I've talked about how preseason prefrosh have a fair amount of free time on their hands, but not really about what we do. Instead of blogging about listing all the fun events and activities,I'm just gonna focus on the firsts I've experienced since preseason started.
For the first of my firsts, before Caltech I had never picked fruit off a tree and eaten it. The Fleming courtyard, which happens to be right next to Dabney's, has two orange trees. For a while I was skeptical about how they would taste because it's like fruit, on a tree. The concept just didn't make sense in my head; when I picture oranges I see them at the grocery store. So anyways, one morning, coming back from the practice rooms, I see a couple soccer guys sitting at the table eating oranges. I tried a piece and it was perfect! So of course, now I just have to climb the tree myself. I'm not the most skilled of tree climbers, but made it up and down safely and got some good oranges. Luckily, we had someone catching the oranges from below so I had my hands for climbing and we had unsmushed oranges. I think the effort put into attaining the fruit contributed to how good it tasted, but the lower ones that we can hit down with a stick still taste pretty darn good.
This past weekend, fellow blogger, Sarah, a couple other Techers, and I went to see the US Olympic Women's Soccer Team play at the Home Depot Center. I've never been to such a large-scaled sporting event before. It was super exciting seeing everyone play, especially now that we're in the middle of our season. Australia scored once in the first half, and we pulled out two goals in the second half for the win, but it kept me engaged for the whole ninety plus minutes.
I've also never heard the word janky, which basically means sketchy. Something I did which was kind of janky was give someone a haircut, which is also a first. A friend needed a haircut and the notion of cutting off someone's hair seemed fun!So not having done this before, we made a deal that if I did a poor job, he could cut mine as well.Those arts and crafts I did as a kid paid off because I still have hair. Haircuts are actually quite common on campus; I know of a couple preseason athletes who have buzzers that they use. I mean, if all we used was scissors, a comb, and a lot of YouTube clips, how hard could it really be?
KPop is something I wasn't exposed to before coming here. My roommate showed it to me and it's intense, in the sense that there's this deep story that's behind every song. We can't understand what they're saying, but from the tone and music video the story can be deduced. These past couple of nights we've listened to KPop before bed; I've been trying to make it more of a bedtime karoake without success. Stumbling over syllables turns out isn't exactly a lullaby, but we're usually ready for sleep from sports anyways. Well I'm off to bed, goodnight!
A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the mountains are beautiful, and mysterious sounds echo between our walls while we don’t even pretend to sleep.
This summer I had the incredible opportunity to do a 10-week internship at Gilead Sciences in Foster City, CA. For those unfamiliar, Gilead Sciences, Inc. is a research-based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of innovative medicines.
With 45 Nobel Laureates on its Faculty Roster, it’s not surprising that research is an integral part of the Caltech undergraduate experience. One of the programs that promotes such research is the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF). There is no minimum knowledge or experience required to participate in a Caltech SURF. In fact, students can participate in a SURF as soon as the summer after their freshman year. It is not difficult to get a SURF. All you need to do is find a mentor who is working in an area of research that interests you and willing to mentor you through a research project. The mentor can work in a Caltech lab, at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), or at another participating institution. Once you find a mentor, you work together to write a project proposal that you later send to the SURF office for review and approval. About 98% of the SURF proposals get approved. This fellowship is a great way to explore various fields of research and obtain real, hands-on experience where you get to apply the theoretical knowledge you’ve learned in class. Not only do you get to work and learn alongside your mentor, but you also get compensated for your time. The length of the SURF is ten weeks, and it starts at the beginning of the summer. However, it is not uncommon for many students at Caltech to continue their research project throughout the academic school year.
