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.