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... 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 →

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 →

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... Read more →

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... Read more →

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... Read more →