Today was Cluster 8’s second day of field trip! As they did a week ago, students pulled up the closets and grabbed their sky blue COSMOS t-shirts, then headed down to 64 Degrees to fill up their growling stomachs. After a graceful meal of french toast, yogurt bowls, and scrambled eggs, Cluster 8 lined up on the plaza and headed down to the same old Powell-Focht’s headquarters. Upon arrival, they were greeted by their teacher fellow Dr. Steinbach as well as some of their CAs (Cluster Assistants). Beloved Dr. Sah and Dr. Gaetani would be joining them on the bus shortly.

When everyone was secure in their own zones in the yellow school bus, off they went to Gilead! The road to Oceanside consisted of spirited dialogues, games of Clash Royale, and sweet naps facilitated by the rattling of their cushioned seats. As the windows serially filled with images of the sea, houses, trees, apartments, across could be seen a green sign reading “Oceanside,” and later the words “GILEAD” topped off with a red feather logo. They’ve arrived!

Hopping off the bus, students were greeted by Gilead staff. Names were called out, and each person received a lanyard with a red chord–matching the color of the logo. There was one drama before heading into the lab, though, in which their newsletter editor Jiwon forgot to wear long pants and cried as she was threatened by the possibility of being unable to enter the labs. However, kind staff handed her extra scrubs (it looked a little silly.. but better than nothing), and everyone was soon set to go!

Cluster 8 students, CAs, and professors were split into smaller groups and given a tour around Gilead labs. Of course, they were provided with proper PPE–lab coats and safety goggles–before entering the labs. Sadly, pictures weren’t allowed in these places, so students filled their eyes with every precious scene and space and fully immersed themselves in the opportunity that would not come again. As each Gilead scientist walked students through the various devices, drugs, and cell cultures born in the labs, the young COSMOS scientists asked questions and shared comments about the most intriguing parts. The tour was slightly over an hour, and was tied up by a group photo in front of the building.

Today was also a special day in that it felt like a ‘real field trip’: Cluster 8 was getting packed lunch at Gliderport!! The yellow school bus once again rattled down south and reached the edges of UCSD campus, the edges of the continent. As students jumped off the bus, they grabbed their lunch of choice one by one–and walked together towards the intersection of sky and water. The more they approached the shore, the more gliders there were–comfortably dangling from colorful parachutes. Cluster 8 students clustered themselves along a long wooden bench facing the beach, and grabbed their ham & cheese sandwiches, chips, and quinoa salad bowls. There wasn't enough space, so some sat on the ground–enjoying the sand attach to their bottoms. After the meal, everyone climbed down to the photo spot and took pictures altogether while Dr. Steinbach urged them to “wrap it up.”

The bus had left at the time they were dropped off at Gliderport, so students happily walked back to the Bioengineering Building, talking about the experience at Gilead, chomping on leftover Grandma cookies, and teaching each other “useful words” in Hindi, Korean, Mandarin, and Spanish. 

All hyped and sweaty, students entered the computer lab for the final schedule of the day: introduction to their final project! Students multi-tasked on fanning each other and paying full attention to Dr. Sah and Dr. Gaetani’s explanation for the five project options. Students would eventually be split up into five groups with five people in each, since Cluster 8 had an ideal population of 25 students. After the introduction, 4 o’clock approached very quickly, so Cluster 8 spent the rest of the time winding down from the tiresomeness of the field trip and poking each other to find out their project choices. It was a day full of activities, full of memories, and of drugs, sweat, and tears.

Half of COSMOS has passed by already. Now, Cluster 8 was walking into the second half, the third quarter. Breakfast times had shifted by floor. So did time for dinner. Closing day vaguely roamed in front of the sleeping faces, like a ghost, throughout the cloudy dawn of Revelle. The drain of time might have made students sad, disappointed, or even thrilled, but today was not the day to sit alone sentimentally. At least, not yet..

It was project day! 

Entering the familiar computer lab at Powell-Focht Bioengineering Hall, students dispersed throughout the rows of desks and computers–seating themselves next to comfortable faces and smiles. Muffled voices occasionally discussed their choices of projects, as they awaited their official first day of working on the final COSMOS project.

Students were first given the task to brainstorm and summarize each project: the row upfront would summarize project 1, the second row would summarize project 2, and so on. After a brief time of refreshing their miscellaneous memories on their professors’ diagrams and explanations last friday, it was time. Dr. Steinbach posted a google spreadsheet on google classroom, and students’ names spilled into each of their aspirations. Sure, some projects were more popular than others–such as project 4 and project 1–but overall, the distribution was fairly even.

With the long list of names and numbers in parentheses, Dr. Steinbach worked to arrange students in the appropriate groups for the next hour. In the meantime, students added last touches to their ethics presentation, and crammed on the posted material about RNAi drugs. Dr. Gaetani entered the room shortly after, and gave a short lecture on how to read research papers–walking through the paper he wrote a few years ago. While students eagerly asked questions after the lecture (ranging from why he chose to dedicate his career to research to his post-study summer vacations), the spreadsheet displayed the all-awaited result: their project groups. Some were happy, some were disappointed, and some let out gladful or pitiful sighs–but most people accepted their own fate and greeted themselves to their new teammates.

In the afternoon following lunch, each team dispersed throughout the first floor of the Focht-Powell Bioengineering Building and discussed the project plan with their awesome CAs (Cluster Assistants). Sounds of typing, laughing, and passionate discussions echoed throughout, and everyone was ready for the new week.. together.

After an eventful and exciting night of gambling, Cluster 8 woke up on Monday for their 3rd week of classes. Today was resented by some, because today, the sleeping schedule was swapped. Those, such as my suite, who got to breakfast later the first two weeks could wake up at 7:30 am and be ready by 8:00-8:10. However, on Monday, we had to wake up at 7:00 to leave at 7:40 instead… but, in a tradeoff, those who wake up earlier now have time to explore breakfast options and eat more leisurely before class. 

For example, some Cluster 8 students ventured to the back of 64 degrees to discover brioche-like toast with butter and jam. It was quite delicious - what a find!

At lunchtime, we gathered in front of the bioengineering building and rushed along our now well-known path to get food at 64 degrees. It was yummy, as always. Some Cluster 8 members are also starting to branch out, now that we’ve officially reached the halfway point. Pizza was tried, pasta was considered, tacos tasted, among other food types that certain Cluster 8’ers have yet to try. 

The activities of the night were zine creation, volleyball, friendship bracelets and a trip to price center. These chill events were super helpful to decompress after a packed Monday coming back to classes!

Tuesday morning served to solidify cluster 8’s new morning routines! After a delicious breakfast of more yogurt, granola, toast, fruit, pancakes, etc. Cluster 8 met up in the courtyard to head off the class together. This was an exciting morning, since many groups were looking forward to the lab work later that day!

Lunch was fairly routine as well - we headed out a little later than usual, and had to step on it rushing to 64 degrees. Lunch included enjoying lentil soup, chicken tenders, fried rice from Wok This Way, among other good alternatives on our lunchtime menus. Then, back to the lab!!

After dinner, we had an interesting day - instead of the normal activities we had a block for Minecraft Mania. Basically, we had many activities to choose from, but everything was heavily minecraft themed! We could do temporary tattoos of creepers, baby chickens, enderman and many other minecraft creatures, or we could shoot bows and arrows at “end crystals,” or even “PVP” with pool noodles, among other fun and creative activities. Everyone was collected on the courtyard for this time, and it proved to be a whole lot of fun, as Cluster 8 dispersed and melded together in the big soup of excited COSMOS kids.