Daniel Kang
A Day in the Life of a First-Year: Winter Edition
With the winter term almost coming to an end, I wanted to share with everyone another "A Day in the Life" as my schedule and commitments changed slightly!
8:30 AM - 9:00 AM
Usually, this is when I wake up. This term, my earliest class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays is at 11:30 AM; on Tuesdays and Thursdays it's at 10:10 AM. However, I love to get some morning work and coffee into my schedule to feel energized—also to use my breakfast swipe at on-campus cafés!
9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
I often choose between two options: Novack Café or Still North Café (off-campus, around 8-minutes away). Today, I chose to head to Still North, which has amazing window seats that offer a perfect amount of sunlight. However, those seats fill up quite fast, so I tend to arrive exactly when they open up. My go-to order is an iced vanilla latte with a prosciutto, egg, and jam breakfast sandwich! I had some microbiology literature reading and essay revisions to work on. Here, I tend to do work I can complete while listening to music; so, ones that don't require as much concentration.
10:30 AM - 11:30 AM
Since it was Monday, my class started exactly at 11:30, so after finishing what I had prepared for the morning, I headed back to my dorm. I relaxed on my bed, watching some YouTube videos, new episodes to my favorite Netflix series, and replying to some emails. Last week, I didn't exactly get the classes I wanted, so some professors replied back to me with potential options.
11:30 AM - 2:00 PM
Today, I had class back-to-back: my Ancient Medicine course then my Physics course.
2:00 PM - 3:00 PM
At 3 is when I have my daily research work. Therefore, between 2 and 3, I tend to either work on some extra work at an on-campus study location or head back to my dorm to decompress. Today, I had to continue to organize my schedule and start working on my final paper, so I headed to Novack Café to grab some vitamin water and begin.
3:00 PM - 6:00 PM
As mentioned in previous blog posts, this term I began work as a microbiology research intern at the Geisel School of Medicine. My laboratory is located in Remsen, a research building next to the Life Sciences Center (LSC). It's about a 10-minute walk from Novack! Today, I had some PCR testing to do, which detects whether certain sections of genetic material are properly located/flipped. I also poured some "plates," which are places bacteria grows, as they're incubated in a machine set at around 26-27 celsius.
6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
I grabbed a quick dinner at 53 Commons, or as Dartmouth students call it "FoCo," and headed to the library to finish more work!
Posts You Might Like
In one of my previous posts, I mentioned how I joined a sorority earlier this fall by going through the recruitment process. I've come a long way since then. In fact, I am living in my sorority house for my sophomore summer!
Dartmouth is not just a college. With world-renowned graduate schools, why would we choose to call ourselves a college instead of a university? The story behind that decision dates back to a significant Supreme Court ruling.
On a quiet spring Saturday in Hanover, I traded the usual campus buzz for Monet in the morning and archery in the afternoon—a reminder that Dartmouth weekends can be just as meaningful when they're slow, reflective, and a little unexpected.
During my sophomore spring quarter, I took on the challenge of four STEM courses, and while it has been intense, the unexpected connections across subjects and the joy of learning have made it one of my most rewarding academic experiences yet.
Hello finals week! As I close out a finals season, dive into my bag to see just what gets me through this time of the term!
My biggest recommendation during the college research process!
Read about the Sophomore Summer Soiree and how I got to witness the beginning of something that hopefully grows into a long-standing Dartmouth tradition!
A week of festivities at the NCAA Skiing Championship.
Here is my list of the restaurants in Hanover within walking distance of Dartmouth. Whether you're touring campus for the first time or are a Dartmouth student in need of a new place to eat, feel free to reference this list!