What Have I Been Up To?

Hey all,

Life has been busy in my second year at Pitzer. I'm currently taking Organic Chem, Modern Physics (relativity, quantum, etc), Computer Science, Linear Algebra, and Orchestra. I also have a few jobs, as you all know. I figured I'd update here, if any of you still read this, with some photo links and stuff.

Here are some photos of research work, if you are interested. I am currently working in Dr. Armstrong's lab. I'm working on a project involving gene mutations and flies (tiny little drosophila, to be exact). It's a ton of fun and I go in twice a week. We're getting a lot of good data and it's really interesting. I work with counting, sexing, and virgining flies as well as crossing them. Also I do some DNA stuff for insertion into flies and examining how the constructs have affected the fly phenotypes.

Life is good, though with tests and such recently, a little tiring. This week I have many midterms, but overall it's going pretty well. Don't worry, I still have time for additional fun activities! Here are some photos of the retreat I went to for our Asian American Sponsor Program.

I've got some photo albums on my Picasa account now, mostly documenting birthday cakes, art projects, and some other random things. Between my Facebook account and my Picasa you can see a bit more about what I'm doing these days.

See you all later this year!
Liana

swim! bike! run!

I did my first triathlon (sprint length) on Sunday - the danskin triathlon here in Seattle! It was fun and a great challenge to tackle as the longest thing I've done before this is a 5k. True to Seattle form, it was raining the entire time, and during the bike portion the wind and rain both picked up, we were also getting a crosswind across the lake as the bike course was across one of the floating bridges here. it's 1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, and 5k run. Here's me running past after the swim course -


- and here's the beginning of the bike course, with the 'transition area' behind - thousands of people changing between events. I just wanted to do the whole thing at a good pace and comfortably, which Idid - however I'm already looking forward to doing it even faster next year. ;) good times.

Shaky ground for sunny skies

So I know I only have myself to blame, but man, what a crazy idea to live across the street from a faultline!! This morning at 4:42am, Arthur (my roomie) and I woke up to a nice 4.2 quake that was epicentered just 5.6mi away from my apartment!!

Here's a link to the map of it, if it works:
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=37.8075+-122.188(M4.2%20-%20SAN%20FRANCISCO%20BAY%20AREA,%20CALIFORNIA%20-%202007%20July%2020%20%2011:42:22%20UTC)&ll=37.8075,-122.188&spn=2,2&f=d&t=h&hl=e

Nothing was harmed, besides the fallen picture frame here and there, and the heightened nerves. I couldn't get any more sleep this morning worrying for aftershocks (none of which materialized thank goodness). I know it's a really small one on the whole scale of things, but man, I really haaaattte earthquakes. They are so scary.

What we all do to live in glorious California, huh? =)

-E

Annie's Visit

Just wanted to let everyone know I added a link to Annie's Blog so you can see what her and I have been up to while she was staying with me in Berkeley and soon when we go to Seattle to visit Kim! ^_~

YAY! =)

-Emily

My exam day has come and GONE!!!

On June 2nd, 2007 I woke up at 6am wide-eyed and eager. It was the big day! Packed a solid meal for lunch, nice snacks (carrot sticks, a pear, an apple and some cookies for treats) and double checked my backpack. There was about a couple thousand people at the test center I went to in San Mateo. The exam starts officially at 9am, but we have to be in, seated and registered by 8:30am or so. I finished the first section with just about 3 minutes to spare so I definitely tried to manage my time better and finished the afternoon session with about 30 minutes left. The morning session is 9am-noon and the afternoon is 2-5pm. Just by lunch time I was soooo excited that the test was halfway over... I was really amped. The test was really hard but the studying definitely paid off, but I really couldn't honestly tell you if I passed or not. I didn't bomb it for sure, but I didn't 100% it either. I'm rignt on the border so right now it could really go either way. Results are emailed out in mid-late August. You'll hear from me then, that's for sure.

I'm SOOOO glad it's over and Annie's over now too so it's great to have her! I'll add pics soon!

Love,
Emily

Pomona-Pitzer Sagehens

I am going to be a Sagehen!

The Pitzer mascot is shared with Pomona, and is called Cecil Sagehen, to be specific. I'll attend basketball games singing songs like "When the Sagehen Chirps", no joke. But anyway, I'm going to work full time at Tropika over the summer, and I've accepted another tutoring job. Depending on my schedule, I may get another summer job, say, on in the morning or late at night, like sean's old Kohl's job. I'm also planning on getting a job at Pitzer at the library or Gold Student Center (pay is supposed to increase to $8.00 over the summer) so that the debt won't be quite so much. Hey, anything is good! So yeah... it's nice knowing that i have a future. I feel relieved and elated. Go sagehens!

"I'm a shooting star leaping through the sky,

Like a tiger, defying the laws of gravity,

I'm a racing car passing by, like Lady Godiva

I'm gonna go, go, go, There's no stopping me!

Burning through the sky, yeah!

Two hundred degrees, that's why they call me mister farenheit,

I'm traveling at the speed of light"

-Don't Stop Me Now, byQueen. Sorry, just what's stuck in my head right now.

College Life is Approaching!!!!

Hello everyone!

Liana here with some updates. College season is here! Acceptance/Rejection list:

Pitzer College: Accepted
UC Berkeley: Accepted Spring Semester
Reed College: Accepted
UW Seattle: Accepted
UC San Diego: Accepted
UC Davis: Accepted
USC: Rejected
UC Irvine: Accepted
Stanford: Rejected (no duh!)

No big surprises with the USC and Stanford rejections... it was an unusually difficult year; Pitzer went from 37% acceptance to 26%, Harvard accepted 9%, an all-time low, Stanford rejected everyone from my school, including al the brilliant students who everyone expected/hoped would get in. Poopyheads. ^_^

So, my decision... um... I don't know. Truthfully, I'm leaning towards Pitzer. Berkeley, Reed, and UWSeattle are putting up a good fight though. I went to Pitzer today, and made a list of pros and cons:

Pros: 1) New dorms next year. Spacious, two rooms with two students each share one bathroom. Nice. 2) Joint Science Center with CMC and Scripps - strong, especially in Neurobiology. 3) All professors, no TAs. Dr. Sadava told us that this morning he spent an hour on the phone with a prof from CalTech trying to get a student a job in the lab. It's definitely hands on - that is no individual incident. 4) Class size: 7-23. No classes over 40. Very personalized. 5) Campus is small, but so connected that you can have a big-campus feel. Lots of organizations and 5-College activities. 6) Priximity to home and other friends. Close to home so that it's convenient, but not UCI-close. 7) I can take classes at other colleges: math at Harvey Mudd, languages at Pomona, leadership or business at Claremont McKenna. 8) Outstanding study abroad program: 64% of every class participates. 9) Wall street Journal ranked it very high in graduate- school-acceptance-rate. 10) They have excellent research opportunities with professors, even for freshmen.

Cons: 1) No financial aid. They're reevaluating the new tax return, but chances are it won't be very large. Also, I don't qualify to work on campus. 2) Don't award B.S.s, only B.A.s. I discussed this with admissions and the school president, and they assure me it doesn't make a difference to grad schools or employers, but still... 3) No city life - it's not very prominent, like in Berkeley, Seattle, or Portland. 4) I like the campus feel of Berkeley a bit better.

Don't even quote the U.S. World News ranking thing to me - it's totally not legit. I really don't like that ranking, and agree with the school presidents, like Reed, who refuse to participate. Anyway, I'm going to the UC San Diego Admit Day later today, the 14th of April. Tomorrow will be the UC Berkeley Admit Day, and next Saturday is Reed's Admit Day. I'll also be spending the night at Pitzer on Monday.

More updates to come!