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So pulling up my to-do list from June, let's take a look...
* Read the following books: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
* See the following new movies: Ratatouille
* Compensate for my cloistered upbringing and see the following old movies: Never Been Kissed
* Indulge myself with old favorites:
* Sing along obnoxiously to the following Disney movies: Cinderella
"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men/Gang aft a-gley" - Robert Burns, "To a Mouse"
Things I'm Looking Forward To:
-cooler weather
-fall sweaters
-wearing my boots again!
-my Shakespeare class
-moving into the apartment
-Welcome Week
-football
My brother started high school yesterday and I have to confess I kind of wanted cry as I watched him go out the door. Not merely because of the reminder of my rapidly advancing age (Two decades...TWO whole decades...arghhh...) but because of the nostalgia: singing and dancing in the musicals, getting ridiculously dressed up for prom and homecoming, fighting to cram all my books into my five-inch wide locker, loafing in the library before class, knowing and being known by everyone in your class...oh wait... And as I thought about it I realized some--many--things about high school were less than rosy. (The angst of going to prom with a date asked by your father being chief among them...) So I thought, Is college better? Well, not necessarily better, but certainly different.
10 Things You'll Do in College (or at least at OSU) That You Probably Didn't Do in High School
1. Go to class in your pajamas. Now I know some people who did this in high school, but I was not one of them, mostly because my mother was always there in spirit to ask, "You're going out in that?" But by winter quarter of my freshman year, I had the guts to answer, "Why, yes, mental mother, and do you know why? Because I am functioning on four hours of sleep, a bowl of Total, and some deep-seated, masochistic drive to go to class despite it all. Plus I am justifying my frumpiness to a voice in my head."
2. Run to class because you have to. Not because you lingered by your locker until the last second, but because your next class is ten blocks away as the crow flies.
3. Take a bus to your next class.
4. Sleep through a class. (Not recommended in classes under 300 people.)
5. Go through the quarter without the professor ever knowing your name.
6. Withhold your grades from your parents. Thanks to FERPA, you assume control of your academic record upon reaching majority. So that D for Diploma can stay under wraps if you so desire.
7. Literally live off one or two staple food items, such as ramen noodles, cereal, pizza, or frozen dinners.
8. Share a room (not a house) with up to four people.
9. Develop a Pavlovian response to anyone who shouts, "O-H!"
10. Accidentally sign your name with your dot number. Related: Try to use your BuckID off campus as a form of identification/payment.
So I'm organizing Chimes Junior Class Honorary's table at the Involvement Fair, and it just got me thinking about all the things I love about Welcome Week. The weather's usually lovely, I get to see people I haven't seen all summer, and there's just stuff happening all the time, except for classes, and I'm even looking forward to that just because I'm taking Shakespeare this quarter. Can't wait...
9/16 - Moving Day (hopefully earlier)
9/17 - Student Involvement Fair; President's Picnic;
9/18 - Grilling With Gee; AAX Bubble Tea Bash
9/19 - Classes begin; Free Fitness Classes at RPAC; World's Largest Pillow Fight;
9/20 - first Chi Alpha Encounter of the year!
9/21 - Dump and Run OSU Yard Sale; Late Night at the RPAC; Inaugural Campus Spelling Bee;
9/22 - Football (enough said)
9/23 - Welcome Week Concert 2007
Your BuckID entitles you to free, unlimited passage on the Central Ohio Transportation Authority (COTA) buses. So far I have ridden the #7 (Neil Avenue to University Village), the #2 (N High Street), and the #84 (OSU/Grandview/Lennox/Upper Arlington). With the exception of one ill-planned excursion on the #84 that wound up taking me on a grand tour of Upper Arlington, my journeys have been smooth. (There is also that extreme frustration of missing the #7 by thirty seconds on my way home from international Kroger on Olentangy, which has happened on several occasions.) I'm trying to remember if I used the COTA buses at all freshman year...yes, that would be the #84 adventure during finals week winter quarter. It took me a while to muster up the guts to try the COTA again, but I've really become quite comfortable with it. The timetables are available online and tend to be fairly accurate for the lines that run fairly frequently.
Nowadays I often ride the #2 home if I get off work early, all the way up High Street to Crosswoods, where my family can pick me up. And since COTA serves the whole city, you certainly get to see far more interesting characters there than in CABS (Campus Area Bus System), although that's certainly a great place to people-watch too. Last week, as an elderly gentleman got on the bus, a book slipped out of the plastic grocery bag he was carrying, but he didn't notice. I brought it to his attention, then seeing his cane, decided to just hop off the bus and get it for him. Today a blind man got on the bus and I had to vacate the seat I was in, which was no problem, of course, and he was very sweet. (The handicap seat happened to be the first one I flopped into as the bus lurched away from my stop.) It's good being able to do little acts of kindness. I'm not saying it's impossible to be nice on campus, but people there seem to be in more of a hurry. Sometimes you have to go out into the real real world to see how valuable kindness is.
Well, it is officially less than a month until I move into the apartment. It will be my first time paying rent and utilities, but not my first time cooking for myself. I moved out in steps, which worked pretty well for me. My first year in Taylor Tower, I went home every other weekend (and probably every weekend toward the end of the year). Last year in Neilwood Gables I went home once or twice a month. Now, since I'm paying for a twelve-month lease, I plan to stay there as much as possible, plus I'm pretty sure my parents are sick of trying to keep me at home when I'd rather go out and, you know, have a life and all. I tried to ease them into it and all; I have a friend who commuted from home all four years of undergrad, and is now at graduate school in Cambridge, UK for five years. To facilitate pre-move discussion, I made a Facebook group (yes, I did it) for my roommates. For the general public, here are some things that did not occur to me at first glance but are important to consider.
1) Visitation: This sounds very RA-ish, but you definitely want to set up clear expectations about this. I made a joke about "No boys allowed upstairs" where our bedrooms are, and caused a minor freak-out. (Why do so many of my jokes seem to do that??) But together we clarified what was okay and tried to be as specific and honest as possible. Of course extenuating circumstances may arise, but when they do, at least the communication channel is already open.
2) Cookware: I have a lot of kitchen stuff from my stay in Neilwood last year, and my roommate wanted to know if they should bring any additional stuff or if they could all use mine. My first thought was, Sure, but then I realized that my pots and pans would wear out that much faster if four people were using them. Last year my roommate occasionally borrowed my stuff, which was fine, but if it's going to be a full time thing, I suggest everyone bring a few pieces of their own to be used collectively, rather than one person supply the entire house.
3) Groceries: This is kind of related to cookware in that it depends on everyone's habits. If everyone eats similar stuff and is willing to share, that's cool. But I'm a vegetarian and my favorite food could well be Brussels sprouts, and I'm not going to make everyone else pay for them if no one else eats them. Likewise, I'd rather not pay for the chicken breasts I won't touch. Asking a Jew or Muslim to help pay for bacon links or a Hindu for hamburger...not wise and not very considerate either. Also a factor: price. I read a story about a Nigerian student at Berkeley or Stanford (I forget which) who split grocery costs with his roommates...only to see his roommates pay $11.99 for organic fruit juice. They were used to it, he wasn't. Now, I'm pretty sure I'll do most of my shopping at ghetto or international Kroger, so it can't be that expensive, but if your roommate suddenly decides Sunflower Market is the only way to go, the grocery bill can start rising pretty fast.
4) Animals: My three roommates are all girls, and as such, have a penchant for cute fuzzy things (to my boyfriend's eternal bewilderment). That said, though, I still think it would be a pretty bad idea for us to keep a pet, even a hamster. At least for me, because when I'm stressed, angry, anxious, or depressed, I have a hard enough time remembering to feed myself, much less a small helpless animal whose rumbling stomach is not connected to my central nervous system.
I'm sure there are other things we're forgetting to discuss...once I move in, maybe I'll update this with important things we forgot!
The first wave of migrations to semester-system colleges is about to commence, and I am suddenly reminded of the fact that CRAP! My friends are leaving and I have hung out with them twice/once/nonce this entire summer. Saying goodbye before you've even said hello is a frustrating but inevitable part of the transition from high school to college...even after two years it still irks me a little. In order to mitigate the wholescale severing of social ties, I will now attempt to persuade everyone that quarter-system schools are better than semester-schools. (Just kidding, I will try to be as objective as possible.)
Quarter System Pros and Cons
- Start school halfway through September. But this means you don't finish until June, long after many employers stop hiring for the summer.
- Shorter terms mean you only have to suffer through ten weeks of an abysmally boring or horrendously difficult class. This also means that, aside from syllabus day at the beginning of the quarter (which some profs omit), you have to hit the ground running at the start of the quarter, because you will have at most 100 class hours with any professor.
- Three sets of classes per year means more opportunities to take unique classes like social dance or creative writing.
- You get a winter break that lasts almost the entire month of December. But you don't get a fall break or any other holidays except for federal.
- First midterms may occur as early as the third week of classes. You also have less time to get your act together if you don't do well at first.
- Most universities around the world seem to run on semester, so if you do study abroad, you will have to miss essentially two quarters of classes at home.
Chances are, if you are reading this, you have already chosen OSU and its quarter system, but it's good to be forewarned about the difficulties this entails. I hope this helps!
Restaurant: Northstar Cafe
Location: Short North
Cuisine: Healthy, Eclectic
Review: I heard good things about Northstar at work, so I went to check it out with my boyfriend around 5:45 this afternoon. I drove past it once, but managed to get turned around and into the very small parking lot. Inside music was playing and it seemed fairly busy. I guess the Short North is less season-dependent than places closer to campus.
The menu is unique but fairly small, with some items available prepared without meat or dairy. Northstar serves salads, rice bowls, sandwiches, and flatbread wraps, as well as some juice drinks. Drew ordered the meatloaf sandwich, which he said was different due to the combination of Dijon mustard and barbecue sauce, but not bad. It comes with a brown rice pilaf type thing. I ordered the Honey BBQ Burrito, and since it was bigger than I was hungry for, you get a picture of the leftovers snug in their little carryout box!
It's got rice, peppers, lettuce, sauteed tofu (also available with chicken), and the eponymous sauce, most of which ended up near the bottom which made the last few bites a little intense. It was quite tasty overall, though. It is served with tortilla chips and salsa. At about $9 per entree it's pricier than I'm used to, but then again my idea of fair price and value is warped by twenty years wearing $10 tennis shoes.
The restaurant has a large magazine rack with periodicals for patrons to read, which is kind of a nice touch. Service is a curious mix of counter and table: you place your order at the counter, take a number, and they bring you your food and later clear your table, no tip required. My takeout box was kind of slow in coming, but that's my only quibble with the minimalist service. If you're willing to go the distance from campus for some new tastes, Northstar is a good destination.
In the uber-achiever Asian-American culture I grew up in, "research" is one of those golden words in the parental lexicon, ranking just about as high as "medical school" or "Wall Street." It is the subject of much admiring, though not necessarily empathetic, head-bobbing at family potlucks. It is the glowing highlight of the family Christmas letter and collective resume ("Little Wilhelmina has been doing research..."). It is the default setting for how undergraduates should spend their summers, the prequel to a successful career in medicine or engineering, and the opportunity of a lifetime to network like it's 1999. Maybe that's true for some people. But there are some things about research, especially at a university like OSU, that many people, Asian or not, tend to overlook.
1. It's hard. Many students and parents are still naive enough to believe that future-Dr.-Gerald-Duncan will march into the lab as a freshman and cure cancer. Well, maybe (hopefully) not. But a lot of people don't realize that for every published paper with findings, a lot of ideas were tested and found to go nowhere. A lot of experiments failed, or data didn't support theory. I observed at a cancer lab at Children's Hospital last summer, and most of the time things didn't work out the way they were supposed to. Cancer cells refused to die when treated with medicines or gene therapies that should have destroyed them. And no one knew why. All the researchers could do was report the results and try something different. Which leads me to #2...
2. It's monotonous. Even after something is found to work, it has to be repeated multiple times to confirm that it's not a fluke. Then you have to explain why something works, and to do that you have to comb through accepted literature or do a thorough proof yourself. For the Navigators project I'm working on now, there are no instruments to detect student achievement pre- and post- technology-enhanced learning, so the team has to design surveys and data analysis standards to assess this, then prove that they are good indicators of what they claim them to be. And then there is the housekeeping involved in a project of any scale: keeping records of experiments, aggregating and analyzing data, and just physically keeping experiments or tests under control. If I could count the plates of cancer cells I had to nurse to confluence only to douse them in deadly doxorubicin...
3.It's self-driven. Maybe I have more trouble with this than most people. At OSU in general, no one will hold your hand. You have to know what you want and work to get it. For my current research, this is difficult because I have had no actual instruction in educational theory, assessment, social sciences research, etc. My adviser has been a great help in teaching me the process, but I have yet to strike out on my own project because I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing beyond a general question that I want to answer. In scientific research, as I said before, there will be a lot of failures, and you have to be motivated enough to drive past those and find the right answer. In biomedical science, I didn't have that motivation, but in education I do, so that's how I know I'm working on the right project for me.
4. It's probably fairly insignificant. This relates to #1. As an undergraduate, you are probably going to be relatively small fry in the grand scheme of things. You may play a large role in the project, but most research at the undergraduate level is not earth-shattering. Of course, your undergrad work may play into graduate and terminal degrees, so you should work hard, but don't expect to rake in grants and publicity at this point. (Although it could happen.)
If it sounds like I'm knocking research, it's only because I have other expectations baggage associated with the idea and that's just personal. Research is great and very important. I'm just saying it's not quite what people might expect it to be like. For more information, check out the Undergraduate Research Office web page.
Pesto has been around OSU just about as long as I have, opened December 17, 2005, but I didn't get to try it until last Thursday. The store is owned by OSU graduate Lee Shadle and is one of the few fast-casual Italian places I've seen besides Fazoli's. The concept is fairly simple: pick a size, pick a base, pick a flavor. The regular entrees run $5.95 and the large is about $7-$8. Choose from three pastas, pizza, salad, or sandwich for your base, then select one of ten or so flavors. (Not all of them are listed on the web site.) I ordered a Caponata salad, where I discovered the joy of the cremini mushroom. My boyfriend got a pollo pesto pizza, which he said was good but would have preferred something with marinara sauce. They also have gelato and sorbetto in the freezer.
The atmosphere is "contemporary Milan Italian bistro" rather than "cliche Tuscan Italian kitchen;" I have to admit it was pretty refreshing to eat Italian in a place without Italian kitsch falling off the walls (ahem, Buca di Beppo). Of course, the plastic bundles of flowers on the tables were a little lowbrow, but at least Pesto doesn't pretend to be something it's not. What it is is a quick place to grab some decent Italian fast food on the cheap. Business seemed pretty slow, but recall that it was Thursday around 5:30 pm and in the summer. It's a pretty good deal for decent food, so I hope business picks up and the place stays open.
I attended a meeting of the Next Chapter Book Club at the Lennox Barnes and Noble over my lunch break today. NCBC is a now nationwide organization originating from the OSU Nisonger Center that promotes reading in individuals with disabilities. If you are worried about fitting in at OSU, this is the group for you, because "disabled" people (I use that word with trepidation because all of us are merely temporarily able...) are definitely the most accepting people on earth. Within half an hour Alex wanted to take me to meet his mother! (Fortunately, she was waiting in another part of the bookstore.) What a sweetheart. Roy was the first to show up and the first person I talked to, so when Vicki, the program manager, introduced me again, he proudly said, "I already met her."
Of course, this doesn't really come as a surprise, since I worked with MR/DD students in middle school, but it's been seven years and I'd kind of forgotten how easy it is for these people to love. It's too bad the rest of us can't do it so easily. I'm definitely going to look into becoming a facilitator for a chapter. It's a one-hour meeting each week and it promises to be extremely rewarding.
Somehow death has been on my mind a lot lately, and I've been musing about what I have accomplished and still have yet to do before I die. In the same vein but slightly less morbid, here's a list of 10 things you really should do before graduating Ohio State. I've bolded the ones I've already done.
1. See the albino squirrel on South Campus. Bonus points if you try to catch it.
2. Ride a CABS bus all the way around campus.
3. Ride a COTA bus anywhere.
4. Take the long walk down the Oval with your significant other. (Be careful, though--legend has it couples who do this will eventually get married, so proceed with caution.)
5. Have all classes canceled due to snow!
6. Jaywalk across High Street and Lane Avenue. I mean...DO NOT jaywalk! It is illegal and dangerous! Bad! Bad!
7. Eat at Aladdin's.
8. Walk around campus at 6 am in the winter, preferably when it's snowing.
9. Attend a home football game.
10. Meet President Gordon Gee. (If he forgets your name, you get free tuition! Maybe...)
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