Cornell visit, Day 4 (4/25)
I was originally planning to leave on Tuesday, but Ken said his Tuesdays were really busy, so he wouldn't really be able to show me around that day. This, combined with the fact that I had a Randomized Algorithms pset due Tuesday morning (Technically, the pset was due Monday at 5 PM, but the TA is really chill and lets us turn psets in the morning after they are due.) made me decide to leave Monday (today) instead. Also, this way I would not miss Spring Fling (outdoor rock concert) on Tuesday. I don't really like the music, but it's fun to hang out with and see friends during Spring Fling.
Anyways...Monday. We woke up early and got some breakfast. Again, I chilled in the lounge and practiced some piano while Ken ate and made me a peanut butter bagel sandwich. Interestingly, on Fridays, Ken goes to pchem first and then physics, but on Mondays and Wednesdays, he does the reverse. He does this so that he has time to eat lunch before going to his research lab on Mondays and Wednesdays. That's dedication right there. He still goes to the later physics section on Friday, though, so that he can sleep in a bit longer.
Again, in physics and pchem, I did not pay attention. This time, however, I did not fall asleep because I had gotten enough sleep the night before. Instead of paying attention, I went through the first few pages of Handel's Messiah, which I had to play figured bass for, and carefully analyzed each individual chord. I had played this for my keyboard lab the previous week as a practice run for my graded performance this week, and my teacher told me to add more chords and embellish my figured bass.
After pchem, we went to Trillium again to grab some lunch before heading to Ken's lab. We both ordered the same thing - a cajun chicken wrap. We got our wraps and headed to Ken's lab to eat.
On our way to Ken's lab, we walked by the biological sciences building, which I remembered seeing the last time I visited Cornell. It's a very distinct and memorable building because it looks like the Ministry of Love from 1984. It's this massive, fortress-like brick building that has almost no windows. It also stands alone on the side of a stretch of road, not surrounded by any buildings.
We got to the building where Ken's lab is and took the elevator up. There was a foyer outside his lab, where we sat on a wide and low windowsill that had heat vents and ate our wraps. While we were eating, this giant seven-foot professor walked by. Ken said he was his research adviser.
After eating, we left all our stuff on the windowsill (Ken said it was safe there and that we shouldn't clutter the lab), and we entered his lab. I met Ken's lab partner named Zhihan Ye, who prefers to just go by Z. This is only the second time in my life that I've met someone whose nickname is a single letter. The first time was when I met my 11th grade English teacher, Mr. Talarico, who just went by T. The only other times I see people referred to by a single letter are in papers, articles, or blog posts where the author is trying to maintain an individual's anonymity.
Z was pretty cool - how could you not be with a one-letter (a pretty awesome letter, might I add, used in such 1337 expressions as ZOMG and zwn) nickname? - she was friendly and fun and really into math and science (check out her Facebook profile pics). Anyhows, I thought Z looked like a grad student, but apparently she was class of 2012, just like Ken.
The lab was pretty spacious and had a bunch of cool-looking apparati. There was also this random pipe high up in one part of the room and someone had installed still rings on it. It was fun messing around with the still rings and doing some pull-ups and such on them. It still blows my mind that some gymnasts can do such feats as handstands and Iron Crosses on the still rings.
I got bored quickly and ended up going on a computer and checking Facebook. I was using one of the lab computers, and when Ken saw me Facebooking on it, he scolded me for using a lab computer, which he or another researcher might have to use, to do something as frivolous as checking Facebook. Heeding Ken's words, I took out my own laptop and set it up on a patch of free tabletop space and continued doing my thang.
I could be wrong (I don't remember that clearly), but I think the high-level purpose of Ken's research was to try to create or discover some compound with applications in treating diabetics. Again, I could be completely off or confusing Ken's research with somebody else's. [Ken, please correct me if I'm mistaken, and feel free to point out other errors you find, as I'm sure there are some.]
I got bored messing around on my computer, so I decided to take some action photos of Ken and his experiment:
That's a lot of ice!
Around 1:45 PM, I said my goodbyes and headed to the Robert Purcell Community Center, where the Short Line bus stop is. [After researching various options, I believe Shortline Bus is the cheapest option for getting from NYC to Ithaca and vice-versa. It's cheaper than the Greyhound Bus or the Campus to Campus shuttle that goes between Cornell's main campus in Ithaca and its medical campus in NYC. It's also definitely cheaper than any train option, not to mention there's no train stops in Ithaca; the nearest is in Syracuse, 80 minutes away.]
There was little traffic, so I got to NYC about half an hour ahead of schedule. From Port Authority, I ran to Grand Central and managed to catch an earlier train!
I got back to New Haven without incident, and then I waited a long time at Union Station before the Yale Shuttle came. Waiting sucks. I think from now on, I'm just going to walk. It's only about one mile.
I returned to Old Campus to pick up my bike and discovered that my back tire was completely flat (!), though my front tire was fine. It's wasn't just deflated; the inner tube needed to be replaced. [I had to get my front tire's inner tube replaced back in February.] I'm still not sure if this was just bad luck caused by me hitting something, or if someone cut my tire. A week and a half later, I went to the Devil's Gear Bike Shop and got my back tire's inner tube replaced. The next day, I biked to Linsly-Chittenden (LC) Hall, locked my bike to a signpost outside, and went inside to take my Readings in American Literature final. Two and a half hours later, when I came out, my front tire was completely deflated and I assumed the inner tube probably needed to be replaced again. I think it's unlikely that somebody came and slashed my tires in the short time I had my bike locked outside, in the middle of a Sunday afternoon, on a fairly busy street on Yale Campus. Also, I did not see any slash marks. Thus, I was led to believe I probably just tore the inner tube by bumping my bike tire too hard against a curb or something. Also, my bike tire is slightly deformed, so it's possible the metal rim of the wheel is chafing against the inner tube and tearing it.
In any case, I was done with this bike. I had already spent over $50 on this bike replacing inner tubes, replacing brake pads, and reattaching my seat (the connection piece underneath had broken off). The gears didn't work any more - in fact, the gear switch on my right handlebar broke off the handlebar and just dangled there, so I had the entire gear switch and wire removed. The bike's also a little too small for me and the seat is uncomfortable. It was time to call it quits with this bike. I dropped it off in the Spring Salvage pile (people put stuff in, and anyone can take anything they want and the rest gets donated to charity), and someone took it away. [I had a much better bike in the fall semester, but it got stolen two days before I left for winter vacation.]
I returned to my room, caught up on some emails, and then headed to the Computer Science building to do my last Randomized Algorithms pset of the year with the other three undergraduates in the course. And that's a wrap on my Cornell visit!
Random extra thought: While I was hanging out with Ken at Cornell, Ken told me he really likes the oboe, and were he to play another instrument, he would learn to play the oboe. Ken said he really likes its sound. I think it's a pretty sound, too. Also, Ken pointed out that oboe parts are always solo, melodic parts because there's usually only one or two oboes. This, I agree, is a nice perk. There are some gorgeous oboe excerpts - one of my favorite is this twenty second solo that's repeated a couple times (at 0:20 and 2:22) in the second movement - Round of the Princesses - of the Firebird Suite:
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZhBb9UItzEk (performed by the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Orchestra in Brussels)
Actually, the whole movement is beautiful and probably my favorite of the Firebird Suite.
Anyhows, though the oboe's sound is very beautiful, sometimes it has a very reedy sound (usually when it's played poorly), which I don't really like. I'm probably biased, but I think the clarinet has a warmer and richer sound when played well (though clarinet sounds awful when played squeakily and with poor tone). In general though, I'm a big fan of all woodwind instruments, much more so than brass.
Next up, I'll tell you about my South Africa and Swaziland tour, though I've already posted pictures up on Facebook.
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