Thursday, July 13, 2017

Dancing with VSA

Yesterday reminded me of how much I enjoy doing challenging math problems for fun. My whole class time consisted of competing against my other classmates (in groups) to complete a set of problems involving matrices and combinatorics.

The first half of the class we got into groups and passed around a marker to solve matrix problems on the white board. My team didn’t win but we learned a lot about ways to approach matrix problems. After lunch, we were in teams at our table and we were given a sheet with 20 problems. According to my teacher, only 2 teams out of a large number of teams he has taught got all 20 problems right on the first try. Unfortunately, none of our teams made that 2 into 3 but again it was exciting and challenging to approach these problems. I personally learned a lot about identifying collections, which are series of numbers that do not care about order.

The afternoon activity last night was actually our first SOFT (sign out free time) night. We get to sign out in order to leave the boundaries of the commons we’re usually in. It was such a good time walking to Ben & Jerry’s with my friends then exploring a bit more of 21st Ave., staying within the boundaries of course.
Before my house received SOFT night guidelines
Today was the first day we got to walk to class and meal times by ourselves. We’re slowly getting a little more freedom at VSA, which is obviously appreciated. My classmates, among others, still walk in groups, though, since we’ve made it a routine.

During class, we started working more with probability. We’re eventually going to learn how to play poker and figure out the likelihood of getting certain good hands, such as a Royal Flush. It’s very interesting since it’s not a very common thing you would imagine would be talked about in a math class, but it is also difficult when I know nothing about poker. Nevertheless, Dawson makes the class entertaining and knows what to ask to get us to figure out the answer ourselves.

The highlight activity today was definitely the dance put on by the best house, S-house. It was supposed to be luau themed so most guys and girls tried to wear loose floral clothing items. I didn’t expect for so many people to be willing to dance, even if they didn’t know the song. I’m very used to seeing people be unwilling to dance, but VSA students are nothing like that. Yet again, VSA has definitely exceeded my expectations.
Everyone trying to leave the Rotunda after the dance

2 comments:

  1. Who are some of your friends at VSA? Where are they from? I'd like to hear more about the dance.

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  2. A chance to wear an aloha shirt and not be jeered? Why wan't I invited?

    ReplyDelete