Hey readers!
So, it’s been a surprisingly busy week given that I only have two classes.
…I’m actually kind of stuck on that fact, given that I’M NOT DOING ANYTHING BESIDES TWO CLASSES AND A THESIS. One of my good friends is one of the students responsible for reading your admissions applications. (Fun fact: faculty members, students, and admissions officers read them! Wellesley’s one of the few schools where students are involved.) She’s been pulling crazy hours since it’s crunch time for determining whether to welcome y’all to Wellesley. Plus she has three classes and a thesis, and is applying to jobs next year besides. Meanwhile, I’m hanging out, but my time is still remarkably filled up. I have my second thesis committee meeting on Wednesday, wherein I present my research to three faculty members. They make sure I’m on track and advise me on what to do next (though I have plenty of ideas by this point :)). I’m also presenting at a conference at Quinnipiac University on Sunday. (This is when I’m driving down to Connecticut, which I spoke about last week.) Thus, I’m making a poster to present, though thankfully I’m well-versed in poster-making by this point. Sometimes I don’t realize how often I’ve been given the chance to create and present scientific posters, but then I meet other students over the summer and it dawns on me that most students have not had the opportunity to present a poster seven times, present a talk twice, and write six research proposals by the time they graduate. It’s something that my parents have commented on as well—I compare myself to the people surrounding me at Wellesley and at MIT, but that gives me a warped sense of how I equate to other applicants in my position.
Speaking of which, I’m on my way into figuring out what I’m doing next year! I’m still waiting on the University of Cambridge, since I’m applying for a Masters of Philosophy in Experimental Psychology. I’ve also applied to two lab technician positions. I did not receive the first position, BUT I was turned down in the nicest possible way. I was asked if I had “serious mega-geek coding skills”, which I unfortunately do not possess, but I think that’s the best reason for not getting hired I’ll even encounter in my life. And I’m going to wait on the other position for a few weeks before applying to anything else, so I’ll keep you updated :).
In other news, I don’t know if you’ve heard, but there is a LOT of snow here. I was walking down the path from the Lulu (our campus center) to the Science Center, and I started feeling uncomfortable. It was a feeling of physical absence, and I looked around for a while before I got it—I was only walled in by snow on one side. On the side nearer the road, a whole section of snow had been removed, leaving the ground visible. Keep in mind that the snow is, at this point, waist-height, so it’s quite like walking through a small corn maze whenever you go anywhere on campus. I mentioned that particular path to a friend in passing, and without prompting they immediately began describing the same experience :). All of these means that I am psyched to head to MIT tomorrow, where I was alerted by my aunt that there is a GIGANTIC snow pile three to five stories high.
Finally, this week was great for pictures. Picture blog post time! Hope you enjoy the daily nonsense that is friendship at Wellesley, and see you all next week :).
Monica
Hey all :). These are in chronological order– and a lot of them are about snow :P. Jeanne, Alice and I were walking back from the Science Center to StoneD (that’s our dorm), talking about whether the snow was snow-person quality or not, when Jeanne suddenly announces she wants to fall in it. Alice laughed at her, and then we both realized she was serious, and began whipping off backpacks/gloves to retrieve our respective cameras. I love this series…
Ah, snow :).
The lighting is kind of spectacularly odd here, but this is the path I take to my PE class, Dance Basics. Tower, which is our most Harry-Potter-esque dorm, is on the left.
The sledding hill outside of Tower. There are people there very frequently, from the town and from the college alike, and I’ve seen pictures of midnight tray-ing more than once :).
Also, the food has been GREAT this week! This is lobster bisque, and some kind of asian quesadillas in the background. The bisque was amazing though. I felt like I was at a restaurant.
Okay, hands down, if I had to choose a list of lectures for Wellesley students to attend, the Alumni Awards is definitely in the top three. I’ll hopefully post more about it next week, but it was fantastic and inspiring and thought-provoking as always.
MIT has this great tradition on Valentine’s Day. The Logarithms (the Logs) and the Muses are a cappella groups on campus. They take requests for songs for Valentine’s day. Then the day of they’ll burst into any classroom and sing a love song to your significant other for 1-2 minutes while the whole class is interrupted and watches. I got to see the Logs last year, and I was lucky enough to see them again this year. So great.
And I got to see the Muses for the first time this year! I’m so pleased I get to see both sides of this before I graduated :).
All right, we’re transitioning! Leslie, my sister, invited me to Yuki Matsuri (I have a picture of the poster at the end of this series). Yuki Matsuri is Japanese for Winter Festival, and Wellesley’s Japan Club and others (I know Babson was there! I didn’t talk to any other students though) held an evening of Japanese food and activities. $5 for admission, except free for Wellesley students! I had a great time, especially eating (…yeah, this is a defining personality trait), and ran into a lot of my friends there :). (ps, this picture is the food line. The event was held in the basement of Lulu, our campus center, which has several adjoining rooms.)
Leslie and me, waiting in line to enter.
We saw the choir singers lining up on our way in! They sang “Let it Go” in Japanese and two other songs :).
FOOOOODDD
Friends!
More friends! Hi Lisa :).
Very well-attended.
More friends :P.
The fact that they were making these cabbage-pancake things in addition to all the rest of my plate of food was astonishingly pleasing. Also, I am so much better at chopsticks since I’ve come to Wellesley. The asian community as a whole is so much bigger than in my hometown.
Singers!
Ah, back to the snow pictures. This one makes me happy, because that’s how it is walking around campus on a weekend right now– not too many people, everyone bundled up, chatting with friends.
I had brunch with Tiffany in Tower Dining hall a few days ago, and thought I’d take a picture of the place. Brunches here are fantastic, I’ll have you know– pancakes and breads and fruit and yogurt and granola and eggs and real lunch food / salad…
You know how I was talking about waist-height before? This is what I’m talking about.
I’ve been studying a lot with friends. It’s been great. This is Take 4 of Emily trying to look studious. I love how my friends indulge me :).