Caltech

More fun between apps

I did a lot more fun things of late, not solely for the sake of blogging but because my schedule is finally starting to allow for it. This short lull between fellowship and graduate school applications is a welcome break, and I'm taking full advantage!

Let's start by talking about a cheesecake I baked with my friends! It was absolutely delicious by the way. Guest starring Julia Su and Joseph Berleant. I promise I was part of the crew too and not just paparazzi of these great cooks in action.

Can you imagine how this smelled??

It was a lot of fun and very yummy. No particular occasion even, just felt like baking something. I hope by baking/cooking with other, more experienced people (and good friends at that)

Also, as I mentioned before, I am a UCC (Upper Class Counselor), so I get to organize all these newfangled events. The last time I was a UCC was sophomore year, and since we had the off-campus group be opt-in, only like five people joined. This year, I both have a lot more people in my group as well as have a lot more friends who are willing to support me in my events, so it's been a lot of fun. We're currently on track for 3 events/term. For the first event we went to The Counter next door, which is this place with really good burgers and celebrated parmesan and garlic cheese fries, and using the budget I am allotted I bought everybody appetizers.

Just yesterday, I also took my alley to Urth Caffe, a nice little cafe a ways away from Caltech that serves really fresh, good food. Again, I failed to take a picture, but I was able to reimburse everybody who came up to $5 for their food.

Something modestly funny/sad happened though. Last time, at the Counter, I managed to schedule the event to overlap with an interview and had to bike over late. This time, I managed to one-up myself: I scheduled to overlap with two interviews! What happened was that I had gotten an interview date wrong on my calendar, and I had two conflicting interviews. Yet blissfully I scheduled my alley event at the exact same time as both of these interviews. Absolute mayhem ensued, but eventually I postponed my NVIDIA interview, answered questions in uncertain quality in my Asana interview and biked over to meet my alley at Urth Caffe about 30 minutes late. I ended up just getting change from the cashier and paying everybody back in cash, which was the original plan.

Finally, a third fun thing I did was to go to an escape room! The objective of an escape room is to get out of a room filled with puzzles and clues. I went with 7 other friends, and we ended up getting out in 40 minutes. Parts of the escape room, without ruining anything, included an Oculus Rift (of which I was the sole user, to my infinite enjoyment) and the highlight of my contributions: we had found one last key, and were looking around for any boxes we had left to open, when I suddenly stopped, pointed and said "hey, guys, there's a door. Care to try that lock?" and we got out. It was a lot of fun and I hope we keep finding new things to do Our success documented!

This year has honestly been a bit of a watershed year for me. I'm starting to feel like I want to try a lot more new things. Maybe it's the feeling of senior year, knowing that the end is just around the corner, and I want to have a lot more to look back on than ridiculous amounts of work. Maybe it's a genuine maturation. It was never that I disliked events like this, I just never felt like I had the time, but I'm glad that now I'm starting to feel like I can afford it.  :)

Midnight Donuts and Class Registration

Hi Everyone!

Well, it's the middle of the week. I have a lot to get done in this particular week. We're getting into crunch time on my project class, but I don't want to work while I'm home for Thanksgiving so we have 16 hours of group work planned for this week. 

I'm tutoring, finishing sets early, and starting projects for my cognitive psych class and mixed-mode IC class. 

And then there's midnight donuts.

Midnight donuts happens once a term; the student council (ASCIT) drives a truck out to a donut store and buys a whole bunch of glazed pastries. The favorite is always the donuts topped with fresh strawberries. They set out all the donuts on a table on the Olive Walk and don't let anybody touch them until midnight.

 

 

Here you can see a crowd of students congregating at the donut table before midnight. We also have Monday morning bagels every week, but those are far less in demand.

This morning was class registration. It went OK, I got all the classes I wanted. We don't really have issues getting into major-required classes, but there's fierce competition for the best humanities classes. Humanities classes make up the majority of the limited-seating classes here; the rest just adjust the number of TA's, recitations, etc. based on enrollment. 

I suppose that's all the interesting things that have happened this week. I've had a pretty busy day, so I think I'll sign off.

Until next time,

Suzy

DTLA and Formal Dinner

    This past week the North Houses had formal dinner! My friends and I wanted to take some pictures beforehand, so we drove to Downtown LA and had a mini photo shoot. We went to the Bradbury Building and the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Both locations were gorgeous. The Bradbury Building is a historic building where a lot of movies were filmed. It is currently functioning as an office building. The Walt Disney Concert Hall is a concert hall with very unique architecture.

    The food at formal dinner was pretty good. It's usually much better than everyday campus dining. We started off with a grapefruit salad. We then had some duck breast with mashed potatoes. Finally, we finished up with a root beer float cake. Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of the food, but I do have some pictures from our photo shoot.  

A Typical Week 7

Hi there,

Well, it's Week 7 of term. We're headed into crunch time and things are getting tough. I've got a project assignment due tomorrow and my other classes just keep assigning work; interhouse volleyball is picking up; we have actual medical quizzes in EMR training. 

Most of my time right now is spent sizing transistors for a pass-transistor DFF based phase-frequency detector, which I know is just a load of gibberish for the vast majority of you. Don't worry, it makes a lot more sense in the context of my classes. Suffice it to say it's tough and we're working with a lot of trade-offs. I'm very lucky that this project has no actual assignments due between Friday and finals week, although we'll have to keep working on it.

Caltech is on the quarter system, which means (10 weeks of classes + 1 week of finals) x 3 terms. One would typically expect weeks 6, 7, and 10 to be the hardest, in that order. It can be tough because we squeeze a lot of material in those 10 weeks. It can be great because no matter how hard your classes are, term always passes quickly (and you can't have homework over spring break!). Weeks 6 and 7 are tough because of midterms and midterms recovery; week 10 is hard because professors realize they have too much material for their class time and they try to cram everything in before finals. Finals week is actually fine. I like to study all morning, take a final every afternoon, and go out at night to blow off steam. There's always something - a concert, 18 and up night at a club, or just treating yourself to a nice dinner. This isn't always possible for those in project classes (sorry, EE sophomores) but it's a pretty good model, especially for freshmen. Freshmen usually have 3-5 finals, each of which will take 4-6 hours. So we've got that coming up in a few weeks.

I don't have much more to report. I'll check in again after this weekend; we have formal dinner on Friday and Fleming "Fall" Party on Saturday, plus tailgating basketball and more recruit adventures!

Until next time,

Suzy

Tailgating Caltech Basketball Game at Occidental

    Last Saturday Page House tailgated the Caltech vs. Occidental basketball game at Occidental! The game started at 7, so we loaded up our cars with grilling supplies and foldable chairs and headed over at around 4:30 pm. Once we got there, we set up camp in the parking lot, put on some music, and hung out with each other! Our grill team started grilling around 6, and we had several different types of wieners to choose from. We packed up right before the game started and walked over to the gym.

    The basketball game itself was insane! We won 86-77. The energy on our side of the gym was awesome. We stood up and cheered on Caltech for pretty much the entire game. Additionally, we were up for the whole game except when we were tied at halftime. Overall, it was a great time filled with spirit and excitement. You can read more about the game on the Caltech Athletics website. I took exactly one picture of the game during the first quarter, and it was a Snapchat...but here you go!  

First Term Classes

    Hey guys! I've been super busy with everything this term, and am just now getting around to blogging about the school year. I'm finally a junior, which means that I'm taking more advanced classes in my major. This year, I'm taking CS/ME/EE 75 (Intro to Systems Engineering), CS 81 (Independent Project), CS 121 (Intro to Databases), Ec 131 (Market Design), and MedE 101 (Intro to Clinical Physiology). I really like my classes this term, and I'll go into a bit more detail in this post. 

    CS/ME/EE 75 is a year long project class. This year the project is to build an electric racing vehicle and to compete in the Formula SAE Electric Racing in June. It's a cool class because people from different majors are working towards one goal, and it gives students hands-on experience. 

    CS 81 is an independent project with a professor. I'm working with professor Mani Chandy on streaming data from iPhone sensors. I haven't made much progress yet, but I'll keep you guys updated!

    CS 121 is one of my favorite classes this term. I like it because it's very practical, unlike many classes at Caltech. I feel like I get more out of the class when I can apply what I've learned. It's taught in MySQL, and knowing databases is a pretty big plus when you're searching for a job! 

    Ec 131 is also a pretty interesting class. It's the first year this professor is teaching it, and the class is also a project class. We are supposed to come up with our own market design problem, run experiments, and write a paper. The problem I'm working on is finding efficient market network structures.

    Finally, MedE 101 is the chillest class ever. Different guest lecturers come give talks about different medical problems. During the last few weeks of the class, we are coming up with our own solutions to a medical problem of our choice and giving a presentation about our solution. 

Page Beach Trip

    Page House goes on two beach trips a year. The first one is a day trip to Huntington Beach, and the second one is a weekend trip to San Diego! I've posted about the second one before, so if you want to read more about it you can look through my old posts. This was my first year on the day trip though, and I had so much fun!

    We left in the morning and my car stopped for lunch at a Chipotle near the beach. When we got to the beach, we hung out with friends and set up some music and games. People played volleyball, went in the water, and overall just had a good time. It was a great way to meet the new freshmen in the house as well. Around dinner time, we started some fires in the fire pits, grilled wieners, and made s'mores! Below are some pictures from the day. :) 

Interhouse

It's been a pretty busy weekend. 

Friday night was date night for me and my boyfriend. We went to Magnolia House, a cute restaurant near school that has gourmet bar food (fancy burgers and flatbreads and stuff like that). 10pm had a Balcony Productions screening of Dr. No, in anticipation of the Bond-themed party next Saturday. 

Balcony Productions is a group of people with balcony rooms that project movies onto a neighboring building. They have couches out on the balcony so people come sit and watch. It's a little cramped, but I enjoy it.

Some volleyball recruits came in. I love having recruits, I get an excuse to go out for every meal. Plus they're usually cool people and we get to talk about Caltech. We played with them a little on Saturday, just so they could get a feel for the team. 

Page Interhouse was Saturday night. An interhouse party is a Caltech tradition, in which one house builds a party (usually an enclosed, raised dance floor and a DJ booth, although some are more elaborate than others). All the other houses are then invited. Every house hosts an interhouse party every year. This year, our theme was "Back to the Future". The DJ booth was painted like the clock tower, and people came dressed in vests, lab coats, cowboy outfits, and shiny metallic clothes. It was really fun, we all had a great time. The recruits got to come check it out. Poor things, we kept them up until like 3am. That's hard for high schoolers. 

I'm on the Page House social team, so it was my job to keep the party running smoothly (check on the DJ's, manage snacks, etc.). You'd think it would be a big burden during a party but it wasn't really. I like having something to keep in mind.

I made pancakes on Sunday morning and spent most of the day tutoring. I love helping the sophomore EE's but it's starting to take up a lot of my time. I think I'm going to try to cut back my hours starting this week, maybe ask some other juniors to help with my students. I did have time to get a mani-pedi with my housemate Kalyn though. That was really nice. If you've never had a mani-pedi, I'd just like to tell you: it makes you feel like royalty. People are literally waiting on your hands and feet. You sit back in a comfy chair while other people make your feet pretty. It's really nice. Would definitely recommend. 

That's sort of it for my weekend. We've started a project for a class that promises to be terrifying, so there's that. I'll check in with you guys later in the week. 

Until next time,

Suzy

Formal and Fall Party

Hi there!

We've had a big, busy weekend.

Friday night was North House formal dinner. This happens once per term, and is an event where the campus dining service provides waiters, tablecloths, and centerpieces and serves a fancier three-course meal. There are also delicious croissants. We all get dressed up, like this lady (my housemate)

After dinner, I went to Lake with a few people. We got apps at a hot-pot restaurant and snacks at Magnolia House, a cute restaurant near school. Everybody went to broomball after that.

It was my first time playing broomball, and it was really fun. It was already midnight when we started, and there was hockey practice right before us, so we had some real traction on the ice. The juniors (my class!) kept winning so in the end, it was juniors vs. all. We went to IHOP after that because pancakes are delicious. When we got back, I was exhausted, so I crashed pretty much immediately.

I made more pancakes when I woke up on Saturday because I like pancakes. We had recruits so we played a couple of hours of volleyball, then we went tailgating at the Caltech/Oxy basketball game. That was really fun! We put on some music and grilled hot dogs in the Oxy parking lot, and we went and cheered at the basketball game. We won! Yay!

It's worth noting that we have quite a bit of school support for sports. We may not be famous for our sports, but it's fun to be on a team because your friends and housemates show up to games. Sometimes they make signs for you. Our supporters are really loud, too. 

Fleming Fall Party was that night. It was Bond-themed. 

I made more pancakes on Sunday morning. I took a lot of tutoring students, so my day was pretty busy. My roommate bought us chicken, which we (she) cooked for dinner. 

That's sorta my weekend. Tune in next time for... I guess, stories from my week! I'm looking forward to going home for Thanksgiving, so that's coming up next week (these are on a time delay).

Until next time,

Suzy

 

Social events as a Senior

Heading into senior year, I have suddenly become aware of my responsibility to contribute to Caltech's social environment. Once upon a time, I thought myself a part of the community in the sense that I would take part in events if I was interested in them, and if not I wouldn't. It's taken three years of growing up to realize that I suddenly have this deep-rooted desire to give back to Caltech. Thus, I am once again a UCC (Upper-Class Counselor), whose role alongside the ever-important mental health advocacy also comprises organizing fun-dee-dums events. I also threw some house-wide events for the Starcraft global finals that happened these past two weekends, as part of an effort to contribute to and shape the Caltech community.

It turned out that right before the event, I had a midterm to take. At the same time though, I had to bake for my event, as I'd promised everybody! However, without pulling an all-nighter, I only had so many hours left in my day. I ended up baking while taking the midterm (which thankfully was a selection of the less difficult concepts in the class and finished itself in time). I still haven't gotten my grade back for the midterm, but I certainly got rave reviews on my baking!

Making cookies during a midterm, the TRUE power of the honor code.

 

Well, you must be asking, how much could I have actually made? Well, I wouldn't say a terrific amount, being a one-man unsponsored effort, but I made a non-negligible amount!

The size of these containers belies their volume, this was 4+ cookie sheets and a deep-pan slutty brownie...

The entire event was a blast. I also ordered pizza and hot wings for the crowd, and we had upwards of 10 people for most of the last day. Given that fewer people than this watched the super bowl (at least in my house), I consider this a big success. We even had four girls show up at the same time at one point, an astounding gender ratio! (The ratio is usually pretty good in Avery House, which is statistically very close to 50%, but Starcraft spectatorship is quite gender-selective).

Otherwise, I also organized an event as part of my UCC obligations to go to the Counter, a local burger joint, during their happy hour. We got half-off appetizers, which meant everybody got copious quantities of delicious Parmesan fries among other things, and the cost was completely footed by my UCC allotted term-ly budget! Sadly I forgot to take a picture, having been in a great rush that day, but the event was a resounding success with 14 people showing up. Again, given the small size of my "alley," the off-campus students, I'm actually very happy with the attendance! I will hopefully be organizing many more of these events in the future, and I will have a few pictures to show there :)

Hopefully I will be able to get back into posting twice a week here, I really owe it to you guys. I've made a commitment to doing more fun things this term, in spite of a murderous schedule, and hopefully it will show in bountiful fun and interesting blog posts.