Stephanie
Summer 2022 (SPARC, California, Summer Outdoors, LIT, and more!)
Ferris wheel and thus was hidden. As we were in line, the fireworks started. It was beautiful. We watched together as they exploded in the air, and for a moment all that existed for us was just us, the fireworks, and Mr. Blobby. After the fireworks ended we reached the front of the line, and stepped onto our cart on the Ferris Wheel. As the Wheel slowly rotated we watched the landscape below, and talked. Afterwards we FaceTimed a friend who was unable to join us, then bought a slushy, and some fries. Soon after we departed and returned home.
Just two days later, on July 3rd, my family and I went to Acadia National Park in Maine. We stopped by a beach in Deer Isle, and walked along a path around the beach to explore it further. Soon after we left to go to our hotel, in Mount Desert. The next day we drove to Bar Harbor and Acadia National park to the top of a hill, where we had an amazing view of the surrounding ocean and islands. After we left we went to a restaurant in Bar Harbor for lunch, where we had clam chowder and lobster. As we headed back home, we stopped by a rest stop in Kennebunk where there was a mini lighthouse model.
On July 13 I finished packing my suitcase. Tomorrow morning I would be taking a flight to California! It had been a long time since I last had an airplane ride due to COVID and mainly traveling by car, so I was excited, but also a bit nervous. My family and I were going to travel to California to meet a family friend.
On the 14th I woke up early, and arrived at the airport at 6:30 AM. We waited in line to check our bags, bought some breakfast, and boarded the plane at 7:46 AM. The plane took off, and finally landed in California at 11:40 AM PST (all previous times were in EST, my usual timezone). We rented a car and drove for a bit to get to our hotel. A few things that shocked me: the roads in California are really wide. I think at some points I saw over 6 lanes side-by-side. Another was that the roads formed really pretty structures - there was a road I saw that twisted in a spiral, and more that formed lattices. I ate dinner at a restaurant in a large food court, - noodles with eggs and vegetables - and it was really delicious. Afterward I got a lychee milk tea/slushy at a place called Baby Cafe.
The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel, and I ordered a sandwich/burger and fresh fruit. Something that I was slightly surprised by - which remained a constant over my time at California - was that the sandwich/burger included some avocado. On the East Coast we usually don't eat many things with avocado, but it seemed to be very different in California. The rest of the day we visited a lot of different places, like the Google headquarters, a computer museum, and the Apple Park Visitor Center. And when we drove to these places I noticed another difference between California and Massachusetts - Massachusetts is really small, so it's easy to get to places. In California, we had to drive through this incredibly long bridge to get to our destination.
The next day, July 16th, we met up with the aforementioned family friends and went to the California Academy of Sciences. We went into this large circular nature exhibit. To enter, we waited in a line around the exhibit, entered an elevator, and were finally let in. The exhibit was really cool! It was structured in a spiraling path around a group of large trees and other plants. At different intervals in the spiral there would be displays of interesting facts, plants, or animals, all while parrots and butterflies flew around. Once we were done, we entered the elevator again and made sure no butterflies entered alongside us, and exited in a marine exhibit. It was a large aquarium that had a passageway for people to walk through. We stayed there for a bit, then left for some bug-themed exhibits where I folded origami butterflies. At the museum I had some soup for lunch, which had avocado in it. After, we went to a Korean food restaurant in Cupertino. I also went to Somisomi, a soft serve and taiyaki, and got a taiyaki over ube soft serve. Then we went to MeetFresh and bought a dessert that consisted of shaved ice, milk, fruit, and red beans.
The next day I went to the Exporatorium. I really liked it! It displayed many different projects and experiments dealing with different properties of physics, and it was enjoyable to explore all the different exhibits. As we left I bought a periodic table t-shirt.
The next day was July 18th, the first day of SPARC. SPARC was amazing - the people and the structure were all amazing. To recap some notable memories:
The classes offered were all incredible, and no matter how high-concept the topics taught were, they were all presented in an engaging way. It definitely helped that the topics themselves were very interesting! I can't even choose a favorite class, because they were all amazing.
The camp had a looser structure that prioritized agency, so there was a lot of free time. During this free time you could organize your own activities, go to instructors' (or other students'!) activities, or do anything you wanted. I think this was a really valuable part of camp, as the free time gave us opportunities to interact with other students and instructors, and also allowed for some fantastic activities and outings.
Speaking of activities and outings:
Escape rooms - We went on a trip to an escape room in California, which was really fun! My previous experience with escape rooms was mainly the "puzzle rooms" you'd find at Bodaborg, so it was my first time at an actual escape room. The atmosphere and details in the rooms were all great - we went to "The Alchemist" at Escape Oakland. An instructor also created a philosophy/AI themed escape room, which was also really fun, especially when we could recognize concepts from our classes.
Beach trips - There were two beach trips, and I went to the second. We went to a nearby beach, realized we had no supplies, went to a nearby store, bought marshmallows/chocolate/graham crackers/skewers/food and returned to the beach, where some other people were waiting, with a bonfire lit in a section marked for bonfires. It was so misty that we could barely see the ocean. I roasted some marshmallows, but our skewers were so short that we could feel the scorching heat of the fire when we reached our hands in close to toast our marshmallows. The fire was a blessing though - later on when it got colder, we all huddled near it to keep warm. The mist condensed on our clothes so we were all soaked. The marshmallows were delicious, and when it got dark an instructor began playing the guitar, and we all joined in on a karaoke. When we had to go, we put out the fire and headed back home, to the dorms.
Campus tour - Near the end of camp, a group of friends and I decided to tour the UC Berkeley campus - I didn't mention this before, but the camp was located around the UC Berkeley campus. There was a quest list at camp: three quests of which were "get 100 selfies with strangers", "talk with a professor", and "get told 'no' 100 times by strangers". We set out to make progress on these quests by asking strangers if they were professors, and asking strangers if they wanted to take a selfie with us. We actually did get quite a few selfies, and also quite a few "no"s. We talked to some math/economics professors and students, and their advice and insights were really interesting and helpful.
Radio studio tour - A student called the Berkeley Media Center nearby, which we toured. We saw the behind the scenes, and all the equipment they used.
And countless more!
There were also some fun board/card games, such as A Quiet Year - An instructor led small groups in playthroughs of this game. I don't want to spoil the ending, since the first time you play the game is something beautiful you can never get back - if you're interested, you should gather some friends and play it yourself (it might be easier if you have someone who's played before as a guide, but it also might be fun if it's everyone's first time)!
Near the last day, we had a camp-wide karaoke. It was incredibly fun. We sang some popular songs, some fun songs, some emotional songs, and we sang so long and so passionately that we nearly lost our voices.
LIT also occurred sometime during the summer. It was incredible to watch months' worth of hard work finally pay off. I watched as the amount of solves on problems increased, and delighted when I saw people trying out and asking questions about my challenges. The entire experience was super fun!
Summer Outdoors, a summer camp that I founded in 2021, happened on August 1-5 this year. I was running it with a friend, and we taught science classes to middle schoolers in or around Lexington for free. It was also incredible to see that over 70 people applied, through unfortunately we could only take 8-10 students since we only had two teachers and wanted to give everyone adequate attention and time. Another incredibly fun experience: if you're in middle school you should apply next year, and if you're in high school (or a rising high schooler) you should apply to join our team! Our website is: https://sites.google.com/view/scienceoutdoors
In conclusion, this summer was just amazing! I had some awesome experiences, and met many fantastic and interesting people while learning fascinating concepts along the way.