Caltech

DC Museums and Galleries

One of the highlights of DC is the museums on the mall and the art galleries. Some of the best ones to check out include the Natural History Museum, Air and Space Museum and the botanical gardens. You can easily spend a whole week exploring all these places since you should at least spend a couple of hours at each of the destinations to get the whole experience. I did not have as much free time during my trip to checkout the larger museums in depth, but was able to checkout a couple of smaller places that are just as well known and worth while.

Some of the pictures that blew up social media include the portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. These larger-than-life portraits are taller than me and are on display in the National Portrait Gallery. Barack Obama's portrait is on the first floor with that of all the other presidents. His is easily noticeable as there is sure to be a crowd of tourists around it, photographing it. Even if you go during an "off"-hour, it stands out from the more traditional portraits with its bold colors. I love the greenery in the background. It makes is portrait come to life. Michelle Obama's portrait is on the second floor of the gallery. It is on display with other contemporary artworks. I am personally less of a fan of the color scheme, but I can see why the artist chose this palette.

Another presidential "art" not to be missed is the Lincoln Memorial. It is located at the end of the mall. On one of the days, a couple of friends and I did a run up and down the mall. It was a total of 7 miles round trip and well worth it. It is a great way to see all the monuments, like the WWII memorial, along the way in a short amount of time. We did the run/jog in about an hours worth of time. If you were to walk it, it would probably take an entire morning.

Finally, since we visited during the holidays, the Christmas tree(s) are worth visiting. The trees are located near the White House. The large Christmas tree itself is not actually decorated. It has a mesh draping of green lights and red ribbons. It looks a little tacky in my opinion. The mini trees surrounding the larger Christmas tree are the highlights. Apparently, elementary/middle/high-schools from each of the states and territories decorate a tree to be displayed. They are super adorable and have a lot of character. The trees are also intertwined with an intricate mini railroad system -- It is super fun to watch.

Swamp Tour in New Orleans

After the DC Trip, there were still a couple of days before the winter holidays so Michelle and I decided to make a trip to New Orleans. It was the cheapest destination out of DC, only $90 for a one way ticket and it is an affordable city to Airbnb and buy food in. Most importantly, New Orleans is full of great food and fun attractions. Everyone I know who have visited has had a blast.

On the first full day there, we went on a swamp tour. It's one of those things you should definitely do at least once when you visit, and one of those things that you would only do once. We went with a company called Cajun Pride Tours which has amazing reviews on Yelp and is by far the most affordable. They pick up from various hotels in the French Quarter and the bus drive gives a tour like narration of the sites during the ride to the swamp. Since our Airbnb was slightly out of the way, we ended up Ubering to the nearest pick up spot.

Our bus driver was super entertaining and we learned a lot about the city and hot spots on the ride alone. Firstly, you pronounce pecans as "pick-AHN" and praline as "praw-leen", otherwise you sound like a tourist. Secondly, everyone in New Orleans loves football, in particular the Saints team. The Sugar Bowl is currently going on and the entire city gets hyped up whenever there is a game. The demand for football is so high that the worst seats for that weekend's game started from $170.

There were three couples and two other families on the tour with us. We went on a small motor boat with a charismatic guide who has lived in the swamp his entire life. He said that the swamp is the safest place one can be, and it is nothing like the movies. I can agree that it is indeed tranquil. The birds, snakes, raccoons and alligators were all doing their own thing. If we did not disturb them, they have no incentive to attack us. Yes, we did see two alligators and we even got to hold the guide's pet alligator. It was super soft and adorable.

Some fun facts I learned on the tour is that when the swamps used to flood, people would have to try to tie their belongings and themselves to the strongest tree and hope for the best. Alligators can spend days waiting for their pray, so one comes after you, do not try to climb a tree to escape. Finally, alligators in captivity can reproduce at the age of two while those in the wild only do so at age 8. In general, they are bigger and fatter in captivity.

 

Disassembling a Doorbell

Ever wondered what's inside a doorbell, what black magic produces those hauntingly cheery chimes in house to house across America? And how did the onomatopoeia become "ding-dong," anyway? Before disassembling the one at my house, I thought the tune was just played by a speaker, but turns out it's fancier than that: the doorbell is actually live music.

Turns out a doorbell is more like a door-xylophone - it has two keys and hammers to strike them. A signal from the button by your front door is wired to a little box somewhere inside your house - mine was on the wall in the hallway. The sound is played from that box. The "ding" is a higher note produced by striking the smaller key, and the "dong" is a lower note produced by striking the wider key. The mechanical act of striking the keys is presumably done by electromagnets (if you're familiar with electronic components, think relay). The two white plungers (the official name, although I think they'd be better off being called hammers or mallets, like the implements used to strike actual xylophones) move up/down to hit the keys and make the ringing sound.

The reason I had to take the doorbell down was to paint our hallway; once the paint had dried, back up it went.

Still functional, hooray!

DC Part II - Sunny

On the second half of our DC trip, we visited Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Office of Science and Technology Policy at the The White House (OSTP) and
the National Institute of Health (NIH). We also met with the Caltech lobbyist Michael Ledford and the founders of the CaltechY DC trip.

We were fortunate to have met with Steven Walker the Director and Peter Highnam, the Deputy Director of DARPA. They talked about the role of project managers and program itself -- for four years, project managers work on an innovative project they are passionate about. Many of these project managers return multiple times. We also discussed the benefits and offsets of this form of "memory-less" organization and what it takes to be a part of it.

The NSF was a highlight for a lot of the grad students on the trip. It is fascinating for those receiving NSF funding to learn about the grants from those involved in the application process. Apparently there are two types of grant writers, those who tell a story of their research and those who write a more formal outline.

The OSTP was the most memorable for me because its as if we got to visit the White House. The OSTP staff are either "on-loan" from various agencies, or join through AAAS fellowships. One of the OSTP speakers got to work on the recent initiative in quantum computing. Right now, the OSTP has 50% of the man power it had in the previous administration, but it is still going strong.

We concluded our trip with a visit to the NIH. The NIH has a massive campus, almost like a town of its own. It has its own hospital, which has handled ebola cases in the past and is prepared to handle the treatment of various infectious diseases. It is also the place with the most specialists for rare diseases. We got several resources for the various offices there and heard from women in charge of the funding. The takeaway is "budget is policy".

 

DC Part I

The CaltechY does an annual trip to DC for students to learn about science policy. I went on the trip two years ago as a freshman and went back again this year as a trip leader. I was eager to go back because I wanted to see how the various science organizations are run under the Trump administration as compared to the Obama administration. The trip itself is roughly 5 days with travel, and took a solid quarter to plan.

On the night we landed in DC, we had a mixer with alumni. A lot of Techers end up working in DC through the AAAS fellowship or through roles at the NIH. It was cool to see Jenny, a biology major from the class of 2018 there; it's also strange to acknowledge your former classmates as alumni. Anyways, it was a easy and relaxing night after a long flight.

On the first full day, we visited the Department of Energy (DOE), the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) and met with several speakers that came to our hostel. At the DOE, we met with Steven Winberg, the Assistant Secretary of Fossil Energy, who also brought in several of his staff to talk about efforts in making coal more safe, clean and efficient. Several of this staff used to work in geothermal energy in the previous administration, so it's interesting to see the shift human resources.

At AAAS, we learned about the importance of communicating the value of science to non-scientists. One key disconnect is that as scientists, we understand the idea of uncertainty to every finding, while the public likes absolutes i.e. plain yes/no answers. As well, because many law makers do not have scientific backgrounds, it is not given as much consideration as factors like publicity, campaign money and so forth in decision making. One way to change this is to get more scientists on to the hill.

We had a bit of free time during which we were able to visit a holiday market downtown. There were a lot of craft goods and a bit of food. We ended up getting warm churros filled with dulce de leche and bavarian cream as a sweet ending to the day.

 

My First Tattoo

I have been thinking about getting a tattoo for some time already. I was told that if you want a tattoo of something, print out the design and place it in a highly visible place i.e. on your bathroom mirror or on your desk. If you still like it after a couple of months, then go ahead and get it. I had images pinned of cherry blossoms since the start of term and could not stop thinking about them so I decided to get them permanently on my body at the end of term.

I went with my friend Michelle to this spot called Generation8Tattoo on Melrose. The shop is extremely popular and has 5 stars on Yelp, so you know it is high quality. You can skimp on clothes and food, but please don't skimp on tattoos. It costs far more to remove a poor tattoo than to get a good one. Also, make sure you browse the artist's portfolio ahead of time to make sure that the style is a match. I found my artist on Instagram. He does dot work and fine line tattoos which I am a huge fan of. I reached out to his assistant via email and was able to schedule an appointment before the break.

I was kind of nervous before the appointment and watched some vlogs on Youtube about the experience. Apparently, as long as you eat plenty of food and have water ahead of the time, there is no reason for you to pass out. I have never been afraid of needles or shots so I guess that made the process easier. In terms of pain, it really depends on the location. I chose to get a tattoo on my rib cage. The area closer to my back is less sensitive than the front. As such, when the artist was filling in the lines in the back, it felt like a sting, while filling in the front felt like a never-ending paper cut. Shading does not feel nearly as bad as outlining.

The first part of tattooing is to get the design drawn out. My artist showed me several size options -- the smaller the tattoo, the less detail it can fit. After we decided on a medium sized version, he converted to a template to be transferred onto my body, then he prepared the needles and got to work. For a 1 inch by 2 inch tattoo with substantial detailing, the process took around 2 hours. The price varies based on the artists -- make sure you talk it out with the artist ahead of time and choose the artist for their skill and price; save up for it if you need. After the tattoo is complete, it is wrapped in plastic wrap for a couple of hours. Then, for the next few days, it is treated with vaseline every couple of hours. I also cannot immerse it in water for long periods of time or expose it to the sun.

I am super excited for it to heal and am super glad that I went through the pain and effort for it.

 

The Broad Museum + KTown

One of my old friends, also a Caltech alum, was in town for an interview at JPL. Since I just finished finals and he was staying a couple of extra days, we were able to catch up. We are both photography fans who love good food so we thought a visit to the Broad Museum and dinner in K-Town would make for a great day trip.

The Broad Museum is in the heart of Downtown LA and has rotating exhibits. When the Infinity Mirror rooms by Yayoi Kusama were in LA, there were months of wait to visit them there. The rooms are still there and there is still a special advanced ticketing system for them, but it is not nearly as bad. This was a spontaneous trip so we actually stood in line for "day-of" admissions. I supposed that Saturday afternoons around 2pm aren't all that popular, so we were able to enter after only 20 minutes.

Some special exhibits we saw included Andy Warhol's can of tomato soup and Marilyn Monroes. There were also works by Roy Lichtenstein. I was super excited about Barbara Kruger's art. The Supreme logo is actually a rip off of her style. Finally, Takashi Murakami had these massive collages with an incredible amount of detail. You can stare at them for days without getting bored. Of course, no visit is complete without checking out a few Instagram-famous exhibits like the giant dining table and chairs and metallic balloon animals.

The Broad isn't all that big, so we had some time to kill before dinner. We went into Little Tokyo that was only 10 minutes away by foot. I tried mochi dango for the first time and it was delicious. I love mochi and I love teriyaki. This street food was the perfect marriage of both. I found an easy recipe for it and I am eager to try making my own over the break.


We ended the day in K-Town at Sun Nong Dan, a place known for its ribs. a $60 platter can easily feed a team of four. There were only the two of us so we got individual stews -- I got ox knee and he got spicy brisket. The kimchi sides paired with the stews were super fulfilling, especially on a chillier day.

 

Finals Week (in DC!!!!)

I know in the past we’ve talked about my poor life choices and so it only makes sense that I’d one up all of those by spending finals week in Washington, DC. Actually, more properly I spent it in Edgewater, MD with my ex-roommate’s parents (who by the way are the best and opened their home to a practically complete stranger) and then drove in to DC (they also lent me my ex-roommate’s car? Seriously the kindest people).

What was I doing in DC?

Suffering through finals.

But actually, I was there for the American Geophysical Union (AGU) conference. AGU is a giant (20,000 some odd people) conference of all the leading researchers in earth and space sciences. I had a poster presentation on Monday and then spent the afternoon taking a 4-hour geology final. The poster presentation went very well. It was different than any other one that I’d done in that people had read my abstract on the internet and stopped by to ask questions specifically related to the research I’d put into that. Also, everyone knew what I was talking about and I didn’t have to describe sediment as “carbonate dirt”.

 

Monday night I actually got to connect with my old mentor from the bioengineering work I did in high school. He’s working on science journalism and policy in DC so we got sandwiches.

Tuesday, I did some networking in the morning and then skyped in to take the 3-hour group physics final.

Wednesday, I stayed in Edgewater to take my 6-hour math final and work on my English final essay.

And Thursday? Well we will get to Thursday. But more on that next time.

The worst thing about the week was finals. I wasn’t able to focus as much on the conference and have as much fun as I think I would’ve without them. But I’m just thankful that Caltech’s take-home final system allowed me to attend this meeting. There weren’t too many other undergrads around and I think it’s because their schedules with finals wouldn’t allow it.

The best thing that happened all week was a climate change denier renting out a booth in the exhibit hall. The amount of guts that that man had to have to present his stuff in front of every single leading climate scientist amazed me, and I have a massive amount of respect for him (although not for his viewpoint). Also, DC traffic is the worst. It's like Los Angeles but everyone is aggressive and there are no left-hand turn lanes.

So to quote my climate change denying friend (and me when I stepped off the plane),

Where’s the heat?

-- Chandrew

 

Afterglow – US Capitol/Smithsonian After Dark

Remember how I said we’ll get to Thursday? Well we’re here now. And ready to roll.

I kicked the day off by going to the National Botanic Gardens. That was a pretty rad time. They have a lot of cool rare plants and a very extensive greenhouse. Plus, they had a lot of trains there for the holidays.

I followed this up with a quick lunch at the Museum of the American Indian. It had changed a lot since the last time I’d been there, and the food wasn’t quite as spectacular as I remembered.

And then, onto the fun stuff. Specifically, a meeting with staffers from the two Colorado senators’ offices (and house representative for Denver metro area). I went with a group of AGU scientists (including one who is also the mayor of a small town in North Colorado) to talk about how scientists could best help policy, especially as it related to the topic of anthropogenic climate change. Below is a picture of most of us (two of the staff people had to leave early).

This was followed by a tour of the capitol, led by CU Boulder Junior who went to my high school’s rival. It’s funny how small a world it is. The capitol inside was somewhat fascinating – very reminiscent of the Colorado state capitol, but national. Also, there were a lot of statues of questionable people hanging around. Honestly, it’s 2018 and nobody liked John C. Calhoun, let’s be real. Overall, it was just fascinating how much history was within those walls. Famous stones, famous chairs, and famous chandeliers (which DID NOT come from the Titanic apparently).

I followed this up with a trip to the National Portrait Gallery and then I met up with an old friend from middle school for dinner and the most fun part of my night, the SMITHSONIAN AFTER DARK!

The latter was a very cool AGU-sponsored activity where they opened 4 Smithsonian museums (Air and Space, Natural History, American History, African-American History) to the entire conference after hours. I’d been to Air and Space and Natural History before, but both took on a very different character after dark, especially when couple with the live music/dance shows that were constantly performing throughout the evening. Air and Space was amazing after dark specifically because it’s always beyond crowded so just having a few less people there was very nice. I’ll let the pictures tell the story though.

Dude. I just need some space.

--Chandrew

 

A Geology Meme a Day…

Keeps your bad grades away! (hopefully – just took the final, did not go well). Hello from Maryland! As you can probably tell, I’m a couple days behind with my blog posts. I’m currently staying with the parents of my roommate from last year while I’m at the American Geophysical Union conference in Washingotn, DC. But more on that later (they’re my new favorite people!).

This is a bit of a reflection on a class and how I’ve spent this last week before I headed off to death by finals in another state. And a reflection on a term that’s probably been the hardest work I’ve done up until this point.

It hasn’t been easy. This term was actually supposed to be easy. But a combination of more Chouse work than I ever wanted to do, searching for summer jobs, a new math professor for a class that was supposed to be very straightforward, and fencing more than ever have all made this a bit of a mess, and that’s ok.

Sometimes, you need to take some time to make a meme. For all of you parents out there, (according to Wikipedia) a meme is an idea, behavior, or style that spreads from person to person within a culture—often with the aim of conveying a particular phenomenon, theme, or meaning represented by the meme. These often-humorous little tidbits are something that I started making during geology class.

Ge 11a was honestly not my favorite class to start. It’s a required general geology class that took a bit more time than I had to spend on it and wasn’t always on topics I was interested in. So, I made it better with a little bit of 21^st century humor.

Sure, these aren’t too funny (elf on the continental shelf is definitely low-quality creation but it was RIGHT there). And for every meme I made, I grew a little fonder of the lecture, the content we were learning, and everything else. Sure, that would often be knocked back by a long problem set or some time when I wanted to be doing something else. But generally, I grew to appreciate Ge 11a. But oh man that final wasn’t a great time. They usually never are at Caltech. The open book policy is a gift and a curse. On one hand, it means you don’t have to study to memorize things. On the other, it means that nothing is tested that’s in your notes. Either way, I only have one more exam left.

Let’s yeet this wheat,

--Chandrew