Trinity University

I just finished my final paper for African American History.
Let me tell you, that was something else. Six pages either for or against reparations…it’s a touchy subject. And the thing is, I knew that what the professor and I believe are two different things. Yeah, what a dilemma: write truthfully (which would be easier) or write what he wants to hear (it’s only a summer class after all…).
I just wrote what I wanted.
I figured I would be the one to change his mind if ever there was someone to do it. So now I am free to write a blog…about what?

Well, I can compare UTEP to Trinity, but really I don’t think that would be fair. They are two completely dissimilar experiences, the ultimate big school vs. little school type of thing.
With UTEP I drove over early everyday, parked, walked, had class and drove back home to take a nap (I stopped reading for class when I realized I was the only person doing it). The people I saw there I saw only fleetingly, and many people were a lot older than I was.

At Trinity you forget that going to college is a privilege, you take it for granted that college comes next, that Mabee and the Commons are always there to serve you food. Your whole world becomes that community, that class, that grade. At least for me those things were true. I lost my sense of perspective there and going to UTEP I realized how lucky I am to be going to Trinity, a great school in which I need to worry about nothing but myself. I mean, a large percentage of my classmates at UTEP were married with kids or were working and paying for classes as they earned the money. They would tell me about how they stayed up late, not because it was the “college� thing to do, but because that was the time they had to themselves, after the kids were asleep. Of course, there were other students, more similar to myself – going to college straight after high school, but everyone seemed to fit in anyway. If nothing else, my mother was happy I was attending her alma mater, albeit briefly.
Now it will be back to San Antonio in a matter of weeks. I have already purchased two planners, as I expect my life’s activities to require much space, and I have also attained a pink sparkly pillow for my bed. I think I’m set.

I don’t know where Nancy finds all the time to cook as well as carry on as the mad scientist she is, but it sounds as though her cooking experiments are going better than mine are lately. I made arepas (Venezuelan corncakes with chicken), but my mother and I were the only fans. I also tried something with lemongrass (the first time we’ve ever had it in the house) and only the dogs enjoyed that one. I better stick with sweets. I made a peach tart with peaches from our tree about three days ago and still, for being such a small tree, it could last for about five more tarts. Well, my dog Tiger will help. He eats a few of the fallen peaches everyday and he always tries to steal my Odwalla juice. Needless to say, he’s not much of a guard dog. Anytime he isn’t eating whatever the wind touches, he’s sleeping.

I would not notice the idiosyncrasies of our pets so much, but I am outside a lot watching my brother perfect his Olympic flips on the trampoline. Out there you’re viewing options are limited: crazy or crazier. I would normally just bring a book, but I think I’ve read most of the El Paso public library romance section, and poems are something best appreciated quietly. Really, poems are the next best thing to romance novels, and this is news Nancy is thrilled to hear, I’m sure. My running off to the library every weekend for love stories was something incomprehensible to her, but what can I say? Where else are you going to meet royalty? What better way to learn history than when the plot is based along the timeline of the French Revolution and the handsome hero in question is a spy? Invaluable tools these romance novels, irreplaceable.

Oh yes! I did forget to mention that I had a birthday (my 20th) and that we went to San Francisco. These were actually two entirely unrelated events that happened to occur within a week of each other; however, both were fantastic. I now plan on living in San Francisco for the rest of my adult life and now have a greater awareness of how much space there is around here. Everything in San Francisco is squeezed together and there are car lots inside of buildings instead of the acre-upon-acre sales lots I am used to seeing in El Paso. And the magnolia trees! They were everywhere! I love them!
At least I have one in my backyard…I can always pretend I’m there. Trinity has some too…

And before I sign off, I wanted to leave you with a bit of beauty:

This is a Love
by Efraín Huerta (trans. by Beth Henson)

This is a love that had its beginning
and at first was nothing but a bit of fear
and a tenderness that did not want to be born and bear fruit.
A love that was born in the sea of her eyes...

Posted by Bianca at 9:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (1)

On Thursday we had the BEST Research Symposium. There was so much activity going on. Presentations started at 8:30 and ended at 6:30pm. There were posters, round table discussions, and oral presentations. I watched and learned so much about computer science and physics because the joint biology-chemistry sessions had other departments doing presentations. I had no idea what people were doing outside of Cowles Life Science.

So, you are probably wondering how I did. To be honest, I had to fix my PowerPoint about an hour before the talk started. Not a good start. When I first gave my talk in front of my lab mates, I laughed so hard at the beginning of every slide, it was embarrassing. None of it flowed. I remember telling Bianca how upset I was over that. BUT…my final presentation was AWESOME!! My support group (the lab) was there. They were so sweet! I gave a really good talk that flowed. A lot of people came up to me and told me they really enjoyed it. I was pleased because I had been practicing so hard and my data was so weird and hard to explain. The biology professors were there and asked questions. We made jokes. You know what that means...they were actually paying attention!

Two of my labmates had posters so I attended the poster sessions as well. There was lunch and dinner provided. I love the research lunches because of the cookies. These cookies are warm and as big as your face! I had two… For dinner we always have a fancy sit down meal. Last year I think we had some chicken dish. This year it was salmon and rice with tiramisu for dessert. YUMMMY! Yeah. I am obsessed with food.

Lunch. See the cookies?

Dinner.

Me and Lizzy standing next to her poster. Tom, who works in my lab is her boyfriend.

Me and Kendal and her friend Umut. This was right before dinner when they were serving drinks. We were in the Great Hall (for dinner and posters) so that is why you see swords behind us.

At the end of the dinner, our guest speaker came and gave a...wait for it…ONE HOUR talk! I think last year’s speaker took all of 20 minutes. The really weird thing was I really enjoyed it. I loved the pictures he put up. It was all about fullerenes, which are molecules that look like soccer balls. They are all made of carbons. Isn’t that cool? There are so many fullerenes you can make. Of course we don’t know what to do with them but they look really cool! If there was one thing I liked about organic chemistry, it was the carbons and benzenes. I loved drawing them. Oh, one thing I forgot, our speaker was a Nobel laureate. He discovered some forms of carbon. Pretty sweet. He was from Rice University.

The days leading up to research, I was in lab for 12+ hours per day. I wasn’t eating or sleeping well. Then it all ended and I am sad to see my new friends go. Everyone is packing today and I am cleaning up the lab. Yes, Bianca. I packed last weekend. Packing is my specialty. All of the friends I made this summer are leaving and I am a little sad. Some of them, I won’t see again because they are from different schools. Trinity has a math and computer science program that allows students from other universities to come and do research. They were such a rowdy bunch this summer. The program is very competitive so they came from schools like Princeton and Berkeley and Wellesley. I miss them all already.

I have a few things left to do before school starts but the huge load of summer research is off my back. I know the focus of all my blogs this summer was on research. I hope that did not bore you. I promise to write about more things in the future. Like, about my roommate. That should be interesting. I miss her too. I hope she is not enjoying her summer school so much that she does not come back to Trinity in the fall.

Oh, I made a cake today. My second cake. It is a coconut-pineapple cake. Everything was made from scratch. I even toasted my own coconut flakes and made my own frosting. I used up all the pineapple so I had to garnish it with lemon slices. It still looks cool. It took 3 hours to make. I made such a mess so I had a lot of clean up to do.

My cake = wonderful deliciousness

One other thing that I MUST mention. As you all know, I LOVE Harry Potter. The teaser trailer came out for the new movie. The movie looks so dark! November 21, 2008. I have already circled that date on my calendar. Bianca, you are coming too. Another Potter announcement: Borders sent me an e-mail telling me about the new Harry Potter book. WHAT??? Wow! I was completely ecstatic! So, I went to Amazon to pre-order my copy of Beedle the Bard. Then I saw the collector’s edition… Now, I know I told Bianca that I would be trying to be more fiscally responsible but Amazon said only 100,000 copies would be printed. Isn’t Harry Potter priceless?? Someone said that this book was the Holy Grail of Harry Potter, so…I bought it. My new motto is this: Buy now, don’t regret later. These are wise words from the Wall Street Journal.

On that fabulous note, I hope you are still enjoying your summer. All…3 weeks of it.

Posted by Nancy at 10:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)