Monday, July 20, 2015

Dying in the Heat

I can't believe it! There's only four more days until this program is over, and I honestly don't want it to end. I actually enjoy being independent, and have the freedom to do whatever I want, but I definitely miss my family. Four days doesn't seem like a long time, but I'll definitely make the most out of it, just like what I did today.

I woke up with my regular 7:30 AM alarm and I got ready to head to the Dining Commons. The air conditioning in my room almost made me forget about how hot it actually was outside of my room, and I was very close to wearing pants, which I'm glad I didn't. Jun, Joanne, Chiamaka, and Elexis didn't have class until 10 AM, so I just went without them and walked with my friend, Audrey. The Commons were pretty empty today, so I was able to get breakfast quickly, and it was pretty normal for the most part. I was able to talk to new people, and it's fascinating to see how easy it was to start a conversation. Anyways, Audrey and I were out of the door by 8:45 AM, 

The results of our lab
When class began, Bill was the lecturer for today, and he began teaching us about the history of how people discovered the speed of light. It was rather interesting learning about how people from the past had devised ways of measuring the speed of light, even though light is the fastest thing in the world that we know of. He also talked about how to set up our lab because we were basically going to be building one of those devices, with the use of mirrors, a laser pointer, and several bread boards. In theory it was rather simple. All we had to do was just plug things into the correct hole, but once I saw the actual breadboards and wires, that's when it got a little crazy. Leesa, Sema, Allison, and Ben were my new group members, so we had most of it under control. I understood most of what I was connecting, but there were so many wires that it was difficult to keep track of the circuit. Despite the difficulties, it was actually a fun lab because I was able to have a more hands-on experience.

We had about a 15 minute break before another guest speaker came in. Professor Phil Nelson had come to us to talk about the Biological aspects in Physics. He began by turning off all of the lights in the room, and then proceeded to turn on a green light as well as a red light. This led to his explanation about the receptors within our eyes, and why different colors of light become white when mixed together. He also discussed about how this field of study has helped reshape how chromosomes are paired. By staining a chromosome a unique color, scientists are able to properly match up chromosomes instead of just guessing. 

The aft
Professor Nelson's lecture ran a bit long, so we ended up going out for lunch at 12:45 PM. Unfortunately, Mary had required the High Energy Physics group and the Radio Telescope group, which were our interest groups for this week, to come in at 1:30 PM, so I wasn't able to leisurely enjoy my lunch. I came back to see that there were 12 people in the High Energy Physics group, and we were greeted by Professor Walter Kononenko. He discussed a little about what we were going to do, and also about how we could track the cosmic rays around us. Then, we began assembling our tool.

We ended this lab at around 3:30 PM, but there was a lab assistant that had come into the room, and we all just asked him several questions. The conversations eventually went deeper into more advanced Physics, and I ended up staying until around 4:15 PM.

When I left, I ended up speed walking all the way back to the Quad, not because I wanted to beat the line, but because my RC group was having our little outing today, and we ended up going to Reading Terminal Market. This was heaven to someone like me, because they sold so much food for a rather decent price. Getting there, however, took a little longer than we had anticipated because my RC, Kerri, kept leading us to the wrong way, and I believe it took us around 10 minutes just to find the actual market. After we finished, we came back to the Quad at around 6:30 PM.


My day should've been over at this point, but the cohort and I actually planned to have dinner outside of our border with Mr. Hillyer. The problem was that we had to meet up at 7 PM, so I had to rush to my dorm to quickly change into a more formal attire. During all of this, the heat itself was not helping. I was dying from the heat and I ended up sweating so much during this. Anyways, everyone met up at the security area, and we were off to the subway to head to where we watched the parade during the 4th of July. 

Mr. Hillyer took us to the Spasso Italian Grill, and I was definitely pleased with my meal. I'm not sure if it was authentic Italian food, but it was still delicious! My mouth was able to experience so much good food that it makes me not want to eat at the Commons, but you have to do what you have to do. After dinner was over, we were all so full that we decided to take a nice stroll around Penn's Landing. I never actually realized how beautiful it was because we were able to see a park, as well as a roller skating rink. Eventually, we walked around the neighborhood again, and we were able to go to a park dedicated to George Washington, as well as the home of where James Madison used to live. It was more like a brisk walk rather than a calm stroll, and the heat was definitely killing me. It was still around 90+ when we walked around, so it was a rather uncomfortable walk, but at least I was able to seem more parts of Philly that I had not yet seen.


We arrived back at the Quad at around 10:15 PM, and we treated ourselves to Rita's at the sign-in. I had such a full day today that I could not even move around once I laid in my bed. I said I would make everyday count, and that's exactly what I did.

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