Anisha's Blog

The last two nights were the Mr. and Miss Puma competition. The competition is like a pageant in which there is formal wear, athletic wear, talent, and Q & A. The host Jason LeVasseur, was absolutely amazing. He is a singer and he plays the guitar. Jason is very popular among students here. He also is very funny! I had a really good time these past two nights at the event. I had some friends competing and so cheered for them

This past Saturday our tennis team played USI. We beat them 5-1!!!! They were better than us statistically and on paper, but we pulled out a win. Our team was pumped. Then on Tueday we played Lewis University. We needed to beat them in order to have any chance of making it into the conference tournament. The team score ended up being 4-4, and then our #4 singles player, senior Missy Kiefer, pulled out a three-set win!! IT WAS AMAZING!! There will now most likely be a three-way tie between us, Quincy, and USI for the last two spots in the conference tournament. We all have the same number of conference wins... we beat USI, USI beat Quincy, and Quincy beat us. It is going to come down to the 4th tiebraker which is a coin toss!! ahhh!! Monday morning 9:30 am, we will find out if we are in.

After beating USI, the team celebrated senior Missy Kiefer's last home match. We'll miss her!

KT's Fan Club! My friend Katie (middle) competed in Miss Puma! We made her signs and shirts!!

Jason! He was amazing!

Another one of my friends, Joel, competed in Mr. Puma. He sang "I Believe In A Thing Called Love."

This was sooooo cool. He used a recycle bin like a drum while singing and playing it.

Well that is all for now! Have a wonderful weekend!!!!

Anisha

Hello!

On Tuesday was the SJC Colloquim. Our Organic Chemistry lab group presented a poster at the poster session in the afternoon. This was the fifth annual colloquium and it was held in the library. Students presented research in art, biology, chemistry, Core 6, education, history, mathematics, psychology, and theater. Our poster was entitled "Going Green with Plastics: Green Recycling PET Plastics via Depolymerization Using Microwaves." I felt that the event went very well. Lots of students and professors came by to look at our poster and to listen to us speak about our experiment.

Yesterday my roommate and I selected the room in our building that we will be living in next year. We picked the same room, which was the one we wanted. Yeah!! Also one of my best friends, Abigail, is going to be an RA in our building next year. I'm really looking forward to that.

This weekend is going to be exhausting. We have matches Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Sunday we are travelling to Ohio so that will be a very long day.

This past week was pretty busy with school work. I had a Microbiology test on Tuesday, which I think I did really good on and today I had a presentation speech in Core. My speech was about how Henry VIII's obsession to produce a male heir led him to have so many wives. I talked briefly about why he chose each wife and each one's ultimate fate.

This is the poster we presented at the colloquium

Well that is all for now...

Anisha

Last week I went with my friend Katie to watch AG Silver play in the ballroom. They were a band who came to SJC and the event was sponsered by SUB (Student Union Board). They were really good! The lead singer also had some interesting, funny stories, which he shared with the crowd.

Our tennis teams didn't do so good in tennis this past weekend. We played Rockhurst and Drury Universities. We were competitive against Rockhurst, but Drury's team was phenomenal. We will have a better chance this upcoming weekend against Bellarmine and Kentucky Wesleyan. Hopefully we can pull out a conference win at Kentucky Wesleyan so we get closer to making it to the conference tournament.

I'm excited for the biology lab today. The freshman are dissecting squid and crayfish. I remember doing this lab last year and really liking the squid dissection. I've also been studying for the Quant test this Wednesday. I pulled out my Gen Chem folder to look over balancing redox reactions. In addition to studying for this exam, our O-Chem lab group will be working on our project poster.

I can't wait till it warms up enough to wear shorts outside. When I went home last, I brought back a bunch of bermuda shorts, but have not worn them yet because it's too chilly.

Have a great week!

Anisha

Hello Again!

This past week was awesome. I had a really good time on my Birthday. First of all I have to say, MY FRIENDS ARE ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! When I left my room Wednesday morning to go to practice, the outside of my door and part of the hallway was decorated with birthday decorations. Some of my friends, the night before, had put up all the decorations while I was asleep. I was so surprised! Then after dinner Wednesday night, they also surprised me with a birthday cake and presents!

In Organic Chemistry, our lab groups are working on Green Chemistry Projects. Our group is running a reflux on the plastic of gatorade bottles. In order to make our experiment greener, we used microwaves on the plastic before running the reflux. We will be weighing our product on Tuesday to find out if the microwaves worked in reducing the time needed to reflux. After we complete the experiment, our group will be making a poster to present at the poster session at the SJC colloquium.

I am super pumped today after our match at University Missouri St. Louis. We won the match 5-4!! It was so very close! I had a close singles match, winning in three sets. The wind and cold made it harder to play, but our team fought hard and pulled out a conference win . I'm really glad to get back from St. Louis. Since it is Easter weekend, there weren't any bus drivers who wanted to work the holiday weekend and our coach had to rent a 15 passenger van for the trip. There were 13 of us with all of our bags and luggage. It was very cramped for the long ride. I can't wait to go home tomorrow for Easter!

Jaime (my roommate, one of my best friends, and my lab partner) adjusting the temperature and spin settings for our reflux.

Adding HCl dropwise while Jaime swirls the flask.

I hope you have a HAPPY EASTER!

Anisha

My first week back from Spring Break was great. I loved not having a whole bunch of work to do. My birthday is coming up next week. Since this is the only weekend I have left without tennis matches, my friends and I decided to go out to Lafayette for dinner. I thought we were going to go to IHOP, but I was wrong. They surprised me and took me to an Indian restaurant for my birthday. It was the first time Abigail and Katie had Indian food. It was a bit of an adventure. They couldn't eat meat since it was a Friday, so that limited some things. They liked the food though even though it was a bit spicy for them. Abigail ordered Vegetable Korma, Katie ordered Tandoori Shrimp, and I ordered Chicken Tikka. We also had regualr naan and garlic naan. For desert we had some ras malai. We had a great time!

On Thursday we put up the nets on the courts and had our first practice outside. The weather was soooo nice. I just wanted to be outside all day yesterday and today. 

This past week I filled out my form for housing for next year. My roommate Jaime and I are planning on rooming together again next year in the same building. I love living here, especially because of quiet hours, a larger space, and having our own bathroom. We also got our books with classes for next year... Physics next year! I get excited about some of the science electives I get to take like Histology.

At the Taj Mahal Indian Restaurant. Thanks girls for the B-day dinner!

The past two times we went to Lafayette, we went to the mall. Both times we squeezed into a photo booth and took our own pictures. We took A LOT of goofy ones, but here is the one normal one we took.

Have a great weekend!

Stay safe,

Anisha

Hello!

MIDTERM WEEK IS OVER!! YAY!! I studied more this past week than I ever have in that amount of time. I had a Microbiology test on Tuesday, a Quantitative Analysis test on Wednesday, and an Organic Chemistry midterm on Friday. I also had a Core 4 paper due on Thursday. I didn't get much sleep over the week and was super exhausted by Friday. After classes Friday, I took a very long nap. I had studied a lot with one of my friends who is in the same classes as me. I think it really helps to study with someone, especially for a class like Quant. I did well on all my exams though, and so I was pretty happy about that!

Spring Break began after classes Friday. I don't get to go home for break because of tennis. We had our first match on Saturday at Earlham College. The men won 6-3, but the women lost 7-2. On Sunday, we played Franklin College at home. Both the men and women won 7-2! I was 3-1 for the weekend, winning both my singles matches and one doubles match, and losing one doubles match to Earlham. In my singles match against Earlham, I played a 10-point tiebraker for the 3rd set. I was down 7-9 and came back and won 11-9. I was super pumped after that win! After our match on Sunday, my brother and I went home since our coach gave us Monday off. It was nice to go home, but was super short. Tomorrow the team leaves for Michigan. We have a match against Alma College tomorrow and a match against Adrian College on Thursday. The team is getting some good bonding time over break since we are all here at the Joe.

I have posted some pictures of the team from last year.

This is junior Kris McNeary. He plays #3 singles and #3 doubles.

This is junior Jessica Conlin. She plays #4 singles and #2 doubles.

This is senior Missy Kiefer. She plays #3 singles and #1 doubles. She is my doubles partner

This is junior Brandon Ward. He plays #1 singles and #1 doubles.

This is sophomore Jordan Orner. She plays #1 singles and #2 doubles.

This is me. I play #2 singles and #1 doubles.

I hope we play good on our spring break trip to Michigan. Go PUMAS!!

Have a great week!

Keep safe,

Anisha

This past Saturday was Science Olympiad. I think the event day went really well!! Also all the people who helped with the event were awesome. Setting up for the event took up some major time though. A lot of the people who were helping were in the Science Building most nights last week setting up. On Friday I was helping from 3:30 pm to 2:00 am. After the Olympiad, I went to sleep at 8:30 and got 11 and 1/2 hours of sleep, which was absolutely amazing!

Last night I went to a hypnotist who came to Saint Joe's. It was pretty good and pretty funny. It always makes it better when some of the people getting hypnotized are people you know.

We didn't have practice this morning. Yay! But it was because the REC center roof is blowing off because of the strong winds and it needs to be repaired... so not so good.

I think I'm going to start studying for midterms very soon. They are next week, but I have three exams. OChem is my only comprehensive one, but I know the Quant test will be hard.

Dr. Pfaff took some pictures throughout the day at Science Olympiad and I found them on the website for the SJC Science Olympiad. Here is the link to the website if you would like to look at them... http://www.saintjoe.edu/sjcscioly/2008photopage.htm

Have a great week!

Anisha

This upcoming Saturday, Feb. 16th is Science Olympiad. Science Olympiad is a competition for high school and middle school students. The event is run by SJC students. Yesterday I had to write a test for an event called Remote Sensing. The event has to do with Mars. I made my brother help me write it, and with his help we got the test written in 2 and 1/2 hours. I'm thinking there are going to be a lot of meetings pertaining to Science Olympiad in this upcoming week.

This past week our Quant class had its longest lab. The lab was to determine % Nickel in steel. The lab started at noon and I left at 9 pm! One of the parts of the lab was to stop adding ammonia when you can smell a faint odor of ammonia. I think I may have singed my nose hairs a few times. The color transitions were really cool though. At one point the solutions were a very cool green and then later on became a beautiful red.

In Core 4, we are reading Beowulf. I love that book! When I read it in high school, we didn't read the entire text. Now we are reading the whole book. I also like the translation we are reading.

This is the really cool green I was talking about earlier. MMMM... looks like jello lol.

Well that is all for now...

Anisha

This past week was very hectic for me. I had two exams, one in Micro and the other in Quant. I also had a Core Paper due on Thursday. I did really well on the Micro test and the Quant test was very, very, very challenging. On Wednesday night I was over in Seifert, one of the dorms on campus, and the power went out. I looked out the window and all the street lights were out too. It was super dark!!! The street lights eventually came back on, but the power didn't for awhile. I made it back to my room, and on the way I noticed how beautiful the stars were that night. Although the power went out, it was pretty cool at the same time. Everyone had their flashlights out and a lot of residents were chilling in the hallway together. On Thursday, Governor Mitch Daniels came to SJC. I was not able to go because I had Microbiology lab.

Thursday night it snowed bunches. After a meeting that night, three of my friends and I had a snowball fight... Good times!

I'm at home right now. This is the first time I've been home since Christmas break. It is good to spend time at home and with the fam. Also the food is good too! I knew that if I wasn't able to make it home this weekend that I probably wouldn't get to come till Spring Break. My Spring Break is going to be super short! I have 5 matches during break and will therefore have to stay at the Joe for most of it. I guess that means there will be some TEAM BONDING over break.

Well tomorrow is the Super Bowl. I'm excited for that!! I'm a Colts fan and wish they were in it, but I'll be rooting for the Giants.

Stay safe,

Anisha :) 

Hello!!

So this past week was the first week of tennis practices. They weren't too bad actually, even though they are super early. Thursday night my heat stopped working in my room. By Friday morning it was super freezing cold. I was actually happy to get up and go to practice that morning because I knew the REC center was warm. Good thing my heat was fixed quick. By the time I got back to my room after breakfast, it was turned on again! Woo hoo!

I have two big tests coming up this week, one in Microbiology and the other in Quantitative Analysis. So I will be studying a lot for those in these next few days. Today a group of us went to Indiana State University for a pre-medical conference. We left at 5 am to get to Terre Haute by 9 am. There were a lot of talks and a student panel. My favorite was Dr. Jill Bolte Taylor's talk. She told us the story of the stroke she had. I was fascinated by the details of what actually goes on and how it feels when you are having a stroke. She also brought a real human brain with attached spinal cord for us to see! We also received a lot of advice on the admission's process, the MCAT, and on financing a medical education.

This was the student panel at the Pre-med Conference. The panel was made up of first and second year medical students at the Indiana University Medical School branch at Indiana State University.

Yes I know this is a bit random, but on the way back I noticed this gigantic windmill on the side of the road! Biggest windmill I have ever seen!

Well that is all for now! Have a good week!

Anisha

Hello again!

Brrrrrr... it is soooo very cold outside! Today was one of the days for the Presidential Scholarhip competition. I was on a student panel. While the students were writing their essays, the parents were able to ask the four of us on the panel questions they had. I thought the panel went well. The parents had lots of good questions, some were quite interesting. One parent told us that last night she was driving around campus and noticed that not very many people were outside (freezing outside!) and then she asked us what we did last night. That was entertaining. After the panel, I helped at the Alpha Lambda Delta/Freshman Leader/Science Club table. We had a table set up with posters, scrapbooks, and brochures for the prospective students and their parents to look at.

This past week comedian John Mulaney came to SJC. I was not able to attend the show, but a lot of my friends were able to go and I heard great reviews. I also heard that this was one of the most heavily attended SUB events for a comedian. Next weekend some of my classmates and I are going to Indiana State University for a pre-medical conference. I'm really looking forward to that. Tennis practice starts up this coming Monday. Practice starts at 6:30 IN THE MORNING, Mon., Wed., Fri., and we have to be there at 6:15 to set up the nets!! For me, that is better than the 10 pm to midnight practices last year.

This was the table for Alpha Lambda Delta, Freshman Leader, and Science Club that I helped with. Parents and students were able to come have a look at the tables and talk with us students.

Here is a old picture of my dog Rani when she was a puppy. I miss her a lot while at school. Mom wasn't too happy about all the carpet she used to chew on lol. She's 3 now and good thing she has stopped that habit.

Well that is all for now!

Stay warm!

Anisha

Hello!! It has been awhile. I hope you had a good time over your Christmas breaks...I did. The highlight of my break is when my family went to Florida for a week. We went to Wesley Chapel, FL and stayed at the Saddlebrook Resort. The place was beautiful. One of my coaches, Jim, that my brother Ishan and I used to take lessons from when I was younger works there now so we got to hit with him. For Christmas I got some clothes and got my ears double pierced.

Here is a picture of my brother and I with Jim. Saddlebrook had 45 tennis courts!

This is my bro Ishan and I on the beach. There wasn't beach at Saddlebrook, but one of the days my family drove to Sand Key. It was a little chilly this day, hence the long sleeve shirts.

I saw this gator almost everyday I was there. He lived in one of the ponds at Saddlebrook. I also tried gator for the first time in Alligator Chowder... tasted pretty good!

I have finished one week of classes of this new semester. I don't have too much work right now, but I'm sure the work load will start to build up soon. I'm a little scared and excited for my Quantitative Analysis class. I also think I'm really going to like Microbiology. This past week there was some major rain and flooding. I drove to Lafayette earlier today and the Wabash river was flooding over into the adjacent fields.

Well that is all for now...

Take care,

Anisha

Finals are over, its Christmas break, and I'm home. I did well on my Organic Chemistry final, although it was really challenging! I think I did well on my CVA test and Core 3 exam. There were a lot of essays on the Core 3 exam. I may have developed carpal tunnel during that exam lol.

Tuesday night of final's week was the annual Calc Alumni Dinner at Professor Marge McIlwain's house. Marge is such an awesome professor. If you can ever take her for a class, please do! Well the dinner is for anyone who has taken Calculus at Saint Joe. Her food is soooo very good! ...and it's a great time to eat and spend time with Marge and friends.

I'm super pumped because Christmas is my favorite holiday! Mom has already put Christmas lights up. This Christmas won't be as traditional since we are going to Florida. One of my cousins is visiting from Canada and we are taking him with us. It snowed a lot and it is sooo pretty outside. My brother and I had a snowball fight. Last night I saw I Am Legend...very good movie!!

Merry Christmas to You!!

Stay safe and warm!

Anisha

This past weekend was a blast. Friday night, some of my friends and I went to Lafayette to go try on dresses. We grabbed a bunch of dresses and headed into one dressing room. Four of us were all in one room; it was cramped...yet so much fun. We tried on dresses we liked, silly ones, and ugly ones. We didn't go to buy dresses either, since we all already had the dresses we were going to wear to the formal on Saturday night.

On Saturday, a group of us were going to go eat at Don Pablos in Lafayette, but it was sooooo icy out. We went to Devon's instead, which is a local restaurant that is pretty good! The dance was fun too! I had a really good time.

Today my CVA (Comparative Vertebrate Anatomy) class had an exam in lab. I spent a lot of time up in the lab studying on the weekend. We were tested on the muscles, arteries, veins, and some nerves of the cat and shark we had dissected. I think I did pretty good on the test. Finals are coming up fast! Next week! The one I'm really going to need to study for is Organic Chemistry.

Us being silly in the dressing room in what we like to call "Hippie dresses!"

Having a good time at the dance.

Have a great week!

Anisha

Happy Thanksgiving to you! This Thanksgiving break I went with my family to London. I went to visit my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I had a really great time. I went Indian shopping one day and also went to the British Library to visit one of my cousins who works there. When I was at the library, I saw the Magna Carta. We spent time in central London and walked a lot! One of the highlights of my trip was when my Greatgrandma sang Bhajans one evening. Last night I saw Fred Claus. The movie was awesome and quite funny. It is the best Christmas movie I have seen in theaters since Elf.

We stopped for a picture while walking along the Thames river in central London. In the background, you can see the top of St. Paul's Cathedral.

My grandfather opened up a leather shop called the Gohil's when he first came to London. He made leather goods such as belts, wallets, handbags, and boots. Now one of my uncles has taken over the shop. The store is in a very popular shopping district of London, Camden Town.

Those of you who have read Animal Farm by George Orwell may enjoy this sign. I took a picture of this while waiting at the bus stop nearby it. It was part of the sign for a restaurant called Hamburger Union.

I hope you enjoyed your Thanksgiving Break. I'm heading back to the Joe today... can't wait to see everybody again. It was really good to spend time with family over break. Also I got to eat some pretty good food throughout the week!

Anisha