Hello everyone! Or rather, Aloha!
Wellesley Swim and Dive has been in Waikiki, Hawaii for six days now, and it feels like we’ve been here forever. Our days are long but filled with spectacular tropical activities; we will return bronzed, penniless, and refreshed. Though we are swimming at least once a day, usually twice, this feels like a wonderful vacation. Right now as I sit on my hotel bedspread, with the wind and sun flying in through the balcony and our glass window wall, I’ll progress backward, because it’s way too beautiful to begin with wintry Wellesley.
This morning I woke up at 8am to Tiffany puttering around our room. Karina, who sleeps in the same bed as me, was still pretending to slumber, so I threw a shirt over my eyes and continued to drowse until I felt guilty enough to get up. Gabby, who is the fourth member of our room and the only diver, had already left for diving practice at 6am. We four are sharing a room in the hotel Ohana Waikiki West, and the rest of our swimming and diving team are similarly divvied up in threes and fours throughout the hotel.
Upon eventual awakening, the three of us set out to make breakfast. Since we have not been provided food for this trip (rather, $230), we were responsible for seeking out our own meals. Luckily, both Karina and Tiffany brought extensive snacks with them from Wellesley (they both live close to Wellesley, which makes it a bit easier to buy and transport food in bulk). Additionally, Waikiki (the city we are inhabiting) is very tourist-oriented, and has countless restaurants and food places for the limited budget. Further, our hotel’s best feature is its location, which is about three minutes by walk to the beach and thirty seconds to the nearest grocery store. As we had temporarily run out of bananas this morning (the cheapest fruit at the rather expensive grocery store), we walked over to the store and bought them and a papaya. As usual, we had instant oatmeal, English muffins, bananas and peanut butter for breakfast. It is a filling meal before our morning swim, which is from 10am to 12pm at Iolani High School.
This morning, for the first time, half of our team was required to run to practice. While we have been here, we have rented two vans in order to bring the entire team of 27 swimmers/divers and 3 coaches to and from practice. However, yesterday we returned one of the vans, and had to make two trips to and from the pool. Today we divided up the team and had to run either to or from practice, which makes up a distance of approximately 1.7 miles. I ran with the morning group, and we made good time; I learned, too, who were my running partners, and was happy to discover that Sabrina might be considering running track this spring as I hope to.
After practice, which was a lengthy endeavor, we returned to our rooms (half running, half shuttling) to make lunch. While some rooms are cooking individually, each person buying their own ingredients and cooking, since our room already had so many provisions to begin with we are cooking and eating as a room. Today we made pancakes with peanut butter, and ate the papaya and carrots. I am very proud of myself for cutting up the papaya properly; after my arduous adventure involving the peeling of a local orange, Tiffany has been teaching me in the mysterious ways of unveiling fruit.
After lunch, we took off to Yogurtland, where I had coconut, green tea, cheesecake, and taro (which is very common here—McDonald’s sell taro pies instead of apple pies) yogurt, with cost determined by weight—very yummy :). Then we were off to the trolley, since with our hotel passes we get free rides on the Pink Line. After a tour of the Honolulu beach, we returned in time for the Farmer’s market, where we picked up gobs of goodies. Tiffany dove on the fruit, while I went straight to the sweets section—there are lots of Japanese and other ethnic-style pastries like andagi, hopia, Spanish rolls and guava turnovers.
Practice followed, and then we went out to dinner as usual. I quite enjoy a cheap fast-food chinese kitchen called Fatty’s (not aptly named—it was healthy-ish!) and returned there tonight. Meanwhile, quite a few members of our team are off to watch the Hilton Hotel’s fireworks, while Emma, who I went to Fatty’s with as per the buddy system, is watching Pearl Harbor with her roommates. Speaking of Pearl Harbor, we shall be venturing there on Sunday, since our coach says we need some educational experiences. Tomorrow, too, we will be doing a team activity, as we are going to the Hard Rock Café to celebrate Annie and Olivia’s birthdays!
After my roommates get back we will likely watch some TV series if the internet connection holds out, and then dwell in our dreams. Since I’ve realized this entry will be very, very long if I continue including all the details of our trip, let it suffice to say that the following description is a pretty typical day for us here. I shall now include the highlights of our past week ;).
Thursday was very exciting because we ran up Diamond Head Crater. It is 600 feet up in the air, a marvelous point to whale-watch from, and rather a long climb. However, the day didn’t stop there, and on Thursday I went parasailing with Lindsey and Emma! It was lots of fun, especially the part where we got dunked in the ocean.
Wednesday the whole team went snorkeling. We were taken out on a boat, and brought our fins, snorkels and goggles in order to get within five feet of several sea turtles! Along the way, we also saw a whale within 100 feet of us and a shark within 50! Our captain said we had had a very lucky voyage.
Part of Tuesday was spent shopping at the International Food Market, which is right across the street from our hotel. In addition to our two practices, in the afternoon made it to the Waikiki Aquarium, which included seals, brilliantly colored fish, sharks and many other amazing sea animals and descriptions. We also learned about making omelets with a fork, since there were no spatulas to be found.
Monday we spent the day at the beach. My teammates do enjoy tanning! I’m very against it, since it damages your skin and all, but it does look nice. I’ve tried to stay in the shade for the entire trip, but swimming in the 10am-12pm slot in an outdoor pool means I have unavoidably accrued a distinctive swim suit tan line.
Sunday we arrived after a very long flight. From Wellesley (we left at 3 am) we went to Chicago, and from Chicago to Honolulu. The Honolulu flight lasted nine hours, and they didn’t feed us on the plane. Though I had my doubts it was all worth it, it very much has been. That doesn’t mean, however, that I don’t dread the flight back on Sunday.
Saturday was New Years! Most of the team gathered to watch the ball drop and drink sparkling cider. The team is not allowed to drink on training trip (which included New Years), so everyone enjoyed their chocolate and nonalcoholic drinks in one of the common rooms at Wellesley.
And that temporarily concludes my Hawaiian adventures! Hawaii has been loads of fun, but it is a rather esoteric experience. Thus, from here on out, I shall be discussing Wellesley (the school). First, I want to talk about final grades, and second, I want to reflect on the classes I took this semester.
First, final grades. Final grades came out on Wednesday online! Unlike in high school, where I knew what score I received on every assignment, in college we received a final grade with no details. We are encouraged to visit our professors to go over our final exams and papers, but that’s about it! On the other hand, there are much fewer assignments than in high school. For example, in my history class all that I submitted to my professor were three papers.
As for my grades specifically, I think I’m off to a good start, but need to improve in the future. My worst grade was in my history class, and that is because I didn’t know how to write an essay of the caliber that my professor expected coming in. Footnotes, 10-page papers, and taking facts from primary documents are some examples of necessities to a college paper that I never experienced in high school. I thus have hope that I can improve upon my work from first semester, when I was still adjusting!
Sadly, I have discovered that unlike AP credit, college credit is not weighted :(. Ah well. I have a few other things to mention about grades: 1) your grades will most likely be worse than they were in high school, 2) very few people are agonizing over grades as much I have in the last few paragraphs, and 3) the reason I am is because that’s part of my personality and my desire to get into an elite graduate school.
Moving on from grades, I’d like to reflect on the classes I took this semester. I’ve received questions from a future Wellesley student (class of 2016, thanks Michaella!) about the courses at Wellesley, so this is aimed at future or prospective Wellesley students.
First of all, you should know that during Orientation week, Wellesley takes care of the new students and offers many resources to advise them on their future schedules. I ended up talking to at least three different sources, and more were available. Also, you should keep in mind that I am only one person and my experiences in each class were my own.
One of my favorite classes this semester was Chemistry 120. It is an advanced course, and condenses a year of introductory chemistry into a single semester (the normal option is to take Chemistry 105 and Chemistry 205, each lasting a semester). It is fast-paced, covers the whole of AP Chemistry, includes intensive labs and lab reports, and is selective entry (you have to have a 5 on the AP Chemistry test or pass Wellesley’s entry exam.) I loved it, because the Wellesley students who were in the class with me were mostly budding scientists, first-years, and already accomplished in the subject (having received 5s on the AP test). In many of my classes I’ve been astounded and delighted with the diversity of students and their experiences, but I loved this class because we all had similar interests and passions, and we spent a lot of time together in lab. I’d recommend it for anyone who is confident in their Chemistry skills—but on the other hand, it took a tremendous amount of work and is very challenging to those who don’t have a strong background.
Another one of my challenging classes was my Writing 125 class—required for all first-year students. I was enrolled in a Writing 125 class called Music and the Ineffable (there are many options for Writing 125 classes), where we wrote our first research paper, wrote three other papers, and learned about the philosophy and modern writings concerning music. I didn’t enjoy my writing class initially because the topic didn’t really interest me—I enrolled in Music and the Ineffable because it fit nicely into my schedule, not because I like music. However, I think that taking a course about something that you don’t already like is important, and I took more out of the course than if I had taken the science fiction writing course which I was initially looking at.
Speaking of new topics that aren’t initially interesting, my history class was the same way. I took the History 272, the Political Economy of South East Asia, and was from the start blown away by the amount of primary source readings we were expected to do. As I griped about the readings for weeks on end, I gradually came to appreciate what we were learning about India and Pakistan. I now consider this one of the most valuable courses I took this semester, as it broadened my world view in a way none of the other courses did.
As for math, I took Math 116 (Calculus 2), which was essentially AP Calculus BC. Many took this class, and many other first-years took Math 115 (Calculus 1), which is essentially AP Calculus AB. There is also a Math 120 class, which is an accelerated merge of Math 116 and Math 205 (Multivariable). Next year, I will be taking both Math 205 and Math 210 (Applied Math to the Sciences). This was an appropriate course for me, and I took it because it was required. There are many math classes at Wellesley (Linear Combinatronics, anyone?), and though math has always been one of my least favorite subjects, I am told they are enthralling and to tell people that one can be a math major at Wellesley College!
As for Education 212, I am so glad that Dean Tenser made me audit this course instead of take it. I still have quite a bit of reading and one more essay to finish in order to finish all the work for the course. Since I audited the course, I technically don’t have to do any of the work, but I felt I should do all of it, and so I am finishing it over Wintersession. My professor was kind enough to offer to grade it even now, and he also let me attend every class of the semester. I found and am still finding this class incredibly enlightening, and I loved learning both about the national policy movements concerning education and the individual academic experiences of my classmates. This class especially was the one that made me realize how diverse my fellow Wellesley students are.
The above summaries are essentially what I wrote on my SEQs (Student Evaluation Questionnaires), after I had some time to condense my rather lengthy prose. If anyone has any other questions about my courses, feel free to ask, or I can ask around if you have questions about others!
And now I think I’m going to finish this blog, and go hunting for a solid internet connection. I suppose it doesn’t matter when I post this, since it’s almost 2 am Boston time, but I’d like to post it today and then go enjoy my vacation some more!
Have a wonderful evening/morning/afternoon! Please feel free to comment/question!
Monica
