Sweltering Summer Solstice

Invigorating my morning breakfast with Grapefruit Citrus Zing, I power-walked to class. Fortunately, today's session was not a lab and was held in the lecture room. We were saved from long pants, closed shoes, and lab attire in the sweltering weather.

Indeed, all day the basement walls were dripping from the humidity. Stairwells and railings were slick with condensation. We looked down the halls of clouded mirrors; It seemed inanimate objects were as susceptible as students to sweating. While I guzzled water constantly throughout the day, I felt like I'd lost tons of water weight in our sauna-like surroundings.

The intense air-conditioning of the BioMed Center was a welcome relief. As soon as we were seated, Jody pulled out a little notebook of suggestions and went over the lab from yesterday. I'd no idea we were being observed, but because she waited until after we'd tried out the steps our selves, noted errors, and fixed them on our own, her tips were much more relatable. The whole philosophy of our class is about the learning experience and I really like how Jody gives us room to make mistakes as well as self-discoveries. After assessing the results together as a class, we moved onto new concepts.

When class let out, I knew it was time to seize the moment for Korean BBQ. Even before arriving at Brown, everyone was directing us to Mama Kim's food truck. On our walks across campus, the mouth-watering aromas of grilled shallots, sesame, and beef bulgogi wafts through the air, fills Thayer Street, and intercepts us on our way to the V-Dub. My study group and I picked up some rice sets with kimchi and beef before stowing away to a cooled corner of Faunce Hall for lunch.

Our collaborative effort is great, and I'm glad it's something we'll be seeing in college. Even Jody was pleasantly surprised and smiled at our proactivity when we asked her about reserving meeting rooms online at the SciLi. Our study group plans on meeting in front the bear on the main green and walking together to the study space to review material and hold open questions.

Underneath is the door to one of our secret study spaces.