On Thursday, September 16, I set my personal record for longest commute to school. It began with a drive to the airport. I drove in, and left the car for my dad, who was arriving back from England later that day. Then I checked my bags, proceeded through security, found the gate, waited at the gate for a while, got on the airplane, waited on the airplane, took off, landed in Atlanta, got off the plane, found the other plane, waited at the gate, got on the plane, waited on the plane, took off, waited some more, landed in LAX, hopped off the plane with a dream but no cardigan, walked down to baggage claim, waited for ever at baggage claim, got my suitcase, went out to the curb, talked to the shared ride van person, waited some, got in the shared ride van, got to Caltech after a couple other stops, had no idea where I was supposed to go, asked someone where to go, walked clear across campus to the security office, picked up my housing assignment (Lloyd 115), walked back to the house, couldn't unlock the door since I didn't have my Caltech ID card yet, waited for a few minutes outside the door for someone to walk by and let me in, and found my room. Total elapsed time: 13.5 hours.
The next day I got up and walked a few blocks off campus to explore and find breakfast. After that I came back and packed a bag for a two day camping trip at Malibu State Park, led by the Caltech Christian Fellowship. There were a dozen people on the trip, of which four were freshman. It was a great time, and I liked the people I met. Some highlights were rock climbing around a pond and up adjacent cliff faces, seeing Jupiter and four of its moons through a telescope, singing songs I know from camp, and sleeping under the stars. We also went to the beach, but it was foggy/cloudy and less warm than one might wish.
After the retreat I met my Dad, who flew out for a couple days to see me and bring more of my stuff and go to parent orientation sessions. We also did some shopping to get the things that didn't make sense to pack and bring from home. Then after Convocation we said goodbye, and I went to the new students picnic in the Caltech President's backyard.
The following morning, Monday, we all got on busses to frosh camp at the Marriott, Ventura Beach. We were there for two nights. A lot of the time was spent listening to presentations and talks about all the different things we need to know. While there, everyone was assigned to a country, about seven people in each group. Each group went around to each session together, and was assigned a UCC (Upperclass Camp Counselor), who was a current Caltech student. I was in Ireland. There was a session on the honor code, one on first year courses, there was a session about rotation - the process of choosing a house - and also a presentation by a chemistry professor on his work with solar energy.
There was also a design competition. Everyone was broken up into teams by country, with two countries on each team. Ireland was with France, and there were sixteen teams in all. The supplies included a two liter bottle of soda, two cans of soda, two water bottles, four plastic plates, a few pencils, a few pens, a few tongue depressors, a roll of scotch tape, some playing cards, some clothes pins, paper clips, scissors, a coat hanger, balloons, straws, rubber bands, hair elastics, and two plastic cups. The challenge was to build a boat that would carry four little army men a distance of ten feet (down a three foot wide lane) as quickly as possible. We had about four hours to work on it. The competition was set up as a series of one on one races, with the loser eliminated and the winner advancing to the next round. If either boat failed to go a distance of ten feet, the one that went farther was the winner. Our boat was made catamaran style using the 2 liter soda bottle cut in half as the hulls. The propulsion system was my design, inspired by a bath toy I used to play with. It had a paddle wheel held and driven by a rubber band. Our boat won. We made it all the way, fast, all four rounds. There was one other team whose boat made it the full ten feet, but theirs only did it once. None of the other entries ever went the full distance. Winning the first design competition at Caltech: check.
Since the end of frosh camp I've been going around to more information sessions and whatnot, had breakfast with my advisor and his other new advisees, met more people, found out more about different majors, etc. That will be coming to an end soon, though. Classes start this Monday.
No comments:
Post a Comment