Bittersweet

It's my last Friday night in California (for a while, at least). This week flew by! We've been working really hard to finish up our projects and get going on our presentations. My group is presenting next Wednesday with the WAS group. The land and ocean groups are presenting Tuesday afternoon. I can't believe we all leave in a week! It's so sad to think about leaving everyone here but nice to think about seeing everyone back home again. I really love my group, and I'm going to miss hanging out with them.

Two Thursdays ago, my group went back up to Caltech to visit Dr. Sally Newman and her lab (below) as well as learn about the ceilometer (below x2) on campus. We spent more time in Old Town Pasadena, where I was finally able to shop at an H&M for the first time! I also gave in and ate at the Cheesecake Factory where fictional Penny works.

I suppose I should back up and tell you that on Saturday the 21st, seven of us visited Disneyland. We had SO much fun! We rode all the major rides and got Fast Passes for Splash Mountain (which broke down five minutes after we got off) and for a second ride on Space Mountain (which broke down right as we reached the front of the line, but it didn't take too long to fix). On Sunday the 22nd, my grandparents from Oceanside came up and took me to brunch on Balboa Island. Afterwards, a bunch of us went down to the OC Fair in Costa Mesa to hang out and then see Young the Giant in concert. That weekend was easily my busiest, but it was ridiculously fun, and I have some fantastic memories! (P.S. Check out Young the Giant's album...you won't regret it.)

This last weekend, I enjoyed a lazy Saturday and then got up really early to head out to Palomar Observatory on Sunday. We got a private tour of the dome housing the 200" Hale telescope including the data room. Afterwards, we stopped at the Mount Palomar Winery in Temecula for a mid-afternoon wine tasting.

In the background is the dome housing the Samuel Oschin telescope, which is the one Dr. Mike Brown used to find Eris, and the finding of Eris ultimately lead to the demotion of Pluto.

This week is crunch time, and this weekend won't be very exciting because, well, it's still crunch time. Barry flew in on Tuesday, just in time for our group dinner (we made breakfast for dinner) and to help us finalize our presentations. Tonight, we practiced our presentations for the first time. We are practicing every night up until Wednesday. I have a lot to do tomorrow to get everything wrapped up! I just got some awesome wind plots from Nick Heath (a previous SARPian), so I am pretty excited about that! Fingers crossed my presentation turns out well.

I hope to update again before Wednesday, but who knows how busy I'll be the next few days! As usual, thank you for reading! :)