The day started at 12 AM for me because my team decided to procrastinate the writing assignment from PSet 4 until the last minute, so we worked up until the deadline 11:59 PM. (∋д∈) It also doesn’t help that I’m still sick from the field trip to Gateway Park Fun Center on Saturday, July 1st 2023. It has been four days now, but my throat is still desert dry and my nose is flowing like a river. (⁍﹏⁌) While I was walking back to the dorms from the observatory, some fireworks went off, signaling the start of INDEPENDENCE DAY. I am a very nationalistic American citizen and I chose this day to write this specific blog because I specifically remembered that it was Fourth of July (I’m not a citizen nor did I remember that July 4th was Independence Day when I chose the blog day ┐ (´ー｀ )┌). Muktha said today was supposed to be a super moon, but it didn’t look that different. We hypothesized that maybe human eyes were too low quality, and maybe we should go to the observatory to use the telescopes there (the TAs had just kicked us out of the Sommers-Bausch Observatory (SBO) so we didn’t actually do it).
12:03 AM walking back to the dorms
12:04 AM Super moon (?)
I woke up this morning to my roommate shuffling around at 8:20 AM. My whole body felt heavy, as if the Earth’s gravitational force was pulling harder on me (however little g is always 9.81 meters per second Near The Surface Of The Earth [NTSOTE] and my mass didn’t change… but the cafeteria food is too good sometimes ლ（ ╹ε╹ლ ）). I continued to lay in bed with my eyes for another 10 minutes before I got out of bed and went to get ready for the lecture. My nose congestion is a lot worse and my head has a constant throbbing that makes me dizzy. (･Θ･;) On my way to the cafeteria (C4C) I ran into Ben, so we walked over together for breakfast. It was 8:45 AM when we got our food and sat down with Leo, Sophia, Lillian, and Elyse, so I would need to finish eating quickly. But Leo and Sophia were making me laugh to the point that I can’t eat my food without risking choking. (＾▽＾) Gustavo came to the table at 8:50 AM with a huge tray of breakfast, but he managed to finish it in 3 minutes! It was 8:55 AM so we all ran to return the tray and out of C4C ₍₍ ᕕ(´◓⌓◔)ᕗ⁾⁾ (I still “borrowed” a stack of tissues from C4C). I arrived at the lecture at 8:59 AM.
At 9:00 AM is the start of the first lecture. Today the lecture was on Taylor Series. However, during the lecture a huge rumbling sound took place outside and scared the life out of everyone. Turns out, it was an airplane show that the University of Colorado Boulder’s (CUB) Aviation & Aerospace Science Department (I’m not sure about that, Dr. Dubson didn’t explain it very well) was putting on for the Fourth of July celebration, and we were sitting in on a lecture! ᕙ( ︡’︡益’︠)ง Whiteboard conversations with Cam are the only thing keeping me awake in lectures. The lecture was actually fine, very short today because Dr. Dubson released us at 10:00 AM or so to do the weekly survey where we rate how much we want to be a researcher and how if we are going to be a researcher and if we have any plans to become a researcher. I know, this survey is not that repetitive ☜╮(´ิ∀´ิ☜╮).
After sitting in the computer lab to write this blog until 12:00 PM, me and Muktha went to C4C to get lunch. Today is Independence Day so no one is in the cafeteria which means… no more waiting in long lines for food! Also, almost all of the sections (Italian, Soup, Dessert, Asia, etc.) were open for business, so it was a pretty sweet day ✌.|•͡˘‿•͡˘|.✌. After finishing lunch at 12:45 AM, me, Muktha, and Ming went into the basement for ping pong. Turns out Ming is really bad at ping pong, and the only play she could manage [somewhat] legally is to hit the ball into the ceiling for it to bounce to the other side of the net. (b~_^)b
12:08 PM Me actually getting the famous strawberries of C4C
At 1:15 PM is the start of the second lecture. We are continuing to derive the six equations for the asteroid orbit determination. Everyone was still sick to some level, so the energy of the room was quite dead for the second 3 hour lecture of the day (~_~). However, we all stayed awake by standing up, taking naps during the breaks, and doodling on our white boards. Our coping methods have gained EXP (experience) over the two weeks and are quite effective at keeping us focused on the lecture. Here is a funny story from during the lecture:
Cam was holding up the postcards containing the ecliptic plane and the plane that the asteroid was traveling on, Kara was holding up her flashlight on top of the postcards, and Dr. Fallscheer asked for the shadow of the pen perpendicular to the asteroid plane to be drawn out. So out of our three person team, whose hands are left free? Me, and as a reminder, my name is ‘Youjia,’ certainly not Emily because Cam kept calling out, “Emily! Emily! Emily! Emily! EMILY!” with visible confusion from Kara and me. At some point, Cam realized that I am not Emily, and said that he pulled off a “Dominick.” When I asked him what he meant, he proceeded to tell me a story by writing it on the white board in which I will include a picture below.
2:07 PM
Just in case Cam’s handwriting is too horrible for you to even try reading it, here it is: “During dinner, Dominick whispered to me, ‘almost called Rebecca, Youjia; close call…’ And then proceeds to call her Youjia five minutes later.”
Cam also told me to call him Dr. Dubson, since Dr. Dubson is most well known for calling people the wrong names (especially since there is a large Asian population in the 2023 SSP class)
After that ordeal was the first break. During that break, we proceeded to call each other wrong names on purpose. Marcus was Taizo, August was Gustavo, Emily was Sophia, I was Lillian, Cam was Taizo, Seok was Taizo (literally everyone is Taizo ┐(￣ヮ￣)┌). Then we jumped into more of the lecture. During the second break I passed out instantly, and my mortal enemy Muktha (☞◣д◢)☞ (ू˃̣̣̣̣̣̣︿˂̣̣̣̣̣̣ ू) took this awful picture of me while I was the most vulnerable:
3:13 PM That’s me with my rainbow water bottle, stack of tissues from C4C, and orange slippers ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ
The Lecture Must Go On ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ
After my nap I felt better, my headache was gone at least, but after the second break is when everyone starts fighting the hardest battle to stay focused (and awake). I’ll spare you the details but we won this battle once again, though we don’t know if we’ll succeed tomorrow. ┐(ﾟ ～ﾟ )┌ After the lecture Richard came in with our graded PSETs that we had just turned in yesterday. How are they so fast at grading the pieces of paper we spent 15+ hours on??? (⊙_◎)
Anyways here is some beautiful whiteboard art that teams doodled during the lecture:
ᕦ(▀̿ ̿ -▀̿ ̿ )つ︻̷┻̿═━一-
At 5:21 PM I finished changing for dinner and found $7 in the trash can of our room. Apparently Alyssa was cleaning up her side of the room and threw away money on accident because it was dark. ε≡(ノ´＿ゝ｀）ノDuring dinner the most distinct conversation I remember is when Ms. Bana talked about how she learned two years of German to read Mein Kampf. She wasn’t looking to become Hitler, but to learn how to avoid such a person from happening again (ﾉ^_^)ﾉ ● ＼(^_^＼) (it was funny how she was on a university program to stay in Germany for the summer after the fall of Berlin, in which she asked to buy Mein Kampf and was told that it is a piece of banned literature in Germany. She got to read the English version when she told her class the story and her student bought her a copy).
5:15 PM Taizo and Dominick walking hand in hand back to the dorms from SBO to get ready for dinner (∗ᵒ̶̶̷̀ω˂̶́∗)੭₎₎̊₊♡
After dinner at 6:30 PM, I went back to the dorms to meet with Muktha to play ping pong but she decided that we should play ‘Risk’ instead. I mean, all right. I played it, begrudgingly. (,Ծ_Ծ,) I chose the yellow troops because I’m yellow and we instantly formed a bond. As the game progresses, Ben finished his secret mission (taking over Europe and Australia) whereas Gustavo was set on taking over the world |ω´･;) (like a certain virus that broke out in 2020). Me and Muktha formed an armistice in order to get them to stop spreading and killing us. Gustavo could have gotten 70 troops at the end of the game and wiped us all off of the continents. He’s a force to be reckoned with (╥╯⌒╰╥๑) (I was still in custody of China and Japan at the end of it so I don’t really care).
7:10 PM playing RISK with Gustavo, Ben, and Muktha
After that I dragged Muktha down the basement to play ping pong since SBO is locked anyways so we can’t do the new Pset 5 that was posted this morning and I’m not procrastinating no what a strange thought you’re having. ( ͡°╭ ͟ʖ╮*├┬┴┬┴ Me and Muktha were playing until David and Marcus and Emiline also came down the basement. At first they watched, then David and Marcus joined us to play two vs two. That was fun, but it was time for THE DRONE SHOW!!! ( ᗒᗨᗕ ) (The weather was postponing it so SBO was locked for that reason, to get everyone to go to the drone show instead of doing the PSET)
8:51 PM playing ping pong in the basement (photo credit: Emiline)
9:01 PM everyone walking over to the CUB stadium for the drone show, pretty cloudy with a chance of hamburgers (´-ι_-｀)
Drone show was the highlight of the day, and we arrived at the stadium at 9:15 ish. The seats were wet with rain. Every single field trip we’ve had has, without fail, rained. Like, we can forecast Colorado’s unpredictable weather by using SSP’s dates for field trips as starting points. (✿˶ɵ̥̥⌒ɵ̥̥˶) It took a long time for the drones to finally be launched, and during that time there was: [1] music playing by CUB’s music department I assume [2] Muktha making me play another game that is so much worse than geometry dash (it was about bats or something) [3] and the pouring rain and occasional flashes of lightning. I only had a waterproof jacket and shorts on and a lack of umbrella. ( _ _||| ) Also, Dr. Fallscheer passed out some diffraction squares which were very tiny but very cool (they got ruined in the rain. Sad).
9:15 PM CUB stadium – Folsom Field
This is my first time watching a drone show so when it actually began (after a brief video about the sponsors of today’s event) I was astounded. (◦△☆)~~!!! I cannot describe it in words, so here are some pictures instead:
9:22 PM a piece of diffraction material that Dr. Fallscheer passed out
9:54 PM start of the drone show
10:05 PM end of the drone show (everyone was showing their patriotism while chanting “USA, USA…”
The stadium people did have to cut the show short because of safety reasons (lightning) and kicked us out. (☍﹏⁰)｡
10:13 PM walking back to the dorms and my camera acting weird because of the rainwater on the lens ༽つ۞﹏۞༼つ
10:13 PM my lens doing strange things again as Dr, Fallscheer (purple) runs in front of me as a smudge blob
By the time I returned to the dorms, I was wet and exhausted and my sickness had grown more severe. I took a shower and drank some Chamomile tea (someone please teach me how to say that and food names such as quinoa and minestrone soup) and took a cough drop and then proceeded to stay up until 12:00 AM to write down a detailed draft of this blog. I am NOT going to the lecture tomorrow because I will be sleeping in for my sickness to get better already. I’m so sick of being sick (pun intended). . .･ヾ(。￣□￣)ﾂ
Salutations. I’m Youjia from San Jose, California. I was originally “made in China” and immigrated to the United States. I’m a huge anime nerd, and I like to draw, confine plants in little pots, and take a run whenever time is on my side. I hope to become a Mechanical or Electrical Engineer in the future, and I’m not not looking forward to my time at SSP for the next 3 weeks ୧⍢⃝୨
