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.
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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.
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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:)
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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)
