Peddie Voices

Breathe. Take it in.

2012-02-24T14:23:00.001-05:00

Chris Mixon, faculty member in the English department, reminds us all to savor the moments — both good and bad.

I never gave a Chapel Talk in high school. I now know I made the right decision. I would have mocked the process and probably have looked back on it embarrassed at my own lack of maturity.

The last time I was up at a podium giving a speech was in college. It was eight in the morning and in four more hours I would graduate. None of my friends came to my speech because, well it was eight in the morning. I ended up emailing them what they missed.

Indulge me a little if it seems like I am enjoying being up here. I am. If I stop and breathe, looking out at all of you—it may not be theatrical. I want to enjoy this moment and remember all the small details, my heartbeat, my breathing, the way one of the seniors is editing his thesis.

Chapel talks come in two forms. Some are very personal; they are literally for the person who speaks. It is difficult and challenging and that is why they are up here. Some are for the audience; it is advice that the speaker believes you should hear. Most are both and one at the same time, so I’ll leave you to decide where this one fits.

If you are sitting out there right now and you are healthy, you probably have not thought too much about it. I routinely take my health for granted; until I’m sick, at which point I desperately wish and bargain and plead with my body to do anything to be better again. While I have engaged in this type of bargaining all of my life—I’m here to tell you that it really does nothing. In fact, it’s rather counterproductive, because it keeps my focus firmly in the past. So I have been experimenting with a new way of going about my life.

Instead of waiting until the actual moment when your knee hurts, or your back seems to paralyze your every motion, to acknowledge the beauty and amazing quality of health, do it now. (Breathe). Take it in. Experience this moment and be mindful of every little part of your body that does not hurt. It is amazing how nothing, because for most of us, what we are feeling right now is the norm and does not even register as a feeling, it is amazing how nothing actually feels. Now for those of you who I’ve just alienated—those of you that are hurting in some way—feel free to embrace that pain too. This is where your body is, right now and it’s okay. So you’re sore from all those dead lifts and lunges? Great. Embrace the lactic acid boiling in your thighs. Flex them, enjoy the tightness and jellowy feeling that occurs when you walk upstairs. That feeling is a validation that you are getting better. You want that; that’s why you did the lifts. So, instead of cringing and fearing the soreness, embrace it. Become present in it. Breathe it in.

For those that are going through tougher experiences, I do not mean to trivialize them. There are certain emotional, financial, physical traumas that I have never had to face. But just listen, it won’t make anything worse.

I’m becoming increasingly more willing to believe that disappointment and sadness are good things. I’m aware that this is culturally counter intuitive. I am also aware that no one is really interested in drinking the Kool-Aid on something we see as synonymous with losing. When it happens on a test, the floor drops away; the room becomes smaller; the heat rises in your face and you feel that everyone knows. In a social situation, you feel compacted, suffocated, smothered—that voice repeating, “You thought this would actually work?” And, in sports—it is deflating. (Exhale)

The wind, air, every veritable molecule of courage and dedication that had been previously engaged in defying the very odds—that up until the moment before your collapse seemed so very possible— it all evaporates. And there you are left, maybe with your head in your hands, maybe with your face already steeled against an onslaught of emotional despair, maybe watching as Blair fans raucously celebrate their win in the last game you will ever play.

What helps me is to remind myself of what was once at stake. The depth of my emotion stands as a testament to what might have been. For me, that crushing feeling on some level represents my capacity for greatness; it represents what I have risked. It reminds me that I had put myself in a position where I could be crushed. This is a good thing. It has to be.

Most of life is spent maneuvering. So much of what we do as coaches and teachers, students and athletes is to put ourselves in a position where success is attainable. We set ourselves up and then let it play out. Falling short of goals is disappointing, sure, and in some cases it can border on devastating; but not having them? Not having a goal to fall short of? Doesn’t that border on the pathetic?

In high school I spent most of my life trying to convince the people around me that I did not care. Things did not bother me. I was cooler than that. Girls, grades, dorm faculty… I was bigger than all that. My senior year became about walking across the stage and making it. What I discovered when I did, was that I felt nothing. Graduation was actually one of the greatest let downs I think I’ve ever felt.

In college, I struggled with my level of commitment to wrestling. I wrestled for all four years, but at times the sport seemed like just another part of the juggling act I was performing. One of the memories that stands out the most, probably my best memory from senior year occurred in our conference dual tournament. We had four matches that day. I wrestled four guys. I lost four times. The amount of emotion I felt—how much that last match meant to me… It’s a strange thing to be proud of but: I think it’s because I cared.

By opening myself up, I was accepting joy or despair. But by not investing, by staying aloof of my very feelings—I was closing the door on everything. It’s impossible to prepare only to accept the positive moments—by priming yourself for life, you must be open to everything. Closing your emotional valves when it hurts effectively closes them all the time.

Caring is not only okay, it’s how we reassure ourselves we are alive. The solution to disappointment is not to forego caring, to opt out entirely on life. The solution is to care more and enjoy the prospect that such caring brings. Care in the moment; don’t wait for the arbitrariness of the outcome to determine an experience’s worth. Embrace the experience for what it is and in that embrace, validate what you have done.

In my college and high school athletic career, it was so rare that I would remember anything about the actual events. The moments that I trained for were lost in scrambles and desperate attempts to keep pace. I remember the training, the dreaming and the losing weight. I remember practice and injuries, but of the actual matches? There seems to be frighteningly little.

So my advice to you is to slow it down. Soak it in. Notice the crowd; notice the way the water tastes. Feel the texture of the ball, the rubber of the mat, the coldness of the air. Smell the gym—these are memories you will want. Don’t wait until the game is over. Do it while the game is still being played. Step out of the batter’s box and readjust your gloves; inhale and breathe. Take an extra second to appreciate how you came to be here, what it took, your personal journey…and now tighten your gloves, and go make contact.

In JV football, when I called a timeout to talk to the defense, I would always remind them of how special this was. I’m probably a little more fired up on the field, but I’d say something like, “Guys, great job. This is what we play for. Keep your heads up, this is exactly where we want to be. Breathe it in. This is awesome. Stop them here and we get the ball back. Okay, here’s what we are going to do…” And this year I was lucky enough to have a group of guys who when I said that… it worked. There’s no guarantee, and even if there was, that isn’t really what this is about.

Now, this also applies to plays and musicals too. You’ve practiced so hard for those moments when you are out on stage delivering your lines, and singing, and bowing for curtain call. Don’t be self-conscious, be proud. You deserve it. We are clapping for you. Great job last night, by the way.

Appreciate the moment—don’t try and live, in the moment for every moment, because that’s not realistic, and the truth is it sounds absolutely exhausting. Try and take in one or two a day; check in when it is good, and be mindful when it hurts. Be present, be grateful and embrace as much as you can. Because, the truth is you never know the next time you’ll be back. So enjoy it; ala viva.

Photo blog: Hoagie Haven. Honors Art. Nuff said.

2012-02-23T15:25:00.000-05:00

Photo by Gabryella Pulsinelli '12 of Santo Chen '12.
You'll have to ask in the comments what Hoagie Haven and Honors Art have in common!

On the hook: Following through on a personal goal

2012-02-22T13:15:00.000-05:00

Math teacher Mark Gartner '84 makes good on his goal - and the team cheers on the coach!

At the winter track pre-season meeting in November, I spoke to the kids about the importance of setting goals. Even if you fall short of that goal, putting your goal in public for all to see can help inspire/motivate you to achieve it. In that vein, I told the team my goal was to run a 400m in under 75 seconds by the end of the track season. By telling the team, I was "on the hook," so I trained somewhat regularly throughout the winter season to prepare. I guess it paid off. Incidentally, the kids in the gym that day were great cheering me on!

For the record, Mark did more than acheive his goal, finishing in 71.1 seconds - Congratulations, Mark!

Family Style dinners -- a Peddie tradition

2012-02-20T09:07:00.001-05:00

Special dinners. During the days I have lived here, I keep on asking this question----is it one of Peddie’s traditions?

Thanks to teachers Adriana Morales and Beverly Jiang, I participated in my first family style of Peddie. At that time, all the students attended the dinner dressed formally and quite nice. They look like ladies or gentlemen. They went downstairs, took an asigned seat , had dinner with a Peddie teacher or a family of faculty . All the people in the dining hall that night were sitting together, chatting pleasantly in a low voice, acting like a lady or a gentleman too.

You can also see some cute kids there. They are the kids of faculty. I think they made the dinner look more like a family dinner.

The most interesting thing is all the dinner is served by the Peddie students. I think they did a good job. It means any of Peddie students can be served and also can provide service。

特别的晚宴

生活在这里的这些日子，关于很多事情我都一直在问一个问题——这是培德的传统之一么？

多亏蒋老师和Adriana（一位西班牙语老师）的安排，我有幸参加了培德的家庭式晚餐。在那一天晚上，所有参加晚宴的培德学生都打扮得非常正式。与白天的他们不同，此时此刻，他们看上去就是一位淑女或者绅士。我看到他们从楼上慢慢走下来，进了大厅，走到自己的指定座位边上，准备和一位学校的老师或者一个老师家庭共进晚餐。那个夜晚，大家围着一张张大圆桌，坐在一起吃饭，大概是因为打扮的关系，大家聊天的声音也都是轻轻的，所有的孩子都表现得很有淑女气质或者绅士风度，

在大厅里，还有一些年纪小小的孩子，他们是培德老师的孩子。由于他们的加入，我感觉这样的聚餐更加像家庭聚餐了。

最有意思的事情是：所有的用餐服务生居然都是培德学生。他们也都穿上了白色的侍者衣服，看上去真像那么回事情。所以说每一个培德学生，他既可能享受别人的服务，同时他也会服务别人。

Into the Woods: Perspectives

2012-02-17T11:48:00.001-05:00

Photo courtesy of Jim Inverso

Gabby Pulsinelli '12, a member of the pit band for the last three years, reflects on her last Winter musical at Peddie.

I can not begin to tell you how amazing the cast, crew, directors, stage mangers, orchestra, and every one else involved in Into the Wood is. Last night before opening night John Lucs wife baked us all cupcakes to get us pumped up. The energy behind stage was amazing and I am so proud of what we have put together. A week ago if you asked me how the show was going I would have looked at you as if you had three heads but we all pulled together and stepped up. The show is amazing and I am proud of what the company has been able to put together. Like any other team here at Peddie we bonded over the long tech, our absent Head's Holiday and Valentine's day to produce one of my favorite shows at Peddie. This is my last year in Pit Band and when the last midnight strikes it will be a sad moment for all the seniors in this production.

If you haven't seen it yet go, no matter how much homework or work you have it is worth it.

Photo courtesy of Jim Inverso

Becca Levy '12, had never participated in a Peddie production until Into the Woods.

I've never ever been a part of a Peddie production, ever. It was such a fun experience! I went from not being cast, to being the "dramaturg" (look it up), to being the understudy for two different characters, to making the sound effects for the cow and the baby. Even though I wasn't really ever on the stage, it was so much fun to be involved in the process, and to watch my friends put together this unbelievable production. I will definitely try to do something like this in college!

Photo courtesy of Jim Inverso

On whose shoulders we stand

2012-02-10T10:37:00.001-05:00

Head of School John Green speaks to our students on the importance of Founders Day.

Thomas B. Peddie

For those who are new to Peddie, during Founders Day, the second of three official gatherings of our School community, we carve out time in the middle of our busiest days to honor our founders and others who preceded us here, and whose contributions made Peddie the school and community it is today.

It is our hope that you will graduate from Peddie with an acute sense of your school's history. Who have served as the pillars of our community? Who are the people, many of whom sat in your seats, who contributed their time, talents or treasure? Who are the people whose names adorn buildings or plaques that you pass by every day? What made them so special? On whose shoulders do we stand? You will find the inspiration, I hope, to write your own chapter in Peddie history.

Today we honor Mr. Raymon Oram, who served as a legendary science teacher and department chair for over twenty-five years as well as an assistant headmaster. F. Edward Potter, our second honoree, served as the head of school from 1977-1988 and it is after him that our Potter dormitories are named with respect and great affection.

Senioritis? Not exactly... by Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

2012-02-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

I am sitting here in the History House writing my senior thesis while I am thinking about how the next three weeks are going to be insane. It is like all the deadlines fall on the same day. To give a little insight on what my schedule is looking like for the next few weeks: On Friday I leave to go to a college interview in Pennsylvania and then on Saturday audition for Carnegie Mellon. I come back on Sunday for tech rehearsal for the musical. Then Monday and Tuesday are more tech, Wednesday dress rehearsal and shows on Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Then during the weekend finishing up my work and study for finals. Little hectic? Well that is Peddie and we all have learned how to handle it somehow.

Peddie Pit Band. Photo: Jim Inverso

Did I forget were doing a complete musical run through at Pit Band today? It is never a dull moment here.

Science Club teaching a love of science to the next generation

2012-02-02T11:00:00.003-05:00

The Peddie Science Club welcomed some young scientists from Chapin School this morning. Dr. Shani Peretz, chair of the science department, has the story:

Photo by Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

Thirty third graders from the Chapin School in Princeton are here today to do some 'hands on' science. The science club, led by Jonathan Ku '13 and Pankhuri Jha '13, organized the visit. The day started with a tour of the science building, including the robotics class and the DNA lab. Students learned about chemical reactions by making slime and volcanos, and talked about recycling while blending paper into new paper. Chemisty teacher Dr. Crider invited the students to make tie-dye shirts with her, after which the students enjoyed lunch on campus before heading back to their school.

Guitar Army

2012-02-01T15:43:00.000-05:00

Vanessa Gao '13 takes a breather from a stressful week with Mr. Clement's 12-string and some friends.

I've not only been to this Guitarmy session but also the first one. What makes me so devoted and almost addicted to it is the way the people can be totally relaxed there and just be themselves. I personally really love playing Mr.Clement's twelve-string, because it just sounds ten times better than my own guitar :] also I think it's a great way to let off some steam, just you and your friends and teachers all half-screaming the lyrics while playing guitar.

How to love?

2012-01-31T08:37:00.001-05:00

Peddie School hosted its 15th Annual Community Day on Sunday -- over 350 student volunteers, along with parents, faculty and staff, hosted more than 450 children and their families from area schools and social service agencies. Here is Jingjing Xue's perspective:

I heard that there was a Community Service Day last Sunday. The faculty who told me about it all suggested I join it and wished me have fun. Following their words I had walked into the party. Yes, when I entering the gym, I considered it as a big party there.

I still don’t think I know about the Community Day very well. On my way entering this party, I chatted with a parent of Peddie School. She was very nice and told me the activity is for the kid who needs help. And this party was made by not only the school, but also the student’s families. Lots of students, their parents and faculty took apart in it. It is a way to help the unfortunate family. In my opinion it’s a good way to make kids know how to love.

I also met some of the faculty’s kids that day. I saw they also enjoyed the party very much, just like the kids from the family in need. Sometimes I even cannot differentiate between them without help. At that moment, it seemed like a big family. I felt it’s a great balance between working and family. Let your kids enjoy your work is also a great way to love them, to make them love you, I think.

我们如何去爱？

早就听说上个周日有个社区服务日（Community Day）。所有曾经向我提起过这个服务日的老师都建议我去看一看，大家都说我一定会喜欢的。于是，我就去了这个“派对”。是的，我把这个服务日当成是派对了。因为当我进入学校的体育馆的时候，我真的觉得就像参加了一个隆重的派对。

虽然多多少少已经从别人那听过这个“社区服务日”，但我并不太了解它。我想我大概是那天出现在现场的最不了解状况的人了。在进活动区的路上，我有幸和一位志愿者家长交谈。她人很好，还向我介绍了这个活动的情况。这个活动是为了那些需要帮助的家庭的孩子举办的。整个活动由学校和家长两方共同承办。也就是说，这一天的志愿者中既有学生、家长，也有学校的教职员工。我觉得这不失为一种教会孩子如何去爱的很好的方式。

在那天，我同样看到一些学校教师的孩子。他们和那些来自受助家庭的孩子一样，很享受这个盛大的派对。如果无人介绍，我甚至无法分清这些孩子。在那一刻，我觉得这整个就像一个大家庭。带孩子来参加这样的活动，在我看来是工作与家庭的一种极佳的平衡方式。请让你的孩子了解、喜欢你的工作，因为我觉得这也是一种我们彼此相爱的方式。

Photos by Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

Of helium and happiness

2012-01-30T15:14:00.000-05:00

Senior Harry Gensemer reflects on a Sunday well-spent. (excerpted from The Daily Dose)

...I know if somebody else wrote all about their inside jokes with other people, I’d exclaim “and I care WHY?!?!”, but I think every once in a while it’s important to take a look around at how interacting with other people affects and defines us.

As I was going around untying balloons yesterday (and getting ready to pop them to death) Gisela Jara brought a little girl over who wanted all the balloons tied to her wrist. I must’ve had six in my hand, so Gisela and I tied them to the little girl’s hand, and what a smile that kid had! It felt really good to make somebody as happy as my friends make me every day.

To make a long paraphrase of a beautifully normal day short, I’m really lucky to be interacting with all you Peddie people. In the dining hall, on Community Day, and even in the Laundry Room sorting through Liam Wall’s mountains of laundry. Thank you for being such incredible falcon cousins.

Paul Watkins: Beauty and cruelty on Peddie's campus

2012-01-30T08:52:00.001-05:00

Paul Watkins, Peddie history teacher and writer in residence, shares with us a vignette about three little squirrels and a vicious predator. Watkins has published over a dozen books, both using his given name and the pseudonym Sam Eastland. For more information on the red tailed hawk, visit the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

There are three squirrels who live in the old magnolia tree outside my window. There is a hole in the tree, which leads to their hideout. On sunny days, they all stick their heads out at the same time, which reminds me of the characters on a very old TV show called The Three Stooges. They have become my companions, in a way, and I wonder what they must think of this creature who sits at a desk, rattling its fingers up and down a keyboard for hours at a time. They might also wonder what a desk is. Or a keyboard. When they are not sleeping, the stooges race up and down the branches, wrestle each other on twigs thinner than a pencil or fall asleep clinging to the bark. And sometimes, when I glance up from my computer, they have vanished.

That’s when I know the hawk is out.

The hawk that rules over this campus is a female Red Tail, with a wing span longer than my arm and a vicious, curved beak that looks as if it has been blackened in a fire. Her nest is in a tall evergreen tree across from the Peddie playing fields on the grounds of the Meadow Lakes retirement home. Jogging the loop, I have spotted the hawk returning to her nest with some poor creature dangling in her talons and leaving behind only a scattering of fur or feathers on the campus to mark where the kill took place.

I have watched her circle above the grass in front of Swig, then seem to fly away as if persuaded there was nothing of interest. Then, when she has gone, some poor rabbit, or mouse or chipmunk emerges from hiding, convinced that it is safe once more. The hawk begins its dive right above my house, swooping down low over the roof of Longstreet, curving gracefully up over the old observatory dome, then diving in for the kill.
She is a superlative hunter; a constant reminder for me of the way in which beauty and cruelty go often hand in hand.

Each time her shadow flits across the grass, I cast a nervous glance towards the hide out in the old Magnolia tree. And I always breathe a little sigh of relief when the stooges come out to play again.

Who is Anonymous?

2012-01-26T11:11:00.002-05:00

I published my first blog on Peddie Voices the day before yesterday. It makes me nervous and excited. It is the first time I write blog in English. Then I saw a person with the name Anonymous left one comment below my blog. I was excited for the first comment. Then I tried to reply with the words like”Hi,Anonymous…… “ When I finished, I cannot publish at that time. So I decided to talk to Deanna Ferrante later to solve this problem.

The next day we talked about the issue and then I understood how to publish my reply. Then I went back to my office and practised. When I opened my blog,I found something. There are a lot of new Anonymous’s comments. I got confused,then I decided to look up the word “Anonymous”in the dictionary.
At last I found the truth. Are you always be a Anonymous when you make comment online? By the way, we usually called them "Guest" in Chinese.

前天下午，我终于在“Peddie Voices”上发表了我的第一篇博客。我觉得有点紧张和激动，因为这是我第一次用英语来写博客。不一会儿，我看到有个叫“Anonymous”的人给我留了言，我为此感到激动。所以我很快就给他写了回复，我的回复开头是这么写的：” 你好，Anonymous……”.但是当我完成我的回复的时候，我发现我不会发表。我想还是等下请教一下Deanna Ferrante吧。

第二天，我们谈了这个问题，我也学会了怎么回复。然后，我回到办公室继续我的回复。当我打开自己的博客，我发现问题了。我的博客上面有很多来自“Anonymous”的新的留言。我有点迷惑，于是我决定去翻一下字典。

最终我发现了真相。请问当你在网上发表评论的时候，你总是匿名么？顺便提一句，在中文里面我们通常称这样的匿名者为“游客”。

State of the Union bingo

2012-01-26T09:03:00.001-05:00

Senior Timi Opeke, President of Peddie's student body, suffered a tough loss on Tuesday.

Obama's State of the Union was the first presidential address I've watched since coming back to the United States to attend Peddie in 2008. It was a powerful, heartfelt address that brought the Chamber to its feet many times, but because Obama failed to discuss topics like North Korea or the Keystone Pipeline I lost in an AP Government Bingo Challenge to the school Vice President James Lindberg (how ironic).

Ms. Hogarth organized this fun event in the Masland Room, which made our homework assignment of watching the State of the Union a fun and interactive assignment. I may not fully remember the contents of Obama's speech a few weeks from now, but I will always remember that North Korea lost me a prize of homemade cupcakes baked by Mrs. Hogarth.

The Trojan War revisited (with plastic swords and "Bohemian Rhapsody")

2012-01-25T10:18:00.002-05:00

Reflections on this weekend's MUN trip from Jen Creel '12, a student leader at Peddie and one of last year's Best Delegate honorees.

This year at the Yale Model UN conference I opted to do another specialized committee, which are generally smaller and have a specific objective. My committee was called JCC: Trojan War committee for which I played the head of the Trojan military: Hector.

As I didn't have much background in Greek mythology, I had to thoroughly research for this committee both through books and online encyclopedias and watching Troy. We all knew the myths upon arrival, yet to avoid some of our less fortunate fates we strayed from the classic paths.

Although we stuck to our characters beliefs we approached the war differently, and by the end of the four-day conference had written a very different story than Homer (involving exploding wooden honey badgers, plastic sword duels, and song parody prayers to hits such as "Single Ladies" and "Bohemian Rhapsody").

Certainly not the conventional MUN committee, but the conflicts kept the committee on our toes (i.e. the midnight crisis lasting until 4 a.m. during which 9 heros were slain and working with the Acheans to save each other from cyclops) everyone remained passionately representative of their characters and kept cool heads during the crisis which truly made the committee incredible. I walked away with Honorable Mention (Place: 3rd- Honorable Mention 2nd-Outstanding delegate, 1st- Best delegate).

Full report on Peddie's MUN trip

Is tofu very popular here?

2012-01-24T14:21:00.001-05:00

Editor's Note: Peddie Voices is pleased to welcome a new blogger, visiting EFZ faculty member Jingjing Xue (left). She will be on campus through the end of the school year. Ms. Xue hopes to write about Peddie life through her eyes, and to create a conversation among the Peddie community and with our sister school in Shanghai, EFZ. Please join in the conversation!

During my first week in Peddie, I saw the menu of meal with Tofu regularly in the dining hall. I also had a lot of different cuisine which are made with Tofu it reminds me of my city, because Tofu is a traditional food in China. However Tofu is made in different ways here than in China, and some of them taste delicious. Do you like Tofu? And is Tofu becoming a common food in the USA nowadays? Please respond in the comments.

来到Peddie的第一周，我在学校食堂的菜单上面最常见到的就是“豆腐”两个字。我几乎每一餐都会吃一点用豆腐做的菜，它令我想念自己生活着的那个城市。因为豆腐是中国的传统食物。然而，在这里，豆腐的做法和中国并不一样，但是我觉得它们一样很美味。不知道你喜欢豆腐么？并且如今豆腐是不是成为美国很寻常的食物了呢？

同学们，新年好！(Students, Happy New Year!)

2012-01-24T09:16:00.002-05:00

Close to 100 Peddie students spent the day in NYC's Chinatown yesterday, joining in the celebration of the Year of the Dragon

Rebecca Levy '12
The Chinatown trip was so fun! I loved being immersed in crowds and crowds of Chinese-speaking Chinese people who were celebrating the holiday - both in the restaurant we ate at and on the streets, setting off firecrackers and confetti cannons. I even got to practice my Chinese in the shops I entered!

Best moment: I spoke only Chinese in a shop, and the store-owner responded to my requests without clarifying anything in English; I must have pronounced it right!

Emily Dallas '12

In my four years of Chinese study, I have never used as much conversational Chinese as I did on the Chinese New Year trip today. I spoke with native Chinese Peddie students at my lunch table, where I used a lot of words I already knew and my friends taught me a lot of new words!

After lunch, I explored Chinatown with a few friends and even bargained for a purse and a t-shirt in Chinese! While waiting for the bus to pick us up to return to Peddie, I spent some time speaking with our visiting EFZ teacher, Xue Laoshi.

When we got off the bus, I accidentally thanked the bus driver in Chinese because I had been speaking so much Chinese throughout the day. During spring break when I go to China with the Peddie delegation, I will definitely be prepared to converse in Chinese with the people I meet!

Defining yourself in 500 words or less - Chapel talk by Jennifer Creel '12

2012-01-11T09:27:00.001-05:00

To paraphrase Shakespeare: Now is the winter of high school senior discontent. Jennifer Creel '12 gives her perspective on the college application process.

Tell us about an experience that brought you out of your comfort zone in 500 words or less. Tell us why (insert school name here) in 500 words or less. Tell us about a life changing experience in 500 words or less. Define yourself in 500 words or less.

Welcome to the college process. Seniors have been groaning all year about it, juniors are just starting it so this chapel talk may seem primarily relevant to the upper classmen, but the real heart of this speech is applicable to everyone. We are all such complex people. Among the seven billion people on this Earth no two are the same, simply due to our personal experiences. Yet with numbers that large people tend to start looking pretty darn similar on paper. But wait, that service trip I did makes me unique right? I’m a varsity athlete! I’m a cultural minority! Oh and I go the Peddie School! Raise your hands if you fit into any one of those categories. Yeah I feel pretty unique now too. So I have 500 words or less to tell you why I’m different, to tell you what makes me tick, 18 years of my life history into 500 words. Fantastic.

This is exactly how I felt over winter break struggling to complete seven college apps. This wasn’t the original plan however. I applied Early Action to my dream school only to get deferred. I stared at that computer screen, refreshed the page, rubbed my eyes over and over again. Nope, I hadn’t misread it, it definitely said, “Dear Jennifer, We would like to defer making a decision on your application at this time.” All of a sudden the service trips, the competitions, the sports, the essays, the all nighters seemed worthless. I thought I am worthless. This was supposed to be a target school for me, not exactly a stretch to get into. Now I was never going to get into college, get a job, and wind up being a hobo for the rest of my life, if I didn’t finish these new apps. No pressure.

For a short time, I allowed myself to be defined by people who only knew about me from merely 500 words or less. I let this one decision, which I could not control, depreciate my self-worth.

But then I remembered Declamation Contest my junior year. I didn’t place despite my hours of hard work, but I was proud of the people who did place. It was hard to walk away empty handed but at least I had the experience. After the competition I checked my email. I had an email from a teacher I had never had in class, barely really knew. But it simply said:

“It is hard to stand before a group of your peers and remain positive when you do not get what you ultimately believe you should. You did not let your disappointment show, and that speaks far more to your character than your acting ability. You have a lot to be proud of; don't let two judges cloud your memory of tonight.”

This message applies not only to speaking competitions, but sports try-outs, games, auditions, even tests and essays. Individually it is only one evaluation of your person, in one area of your life. I am more than just a thespian. Sami does more than play the violin. Taylor does more than just play field hockey. Timi is more than just the school President. You’ve worked for years in numerous aspects of your life. This one decision doesn’t make all of that effort invaluable. What truly defines who you are is the decision to either take something from this experience and further develop your character, or allow the situation to control you and unnecessarily influence other parts of your life.

So… define yourself in 500 words or less….

I have my talents.

I have my weaknesses.

These talents have made me feel elated and valuable. But the weaknesses have tried my character and allowed me to grow into the person I am.

That person has value. I am valuable, and so are all of you. No one decision is going to change that.

Ala Viva

A Resolution: Chapel talk by science teacher Eva Shultis

2012-01-09T10:03:00.001-05:00

I have never made a New Year’s Resolution before. And that’s because I’m too much of a hipster for New Year’s Resolutions. And also I’m already perfect.

Really, I’ve never made a New Year’s Resolution before, because whatever thing I thought of has always felt forced. But this time, there’s something I want to change that just became obvious.

So, in case any of you are still looking for a resolution of your own, I’d like to share mine with you, and invite you to try it on for size.

Here it is: I want to stop saying things that I don’t really mean.

Because I believe deeply in the power and importance of words. And I’ve realized that in the average day, I say an astounding number of things that I don’t mean. It’s not that I’m being deliberately insincere – I honestly don’t even think about it. But that’s the problem.

For me, it began as an attempt to be more “socially graceful,” but then gradually, sneakily, became totally unconscious. So now I automatically say “sorry” for things that weren’t really my fault, I say “I’m good!” even if I’m not really good, and “oh, no problem!” when it really was kind of a problem. And I know I’m not the only one who’s speaking this secret language of politeness, because we’ve all participated in this conversation at some point, usually when we’re passing each other at warp speed in opposite directions:

“Hey, how’s it going?” “Good! How are you?” “Good!” …

So if you know me pretty well and you see me around and all I say is “hi,” please don’t think I don’t care. In fact, I probably like you too much to stomach the idea of having such a completely empty, non-conversation with you.

Much like substituting “hi” for “how’s it going,” all of these automatic insincerities are fixable by pausing for an extra moment, and maybe choosing a different word. I have three more that I’d like to suggest to you today.

Number one: Apologies.

“Sorry” is the most over-used word in my vocabulary. A few months ago, somebody told me I say “sorry” too much, and I immediately apologized. Now, I’ve broken it down, and there are two kinds of apologies that aren’t actually apologies.

Things we feel bad about, but did not have control over.
Things we had control over, but do not feel bad about.

In order for an apology to be meaningful, it has to satisfy both of these criteria: you have to be responsible for what happened, and you have to regret what you did. If not, you are saturating the market with meaningless apologies. The one thing I actually understand about Economics is that when there’s an excessive supply of something, the value of that good decreases. Another Peddie teacher told me about an apology email she received from a student last term, I’m going to read it to you, get ready, because it’ll be over before you know what hit you:

“Sorry about sleeping in class today (DNO)”

If we were playing The Price is Right right now, how much would that apology be worth to you? Sorry about sleeping in class, DNO - you just decreased the value of your apology.

In this way, words are similar to currency. We can manufacture as many of them as we want, but we need to remember – inflation applies. If you need a visual, think of Germany in the 1920s. They printed all this money to bail the country out of debt, and it became so worthless that people started using it as wallpaper, kindling, and toilet paper. It seems like a stupidly easy solution, but you can’t just print more money, and you can’t just say more “sorrys.” The real solution is to save your apologies for when you really mean it.

This idea leads us to Number two: Promises.

A lot of the talks you hear in this room are about saying “yes.” Just like groundhogs and robins, you’ll know it’s spring when nostalgic seniors start climbing up here to remind you, Peddie is an incredible place, take advantage of every opportunity, Carpe Diem… and they’re right. But the less glamorous flipside that doesn’t get talked about nearly as much is that it’s also important to learn how to say no to stuff.

Of course we want to say yes, because we want to do everything, we want to make everybody happy, and we’re afraid of letting people down. But beyond that moment of “yes,” our empty promises don’t help anybody. In fact, they’re worse - just like standing someone up for a date is a hundred times more egregious than turning them down. We think if we say yes, it’ll make the other person feel good, and it will for a little while… until we don’t call back or don’t show up and they have to gradually figure out for themselves that we didn’t really mean it. This can be avoided if we’re disciplined enough to pause and think, and brave enough to say no when we need to.

Last. Number three. I saved this one for the end, because it worries me the most.

Number three, is the things you say that are thoughtlessly hurtful. The things you don’t mean that are still really damaging.

I am constantly surprised by the number of things at Peddie that are, apparently, “gay” and “retarded.” I’m surprised because I know this is not a bigoted place. You don’t need me to tell you that our GSA and Project Unify are awesome. And I’ve seen you all be deliberately kind to each other, every single day. But I’ve also seen you be unconsciously brutal.

So if you don’t usually think about it, please think about it now:

Would you still want to stand behind your words if you said something was “so retarded” to Mr. Mixon, and then later he told you about his brother who has Downs syndrome?

How about if you’re making fun of your best friend by telling him how “gay” he is, and then I introduce you to my girlfriend?

I know you don’t mean this stuff, which is why I’m confident in your ability to choose a different word. Harry Gensemer wrote my favorite DOSE of 2011 about this, back in September, and he had a whole list of alternatives for you. But I still hear gay and retarded around a lot, so now I’m asking you again to choose a different word – because even for those of us who shrug it off, it’s still subconsciously destructive to hear something you are or someone you love used as a synonym for “bad.”

So in these three pieces I just talked about, Apologies, Promises, and the Unconsciously Hurtful, if you weren’t spacing out, you may have noticed a contradiction. In the first two cases, whenever we wish that words could be enough on their own, they aren’t. But then, when we wish they wouldn’t matter so much, they suddenly do. It’s totally unfair. But it’s precisely the thoughtless, hurtful stuff we say that sticks in people’s minds.

When there’s no such thing as “off the record,” our best bet is to say things we’ll feel good about no matter who hears them. Maybe that means pausing for a moment, and choosing a different word. Maybe it means just saying less. Personally, I’d like to speak less and have the words I put out into the world be of higher quality.

I’ll leave you with an old joke about Michelangelo – somebody asked him how he created such incredible sculptures, and he said, well, I just start with a slab of marble, and take away everything that doesn’t look like David. I’m suggesting that to some extent, words work the same way. If you can strip away everything you don’t mean, you’ll be left with words that mean something.

This room is full of people who have a lot of good things to say. So if you’d like to take me up on my resolution - Here’s to a new year full of words that do us justice.

Into the Pit: Gabby Pulsinelli '12

2012-01-09T07:05:00.000-05:00

Gabby Pulsinelli '12 gives us an inside peek at what goes on below the stage during musicals...

The past few weeks I have been spending my afternoon in Swig in the orchestra room learning this year’s musical, Into the Woods. It is fun learning music since Mr. Michaels likes to act out all the parts for us while we are playing. When we were playing Cinderella’s song, he was singing in a fake operatic voice that I could not help laughing and had to put down my clarinet. It is a lot of hard work learning all the music but in the end it is a extremely rewarding experience. Going from barely to play the music to tech week is an amazing transformation. The first week you look at the music and say to yourself “I will never be able to play this” and three months later your sitting in the pit playing it for over 500 people. This is my last year in pit and I am going to miss it next year. Well I better stop “prancing about the woods” and get back to my homework.

Chapel Talk: Rosemary Gleeson's Vespers speech

2011-12-20T12:27:00.000-05:00

Below is the text of the welcome that Rosemary Gleeson gave at this year's Vespers on December 14. If you missed Vespers, you can watch a recording of the live stream.

As odd as it may seem to open Christmas Vespers with a reflection on Thanksgiving, this year almost demands that we do so. For this is the year that many Americans abandoned the Norman Rockwell image of Thanksgiving – the extended family happily gathered around the table, watching grandma set the turkey down, waiting for grandpa to carve the turkey – for the Black Thursday Thanksgiving. Countless family members left their family tables not to settle into a football game or a tryptophan-fueled nap, but to staff department stores eager to get a jump on holiday sales. And then there were the shoppers leaving their tables: the bargain hunters – most civil, some desperate because of the economy, and some criminal, bearing not tidings of great joy, but pepper spray to fend off other shoppers.

And if we look at what has been screaming at us from our televisions and radios and on our computer pop-ups, we’ll see a rather embarrassing reflection of our culture. Poor old Andy Williams – his classic Christmas song has been corrupted from “It’s the most wonderful time of the year – to “It’s the most wonderful sale of the year.” And that semi-schmaltzy ad (which I actually love) that has the young adult son returning home to his loving sister who is brewing such great coffee that its aroma wakes up his parents has been rivaled by two classy looking sixtyish parents hopping into their luxury car (that’s the product, of course) to escape the return of their adult son, saying “He’ll be fine.” And for those of you who watched the Giants/Cowboys game last Sunday night, you learned that “Tis the season to be jolly” has been supplanted by “Tis the season to buy a new Norelco super shaver.”

So for those of us who want to live the spirit of Christmas in these four weeks after Thanksgiving, it’s an uphill battle. But we do have help. The networks are still running “A Christmas Carol,” so we can remember that we, like Ebeneezer Scrooge, can cast off our grumpiness and gloominess and instead reach out to help the Cratchit families in our lives. The Grinch again celebrates with the Whos down in Whoville on Christmas Day, George Bailey still learns from his angel Clarence that his life has made a difference, and, one of the earliest recorded victims of bullying – Rudolph – still emerges to save the day with the nose that caused all the other reindeer to “laugh and call him names.” Most important of all, Charlie Brown is still hearing the Nativity story from Linus who reminds him – and us – that the birth of Jesus is what Christmas is all about.

Commercialism and materialism, like death and taxes, will always be with us, but we can choose the messages we want to receive, we can rise above the greed and move beyond the selfishness. This evening we gather here in the Peddie chapel – students, staff, faculty, parents, grandparents, alumni – to set our spirits free to hear the message of peace and good will, and glad tidings of great joy.

Chemistry Town Meeting: Jason Park

2011-12-14T15:02:00.000-05:00

Science teacher Jason Park and his colleague Chris Bright brought their freshmen chemistry classes together for a simulated Town Council Meeting, blending current events, public speaking, and (of course) chemistry.

On Tuesday during DMX period, four sections of the freshman science course, Chemistry in the Community, congregated in Annenberg Science Hall to participate in a simulated Town Council Meeting. The 45 students from Mr. Bright's and my classes represented different special interest groups that discussed a fictitious scenario in which a massive Fish Kill had been discovered along a local river, raising concerns of water contamination and potability.

The students were to use their knowledge of chemistry to research relevant data that might shed light on what contributed to the fish kill. The special interest groups included agricultural cooperative representaitives, county sanitations commission members, mining company representatives, power company officials, the municipal Chamber of Commerce and the Taxpayer association. Each group assigned different members to give presentations of opening arguments, cross examinations, a time of rebuttal and some concluding remarks.

The students were spirited in expressing their points and generally did a splendid job making their cases. One particular group of students were assigned the task of running the meeting as Town Council Members, who would later evaluate and judge the strengths of the various arguments.

From Peddie to Broadway (Catherine Rodrigue)

2011-12-08T16:07:00.000-05:00

I enjoyed Wednesday evening on Broadway with our Asian Studies students. Mr. Gao, Mr. Nicholson, and I traveled with nine students to see Chinglish, a funny, entertaining almost farce about an American businessman attempting to do business in China. The most entertaining part of the evening, however, might have been the sloggy, soaking trek back to Penn Station via Times Square. Great evening!

Freaking out with Mr. Roach

2011-12-08T09:24:00.000-05:00

Matthew Roach, English and history teacher and girls' soccer coach, thinks Peddie's got something special in its ability to let go, get fired up, and — in the words of his favorite band — freak out.

You play it safe, play it cool

If you ever emote, you're playing the fool

Is that the way you think it is?

You wanna freak out? Yeah, C'mon!

-My Morning Jacket

The biggest reason I love working at Peddie is that students here are willing to go for it. They’re psyched to buy in. They’ll take risks and have fun and get on board with the good things in class and community and life.

In a world that makes it easy to be a cynic or a critic—particularly in high school, where reputation and coolness are at stake—Peddie people are genuinely and deeply willing to get fired up. I sensed this when I first interviewed for a job here three years ago, and I’ve seen it and loved it every day since.

But even according to these high standards, Peddie’s had an unbelievably great month for what my favorite band calls "Freaking out":

As Sandy Tattersall noted today, Blair Day was an explosion of enthusiasm, a feast of fun. As I walked through the fields of blue and gold revelry three weeks ago, I suddenly realized that Peddie-Blair is the best high school rivalry in the country. Period.

The level of energy, the fact that every game counts, the Springsteen-Falcon cry, the lionization of freshman football players, the Cup, the Ala Viva, the storming of fields, the narrow margins of victory and defeat, the alums that come back—all extraordinary.

All this awesomeness only comes because we care about Blair Day. Because we buy in. Because we freak out.

And then:

Last week at the sports banquet, I said goodbye to the nine spectacular seniors I had the chance to coach for Peddie Girls’ Soccer. As I sat there eating steak and potatoes alongside head coach Jen Grubb, I realized (not for the first time) that this was the most excellent team I've ever been around. And then I asked myself: Why?

Oddly enough, the best way to explain what made that group so incredible is to point to the Pep Rally skit about them.

In the skit, PGS was made fun of for being over-excited about life; over-energized about soccer; over-sentimental about Blair Week; over-thrilled to be in each other’s company.

But as flaws go, being fired up about life, team, school, and friends are pretty good ones to have, I’d say.

In fact, this excitement and love—so easy to make fun of—is hard to create. You have to be willing to care about other people, be unselfish, make a fool of yourself, try and fail and try again, and risk putting your heart into a high school soccer team.

The reward, though, is deep and lasting. You get to experience life at its most vivid, and you get to create something that you’ll always be proud of and remember.

This team was special because the girls bought in. They went for it. They freaked out.

And then:

The GSA Coffeehouse last weekend. Everyone went and played/heard spectacular tunes and supported an important cause, and were so psyched that next time it may have to be held on the football field to hold all the fans.

And then:

Mr. Ebbott (yes, faculty here buy in, too) gives an epic chapel talk about unselfishness and perspective and the vital importance of reading, and people are laughing along, talking about it afterwards, and taking his words to heart.

And then:

Mr. Mixon really, really goes for it today in Community Meeting to get people stoked about the Dec contest, doing an angry Allen Iverson and ranting persuasively about practice, man.

And then:

HUGE and fired up crowd at the home opener boys basketball game, lifting the team to a close, hard-fought victory and setting up what could be the best PSIT in years.

And then:

Guitarmy, led by Mr. Clements and comprised of faculty and students who love sing-alongs, gathers on a cold and rainy night belt out old jams through the ceiling of the Annenberg Science Center. It felt great to be there, and to be around people so willing to just hang out and sing and play, unselfconsciously, for an hour.

It’s been a good month for being yourself, Peddie.

Let’s keep going for it.

Let's keep buying in.

Let's keep freaking out.

Home Court Advantage

2011-12-07T16:18:00.001-05:00

by Rahul Lakhanpal '12, a true-blue (& gold) Falcon fan

Today Peddie Basketball has its first home game. This Friday night, Peddie will play its first round game in the prestigious PSITs. The PSIT stands for the Peddie School Invitational Tournament, and is the largest basketball tournament held at Peddie. A large tournament at HOME means that our team gets the HOME COURT ADVANTAGE (Peddie plays at 7 pm, so no excuses). Yet the only way home court advantage works is if YOU go and watch the game, scream, and get in the opponents head! I was utterly disappointed at the Peddie vs. Blair football game when people in the bleachers (instead of cheering) were either gossiping or studying for their finals. CMON SON!!! This Friday I expect to see a bunch of peddie students getting loud for this basketball game. Trust me it is a lot of fun.

How influential can the crowd be? In the NFL playoffs last year, the Seattle Seahawks fans created an earthquake through their roar after Marshawn Lynch (Beastmode) pummeled through the Saints' defense. That is the kinda heart I want to see on Friday. Some stuff the fans (YOU) can expect are screams, chants, and even possibly a roller coaster. According to the statistics, the home team wins about 58-60% of the time. Let's do our job and help them win the game.

Chapel Talk: The Importance of Doing Your English Homework

2011-12-06T09:38:00.000-05:00

Hal Ebbott, English teacher and crew coach, gave the following speech at Chapel on Monday. Ever wonder what doing your English homework has to do with angry men on planes, being a senior in high school, and how your hair looks today? It's all about you. Read on:

The Importance of Doing Your English Homework

Hal Ebb0tt

Before I get started you should know that the humble subject of this talk will be the life and death importance of doing your English homework. Or, if that’s not sufficient, why a habit of doing your English homework will make you a better friend, girlfriend, mother, or son.

But before I get to that I want to share a couple of anecdotes and thoughts.

The first takes place on a plane. I was trying to get home from Minnesota last winter and, after being delayed several times, the flight finally took off. En route we were slowed by wind and poor visibility, and forced to circle above Chicago for an hour before landing. Upon touching down everyone stood up, hunched and crowded beneath the overhead containers. We tried to inch our way towards the front when suddenly, a man, flush with indignation, yelled from the back of the plane: “Jesus Christ, will you people hurry up?! Some of us have connecting flights!”

Of course. How thoughtless of us! How rude and inconsiderate to have lingered, soaking up the joy of those final few moments aboard the plane. Surely, it seemed to this man, we were all at our final destination, all oblivious to his needs, or –even worse– recklessly, willfully, ignoring the dire straits in which he had found himself.

To this man it was not a delayed flight, or an unfortunate series of events. It was a wrong, a deep injustice, being done TO HIM. It was not a plane full of people, of mothers trying to get home to their families, of boyfriends trying to surprise their girlfriends, of grandparents – instead it was a situation, a crime, being committed AGAINST HIM. There was no collective inconvenience; WE were delaying HIM.

To borrow unapologetically from David Foster Wallace’s talk on a similar subject, it is, to put it mildly, worth remembering that “there is no experience you have had that you are not the absolute center of. The world as you experience it is there in front of YOU or behind YOU, to the left or right of YOU, on YOUR TV or YOUR monitor. And so on. Other people's thoughts and feelings have to be communicated to you somehow, but your own are so immediate, urgent, real.”

We’ve all experienced the mundane, everyday effects of this.

Why do we care about our hair when we’re standing in large public spaces? Because we’re so deeply convinced that we’re the center of the room that we cannot help but assume everyone is looking at us. Even the clear logic which follows from the fact that we don’t care about other people’s hair does not save us from the fear that we are being watched. It is, after all, our hair – not someone else’s.

Why is a sports injury so lonely? Because we remember how we felt when it was someone else who was hurt. We remember that, although we were concerned, on a deeper level we didn’t care, we couldn’t care, because it wasn’t happening to us.

You are about to miss your flight – everyone else’s problems are just white noise.

Seniors, you will feel the backlash of this quite soon.

It’s no coincidence that senior year is the most highly anticipated. For nine glorious months you and the school are oriented in the same way: Right now it’s all about you. It’s your turn to be prefects and captains, to apply to college and to scream the number of days left until you graduate. But soon that number will be zero and we’ll be shaking your hands and pushing you out the door at the same time.

Be careful about coming back next fall. You’ll feel it the minute you step on campus. Things will be different because you won’t belong, because we will keep going without you. And the worst part is this: Peddie will be great next year, too. Jokes will still be funny (who knows, maybe even funnier), games will still be won (maybe even more), and instead of feeling totally at home and safe and important, you’ll just be “that guy.”

Although you may grasp what I’m saying conceptually, the experience of talking to a teacher and realizing that you’re just another student is not a pleasant one. It won’t feel good when they have to go, when you see in their body language and hear in their voice that they have other things to do than make small talk with you.

But why are these things related, and what does reading have to do with any of them? I’m getting to that, I promise.

This is not a talk about an impatient man on a plane. Nor is it about clingy seniors. They serve to exemplify the way in which we fail to exercise perspective, but do not necessarily illustrate the sometimes significant consequences of our inability to do so.

Here’s something which I think does.

My father died of cancer last summer – and the truth is that it was not until several weeks before his death that his illness became about him and not about me. He had never taken care of himself – and in my introverted reflex, I perceived his life-ending hardship as something that was happening to me, something being done TO me BY him. It’s an unflattering thing to admit – but there were moments, many moments, when his struggle felt like my tragedy.

And so, the unfortunately realty is that instead of helping him through this final chapter of his life, I preoccupied myself with the pages of my own. Time we could have spent together was instead squandered by virtue of my unwillingness to recognize this basic truth about our orientation.

And here it is:

The thread that joins these experiences and brings us back to the critical importance of doing your reading is this: to read is to listen, to actually listen, to someone else. To read is to momentarily concede our stronghold on the “tiny, skull-sized kingdoms” over which we preside. It is the act of letting someone else’s voice drown out our own.

We may not always remember what they have said, we may not agree with it, like it, retain it; but none of those is the critical thing. The most important piece is that we rehearsed, and that we continue to rehearse, the ability to let others enter our world – the immediate world of our thoughts and feelings and needs. The ideas don’t always need to be life changing, or even profound – but this is, like so many others, a learned skill. It is a skill cultivated ONLY through repetition, through habit, and through will.

Reading is the profoundly unselfish act of letting someone else’s thoughts and feelings take precedence, and what I’m saying is that it is perhaps the closest we can come to doing so completely. To watch something is surely not enough – even listening doesn’t get us all the way there; it’s too easy to revert back to the monologue inside our heads, the constant stream of self-centered musings.

These inner dialogues run the gamut from inane and innocuous (Think: “Why hasn’t she texted me back yet?”; “What am I going to wear to family style?”) to the more threatening and distracting thoughts such as the ones I had towards my father. Admittedly, they’re of a very different magnitude, but we would be mistaken to say that they are not also, on some level, the same.

The more able we become to hear other’s voices, the less likely we are to feel that our burden is the heaviest. When I’m stuck in traffic or standing by the side of the highway because my car is broken down again it’s small and it’s meaningless and it’s funny. It is totally inconsequential in the sprawling world of people with real problems. The realization that you are not as important to anyone else as you are to yourself is harsh and humbling. But it’s freeing as well.

You will be freed from the self-indulgent pity you have as you trudge towards class on Monday mornings, believing that the world has conspired against you. You will be freed of the anger you feel when you’re short on time and the line in the dining hall isn’t moving. You will be freed from the stress of getting dressed before a dance. You will be freed from the stress of college!

It may feel like a stretch to imagine that the act of reading and what you did in front of the bathroom mirror before you walked over here have anything to do with one another, but they do. The hair check and the enraged man on the plane and the loneliness we feel on the field and the unread books by our beds are inextricably linked. And before we stand any hope of the kind of self-awareness it takes to step outside ourselves, we must first be able to let something else in.

Thank you.

Photo Blog: Princeton Research Symposium, Shani Peretz, Ph.D.

2011-12-05T10:15:00.001-05:00

Dr. Shani Peretz, head of Peddie's science department, submitted this entry:

On Saturday, fifteen Peddie students attended the Princeton Research Symposium, a series of talks and poster presentations by Princeton graduate students and post-docs. The students included members of Peddie's EXP Research Science Program. We were especially pleased to be asked to judge the poster session, a role which our students took very seriously.

Exams are over, but one question still remains: Gabby Pulsinelli '12

2011-11-21T10:16:00.001-05:00

The campus is quiet -- students have finished their exams and are off for Thanksgiving break. But Gabby Pulsinelli '12 left us with a burning question...

I noticed in my dorm Ms. Hogarth with about 30 APUSH exams and she was reading a paragraph from each test and there were still about 4 pages that still had to be graded for each test. I know that Ms. Hogarth also teaches AP Gov and I didn't even see those exams.... guess exam week is just as hard on the teachers as they are on us. They have to write all our comments, grade our final projects or exams, and somehow fit family time in there. I do not how the teachers read about 50 different paragraphs answering the same question and do that over and over.

One question still remains with us students...what happens to our exams? Are they stored? Does the art faculty create paper cranes out of them? Do the faculty have a bonfire with them? I guess we will never know...

Giving thanks for parsnips

2011-11-17T14:28:00.007-05:00

I was 40 years old before I discovered I like parsnips. And since then I’ve been making up for lost time, trying new ways to cook and eat the under-appreciated cousin of the carrot family. Most often, I simply toss them with other root vegetables and olive oil and roast them. I don’t eat mashed potatoes very often, but now I won’t even consider it without a parsnip mashed in with the spuds.

At first glance, parsnips appear to be nothing more than a white carrot, but they have a bit more tang, a bit more attitude. They seemingly stand up on your plate and scream, “Look at me, darnit, I am not a carrot!”

Thankfully, this fall, Peddie Food Service has been serving a Cream of Parsnip soup and I just had to get my hands on the recipe. Unsure how PFS felt about sharing their kitchen secrets, I cornered Robin in the dining hall today. Minutes later, Chef Oleg was happily revealing his recipe to me, Robin insisting I write it down a scrap of brown paper towel.

I’m spreading my love of parsnips, Peddie community. Want to join me? Here’s the recipe. Me? I’m making a big batch to take to my in-laws on Thanksgiving. And I will give thanks for parsnips. And for Peddie Food Service.

Chef Oleg’s Cream of Parsnip Soup

Roughly chop two stalks of celery and one medium onion
Saute celery and onion in butter until translucent
Add 2 lbs peeled and chopped parsnips and saute a few minutes more
Cover with vegetable broth
Simmer, covered, about 20 minutes
Puree the vegetable mixture with an immersion blender
Strain through a medium sieve (this is what gives this delicious soup its velvety feel)
Finish with enough cream to thin it to desired consistency
Add to taste salt and white pepper (not black pepper, Oleg warns, no one wants black specks in this soup!)

Enjoy!

Video Blog: "Cupcakes" by Gabby Pulsinelli '12

2011-11-15T15:33:00.000-05:00

It's exam week, and Gabby Pulsinelli '12 took a break from writing her 16-page paper about Native Americans and studying for her Calc exam to enjoy a tasty treat provided by the class of 2014.

JV Football from the inside out: Quarterback and wide receiver describe win over Blair

2011-11-10T13:13:00.001-05:00

Christian Sparacio '14 was the quarterback during the JV football team's 12-6 win over Blair on Monday. His recollection of the game follows:

Playing in the first game of Blair week and kicking it off with a win was one of the best experiences of my life. Not only giving Peddie the lead but the experience of doing it with all of my teammates, working hard every snap to outplay the Bucs. Coming into the game we were the underdog, but we didn’t let up and with determination we proved we were the superior team. They couldn’t handle our overall intensity and thirst for victory. It was a great game by all, with a great score by Dom to tie the game up and great defensive stands that led us to the win. Having the final touchdown pass to Carson over multiple defenders was a phenomenal finish and I couldn’t ask for anything more enjoyable. It will definitely be a play to remember.

Carson Vay '15 caught the winning touchdown pass. Here is his report:

Beating Blair and getting the first point for the Potter Kelly Cup was not going to be easy. But I knew from the moment they casually walked onto the field that we could beat them. Both teams were held scoreless at halftime. Then something happened. More and more people gathered to watch the game. I could feel the energy of everyone there. It was like something was pushing us to win the game. And that’s exactly what we did. Being able to be a part of winning that first point for Peddie in my first Blair game was just an unbelievable experience. It is a way of being part of history for years to come. Everyone on the team contributed to the win and helped seal the victory for Peddie. I could not imagine my first Blair game and getting the first point being any better.

Photo of winning touchdown: Jim Inverso

"Indiana Falcon and the Quest for the Lost Cup": Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

2011-11-09T11:38:00.000-05:00

Gabryella Pulsinelli '12 details the hard work it takes to get the Blair Day video from concept to reality. The video premiered at today's Community Meeting.

The past few weeks, a few students and I have been working on the Blair Day video -- it has been quite the process. Time and weather were not on our side and rescheduling shots became difficult as our deadline approached. I am proud to say that everyone stepped up to the plate to get the video done. This is one of my favorite videos I have had the pleasure of making. Who else gets to say they got Mr. McClellan to lay on top of a student's car or get Mr. Green to act? It was truly a team effort I don't know what I would have done if it weren't for these people who stepped in to help: Tatiana Turin '12 and her amazing editing skills, Teddy Park '13 coming up with idea and writing a good chunk of the script, Timi Opeke '12 for helping organizing, Ashley Fernandez '12 for keeping things rolling, Gerson Levia '12 for helping with editing and being our main Buc, Chris Rippey '12 with his amazing voice overs, and of course we can not forget Indiana Jones himself... Frank Anastasio '12. Also, thank you also to all our other actors and especially to John Lucs for letting us use the cherry picker for one shot.

This was a great way to end my last Blair Week and I will never forget this experience.

One last time...
ALA VIVA BEAT BLAIR!

Peddie Tech Bits: Peddie Power!

2011-11-04T08:55:00.000-04:00

Peddie Tech Bits: Peddie Power!: Quick quiz... How much of the electricity used by the Athletic Center is currently being generated by Peddie's solar panels? A. 0% - 15% ...

That's dedication!

2011-10-31T13:01:00.012-04:00

Saturday, October 29, 2011

"Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays this tour guide from the swift completion of his appointed rounds."
- quote adapted from Herodotus' Histories (8.98), referring to the courier service of the ancient Persian Empire

Winter Term Early? Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

2011-10-30T15:50:00.000-04:00

Hightstown got several inches of snow in a very early arrival of winter last night.

It feels more like winter term than fall term here at Peddie. For my Organic Chemistry class were supposed to be collecting fall leaves for an experiment but they are all now covered with snow. I love the snow but I enjoy fall at Peddie because you are still able to sit on center campus with friends or play Frisbee. I just hope it is not like this on Blair Day.

My Experience in Honors Art: Gabryella Pulsinelli '12

2011-10-27T07:10:00.002-04:00

This morning, Gabby Pulsinelli '12 submits an entry on the challenges and highlights of Honors Art class. One of her works is shown below.

Since I was a freshman, I have wanted to be in Honors Art with my own studio space and freedom to do and use whatever I want. I never thought I would be making a sculpture as my concentration for fall term since my comfort zone has always been digital media. This class has pushed me to my limits to expand my medium and to try new things. I speak for everyone in the class when I say we move at a very quick pace. One time we had only a hour to finish a project and given only string, paper, and scissors, no glue and no tape. Another part of the class is documenting all of our project using tumblr, which I was against at first but now have come to enjoy. It is a lot easier to share a video on the web than trying to play it from a DVD or a computer. I suggest you check out all the honors studio tumblrs they are all amazing!

http://wingfree.tumblr.com/ Santo Chen

http://atoshniwalstudio.tumblr.com/ Ankur Toshniwal

http://danielle-derchin-studio.tumblr.com/ Danielle Derchin

http://gpulse.tumblr.com/ Mine

What do students do on Long Weekend? Meghan Norton '12

2011-10-24T07:15:00.000-04:00

This morning, Meghan Norton '12 gives a bit of insight into why students have been looking forward to this year's first Long Weekend.

We have reached our first Long Weekend of the year! For most seniors, this means college essay time and preparing our senior page layouts for the yearbook. For several students, this is their first time home since summer - and a solid four days to catch up on sleep, homework, leisure reading, or favorite TV shows. But for all of us, students and faculty alike, (and perhaps most importantly) long weekend means searching the house for clothing/accessories/supplies in order to create a costume for the upcoming Annual Halloween Costume Dinner in the Peddie Dining Hall! My roommate and I have begun working on our top-secret costume idea for this year and we plan on setting the bar high for our fellow competitors who seek the grand prize for best costume. Good Luck to all!

Photo of the day: Hot stuff

2011-10-18T10:36:00.001-04:00

Students in Dr. Sarah Crider's class spent the morning using spectroscopes to view the incandescent "fingerprints" of specific chemical compounds.

This just in from Dr. Crider:

The students were observing the behavior of the "excited electrons" in metals. When atoms absorb energy their electrons are excited to a high energy state . . . but what goes up must come down, and when the electrons relax down into a "ground state" they give off a variety of different photons or light. The naked eye percieves these photons as a single colored light or flame. However, when the students look through the spectroscope, they are viewing the light through a prism, so the light is separated into the individual wavelengths that make up the light our eyes see.

This is a neat link that shows what the students see when viewing the flame of a metal salt through a prism. If you click on a single element you see its emission spectra, depicting the wavelengths of the photons that are emitted when electrons fall to the ground state.

http://chemistry.bd.psu.edu/jircitano/periodic4.html

Student musicians shine in Chapel

2011-10-11T09:41:00.000-04:00

Today's post comes from Alan Michaels, director of instrumental music. The Peddie community was treated to an instrumental recital at Friday's chapel by three juniors and one sophomore. The campus was abuzz about the level of talent of these Peddie instrumentalists.

I approached these and other new students about the idea of playing for a chapel. Four students took me up on the offer, three of which, in addition to playing solo pieces, collaborated on a trio performance. The trio developed organically among the three students. They just met one another at the start of school and became musical friends. They approached me with the idea of performing the trio. I was curious at first and asked to hear a sample. Well, once I heard a rehearsal, I had a similar reaction to that of everyone in chapel when they heard it for the first time. I'm not surprised about the amount of feedback received from this mini-recital. If Peddie didn't know of these terrific student musicians before, they certainly do now. They are fantastic!

The video above features Ziwen J. `13, Yu S. '13 and Xiating C. '13 performing "Racing Horses," a Chinese Folk Song. For more videos, visit the Peddie Music Department page.

Quick message from overworked senior to those who follow behind him

2011-10-07T08:53:00.000-04:00

From Jonathan Bryan '12:

From a Peddie Senior -- College applications are way too much work. I wish we could just go to the school on orientation day and be accepted. It's way too competitive and stressful. 4 AP's + early applications is not a great recipe for success. Just an FYI to any underclassmen that might read this.

Telemetry system in action

2011-10-06T10:32:00.000-04:00

Swimming coach Greg Wriede '95 sent the following photos of the telemetry system in action today at the Peddie pool.

Cal R. sporting the specialized swim cap and earpiece.

Peddie swimmers testing out the new system.

Telemetry units are worn in the swim cap, on the wrist, and on the ankle.

The antenna array.

Stored telemetry units.

New telemetry system gives Peddie swimmers an edge

2011-10-06T09:48:00.001-04:00

Today's entry was written by Sarah Lloyd '13. Sarah is a member of the Peddie Varsity Swim Team and has been swimming competitively since she was 8 years old. She currently swims distance freestyle and IM events for Peddie.

Yesterday, Peddie swimmers got to experience the newest technology available in the sport: a telemetry system by Avidasports. Wearing five sensors, one on each wrist, ankle, and one hidden in the swim cap with an earpiece attached, we were able to hear lap times, stroke counts, distance per stroke averages, and average stroke rates. Our coaches were also able to communicate directly with us through the computer system included, individually or to the team as a whole; all while swimming with our heads underwater. I was amazed at the technology available to us. I'm also very proud to be part of only the fourth program in the nation, the second high school program, to use such advanced technology. I'm sure that Avidasports will improve the team's performance.

The Culture Bus is on a roll...

2011-10-05T11:13:00.000-04:00

Head of the Arts Department Catherine Watkins submits this entry fresh off the Culture Bus visit to see artist Maya Lin in Princeton. Peddie community members interested in riding on the next Culture Bus trip should email cwatkins@peddie.org for more information.

Last night nine Peddie students and seven faculty members sat spellbound in Princeton University’s Richardson Auditorium listening to world-famous artist Maya Lin talk about her work. Ms. Lin projected images of her elegant sculptures and memorials, their visual poetry matched by her thoughtful descriptions. She said that, despite the sheer size of many of her pieces, (Wave Field at Storm King Art Center is 11 acres!), she tries to communicate in a very simple, one-on-one way with the viewer, likening the personalized experience to that of reading a book. Peddie Junior Soo Joo enhanced everyone’s engagement by bravely stepping up during the Q&A session to ask Ms. Lin some questions related to her high school years.

At the end of a very full day at Peddie, a 6:00 p.m. lecture might not have seemed like a fun activity, but we all left the experience feeling energized. (Some frozen yogurt from Twist for the ride home didn’t hurt our spirits either!) This was the third outing for the Culture Bus, an idea hatched in the arts department as an effort to take better advantage of our excellent location near New York, Philadelphia, and the culturally-rich university town of Princeton. At Peddie we are all so absorbed in our classes and extracurricular commitments (which is a good thing!) but sometimes an off-campus excursion offers fresh perspective and inspiration.

Our next Culture Bus adventure is Saturday, October 29 when we head over to the Princeton Day School for their matinee performance of The Laramie Project by Moises Kaufman. On Sunday, November 6 we’ll go to the Two Rivers Playhouse to see a spectacular one-woman play, No Child, by Nilaja Sun. (Upperclassmen might remember her work from a 2009 performance in our own Geiger Reeves theater!) We’ll have student-priced tickets available for these plays and anyone is welcome to come along.

Class of 2011 bids a final farewell ... via email

2011-10-03T15:00:00.000-04:00

This year at Peddie, a routine reminder from the Tech Department that the Class of 2011's email accounts would be terminated on September 30 resulted in a flurry of emotional emails from far-flung Falcons bidding their classmates and the school a fond farewell. Perhaps this is the start of a new tradition? Two of the respondents agreed to have their emails shared on the Peddie Voices blog. Enjoy, and Ala Viva! Feel free to chime in with your comments.

Dear Peddie,
Before you delete your email please read the following:
I would have never imagined this day to finally be here. I can’t express how much I love Peddie and it will be hard to say a final goodbye. This is the class of 2011’s final tie to us being students of Peddie and come closing time for the tech department today, we will no longer be a part of the Gmail server. Steady, Old Peddie, you allowed all of us to soar with your wings and you led us to heights greater than we ever could imagine. You brought me into contact with some of the greatest student, faculty, and staff members I could ever meet in an institution. I am forever indebted to you. Before I take my formal depart, I just wanted to say a few things to you all: To the Class of 2015, you will work hard the next four years so be prepared, but also keep in mind that it will fly by before you know it. Make friends for life and stick to them, because it will make for some of the greatest experiences at Peddie. Saturday classes are going to be tough, along with loads of homework, but you will all experience it together, so learn early on to bond with classmates. To the Classes of 2012, 2013, and 2014, I hope you guys are enjoying yourselves, as each year (or day) brings you closer to your graduation. Learn to live through the tough times and try not to you forget us as you move forward through your Peddie Career. We’ll still keep in touch. To the Class of 2011, you may not even see this, but I wish you guys the best as you move forward in your new college endeavors. To the Staff and Faculty Members, thank you for all your hard work and for shaping our class into young adults. I hope that my classmates and I return to Peddie and find the spirit of the Falcon burning bright within all of you! It's been a good run.

Ala Viva,
The Final Message of The Dominator
Damiano Antimo DiFlorio

Dear Esteemed Faculty and Students of the Peddie School of Excellence,

I write, with the warmest regards and the greatest of humility, my final email on my Peddie account. Indeed, even I cannot believe the speed with which life is taking me. First-year at Peddie has quickly become replaced by first-year at college. And while I cannot say Peddie is infinitely better than college, I can certainly say Peddie holds a dear spot in my heart (now is the time to grab the Kleenex tissues).

As I sit in a Starbucks, sipping on a cappuccino while holding some philosophy book in one hand (because that’s what we college kids do...), I contemplate my years at Peddie and how the past four years now seem like a happy dream. You are fortunate to be part of a community as special as Peddie’s. I have every confidence that as long as you keep doing what y’all are doing, Peddie’s future will only soar upwards because we’re FALCONS, that’s what we do. We put da team on our back.

Since homework won’t do itself and Facebook can’t browse itself, I bid thee farewell.

Until next time, my friends.

Best,
JR Rodrigo ’11

PS – I am free to receive any calls for those seeking inspirational advice anytime after 12 pm on SATURDAYS since I will most likely be asleep before then.

Photo of the day: Storm's a Comin'

2011-09-29T15:30:00.000-04:00

Walking across Center Campus, I heard a student exclaim, "Oh, no! Not more rain!" I looked up and saw the clouds massing behind the Chapel, and realized I should have brought an umbrella.

Peddie Summer Reading

2011-09-15T14:06:00.003-04:00

Every fall Peddie students, faculty, and staff send their summer reading lists to the library. Some students got in their favorite teen novels, while others read interesting history titles or biographies. The faculty and staff read just about everything, led by Mrs. Clements and Mrs. Morales, who each read over twenty books, mostly on their Kindles, from the library's e-book collection.

The results are in, and the top five summer reads are:
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
Shadow Pass by Sam Eastland [Peddie's own Paul Watkins]
The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Bossy Pants by Tina Fey

To see the entire list, visit the library page and scroll down to the article.

Admission video blog entry #3: What surprises people about Peddie?

2011-09-12T10:03:00.000-04:00

We asked Director of Admission Ray Cabot, "What surprises people most about Peddie?"

Vacation, all we ever wanted...

2011-09-02T15:55:00.000-04:00

We asked Peddie School faculty and staff members to "hit us with their best shots" of their summer vacations. Some of us were very busy traveling the U.S. and the world, and some of us were very "busy" relaxing on the beach.

2011 Summer Vacation

To see where all of these photos were taken, click here for a map.

Hightstown, submerged: Emma Watkins '14

2011-08-31T08:44:00.002-04:00

Emma Watkins '14 shares her experience with the cleanup of downtown Hightstown after Hurricane Irene. Photos by Doug Mariboe '69.

It was really quite a shock to see Hightstown so completely submerged after Irene. On Sunday morning Peddie lake had overflowed its banks and filled downtown with water that came all the way up to the Wells Fargo bank. The water was rushing over the bridge and there was actually a car abandoned in the middle, submerged to the tops of its windows. It was so dramatic that a photograph of downtown Hightstown ended up on the front page of weather.com. I was really worried for all the local stores, especially Molto Bene, which looked like it was under about 5 ft. of water. Ms. Clements sent an email to the Peddie community asking for volunteers, and I went with my mom at nine on Monday morning to join a big group of faculty and staff to offer our help to the businesses downtown. For a few hours, we moved dozens of boxes of soggy files from the basement of the Public Works building and tried to rebox and label them. Walking home afterwards, we had to detour on roads behind the fire station because the bridge was being checked for structural damage. After lunch, we moved furniture out of the Tavern on the Lake, sliding around on muddy floors, as if ice skating.

That evening, Molto Bene sent out a request for helpers, so we all went back into town. The damage was just incredible: the floors were thickly coated in mud, the machinery was filled with contaminated water, and a good number of their pastas and sauces needed to be thrown away. I actually saw bags of pasta lying in the gutters along main street, and found another one inside the Tavern on the Lake. Lots of people were already there by the time I arrived, moving out the salvageable food and machinery. Megan Mooney ('14) and I were working to clear out some of the mud, using squeegees and brooms and shovels. The smell was absolutely awful and, as soon as a surface was clean, someone would roll by another piece of machinery, spreading more muddy water.

The most amazing part was the sheer number of people that were there, not just from Peddie, but from all over East Windsor. And even though the businesses around town will need a long time to recover, the help that they received from the community was immense, and the owners were very grateful.

The aftermath of Irene: Katherine Mooney '13

2011-08-30T13:54:00.001-04:00

Hurricane Irene blew up the East Coast and through Hightstown, NJ, on Saturday, August 27 and Sunday August 28. Unfortunately, once the storm subsided, Hightstown found itself facing significant damage from the flooding of Peddie Lake. Luckily, Peddie itself was spared serious damage, and when the call came to help the folks downtown start to clean up from the storm's wrath, many faculty, staff, and students responded. Below is one student's account of the cleanup efforts on Monday.

When I saw how flooded downtown Hightstown was on Sunday morning, I knew that the damage to the local businesses would be considerable. My mother told me that she volunteered me to help clean up local businesses when they sent out requests for help. Forrest [Davis '13] and I walked down to Molto Benne with some members of our families. I initially put on old sneakers thinking that would be enough, but my father encouraged me to put on rain boots. When we got down there, I was expecting it to not be a pretty sight, but as it turns out, it was so much worse than I had ever suspected. Ankle-deep in muck, the sight was almost devastating. The reason I say "almost" is because of the kind-hearted volunteers who didn't think twice about fishing soiled food out of the wreckage wearing nothing more than latex gloves. Still, it was not easy, both emotionally and physically. Molto Benne has built up a fabulous reputation this past year, even as a relatively new business. I've lived in Hightstown my entire life, and I've seen dozens of small businesses crumble; Molto Benne clearly stands out of this crowd. Thriving, warm and unique, it was heartbreaking to see such hard work on such a beautiful Hightstown staple be scraped out and thrown in trash bags. Very little could be salvaged, the sidewalk was overflowing with rotting furniture and bags of trash and we needed to stack and carry bags well down the street to keep a small lane of traffic for walking.

I went there thinking I would be there for maybe an hour, but Forrest, Emma [Watkins '14], my sister [Megan '14] and I stayed well past two and a half hours. It was past 8 when I got home, took a shower and ate dinner. My sister, Megan, put it well when she said she felt a sense of accomplishment last night. I agree with her, but the work is far from done. It may take a while to recover, but I have faith that Molto Benne will rebuild. As for the work last night, I've never been more grateful that I wore those heavy duty boots instead of old sneakers.

Admission video blog entry #2: "What is unique about Peddie?"

2011-08-30T08:51:00.000-04:00

In today's video blog entry, Peddie's Director of Admission Ray Cabot shares his perspective on what makes Peddie unique.

Admission video blog entry #1: "What is everyday courage?"

2011-08-12T13:25:00.000-04:00

In today's entry, Peddie's Director of Admission Ray Cabot answers the question, "What is everyday courage?" The question refers to the Peddie School viewbook, which can be found on the school's admission web page, http://www.peddie.org/admission.

Post-flight wrap up from Mr. Guilbert: Good data, good memories

2011-08-05T14:24:00.000-04:00

I’m now back home from Houston, analyzing our data from the flight and relishing the memories of the entire experience.

A lot of what I remember centers around how completely different the experience of weightless flying was, not only from anything I had done before but also from what I had expected. I love rollercoasters and have been on some great ones; some of those provide weightless moments where I felt like I was floating momentarily. But an extended period of weightlessness is so different! On the first parabola I found myself being shot up to the ceiling, like I had been catapulted upward. On the second, I thought I’d get smarter and hold on to an equipment box that was bolted to the floor, but all that did was hold my hand and arm down; my feet pitched upward and I quickly found myself upside-down. One of my fellow flyers said that “your feet get stupid” in weightlessness, and that’s pretty much true until you figure out how to make them smarter.

Even though our equipment broke apart catastrophically on the first day of flying, we still got some good data, and the equipment was completely repaired and rebuilt for the second day’s flying. Our data are definitely useable in the classroom, which was the whole point of the flight in the first place.

The entire experience in Houston was amazing. The people I worked with were awesome, from the Space Cowboys to the NASA staff to the other research teams from all parts of the country. I got to see NASA facilities from behind-the-scenes where the tourists don’t get to go; I got to be at the welcome-home reception for the astronauts who flew the final Space Shuttle mission; I experienced a Texas-sized thunderstorm; I heard a talk from an engineer who designs and builds space suits. Most of all, I got to experience the Vomit Comet, something very few people ever get to do. I’d go again in a heartbeat, and there are so many more experiments I’d love to do if I got the chance. How to do them in the extreme conditions of weightlessness, in a box, with stupid feet, with a brain fogged by anti-nausea meds … well .. that’s the challenge. But it’s a challenge well worth taking on.

Bike Trip #1 2011

2011-08-01T15:23:00.001-04:00

Bike Trip #2 2011

2011-08-01T15:12:00.001-04:00

Group 2 2011

2011-08-01T11:30:00.002-04:00

Bike Trip #1

2011-08-01T11:21:00.002-04:00

An experience like no other: from Space Cowboy Mr. Guilbert

2011-07-28T20:47:00.001-04:00

Ours was one of six experiments on board the Weightless Wonder. Seeing the experiment that we had worked so hard on for so long finally get loaded into the plane was pretty amazing.The inside of the airplane is pretty much like any other airplane except that there are no seats in most of the cabin. There is a small seating area in the back where we sit for takeoff and landing, but otherwise the cabin has no furnishings … but it does have several platforms to hold our experiment boxes, as well as thick padding on the floors, walls, and ceiling for when we crash into them during weightlessness.

As it turned out, it was a really good thing that we flew on two consecutive days rather than just one. On Tuesday, the first day, our experiment was an epic fail, at least scientifically. We had good ideas and we built our apparatus carefully, but none of us had any idea how destructive the stresses of the flight could be until they literally took apart our equipment in flight. Everything in the plane weighs about twice as much as normal at the bottom of each ‘parabola’, and the usual turbulence the plane undergoes gets magnified. As a result, the stresses literally unscrewed bolts, snapped cables, and sent solid metal parts flying around inside our experiment box. Needless to say, we got no data at all on the first day of flying. We got to experience 30 periods of weightlessness, however, as well as one ‘parabola’ that mimicked lunar gravity and one that mimicked the gravity on the surface of Mars.

We did get to see weightlessness in action, both in the part of our equipment that worked and in being able to do generally goofy things in between tending to our equipment.

Wednesday’s flight went much better scientifically. We got good video and data on all of our experiments, and once we analyze it and correlate it to the moment-by-moment strength of gravity during the flight, we will know better the potential usefulness of our results. Wednesday’s flight saw several flyers become very ill, but fortunately, none of the Cowboys did. As a result, however, some of the parabolas had to be delayed, which made the flight longer and more circuitous than Tuesday’s had been.

At this point, we are facing Tropical Storm Don, which is forecast to make landfall near here (possibly as a hurricane) on Friday evening. The coming storm has already changed the weightless flight plans for the rest of the week, and it may make getting back to Hightstown a bit complicated. Stay tuned!

Click below to see a gallery of photos from our Wednesday experience!

Space Cowboys

Feet on the ground, reaching for the stars: Update from Mr. Guilbert

2011-07-28T10:13:00.000-04:00

Once here in Houston, the Space Cowboys divided into two teams, with the plan to have to have each team fly on consecutive days (one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday). We knew in advance that the second day would probably have the better chance at getting good data from our experiment, since pretty much all of the unforeseen problems would crop up on the first day of flying. We would still have time after the Tuesday flight to troubleshoot our equipment before flying on Wednesday.

But before doing any flying we had to pass an engineering review, which at NASA is pretty intense. Basically, the investigators from every research project have to face a group of about a dozen engineers who are experts in various areas of flight science. We explain what we’re doing and how we went about making our apparatus both strong and safe. And the engineers can ask us anything – literally, anything – they’re concerned about. We passed, but other groups were not so lucky. The only fix we needed to make was to tape over the metal tab on the end of a slinky we planned to take on board just for fun.

Photo above: Our apparatus in its flight box. The bubble experiment takes up the top half, and the ‘oscillators’ (spring and pendulum) are in the bottom half. The apparatus is in the hangar near the runway for the microgravity flight.

Photo above: The bubble experiment. The bubble gun is at right, and a FlipCam is at left below the vertical black bar.

Photo 1 above: The ‘oscillators’. The pendulum (a softball) hangs from a ‘V’ of string at lower right, and a mass hangs from a spring at upper left. Both oscillators have dedicated videocameras and motion sensors.

Photo 2 above: Stickers from the schools and institutions involved in our experiment adorn the outside of the experiment box.

Early on flight day, we were urged to take the (voluntary) anti-nausea meds. Basically, our chances were about 3 in 4 that we would get sick without the meds, and about 1 in 5 that we’d get sick if we did take them. It doesn’t take calculus to figure out that the odds strongly favor taking the meds! They do have some side effects, but in my case they pretty much boiled down to a dry mouth and sleepiness.

Photo above: The Flight Director gives us a thumbs-up to fly before we go out to board the plane

Next up: flying on the Weightless Wonder!

While we're waiting: update from PPPL on Mr. Guilbert's space mission

2011-07-27T14:28:00.000-04:00

Check out today's posting on Princeton Plasma Physics Lab's blog:

http://ppplab.blogspot.com/2011/07/july-26-burst-my-bubble.html

EFZ Update: Hanging out with other international students, Steven McConville '12

2011-07-26T16:12:00.000-04:00

Steven describes interacting with other non-Chinese students, most of whom seem not to enjoy Chinese food as much as the Peddie students do.

今天我们参加活动跟国际学生一起。一般我们需要上课或者学习，所以我们享受交朋友们。其他国际学生代表许多的国家：比如，加拿大，墨西哥，
英国，南非，日本，韩国等。差不多每天我们花时间在浦东，但是今天我们入浦西。那里都我们看上海美术馆。
以后我们走一走午餐店。在午餐其他国际没吃了太多的食品。我问他们的时候， “你不饿了吗”，他们说不喜欢吃中餐。
在这个夏令营我认为Peddie的学生是只学生喜欢中餐。起初我觉得失望因为他们不想吃，
但是我体会到很重要的注意：如果他们没吃午餐然或我会吃食品多！今天晚上我们观看过杂技表演。

EFZ Update: Old Friends and New Experiences, Lindsay Gillen '12

2011-07-26T16:07:00.000-04:00

It has been a very relaxing and enjoyable few days in Shanghai.

Thursday and Friday were ‘rest days’ and class did not meet. The three of us decided to catch up on sleep and then explore new parts of the city. Tourist websites suggested we investigate Dongtai Lu; however, when we arrived, we did not find much of interest, so we ended up returning to the familiar and easily-navigable East Nanjing Road.

Getting back to class after two days of relaxation was not too difficult, as we began with some amusing video-taped interviews between journalists and ‘famous’ athletes that we invented.
Morning class could not end soon enough, however; Pally (佩俐, my partner. I met her in March 2010 when I visited China for the first time) and I had plans in the afternoon. She and her mother—her father was away on business—picked me up at school, and our adventure began right away. We weaved between other cars and bicycles on the way to lunch. We chose a teahouse on the very outskirts of Shanghai and kicked back in a small room separated from the rest of the restaurant by a curtain. The food was magnificent—I tried many foods I’d never seen before, such as duck foot and litchi fruit (荔枝), as well as foods that have become familiar to me, like ham-egg-vegetable-rice. Of course, I had more blue strawberry tea (I will never pass up an opportunity to drink that wonderful stuff). Pally and I reclined on the comfortable couchlike seats and talked for hours. Our conversations were mostly in English, as hers is infinitely better than my Chinese, but since her mother speaks no English, we alternated between the two languages.

Later that afternoon we saw a new Chinese animated film called ‘Kuiba.’ Even with Chinese subtitles, I struggled to keep up, but I think it was about a country living in fear of a monster called Kuiba. Everyone—talking animals and humans alike—had superpowers, and it was set in some sort of futuristic era, but the architecture resembled that of ancient China. This description makes it sound like most of the movie was lost in translation, but you’ve got to believe me when I say that’s the plot in a nutshell.

To end the day I sat down to dinner with Pally, her mother, and two of her mother’s friends, a Chinese-Canadian couple. The husband, a wiry, boisterous man who was perfectly fluent in both English and Mandarin, told me tales of his voyage to China and the fortune he’d amassed throughout his life.

“If you asked me how I feel about China,” he told me, “I would say I hate it! …but I also like it a lot.”

Not only was this day a total blast, but it came with a life lesson. Talking to a man who spent his life connecting China and the United States reassured me that in this day and age, the two languages to learn are English and Mandarin.

前天、昨天是很乐趣了。星期四和无是休闲天,我们去东台路，但是没有意思的东西，所以我们去南京东路。
星期六的课不太难因为我们对彼此采访。
但是早上的课不能结束快够的; 今天中午我跟佩俐（我的朋友）和她的妈妈一起吃午饭。我们去一个茶官。餐是很好吃。我尝试很多菜我从来没吃，比如鸭脚和荔枝果。当然我喝蓝莓茶（这个茶是很好喝）。佩俐和我聊天半天。我们说汉语和英语，但是因为他的英语比我的汉语好，我们说大多英语。
后来，我们看一个中国电影叫＇魁拔。＇虽然这个电影有中文字幕，但是我发现很难理解。我明白大概百分之七十。
电影以后，我跟佩俐,她的妈妈，和妈妈的朋友一起吃晚饭。妈妈的朋友是一半中国人，一半加拿大人。他在英语和普通话流利。他告诉我轶事对于他的生活在中国。
＂如果你问我＇你感到中国怎么样，＇我告诉你，＇我太不喜欢！＂他说。＂但是我还很喜欢。＂

不仅今天很好，而且有一个重要教训。在这个时代，两个重要语言是英语和普通话。

Our Experiments

2011-07-23T08:09:00.012-04:00

Hello from Houston! It's hot down here ... but cooler, I hear, than it is back in New Jersey. We're having a blast, working hard, and getting ready for our flight. We got an unexpected bonus yesterday when the astronauts from the final shuttle mission came to Houston for a thank-you reception here at NASA's mission control.

About our experiments:

Our first experiment is a simple pendulum, which we made out of a softball hanging on a V of string (so it would swing along the same arc throughout the flight). The pendulum should swing faster as gravity gets stronger at the bottom of each parabola and slower as gravity decreases. During weightlessness at the top of each parabola, the pendulum should stop swinging and the string should go slack. We have a videocamera to record the pendulum’s motion and a motion detector (like what we use in physics classes) to keep track of how far and how fast the pendulum is moving each time it swings. Physics teachers often use a pendulum in class as an example of an oscillation, but very few of us have gotten the opportunity to run a pendulum experiment with gravity as a variable, a ‘knob’ to turn during the pendulum’s swings.

Our second experiment is also an oscillator like the pendulum, only the repetitive motion will be in the vertical direction. We will hang a mass from a spring and set it bobbing up and down. Unlike the pendulum, the mass-on-a-spring should oscillate in exactly the same way no matter what the value of gravity is. But: the midpoint of its oscillation should rise as gravity’s value decreases and fall as gravity increases. We will use a video camera and motion detector to record the motion of the mass-on-a-spring.

The third – and coolest – experiment is on blowing bubbles … soap bubbles, like what we all used to have a blast playing with as kids. We’ll be videotaping their behavior and measuring their lifetime as the value of gravity varies during the flight. The idea here is that what usually makes bubbles pop – here on the ground – is that the soap solution drains to the bottom of the bubble, leaving a thin patch of soap film at the top of the bubble, at its ‘north pole’. When the bubble pops, the pop begins at that spot at the bubble's north pole where the soap film is thinnest and weakest. In a weightless environment, by contrast, there’s no reason for the soap film to drain anywhere, so we think the bubbles will last much longer. Along the same lines of reasoning, we think that the bubbles will have shorter lifetimes at the bottom of each parabola when gravity is stronger. We constructed a clear plastic ‘bubble box’ to run this experiment, and we equipped it with two bubble ‘guns’ – the Crayola kind from a toy store – outfitted with an electric motor so that once we started it going, it would keep pumping out bubbles until we stopped it. Two videocameras will record the behavior and evolution of the bubbles. In the photo, the motor is the gray box with the wires leading to it. We experimented with a lot of different bubble solutions, and we ended up going with a simple Dawn+water mix.

Here's our entire apparatus, viewed from below:

We built it in an open metal frame so that the entire setup would be both strong and light. The softball made a great pendulum both because the motion detector can 'see' it easily and because it shows up well on video. The videocamera for the mass-on-spring is above the softball.

They're keeping us really busy down here in Houston with pre-flight stuff. We're still on schedule to take our experiment weightless on Tuesday morning.

Final results & overview: 2011 Int'l. Botball Tournament

2011-07-22T10:59:00.007-04:00

The following was submitted by science teacher Madeline Cozine.

The 2011 International Botball Tournament took place at the Global Conference on Educational Robotics held in Orange County, California from July 9th - 13th, 2011. The tournament featured 63 teams from all over the world including Poland, Austria and Qatar.

This year’s game focused automating tasks at an airport. Robots were tasked with transfering biofuels, sorting luggage, moving airplanes and building control towers.

Seeding rounds were held on Sunday, July 10.
Purpose – to seed teams for head to head competition.
Each team programmed their robots to complete as many tasks as possible autonomously during the designated time. Teams earned points and were seeded based upon how well their robots completed the tasks. There is a really good overview of how the tournament works here:
http://www.botball.org/tournaments

Both Peddie A team (Albert Han ’11, Preston Kung ’12 and James Kolano ’13) and Peddie B team (Alex McNulty ’12) finished in the top third in the seeding round.

Head to head competition started on Tuesday July 12.
In head to head competition, two teams run robots simultaneously on the same game table to complete tasks. The team to earn the most points for tasks completed, wins. The losing team continues to play until the team has lost twice (double elimination format).

On the first day of head to head competition, both Peddie teams lost one match over 5 rounds of play and made it to the final rounds. The final rounds were reserved for the last 16 teams standing (out of 64 teams). Half of these teams were undefeated and half had lost one match.

The finals were held on Wednesday, July 13. In the first round, Peddie A was matched against Peddie B. Alex put forth his best effort but was defeated by Peddie A and eliminated from further play. Peddie A continued for two more rounds before losing to Hampton High School who won the head to head competition.

AWARDS

Peddie A finished 5th in the head to head competition and was recognized as a finalist at the awards ceremony.

Peddie B (Alex Mc Nulty) was awarded a Judges Choice, Mars Rover Award for Curiosity.

Both teams are excited to compete next year. Take away lessons for next year: Improve locomotion and speed!

Fly Like An Eagle / To The Sea

2011-07-20T16:58:00.004-04:00

Our Experiments - Overview

Since our team of Space Cowboys is mostly made up of science teachers, we devised experiments that would be useful in our own teaching during the school year. (And, in fact, the experiments were based partly on our students’ suggestions.) We also kept them simple, because … well … we figured that when we were floating in the plane with our feet above our heads and our stomachs doing somersaults, that probably wasn’t going to be the best time to be working on getting complicated equipment to work right.

Size-wise, we have to fit all of our equipment inside a NASA-supplied box about the size of a day-student locker. The total weight of our equipment has to stay under a strict limit of 40 pounds. And our equipment has to be able to withstand the stress of being repeatedly subjected to almost twice its normal weight at the bottom of each parabola. So it has to be strong … and light … and small. With all those restrictions, it’s amazing that good experiments can be done on board at all. Fortunately, one of the Space Cowboys has a background in engineering, so he was able to step us through the specs our equipment had to meet. And the equipment ended up being pretty cool as well as functional.

We take off for Houston tomorrow! Hard to believe this is really happening. I'll tell more about what we'll be doing on the Weightless Wonder in my next post from Houston.

There is Heaven on Earth: Young Joon Joo '12

2011-07-19T08:56:00.001-04:00

Young Joon Joo '12 sends a Chinese-language blog entry from the intensive Chinese language study program he and two other Peddie students are attending in Shanghai. In this entry, Young describes his visit to Hangzhou, a beautiful city south of Shanghai. His entry begins with the Chinese saying, "Born in Suzhou, live in Hangzhou, eat in Guangzhou, die in Liuzhou." The saying refers to Suzhou's famous education system, the well-known environment of Hangzhou, the culinary tradition of Guangzhou, and the prevalence of coffins made in Liuzhou. His entry describes his visit to the bustling city of Hangzhou. Yet the tranquil surrounding of the West Lake, home to a UNESCO world heritage site stunned him with its indescribable beauty.

“上有天堂，下有苏杭”
中国有句俗话：“生在苏州, 活在杭州, 吃在广州, 死在柳州。”就关于苏州的知名教育系统，杭州的有名环境，广州美食，以及柳州的流行棺材。尽管这俗话中国人其中著名的，但是从先到达杭州，就看起来热热闹闹火车站。杭州城里也是吵闹，真地看起来纽约中心。虽然杭州的第一印象不太优秀，但是离开城里中心，以及去西湖参观三潭印月，杭州根本变化。无论附近有繁华社会，西湖实在干净，和平极了。西湖中在三潭印月台突出了，长得伊甸园。我们乘船去三潭印月，我真地了解为什么这老寺院是UNESCO World Heritage Site。对于我给杭州的错感想，就羞愧了。我们能参观一排排的树木包围西盖莲花的西湖,能感到以前寺院住先人的平静安静感。旅游杭州的时候，虽然在城里又热热闹闹又繁华极了，但是在特色的地方能经验和平，没有担心或着急。

Big 'Ol Jet Airliner

2011-07-19T08:15:00.000-04:00

Well, it's finally starting to get real for me now that the flight to Houston is just a couple of days away. We fly to Houston the day after tomorrow, and our microgravity flight is the following Tuesday. It's supposed to be incredibly hot in Houston while we're training for the flight, so I hope the training is mostly indoors.

The Weightless Wonder we Space Cowboys will be riding is a C9-B aircraft, the military equivalent of the DC-9 passenger plane. Once we get our experiments on board the plane on Tuesday morning, we take off and ascend to an altitude of 24,000 feet. The plane then starts to execute a series of ‘parabolas’ that produce the microgravity environment for our experiments.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/Reduced_Gravity/trajectory.html

During each parabola, the plane climbs 7,000 feet in 20 seconds, with the plane tilted at a 45 degree up-angle. Once it's up to an altitude of 31,000 feet, the engines are throttled back almost to zero power, effectively making the plane a projectile in freefall*. That freefall lasts about 30 to 35 seconds, and during that time we will be experiencing weightlessness. In the diagram, the plane goes ‘over the hill', very much like being on a rollercoaster that is cresting a hill at high speed … except that there’s no track under the airplane. Once the plane is back down to 31,000 feet – traveling now at a 45 degree down-angle - the engines are powered up, and the plane starts its bottoming-out process. It levels off momentarily once back at an altitude of 24,000 feet, and then it starts its next parabola from there. The entire process from climb to peak to descent to the start of the next climb takes a little over a minute.

http://jsc-aircraft-ops.jsc.nasa.gov/Reduced_Gravity/gallery.html

The flight path gives us twenty of these minute-long parabolas as we fly outbound from Houston over the Gulf of Mexico. The plane then turns around, and it executes 20 more parabolas on the return leg of its trip. The entire flight lasts a little over two hours.

* Even though the plane is initially still rising once the engines are throttled back, it is still said to be in freefall because the only force acting on it at that point is gravity.

It's a small world!

2011-07-18T10:22:00.005-04:00

Mr. Pagano just happened to run into Cody Sun '11, Mili Mandic '11, Rory '11 and Kirsten '14 Gale at the Eiffel Tower - crazy, huh?

Some People Call Me The Space Cowboy

2011-07-15T09:53:00.004-04:00

- Steve Miller, "The Joker"

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When my summertime boss at the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab asked me at the beginning of 2011 if I were interested in taking a physics experiment this summer aboard NASA's "Weightless Wonder" - the so-called 'Vomit Comet' - I jumped at the chance.
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The Vomit Comet is a specially-equipped airplane that NASA uses for training astronauts in a microgravity environment as well as for projects in NASA's Reduced Gravity Research Program. I'll be taking three physics experiments aboard the 'Comet', fun ones, not too complicated.
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The research team I'm part of consists of four other area science teachers and one of the Assistant Directors of PPPL. We fly to Houston next Thursday (July 21), get some pre-flight training at Johnson Space Center, and then ride the 'Comet' the following Tuesday and Wednesday, with half of our team flying on each of the days. Our team calls itself the Space Cowboys, which seems pretty appropriate to me for a NASA project based in Texas. We've been spending the past few weeks designing and building our apparatus, and today we ship it to Houston to await our arrival there next week.
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More about the Weightless Wonder and the experiments us Cowboys are taking on board in the next couple posts.

Peddie International Botball (GCER)

2011-07-13T12:15:00.005-04:00

Three Peddie students and a recent Peddie Alumni, Albert Han '11 are currently in Anaheim, California compete ting in Botball's Global Conference for Educational Robotics (GCER). The group will collaborately be writing about their experiences over the week.

In preparation for the International Botball competition, James Kolano '13, Alex McNulty '12, and I, Preston Kung, worked on the robots for multiple hours during each weekend. Since Albert was in Korea during summer, we worked together through Skype and Gchat. We were nervous about the upcoming e event, but we were also very excited to go to California to compete against other amazing robots and see Albert again!

For the competition we entered two teams.

With a change in rules for GCER, one of the teams had a chance of reaching a really high score of 910. This team consisted of a stacking robot and a conveyor belt robot that scored ping pong balls. During the regional competition the point values of stacking blocks and scoring ping pong balls were even; however, during GCER, stacking blocks were worth many more point than scoring the ping pong balls. With the time given, we tried to choreograph the two robots with a slightly changed plan from the regional competition.

Before we started running our robots, we did run into several problems/concerns. Due to the instable packing of the robots, during the flight to California, some of the robots got partially dismantled. bummer. Also when we began our runs, the robots of both teams did not run as expected. With changes to make we quickly got busy. So busy we worked through lunch!

Though we had some issues, this conference is a good experience. Botball offered a variety of activities so far. We saw many fascinating robots in the KIPR competition, which is mainly for college and beyond. We were able to see many other robot designs from both international botball and KIPR competition that inspired us. So far there have been several speakers ranging from students to professors. One student talked about hacking the CBC, a system processor used in this competition, and one professor talked about the future of autonomic robotics system. There's a ton of things to do here and we’ve learned a lot! With 3 more days, I can’t wait to experience even more awesomeness!

- Preston Kung

Botball update from Ms. Cozine

2011-07-12T16:27:00.006-04:00

Turns out both teams made it to sweet sixteen! Fifth round action is finals and will happen at 2 p.m. (pst) tomorrow. Both Peddie teams will play each other in a death match for first round of finals. Loser is eliminated and winner moves on. Look for a post soon from Preston.

Am now taking crew to Palm Springs to do a tram ride over the desert to the top of San Jacinto mountain and then hike to top - yes, I am making Preston go outside :)

Botball update

2011-07-12T15:08:00.004-04:00

Both teams made it to the 5th round and, believe it or not, will play each other! Whoever loses is out of the tournament for the next round :(

Botball update

2011-07-12T15:02:00.003-04:00

Entering fourth round action and both teams have one loss. A-team lost to a top-seed Hawaii team that scored over 500 points in the seeding round in a very good fight!

This just in from the botball team

2011-07-12T13:59:00.005-04:00

At the Global Conference on Educational Robotics in Los Angeles, California, two Peddie teams are in head-to-head competitions today. As of now, Team A has won one round and lost one round. Team B lost its first round in airplane tiebreaker and is still alive for second round!

Watch live here.

Getting into the Routine: Steven McConville '12

2011-07-12T09:03:00.001-04:00

Over the past few days the weather here in Shanghai has started to cool off a bit from the initial temperatures we were greeted with when we arrived. Having settled in through our first full week of classes here at EFZ we have developed a bit of a routine; wake up, class, lunch, more class, free time, dinner, study. Looking forward to our upcoming trip to Hangzhuo (杭州) we were informed our two day trip had been pushed back until later in the week. Not affected by the delay, we started to feel accustomed to our lives here for the next month, though our teacher would be changing. We bid our goodbyes to Wang Laoshi, our teacher for the first week, as she set out on a family vacation.

Unlike our previous teacher, Lin Laoshi spoke quicker and challenged the confidence we had built up in speaking with Wang Laoshi. Though his speaking is quick and authentic, I know we are ready to improve our listening skills, the aspect of our Chinese we can all agree needs the most work. This afternoon we enjoyed a break from cafeteria food as Lin Laoshi was nice enough to take us out to lunch in downtown Shanghai. By lunchtime everyone of us was confidently conversing with Lin Laoshi in Chinese over a delicious mid day meal. In the hour or so it took to eat, very little English was spoken, with one exception. The exception was a little boy who approached our table saying "Hello, how are you", wanting to practice his English on the pair of blonde, American looking students in the restaurant. After lunch we were free to walk around downtown Shanghai or the mall we were in, promising Lin Laoshi we would call him upon returning to school. Like the many tourists around us, we took several pictures before heading back underground for the half hour subway ride back to school.

We have now been here long enough to know our surrounding and feel comfortable with managing direction; both on the street and on the subway. Having established a bit of a daily routine now all that is left to do is continue studying, and if we keep track with our studies over these next three weeks I think our fluency at lunch is a very good sign of things to come.

The adventure has begun: Lindsay Gillen '12

2011-07-08T09:28:00.001-04:00

Three members of Peddie's Class of 2012 are currently in Shanghai, China at our sister school, EFZ, for a three-week intensive language study program. They will be sending their blog entries and I will post them here, unedited. Today's entry is from Lindsay Gillen '12.

I thought I had avoided the wicked jetlag, but it retaliated a little after midnight on the first night, tricking me into thinking it was a reasonable hour to wake up. Thankfully I was able to get back to sleep for a few more hours, and by 5:45 the outskirts of Shanghai came to life with cars, buses, and mopeds zooming by.
First on the agenda in our three hours of morning class was to hand in the language pledge that forbid us from using English for the next four weeks.

After lunch, Young, Steven and I were handed metro cards and a map: it was time to brave the Shanghai streets. Our first stop was a huge warehouse-supermarket-hybrid called Metro. Its aisles held everything from polo shirts to traffic cones to eight different brands of soy sauce. We were overjoyed to find bottles of Bing Hong Cha, an unbelievably delicious iced tea we’d discovered during our last visit.

Finding ourselves with a few hours of unstructured free time, the three of us collaborated on our homework and went for a run around EFZ's track. Then, thoroughly exhausted from my long day, I enjoyed a solid 11 hours of sleep that night.

Greetings from Shanghai: Young Joon Joo '12

2011-07-08T09:11:00.002-04:00

Three members of Peddie's Class of 2012 are currently in Shanghai, China at our sister school, EFZ, for a three-week intensive language study program. They will be sending their blog entries and I will post them here, unedited. Today's entry is from Young Joon Joo.

Greetings from Shanghai!

I touched down after only a mercifully short hour-long flight from Incheon, meeting Wang Laoshi (our Chinese teacher for the next week) at Pudong International Airport. Then it was off to Terminal 2, where Steven and Lindsay were scheduled to arrive 20 minutes later. They surprisingly didn't seem jetlagged at all; they seemed ready to start the day. EFZ was a mere 30 minutes away, and we arrived to a strangely empty school, with only a few summer camps going on.

We were (figuratively) thrown into the deep side of the pool during our tour, with Wang Laoshi explaining our livelihoods for the next month to us completely in Chinese. This was our first test of the day. It was sink-or-swim time, and we eventually understood the majority of the information, although we swallowed quite a bit of water before doing so.

Our rooms are on the eighth floor, conveniently only three floors below our classroom. The quality of the rooms surprised us, with private bathrooms complete with shower stall, flat screen TVs, a fridge, and a breathtaking view of Pudong through the room windows. (Of course, the windows were not so clean, an unfortunate side effect of Shanghai's miraculous industrialization. Steven and I spent a good hour relaying cups of hot water to lean out the smaller windows on the side to throw onto the dirty windows, then mopping it up with a towel as long as our arms could reach.) The rest of the day was spent unpacking, then retiring to our rooms for a well-earned rest.

EXP

2011-07-08T07:55:00.002-04:00

I joined Dr. Peretz for a visit to Timi's Princeton lab this afternoon. Timi explained his research into organic solar panels. His PI said Timi pretty much accomplished in the first week work she had thought would take him the summer, so he has been able to pursue some pretty interesting research into conductivity.

VISITING EXP STUDENTS

2011-06-29T14:37:00.001-04:00

Had a terrific visit with Preston and Pat. Dr. Peretz and I saw them at work over in their Princeton U. labs and met their PIs.

Nice photo of a smiling Pat with his research project, chicken lungs.

EXP Research Science programs blog

2011-06-21T09:35:00.001-04:00

The ten EXP students currently undertaking projects in research based science across several U.S. based universities are keeping a journal of their summer projects here. Visit to learn more about their life in the lab.

.... and they're off!

2011-06-08T09:47:00.000-04:00

The 2011 Sophomore Bike Trip got started this morning with a trip through the starting gates (or columns as it were) -- good luck to all!