Friday, July 12, 2013

Making Progress

Today was fun. Today began with a nice breakfast of hash browns, scrambled eggs, bacon, and a series of fruit. This meal kicked my good day off, so I'm kind of considering the same for tomorrows two hour class from 10:00 AM to 12:00 AM. I'm not even sure what the whole day holds for the VSA program with only two hours of class. Well back to today, after breakfast Hakeem found me like he does every day before we all go to class. But today was different, today we went straight from breakfast to a lab twenty minutes away where we would learn the changes in the engineering market and how the lab helps replicate cartilage. The market for engineering was completely different 80 years ago than it is in the present. Eighty years ago an inventor could say they have an idea and get money or investments for their idea no questions asked. Today the process is like trying to get a nuclear missile launched. Today's process includes patents; numerous piles of paper work, evidence, and prototypes; then they want to know how it affects the public, and how it contributes to society. We also talked about their cartilage replica for older people who have grinding bones, like knees. 

After a quick tour of their lab we went back to the school and ate a lunch where they served strawberry shortcake, which was so delicious that I almost forgot about my regular course meal. We made our way to class where we would create another sweet treat. This treat was a batch of gummy worms and molded jello candies. For the jello gummies we mixed a small batch of jello serum together and poured it into a small rubber mold where we would refrigerate it for twenty minutes or so. As for the gummy worms I honestly couldn't say the exact way we made them, because I had stepped out of class for a minute to go to the bathroom up stairs. When I came back green slime was inside of a chemical solution, which would eventually form the green slime into some seaweed candy. Once the candy formed we cooled it off in some cold water and dug in. The slime wasn't half bad, it was just a little too wet and not sweet enough this project brought the class together as we joked and laughed until class was over. This project concluded my class for the day, so we made our way back to the dorms.

Not too long into our free time I get a call from Kim saying that Ms. Kronenburg, and Mr. Mannix were here and that I should stop what I was doing and come to the dorm lobby. True enough I really wasn't doing anything yet I was just watching football highlights as I prepared for my step performance around 5:00 PM. When I got to the lobby every one said hi to each other and then the discussions started as the rest of the gang got there. First thing they asked me was how my class was and how the camera was. I explained to them that I had finished the camera finally, and then I told them about my chipmunk chase. Then I gave them a summary of my week, and then I answered their question about where some of the students in my class are from. I told them Georgia, Texas, Alabama, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, and of course I form California. Kim, Thomas, and Loan where surprised I actually knew the state's names and not just the east coast. 

After everyone gave their class stories, we all agreed that the ILC should comeback to Vanderbilt next year. We got in one last group photo before we said our good buys, then we were all off to get ready for our performances for the student show tonight. When we arrived we were surprised to see Mrs. Kronenburg and Mr. Mannix in the packed crowd, but it wasn't any sweat off my neck, because I was focused on my performance with my group being first. My group went up on stage and did our thing with a few minor errors that flew out my mind as I watched the rest of the VSA program do their thing. All in all I thought that the show was a success as everybody laughed at each other's fails and mishaps. We took off to dinner with smiles on our faces and food on our minds as we each ate as if we were eating for two, for we knew that all the food in our stomachs would be burned off by the end of the night. We had one more activity planned, and this was a dance. The dance was more of a strange exercise than it was dancing, as we all jumped up and down to music. The night was fun and young, my classmates actually made me dance, because I wasn't use to their style of dancing. Eventually I adapted, and we grew closer something just a little outside of immediate family, more like cousins.  

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