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Bilin
@Luofang
@Shenzhen Middle Sch
@Raffles
@Wellesley
::Physics::Chemistry::
::my beloved Pipa::

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Saturday, December 23, 2006

Exams are over. Now I am supposed to enjoy my holiday. But the campus is sooooo quiet now. Really boring.

Flying to Chicago to see Yexin tomorrow! Then going to Indianapolis to see Liu Cong on 26th! Haha I'm pretty excited:)

I won't be back to Wellesley until 2nd Jan. So this will be my last post before the New Year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR to all my friends!
(Merry Christmas if you celebrate Christmas)

*******************
Wellesley exam period...

People were crazy. My roommate didn't sleep for one whole night. And she was not the only one. Don't know how people do their exams without sleep.

One day during dinner time I was asking my friend to go for dinner together. Then this friend was asking another friend, who was studying at the same table:" Are you PLANNING to have dinner?" Since when dinner has to go into a "plan"...faint. Even dinner is optional during exam period.

Anyway way my exams went pretty well, so I should have no problem satisfying a*star this semester:)

And Wellesley's final exams are self-scheduled!!! That is really nice since we can just go for exam whenever we like during the exam week (of course not during midnight). There's an honor code so people don't spread test questions around. The honor code actually works; I guess people think that it's shameful to violate it. I really love this kind of trust.


*******************
Dye Laser

After exam I spent a morning with my lab instructor Lauri setting up the dye laser and playing with it. She actually demonstrated the set-up during the lab session two weeks ago. Before the session, she told me that it would be a demostration. I went like "ahhhh" so she let me try it. I tried that after the lab session two weeks ago but I didn't manage to get it. So after the exam, I went to try again and the lab instructor came to help me:) She's so nice.

We actually got the set up working. Basically we use HeNe laser and shined it onto an organic dye and make it lase. Using grating and half transparent filter we can actually make it lase at different wavelengths, so the dye laser is tunable.

We didn't manage get one nice spot, but having two spots was good enough. The laser light changed from red to bright green and it looked really really nice.

But optical alignment is really tedious. You move a tiny little bit and the light is going don't-know-where. Whoever don't have the patience shall get training in that. It's gonna be helpful.


*******************
Seeing class dean

After the exam I was a bit too bored so I logged on to Banner self-service (it is a wellesley portal for registration of classes, account statements, ect) And I found that Organic Chemistry II had vacancy! (Two months ago during the registration period I didn't got registered because the class was full...In wellesley, seniors do the registration first and then juniors and then sophomore and finally freshwomen...That organic chem II was filled even before my registration has started..) Thanks for the nice lady who gave up that class:) So I happily got myself registered.

Then two hours later I received an e-mail from my class dean (a very very nice lady who looks after all the first-years):"Dear Bilin, I noticed that you are again planning to take 3 science courses next semester. Were you advised to do so by your academic advisor or another faculty member?" and asked me to go and see her...

So I did. She's trying make sure I'm not neglecting other things (of course I am not)...and we were talking about what I gonna take for my distribution requirement...I mentioned women studies or econ. then she said:"don't take econ. econ is boring. you have enough science and math here and please go and do other things." when she said that she was really really cute. And then we talked about grades as well. when I told her that I need to get 3.8, she got a real real shock...

other very funny things happened during the conversation as well...but I shall not talk so much about them here because this blog is a public place.

I really love my dean:)


*******************
Boston's Lobster

Xiaoyang, Ding Ding and Ching Hua were in Boston so I went out I meet them. I managed to get free tickets to the science museum from wellesley. But when we reached there it was too late to see anything real (mostly ding ding's fault).

And then we went to eat Lobster! (Of course we don't just eat lobster.) We went to a restaurant called Peach Farm and the food was really really nice! And it was pretty cheap! Thanks Shireen for the recommendation:) If anybody come to Boston next time I'll bring you there:)

After dinner we walked across downtown crossing to Qincy market. Ding Ding and Ching Hua's stomach was half-empty so they had teriyaki chicken there.

Then we get back to Xiaoyang's relative's apartment to get the luggage. While xiaoyang was doing some last-minute packing, his relative (i think he called her grand aunt) asked us to play the piano. So I played. I played my favourite maiden's prayer. And then she asked me to go to her place often to play the piano...She's so nice. (she even gave each of us a hong bao...so bu hao yi si)

After that we went to North Station at 9pm. We were supposed to meet Ruijie there. But the president scholar was apparently too busy and he was stuck at some ulu place, so he couldn't come. After the three guys talked to ruijie on the phone, we just sat down at North Station to talk cock and wait for dingding's friend to come to bring them to New Hamshire for SKIING!!!!! (so fun)



the rains :: 7:20 AM

Friday, December 08, 2006

Finally, I saw snow for the first time in my life!(well. my friends are telling me that I have already missed the making-snow-ball age...too bad.)

Also for the first time, I saw real ice floating on the surface of a pond, after doing so many question about why fishes manage to survive in winter.

But it was just a tiny little bit of snow. Not enough to make snow ball anyway.

Of course I went out to take pictures:)




Final exam will start in a week's time. Many people are really stressed. But I don't really feel very stressed (see I still have time to write blog.) This is the nice thing about the US system: final exam is not the only thing that counts, so if you're consistently doing well, you won't be so stressed before the finals (this applies to subjects that don't involve memorization only, i suppose.)

But the US system also means that there are lots of mid-term exams. I just had a organic chemistry mid-term (the 3rd one) on Wednesday. Next week is the end of the term and this week is still called mid-term. I guess any thing between the first day and the last day are all called mid-term.

The existence of mid-terms means you can't take your own sweet time to learn your stuff...what you learn today can be tested in tomorrow's exam. that's how it works.



Some people started their terms later than I do and they have already finished their finals! This is not very fair. But I guess I have a better life than those who have their exams right after their holiday. To friends who have the capability to slack now, enjoy your holiday:)

To my Wellesley sisters, Happy Studying!

the rains :: 6:19 PM

Friday, December 01, 2006

I have been too lazy to write anything on the blog recently. Now I've realized that probably I shouldn't be so lazy. So I'm back writing my little blog.

About Physics...
Physics is getting really fun recently, with all the quantum physics stuff that I can't completely understand. The wave-particle is just out there; it is everywhere and nowhere. And you just have to believe and accept that this is the ways things behave, no matter how strange they are:p
But I'm also wondering whether I'm smart enough to do physics:p Maybe I can only do layman science, after all.

About Chemistry...
Too many reactions are going on. Today Prof Haines said that he could now give us 1 bottle of cyclohexane and ask us to create 100 different substances and then we can react backwards and give him back the bottle of cyclohexane. oh well.
The good thing about organic chemistry at Wellesley is that we don't have to memorize much; but this is also the bad thing about organic chem----we'll have to sit down and think. I can still handle this class at the moment, but things are getting complicated now. All the best to me and other souls who are doing organic chemistry.

About 3.8...
Now I realise that this noble number set by A*STAR does have some effects on our university life. For me, I'm avoiding some of the humanities classes that I'm interested in because I won't get an A for that.
Probably this is why Singaporeans are unwilling to take risk (I am not saying that I'm a Singaporean). The Cost of failure is just too high.

About Stress...
Surprisingly I don't feel much stress this week, though I have lots of work to do because I didn't to much during Thankgiving break. Maybe I'm becoming more wellesley......

The fun part...Washington DC!
During thanksgiving holiday, I went to Washington DC with some A*STAR friends. It was really fun. (Sidenote: We actually brought along work to do. DingDing brought along Putnam; Gerald brought along his history reading; I brought along my problem sets...We are just so A*STAR)

Day 1:
We took overnight bus and arrived at Washington DC at 530am in the morning. Then we were badly treated at the hostel because we arrived too early...anyway. It was raining that day, and the wind made it bitterly cold. Apparently Ding Ding and Gerald was shivering, but somehow kangyi survived with a short-sleeved t-shirt and a not so think jacket.

We went to the spy museum in the afternoon. It was interesting, but I didn't like it that much. It was kind of commercialized. And I personally feel that the USA have been over-emphasizing the problem of espionage. They imagined it to be a big problem. But actually it is not a big problem at all.

Then we went to the National Archive, which housed the original declaration of independence, magna carta, and the Constitution of the United States. It is a grand place. And I makes me start to respect the US history.


The documents were all written by hand! And yet they looked so neat and tidy...I was actually wondering whether US had a printer 2 or 3 hundred years ago, but when I clearly examined the letters, i concluded that they are hand written.

In the evening we went to a Malaysian/Singaporean resterant to have dinner. Xiaoyang and Wen Yu went together with us. Haha it was a super nice dinner, though it was pretty ex.


Day 2
We went to more museums. In the morning we spent two hours in the National Gallery of Arts. Many of the pictures were really great, though I am a dummy in art who can't really appreciate the beauty of the art work. They have Qing Dynasty vases from China as well, which are really delicate. It's insteresting to see Chinese thingy in American museum---I actually spent a long time looking at those vases; if I were looking at it in China, I wounldn't have spent so much time on those.
Then we went to the NASA museum, which was a boring place with nothing much to see. But after that we went to my favourite destination of the whole trip: Museum of Natural History! There's the hope diamond there, which is a big blue bright 42 carat diamond! And there is a whole collection of pretty gems of all sorts of colour there, I love them!

And the following is dedicated to QiQi! It's beryl!


Day 3
It was our first sunny day in Washington DC, so we started to have very pretty photos of the DC. In the morning we woke up early to queue up for Capitol Hill, and we got the 10am tickets and went in:) But food and drink were not allowed in the Capitol Hill...so we had to throw away all the chewy bars, wala bars and don't-know-what bars.

It is grand inside the Capitol. The huge drawings on the wall were great. There were lots of sulptures around, but they meant nothing to me. But I love the dome.
Apparently the dome was well shaped. When you and your friend are standing on two spots symmetrical about the center of the room, you can hear each other.

Then after lunch, we went to the Pentagon, which is an absolutely boring place. Immediately after we came out from the subway station, we were told the photographs were not allowed. And the pentagon actually looked like a dull building when you were near it.

We stayed around Pentagon for less than one minute, and we were off to Arlington National Cemetery, which houses thousands of tombstones of US war heros. More than 300,000 people are buried there. Its atmosphere made me feel really depressed. I've seen pictures of Arlington Cemetery before, but pictures only show a corner of the cemetery. Until I was there, I didn't know that it was actually such a huge place. When I stood inside, I only saw miles of tomestones, and the empty sky.

Then we went to the White House. The White House is actually not very impressive compared to many other grand buildings in Washington DC. I shall just treat it as a normal place. It has housed many intelligent people whom I respect and admire a lot (Hillary Clinton Rocks!), but it has also housed, or still is housing some cannot-make-it people.

The World War II memorial, the Lincoln Memorial and the reflection pool are all near the white house. They are super beautiful:)
This place is beautiful. But unfortunately my photos are all a bit dark. Shall wait for ding ding to unload his photos.



Day 4
Kangyi went to a Holocaust Museum. But I thought that place would be too sad for me, so I chose not to go there. Ding Ding, Gerald and I decided to go somewhere else. We went to National Geographic exhibition center in the morning. Cool place. The photographs were no fabulous. They made Ding Ding feel really guilty because he had not been putting enough effort on photography (emmm...due to his "minimal packing" policy, he didn't bring tripot for his own trip. He even forgot about his memory card, so he actually needed to buy one on the first day of hour trip)...After that, we went to Washington Post headquarter, but there was nothing much to see.

Then in the afternoo, we went to the zoo to see Pandas! my favourite:) See the cute pandas:


After the zoo, we went to Pentagon City, which is a huge shopping center, in a attempt to find guitar string for Ding Ding. But there's no guitar shop there. Since we had gone all the way to Pentagon City, we decided to have a look at its surroundings. Surprisingly the place looked very Singapore. The buildings were like HDB. And the shopping center was like J8. And there was actually a bus stop and a subway station around the shopping center. How Singapore is that!

That ended our trip...We leave Washington DC with an overnight bus in the evening...I reached Wellesley at noon the next day...and I finished my 7-page paper for my Asian American Studies class within an afternoon and an evening. Amazing:)

After thanksgiving, I feel that I actually have more energy to work...and it seems that I worry less about deadlines now:) mmmm...maybe sometimes we really need a break, even if we don't feel the need.

the rains :: 1:08 PM

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