The E-pocalypse

Now it couldn't have gone unnoticed that a short week after spring break, we were in for the most famous Mines-specific holiday of the year, suitably dubbed "Engineering Days".  Nobody calls it this of course.  Every year they come up with a play on words around the shortened, and more colloquially known "E-Days" that range from pirates (Sail the 7 SEa-Days), to the twenties, to even zombies.  The theme for this year's E-Days was of course, a zombie apocalypse, what with the real apocalypse going on at the end of this year anyhow (2012).  It was soon known by all as the Epocalypse or Epocalypse-Days.

After weeks of anticipation, stocking up on cardboard, and preparing for another zombie apocalypse, E-Days was finally here, and the night kicked off with a comedy show, casino night, and ceremonial male beauty pageant known as "Mr. Big Digger".  But the real fun started on Friday.  

As part of the biggest collective group of Mines students you will ever see outside, I joined several hundred other students bright and early Friday morning to participate in the traditional Ore Cart Pull down Colfax Avenue.  With enough people in white T-shirts to stretch almost a mile down the street, people in the front holding onto the rope pulling the ore cart, a donkey wandering around, several people on unicycles, and a group of adventurous people playing follow the leader, the group proceeded down Colfax for about 7 miles until we ran into the Capitol and stopped to listen to some quick speeches before we began our feast on free Chipotle Burritos.  By the end we were all happily exhausted with our stomachs full, and lazily rode the bus back to Mines to participate in my personal favorite E-Days festivity, taking naps outside and playing the guitar.  Other events of the night included a stunning Tesla coil demonstration, an Undie Run where donating clothes gives you an excuse to run around in your underwear, and a surprisingly fun Dubstep/Techno Concert.

The next morning awoke with a must-see, the legendary cardboard-boat race down Clear Creek.  I'm telling you, the people here never run out of things to do with that Creek.  From all over, people brought their brightly painted and duct-taped work to be put to the test of floating down the river, competing for prizes ranging from best themed to best fall or crash.  Surprisingly, several boats held up fairly well, and were able to make it down the river 3 and sometimes even 4 times before becoming too waterlogged to stay rigid.  I was so excited by it that me and a friend are convinced that we're making a boat and entering the contest next year.  

Next was the carnival, the home of the catapult competition, mining competition, and very long lines for free food, but free food nonetheless.  I find it very rewarding to give up some time and volunteer at events like these.  I ended up being the balloon-blower for a kid's (as well as grown-up's) carnival booth, and it was one of the funnest parts of my day.  As a contradiction to the usual reputation that E-Days is known for (lots of beer), I ended the last night going to a root-beer keger and a fun late night of playing Super Smash Brothers.  Sunday the campus was quiet, it was evident that many were hungover or just plain exhausted from the weekend.  Our Mines brains snapped back on and we tried to get as much homework done as we could, but our efforts usually ended up being futile.  That was okay though, because it was the weekend, and it was nice outside, and who really does homework on E-Days anyway?  Little did we know what was to come.  Should have listened to my classmate and read her hand-drawn sign that was displayed on the ore cart pull, "REPENT FOR THE END IS NIGH, FINALS ARE COMING" (to be continued...)

Adventures in Low Places

During this fine stretch of spring at Mines, in between all of the physics homework, epics sketching, and unexpected NHV essays, I ran into a group of people called Intervarsity.  They welcomed me with open arms, and starting from scratch, I began to attend more and more of their meetings, bible studies, and events.  One fabulous event put on by not only Intervarsity, but all of the youth groups around campus every February is called Soiree.  You'll have to find an insider, or someone who speaks french, to find out how to pronounce it.  Inviting every girl on campus, all the guys get together and organize this huge, fancy, and hilarious dinner/comedy show/dance night that is definitely a must-see.  And as a perk, the whole event is put on through the goodness of their hearts, at no cost to the ladies.  It was spectacular to say the least, it literally felt like we were at Broadway.

At Broadway, Soriee 2012

Now I couldn't talk about spring this year without mentioning our extreme plans for Spring Break!  A couple months back, me and a friend ended up going to an info session about a trip to Costa Rica planned for spring break.  I didn't really think I would go at first, but after some mutual coercion and longing for culture, my mind soon changed.  Led by two guides through the Outdoor Recreation Center, I was part of a group of 12 students that ventured to the lands of Costa Rica during our break from school.  I'm still quivering with excitement from the trip (and recovering from getting sick afterwards), which ended almost two weeks ago.  Jumbled together with a group of random people that somehow went to Mines too, we were quickly introduced to the culture of Costa Rica after finding our way around multiple towns, ordering food, and just living daily life in a different way.  The trip was emphasized as a down-to-Earth backpacker-style travel experience with a focus on interacting with locals to get as valuable and relevant a learning experience as possible.  We carried everything we needed for the trip on our backs and moved from hostel to hostel through Turrialba, to a town on the coast called Puerto Viejo, and finally San Jose.  Included as part of the fee for the trip, we participated in a canyoneering experience where we zip-lined through trees and repelled down waterfalls.  We also spent two days rafting on the river Pacuare and had the opportunity to visit a local indigenous village.  By the end of the trip, we were inseparable, and had shared so many fears, moments, and snacks that we just didn't care about boundaries any more.  It was quite inspiring for me, after having worked as a girl scout camp counselor, to see a group that had challenged itself so much and grown so much in such a short amount of time. 

 

After getting up every day to do something new and running around with heavy backpacks on all week through the extreme humitidy, we were thoroughly exhausted once the time came to return to the States.  When we got back, we couldn't stop saying "Ola" and "Gracias" to people for weeks!  As an afterthought, I just have to say that I have never experienced an entire bag of stuff getting so smelly that I had to wash everything to get the smell out (for some of my clothes, twice).  All in all, an epic trip with an epic group of people, to a beautiful and inspiring country.  I really hope I can give something in return to Costa Rica someday.  Although the cost may be great, great as in practically a whole semester's work study earnings, travel truly opens the mind in ways that just book learning can't.

Speaking of which, I've got some bookwork to do.  Until next time, Pura Vida!

A Truly Epic Friday

Things are starting to come together, while at the same time, piling up like crazy.  As an attempt to make my 8 AM physics-studio-mornings a little less stressful, I started getting up and going to yoga at 6:15.  It was perfect for studio in the morning because I was totally awake by the time 8:00 rolled around, it calmed me down to focus and face the ensuing physics problems, and it got me to the CTLM Building just in time to miss the line at Einstein's and be able to eat a delicious bagel for breakfast!  The idea would have been perfect, except for the fact that when the work piled up, I simply could not get myself to bed at an adequate time to wake up that early.  I blame our writing class (NHV) (and also multiple applications that needed to be done: applying to be a Resident Assistant (RA), the McBride Honors Program, etc).

I feel like I'm learning a lot about what a real engineer does at his/or her day-to-day job with all this talk about engineering ethics in NHV and writing of clarification memos and letters of understanding in our engineering design class (EPICS).  Although being required to print out and have read 10-15 page papers every Tuesday and Thursday proves to be considerably more difficult when your printer decides to break on you and you end up running to the library to print them off for $1.50 apiece, I do enjoy the break from math and science, however small it is.

But enough talk about all this ethics and EPICS... the really epic thing that happened this winter so far was the outrageous, unexpected, and much needed snow day!  There I was on Thursday night, panicking about Friday's Club Fair which I hadn't planned for at all, trying to figure out how to work my work-study job from 8:00 AM to 11:00 while at the same time setting up my booth, and stressing about the upcoming RA group interviews, when I finally wrenched myself from the computer and gave in to sleep.  I awoke to a confused self answering my cell phone at 5 in the morning and listened to an automated message that I didn't fully understand.  I checked my email a couple hours later and the truth was made clear.  SNOW DAY!

Mines was officially declared a winter wonderland, and without a care in the world, everyone frolicked like penguins to the sledding hill.  From all over campus, people brought their laundry baskets, sleds, tubes, cardboard boxes, snowboards and skis and let gravity do the rest of the work.  I don't remember a day comparable to this day where every person I ran into was just so utterly happy.  Sledding was followed by finishing the entire 2nd Lord of the Rings extended movie, ruthless snowball fights, and a girl's night complete with truth or dare and a finale of Pride and Prejudice.

Another notable event this winter was the 3rd largest (ever) Spring Career Day which also happened to be on Valentine's day (formerly known at Mines as Irish Potato Famine Celebration Day).  One thing to look out for before each Career Day at Mines is free root beer floats!  The Career Center makes an effort to hand these out at random places around campus along with each Career Day's Manual for the entire week before the career fair.  Because I work at the Career Center, I had the pleasure of handing some out, as well as stuffing some 600 bags of Smarties and Nerds (get it, smarties and nerds?) to give to all of the employers that were on their way here to seek out their treasured Mines students.  Whether you're a freshman looking for a summer internship (these do in fact exist!), a grad student looking for a career, or a cheap college student looking for some free "schwag", Career Day is the place to be on Valentine's Day.  I'm pretty sure I just ate chocolate for lunch that day so I could go to Career Day during my lunch break.  Some great finds this year were: a loaf of bread, a kite, an egg full of silly putty, and a set of recycled/compostable pens and pencils.

Happy Valentine's Day/Career Day/ Irish Potato Famine Celebration Day! (duct tape roses made by yours truly)

A Break from Calculus (and How I Developed an Emotioal Reaction to a Certain Shade of Red)

The Light Bright I took back to the college, a great de-stresser

The break was sweet, and so was the chocolate.  The time spent with my relatives in Salt Lake was invaluable, as I hadn't been able to spend Christmas with them in about 2 years (the year before, I was in Brazil...long story).  My traditionally Norwegian family took me "skiing" (I was snowboarding) a fair amount of times using their pre-bought lift tickets.  This was a blessing for me as a poor college student, despite the unfortunate lack of snow in Utah.  While visiting family, I got to play like a little kid again with my little cousins, scribbling down songs on little books we made, building Lego hotels, and feeding imaginary pandas.  After feeling nostalgic over the old Light Bright (above), I had a sudden urge to take it back to college with me and put it in my dorm room.  Another thing I ended up taking back to my room full of sleds and instruments was an unused hammock, one thing I definitely recommend to anyone in the dorms with lofted beds!

In Front of the Sherpa House Restaurant on Washington

Soon it was time to come back home (Colorado), and I was quite excited, concerning the numerous winter storm warnings for Golden that had been sent to my Mines email over the break.  Much to my delight, we arrived in Golden a day early, right in time to see a fresh new layer of snow blanketing the town, and spent the day hiking around Golden and visiting local restaurants (there is no lack of restaurants in Golden).  Lunch at the Sherpa House was especially enjoyable, complete with a buffet of traditional Nepalese dishes, chai tea, and snowed-on prayer flags outside.

Before I knew it, it was time for classes again, and I was running off to my first physics class, blissfully unaware of what I was getting myself into.  As of right now, having been to class 3 times, I can say that this class has by far the most stressful, intensive, and vexing material I have ever had the pleasure of being graded on.  I guess that's why Mines has the reputation of having the second hardest physics program in the nation.  As a slight disclaimer, this is coming from someone who had no prior physics experience (in English).  I'll admit it, it's not true that I'd never touched the subject before, I was part of a high school physics class for a semester in Brazil.  I chose to have that experience over choosing to go to high school as usual for another semester and maybe getting a chance to take physics at the small community college in my already small town (physics was not offered at the time in my high school).  And it's also not true that I don't have a profound interest in the subject.  But when it comes down to it, I can hardly believe the amount of mistakes a person can make on one problem.

 The real trial in this class is the online homework; your hard-earned numbers are met with either a green box of joy, or a reddish-gray box of disapproval telling you that your numbers are simply "Incorrect.".  Now I understand why many Mines students have an inherent emotional reaction to that certain shade of red.  Without help and support from friends, I don't know what I would have done.  If one thing is for sure in this class, collaboration is a must.  And if you ever find yourself having emotional reactions to red boxes, I strongly encourage you to take a deep breath, seek others who are probably going through the same feelings that you are, and give yourself a second chance.  After all, you have 15 tries, and at least with myself, it's not that I don't understand the material, it's usually that I forgot how to integrate, wrote things down wrong, left my calculator in radians, or simply need someone to tell me that the answer is in km/h and not m/s.

Although physics can be aggravating at times, in a strange way, I kind of enjoy it.  It's like looking through all the clues to find the answer to a murder mystery.  Anyhow, here's to being done with the first full week of classes!