Hong Kong is indeed known for shopping, maybe because their history is not as large, long, and as impressive as China’s. While they do have amazing shopping complexes, with a lot of high end brands with stores all over, there are similarly many street markets. You can find a lot of small stalls in side streets, as well as stalls that set up during the evening and night specifically. A lot of the side streets have small stalls that sell fresh produce, all for very cheap (and most likely locally grown as well). It’s very interesting to see cheap prices for the foods when I am used to super expensive organic locally grown products.
Hong Kong is a really pretty city. It doesn’t feel very different from many other American or European cities, mainly because it is so young (only a couple hundred years). In addition, it is mostly the city itself that is an attraction. There are a few temples that are nearby, but they are actually very young, with their relics being from the 20th century for the most part. Instead, I saw a lot of ads for the Asian gambling capital, Macau. Although we didn’t go, I’ve heard that it’s very much like Las Vegas, with a lot more shopping, like Hong Kong.
As we went during Christmas, there were many different decorations for the holidays. Both commercial and city-sponsored displays and shows are on during the whole of December. Hong Kong is also well known for their light shows, of which there are multiple during the holiday season. In general, they’re put on by malls trying to attract customers for the season. And all of the high end malls have extravagant decorations for Christmas, ranging from tinsel and rocking horse displays to those made by professional artists, all in the name of Christmas (shopping).
Over break, I had the good fortune to go to Hong Kong with my family to enjoy the city. It’s built on multiple different islands, but the principle ones being Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. It’s a really beautiful city, because from either side of Victoria Bay, you can see all the buildings on the opposite shore. It’s especially pretty at night, when the sky lights up and you can see the dark water reflecting off of all of the skyscrapers. Sometimes you will also see a couple of junks (reconstructed, not original junks) for which Hong Kong used to be known for as well. However, now those two ships are used as large tourist attractions; they’re reserved far ahead of time, and are generally pretty expensive to ride on, especially when there is the ferry across the harbor which only takes 5 minutes and 50 cents, from which one can look at the views of the city.
Etsy also hosted a crafts fair in Cambridge; I bought these cute bird coasters and was tempted to buy a necklace, but I didn’t do it. They also gave out chocolate samples at the entrance :)
At the start of Winter Term, Page hosts a ski trip to Mammoth Mountains. The house books several cabins, and somewhere from 10-15 people stay in one room. Both full and social members can attend the trip, and it lasts from Thursday or Friday to Sunday of the first week of term.
While I was home in Chicago, my dad wanted to visit and exhibit at the Chicago Cultural Center. At the time they were holding a biannual architecture exhibition. And the sheer number of contributors and pieces was astonishing. We spent at least a couple hours there, taking one of their guided tours, and saw some amazing things. It was still probably at most a half of the things that were on display, and we certainly didn’t examine many of the pieces for long.
My cousin was in town for a few days, and she wanted to go shopping at a kristkindle market. We have one in downtown Chicago that has been going on for at least a decade. However, a newer one just popped up this year in Wrigleyville, right next to the field where our baseball team the Cubs play. It even has an ice skating rink.
I have some big news! About a month ago, I adopted a kitty named Clementine as an emotional support cat. She’s currently about 7 months year old, and she’s one of my best friends.
I hope everyone is having an amazing holiday break. This time of year is always a great break from all of the hullabaloo of Caltech. As engaging as classes and extracurriculars are, being able to lounge around at home (and see snow!) is always great.Specifically, celebrating holidays with my family is always fun. My mom is Jewish and my dad is Catholic, so we celebrate both Chanukah and Christmas.
In Blacker, it is a tradition for the frosh to lead a prank on Lloyd’s former Christmas tree (now it’s just the Ls). It gives them an opportunity to work together to do a large project while being creative and fun. They are in charge of organizing themselves, asking for permission (as the administration wants to know about any such large-scale and visible pranks) and procuring their supplies and manpower.
During Christmas time (or really just after Thanksgiving has ended), the Blacker socteam (social team) gets a Christmas tree for the house to celebrate the holiday spirit. However, what we do is a little unique; we don’t have a stand in which we put the tree. Instead, it hangs from our ceiling by ropes and pulleys. We put eye bolts through the trunk of the tree to tie the rope around, and there are similarly things on which to secure the rope on the ceiling of our lounge.
This Sunday, many of the upperclassmen put together a workshop for anyone who wanted to make an infinity mirror. This is basically a framed mirror with lights going around the edges that looks like it goes on forever, while you look back at yourself. It was around a two hour workshop where one could assemble everything needed. At every station, there were upperclassmen to help people (especially the frosh) assemble the frame, solder the arduino, put the film on the class and load some light patterns onto the LEDs.
This is the first year that I stayed for Thanksgiving (but that isn’t so surprising once you consider I’m only a sophomore). Many people that go home for the Thanksgiving holiday, but a lot of people also stay on campus over the four days. In Blacker, Thanksgiving is very casual: it’s held potluck style, where everyone can bring something to eat. People were cooking in the hovse all day, so by the time the start of dinner rolled around, there were enough dishes to fill 3 whole tables! The best part was that there must have been at least 1.5 times as many deserts as there were main dishes and sides. Everyone lined up to grab their food before heading into the dining hall to sit, eat, and talk.
The other day, the campus woke up to find a couple of different pranks around campus. This was the day where Lloyd did their annual Christmas tree prank. This year, the tradition changed a little; instead of the usual tree, Lloyd instead spelled their name down the front of Millikan. It’s very bright during the night, and I know there was a lot of work put in by the Lloydies to create the new LED grids for the letters. The prank looks really good, because it’s so bright during the night.
Cambridge’s University Library (the UL) is one of six legal deposit libraries in the UK, which means that a copy of every single book that is published must be sent there. As a result, the UL has a huge collection of books and receives about 100,000 books every year.
Queens College hosts an annual erg competition for both novice and senior rowers, where a crew of 8 people ergs for 500 meters each. The competition is held in a gym full of rowing machines, with a leaderboard projected onto a huge screen at one end of the gym. For all of us, the adrenaline levels were through the roof. When one of us was on the machine, the coaches and other crew members would be constantly shouting encouragement and tips at us. Imagine the entire gym full of people screaming and cheering…that was Queens’ Ergs. We did really well at the start and were in first place for about half the race, but in the end we ended up 3rd in our group. Overall, it was a fun experience and good preparation for the Fairbairn’s competition, which is a novice boat race at the end of term.
Central Cambridge is home to a market that’s open all days of the week. The stalls rotate daily - some are there all week, possibly in different locations of the market, while others are only there a two or three times a week. The market sells food, clothes, souvenirs, art supplies, bike supplies, and more.
The Master of the Corpus College and his wife own the cutest dog, Flapjack, or Jack for short. They let students walk him to de-stress or to just play with him, and it’s usually one student a day. They’re really kind and host all sorts of events, like casual dinner for groups of 15-20 students at the Master’s Lodge, just to get to know the students better!
After our first outing together with the seniors, we started training on the ergs (rowing machines) and with weights. We started going on weekly novice outings, usually once or twice a week. At first, it was pure chaos since we would have 8 novice rowers with a novice cox, with a ton of other novices boats on the Cam. (The cox is the person who steers the boat by telling which rowers to row). Furthermore, before daylight savings kicked in, it would still be dark out when we got to the boathouse at 7am, making it very cold.
I’ve been hearing about a really good cafe in Pasadena called Amara Cafe from a teammate, who always went there for drinking chocolate. She’s told a story about how her boyfriend doesn’t like the chocolate there because it’s too bitter, even though she goes pretty often. So a couple friends and I finally found the time to go this past weekend.
Everyone who went on the hike also visited the small beach on Silverwood Lake. Although no one went swimming, some people dipped their feet in and skipped rocks. I was watching on the side; Richard and Praful were especially impressive as both got four or more skips on multiple rocks. It was also amusing to see the people who were not as good throw a rock and have it just plop into the water.
All of the Houses (or Hovses) hold their own trips for their members. Last weekend was Avery’s Camping trip to Silverwood Lake, which they offered for one or two days. Before the trip, there is a lot of planning and organizing by the socteam (social team) representatives: to reserve the campsite, plan food, and also rent camping supplies. The participants also have to organize drivers and passengers in order to get there, because it’s an hour’s drive towards Las Vegas from Caltech.
In addition to regular college formals hosted by the college, Cambridge societies can also host a formal at a specific college. I decided to go to a formal at Clare College hosted by Girl Talk, a society that encourages female empowerment by bringing in inspirational speakers and setting up social events. Going to society-hosted formals is a good opportunity to meet people outside of college, and also to check off another college formal off the list! For some people in Cambridge, one goal is to attend formals at all 31 colleges in their 3 or 4 (or 6 for medics) years at Cambridge.
College formals are an essential aspect of Cambridge life. These take place in the candlelit halls of each college, and are great for good food and good company.
The Cambridge University Botanical Garden hosted an Apple Day a few weekends ago. It was a huge festival featuring apple tasting, apple juices and ciders, food trucks, other small wares, and more. For a 3 pound entry, we got to taste probably 30 different varieties of apples and get free samples of juices and ciders. I didn’t know so many different types of apples even existed! Some apples tasted more nutty, some had strawberry hints, some tasted like plums…there were so many different types.
The sponge cake is super sweet, but good. I think the filling is unique to the UK, but the texture of the cake is similar to some in America.
The Cambridge Footlights, officially theCambridge University Footlights Dramatic Club, hosts student-run comedy sketch shows throughout the term. Actually, the Footlights has several famous former members, including Hugh Laurie.
This time we headed to Camden Market, where there are a ton of shops and food stalls. It’s a basically a huge maze – we definitely got a little bit lost in there.
After seeing a the skyline of London from afar, we headed into Westminster, home to the classic tourist attractions. To get there, we took the tube towards Buckingham Palace.
This weekend, I went with another Caltech-Cambridge exchange student to London, and we met up with two more Techers studying at University College London (UCL). We first headed to brunch for a traditional English breakfast, and then checked out UCL campus. It’s a bit funny that like Corpus, there’s a crane visible from the main entrance.
Chandler has artwork that is put up/rotated out every term within the annex. It’s a mix of submissions from undergrads, grads, and staff - although I also saw one alumni photo up as well. To show the new art that was put up this term, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) hosted an Art Gala with snacks and booze (for the Grad students of course) this past Thursday. There was live music with live dancing, and some provided paint and canvases for anyone who wanted to create something at the night.
Hi all! Sorry for the radio silence, but my term has been super busy! One of the main reasons is due to the Committee on Undergraduate Caltech Housing, or the COUCH as it is affectionately known as. Its goal is to help analyze the potential options for the residential system for Bechtel, our new campus residence opening in Fall 2018, while analyzing the broader residential life system as a whole. Through this committee, I’ve had a lot of great opportunities including interacting with many members of administration, students, and alumni. However, one of the coolest things was meeting the Board of Trustees.
Across the river Cam about a thirty minute walk away is West Cambridge. This area is home to the Computer Science Department, the University Sports Centre, the Institute of Astronomy, and more. Food trucks come on a regular basis, so there’s no need to worry about getting food back in town or in college between lectures.
On a beautiful sunny day, I walked through King’s College! Luckily for me, I can enter just by showing my University card without having to pay an entrance fee like the tourists :)
Just a 10 minute walk from my college, the Fitzwilliam Museum is home to artifacts from the Egyptian era to modern times. On the ground floor, there’s one room displaying various armory and several huge rooms completely dedicated to ceramics and potteries. Entrance is free, and it’s definitely worth visiting.
As I talked about last time, each house gets pumpkins to do something with in celebration of halloween. While most houses carve them, Dabney holds its annual Pumpkin Drop at the very end of the day on Halloween night. This event consists of Darbs freezing pumpkins using LN2, usually far ahead of time so they can freeze and crack sufficiently on impact, and then dropping them from the top of Millikan. This is usually done in conjunction to music, so that the impacts are (theoretically) timed with any particular musical emphases.
As it gets closer to Halloween, all the houses get pumpkins from Tom Mannion to do with what they will. Most houses host pumpkin carving in one form or another - and I really do mean that this comes in many forms.
When wandering around town, I stumbled upon an Art & Craft Market! Inside, there are various stalls selling everything from hand-carved stamps to leather belts to ceramics. It was pretty small, with about 10 stalls, but it was nice to look at the various goods. The autumn leaves are starting to decorate the ground, and I’m super excited to be experience my first true fall. The trees where I live are mostly evergreens, and autumn is always during school, so I’ve never travelled to see the changing leaves before!
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.