Wednesday, October 22

Why I fail at life.

- I went to bed at 7:30 in the morning and woke up at 1:00.
- I stole two potatoes and a quesadilla from the dining commons.
- I choked on a bubble from my orange Thai bubble tea.
- I painstaking rewrote my Chem 113 lab and then realized that it was actually not going to be collected (for the first time).
- I lost my ID card and went to the ID office to get a new one for $15. Later that afternoon, someone found my old one.
- I dropped my phone several times (you know, the one that's only a month old)
- I wore bells without padded socks during dance practice and now I have large, ugly bruises on the tops of my feet.
- I bought a new pair of crocs.



But other than this, the last few days have been pretty good mainly because I haven't been studying or doing any work (except for that stupid lab...). I bought a new carpet, which is awesome, and already getting dirty because I keep walking on it with my shoes on (the crocs, actually). My DIY Rubik's cube came in the mail the other day. DIY means "Do It Yourself", so it's spring loaded and you can adjust the tension to make it turn faster. It wasn't worth what I paid for it, but still fun.

I also decided to move into an apartment next year. I and four others are looking to rent a townhouse over at Nittany Apartments. It's going to be fantastic because we'll each get our own bedroom plus a living room, dining, and lots and lots of closet space. We'll have 1.5 bathrooms and a kitchen too. And 2 floors! It's so exciting.

Friday, October 17

The peak of madness.

I've successfully weaned myself off caffeine during all-nighters. Back in high school, I drank coffee and that made me feel like complete crap come morning time. Then I drank soda though I hate carbonation. But I don't need it anymore! I'm getting better and better at this all-night procrastinating staying up thing.
Well anyway, I've been writing my Chemistry 113 Lab Report which is now about 14 pages long. And it's not even double spaced! But as usual, I have no right to complain because I should have started it 2 and a half weeks ago. And it's not like I've been working on it all night. Most of this night was spent on youtube, actually, watching Telugu movies and listening to Rahman's new album Yuvvraj, which is not spectacular, but worth a listen.

Here are some exciting things that happened last weekend during the ochem studying.







I really ought to take a nap right now, but I'm just scared I won't wake up.

So, the dreaded Wednesday finally passed. I had both a Chem 112 exam and a Chem 210 exam, both of which actually didn't end catastrophically. If you have time, you should definitely read through the comments on the Chem 210 website here (click on Feedback). people at Penn State are incredibly mature. Check back regularly for the exam results...which should be pretty epic considering that the last exam's average was a record low in the history of the class (56.7%). Chem 210 is organic by the way. My ultimate goal is to get an A in that class WITHOUT the curve, which doesn't seem like much of a challenge anymore. Oh, I love Penn State :D.

I'm going to stop typing because I really ought to go back and proofread my lab. But have some more pictures.






Thursday, October 9

Happy Columbus Day!

http://www.mediafire.com/?tqmnzntmymd
Enjoy this song from AR Rahman's 1998 album 'Jeans', which by the way, is my favorite album of all time.

Anyway, all of you bums who actually get today off: You suck. Penn State doesn't get these random holidays for some reason. But we do get the entire thanksgiving week off, so I guess it's alright.

The weekend that just happened, if you can call it a weekend, was saturated with studying for my second Organic Chemistry exam. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night was spent at Ramya and Malinda who were determined to set my sleep schedule straight (didn't happen).

However, the weekend didn't suck entirely because the weather was absolutely fabulous and we took it as an opportunity to bask outside in the HUB lawn while studying and playing with our molecular models. We also took pictures of shirtless frisbee players, some medievally armored fencers, creepy crawlies, and our airborne selves. Pictures will be up as soon as Ramya decides to upload them.

Pretty soon we got tired of the outdoors and went to this neat office area in the HUB where we continued to study OChem. But at around 5:00 in the afternoon, I snapped. I couldn't take it anymore. I went a bit hysterical and started cackling, zooming around the room in my wheely chair, getting yelled at, and chewing on the wood from a pair of chopsticks. But fortunately I calmed down in about 45 minutes and managed to finish the training set and practice exam A.

Currently, my jaws are aching from chewing through 4 packs of Spearmint Orbit and my fingers are aching from building molecular models.

I'll blog again if I come out alive from my exams.
Ta

Tuesday, October 7

Why it isn't fun to argue with Creationists anymore.

Blogging so soon, you ask? Well an interesting thing happened this morning...er...yesterday.

I was hanging out at the HUB after my Physics recitation before the afternoon OChem lecture (I slept through the noon lecture...oops) and there was this really large group of Pro-Life Evangelical Christians protesting abortion with some pretty lame-ass arguments and generally getting pwned by the public. I went there to listen for a little bit before I walked over to Forum.

A guy approaches me. He was holding a Bible. I should have skedaddled, but I didn't.

Guy: Miss, are you Indian?
Sowmya: Yes.
G: Really! What part of India are you from?
S: South.
G: Have you heard of Kerala?
S: Yes. (Kerala is a state...he mentioned it because it has the largest Christian population in all of India)
G: Great. Now, have you been brought up with a Hindu background?
S: Yes.
G: Now, let me show you something. Pulls out a Bible and shows me a verse that says something along the lines of: "Any doctrines that tells its people to abstain from meat is the work of the Devil"
S: Ok.
G: Now, have you ever wondered why India has suffered from so much poverty?
S: It has a pretty large population.
G: Alright. Actually, the reason is because Hinduism forbids the consumption of meat.
S: ?
G: Yes indeed. The people in India would be much better off if they were allowed to eat meat!
S: How does that make sense? Meat is expensive. It requires a lot more energy to produce.
G: Where did you learn that? That's not true.
S:
G: Ok. Let's start from the beginning. Pulls out Bible again, and shows Ten Commandments from Exodus. The Bible says, "Do not have any other gods before me." Now, you must have grown up worshipping who-knows-how-many gods.
S:
G: Isn't that right?
S: Actually, that's not true. Hinduism isn't pagan. It is, in essence, as monotheistic as Christianity.
G: Well. (changes subject) Now, have you every taken a look at the other Commandments? Let me show them to you.
S: That's alright.
G: No, really!
S: Don't worry about it. I've actually converted recently!
G: Great!
S: Yeah!
G: Have you repented for your sins?
S: Actually, I've become agnostic.
G:
S: Thank you very much. I have to go class now. Science class.
G:


And that's why it's not fun to argue with such people anymore. It used to be very satisfying to pwn them, but then you realize that no matter how awesome your argument is, it can't compete with flawed logic.

Sunday, October 5

Gujju madness.

I meant to blog on Friday but I forgot. Wait, actually, I went to go see Wall-E (which was soo awesome!) at the HUB and then hung out somewhere until 2 AM. I can't remember.

Yesterday was pretty cool because I went to a garba. A garba is essentially a gathering of dancing people. Specifically, it contains Gujarati people (and people who pretend to be Gujarati like me and totally ruin the dancing for everyone by sucking) dancing to Gujarati music. There was also raas, which is the dancing with dandias (sticks that you smack together). I was better at this, but I think I still contributed to screwing up the lines. Oh well. Anyway, it was cool because it was the first time I got to wear a Chania Choli, which is a Gujarati dress that everyone wears to garba. Priya lent me hers, and it was very pretty. Everyone there had wrapped theirs over their right shoulders, but Ramya and I, being the wicked South Indians that we are, wrapped ours over the left shoulder. That, and our terrible garba skills (well, Ramya's alright), made us stick out like sore thumbs. But all in all, it was a pretty fun night. My feet were aching by 10:30 and I made our group walk all the way back to campus (at some point, someone picked us up and drove us, so it wasn't actually the WHOLE way).

Today was Shivam's birthday so we took him to India Pavilion for a lunch buffet. To my pleasant surprise, they had Sambar. That was officially the first South Indian food I've had in, what, 6 weeks? Oh boy It was awesome. And oh yeah, it was my idea that we spoon feed Shivam cake while people took pictures.



Yep. My idea.

In other news, this week contained three more exams: Psychology, Physics, and Nutrition. So now, my first round of exams is over. The sad part is that I'm still not attending my morning Chem lectures and I really really have to start studying for OChem because I've got a Chem and OChem exam on the same day next week. Blecch.


OH YEAH! I forgot: I got a new phone after my old one kept dying. I think it was because I kept dropping it. My new one is a Motorola W755 and it's pretty cool. I liked it much better after I figured out how to put on my favorite ringtones for free. Also, I finally have texting!! It's true, text me.