Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes!

Ok, I know it’s been a while since I posted. I need to get used to doing short posts. I always have so much I want to say that I never think I have enough time to sit down and write. Now that we’re going into the fifth week of classes (really? just 5?) I think everyone has had at least one test in at least one of their classes. I think the first test is always the worst one, even though it’s supposed to be the easiest. With starting new classes with new professors, it can be really hard to guess what will be on the test. You never know exactly what the structure of the test will be like. Last week I took a test that had to be taken in pen with my answer “clearly marked, or it will not be graded.” I was a little nervous about that, I kinda like erasing mistakes. I guess it’s a good life lesson though. Sometimes you can fix the mistakes and erase the reminders. Other times you need to demonstrate that you messed up and “clearly mark” the change for the better in your life. Sorry if that was a little cheesy. I’m just a little bit tired. Anyway, the test didn’t go too badly and I didn’t even need the four pieces of scratch paper I grabbed. In fact, I think I used half of one. But now I know what to expect for the next test. And the next test always comes up really fast. I have two tests this upcoming week and then two tests next week. That combined with all the homework basically means that my “free time” is between 1 am and 7 am, typically known as sleeping time. Luckily, a lot of my friends like studying as a group so we can hang out and talk a little bit while we all work on a variety of homework. I really need to get a picture sometime. I think the last time we studied in my room we had eight people working on 5 different subjects. Everyone finds a little bit of floor space and spreads out. There’s also small group/individual study time which is typically a bit more productive if the subject is a bit more difficult.

Multi-tasking: Watching a football game while doing Organic Chemistry homework

Reading the 10 chapters of Biology for the upcoming test

As much fun as it is to study with friends, you really need to know what you struggle with and when you need alone time to interpret the information. A major part of college is recognizing what’s best for you and making an action plan that makes it happen. And sometimes what’s best for you is just taking a break from school. If you do homework all the time and never have relaxation time, you will get stressed and burn out. Trust me. It happens. Luckily, there’s always something to do. A couple weeks ago (I can’t believe I didn’t do a post about this), the chemical engineering department scheduled a trip the the local apple orchard. It was a lot of fun and gave the underclassmen a chance to talk to upperclassmen about research and classes. Oh, and the apples were amazing. The apple turnovers were even better. They were fantastic. I bought a jug of apple cider to keep in my fridge and was very sad at how fast it disappeared.

Enjoying turnovers while hanging out with friends

Apple picking

I will honestly try to post again this week, but I really can’t promise anything. With homework due Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and two things due Friday with exams on Tuesday and Friday, it might be Friday before I have time to post anything. So in the mean time, have a great week and try to relax a little bit!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Time has been flying for the past two weeks. My last post left off on Wednesday and everything has been a whirlwind since then. I’ll try to give a summary!

Thursday
I helped with Move-in crew, which was a lot of fun again. The same group that helped Wednesday helped on Thursday so it was nice getting to know more people. I also helped with Target Takeover this year. There are shuttles that hauled all the students out to the Target in Coralville. There’s a ton of activities with chances to win free stuff. They also had a live DJ to help get the energy up. It was a lot of fun and there was so much energy.

The front crew at Target Takeover with Bullseye

Friday
We had our final On Iowa! squad meeting before we met our small groups. I was kinda nervous about meeting them but after our squad meeting and laughing with them, I realized that my small group was probably nervous about meeting me and each other. My small group was pretty cool and even participated in the ice breakers with some enthusiasm. After a lecture about how to succeed in college and then dinner, we headed to Kinnick Stadium. At Kinnick, the first years learn cheers, songs, and chants. They also get to form the big block ‘I’ on the field.

Some of my small group having fun at Kinnick

A sea of first years on Kinnick field

When we got to Kinnick, it was mass chaos as far as finding anyone. Half of my small group got lost in the sea of students walking up to Kinnick. I was a little disappointed but was trying to ignore it, but then I got to the gates where students were entering and I saw my group standing there waiting for me. When we got onto the field, I managed to find a group of Teal squad leaders and we had to take a picture. These are some of the best people I’ve ever met.

Feel the Teal!

After the Kinnick activities, students could leave to go to some other events or they could stay on Kinnick and take part in races, tug-of-war, or field goal kicking. Teal squad also had a hang out session in the middle of Kinnick field.

Teal Hangout: “I thirsted his quenches!” “Teal the feel!”

Hanging out after such a long day made for some pretty interesting moments and quotes, but that’s why I love them!

Saturday
This was the big day for On Iowa! leaders. And students I guess. As leaders, today was the day we presented the Iowa Challenge. The challenge is Excel, Stretch, Engage, Choose, Serve. These five things are what past graduates feel are necessary to have a fulfilling and successful college experience. This year, we focused on the Choose part of the Challenge. We talked about Hawks helping Hawks and keeping fellow Hawkeyes safe using bystander intervention if we see something that could put someone in danger. My small group (which ended up really small because half of my small didn’t show up to the second day of class) responded really well and were completely serious about the topic. I would have loved to have had my whole class come back, but the students who did come back were a great bunch. They provided intelligent and meaningful ideas about how to help someone who might be in a bad situation.

We also talked about getting Engaged on campus and finding activities that will help you meet people who have similar interests. This discussion ended with going to the Engage Fair that had booths with information about a lot of the organizations students can join.

Sunday

This was our last squad meeting together as Teal team 6. We did an activity where we would throw a ball of yarn around the circle and we had to say 1. our favorite moment, 2. how we grew as a leader, and 3. one thing we would never forget. We all agreed that one of the things we wouldn’t forget was the strong connection with our Teal squad. At the end of the activity we had a star of teal yarn to show how we were all connected.

The Teal Stars

Being an On Iowa! leader has been one of the best experiences and I met such awesome people, I would highly recommend being involved with it.

Now for the short rundown on the first week of class.
I have quite a few classes this semester that have a lot of homework so I’ll be pretty busy with that. On the better note, I have every class with at least one friend, so it makes it easier to work on homework together. I like my schedule so far (other than the awful power walk from one side of campus to the other) but I get all my lectures out of the way in the mornings. The first-years on my floor are getting used to lecture and will soon be going to their first chemistry lab (hence the title of this post, the TA’s always tell you not to ingest the chemicals). It’s been so great being an upperclassman on the WiSE floor. My friends and I have had so much fun getting to know the first-years. We’ve had multiple floor bonding moments in the middle of the hallway. Now whenever we walk out and see a group standing in the hallway, they’ll yell down, “Hey, hall bonding! Come down!” This is just one of the many hallway bondings.

One of our floor bonding moments 🙂 Sophomores and freshmen having fun with a cardboard box

We’ve also had a nail-painting and hair braiding party in my room which was a lot of fun. We keep adding people so we’re slowly getting to know the whole floor and each individual person.

This year is off to such an awesome start, I’m so excited. Last year seemed so awesome, I didn’t think it could get better. But this year has definitely surpassed those expectations. I can’t wait to see what the year will bring!

Hey Hawkeyes!

How’s life treating everyone? Life here is going smoothly. I’m a little worried for finals, but I really just want to get them done and move home.

I’ve been doing some studying as well as having fun. I’m not sure if I talked about it earlier in my blog, but I did Friends and Neighbors Day at the beginning of the year. Every first year who signed up was matched with an international first year student. Even though it was just one day of events, the girl I was matched with and I have stayed in contact. She’s from China and decided I needed to try some real Chinese food, so she took me out to eat. The food was awesome and I loved getting to talk to her before we both get busy with finals. She’s actually staying here to do research over the summer so I may get to see her at some point.

My friend from Friends and Neighbors Day.

Since it’s the week before finals, everyone is making plans to move home. I, along with several of my other friends, are moving some stuff home the weekend before so there’s not as much stuff after finals. The fun part? When everyone’s families come. It’s been great to get to know my friends’ families more. One of my friends has had her younger sisters come and stay with her and we’ve all loved getting to hang out with them. In return for helping move out and in celebration of (almost) surviving our entire first year of college, one of my friends parents took a few of us out to eat.

Enjoying awesome food and friendship

Very artistic food and the oreo cheesecake was AMAZING!

Thanks so much to her parents! The food was amazing! It was also nice to get away from campus and enjoy being around a family (her parents are so nice and her sisters are so fun to talk to!). I’ve made some really great friends here.

She’s amazing too!

Another one of my friends moved out most of her stuff the next day, so I helped again. Again, I was thanked with food (thank you to her parents too!). So as the new tradition, we needed a picture of it.

Her family didn’t appreciate the picture as much 🙂

I’m so excited to go home, but so sad to leave my friends. Right now I’m focused on studying for finals and doing well on those and just enjoying the friendships I’ve made.

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope life is going well for everyone. This is the first week in about a month that I haven’t had a test. This is also the first week all semester that I haven’t had a Wednesday afternoon class. Since we had our final lab last week, we don’t have case study either. So instead of being in class, I’ve caught up on homework, started working ahead, and even caught up on sleep.

I’ve also been enjoying the gorgeous weather we’ve been having. In fact, I just so happen to have the most awesome Calculus TA ever. Why you ask? Because she let us have class outside.

Outdoor class on the Pentacrest 🙂

It was such a nice day and was such an awesome change from being in the same old room. The wind made things a little difficult but it was nothing we couldn’t deal with. It was also awesome to see the jealousy as other students passed us on the way to their boring old classrooms.

OnIowa! Update: Teal’s the real deal, just so you all know. All the leaders are divided into squads that are given a color. I’m in teal squad and very loyal to the Teal. Each squad is given the mission of winning their squad points by doing different activities. One such activity is a scavenger hunt where we’re given clues and we have to find the object/place and take a picture with it. The catch? We have to have at least 6 squad members in the picture. Do you know how hard it is to coordinate 6 people’s schedules when it’s two weeks before finals? Well, we finally got it figured out and a group went out to take pictures. Here’s just a few of them 🙂

Pyramid at the Pentacrest

In a lecture hall

In front of the climbing wall

It was definitely a great squad-bonding opportunity and it was a lot of fun.

Have a great rest of the week and weekend!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone has been surviving now that we’re on the downhill side of the semester. This past week has been an easy week for me: no tests, no quizzes, and few homework assignments. My calculus assignment went really fast and I was able to finish the entire assignment in 2 hours of tutoring. My chemistry assignment also went really fast. Since this week has been so easy and laid back, I’ve been taking the time to catch up with friends and prepare for my next exam which is next week. I also have an exam the week after.

The last day to drop a class is Monday, and since I have one class that I was a little worried about, I decided to talk to my TA for that class. When I met with her, she pulled up my grades and informed me that I have over 95% on homework and quizzes. My exam score was a little low, but she said that with a little work, that would be an easy fix. So needless to say, I will not be dropping the class and according to my TA I should end the class with a grade that will help my GPA rather than hurt it. So word of advice: Before you drop anything, talk to the TA/professor!

I also had my second On Iowa! Committee meeting. I’m so excited for this opportunity. I’ve met some really awesome people. I think we’ve had the most fun laughing at our own mistakes and helping each other learn from them. This weekend is the first All-Team meeting for On Iowa!, which basically means I get to meet everyone who will be helping out with On Iowa! this year. I’m really looking forward to it.

Talk to you later, Hawkeyes!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Guess what?! It’s almost spring break! My whole goal has been just to survive this week. Luckily, it’s been an easy week. And by easy I mean only 3 chemistry assignments, one math assignment, one psychology quiz, and one photography assignment.

Spring break is perfectly timed when everyone is ready for a break. Everyone is making plans to see friends from high school and even friends from college that we won’t see over break. It seems so weird that before August, we never knew these people but now we’re so attached to them and can’t go a week without at least talking to them. I guess it goes to show how fast people can bond when you’re going through the same struggles. In the past couple of weeks I’ve been really stressed out and I have really appreciated my friends being there for me.

I’m still really excited for Spring Break though. I’ve been working hard all week to get ahead on homework so I’ll just have to study over break. I have a chemistry test the week after I get back, so I plan on reading a ton of chemistry. Hopefully, just being at home will inspire motivation. 🙂

So long for now, enjoy your break!

Hey Hawkeyes!

In case you haven’t noticed from my blog posts (or lack thereof) it’s starting to get busy around here. Something about midterms? As you know I had my first chem exam 2 weeks ago and I did pretty well on that. I had a psychology test this past week and just recently(today) got my grade from that, which was also pretty good (yay! :)). This coming week I’ll have my first calculus test (eek!). I never really feel ready for a test, it always seems like there’s something I should know more about. I’ve been staying caught up in homework, but I’ve determined that in order to actually be ready for upcoming tests, I need to be ahead.

Quick update on my week (+ pictures :))

Last Friday I went to an indoor track meet to watch one of my friends from another University. It was amazing to see her running against all the college athletes.

One of our athletes getting ready to run. I think he won his race.

Hurdles

I went home for the weekend, which was awesome. I learned the Ultimate College Student’s Lesson: I can go for over a month without doing laundry. Since I live so close to home it seems silly to do laundry here, but with different volunteer things going on it’s hard to go home often enough to do laundry on a regular basis. I was also able to visit one of my friends who just got this adorable puppy!

Isn’t he adorable?!

On Tuesdays I have a Chemical Engineering Seminar for an hour in the afternoon. This past Tuesday found us talking about mixtures and how the amounts of components affect the product. Like in the making of ice cream, more air means not as good. So to demonstrate this….we made ice cream!!!!

Making the shake ice cream 🙂 Hands were a little cold afterwards.

Making liquid nitrogen ice cream

And what would a week be without

A study party!

I’m taking a photography class (that I’m absolutely loving other than the fact that it’s 5:30-9pm), and had an assignment to represent University of Iowa.

My friends decided to help out and make sure I knew where the Old Capitol was 🙂

I also got this picture, which I thought was cool

On Friday night I volunteered with the Society of Women Engineers at the Children’s Museum at Coral Ridge Mall for their STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Night. It was a ton of fun. We basically played with kids all night, which was awesome!

Playing around in the Hospital room before the kids started arriving.

Saturday was the FIRST Tech Challenge State Championships. In high school I participated in the robotics club and have fond memories of coming to the State Championships here at Iowa. So this year, I decided to volunteer.

Ring it up! The challenge for this year.

It was a great experience and it was awesome to see all the robots and meet so many new people, as well as see my high school team and coaches. I’m excited for next year so I can be more involved and maybe even volunteer at some of the qualifying competitions.

I’ll try to keep you guys updated more often, so watch for another post in the next couple of days! 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!

Some of the new friends I’ve made in one of my classes

Just a quick update from me this time! The week started off a little hectic, but still fun none the less.

I’ve already made some new friends in a few of my classes. Here’s just one of the pictures from hanging out and talking after class. I’ll post more pictures later. They’re so much fun and I’m going to miss them when the class finishes in a couple weeks(it’s just a seminar). A cool story about this picture though: The guy on the left, the girl second from the right, and I all had the same  high school band teacher. Two separate high schools (he left my school and went to a different one) and we all met in this class. How awesome is that?! And it gets better: the band teacher graduated from University of Iowa! Yeah. Small world, huh? 🙂

On another topic, I had my first chem test last night. It went pretty well. I was really unsure about it. There were a few questions that I felt like I knew it, but I just couldn’t come up with the right process. But several questions took me forever to work out were actually correct, which made me feel good. I used the full time, which means that I kept trying instead of just guessing and getting it over with, so I was happy. I felt like I genuinely did my best. Granted yes, I should have studied a little more (the one question was so similar to one I had practiced but I just couldn’t remember it), but I know how to prepare for the next test. I’m also a bit more inspired because this semester is (so far!) starting off better than last semester as far as exams go.

Have a great day, talk to you soon!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Wow, we’re already almost a month into the semester. It seems like it’s going by so fast! I’m getting ready for my first chem test this week (AHHHHH!!!!!). But before the chem test, I had my first chem lab!  Our first lab talked about using cross-links to connect polymer chains together to create new substances with different properties. To test how the number of cross-links affect the product, we made our own polymers. In other words…. goo and a bouncy ball!

 It was a very fun lab, even if we did sort of run out of time. That was the fastest I have ever filled out a lab report (we’ll wait to get excited until we see the grade…). I feel like I really learned the material too.

After recovering from chem lab, I decided to try my motion photography at the swim meet last Friday. My friend/lab partner even came with me (thank you!). Since she was on swim team in high school, she was able to explain the different events to me.

Now that’s team spirit
Go Hawks!

Practicing dives

There’s a track meet that I’m excited about going to this weekend and hopefully get some pictures of that to share with you. I’m really enjoying going to all these different events and learning more about them. It’s also a nice break away from all the studying, especially if you have friends to go with.

Hopefully talk to you again soon!

Hey Hawkeyes!

Ok, so technically survival and winter storms have nothing to do with each other, but hey, it sounded cool 🙂

I apologize for not blogging about my second day, but I figured I might as well wait until after the first week so I could give an update on the whole week in general. I did, in fact, survive the first full week and it was not that bad. I’m still working on some last minute scheduling things but hopefully they all work out.

Wednesday was my first Chemistry II lecture. I’m still a little hesitant about my chemistry abilities, but in the short review we did in class, I understood most of it, so I guess that’s a good sign. I also had my first Calculus lecture. After the discussion on Tuesday, I was a little hesitant about that too. But the new professor we have for Calc seems really nice and really willing to help us learn (he even said “Bless you” when I sneezed during lecture). I also had Chemistry Case Study, which is what we normally do the week before lab to discuss the experiment and learn the equations we will need. Since this was the first Case Study, we basically went over some of the safety guidelines and how lab will work. I’m a little terrified of lab because my lab partner from last semester couldn’t take the same lab as me, but luckily I managed to find another lab partner who will also be awesome at explaining the things I don’t understand. I also had University Band, which for the night is just information and chair placement tests. My chair placement test really didn’t go very well so we’ll see where I end up. Unfortunately, I’m not sure if I can even take band yet. There’s another class I’m trying to get into that will overlap band. The directors for band are being totally awesome about my attendance until I find out about this class.  One of the biggest lessons I have learned in college is to let your professors know what’s going on. If they know what’s going on, they are way more likely to be cool with it or even offer help; however, they can only do that if you tell them, the earlier the better. I really want to be able to do band. It’s a lot of fun, even if you’re not the most amazing player. I’m hoping I can work something out. If I can’t, I will definitely be back in band next semester.

Thursday was fairly uneventful, only two classes, same with Friday. Weeeeelllll, I guess Friday wasn’t completely uneventful. We had a substitute chem professor, since our usual one was at a conference. This substitute had a unique way of teaching chemistry. Since we were discussing solutions (saturated, unsaturated, super saturated), she compared the solution to a night club. If you have a saturated solution, no more solute will fit into it. Kind of like a night club, once the dance floor is packed, you can’t fit anyone else in. Along with this came the lesson that if your dog drinks methanol, you should get him drunk because the alcohol slows down the chemical process that will make him blind and possibly dead. In the extra time you have from the slowed down reaction, you have more time to get your dog to the vet. We also came up with our own analogy from her description of gases, “if a gas can make a run for it, it will.” My friends and I decided that gases were like guys, they make a run for it at the first chance they get (kidding, of course :)). We also learned that insoluble solute-solvents are like bikers and hipsters. They know they’re different and will just stare at each other from across the room. They will not mix unless forced (but it takes a lot of force for a very unsuccessful attempt). We also learned a few pick-up lines. “You’re a bit dipole, I’m a bit dipole, let’s get together.” And something about being like ions and mingling. Let’s just say that for being an 8:30 class, we were all quite awake and entertained.

It’s kind of nice to have a busy beginning of the week and a relaxing end of the week. I think it will help me get my homework done before the weekend rather than spending all weekend working on it or doing it Sunday night, which is one of my goals.

My academic goals for the semester:

1. Get an early start on homework.
2. Schedule time to read.
3. Plan time to go to office hours and get help before I really need it (aka two days before an exam).
4. Get better grades than last semester (let’s be honest, first semester was a tad rough).

My social goals for the semester:

1. Volunteer more, I want to get out and help more.
2. Join another club (currently thinking dance club or photography club).
3. Be more active in Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and Women in Science and Engineering (WiSE).
4. Plan at least one friend activity a week to get away and relax for a little bit.

I might add more to these goals as the semester goes along, but those are the basics. Some people say that you’re more successful if you don’t share your goals, but to me it seems like the more people who know your goals, the more likely you’ll be held accountable to meeting your goals.

On Sunday, after catching up on sleep, I was greeted with an ice storm! It was amazingly slippery outside (increased slippage, as a high school friend and I decided). I just about fell three or four times walking across the street to Burge for lunch. It was also entertaining to watch people walk/slip (I’m really a nice person, I am!). Here are some pictures for you. Sorry they’re mostly from around my dorm, I really didn’t want to go very far with the horrifying image in my mind of slipping and falling on top of my camera (it’s my baby!).