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!

I hope the first several weeks of the semester have been going well for everyone! I’ve been so busy with homework and I even have a few tests coming up (ahhhh!). I knew I was going to have a busy week, so last weekend I decided to have a little fun too. A girl on my floor volunteered to go to the women’s basketball game with me(thank you!) so I didn’t have to go alone. It was a lot of fun and a great experience. I had never been to a college basketball game before so this was a first for me.

The pep band before the game started(we got there pretty early)

The dance team(Spirit Squad) and the cheerleaders dancing to the fight song to start the game.

Good shot!

Shoot!

We ended up losing, which was sad. We fought hard though and the game almost went into overtime. We lost with a last second basket with :02 left on the clock. It was an awesome game, I just wish we could have won.

After the game I decided I should do some cleaning around my dorm. First on the list was wash dishes (I really should get on a more regular dish-washing schedule). I couldn’t get hot water, but decided I didn’t want to keep putting off washing them. I used a new dish cloth for the first time and ended up with this result. Isn’t it pretty? My favorite color is purple, you know. 🙂

Lesson Learned: watch out for dishcloths that might lose dye. Don’t wash them with any lighter colors! 🙂

After washing dishes, I checked my Hawkmail (University email account) to find out the steam plant had a power-outage and we would be without heat and hot water for approximately 4 hours. It was really not a huge issue for me. Our room is always too warm anyway (with the heat off it was actually quite comfortable) so I wasn’t too worried. I had actually wondered why our room was so comfortable when I walked in. I guess I just assumed my roommate had opened the window. In the email informing us about the power-outage, our Hall Coordinator recommended that we also avoid the showers for this time period. It made me laugh, the showers would not have been something I would have thought about until I was actually in the shower with the water on. I love that even in a big university, the staff still has a great sense of humor that they’re more than willing to share. It just makes everything feel more like a community rather than a school, especially in the dorms when you’re just looking for that home-y feel.

I actually have quite a bit more to talk about but those events also include a lot of pictures, so I’ll save that for a different post. Consider this one of my semi-mini-posts 🙂 I’m really excited to tell you all about the first chem lab of the semester 🙂

Hey Hawkeyes!
Guess what?!

Snow!!

It SNOWED!!!!!!!

Isn’t it exciting?! Ok, yeah, it made everything wet and sloppy and kinda cold to walk to class in. I didn’t have far to walk today, but I know several people who had to walk across campus and they really didn’t enjoy it. However, I love snow! I think campus looks so pretty covered in it. I plan on taking some more pictures soon. The snow was just blowing too much for me to want to take my big camera outside. Word of advice: invest in some nice warm, water-proof boots. A lot of people were taken by surprise by the snow and didn’t have proper footwear. Ok, I might have been one of them (I didn’t have room in my bags when I moved back to campus 🙁 ). But a lot of people tried just wearing their rain boots and discovered how cold snow actually is. A couple people with nice, warm boots discovered the necessity of water-proofing.

In the meantime, here’s some pictures of the snow and ice (from the safety and warmth of my lounge with HUGE windows 🙂 ).

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!).

Not quite spring weather, huh? Hey Hawkeyes! In case you don’t know, it’s really cold here.

By cold I mean like 2 degrees. At least that was the temperature on the first day of class. It was so nice before we left for break. Well, actually it was kinda cold then too, but not like this. Then it was just windy cold, now it’s just cold. Perfect for the first day of class.

Oh! You want to know about my first day of the new semester? Well, how about I tell you about coming back to campus after break first. To begin with, I way over-packed. At least that’s what I thought when I was carrying everything into the dorm (or more my family and I, thanks to my family for the help). And I had the same thought when I was unpacking everything. We’ll see how I feel as the weeks go by. I’m not sure if it just felt like more because my winter clothes are bulkier than the clothes I took back from the fall semester. The most awesome part of moving back in was seeing all my friends. I wasn’t able to see any of my college friends over break, so a lot of the free time I’ve had has been spent catching up with everyone. It’s been so amazing getting back with everyone. I came back Sunday evening so I had all of Monday to organize, unpack, and hang out with friends. Result: A lot of good laughs, hugs, and smiles.

Then Tuesday began classes. My first class was 11:00 so I had plenty of time to get up, get ready, organize my desk, and go to breakfast with friends before going to find my class. Some of the buildings are a little confusing with different doors, floors that don’t connect, and stairways that don’t go all through the floors. So I left for all my classes early so I could find the right room. I had 4 classes today and they all went very well. I’m excited about a couple of them, and in the words of my honors primetime professor, cautiously optimistic about a couple others. My professors/TA’s all seem pretty interesting and eager to help. The semester is off to a pretty good start. Let’s hope it continues for the rest of the week. I’ll try to blog after my second day of class too.

Talk to you later! Stay warm!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I’m so sorry I haven’t blogged in a month! The weeks after Thanksgiving were a whirlwind. I’ll try to go through each of the weeks and update on what’s coming this next semester.

So November 27th was my registration day and 9:20am was my time. I was at my computer at 9:15am and at 9:18 I was hitting refresh every 30 seconds. I had spent my break planning the ideal (or close to it) schedule. Some of the classes that I needed to get that schedule were starting to fill up so I knew I had to register for those classes first. I am happy to say that I am now registered for all my classes. Well, almost all. One of the classes I was really looking forward to taking was restricted to a different major. I couldn’t register for it. However, the course description said that I could contact the instructor. Moment of hope! I emailed the instructor. After a week of no response, I am left with talking to the professor on the first day of class. I’m really hoping it works out.

December 3rd was the University Band concert. A couple of my high school friends came to watch, which was awesome. It was cool to have my high school friends meet my new college friends. It was also fun to finally perform the songs we’d been working on. It was sad saying goodbye to some of my band friends though. If I get into the class I mentioned earlier I won’t be able to do band next semester. I’ll definitely miss it. It was a nice escape from science and math.

The following Friday, the prototype for Engineering Problem Solving 1 was due. In my last blog I mentioned the Zero Energy Loss Homeless Shelter project. We had to make a scale model and test it under a heat lamp and in front of a fan. We had tested it before and had some issues, but we made improvements and had high hopes. We had insulated our shelter so well that heat couldn’t get in(kinda a big issue). We flipped our ceiling to the floor, made our window bigger(and less insulated), and changed our door from a doggy door to a halfway normal door. Isn’t it pretty? 🙂

Group 11’s homeless shelter the Iowa City Emergency Shelter, ICES for short 🙂

The next week was full of chemistry homework, my last computer program (in MatLab… ew), making a poster for ICES, and math presentations. My engineering group worked for about 10 hours on the poster for the poster presentation. It turned out pretty nice.

My group, Group 11, with our poster. What do you think?

This was our last project together, so the picture of our group that we put on the poster was done ceremoniously. We put tape on the back, put it on the poster and we all put our hands on top of each others and pressed it on. It was by far the dumbest thing I have ever done, but it was actually great team-bonding. I loved this group, we had a ton of fun. I’m really going to miss them.

For math, we had a presentation about applying math to our hobbies or using math in a real world situation. My group chose how math is used in photography. It was fun to research, and it made me realize that I really like photography. I’m thinking about taking some more photography classes. It would be fun to get better at it and have a break from all the science and math of engineering.

On that Friday night, since it was the weekend before finals week and the last weekend my friends were all together, we had a pizza party and played games. While we were hanging out, we looked out the window and it was snowing!

First snow of the year!

So we, of course, had to run outside and stand in it. It was way too warm for it to stick and it melted before it hit the ground. By the time we came in it was more like rain, but it was still exciting. I’m glad it didn’t snow while we were there, a few of my friends may have had a hard time getting home.

That weekend was filled with studying and review sessions led by Teaching Assistants. I also applied to be an RA during that weekend (hoping for the best!).

My finals were 7:30am and 8:30pm Monday and 7:30am Tuesday. It was nice to be done so early, but it didn’t give me much time to study between them. All of my finals went ok. I wished they could have gone better, but I tried my best. All in all my homework grades were pretty much perfect so I knew my overall grade couldn’t be too horrible. It was sad saying goodbye to my friends, especially knowing I wouldn’t see some of them for over a month. When you get used to seeing people every day, it feels weird when you realize you won’t see them at all.

Packing to come home from break was a bit stressful too. I didn’t want to forget anything I might need since the dorm building closes for winter break. I also rearranged my room. I’ll take a picture and post it when I get back. There are some other things I might try with rearranging my room too. We’ll see how the current one works out.

Well, I think I’ll end this ridiculously long post here. I promise not to go an entire month without blogging again. Good bye for now 🙂

Wow! Has it really been two weeks since I last posted?! We’re finally on break and I’m loving it!

The two weeks before break were hectic and stressful. I was counting down the entire time. I could not have been more thrilled to finally hit break. It’s great to be home, but I do miss my friends. It will be great to see everyone again and catch up after we’ve had a week back home. I have a group that typically eats lunch together (did you know you can fit 12 people around a 6 person table?) and since I’ve been home I’ve had pretty quiet lunches.

The weekend before break was the game against Purdue. Since it was right before Veteran’s Day, there was a patriotic focus to this game along with a giant American flag. It was a very cool sight.

Thank you to all those who have served our country!

The student section was very excited about the touchdowns we managed to get.

After a busy week of engineering problem solving (building a prototype of a homeless shelter) along with the impending chemistry exam, we had another study party. We started a few days before the exam and did more practice than re-reading. We drew diagrams and worked through the practice exams. It was nice to study together for a few hours before the exam. It was also a great feeling to walk to the exam with friends, wish each other luck, and part ways.

Study party!

After the exam we celebrated with going out for frozen yogurt, even though it was cold outside. It was a fun stress-reliever after the exam. It was a great last friend thing since we all knew we’d be leaving at different times on Friday. We said our goodbyes and gave hugs that night and planned dinner for when we all get back. As nice as it will be to see everyone, I really do love being home and not thinking about school for a while. However, I will be setting up my schedule for next semester so I can register right away on the 27th. Hopefully I’m lucky and have a good schedule.

Until next time, have a great Thanksgiving!

Hey Hawkeyes!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween. I know this post is a little late, but it’s been a little busy around here.

A couple weeks ago, WiSE (Women in Science and Engineering) had a pumpkin carving event. It was a great way to relax and de-stress. We had apple cider and pumpkin bars. They also had designs printed out that we could trace for those of us who are completely uncreative(ahem, me).

Some girls from my floor getting ready to dig in, or rather cut in 🙂

Carving away

The two girls on the other side of the table from where I am paired up to make Pacman pumpkins. The one in the pink stripes on the right did Pacman while the one in the black on the left did one of the ghosts. It turned out really cute and since they’re roommates, they got to display their pumpkins in their doorway.

One of my friends saw this idea online and thought is was really cute. I think it turned out really well for her. I’m sure it looked very pretty all lit up.

Pumpkin guts and cut out shapes

There was bucket after bucket full of pumpkin seeds and guts. Some of the girls were saving seeds so they could go out to their friends in Mayflower and bake the seeds. We all had a lot of fun. We’re looking forward to the next WiSE event which is next month and will be cookie decorating (yummy!). I’ll make sure I take pictures so you can all see the, hopefully, pretty cookies.

Final Picture: Since we’re not allowed to have candles in the dorms, we were given battery operated candles to put in our pumpkins.

My pumpkin, not too original, but it looked pretty cool with the fake candle in it.

Hey Hawkeyes!

Is anyone else surprised that Thanksgiving break is so close? My roommate and I counted the days until break starts. We were both surprised to find out that there are exactly 14 school days until break. On one hand it’s exciting that we finally get a break, but on the other hand it means that the next round of tests is right around the corner. I have an exam tomorrow night (eek!) and then another one next Tuesday, and one the Thursday after that. And actually, I’m pretty sure I have a math exam somewhere in there too.

Anyway though, for an update on my current life. My weeks have been getting busier and busier, which is strange because some of my classes are already starting to wrap up. However, the classes that I do have are still going strong. In my engineering class, the lecture part is ending but the discussion is still going. The discussion part is all project-based. The most recent project was toy dis-assembly. The main idea of this project was to reverse engineering a toy. We had to make an estimation about how a toy worked and then disassemble it and figure out how it actually worked. The toy my group chose was a Playskool Ball Popper. After removing the three screws from the bottom of the toy, we discovered there weren’t any more screws. The top button part was held in by notches around the casing. We also discovered the these notches were extremely hard to get out. The first time we took it apart we needed three people to get the notches out. We also knew we needed pictures of the disassembled item for our end presentation.

All the pieces from our toy

After taking more pictures and studying the pieces, we put it back together. Part of our project grade is making sure it works at the end. One of our group members got a little excited and put the notched piece in too soon.

They spent several minutes trying to take it apart again.

When we finally got it apart, again, we put the right pieces in and clicked everything into place only to discover the handle was turned the wrong way. So we had to take the whole thing apart again.

Taking it apart…again

Every time we took it apart we got faster at it, but we made sure this was the last time we had to take it apart. We put everything back together and it actually worked.

The completed working toy.

We then had to make a whole presentation about the dis-assembly process and describe the operation of each of the pieces. I think our presentation went really well and the peer feedback was positive. Now we just have to wait for the grade. Now we’re getting  ready to start our final project. I’ll keep you updated on that project. Until my next post (which will hopefully be soon), have a good week!