Getting to Know Vandy

Strawberry and Watermelon Ice cream

Wednesday was an all around good day. As usual, we went to class, had our lunch, went back to class, then had arête, which was followed by dinner, and eventually it was time for our first SOFT night (I’ll explain what that is a little later).  

My class today was really fun, as always. We started our day by brainstorming possible solutions for making the cars usable for our kids. This activity was really interesting because we got to get a taste of the engineering process and see what sort of solutions others in the class came up with. Amanda, our teacher, also shared some thoughtful words about accessibility for disabled people. It was touching to hear her firsthand experience stories, as her husband is in a wheel chair. 

For our second half of class we started making the storybooks we will be presenting our kids with at the end of our project. I enjoyed this part of the day because we got to be really creative in making the story and were given artistic freedom to create it.

After class was finished for the day I went to my chess arête. I think I’m getting a bit better at the game, as I know how most pieces can move, but I still need to work on my strategy.

As I had mentioned we had our first SOFT night (Sign Out Free Time). I went with a group of girls to go get ice cream at a place called Jenny’s. It was possibly the best ice cream I've ever had, and I enjoyed getting to know everyone.

With our ice cream

My work station

We had a bit of free time after getting back to Hank (our dorm), which I decided to spend listing to music and playing cards in the basement, another fun activity to add to Wednesday’s list. 

Thursday’s class was really interesting, as it always is. We started the day with some lecturing about circuits, it was mostly a refresher for me but some kids weren't familiar with the material. We also traced out the wiring for the cars we’ll be adapting. Then, we applied our newly found circuit knowledge after lunch. We created simple circuits and soldered them, mine had six LED lights which blinked. It was pretty challenging to do it correctly, but this was just practice for what was to come next. We split off into groups of two and started working on a complex robot mouse circuit. 

After class, I had chess, as always. Next we had some free time, followed by dinner. After this we were given about forty minutes to get ready for the dance which took place later that night.

The dance was pretty fun, while I’m not usually a person to enjoy going to dances, but this one wasn't too terrible. They played Bohemian Rhapsody, one of my favorite songs, which made my night. 

My friends and me at the dance

After the dance we all retired to our rooms, where we got ready for bed and took some much needed showers.