briefly when I was young, and although I was once fluent in Japanese, I forgot it quicklyafter moving to the US. Even while growing up in Texas,I watched these amazing films by Hayao Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli with my family. For those unfamiliar with Studio Ghibli, it’s a studio that makes gorgeous films with thought-provoking stories that remind people to love nature and respect strong women. It was my delight to find many Ghibli fans at Caltech. Last year, my house (Avery) even took on Studio Ghibli as the theme for our annual interhouse party. We painted giant eight-foot-tall murals that brought much-beloved films like Totoro, Spirited Away, and Princess Mononoke to life. It was the best interhouse yet–we spent the month before sprawled on these giant sheets of drywall, coloring in our favorite characters while listening to the beautiful Ghibli movie soundtracks composed by the extremely gifted Joe Hisaishi…
Dear Readers, Apologies for the extended break - I’m back and ready to share all the exciting aspects of senior year at Caltech. :) But first, I want to take a step back and give you a quick overview offirst term (September - December).
On Saturday, 1/21, I attended the Women’s March in downtown LA. Well, me and 750,000 other people! I traveled there with a large group of graduate students (and some undergrads) and tagged along with a group of three Blacker Moles (as no one else in my House attended the march). It was an incredible experience, best summarized with photos:
Reading for pleasure is something I did voraciously from age 5 to age 18. Actually, some time in high school I stopped reading books that weren’t assigned, but I think I only really noticed that I had stopped reading after a few years in college. I read the news online non-stop (and if “twitter” counts as “the news online” that previous statementis not hyperbole). I read assigned books and articles for my humanities classes. I just don’t read books that I find on a shelf and think look interesting. I have about five articles bookmarked- lists of “15 best books coming out this Spring”- all the way back to 2014, that I still haven’t read anything off of. Even in my downtime at school I’ve been ferociously binge-watching Netflix shows, not reading. This isn’t because I don’t like it anymore- when I do manage to pick up a book, I devour it just as quickly as I used to. I don’t know why my default time-suck activities are now Netflix and browsing the internet, but that’s where we are. Over winter break I decided to change that a little.
I know I already posted about the insane number of holiday cookies I baked over winter break, but I’m here with an update, and the update is: my mother and I went through a 10lb bag of flour in one month. I’m honestly kind of proud of us, while also a little disturbed by how much granulated sugar we went through during the same period. In any case, we baked an impressive amount of breads, cakes, and cookies while I was at home with my family, and I learned a little about myself at the same time (cue the sappy montage music).
I’ve only been home from Caltech for two days and I’ve already baked an intense amount. If you’ve read this blog for a little while you’ll have noticed that I bake and cook quite often, and also that I haven’t done much of either for the past semester. Part of that is because I’m living on campus (in my House) again this year, and I’m on the board program and no longer need to cook every meal for myself. The other factor has been time: for the first half of the semester, I was too busy to cook (and took great advantage of the board program). “Too busy to cook” isn’t a real complaint in the real world, of course, and I’m pretty lucky to still be living on a college campus, with pre-paid-for food available nearly 24-7. But now that I’m at home for winter break, I’ve gotten back to my favorite stress relief: baking!
I had the chance this past weekend to visit one of my high school friends in Berkeley, CA. I say I “had the chance” because I took advantage of the “reading period” that Techers have between the last day of classes and the official beginning of finals week to skip town. It was maybe not the best idea, especially considering I hadn’t yet started studying for my finals, but I found cheap plane tickets to the Bay Area and I jumped at the chance.
Hey friends, This past weekend my friends and I went to Abbot Kinney Blvd, on the other side of LA.GQ thinks it as “the coolest block in America.” After our visit, I think we can all say that we agree. Parking was a little difficult to find, but it wasn’t too terribly expensive. (I think Imight have finally gotten used to the concept of paying for parking everywhere out here in California…) The cloudy day was perfect for photos (:
Hello friends, As I might have mentioned before, I’m a premed. At some schools, that might be a certain major, but at Caltech (and most schools, I think), that just means that I have the intention of applying to medical school. Premeds can major in whatever they’re interested in, but for a lot of people that means some sort of biology/chemistry/combination. I’m a chemistry major because I found that when I studied biology, I wished I had a stronger chemistry background.
Hello friends! Lunch after church: That’s been one of the most regular ways for me to explore and eat my way through Los Angeles with friends for the past few years. Yesterday, we went to the Alhambra Farmers’ Market on our way back to campus. Farmers’ markets are one of the most sure-fire ways to know what’s in season:right now, it’s apples, persimmons, tomatoes, and sunflowers. There are also somehow always these long stalks of sugarcane. I wonder what people use those for. If you know, please share? When I go, I like to stop by this little tent of Taiwanese snacks, where I can pay $5 for dan bing egg (蚕餅), a green onion pancake with egg. I love to snack on dan bing as I walk around the market.
Boo! Halloween has come to be one of my favorite holidays. When I was little, it would always manage to rain on Halloween night so that trick-or-treating was messy. I like it now because it’s the one day a year that I get to be someone/something else and amuse people when they recognize it. That is, in theory. I’ve been pretty bad at being other people/things so far. I’d like to say I improved this year compared to years past. Can you tell who I am?
As I was reminiscing about my study abroad experience last year, I dug up this old post that never got posted…
I can’t believe it’s somehow already been a year. I met this year’s exchange students from Edinburgh Uni, and talking to them brought me back to the cobbly wynds and layers of ghosts that is Edinburgh. Anyhow, here’s another one of my posts from London last year.
I keep discovering all these postcards that were lost in the mail, heh. Better late than never!Some of my friends have just settled in for their study abroad experience in Edinburgh, and hearing about their adventures reminded me of these museums I visited during my time there….
Autumn is upon us, but this one in Southern California feels a little lackluster compared to that in Edinburgh last year…
It’s probably no surprise that Caltech students like to get off campus sometimes! Some students go to the beach whenever they can, or go to concerts in LA, or go hiking or mountain biking in Altadena or the greater LA area. I don’t have a car, but I like to go off-campus to grab coffee and study in a new spot, or just go to Old Pas to shop (read: waste my Blogging paycheck). I’ve also started brewing my own coffee in my room in Page House, having finally ordered a coffee grinder, electric kettle, and pour-over cone. I think the setup is pretty good for a $30 investment and some beans from Target!
Hi there, and happy Monday! It’s been a great weekend, I hope you all had good weekends too.
Hello and happy Monday! I’m still resting up from the super busy week. Hopefully I can get properly rested before camping next weekend.
It feels as though I picked up my Caltech ID yesterday. I remember walking through campus for the first time, thinking I’d never figure out how to get around campus. I remember meeting all those new faces, learning all those names just to forget them minutes later. I remember lacing up my shoes for my first volleyball practice. I remember sitting on the beach at night during frosh camp. I remember standing around on the Olive Walk after a game waiting for our new houses to be announced. After hearing the cannon fire, I found my nametag in the Fleming courtyard. That night, I got my room assignment and found a group of friends that would fill all 200 square feet.
Hey there! It’s been a pretty busy weekend. On Friday, Airware officially moved out of its site and into a new, fancier one. I did no work. I spent all day moving and helping other people move. The internet shut off at 3 and I went home shortly after that.
Hello friends, I tell people on tours that there are two bigtraditions at Caltech: Interhouse and Ditch Day. The former is a party that each house builds and hosts every year. The term “build” might be confusing. We build a dance floor, paint and put up large murals, and make lots of food all to fit a theme. In my time at Caltech, Avery House has done The Great Gatsby, Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, and Studio Ghibli. I’ve written about other interhouse parties throughout the years.
Last weekend was formal dinner for the north houses, so I decided to make use of my social membership and dine with Venerable for a night. While house dinners are mainly populated by members of that particular house, there are usually a lot of other non-members at formal dinners.
So, the really cool part about the house system is that you carry your house affiliation with you long after you leave Caltech. For example, one of the eight houses has their insignia laser engraved onto one of the panels on Curiosity, the Mars Rover. And while we always get to hear about the amazing alums that once lived in our house, it is a rare treat for us to meet them and talk to them. This past weekend was Fleming Alumni Dinner, so alums decided to pay us a visit at house dinner, talk about their lives at Caltech, and what going to Caltech was like back in the old days.
Every term, on the Wednesday of the eighth week, ASCIT (Caltech’s student government) makes donuts and hands them out on the Olive Walk (the path between the north and south houses) at midnight. While Caltech orders about seven hundred donuts, about fourteen dozen of those donuts are just shells that we need to fill. And as per an old tradition, we slice these shells open to fill them with glazed strawberries. So, as a part of the ASCIT Board of Directors this term, I was the one slicing strawberries and filling donuts.
Every year, Page house hosts a formal event for ourselves called Cocktail Party. The past few years it’s been held in the courtyard of Beckman laboratory, with a live jazz band, a photo booth, and a bar. We name the alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks after current Pageboys, and have them themed to inside jokes from the year. It’s a great excuse to dress up and dance!
Hello! Today is Thursday of Week 9. The countdown is real - only one more week of classes. I’m probably going to make it.
Hi there! I did nothing for two days this weekend. By which I mean, I did no work.
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 Romantic literature, creative short story writing, and Irish literature in particular), but there are some niche subjects that I’m interested in that are just too specific to be offered. Among my pet ideas–Irish mythology (fairies, a favorite for popular teen fantasy novels nowadays it seems, though I’d like to learn more about them in their original context), novel-writing workshop, 20th century Latin-American literature (like Borges and Garcia Marquez, and after the class we’d ideally know more than just those two names). Or mythology of cultures other than the classic Greek and Roman would be super cool too. There are so many creatures that haven’t made it into mainstream literature–rusalki (water nymphs in Slavic folklore), selkies (creatures who live as seals in the sea but have human form on land, found in Irish and Scottish folklore), changelings (a baby fairy or troll that has been swapped with a human infant), far darrigs (a type of solitary trickster fairy in Irish folklore in the same class as leprechauns and chlurichauns).
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. To the point where the concertmaster of the LA Phil, Martin Chalifour, actually does some teachingat Caltech!
Caltech may be a small campus, but it has a large variety of food options. There are three main dining locations on campus — The Lee F. Browne Dining Hall, the Hameetman Center (which houses our beloved Red Door Cafe), and the Broad Café.
Midterms kept up its unrelenting attack on my sanity this week – at least a little bit. And how did I solve this? Two words.
Every year, Caltech’s literary and arts magazine Totem hosts the Art of Science competition.
Although there are a lot of smaller things, such as midterm smoothies and milkshakes (Blacker does something similar to this) and some larger things like Faculty Dessert Night, the soc team usually agrees that beach trip is the most work.