Hey everyone! It’s pretty hard to believe that we’re almost halfway through the semester… but that means that I’ve finally settled into a nice routine with my classes and extracurriculars. It always takes me awhile to do this, but once I do, the semester becomes way more manageable. Mondays are a pretty busy day for me, so I thought I would share how my Monday was today. If you want to see a cool video about a day-in-the-life of Steve or Greg, I would definitely check them out! There’s some awesome video editing skills for both of them 🙂
7:45 AM- Alarm goes off! This absolutely does not mean I get out of bed at this time.
8:00 AM- Actually get up. Brush teeth, shower, eat, the whole drill. Mondays are great because I don’t have to worry about what I need to wear (you’ll see why in a bit).
9:00 AM- Physics time! I can’t say I’m great at Physics, but a lot of the topics were covered in my AP Physics B class, so I feel like I have a solid understanding of some of the basics. This is a Calculus-based Physics class though, so it’s definitely a little more challenging.
10:00 AM- Analytical Chemistry (with Lyssa). The professor for AChem was my lab professor last year for Advanced General Chemistry, so it’s cool to see him outside of the lab, as a teaching professor. Also, a lot of the equipment that we discuss (like spectrophotometers and HPLC), I got to use in my lab I was researching at over the summer! It’s nice to learn about how they work and how they get the results that they get.
A typical HPLC machine (stands for High Precision Liquid Chromatography). I used this a few times in my lab this summer, but I was mostly on the product development line, not the analysis side.
11:00 AM- Yoga… which is why I don’t have to worry about what to wear in the morning. This is a great excuse to wear comfortable workout clothes all day. It’s also a relaxing way to end my classes for the day, because it gives me time to destress and really absorb everything that I just learned. And my teacher is the coolest guy, who always tells us to look at ourselves with kindness. My day always feels better after this class.
This super easy pose that I can do with no problem. Just kidding, I wish I could do this. Also, we don’t have practice on a beach at 4 AM, but it’s a nice thought.
12:00 PM- Off to lunch! Usually, I eat at Fresh&Easy on Mondays, since I have a little extra time to venture off campus. They have these great lunch deals where you can get a main course (like a burrito, sandwich, sushi or pasta) and a side (Greek yogurt, carrots with hummus, broccoli with ranch) AND a drink (fancy lemonades, like blueberry and strawberry) all for $6! It’s a great deal, and the food is awesome and healthy. Usually, my friends and I take our food to McCarthy quad, and hang out while eating.
The Fresh&Easy that is right off campus! I eat here all the time, and also do grocery shopping.
2:00 PM- Researching (probably the best part of the day). My lab mentor is out sick for the week, so I’ve been pretty much creating and executing the current experiment (with supervision, of course). I’ve only been working here for a month, but I feel like I’ve learned so much since then. Basically, I spent today splitting a petri dish of BAEC cells (that stands for Bovine Aortic Endothelial Cells – so heart cells from a cow), which takes quite a long time. This is in preparation for my work tomorrow, where I will treat the cells with a particular virus, and let them grow a little more. Finally, on Wednesday, I am going to run a flow experiment, which models how the blood flow would affect the cells. Hopefully, I’ll get some good results before the lab meeting on Friday!
Cell cultures ready for splitting! Isn’t it cute?
5:00 PM – Dinner, catch up on some homework. I’ve got a lab report due on Friday, as well as a midterm for AChem, so I need to get a head start on both of those, since my week just gets busier.
7:00 PM- Ultimate Frisbee practice! Definitely another great highlight of the day. We usually do a quick warmup before practice, and then spend the first hour doing drills. The last hour is really fun, because we get to scrimmage and play! I always feel ridiculously happy playing Ultimate, and even though I go home feeling exhausted, it’s definitely worth it.
Ultimate brings out the crazy in everyone. This was part of our team last year, at a tournament at UCLA.
9:00 PM- Get back, shower, hang out with the roomies. I’ll probably tackle that Thermo assignment due on Thursday as well.
Well, today was a nice start to the week! I hope everyone else has a great rest of the week. Until next time…
