Day 121: Vedge

What went well? 

1. Checked out the community fair down in Clark Park this afternoon. It was a really wonderful sight to see so many people in the community there and enjoying themselves. Also, thought this jewellery was MASTERFUL:



It's made of REAL FRUIT!!!!! 

2. Had the most special dining experience ever, at Vedge Restaurant. It's an upscale vegan restaurant, and I highly recommend it!!








3. Went back to my friend's place where I finally watched Pitch Perfect!!! Great movie.
4. My parents landed safely in San Francisco!

What did I learn? 

• Vedge Restaurant is amazing!! Have a look at their pictures: http://vedgerestaurant.com/

Day 120: The (Official) End

Wow that went fast. I will write a more reflective post later.

What went well? 

1. Had my last exam today, and it went really well!
2. Had a really productive lab meeting.
3. Checked out the BioPond!!! Finally!!!!! I can't believe it took me this long to go - it's only 5 minutes from where I live. And it was so peaceful and recuperative.






Turtles!!!







• 
  
4. Skyped my parents :)
5. Had a wonderful, wonderful and profound conversation with a friend. So excited to continue to keep in touch and hopefully collaborate in the future!!

What did I learn? 

• I've realised that I have recently developed a serious sugar addiction. And that I need to break it now.
• The end of exams is more anticlimactic than OMG FREEDOM WOO! It was more of an "Oh, that's it."

Day 115: Don Giovanni

What went well? 

1. Went and saw Don Giovanni for free this afternoon!! Thanks Open Arts Philly!! It was really interesting and there was some really good quality singing.
2. And it was with a friend, and hanging out with great people is always a good thing!
3. Wrote another ~2000 words for my mindfulness/positive education paper, and finalised my conceptual model. It's going well! Just have to write up the rest of the integration section now - maybe another 3-4 pages, max - and the conclusion, and then do a massive restructure + edit.



Mindfulness-Based Positive Education: A Proposed Conceptual Model

What did I learn? 

• (Mozart's) Don Giovanni supposedly had over 2000 conquests (i.e. women he womanised). And over 1000 in Spain alone!! He went to hell in the end though, so he definitely got what was coming!

Day 111: Cognitive Impairment

What went well? 

1. 3.5 months, 33 pages, 9500 words, and 100+references later, handed in my Buddhism paper!
2. Hung out with a couple of friends tonight and played Cards Against Humanity.
3. Hilarious email from Buddhism professor:
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What did I learn? 

• Sleep deprivation causes serious cognitive impairment. I had been confidently reproducing that Pali text passage across the week, but wasn't so confident this morning or convinced that I'd gotten in 100% right in the actual exam. Oh well. I think it was right, but again, not sure.

Day 109: Singing recital!

What went well? 

1. Had my singing recital today, and it went really well and so many (ten!!!! ahh so exciting!!) friends came to support me!!!! Here are the videos: Ah! non credea mirarti & Ach, ich fühl's.
2. Ended up bumping into two of my friends to came to my recital at HipCityVeg where I went with another friend afterwards, and we hung out together over dinner and had a great conversation about singing, then hung out for a bit more after dinner. It was awesome!!! We are all planning to hang out again together.
3. Decided I want to do more with my singing, so am entering the SAPACS in July in Auckland. Even though I missed the late entry date by a week, the organiser is allowing me to enter. Also, I really appreciate my singing teacher's efforts in helping me to figure out my repertoire for these competitions.

What did I learn? 

• The economics of Buddhism is an underresearched field.
• The American religion view that spiritual life is more important than the material may be a culturally specific view. A lot of Buddhists don't see the problem with commodification and commercialisation - e.g. selling amulets, Buddhist amusement parks, offerings at shrines. The commodification and commercialisation of Buddhism isn't destroying, selling or polluting the religion, but doing what the religion says by helping people e.g. providing them with jobs.

Day 107: A social day!

What went well? 

1. Bumped into a friend at HubBub (cafe) this morning when I was grabbing a coffee and intending to reason my way through my arguments for my paper. Her friend wasn't able to meet her anymore so we ended up catching up over coffee and had a fantastic conversation! It was great to get to know her better, and such a nice way to start the day. Also, HubBub coffee is great.
2. Went and saw a bit of the Penn Relays with another new friend. As we entered, someone gave us their tickets to pretty much the best seats (we had free tickets as Penn students, but their tickets were worth $42) so that was really nice of them. When we left, we paid it forward to a couple of other students by passing those tickets on. Also, the weather cleared up really nicely and the sun was so nice.
3. Had another great D&M with another friend at our "study party" this evening (2 hours of study, 3 hours of chat :P). I just can't express how much I value substantive conversations. It's stimulating, rejuvenating, rewarding, deepens relationships, and puts everything into perspective.
4. Refined my argument a bit, and I'm less mrahhhh now! :)
5. It looks like lots of people will be coming to my singing recital! So that's exciting.

What did I learn? 

• I'm ok with having an unproductive day (in terms of getting work done) when the time has been spent in other good ways (i.e. with people and cultivating relationships). Being unproductive is only stressful when you are being destructively unproductive (e.g., lamenting over how unproductive I'm being or trying to push through even when the brain says no) rather than doing other healthy activities (e.g., taking breaks, exercising, socialising). Because now I feel ready to get back into this paper tomorrow. It's coming along. I'm at about 18 pages of solid writing/argument (still to be cut down) and 20 pages of notes/word vomit to process or delete.

Day 100: Spontaneous Saturday

What went well? 

Today was actually a cool day that I can say, yeah, that's a pretty cool story.

1. Visited the Morris Arboretum in the morning - the University owns this place. Enjoyed the sunshine and the nature.







  

2. A couple of guys started talking to us on the bus back. We ended up getting lunch/dinner with a bunch of people (who they'd also just met), then jamming with violin, electric guitar and ukelele, then going to the "Night Market" at Rodin Rooftop lounge with amazing performances by several cultural dance and arts groups. Totally random but awesome turn of events!!

3. Did my grocery shopping and my friend helped me to carry stuff back, which helped a lot.

What did I learn? 

• People at Penn respect culture a lot. Also, we have some amazing dance groups here, who really love to dance, put their hearts, intensity and energy into it, and are amazingly supportive of their team-mates. And everyone respects that.
• Good things happen when you clear your schedule and go with the flow. Just say yes!
• Writing this Buddhist paper brings up experiences that relate to Buddhist teachings. Like, dukkah. Oh my god, I feel so much unsatisfactoriness towards this paper at the moment. Just, MRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. (my reaction every time I look at it). MRAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Day 94: Sunshine and smiles

What went well? 

1. Ancient Voices concert went really well. It was the best we'd sung the pieces. After my 10-minute test on Wednesday, that'll be one subject down!
2. Hung out with my friend afterwards and went for a long walk to the art museum & back. We admired the cherry blossoms there and on campus (and also the squirrels. always squirrels.). It was so energising! And a GLORIOUS day. Again. Sunshine and 27 degrees celsius (Hello, NZ summer!) with a warm breeze.



Crazy selfie






Wind






Sunshine! I look ridiculously happy in this photo. 

3. Got a reply from the guy who gave the talk a couple weeks back about how digital tools can help bootstrap Chinese learning. He gave some really helpful suggestions and kindly offered to help me with the process and invited me to stay in touch! I'm actually pretty excited about this now, and I've realised that it's all about making learning personally meaningful by getting down to the why of why you want to develop a skill, and the specific content that is interesting and useful for you. I'm glad that digital tools can bypass a lot of boring stuff and help me get straight to translating stuff about positive psychology and mindfulness back and forth from Chinese & English. This is another thing I have gained from Penn - just by going to this talk, I got inspired to improve my Chinese - and I had no strong intentions of doing so prior to that! Interconnectedness is an amazing thing. If this didn't happen, then that wouldn't have happened...etc.
4. Got another 1600 words on the page for my Buddhism paper.

What did I learn? 

• This choir can pull it together really well. I think in the end, singing is a lot to do with attention. We often made mistakes during rehearsals, but were great in concert, and I think it is to do with the fact that we were all on the ball today.
• My level of Chinese has a term - "kitchen Chinese" - "i.e. a good basic mastery of the language and good pronunciation and tones, but just lacking a lot of specialized and "adult" vocabulary".

Day 86: Birthday (again!)!

The love continued. And it was uplifting.

What went well?

1. Got a really uplifting e-card from my singing teacher. Even though she's on her European tour and was preparing for a major performance in Germany (I think today??), she still thought of me. It's amazing.
2. Had a lovely birthday dinner (at HipCityVeg) with friends. Even though I stated no presents, they gave me flowers, an awesome book of happiness, and cupcakes!! And even though one of my friends couldn't make it, she stopped by my dorm later to give me a card that she had made...probably the most special card I've ever received. Beautiful in art and in words. Just so touching.






How much more perfect could this get??



My reaction: :O!!!!!!!! Wow. So grateful.

3. Had a great Skype session with my mum! It was the first time in about a month that we'd talked, oops. But it was definitely a positive and high quality conversation :) We started talking about a project I'm going to do over the holidays to improve my Chinese - translating that book chapter on positive education into Chinese, because all I really care about it being able to talk about my research in Chinese in the future. Looks like it will be quite challenging since there aren't necessarily satisfactory equivalents for several words in Chinese, but it will still be a great project.
4. And....before having more fun afterwards, I still managed to write the first 660 words of my mindfulness paper! #workhardplayhard

What did I learn? 

• I have friends who are true givers and who really care about me.
• A little bit of thoughtfulness goes a long way and makes a huge personal impact.

Day 85: All you need is love

Today was a joyous day. The cool thing about being on the other side of the world is that I get to celebrate my birthday for two whole days!

What went well? 

1. Got messages from my parents wishing me happy birthday. Was especially touched to hear that my dad woke up this morning and wanted to wish me happy birthday even though it's not my birthday yet in US time. Super cute. Feeling so much joy and love right now. <3
2. Went and saw the Phantom of the Opera with my friend!! He bought me my ticket for my birthday, and even though they were rush tickets, we had AMAZING seats with a perfect and close view. The production, set, special effects, acting and singing all made for a compelling and exciting show.
3. Before seeing the show, we got dinner at a vegan restaurant. It was unassuming, but the food was great and I had the most amazing vegan chocolate cake there.
4. I was really high in energy today, which makes everything easier.
5. We fine-tuned our survey for our study which we'll be launching soon!

What did I learn? 

• The post-doc that I'm working with is meeting with the Melbourne GSE Dean tomorrow for coffee...I am so excited for her!!!!! I remember that a couple months ago we were talking about how cool it would be if she came to Melbourne...and now it looks like it could actually be a happening thing...??? Everything happens for a reason, and it's so interesting to see how interconnected things are.

Day 79: Diana Damrau is Perfection

What went well? 

1. Went to New York again to see La Sonnambula at the Metropolitan Opera. It was definitely the highlight of my week (along with Frozen, of course!). I initially booked my ticket purely because I wanted to see Diana Damrau perform, not because I knew anything about this opera, and it was totally worth it. I also happen to be working on a song from this opera now, so it was extra useful to see Diana perform it, and also to see it in context. I was completely awestruck by her performance. She has such complete mastery and command of her voice, and can sing in any position, even while dancing, without compromising the quality of the singing. She also has such a charismatic and elegant stage presence, and is an extremely soulful performer. Plus, she cartwheeled across the stage during Ah! non giunge (it's a very happy song)....it was so funny. I am such a fan. Just wow.
2. Went to a vegan place for lunch, just 5 minutes away from the Met Opera House. It was great, and still feels like such a luxury to have so much choice.
3. Started creating a Prezi for my class presentation on my research paper progress for my mindfulness class, and it was actually pretty fun. I love Prezi. I feel like it's a way to really creatively express ideas and draw connections. Here's a sneak peek:

What did I learn? 

• I gained a much deeper understanding of the background behind Ah! non credea, Amina's aria in La Sonnambula. There's nothing like actually seeing the show and the relationships between the characters and how the plot plays out, to understand what the song represents and what needs to be communicated within it.
• A meta-analysis by Zoogman, Goldberg, Hoyt, & Miller (2014) suggests that in young people, mindfulness has larger effects on psychological symptoms (e.g. anxiety, depression) than other outcomes (e.g. attention, mindfulness, quality of life, social skills), and that mindfulness has bigger effects on clinical than non-clinical populations.

Day 77: Frozen

What went well?

1. Watched Frozen at the Positive Psychology Center this evening!! It was such a highlight. The movie was heartwarming and a real feel-good movie, with great songs and a great plot. Also, I appreciated the food people made and brought - got a recipe for a vegan coconut pumpkin pudding (sooo good!!) and the post-doc I'm working with brought in a vegan chocolate and mint brownie/cake-type thing which was also amazing.
2. Enjoyed today's Duckworth lab meeting on adult ADHD. It was really interesting to learn more about it.
3. Gutted (this is my term for copying quotes into my research database) 6 references for my other mindfulness paper. Glad this is finally rolling along again, as it was pretty hard to get the activation energy to get going again after not working on it at all for about a month.

What did I learn? 

• I guess the research and thought I put into this paper earlier actually was worth something, since I have a fairly clear idea of where I'm going with it now.
• Adult ADHD can be conceptualised as involving two components: (1) executive dysfunction and (2) reward deficiency/motivation deficit. Also, there exists cognitive-behavioural therapy for ADHD. Really interesting.

Day 51: Magic Gardens and Casting Call

What went well? 

1. Magic Gardens Trip!!! Bottom line: If you're in Philly, you should go. Seriously. I loved this place. It was super colourful and creative and expressive...look! Also, the whole trip (transport, entry, food) was covered by Stouffer. Thanks again, Stouffer!






























2. Auditioned for Opera Scenes. Sang Ach ich fühl's from Die Zauberflöte. It went really well, and the organisers gave me some really encouraging and positive feedback. Mindfulness definitely helps my singing, in terms of staying completely focused, in character, and putting the intention and deliberateness behind every phrase and word. It was this intensity that they commented on. Really looking forward to finding out what scenes they choose, and what I'll be singing!
3. Still got a lot of work done. Prepared most of my flashcards for my intro Buddhism mid-term on Wednesday. Just need to finish doing that, then plan my practice essays, and then memorise the key ideas (and page numbers for citations, yeah I know, what??).

What did I learn?

• I really enjoyed meeting new people on the trip today. Had some nice conversations, discovering commonalities. That's kinda the thing with just being willing to sign up for activities and opportunities by yourself - it just makes you more open to starting conversations with more people, thereby creating more opportunities for meeting awesome new people!

Miscellaneous thoughts 

This actually belongs more in yesterday's post, but it's something I've noticed in general at Penn. People here are frazzled. That's the word I would use. I walked into my lab meeting yesterday, and man, everyone was frazzled about everything they had to get done and all the pressures on them. And it's not just the students, as we were discussing in our lab meeting - this culture of frazzledness is pervasive, including faculty and researchers alike. I wondered if it was just a feature of academic careers per se, assuming that they're all high-pressure jobs where you fight to prove your worth for tenure, publish or perish etc., but apparently it is not the case. Rather, it really depends on the prestige and culture of each institution. Hence, it is something I will really have to take into consideration in future when thinking about graduate schools, post-doc positions and eventually where I would like to end up working. I don't know if I'd be willing to completely sacrifice work-life balance/stay long-term in an atmosphere described by a fellow peer as a "dark cloud" (I haven't really felt it, being just a temporary outsider, but have noticed the effects on others' morale and wellbeing) for the (numerous, actually) advantages of a top institution, but maybe it's something worth doing for a few years if it's an important career move. On the other hand, perhaps I would thrive in such conditions! Some do (or seem to, anyway). Stress per se isn't bad - it's our beliefs about stress, and our resources (especially social and psychological) that ultimately determine how we fare. I seem to be thriving here, but again, I have chosen a relatively light courseload and am under a lot less pressure in terms of grades. So I'll try and talk to some more faculty & graduate students and see what their impressions are.

Day 49: Bracing myself for #focus days

What went well? 

1. Met with the post-doc I'm research assisting for, and while I was there at the positive psychology centre, a MAPP student invited me to get lunch with her at Han Dynasty next door (highly recommended!), so I did. It was such a pleasure to meet her and we had an awesome conversation. I really appreciated the chance to get to know her story and aspirations. Positive, passionate and interesting people are awesome.
2. Watched an interesting film in Contemplative Sciences today. It was about the Mindful Schools project, where they brought mindfulness to a really troubled middle school. It was fascinating and touching to see the transformation in the kids - they were literally CRAZY at the start, needing constant entertainment, distraction, and annoying each other, but eventually began to find mindfulness useful in their own lives. Really powerful stuff.

What did I learn? 

• Went to a Philo event, an informal conversation with a professor. Tbh, it was a bit toooo informal and dragged on for ages, but, I did come away with a few ideas. One of them was that he thinks that one of the biggest trends to come will be a push towards open data from research, which will improve both transparency and efficiency of scientific research as it allows anyone to check your work and reanalyse the data to create more knowledge.
• I'll be auditioning (well, technically it's more of a "casting call" because I don't think they'll actually reject anyone since it's a pretty self-selected group) for Opera Scenes Saturday 4.50pm! Wish me luck.
• The next few weeks are going to start heating up, I think, in terms of academic workload. I'm surprised how long it's taken to get to this point in the semester though! Normally I'd start feeling time pressure around week 4 at UniMelb, whereas it's already week 7 here and only now am I starting to actually have deadlines come up. Intro Buddhism mid-term on Wednesday, Sociology of Education mid-term starts Monday & ends Monday after Spring Break (but I'm away for most of spring break), and I really need to push forward with my two research papers for Intro Buddhism & Contemplative Sciences if I don't want to be completely screwed in a few weeks' time. So, the first weekend of Spring Break before I go away has been blocked out on my calendar as such: 



Obviously, I will not just be getting stuff done all day in a machine-like fashion. But the point is to psychologically prepare myself to focus!

Day 45: Awesome + ermahgahhd

What went well? 

1. Had the best day ever today hanging out with a friend. We bought rush tickets to see Porgy & Bess, and had great conversations over Starbucks, lunch & walking back to campus. Also, singing Glee on the way back. So awesome :) And the weather was great!!!!! 12 degrees feels WARM.





Part of the "Gayborhood". This is actually a thing!



An organ in Macy's department store. A super cool building.

2. Went to the Opera Scenes information session. It looks like a great opportunity, and I'm really excited for it. Basically, they're trying to put together a show comprised of a series of short scenes from operas. And it'll only be about an hour a week. Casting call is next week.

What did I learn? 

• The importance of practice for any skills. I've offered to help out the founder of the Calm Clarity project with any research-related skills, which has now turned into the need for me to actually remember and use the statistical skills I learned in Research Methods for Human Inquiry last year, which are somewhat rusty now. It's a great opportunity to practice, actually. Also, it feels really cool to be able to say, yeah I can actually do that! And be able to actually apply the skills I learned. And I'm learning a lot - for example, I think we might need to use a mixed-design ANOVA, which I currently don't know how to do, so this is an opportunity to figure that out. This is definitely a stretch task for me though, hence the ermahgahhd - but this must be an example of deliberate practice in psychology! Good.
• To look up the plot of shows before seeing them. I was sooo confused while watching Porgy and Bess because the text wasn't always clear, so didn't follow the plot that well. It was still good though!

Day 36: Valentine's day

What went well?

• I had been planning to go to the Glee Club Show (funded by Stouffer), but then got invited to hang out with a few people from the Positive Psychology Center after work, so I took up that offer. It was really, really fun and I am so grateful for the friend who invited me! Note to self: if I ever meet any exchange students, invite them to everything. It makes a huge difference.

What did I learn?

• Seriously, double bag your groceries. I ended up going to Fresh Grocer after hanging out with people, and my bags were literally breaking and my groceries were falling out just during the 10-minute walk back. Take precautions!
• Be nice to exchange students. It makes a huge difference to have a social support network here.

Nawwww. This dog was CRAZY.

Day 23: Cards Against Humanity with International Students

What went well? 

1. Made more progress than expected with coding some more qualitative data, this time about what people think gives their life meaning. Again, it was really interesting and uplifting to read. I'd love to hear in the comments about what you think makes life meaningful to you!
2. Had a cute Skype session with mum (and Wedgie):



So much nawwww.

3. Went to the free Stouffer yoga session and it was awesome. The instructor was really good, there were only 6 people, and it was really challenging. Stouffer definitely puts their funds to good use!
4. Hung out with some Aussies & Hong Kong students who decided they wanted to eat hot pot, so they bought a bunch of stuff from Chinatown and cooked it on the stove here.

What did I learn?

• You need to have a certain level of Western cultural context and, well, a dirty mind to be able to play Cards Against Humanity. For those who haven't played it, it's basically the most un-PC game in the world that involves a lot of dark and usually sexual humour, making fun at things that shouldn't be made fun of. It is hilarious. In a bad way. We ended up explaining practically every single card to some very innocent Hong Kong girls. It was an educational experience for all.