One of the many perks of being a second semester senior is that if you’ve stayed on track with your coursework over the last 3 1/2 years, you have some extra units left over to take fun classes outside of engineering. One of my good friends from Birnkrant Residence Hall freshmen year suggested that we take a fine arts class on Los Angeles culture together. As out-of-state students, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to take a fun 2 unit class AND see some spots on our Los Angeles bucket list before we graduate.

For our second week of class we took a trip to the Griffith Observatory. We learned about the Foucault pendulum (which has been on exhibit since 1935), watched Light of the Valkyries in the planetarium, looked at Jupiter and it’s moons through the Zeiss refracting telescope, and learned about the architectural history of the observatory. Only at USC could you listen to your class lecture about architecture outside on the observatory balconies looking out over the LA city lights.