How Lucky Am I To Have Someone Who Makes Saying Goodbye So Hard

Greetings from home! Life around here has been pretty low-key. Transitioning back home for the summer is always weird. You're at school for 9 months, living a pretty independent life in between going to classes and hanging out with your friends and doing "other" collegiate things. (Feel free to take the "other" as you wish). But then you come home back to your parents' rules and regulations. It's kinda hard to swallow, especially now that I'm 21. But I'm chugging along, mainly just studying for the MCATs. My great-aunt and uncle are here for the summer from India so I have to keep them entertained while the parentals are at work.

I'm missing Philly an insane amount, moreso than I predicted. Yesterday a handful of PSP Brothers went down the Shore to Ocean City and a bunch of them conference called me which made me the happiest person alive. It was great hearing their voices again although it made me miss them about a 1000x more than I already did. Like I said before college is all about what you make of it--the people you meet, the classes you take, the things you get involved in. I guess I'm really just missing how busy my life used to be in Philly. As sleep-deprived as I may have been, I wouldn't have done a second of it differently.

Until next time...

Monotony

So I'm back home in Long Island and I swear I started missing Philly as I was still walking to 30th Street Station to catch my train. It's silly but this was definitely my best/most favorite year at Drexel and so it kinda makes sense that I didn't want to leave. I got to know my PSP Brothers so much better, my roommates are awesome, the Betas are crazy, and there's a lot to be said for the Drexel "Wrecking" Crew. ;) The amount of beach trips and summer shenanigans that I'm missing is far too depressing for my taste. In fact I made everyone promise to call me and put me on speaker phone if they ever got together as a gigantic group. I'm such a sap.

Of course a lot of my friends from high school are back home but it's harder to see them now since they're in the city and I've moved out to the suburbs and have no car. I'm feverishly working on the car thing though so hopefully within a few weeks one will materialize. Or else the only human interaction I'll have will be with my parents...not the greatest thing ever.

I just got through 10 chapters of MCAT Studying (Gen Chem + O-Chem, GROSS) so I'm about to take a break to go shower and grab some lunch. As much as I hate it, the lack of social distractions here is probably good for my studying habits. The test is in about 3 weeks so it's crunch-time.

Until next time...

Awesome Weekend Recap

Saturday- PSP's Second Annual Scavenger Hunt
We split into three teams and combed the city from 12-5 p.m. for everything that was on our two page list. My Team was called "Team D" because when the four of us are in a car together the only thing we will listen to is Tenacious D. It seemed fitting, I thought. So that was an adventure. We walked from Penn's Landing all the way back to 20th Street in our attempt to find things and at the end of the day we were thoroughly exhausted. It took us 3 tries to find a Philly police officer who would let us wear his hat. We also had to find an Ontario license plate and after we unfortunately lost our first one in traffic we stumbled upon one out of nowhere on 19th Street. Emily and I were so excited that we ran across the street without paying attention to traffic. Oops. Good thing the light was red? In any event, we ended up coming in second place but that's only because Team Green Monster managed to find and take a picture with a homeless married couple which was worth a whopping 600 points. But it was still so much fun and at the end of the day no one even cared that they had lost. We cooled off with a celebratory run through the Fountain in the Quad. Excellent decision! That night some of the scavenger hunters hung out for a little bit. A very chill evening overall because none of us could stand on our feet at this point.

Sunday-
Went down to South Street with Michelle for some roomie bonding time. We got delicious Falafel at Mama's (between 6th and 7th on South) and after that we paid a visit to all the usual stops. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. On our way back to the train the grass at Independence Hall looked so inviting that we plopped ourselves down for a bit. Then we went to lay down on benches and ended up falling asleep for a good half hour. I woke up to find myself staring at a canopy of tree leaves. It was a very serene moment. A perfect one actually. I remember thinking that I did not want to move. We came back to watch the Da Vinci Code and then proceeded to make dinner at midnight.

Today-
My penultimate day here...I shadowed a D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) at CHoP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) so I got to sit in on his clinic hours. It made me want to be a doctor all the more which probably means that I should get going with my med school applications. Tonight Michelle, Jess, Sarah, Regina and I are going down to New Deck for Happy Hour/Dinner and then tomorrow I head home.

Until next time...

Yay!

I am officially DONE with Finals and DONE with my JUNIOR year...which means that I am now a SENIOR. Which is exactly as ridiculous as it seems because I swear it was just yesterday that I walked into my suite in East Hall to begin my freshman year. College flies, is all I have to say. I'm super sad to be going home for the summer because I'm leaving behind wayyyy too many awesome people. But hopefully home will be cool..it's going to be my first prolonged stay in our new house so maybe I'll finally get used to this whole notion of living in suburbia. I wonder what people do for fun there?

In any event, I just wanted to extend my CONGRATULATIONS to the Class of 2007! Woo-hoo--you made it and now you've got a super long summer ahead of you to relax and hang out before you dive into life at Drexel University. Live it up, make some new memories, and get pumped for college while you're at it. While I won't physically be at Drexel this summer I'm still around to answer all your questions, comments, concerns. On a related note, another fabulous New Yorker, Dipin, is going to be joining the NYC DWC team so make sure to check out his blog and talk to him too.

Until next time...

So I Was Trolling My High School's Website...

And I found this, which made me snarf my Tastycakes... :-)

Procrastination?

"We Really Should've Practiced Mountain Climbing"

...says the answer to the brainteaser on my Mensa Puzzle calendar.
It was a cryptogram of sorts relating to the infamous Jack and Jill. I'm pretty horrendous at Cryptograms so I skipped straight to the answer.

ANYway, the reason I'm up at such an ungodly an hour on a day when I have no class is because it is officially FINALS Week...woo-hooooooooooooooooooooo.

Or not.

In the spirit of studying and getting an early start, I told Michelle (my roommate) I'd walk to the library with her in about an hour. (Sidebar- the Library is open 24 hours during Finals Week; if I was still living on campus, I'd probably be sleeping there). Lucky her, she's going there to actually work whereas I'm going to hole up with my Nutrition textbooks. Even luckier of her, she only has one final and it's on Friday. Arghhhh. I love her to death but I usually tend to get the "why me" complex around Finals time because she never seems to have to stress about hers while I practically give myself ulcers everytime around. My other roommate (Jess) is on co-op so she's just been chillin' the entire term. Lucky girls. In any event, I'm shooting to make Dean's List again this quarter so hopefully that pans out for me. It'd be a marvelous way to end a rather non-tumultuous year.

In any event, Friday is my light at the end of the tunnel. My final ends at 10 a.m. and there will be an awesome fountain dunking to be had, after which the Betas are going to lunch (I think). Then I'm heading down to South Street with Michelle to do some early birthday present shopping for her and at night we're going to a show at World Cafe Live. That's Philly for you...always something to do if you know where to look. =)

Until next time...

Grand Slam

Today, after braving an ungodly amount of traffic on 76, a bunch of us went over to my friend Priya's house for an end of the year barbecue. Mind you we were jumping the gun a little bit because our Finals (we're all Bio majors with the same classes) aren't done until Friday, but whatever! My stomach is full of awesome food...most notably the super charred hot dogs. I'm not sure why they tasted so good--they were completely black. We went over to the local middle school and played tennis for a couple of hours which we've been saying we were gonna do since last year some time. Anyway, that was a blast..I hadn't played tennis since last summer but I picked up a racquet and it all came back to me. Made me realize how much I missed it. Hopefully I'll get to play some when I go back home.

Speaking of which, I reallllllyyyy do not wanna go back home for the summer. That makes me sound like a horrible person but I feel so settled in Philly and I adore all of my friends here...the Betas, the kids in Admissions, my Frat brothers...all of them. Plus my roommate just happens to be my best friend so my living situation cannot get any better. Which is why I'm kinda hating the prospect of leaving all of them for three months.

College really is all about the people you meet while you're there...the best advice I can give to anyone who's starting college in the fall is to go out there and meet new people and make friends; it's the only way you'll feel like you fit in somewhere. Be a part of something. I know shy people don't exactly relish the thought of walking up to perfect strangers (and trust me, I would know) but it's all worth it in the end. After all, the best way to have a friend is to be a friend. And mine are freaking awesome. :-D

Until next time...

Le Fin

Done! There goes my third year at Drexel. Today was the last day of classes and because two of my classes got cancelled, I was actually finished with my day at 1 p.m. Pretty sweet I'd like to think.

Best class of the day was Foods Lab. Our final consisted of telling him every principle that we learned in class that applied to making a pizza, and then we got to make an actual pizza! Excitement. Ours was supreme--loaded down with pepperoni, salami, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Pretty bangin' if I do say so myself. We got out of lab early and because we had some time to kill before Metabolism we hung out in the Quad. A pseudo-waterfight ensued and we attempted to push one of my friends into the new Fountain but that didn't pan out as well as we had hoped. We're going to get him next week though, after our last final is over.

Tonight is Upsilon class' Induction into PSP!! This is super exciting, basically because it's the end of a long road for both the Initiates as well as the Initiate Advisors. After tonight I get to breathe easy...until Fall quarter when a whole new Initiate class comes in. But we can handle it. Kate and I = Team Awesome. So tonight eleven new individuals will be inducted into the Brotherhood. It should be good times.

Until next time...

"A" meaning from and "Capella" meaning the facehole

Last night was 8 to the Bar's Spring Show that I attended with three Ambassadors (Mary Kate, Andrea, Vanessa). For those of you who don't know, 8ttb is Drexel's only male acapella singing group. They're pretty awesome actually and last night was no exception. It was their tenth anniversary concert so it seemed like they were especially good. Their music is pretty varied...in one night I heard Guster, the Beatles, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Coldplay just to name a few. I think my favorite is their rendition of "Fix You" by Coldplay. The guy on lead vocals sounds so much like Chris Martin that it's kinda creepy. Also in attendance were Remixed, which is a group of acapella singing alumni and the Treblemakers which is Drexel's only female acapella group. My friend Trish sings for them so I had to make sure to scream extra loud for her. One of their newer songs is "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls and the best part is when one of the girls ties a bandanna to her head and gets up to the mic to rap as Snoop. Pretty hilarious actually.

Anyway, it was a fun night...you can never complain about being subjected to 2.5 hours of Acapella sung by cute guys. Alas, today, reality has struck and I'm going to go lock myself in the Honors Lounge in a little bit and bang out three papers. They're all in various stages of completion so it shouldn't be so bad.

Until next time...

Laughter

I just had to get in a quick entry about how awesome today was. Classes were routine but all the stuff that happened in between was awesome. For lunch, Michelle and I paid a visit to the Caf because we were getting nostalgic for our younger years at Drexel. We convinced Mary Kate (another one of the DWCs) to accompany us so that was a pleasant surprise. There's an actual ice cream machine in there now so I topped off my meal perfectly with a cone full of Edy's Chocolate Chip. DE-LICIOUS! After that I had some group project work to take care of for my Genetically Modified Foods class and then I hustled home. Tony (one of the Frat brothers) made Michelle and I dinner (steak and mashed potatoes) which was freaking AH-MAZING! And then a bunch of us went down to Franklin Fountain which is right by Penn's Landing down in Olde City. Franklin Fountain is basically a vintage ice cream place which has amazing confections. Three of us split the Mt. Vesuvius sundae which was chocolate ice cream, fudge brownie pieces, hot fudge and malt powder all combined in a gigantic fast food carton. SO good.

After that sugar-rush we all hopped a train back to campus to see the Drexel Football Team's last improv comedy show of the year. Drexel doesn't actually have a football team so the name is a play on our history. It was my first time seeing them but they were hysterical! Stein Auditorium was packed to the point where people were sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Anyway, that was awesome and after it was over a whole army (okay, like 6 of us) walked back home on a balmy summer night.

Can't ask for a better day than that!

Until next time...