It's intimidating!

Hey! So I generally had a pretty good day. Got my world politics essay done, went to my one class of the day, did a quick workout, had lunch, preped for my project for my kids, went to program, came back, sorting through all the loose ends and email and maybe on to homework after this post. 


People here at Wellesley intimidates me. Everyone is so ambitious and striving for more.  Today, I was trying to find my printouts at the printer.  I found a grade transcript for straight A's, something hard to do with the grade deflation to an average of B. I also found an essay written in Spanish and this one of the few times that 5 years of high school Spanish has proven useful. I quickly glanced through it and it was about how she worked for the Wall Street Journal for 6 years (?). Look, my Spanish isn't that good, but I'm sure that's what it said and it further elaborated on her responsibilities and her work for this incredible publishing company. Then I go to program and hear about themselves going abroad this summer for a conference in South Africa, a competitive internship in Shanghai, the Harvard Beijing Summer Academy for 9 weeks and so forth. Then at dinner, the student drive to and from program is an Economics major and pre-med track who is taking 3 lab classes.  I'm not sure what lab is like at other school, but because Wellesley is endowed with a great science program, taking a lab course is like taking two classes due to the heavy workload. Then there's this other girl who did program with us today, is rushing through dinner to get to work afterward. Program wears me out, I can't imagine having to work after it. 


It's a little scary that's all. Anyhow, I tried teach my kids how a bill is passed through the three branches of government and how checks and balances work. I think I overestimated their knowledge...but almost no matter what, I come back from program in a better mood. Lastly, cookies and cream ice cream put me in a better mood. I'm a sucker for ice cream. If there's ice cream involved, I'm there. If you bribe me with ice cream, I'll do it. I love ice cream.

Winter Wonderland

I woke up this morning to 2 inches of snow! It was white everywhere.

I went swimming today. The pool had large windows to the snow. It was pretty cool to be in the waters while watching it snow outside.

Dinner was roasted sweet potato, pesto chickpeas, corn and feta cheese. I love Pompory's feta cheese and I love the combination of corn and feta cheese. It was very yummy.

 I have a lot of chem homework!!!! Got to go!

Productive Day

So I had a generally productive day. I got a start on the government project I have planned for my kids on Monday.  I did a quick 30 minute on the treadmill.  This is why I don't like working out in the morning. It makes me sore and a little achy with each step I take granted I did do this to myself. But I plan for an afternoon swim tomorrow. The gym was really busy this morning! There were softball practice, varsity crew practice, spinning class, the cardio machines going, and so forth. But the workout did put me in a good mood. The music was blasting from the crew practice. My knee pain was manageable. And the bottom line is that I did a workout. Afterwards, I worked two hours in addition to two hours with my computer science partner and got part of our assignment done. Then I had to get two scoop of ice cream for some sugar before my chamber music rehearsal. And I did my laundry. I really really like clean clothes.

I had a typical pompory dining hall fare. Pompory is a vegetarian, vegan and kosher dining hall. It just so happens that it's the closest to me and I don't have to walk out. I think it was a veggie and tofu curry over some basmati rice.

So in the end, I didn't do any homework today. But hey, I also watched 7 episodes of private practice.

Horizontal Snow

 Last semester, counselor bonding was karaoke and some...adult drinks. That combination plus some shyness, it was a hilarious night watching everyone.  Last night was this semester's counselor bonding and it was group games and it was so so so much more funny. We played line charades and we had common words, ballerina and fishing, and adult words. It was really great to hang out with Harvard friends who I only get to see once a week.

Before that was my group's meeting in one of Harvard's dining halls. I'm pretty sure that the kids have no idea how much effort, time and energy we put into their projects.  There were literally 10-15 ideas of how to combine, checks and balances, the Wisconsin issue, the Egypt issue, making their own constitution, staging their own riot and so forth. Then we have to figure out how to make it interactive and fun.

Last night, the rain turned into snow. The wind was so strong that when I walked out to catch the 10pm bus, the snow was literally flying horizontally. It was a little shocking.

This is one of the dorms at Harvard.

I had dinner on campus.  Fried rice and some steam broccoli. Those are some HUGE broccoli. You might has well cut down a small tree and put it on my plate. You see that squirt of sriracha. I love hot sauce. My family literally have a level in the refrigerator dedicated to hot sauce.

Harvard Yard Gate with snow! What date is it? February 25th? I heard the snow doesn't really completely melt until mid March. 

I had a blast last night. I love being with all the counselors. You have a certain personality to work with kids anyway. They are awesome!

I confess

So tonight I almost cried over my computer science homework. My eyes welled up with tears thinking that I accidentally deleted my 7 hours worth of homework that due tomorrow. I go on a mad search for it as I pitifully dabbed my eyes. Thankfully, it was recovered.  


Since it's 11pm and I have an economics midterm tomorrow, I plan to sleep with the econ textbook under my pillow.  I'm not kidding. I'm too worn out by the CS homework and it's late. I will hopefully learn the rest by osmosis tonight.


Wish me luck. 

Busy Thursday

So even though I only have a class today, it was super busy. I got up at 7am, practiced my flute, went to class, did a quick workout, had lunch, found out that I lost my precious USB, studied for my econ mid term tomorrow, went to office hours, sent some emails, had dinner, went to a speed networking event (it was lame), and going to a computer science help room from 8-11pm.

one of the practice rooms...apparently Wellesley has a quite few Steinways.

 
Breakfast: toasted english muffin with cottage cheese and strawberry jam. trust me it was yummy.

How to Peel an Egg 101

My grandfather has taught me many many life skills.  He taught me my multiplication table until I can recite the ones to the nines forwards and backwards. He taught me how to ride a bike, how to swim and how to color nicely rather than scribbling. 

A couple years ago, he taught me how to properly peel a hard boiled egg.

Step one: crack the middle and peel only the middle.

Step two: peel off the two ends of the shell

Ta-Da! A perfectly peeled egg. 

Unlike many families, my grandparents cared for me while my both of my parents had full time jobs until I was seven. They have been a tremendously positive influence on me. I truly feel I owe them part of who I am because of the morals, values and work ethic that have instilled in me. 

It makes me feel really really upset to see that the elderly is often left in retirement and nursing homes. Many of them have such incredible stories and wisdom that no one is willing to listen to them. They have struggled and triumphed and they deserve to have a peaceful life and to be taken care of. 

I have an incredible respect for the elderly and that's in part of my grandparents instilling that value in me as well as seeing the way my grandparents are still highly respected in their own community. I always try to give them a helping hand, get on my hands and knees to take over some of the chores, listen to them no matter how many times they said some things, keeping them company and so forth. Simple but it's so meaningful. 


It's almost 11:30pm and I need to finish up some econ exam studying.  Elasticities, Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, implicit and explicit costs...

No Title

I had greasy sauteed spinage, greasy sweet potato hash and greasy portobello mushroom pizza for dinner.

9:30pm... it's homework time.

The End.

News

So let me tell you about my day. It snowed in the morning. I had cereal and orange for breakfast. Worked on my polisci essay and read about bureaucratic and psychological explanations for that class. Oh, I'm taking Computer Science:web designing, Intro to World Politics, Economics 101, and Fundamentals of Chemistry. Then I had lunch as you can see below. Then I studied for my econ midterm and learned all about elasticities. Studying was followed my some cleaning.  The floor was awful. The sand/salt get suck on my boots and I've been keeping them at my door but somehow all that still gets all over the my floor. That was followed by dinner with my Wellesley big sis. It was a junky dinner. Now, I wished I had gone for a workout and I know I should have practiced my Bach piece for chamber music rehearsal tomorrow and my SD card reader on my computer is not working.

Sorry, I'm rambling.

Yes, I can peel an orange in one piece. I actually don't know why people don't. It's a million times more efficient and so much cooler. I'll show you how to peel a boiled egg one day. 

When I'm at school, I feel incredibly disconnected from the world.  At home, I watch the evening news and sometimes the economics news afterward. My parents always look up world news and always discuss it at the dinner table. But at school, I have zero idea what's going on simply because I don't watch TV and don't get newspaper. Yes, I occasionally do read the newspaper. And yes, I suppose I can go on CNN but I'm not a fan of scrolling through all that mess. 

And so it snowed today. If anyone every some to Wellesley College, you should check out the Lulu Wang Campus Center. It's a contemporary architecture built in 2006 and it's pretty funky! If you look carefully in the photo below, the middle part opens up so when it's snowing there's snow falling "into" the building. I was looking so intently into it coming down from lunch, I was going to walk into the basement.

I think I'm going to work on Chemistry and maybe, just maybe get ahead because on Tuesday I'm literally out of my room from 8am to 9pm for class and other various stuff. Good night!

Tip 1

So one of the many advice and wisdom my dad told me is something I still do. 

• Your desk lamp should be as bright as possible!!!

Having a dim light when your studying makes you sluggish and sleepy. When there is a bright light, you'll be more alert and can concentrate better. I promise! Oh, it's not a bad idea to buy extra light bulbs in the beginning of the school year. For some reason, I've gone through three maybe four light bulbs already.


Since I don't do much today here a few photos of the things I baked during winter break.

Ice Skating!

Hi Everyone!

It's been busy busy busy! Yesterday went ice skating at the Steriti Memorial with kids and counselors from Chinatown Afterschool Program. It was super fun! It was really great to see the kids outside the classroom instead of constantly telling them to do their homework and to focus. I lost count of how much little skates I tied in the beginning. It was a little crazy coordinating the Wellesley counselors arrival, the Harvard counselor's whereabouts cause some are co-piloting the vans, and all the kids from K to 5th grade. I haven't gone ice skating since last winter and I was so excited to get back on the ice!

It was a beautiful rink right in the middle of Boston. The north end or little Italy is on one side and Boston Harbor is on the other. That rink was before 50ish kids and 20-30isk kids flooded the rink. I'm so grateful I know how to skate. The counselors who knew how to skate went around and helped pry kids (and counselors) off the edge and teach them how to skate. My kids (G5) actually wanted my help for once.

So yes, in the end my feet was hurting but I held so many little hands and arms helping them skating or at least pulling them along.

Afterwards I walked back to the main North End with a friend. We were going to go to Mike's Pastry that place was packed!!! So we just walked back to Haynes Market and I took the T back to Riverside and she went to Harvard Square to meet up with some friends for dinner. Oh, the dreaded T to Riverside, there's so few of them! Every time I want to catch the bus back during the day on the weekend, it's so nerve racking! It's hard to figure out how long you have wait for the T and how long you'll be on it and making back in time for the last bus run of the day. But I made it just in time.

Wellesley Winter Photos