Introduction
After midterms, the work settled down a bit again, and I had some more time for activities again. During the first week of November, we had 2 days off, for election day. That made it ideal to spend some time with a visiting friend. After a week of catching up and working ahead, Thanksgiving break already arrived. Since that is the biggest family holiday in the US, it was the perfect moment to visit my family the last time this semester.
Visit
In between my classes, I had planned a couple of fun activities this week. For example, we went to a comedy show in the famous Comedy Cellar. That was a great experience and since we sat in the front, we even had a bit of interaction with some of the comedians. That was on the night of Halloween and because the Comedy Cellar is in Greenwich Village, we also got a peak of the big Halloween parade. Honestly, that was not super impressive, it seemed more like a lot of people just walking around, than a fully planned parade.
Another night, we had booked tickets to go see the New York Knicks in the iconic Madison Square garden in a game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers. It is said that the Knicks have really die hard fans, that are very active and vocal during the games. I have to say that that is certainly true, and it made the game super fun! A lot of the time, everyone was chanting or shouting, the atmosphere was amazing! Sadly, in the end, the Knicks just lost, and obviously the crowd wasn’t very happy with that, even though the entire time was very close. Here’s a picture of that night:
We also made a trip to Roosevelt Island and took the famous cable car. That was a really fun experience, it’s a surreal feeling to be floating through the sky in between all the skyscrapers. The island itself is very peaceful, and it is a great place to walk around and escape the bustling and loud Manhattan streets. And obviously, the views in the picture below, speak for themselves:
Finally, we did some more walks around downtown and midtown Manhattan, and we visited the One World Observatory, on top of the One World Trade Center. At 386 meters or 102 stories, this is the highest vantage point in New York, in the highest building in the western hemisphere (at least in 2023). The views, as visible on top of this page, were truly incredible, and it was an amazing experience! I would certainly recommend it. The best moment was when a small Cessna plane flew by below us.
Working Ahead
Since I had already made big plans for the study break next week, and already did a lot of activities last week, I did need some time to catch up and work ahead on the assignments and projects that just started. Sadly, I got the bad news that they already scheduled a final on the day that I fly back from the holiday. Luckily, I am one of the few people that doesn’t have too many problems with sleeping on planes. However, I will certainly have to work while away.
For the System-On-Chip Platforms project, they will give us extra credit if we make daily, incremental improvements on our design, so I will certainly try to do that! The project of Power Management ICs, also got announced and my teammates and I already agreed on a nice topic for the linear regulator design, so work on that can also start. Finally, for RF Measurements the final lab sessions have concluded, and we only have to write some small reports to finish that part. I have to say, those lab sessions were extremely educational, and it was an amazing experience to work hands-on with all the cutting-edge equipment in the labs.
Next post, I will share a bit more on the final projects and finals, stay tuned!
Thanksgiving break in San Diego
Well-prepared to make some free time, I’m about to make a final trip in the United States! As you can imagine, I was very excited to go to San Diego, as I have never been to the West Coast before. Since I am not a big fan of the cold and the weather is turning colder in New York now, I am also very much looking forward to the California sun. After the six-hour flight, filled with a big assignment I still had to make, night had already fallen, so the beach and the sun are for tomorrow.
Because of the three-hour time difference between the East and West Coast, it was reasonably easy for me to wake up early, which was very helpful for me (I am really not a morning person) to get some work done in the morning. Afterwards it was time to go to the beach and spend time with the family. Next picture shows the view on the beautiful Pacific Ocean:
On Thursday, I also had my first Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey was a really impressive sight, when it came out of the oven and there were many side dishes to complement it. It was a very nice dinner, where I probably ate enough for a couple of days, but mostly, I enjoyed the family time a lot. We also did some other fun activities, like a California wine tasting, a Christmas light show and the San Diego Zoo, which is world class!
After this lovely week away, it was time for me to fly back to New York. Sadly this meant a 5-hour night flight, where I have to sleep, because an exam is waiting on me in the afternoon. I will let you know in the next post how it went, wish me luck!