Words with Friends

The semester is off to a bustling start yet again.

This time although the schoolwork stress is minimal--I've got my work schedule worked out pretty nicely--but the organization/Plan II Office work is at an all time high.

I've been reading applications out the wazoo and I spent 13 hours on Saturday with Blazers for 1st Interviews and deliberations for who gets a 2nd. Although both these were exhausting, they were well worth it in the end.

Not only that, I've got a half-marathon looming ahead (in 6 days to be exact) yikes. And Frisbee Fling after that. I've been working quite hard on getting some fundraising and early logistics squared away. The event isn't for a while, but pretty soon things are going to start piling up.

Anyways, school is going well--no complaints there. I'm learning a lot in all my classes. Today in my TC we discusses the issues surrounding public health and safety and it raised some interesting questions. Should the government actually be able to restrict individual choice/liberty/freedom for the safety of the general public--in regards to seat-belts, smoking, vaccinations, etc? It was mind opening and the fact that the class is heavily pre-med skewed the results quite a bit.

I caught up with Vicki this weekend and went on a bit of a shopping spree with her: Target, Central Market, HEB, and Einstein's Bagels! I also have been getting a lot of packages in the mail (textbooks, etc) and the fact that a box is waiting for you is quite exciting!

I've also become semi-addicted to Words with Friends. My word of the week this week (unrelated to the game) is Resilience.

Start of a New Semester!

It's my last semester at UT and it's a tad bit surreal. I'm not what to make of it just yet. (I know I have a thesis and a 35-40 page paper to write...so that's the downside)

My classes:

Plan II SS 301 Psychology

Domjan is just a happy person and it makes this class quite enjoyable first thing in the morning. (I know you don't agree, RP--haha) I've never taken a psychology class and I'm quite excited about it. It's interesting huh--psychology is a mixture of hard science and observational human behavior. The course-load doesn't seem too heavy and all our tests and assignments are take home!

Plan II Math

Dr. Starbird is a baller! I totally watched a Calculus DVD series with him in it in High School and I've always wanted to take a class with him. I finally have the chance to and I'm loving it. Doing homework for this class is one of the highlights of the day. Wow, I am SUCH a nerd. But I love it! It really gets you thinking and I work with Sara and Katie. So I get to spend time with two people I didn't used to see so often and that's definitely a perk! On the first day of class he bet the class a dollar that two people in the class had to have the same birthday--and of course he won and he told us that he had a 98% probability of winning that bet (in a room of about 50 people).

History of American Medicine

I am totally obsessed with this prof! He is a Pulitzer Prize winner and he's not stuck-up and not boring. He has a slight sense of humor and he spends half the year teaching at NYU and the other half at UT. He's from Rutgers and is a historian by training. He switches between Cold War, Nazi, and Medical history. We only have class until March 8th and after that we meet with him individually every week to work on our research paper. I like the structure of the class and I am psyched about the books we're going to be reading.

What's on my calendar:

Jan 28th-31st: UCLA Interview, San Diego Zoo

Feb 14th: Austin Half Marathon

Feb 19th-20th: MS 0 Weekend @ UT Southwestern

March 12-21st: Spring Break--CRUISE!!!!

April 2nd-4th: Camping/Floating the River

April 11th: Frisbee Fling & Thesis Symposium

April 16th: Coats on a Boat (tentative)

April 23rd-25th: Walla Walla to Visit Lauren @ Whitman

April 29th-May 3rd: US Virgin Islands!!!

May 7th: Thesis Due

May 22nd: Graduation

Some pretty exciting news: I'm featured on the UT website with a student profile now! And on top of that, I am in the UT 2011-2012 Viewbook! [it's that little UT guide that all the prospective visitors to UT get when they come for a tour] And I'm on the page with the 3 most 'famous' Plan II students (I'm happy to say I've had classes with all of them): Marissa (Truman recipient), Dhananjay, and Grace (these 2 are Marshall Scholars)--I just have a quote, haha. [also, my pictures from the photo shoot are WAY awkward. I'm like Chandler from friends]

Check it out:

http://bealonghorn.utexas.edu/meetus/profiles/ssivasankar.html

Recap: Fall 2009 & Winter Break

Sorry I haven't been around much! I'm back--but let's see how long that'll last...

Fall 2009 wasn't all so bad, minus the life consuming graduate physical organic class I took.

Fortunately, the one class in which +/- grading would have negatively affected me, didn't end up using plus minus grading! Yay

Over the break, I visited Singapore & Malaysia. I usually dread going there, mainly because in my middle school and high school years trips back to the motherland were at best boring. My peers were either too busy with tuition, school, or the arcade. Two of those in that list were foreign to me. But now, trips back to Singapore are quite fun. I also had the thought that one day I'd have to sever ties, so to speak, with Singapore. Someday I'll have no reason to go back there. There won't be any family here--only friends. But in all honesty, I love Singapore. It's home but instinctually so. I love the food, I like the busyness of the city, I like the quirks, and I'll never lose my Singapore accent (which just happens to pop its head up each time I go for a visit--this time it resurfaced faster than usual).

Also in Singapore, I'm sort of a giant. I'm a whole head above most people when riding the MRT. [Yeah, Dave you'd be stared at for a looooong time!] Also, I have to buy 'L' sized clothing, but the good news is everything I want is always in stock, haha.

On to Malaysia: I surprisingly connected with this place when I was in High School, studying dance there. Malaysia is a lot more laid back when it comes to schooling and thus, my peers were a lot more available and I had quite a good time every summer when I got to go up there from Singapore. However, the political situation in this country is not a good one. Aside from the fact that I wasn't detained, Malaysia didn't have too many positives for me on this particular visit. The racial tension between the Indian Hindu population and the Muslim population has precipitated hate crimes within the Indian Hindu community itself. It's just a sad situation. I even ventured up the KL tower to get a view of the Petronas Twin Towers, but the experience was nothing like the towers in Europe. The windows were unkempt, the cost was far too overpriced, and the view itself wasn't even that memorable.

Other news during the break:

My parents and I marathoned Season 1 of 24

Lauren and I worked on our huge 5000 piece puzzle (which, sadly, is still unfinished)

Trained a bit for the half-marathon I'm running on Valentine's Day

Didn't touch my thesis at all

Watched quite a few movies, caught up on TV shows, started Battlestar Galactica

Went to the National Championship Game in ATX

New discovery: I'm starting to be someone who really gets caught up in memories. Just the other day, I was reminiscing on the time in Italy during dinner when Royce tried to order chicken alfredo, at which point, the waiter attempted to bring him an entire chicken. Oh, good times. I start to get lost in these. More so than usual. I'm not sure whether this is normal. That is, whether I'm stuck in the nostalgic past and not looking truly ahead at my future, or just some new habit that I've picked up.

Weekend Update

This past weekend was much needed. MUCH NEEDED.

I love the fact that I can escape to California to be with my friends and fellow staff members at the youth camp that I serve at every summer. This retreat--now a yearly tradition--is so refreshing and this years's was definitely the best and most uplifting.

I got to drive down to Encinitas (my fave place in the WORLD) and catch some sun and surf. It was spectacular. And on the drive back to Escondido, we saw a rainbow. Clearly the indication of a perfect weekend. The next day was filled with hiking, sand volleyball, and just all around good times. On my night stroll back to my room, I even saw a shooting star! I haven't seen a shooting star since I was maybe 11--it was in California too [at camp for that matter...] I am really excited to be spending 2 or so months of my upcoming summer at this retreat. The weather is perfect and the seclusion from the world is just something I need before I start Medical School or whatever else I decide to do after I graduate.

Also this weekend I got to devour a novel. Exhilarating, invigorating, feelings I can't even begin to put into words flooded my consciousness. Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. It was excellent. I know, judge all you want, but Dan Brown is what got me to where I am today. (for those of you who don't know, I wrote my Plan II admissions essay on Angels and Demons) This book was very different from the rest of his books--the villain was independent and the resolution was not ridiculously unbelievable or drawn out. And the science in this book really stemmed off some of my actual spiritual beliefs. I usually get to read quite a few books during the summer, but unfortunately with all the traveling and applications, I was only able to get through maybe 3 books. Reading this weekend made me realize how much I miss it. I am trying to get my hands on a copy of 'Eat Pray Love.' And although I have heard from a couple of people that it's not really as good as it is made out to be, I still have some affinity to India, Italy, and although to not as great an extent, Indonesia. (I'm going to Indonesia over X-mas break and I am so excited!)

But I think in order to pick up a reading habit, I'm going to really have to drop this TV show habit. Sadly, I have added two more shows to my already long retinue of primetime television: Modern Family and Flashforward.

School's quietened down a bit for the moment--I don't think I have another test for a couple of weeks or so. This also means I should be working on my thesis... I came up with a VERY generic outline of what I want to accomplish but it's hard getting motivated to sit down and read experiment after experiment.

Here's to not failing my first PhysOrg test of the year!

stresses

I'm not stressed. (or at least that's what I keep telling myself) The semester has started off really well. Blazers and KIPP have been consuming most of my time, but PhysOrg is about to take first place. I've never been challenged this much by a science class before. New concepts have been introduced to me every day in this class, building off the concepts I was taught in intro ochem. The problems are much more challenging and half the time, I'm not sure what they're asking about.

Blazers has been a blast this semester, I spent half the game sitting with them this past weekend and hosting beforehand was sweet too! I got to meet and converse with former Attorney General Al Gonzalez and schmooze with Peter Flawn and Clyde Littlefield. Also, free Saltlick last weekend for our 15th anniversary and then again this past weekend from Hosting. Selection is around the corner and I can't wait to see the New Guys that we bring in--and the OJ Taps are slowly trickling in, too!

My schedule is starting to get busybusy. Work is now officially in full swing--application season has begun! KIPP every week and EMHS every week. Having Saturday classes doesn't help much either (=/) But on that topic, this Saturday we discussed the origins of chirality--this was so cool! We proved that chirality cannot be created from achirality. This raises the question of how our body came to have only one designation of amino acids and sugars. Cool stuff to think about.

Interviews have been getting in the way of a normal schedule. I'm ready for a break. Buying groceries, study schedules, and even going to visit my Little have had to be rescheduled to accommodate all the driving I've been doing.

Also, I need to make time to work on thesis. I just borrowed 9 books from the library. It's a bit ridiculous. And I definitely got lost finding these books in the life sciences library--its like Hogwarts, I swear.

Here's to never ever seeing a Hill-Hui Hill on campus! [Dallas this weekend, Cali next, and then Colorado/Campout, then OU, then Parent's Weekend, then Houston on Halloween for Owl City!]

PS thanks Thesis Meetings for allowing me to blog.

Senior Year

[sorry I had posted this on the wrong blog initially!]

senior year is here already!?

--we built a tent in our living room (eric made us take it down)

--UT Vball and UT Football are #2 in the nation

a few thoughts:

loving the new Ingrid Album

Owl City and Ingrid Concerts this semester

camping with the roomies coming soon

trying out new restaurants in the ATX

ready to hear back from medical schools

trying to find time to squeeze in theses (yes, that's plural) research

my iCal looks like a gay pride parade

anxiously awaiting the return of my fall tv shows

The End and The Beginning

So I've been home for a little over a week now and I am a bit torn. One side of me is dying to get on a plane and fly out and have an adventure in ROME and there is another side that wants to sit on my couch and recuperate from the most draining semester of college thus far.

I'm almost through packing--which is a relief. I'm also done with all my med school primary apps (all I need to do is press submit!) I finally got all my hostel bookings and plane bookings around Europe done too. (I'm still trying to figure out how to work Montecarlo and/or Morocco into our plans, but it looks unlikely right now :\)

I've just bummed at home and watched way too many movies. Night at the Museum 2 was FANTASTIC. I've gotten to see Lauren and Sara and got to spend a lot of time with mom. Dad's been in China for the past week, so I wasn't fortunate enough to spend as much time with him as I wanted to.

I'm getting my fix of Tex-Mex food tonight at Chuy's with the fam...and I think Indian/Mexican food and my wonderful bed are going to be the things I'm going to miss the most! (and my friends, dog, family, etc...haha) AND I'll be totally missing my iPhone--it's going to be so weird not having it on me. But I'll deal with it.

Also for those that regular read this, this will be my last post for a while--I'll be on europeanshyam.blogspot.com for most of the summer.