Peggy Chen

the semester is over...

I'm done with both of my exams! I am now completely done with chemistry labs. Like, done done. Ahh two years of my life finally have come to a close. However, I'm not quite done. I still have a paper to finish. I've been trying to finish it since yesterday afternoon...but I just can't seem to make any progress. Its so hard......
I'm SOOO close....

Instead, I've been relaxing ever since my last exam was over and watching lots of movies and ordering lots of pizza with my friends. Now, thanks to my remarkable ability to procrastinate, I'm frantically trying to shove pack and shove stuff into storage because I'm leaving to go home reaaaaaaally early tomorrow morning. Just when the campus starts to look absolutely beautiful, we have to leave.

So. Another semester gone. I can't believe three years of college are over already.

Sorry, no pics this post. It's finals. How much fun do you think I can have?

classes are over

Classes ended last Wednesday meaning that we are right smack in the middle of finals. Which is never good. And which is why I can't keep track of the days anymore........time does not follow its normal rules during finals.

Our "new" president (she's been here for the academic year) was inaugurated on Friday, and on Wednesday (the last day of classes), Wellesley put on a fireworks show for the occasion. This is the second time in two years that there have been fireworks at the end of the year (last year it was because our old president left after 14 years). I went last year but I didn't go this year. But here are some lovely pictures. I can't take credit for any of these; I got them from various different people's e-mail posts:

But don't feel too bad that I missed the pretty fireworks; I didn't end up going because my research lab had an end of the year party at my advisor's house. This week was actually "the week of not eating in the dining halls." On Sunday, my chemistry professor invited our class over to his house for dinner and homemade ice cream (yum!), and on Monday, we had a ResStaff barbecue. So.....lots of good food to help us ease into finals period.

=(

Boo....I am still sick in bed.

Stupid virus...... Although, it's not all bad. I've decided that since I am sick I should rest and take this time to relax, watch lots and lots of movies and TV, and drift intermittently in and out of sleep whenever I feel like it.

But yesterday I got out of bed for long enough to go to a lecture by Doug Melton (who is a stem cell biologist and a really big deal!! see....!?! exciting stuff!!) and do some RD (Resident Director) Appreciation day activities.

We, and by we I mean the Freeman Res Staff, got cupcakes, ice cream, and gifts for our RD Dana. And it was fun. But not delicious for me because I can't taste anything =(.

So I decided to just put up a couple of pictures of our ResStaff. Only a couple though. Because we're all super tight and comfortable with each other, most of our pictures would make you think we're crazy. So hopefully, these kind of dial down the crazy.

Yesterday was the Ruhlman Conference which is this conference that Wellesley holds so that students can share their research. Classes get cancelled for the day to encourage us to go to the talks and there's special catered food and everything. I've never gone in the past (I know.....for shame!) but this year, I finally gave a talk so I kind of had to go.

I presented on my research with the other student who works with me in our lab, Susan. Afterwards, we went to dinner for presenters and advisors at the College Club and it was SO GOOD! Or maybe that's just in comparison to dining hall dinners....

Afterwards, I went to housing night which is where you pick your room for next year. I had first pick in my dorm, Stone-Davis, so that was awesome!

And, later today, one of my best friends, who graduated from Wellesley in 2007, is coming to visit! Ahh I'm so excited!

But my week wasn't all good. I've had a lot of work lately so I haven't been sleeping much. Which finally caught up to me on Tuesday and now I am very sick. =(. It's not the worst I've ever experience, but I don't think my voice has ever sounded quite so terrible.

So now, I am actually supposed to be in class. But I feel way to miserable to be in class. Boo....I hate being sick.

Oh my gosh this week has been so beautiful! I just love it when the weather gets really nice and warm. The campus is starting to bloom; I went for a walk around the lake today and it was just gorgeous! Unfortunately, the nice weather makes it so much more difficult to stay in and do my homework, but that's a different story.

This week was also Spring Week, which is the week that SBOG, Schneider Board of Goveners, plans activities for the campus. Each year they plan a concert and bring an artist or a band to come perform. My first year, we had Ok Go, last year we had Lupe Fiasco, and this year, they brought Sean Kingston............who gave a remarkably disappointing performance. I was never a fan of Sean Kingston and I'm slightly weirded out by the fact that he's several years younger that me. But, not SBOG's fault; they tried really hard.

And here are some pictures from last weekend's fun!

loooong weekend!

Last week was so hectic that I decided that this weekend would be relax and have fun time. My midterms are over for the semester (*phew*), but then come finals and the MCAT later (*death*). Spring Open Campus was also last week and the campus was absolutely overrun with prospies. Ah prospies everywhere! You guys were lucky because the weather was absolutely beautiful this SOC (it wasn't in years past).

Friday night was my friend's 21st birthday. Ahh we are all getting so old! And we went to this Indian restaurant, Rangoli, in Allston which was absolutely delicious O I love Indian food so much.

Then last night my friends and I had a slumber party at our other friend's house in Framingham. It's amazing how quickly college students regress into 10 year olds because we did such typical 10-year-old-girl activities like Disney movies and facials. But whatever, it was fun and now my pores are very clean.

And today was Marathon Monday, which is the day of the Boston Marathon. Wellesley is the half-way point for the Boston Marathon, and one of our traditions is to form the "scream tunnel" where we shout our lungs out for hours on end. And now my throat hurts a lot.

Some more pics from the marathon:

One of my biggest papers of the semester was due today: my organic chem synthesis paper on the synthesis of biotin from the amino acid l-cysteine. I actually finished writing it at a decent time last night, but it was about 600 words over the word limit and I spent the rest of the night trying to cut it down to the correct length. I think this year, I've pulled more all nighters that I ever have in the past two years combined. I guess it is true that junior year is one of the hardest.

And also, for the first time, I went through the housing lottery since I've always been pre-halled as an RA. But next year, I'm moving to Stone-Davis Residence Hall.
It's still on east campus near the science center (my 2nd home) and is further away from the ville than Freman, but close enough to get my Starbucks fix.

So right after I turned in my housing forms and paper, I came back to my room to sleeeeeeeep and woke up just in time to order a late dinner with my friends and then go back to sleep. While this week kinda sucked, tomorrow should be pretty fun. One of my best friends has her junior recital for her music class tomorrow and she's been rehearsing like crazy for it so it should be really good! And then tomorrow night, another one of my friends is going to be in the Latina Cultural Show! The cultural shows are always really well done and are some of the most popular events on campus.

So, back to sleep now. =).

=(.

My computer was officially taken away from me this past Friday.  And now I have no computer for a week.  Let me tell you, if you do decide to come to Wellesley, BRING YOUR OWN COMPUTER!!!  I mean, I guess I can technically survive without mine, but wow is it so much more annoying.

On another note, this Friday night was Dyke Ball, the party put on every year by SPECTRUM, and my favorite on-campus party to go to.  It's a Safe Space event (which means exactly what it sounds like), and they go to a lot of trouble to make sure all the precautions are taken to ensure that everyone feels comfortable.  One of the reasons that makes this party so unique is the dress code of "creative black tie," and people really do get quite creative.

A group of my friends this year decided to re-create this Pink Floyd poster:

So each of them painted one of the album covers on their back.  It took them forever to finish but it ended up looking really good and we took a whole bunch of pictures around the dorm of them all lined up against the wall.

The party was pretty good, and Spectrum even invited an outside group to come perform (although I don't remember the name).  I didn't stay long because I stupidly decided to wear pretty high heels to this party and was in massive amounts of pain after about an hour.

Heels + dancing =  :(       

Just something to keep in mind.

And just like that, spring break is over.

I stayed here after coming back on Sunday and worked at Admissions for the week. So perhaps I met some of you. =).

All of my senior friends have started talking about graduation. =(. I guess it's close because half of the semester is over, but still, it makes me sad. They've already picked out their graduation outfits and everything...I just can't believe it because it still feels like I'm a first year and they are sophomores.

So they're all really excited about their outfits so we had a mini graduation outfit fashion show. My friend and fellow admissions student assistant extraordinaire wore this bright pink sari. And what better to do with it than put it on our bright-red haired friend Ellie. Oh the clashing....

I also spend a bunch of time relaxing and watching movies this break. Oh my god was it nice to just sit around and do nothing. I like traveling, but I always end up more tired than when I started. So this week was really a nice break from life. Ellie got the complete series "Coupling", which is this British TV show that I've known about for some time and watched some episodes, but never really fully appreciated how hilarious it was. There's something about British comedies that can make me laugh out loud that American sitcoms just don't have. So now I've borrowed the DVDs from a friend and am watching them in a desperate attempt to hang onto the last precious hours of my spring break. Class starts tomorrow, at 8:30am....

Saturday, my friend Faith and I took a day trip to New York. We took a 2:30 am bus from South Station and got to NY at around 6 am. It probably didn't help that the night before, I basically pulled an all nighter trying to finish a lab report. So....I was TIRED.

But still, we had a really good time. We went shopping and ate some amazingly delicious korean food. =). Yum.

And we dropped by Macy's to see the flowers their annual flower show. We ended up getting back to Wellesley at around 2:30 am on Sunday. One thing about living up here that I'm still not used to is the fact that you can go to another state for a day trip. I think this coming weekend we night try to take a trip to Providence. Apparently, it's only 45 minutes away....

Anyways, here are some pics from my trip. Strangely enough, most of the pictures that we took were of the both of us acting like complete tools in the Disney store on 5th....

Me trying to curtsey to Cinderella. She's so much taller than me....