Sarah

Hey Hawkeyes,

You know how time can feel like it’s going so slowly but then you look back and you have no idea where the time went? That’s pretty much what’s been going on. In the week before Thanksgiving break I had a ton of homework due and a test each week with three right before Thanksgiving break. But I also found some time to have fun too. College can be stressful and you really need to balance school and fun. Sometimes it can be tough when you’re living in the dorm because you feel like you’re always at school. If you make the most of college though, the dorms can actually become the best thing. You always have people to study with. My engineering friends and I have Thermo Thursday where we all get together and work on the Thermodynamics assignment together since it’s due Friday. We all try to start it a little bit early so we can compare answers and rework problems if there’s a discrepancy in the answers, but let’s be honest, most of us start that night. Here’s one of our Thermo Thursday parties.

Study party!

I wish I had the picture from the Thermo Thursday a couple weeks after this one; we had so many people we ended up in the lounge with 4 tables pushed together and some people on the floor.

Sometimes you have to reward yourself when you’ve been working hard. My reward for working hard/finally taking a break from homework, class, and tests was to see the musical “Wicked” in Chicago. The Campus Activities Board(CAB) organized a trip to see the musical on a Saturday night. We got on the bus at 3pm and arrived home at 3:30am the next morning. It was a long night, but so much fun. I was so glad to have friends go with me too!

Wicked!

I tried to convince myself that I would do homework on the bus there, but then we watched “The Wizard of OZ” and “Rent”, so homework didn’t really happen. It was a great relaxing weekend and I absolutely loved seeing “Wicked”. This trip was my first time ever seeing it and it was awesome! I couldn’t have been more excited for this trip; now I want to go see it again.

The weekend after “Wicked” was the last home game for this football season. Remember my last post where I said games were getting colder?

Well, this last home game was pretty cold. Actually, it was really cold! Everyone was bundled up. I hadn’t had the chance to bring my snowboots and as it turns out, regular shoes just don’t keep your feet warm even when you’re wearing three layers of socks.

Going home after the game was definitely one of the best feelings ever. Just something about knowing you have an entire week of no class, no turning in homework, and finally getting caught up on sleep is simply exciting. I heard some first years talking about going home for the first time and I realized that as a first year, I hadn’t really thought about what it would be like going home for the first time since I live so close. However, I realized that everything they were saying was just as true for me as it was for them, even now as a sophomore. So why is going home in college so different? Well,

1. Driving a car for the first time after being gone for weeks or even months is one of the weirdest things. My friends and I were all used to driving to school and driving to all our activities. Now in college, we walk every where or take a bus. When we finally get home, climbing into a car can seem strangely strange. You wouldn’t think it would feel so weird, but it does.

2. Homework should really be done over a weekend of going home, but it normally just doesn’t happen. Even over long breaks like Thanksgiving(although this break, I actually did quite a bit of homework), it’s really hard to get motivated to do homework.

3. Sleep is an amazing thing and nothing it better than being able to sleep in your own bed again. Something about being home, or even just going home, is calming and puts you to sleep right away. One of the first-years I was talking to  said that since she lived 3 hours away she was going to do homework on the ride there and back so she could finish her homework without having to actually do it at home. This is a combination of both point 2 and point 3. She said she got in the car and she just fell asleep right away. Then she didn’t do the homework at home, slept on the way back, and stayed up way too late trying to finish the homework.

Those are probably the three top things that everyone deals with, so don’t feel like you’re the only one struggling with motivation or think you’re a bad student for not doing homework when you go home. You can definitely fix those issues, but you don’t have to feel alone either.

Until next time, Hawkeyes, stay warm!

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,

My last post was about my class and my trip to Chicago, but you may be wondering what do I do in my free time? Well, to answer that I am proud and excited to say that I am working in a lab on campus. I’m so excited to be involved in research and I am learning so much! During the chemical engineering seminar (the one we made ice cream in), different professors came to talk about their research projects. After a few weeks of having no interest in the projects being presented, a project sounded immensely interesting. After class I approached the professor about a research position over the summer. He said he would have to check the budget, but that his grad students were getting tired of making the media for the experiments. He asked me to email him so we could set up a meeting. During the meeting he showed me the labs and talked about what I would be doing. I would mainly be washing glassware and making media, but if one of the grad students was gone, I would fill in. When he asked if I would like to work in his lab, I was definitely ready with a YES!

Basically the project I’m helping with is half of a larger project. The lab I’m helping with is working with bacteria. I make the broth to feed the bacteria and wash dishes (broth bottles and test

tubes) along with making sure everything is clean. So basically my day goes like this: Get to the lab and begin making broth. Each broth takes 10 minutes in the microwave, so while it’s cooking I wash empty bottles and let them dry. When the broth is done, I pour it into a bottle that now has to be autoclaved (high temperature and high pressure) for an hour to sterilize it. The empty bottles, once dry, must also be autoclaved for an hour. While the bottles are in the autoclave, I wash the test tubes. When test tubes come in, they have some of the bacteria in them so they must be autoclaved before being washed. After they have been washed and have dried for two days, I put the caps back on them and autoclave them again. Then some of them are filled with broth and autoclaved again. After the grad students conduct the experiment, they bring the 5 liter bottle of waste over. The waste must be autoclaved, dumped, and then the bottle must be washed and autoclaved. Unfortunately, the waste tends to smell and if we dump it during normal hours, people don’t like it. So we try to dump it at the end of the day so there aren’t very many people around. Every couple of days I have to go to a different building and get de-ionized water. I usually have to make about 10 liters of broth everyday, autoclave everything for an hour before I use it, and then again for another hour after I’ve used it. To keep things running smoothly, it takes a bit of strategy. Oh, and did I mention the agar? The agar goes on the bottom of the petri dishes that we grow the bacteria on. It has to be cooked for 15 minutes and then autoclaved for an hour.

Immediately after it comes out of the autoclave it has to be poured into the plates because it becomes solid at room temperature. Which means that all the dishes used to make the agar (which are the same ones we use to make broth) have to dry before we can clean them because it’s so sticky.

Now factor that into the time strategy. Oh, and add in the fact that the broth has to be made the day before they need it because they can’t use it when it’s hot (and after being autoclaved, it’s boiling) and if it’s made too far in advance it will go bad and have to be dumped (which means I have to make more to replace it). I love where I’m working though. I’m learning so much and it’s great experience with the lab equipment. I also really like the people I’m working with so work is usually a lot of fun.

I even took some pictures of the lab for you guys.

The empty ones in the back have been washed and autoclaved. The large yellow, cloudy one is waste that has to autoclaved and dumped. The two little ones are what the broth is supposed to look like, except there need to be 8 more in order to be ready for the next day.The tape on the lids is autoclave tape and the stripes turn from white to black after being autoclaved, but only if the autoclave reaches the correct temperature to sterilize the equipment.

I hope at least some of that made some sense to you. It’s sort of confusing when I try to explain it to people so if you have any questions, just comment! Thanks for reading!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone is having a great summer! My summer has been extremely busy so far, but it’s been fantastic. I realized that I never did a follow-up post after finals. All of my finals went pretty well. My finals schedule wasn’t bad. My first final was on the Wednesday of finals week so I had plenty of time to study. After my Wednesday final I had a final on Thursday and a final project review for my photography class. My last final was at 3 pm on Friday. I wasn’t thrilled with the time since that meant that it would be after 5 before I could head for home. My parents came down before my final to help move my brother out, and after my final was over we packed up all my stuff and went home. In all that time I had for studying, I read a lot of chapters out of various books, got ice cream with friends, and helped move friends out of the dorms.

For the first time in most of our lives we were saying goodbye to friends we knew we’d see again, it would just be a while. Most of us are used to hanging out with friends over the summer, but now our new friends were going different directions. Some were going home, some were going to new research opportunities, a few had internships, and a few even stayed in Iowa to work and take classes.

Three of my awesome college friends! I don’t know if I could have survived this year without them!

It was sad saying goodbye and knowing we would no longer be just down the hall or just down the street, but rather in a different state. However, with careful planning and motivated people, we planned a trip to visit each other! A friend and I(both from fairly close to Iowa City) bought bus tickets to Chicago to see two of our friends. It was an awesome adventure, especially since we got to see how many kids travel home for weekends or breaks, something we hadn’t experienced with living so close to school.

Shopping in Chicago! Recognize her shirt? She’s a Society of Women Engineers member wearing the high school conference shirt 🙂

One of our friends offered to let us stay with her family over the weekend. Since they know the area so well, they were able to show us some of Chicago’s treasures.

The Bean!

Tall buildings!

We had a great time hanging out with her family and enjoying Chicago deep-dish pizza. It was so great to visit friends and see Chicago.

However, this trip could only be planned after my friend and I had finished our summer class. As a summer class, it was much shorter than normal classes. It was a six week long class, which basically translates to homework due twice a week, a test every week, and a comprehensive final at the end. I couldn’t have been more excited when it was done.

But now it is finished and I get to enjoy my summer. I’m getting excited for the fall though. I can’t wait for On Iowa! when I get to meet the new first years and help out with registration! I’ll try to be better about posting from now on! 🙂

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 is having an awesome week. Four weeks left! Three weeks of class and one week of finals! Everything is getting pretty busy now. I had a Psych test last week, Calculus test and Psych paper this week, Chemistry test next week, and photography final project the next week. Basically, I’ve been doing a lot of homework all the time. During one of our study breaks, my friends and I were called to our floor lounge for this:

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Another awesome break was Daum Prom. A few of my friends live in Daum so we got a group together, dressed up, and danced. It was a lot of fun and they had some great snacks (chocolate fountain). I’m so glad I have a group of friends that loves dressing up and dancing as much as I do! The girls all came over to my room so we could get ready together. We did each other’s nails and hair while listening to music. I had different pictures of the girls, but one of the girls on my floor volunteered to take this one of all of us together. I’m so glad she was walking down the hallway just then!

The girls all ready for Daum Prom. We met up with the boys later.

As another study break, one of my friends with an apartment and car came and picked me up. We ate out and went to Petland to hold puppies for a while. It was probably the most relaxing thing I’ve done. The socialization is great for the puppies and it gives them some time out of their pens. They were all so cute!

The husky puppy that we played with until she fell asleep.

That was about it for the nice weather activities when everyone wanted to get outside and do stuff around town. Well, I guess some people were fine with the rain too. This past Wednesday, the weather decided the ground was too dry and that we obviously needed a flood. I didn’t get any pictures of deep water on the streets or the mudslide at Mayflower, but I did get some pictures of this:

Yep, that’s a Slip n’ Slide

Some of the guys from my dorm hall were waiting for a rainy day to get out the Slip n’ Slide tarp. The decided that Wednesday would be a perfect day to put on shorts and t-shirts and slide down the hill. It was about 45˚ out and you could see their breath fog when they talked. But that didn’t stop them from laying the tarp down the hill(sliding down the wet grass in the process) and squeezing dish soap down it. The guys were very careful about it though. They wanted to make sure they weren’t going to cause any damage, so they surveyed the landing area before going down the Slip n’ Slide. They determined that the landing area was all mud from the rain anyway, so they didn’t have to worry about killing the grass.

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It was really cold and my raincoat was soaked through and I didn’t even go down the hill. The guys had a ton of fun and hopefully stay healthy after standing in the cold rain for an hour.

A few of the Sliders right before they hit the showers.

When they came in they left beautiful, muddy footprints all across the floor. But again, the guys were thoughtful and responsible. After their showers, they came back down and cleaned the floor all the way from the main entrance to their hallway. It just goes to show you can still have fun without destroying anything and making more work for other people.

All of these things are great ways to have some fun, get away from the homework, and de-stress before exams. There will probably be more in the weeks to come, stay tuned 🙂

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!