Friday, June 10, 2011

The End of the World As We Know It

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

So, here we are. Today is the last day of exams, and tomorrow is Convocation. Though I did just channel Rebecca Black a little bit there (which seat can I take?), it’s actually a very deep and profound sentence—I’ve gone through the process of reading, writing and studying for finals like a maniac twice already this year, and here I am, finished with the third round. However, this time around, it seems much more...worth it. It’s incredible to believe that I’m done with my first year of college and even more incredible that so many students and faculty are moving on to do great things-—whether that’s starting an internship across the country or actually entering the full-time workforce. As a first-year student, it’s enough just to think that I’ll be going back home in a couple days, but I’m sure that in three years, I’ll be somewhere completely different—-maybe at CAPS again writing my billionth blog post or maybe, well, who knows? I’m excited though.

Speaking of the blog, I’d like to thank everyone who’s been reading and giving me feedback on my CAPS blogs. I hope my posts have been informative, thought-provoking and interesting. I’ve had tons of fun writing them, even LOL-ing here in front of the computer at times, especially as I’ve embraced my role as a 19-year-old college student who is, herself, discovering what she wants to do with her life. And of course, CAPS is always here to help (seriously. They don't even tell me to write that anymore).

So for one last time (before I come back in the fall), I’d like to wish you a happy weekend, and a great summer!

Thanks for reading!

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Why I Love the U of C

by Sherry Cao, CAPS Marketing Assistant

I’m glad to be back blogging after a long weekend, which I hope you enjoyed as much as I did (despite the fact that we seem to have skipped spring and gone straight to summer, as usual)! It’s hard to believe that I’m a couple classes, a reading period and 4 finals away from summer, and boy, I can’t wait. From what I’ve gathered, it should be a pretty relaxing summer—filled with the UChicago campus (sans the UChicago stress), rooftop pool lounging and lots of summer reading and shopping. But I have to admit that I will miss UChicago, because there really is a lot to love about this place. So in honor of our wonderful school, in no particular order...

Five things that I’ve learned to love about the University of Chicago:
  1. Sriracha Hot Sauce: Sure, Bartlett has its rough days, but allow me to divulge my little secret for getting through them: Sriracha hot cause. Also known as rooster sauce, this Asian chili hot sauce makes any dish googolplex* times more delicious.

  2. Exercise: I’m going to say this once and very slowly: waking up at 7:30 in the morning to swim at Ratner does the college student’s body good. I’m going to ignore that loud collective gasp you just let out and insist that it really, really does. As a prospie, I would have never thought to relate UChicago to exercise, but now I find that it helps me de-stress, get through the day, sleep better and burn off all that late night Sarpino’s pizza that I douse with Sriracha Hot Sauce.**

  3. Speaking of Exercise...
    The Core! Of course, all prospies are in “love” with the Core. But they’re so young! They don’t know what love is. Love is relating football players to Nietzsche. Love is seeing Freud everywhere—and I mean everywhere. And I hate to say it, but Love is knowing what interests you the most (Political Science and Spanish, in my case). Thanks for a great year, Core.

  4. Chicago: Hot Dogs, Nuevo Leon, Garrett’s Popcorn, Chinatown, deep-dish pizza, the Art Institute, Al Capone and our president. Some may complain about the Hyde Park bubble, but quite honestly, one of the world’s best cities is a 15 minute Metra ride away. I highly recommend it.

  5. CAPS! Of course, right? No—but really, I’d like to give a shout-out to my favorite Career Advising & Planning Services, especially my fantastic boss Laurel. [Ed. note: No, I did not tell her to write that.] I’ve learned so much here, from how to tame our monster of a Xerox machine to the importance of always being positive, as well as many design tips. Apparently, I’ve developed my “design aesthetic,” since I started working here, and I can’t wait to keep doing it!
So, there you have it--my five favorite things about the University of Chicago. Did I miss something? Leave me a comment!

*googolplex: “A googolplex is the number 10googol, i.e. 10(10100), which can also be written as the number 1 followed by a googol zeros (i.e. 10100 zeros)” –Wikipedia. I learned about googolplex in fourth grade and have always wanted to use it in a blog post ever since.

**Buy yours today! http://www.huyfong.com/no_frames/sriracha.htm