SWOSU Day 18: chem, caffeine, and college crises
hi everyone! it’s hannah back again for another amazing (and very hydrating) day at swosu!
today i actually woke up on time because i changed my alarm from too soothing to extremely jarring (the classic blaring iphone alarm sound that is similar to what you’d expect to hear in a lab before an explosion in the movies) so i was up early at 6am!
i spent the next hour marinating with my inorganic chem pset (which i ended up not finishing) and then got ready for lab. i had planned on walking to the local cafe (rx brew) for a pre lab drink but i decided against it and went to the cpp early to work on our group papers. later i was able to get the season special from the campus cafe (the beanery): the finding nemo! it’s lemonade with peach, raspberry, and strawberry syrup and it is absolutely amazing!! sughan and i finished them in record time.
drink counter: 1
at 8am sharp, dr. hubin gave our pre lab lecture and i got to complex our ligand (again)! this involved working in the glovebox which looks quite silly but is actually very challenging. i was only 0.002g off from my calculated mass! i was sad to see that iron complexes are still just brown (sughan’s had turned a lovely purple that i was definitely not jealous of) but it was super cool working with dr. hubin on the almost final step of creating our tetraazamacrocycles!
during lunch, the TAs surprised us with a quick walk down to braum’s for ice cream. i got a cappuccino chocolate chip shake which was absolutely divine in the hot weather. i definitely miss my local ice cream shop but braum’s is just close enough to satiate my love for milkshakes and ice cream. sadly i did not get a photo because i left my phone in the lab.
after lab, ethan, sughan, and i decided to eat at the grill for lunch. unfortunately, we were in a rush because our afternoon plans were full with college & careers day. even so, i still got my crispy chicken strips with buffalo sauce and tried fanta mixed with cherry cola (definitely a solid 7/10). both ethan and sughan got chicken wraps (one honey mustard and the other classic) which they said was “gas”. i also got waffle fries with my order and they were extra crunchy today!
drink counter: 2 (3 with shake)
after lunch, the real events of the day begun: college & careers day!!! the first event was a quick presentation/info q&a sesh with ssp’s affiliate schools: mit, caltech, and harvey mudd. i had such a great time learning about these schools as i had never even considered liberal arts stem schools but harvey mudd really piqued my interest. while walking to the pioneer center, vincent gave me his abomination of a drink: iced matcha latte with extra caramel drizzle. i, never one to turn down matcha, took the drink not knowing that it tasted like someone had dumped pure sugar into a melted matcha ice cream concoction.
drink counter: 3 (4 with shake)
then, ms. hill gave an awesome presentation on the college process and ssp which was both reassuring and terrifying. as a rising senior, i am absolutely dreading heading back home to start writing college essays. the TAs and faculty followed up ms. hill with a panel to answer our questions (which we had many of) with james as our amazing moderator! we then did a couple college/career activities within groups which were hilarious and definitely very serious.
we headed back to the dorms to get ready for dinner. normally, our dinners have a semi-formal/business casual dress code but college & careers is a special exception! today we had to dress up extra formally, meaning i had to take the 7 minute trek to the pioneer center in heels. when we arrived, we managed to beat our maximum elevator capacity record of 17 people to 19 in one elevator!
the dinner was very fancy and also very delicious! however, i was too scared to try the salmon so i cannot comment on the lemon fish dish but everything else was really good. i had a cup of unsweetened sweetened iced tea (i followed dr. hubin’s choice of emptying a packet of sweetener into my glass) and some water.
drinks counter: 4 (5 with shake)
after dinner, our guest speaker was dr. fortune ononiwu, who was here at swosu last year with synth chem 2024! he gave a tremendous presentation/speech on his journey with chemistry which was fascinating and super interesting. sophia, reya, and gavin also did a great job introducing him!
and with that, college & careers day was over! we headed back to the dorms thinking about our futures but also our unfinished inorganic pset…i worked with andy and catey on the problems in the common area of the dorm (thank you TAs catey and amogh for your help!!) and then decided to go to bed at 12 once i had finished the pset.
this will be my last blog post so i hope you’ve enjoyed it!
– hannah
Hannah
hi i’m hannah! i’m from upstate new york (and acclimating terribly to oklahoma weather). i am an avid f1 enjoyer and listen to music in my free time. i love cats and sharks and i’m looking forward to learning more chemistry and making friends this summer !