A (not-so) Bright Start
I woke up at 7:52 AM on the dot. For most, this may seem routine, but for me, it was anything but. You see, this was the first time I had woken up early enough to have breakfast in a week. Like a man starved, I rushed through my morning tasks and got ready for the day, then sprinted to the dining hall. Yet I was to be met by the bitter taste of disappointment, as what awaited me there were cold eggs and hash browns that were more hash than brown.
But maybe the food wasn’t what I came for–maybe it was the company of friends that would nourish me instead. And I’m sure they did. But I can’t remember who I sat with or what we talked about, so I will end it here.
The Educational Experience of a Lifetime
After my energizing breakfast, I walked towards the Science Hall, our temporary classroom due to circumstances until I was kindly reminded by my good pal Sean that we had our class in Domenici. So I made my way there, settling in for a lecture on the matplotlib library by Dr. Le.
I finished early with my tasks, and so Dr. Le was happy to let me go a bit early. Before I made my way to the library, however, I had a QoD to do–haikus to write. I thought that there was no better way to immortalize one of the top 5 NMSU 2024 Astro I TAs of all time, Lucien, by writing 5 haikus about him. Here they are:
Once that was out of the way, I made my way to the Branson Library. From the well known books like Disquisitiones Arithmeticae and Principia, to fascinating seldom-read authors like Katsumi Nomizu, the library’s collection was extensive. I spent some time poring these books before heading off to eat lunch.
A Nutritional Interlude
Lunch at Corbett is always better than breakfast. I have no complaints. So instead of moving on, I would like to take this extra space to talk about coffee. Now, before I get started, I have to tell you that I am more of a tea guy–the week before SSP @ NMSU began, I was in Japan, and tea leaves made up the vast majority of my souvenirs. Sadly, the hot water at Corbett is decidedly not hot. On average, it is lukewarm at best. So coffee has been my go-to at camp–specifically a black coffee, with no sugar, no creamer, no sweetener–nothing. This is how coffee should be drunk. If you add anything, you are drinking it wrong. Now that I have established that, I will return to how the day went.
On Marine Biology
When I was a young boy, marine biology was my dream. Every weekend I would want to go to the aquarium, or the beach. My favorite creature of the deep was actually the giant squid. Yet it was a dream lost–it was physics that captivated me throughout middle and high school. So, having a talk about marine biology, from a squid biologist, during an astrophysics summer program was a strange experience. Squid are pretty cool.
Nutritional Interlude 2: Electric Boogaloo
After the talk, I killed some time. I might have been in the library, or maybe I took a nap. Can’t really remember. I remember being early for dinner. My team–Charlie, Claire, and I–sat in the lounge doing nothing until a minute before we had to be there, and we nearly ended up being late.
Dinner was nice. Everyone on my table are probably okay people. We get along, which might not be a good sign for them. I ate some pasta, and some chicken, I think. Can’t remember. I liked it though.
Evening times
At the tail end of dinner, it came to my knowledge that there would be a dust storm. The notification was a bit late though. I could see the storm outside. I am allergic to dust mites, so I walked briskly to Domenici to spend the evening
I finished the due assignment the day prior, so I did one of Stas’ QoDs. Above is part of it–to rigorously, properly, and fully show that the two fields defined had the same algebra over them, one has to establish a homomorphism of fields. Which I did. Which was apparently excessive. Oh well.
I went outside to take a breather. It was no longer dust storming, but instead raining. They must have been doing a weather seeding experiment or something. Jason got stuck on a tall ledge, and did not know how to come down. Since I was there, and he knows that I am a dependable friend and stellar suite mate, he jumped down, fully trusting me to catch him. Of course, I caught him.
After my adventure outside, I met my team again. They are pretty easy to distract and excite, so I had to wait a while before they finished writing their code. It was a fun wait. I learned that proving the division part of the homomorphism was not necessary, and instead to prove that the matrix inverse mapped to the complex number inverse. Once that was done, we settled in to watch Good Will Hunting in the work room. It was a nice movie, but some friends from home were calling so I was a little more focused on them than the movie. All in all, it was a nice way to end the day.
Thanks for reading. Bye.
Shreyas is a rising senior from Basis Independent Silicon Valley, in San Jose, CA. He enjoys reading Russian literature, playing the piano, video games, and hiking in his spare time.
