Happy Friday everyone! I had a fairly hectic first week of term…I prepared all week for an all day off campus interview I had on Thursday. I met with about 6 different managers of a department and gave a 45 minute technical presentation to the group on some work I had done during one of my internships. The day started at 8am and ended around 5pm….I definitely crashed as soon as I got back to Tech! Earlier this week, I also went up to JPL to work on my thesis (which I will be doing for two mornings of the week). I worked in the balloon lab since it had a huge table where I could lay out all my materials for some pattern cutting. I spent about 2 hours cutting up stainless steel sheets and high temperature fabric to wrap the insulation for more testing in the oven. It wasn’t too hard, though I got a few nicks on my hands from the steel, and was feeling a bit sore in my hands after all that cutting. But all of us Techers know that that’s the price we all pay for getting our research :)

At school we have a service called Zipcar, which some of you might have heard of. The way it works is once you sign up, you are given a card that grants you access to one of the two Zipcars on campus (we have a Prius and a Matrix, nice cars). Then you can go online and make your reservation for any time slot that you need to use the car (for a small charge per hour). So after a long wait, I finally got my card and I took the Matrix out for a ride with some friends to our local Target. We got a lot of grocery shopping done, and I got the chance to buy anti-viral tissues for my cold.

Hi guys, Now that I’m back at Tech I’ll be blogging for the winter term and I’m excited to share my next 10 weeks with you. I’ll begin by talking about the winter break.

Happy New Year everybody!! I had a wonderful holiday break—and am now back at Caltech for winter term. Things already seem much different from fall term—I have so much more free time and I am less stressed about coursework (woohoo for underloading!). I cannot tell you all how EXCITED i am about 2009 coming to a close and 2010 being here. I have been waiting for this year since uhhh, forever–I am graduating in a few months! Looking back, 2009 was a good year though there were definitely some very difficult trials; but I learned so much last year and was given numerous opportunities and experiences.

Welcome to 2010! Let me be yet another person to wish you a Happy New Year, and I hope that this one is happy and healthy for you. This one is especially a big one because I’ve been waiting for this number for many years. Maybe you have been, too! I know I was looking forward to 2006, when I graduated high school (I may be dating myself now…). My advice for these last 5-6 months of high school: enjoy your time at home, with your friends, and in your hometown. I’ll be taking my own advice, except I’ll be making the most out of my last 6 months in SoCal/Pasadena! There’s so much to do, and I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface.OK enough of me giving advice and looking ahead, this post is about “Looking Back,” so let’s see what else I did this year! Rose Bowl: Another event giving me the opportunity to spend time with my House was our trip to the Rose Bowl. You know, where they play that kind of important football game every January 1st? Yup, we get it all to ourselves for an afternoon to play football, chill, and explore the historic stadium!

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! One of the things my family takes for granted here in SD during the holidays is the popular Christmas Card Lane. We live less than a mile away---and have to drive right past it to get out of our neighborhood...so we see it everyday, every holiday season..so to us, it's nothing super extraordinary anymore. But for you all who aren't from here...:) Christmas Card Lane is a holiday light display that snakes through a bunch of residential neighborhoods in Rancho Penasquitos in SD. People come from all over SD county (and out of town too!) to walk the streets and see the beautifully decorated houses with large (plywood) Christmas cards on every front lawn. It is really a spectacular sight to see...There are many people walking the streets, caroling, and even horse drawn carriages that are brought out at night. So if you're ever in SD during the holiday season...definitely see it---it's up usually right after Thanksgiving until New Year's!

Happy Break! Ahhh, I’ve had a busy long weekend. Between Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and a day trip to Atlantic City with my family, the last thing on my mind has been school and schoolwork. But now that things have calmed down before ringing in the New Year, I figured now is as good a time as any to think about what has happened in this year of my life. It’s the last full year that I’ll be a student at Caltech! Never thought of it like that before, but now I’m getting a bit anxious about graduation in 6 months! So here are some of my highlights from this year: Rose Parade: I rang in the New Year in Pasadena! My family and I wanted to see the Rose Parade, since I go to school just around the corner! So we talked to my friend, Diane, who has lived in Pasadena all of her life, and got our seats for the parade. It was so exciting to be in such a familiar place, but see it in a whole new light.

Apologies to our dedicated readers for the delay of these posts! The internet connection was pretty shaky and I didn’t know if things were loading on the server, because they certainly weren’t loading on my laptop. I’m currently sitting at Dulles Airport, happily connected to their free wifi. Where have we been? The comprehensive list is as follows: Wednesday was our free morning/noon, and many of us went to see the monuments and memorials. In the afternoon, we headed over to the Department of Energy to talk with Steve Koonin, who actually was at Caltech to give a talk earlier during this term. The National Academy of Sciences was next, and there were equations carved into the floor: and where there was an amazing DNA staircase [extrapolate the double helix]…

Hello, there, from chilly, snowed-in NJ!If you are in the northeast, you’re probably snowed in right now. If you’re not…well, then you’re probably warmer than I am right now! I’m enjoying the beginning of my break. What have I been doing? RELAXING! After such a busy term and all, Caltech students really enjoy the breaks so they can spend time with high school friends and family over the Holidays. How have I been relaxing? Well, I LOVE Christmas, so I have been busy baking Christmas cookies for my family’s Christmas Eve celebration on Thursday! Essentially all of Saturday was spent baking, listening to Christmas music, and watching the snow fall. Such a perfect day! The day ended with a snowed-in movie night with my parents. We set up a fire in the fireplace, lit up the tree, and popped in my favorite Christmas movie of all time: “The Year Without a Santa Claus.” Look it up here! Yes, its clay-mation, but it’s SO fun! And it was a nice way to keep me warm on such a chilly night (I think it went down to 20 degrees or something!).

Hi Everyone! I am really enjoying my well-deserved break after term ended….San Diego is absolutely GORGEOUS during the wintertime (as always!). There is definitely no snow, but there is a change in the winds and it gets a bit chilly at night. This past week and weekend, I’ve been just hanging out with the family, doing some shopping, and enjoying all the downtime.

Two bloggers in D.C.!

Firstly, pictures from yesterday:

I am back in San Diego for winter break–three weeks of relaxing and celebrating the holidays! But don’t worry—I will continue to blog…

Ahhhh, the joys of being done with Finals’ Week! As I mentioned previously, I was pretty lucky about having a chill schedule, and took my lone final on Thursday after deciding that there was no more point in re-reading my notes yet again - it was open-book anyway! The exam was a bit more challenging than I expected, however. But I’m not too worried, because a) it’s senior year, and b) it’s over and there’s nothing more I can do about it.As I said before, one of the best things about Finals’ Week is the FLEXIBILITY you have in making the schedule! Because (almost) everything is take-home, that means you can take your exam any time of day (or night!) you want to. That gave me more time to enjoy being with my friends, whether it was studying (see Dannah’s post) or seeing what SoCal has to offer! I got the chance to head over to Glendale (about 20 minutes by car) to the Americana at Brand. This outdoor shopping area was beautifully lit up for Christmas and has amazing stores, choreographed fountains, and restaurants. Too bad I forgot my camera! But fortunately, I still took pictures with my phone to show you what delicious Japanese food my friend and I ate at Katsuya! Yum!**

Looks like I won’t be experiencing my first snowfall in DC. Most of yesterday was flying, which was about as interesting as a 5 hour flight can be. The thing that stands out most to me was the fact that there were no foot rests! Although we got to DC safe and sound, so I guess it’s not too much of a loss.

My feet are telling me that they want a massage and a rest right now…

*As an amateur photographer, I find that pictures do indeed speak louder than words. * Day 1: Welcome to Dulles International Airport, and thank you for flying United.

*I’m leavin’ on a jet plane, **Don’t know when I’ll be back again * Vienna Teng - one of my favorite folk/pop artists - does a good cover of this song, originally by John Denver.

Even though winter break has already begun, I have stayed behind for a few days at Caltech instead of rushing back home to San Diego. I decided to work at JPL Monday and Tuesday to squeeze in an experiment before coming back in January. Nothing too crazy though–I ran a test on some insulation material in an oven for about 4 hours on Monday…and in between checking it, I read through one of my favorite magazines (I have 4 waiting in my queue to read since I have been too busy with work and finals to read them!) Setting up my experiment….

Hi everyone! Debbie and I are incredibly excited for our DC Science Policy Trip to start, although we need to prepare and pack first. I’ve been in Southern California all my life, so I know I am not ready to deal with the harsh temperatures of the East Coast. We plan on spending an entire day shopping on Monday, just for the four days we will be in DC. (We need an excuse to spend our paychecks, after all!) At the moment finals have just ended, so we’re all just trying to relax.

I JUST FINISHED FINALS!!!!!

Last night, Andrew and I decided to wake up early this morning and head over to Starbucks next to campus to study for our last finals. When I got there, I bumped into our good friend Ankita….who was also there to study for a final.

Hello, there!I am glad to give you a mid-week finals update - I’ve been able to work down my list of things to do, and now what remains is studying for my BMB/Bi/Ch 170a final and writing my Bi 180 report. So I’m feeling pretty good about it all right now. However, that’s enough about me, but let me tell you about one of Caltech’s AWESOME traditions during Finals’ Week

This is my second year serving on the Freshman Admissions Committee. The committee has 16 student readers who are undergrads (sophomores, juniors and seniors) that serve as readers for the incoming undergraduate applications. The admissions committee is comprised of undergrads, faculty and admissions staff who read every application that comes through the office.

Hey Everyone! I had a long day today–with final presentations for E/ME105, poster session and celebration dinner.

So, you may all be wondering…what’s it like to be a senior on Finals’ Week? What have my Finals’ Weeks been like throughout my time at Caltech? It should be important to note that, unlike semester schools, we have three finals weeks throughout the year. This may sound like extra work for us, but remember: a lot of those other schools have two “midterm” tests in their classes, so it all evens out :).I will be honest with you, the title of this post is a bit of a misnomer - I only have 1 final, 2 sets, 1 report, and 1 essay this week. That may sound like a lot (and indeed, it’s more than I’ve had any week this term!), but I’d rather have things I can work on at my leisure than exams. And the best thing about Finals’ Week? NO CLASS!! That means I can schedule my time however I like to get things done! Some students take exams better in the middle of the night, others at the break of dawn; some like to take exams with days to spare before the due date (overachievers!), others like to push the deadline. Essentially, you can do whatever you want to do, as long as you get everything done! So I will confess - I’m a BIG planner. Each time this part of the term rolls around, I break out my white board and make my grand “Finals’ Week [Insert Term Here]” plan. Well, this term ain’t no different!

Right now, I am blogging from the SFL library on the first floor…and I probably shouldn’t be…

I was very fortunate to have been invited as a special guest at a small donor appreciation dinner at the Athenaeum this past Wednesday night.

Hey Everyone! This is going to be a short post..but I wanted to share my excitement with you all!—our Guatemalan partners are here in Pasadena! We met for lunch at Chandler, and then went to class today…which was a bit weird..cause I’m so used to seeing them on the video conference screen as opposed to sitting right next to me! Next, we gotta start working on our final project and presentation!

Well, readers, I hope you all gave thanks this past Thursday! We’re all here another year to stuff ourselves with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, CRANBERRY SAUCE, and PUMPKIN PIE (I wonder what my favorite things are in that list…). But most importantly, Thanksgiving is about FAMILY. Unfortunately, I was unable to go home for the holiday (but, you say, I was just there! and in that respect you are correct).But there was no need to worry, since many Techers stay on campus for the weekend. Each House usually puts on a Thanksgiving feast for everyone who’s around! Definitely a great way to catch up with your House “family.” However, this post will not be about Thanksgiving, since that would be too cliché. It will be about the THREE DAYS AFTERWARDS! Now what would be blog-worthy about the days after the Day of Thanks? First and foremost…BLACK FRIDAY! Yes, I was among the masses trying to jump-start the economy on that all-important shopping day. I didn’t get up at 5 AM to hit the stores, but went out for a leisurely afternoon with my good friend, Lisa. I rented a Zipcar for the afternoon (look it up - they just started a rental program at Caltech and it’s only $8 an hour!) and we headed to the nearby Santa Anita Mall. Let’s just say…I found some really amazing deals. From $13 TV show seasons on DVD to half-price sweaters at Abercrombie, I definitely got to shop till I dropped!

Hey Everyone! I am currently in San Diego for the Thanksgiving weekend—and feeling good! It’s so great to be home for a few days to see my family, relax and sleep in my own bed before going back to conquer the last week of classes and finals.

**Sorry for the delay - busy since coming back from my last interview! So I’ll give an update on what I’ve been doing since then!Last week I was at UMDNJ - Robert Wood Johnson. If you’re from NJ, you know what I’m talking about. Otherwise, it’s a medical school in my home state! It was nice to take the plane into Newark Airport and be picked up by my parents. It ALSO was nice to catch up on my sleep in my own bed for the night! There’s something about the sheets you have at home that you can never replicate in a dorm. And then you can wake up whenever you want the next day, which always helps! I got to have a lazy morning, and then headed up to New Brunswick to the hotel - the Hyatt Regency! What nice accommodations!

I just woke up….after sleeping for about 18 hours. I think it’s called exhaustion…

…but someone’s gotta do it!If you haven’t had a chance to check out The Tech (Caltech’s student newspaper), I would go here and read up on some Caltech current events! But in addition to that, I would read the column that Dannah and I write. What do we seniors have to write about? Being old? Being off of Core? Retrospectives on our time at Tech? How about none of the above! Dannah and I, you see, are the Official Food Reviewers of Caltech! How did we get this prestigious title? Well…like many things at Tech, we just asked! Frosh year, we e-mailed the editor of the paper and asked if we could start a new food column, and she graciously allowed us to start eating out on the newspaper’s dime! Well, it’s not all fun and games (though mostly it is), we do have to branch out to new restaurants that no one has ever set foot in before. It’s exciting, though, because we can offer suggestions to our fellow students where they should go in Pasadena. There’s so much to eat here that our four years cannot exhaust the options! From taco trucks to expensive sit-down restaurants, what a variety we have! If you keep holed up in your room each weekend (when we do not have food on campus) and order pizza, well…I don’t think I could have respect for you, honestly. Within 30 minutes of walking, you can go around the world, from American to Afghanistan, and it’s a delicious tour! So this week, we took our expert palates to Tea Spots, a new Boba (Bubble Tea) and snack restaurant not too far from campus. We take our job very seriously, and usually don’t bring anyone along to see us work our magic. However, today you can get a look at us in action! Enjoy!

At the end of my SURF, we’d made quite a bit of progress. We had a working prototype which we coulddemonstrate! My mentor arranged for us to present at the Smart Grid Symposium, which was sponsored by Southern California Edison. They were interested in our work because they would like to be able to protect the electric grid in the event of an earthquake.

Sooooooo, I’m done with interview número cinco!I have returned from my cross-country trek to what many call one of the meccas of medicine: Johns Hopkins University! It was my first trip to Baltimore since I was a baby, but I was very excited to see both the school and the city! It was a bit of a shock at first, though, because I left my sunny California morning to arrive in Baltimore on a rainy night. Fortunately, no one was delayed, so all of the interviewees got to meet up in time for a late dinner at an Irish Pub! They had half-price entrees, and I enjoyed my bacon cheeseburger after sitting on the plane for so many hours! After dinner, I got to chat with my host, Scott, and his roommates! They all live in a HOUSE! Like…a real HOUSE! That’s so cool, and reminds me about how I’m growing up after graduating college, and I wonder if I’m ready…but it’s totally exciting! So I slept on the couch, which was not as bad as you may expect, actually more comfortable than many beds I’ve been on, and then woke up at the crack of dawn (6:45 AM) to get ready for the interviews. Coming from high school, you may be thinking “6:45 AM, not too bad”…but now I feel that anything before 9 AM is crazy-early since my schedule has shifted at Caltech. Fortunately, I am a morning person, which has helped me get through the early wake-up calls.

Yup–you read right…I was a roadie for a day for THIRD EYE BLIND this past Saturday!! They came to play a concert for our campus November 14th!! Woke up early on Saturday to volunteer some man power to help set-up the stage and unload the equipment trucks. Was super psyched to see that the band’s tour bus was parked right outside, across the street from my dorm room!!

So sorry for not posting in a while—I literally have been dealing with a packed schedule of homework sets, study groups, field trips, classes and crossing off my lengthy to-do list…This week especially, I have been off campus almost as much as I was on campus..hooray for field trips!

Hello, there! Another busy past few days - just got in from Duke at midnight last night and it was a packed visit (well…when are these visits NOT packed?). So busy, in fact, that I’m not really even sure what day of the week it is these days, just sort of go to whatever classes my calendar tells me to go to…

Hooray for being done with midterms week! I took my CDS 110 midterm last night in the library…wasn’t too bad.I actually think that midterm was the last I will ever take IN MY LIFE….since 2nd and 3rd term all I am really taking is my thesis and 2 other classes that don’t have written midterm exams. I guess, that doesn’t include the finals I will have to take in 5 weeks at the end of this term..but come on, it’s awesome to think that I will NEVER have to take a midterm EVER again! :D

Hey all, As I wrote about last time, my race last Saturday was the final one for the season. With that, I will be wrapping up my blog with this post. I think I’m supposed to do some kind of reminiscence or whatnot, but I’d like to keep that short, because I did manage to get those pictures taken! (Well actually, a super-cool ChemE friend of mine took them because he’s that awesome.) Looking back on this season, I’m mildly amused. Due to conflicts and other circumstances, I only ran three of the six scheduled races this year. {Last year, I ran every one.} However, this 50% participation rate is not too bad. I joined the team for the experience of being with a group of smart people who like running, not to do races. Sure, racing is good - and I’m pretty competitive when I want to be!- but I’d rather enjoy being with my teammates than be caught up in the race. When I started off, I had pretty normal hopes for how things would go. However, my workload soon caught up with me, and I struggled some to find a balance. Thankfully, things got better when I started running on my own 3 days a week. So this season was a learning experience, I suppose. I like having those, even though they aren’t pleasant when they occur. Therefore, I’m pretty content with the way things went.

The time has come—midterms week is here! But being a senior, I only have one midterm test to take and a midterm presentation to put together for E/ME 105….thank goodness. Sorry frosh and s’mores…but we’ve all been there–having 3 to 5 tests to take. I feel your pain! This week has been pretty busy for me with my thesis objective outline due, having two on-campus interviews and a meeting with the freshman admissions committee. I have been running around campus, and being in a different place every hour. But everyone who knows me well, knows that I like to keep myself busy.