Just a post.

An anecdote-

Tournament second day is canceled, so I get back to my apartment at 1. I go out to throw a disc with some friends. It is 6pm. It is sunny and 74 degrees when I go outside. 15 minutes have passed. Blue skies turn into light yellow clouds, a robust mix of storm clouds with sun and thunder. All hell breaks loose. It hails very much, hail the size of bottlecaps if bottlecaps were spherical. People run for cover, cars stop, the street is ankle-deep in water within a minute.

That was the weirdest weather incident I have ever witnessed! Upon seeing the yellow cloud-mix to the west, I mentioned to my friend that "the weather seems really end-of-the-world-like". Later, I talked to someone else who told me that one time, he and his friends were outside and their hair started gathering static, and they ran like no other. Apparently, that happens right before you are about to be struck by lightning. Scary.

Anyways, our tournament this weekend was partially canceled. The weather today was mostly great (see above), but we didn't get to play because we annihilated the fields yesterday in stormy conditions. We beat our Ivy League compatriots Columbia and Harvard.

I start laboratory research tomorrow. I am going to be working in the lab of a researcher at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania's (HUP) Biomedical Research Building. He conducts research in ovarian cancer (hold your giggles, stop judging me), and what I would do eventually is biologically engineer some tumor-fighting molecules called 'lymphocytes'. It's not a paid position as of now, but once I learn the basic lab techniques and get a hang of what I'm doing, I'm going to ask for a salary. I also think I'm going to continue with research after school is over, probably until late-June/early-July, so that my entire summer is not wasted on frolicking.

That being said, there is almost nothing that I love more than summer in Eugene. The best part is playing some disc in the late afternoon or early evening and then just hanging out on the fields with people you love.

Ultimate season begins!

Hah, sorry for all you readers out there who don't really follow ultimate.

But for those who do, check this out:

http://winkysthinkies.blogspot.com/2007/09/10-types-of-ultimate-players.html

just woke up.. or maybe just starting to dream?

I landed in Philadelphia at 11:05pm yesterday, and got back to my room by midnight. It's bitter cold here.

When I am in Eugene, I don't have a care in the world. I just live freely, have almost no thoughts of school and being back at Penn, until the last day before leaving. But after I have said my goodbyes (I have to do this again?!!), my mind switches mode. It's like my brain has already traveled back, even before my body has boarded a plane, so that if I were to run into someone like Aubri or Tony unexpectedly the morning of my flight, I would flip out. It's like two different worlds I live in, where no one in one knows anyone else in the other.

I love Philadelphia and being at Penn. But it's not (yet) the same as being home and with people you've known for years.

I have to contradict my earlier post a little bit when I say this, but it's not as easy as it seems to come and go. It's not just going to be 8 hours spent on airplanes and in terminals getting back home and being able to see friends and family. It takes four months to get back to Eugene, but it feels like less when people come visit (which never happens). So I bide my time.

barriers

Isn't it weird to think that I can say to someone, "See you tomorrow", when I am all the way across the country? I just find it weird. Well, I guess more amazing than weird. And that I could really just fly out to some place we've all only seen in movies and documentaries if I wanted to, in 24 hours or less. That the Taj Mahal, the holy city of Mecca, the Amazon rainforest, the Siberian tundra, Philadelphia, Eugene, OR - all just a few flights and a day away.

Just started snowing here.

Finals!

Oh man! Tomorrow is my first of four finals. I've been studying a lot over the past few days (which is what you're supposed to do). And then I'll be home on the 17th. Home! Home. It's kind of a big thing because, well, the furthest I've traveled in the past three months is to Washington D.C. Meanwhile, all three of my roommates have been home twice..

Which reminds me, I went to my friend's house for Thanksgiving, which was chill. He lives 30 minutes (by train) away in the suburbs, and I stayed there for three nights. I went to mass with his family on Thursday morning, which was sorta weird, but I'm over it. Turns out his dad is super-Catholic, but none of his children are really religious. I told my friend and his two little bros that I hail from the least-religious area of the country (I think it is, right?), and they all mentioned something about living there sometime..

And I think I am 99% set on a major - Biology with a concentration in neuroscience. So I'll be taking a lot of classes having to do with brain and behavior, which is all really interesting. And I'm going to minor in Hispanic Studies (fancypants way of just saying 'Spanish'). I haven't officially declared this yet, but I will in the coming months.

.. yeah, so I gotta get back to studying..

new day

Wow. The last week has been something different, something awesome, something INSANE.

Last Wednesday, the Philadelphia Phillies brought home a championship, the first pro sports championship for the city in 25 years (multiplied by 4 pro sports teams = 100 seasons). The last champion in this city was... Rocky. And he wasn't real. After the last out was recorded at about 10:10 PM EST, I went outside to see if anything was happening.

There were people were pouring out of bars, dorms, other public buildings! Almost every car on the road was honking incessantly, and people high-fived anyone in sight. 5.5 million people instantly became friends with anyone and everyone in sight. A massive crowd formed to celebrate the occasion on Broad Street (a major thoroughfare that passes City Hall and center city).

Simon, Edward, and I rode our bikes down 25 blocks to witness the madness, at about 11:30. There were massive (drunken) crowds, burning dumpsters, a few brawls, riot police, and thousands upon thousands of red-clad fanatics. Also no enforcement of the open-container law. It was something that you could never imagine happening in Eugene, let alone the entire West Coast. Imagine the celebration if the Oregon Ducks won the National Championship - now multiply it by 100! It was as if a city of millions released a breath it had been holding for too long, and also as if the entire city caught an epidemic all at once. People who didn't even follow baseball went downtown to celebrate! Seeing an entire metropolis celebrating is just an unbelievable sight.

You might think I'm overreacting with this World Series schnooz, but it's hard not to get excited when something completely rocks the city for days.

I also went to the Phillies victory parade on Friday (skipping three classes!), which was more subdued, but still pretty sweet.

Then there was last night! I'm sure you all know what went down. As soon as the news came out, Penn students started celebrating in the middle of campus, and I went down to celebrate with! And then... the crowd moved east. 25 blocks east. Yep, all the way down to City Hall, in a light drizzle. Combining with Drexel students partway through. Blocking off avenues, high-fiving bus drivers, security guards, hobos.. Almost marching expectantly towards City Hall as if something would happen as soon as we did. As if future President Barack Obama would miraculously drop down on the corner of Broad and Market and fill us with comforting, powerful, hopeful words. Too bad I didn't move to Chicago right after the World Series. The march was like a Phillies celebration hangover, as if people now just expected a mass mosh pit in the center of the city. Chants of O-ba-ma, U-S-A, Yes-we-can, Yes-we-did. Even mass-singing of the national anthem?!!

Anyways, it was all pretty awesome. Living in a big city definitely has its advantages. You all should visit sometime.

fall break

Already a third done with this semester. Next weekend is fall break, from Saturday to Tuesday.. and I have no plans whatsoever. Each of my three roommates are going home, since they live in NJ, DC, and TN respectively. I can't really go home, but I can't really chill with old high school friends because NONE of them came to the east coast. (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at Penn with this problem.) So unless someone flies out here or something, I suppose I'll just be sitting, sleeping, sitting, sleeping for


four days