Since Caltech is a small, and STEM-focused, school, the amount of humanities offered can be very limited. I really like many of the classes I’ve taken (British Romantic literature, creative short story writing, and Irish literature in particular), but there are some niche subjects that I’m interested in that are just too specific to be offered. Among my pet ideas–Irish mythology (fairies, a favorite for popular teen fantasy novels nowadays it seems, though I’d like to learn more about them in their original context), novel-writing workshop, 20th century Latin-American literature (like Borges and Garcia Marquez, and after the class we’d ideally know more than just those two names). Or mythology of cultures other than the classic Greek and Roman would be super cool too. There are so many creatures that haven’t made it into mainstream literature–rusalki (water nymphs in Slavic folklore), selkies (creatures who live as seals in the sea but have human form on land, found in Irish and Scottish folklore), changelings (a baby fairy or troll that has been swapped with a human infant), far darrigs (a type of solitary trickster fairy in Irish folklore in the same class as leprechauns and chlurichauns).
Living in LA means we’re close to Hollywood, but an aspect I didn’t really consider before coming here was how close we were to the LA Philharmonic. To the point where the concertmaster of the LA Phil, Martin Chalifour, actually does some teachingat Caltech!
Hi there, It’s been a while, I know. I’ve been working super hard this term. TA’ing takes a lot out of my schedule but my predicament has gotten easier since I stopped having six hours of volleyball every week. Now I can pick which time I spend on exercise, so I can power through my homework and then do a one-hour HIIT workout at 10pm. That’s what I did last night. I’m very sore, so today I get an hour of yoga instead.
I’ve been traveling quite a bit this year. By my count, I have flown 21 times since the beginning of this school year (mostly because I studied abroad in Edinburgh in the Fall, and spent quite a few weekends traveling around Europe). This term, I spent one day in San Francisco and four days in Philadelphia. I just returned from Philly, actually, and I’m reflecting on everything I’ve done to make sure that traveling doesn’t affect my schoolwork.
Sorry for the extremely belated post. I know I’ve been really out of touch lately, and I’ll talk more about it here.
As the UCC of Alley 6 in my House (we call hallways alleys here in the Caltech Houses), it is my job to look out for the mental health of my fellow students, and to occasionally plan mixers to promote intra-alley socializing. By mixers, I mean fun events and not dances. Since Easter Sunday was the day most of the students flew back for the beginning of term, I decided it would be fun to have a secular egg-dyeing party with my alley.
Hello everyone, Add Day, the last day of the three week period during which we can freely add courses, has just passed. It’s that time of term again, when everyone has settled into a routine. Some terms, my routine has consisted of more than I can handle. Some terms, as I hope this one will be, my routine seems to meansleeping early and getting up in time for my favorite time of day–morning. I hope this can continue! Although college students tend to stay up–whether for school work or extracurriculars or the many awesome campus traditions orpranks or real talk with friends–one encouragement I’ve found to keep getting up early is that coffee shops get up early, too. I spent the first two years exploring nearby boba shops, but after my autumn term in Edinburgh, Scotland, I’ve learned to appreciate a steaming cup of black coffee. Pasadena doesn’t quite have the climate for afternoon coffee or tea, but the crisp and quiet mornings only add to the encouragement that a cup of coffee and a chocolate croissant seem to inspire.
A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend Y Combinator’s Female Founders Conference, a daylong event in San Francisco for female founders of startups (and anyone else who is interested in the field). I had heard about the event a few months previously, in the Ladies Storm Hackathons Facebook group, and had totally forgotten that I had applied for an invitation to attend until I got an email in early March that I had been invited. I booked my plane tickets (turns out there is no convenient public transportation option to get from LA to SF), and flew up Monday morning and flew back down Monday night.
This past weekend, we went out with a bunch of friends to celebrate a friend’s birthday! We first grabbed a brunch at a really cool cafe and then went to the Getty Center. Let me tell you the story in slightly more detail and then gush about my single favorite place in LA.
Hey fam, This weekend was ASCIT Formal, which is kind of like prom, expect it’s college, your mom’s not forcing you to buy a corsage, and the pictures are far less awkward. (ASCIT stands for Associated Students of the California Institute of Technology.) Our venue was absolutely gorgeous. We had a photo booth, and dinner, and a really sweet lounge that overlooked Old Pasadena.
Day 5: Wednesday, Mar 23 I’m really tired today. There was noise in the common area until midnight. Jenny keeps her toothbrush in a crinkly supermarket bag and she woke me up at midnight (and again at 4:30) trying to brush her teeth. Plus we can’t close our window to the common area, so we hear when the kitchen staff starts preparing breakfast at 4am. Ugh. I need sleep.
Hello everyone! I just got back from the Caltech Y’s Alternative Spring Break trip to Peru. The Y is an organization that used to be connected to the YMCA but is no longer; they handle a lot of volunteer coordination and camping trips. Every year the Y organizes a service-based trip overseas during spring break. This year, we’re volunteering at mobile clinics in the outskirts of Lima with an organization called Medlife. The next 7 posts will be direct transcripts of my travel journal from that trip, with some additional explanation provided in italics.
Hi everyone! It´s been a while since I´ve blogged. This year has been a year of traveling for me, largely due to Caltech´s amazing resources. I just finished up winter term, and I´m currently writing thisfrom Peru! The story begins last year with the Caltech Y. I had been wanting to go to on a medical missions trip for a while, and the Caltech Y was the perfect organization to which to bring this idea. The Caltech Y is a non-profit organization that lives on the edge of campus. It has been around for 100 years–we´re celebrating its 100th birthday this year, which has been super exciting. The Caltech Y provides waysfor Caltech students and the community to grow by offering opportunities to volunteer, explore LA, learn about science policy, lead campus events, and more. I first learned of the Y my freshman year, when I signed up as a volunteer tutor for high schoolers through the Y tutoring program, called RISE tutoring. Since then, I´ve gotten to work with them a lot more. We host Make-A-Difference Day, which is my favorite because I getto know other Techers better as we volunteer together.
Happy International Women’s Day! Today is a good day to reflect on all the positive things in my life as a woman. It’s also a good day to think about the things that stand in my way, and in the way of all women.
Hi fam! Every term, the houses have formal dinner in place of a house dinner,so CDS provides us with food that’s marginally better than usual, we all wear nice clothes, and try not to bang on tables or throw napkins for a nice dinner. Last Wednesday was Fleming’s formal dinner, and it was a nice break from the sets.
A while back, the Avery seniors decided to host a fake ditch day on Thursday 2/11. It seemed like the perfect sort of day, just after midterms were due but before too many other sets came up, and it left more room in the year in case we wanted to run another ditch day. We began our planning, divvied up roles…
Hi all! Long time no see again. Let’s just go through the laundry list of all the fun things I’ve been up to, then I’ll tell you a bit more about my life here at the good ol’ California Institute of Technology.
Hello! So as I’ve mentioned in many previous posts, I’m a Health Advocate in training here at Caltech. That means I receive my EMR (emergency medical responder) certification and equipment for free in exchange for being “on call” in my house all the time. Lots of Health Ads are premed. Many are not. I’m not, I just like to be well educated.
Hey fam, Sunday morning, Henry and Kelsi knocked on my door to pick me up for brunch. As I stumbled out of bed, I’m told that all they heard was a huge crash from the other side of the door. Yes, I fell out of my bed. And got a concussion. Yup.
It’s cold. Let’s be clear. When I say it’s cold, I don’t mean like… East Coast cold. It’s about 50°F outside. We don’t have snow; we don’t even have rain most of the time. It’s windy and chilly and I kinda want to just sit at home with hot food and not worry about things.
This year I’m living off campus. “Off campus” at Caltech means “in Caltech housing but not one of the eight Houses.” I’m living in a three-bedroom house just across the street from Caltech’sElectrical Engineering building, which is owned by Caltech and affiliated with Page House, but not actually one of the “Houses,” which are more like dorm buildings. Confusion! It’s everywhere!
Welcome back to the latest iteration of Yubo forgets to blog! I will catch you up to speed as well as talk about all my commitments this term, probably in two posts so as not to make the post too long I got used to just wearing perpetually damp sneakers those few days, since I don’t have anything remotely sensible for rainy weather. Apparently with El Niño coming up, though, this will be a persistent problem. I tried to go to Target to buy an umbrella, and they were out of stock. In the about 5 minutes I was in the checkout area, at least five more people asked for umbrellas. I guess we don’t stock for rainy weather here in sunny sunny Pasadena…
Hi there! It’s Monday, which means we just finished the first weekend of winter term, which means we just got back from ski trip! Most houses have a ski trip. Venerable, Ricketts, Page, and Fleming all had theirs this weekend. I was on the Page ski trip to Mammoth, which was really fun.
Hi friends! What would you do if you only had a weekend in London? What if you’ve never been? i faced that fun, fortunate dilemma a few days ago as the past weekend neared. London has so many amazing things to offer that it’s tough to figure out what is feasible in a single weekend. Here’s a list of what i hit, but please comment with more suggestions, recommendations, and reviews for other readers and for my next trip there! Selfie Stops As the title indicates, these are all places that my friends and i stopped for selfies. Entrance fees varied for each location, but they shared one similarity–that they seemed too much for our wallets and our time.
My last European weekend this Fall was a trip with a group of 7 other Caltech study abroad students to Barcelona! 7 of us are studying at Edinburgh this term, and we met up with a Techer studying at UCL once we got to Spain. I spent the weekend touring beautiful architecture, eating incredible food, and walking/biking my way around the city’s beaches and Gothic quarter.
And so it happened that Jorge Cham was invited to the Caltech Physics Colloquium to give a talk, on everything related to research except actual research. As expected, it was a talk laced with lethal doses of humor in the usually uneventful halls of Bridge Lecture Hall, but it hit on some extremely resonant ideas with me, some of which I will aim to share below.
Last week we got a visit from Michelle Feynman! To understand why this is exciting, one much first understand the unfairly-not-household-name Richard Feynman.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I hope you enjoyed the holiday and areready for the rest of the holiday season. We got a couple days off for a break from classes and sets and it was well needed before a last final push before the end of term comes. I spent my Thanksgiving weekend eating, shopping, studying, and cooking. I went to a potluck with the other students at my church here on Wednesday, and then to a relative’s place on Thursday for Thanksgiving. Both places were super fun and nice to me, and they gave me so much food to bring back, and as a college student living off-campus this year, I can’t say no to free food.
Last Friday, Avery had an alley pumpkin carving challenge at Tom Mannion’s house. There were two pumpkins per alley, and plenty of snacks to go around - pie, corn dogs, bagel bites, donuts, and even warm apple cider (yummm!).
One of my last weekend trips during my Study Abroad term has been a whirlwind weekend in Pairs. I traveled there with three other girls from Caltech, all studying abroad here at the University of Edinburgh, and I had probably the best trip of my life! Traveling with other Techers was a fantastic experience, and a great one for making closer friends: we three new each other, but not well, and I feel like I learned a whole year’s worth about each of them in the 48 hours we spent in Paris.
I’m not sure if the interview process I went through is very typical, but my day was scheduled to start at 11AM on Friday and go until 5PM. I generally do my best when I’m fully relaxed though, so I took the effort to wake up extra and walk over to Fisherman’s Wharf to relax. The result? I had a full clam chowder bread bowl at Boudin’s,the place to do it, before going in.
Last Summer, I came up with what I thought was a fantastic idea for a novel. Think,Ready Player One, but with a female protagonist (a Caltech student, natch), and collaboration as a sub-plot. I daydreamed about this storyline all Summer, even starting to write out the first chapter one night in July.
It’s been over three months since my trip to the Galapagos, and I am still thinking about it. For seven days, we all woke up at 5:30 am on the boat, ate breakfast together, and went out as the sun was rising on our morning hike to catch frigatebirds mating or iguanas spewing salt from their nostrils. Our days were spent snorkeling with turtles, sea lions, and schools of fish, and our nights were spent sitting on the bow of the ship, talking all together under the stars. It was truly a spring break I will never forget.
Caltech may be a small campus, but it has a large variety of food options. There are three main dining locations on campus — The Lee F. Browne Dining Hall, the Hameetman Center (which houses our beloved Red Door Cafe), and the Broad Café.
Midterms kept up its unrelenting attack on my sanity this week – at least a little bit. And how did I solve this? Two words.
Although there are a lot of smaller things, such as midterm smoothies and milkshakes (Blacker does something similar to this) and some larger things like Faculty Dessert Night, the soc team usually agrees that beach trip is the most work.