So deeper dives are officially over. Wednesday was a whirlwind. Right when we got into the lab, Andrea, Chu-Chu and I all got to work. We had some last minute things to finish up for our virtual environment, and then we worked on our presentation. We were able to do a full runthrough at 11ish so that Kate and Anjali could give us some feedback. I’m really glad we practiced because we found quite a few things that we wanted to change or add. Then it was really crunch time because we had to make these changes and additions and then practice more with those changes all before 2. I don’t think we finalized our presentation until like 12 minutes before we presented. In the midst of all of this, of course we were all arguing about who was going first, but we settled on a game of rock paper scissors between one person from each of the deeper dive groups. Our team rep, Anjali, took one for the team and WON. woo. So we got to go first.

Even with all of this busyness, I’d say our team did well. It felt like a good end to our deeper dive project. We presented for most of the 30 minutes, gave a quick demo, and then had a few minutes for questions. I also really enjoyed hearing about what others have been up to over this past week and a half. It’s really cool to see how far we’ve all come in such a short time. Like for me, just thinking about how much I’ve learned, especially about XR, and how I can speak all these new languages, give a presentation on a specific topic, and have something to show for it. It’s a really cool feeling. 

The presentations wrapped up by 4, and then most of us were let out for the day. I headed to the gym for a bit, and then Ruby, Harrison, and I decided to go to the rec pool to meet up with Rodney, Chu-Chu, and Micah and Rim who are two other interns from another REU here at ISU. We ended up playing water basketball. I swear everytime we play it just gets more and more intense. Harrison walked away with red scratch marks all over and I inhaled so much water. Rim had a good technique though: just splash Chu-Chu and Harrison so they would either retreat or miss the ball. It’s what they get for being too tall and playing over us. 

On Wednesday night, we went to the firework show here in Ames. I still don’t really understand why they’re on the 3rd of July, but it was still fun. We walked there from Freddy, set up camp on the grass, ooh-ed and ah-ed for 20 minutes, and then took a long detour walk back to Freddy. We also met a guy named Max on our way to the show. He’s another REU intern here, but his group apparently doesn’t hang out, so he came along with us for the night and he was really chill. After the fireworks, we just played some games – the usual –and then went to bed. 

Yesterday, Ruby, Rodney, Harrison, Angelica, and I went on a hunt for food. We weren’t really thinking because we tried to go out at 12, so every place was either closed for the 4th, busy, or no longer served breakfast. But we found a place. After eating, we went to pick up some fireworks for the night because I feel like you have to at least do have sparklers, and Rodney wanted something fun. A little bit later, we all went out to watch Inside Out 2 at the theater. I thought it was fine. I definitely liked the first one better because it seemed like it had more to it; like it was more complex. After the show, we went to get food from a sushi place and then went back to Freddy to eat. We did the fireworks a bit later when it got dark, and then played some games to end the night.