Monday, February 28, 2011

Last days at Stanford - random thoughts

Long day today! These last few days seem like they will drag on forever. I got up at 7am this morning and didn't get back to my apartment until after 8pm. At one point after eating dinner, I really wanted to nap. There was no good place to do it though. Somehow senior year at MIT didn't seem like this. I guess I knew that I have more school ahead of me. Maybe I need to re-read my blog posts...

Trying to schedule some lunches and dinners with people before I leave. But my schedule is pretty packed. So it's kind of difficult. I guess I can do stuff after my final on Monday and presentation on Tuesday. I'll just be packing. I should really schedule stuff for those days.

The reason I got up really early this morning was because I had a group meeting at 8:30am. I feel like I've dragged myself through this team project based class. I guess I'm glad I decided to take it because I think I've gained some long sought after knowledge. And the team has been interesting to work with. Definitely wasn't used to this whole team meeting business after taking a bunch of classes where I just did my own work. Team dynamics is very interesting. People tend to do things differently, i.e. play the game in different ways. Maybe even interrupt the rules of the game in different ways. But it gets very dangerous if you find out half way through that not everyone on the team is playing the same game.

I guess this is one of the things I really need to look out for when I start working in Hong Kong. I feel like I know the subtleties at American workplaces. I'm not sure I know what to expect or lookout for in HK. And then there's the fact that the it's a UK based company so there are a lot of people from the UK and Australia around. Never been to Australia. No clue what the culture over there is like. It'll be an interesting experience.

This entry is going to be a bit random but I have a sudden urge to keep a better record of my last days at Stanford. I went to the farmer's market on California Ave for the first time yesterday. There is a farmer's market there every Sunday. I've just never had the motivation to bike over there. Then I realized that the shopping express stops at California and that I can get everything done by the time the shuttle comes back from the San Antonio shopping center. Lots of time saved. I got some apples, tangerines, a leek, and some broccoli. Can't get everything you need there because some things are very expensive. Anyway, it was an enjoyable experience.

I've been bringing a lot of fruit with me on my long days on campus. Keeps me from buying food on campus, usually. Today, I brought along 2 tangerines, 1 apple, a tupperware of fried rice with sausage, and one PB&J. I ate the two tangerines before lunch (they were very small). I was saving the apple and fried rice for dinner so clearly, one pb&j was not enough for lunch. So I ended up getting some sushi on campus. And then when I came back, I had another pb&j with milk. I feel like I'm eating a lot these days. But food is very important. Can't think without fuel!

Also, Boston trip planning is in the works. I think I'm going to buy the ticket soon (later this week). Need to start letting people know! I'm aiming for the weekend of April 9th. I hope this doesn't overlap with the April dates of all the civil engineering society meetings. All the March meetings seem to be next week. I should figure out these things, I guess. Last ASCE, SFGI, SEAONC, etc meetings I'll get to attend in a while. Maybe there are ones in Boston? I should check those out too.

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