(no subject)
My life is in need of an update... :) Here goes...
I went to Caltech Prefrosh weekend on Thursday morning (yay for missing school) and it was my first time west of Iowa. So that was awesome. For those who don't know, California is absolutely gorgeous. Caltech is soooo much prettier than MIT, I absolutely adored the campus. Here's some pictures I took while wandering around!
^This building looks like a wedding cake... or a carousel... :)
Pretty green-ness and lilies... :)
Look! Look! A palm tree!!!!
This cannon won me an ipod!!! I'm sure you've heard of the cannon hack during MIT's campus preview weekend -- MIT stole Caltech's 2 ton cannon and drove it from Pasadena to Cambridge... Well, Caltech admissions sent out an email during MIT's prefrosh weekend -- They'd enter accepted Caltech prefrosh into a raffle if we got a pic of ourselves with the cannon and sent it to them! :) I won, and won an ipod nano! :)
I went to 2 physics classes when I was there (and a french lit class, which I left cause I hadn't read the book and I wanted to do something else). But the physics classes were awesome! I went to "Anal" and "Prac" (Analytical and Practical Physics) which are both 1st year core classes. (The anal is more math-y, and prac is, well, practical and lab based.)
^Note the many equations written on the board :)
^This man, hawaiian shirt and all, is one of the greatest physicists on the planet... It's David Politzer, and he won the nobel prize in 2004 for his work in asymptotic freedom in quantum chromodynamics. Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but I understood a lot of the freshman electricity/magnetism stuff he was talking about. :)
^This was taken from the top floor of the library... I love the view, with the mountains behind... (The entire city of LA is basically in a hole, surrounded by mountains... it's cool).
Then I did ^kareoke for a bit... Then played a campus wide game of capture the flag... Then went on a tunnel tour, of the steam tunnels (which was awesome!) Then I went to bed...
And that was Caltech. It was gorgeous, and wonderful, and the people were nice, but it was too small, and too research based (especially for someone who doesn't know what she wants to do with her life). It's not like I can say I hated it, I had a great time, and I could see myself there. But I adored MIT. :)
And then... dun dun dun..... my trip home was pretty awesome except NOT.
So I left Caltech at about 10:30 pacific time (about 1:30 eastern time) and went to LAX. That part worked. Then I found out my plane was coming in late, and was supposed to leave at 1:50 instead of 1:30... My connection was about 50 minutes to start with, so this was a problem. But there weren't any other flights, so I took it. It would've worked out, except there was a mechanical failure. Yes, I broke another plane (my plane to philadelphia in the fall also broke, and I was delayed for like 4 hours). So we sat there, and sat there, and eventually took off around 2:45 or so. Needless to say, my plane landed in Atlanta (where my connection was) after the flight to manchester had taken off. There were no other flights until morning. It was about 10:00 by now, eastern time, so I had to spend the night in Atlanta. Now, it would have been annoying but ok if I was in a hotel, but no, since I'm under 18, I couldn't stay in a hotel. I had to stay in a children's dormitory for the night.
[IMG]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/mangopeachie/IMG_0626.jpg[/IMG]
^The girls' room. Isn't is nice?
I stayed with 2 16 year olds...
And I got to sleep in my clothes, and not brush my teeth and night or wash my face, or shower. I got one of those snazzy overnight kits with fake toothpaste and a razor the next morning though.... Oh, and I got to watch the sunrise over the airport in the morning.
I couldn't catch the overbooked morning flight as a standby, but I got on the 12:15 (which got delayed too, at the gate, and left around 1).... Got home around 4. So I was in Atlanta for over 14 hours, and travellling for over 26. Awesome. :) I have good luck with planes. :)
Anyway, that was my trip. :)
And I'm sending my acceptance to MIT in today, hopefully. :)
I went to Caltech Prefrosh weekend on Thursday morning (yay for missing school) and it was my first time west of Iowa. So that was awesome. For those who don't know, California is absolutely gorgeous. Caltech is soooo much prettier than MIT, I absolutely adored the campus. Here's some pictures I took while wandering around!
^This building looks like a wedding cake... or a carousel... :)
Pretty green-ness and lilies... :)
Look! Look! A palm tree!!!!
This cannon won me an ipod!!! I'm sure you've heard of the cannon hack during MIT's campus preview weekend -- MIT stole Caltech's 2 ton cannon and drove it from Pasadena to Cambridge... Well, Caltech admissions sent out an email during MIT's prefrosh weekend -- They'd enter accepted Caltech prefrosh into a raffle if we got a pic of ourselves with the cannon and sent it to them! :) I won, and won an ipod nano! :)
I went to 2 physics classes when I was there (and a french lit class, which I left cause I hadn't read the book and I wanted to do something else). But the physics classes were awesome! I went to "Anal" and "Prac" (Analytical and Practical Physics) which are both 1st year core classes. (The anal is more math-y, and prac is, well, practical and lab based.)
^Note the many equations written on the board :)
^This man, hawaiian shirt and all, is one of the greatest physicists on the planet... It's David Politzer, and he won the nobel prize in 2004 for his work in asymptotic freedom in quantum chromodynamics. Yeah, I don't know what that means either, but I understood a lot of the freshman electricity/magnetism stuff he was talking about. :)
^This was taken from the top floor of the library... I love the view, with the mountains behind... (The entire city of LA is basically in a hole, surrounded by mountains... it's cool).
Then I did ^kareoke for a bit... Then played a campus wide game of capture the flag... Then went on a tunnel tour, of the steam tunnels (which was awesome!) Then I went to bed...
And that was Caltech. It was gorgeous, and wonderful, and the people were nice, but it was too small, and too research based (especially for someone who doesn't know what she wants to do with her life). It's not like I can say I hated it, I had a great time, and I could see myself there. But I adored MIT. :)
And then... dun dun dun..... my trip home was pretty awesome except NOT.
So I left Caltech at about 10:30 pacific time (about 1:30 eastern time) and went to LAX. That part worked. Then I found out my plane was coming in late, and was supposed to leave at 1:50 instead of 1:30... My connection was about 50 minutes to start with, so this was a problem. But there weren't any other flights, so I took it. It would've worked out, except there was a mechanical failure. Yes, I broke another plane (my plane to philadelphia in the fall also broke, and I was delayed for like 4 hours). So we sat there, and sat there, and eventually took off around 2:45 or so. Needless to say, my plane landed in Atlanta (where my connection was) after the flight to manchester had taken off. There were no other flights until morning. It was about 10:00 by now, eastern time, so I had to spend the night in Atlanta. Now, it would have been annoying but ok if I was in a hotel, but no, since I'm under 18, I couldn't stay in a hotel. I had to stay in a children's dormitory for the night.
[IMG]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/mangopeachie/IMG_0626.jpg[/IMG]
![http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/mangopeachie/IMG_0626.jpg[/IMG]](http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a296/mangopeachie/IMG_0626.jpg[/IMG]){kind=link}
^The girls' room. Isn't is nice?
I stayed with 2 16 year olds...
And I got to sleep in my clothes, and not brush my teeth and night or wash my face, or shower. I got one of those snazzy overnight kits with fake toothpaste and a razor the next morning though.... Oh, and I got to watch the sunrise over the airport in the morning.
I couldn't catch the overbooked morning flight as a standby, but I got on the 12:15 (which got delayed too, at the gate, and left around 1).... Got home around 4. So I was in Atlanta for over 14 hours, and travellling for over 26. Awesome. :) I have good luck with planes. :)
Anyway, that was my trip. :)
And I'm sending my acceptance to MIT in today, hopefully. :)