There's A First Time For Everything

Me, Chloe, Clara, and Mariko at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station.

After leaving school an hour and a half early, driving home, hectically changing clothes, and rushing out the door with my mother, I finally arrived at the El Cerrito Plaza bart station at about 5:05 PM. I was really anxious because initially I had planned to arrive at 5 but the traffic on the freeway did not allow this. Upon exiting the car I felt a surge of nervousness. From the parking lot, I could see a group of young scholars that I assumed to be members of the Ivy League Connection. I walked up to the group and was surprised at how friendly everyone was. I had been waiting for this day since I was admitted into the Ivy League Connection, I would finally be meeting my cohort and chaperone! I engaged in conversation with the other girls who would be attending the University of Pennsylvania with me this summer while we waited for everyone to arrive.

 Once the last of the group arrived, we boarded the BART train headed towards San Francisco. The ride was a long one; it seemed longer than it should have, probably because I had been awake since 6:45 that morning and had no break in between. We got off the BART at the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco.We then walked a few blocks to the public library.  Once we reached the public library we broke into groups of four in order to take taxis to La Folie, the restaurant at which we'd be dining at. Watching people hailing cabs was one of the most fun occurences of the evening. After being passed up by a number of taxis, my group and I jumped into a taxi SUV and we were on our way! On our way to the restaurant, I learned that our chaperone coaches both football and baseball at a local high school.

My personalized menu!

When we arrived at the restaurant we were greeted right away by a lovely woman asking for our coats. After taking coats, she led us to a small dining room off to the side. When I say small, I mean tiny. The room was vertically striped in purple and green and for some reason it reminded me of the Joker from Batman. We were all cramped in the room eating  hors d’ oeuvres. The were many options but I had the asparagus soup and a bacon and egg tart. After socializing for about ten minutes we were allowed to sit in the seats that had menus customized with our names on them. I was seated at the table closest to the door with Ms. Kronenberg to my left, Bruce Lengacher( Clara's dad) to my right, and my mother, Denise Butler directly across from me.

Delicious quail and squab wrapped in potato skins baked to perfection.

Dinner was a lovely experience. I had the quail and squab, which was much different from anything I've ever eaten. It was surprisingly delicious. The quail and squab were bundled together and then wrapped in crispy potato skins that reminded me very much of Lays Original potato chips. While eating dinner I had the chance to participate in some lovely conversations. I spoke with Clara and Dyana about the differences between a traditional high school and Middle College, which is considered an alternative school. I also spoke with Ms. Kronenberg and University of Pennsylvania Alumni about the food choices available to students on campus as well as off. Although conversing with these people over great food was fun, my overall favorite part of the night was desert. For desert I had strawberry sorbet, passionfruit sorbet in a cannoli, and chocolate sorbet. My favorites were the fruit sorbets as I'm not that big of a fan of frozen chocolate treats.

After taking group pictures and gathering our coats, we all hopped into separate cabs and headed to the BART station. Dinner at La Folie was an amazing experience and I look forward to seeing more of my cohort soon. Once again, I'd like to thank everyone who has made the Ivy league Connection what it is today.

Fine Dining and the Penn Cohort

When I stepped out of the Civic Center BART station in San Francisco, I began to seriously second-guess my decision to wear a short wool coat instead of a swim parka, Onesie, or similar garment that would have covered my entire body in cloth. The notorious SF winds were unpleasantly chilly as I walked the short blocks to catch a taxi with Clara, her dad, and my mom, but once I was inside I ended up being fine. Our destination was La Folie, chosen venue to host the Ivy League Connection dinner with alumni of UPenn and benefactors of the ILC. Dyana So and Alex Elms, ILC alumns and recent admits to the Penn Class of ’16 were also in attendance; as they are both past ILC participants they were happy to answer questions we might have.

As we arranged ourselves around the two long tables, I was happy to see that I was seated next to David, who will take physics at Penn with me this summer. David goes to Middle College, so I don’t know him as well as I know Clara or Chloe, and I was glad for the opportunity to talk with him. I was also able to get to know Ivette a little better during dinner, as we chatted about our expectations for the program and our different experiences during the interview process.

Mr. Schlein congratulates us and offers some words of wisdom

I also spoke with Louis, a Penn alumn of ’07 now at Stanford for grad school. He was friendly and open about his days at Penn. He also compared his different experiences in college and grad school, saying that Penn had lots of fun, quirky traditions that helped students bond, while Stanford had a stronger sports program that students could rally around.  I especially enjoyed hearing about the Penn tradition where the rising senior class marches through the entire campus to the president’s office wearing Styrofoam hats. After being recognized by the university president as the new senior class, friends take bites out of each other’s hats! Louis also recommended a couple of museums to check out while in Philadelphia, which I hope to do if I have enough time to explore the city.

Mr. Ramsey speaks about the unique opportunity we have been offered as a part of the ILC

Of course, all of these conversations were put on the back burner when the food arrived. Need I say it was amazing? We started off with hors d’ oeuvres like bacon and cheese tarts and artichoke soup. After taking our seats, we moved on to other treats, including delicious eggs flavored with herbs and served in their shells. My first course was a goat cheese tartin, which was beautifully plated in addition to being extremely tasty. The main course was a quail stuffed with squab and wrapped with potatoes, served with roasted vegetables. Although I later heard that it wasn’t what everyone expected, I found it quite satisfactory and was excited to try something new that I hadn’t had before. I feel as though my culinary gamble paid off nicely. Dessert was sumptuous, rich chocolate cake with brandied dried fruit. Although I wasn’t entirely sure that a 16 year old such as myself was supposed to eat the brandy-soaked fruit, I can quite truthfully say as a chocolate lover that the cake was amazing.

Goat cheese is one of my favorite foods, so naturally I had to order this dish

Quail dinner–mmmmmm, yummy

I was so excited to taste my chocolate cake that I didn't manage to get a photo of it before I started eating

Once again, the ILC put on a wonderful event that opened my eyes even more to the wonderful opportunities available to me at Penn. The food was wonderful, if that wasn’t already apparent from my long reminiscence earlier, the company was friendly and inspiring, and I even got home before 11 PM. I call that a success.

Tonight Was So Perfect

My afternoon started out fairly normal for a Tuesday and I was feeling a bit nervous about speaking in front of everyone at dinner tonight.  Even so, I kept calm and figured that there was absolutely no reason to be nervous because I knew that everyone who was attending dinner was on my side already.  Nonetheless, I had a jittery feeling throughout the day and was anxious for school to be over so that I could take BART over to San Francisco with the UPENN cohort.

Yesterday afternoon I bought an outfit that I felt would be appropriate for the ILC dinner and the fact that I felt comfortable in my ensemble gave me one less thing to fret over.  I told my mom that we needed to be at the El Cerrito Plaza BART station at 5:00 PM so that we would have 15 minutes of leeway time in case we needed it.  Turns out, we we arrived at the meeting site just after 5:00 PM and were greeted by Don and a few of the students and their parents. So far, the technicalities were settled smoothly.

While on BART, I had the chance to talk with Mariko's mom for a bit and listened to the conversation between she and my mom.  I was not sitting close to anyone else in the group besides the two of them so I was not able to mingle with the others but instead Clara and I made funny faces at each other from across the train car.  I was also trying to figure out what else I should say in my speech for, even though I tried not to be, I was still a little nervous.

After we had arrived at the Civic Center BART station and walked up a couple blocks, the slight challenge was to flag down enough taxis to drive us to the restaurant, La Folie.  We split up into groups of four and I rode with my mom, Cameron, and Alex.  Our cab driver was very entertaining with his great British accent and cab quizzes.  In that short little ride I learned that there are approximately 1500 cabs running in San Francisco and a whopping 16,000 in New York!  This made my home town of San Francisco seem relatively cozy and small.  When we arrived at Polk and Green, I paid with money given to us by Don, and all was right until I forgot to get a receipt from the cab driver!  This is something that Don had asked us specifically to do and I felt really bad about this silly mistake, but I promised never to do it again so Don nicely let me off this one time.

Crab Salad

The restaurant itself was an elegant French place with beautiful paintings and cordial staff.  Our large group assembled in a separate room for dinner, however we did not begin to eat for a little while.  As the waitress explained to us in further detail the items on the menu, I was not sure whether to be adventurous or safe.  I kept on feeling that I should order the most interesting dish because I knew I was not going to be back at La Folie any time soon.  In the end I decided to keep it safe and order the salmon plate, knowing that it would be delicious anyway.  When everyone's orders had finally arrived later on I had a feeling of regret for not ordering the quail, lamb, or beef dishes.  While my salmon was indeed satisfying, I got to try a bit of my mom's quail dish and it was absolutely scrumptious.  At that moment I really wished that I had ordered the same as her.  As for my appetizer, I ordered the crab salad which was a bit different than what I am used to.  My desert on the other hand was the strawberry and lemon-mint granite (I believe it was called), and this was an excellent way to finish off my courses.  The strawberry sorbet was the perfect sweetness and I savored every last drop.

Satisfied Customer

Despite the yummy food, I had a great time talking to the people at my table when I found a good place to jump into the conversation.  I was seated next to Cameron so we naturally conversed more but I tried to listen in on the entertaining conversations around us when there was not a main speaker up front.  

The speeches made were interesting and engaging and I appreciated the fact that some alums, sponsers, and future UPENN students took the time to come out to the dinner and speak to and with us.  Rather than writing up a speech myself I used some talking points that I had previously thought about and spoke from the heart.  I hope that my speech was as fun as I meant for it to be.  I wanted to convey my excitement and joy in regard to this entire process and hopefully I was able to do so.

Overall, I had a wonderful night and felt ready to snuggle up in my warm bed back home.  As we were taking the BART back to El Cerrito however, I caught sight of a friend of mine from school.  We were both playing this long-term game with a bunch of other students and basically he was my target so I had to spray him with water in order to get him out.  I just so happened to have a vase of flowers full of water so I tried to sneak towards him in the hope that he would not see me and try to run.  On the way, I tripped over the woman's bag and almost fell myself! But, I saved my fall and surprised him with a water attack.  Quite a fun way to end the night.

Our First Steps

The weather was absolutely beautiful on Saturday morning, April 21, and the warmth helped me get out of my bed despite my weekend habit of sleeping in later than seven o'clock AM. I was thankful for the warm weather as it helped me get ready for the tutorial and head over to Hercules Middle School.

I arrived with three students from my own school, El Cerrito High, so I felt quite comfortable and assured walking into the computer room.  While we waited for the other students to arrive, Don asked us to try and sit next to someone that we had not yet met.  My friend Nick had reserved a spot for himself in the back but he decided to sit next to me until more people had arrived.  By the time that the majority of the day's participants had shown up, his spot was taken and we both thought that it would be okay to stay seated next to one another and then mingle with students from other schools during the break.

At first, I stayed close to a couple of my fellow El Cerrito students when the break started. However, I really wanted to meet the rest of the students as well as my chaperone who I had only spoken to over email.  As I was getting up to introduce myself, my chaperone, Ian Lawrence, made introductions himself.  After speaking briefly with him I felt assured that he would be an excellent person to watch over us, which made me feel less nervous about traveling all the way to Philadelphia this summer.  Once we had said goodbye, I made my way over to a group of girls who were involved in the other summer programs and we had a chance to share our excitement and become familiar with one another before the break ended.

The information presented to us by Don was very straightforward and well-explained.  I felt pretty comfortable with the tasks we were asked to do from now until the summer is over.  I was a little nervous about having to blog everyday, but I figured that I just need to think of it as improving, what I would say is, my bad habit of sporadic journal writing.  Overall I understand what is going to be expected of me and I am prepared, and anxious, to get started on this journey!

A Beautiful Day for Blogging

The sun was shining brightly when I pulled into the Hercules High School parking lot this morning.  I found my way to room 106, and was surprised to find many El Cerrito High School students already there.  Sitting next to someone I didn't know was going to be harder than I anticipated.  

I sat towards the back, and thankfully my chair was connected to my desk, for I was soon hit with an amazing amount of information, including blogging, photo editing, and laundry.  I am a novice at all these things,  though I have done my laundry before. However, I don't think my past strategy of throwing everything in the same load and hoping for the best will cut it at Penn.  

During our short break, I got the chance to mingle with a few of the students I hadn't met before.  Almost automatically, all the girls gathered together and we got to chat for a bit while the guys all sat on the other side of the room.  I was again reminded what an accomplishment it is to be an ILCer, and I was very impressed with all the new people I met.  I also got the chance to meet my chaperone again, this time in a much more casual setting.  Chatting in a computer lab is definitely more relaxing than being interviewed. 

All in all, the tutorial was incredibly informative and fun.  I learned a ton, and every second just brought me more excitement about my summer at Penn.  I really just can't wait any longer!

Twin Lakes

Today was my first time hiking to Twin Lakes and I was incredibly excited to see how the trail would stand up to praise it had received from my family and friends. As I trudged down the path, the birds chirped cheerfully and the flowers seemed to welcome us into their beautiful lair. I was amazed at the diversity of plants I saw and could not help but stop and take pictures of them.  Not only did I snap shots of the plant life, but of the incredible mountains, lakes, and meadows that I had a chance to see.

Wild Tiger Lily

My favorite part of the hike was capturing the scenery of the Sierra Mountains.  Although I do not have a camera of my own, my brother generously allowed me to borrow his digital camera for the day.  We traveled up and down hills, through meadows and valleys, and swam to the miniature island within the lake.  I must have stopped every five minutes or so to pull out the camera that was hanging around my neck and crouch down to try out my artistic skills on the nearest flower to catch my eye.  For long distance shots, I practiced changing around the lighting on the camera since the sunlight was bouncing off of everything it touched.



Twin Lakes



Besides the flowers, I was able to capture a great number of shots of the lakes.  Twin Lakes in itself explains that the hike leads to identical lakes that are overwhelmingly beautiful.  On this sunny day, the water sparkled in the light and the sun warmed my body after I swam to the island within the lake.  The space was gentle, and I appreciated the calamity and grace of the nature around me.  Most of all, I loved the moment when I felt myself completely relaxing.  

Here We Go

It was 7 AM when my alarm woke me up on Saturday, March 31, 2012. YES!, you read right, it was Saturday! Now you must all think I'm absolute crazy for getting up at 7 AM on a Saturday, but I can see why. The weekend was meant for resting, so by getting up so early I was pretty much defying the laws of nature. Now don't think I'm a criminal who breaks the law every weekend. I assure you I wake up after 10 on Saturdays, but this Saturday was a special occasion.

With the help of Don's maps I arrived at Hercules High School at around 8:20 AM, a good 40 minutes early. The mandatory ILC tutorial didn't start until 9 AM, but it has been made quite clear that timing is very important. By 9 everybody was there, and we were ready to start.

Don covered many areas. He talked to us about blogging, laundry, photography, thieves, and numerous other things that we were required to know. He allowed us two breaks in between his lectures.

During our break we were actually supposed to get up, and try to make new friends. Um, yeah I did not do that. I sat in my chair talking to my very close friend, Tayler Ward, whom I already knew from school. MAYBE we'll actually get up and socialize at the following event, but I wouldn't count on it.

Besides having to get up ridiculously early on a Saturday, and there being no snacks, I did enjoy the tutorial. It answered any questions I had regarding my trip to Penn. I'm really excited, and I can't wait for my trip to the east side!