Hello wonderful people out there!
Since I feel like giving your brains a challenge today, I’m going to mix it up. Ie, go chronologically backwards. Big deal, I know. In other words, I have a really hard time remembering things from last week (I’ve had to start writing things down), so backward progression: here we come!
Just before I came to the lovely Admissions building to begin writing this piece, I went to the Math Open House in the science center. Happily, lots of departments (perhaps all?) are having open houses this week, where they serve food and talk about their classes! I previously thought you actually had to be an x-department major to attend x’s luncheon, but I was proved false (there were a lots of students in the room; easily to blend *nods suavely.) Sadly, this means I missed out on the South Asia studies luncheon—I was about to head over, because I heard they had good Indian food, but I changed my mind since I didn’t plan to take another South Asian class here.
But I regress. The Math department had Chinese food, which I why I am raving about food to begin with. And though I don’t eat meat (I’m a vegetarian. Sorta.) I eat seafood, and I now make exceptions for potstickers. And possibly all Chinese food. You can see where this is heading; I might soon become an omnivore once again ;).
As for actual content, I did figure out what math class I am taking next year! I was trying to decide whether or not to take Multivariable Calculus or not, given that I am not “math-inclined” (which is confusing, because I don’t know if that means if I’m good at math or if I like math; I mean it in the preference sense.) However, I do plan to be a science major (chemistry, biology, or neuroscience. You can tell I’m a first year) so I figured math might be important. What I took out of it is that I’m to take Math 220 next year, which is “Math in Science” or the applications of math to my chosen field. I think it’ll be useful. The funny thing is that I don’t have to take a math class at all (by this semester I’ll have fulfilled my distribution requirements,) which is just odd since I’ve been taking math classes every year for 13 ½ years…
And that was the math department meeting! Before that I had my usual three classes (Writing, Chemistry, and Education: Fridays are my favorites because Chemistry and Education happen on the same day) and weights in the morning. I went to bed late-ish last night (I try to get 7-8 hours of sleep per night, and have been successful thus far) because I had a bunch of errands to run after work from 8-9:30pm. They were fun errands though; first, I went to go pick up a Fall Frenzy t-shirt. Fall Frenzy is an accumulation of activities (including a lip-sync competition) that take place over an entire week during the year. Though I unfortunately was not able to participate in anything (many of the activities fell when I work at the library) I did pick up my free t-shirt. Three of us where wearing the same shirt in my 16-person writing class this morning, which was amusing. I was also congratulated on getting the right size :).
My other errand (besides finishing up my essay for English and doing a take-home quiz for chem) was getting fitted for swim apparel. Swim apparel rocks here. At Edina, which is my hometown, I was also on the varsity swim team, and we also had very nice jackets and pants. However, these were not insulated jackets and pants, and we were not encouraged to wear apparel anywhere besides at meets. Here at Wellesley, we are instructed to advertise Wellesley Athletics, which means I get to wear my jacket all around campus. I stuck a sweater inside and now wear it as a winter coat!
Speaking of winter coats, the weather has been nasty here the last few days. It’s colder than in Minnesota, which makes me sad. Did you know that the northernmost tip of Minnesota is the most northern part of the US? Higher than Maine. Canada also wants it ;). Anyway, the night before last it was raining and really cold, and then last night it was snowing and really cold. I was running around with an umbrella, raincoat, and gloves. Twas very confusing, though thankfully it has brightened up today. The sun’s out, it’s beautiful again, and it’s also very chilly.
As for the rest of Thursday, happy things did occur! We had an informal Lake Day in Chemistry, which means we got an email that told us we didn’t have to go to class! (see Wellesley’s description of the true version of Lake Day, which already took place). Professor A took pity on us and decided we were all sick and tired. I like chemistry class, and I still have to get up early anyway for my 8:30 class, but we happened to have our weekly quiz that day and it saved me from having to do extensive studying. So that was a fun event; I used it to write the already previously mentioned English essay. I love the surprises here.
Even more happily, my father came to town!! This actually deserves two exclamation points. He was here for a business trip, and dropped by on Wednesday and Thursday to take me out to dinner. Yesterday we ended up going to “wasabi” in Natick Mall, where we had a fabulous and well-priced dinner. Sushi’s always expensive, but this was a very good deal. Try the green-tea mousse too; delicious. We also went and picked up my computer at the Apple Store, which broke last week to my great chagrin. (A lot of last week was spent whining to people about my computer troubles. Turns out there are actually computers everywhere on campus, so not having your own computer isn’t even a huge problem. That said, I’d still definitely recommend you bring one to college.) And then we went grocery shopping and I got raisins, nuts, and Honeycrisp Apples. The University of MN first bred this kind of apple (yeah Minnesota!) and everyone should eat them. They are delicious, though naturally ridiculously expensive.
Before we went out to dinner was swim practice and lab. I like chemistry lab a lot. My father says he’s very pleased I don’t hate lab. He says he hold low expectations, but I agree with him that hating lab would be a problem, since I’d like to be a science professor. This is not common knowledge, but science professors at major universities do a lot more research than teaching (at least as far as I can tell by my research. In high school I was in an internship-based class where we were supposed to attain internships in areas relevant to our future studies. I wanted and still want to be a professor. However, as one might expect, professors generally do not take highschoolers into their lab, because at big universities like the U of MN, there are many much more qualified undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctorate students. Thus I interviewed a lot of professors at the U of MN, and wrote up a 15-page document about what I learned. Sadly, the class I was in didn’t require this document, so I didn’t get to submit it anywhere. I did give it to my principal in the hopes that he would continue the class, Mentorship Connection, this year at Edina High.) So since professors spend a lot of time doing research and in the lab, my father and I were happy that labs were working out.
I’m interested to see how other labs will work out though! I’ve heard that the biology labs are of a different form than chemistry labs, and since I still don’t know what kind of field I’m going into, I’m excited to find out. We have to decide on our classes for spring semester by November 7th, so I’ll let you know how that works out. Wait a second; you haven’t heard about the class-choosing process! We chose our fall classes the first week we were here (Orientation), so I wasn’t blogging yet. In fact, I was searching for jobs and trying to remember peoples’ names. (The application for this job took me from 1-2 hours I think.) Anyway, when we pick classes we go onto a Wellesley website for that purpose and enter in codes for specific classes as fast as possible. If we beat out everyone else in typing in our codes, we get into all the classes we want; if not, then we have to type in codes for back-up classes and hope we get into those. If we don’t get into anything, we email the teacher and sit in the classes we want and hope someone drops. It’s actually a crazy process, relying on typing speed initially, which I totally did not expect upon entering Wellesley. Then again, it occurs because Wellesley caps the number of people in specific classes; in larger universities, I don’t think this type of competition occurs. There are also many options if you don’t get into a class you want; sitting in on classes generally works, since many people drop out and switch into classes for the first three weeks. And sometimes even the classes you think you want aren’t actually as interesting as you’d like, and there are many, many classes offered to choose from. Returning to the point, I’ll let you know what kind of classes I get into in November when the process begins again. First-years sign up last, so I’ll be the last blogger with her results updated.
I’m thinking of doing Organismal Biology, Organic Chemistry, Neuroscience and an education class next semester. This is not set in stone by any means, and I’ll go through the whole process of meeting with my faculty advisor and whatever other advisors (there are many) I choose to consult. It’s a rather science and lab-heavy schedule, so if I think it’s too hard I’ll switch out of a class. I’m also trying to negotiate around library work (I haven’t decided whether or not to continue next semester, because I’m not sure how many paid hours I will work in Professor A’s lab), labwork with Professor A (because senior members of Professor A’s lab get first pick for timeslots, and I don’t know what will be available), and swimming, which will end at the end of February (it can go longer depending on what meets you qualify for, but I think I’ll end in February) but still ties over to second semester. My father was just telling me how seniority-based academia is, and just by writing this I can see the truth in that :). Oh well; it’ll be great when I’m a senior.
Wednesday, Tuesday, and Monday were normal as far as I can remember. I went to class, did homework, went to swimming, and then went to work, with eating mixed in periodically. It’s a good life.
Sunday was interesting because I teach swim lessons on Sundays. I also teach lessons on Tuesdays, and in both classes I have three-year old girls. The whole swim team teaches lessons to fundraise for our 10-day training trip, which this year is in Hawaii, much to everyone’s pleasure :). But this was the first lesson in which my student started crying and we had to end the lesson early. Her mother told me it was the age. I remember my mom telling me that when I was two, I would spend hours screaming in the locker room of the local YMCA because I didn’t want to swim. I had to take the level-one lesson nine (nine!) times before I would stick my face in the water. Mother, you were right! And no doubt this is one of many experiences in which I will have to call my mother and tell her that, oh hey, your experiences actually are applicable to my life (as you said they would be) :).
Saturday was super fun. I ended up going to the Head of the Charles Regatta (good job Wellesley crew! You guys were amazing) with my friend Marcella from Tufts. Marcella’s an engineering student at Tufts, which I found quite interesting, because all of her classes are math and science, and here you’re not suggested to have more than two first semester first year. I asked her if she had any time at all (I happened to bring along homework, but she didn’t) and I found out that she still has time to come into Boston, and participate in the salsa dancing team. That brought up another difference, because I was about to ask her which school she was paired with for dancing (Wellesley Ballroom Dance is paired with MIT) before I realized Tufts actually has males on campus, so they don’t need a partner school :). Amusing, and yet speaking with my father, who also was an engineering student, it made me realize how much time I really do have. I feel like my schedule is crammed, but this is because I spent a massive amount of time doing swimming-related activities, and a substantial amount of time working… so if I actually just quit all my activities, or only did one club instead of a varsity sport, I’d have a massive amount of time on my hands to focus on schoolwork. Of course, I’d no doubt be unhappier if my whole life was solely composed of schoolwork (and sports have always made up a huge part of my social life, so I’d be lacking in that area too,) but it’s good to be aware. It’s so odd to realize that Marcella and I both went to the same high school, are both going to good colleges, and yet are having very different experiences.
Something very strange also happened in Boston ;). This situation actually amuses me greatly. I took the T (Boston’s subway) for the first time to get to the Head of the Charles (accompanied by Tiffany and Gabby; I literally wouldn’t have made it without them) and was searching around for Marcella when I finally got there. We were planning on meeting, but didn’t have the location planned out. I actually ran into her while walking towards the bridge to see the race. So while we were chatting and walking to the bridge, we suddenly ran into two more Edina kids. Ted goes to Harvard, and was out for a run, and he was hosting Matt, who’s a senior at Edina this year and was at Harvard for a college visit. I was on the Nordic (cross-country skiing) team with Ted and Matt for the last two years, and I’ve had both of them in my classes. Now consider how many freshmen students from Edina ended up out East for college (there are not many; two thirds of Edina students stay in the Midwest for college) and the chance that we’d all run into each other, and all know each other (Edina’s class sizes are greater than 600; I knew about half my grade by sight). It was an extremely unlikely occurrence. It continues to amuse me now.
Saturday morning was also fun, because we had our first swim meet! YAY! It was an intersquad (which means the team splits into two and the two teams compete against each other) and alumni meet. The recruits were also there, and they cheered for us and generally were very positive in watching our swim meet. (Swim meets, frankly, are not terribly interesting to watch. They are great for participating in, however.) It was a short meet, first-years and juniors versus sophomores and seniors (the few alumni were spread between them), with the winning team about to make up a practice for the team sometime in the future. The only rules were that the practice couldn’t be “no practice,” and that the winning team couldn’t make separate practices for the losing team, because Bonnie (our coach) said that would lead to no end to mischief. Since our team lost, I’m glad that rule was established; I’m excited to see what the sophomores and seniors come up with for our practice ;).
Saturday actually started at 7:30am when we had a pancake breakfast for the meet (yum ;)) followed by more pancakes when the meet finished and we went for brunch/lunch. Brunches are fantastic here, with fruit and pancakes and scones and all other delicious carbohydrates. On Saturday, besides heading out to Boston, I went to Natick on the bus shuttle ($3 round trip) to consult the experts at Apple about my computer. They ended up shipping it out (and I collected it yesterday,) so it goes to show that many things can be accomplished at Wellesley without private transportation. When my dad arrived on Wednesday, I was telling him how I didn’t know how to get to the restaurant, and I didn’t have a computer on me so we’d have to go to the science center to print out directions. That’s when he pulled out the nifty device called the GPS and I realized how much my views on transportation had changed ;).
Friday night was great too, because I went to a presentation of the life of Marie Curie. It was a one-woman play put on by Susan Marie Frontczak, and was fascinating. Not only did I learn about the very interesting life of Marie Curie, but it was very cool to hear about how Ms. Frontczak got her job as a StorySmith. See her webpage; she actually goes around and tells stories for a living, after she switched jobs from being an engineer at Hewett-Packard. Quite a transition! And amazing to watch.
And so that was last week! The backward order has finished; I’m about to go forward again. Because next week is exciting!
Not only is next week my Midterm week (nooooooo…. Chem in Wednesday and Math on Thursday, with an essay due for Education on Friday) but Tuesday is the Tanner Conference. This is where students talk about their interneships and study abroad experiences from last summer. It’s bound to be very exciting, and we get to whole day off to go to lectures by current Wellesley students! I’ve been asking around to see how many conferences I should go to (it seems like students support their friends who are presenting, but don’t go to the presentations all day… however, I only asked a small sample size, so this might be an erroneous assessment) but I think I’ll go to the presentations all day. Food is provided, I LOVE conferences (actually, I do love conferences) and I’m a first-year so I don’t know anything about the opportunities Wellesley offers. (Well, correct that, I’ve actually learned quite a bit already about Wellesley’s opportunities, but the flow of opportunities is NEVER ENDING! Take note, future Wellesley students.)
So I’m super psyched for Tanner and not so psyched for studying all weekend, but we do what we must :).
Anyway, so that I’m not late for practice again today (it’s supposed to take me two hours to write this thing, but I always end up going over and have to run to swim practice. I’m the most consistently later person on the team. Sigh.) I’m going to sign off now :). First, a mention about the photos: I’m having issues, as usual :). The photos I do post are from Tiffany, who managed to take quite a few at Head of the Charles (thank you Tiffany!) And second, a quick shoutout to those Wellesley students applying Early Decision—good work, girls, and the Wellesley community is excited to meet you! Post a smiley if you’re applying :).
So for everyone out there, have a wonderfully wintery day! Halloween is in three days; hope you’ve all got your costumes figured out!
Spookily yours,
Monica
