Crimsonietta.net

Yeah, we don’t do spring cleaning at my house; we do summer cleaning. That is, I spent my entire day (3pm to 10pm) cleaning my room, and I’m STILL not done. Yeah, my room was pretty bad to begin with, so I can’t really blame anyone but myself. We’re actually in the process of stripping down our house and putting it back together again, it seems, due to the fact that my uncle is flying down tomorrow from Washington, specifically for my graduation! I’m excited, but that also means I won’t be able to stay up late on the computer for a few days, haha. Instead, I’ll be up playing cards and watching dramas and other such things.

I really hate to relapse into my old habits of making lists all the time, but I feel the need to mention the items with which my summer will be filled:

SUMMER SCHEDULE OF KILLER BUSY AWESOME
- Mornings: TCG work & hard drive cleaning (I’ve been trying, unsuccessfully, to organize my external for about three years, and it never seems to progress anywhere..)
- Afternoons: SnM work & instrument practice/composition
- Evenings: miscellaneous web design & Crimsonietta.net
- Whenever it will fit: learn more computer programming languages (Python, Perl, brush up on Ruby, C++) and hang out with friends before I have to leave them

For the month of June, I was also left in charge of coordinating the Love of China’s dances for a fundraising activity on the 28th to be held at the RRPAC, also for the earthquake/tsunami victims in China. Our director is going out of the country (she left yesterday morning, actually) so rather than getting a room mother to coordinate, she entrusted me with the studio keys, music CDs, and correspondance information. Simply speaking, it’s my job to get everyone together to rehearse and make arrangements.

Even though it’s a significant amount of work, it hardly fazes me, and I’m also really excited. This is pretty standard fare for me since I do pretty much the same thing with SnM, but to be able to do it in real life is fun! finally I can put those leadership skills to good use, right? =) And maybe this time during rehearsal I can actually attempt to get everyone to understand the aesthetics of stage weight and position improvisation.

Until later, over and out. I need to finish cleaning.

10am, Sunday, May 11th. I’m standing in front of the baggage check-in kiosks at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport with my huge red suitcase, my handbag, and my laptop bag. Excited shivers run down my spine as I cluch my project notebook closer to my chest. This is it. I’m going to Atlanta, GA, on a trip that I had only dared to dream about since… I don’t know, freshman year.

That’s right, guys. Only a mere week ago I was jumping up and down in disbelief at the fact that I was going to the largest gathering of brilliant young scientists in the world… and now I’m back at home, sitting in my office, exhausted after six days of partying (i.e. nerdfests) at the Intel International Science & Engineering Fair 2008.

… you know, I think I’m going to cry from sentimentality and nostalgia. Seriously.

I have never, in my entire life, had such a good experience as that I have had this week. I have never been as happy as I was this week. I have never spoken to such amazing people, never felt such excitement, never been so thrilled by simply being allowed the opportunity to be in the same room with students around the world just as passionate about science as I am. You know, sometimes I lament about the fact that I wasn’t able to make it here to ISEF sooner in my high school career, but at the same time, I reflect on this idea and you know what? I don’t think I would have appreciated it quite as much. Not only does this, being both my first AND last time, mean so much more to me as a mark of the culmination of my personal development and scientific endeavors… I also got to share this joy and exhilaration with fellow MIT prefrosh! You know who you are ;D

To appease my longing to hitchhike on a plane back to Atlanta (so I can either spend some more time socializing with the ISEFers who still remain or just sit in the GWCC and revel in the awe and sheer wonder of what just took place there), I’ll have to take you all back to review what was definitely the BEST week of my life. Starting tomorrow, I’ll have to skip down Memory Lane and tell all the juicy details, but since I’m dying from lack of true sleep and thus feel terribly drowsy, I’ll leave you with this teaser of an introduction. In the coming days I’ll post a day-by-day anecdote of my adventures - hope it doesn’t bore you all too much!

I’m going to refrain from recapping my entire experience thus far at Intel ISEF - I’ll save that for later tonight when I’m not in a rush and am relaxing on my bed. I will say, however, that I’ve been desperately scouting out the other MIT’12ers that are currently here at the international event! Omar and I, both dejected that Matt Mcgann’s reception ended up cancelled, decided that we’d gather ourselves for a get-together tomorrow at the CNN Center. By way of guest list, I’ve found at least eight of us here, and there could very well be more if we are able to get the news out via word of mouth. Very exciting indeed, but I will confess I do miss people back home. I hear CS class today was very exciting; unfortunately I had to miss every moment of it.

Oh well, I suppose =) Missing CS for a week at Intel ISEF is totally worth it, especially getting to attend that panel this afternoon with the Nobel prize laureates. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to get ready for the welcome event tonight at the Georgia Aquarium..!