| Tuesday, February 28, 2006 |
|
 A snapshot of "Beantown" near the ice skating place we went to - it has a cool "kids only" (bah) trapeze school - as well as giant sculptures made of jelly beans!
 Cath and me trying our very best to look like japanese cutesies.. According to achan we pass! |
posted by wenster @ 4:16 AM  |
|
|
|
| Sunday, February 26, 2006 |
|
Tired!
But a happy tired - I feel as though this semester has been - in Val's words "so social". I've been spending a whole lot more time with people around me.. and its really rewarding. We're going to surprise (well, hopefully it will still be a surprise) a friend with a cake, which we will be baking at 8 am tomorrow morning. Gah.
And then we're going out for a sophomore sisters' breakfast :) It will be nice to spend more time with the girls from MIT and Harvard - don't get to talk that much usually.
And then after church we're going for dinner to celebrate the 2 birthdays that we've had.. oooh.. how time passes and leave its mark in the way of cake and cream. I really have to go work out. Been eating so much without doing whatever it is that I usually do. Sigh.
No time!
I believe that God's trying to teach me something during this period of time. Maybe several somethings - from being humble and teachable, to being unafraid, to knowing my faith and being able to share it, to thinking about how spritually mature I am. He never fails to amaze me at how much He cares even though I'm a stubborn child who tends to not want to hear what He has to say, and just goes my own way. And He finds creative ways to speak too - ever hear about the donkey that was made to speak so that the prophet would hear what God said? Haven't seen any donkeys yet, but thats what it feels like at times.
Now that the skating bit of the Winter Olympics is over, maybe I'll get a bit more sleep. I (and I'm sure a few others who are just like me) have invested quite a bit of time in watching and cheering and squealing and whatnot - so much so that I know so many more names, their histories, rankings, bla bla bla. Just goes to show that when there is interest, and a constant exposure, no learning curve is too steep.
Went ice skating too! ahhaha.. I can safely say that I can now.. um.. go on my own without being a nuisance or hazard to others. Good news for everyone else! It also made me appreciate how normal shoes felt. But those 2 hours on the ice was so much fun... because I could feel confidence growing as all us beginners started circling on our own, without an elbow to hang on to, or a steadying hand. Nowhere near graceful though.
Huge wave for twin who has arrived in aussie and seems pretty settled down - you're not forgotten!
-hugs!- |
| posted by wenster @ 4:48 AM |
|
|
|
| Sunday, February 12, 2006 |
|
Brr. I waited in the cold for a whole hour!
Went to mit for the sg student soc's cny gathering, and then to get tumpang-ed groceries from senior house (thank you!). Oh before I go on, I think mit's non-frat accomodations (at least the ones I've seen) are pretty comfortable- and they're spacious! Ahaha. Can't get over the space-envy I have, maybe it has something to do with how noone can really bunk over at my place unless they don't mind being stepped over. It is that small.
Yes, so I was waiting for the 10pm bus at about 9.50, which came at 10.15 - that would've been fine except that the bus was full and wouldn't let us on! Gah. Waited for another 45 mins before the bus finally trundled up the street. In the meantime, a coursemate and I chatted about her chocolate tasting (I can't believe I didn't hear about it!), our classes, professors... and did various random dances on the sidewalk. It was so cold. SO cold.
Went to Wellesley's alumnae achievement awards yesterday night - apparently we do this in lieu of giving out honorary degrees to outsiders. Alumnae who've done great things get nominated, and a committee sieves through thousands of noms each year to pick 3 outstanding ones. I hear that some nominees stay on file for years on end because they're all super qualified.
I was most impressed by Persis Drell - she's a particle physicist and professor at Stanford now, and was voted one of the 50 most important women in science. I admired the way she carried herself and spoke on stage. She was genuine and sincere, without being overly lavish in her praise of the college and faculty. We all could see her professor-y side: she had clear points, made them and summarized at the end. Yet she wasn't boring. Definitely a woman to be proud of.
Nora Ephron's speech tickled the audience and she definitely knew how to work the crowd, but I couldn't appreciate her style. In the beginning it sounded as though she was going to be witty, but personally, her humor lacked the class that was conveyed in the movies she screenwrote, like When Harry met Sally and Sleepless in Seattle. Perhaps it is because she went without a speech, perhaps its just the "hollywood way", to be flighty and flippant and... just fluffy. But there is no doubt that she has achieved great things, and is a role model for all the entertainment industry wannabes.
Pamela Melroy had the most quotable quote. She was/is a combat pilot, decorated colonel and several time astronaut and space shuttle pilot. Her analogy was that she never liked hearing her resume because it was like the runway behind her. And when you're trying to take off, you worry about the runway in front, the speed etc. Past runway is just useless info. But then she realized that this was a good time to look back at the runway behind her, because it is the length of the runway that allowed her to achieve her current velocity. I thought this was a very apt story in her particular situation. She's also really oooh-worthy because of her profession.
Thinking about it as I typed made me realize one thing -they were people who didn't let others say no, or discourage them. Too many times people miss opportunities that are just around the bend because of others who tell them that it isn't worth moving any more. Seeing these sucessful women makes me more determined to be grateful for and enjoy each opportunity and person that God gives to me- no laziness! |
| posted by wenster @ 4:51 AM |
|
|
|
| Wednesday, February 08, 2006 |
|
I'm full.
Very full.
Maybe I shouldn't have had that chocolate milk after all. But chocolate milk, I seriously believe, is good for both physical and mental health. After all, how do you get calcium and endorphins at the same time?
The first week plus has gone by extremely slowly. Slow because each day seems to be super long, such that I think of things done yesterday as things done last week. Slow because I do miss home and can't wait to go back. Slow because everyone else around me is feeling it too.
Yet, I have a feeling that this semester will be one of discovery. Those in my year are beginning to settle into ourselves here- not so much uncertainty about what we are going to do with ourselves here, rather, we start looking outwards to what we may/can/want to do. I know for sure that anyone born in 85 has a life milestone coming up- achan's is tomorrow! Her teammates are doing something for her (thankfully not in our room - its waaay too small) and I sure hope I won't be carrying her back.
Several interesting things have happened already -
We've been playing with sheep brains in lab, and they're pretty small, for an animal that large. My lab partner and I have yet to name ours (we have 2 now, one more on the way). I love being in lab because of the manner in which we talk about the work:
"If anyone is missing a brain, I've got half of it here!"
"Hey, stop prodding my brain!"
"Wait a minute. What did I do to my brain?"
"If you could just take a minute and slice your brains into half..."
Simone our lab instructor is french, and I just love her accent. She's also really sweet when it comes to trying to teach us what is what:
Simone: "So, imagine that the amygdala are my feet, and the fornix is my back and arms, and then my hands are the hippocampi"
Excited whisper: "Does that make her bum the cerebellum?"
Went to extra classes in the first week to make decisions about which to take - and for the sports medicine one, we just sat around and talked about meditation and other alternative medicines. It was wonderful to be in class, yet have the prof tell us to sleep enough, rest, laugh and all that jazz.
We had winter retreat in New Hampshire again- it was an extremely refreshing and rebuking time. I could really hear God telling me how much he loves me, gently and perhaps rather sadly, considering how much I tend to want to walk my own way. So for my next big decision, pray that I will be pleasing to Him. |
| posted by wenster @ 11:28 PM |
|
|
|
|
|
