Caltech

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 what I do with LEARNS to work in LA homeless shelters, and more. It’s a great organization and honestly doesn’t get enough love most of the time.

This week the experiment we ran was the “whoosh bottle”. I know that sounds mysterious, but what you need is ethanol, and one of the 5-gallon water bottles that they sell at Home Depot or your local grocery store. (ALSO DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!!!!). Luckily, both of those ingredients are fairly easy to obtain, although we really confused the lady at the Home Depot by specifically requesting empty water bottles. So, once you have the ethanol and the empty (and dry – this is very important to maximize the “whoosh”) you pour a small amount of ethanol in the bottle, swish it around, and then light it on fire. To properly practice safety with this experiment, we attached a long reach match to a dowel rod. It looked bad but keeps your hands out of the range of the flame. Usually you use a normal match and just drop it in, however we couldn’t find normal sized matches at home depot and figured this would be a suitable substitute.

I learned how to do this experiment as a part of chem club, a club that does chemistry outreach similar to what we do with LEARNS, however a lot more infrequently and for shorter periods of time. We have a few other great experiments planned for LEARNS, including the ever-classic gummy bear in potassium perchlorate (maybe even the GIANT gummy bear in potassium perchlorate), an osmosis egg, and all sorts of other wonderful science things. In-terms of projects for chem Olympiad, we’ve made slime and built some bridges out of notecards. All of their activities are pretty fun and low stress and so they do a great job of keeping the kids involved.

Don’t “bottle” your emotions”

--Chandrew

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 realized when I was abroad; when people ask me where I’m from I’d always say that I was born in Denver and I live in Los Angeles. In a lot of ways, bit by bit, I’ve become more and more of a Los Angeles convert. Still a Colorado native at heart, but a Los Angeles native. I really do love Los Angeles. When I stepped off the plane in Burbank flying in I remembered a bit of that. The rolling hills, warm air, and palm trees. It is its own kind of magic.

I’ll be honest, I miss Singapore. I miss waking up knowing that one of the best roast duck plates I’ve ever had is a 2-minute walk and $3 away. I miss fencing in the suffocating humidity, and even taking the bus to work every single morning. Singapore in a lot of ways felt like a place I truly belonged, an Asian country with a huge British influence, just like how I’m an Asian person with a large amount of American influence.

I miss Scotland too, but a little bit less so. I don’t think I connected to Scotland quite as much as I did to Singapore. It was scold, for one, and as I’m sure y’all readers have figured out, I can’t really deal with cold weather. I really do miss all my friends though. I miss the late evenings out with Justin, the lack of homework, the constant, nonstop travelling. It was a great time being abroad, and it feels almost wrong to be stagnant in one location for the rest of the year.

And my takeaway from all of this is that I can find those same things back here at Tech too. I can take a weekend and go down to San Diego or camping in the mountains. I can hunt for that cheap and delicious roast duck.

So that’s my takeaway. Life doesn’t need to change, but instead expand from all of the experiences that you live through. Take those same life lessons and apply them to your daily life.

Think deep and learn,

--Chandrew

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 4^th of July, and we decided to make up for it by having a good ol’ fashioned charcoal grill-out. With the one caveat being that it was Denver in December, so it was absolutely frigid. We still managed to assemble all the essentials, a bunch of friends, burgers cheese, chilli, potato salad, chips, soda, and some nice music. And we all huddled around a space heater and enjoyed out turkey burgers. I decided to head out a bit early to catch some Zs and a Waffle House waffle.

New Year’s day was a bit more of an adventure. I fenced in a tournament and ended up making top 8 in foil and top 16 in the other two weapons (all of these events with 40+ people). But it was also a bit bittersweet because my big brother left for Japan and so I didn’t get to spend that extra bit of family time with him.

I think next year is going to be pretty great. I’m going back to Tech, I’m fencing better than I ever have, and life is going to be good. I have a lot of goals for the next year, but the one that I’ll share with y’all is that I want to finish my book. For the last two years now I’ve been working on a wee collection of short stories. It’s written in a minimalist style a lot like Carver, my favorite author. Although I haven’t quite been able to replicate it completely, I like to think that I’ve been able to combine a lot of the styles I’ve read into something that’s truly excellent. But it still has to be finished and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have a bit of a ways to go on that. And that’s why in writing, on this blog, that I’m going to finish this book. And it’s going to be a dang good time. So cheers to that!

Hopefully hindsight is 2020,

--Chandrew

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 I’ll have any midterms (the perk of being in all graduate-level geosciences courses) and my homework load seems mostly… doable? I’m glad that it is after a couple months of not really having formal homework in Scotland.

Anyways though, this post is more about my weekend than it is about my week. I spent the entire weekend cooking with the Caltech Senior Director of Activities and Programs Tom Mannion. First up, we made… more fruitcake?? Yes, I did just make fruitcake like last weekend. But hey, I never say no to more delicious combinations of fruit, sugar, and coffee. Plus, Tom did the intelligent thing and ordered our fruit for the cake off the internet, so I didn’t have to candy any peels this time around.

Next up, sorbet! The University president has orange trees and had sent over a delivery of a bunch of oranges from them. Us, being the savvy chefs, we are, did the reasonable thing and made many iterations of orange and lemon sorbets. We mixed fruits, sugar, and a menagerie of everything else to end up with a few delicious icy combinations, although it wasn’t all too fitting since the weather was actually a wee bit chilly for Pasadena (a shocking 50 degrees!). To celebrate a day of hard work, we went to the home of the original French dip for some delicious sandwiches.

Sunday, we baked out fruitcakes, and prepared live lobster and crab for a proper New-England style shellfish dinner. It was my first time ever having whole lobster, and man, was that a delicious dinner. Also, it was much easier to dissect for its meat than the crab was. I can see why people are a fan of this lifestyle. We also served it with some scalloped potatoes that Tom made, and a bit of a vegetable medley stir fry that Susan cooked up.

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 home, Labobatory, opened their second location in Pasadena. First thing I did when I got in: started moving into my new apartment.

Oh yeah! That’s a good note here – I’m living off-campus this term. I figured I’d be used to cooking for myself by the time I got back from abroad. So, I didn’t really fancy the idea of going back to a world of pre-prepared Caltech dining services meals. More on that to come. But anyways I’m living a block North of campus with Marcel; together we form the flat of… well… all the geophysics majors at the California Institute of Technology. It’s super spacious, and generally pretty nice, but it’s definitely a bit weird living far away from campus (and by far I mean a 10 minute walk). Although, having been about that distance from uni at Edinburgh, I guess it really shouldn’t. Anyways, I had to move in there right when I got in Sunday. And then, I went to LABOBATORY!

The new Pasadena location is quite excellent. They’re making all of their pearls in-house, so basically, it’s now objectively and subjectively the best bubble tea in Los Angeles. I missed good bubble tea. Like yikes Chatime looks bad compared to this.

It’s nice to see all of my friends too, it’s a bit wild that it had been a whole 6 months. Unpacking was a bit more hectic than I thought it would be. Turns out I have a lot more stuff than I thought I’d left. And I forgot about my typewriters! Get ready for some artsy writing posts. Last thing: I did some grocery shopping. It was really great being back in LA Asian markets. Kinda felt like a nice breath of Singapore and everything came back to the start of the summer. So, I waltzed off with my 3lb can of milo into the California sunset, breathed out a sigh, and thought about how nice it was to be home.

--Chandrew

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 a few special twists this year for our family’s annual holiday brunch. Every year my godparents (yes, the same ones that were in Ireland with me!!!) and my family go out for brunch. This year, however, my grandmother is staying with my family, so we decided to have brunch at our house instead. My brother was preparing the main, and I the dessert.

The adventure of the day was candying my own fruit for the fruitcake. Funny enough, there isn’t a store that sells candied orange/lemon peel at this time of year. And I candied my own Yuzu lemon to go along with it! (it was a substitute for citron). Beyond that, the fruitcake was pretty straightforward. I messed around a bit and made a caramel sauce as well as some caramel art to class it up a bit, and there ya go! Instant dessert!

Next up was a red velvet cake. I’m not going to speak about this one too much. It was red. It was velvety. It contained 3 cans of beets. Yes. Beets. I know. I didn’t choose the recipe... It had a nice cream cheese/mascarpone/whipped cream frosting though!

Finally, I baked cupcakes. A now annual tradition, my brother issued me a challenge. This year the theme was to make cupcakes that were lighter than air. My design: an angel food cake cupcake with a lychee-strawberry filling, and a dragon fruit buttercream. The buttercream gave me some issues – I started out by making an Italian meringue buttercream, which relies on double boiling some eggs and whipping it all together, but when I added the dragon fruit my buttercream curdled! A sad time, I know. Luckily though, I had just enough time and ingredients to whip up a traditional buttercream. Traditional buttercream is heavier, but still delicious, so no complaints from me or my family. Plus, it looked beautiful too, a nice end to my baking adventures. Maybe there’ll be some Asian cooking in store for next week.

Bake it till you make it,

--Chandrew

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 was the first time I’d seen a butcher’s counter inside a store in who knows how long. Even at the giant FairPrice in Singapore I don’t remember seeing anything like that. FairPrice was more like a miniature target. And then the UK stores were all TINY compared to that. It’s just a strange and different model.

(decidedly not a grocery store, but one of the last pictures with my Scotland friends)

Anyways, that’s probably enough about grocery stores for now. I also went to the local Asian market and man oh man have I missed being surrounded by every sort of Asian food that I could physically ask to have.

I’m sure you’re probably wondering how it is adjusting in general though. First, Colorado is a lot warmer than Scotland. Not physically, actually it dropped about ten degrees colder within a couple days of me being back. But, there’s no humidity here. In-fact, it’s so dry that writing this a week after being back (and countless gallons of water) I am STILL dehydrated. This makes it feel infinitely less cold than Scotland does. There’s also no windchill and that helps too. Secondly, everyone here is… American. Everything is American. And that’s not a bad thing. There are big portion sizes of food. Soft drinks that don’t have artificial sweeteners.

Also, I’m ridiculously jetlagged. I have been for a week. It’s not awful, but I’ve been getting tired at 8PM and waking up around 7AM (very different from my typical 2AM-10AM sleep schedule). Either way it’s certainly nice being back. After half a year outside of the US it’s a bit refreshing to be back in a culture that’s familiar. And where I don’t constantly have to explain why I pronounce things all funny-like.

Finally, it snowed. I don’t like snow. It’s all wet and cold, and irritating. And it GETS EVERYWHERE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tLf1JO5bvE

--Chandrew

Goodbye, Old Chang Kee

 

Well. I’m on a flight out of the UK right now. I’m going from London to Iceland, and then heading back home to Denver for a couple weeks.

 

I didn’t do much in London; I had a very specific agenda and didn’t have a lot of time leftover for anything else. I really only had one day there, and spent most of it getting to and exploring the Royal Botanic Gardens, or Kew Gardens as it’s often called. The gardens were everything I could’ve ever wanted. Tranquil greenhouses, a huge, expansive arboretum. And, my personal favorite: not one, but TWO rooms entirely dedicated to carnivorous plants. And the bonus, it was a bit dreary that day, so the entire grounds were deserted. A tranquil and perfect way to spend my last day in the UK. But, of course, I didn’t stop there. Justin, David, and I all went out for a spot of tea and ended the day by seeing Les Misérables, the last of my favorite musicals that I hadn’t seen live. Les Mis was excellent. Honestly one of the best theater performances I’ve ever seen. I had chills during the entire performance and the singing was so good that it made me seriously doubt the credentials of whoever cast the movie.

 

All in all though, it was hard to say goodbye. Maybe even harder than with Singapore. I really am going to miss everything. The fencing team workouts. Nanyang with Justin. Having professors that exclusively speak in Scottish accents (not even lying, this makes classes at least 2x as exciting). But I think it’s time for me to go home. I think it has been for awhile now. I’m not horribly cold tolerant and it’s about time I return to the land of palm trees, sunshine, and bubble tea that’s actually worth the $4 you pay for it. And food. I definitely won’t miss Scottish food. Honestly can’t say I’d be heartbroken if I didn’t cross paths with IRN BRU (Scotland’s national drink) for a bit.

 

And so for my last meal in the United Kingdom I ate Old Chang Kee curry puffs. Everything came full circle. 6 months ago, getting off a plane in Singapore and thinking to my self “what on earth am I doing with my life?” All the way to now. 12 countries (not including layovers). 6 months. One very tired, but not quite homesick 20 year-old. And his final curry puff.

 

Until next time,

 

— Chandrew

Sent from my iPhone

One *Final* Time

 

AHHH it’s FINALS WEEK!!! And yes, unlike at Caltech where I have been known to take the occasional 100 mile trip to go to the beach and get Korean-American fusion during finals week, I am STRESSED.

 

Actually though, this has been quite likely the most stressful week of my life since my last week of IB exams in high school. Granted though, I had reason for that. I had four exams this season, three of which were this week, and two of which were yesterday. A normal Edinburgh student usually takes three classes and only has one or two of those with exams. So let’s just say it was a bit of a heavy load for me this term. Even my other caltech friends didn’t have 4 tests.

 

And it’s further stressful because the testing format is about as dissimilar from Caltech’s as one could physically get. All but one of my exams were closed book. I already learned the hard way on hydrogeology that that doesn’t mean that the exams are any less comprehensive on material, they just expect you to memorize legitimately everything (which is something I am historically bad at). Furthermore, the exams are all held in lecture halls in very strict, proctored exams. The sort of place where you have to raise your hand if you want to go to the bathroom.

 

Actually it really is funny how much these tests resembled my IB tests. Even the pink paper they used for the answer books was exactly the same. I was even able to recreate my high school pre-test ritual, with a new Scottish twist. Usually in high school I would drink an energy drink and listen to pump-up tunes ending with Eminem’s ‘Till I Collapse (dorky, I know). In Scotland I’ve now added the LIDL brand chocolate chip muffin as the healthy and nutritious breakfast that I need to fuel my brain through an exam. Realistically, they’re pretty mediocre muffins, but I’ve had a minor addiction to chocolate muffins and they’re the most price-per-quality-efficient option given my rate of consumption. Anyways, I have one more exam tomorrow: Land-Atmosphere Interactions. This is going to be my second hardest test, but luckily I only need a 31 on it to pass, so I’m luckily a bit less stressed. But also, I have to finish packing today (which is what I’ve procrastinated). So cheers to that haha. Also enjoy the assortment of random Edinburgh pictures. They wouldn’t let me take selfies in the exam room.

 

To passing all my classes! And thank goodness I’ll never have to sit finals like this again.

 

— Chandrew

 

 

Castle to E4, Checkmate

(Yes, I know they’re called rooks, but I needed a pun)

 

Hiya lads and lasses! I did my final wee bit of Scotland exploration this week, which is to say, I finally did the one touristy thing I’d been avoiding doing for all too long. I went to Edinburgh Castle. AND I went INSIDE Edinburgh Castle.

 

I’ve been avoiding this a bit for a few reasons. First, it’s rather cold and windy in Edinburgh, and the castle is at the top of a hill, where it is colder, and windier (lame excuse, but I’m cold constantly here). Second, it’s actually a bit pricey to get in (£17) and I can buy a lot of food for that much money (also a lame excuse, but eating helps ease the pain of the cold). And third, there’s a stigma that if you visit the castle before graduation you will fail your exams. Which, I know, I’m not a full time student here. Or superstitious. But that would be a very unfortunate outcome.

 

Anyways. To the details. The castle isn’t really a palace or anything like that. It’s more of a series of small building protected by a wall, and sitting atop of one of Edinburgh’s 3 extinct volcanos. Each of the little building has been converted into a museum of sorts, with different information about the history of the castle, famous assaults on t he defended, and a few oddities (like the history of the Scottish guard). There was also one really big cannon that could apparently fire about two miles. That’s just a wild concept to me. The entire castle had gorgeous overlooks of the city and stunning architecture. Anyways, I figure it’s a bit better explained through pictures, so enjoy!

 

The highlight of the day was seeing the ORIGINAL stone of scone, you know, the thing that Justin and I took the train all the way to Perth to see the replica of. Funny enough, it was just sitting in a glass case, a casual block of metamorphic rock chilling with the Scottish Crown Jewels. Of course, they wouldn’t let us have a scone with this one so that trip was still very much worth it. But it was a bit of a shock to see it here, especially because I thought it was in London.

 

Anyways, we did make it to the castle. And, even through wind that almost knocked us off our feet a few times, we crushed being tourists.

 

Checkmate.

 

— Chandrew