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

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 with two of my friends, one of whom has a pro photography gear. He brought two sets of lenses and a tripod. We never got to use the tripod since it was rather crowded. However, his two sets of lenses were quite useful. One was suited for panoramic shots, the other for close ups and special effects.

Right when you walk in, you are blinded by all the LEDs. There is a center piece that looks like a float at a parade. Surrounding the display are little pop-ups where local artisans sell their goods, including fancy salsa, jewelry and prints. We got some churros and hot chocolate since it was fairly chilly out.

Most of the animal exhibits were closed, with the exception of the snakes exhibit. We saw a variety of baby snakes, but did not see any pythons or cobras. Outside, was this massive web and spider made of lights. There were also light sculptures of flamingos, frogs and elephants along the path. One thing I really like about the displays is how well-planned they are. There are arrows guiding you from one exhibit to the next so you walk and optimized path without repeating sights.

The highlight of the place is this light tunnel. It's essentially just a ~100 meter tunnel lined with fairy lights of all colors. The beginning is white lights, then rainbow lights, before ending in golden lights. This is where everyone takes photos and shares to social media. We managed to get some nice pictures here, but it was quite touch to wait for the moments when the background is not filled with people. We left soon after that since it was freezing out. Well, freezing by LA standards, so like in the 50s temperature-wise.

 

The Zoo Lights were definitely beautiful, but I don't think I would go back again. I think they recycle the same displays year after year, so I wouldn't pay to see the same thing again. However, if you have never been, I do think it's a worthwhile experience.

New Years in Amsterdam

I visited Amsterdam for a brief two and a half days during my vacation. There were a few landmarks and neighborhoods I wanted to checkout, but did not plan the visit in detail. As such, when it came down to destinations with ticketed entries, I had to skip most of them, since they did not have day-of tickets left for sale. Fortunately, I was able to walk around most of the city and it was generally a good time.

I'll start out with the worst part of Amsterdam, the cold. According to the weather website, it was supposed to be in the low 40s. However, we found that the weather was actually around the 30s. Furthermore, due to the fog, the air is quite humid, so it felt even colder than it actually was.

We arrived early afternoon on NYE and checked into Generator, our hostel. After grabbing a quick dinner at the hostel restaurant, we walked into the city to checkout De Wallen, or Red Light District as we know it. Although there is a lot of controversy surrounding that neighborhood, it is one of the most historic and iconic parts of the city. Regardless of your political stance on the issues, it's worth checking out.

There were a few "city squares" there where many roads intersected. In these squares, people lit fireworks and fire crackers on their own. Apparently, there were no official NYE fireworks, so these local festivities were sought after instead. While the fireworks were exciting and pretty, it left the streets super smoky. Along with the fog, we could barely a few meters in from of us. However, on our walk to the district, we had seen a lot of the pretty bridges and canals. Also, walking in the fog is a different vibe. It made the city seem even more mysterious and intriguing.

The day after, we took a day trip to Old Holland, which I will cover in a different post. During our remaining in Amsterdam though, we visited the Albert Cuyp Market, a famous outdoor market open daily from 9am-5pm that is comparable to Borough Market in London. Market vendors sold everything from leather jackets to green juices to stroopwaffles. The waffles were certainly what you should go for. A lot of the booths had XXL waffles for 1.50 euros, and these waffles were the size of my head. I heard that the Original Stroopwaffle stall is where you should go, but it was still setting up when we were there. I'm sure the other places are delicious as well. If I did not have a big brunch right before, I would have eaten a giant one or two, easily.

If we had more time to spend in the city, we would have visited several museums. We were interested in the Anne Frank House, but unfortunately, the tickets were sold out. For that museum, tickets for 2 weeks from today are released. 80% of the tickets are sold online prior to the day, and the remaining 20% is sold on the day of at 9am. I tried queueing online for day of tickets, but ended up on the waitlist at position 320. Right when it got down to 14 people in the queue, we were kicked out of line as the tickets were completely sold out. Other notable museums include the Rembrandt house and the R*** Museum. There's a super cool "I Amsterdam" sign on the lawns of the R** Museum that you have probably seen all over instagram. I wish I had gotten a photo myself, but it was out of my way.

Snowboarding at Cypress

Snowboarding with my friend Cecilia is an annual occasion when I go home for the holidays. Cecilia and I actually learned snowboarding a few years ago. We signed up for these intro lessons, but arrived at the slopes early and thought that we would try a run before the lesson to see where we at. We were slightly confused, so took the lift to a green run instead of the bunny hills. We got down that run 80% on our butt and 20% on our feet, but it was a great start. By the end of that day's lesson, we were getting down that same run 80% on our feet. Of course, now we are much better.

We chose to go during peak season. Even though we had purchased lift tickets and rentals well ahead, we had to wait ~1hr in line to pick everything up. There were just that many people that day. I was almost concerned that they would run out of equipment. Anyways, if you visit Cyprus, I would highly recommend purchasing online ahead of time since there is at least a 10% discount and it saves you so much hassle on the day of. Also, for adults, rentals do not include a helmet, but if you value your head and its health, you should probably rent one for an additional 10 dollars.

Getting back on the slopes felt quite strange. I feel like I never use my quads that much in real life, after a few runs, my legs felt like jelly. Also, since there were a lot of people, it was difficult trying to go fast and avoid everyone. It's terrifying going down a run with inexperienced snowboarders and skiers since you don't know if they will suddenly slide to a stop or will lose control and come flying at you. In addition, it was sunny that day, so the conditions were rather icy. Another hinderance were the clouds that eventually became fog. Not being able to see far ahead on a crowded slope was quite a challenge.

I think I was able to get about 6 runs in before we had to take the bus back home. I also don't think I could go for any longer since I had taken a few falls by that point and my entire lower body was sore. Although the conditions were not ideal, it felt good to be back. I wished I could go a couple more times, but I had other plans for the remainder of my break. Perhaps I will visit Big Bear or Mammoth in the new year, or will go more next winter.

 

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

Drizzles in Durham

There, and back again. A Caltech student’s tale.

I went back to the land of my enemy, my mortal nemesis. Or at least, the nemesis of our school. Durham, the only team currently ranked above us on the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) point list. Only, this time, I went with open arms.

I believe I mentioned somewhere deep buried in this land of blogs that my dad had studied abroad in Durham, 40 years ago precisely. And on this 40-year anniversary, it seems only fitting that his son would make a return to the land of his old haunts and continue the Chan family tradition in (chilly) Durham, England.

I dragged along one of my fencing teammates with me. Well, not exactly dragged. Ardy is from Durham, and he was actually rather excited to get the opportunity to take a tourist around his home and reminisce about the wonderfully cute city he grew up in.

Yet again though, this weekend adventure started with some train drama. They cancelled our train. But before too long we were on a later train and made our way into an overcast day in Durham.

We started out by diving headfirst into the market. We picked up some wonderful gingerbread. Gingerbread is a bit different in the UK, it is soft with hard edges, instead of being entirely soft. We also picked up some sour sweets which Ardy loved and I could barely keep in my mouth for 15 seconds.

We then proceeded to the cathedral and the castle – both very prominent sites of Harry Potter filming, and old haunts of my dad’s. We had a nice solid walkthrough and spent some time enjoying the scenery before heading to a lunch at Zapatista Burrito Bar. I’ve really been craving Mexican food for the last few weeks in Scotland, so it just had to happen.

It was a whirlwind of a day, with no time for stopping. After this, we went on a mile or so journey out to the oriental museum. This fascinating little gem held a shockingly large collection of Asian Artifacts, some of which were similar to what I’d seen in China freshman year. Then we hiked the nearby hill and got a gorgeous view of the Durham castle and cathedral. It did really pay off to have an insider with me.

And like any good day, we ended it with a Tesco meal deal and a train ride back. It had been a long day, and we had earned our rest.

There’s a storm a’comin

And it’s us.

--Chandrew

 

 

It’s Studying Time

Well, the week before finals week is finally here. And I spent that studying, but also, doing the ever-important finishing of reports, and honestly, taking a couple of much-needed naps to catch up on everything else.

Studying is a bit different here in Edinburgh. The biggest difference is that every single lecture is usually recorded. This means it’s very easy to have a lazy day of staying in bed and re-watching the lectures you missed or that you zoned out during. The most helpful part of this is that you can repeat parts of the lecture you don’t understand. So instead of getting pointlessly lost, you can repeat the same 5-second clip until the cows come home. The other major difference is that every past exam from any year this course has been taught is posted online. They change the exams significantly every year, so they’re able to put up all the past papers for you to do. This is quite helpful, as the exams have certain trends that allow you to pick out what the instructors think are important topics, and thus hone the area you’re studying around those subjects.

And, as with any good week of studying, David and I decided to take a bit of a study break and spend some time at the holiday Christmas party. The student union (basically the student government) runs this giant venue that got out a snow machine and some sick early 2000s tunes. And free santa hats. We have a lovely photo of us sipping water and looking up and to the left. I don’t know why they felt the need to post that but who knows ahahaha.

And I designed a guitar body! Just for fun aha.

Oh! And we got free tickets to see the dress rehearsal of The Lion King in Edinburgh. This amazing experience was courtesy of the Singapore society, and we got to go out see it just a few days before anyone else. It was a wonderfully put on show, beautiful puppets (which weirded me out for most of the time) and generally great singing – although the kids did pronounce the “can’t” in “just can’t wait to be king” with an extremely heavy London accent which was a bit odd.

More theater soon! (we just got tickets to Les Mis in London – the dream of my theater life to see.)

--Chandrew

Ice Skating

Ice skating seems rather uncommon here in Southern California as there are only two year-round rinks within driving distance of Caltech. One is the Pasadena Ice Skating Center which is only minutes away, the other is the Santa Monica Rink which is way out west. The interesting thing is, the Olympic figure skating Mirai Nagasu is actually local. Her family owns a sushi restaurant in Arcadia that is only 10 minutes away.

There are a lot of Caltech events at the Pasadena rink. The houses often play broomball with each other. For broomball, we would rent out the entire rink. It's extremely fun and you do not need to know to skate to play. My friends and I have also gone a couple of times to actually skate during their public skate sessions. In fact, two weekends ago, a friend and I headed over to polish up our extremely rusty skating skills.

We went right when the public skate session opened and there was already a line. It was around $15 per person with skate rentals if you had a California driver's license. Personally, I am not a fan of skate rentals because for figure skates, they shave down the toe pick to prevent people from falling. However, for more experienced skaters, the dull toe picks simply feel strange.

Even more strange is the sensation of getting back on the ice. To remind yourself to push off your back foot, glide and be confident in your balance is not that easy. As such, there are plenty of adults stumbling around the perimeter of the rink. There are also lots of amazing young figure skaters practicing in the center of the rink. We saw several doing lutz jumps and shoot the duck spins. I used to figure skate and I felt the urge to try a few of my old tricks, but I stopped myself from doing so because it could also possibly fracture my tailbone.

When I go home over the winter break, I will definitely go skating, and I will hopefully bring my brother along as well. Ideally, I'll bring my own skates to campus in the new year, so I can go more frequently with my friends here.

Thanksgiving in SF

I spent this Thanksgiving with one of my good friends in San Francisco. My friend is an Techer alum and she currently works in asset management. Since she did not have enough of a vacation to fly down to LA to spend the long weekend with her family, and since I was free, I went up to spend with her. Needless to say, it was a very untraditional Thanksgiving. We did not have any turkey or stuffing. Instead, we went out for sushi and brunch. One thing we did do is celebrate Black Friday.

I arrived in SF around Thursday evening, and headed out for dinner right away. We went to a sushi and karaoke bar located in inner Richmond. My friend said that the restaurant is usually quite packed. However, since most people are spending Thanksgiving at home with their families, we were one of the two tables that night. We ordered, sashimi, rolls, appetizers and plenty of matcha cream puffs. Even though the food was not that heavy, we still over ate and went home in a food coma.

The next morning, we got up early for yoga at the Equinox in Marina. My friend is a member and raves about the quality of facilities. I must admit that it does not disappoint. Their showers have Kiehls branded everything, and there is an unlimited supply of clean towels. After yoga, we headed to this cute brunch spot called U Dessert Story and Vintage brunch near Fillmore. We ordered the omelette rice and a matcha lava cake to split. It was absolutely delicious.

We spent the rest of the afternoon exploring Chrissy field, a grassy area with a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge, and Ocean Beach. At one point, it started raining, but the showers quickly subsided so we did not have to drastically change our plans. The highlight of that evening was catching the sunset at Ocean Beach. The beach has such a large field of view that it felt like the end of the Earth.

 

On Saturday, it just poured. We got brunch at Jane on Fillmore and had dinner at the Italian Homemade Company. We spent the rest of the day shopping and watching movies indoors. Although it was not that eventful, it was nice to take a break.

Finally, Thanksgiving break is a trap. When I got back to campus on Sunday, I realized how behind I was on work. Luckily, I've been able to get back on track, so the vacation/procrastination was worthwhile.

Cold, Wet, And Happy

Well uh, good evening from a cold and rainy Scotland. I spent the whole of today in beautiful St. Andrew’s Scotland. Funny, I know. I’m Andrew. In St. Andrew’s. And even funnier, it was my mother who told me I had to go to check the place out. So, I suppose in some sense it was destiny that I woke up bright and early on a Saturday to take the two-hour bus out to St. Andrew’s. It was actually a very peaceful bus ride up, a bit of beautiful scenery, a bit of gorgeous rolling fog, and boom! We were in St. Andrew’s!

The first thing Justin and I did (as we usually do) was to get breakfast! Both of us have a horrible habit of not eating before these trips, so when we arrive around noon, it’s always a perfect lunch time. We opted for a typical American brunch: fried chicken and waffles. This has actually been one of the foods I’ve been missing from the US for the last couple of months. That, cheesesteaks, Waffle House, and grocery stores that actually carry what I need to buy for dinner. Especially that last one.

After breakfast, it was time for a walking tour of St. Andrew’s. Only, it was rather rainy, so it was a bit of a brief walking tour. We started at the golf museum and the beach. The latter seems like it would’ve been beyond gorgeous in nicer weather, but alas it just wasn’t meant to be. We then went to explore the university. The architecture was a lot more reminiscent of a US old college than a historic UK University, but it was still very scenic. We then went to the castle and the cathedral (ruins). This was actually super cool; it was very reminiscent of the castle ruins I visited on the way to the Isle of Skye, but just a bit more in-tact. So very historic.

We then took refuge for the rain. At this point it was just a wee bit cold to be out exploring, so we found a coffee shop, which, funny enough, was the location of that William and Kate had their first date, many years ago. And so, we had a nice afternoon tea, and one of the best scones I’ve had in my life, and then headed back to Edinburgh.

A lovely, cold, wet, day.

--Chandrew