So... It's been a while

Let me just start with that Jahnvi is in my class now. It's a complicated story, and I'll let her tell it, but she's in my class! 

Yesterday our work in class mostly involved working on out the density of stars nearby to us. Though class was overall fun, I found the assignment really frustrating. I doubted myself too much so I listened to other people's wrong ideas, so I kept getting caught in the same loop. After a while I decided that I really just wanted to figure out how to do the problems on my own, as with everyone elses opinions it wasn't really working out for me, and I didn't understand everything. Sadly by the time I had figured out that I needed to listen to my own ideas, it was time to move onto something else. 

Nikita getting weird with probability

We have projects due next Friday and quite some time yesterday was used to try and figure out resources we could use to collect data for and  use for calculatons. The most difficult part was trying to decide exactly what to research for my project. There were plenty of topics that I'm interested in that just seem too easy to find out the answer for, or that I didn't have the data to conduct a project about. I didn't end up deciding my project topic yesterday, and instead focused on the lab.

At one point in class Nikita and Jahnvi both opened their books to the same page and Nikita went a little crazy finding out the probability. 

After class I went on a walk for a bit, had dinner and then worked for hours trying to finish my lab. I was beyond excited when I(finally) found out the numbers I needed and they checked to be correct. I spent an hour and a half trying to just get information from Topcat(An application we use) to Excel. I'm convinced Kara is magically as right after she walked into the room I figured out exactly what I had to do.

 It was overall a pretty weird day.

A view from my walk

Today was a more fun of a day. 

Jahnvi and I grabbed a quick breakfast before heading to physics where we calculated the temperature and angular diameter of the Sun using a mirror and a piece of paper. Sadly I didn't get any pictures of this, because the image moved quickly. The lab was actually pretty fun, and easy enough to understand so I had a good time doing it. I tried to tune people out and go with my instinct initially and then find out if I was right or not, because if it's my mistake I understand so much better exactly what I did wrong, rather than trying to comprehend where someone else went wrong. 

Ms. Ramseyer held a little group of us who didn't quite understand the most recent section in the book, or dedicated much more time to the lab than the book. Most of the information was just review, but once she got to the last 2 steps that I actually needed help on, it proved to be useful. 

During lunch Jahnvi and I walked over the the Econ building where her former law class was so she could tell the law professor that she had switched classes. We then went back to our class so she could do some makeup work while I worked on the morning lab. Later Raqeeb and Kara brought lunch in tupperware from the dining hall so that was nice of them.

In the afternoon our time was dedicated to working on our projects. I finally decided to do my project on pulsars, which you'll get to know more about as I calculate more about a particular pulsar in the Crab Nebula. I'm really thankful that I went to talk to Professor Kron about my project as I had pulsars as a main idea but very few specifics about what I should be looking for in terms of my project. With his help I figured out more specifics.

After class, considering that neither Jahnvi or I have done something fun all week, we decided to go with an RA and a group to go get Indian food. It was an interesting experience. All of the students on the trip except for us where a part of another program, RIBS, and it was their last day of classes, so most of them leave tomorrow. We talked to a few people including a guy named Anthony who sang and danced throughout the journey, he can actually sing so it was quite entertaining. There was also a girl named Lyndsey on the trip and I had met her before at one point, funnily enough not only do our first names read the same way, but our last names rhyme. 

The restaurant!

We took a bus, the L, and a bus to get to this South Indian restaurant, and it was overall a long journey. The food was actually pretty good, but nothing had enough of a spice kick for me or Jahnvi. My order accidentally ended up getting switched up with someone else's, but I really didn't mind as Jahnvi had also ordered what I wanted , and I tried a few bites. The meal I ended up with was better. 

Jahnvi's plate of food!

The way back was exhausting and we didn't make it back to the dorms until nearly our 11 pm curfew. 

Chilling in Kara and Olivia's room