Good morning, readers!
“Wow, aren’t you up early, Monica?” You might ask. For when reading period and finals come around, my schedule goes something like this: get up. Do some research and/or math. Eat brunch. Do lots more math. Eat dinner, workout. Do physics. Go to bed sometime in the early morning. Sleep and repeat!
However, I finished both of my tests on Wednesday (I know, I know, I’m sorry, I had a super easy finals schedule), so on Thursday I let myself emerge from the cave that is my room! Tiffany had been tempting me with various goodies (“don’t you want to come to dinner, Monica? Don’t you want to swim with us, Monica? Don’t you want to come eat cookies?”) throughout the week, but I steadfastly refused her siren’s call until Thursday. (ps, most people do actually study with friends and do fun stuff during finals period. I’ve always studied best in complete silence, a quality I would avoid developing if possible ;)). Thursday, however, I spent the entire day with Ika, Gabby, and Tiffany, and it was so much fun :). Fun for me, because I was editing my creative writing papers, so that was all just giggling at the stuff I wrote. Poor Tiff and Gabby were writing actual papers, and Ika was studying for physics, but they all plan to be done by noon today!
Here’s a picture of the four of us studying in the library :). So much more fun with friends!
We’re in the late crowd, as many Wellesley students have already left campus, amidst the beautiful snow. This weekend, we got practically a foot of snow over two days, and it was so wonderful to have my window shades open and watch it fall. I haven’t dug out my massive boots yet (they are knee-high and can slog up hills—I’ve tested them), but I’m sure their time will come. The Wellesley maintenance staff has done a wonderful job clearing all the pathways, and I appreciated it very much when I went off to swim with Ika, Gabby, and Tiff again at 7-8:30am this morning :).
After our swim this morning in Wellesley :).
But not only are all of the current students pleased with themselves (this Friday afternoon is the last session for our self-scheduled final tests, and most papers are due at 5pm today), but congratulations are in order for our early admission students! To those who were accepted: congrats, and we are so looking forward to seeing you on campus next year :). To those who were deferred—good luck in the spring, and if you have anything else to submit, you might think about doing so (but don’t defer to my judgment; despite working for them, admissions is a mystery to me)). To those who unfortunately were unable to get in—you will find another school where you will have a blast of a four years, have faith. Nevertheless, I’m so pleased to be able to welcome new first-years next year, when I’m a senior (how time passes!) Shout-out to Tiffany’s sister, who will be in the class of 2018, and all the rest of you who will be joining us!
This morning, after our morning swim, I’m headed into Boston to do some research. We aren’t required to do our usual 10 hours a week of research during reading and finals period, but since I had some time I thought “why not?” As a reminder, I work in Bevil Conway’s lab, which is housed at Harvard Medical School through some very generous support from the people there. We study the computational mechanisms of color perception using fMRI, electrophysiology, and behavioral studies.
The weekly trip to Harvard Medical School– here’s the first leg: the free shuttle bus to MIT!
And another free shuttle to Harvard Med School. I’m so lucky in so many ways :).
Today, I shall be going in to do another few trials as a subject in one of our experiments. Galina is in charge of this experiment, which is trying to determine how good our color perception is. That is—how grey does a color, say blue, have to be until it fades into the background and we can’t see it anymore? To answer this question, we’ve had several subjects come in, sit in a box, and stare at a screen where colored dots periodically come up. If we see any colored dots against the grey background, we look at them, and Galina tracks our eye movements to record our choices.
My second task for the day is to pull up a few of the programs I wrote over the summer, and hand them off to our newest lab member so that he can edit and use them. Josh now works in our lab full-time (he is our only male member, besides Prof. Conway), and we’re all very thankful he’s here, personality and skills-wise. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone (Galina, Josh, Mela (our post-doc), and Kaitlin) at the lab today— Fridays are the best days to come, because come 5 pm there’s Beer Hour (which also includes food), and everyone’s around, working and talking and being busy :).
But tonight, I’m not staying for Beer Hour—because Tiffany, Gabby, and Ika and I are going to go see a movie! The Hobbit 2 or Frozen… we’re currently undecided, though we would never attend one befitting a grown-up. (Two of the people listed enjoy coloring Disney coloring pages for fun). All I know is that break has officially started, and I’m excited for the next few days, and then a few weeks at home!
That’s all I have, readers! Comments and questions are appreciated as always, and wishing happy holidays to you all :).
Monica