Hey guys…this is going to be a short post as I am in dire need of a nap right now.

Hey Everyone! Hope you all have been doing well. This week for me is filled with looooong and busy days. It’s only Tuesday, but I feel like this past weekend was forever ago. I am busy wrapping up my student reads for undergraduate admissions—we will be meeting all day Wednesday and Thursday for the regular decision admissions committee (I can’t believe it’s almost over!). I have also been busy with meetings all over campus –I had 5 meetings all in one day this past Monday! O_O Weeks like this make me all too thankful for the weekends. This past weekend, I went on a food review to a newly opened place called “The Slawdogs.” It was a place recommended to us by Jon from Caltech Dining Services…and it was AWESOME! This place was so yummy, which probably was reason for why it was so crowded when we went! We were able to choose from an extensive menu of gourmet hot dogs, and even had the option of building our own. I went with the TNT Dog (aka “the good timer”) which was a gi-normous chili hot dog with french fries and fried eggs inside wrapped in a tortilla (looked like a burrito). I only got through half of it before feeling incredibly full….

Good evening. I’m Andrew, and I’ll be your host tonight as you visit Fleming Formal Dinner….OK so unfortunately I can’t actually send you over the food we ate at our delicious formal meal, but I can definitely tell you about it! Each term, every House gets to have one formal meal, and it’s so fun to dress up and get to eat some gourmet food. Ours was last Friday, and it’s so nice to see everyone dust off their suit or go out to buy new dresses for the occasion. What’s also really cool is that we can invite not only our fellow students from other Houses, but also professors, post-docs, grad students, even alums or the Deans! It’s really neat to have a forum where you can informally talk with those in charge of your education at Caltech, and it’s also nice to see them outside of their class/lab/offices. Sometimes they even bring their families, and the young blood makes it even more fun! What was on the menu (since I’m always concerned with the food, of course). Well, here ‘goes! Fillet mignon with brazed oxtail served over polenta cakes and seasonal vegetables Cornish game hen with port balsamic sauce with carrot and turnip puree and garlic roasted Brussels sprouts Winter vegetable pave with Spanish romesco sauce Dessert: Chocolate Guinness cake with Irish cream sabayon Yum! I had the vegetarian entrée (because it was a Friday during Lent), and everyone said their food was delicious. And chocolate cake for dessert can never be a mistake. …Picture time!

This past Wednesday I met with my advisor to discuss the possibility of taking an overload (more than 51 units for freshman). We talked about extracurriculars, social life, and sleeping patterns – you know, just to make sure that I am a balanced individual – and he approved my overload. The follow-up step to this conversation was to take the overload form to the Dean’s Office. I turned it in to the deans and they told me to wait about a week for an official response. Without further ado, here is my awesome tentative schedule:

Hi there, chefs (and prospective ones)!We had a really interesting day in cooking last night learning about Lebanese food! I never really had exposure to it before, so this was a good chance to try something new and different! If I could describe Lebanese food in a word, it would be aromatic! When we were cooking and eating everything smelled like cinnamon and allspice (two of the staple spices), and it was scrumptious! Think of Lebanese food, if you’re not familiar with it, as being a cross between Greek and Middle Eastern cuisines. The Greek influences I would say are the use of phillo dough and feta cheese in some dishes, along with yogurt; the middle eastern influences seem to be more in the aromatics and spices that are used along with the dishes. What also was really neat was having a native Lebanese teacher come in to show us the ropes (and demonstrate how to make hummus! mmmmmm). Enjoy the pictures!

The dance show is coming up, and the different groups I dance with have been amping up the rehearsal time. Rehearsal times have nearly doubled—but it makes me so HAPPY! :D…more time to dance during the week! Last night, my fellow Techer ballerinas and I showed up at the Braun gym to run our piece. Unfortunately, the dance room was taken up by ballroom dancers (scheduling conflict?)….O_O We quickly resorted to moving our rehearsal space into a racquetball court. This usually doesn’t happen..but I guess with the dance show quickly approaching…everyone is itching to get their pieces perfected. Nevertheless, we rehearsed our piece sans music and mirrors (It’s probably better to not have mirrors since we need to get used to them not being there for the actual performance). The floor was almost the same as what we are used to…so it was a good alternative.

This past Saturday, Avery House hosted its Interhouse party. As you probably know, Caltech Interhouses are special. We don’t just play some music and put out some beverages and chips; we construct a dance floor and much more, plus our wonderful frosh spent hours making sandwiches, brownies, and cookies.

Hello, there!This post is about things wrapping up, in a good way, and I’m so excited to be sharing these experiences with you! I apologize for not having a new one in a while, and won’t have a cooking one - missed Asian Week so I could pack for my interview.

Hi all! Last week felt super long for me, even though it was only a 4-day work week. I guess I was so busy with all the tours I have been taking (lots of high school students on break and visiting college campuses!) and various meetings for the different committees/extracurriculars I’m involved with. On top of that, don’t forget classes, dance classes and analyzing data for my thesis…I had a pretty dense week. On Friday, I was also very lucky to have sat in on a fast-pitch to the Tech Coast Angels at one of their regional meetings (happened to be here on campus last Friday). The Tech Coast Angels are “A network of individual investors who fund early-stage, technology companies in Southern California.” It was very interesting to see a CEO of a small start-up make a presentation on a very cool technology (sorry can’t disclose anymore since we all signed confidentiality agreements!); it’s basically like that show on ABC, Shark Tank. As a business major, I really enjoyed the experience with the Tech Coast Angels. I got the opportunity to see firsthand how an entrepreneur must handle expressing enthusiasm for his product, and present a flawless business model to investors. It will definitely help me in the long run, and also in the current class I am in, another Pickar class: E102: Entrepreneurial Development (Remember my previous blog on E/ME 105 taught by the same professor?) where I am working with a team to prepare a business model/plan and pitch to Tech Coast Angels for a technology that was developed here at Caltech. Business has always interested me, and I am super happy I was able to double-major in that and Mechanical Engineering here. But more on that later…

Our Interhouse party was a fantastic success! Last Friday after dinner we began building for it, and we finished by 2 AM. Basically what we do is cover the walls of our lounge with black paper, by that point we take a break and enjoy an order of 100 cheeseburgers from In-N-Out (if you haven’t tried these, think of a Krabby Patty – yeah, they’re that good!). The next step is to hook wires on the walls to create a skeleton for a lowered ceiling, and cover that with black paper too. The piano is the only thing that stays inside the pitch black lounge, which is illuminated by a single lamp. Every year we hire a jazz band and they play in this dark room adding a classy environment to the party. In order to get in to the party, people have to enter through the underground tunnels at Tech. Guests are directed by stationed freshmen with flashlights who guide the way (I was one of these!) until they reach a ladder that leads to the house. Awesome setup I tell you, right from the start. Check out all the workers behind the best jam of the year: The Sunday following Interhouse was cleanup day. A lot of alumni showed up to the Interhouse so on Sunday our whole house plus the alums gathered to go to the pool and enjoy some chit chat under the sunny weather. After that it was time for work, like in any good weekend. I worked on my math set (determinants), and studied for physics and chemistry, where we are studying RC circuits and kinetic theory, respectively. Surprisingly, the experience from being here for just over 6 months has already made us very efficient workers, and early into the evening I had finished my work. We decided to go out as we hadn’t done so in a while. Searching for a place to dine in Downtown LA was the toughest problem of the day, as a lot of places close early on Sunday. Eventually we serendipitously arrived to the Staples Center and its surroundings, and this place was packed with people and (expensive) fancy restaurants. We chose a very nice Mexican restaurant,Rosa Mexicano, which had its waiters make the most delicious guacamole right before your eyes (of course I took note of the recipe!). The place definitely exceeded expectations in terms of taste. After paying the check, however, our pockets grew holes in them so we headed back to campus – stopping on the way for chocolate milkshakes at Canter’s, a big temptation. The night ended with a funny story telling conversation on the Olive Walk, and the weather was great.

And the price of going to Hawaii for a week was that I fell a little behind on classwork.

Hey y’all! Hope you had a fantastic 3 day weekend and a lovely Valentine’s Day! I sure did. This was one of the best and busiest weekends I’ve had all term! YAY! :D Friday night, I attended my good friend’s going away party at the Tolman House (gorgeous venue on campus that visiting professors, etc stay in). It was a costume “Geek or Chic” party—Andrew and I showed up as “chic” (but we’re still big geeks lol). The party involved a lot of food–yay for Filipino food, how I’ve missed you!, mingling with grad students/post-docs and a fun karaoke party towards the end. Couldn’t help but to get up and sing some tunes….

Well, the past week consisted of a very interesting assortment of runs! We ran in sunshine, we ran in pouring rain (and almost thunder), I missed a turn and split from the group which resulted in running through Old Town Pasadena, today we stopped twice at a grocery store and did core exercises in the carpeted hallway of an apartment building, and tomorrow is our first meet of the season! Here’s a view of the pool (and you can see Mia way in in the center).

So as I alluded to in my last post, we cooked Italian food tonight in class! Now I’m fourth-generation Italian (my beloved Nana came over from Sicily in 1914, and my other great-grandparents at different times), so I do know a thing or two about Italian cooking. I was trying to channel my grandmas and my mom when I was in class, so I hope that helped my group out in making our dishes! We made lots and lots of pasta, which was of course good, except I would have liked to have cooked more meaty dishes. That’s because in Italy, pasta isn’t ever really a main course, but instead a “Primo Piatto” (first dish). My favorites are chicken saltimbocca (recipe below) and the perennial Italian-American favorite, chicken parmesan. So that would have been nice, but, alas, we spent the whole night making sauces.

Happy Friday everyone! I’ve got an exciting 3-day weekend ahead of me, which includes Valentine’s Day (one of my fave holidays!) Nowadays, I give about a normal campus tour once a week (at 11:15 if you’re interested in taking a tour here!) and one special tour a week in which I give a tour to a group of students from a high school.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen that much food for three people EVER in my life before…Last night, I went to dinner at Dumpling Master with Dannah and Tom Mannion. As food reviewers for the Tech, he wanted to take us out and show us somewhere that he really likes and wants more Techers to go to. Well, he’s definitely got us sold! We met up with him at dinner time and he drove us through the windy streets of Pasadena/San Marino to get to the restaurant, down in Monterey Park. We knew it was legit when we saw the signs were all in English and Chinese. So after we got seated (being a Monday, it was not crowded at all), we let Tom work his magic and order us our dinner. When he prefaces ordering with “Do you guys mind taking home leftovers?” you know it’s going to be a lot! Then, he showed us how to make a more traditional dumpling sauce - mostly vinegar, with a bit of sesame oil, soy sauce, and hot sauce to taste. Very different from the sweeter ones you get at the standard Chinese take-out, and it really went well with the dumplings! Speaking of dumplings, look at our spread!

Hey Everyone! It’s Tuesday—and I am currently still recovering from the weekend and Monday.I had a wonderful weekend that included shopping in Glendale, watching a theater production and girl’s night in Hollywood, ballet class and Superbowl Sunday.

Last week, I was in Hawaii on the joint Rob Phillips (Caltech)/Steve Quake (Stanford) lab retreat.

TGIF!!!! I am sooo happy it’s the weekend!–I am too excited! I’ve got an action packed weekend..which I will definitely be blogging about on Monday. I had a rough week—I had some pressure systems safety training at JPL, that intense set due on Wednesday, yoga and 2 dance classes last night (I’m so sore at the moment!), and meetings with a professor and my E102 group to prepare for our midterm presentation. On my way across campus—I noticed that a filming crew has completely taken over the Athenaeum (remember my post on the fancy shmancy dinner I had there with Caltech Alumni Donors?) There are a ton of filming crews that come out periodically to our campus throughout the year (grrr—its frustrating when I find out as I am giving my tour across campus or am headed to class and find out it’s blocked off). Greek (that ABC show) and Numb3rs (its based on our campus!) film regularly—There are also scenes from The Wedding Planner, Ugly Betty (both at the Athenaeum), Legally Blonde (Millikan Pond in the opening scene!) that were filmed on the Caltech campus. Our campus is just so close to Hollywood, and picturesque, and pretty calm/quiet….its no wonder filming here is like a dream for them. My dream?–to be an extra!!! please please please?!?!? hehehe Well–I did make my official debut on TV last year, when I got casted—as the Captain of the Caltech Team on the game show, Family Feud. We competed with about 7 other universities from around the country. It was so much fun! …and I still have the recording on the DVR back home :D Here are few pictures I snapped as I walked by the Ath….

I think I am starting to sound like Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter…After being on all my interviews (save one, which I have in a couple of weeks), I am now in the waiting phase. February is the “magic month” for many schools, when they tell you of your fate. I am officially waiting on 7 schools to get back to me, ranging from anytime between now and March 15th. This is nothing like college admissions, when at least they tell you when they’ll let you know! And you know how the info is coming, too - e-mail or snail mail. At this stage of the game, I may get a phone call, I might receive an e-mail, or even could open up some old-fashioned snail mail.

<span style=”font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”;”><span style=”font-size: 12pt; font-family: “Times New Roman”;”> Life is full of surprises and Caltech can sure convince you of this fact if you are having any doubts. Ten years ago, I spent the last night of the 20th century on the stage of San Francisco Ballet Opera House participating in the company’s production of the Nutcracker. At that time I would never have thought that I would be celebrating the coming of 2010 in the audience of San Francisco Symphony thinking mostly about my upcoming second term at Caltech.

For those of you unfamiliar with Spanish, that means “cook,” and it’s an order! As you could probably guess, this week’s cooking assignment was the food of our neighbor to the south, Mexico. Well, in reality it was a Mexican-American fusion, because my girlfriend (from Mexico) explained to me the finer differences between what we cooked and the food she’s familiar with.So what did we cook in our Mexican(-American) feast? We started off with enchiladas (which I learned means the tortilla is dipped in chili), and each group made a different one - we made a so-called “entomatada” because it was dipped in a tomato sauce. We also made a Chile Relleno casserole (because stuffing chiles is still a bit too advanced for us), which was good. Lastly, we made different types of salsa (ours was a very spicy green one!) and guacamole. I don’t eat avocados, but everyone else in my group kept “tasting for flavor” - suspicious, because after tasting almost 1/4 of it was gone! Other dishes prepared by “the kitchen” (read: the more experienced chefs) included chile verde and quesadillas (one with mango and pomegranate - SO unexpectedly delicious)! ¿Tienes hambre ahora? Pues, miras estas fotos y tendrás más hambre ;). (Translation: are you hungry now? Well, look at these pictures and you’ll be even more hungry!)

Last night was one of those nights where I was asking myself a lot of questions…

February is when it’s at. This past weekend we had the Batman-themed Lloyd Interhouse (Interhouse is a party that each house throws every year for all the other houses to partake in). This weekend we have midterms and Ricketts Hovse initiations (nothing like balancing work with a little fun); the following weekend we have the Ricketts Interhouse; fast forward another seven days and it’s Parent Day Weekend (I can’t wait to see you mom and dad), and finally, the last weekend I will also be visited by a loved one. Tell me if that doesn’t sound like an eventful month. I should have a lot of pictures from the upcoming weekends.

Hello!So for those of you following already with my “Senior Spotlight” blog, I don’t need to introduce myself. But for the rest of you just seeing a cool new blog on Caltech Admissions and wondering what it’s all about, welcome! I’m Andrew Freddo, a senior who has the privilege this term of taking Cooking Basics. It’s conducted/taught by Tom Mannion, who is such an AMAZING resource! In addition to this class, he is a go-to guy for almost whatever you want, frequently opens up his home for students to use for events (like the Super Bowl and March Madness).

Sally is my lovely roommate. A week ago, a few of Sally’s best friends started conspiring to surprise Sally on her birthday, which is February 9. For scheduling reasons, we decided that we’d throw her a surprise birthday party on January 30, yesterday.

Good morning everyone! This morning, we had a fake ditch day in Fleming House. Andrew and I have been planning out or “Price is Right”-themed stack all week…and woke up early to set it up and awaken the underclassmen along with the other seniors in our house. So here is our fake ditch day stack 2 of the year in pictures…

The Food Representative of our House, Noah, is taking the term off so I asked him if I could sub in his stead – he said yes. I really enjoy all types of food and discovering healthy and delicious combinations, so I figured I could learn and do more by trying out the food rep position. My first meeting was Monday during lunchtime. The committee consists of theCDSManagers and each House’s representative. Basically, we run through the previous week’s dinner menu and each House’s representative relays the comments of their fellow House members on the taste and provocativeness of each meal. (The fresh oven-baked cookies always get five star reviews.) Once this process is over, the panel is opened for any other suggestions and/or comments.

So I actually made it back to California last Sunday! After two long weeks of interviewing at various places in the Eastern Time Zone, I flew back into LAX to the RAIN! I will not go on at length about that because you can read about the craziness in the other blogs, but let me say it was not what I was looking for after leaving a chilly, rainy day in NJ. Fortunately, we had off for MLK Day, so I was able to catch up and unpack before going back to class. And my did I go back to class?! OK I only went to one (Polymer Chemistry), but I was totally confused. I guess that’s what happens when you miss two weeks!I then was immersed in my TA’ing job. This term I’m TA’ing Ch 4a (an introductory chemistry lab). It’s fun to see the young chem majors get their first taste of the lab environment. And there are 6 TA’s total in the class of 20 or so. So in any given lab period there are 3 TA’s for about 10 students. What personal attention we give!

This past Saturday a group of us woke up early to go on a day trip in the Zipcar. Sebastian, an international from Costa Rica, contributed some deliciousgallo pintoto our breakfast. (You should really click on that link, it looks so good.) Then we were off the Getty Center, a pre-20th century art museum and research institute. My favorite sighting was Gauguin’sHead With Horns; and I was also very pleased to see a piece by Toledo’s esteemed El Greco. Aside from their collection, the Getty’s modern minimalist architecture is astounding. I will spoil you with three pictures this entry, but I won’t expose pictures of the Getty itself as you have to experience it on your own. However, this is the view from one of the Getty’s gardens: After the Getty, we went to Beverly Hills.We walked into Ralph Lauren to look for a nice sport coat, and the cheapest one we found was marked at $4000.Although we couldn’t afford any of it, we reassured ourselves that in a few years these expenses would represent change from our pockets.In short, the Hills is a beautiful piece of LA filled with mansions, high-end stores, neat buildings, sporty cars, and very tall palm trees. Check out this bad boy we stumbled upon (From left to right: me, Dev)

Good news everybody: It stopped raining! Phew..I was starting to think I wasn’t in California anymore :P The week went pretty well for me…I was pretty productive and was able to start my weekend on Wednesday afternoon since all my work wrapped up in the beginning of the week. In the past week, I’ve been running experiments with my aluminum blocks at JPL, invited to the Athenaeum for lunch, gave another tour in the rain and read more freshman admission applications. As always, I had my ballet class on Sunday morning. We have just started learning choreography for the piece we are doing for the show in April—a piece taken from the ballet, Carmen. So FUN! We are using fans as props since the story of the ballet is set in Spain. I will say, it is pretty darn difficult to be aware of a prop in your hand while dancing…I’m not too experienced with handling a fan either. But it is exactly why we’re learning now….

It hasn’t stopped raining since Monday. It’s kind of inconvenient because campus doesn’t have drainage so the walkways flood somewhat. But it’s definitely fun to get a different taste of campus. Yesterday I was walking back from chemistry lecture when it started to pour. I tried to avoid getting wet, but then my friend Rocio and I just decided to make a run for it. I also went to the Paseo Mall and bought a nice Italian coat for the cold. Today I got soaked again on the way back from chemistry recitation, but it’s always great consolation warming up in my alley’s shower (the largest shower shower in Ricketts.) The weekend was awesome. We took the Zipcar out to Santa Monica. We found parking at the Santa Monica Pier and had dinner at Bubba Gump. Afterwards we walked Promenade Street, famous for its shops, white lighting and dinosaur-shaped bushes. Once we covered all of Promenade, we got back in the car for a one hour expedition to Mount Wilson. I had never driven up a mountain before, it was exhilarating. The road meandered so much, and I forced myself not to look to the side until we finally got to the top. We finally reached the peak and parked on a side road; we got out of the car and walked to the edge to admire the view:

For some reason, SoCal will be experiencing rainstorms all this week. O_O Sure enough, as soon as Monday of our 3-day weekend came along–the heavy rain hit! Rain or shine, I enjoyed my weekend nonetheless. I caught up with some good friends, hit up hip lounges in Downtown, watched some football (NOOOO CHARGERS!!!) and had ballet rehearsal.

Wow! This week was awesome. Let’s start with Wednesday, when I took a walk around campus with my fellow skurve Chris Estrada. We went to Millikan Library (the tallest building in Pasadena), and first stopped on the fifth floor. The fifth floor and its two neighbors have the nicest layouts, very modern office cubicles. Then we elevated to the top floor (9th) to see the panoramic view of Tech, Pasadena, Downtown LA, and the other surroundings. The timing was perfect, it was sunset. Also, the windows of Millikan have rounded edges, which make you feel like you’re looking out of a submarine, very retro. Our last stop in Millikan was the basement, where we found the greatest collection of reference books. There was a star atlas from 1925 that was made in Germany, a collection of volumes of immigrants to the United States, another set of volumes of Facts on File, so many interesting things. I even read some books in Chinese – well, more like flipped through the pages. It was so strange but fascinating to realize that there are millions of books written in completely different alphabets and characters. The point is, there is so much interesting reading material in just that basement to keep a person from being bored for years and years.

I am currently blogging from the comforts of the Campus Inn, on the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor. It’s been a long week so far, but hanging in there (in the true interview season spirit!). This visit to Michigan has been nice so far - cold and there’s snow on the ground, but it’s definitely bearable. The environment is also totally different from Tufts, where I was earlier this week! Both are really great programs with super-nice people. But what wanted to let you all know was about how much of a KLUTZ I can be at times! So after my interview at Tufts I thought “OK time to change and then rush to the airport!” But I had to run down a flight of stairs carrying my carry-on bag with my change of clothes in it. In my rush, guess what I did? Yup, I FELL DOWN THE STAIRS!! In my “professional” medical opinion I twisted my ankle. Luckily, it was only four stairs and I wasn’t carrying anything breakable like my computer (which may not heal like my ankle is trying to!). So after this spill, I almost gave up in despair but I had to push through to change, get to the airport, and make it to Michigan. Luckily the flight attendants gave me ice and I was able to put my foot up almost the whole time, but I was totally relieved to get to my hotel room.

I look forward to Thursdays…not because it means that it’s one day from Friday and the end of the week, but because every Thursday night I have Jazz class and Hip-Hop class! :D As long as I can remember, I have always been dancing…I absolutely adore performing (I mean, I’m Filipino after all!) and am addicted to the rush dancing brings me. Dance is my main extracurricular activity, since I don’t play on any sports teams at Tech…but I will absolutely defend that dancers are some of the strongest and disciplined athletes out there. RESPECT! I danced on my high school’s dance team and naturally continued it at Caltech–I’ve been dancing for Caltech my entire 4 years here, and have been involved in everything from ballroom to bellydance to jazz, hip hop and ballet. I just can’t get enough, I guess! I think it’s the main thing people know me for around campus…other than being a food critic and a tour guide. “Dannah?—she’s probably dancing….”

I look forward to Thursdays…not because it means that it’s one day from Friday and the end of the week, but because every Thursday night I have Jazz class and Hip-Hop class! :D As long as I can remember, I have always been dancing…I absolutely adore performing (I mean, I’m Filipino after all!) and am addicted to the rush dancing brings me. Dance is my main extracurricular activity, since I don’t play on any sports teams at Tech…but I will absolutely defend that dancers are some of the strongest and disciplined athletes out there. RESPECT! I danced on my high school’s dance team and naturally continued it at Caltech–I’ve been dancing for Caltech my entire 4 years here, and have been involved in everything from ballroom to bellydance to jazz, hip hop and ballet. I just can’t get enough, I guess! I think it’s the main thing people know me for around campus…other than being a food critic and a tour guide. “Dannah?—she’s probably dancing….”

Last week ended on a great note. On Friday we had our first lecture with David Politzer (he won the Nobel in physics!) and it was amazing. The lecture consisted of a series of demonstrations on electric fields. My favorite was theKelvin Dropper. It was very cool to be able to see things like these in action and understand what was going on. I can say that I’m very glad to have picked the practical track for physics because I’ve learned why the window on a microwave has a black mesh with see-through circles on it – and other very interesting things like that.

Hope you all had a great weekend! I definitely did!…some highlights: In-N-Out, hanging out with friends, spending the day in Old Pas, enjoying the nightlife in Downtown Los Angeles, and ballet class. Now, it’s back to work…

Last weekend, roughly 25 friends and I piled into five cars and headed towards the very cold mountains of Mammoth, California for the Avery House ski trip. Did you think that California was nothing but sunshine? Surprise! Pasadena is a balmy 70 degrees Farenheit in the winter, but it will snow in Mammoth on Independence Day.

Here’s an understatement: Fluid Dynamics is busy! In a month, we will perform at Absolut, an a cappella competition with some of the best groups in SoCal. (Ever heard of last year’s international collegiate a cappella champions, the SoCal Vocals? Well, they’re competing at Absolut. Oh great.) A few weekends after, we’ll be hosting our annual Valentine’s Day concert called Love Sucks, where all performing a cappella groups sing at least one break-up song.

Hello!I haven’t been on in a while, but I’ve definitely been busy. Ever since ringing in 2010 with my family, I’ve been in full med school interview mode! I had two this week in Manhattan - Mount Sinai and Columbia. I enjoyed visiting both schools and, of course, New York. At Sinai, I met two Caltech ‘09 alums and it was really fun to catch up. When I asked about what was different for them now that they’re in medical school, what really impressed them was how well our Honor Code works! If you didn’t already know, our Honor Code essentially states that “no member of the Caltech community will take advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.” The most direct implication of this is the lack of proctored exams (if you remember from our exam week posts here and here). It’s really great to have that trust at Caltech, and no one takes advantage of the system because it is such a small group of people. Of course, it’s not the same everywhere, so in medical school it was a big adjustment for them to have proctored exams in class. Besides that, they’re loving medical school, and it really seems that Caltech has prepared them for what usually is a really challenging transition! That assures me that it will be a smooth one for me, too! However, as you have seen on the other blogs, our winter trimester actually began this week! So classes have started, and I haven’t even set foot outside of the Eastern Time Zone! How have I managed? I contacted all my professors and have been able to stay in the loop, so even though I’m missing lectures I’m not falling behind (too much…). I’ve found, through meeting students at other schools, how flexible our professors are at Caltech. There are horror stories from other schools of students missing exams and almost failing classes because of interviews and inflexible professors. I could never imagine this happening at Tech - everyone is really willing to work with you if something comes up so you stay on track. Overall, these other students have encountered some big obstacles to their classes that aren’t even possible at Caltech, because our administration and faculty are so great! Well, time for me to go back to work… I have two more interviews this week (at Tufts and University of Michigan). But then next week I’ll be back to the 70+ degree weather!