“Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs! Eggs!” And that is how the day started, a bit after midnight with all of the TAs entering the classroom, chanting the 2023 UNC SSP theme. They walked into a room full of excitement, relief, and happiness, as all 12 groups had finally submitted their final OD reports. We were led by the TAs to the plant room to have a pizza party! After a challenging 5 weeks of staying up until 1 am almost every night doing work, it felt very rewarding to have all of the work pay off. Even though there was a little sadness since this was another reminder that the program was soon coming to an end, we were all greatly enjoying the moment. The pizza party ended at around 12:40 am, but the night wasn’t over!
It was time to go to the soccer fields to play early, early morning soccer. We all raced to the fields and had a large group, so we were able to play a very competitive 8 v 8 soccer match until it was time to go back to Old West at 2 am.
My alarm went off at 8:45 am. It was a Sunday with nothing scheduled in the morning, so why would I wake up early? Because the Wimbledon finals was at 9:00 am with a lot on the line for me. It was Novak Djokovic against Carlos Alcaraz, a very highly anticipated match. Pranav and I had a big bet in place, as I predicted Djokovic to win and Pranav predicted Alcaraz to win, and the loser would get a full face of makeup to wear to dinner. With all of this at stake, we had to watch the match in style, so we went to the Carolina Coffee Shop for breakfast to have a watch party since they have lots of big tvs.
It was looking good for me at first as Djokovic won the first set 6-1 but then Alcaraz came storming back and won the next two sets. We finished watching the match at Old West, while playing a friendly game of Wii Jeopardy, and unfortunately for me, Alcaraz prevailed and won the match in five sets.
It was going to soon be time for me to get ready for my makeup, but first we had a lecture with visitors coming from the Southwest Research Institute. This was very interesting as we received code that we had to implement that would run simulations and help us predict the long term trajectory of our asteroid. This class flew by and it was already time for me to get ready for my makeup.
The makeup we agreed on included eye liner, mascara, and cheek blush. I was swarmed by everyone who wanted to put their added touch of makeup onto my face and by those who just wanted to watch.
The final product was completed. And the final reveal:
Ha! I wasn’t going to show you my full face of makeup because I came prepared. Luckily we took a trip to Franklin street the previous day and I was able to snag these sunglasses just in case I lost the bet. Though I did wear these for most of the time while I had my makeup on, I did take off my sunglasses for a big reveal during the post dinner announcements for everyone to see. It was a funny moment, and I received many compliments from it. I am thankful that I was able to snag the blog today, so the pictures would not be immortalized on the SSP website.
We all got ready to go back to Phillips Hall to work on implementing our code and setting up our final presentations for the next day. After we finished working on this, we went to our very last observation center at Morehead. Although it was sad that this was our last time observing, we definitely saved the best one for last. We were able to observe the ring nebula and the lagoon nebula to craft color images later. We also went outside and saw a very clear image of Saturn with the smaller telescope.
After observations, we finished off the day by taking a quick trip to Cosmic Cantina at 1:30 am. Though technically the next day, Cosmic Cantina has been one of the most memorable parts of SSP at UNC so it was necessary for me to include it in one of my blog posts.
SSP has been such an amazing experience, and it truly is “the education experience of a lifetime.”
