caltech can be grand

Apologies for the recent lack of updates, it may span some short time into the future as well. It’s difficult to find the time and energy to record everything while you’re busy doing it, and though now I’ve three weeks of winter break it’s been sort of…painful, I guess, to think about writing this.

A member of my House, Swaroop, passed away suddenly during the last week of term–I think I’ll just say what they told us about it, though everyone’s been pressing me for details. He collapsed in his room where his roommate and a couple other boys were hanging out, and though they got him to the hospital as quickly as possible, he died of internal bleeding around two am. It wasn’t suicide, or a result of Caltech stress, or injury, or lingering illness. It was stupid and sudden and tragic and fucking pointless.

(You will forgive me, I hope, coarse language. I have tried to refrain from it previously, perhaps in a somewhat contrived manner, with the notion that parents and others may read this pitiful chronicle. I think, though, most parents would forgive me this.)

Swoop and I weren’t close friends (he’s a sophomore; I had planned to get to know him better), but you have to understand what our House is, what it means to us. It is family, or it has been to me and many others, and the lot of us were reeling with the horror of it all for several days. It’s hard to express how sorrowful that communal grief is, so I’ll just summarize: it was infinitely painful to watch these people who I love and care about deeply go through such a thing, it was difficult to go through, and I’m glad we had each other.

I’ll miss Swoop; and I’ll miss that I never got the chance to know him better. I feel unworthy to list his qualities, as if I could ever capture the person he was, but he was witty, and smart, and did hilarious impressions. I don’t know what to say. There’s nothing to say. My heart goes out to his parents, his brother, his friends, his roommate. It’s unfair. It’s just unfair.

Here’s a picture:

Via email, today, I discovered that I’ve passed my first class at Caltech!

Now, with Math 1a under my belt, I can go forth and…take Math 1b.

Good luck to everyone on their finals.

It’s the first day of my first Finals Week here at ‘Tech–I didn’t hear The Ride of the Valkyries this morning, though, either because no one played it in Ruddock, the tradition is not as strictly adhered to as I had thought, or simply because that was smack dab in the middle of the two-and-a-half hours of sleep I got last night. Sometimes, not even Wagner can wake you.

As it stands now, one physics final down, one each of math, chem, and CS to go.

Finals week is kind of fun, in that there are no classes and you get to sleep as much (or as little) as your studying schedule allows. Food is, instead of our usual waited dinners, available at various times in the day, and generally life is as relaxed as it can be with 30 and 40 and 50% of grades hanging in the balance. Pass/fail is a lifesaver. Otherwise I’d have to be furiously studying taylor polynomials right now.

* * *

I picked my schedule for next term, and I’m content: it’s not too busy, but there are a lot of units. A good balance, especially since second term we build OPI, an enormous construction/party. My classes are:

Math 1B, Practical track – Dunno if this was a good choice. Heard that it’s more work.
Physics 1B, Analytical track
Chem 1B
Chem 3A (Lab) – A required lab course. 5 hours on Friday is gonna be killer, but my neighbor’s gonna be my lab partner.
Yoga – Seems like everyone in my alley is taking yoga this term. I do so like following the crowd.
Guitar – Ditto for guitar.
Concert Band – Actually getting credit this term, woo!
European Civilizations: Modern Europe – This was just about the only freshman humanities course (you’re required to take two, I had one this term) that didn’t conflict with something else in my schedule. *shrug* We’ll see. I just want to get it done with so that I can take regular humanities courses and other good stuff.

A rather typical schedule, perhaps, but at least I don’t yet have to start in on the physics prereqs in earnest–that’ll be third term.

…I think I better go have a look at Taylor polynomials. See you later.