Friends And Fieldtrips

We spent the day on a “field trip” going around the research facilities around campus. It was really nice to be out of the classroom for once. We started off going through a microbiology lab where we learned how to stain bacteria to make them more visible. The process was very simple and only required a few steps. We all got to see an E. coli bacteria, strep throat bacteria, and a ton others with very long names.

Lookin' pretty nerdy in our safety glasses.

Once we left the microbiology lab, we went to the chemistry labs with Mr. Matt Windsor as the speaker. He was pretty hilarious, and I really enjoyed our time there. He did this really cool experiment to make silver on the bottom of a flask. The silver was perfectly spread across the bottom that I could see my reflection on it. Afterwards, we went touring through chemical research facility labs to see what a chemist does on a daily basis. I found out that these chemist researchers actually have to work on the same problem/equation for months. I really wonder how they don’t get tired of doing the same thing every day; I think it would drive me nuts.

Inside a lecture classroom.

After our fieldtrip, I head to my Arête class on the first floor. We again went over the lovely Beatles song and we officially made plans for the video we are going to do. I personally don’t like singing alone, and having my face on camera, but it has already been decided that I would probably get both. I guess we will see how that goes later, once we start filming.

Of course, tonight was the night for our proctor night! Overall, it was incredibly fun. We hung out in one of the classrooms and played a “How Well Do You Know Your Roommate” game, which my roommate and I unfortunately lost. Trust me, we DO know each other well, it’s just that the questions were completely random, and it was very difficult to process all the information I knew about her – I swear. Anyway, after the game we all watched Mulan on the huge screen. It was really cool because it was all dark, and we had seats similar to the movie theatre ones, which definitely added to whole the  movie-feel.

Our deliciouse food.

The "movie theatre"

This Proctor Night was so fun and I enjoyed hanging out with these people who I call my friends. They really are the craziest, sweetest, and coolest group of girls I have ever met and I never regret a moment spent with them. Tonight was definitely one of those nights that I will remember for a long time; this is definitely what I call a day well spent.

Left to right: Sara, Hannah, Meera, and Avery

From Women's Studies to Fried Chicken



A beautiful, sunny day in Nashville



Out of all the days I've been at this program, today was probably the most tiring. I don't even know why, because last night I probably had the most hours of sleep out of all the nights during my entire Ivy League Connection Journey. I get three hours of sleep, and I'm wide awake. I get 8 hours of sleep, and I'm almost dead. Okay, that was an exaggeration, but you know what I mean.

Today's class was devoted to a mini women's studies course. It was about women's voices and issues in the religions of Judaism and Christianity (tomorrow is Islam because of a guest speaker). I found it very interesting how looked down upon women are in these religions. You see, if men were the ones who organized, edited, and wrote these biblical texts, there's obviouslyt going to be a bias. Women are usually the ones referred to as the weak and the dependent ones. For example, Eve was the one blamed for creating sin. There are also many stories about women who have committed adultery. For some reason, biblical texts seem to refer to woman as the one's who commit sin, even though women are supposed to be gentle and caring.

On the other hand, men are considered the "leaders". They're supposedly strong and intelligent. It seems that because society has figured for so long that men are like this, God must be a man.  In my opinion, I don't think God has a gender. But to go further into the issue of men as the strong and the egoistic, supposedly men are more transcendent, and therefore, they are closer to God. This shows in what gender the leaders of the church are and what gender isn't.

The texts we read today were very complicated, but I feel the class did a great job finding out their meanings. We also had to do presentations about these argument essays, which I thought everyone's were great and insightful. Our teacher, Ms. Carolyn Davis, told us that the texts she's been giving us are texts they give to college graduates. With that said, the class did a great job. Basically the texts were about how women didn't seem to be as transcending and closer to God, because of their degrading and "sinful" past.

After our presentations, we went into a discussion about the presentations. One main question that stirred up in this discusssion was what was the reason for not throwing out the Bible, even though there are so many contradictions and things that degrade women. My answer to this was that the Bible is a book of history and morals. The book is open for interpretation, and so it is open for discussion. Without the book, who would believe the sermons/messages that the priests, rabbis, or pastors said? Also, even though the book has many contradictions and flaws, the book still has many of the morals and fundamentals that the world believes in today. In addition, the texts we read were argumentative essays about feminism in Christianity and Judaism, and so much of thevidence they cited for their argument were from biblical verses. With that said, the Bible is a source of history and a piece of evidence.

There was no "free-time" today. Instead, it was Proctor Group Night! My proctor group and I ate at a much fancier restaurant than I thought it would be. It was called Cabana, and they served very tasty American food. I was dying for fried chicken this entire trip, and so I finally ended my craving by ordering some. Overall, we had a "chill" and fun time.

Some of the guys from my proctor group and Carlton



My proctor group, along with another proctor group



Proctor group!



The appetizers! The one to the right is alligator. Yum

My fried chicken breast, and some of the guys' pizzas.



Giha's (my friend in my proctor group) baby back ribs!

This week is going by really fast; tomorrow is already Wednesday. For some reason, I kept thinking today was Monday still. Anyway, tomorrow, the entire VSA students and staff members will be attending a dinner in the house of Dean Wcislo of Hank Ingram House. There, we will have the opportunity to see what it really takes to get into Vanderbilt. I hope that what I find out at this dinner will make me more confident about applying here, not less. I guess I'll just have to find out.



P.O.G.O.s Are The Ultimate Compliments

Just Chillin'

Having late night talks with your roommate is always a great way to bond. However, these late night talks don’t make it easy to get up in the morning. Yes, it was a little hard to drag myself out of bed and get dressed, but I don’t regret staying up so late. Talks like these are really great ways to make close friends – I promise. This morning started like any weekday would; I ate breakfast and walked to class. The only thing different about it was the biscuit with apple jelly I had this morning. It was absolutely delicious.

Anyway, class today was mainly lectures that focused on the chemistry behind retro viruses and why it is hard to find a drug and/or vaccine for it. A lot of the concepts were completely new to me, but I caught on pretty quickly. I had no idea that monocytes and eosinophil were immune system cells. I also found out the options to stop diseases like HIV/AIDS from spreading. Since it uses a host cell to turn their RNA to DNA, chemists can stop this by inhibiting a certain aspect of this process; such has inhibiting CCR5, the proteases, or other proteins to completely halt the multiplication of the HIV virus. This is a lot harder than it sounds, but so far scientists have created many ways to stop AIDS with the newest one using AZT to block the transformation of RNA to DNA.

Later on, we started discussing clinical trials for drugs. All drugs have to go through Phase 1 for safety, Phase 2 for effectiveness, and Phase 3 for a trial on a larger scale to decide whether a drug passes or not. Of course, clinical trials call for clinical volunteers. We spent the rest of the time discussing which people shouldn’t volunteer, who could, and who will need assistance. For example, we went over a case of a pregnant teenage girl who wanted to try a drug in Phase 2. This is especially risky since she is young, pregnant, and an immigrant. After going over the many problems this girl could possibly have, all of the groups had to make their own consent form for the girl, stating the risks, benefits, and rights. Overall, it was a simple task and we nearly got all the necessary facts for the girl. I think this exercise was a great way to help us understand what clinical trial patients go through, as well as what’s required of the drug companies performing the trials.

Nowadays, nearly all clinical trials are done efficiently and humanely; however a few decades ago, it was not required to be done that way. For instance, when the U.S. did trials for baby food, they decided it was best to test it on African babies. Since the African mothers were not given exact directions for feeding their children, many of the babies died. This is obviously horrible, and I can’t believe the testers did this without properly informing the Africans. It is as if they were just animals you can test whenever you want. This makes me grateful for the improved system of today.

My Arête class this week is Glee, a singing class. When I arrived, I was a little nervous since I am not much of singer. However, my nerves quickly went away when I saw that everyone there was really cool. The teachers are also really nice and actually let you sing in any way you like, unlike Choirs where you all have to sound synchronized and exactly alike. I really enjoy this kind of freedom, and I am looking forward to this weeks’ Arête.

My shirt before the blue

Once Arête was over, I head to Hank Ingram to make tie-dye t-shirts. I have only made one before in my entire life so I was excited to create my own shirt. Unfortunately, the beautiful image in my head did not come out as nice. I added too much blue so the whole shirt is pretty much a solid dark color. I really hope the final product turns out better than how it looks now.

Tie-dying!

Tonight, we also had our daily proctor meeting where we talked about our day and how we felt about it. These meetings are truly great ways to bond – especially with P.O.G.O.s to pass around. P.O.G.O.s is positive gossip written in letter form that someone can write to anyone in the group. Tonight I had about three, and all three were really thoughtful. It is really nice to know that you mean so much to people. P.O.G.O.s really are the ultimate compliments - I feel so loved. In all honesty, my proctor group is really the best group of people I have ever met. I can’t wait for our Proctor Night tomorrow!

Fast and Blurry Day

Class today was such a blur for me. It felt so slow when I was in it, but now that I'm out of class, I feel like it was so fast. Perhaps I'm feeling like this because I woke up at 6:20 AM to play basketball at the recreation center with some of "the guys".

Anyway, today's class was mostly more information and lectures about the three religions' (Islam, Christianity, and Judaism) scriptures. I found it interesting how the bible has so many more books that weren't included in it. What if there was crucial information about Christianity that wasn't put in the book, because a few "leaders" more than a thousand years ago said not to put those books in it? I was also puzzled to find out that the Old Testament books in Christianity differ in the order of the books compared to the Jewish Old Testament book order. Scholars say Christians changed the order of the books to better suit the story of the coming of Jesus Christ--that the Old Law wasn't working and that a New Covenant was coming. I feel as if by the end of this class, my whole perspective on religion will change, which I feel like a little bit of it has already. Well, I guess that's why I chose this class, right? I needed, and still need, a better understanding of religion-- not only to understand and discover myself, but to understand others.

A funny but embarrassing moment in class today was when I was the last one to come into the room after our ten minute break. As I returned into the room, all the lights were off, and I didn't see any of the eleven other students, my T.A., nor my teacher there. Befuddled by why this was happening and wondering if I entered the wrong classroom, I said, "What?" Suddenly, everybody revealed themselves behind the door and to the right where I couldn't see any of them. I can't lie; they got me.

My new Arete class is Stage Combat! I know it's going to be a great week, because of this class. I always wanted to fake-punch people, and I'm definitely going to do that plenty of times when I'm back home with my friends.

To be honest, I feel like barely anything has happened today. All I did was tie-dye a white t-shirt and take a trip to CVS. I guess because of this Ivy League Connection trip, taking "breaks" and "relaxing" a little bit makes me feel as if I wasted my day. After all, I only have less than two weeks until I'm back home! I need to make everyday count. I just wish the students here had more freedom to go wherever we want like the other programs, such as UPenn or Brown. Still, it's nice to be in an organized program and have the opportunity to do so many activities with so many different people.

Well, I'll end this second Monday with a picture of the night sky ready to take over. Good night.


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Week Two Has Begun

It was a little difficult for me to wake up this morning, but that's always the case with Mondays. Usually, one tends to sleep in a little later on the weekends so they have a hard time waking up at their normal, earlier time when Monday comes around. However, despite my difficulties I was still able to get up half an hour earlier than I was supposed to. 

When I had woken, I did all my normal morning rituals before heading to breakfast with my friends. I almost choked on my orange juice when Katherine made one of her famous silly faces. My friends Mason and Amanda playfully reprimanded me for not finishing all my food, and we all lingered in the commons area chatting a while before we parted ways. 

Thankfully, it was not as rainy here today as it was the past week. The sun's rays beamed down on us intensely, and the humidity was so thick it was like you were swimming in it. I stepped out of the commons area and lifted my head slightly to feel the sun on my body. I walked with a group of people past the statues of children playing and the green landscape to my classroom. It was a lot colder in there than it was outside. I really hate how the inside of the Vanderbilt is so much colder than the outside, but I suppose it is better than not having and air conditioning at all. 

We started off our day writing for about 20 minutes in our journals, and then we talked about common house tropes in mysteries. I learned that houses will usually have a recurring theme in mystery stories: they will always be run down, abandoned, secluded, etc. We spent a majority of the classroom discussing house tropes and then we listened to the story of a young boy who stumbled upon an abandoned home deep in a forest with his friends. They each proclaimed that they wanted  to enter the house, and being boys, they did so even though none of them really wanted to go in. 

When the boys entered the house, they discovered that all the rooms were packed with old furniture. Random items were scattered throughout the house. They found old newspaper, letters, and clothing in the closets and drawers. Many of the doors in the house were locked or had furniture blocking them, "as though they were trying to prevent something from coming out." 

All this was a radio recording and was based on the true story of a journalist, who eventually became obsessed with the house at a young age. He and his friends wondered what could have happened to the owners on the house ( who he discovered had the surname Mason from the letters) to make them leave without taking any of their stuff. Being young boys, the journalist and his friends conjured up tales of horror to explain the mysterious old house. 

As the protagonist of the story gets older, he uses technology to aid him in his search for answers. He does research online and finds a distant relative of the Masons, a great-great-grandaughter named Samantha. The protagonist gives him the box of stuff he collected from the old house and asks her for some more information on the Masons. " No one will tell me anything," Samantha confessed when he asked her what the story was behind the house. " They either don't know or they don't want to tell me."

Eventually, the protagonist does discover what happened to the Masons. " The children didn't want the house," and old friend of the Masons told him. " After the Masons died, their was a property dispute that the kids did not want to get involved in. They decided to just burn the house with everything in it in a practice fire for the trainees at the fire department." The protagonist was disappointed at this discovery, but he was relieved to finally know the truth.

After listening to the broadcast, we gathered our The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes book and walked to Sweet CeCe's for some frozen yogurt while we read. The combination of frozen yogurt and reasonably cool air from the air conditioner made for a very nice reading environment. I ate my chocolate yogurt with peanut M&Ms as I read one of Sherlock's crazy adventures with Dr. Watson. 

I was really excited after class had ended because I have fencing this week for Arete. We learned some basic fencing positions and I got to hit a teacher with a saber, which was pretty cool. I liked the feeling of having a weapon in my hand and hitting someone who I knew could not feel my blows. It made me realize how skilled and graceful one has to be as a fencer. 

Week one has officially ended and week two has just started. We have a lot of events planned for the week, and I am excited for all of them. Now that I have made regular friends and am comfortable here, I look forward to everyday. There is never a dull moment here at VSA. 

Operation Overwhelm

The sun was shining through the closed blinds as I got up this morning. It was a beautiful, warm morning and was the same as any other. I’m kind of getting tired of the same breakfast everyday: eggs, bacon, and hash browns. I really hope they switch it up a bit, or I’ll settle for cereal every morning to eat a little healthier.

We began our week of Pharmacology class with some lectures. Lectures in the morning aren’t the best idea, and we learned by the end of class today that we are more alert in the afternoon. So next time, we decided to have discussions in the morning to keep us on our toes, then lectures after lunch. We began reviewing the social impacts and regulations of drugs, then went more in-depth with HIV/AIDS. AIDS originated from a transmission of the virus from a chimpanzee to a human.  Did you know that HIV/AIDS is the sixth leading cause of death of people ages 25-44 in the United States and in 2008, 2.1 million children under the age of 15 had HIV/AIDS? To brighten things up a bit, early detection of HIV can prevent AIDS. But, I am still astounded by the large number of children who have this terrible virus. Three drugs are needed to treat HIV, and developing drugs takes at least 15 years. 

Preview days at Vanderbilt are the best. They have a whole assortment of food. From salmon to pizza, and a whole dessert bar, you will definitely find something to cater to your taste buds.  I especially enjoyed their pecan pie. Boy, was it delicious!

After a wonderful meal, we began class with a discussion on informed consent.  I acquired much knowledge about those papers that look like you HAVE to sign, when in reality it is not even a legal document. An informal consent is rather a process that acknowledges your respect for the people signing it. As a group, we created our own informed consent on a hypothetical situation. It involved a 15-year-old pregnant girl who is a first generation immigrant, high-school dropout student, and who lives in a poor rural area. She is told by her mother, who heard from her neighbor, that there is a clinical trial going on to stop the bleeding during her pregnancy. We discussed the problems that would arise when presenting an informed consent form that is written in a 15^th grade level to this young girl. To combat the problems, we created an informed consent form that catered to the young girl’s needs. In it, she was informed on what’s going to happen during the clinical trial, the risks, benefits, alternatives, her confidentiality, and compensation. It was fun writing out our own form, making sure every detail was mentioned, and that she was able to easily understand it. Only 22% of all people who take informed consent forms actually read it.  To be honest, I don’t usually read every word written. For one, it’s hard to understand and it’s very long. But even if you sign a form, you have the right to leave the trial or whatever it is at any time with no reason at all.  I was amazed to learn all these new facts that I can apply to my life.

I learned about many informed consent behaviors that turned disastrous. For example, the US sent over baby formula to Africa so they can test it. It’s not their country, so they didn’t really care. Of course, many African mothers gave it to their babies, but they weren't informed that they needed to use sterile water. As a result, many babies died. It’s very unfortunate to know that they would do this to a certain population. Back then, the US had many prejudices against certain people. I’m very thankful there are more regulations and laws today that prevent things like this to happen again.

After a very overwhelming,but informative Pharmacology session, I headed over to my Arête class, fencing. It was really something different for me. I am not a very athletic person, but I enjoyed it. We learned how to hold the sword, how are stances are, and how to move forward and backward. I’m excited and scared at the same time for when we actually get to fight each other. Fortunately, we have padding and a helmet on, so that should calm my nerves.

Free time passed like a breeze. I take advantage of this hour everyday beginning to blog. I then headed to dinner and ate some cheesy, meaty lasagna and a piece of carrot cake. My friends and I rushed over to the tie dye area, because it was first come first serve for the white t-shirts. We were the first ones to get there and got to work! It was my first time making my own tie-dye shirt, and it was pretty fun. I hope the paint stains on my fingers pay off! Since it was also SOFT night, we walked to CVS to grab a few things and dropped by Ben and Jerry's. I bought a delicious iced coffee. I honestly don't know if coffee works for me. Anyways, when we arrived back on campus, I immediately went to the laundry room. I was able to use a washer right away. It's really a madhouse down there, knowing 150 students need to use it. Since this is more of a summer camp, I don't get a whole college experience but I do experience dorm life. Everyday we have many activities, so our schedule is tight and packed. Times are strict, and there's not too much freedom. Nevertheless, I still do experience many aspects of college. From being away from home to folding my own laundry, I'm getting a little taste of it. 

My proctor group is really adding to this wonderful experience, and I can't wait for our proctor group night tomorrow! More bonding, more fun!

I Love the Weekend

I pray a lot.

This morning, the Lived Religion class and myself took another study trip. This time, it was to a predominantly African American church called Watson Grove Missionary Baptist Church. I was very excited for this trip, because I've never been to a church where there is gospel singing. I knew before-hand that a church like this was going to have a lot of passion, flare, and a whole lot of "hallelujahs". Partially, I was correct. Nonetheless, I was still utterly amazed by the fervor in all of the church people's hearts and voices.

The sense of community in Watson Grove was, no doubt, extremely present. Coming in, I was not just greeted by friendly handshakes--like the people from the synagogue--but hugs as well. Not being afraid to just shout and praise God really showed their boldness--that they could care less what others thought about their arms raised in the air as high as can be. Everyone at the end of the service held hands as people were being blessed, and you could really feel the passion and yearning for God in their hearts. Many parts of the two hour service nearly made me cry, but I think I was holding the tears a back a little. I could just tell that many of the people in this congregation have been through a lot in their lives, and to see them at a church to always make sure to be close to God, was just very  uplifting to me.

The sermon was my favorite part. The pastor, being very young, was surprisingly much better than I thought he would be. It's not that I didn't think the sermon was going to be good; he is just very young (late 20's-early 30's). The zeal in his voice was undeniable. His analogies to the word of God were so creative and made so much sense to me--and especially to the people in the church. He spoke about what outreach really means. Outreach isn't bringing people to church; it's bringing the church to them. He mentioned that you can't be afraid of taking risks and getting out of your comfort zone. The way he spoke and presented himself at the podium was almost as if he was performing a spoken word poem. His sermon kept climaxing, until eventually, he started to sing, and that's when you knew that the sermon was over. I'll most definitely go to a church like this one again back at home sometimes. It was way too fun, and it made me feel very pumped up after leaving.

Anyway, I guess my wish came true today, because it was a beautiful, partly cloudy day! It was great, because this time no rain was going to stop our Sunday excursions. I went to the Frist Art Museum, where the special exhibits were quilts. Honestly, most of the art was either creepy or very amateur looking, which made my friends and I wonder how pieces of art like these made it into an art museum. I couldn't take any pictures, but I was able to in the kid's section of the museum. That part was definitiely the most interactive and hands-on, so here's a picture of my dream home--made of blocks--with my two friends, Elizabeth and Amber.

A church along Broadway

Well, we only stayed an hour there, so the museum was still very entertaining. The rest of our time in downtown was devoted to just exploring Broadway. I passed by plenty of restaurants and bars with live music, and of course, we just had to stop for some ice cream at Mike's Ice Cream Fountain. I tried an ice cream called "Super Hero", which was very--well I guess--normal tasting. At the end of the road, there is a beautiful view of the river, the Tennessee Titans stadium, and the bridge. The beautiful sky was a great bonus. 

The "Batman" Building and the beautiful sky

Along Broadway

Behind me, to the right, is the Tennessee Titans stadium.

Coming back from our excursions, it was free-time in Hank Ingram House. My friend, Eric, and I wanted to freestyle rap battle. Eventually, more people wanted to hang with us, without realizing what circle they were entering--a rap circle. Soon enough, the rap battling ended, and we played a variety of games like "Never Have I Ever" and a very fun game called Mafia. That much free-time today with friends was a great reliever from everything, and we shared so many laughs.

It was nice to hang out with a different circle of friends and meet more new people. Perhaps I'll know the entire student body of VSA by the end of this program? That would be pretty cool. I just realized I didn't say one word to Hannah or Yessenia today. I said maybe a sentence to Narges. Well, I just hope the girls are doing good without their "lone wolf". Now don't take what I just said the wrong way; I'm glad my cohort and I are being so social and making friends. It's been really fun here.

Alexa, Elizabeth, Amber, and Anna

 Tomorrow, class starts up again. I'm going to play basketball again at the Recreation Center with "the guys" at 6:30 AM; that should be fun. Good night!