Caltech

Paint Your Dreams

What’s crackalackin’ my parrots! (get it? Because… Crackers?) Last night was the department of geological and planetary sciences (GPS) paint night, or, as it’s colloquially known, “deepening the GPS ++++++++++ love” (Dustin adds a + to the end each time that it happens). GPS as a department is fairly tight-knit; it’s hard not to be when you’re all taking classes together and going on field trips to who-knows-where. As such, we have lots of bonding-type activities throughout the week: we... Read more →

Sparky, Stand Back! It’s SCIENCE Time!

Happy Friday y’all! In all my abundant free time (which *obviously* exists) I’ve started volunteering with the Pasadena Unified School District. I’ve been working assisting their after-school program LEARNS, specifically helping with the Chemistry Olympiad and also running experiments for the kids to keep them engaged in science. One of the thigs I love about Caltech is all the opportunities for volunteer and community work. The Caltech Y ensures there are great opportunities for all types of service work from... Read more →

Reflections

After a week being back, I think it’s about time for some reflections on what it meant to be abroad, and what I’ve taken away from it. I’m really happy to be back, but it’s just been almost a culture shock of sorts being back in California, and back at my true home (for now, at least). Of course, my parents wouldn’t say that Caltech is my home, but I think that may be one of the first things I... Read more →

CaltechY Winter Quarter Friends Dinner

The CaltechY hosts a Friends Dinner once every quarter to thank its supporters and provide them with an opportunity to network with the Y's student leaders. Each event features one special speaker. In the past, there have been artists, professors, film makers and more. This time, it was one of Caltech's chemistry professors, Peter Jonas, who spoke about the vision surrounding the new Resnick gift. The dinners are all held at the Athenaeum. Since this event was pretty close to... Read more →

New Year, New Me

Man, 2019 feels like it was just yesterday. See, I’m hilarious, I promise. Happy new year y’all! It is 2020, and with that I figured it was time to chat about the great New Year’s Eve barbeque that I prepared with my best friend from home, Morgan. Actually there isn’t exactly too much too explain. Morgan was a bit sad that I’d missed what I’d generally consider to be my favorite holiday, the 4th of July, and we decided to... Read more →

String food = new String(“Too Much Food”);

Hello, Java monsters! If you couldn’t tell from my EXCELLENT punning, I’m taking CS 2 this term, a computer science course about the wonderful world of Java. That’s one of my new classes for this term. Also included: plate tectonics, seismology, field geophysics, physics lab, and a design-your-own English class about American minimalism as a prep-course for my thesis (which I’m hoping to start next term). So far, it’s shaping up to be a great term. It doesn’t look like... Read more →

Home in Pasadeeeeeeena

Well, I’ve returned to Caltech. And my first observation: it’s warm here. Really warm. I got off the plane and it was a balmy 21 C (70 F for all you yanks). And, after 11 countries (not including layovers) my trip around the world in about 180 days has been completed. I’m home. I have to say though, it didn’t really feel like home until I had my first boba back. While I was gone my true home away from... Read more →

Baker’s Dozen

Why hello there! I’ve spent the last few days baking. No, I haven’t been out baking in the sunshine; although it is a balmy 40 degrees Fahrenheit in Colorado. Instead, I’ve been taking advantage of my home’s superior kitchen to concoct all the baked goods I wanted to make (but couldn’t) while I was abroad. And it all started (as it usually does) with fruitcake. This was actually the same fruitcake I made last year on Caltech campus, only with... Read more →

Home, For a Minute

Well, I’m back in Colorful Colorado! Although at this time of year, it’s not all to colorful. I have to say, it’s a bit weird being back. In Colorado, definitely, but more so just being in the US. I think the biggest shock for me was walking into the Safeway grocery store that’s about a half mile from my house. It’s… huge. I never really realized this until I was abroad but American stores in general are just massive. It... Read more →

LA Zoo Lights

There's nothing more festive than beautiful holiday decor. Something that has gotten quite popular in recent years is light displays. Around Pasadena, the LA Zoo, LA Arboretum are a few venues that have elaborate holiday light displays. This past weekend, I went to check out the LA Zoo Lights. The general admission is ~$15 on weekdays and ~$20 on weekends, which is certainly not cheap, so if you do go, be sure to take a ton of photos. I went... Read more →