Guest blog: Want to Go to a Hawker Center, Lah?

Editor's note: This post is by Maureen Gaj, a junior in JE who will also be guest-blogging from her semester abroad in the spring!

If you can handle 24 hours of traveling by plane, then Yale has some opportunities for you!

Well, okay, I lie. It could actually be less than 24 hours of plane torture, especially if you are some of the people who work in Brussels, London, Mexico, Montreal, and Madrid. (I don’t want to bore you with all 18 places, so for the whole list, you can check out HERE. But for the rest of the people jetting off to Ghana, China, Singapore, South Africa, and Uganda, I hope you remember a fully charged iPod, a travel pillow, and some really interesting books.

This summer, I applied for one of the International Bulldogs Programs. And suddenly, when people were asking where I would be for the summer, I was answering "Singapore!"

So Singapore (The land where food courts are hawker centers and everyone is a lah).

I had to double check where Singapore was, ensure that my lack of any language other than English would not land me into trouble, and explain to my mother that Singapore was malaria free, but it was worth all the preparations, because I think it is safe to say I had the best summer of my life.

Not only did I have the best job ever. But, I had a lifetime of experiences in ten weeks.

First, Yale found us great housing right in the middle of the Central Business District. Wicked awesome. I lived with three other girls in this cute little apartment. It was just like being all grown up, except that in ten weeks I’d be back at school, with cooked meals and bathrooms that magically clean themselves. The view from our room was amazing. I’ve included it below, because it still makes me smile.

So breathtaking. Karolina (my roommate) and I could climb out our window onto this small balcony and look out at the city at night.

There were twelve of us there in Singapore this summer, and we each found our own niche in the city. We went on trips and activities sponsored by the Yale Club in Singapore, many of which involved Devin, who is pretty much the best example of how awesome Yale alumni can be. We got to go to various events at his three different restaurants in Singapore: Brewerkz, Café Iguana, and Wine Garage. He took great care of us while we were there; he even took us on a tour of Brewerkz brewery!

Here we all are at Brewerkz with Devin (he’s the guy with the super sweet shirt and glasses on the left). Well almost all of us: Jie was on a business trip to Malaysia (she went to 5 different countries with her job!) and Betty left early, and I’m taking the photo. And we are missing Liz, our amazing coordinator.

We also did a ton of traveling. A bunch of us went to KL in Malaysia (Kuala Lumpur), and I also went to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam and Bangkok in Thailand. It was absolutely, positively, fantastically, amazing.

And what’s even better, is Yale also paid for us to go and work at an orphanage in Siam Reap, Cambodia. That was probably my most favorite part of my entire summer. We worked at Sunshine Village and really got to have a great time with the kids. It made me really appreciate what I’ve got at Yale and at home, and made me a little more conscientious about the world. It was also great to see my first Wonder of the World (on some lists): Angkor Wat. I can’t even find words to describe this. We climbed on ruins, walked through huge gates, and saw Buddhist monks. It was incredible.

Katie, Karolina and I (complete with paint from our morning at the orphanage), with a couple of boys who liked our warpaint and copied!

All of us in front of one of the Bayon faces: Gabe, me, Katie, Bernie, Betty, Mitchell, Khadija, Karolina, Jie, Dhruv, Diana and Derek!

When I wasn’t traveling, I worked for Schlumberger in their Subsea Division, running explosion and fire analysis. It was complicated stuff, but so cool and totally relevant to my Chemical Engineering degree. So all you science majors can definitely go abroad too! There are plenty of research opportunities abroad (I know because I just checked the database).

Anyways. This summer was amazing. There just aren’t words or room here to describe it all. But, it all happened because of Yale. The program, the activities, the internship were all set up by Yale. In fact, Yale even gave me some funding through a couple of grants. And you can even use this awesome thing called ISA, which basically provides funding (based on the percent of your financial aid) for one summer experience abroad.

As if Yale doesn’t have enough for me right here on campus, it has also found a ton of things for me to do abroad too. Its kinda like Christmas where each present is better than the last, except this time, Yale is outdoing each of my summer experiences. I can’t wait for Summer 2009!

Happy Holidays!

Happy Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanzaa/whatever you celebrate!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

One of my favorite Yale traditions is the annual holiday dinner - besides the big one for freshmen in Commons, each residential college hosts their own feast, with their own traditions.

Not only does the dining hall staff make an extra-special dinner, they show off their decorating skills in elaborate displays, like the sugared fruit below:

This year, as we ate, we were also treated to music from a quartet of trombones, composed of one Silliman junior and three School of Music students. It just goes to show the incredible talent and opportunities for creativity at Yale, that an undergrad can perform with music students, and that together they can arrange/re-adapt their own music.

Silliman in particular has a special tradition: a performance from the Silliringers! Some alum donated a lovely set of handbells, which are brought out just a few times a year for practicing ("for minutes and minutes") and the annual performance. A Youtube video below:



Of course, what would Christmas be without a little snow?

The snow falling at night

The frosted courtyard in the morning

Welcome Yale 2013!

Welcome to all the newly-admitted members of the Yale community to be, the class of 2013!

To start getting you all excited about things yet to come, a video from last year's Bulldog Days:



A quick introduction: I'm a senior in Silliman College, double-majoring in Psychology (Neuroscience track) and History of Science, History of Medicine. Some of you may recognize me from this summer, when I worked as a senior interviewer and also helped out with information sessions and tours. In my free time, I teach and perform with Phoenix Dance Troupe, serve on the Yale Scientific Magazine editorial board, and plan a lot of events for Silliman, including the Safety Dance!

Over the next few months, this space will be filled by posts about all aspects of Yale life, including but not limited to residential college pride, campus-wide parties, varsity sports, and even the occasional class or two. Our bloggers range from freshmen to seniors (such as myself), and we'll also have the occasional guest post from a professor, admissions officer, etc.

So sit back, relax, and we hope you enjoy the reading!

A History of the World...with juggling!

This past weekend was the YAGS fall show: A Brief History of the World, With Juggling! The plot was exactly what you would expect from the title, with very amusing results.

Adam and "Steve" with Eve, after she picks up the "devil sticks"

The American Revolution


The Industrial Revolution!

Dueling in the Wild Wild West


Boy bands...with juggling!

Cast photo!

More lovely fall foliage

People generally don't associate New Haven (or any other urban environment) with pretty leaves and such, but they're there, and here are the photos to prove it!

Silliman Halloween

Every year, Silliman celebrates Halloween with a full 3 days of festivities including the Halloweenie Roast, our very own Haunted House, and then a big party in the dining hall.

We began with the Halloweenie Roast Weds night: s'mores, apple cider, hot chocolate, girilled hot dogs/hamburgers/veggie burgers, and lots of apple/pecan/pumpkin pie out in the courtyard for everyone to enjoy as a study break. We also had pumpkin carving for the artistically-minded, with some creative and highly amusing results:

Mm, pie =D

Ray roasting s'mores

Dracula jack o'lantern o_O

The Haunted House theme this year was "Searching for Salovey," with the (somewhat thin) story-line being that Dean (now Provost) Salovey had not been seen in weeks, so the police had begun investigating the possibility of a kidnapping. When we devised the different rooms, most of us thought the house would be more funny than scary, but judging from the screams I could even hear in the courtyard, it was pretty crazy!

See all the cobwebs? Now imagine bumping into them in pitch-black darkness!

Preparing the clown room...think strobe light and lots more balloons!

Creepy...

Finally came the Halloween party, incluing lots more yummy food, a costume contest, and a "special performance" from Master K, Dean Flick, and Mister K. I dressed up as the Giving Tree, based on Shel Silverstein's book, and surprisingly won a $25 gift certificate to Cutler's, the local music shop =)

Our august panel of judges, including Dean Brenzel in the Sorting Hat

"Dancing Queen, feel the beat of the tambourine...oh yeah!"

The Dark Knight, literally.

Of course, no Halloween would be complete without the YSO midnight concert, this year combining The Godfather and Mario (including Provost Salovey as Luigi!) A clip below:

Lessons from the PACU

Last week, a friend commented that I seemed to be unusually successful in avoiding the petty jealousies that too often plague high school years (and even college years). My response was that I try to quell any feelings of envy in myself, because I've been on the receiving end of jealousy a couple times and I've seen how ugly it can make the other person as well as harming both sides. Thinking about it a bit more, it only makes sense to try avoiding jealousy, because there's always going to be someone smarter, richer, or prettier. You can be the best at one thing, or maybe a couple if you're only thinking about a small group, but it's impossible for a single person to be #1 in everything. Does Bill Gates envy Steve Jobs? Maybe, but he sure doesn't show it in any of his philanthropic work!

Volunteering this morning emphasized the flip side: there will also always be people who are worse off than you are. There is a lot more to be grateful for than there is to gripe about. I've been volunteering in the Pediatric PACU at Yale-New Haven for over a year now, but every week I go there's still something or someone to learn from. There are the simple, happy stories - kid comes in to have tonsils removed and goes home 2 hours later - and then there are the more complex ones, like the toddlers with leukemia that go to the pediatric wards on the seventh floor, rather than out to their cars.

Today it was the infant who has been in the hospital for several months since she was born as a preemie, confined to her crib because she can't breathe without a ventilator. I can't even imagine how the parents are coping with all this - seeing the preschool-style drawings from an older sibling and family photos hanging on the crib made it hit home even more. Once she woke up, though, she seemed to have the same concerns and like the same things as any infant: opening her eyes wide to see the toys hanging above her head, sucking her pacifier, grabbing my finger, etc. All the nurses stopped by at least once to remark on her big smiles or how round her head was (apparently you used to be able to tell that a baby had been in the hospital a long time by the squared-off "toaster head" that came from resting on one side or the other all the time!)

Pauline Chen, a well-known surgeon and writer, recently began a series of articles in the New York Times about doctor-patient relationships. Reading today's piece about medical student burnout was somewhat discouraging to my dreams of becoming a physician, but then I thought back to this morning and how that baby girl tugged on my heartstrings, as so many others have in both the PACU and the MICU. If I can hang on to that sense of yearning to help while receiving the training I need to be more useful to patients, I think I'll be ok =)

Random conversations around the grill...

From the Halloweenie Roast earlier tonight:

1) "We should get a Silliman hot tub!"

2) "I kept a dream diary for a couple weeks - they say that's the best way to learn to control your dreams...one time I dreamed I was riding in a cab but I wanted to try flying, but then I was bumping my head against the top of the cab." [There was more to this story, but I'm choosing to keep the rest private out of consideration for the person who told it =P]

3) "You know, I feel bad for not canvassing for Obama this weekend. Maybe next week I'll go up to New Hampshire." [Um...what about class?]

4) "If they had just put 'Free Food!' in the subject line, I would have read the email and known this was happening! What I need is someone to read the emails for me and screen them..."

Nothing like s'mores to bring out the most amusing in people! Photos of pumpkin carving creativity and other fun stuff to come...tomorrow night: Haunted House!

Safety Dance!

The biggest Yale party every year is undoubtedly the 80s-themed Safety Dance, run by Silliman! We book Commons for the night, spend a couple hours moving all the tables and chairs, bring in a crazy DJ with video screens and laser shows, then let everyone in for dancing the night away to 80s hits from the likes of Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Madonna, and more!

The tradition was born in 1990 - before then, Silliman hosted an "End of the 80s" dance, but they clearly couldn't keep that name. "Safety Dance" comes from this amazing/crazy song by Men Without Hats, which was a huge 80s hit. Youtube video below:

Even if you weren't born in the 80s (as many of our current freshmen were not), everyone can get into the spirit of the event. The week before, everyone heads to Salvation Army to get their costumes, and some people definitely go all out! Even a couple of the DJ crew came in costumes - they say this is their favorite event all year =P

Guess which guy is a residential college dean?

Group hug during the last song

Starting to feel like fall...

Even though fall technically started a couple weeks ago, the leaves are just starting to change colors, and there are still some wonderful flowers blooming.

I don't know what these flowers are, but they're almost like Christmas ornaments!

Mini-morning glories in the Saybrook courtyard

A single bright branch on the walk down to the medical school

The first blush of autumn in Branford courtyard

A very resilient rose in Harkness courtyard

A sea of yellow leaves behind the tennis courts at the IM fields

Perhaps the cutest indication of fall was the decorations in the Silliman dining hall!

Mystery of the freezing hallway

Part I: A couple nights ago, I was coming out of the basement in my entryway when I noticed there was a simultaneous blast of hot and cold air. In front of me, the window was open (hence the cold air), but even worse (to my environmentalist instincts) was that the heater directly underneath was on full blast, with no control in view (it's behind a black wall thing).

Naturally, I closed the window, hoping that would warm up the freezing hallway as well as saving all the energy that had been flowing out needlessly out the window.

Part II: Tonight, I notice it's still freezing in the hallway. If possible, it's even colder than before. I know the building is made of stone and all, but it shouldn't be as bad as a medieval castle. The window by the basement is still closed properly, the door isn't open that often, the heat is on...everything points toward the idea that the hallway should be warm!

Then, I look up. The windows one flight up are wide open, both of them. And the heater underneath is on, full blast.

Windows closed, problem (hopefully) solved...we'll see how things feel in half an hour or so.

--------------------------------------------------
Random moment of amusement today:

*student walks into Greek Literature class, 5 minutes late, carrying a laundry basket*
Professor: Ritual cleansing?

Mini-NJGSS reunions and more

So, this morning I'm at NJMS , and guess who walks into the waiting room...Ryan Nolan, from NJGSS! We spent some time catching up, comparing notes about mutual friends, ribbing each other about the crime rates in our respective college towns (he's up in Cambridge, which apparently had a bunch of recent robberies), etc. It would be pretty awesome if all my interviews included running into old friends =)

Another random coincidence: one of my tour guides happened to be the roommate of a someone I knew from high school, so I even got to see their apartment (which was very nice for student housing, btw.) It was comforting to find out that even if med school is tough, students have time to relax a little and do things like sing acapella, pursue art, or put together a 500-piece puzzle.

Speaking of old friends, it was an equally surprising event to run into Kristi a couple weekends ago. Talk about (less than) 6 degrees of separation:
1) I went to NJGSS with Kristi.
2) Kristi is now dating Nathan, whom she meet working at CERN this summer.
3) Nathan was in my PoS class freshman year, but I haven't talked to him since. He is suitemates with Tyler.
4) Tyler is friends with Chidimma, one of my friends from YSS.
5) I went to Tyler's suite with Sara to pick up Chidimma before heading to Miya's...let's just say it was a huge shock to open the door and have Kristi be the first person I see! I think it was also just as much of a shock for everyone else in the room to realize we went waaay back =P

In more humdrum news, heading back to New Haven tomorrow morning...work, here I come *sigh*

NYC Olympics?

One of my favorite things to do while traveling is people-watching. Every fellow traveler has unique characteristics, mannerisms, and stories, things that I catch only a glimpse of in passing. Someone could be returning from a tour of duty, or reporting back for another one. Someone could be a successful businessman, or desperately trying to look for a new job after the recent collapse of several finance companies.

Something I thought of while waiting at NYC Penn tonight: if NYC doesn't win the 2012 Olympics bid, wouldn't it be hilarious to have a "City Olympics" with events that would be...unique to NYC? I'm thinking of something like the 100-meter dash...in heels. Or 3-piece business suits. Or flip-flops. Just watching people in the train station, it's amazing how fast people can run in any of those!

Incorrect Snapple fact!

The random fact on my Snapple cap today: "Honeybees are the only insects that make food for humans."

At first, I was amused by the wording of this..."make food" could also be interpreted as "serve as food" for humans. Chocolate-covered ants, anyone? Around the world, people also eat crickets, locusts, grasshoppers, etc. Thus, the random fact is incorrect in that interpretation.

If you want to be even more picky about the semantics, you could say that there are other insects that "make" food for humans. By that, I mean their larvae. Again, not exactly to American tastes, but there are plenty of cultures where grubs and such are an important source of protein.

Perhaps some of the TD-ers would agree =P

"Umbrella"

Bizarre moment this morning: washing my face in the bathroom and hearing a couple girls pass by singing Rihanna's Umbrella. It wasn't even raining out!

In other news, the alarm clock movement was a failure - my bed is set at normal height this year, so it was all too easy to get up, hit the snooze, then flop back into bed and doze off again -_- Maybe next time if I turn on the light the first time, that'll make my body think it's more morning...

Neither a night owl nor a morning glory

I don't know what happened this summer, but somehow my sleeping pattern has drastically rearranged itself from what I remember doing last year. I used to be able to push myself to stay awake until 3 AM to finish work if necessary (which it sometimes was, taking 6 credits -_-) yet get up at 8:30 to get breakfast before class or even at 7:30 to get to YNHH by 8 for volunteering. Obviously, I couldn't survive on 4 hours of sleep a night, but I was ok getting 6-7 hours/night, on average.

Now, I find myself yawning by midnight (if not earlier) yet I can barely get myself up by 9 to get dressed and rush to a 9:25 class. I've tried sleeping with the curtain open, but that doesn't work so well because my side of Silliman doesn't get much ambient light in the morning, even when it's sunny out. On the days that I don't have class, I wanted to get up and stretch or something, but unfortunately the dance studio has also been out of commission for a while (and may be again, after the heavy rain this weekend caused some basement flooding). I've also tried setting my alarm clock earlier than I need to get up, but it's at the head of my bed so it's entirely too easy to turn over and flop a hand out to hit the snooze button.

Solution attempt #1: Move my alarm clock to where I would actually have to get up to hit the snooze button or turn it off. I figure once I physically get up, I'll be awake enough to just keep moving and get ready for the day. If this doesn't work, I might have to try something more drastic like keeping a damp towel in my room to wash my face as soon as the alarm clock rings =P

What family is for

As I've grown up, I've come to redefine family as not just the people who are related to you by blood or marriage, but the people who will always care about and support you. Actually, I guess this is something that's always been part of my psyche, e.g. calling my parents' friends "Aunt" and "Uncle" (which is a very Asian thing to do anyway).

Semi-inspired by recent personal experience, a list of things that only "family" would do:
- give you an honest opinion about...anything, really
- initially try to keep a straight face, then laugh with you (not at you) when you make ridiculous statements or do silly things
- tuck a blanket around you when you're sleeping
- pick up the phone after midnight when you're calling for help or advice, even the most random questions
- stop at an intersection to roll down the window and wave
- provide a willing-to-listen ear or a solid shoulder
- organize birthday parties (surprise or otherwise)
- cook or bake for you
- worry about you so much that they can't sleep
- forgive anything you do wrong, no matter what

So as much as we may disagree sometimes, I'd just like to say that I'm constantly amazed by and grateful for all the love I've been fortunate enough to receive from the many members of my "family." Perhaps most important, thank you for showing me how to pass on that love. Spreading love and goodwill by helping others can only help the world as a whole.

Phew.

Moments that almost ended Movie Night prematurely:
1) Realizing this afternoon that there was no laptop-projector connection cable...good thing I'm a Sillilflicks coordinator, so I grabbed the cable from there.
2) The screen wasn't inflating properly...Jack was passing by and remembered there's a vent near the bottom that has to be zippered shut.
3) Realizing during set up that there was no power cord for the projector...Efan went to look for one in the computer cluster but thankfully we also found one in the sound cables box.
4) Trying to figure out how to turn the projector on...Val saw there was a switch AND a button (we had been trying just the button)!
5) The kettle corn cart was too wide to get through the College St. Gate, so we tried the Grove St. side...luckily the padlocks were undone, so we managed to open the other side of the gate extra-wide to bring the cart in (this also took some creative climbing on my part =P)

Conclusion: You can prepare as much as you want, but in the end it's up to God to provide all the things you hadn't taken into account. Thankfully, he's a loving one.

"Mass failure"

For the past couple weeks in nucleic acids lab, we've purified RNA from mouse brain slices, converted it to cDNA, then ran a PCR to amplify and isolate specific genes, with each student having a different gene. Today was supposed to be the moment of truth: run an agarose gel and visualize the DNA bands in UV light to see if everything else had worked properly.

My bench was the first group in the dark room...nothing. We had smears (contamination?) in a couple lanes and one very faint band near the top of the gel, but it was clearly too large to be what we were looking for. This seemed strange: you would think that maybe one person would have messed up, or a pair working together, but not all 4 (this is supposed to be an advanced bio lab, after all).

On to the next group...nothing. Group 3...nothing.
And so on and so forth, until all the groups had gone to the dark room and returned with disappointing photos of our gels.

The obvious conclusion: Something was wrong with everyone's procedure, so not a technique mess-up, but perhaps an incorrect buffer, using the wrong temperature during PCR, etc. Now the question is what went wrong, aka do we have to start all over again, and if not, where do we start again?

While we were all happy to get out of lab relatively early, we all still felt bad for Professor Nelson: "I've never had a mass failure like this before..." Just goes to show the "real" truth of science: Nothing ever goes quite as you expect it to =P

Schadenfreude...

Observation: People need to pay more attention to their surroundings.

Exhibit A: Boy (not looking where he's going) crashes into girl with full tray, spilling the water/juice she was carrying. A dining hall worker rushes over with a mop to wipe up the mess.

Exhibit B: Just after the floor has been cleaned, the dining hall manager walks over, looking off to the side, then slips on the wet floor, falls, and slides into the "Caution: Wet Floor!" sign, breaking it at the hinges.

I rest my case.

9/18/08 update: I overheard a conversation this morning in which someone was furious with her spouse for crashing his Jaguar into the rear end of someone else's car. What was he doing, you may ask? Surprisingly, not talking on a cell phone, or even fiddling with the radio...he was counting his money. No need for further exhibits, people - I'd rather that you not get hurt!

Raspberries, bunnies, and more

Good and bad times the past few days:
- Driving on the highway for the first time (I-91 and I-95), in a rented car, no less. Thankfully, Kev was there to coach me through merging lanes and the GPS system proved invaluable in navigating weird turns and such. Consider it a practice run for picking up Nick on Monday, with Sara navigating =P
- Trying to move our big green couch, more specifically trying to get it up from the basement. A couple of scrapes and bruises later, it is sitting serenely in our common room.
- Raspberry picking with Kev, Sara, and Chrissy...altogether we got like 6 pounds of raspberries, thankfully giving some away, otherwise there would be a lot more starting to ferment in our fridge now ^^; Also good: getting fruit, apple cider, and apple cider donuts at the farm market, as well as trying a bunch of fruity wines. I discovered I don't even like dessert wines (the strawberry wine was almost like thin syrup), although one I liked was apple wine with cloves and other spices that made it taste like mulled cider.

- Sara and I deciding that perhaps it would be better not to adopt a bunny after all...I'm still kind of sad that we won't have a happy little pet to cuddle, but it's just strengthened my resolve to get one when I finally get an apartment of my own.

I <3 kids

Kids that made my day:
1) Volunteering at the hospital this morning, one little girl (1.5 years or so) was bawling her head off for a good half hour (while all the other kids in the recovery room were asleep or quiet). The nurse took the IV out, tried to get her to drink some juice, wrapped her in a warm blanket...she and the parents pretty much tried everything. Finally, the nurse just picked her up and started walking around a bit...the toddler blinked in surprise and said, "Hi!" to all of us behind the counter, which made us burst out laughing for a few minutes.
2) At Shakespeare in the Park tonight, there was a family with a baby boy in front of us, about a year old or so. He didn't seem too impressed by Hamlet, instead crawling around on the blanket and sort of chirruping inquisitively at us. Naturally, we had to smile back, which probably just encouraged him further. The funniest part was when he picked up (presumably) his dad's empty beer bottle and started trying to drink from it...I wish I'd gotten a photo of what looked to be a baby draining a Corona (and can imagine Benji doing something similar =P)

The production of Hamlet was pretty good overall, especially Claudius, Polonius, and Ophelia. Hamlet was older than I expected, but the actor still did a good job with the difficult role. I appreciated the modern costume twist (think James Bond instead of Medieval Times), although the color symbolism was a bit too overdone. I was also very impressed with the elaborate set and lighting design - it's hard enough doing theater in a normal, professional grade venue, never mind outside! It was also fun to see Dean Flick and his wife Evie (although I guess I shouldn't have been surprised considering I kept running into Dean Flick all summer) and good to talk to Bonner and Emily, especially hearing about Bonner's adventures circumnavigating the globe the past two months.

Tomorrow: last day of work for the summer (yay for info sessions and tours!) then helping Kunmi move back into Silliman and packing some of my own stuff to head home for a few days' rest, or at least what little I can get. By the way, if you're wondering why there's a sudden spate of posts after my blog-silence all summer, the answer is that I don't have much else to do in the evenings (besides drafting secondary application essays) and a little bunny told me that I should post more often ;-)

Ick.

Observations of the day:
1) It must suck to play beach volleyball in the pouring rain.
2) It must suck even more to dive for a ball and end up with wet sand in one's swimsuit.
3) I'm glad Yale intramurals doesn't include beach volleyball =P

That said, go Misty and Kerri!

Mmph.

Amusing moment of the night: Walking past the Sigma Nu frat house, only to hear Miley Cyrus blasting out.

Three more days of work, home for four days, then moving back into Silliman for senior year!

Fortunate coincidence

I decided to relax a little reading at the bookstore after work, so when I left I ran into my co-worker Allen, who was heading back from the gym. He was cheerfully teasing me about being pre-med, asking for advice about his sore wrist, when suddenly he collapsed to the sidewalk clutching his calf, spasming in a painful charley horse. After my own experience waking up with a similar cramp a couple weeks ago, I completely sympathized with the grimace on his face.

Therefore, for the next ten minutes, I was kneeling next to Allen, pushing his toes backward to force him to flex his foot and stretch the cramping muscle, the only thing I've ever found to help me ease the pain. We kept pushing even through strange looks from pedestrians passing by (fortunately, some of them were friends who stopped with offers to help) and a couple phone calls from a friend who was coming to stay with Allen for the night ("If you look up the street, I'm the guy on the ground!") Eventually, the cramp eased enough for Allen to slowly get up, ease his flip-flop back on, and hobble down another block to his apartment.

Bet that he's glad to have pre-med friends now =P

More BDD videos

A couple more videos from Bulldog Days:

A mini-film about Handsome Dan, the Yale mascot:



Ballet Folkorico Mexicano de Yale performing at Mosaic, including two brave prefrosh volunteers!

Even more is yet to come!

Everyone loves a bulldog =D

Bulldog Days was an amazing, crazy time for everyone: admitted students, current students, faculty, admissions officers...pretty much anyone at Yale =P Some highlights:

Inflating the three-story bulldog on Old Campus


Handsome Dan dropping by

Huge dinner in Great Hall, er, Commons

Performances from Shades, Saburosa, and more at Mosaic

More photos and videos to come as they are edited...

Spring is here!

It's absolutely gorgeous outside, so I decided to just walk around and take some photos around the Silliman courtyard. Enjoy!

International Scrabble Week?!

I got an interesting email this morning:
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The Association for the Appreciation of the Celebration of Undercelebrated Holidays would like to wish you a very festive International Scrabble Week.

In case you have not realized, there are scrabble letters hidden throughout Yale's campus. Each scrabble letter has a corresponding number indicating its position in a cryptic scrabble word. Decode to find the truth. Joyous Hunting.

Sincerely,
The Association for the Appreciation of the Celebration of Undercelebrated Holidays

Not sure if it's a huge prank or something, but I'm just highly amused =P

East Side Story - the musical

Last night was the one-time-only production of East Side Story, the 2008 CASA cultural show:

As you may have expected, it was a rather satirical version, with the "Azn Boys" (ABCs) vs. the "Sha-Yu" (FOBs) on the streets of San Francisco. Tony works in Mr. Yu's boba shop, and Mai-Lee works in a beauty salon, but the overall story is still the same...

Can you guess which "gang" is which?

Tony meets Mei-Lee...

What made the show so hilarious was the sheer cultural satire, including the song "Too White, Too White," sung by Tony and Mei-Lee. Appreciate the lyrics for what they are, and the singers for their effort =P

I also got a kick out of the not-so-traditional Lion Dance, as you will see below:

Overall, it was an extremely well-done production, even with the relatively tiny stage in SSS 114, limited lighting/sound, and only about a month of rehearsal. Super-props to director K. Chiu and the whole cast and crew =)

Next up: Phoenix tech week!