Bulgaria

This spring break, I had the wonderful opportunity to visit my aunt, uncle, and five-year-old cousin in Sofia, Bulgaria!

It all started when I decided to go to Russia for spring break. I wanted to see my parents, and they were going to be there. And then on Monday, we bought tickets for a Thursday flight to Sofia, and the adventures began!

On the first day, we saw many of the sights in the city on our own. We visited four different churches from different time periods in Bulgarian history, ranging from fairly modern to Byzantine times. We saw the Parliament building, the library, and the gorgeous view of Mount Vitosha from the city. We also then bought ski pants for me to try skiing the next day.

On Friday, that’s what I spent my day doing- skiing! My small cousin Aryan was skiing with his little school and many other local schools in the area and I tagged along. To be honest, many of the little children were MUCH better than me, but I still had a lot of fun. I only fell twice getting off the drag lift, which I don’t really count as falling because it wasn’t as though I fell while actually skiing.

On the third day, we drove about two and a half hours outside of Sofia to see this beautiful monastery and several lakes. The scenery is really spectacular in Bulgaria. The mountains are everywhere and the countryside is scattered with orange colored trees and green grass with the snowy peaks in the background. We also stopped to see the monument of the bells, which is a monument dedicated to international children’s rights.

On the fourth day we took a walk around where my aunt and uncle live, which is in the city center, took pictures, and then went back. I was sad to leave, but spring break had to come to an end!

And now I have a midterm tomorrow and LOTS of studying to catch up on . . . but the escape sure was nice for a few days!

Ode to Ochem Lab

So on Wednesday, like every other Wednesday, I found myself stuck in ochem lab without any good results and long after most of the other lab groups had left. I had to go to work after lab, I had a volunteering opportunity that I had just missed, and everybody else’s product was yellow while ours was . . . gray. We had restarted our experiment twice because the first time, it had turned green. The second time, it turned green again, but this time we KNEW it wasn’t because any of our glassware was unclean. Our TA, who now understands our overall lab inefficiency, allowed us to keep the second trial running, hoping our product would turn yellow-orange. And it turned gray.

Now you’d think that in a lab like this, I’d be utterly miserable. You’d think that I was watching the time slide away from me, seconds into minutes into hours. Believe it or not, this isn’t the case.

I actually enjoy organic chemistry lab! The lab is long and sometimes the results don’t turn out, but I know when I get there, I have a lot of fun. Our lab “team” is comprised of two different lab groups, and we have a ton of fun rescuing each other from potential dilemma. We’re always nearly the last ones to leave but I honestly don’t even notice how long it’s taken until I see that we’re the last ones left. My lab partners, Gino nd Karthik, are entertaining through and through and working with them is always a great time. Our TA seems to think so– even if he’s stuck in lab ’til the end, he seems to love hanging out with us as well!

(Here’s Gino working hard and Karthik . . . .chilling. But to be fair, as Karthik says, this picture isn’t representative of the actual work they do in lab!)

Organic chemistry lab, above all else, does teach you the essential skills involving team work. I personally have learned a lot from my two lab partners and the other kids in our lab “team.” I’ve learned how to work together smoothly, how to not take control in every situation, and most importantly, how to troubleshoot (aka make it up as we go along!).

(The three of us and our TA Lee in the last stages of last week’s experiment)

So this is my ode to organic chemistry lab– trust me, it’s not as bad as you think. You might actually . . enjoy it. =)

Step Show and Food Fest

On Wednesday was the Step Show held by the Office of Multicultural Affairs for Flava Wave Week here at Tulane. Basically, this was a week for all multicultural organizations to step forward and make known their presence on campus through events like food fests, poetry readings, and STEP SHOWS.

My wonderful sorority, Delta Xi Nu, does in fact have a step team, and we stepped and strutted at this year’s step show. Our girls were joined by the boys of Delta Tau Delta Fraternity, or “dorks til death,” as they call themselves. The combination of the talented girls on our team and the comical boys on theirs made for a VERY entertaining show. They were followed by a step team made of Office of Multicultural Affairs Ambassadors, or people assigned to have little sisters and brothers in incoming freshman classes. It was a very fun event for everybody involved!

And we fly Xi Honeys sure can step!!!

Also this week in Flava Wave Week, we had a food fest courtesy of the Asian American Student Union. It was free for members and $5 for all non members. This particular Food Fest was exciting for me because not only did I run into my usual group of Asian friends, but into a guy named Hameed.

Hameed used to be the graduate hall director for Wall Residential College last year, when I was its president. He taught me a lot about leadership, and I’m still grateful for all the lessons I learned. We had a very strange relationship, as we had a professional relationship because of Wall Residential Hall Government but an odd friendship as well. He moved to Miami after he graduated as a BME during Lagniappe, and now is working full time. It’s always a shocker to those of us still in college that the world beyond these borders exists, that people do get up at 9 and work til 5, and that being an adult is NOT all its cracked up to be.

But it was a great treat seeing him, even if we were reminded of all that! Here’s to you, Hameed!

Habitats for Humanity

This Saturday I participated in Habitats for Humanity. We woke up at 7 am, drove more than half an hour to Musicians’ Village off N. Claiborne and stood outside freezing in the crisp early morning air.

And all for what?

Musicians’ Village is a place where Habitats has built a large group of homes so New Orleans musicians can come back and live together. If you ask me, its the best idea for the space, as it propagates the human imagination and spirit in terms of music. We were honored to be contributing to the project . . .and contribute we certainly did try to do!

We were put in charge of making sawhorses. At first, we were so excited that 5 seemed too small of a number, but then we started hammering and nailing. I sawed the wood with a circular saw while someone held the 2 by 4s for me, another team nailed, and another team measured out the wood. We thought we had a very efficient system going until we stood up our first sawhorse and discovered that it wasn’t quite aligned. See, the concept of simply cutting pieces and putting them together had led to us actually nailing them on in different places . . . and also created very unsturdy projects.

<<(At work on the sawhorses- me and my sister Jennifer)

And so we had to correct all of them . . . and you could tell which ones were ours. In our defense, everything turned out fine, and people ended up using our sawhorses that day. We also participated in painting and cleaning up and organizing when the frustration of the sawhorses got to us. We wanted so badly to get in the mix of building things but we quickly discovered that things don’t fit together in reality like they do in theory!!!

<<(My sister Amy working with one of the future homeowners)

But we had a great time, us Delta Xi Nu girls and the Sig Ep boys. Our very own admissions counselor Jeff was there too, working (or at least pretending to!)

I’m proud to say I got this amazing opportunity. I think it’s one truly unique to Tulane and New Orleans, and I hope that my little bit was just another piece in the giant puzzle that is rebuilding this city.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Today, like all MWF, I had my Robert Frost class, which I genuinely enjoyed. We studied a poem called “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and I found it to be very inspiring, so I’ll share it with y’all.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

We had a discussion in this class about this poem. It’s a 450 level class, but it’s the most fun I’ve had lately. Some people thought the poem was about how everything that is perfect is ephemeral, and quickly falls away to reality. Others thought this poem was about the cyclical patterns of nature, and about how things start out fresh and anew but then resume the cycle, ie the novelty soon wears off. It’s evident that the colors green and cold are valued here in this poem, so just because the leaves are no longer gold doesn’t make them any less valuable. I think the poem speaks to all of us about how we should cherish those moments when things are “golden,” those little perfect rays of sunshine that make our lives worth living.

And this class happens to be one of mine!

If you like what you’ve just read, get involved in English here . . the department is great. I truly have enjoyed every class I’ve taken and I cannot wait to take more!