Day 8: The Final Grind Begins

Today honestly did not feel like a Friday because I didn't have cohort. In other exciting news, it was the last day of my Global Asia recitation. My TA was extremely helpful in teaching us how to structure a well-organized essay that fully answers the prompt. I'm so glad that I had her as my TA.

After that, I went to a USWIB event where members got to have coffee chats with SWIB members. I spoke to an MBA student that wanted her degree to switch into a consulting career from a financial services career. It was really enlightening to learn about why she wanted to make this choice, and her experience with both industries, especially since I'm interested in both of them. She gave me great advice about college, and I hope to stay in contact with her after our coffee chat.

After heading to the gym and relaxing, I decided that it was time to start preparing for my final exams and papers. I thought why not get a head start on them so I don't get too stressed out? I invited my friend Varsha, who I met from participating in the Net Impact Case Competition, and we headed for Stern. We first checked out a nice study lounge on 4th floor KMC, but eventually migrated to the third floor lounge after making a trip to Sidestein. We stayed from 7PM until 3AM, and that was the longest I ever studied in one sitting and stayed in Stern. While I studied for extremely long and stayed up so late, I did feel pretty accomplished afterward. After heading back to my dorm, I pretty much passed out even though I took a pretty long nap after my workout.

Work layout ft. my string cheese from Sidestein

Blogmas Day 3: West Village Cohort Brunch

Every cohort gets a budget to organize some sort of event. My cohort director decided to organize a brunch at Le Midi for 15 people to attend. Of course I RSVPed for this all-expenses paid brunch. Unfortunately, because I mixed up the dates, I didn't realize I had a conflict with this event until the day before.  

I had an interview for Operations Co-Chair for USWIB an hour into brunch. As soon as my interview ended, I rushed off to brunch with my cohort 

Although I showed up late to the brunch, I still had time to order a meal, and got steak and eggs. In brighter news, I was not the last person to show up.

After a filling meal, I had a nice break before my first microeconomics review session began. We went over some problems from previous finals exams. The review session was pretty helpful because most of the material we went over was from a while back.

Mixed strategy

I'm trying to be more healthy by going to the gym more often. I don't want to wait for 2018 to begin for me to start, so I decided why not start today? I like to walk directly from Stern to 404 because the distance is shorter, especially in the colder weather, but that means I have to pack my gyms clothes and wear my sneakers. 

Later in the night, my team and I worked on VINES for the Net Impact case competition.

My day was pretty packed in comparison to yesterday. 

Blogmas Day 2: Swiping Away

I never believed them when they said I would have leftover meal swipes at the end of the semester. After all, 225 meals is only two meals per day. But considering all the free food NYU and Stern gives, I have way too many swipes leftover (not including dining dollars).

I accidentally mixed up the dates for when my cohort brunch was supposed to be, so I walked all the way over the 14th street and into an empty restaurant. When the waitress told me there was no reservation for West Village, I awkwardly excused myself by pretending I had to make a phone call. Since I was once again so close to Palladium, I decided to walk over and check out what they had for breakfast. It was pretty similar to Lipton. At each station, a chef made the food for you or served it to you. After getting food from each station, I didn't realize that it may not have been a buffet style dining hall but didn't care because I had too many meal swipes. Honestly, it was time to start living and not being to conservative with them. I looked pretty weird with the amount of food I had on my tray, but the omelette and waffle were really good, and I took home some delicious pastries.

Blogmas Day 1: Stern Exchange & Union Square Holiday Market

Vlogmas is a big thing on YouTube, but since I don't have a YouTube account, I am going to blog for the 25 days up until Christmas!

Today was the last day of Cohort. For the past few weeks, Stern has been inviting alumni to come talk to us about the different industries students go into after they graduate. The Stern Exchange is supposed to be a nice wrap-up of all of these talks, where the freshman can network with the different companies that recruit at Stern. They had these really swag bags for everyone with cool items from every company. I think mine was missing a pair of Google sunglasses because I saw everyone else had one. At the event, Stern hired caterers to serve us Shake Shack, Chickpea, and drinks. I stayed a while to talk to various companies and learn about their programs, which was mostly for sophomores and above. Overall, the SternTalks were a really great experience for me.

Later in the night, I went to the Union Square Holiday Market with USWIB. All the shops there were extremely cute and artisanal. Although my mentor could not make it, I had a lot of fun browsing through all the artistic creations my friend, Sonia, and I met someone new, Gabe, Sonia's friend. The shop that was most unique was a chocolate shop that branded their product as so soft that you don't need to chew it. Their samples were quite delicious, and they tasted just like truffles. Since Union Square is pretty close to Palladium dining hall and we all live pretty far from it, we decided to grab dinner after. After talking to Gabe, I learned about the intramural volleyball team, which I'm interested in joining next semester. I'm pretty glad I went because I had a great time, and met a new friend.

Super Long Hiatus~~NYU STERN 2021

I haven't posted in forever because I have just been so busy with first semester senior year. Just balancing school work and extracurriculars along with college application was extremely stressful. Now that that's over, I can get back to spending time on things that I enjoy, like blogging!

As I already mentioned in the title, I'm super excited to announce that I'll be attending NYU Stern School of Business in the fall!

Decisions came out on February 15th at 5PM, but I waited a little to open my portal. Once I was on, I gathered that I was accepted before I opened my letter because there was an accepted/decline option. The preceding week dragged with anticipation, and I was filled with jitters when decision day finally rolled around the corner. I've been relaxing (but not too much--can't let senioritis overtake me) now that I've been accepted to college. It's a wonderful feeling knowing where I'll be next year and not having to worry about anymore about the admissions process anymore: standardized testing, GPA, extracurriculars, essays, letter of recommendations, applications fees, interviews. It is--was--a lot.

Ultimately, it's manageable, and the results are forever rewarding.

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Once I got accepted, I toured NYU about a month later on March 17th. I visited Washington Square Park, the Kimmel Center, Weinsten Hall, Bobst, and Stern. Bobst was absolutely beautiful; I can imagine myself spending a lot of time there already. After the tour, I went to the bookstore to purchase a Stern sweatshirt, which I am sporting all the time now (go school pride!).

Washington Square Park

When you can resist the Pusheens :3

Wearing my sweatshirt at the National Museum of Natural History--post coming soon.

Actuarial Science Academy Prorgram at WCU

I applied to an Actuarial Science program at West Chester University during the school year to learn more about this topic and see whether I'd be interested in pursuing this area of business. For the application, I needed to provide some information about myself, a recommendation from a teacher, a resume, and write a short essay.

Shortly after, I was accepted and by July it was time for me to spend 3 days at WCU. There were a variety of ways in which we were introduced to actuarial science. We joined a few classes that college students following the path took: amortization and statistics. A guest speaker from an actuarial science organization came to discuss his job and we went to tour a workplace. Amongst the learning, we had fun. We had activities such as rock climbing and going out for Kiwi Frozen Yogurt.

It was here where I decided to trade my first equity. It was pretty late at night while I was catching up on the news, where one about Nintendo's Pokemon Go caught my eye. I read up on it and saw the game would be leading the company in a new direction--a better one. I invested in Nintendo until I saw that the price had been inflated way too much, all the while in China. But my trading history is a story to be told in a later post.

As I am posting this a year too late--but still want to preserve this memory--all the opportunities to learn more about AcSci at WCU was a wonderful experience this was me. This program has definitely influenced my decision in choosing what to study in the future. (<3 8/20/17)

Trip to the National Zoological Park

School just ended on the 16th and I'm super excited for summer vacation.  I've got a whole lot planned for July and then some at the end of August.  Mostly, I'll just be relaxing in between--catching up on missed rest--and hopefully starting college applications.

Usually, I go to DC at least once a year to see the cherry blossoms.  However, this year, I think they blossomed earlier while it was still too cold.  There are many attractions, like museums, the National Mall, and the Capitol.  This year, I decided to visit the National Zoo, which I had not been to in a few years.

We first walked through the Kids' Farm, a petting zoo, a popular place for me when I was younger.  I snapped some pictures, but didn't stay long.

Favorite closeup

Some alpacas

Three goats chillin' on their playground

The Zoo was a lot different than I remembered.  The most stunning part of my visit was standing so close to a Roseate Spoonbill that I could pet it.  I saw these pink creatures at the Amazonia. It was their feeding time, but I couldn't visibly see what they were eating.

A lot of ancient looking animals lived in the large tanks.  However, I was more excited for the amphibians and fish in the smaller tanks.  They were the strange and colorful ones, the ones giving the Amazon its fame.

What a pointy snout!

Chubby golden poison dart frog

Love the colors!

Strange swimming apparatus

Almost camouflaged

We traveled upstairs to the outdoor version of the exhibit.  The lush flora and calls of free birds and symphony of chirping insects gave me a real-life Amazonian experience.  This is where I captured a Roseate Spoonbill more clearly and in its natural habitat.

'majestic music playing in the background'

After leaving the rain forest, I observed a variety of amphibians in their natural habitat.

I love poison dart frogs.

We just strolled up the path looking at each exhibit along the way.

Next was the seal and its tricks.  It would swim laps and flip onto to its back when it neared us.

These busy beavers were a new addition to the zoo.  They were working hard on their dam.

These elephants were humongous compared to their caretaker!

Then came the most famous part of the zoo: the pandas! At first, they were all playing outside, so it was difficult to see them clearly, but then one came in to sleep.

He looks like a giant stuffed animal :3

The Bird House had many birds that I've never seen in person before.

I'm so lucky to have the experience of seeing peacocks in real-life--male and female.  The male one was strutting his beautiful feathers for his human admirers.  While I was snapping some pictures, he got into a squawking fight with a nearby macaw and scared some people.

the feathers on his head are cute

Here are the birds that live outdoors.

so many flamingos

It's feeding time!

Next up was the Small Mammal House.  This is where all the adorable animals live.

Look at those eyes! 

Just some more golden lion tamarins for good measure.

Squirrel!

And our final stop was the Reptile Discovery Center.  Unfortunately, the Invertebrate Exhibit was permanently closed (actually in 2014).  It featured aquatic and terrestrial species without backbones, and was my favorite place to visit.

Eep! Don't eat me!

Why so grumpy?

Where's the frog?

I was so tired by the end of my exploration of all these different exhibitions and houses. However, I managed to still visit my favorite museum, the National Museum of National History.  I didn't take any pictures because I had so many from previous trips.  I focused on reading their highlighted section about the ocean and enjoying the Gemstones exhibit.