This Wednesday began with a lecture from the amazing Dr. Le, reviewing modern physics and introducing some Calculus. Afterwards was lunch, which lasts about an hour. We had originally planned for Dr. Le to continue his lecture for about an hour after lunch, but he had finished his materials in the morning section. Walking into the classroom after lunch, we had no idea what we were about to do. Dr. Rengstorf, our AD, stalled at the computer for a few moments while we talked to each other, wondering what we were about to learn since there was nothing in the schedule. Staś, one of our TAs, walked into the room, standing mysteriously in front of the board. He looked around kind of awkwardly as we cheered (his mere existence makes us excited).
Dr Rengstorf asked, “can I help you with something?”
Staś turned around, flicked his hair to the side, and then said, “yes, you can.” He then did a triple pirouette and an aerial before throwing 7 ninja stars with his feet, perfectly pressing the buttons on the computer that changed the screen to his slideshow. Dr. Rengstorf and half of the class fainted in awe while the rest of us cheered. We then got a crazy lecture from our god Staś about Linear Algebra and how it can be used to solve everything.
Our afternoon lecture could only be an hour because we were going on a field trip to a baseball game, watching the El Paso Chihuahuas (home) play the Albuquerque Isotopes. But before getting on the bus, I had to complete the QoD, which showed signs missing from the dorm’s poster boards and asked us to find out who stole it. The correct answer was the wind, but I decided to take a different approach by taking down the rest of the posters and writing that I was the thief. For those who are reading, note that this was a less-than-24-hour prank and I put up the posters later that night, so please don’t kick me out.
On the bus, we first stopped by a mall before the game. A few of my friends and I wandered around the mall, getting various clothes, shoes, and snacks. Some of us got boba, some of us got Auntie Anne’s (which is better than Cinnabon by the way), and some of us even got to try the Apple Vision Pro. At the end, we pooled together money to get a cute Build-a-Bear named 2024 TB.
The baseball game was the first for many of us. I vaguely knew the rules of baseball from Wii Sports a long time ago, but I had never seen an actual game before. We saw a few home runs, a few fun shows between innings, and got hot dogs and burgers for dinner. In an attempt to end up on the big screen, Lucien, one of our TAs, tried to hold Dhanush up to the Lion King song, but they never panned to us. Later though, some of us did eventually end up on the screen. My roommate, Joey, even got a signed baseball from Kevin Kopps. The game was pretty close for most of it, but the El Paso Chihuahuas scored 4 runs in the second-to-last inning, essentially ending the game.
At the end of the game, they had a huge fireworks show for the eve of the 4th of July. We stayed to watch and clap before heading back. Most of us went to sleep, but I had the late observing shift that night. Amber, Amanda and I went to the Computer Lab with Kathryn, another one of our TAs, and we tried to get some good photos of our asteroid. Instead, it was too cloudy and we spent time simultaneously waiting for the clouds to clear up and watching West Coast swing dance videos. When we saw the dome close itself because of the cloudy weather and checked the weather for the rest of the night, we decided to call it quits and head back early.
I’m Bryan, a rising Senior from Michigan. Other than Physics, I also enjoy playing piano and singing, and I also like the performing arts.
