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ヾ(°∇°*) 

As an EMT

I’m Daniel, a freshman from the Class of 2020. I was born in Singapore, but raised in the Bay Area, CA. I graduated from high school in the UK in 2013, and having since completed a gap year as a political campaign volunteer (for the 2014 Indonesian presidential elections) and my two-year national service obligation in Singapore as an EMT for the Singapore Civil Defence Force, I finally made it here to Amherst. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything!! (Ask me that again in winter though… if you can find me under the mountain of blankets I’d doubtless be hiding under)

I love travelling! TripAdvisor tells me I’ve visited
 12% of the planet. So that’s another 88% to go! 

At Amherst, I’m a prospective Computer Science/Psychology double major – but emphasis on the prospective – and I spend my Fridays at the Book & Plow farm either picking or cleaning vegetables, but always having a great time. I also have the privilege of serving as an AAS (Association of Amherst Students) Senator for my class, and sit on the AAS Budgetary Committee.

In my free time, I most enjoy meeting new people, discovering new experiences, and pushing my boundaries.  

Some other interests include photography, snowboarding, and (slowly) sipping on wine.

Outline of Blog Content

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What is this?

The idea of this page is to list the blog posts I have published in a systematic, easy-to-navigate fashion, and also outline future blog posts ideas that I have floating around in my head waiting to be typed out and published at the appropriate time (time management -- a valuable skill especially at Amherst!). These posts/ideas are organised into broad categories, which I hope you find useful for navigating, as opposed to in reverse chronological order.

My Favorite Posts/Photo Albums

• Fall Foliage --  a collection of my favorite photos
• Snow in October and beyond
• Book & Plow farm (orientation and work-study)

Specific Trip Reports

• Fall Break: NYC/Cape Cod/Martha’s Vineyard 
• Brattleboro, VT -- a nice 45m drive away, hunting for antiques!
• Visiting (and eating at) UMass

Meta-Trip Reports

• Boston: random weekday trip
• NYC: EZOO, Meadows, weekends in general

My Sustained School Activities

• AAS (student government, Amherst Association of Students)
• ACAD (substance-free programming, Amherst College After Dark)
• Archery Club
• Outing Club
• Rock-climbing
• Pumpkin Paddle

Once? Maybe Twice

• Learn to Sail Day with the Sailing Team

School Events

• Fall Fest
• Family Weekends 
• Fall
• Formals
• Fall Formal(I didn't go!111), James/Stearns
• 5College Parties
• UMass Frats (Pi, Lambda), Sororities (Kappas), Smith, MHC, Hampshire
• off campus
• Career-related events
  • Google resume workshop, non-BB IB open table session, consulting case competition

Articles

• AC Social Scene: athletes (“bridge athlete-non-athlete divide”), mixers, branches, end of fraternities
• AAS Senate, student government
• AC Resources
  • Roy, Susan Daniels, Nancy Robinson
• Is Amherst reflective of the real world? OK it’s a bubble, is that useful? Do some ideas need such a nurturing environment to be born?
• Confrontations, micro-aggressions, safe space, institutional racism
• Should college be about getting a job or becoming a better citizen?
• Bad people vs misinformed people

West vs East perspectives

• Proliferation of trucks (is it really about gas prices?)
• Western portion sizes—why are they so big? Also, what’s with the ubiquity of soda
• Hook up culture... Is it related to drinking age? Or CV-building mission of high school
• Different perspectives on smoking between developing and developed nations

On the lighter side

• Trump's thesaurus 
• Squirrels vs. chipmunks

Collection of Miscellaneous Awesome Things

• Alltrails - great app that shows you nearby hiking trails with routes, photos, and reviews
• newsmap.jp - awesome visual way to organise news

And Other Things

• Amherst Jargon

Pumpkin Paddle with the Outing Club

What: one of the whackier offerings made available to the student body... participants carve pumpkins at school, then head down to a dammed portion of the Swift River and make rafts under the guidance of Adventure In Adventure Out, a local outdoors company that does a lot of outdoor programming for the school such as leading its FOOT programs

When: every pumpkin season, on this occasion, the 28th of October, from 1600-1930.

Fall Family Weekend + Halloweekend

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When: Friday 28th - Sunday 30th October

What: a semesterly opportunity for the school to bring parents on campus and show them a slightly lovelier and more palatable side of the school (than the students see on a daily basis). Great guest speakers are brought in, and the school provides some programming, for example in this case academic department open houses.

Some of the lectures that went on:

• "The Economic Value of Good Teaching" - Economics Lecture with Jonah E. Rockoff '97
• focusing on systems for hiring new teachers, the effects of No Child Left Behind on students and schools, the impact of removing school desegregation orders, and how primary school teachers affect students’ outcomes in early adulthood.
• A Conversation with Former CIA Director John Deutch ‘60
• Director Deutch will discuss topics relating to intelligence in post-9/11 society, including the apprehension, detention, and interrogation of suspected hostiles, the role of paramilitary and unmanned aerial forces, and the need to balance security and privacy.
• no space for me = I didn't attend... similar situation 2 years ago as a pre-frosh when I tried (in vain) to attend a Nate Silver talk 

The issue with such high-profile talks at Amherst, however, is there isn't a large enough space on campus to house the number of interested parties for such events. For example, the largest such space, Johnson Chapel, which was used for my Convocation -- and which I didn't attend because I couldn't find a seat -- can only seat 600. Not great for a school of 1600 students.

What else: food tabling in Val from vendors in the area... 

apple sauce... me: "do I need to eat this with anything" ... them: "nope"

I now know the difference between apple cider and apple juice

maple syrup cookies -- so great!!!

roast beef and shrimp 

Anyways... although I'm an international student, I still had the great luck of having aunts and (an) uncle visit me! However, they had the bad luck of not booking hotels far in advance (>6m) and so had to suffer from the accomodation that was the Howard Johnson inn.

• Lesson: book hotels (e.g. Lord Jeffrey Inn, far in advance for large school events)

And we caught up, went shopping, and discovered some great places to eat in the area such as:

• Lumber Yard -- where the waiters and cooking staff were in costume!
• Gohyang -- great Korean
• Esselon Coffee Roasting -- mmmm

And of course, Halloweekend calls for some party/costume/celebration. Pics from Friday night, and Saturday night:

Amherst College After Dark

The concept behind ACAD is to provide provide students with free, interactive programs on Friday or Saturday Nights between 9pm and 2am -- that might serve as viable/fun activities for students living a substance-free lifestyle to still enjoy themselves.

Events

• Mike's (Haunted) Maze

Mike's (Haunted) Maze, link, visited 21.10.16

It was terrifying. I never knew corn could be so terrifying, but I suppose that in the same way that Jaws developed a phobia of sharks for me, watching Signs developed a fear of corn fields for me. There were tonnes of paid actors in costumes (including clowns of course) running around and jumpscaring us as we tried walking hand-in-hand through the 15-minute maze. There were also some great 'scenes' wherein you were supposed to be an active participants: watch somebody get executed, stand in a circle of mirrors as somebody with a chainsaw starts running after you, etc. etc., but of course I didn't have the time to take any pictures -- to busy screaming and running for my life. 

• However, there was this one funny (in hindsight) moment where we chose to run away from a Donald Trump sign than away from a zombie

off campus

Week 8 - 5Colleges KSA (Korean Students Association) Gathering

Pi House Parties

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Location: I don't think I'm at liberty of disclosing this
When: I imagine every Friday/Saturday?

What: an Asian interest fraternity (don't have these at Amherst for reasons of inclusion -- but apparently 8.5% of the UMass student body is a member of a Greek society)

Why: meet new people that I wouldn't otherwise have the opportunity to meet. Also, great music (actually only 1 time in the 3 times I've been was this the case) in a space that seems unlikely to be raided/stopped by the police and is a far better partying space than the closest alternatives at Amherst (i.e. Jenkins/Hitchcock)