Monday, June 24, 2019
By:
The funk I was feeling at the end of last week is gone. It just took some weekend R&R. I think it also helps that I’ve learned a lot about what makes me most productive in the office at this point. I like having the extra light on in my cubicle. I have my CUWiP ball to fidget with. I have earbuds that I plug into my computer even if I'm not listening to anything. The mild hum of the computer is just enough to drown out the noises that might be distracting me. Sammi and I get the occasional hot chocolate at 3 pm. Finally, I’ve hung pictures of my friends and family and cute cards.
On Monday, I was finally able to see that the Chandrasekhar background information was almost complete and that gave me a lot more energy and focus.
Tuesday, I got the background information done! My focus then turned to the lesson plan. I really needed to find the right material to focus on. I ended up writing two lesson options. One about the history of black holes and one about the Chandra X-Ray Telescope.
Tuesday morning, I woke up early to buy PSU season football tickets and make food for lunch. This was risky since these tickets usually sell out in a matter of minutes, but I'm a senior I thougt I had it. Short story extra short, I tried to make ravioli for lunch while buying tickets and I succeed at lunch, failed at acquiring tickets. I feel somewhere between a real adult and pure college student. But I’m not sure there is really a stage where I won’t feel like this.
Wednesday night we had our weekly family dinner. We had homemade pizza!
By Thursday, I had the background information cleaned up and I started writing out the lesson plans in the teaching guide template. My goal is to be done the teaching guide completely on Monday.
The exciting thing I discovered while doing my final bit of research about Chandra was that he was the graduate advisor of a physics professor at Penn State so I think I’m going to send the teaching guide to him on Monday. From my research, I’ve learned that Chandra was a man of very high standards so I want to make sure the teaching guide represents him well. It’s really cool to find a connection between Chandra and me.
Outside of work, this was another really great week. Honestly, writing just to you my intern successor, I am sorry if I am hyping you up for this too much. I’m having too good of a summer. How can any summer get better than this one? Well maybe if I met AOC and/or Elizabeth Warren that would make this the best summer ever. If I met them I would cry.
This weekend was just like the past weekends. Amazing. On Friday night, Sammi and I went out with some friends and went to a rooftop bar! The bar had Frose, frozen rose, totally recommend! Saturday was a busy day. I went to the Natural History Museum with a friend from school. The new dinosaur exhibit is great! There were a lot of people but it was still great fun! Once we got back from that it was time for Astronomy on the Mall! I love doing outreach, it can be exhausting, especially when you are standing in the sun for hours but it is so worth it. To see kids and adults all equally interested in learning made me happy. After Astronomy on the Mall, we rewarded ourselves with ice cream! We walked down to George Town and got ice cream then ate it at the waterfront.
Sunday, I layed around and did partically nothing. I really needed it. It was a nice conclusion to the week.
Catherine Ryan