014.

It's already a week into September? Time flies so quickly!

This labor day weekend was fun, I spent time with my parents, the girls, and my boyfriend. I saw Hubble 3D in IMAX, which was really cool! I took an astronomy course this summer so I understood a lot of what was going on in the movie (although it was made for no previous knowledge). Leonardo DiCaprio was the narrator! My parents and I also walked around Navy Pier for a while, took some pictures, and had an awesomely expensive lunch at Gibsons Steakhouse.

Saturday night was girls night, I got to catch up with my friends from home over some manicures and a movie. I finally got Katie to get a french manicure, it looked good! I've been doing my nails in french myself for the past few weeks in order to save money vs. going to the manicurist. So far so good! Katie and I also went cellphone shopping, but to no avail we are still using our old, discontinued phones. We also got some cool new sunglasses, awesome for driving when the sun goes down.

Dan and I watched all of House season 6. It came out on DVD last Tuesday and I ordered it on Amazon for us since I have free 2-day shipping (Amazon Prime! It's amazing!). Can't wait until next August for season 7! We're also winding down on our Frasier marathons too, we're on season 8 of 11. Any suggestions on what to watch next?

Starting my teacher education program has shown me new things about being a teacher, I'm super excited to finally get in a classroom. Two years will pass by quickly, and then I'll be in charge of my own set of students (x6, for 50 minutes lol). I wonder if this is too much to share, since everything now is the "digital age," I figure a blog is okay, right?

013.

This diary of a math student is surely lacking in math, correct?

I'm taking a course with Mathematica, and I'm definitely struggling to figure out the program, also how the lessons are set up to teach me anything. I'll find out how it works eventually I suppose, otherwise my grade will definitely suffer. My real analysis class is also being a bugger, I'm not sure how to do a certain proof :( But I'll get it, it'll be like a eureka moment.

I particularly like this comic:


I also found a project which assigns a musical note to each digit, and you can play the digits of pi as a song, go check it out: http://www.avoision.com/experiments/pi10k/index.php

Other fun math things
* Calculus Made Easy
* Random Math Proof Generator
* Project Euler

012.

Hello! Summer school has finally ended. Astronomy and Physics all summer was fun, but now for two weeks off and then fall semester starts. The 4.0 transfer will definitely boost my GPA. I visited my parents last weekend and I had a lot of mail there, lol. I saw that I made Dean's List, which is awesome.

I ordered my books from Amazon this semester, I'll see how well that works out. I'm still waiting on one more, hopefully it didn't get lost in the mail. I'm not going to be a happy camper if that happened. I'm taking two math courses and a few education courses next semester, and I'm excited to start observation hours! I went shopping with my friend, Kelly, for some school-appropriate work clothes, so I'll be fashionable when I watch children to math.

I'm sad that summer's coming to a close, but this next school year will be great. I'm thinking about getting a personal trainer, or if someone my fitness level is also interested we can get discounted group rates.

Welcome back to Chambana, everyone!

011.

I know I haven't updated in a while, so now is a good of time as any to do this.

I birthday passed since the last time I wrote, I turned 20! No more being a teenager. With this birthday I've decided to take a new view in life, hopefully to help me stress less and be a healthier me. My parents came to visit for my birthday, and my roommate was out of town so Dan came over to stay for a few days. It was a lovely week. And then the following weekend Dan and I went on a trip, which was his birthday present to me. He surprised me and took me to see House on the Rock. I had a wonderful time, it is a very beautiful place and I love antiques and architecture. We met with our friends Jim and Amanda for dinner at the Bravo, an Italian restaurant, and then had our usual Frasier marathon to end the night. We're already on to season 6! That's over half way done, I don't know what I'm going to do when we finish, Frasier's been one of the things getting me through previous terrible semester.

Finals went well, I pulled off a 4.0 semester (even with all the distractions at home). After school ended I went home for a few weeks, saw my friends and family. I went back and forth between campus and home for another two weeks for work and family parties. Dan and I took our summer vacation trip to see the the Biltmore Estate. 8,000 acres of land and a 250-room mansion with amazing gardens and tons of other things to see. I got stung by a bee that flew up my pants, I was so freaked out because I didn't know what it was until I got to the bathroom so that I could take off my pants. It's a nice way to find out that I'm not allergic to bees, I guess. My dad's 50th birthday passed in the beginning of June, so I went back home for a surprise party that my mom didn't hide too well. It was fun, I saw some extended family that I hadn't seen in a while. All in all it was a good party.

I'm trying to train for a 5k. I know it's only 3.1 miles, but it will be my first race and I'm just going to build myself up to however far I feel satisfied (half marathon?). I had a 2 mile run this morning, I need to get faster somehow. My goal is to run the 5k in 30 minutes, and right now that's how long it takes me to run 2 miles. I'll get there, it'll just take time.

I got my Parkland student id yesterday, I start summer school on Monday. I'm taking Physics and Astronomy so that I can pursue a Science: Physics endorsement for secondary education alongside my mathematics endorsement. Hopefully it all goes well, I imagine a lot of work ahead of me.

010.

Since, you know, it's called Diary of a Math Student, I should talk about math from time to time, right?

I found this cool proof the other day:
Optimizing your Wife

It's basically a statistical proof of meeting eligible women, and how to calculate after how many N women you meet, which is the best. At the end it mentions the "Amanda Rule," which I thought was funny since Amanda and Jim are getting married (engaged in less than a year of knowing each other, must be the Amanda rule!).

Peace out.

009.

Ah, blogging? Yes. Something that I said I'd try to do at least once a week. And it's almost been a month.

Some things that have happened:
* Spring break was amazing, we stayed at the Palmer House Hilton. Pictures are up on facebook if you want to see them.
* My roommate finally paid me $118, but now has incurred another $74 of payments that she hasn't made.
* I got a 90% on my CHEM 102 exam from right after break, a 110% (!!!!) on my STAT 400 exam, and a 98% on my IB 101 exam. I'm rocking it :)
* My quizzes on the other hand haven't been going so well.
* I donated blood last Monday. I'm a good citizen :)

So, there's a list of things that happened. I went home this past weekend, hung out with Katie and Dan. I was supposed to see Ryan, my friend from high school (and the guy I've had the longest crush on, but Dan totally beats him in every category <3), but he flaked on me. Oh well. I had a cinnabon at the mall! I haven't had one in about a year. It wasn't as good as I remembered, so maybe I won't get it from now on. That'll save me, what, 3000 calories a sitting? Yes.

I did my pilates for the first time in about 3 months. I used to do it every morning, but then I got sick and school picked up and I stopped waking up early. I could barely stretch and touch my toes, it's so sad. And my hip was hurting more than usual. I definitely need to get back in to my quasi-shape that I was at the beginning of the semester, my entire body hurts nowadays.

I'm starting a running contest with Dan today. We're running a mile today to see our time and then we're going to talk about what the actual contest is going to be later.


My 20th birthday is coming up! I'm excited! Dan is taking me on a surprise trip. I don't know where we're going, all I know is that it's in Wisconsin, and that he, Amanda, and Brian have gone there together. And we're going to meet up with Amanda and Jim for dinner on Saturday night. I'll be sure to take a lot of pictures, I love having memories of these things :)

I have two quizzes this week, an exam next week, three projects due the next, and then finals start. School is going to be over soon. I can't believe it!

008.

I'm going to be a teacher! I got accepted in to the Secondary Education program! I have a meeting on the 1st to learn all about what I need to do now. I'm still waiting on hearing back for the Noyce Scholarship, Noyce Summer Internship, as well as the LAS 100 internship. I'll keep you (and ultimately my future self) posted about this.

Spring break is here. It was gorgeous yesterday, about 67 degrees. It was gorgeous all week as a matter of fact. I wake up this morning and there's snow everywhere! And it's been consistently snowing all day. It's supposed to rain tomorrow, and hopefully get warmer by Monday. Dan and I decided to go to Chicago instead of traveling out far. We're going to see Policeman's Log at Gorilla Tango Theatre in Chicago, and then Tuesday we're going to the Shedd Aquarium. I'm excited :)

Otherwise not much else is new. I have two midterms when I come back from break, so I'll be studying like mad when I get back. I'm just going to enjoy break, get my laundry done, and not do anything stressful until I need to drive back to school.

Happy Spring Break everyone!