While typically I sleep early, avoid daily runs, and don't take things that don't belong to me, I've spent the past 100+ hours staying up super-late, diligently going running, and swiping free food and giveaways that should rightfully go to the extremely awesome '14s (seriously, I love the freshmen) now dashing about campus.

Essentially, I've been trying to do everything possible to distract myself from the fact that Camp Kesem 2010 is over and I'm back in the Real World - which sadly doesn't have nearly as many hugs, spontaneous bursts of song, or sunbutter. Despite my most spirited efforts, however, I have gone into CK withdrawal.

~*~

I wouldn't have believed you if, before camp began, you had told me that I would soon have a six-year-old in my arms, crying about how hard it was for her to see her mother sick, how her fifth and sixth birthdays were events she wanted to forget, and how she sometimes had to make meals on her own for herself and her two brothers.

I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me that in one week, a single group of college students could take a boy with an autism spectrum disorder who sprinted away when people approached to a boy who agreed to (albeit reluctantly) give goodbye hugs on the last day, participate in games, and initiate conversations.

I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me that during my time at camp, I would forget about MIT, about home, about my laptop and reliable Internet/cell phone access, and that I would replace them all with the overwhelming satisfaction of playing Capture the Flag, dancing with seven-year-olds to the addicting melodies of Lady Gaga, and initiating a brief but awesome water war with a couple campers and a counselor, along with a glitter war with another counselor that continues to this day.

I wouldn't have believed you if you had said the return to MIT would hit me so hard that I would lie awake in my bed at 1 a.m. the night camp ended, staring at a drawing one of my campers gave me, and craving only the company of the magical people whose hugs I welcomed and whose stories and experiences I will never forget.

And yet, it all happened.

~*~

We kicked off CK '10 with a welcome ceremony for all our campers, in which counselors performed short skits. As a counselor for the Egyptians team, I posed Egyptian-style, with one hand in front of me and one behind, and made up half the second layer of a human pyramid. We cheered as, at the end of our skit, our group's campers ran through an arch of balloons and towards us, giving us high fives as they raced past. We spent the first night at camp making s'mores; one of my campers bashfully asked if I would be her s'mores-making partner. I think that was the first of many times my heart melted at camp.

The beauty of Camp Kesem 2010 was that despite the cold weather, the rain, and the consequent last-minute schedule changes that had to made, the kids loved it. We saw them grow closer, more confident, more comfortable, more outgoing. There were smiles and laughs and cheesy jokes. There was the O.R.T. report song (currently stuck in my head) that was sung at nearly every meal; O.R.T. stood for Our Remaining Tidbits and basically included anything that could not be used as compost. It was a daily contest to see if we could get less than a pound of O.R.T.; when we succeeded, the campsite staff came up with an O.R.T. version of "I Gotta Feeling." It was brilliant.

The most powerful portion of CK took place on Wednesday, at a ceremony called Empowerment. Every counselor and every camper sat down in a huge circle, and as the rain pattered against the windows, the campers began to open up one by one and share their thoughts and feelings. They held a ball of yarn when they spoke, and while holding on to the hanging end of yarn, tossed the ball to the next speaker when they were done. At the end, there was a giant web of yarn that stretched across the full expanse of the room. We made bracelets out of that web. I still have mine on.

I completely passed out on the bus ride back to MIT, but my dreams both then and now are filled with CK:

I miss the girls who lived in my cabin, who called me Kiwi (my camp name) and showered me with love.

I miss the camp doc, Baloo, who trusted me enough to help him out during the week.

I miss taking pictures like this - unique and treasured snapshots that take you back to a single, joyous moment, with all its smells, sights, and sounds.

I miss being completely silly - and having that be entirely normal.

CK '11 can't come fast enough.

Already, I'm sinking into my MIT routine, having done laundry once (be impressed!), as well as having visited the professor I'll be UROP-ing with this upcoming semester. It's so nice to be back; I didn't quite have a whole lot of time to think about MIT while traveling about during the summer. But now that I'm here, I've realized that I've missed this place. Coming back to Boston feels like coming home.

And yet, it's Boston that I'll be leaving tomorrow, as I pack my bags for what seems like the hundredth time this summer and head off to what I think will be one of the best weeks of my life. Camp Kesem kicks off tomorrow at 8 am, and I'm so excited about it!! I've pseudo-met my campers via a brochure that was sent out, detailing their individual profiles. I'm part of the camp group called the Egyptians; we're definitely going to be the most awesome group at camp =P Sorry, Spartans/Aztecs/Greeks/Vikings!

These past few days, spent preparing for the arts/crafts portion of camp, have kicked up memories of my February CK counselor interview. I remember being asked what I was most worried or scared about when it came to Camp Kesem. At that time, I responded that I wasn't sure if I could handle the emotional side of camp. Each and every child at Camp Kesem has at least one parent who has or has had cancer, and I was and still am afraid that if these kids confide in me, I won't know how to respond or won't be able to keep from tearing up. The follow-up question to this during the interview was how I'd handle this situation if it should occur, to which I said that I would that I would simply listen, be there for the camper, and save my bawling for later. Fingers crossed that I'm able to do that. I cry pretty easily - sad movies and books have an unseemly amount of control over me and my tear ducts.

It might help if I go to the LSC (Lecture Series Committee) screening of Date Night tonight, just to offset the danger of crying in favor of crinkly laugh lines. The LSC puts on several movies throughout the school year, many of which - like today's screening - are free. I'm a fan of both Steve Carell and Tina Fey and have wanted to see Date Night for such a long time. Tonight's my chance, yayy!!

Prepare yourselves for a giant entry the in a week or so. When I come back from Camp Kesem, I promise I'm going to have tons to say :)

All the traveling I've done this summer finally reminded me of a guest entry I meant to post a long long time ago, regarding the epic IAP 2010 travels of Carin '13. Better late than never, though, right? Here it is at last :)

~*~

This IAP I went to the Philippines with Yuri ’10 and Anita ’11 to work on a poverty action project sponsored by the Public Service Center (http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/) and the Global Poverty Initiative (http://gpi.mit.edu/). MIT hadn’t had too much involvement in the Philippines before, so it was our job to explore the country’s development needs, meet with NGOs (Non-government organizations) to hear about their day-to-day technology needs, and ultimately develop project ideas for MIT students to work on.

We spent most of our time working with an organization called Gawad Kalinga (GK). GK is an organization that operates throughout the Philippines and builds villages for deeply impoverished Filipinos. While living in and traveling between GK villages we looked at villagers’ lifestyles: how they cook, what they use for transportation, and what they do for jobs in order to see if MIT students can develop assistive technologies. We also talked to GK personal about what technologies might help them in their work, and what needs they saw in GK communities. Between the four villages, we got a pretty good idea of the needs of the urban and rural villages.

When we weren’t working with GK, we were in Manila meeting with other NGO’s and exploring local historic sights. We ended up meeting with representatives of Habitat for Humanity, visiting a Habitat village, meeting with an MIT alum about potential projects, and visiting various markets, churches, monuments and even a volcano.

Some Ideas our project generated:
• Human powered compost shredder for decreasing the amount of time required to produce fertilizer.
• Waterproof library system (protects books in the event of flooding)
• A Bamboo strengthening technique that would make bamboo a better building material for monsoon prone areas.
• A technique for recycling glass bottles and plastic bags into building materials, or something else useful (look at the 2nd picture to see why this would be useful/necessary)
• Marketing system/ outlets for handcrafts made in GK villages.
• Inexpensive enamel/ roof coating for metal roofs (reduce rusting and leaking in roofs)
• Inexpensive solar lighting system for rural villages.
• Alternative uses for bamboo and coconut husks (bikes, ect).

There are only a few of the ideas we generated but we have more, and we have lots more details about the projects I listed…. So if you’re coming to MIT (or you currently go here) and you’re interested in any of these projects, please contact me! Anyways here are some pictures from the trip:

We couldn’t resist.

A pretty typical stream in manila, those islands are trash.

The left side is a GK village, the right side isn’t.

GK Bibirao, a more rural village. Camarines Norte, Philippines.

Yuri, Anita, and me with a papaya tree. I both picked and ate my first papaya on the trip.

A Sibol (basically elementary) School in a GK village.

Anita meeting (and giving candy to) some local kids.

Pictures with Roma, who was our main contact with GK (far left); Tony Meloto, founder of GK (center); and a few other GK staffers.

Do you really need a caption?

Anita and I riding in a “tricycle”: a common form of transport in the Philippines.

Compost shredder that’s motor was destroyed during the last big flood. Apparently even when the shredder was operational, the cost of the gasoline often prevented it from being used.

~*~

If you're interested in contacting Carin, you can email her at cpking@mit.edu! She's awesome - and I'm going to miss having her on my floor next year :(

(1) Pride - The last time I blogged, I was on a train from Darmstadt to Salem; since then, I've spent about two weeks at the Salem International School and a week in Berlin, teaching at a Deutsche Bahn summer school program. It was just yesterday that I took a train from Berlin to Frankfurt - for what is, unbelievably, my last week here in Germany. On the last day of teaching in Berlin, we all received certificates and gifts (frisbees! and bags!) for our work, and we listened as the students stood up to receive their certificates and say a few words about the week. Touching would be a good way to describe that event.

(2) Sadness - Every time we leave a city, there's a flurry of good-byes, hugs, and promises to keep in touch. But even those promises can't shake off the sense that I've made some amazing friends and that I'm leaving them all too soon. Even the powerful Facebook-Gmail duo can only bridge a bit of the distance! Many of the kids we've taught are seriously considering schools in the U.S. for college; I have my fingers crossed that they all end up in the States - preferably at some tech school in Cambridge, Massachusetts :)

Jeanne and I - with Prospective '15s? =P

(3) Excitement - During the weekend of the Germany-Argentina match, we were in Berlin for a Deutsche Bahn case study, so we took the opportunity to attend the Fanmeile. We watched the game with 350,000 others underneath the hot sun, our throats parched because security had confiscated our 1.5 L water bottles, calling them 'too big.' A 4-0 win against Argentina was definitely not what anyone expected, but the celebrating was utterly thrilling. Unfortunately for us, we had a train to catch almost immediately after the game ended, but as we rushed through the crowd and raced towards the train station, I managed to get a video:

Also - KEIRA KNIGHTLEY AND VIGGO MORTENSEN WERE FILMING RIGHT NEXT TO THE SCHOOL WE WERE AT IN SALEM!! I didn't get to meet either of them though :(

(4) Gratitude - As I've mentioned in previous entries, we've been staying with host families during our time here in Germany, and I can't begin to say how thankful I am to all these kind people who have opened their homes, their hearts, and their refrigerators to my presence. They've taken special care to make sure I don't starve just because I'm vegetarian and that when I sleep, I do so on the most comfortable of mattresses. It feels as though I now have more mothers, fathers, sisters, and brothers; I like being in such a big family.

(5) Exhaustion - I've had to endure three 14-hour train journeys involving several transfers, crazy gypsies, and extensive sleep loss. I seriously hope nighttime train travel is not a part of my future - at least not any time soon. Linh '13, Jeanne '13, and I had a particularly epic journey when we made the trip from Salem to Füssen, the station closest to the Neuschwanstein Castle. We had to make a four-minute train transfer that probably maxed out the adrenaline in all our bodies. I ran to keep the train from leaving, and while I pressed my back against the train doors, using my limited strength to keep them from closing, Linh and Jeanne hefted 5 suitcases, 3 backpacks, and various other items down a staircase and up another one. It's probably one of the few times I've been glad not to know German - I'm pretty sure the train conductor wasn't shouting anything particularly nice at me...

It's okay, though; Neuschwanstein was so worth it!!

They wouldn't let me take pictures of the inside :(

(6) Humility - On Sunday, I visited the East Side Gallery: the largest remaining segment of the Berlin Wall, conveniently located five minutes away from my Berlin host's house :) There was something about seeing all those paintings and all the writing, done from people all over the globe that got to me. The wall, coupled with all the magnificent buildings in Berlin and the neighboring city of Potsdam, just made me feel so small; the world is much, much bigger than me and my little life. I left my own marks amongst the many that decorated the wall:

A section of the wall where people were actually allowed to write - I didn't break any rules, don't worry :)

This amused me.

(7) Shock - This is the last emotion I'm going to touch on, and I really hope the words that follow are more than just plain black letters dotting your computer screen ~*~

This past Saturday, I visited the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, located in the north of Berlin. I went on my own because the other girls were off traveling to various cities. I'm actually really glad I went by myself; it made the experience much more real and much more solemn. The gray skies and rain that graced Saturday morning just heightened the gloomy aura that tinged the trip.

I wanted to go to Sachsenhausen largely because despite learning about World War II in school, hearing Walter Kase (a Holocaust survivor) speak, and reading several Holocaust-related novels, including Night and Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, I've never completely grasped the fear, the pain, and the reality of the Holocaust. My visit to Sachsenhausen definitely changed that.

I saw the prison barracks, the living quarters, the infirmary, the mortuary, the site of the gallows, the execution trench, the graveyards. I saw people crying, people remembering, people mouthing the words that made up some of the most powerful quotes I've read in my life. I saw pictures and artifacts and stories of individuals I've never met in my life but wish I could right now - just to tell them they're brave and strong and some of the most incredible human beings to have ever stirred the soil of this planet.

I entered Sachsenhausen at 9 am on Saturday morning and left at 3 pm - beyond emotionally screwed up. I walked back to the Oranienburg train station almost in a daze, my feet filled with a dull ache that somehow permeated the rest of my body as well. Jeanne called me about 15 minutes after I left the camp; I barely remember our conversation, eclipsed as it was by my trek into the past.

Steps down to the mortuary.

One of the graveyards

Execution trench

Prison cell

Living quarters

Sachsenhausen artifact, 1961

I named this entry "Thoughts Are Like Traces of Birds in Heaven" not only because the words were painted on one portion of the East Side Gallery (see picture above) but also because I want so badly for the words to be true. My thoughts have fluttered to the victims of the Holocaust almost constantly since my excursion to Sachsenhausen, and I want desperately for those twitters of my mind to be birds, to kiss the clouds and fly up to heaven and sing a song for those who endured such pain, for those who lived and died and changed the world forever.

This past week makes me feel like I’ve exercised enough to last a lifetime, though. On Friday, Linh ’13 and I took a train to a nearby city, Rüdesheim, where Di ’10 had told us there were several castles we could look at. Apparently, we fail at finding them though, so instead of gazing open-mouthed at elegant stone terraces, we trekked up a mountain, at the top of which was a beautiful monument. I don’t know how I convinced Linh to brave hours under the hot sun with me instead of taking a cable car, but somehow, I did. She complained at first, but in the end, she didn’t regret it.

Niederdenkmal - the mountain monument

The View.

This escapade of ours explains why I look in the mirror and see a face that’s much darker than it usually is, with small bits of skin peeling off its nose. These past few days have taught me not to put faith in the widespread claim that brown people don’t get sunburned. They do. Most definitely.

Still, I’ve been having the time of my life – outside in perfect 75-degree weather, the one jacket I brought with me buried near the bottom of my suitcase. We began teaching our lessons this past week, and I prepared PowerPoint presentations and lectures on gyroscopes, gas theory, and Gauss’s law. Gyroscopes make up one of the most difficult concepts taught in 8.01 (Physics I: Classical Mechanics), so I was really surprised when they insisted that I teach it at the school. While prepping for the lesson, I went back and watched Professor Walter Lewin’s 8.01 gyroscope lecture on OCW (ocw.mit.edu); thank God for OCW. I’ve watched that gyroscope lecture three times now, and every time, it makes more and more sense to me. Because the school had a gyroscope, I was able to do demonstrations and let the students try them out for themselves. When my lesson ended, I felt so happy, proud, and lucky. I finally know why some people want to be teachers so badly; it’s really rewarding to see kids’ eyes light up with interest and understanding and to have them come up to you afterwards and thank you for what you’ve done.

The people at Lichtenbergschule thanked us in so many ways! On Tuesday, they took us to Heidelberg, about an hour’s train ride away from Darmstadt. There, we spent hours at a castle, home to a gigantic wine barrel. It was empty though, much to the displeasure of many tourists. Jeanne ’13 and I found a gigantic staircase just beside the castle; convinced that there must be something super-cool at the bottom of it, we climbed all the way down, knowing full well that each step we took going down meant that we’d have to take just as many going up. Sadly, there was nothing spectacular at the bottom of the staircase. As we huffed and puffed back up the stairs, we noticed that the steps were numbered. As we neared the top, we saw 301…302…303…”No,” I thought, “It couldn’t be…314?” But yes, it was. Pi ♥ The nerd in me forgave the futile trek down the never-ending staircase.

Pi Love

Heidelberg's Castle!

Yours Truly

On Wednesday, we got a tour of Merck, a pharmaceutical company most of you have probably heard of (Note: The American Merck & Co. is actually different from the European Merck. They both originate from the same family though). They gave us green name badges (my name was spelled wrong ☹ ) and showed us the various products they make, how they make them, and what they do to ensure quality. The tour guide told us that their machines can produce about 800,000 pills every hour! At the end of our Merck adventure, we all got to take some free cosmetic products, produced with colors manufactured by Merck. The lady seemed eager for all of us to apply to Merck as summer interns. I’m not sure if any of us will though, considering that during the tour, she referred to Boston as the place where “Harvard and other schools” were located. Other schools?!?! Clearly, she didn’t know where we were from! Haha, just kidding. It’d be neat to work at Merck – so much to learn! Also - one other thing I found out: I asked the tour guide who comes up with the names of medicines, and she told me that there are three people at Merck whose sole job is to come up with names. Well, there you go, linguistics majors. Go make money at Merck!

Group Pic!

The Inside of Merck

On Thursday, we walked into Lichtenbergschule and discovered that all the staircases were taped off. Turns out, the Lichtenbergschule has hacks just like MIT does, though on a smaller scale. The 13th graders celebrate the end of the year by pulling a prank on the school and then having a gigantic party in the school courtyard. Water balloons flew through the air, and kids danced to Lady Gaga songs blasting from the speakers. Even the teachers were into it! I wish my high school had this spontaneous-prank-and-party business; what an awesome way to celebrate the completion of high school.

Partyyy

Speaking of celebrations: following the Germany vs. Ghana public viewing last week, we joined in on an epic walk through one of the city tunnels. People were laughing, dancing, drinking, and setting off smoke bombs. At one point, everyone crouched down quietly, and slowly, a wave of people jumping up and cheering started from the front and propagated through the tunnel. After Germany beat England this past weekend, the streets were filled with cars honking and people sporting massive German flags :)

Crowdeddd

Hi :)

In the Tunnel!

This picture of Linh '13 made it into a German newspaper!

It feels so appropriate to be an MIT student here in Germany because we see ‘mit’ (which means ‘with’ in German) everywhere, haha ☺ At the end of this trip, we’ll be putting together a booklet on our experiences and may even make our PowerPoints, particularly our group presentation on MIT (its academics, student life, culture, etc), available online. Perhaps that will be helpful to some of you prospective students, yes?

Until next time, tschuss!

(Sorry for the abrupt ending! I accidentally pushed the button to stop recording a few seconds before I was actually done speaking, haha)

Too bad I don't know any German. Not kidding: I just googled 'how to say good-bye in German.' Google Translate, I love you. (Edit: Actually, I don't. Considering the number of mistakes that were pointed out to me...)

I've also been spending a lot of time on this site, cramming various scraps of information in my head and hoping it'll be enough for when I land in Frankfurt Airport with no idea where anyone or anything is.

Despite my complaints and lack of German eloquence, however, I'm truly looking forward to my trip to Deutschland. I'm going with four other girls as part of a MISTI (MIT Science and Technology Initiatives) program called Highlights for High Schools . The five of us will be teaching at various schools all over Germany, using curriculums we designed earlier this year. In just over a week, I'll be able to tell how much bio and physics I managed to retain from freshman year; I'm pretty sure these last two weeks - spent relaxing at home, re-reading the Harry Potter books, and playing frisbee pretty much every day - haven't helped on the retention front.

In addition to holding lessons, the other girls and I hope to do quite a bit of sight-seeing. We especially have our eyes set on the Neuschwanstein Castle:

Isn't it beautiful?

And I really want to do a segway tour of Berlin, though I'd probably fall off the segway:

At the end of the trip, I might even get to hop over to another country for a litttle while:

Look familiar?

To summarize ~
(1) Ahhh, I get to go to Europe for the first time in my life!
(2) Teaching's funnn.
(3) German chocolate? Yes, please.
(4) MISTI pays for it all :)

Thanks to the wonderful Erin who works in the MIT-Germany office, I'll have housing, food, a stipend, and a fantabulous experience - one that'll certainly need some blogging!

Until another time - Auf Wiedersehen!

P.S. On an unrelated note, I watched How to Train Your Dragon today, and now I really want a dragon. I also watched Shrek Forever After, though, so if I can't get a dragon, I'd be willing to accept a donkey-dragon hybrid. Just saying.

But now, a large part of me really wishes I were still a freshman and not a sophomore. It feels strange to no longer be among the 'babies' of the school, to be replaced by the '14s, and to hear about prospective '15s, not to mention a few ambitious '18s =P

I could describe this past year simply as a learning experience, but that doesn't do any justice to the individual ups and downs I've been through this past year. So instead, I'm going to start at the very beginning of freshman year - and run through it all :)

~*~

Part I: Pre-Orientation

Several of you '14s are looking into FPOPs (Freshman Pre-Orientation Programs) right now, and some of you might even be done filling out your apps. For those of you who haven't applied already, I strongly recommend that you do! The FPOP that I did was DUSP (Discover Urban Studies and Planning - haha, yeah, I know - too many acronyms), which was essentially a three-day exploration of Boston. My first choice FPOP was actually DBCS (Discover Brain and Cognitive Sciences) - but DUSP ended up being a lot of fun! My favorite part was when we went to the very top of the Prudential Center and got to look out on the entire city:

Fenway Park

I love Boston

Part II: Orientation

Following pre-orientation was, of course, orientation. Our theme was Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and we had three wonderful Orientation Coordinators:

Orientation was basically a more laid-back version of CPW, with just as much fun but a little more time to enjoy everything. A couple of my friends and I got to go apple-picking:

And enjoy views like this:

Part III: Fall Semester

One of the most memorable events in 18.02 (Multivariable Calculus) took place the day just before our first midterm (photo credit to Carin '13):

"The midterm will be unlike the homework in that the problems will be solvable..." - thanks, Professor! :)

To be fair, he wasn't kidding; the midterms were significantly more doable than the problem sets, which often took me a few days and some visits to TA's office hours.
5.112 (Principles of Chem) problem sets tended to take a little less time - and 8.01 (Physics I) didn't assign problem sets at all. That might have been a bad thing though, since the class average on our 8.01 final exam was around a 50...heh.
First semester, many of us did our homework in groups - before we figured out that we ended up taking more study breaks than actually doing work, haha:

Photo Booth = Awesome Study Break: "Hear No Evil, See No Evil, Speak No Evil!"

Oh - and we got to see a real Nobel Prize:

And have some fun with garba at Milan, an event organized by MIT SAAS (South Asian American Society):

It was with deep sadness that I bid farewell to first semester - and the safety net that is Pass/No Record :(

Part IV: Winter Break + IAP

I spent some time during winter break, wandering about Disney World and repping MIT with my hoodie:

On the Kali River Rapids, in Disney's Animal Kingdom

And then proceeded to return to MIT for my EMT class, from which was born the following photo:

And the following birthday surprise:

And the following adaptation of Taylor Swift's "Love Story":

Despite the long classroom hours, choosing to take the IAP EMT class was one of the best decisions I've made in my life. Also - we're getting a new stretcher! And it'll have a button to lower/lift it! Which means my biceps and triceps won't fail me anymore! YAY! Yes, I'm excited - in case you couldn't tell.

Part V: Spring Semester

While much of this semester was cold, some warm weather eventually came our way, and we took full advantage of it.

There was Holi - the Indian festival of colors:

And classes that took place outside:

And chairs that somehow found their way to the top of Kresge Auditorium:

And all of this was mixed in with some good old organic chemistry, complete with Möbius strips I've come to know and love:

The birth of a Möbius strip - right before our very eyes!

I actually think 5.12 (Organic Chemistry) - and not 21W.755 (Reading and Writing Short Stories), as I wrote in a previous entry - was my most enjoyable class this past semester. Not the least because there was a 5.12 poetry competition, from which one of my favorite excerpts is the following, from "We Didn't Start Reactions" (inspired by Billy Joel's "We Didn't Start the Fire") by Maita '13. (Warning: some knowledge of organic chemistry may be required):

P-sets twenty pages long, my carbon count is all wrong
Nanobeaver, Newman, retroanalysis
Solvents, selectivity, prediction of stability
Mechanisms, structures, design a synthesis

Curved arrows, enantiomers, draw all the isomers
Transition state, conjugate, gauche, anti, mesylate
Enols can tautomerize, radicals polymerize
Who won that Nobel Prize? It’s all too much to memorize!

:D

Part VI: Post-Finals Euphoria - and Home ♥

When finals ended, it was liberating but also surreal - to be done, to pack, and to see my once-full room like this:

And now, I'm at home - loving summer, missing MIT people, and getting ready to go to Germany (more on that later :D )

As I mentioned, the other camp counselors and I have been trying hard to raise enough money for camp this year. We've organized several on-campus events, including bake sales and Stuff My Cups; now, we're involved in something even bigger: Pepsi Refresh.

The Pepsi Refresh Project is, as you might guess, from Pepsi :) Haha, I know - duh. But yeah, it's from Pepsi, and it's basically an initiative to encourage people to make a positive difference in the world. Past grant recipients have used the money to fund research on spinal muscular atrophy, to send care packages to troops overseas, and to buy library books for elementary school children, among other things. It's nothing less than extraordinary.

We CK-ers would like to use the money to send a larger group of kids to camp. There are a thousand project entries, and right now, we're in 23rd place!! If we become one of the top two vote-getters in the $250,000 category, then every branch of Camp Kesem gets $10,000 - including Camp Kesem MIT :) Right now, $55,000 will send 60 kids to camp; $10,000 more will enable us to reach out to even more children ♥

Voting runs through May 31 - and you can vote twice every single day: once through a Pepsi account and once if you add the "Pepsi Refresh" app on Facebook.

Here's the MIT Camp Kesem Pepsi Refresh page, and here's a form you can fill out if you're willing to create a Pepsi Refresh account and help out but will probably forget to vote every day (haha, like me...). If you fill out the form, then we can actually vote FOR you, which, according to Pepsi, is entirely legitimate - yayy.

So anyway - that's my pitch for Camp Kesem. But I also want to encourage you all to glance about your community and see what you can do to make it better. I think one of the most important things I've learned in my time here at MIT is that it's entirely okay to not know everything or to just have an idea without a clue regarding its implementation. By working with others, seeking outside help, and simply being enthusiastic about the cause you support, you can learn and achieve so, so much.

And you'll love it all the way through.

I have a few things lined up for the summer, and one that I'm extremely excited about is Camp Kesem - or Camp 'Magic' :) This might sound familiar to those of you who have been reading the blogs for a long, long while; Melis '08 wrote about it a few years ago, when the MIT branch of Camp Kesem was initially founded.

Essentially, Camp Kesem is a free week-long summer camp for kids of cancer patients; more importantly, it's a chance for these youngsters to forget about difficult times at home for just a little while and to immerse themselves in pure camp fun.

I'm lucky enough to be one of the CK 2010 counselors :) We've already been working really hard to make this year's camp a great success. Our hope is to send 60 kids to Camp Kesem this summer, some of whom will be teens! This is the first time that CK-MIT has a teen program - it's going to be awesomeee.

Since camp is free of cost, the other counselors and I have dedicated quite a bit of time and effort towards fundraising. Our fundraising goal is $55,000, and each counselor is responsible for raising at least $400. In general, I'm not that great at fundraising because I'm really awkward about asking people for money. But somehow, I've managed to raise about $200 so far; I think there's something about the general premise of Camp Kesem that people (myself included) find immensely appealing: kids helping kids. I love the way that sounds.

Our fundraising ideas tend to be pretty creative. One that I find particularly hilarious is Stuff My Cups, which may be more effectively described with a picture:

The guys shamelessly donned certain *ahem* female attire (never before worn, just fyi...) during CPW, the Boston Marathon, and a few other events; aside from eliciting a general sense of amusement, they also proceeded to raise thousands. I admit that this tactic is slightly crude, but each and every cent we raised went towards Camp Kesem. And people truly appreciated our eccentricity in light of the cause we were supporting.

Throughout this semester, we've had counselor training sessions, and though they take up a good six hours during the weekend, I enjoy them immensely. We play games, make skits, sing songs (in an obnoxiously loud and delightful manner), and practice skills we'll need at camp. I admire each and every one of my fellow counselors, some of whom have struggled with cancer in their own families. Together, the forty or so of us manage to laugh at everything; there's such a huge sense of belonging: if I ever need anything, I definitely have an entire group of people willing to help me out.

I know that you seniors only have a few days to commit to a college, but if you choose MIT (and you should =P), do consider being a part of Camp Kesem! If you'd like to know more about CK-MIT, take a look at these links:

CK-MIT Website
MIT Spectrum article on founder (and Rhodes Scholar! WOOT!) Caroline Huang
Interview with Caroline Huang

I'll keep you updated on how Camp Kesem goes :)