There’s an important announcement that I have: My research is going to be published in the Journal of Chemical Education!!! I found out just a little before finals. I’m sooooo excited! I’ve been working on this research for the past two years, so this is a great way to end it. If you want to learn more about it you can go to the right hand side of this page and click on some of the links there, I submitted my project in a lot of science competitions.
Finals went pretty well. They were difficult, but I must not have done too badly because I didn’t get any C’s for my final grades! I got A’s and B’s at my first semester at MIT, so I’m very happy, especially since I wasn’t even studying to my full potential! Technically it doesn’t even matter though, as long as you get a C or above you pass, and you get a “P” on your transcript. The physics final was frustrating because it did not test what we learned throughout the semester, only the last few weeks. Almost the entire exam was on angular momentum!!!! We never had a test on it and we only had a few homework problems on it. But it did not affect my grade in the class, so that’s okay. This first semester has taught me how important it is to be organized and manage my time well. I did this in high school, but it is much harder in college. There are so many distractions! I’m used to having my own room and not having anyone around except for my parents. Next term I will do a much better job organizing myself and I will also work more on weekends (something I did not do enough this semester). This is something that any college student must learn, no matter where you go to school.
Before finals, it was Gus’ birthday so we bought a cake and decorated the Schrodinger Cats lounge. We all had a great time dancing to music and being hyper.
The weekend that it snowed, Kaitlyn, Amanda M., Gus and I made a snow gnome. (Kaitlyn and Amanda bought a gnome who they named Ralph, and so they decided to honor him with a snow sculpture). Then we had a snowball fight and buried Gus in the snow. We also saw Narnia at the theater with Andrew and a few other friends, which was cool. I read the books when I was little, but I didn’t remember them very well. Before we went I reread The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.
After finals were over I was soooo happy! Annelise and I jumped up and down. Right after our Greek History final ended, we went Christmas shopping at the COOP (the MIT bookstore, associated with Harvard’s book store). Then we danced around to music in our room, relieved that we could finally relax. Our shower was clogged, and it was gross to have water wash up to our ankles and flood into the rest of the bathroom, so I went and got some Draino, which solved the problem quickly. The drain was very disgusting!
I was so excited to go home! My parents and I had a very nice Christmas. I got a new digital camera (A Nikon D50, 6 megapixels!), and I got money for computer speakers (now Annelise and I won’t have to listen to our tinny laptop speakers). Our Christmas tree was real, but it looked sort of like a pipe cleaner. We have a high ceiling in our family room, so my mom wanted something tall, I guess there were not many trees left. All my relatives got MIT related gifts, but they seemed to enjoy them well enough. A few days later we traveled down to Southern California to visit my Aunt Uncle, and two cousins. My grandparents were visiting them, too. My grandpa always makes all the girls jewelry for Christmas (he's a mechanical engineer, and can do pretty much everything he sets his mind to); we were oohing and ahhhing over them. Great job Grandpa! I got to test out my new camera, which was fun. It’s a very nice camera, easy to use. My dad’s Nikon D2X (12 megapixels!) is similar, but mine is smaller and less of a hassle to carry.
After going back home, I just relaxed. I’m finally caught up on Lost and Desperate Housewives. My mom got a Tivo for her birthday last August; I really like it. The entire setup is extremely easy to use, the only problem I had with it was recording things to DVD. Sometimes I thought the DVD was done burning, but it wasn’t really. Lost is getting extremely exciting! Desperate Housewives is also getting interesting. I’ll have to catch up again during the summer.
New Years Eve I hung out with Amanda B and her roommate Steph (she came out to visit). We wandered around Carmel and had lunch on the beach. It was soooo pretty! Luckily I have the skyline of Boston at MIT, so I don’t miss the ocean quite as much. That night my family went over to Amanda’s house and had this ginormous (a new word that people are starting to use quite often, it’s a combination of “gigantic” and “enormous”) crab! Very yummy. We played Pictionary which is always funny since people cannot draw. When New Years hit we pulled a bunch of party poppers and had confetti all over our hair.
I went to two Stanford Men’s basketball games while I was home. I’ve been going to games since before I was born :-). They won for both of them! The team isn’t very good this year, so we’ll see if they improve. I met up with an MIT alumni named Alissa. Even though she is an adult with a PhD and she runs her own company, we connect so well. I suppose it’s because she is the generation after my parents. It was a lot of fun chatting with her about my experience at MIT.
Now I’m finally back in Simmons! It was great seeing all my friends. I gave Annelise a hug when she came through the door. Gus was nice enough to pick me up at the airport (we’re going out, by-the-way). I’ve been working on my research paper, formatting the text and images. I love IAP!!! It has been so nice not having any stress. I hope you all had a great holiday!
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