Oberlin Blogs

Why do I feel like a crazy person? I am a senior now. Oberlin, even with the all-nighters, the snowy Aprils, the death icicles looming on my roof, mouthfuls of saltless co-op lentils, has been nurturing me this whole time with arms wide open. Oberlin and I have been spooning for three and a half years, and I'm about to be kicked out of bed into a pair of knobbly hobbit-shoes.

or, What I Did Over My Summer Vacation: archaeological fieldwork and an experiment in transatlantic blogging!

Entry may or may not include a sick freestyle!

I'm currently getting paid to spend my summer doing atmospheric physics research in Hawaii. That's right, I'm living life through pineapple-scented nose-filters. They're better than rose-colored glasses.

Why am I back in Oberlin? Because it's fun to feed leftover tater tots to the albino squirrels.

"This thesis...will explore debates concerning modernity [in the fin de siècle] through the reactions of the British and the French press to the 1900 Exposition Universelle."

Of course there is plenty of learning with a purpose happening at Oberlin and the recent Senior Symposium serves as testament.

Here's my attempt at making an FAQ about undergraduate research. Doing research as an undergraduate has been a big part of my education at Oberlin. I've never been completely sure if I want to pursue science as a career, so doing research has made the idea of a "career in science" less of an abstraction, and I know more about what I like and don't like about the scientific process.

It's a little-reported fact, but organic chemistry in general is actually composed mainly of working up your product. Doing the actual reactions takes very little time. It's all in the purification.

This is where I sit and frantically work on thermo while I'm waiting for my reaction to proceed on its own.

Doing something for the first time always has its risks.

Now, I even dream about research. And I mean that quite literally.