by Ria P.
Today, I woke up with my friend Lucy banging on my door while blasting Michael Jackson’s “Rock With You” at eight in the morning. While not the most normal way to wake up on a Saturday morning, one should not expect any less at SSP. After shooing away my morning DJ, I quickly got changed so that I could grab breakfast with my friends.
My friends and I slowly made our way to the Carolina Coffee House for a nice meal before class. If you are an avid SSP blog reader, you may recall Vicky’s blog and our Belgian Waffle. Thankfully, we remembered to take a picture of the food this time before scarfing it down:
After the meal, we made our way to Phillips Hall for the TA Round Table. This relatively casual yet extremely helpful event allowed us the chance to ask questions and learn about college from our recently graduated TAs. Each equipped with their own unique story, the TAs recalled their own experiences while navigating college during the session.
Since it’s a Saturday, we had the rest of the day off. One key event during our free time on Saturdays is the trip to Franklin Street – the nearby downtown area of Chapel Hill. During the hours of 4 pm to 6:45 pm, participants are able to explore these streets and eat local food. I was especially excited for today’s trip to Franklin Street as my friends and I planned to get Indian food. Despite enjoying my SSP experience, I missed my mother’s authentic Indian food. Aware of my homesickness, my friends suggested grabbing dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant. So, we made a beeline to the restaurant and ordered a family style meal. Sadly, this time, we ate all the food before remembering to take a picture…
Looking back on my blog today, it’s predominantly about my friends and I eating food. Despite the rather unscientific experiences of today, I think my day speaks loudly about the lovely community and support system found at SSP that you can always have a good laugh with over the dining table, or can always go to in need of advice or help. At the beginning of SSP, I was overwhelmed as I learned Python for the first time, derived orbital elements so that I could determine the orbit of my group’s asteroid HF1 1999, and explored concepts of nuclear physics. Surprisingly, I found a group of people I could fall back on because of our shared struggles. Through bonding experiences of screaming about the problem set together, or keeping each other sane while debugging code, I found a home filled with unique people just like me. I’ve learned and grown so much because of this program and the people in it and I am looking forward to seeing what I do in the weeks of SSP to come.
About Me:
Hey! I’m Ria from Skillman, New Jersey. I’m a rising senior at The Lawrenceville School. I enjoy sleeping, trying new foods and reading fantasy novels in my free time. At S SP, you will probably find me trying to debug my code in the computer lab, sleeping, or playing Super Smash Bros.
