Holidays at Silliman

First snowfall, lots of yummy food and good fun at the holiday dinner...how much better can it get?

The lovely Christmas tree in the Common Room

Stu's gingerbread house at the Holiday Dinner

Mmm...sugared fruit!

The festive Silliringers



An interesting version of "Santa Claus is coming to town"

The view from my bedroom window Thursday
(might look a little weird because of the screen)

Just one week of finals to go, then home for the holidays!

Back in the swing of things

Ok, so the post title is a rather corny reference to New Residence Hall (aka Swing Space or Sillispace). Anyway, now that the craziness of shopping period is over, I finally get a chance to sit down and write about all the cool stuff that's been going on even though we've only been back for two weeks!

First stop: Classes!
The above photo is PSYC 171b: Sex, Evolution and Human Nature with Prof. Santos...she's an awesome prof and the class is offered only once every three years, so you can imagine why so many people want to take it. We were moved twice, from Davies Auditorium (about 250 seats) to SSS 114 (where the photo was taken) and now we're in the Law School auditorium, where we finally seem to fit. It's not just the topic matter either - she specifically said the first day that the class was not all about sex, all about evolution, or all about human nature. Instead, it's more about how human nature is a product of evolution, more specifically how certain behaviors are the production of sexual reproduction strategies. It's been lots of fun so far - one of the few classes I've heard of where the professor gets applause at the end of every lecture, not just at the end of the semester.

Other classes I'm taking: Cell Biology, Physics 181 (electricity and magnetism), Directed Research with Prof. Santos, and this cool college seminar called Medicine, Molecules, and the Millennium with Dr. Irvin Modlin from the Yale Medical School. We've only had one meeting so far but it already looks like it'll be an awesome class, so keep an eye out for more updates in the future =)

The weather has also been kind of funky - over winter break it was around 70 degrees every day, but now it's just bitterly cold outside. We've gotten bits of snow here and there (as seen below) but so far it hasn't stuck around for more than 24 hours. This is both a good and a bad thing - today I almost slipped several times on icy patches but at least I'm not hiking around campus through six inches.

First weekend back was a lot of fun...Friday night I was a participant in the first ever Asian Idol competition, something I will probably never live down ^^; It was a lot of fun though, and a nice way to showcase that you don't have to be Asian to appreciate the various cultures. I don't have any photos, unfortunately (since I was on stage!), but apparently there's a video somewhere that I will have to see and perhaps post later...

Saturday night was just as cool - I went to my friend Axel's improv comedy show in the Davenport Theater. Axel is a member of the Purple Crayon (along with fellow PoS-er Ned) so for they came up with the idea of an "iPod shuffle" show where each scene would be inspired by songs from a random audience member's iPod. In the second half, they mixed this up even more by choosing 10 iPods and taking one song from each. The result: absolute hilarity! A few clips are below - you can see more on my Youtube account.




In the week to come: Grand re-opening of the Sillispace Buttery, a few panels about women in medicine and life after Yale, perhaps a few IMs, and of course the second full week of classes. Time to go read for MM&M!

Snowy Street Scene

When I woke up this morning, this is what I saw...

The Grove Street Graveyard looks kinda pretty =)

The snow made the morning commute rather slippery, but thank goodness for the Science Hill bus and the new pilot program to have buses going down at peak times, not just up. Most of it had melted by this afternoon, but I'm sure there'll be more in the near future.

Today was extraordinarily busy...orgo exam at 9:30, Spanish grammar review at 10:30, then last orgo lab at 1:00 and Perspectives on Science symposium at 3:15. I got there just in time to put up my hastily thrown-together poster (I say thrown-together because it was text/photos on a posterboard, not a nice laminated poster since we don't have all the data yet) and talk to a few PoS '10-ers. A lot of them seem more interested in the "hard sciences" e.g. biochem and physics, but saying "I get to play with monkeys!" is usually a good way to start the conversation =P

After that was the first of two Silliman "Fireside Fridays" - this week was s'mores and hot chocolate out in the courtyard. A surprising amount of people braved the cold to come roast marshmallows and sing along with the holiday music blasting from my laptop (thanks to Zach setting up the huge speaker system =)...it was quite amusing to watch the first-time s'mores-makers, especially if their marshmallows unexpectedly caught on fire. Overall it was a good time, and I'm sure next week's Fireside Friday will be mush more popular, especially since it'll be indoors!

Silli-frosh to seniors enjoying s'mores

Tonight was also the second performance of the Opera Theater of Yale College's production "Street Scene," based on the libretto by Elmer Rice and produced by my awesome CASA sister Joyce. A lot of a capella people in it - especially a bunch of my friends in the Duke's Men, though that's not surprising since (1) they're all awesome singers and (2) Ethan, the director, is a former Doox member, so where better to recruit your cast? I was extraordinarily lucky to even get a seat: all the shows were sold out but I was high enough on the waitlist that I got in tonight. A very small selection of photos below - hopefully video will be forthcoming once I get a chance to edit the clips.

Singing about ice cream!

left: Jay and Jakara at the end of their dance number

right: She's telling Mr. Sankey to come upstairs...

Rose, you must listen; I loved her too.

Tomorrow is Phoenix group rehearsal and brunch to wrap up the semester, then some quality time with my primary sources in the Mudd Library government documents archive, then Silliman Holiday Dinner and hopefully the Davenport Pops concert "Sounds of America" in Woolsey Hall which should be awesome. It's going to be a busy weekend - not the least of which will be trying to write significant amounts of my two papers due during reading week - but it'll be good too. Stay posted for more updates with lots of photos!