Bubbles Burst: Adult Life Begins?

A wonderful sweet card from my dear friend, Liz!

So where were we.... oh right, I finished college like a month ago (what the WHAT?!?). I graduated, and after a couple of small things I'm in the process of doing, I will be a happy person with a Bachelors of Science in Bioengineering and a Bachelors of Arts in German Literature and Language. It's all quite really strange to be honest, but nothing that isn't too out of the ordinary for most of my peers now.

I mean... here's a picture of the back of my head. But I mean, the pineapple on my cap is worthy of an A+ and should be featured on Psych's fan page. 

What was strange was the month gap I had between my internship with the State of New Hampshire Public Health Lab and graduation. During that time I was in a bubble. I managed to accomplish some small house projects, completely redid my closet, watched a ton of soccer, and sleep a ton. While it was great doing that for the first two weeks, it got repetitive and I felt like I was missing something. At first, it felt like I was just out of place at home, seeing as how I've spent the majority of the last four years in New York, surrounded by friends that I've had since freshman year. But there was definitely more to that.
It's so easy to say "Oh, right now, I want to take a break and see where I can go." It's another thing to actually take that time to do some soul searching and just freak out because you don't know what to do or why you decided a break was a good idea in the first place. Needless to say, I figured out a temporary plan for the immediate future, and hopefully it'll set the groundwork for whatever I choose to do soon.

Clearly the antics of a college graduate. Also, why does my camera insist it is 2006?

However, nothing is set in stone and whatever does in the future, I am certain happens for the best. So on that note, congratulations to all the graduates of 2014- high school, college, whatever else there is. Whatever you've just accomplished- it only is the beginning. :)

xoxo
Sheilly

Senior Year Dorm!

Many of my family friends have asked me how I manage to stay away from my home for so many months, and I will admit, it's incredibly hard. A lot of things that really bothered me my first year here really had to deal with how my environment wasn't really as warm as it could have been. While it's still difficult to spend so many months away from home at school, I've found my dorm to be a little spot of my own in this giant campus.

I've lived in my dorm suite for three years, going on my fourth. The last two years, I've been in the same room, lovingly referred to as the Annex by my roommate and I. My room is separated from the other rooms in our suite because we're right next to the elevator. It has its perks... kind of.

This year, the room is wonderfully decorated-- at least by my standards. It's been a cross between how I had it the last few years, and something completely new.

So to start with the bed:

Every room in Stony Brook comes with a desk, a bed, a small drawer set, and a big one. This is the first year where I didn't have a drawer thing in the closet, but we'll get to that later. 

Unfortunately my room doesn't have an AC, so I can't really keep a comfy big comforter on my bed because I can never use it. (Because even during the winter, the heat is turned up so much, that it's still too hot!) So I opted for a light quilt for the past two years. I sleep in a pillow fort so I have a bunch of pillows near the head of my bed. 

The main wall has 58 pictures of myself with my friends who I love the most. It's so eye-catching because it's the first thing you see when you come into the room. The pictures were put up using poster putty, and I highly recommend using that! Sometimes the pictures will come up if you didn't use enough of the putty, but none of them have fallen down. My whiteboard is also there on the side so I can work out my mechanical engineering class homework and calculus problems. 

Next is the desk: 

I upgraded to the big tv that I had in my bedroom at home. It's definitely better than my old tv from last year because now we can utilize the whole room! I have my desk supplies and books on the side, and my schedule pinned up. I obviously have a dalek, a stem cell, and an AIDS microbe chilling near my fan for fun and my arsenal of body scents and perfume for fun? I find keeping my desk with minimal stuff on it really helps keep it clean, but we'll see if it'll last! 

This is the side view of the desk. As you notice the drawer set is below my desk, which has cleared up so much space in the closet! The best thing is the drawers open so nicely there, and it keeps things so much more organized. I have all my school supplies in my drawers so I don't have to have it stored anywhere else. There's also my emergency flannel for late night fire alarms, which are sadly very common. 

One of my favorite things is I have my fridge out in a more prominent location. Instead of leaving it empty, I filled it up with more photos, and fun magnets. The letter magnets are actually elements from the periodic table, which definitely fit in my alley of science-y geek. 

Closets are always the hardest part of the room to keep clean. This year I have so much space in there, it's going to be tough to just throw a million things in there and keep the door closed. I invested in some hanging closet shelves for my shoes and clothes and extra bed sheets.

And there it is, that's my side of the Annex. 

If you're a college student reading this, here's some things that I definitely recommend. 

1. If you're living in a dorm without an air conditioner, make sure you get a box fan! Since the Annex is in this weird alcove where the there are two walls blocking air flow, my room gets incredibly hot. Having a box fan helped so much to keep the air circulating and room feeling immensely cooler. Box fans are not too expensive, and it's definitely something you will be using year round. 
2. For laundry, I really recommend Tide pods. They don't take up too much space, and they work amazingly. 
3. Regardless of whether you live in a room with access to a kitchen or not, a water filter is a must. While it's easy to buy water bottles, a water filter is going so much better. If you ever feel like making ramen, you won't have to use sketchy dorm water to make it if you have filtered water instead!
4. Lighting in dorms are horrible. I hardly use the dorm lights because the florescent light often gives me a headache. For lighting, I've used a desk lamp and tilted the head back so it illuminates the whole room. It gives the room an ambience that is perfect for watching some tv and relaxing. 
5. Play around with your furniture. You might be surprised with how you can make things work!
6. You can use over the door hooks for other things in your room. I used one in my closet for my towel, and another is hanging off of my desk for my bag. They're pretty sturdy for things that a command hook can't handle. 

Best of luck to any people in college this semester! 

Updates!

Hello all!

This semester has been hectic with quite a few ups and downs. Similar to a sine curve, like my dad always says. (We're just a big family of nerds, alright?)

So what's new with Iced Peppermint Mocha?

Here are a list of TINY changes:

• Rearranged the site. I put links on the left, the logo is huge now, and there's a new picture of me! 
• Got rid of some things that didn't work. This blog was an experiment, and some things were bound to fail while other things didn't really click. I'm excited to see what new things will pop out now!
• I got bloglovin' all set up. So if you have one, please follow me here! If you've got a blog and you want me to follow, please leave your link in the comments! I'll definitely follow back. :) 
• I was also able to score the tumblr site icedpeppermintmocha.tumblr.com! This is exciting, and I'm following a bunch of people. I've used the site before, but I'm planning on posting things similar to what I would post here. And also funny things. A lot of funny things. :) 
• I'm still working on cookie recipes, especially with different flavors and what not. I had to write up my favorite cookie recipe in german the other day, and it was still good! So, expect cookie week in the near future. 
• I'm also revamping the way posting is going to work out. Minor details, but more posts. Be excited. :) 

I'm heading off to NYC for the weekend. I'll be back soon. (Probably Monday!) 

Have a nice weekend :)

Happy Daylight Savings Monday!

Happy Daylight Savings Monday! Hopefully y'all are not as confused as I am. And yes, that really is my alarm clock.

No I don't remember how to actually change it.
--Sheilly

What I've Been Up To...

This semester needed a bit of getting used to. While I complained about taking six classes last semester and the amount of stress I subjected myself to, this semester has been just as rough. Here's a small conglomeration of (mostly instagram-ed) pictures.

Orgo Studying

German Studying

Starbucks addiction drinking

Biology Lab...ing? 

Luckily, some things are looking up! Spring break is in... a week? (YAY!) Although I still have to get through this week, which includes group projects for BME, a town hall meeting in the works at work, and more studying as always. (Which means a lot of Starbucks in the near future as well!) 

Hope your March has been going well! 

-Sheilly

The Best of: 365 Challenge Part 1

Remember I mentioned how I wanted to do the 365 photo challenge? At first I thought of posting a picture a day here on this blog, but sometimes I felt like I didn't have anything to share with that image, and it seemed like a waste of space. But then there were a couple of pictures that I just wanted to share so badly, but I felt that they needed a bit more form than just "Here's a cool picture I took! Toodle--loo!" Thus, this post was born. I'll try to make a "Best of" post for my favorite 365 pictures and post them here together. It'll be fun, and my photos won't feel as lonely. (Do photos feel lonely?)

More to come soon, I'm sure! 

--Sheilly

My Parents are literally the Best.

I took a small hiatus from blogging these past two weeks mainly because I'm getting adjusted to campus life again! A lot of it was getting used to my schedule and my classes, but this semester I've also started a job, which has been hard to get used to.
Currently my schedule looks like this:

It doesn't look horrific right?
The funny story about this picture is that my schedule is so big that it can't actually fit in the screen shot. Hah.
But I am not here to complain about that!
Last week, I just had a bunch of series of misfortunes starting from forgetting my lab notebook at home for my biology lab to ending with my beloved bag from freshmen year breaking. The first things didn't phase me, but towards the end of the week, after misfortune after misfortune started piling up, I started getting annoyed and a bit down.
But I am not here to complain about that either!
My mom and dad have always been super supportive of me, from every decision I've ever made to just listening as I ranted about a really tough orgo question on my homework. They're level headed and calm, and I appreciate everything they do so much.
This week, after I mentioned my beloved bags unfortunate demise, my dad forwarded me a receipt of a replacement bag that my mom chose out. It's perfect, and basically everything I needed in a bag. Here's a picture:

The craziest thing about it is that I didn't even ask about getting a replacement bag, they just went ahead and ordered me one.
I usually gush about my parents all the time to my friends, but I think it's not enough.
My parents are literally the best. <3
--Sheilly

3 Things

I usually do pictures for these posts, but I just needed to have this song here. I don't know why, but this whole week I've been going on YouTube to hear this song far too often. It may be because I saw the episode of How I Met Your Mother with this song just the other day, and it's reminded me of the sheer catchy-ness of this song.

I finally finished my Christmas shopping! And by that I mean, I finished it for my college friends! I've decided to make some cookies and give them in tiny boxes to some people, some bracelets and earrings I've made, and my roommate gets some rather silly things I've found! The bag up there just screamed to me, despite it being a Valentine's Day bag, I thought it was perfect for her!!!

I got my Genetic Engineering book! I got my Genetic Engineering book! I got my Genetic Engineering book!

Sorry, I'm really excited for this class, and looking through the textbook is even more exciting. I had it shipped to my house, and when I opened it, my dad said I looked like a kid at Christmas. I'm already on chapter two... :) 

-- Sheilly

Thoughts on Fall 2012

This semester is finally over! If I ever sign up for more than five classes, someone please... punch me right in the face. This semester felt like a good slap in the face, with the amount of work I was  doing! While I've expressed some concerns before, I can't help but feel happy about this semester. It was stressful, so incredibly stressful, but the payoff was so nice.
Getting those good grades almost feels like Christmas came early, and Santa knew exactly what I wanted. But it's not like someone just handed me the grades, but rather I worked hard for it, and that feeling makes it that much better.
Am I gushing? I feel like I'm gushing!

At the end of every semester I always reflect, thinking back on what I could have done better or what I really wish I spent more time on while also considering what I did that was fantastic. I think it's a good balance, finding something to achieve while also acknowledging what I did so well always motivates me more for each semester.
Some of my favorite things from this semester// things I've learned:

Learning about Radical formations in Organic Chemistry. Are you ready for a nerd-gasm? Good. 

Radical reactions are thought to be the basis for many forms of cancer, because these reactions are spontaneous and can not be controlled. Like cancer cells dividing uncontrollably, once a radical reaction begins, it will not terminate easily. To explain the process, atoms have electrons in a space around an atom. When these electrons are stimulated with energy like heat or light, they will start to move around more, and will leave the atom. Atoms do not like to have an incomplete shell of electrons, so they share their electrons with other atoms to keep their shells full. In a radical reaction, two atoms share electrons that get excited, and  break apart, causing each atom to seek more atoms. Since atoms don't like having incomplete shells, they will look for other electrons to share, and will attack and bond with other atoms. This is what is being shown in the picture above! Okay, I'll stop now. 

Die Blaue Blume-- German for the blue flower. Way before the modern meaning of this colored flower, the blue flower represented "what people look for, but could never be found." It symbolized love and desire, and the quest to find it. While I can't say that the Romantik period was my favorite, I do love this symbol that they chose. I think I've never seen a blue flower yet, and the way it's worded... well why don't you read it? 

"Nicht die Schätze sind es, die ein so unaussprechliches Verlangen in mir geweckt haben, sagte er zu sich selbst; fern ab liegt mir alle Habsucht: aber die blaue Blume sehn’ ich mich zu erblicken. Sie liegt mir unaufhörlich im Sinn, und ich kann nichts andres dichten und denken."

In English: "It was not the treasures that drew me in so unspeakably, he said to himself. The blue flower was what lead me away from greed, and was what I seek. She is stuck in my head, and I can not think nor write of anything else."
Isn't it pretty? 
There were so many wonderful things in German literature, and while we did get through so much of it, there is always so much more to be explored. I'll definitely be checking out some more German poetry in the near future, even if I'll be reading it with the world's biggest German dictionary next to me...

More Orgo! Who's really surprised? I guess this is not necessarily something I learned but rather became more confident in. At the beginning of this semester, doing a synthesis problem scared me SO much. I was terrified at the thought of needing to know endless amounts of reactions, and knowing exactly where something would attack. I can't say I'm a master at it, but right now I'm not as afraid of these problems as I was at the beginning of the semester. The lesson learned here was to keep working through it. There's more than one solution to every problem, and some are easier than others, but it's not terrifying at all. It shouldn't be. So going into the second part of orgo, I know I can conquer it. I'll study this break, and I'll keep plowing ahead. Which leads me to the last lesson/photo...

If there's one thing I'm guilty of, it's finding life lessons in the show Scrubs. I take it to an extreme, that is probably not what the writers or creators of the show intended. (Sorry!) That being said, this was the first semester where I didn't do my usual ritual of rewatching all eight seasons of the show in a semester. It's weird, because I've done that since the very first semester I've been here, and I've missed it. There have been so many instances where my life has coincided with something happening in that show, and all of a sudden I know exactly what I need to do. So I guess I learned that I need to rewatch Scrubs every semester of college now. (Is anyone else saying weirdo right now? Because I know in my head, I am!) 

Anyway, that brings me to the end of this semester. I'll be heading home for the holidays tomorrow, with my car packed with multiple bottles of nail polish and an organic chemistry textbook. To anyone still charging through finals, good luck! To everyone else, thanks for reading! -- Sheilly

Ramen Noodles with Eggs and Veggies

I have found that I am really bad at eating well if I'm fending for myself. If you look around my room at any given moment, you will most likely see candy, potato chips, and cookies. While the last two years, I've gotten away with the excuse of "Oh, well I have a pre-paid meal plan, there's really no reason for me to make my own *healthier* food," but that's not the case anymore!

I love eating Shin Ramyun noodles. They are my go to whenever I need a quick meal, that is fast and easy. But I've found that you can't really eat soup year round. So what do you do? Well, usually I have eggs and some form of veggies around, so I make fried noodles. Today I'll show you how to make them, as well! 

Here's what you'll need.

• A pack of Ramen noodles. I personally love Shin Ramyun, but any will do just fine! 
• Some veggies! I really love getting a stir fry kit from Stop'n'Shop, because everything comes pre-cut, and all you have to do is wash it! 
• An egg, or two. 
• Olive oil
• Siracha (optional) 

Follow the instructions on the sleeve for how long to cook boil the noodles. If it has a vegetable pack, you can add it in with the noodles so it plumps up. Save the soup pack for later. You'll need it to season the eggs and noodles. ;)

As you're waiting for the water to boil and noodles to boil, you can chop up your vegetables a bit more. I like having bite size pieces of broccoli, rather than huge chunks, but it's really up to you! 

Get the eggs going, and season them with a little bit of the soup base. Make sure to de-clump the soup base! I accidentally added too much of it there, and it turned the eggs a little orange, but it was still delicious. Mix the egg around. Then add the vegetables and noodles. 

At this point you can put a little bit of Siracha in or you can serve it as is. Put on a plate, and serve! Delicious. :) 

--Sheilly

The Story of the Name

Photo Credit

Something that I've been questioned about is why I called this blog "Iced Peppermint Mocha." So, in order to answer that question, I will give you two stories. Choose which ever one you want... and then read the long story.
Short story:
I was walking back from Starbucks late one evening with my roommate, and I was drinking my favorite drink: a tall iced peppermint mocha. As I was guzzling down my drink, I was pondering what to name this blog. Suddenly, the name popped to my head: Iced Peppermint Mocha! And viola! The End.
The long story may be a bit more... interesting.
Long story:
For my writing class, I was writing about lifestyle blogs and researching them, when I realized the best way to understand the genre was to actually write for it. So I went about researching how to create a blog, what I needed, how to plan it, etc. The research I did for my paper really helped out with designing and getting the look just right.
The only thing missing was a clever name.
So I knew how to design, post, maintain and create this blog, that didn't have a name. Obviously I had a little panic dance, and started to think of everything I could. Some names I came up with that got scrapped were:

• Your November-- named after one of my favorite Joshua Radin songs
• The Smell of Petrichor-- because just 'Petrichor' had been taken.
• The Smell of Dust after Rain-- See above reason
• Smug Life-- Let's be glad this really wasn't a choice... (but it was)
• Sheilly Problems-- A popular hashtag for my twitter
• Defying Imagination-- which was an allusion to a lyric from the song Panic Station by Muse

The problem with most of these names were they were too silly or referenced something that could detour people from reading. It took a couple of days, before that fateful trip to Starbucks and honestly I couldn't have been any more grateful. 

For me, my drink of choice is an Iced Peppermint Mocha. Ask any of my friends on campus, and they'll tell you stories of how fast I can drink them, or how I sometimes will want to order something different and end up with an iced peppermint mocha instead. It's become that defining quirk of mine, that I can't help but be a little proud of. And since this blog is essentially about me and the things I enjoy, I couldn't think of a better thing to name it after. 

-- Sheilly

My Baby is Back

I'm happy to announce that my trusty camera is back!  As much as I love my iPhone, and the various apps I have on it, nothing beats a real camera. I love the good quality shots, and the feel of the camera there.

 

I lent him to my mom and dad when they went to India, were they took a lot of good pictures! I have this strange connection with this one because it's the very first thing I bought with my own money. (Over four years ago now!) This camera has been to Germany, India, and so many other places now! 

So here's hoping to more pictures, more fun, more posts, and more love for my camera! :)

--Sheilly

Friendsgiving 2012

My roommate, Amanda,  and I hosted our very first Friendsgiving this year. While my family has never been really traditional with Thanksgiving, we wanted to do something fun before everyone headed home for Thanksgiving Break. We managed to scrap together a whole feast of food this morning with only a couple days of preparation. We had a lot of help from some good friends, and over all it was one of the best things I've done this semester. :)

This was the menu for this afternoon. Finalizing the menu was the hardest thing, because my roommate and I just weren't sure what we were going to serve. You could very well say Amanda and I are practically vegetarians. It's not like we don't like meat, we just don't like dealing with raw meat at all. But you can't have proper Thanksgiving without some form of poultry, so I sucked it up and made some. 

While a lot of the things there I've made before (like the salad and the Apfelschorle), I've never in my life cooked chicken by myself! We literally slathered our raw chicken with mayo, and sprinkled a Parmesan herb packet over all the chicken.  Surprisingly it was a hit, and my parents are so excited for me to make it for them.  

Amanda was in charge of the stuffing and the corn and green beans. My friend Monica, who was my suitemate for the last two years, made the Crab and Corn soup. Victoria, another good friend, made the sweet potatoes. And I was in charge of the salad. 

Angela, who has been in almost every lab with me since the freshmen year of college, and I had the best time naming the salad. Although the salad took five seconds to make, we named it 

A Pomegranate, Dried Cranberry, and Spinach salad lightly tossed with Balsamic Vinaigrette infused with fresh Pomegranate Juice. 

Needless to say, it was one of the best salads I've ever made. The spinach was very fresh, and combined with the Balsamic Vinaigrette that Monica had hastily made, it was delicious.

 I think the funniest thing was that we didn't actually have turkey at a Thanksgiving  Feast. To make up for it, we had so many fake turkeys to make up for it. We had paper turkey centerpieces, turkeys to tape on the wall, jelly turkeys on our dorm door..  Each guest who came to the party got a hand drawn turkey as well. We had them personalized with everyone's names.

We had finished making, eating, and cleaning everything by 3 in the afternoon. After which, everyone had left to go back to their scholarly duties. Unfortunately the cooking, the cleaning, and the hosting was getting to me, and I was just about to pass out, but I had to get some stuff done too. Angela, Amanda and I started our next big holiday celebration-- Christmas. While we've come up with some silly plans, (Blingmas) I'm so glad I've got a great group of friends to do all of this silly stuff with. For that, I am very grateful. (Oh gosh, that's so cheesy!) Anyway, one tall iced peppermint mocha (see what I did there?) and a beautiful sky later, Friendsgiving had past, but with the promise of many more to come. 

I hope everyone has a good weekend! :)

-- Sheilly 

((Pictures courtesy of Amanda, Angela, and yours truly. <3))