Hello everyone!
I hope you are having a great Friday evening. My week was busy as usual, but with little out of the ordinary. Today I went to research lab, went to track, went back to research lab group meeting, taught a swim lesson, went to dinner with some swim team members, and am now writing this blog before singing and tackling Chapter 11 in my Neuroscience textbook. I doubt I will complete it, but one can always hope :).
In other news, I’ve figured my summer out: I’ve confirmed that I’m doing summer research with Professor Higgins from the Wellesley Environmental Science department! I’m super psyched, and have already applied for housing at Wellesley. I plan to spend some of the weekends at Tiffany’s house (she’s a friend from the swim team), and also spend some quality time with my fellow researchers. Many members from Professor Arumainayagam’s research lab are also staying here over the summer doing research, along with quite a few of my friends from Chemistry 120. I’ve told them we must get into Boston to have dim sum, as this summer we will be left own devices cooking-wise (I am terrified.) As of right now, I can make eggs, omelettes, sandwiches, stir fry, and little else—this will be a very informative summer J.
Along with research over the summer, I’m looking forward to reading books for fun (did I mention the library has a special section called “Recreational Reading”? Did I also mention that I haven’t been there yet?), maybe volunteering a bit, and learning how to use MATLAB. Wellesley has a program called SERP (Sophomore Early Research Program) that I’m applying for; how it works is that work-study sophomores can apply to work on a project with a faculty member, for which they receive a $2000 stipend over the year. I am applying with Professor Conway from the neuroscience department, and he requires that all students in his lab take CS112, which is basically an introduction to MATLAB (a programming language.) Since I will not be able to take CS112 until the spring when it is offered, I will be expected to learn how to use the program over the summer if I do end up being accepted into SERP. It has been a while since I’ve studied programming—I did so last year on my F.I.R.S.T. Robotics team, but senior year of high school seems so distant now!
Since I have never seen either of Professor Conway’s two labs (he has one at Wellesley and one at Harvard Medical School,) he encouraged me to take a trip to Harvard and be shown around by a few of his students there. Professor Conway’s research is in the computational and biological study of vision, and I’ve learned about some of what he studies from class and his published papers. In his lab at Wellesley he studied human subjects, while at Harvard he studies monkeys via micro-electrode recordings. Thus a trip to Harvard was a necessity, though of course I was suitably frightened. Nevertheless, my third-ever trip alone into Boston went wonderfully smoothly! After spending my spring break in NYC, subways and buses made much more sense to me, and despite a brief error where I missed the Wellesley bus by five minutes (and thus had to wait another 55 minutes until the next bus), everything was as orderly as could be. The students at Professor Conway’s lab in Harvard were very welcoming, and I even got to see the monkeys. I feel like I’m finally getting the hang of public transportation and cities, and expect it’s only a matter of time until I advocate everyone stop using cars and use buses because it’s much more environmentally efficient :).
The other exciting event this week was my track meet! Though it was long, cold, and wet, it was a lot of fun. There was an enormous amount of food and cheering, and I was very impressed with how the whole team came together to encourage every member. I had a great time during my first race (I was told I could push much harder next time, but I must say that I enjoyed myself), and two swimming friends even came to watch me run at Tufts! Mr. Emerson also made a wonderful video of the meet; check it out if you want!
The rest of my week has been filled with schoolwork, email, and my usual activities :). This weekend especially I must buckle down, since I have two lab practicals next week, one for bio and one for neuro. In both classes we performed dissections (of which I am not a huge fan—interestingly enough, it breaks down along the midline, with half of the class very excited and the other half not so much), and I must memorize anatomy and functional systems. It’s crazy how in college I spend just as much or more time on schoolwork as in high school, but schoolwork makes up a smaller part of my life. Ah well, that’s what I say this week—ask me again next week, and all I’ll be able to talk about is how hard tests are :).
So that’s my next week, though two cool things are happening this weekend. First, another track meet (I get to do high jump!) and second, we’ve a swimming recruit visiting Sunday and Monday! I can’t wait to meet her; welcoming possible future members of the Wellesley community and Wellesley Swim and Dive team is always a treat. If you ever want to meet me in person and ask me questions, just post on the blog and we can get in contact by email. As you know, I love talking about Wellesley; and in addition to me, there are so many other people at Wellesley who feel the same that you can contact!
Anyway, I’d like to thank everyone for the comments they made on my previous posts! I loved reading them, and I’m so sorry for the late responses. Previously during the year, I had emails sent to me whenever someone posted, so this semester I didn’t think I was getting any responses as I haven’t gotten any emails! However, I was just informed by my mother that the system changed, and I am now checking the blog directly for comments. Thank you so much for commenting; I’ll answer every message within a few days now that I know :).
I hope you have a wonderful rest of the evening, and contact me with questions as always!
Best wishes,
Monica
