Blog
Nothing but blue climbs, all day long
April 04, 2024
Bouldering has become one of my main activities over the past year. I had visited Armadillo Boulders in San Antonio once or twice before, but my interest ramped up in Switzerland as I explored various gyms around Zürich with one of my flatmates. Last semester, I purchased a membership for the bouldering wall at the campus gym and went often between classes. This semester, I've been going to Austin Bouldering Project several times per week in the mornings and evenings.
In a single session, I tend to pick one or two problems at the edge of my ability and fixate …
Seventeenth violinniversary
January 30, 2024
Today marks seventeen years since my first violin lesson. Wow!
I half assed a half marathon
January 23, 2024
On Sunday, I ran the 3M Downhill to Downtown Half Marathon. The course is net-downhill from Gateway (near the Domain and the Pickle Research Campus where I work) to the Capitol, so the idea was to harness the force of gravity to continue shaving time off my personal record.
Training for the race
I signed up for the race in late December and then proceeded to train for zero miles per week. According to Strava, my last recorded run before the race was on 2023/09/11. So I don't think I ran between then and the race. I am pretty sure …
Thoughts on studying Deutsch and Quantum Engineering at ETH Zürich
August 21, 2023
The fall semester starts later this morning, so now is as good a time as ever to write some brief thoughts on the courses I took at ETH Zürich in the spring. I took two German courses and almost five courses from the Master's in Quantum Engineering course catalog.
Basic German 1: A1, Intensive Course (aka Deutsch Intensivkurs), taught by Ursina Tones
Taking this class was among the best decisions I made while on exchange. This was a fantastic way to spend my first two weeks in Zürich, as it jumpstarted my Deutsch learning at a clip of six hours …
Live from Sixth Street, It's Saturday Night!
August 05, 2023
This evening, I attended Esther's Follies, a sketch comedy show at the eponymous theater on the titular Sixth Street in downtown Austin. The show was filled with musical acts (including parodies of popular songs incorporating current events), magic tricks and illusions, and all sorts of sketches poking fun at local, statewide, and national culture and politics, among other things. The ensemble cast was fantastic, and I was entertained for the entire ninety minutes.
The show is a fixture in Austin's culture (according to my mom, at least), and, as they hinted at during the show, probably one of the …
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More updates and pictures from Zurich (through mid-March)
March 12, 2023
I've now been in Zurich for just over a month, and I've been traveling around Switzerland on the weekends. This blog post is also a photo dump, with even less context than last time. All photos have been scaled down to make the page load faster. Delete "resized/" from the image link to view the full image.
Final week of German class
On the final day of German class, we went to the Lindt chocolate factory.
Then we went on a boat tour around Lake Zurich.
Uetliberg
That weekend I hiked the Uetliberg mountain near Zurich with some friends …
Some updates and pictures from my first week in Switzerland
February 12, 2023
Classes don't start until next week, so I've been exploring Zurich for the past week. This blog post is roughly a photo dump, with little bits of context. All photos have been scaled down to make the page load faster. Delete "resized/" from the image link to view the full image.
I arrived in Zurich last Friday (the 3rd) in the morning. I met a fellow exchange student (from Australia) in the airport, and we took a train to downtown Zurich and walked around for a little bit with our suitcases. My apartment move-in was at noon, so I took …
En route to Zurich!
February 02, 2023
After a quick layover at Washington Dulles, I'm officially in the air and on my way -- the overseas/overnight flight to Zurich lifted off just moments ago!
Constitutional Design: Plan II Junior Seminar
January 20, 2023
This past semester, I took "Constitutional Design," an excellent Plan II Junior Seminar taught by Professor Zachary Elkins. In the course, we explored the professor's various research interests. To borrow from my final paper,
Prior to each class, we read a relevant book chapter, journal paper, or article and composed a short reaction response.
Our final assignment was to compile our responses into a report,