Day Two: The Frosh Move In

I think I nearly ran over a couple of parents today. So this morning we went towards main campus and there were a ton of cars and people. I remember reading that today is the move-in day for freshman. I wonder why they made it on Tuesday. Must be tough for the parents. Anyway, there were also a ton of upperclassmen all wearing red t-shirts that say something like "I love freshman" and "May I help you?" They were giving directions, holding signs, and even helping unload cars. I thought this was really nice. All the freshman events were staffed by these staffed by upperclassmen being helpful.

Today feels like a very productive day. I got a bunch of stuff done. Shuo and I got frozen yogurt in the morning with other people living in the "Plains of Rains," which is buildings 215 and 216. Then I got my Stanford ID. So now I can check out books, go to the gym, etc. Got my bike registered and got lights for them. Now that I need to bike everywhere, my helmet is always either clipped to my backpack or on my head. And I'm keeping the lights along with a set of hex wrenches in my backpack. After that, we checked out the bookstore, which is very much like the Coop except with more humanities books. I thought each department had very little classes that required books compared to MIT. Their course readers have very nice covers.

We came back for lunch. I met someone while getting my ID who had gone to Skyline. She went to Berkeley for undergrad and is now a first year Masters student at Stanford. She's also doing civil engineering - design and construction integration. She said she recognized me from a scholarship panel that we both went to senior year in high school. And if that's not enough, she's living in the same building! She's living on the first floor. The world is so small. She came by my apartment in the afternoon and we chatted for a while.

In the afternoon, I went out again to talk to the financial aid office. There were a few freshman there asking about their finaid too. After that, I went to see where the Geoscience buildings were. The Mitchell building turned out to be right next to the engineering library. So I went to check that out for a little bit. They seemed to have a good collection of books but not as much as I would have liked. I didn't manage to find any geo-related books but maybe they're all in the geology library? There are a lot more libraries here than at MIT so all the collections are probably more spread out. Then I went to check out the Language Lab in the Meyer library. The library itself is very nice but the language lab is nothing like the one at MIT. They're just computers with a couple of programs to record yourself and such. No foreign language learning CDs or videos or cassettes. The language centers at MIT and Cambridge were loaded with stuff. But maybe these resources are more departmental here?

I spent the rest of the day chilling. Shuo and I ate dinner together (i.e. heated up her leftovers). I organized and decorated my room. My desk is a mess of wires but at least there's not pile of papers anymore. I like the big monitor and all but having a monitor, laptop, mouse, keyboard, and corresponding cables take up so much room! Not sure if this will work out when I have to pset. But maybe I'll be doing a lot of stuff on the computer? We'll see.

Day One: It's too far!

I am so sore from biking around today. I spent the whole day riding around trying to get stuff done. First thing in the morning, I went to the Stanford Hospital because I need to get a chest x-ray done for TB. The hospital is more than a mile away and I was getting tired just riding on a flat road. And then I wandered around the hospital forever trying to find the right department. Turns out I wasn't even at the right place. Apparently the Vaden Health Center is where students are supposed to go and that's unrelated to the hospital. Vaden is actually really close to where I live. Go figure. I managed to find Y2E2 again and chatted briefly with the CEE financial aid person who said that my fellowship cannot carry over to the next year. Then I went to Vaden and it turns out I'm missing an immunization. I had to go there twice because I didn't manage to bring my immunization records with me the first time. Can't believe I was so unprepared.

After this I went out to lunch with Shuo and her parents. Her parents left for SoCal afterwards. Lunch was good. Refueled me for the what happened next.

So I got a monitor to go with my laptop but didn't managed to get a keyboard. None of the keyboards at home use USB so I had to go and get one. So after lunch Shuo and I went to Fry's Electronics. Shuo probably regrets going with me now but that was an adventure too. We didn't get lost but we had to go pretty far away and part of it involved riding on a really busy street. We stopped a few times to look at the map. On the way back we stopped by a grocery store that had a pretty good selection of food. I think I can find cheaper food but that place is supposedly the closest one to our dorm. I saw a sign on the way back that said that there's a Trader Joe's coming soon. I hope "soon" will be soon enough. Anyway, after the grocery store, we went to the Stanford Hospital again because that's where Shuo's classes will be. We biked back to our dorm from there so that she knows the way.

We got back in time for the Rains (our dorm) welcome BBQ. There's apparently a ton of MIT people here. I think I met 4 more people who are from MIT, in addition to the ones I already knew. At the grad student speed friending event later that night, someone came by and introduced herself and said, "tell me you're not all from MIT too!" Turns out she had just finished talking to a bunch of people from MIT. lol. Anyway, I hope I see some of these people again. Shuo and I stocked up on the free food from both events. At the end of the speed friending thing, we each took a plate and filled it up with the leftover sandwiches. One of the people I had just met was like, "wow, that's a really great idea. I'm going to copy you before other people start copying you."

At some point, I need to find some time to organize my bedroom. Mainly notes and such. I'm already starting to pile up things and classes haven't started yet!

Moving Again

I'll be moving to Stanford in a few hours. This year has been very intensive in terms of flights, trips, packing, etc. It started off with a trip to Africa in January. And then packing up all my stuff from four years of college and getting most of them home in June. I spent a long, long time packing stuff at the end. It felt like I would never be able to pack up that room. And then I moved to NYC where I spent June at an apartment near Penn Station and then two months in Times Square. I moved back home a couple of weeks ago and started packing for Stanford.

I realized I have a lot of junk. I'm a collector at heart. It's probably due to stamp collecting which I should take up again at some point. I have a ton of stamps and supplies, I just need to get the stamps in the albums. Anyway, I'm the kind of person who loves to show off my entire collection of [fill in the blank] on a bookshelf or some kind of appropriate display. But there's no way I would have the room for all my collections of junk. Maybe I should switch my career to organizing museum collections. I think that would keep me happy for a while.

Anyhow, once I get to Stanford, I think I will be running around and taking care of a lot of administrative type stuff. And of course, getting to know my surroundings. I will need to figure out some practical stuff like groceries, how to get to classes, where the bike racks are, where to find food on campus, the library system, check out the gym, etc. Time spent at home went by too quickly as always. Looking forward to another adventure ahead.

School

I went to visit my high school on Wednesday and spoke to a few ESA classes about college life and going to college. The school itself seems to be doing well. Fresh paint and new classrooms coming. The kids seem the same as ever. There's so much potential. These kids can go far if they know what's out there. I wish I could help out somehow. Should I dedicate some time to help these kids out? How should I do it? What should I do? I suppose I can help them with college applications and essays. I can do that from afar. I can be much more effective if I get to know the kids personally but I don't think I have that kind of time. I wish I can convince these kids to apply out of state and to "Ivy Leagues." I really think some of them have a chance.

As I was walking to the school, I remembered that that school was the reason why I chose to study civil engineering. I had heard the story of a Navy Seabee talk about his rewarding experience of building a school in a developing country. I had just finished 9th grade at that time and immediately thought about doing something for my high school. I thought that if I studied civil engineering, someday, I can come back and help rebuild the school so that it can actually accommodate the 2,000+ student and staff that it does. I think that was what made me stick with civil rather than going after, say, mechanical engineering back when I was still choosing a major.

Anyway, speaking of civil engineering, I'm having a hard time sticking to this 10 unit limit. I think I'll just end up sitting in on a lot of classes. I just realized today that one of the classes I wanted to take in this quarter is actually offered in Winter instead. And if that wasn't bad enough, I realized I forgot to include one of the required classes in my plan. So I had to rework my entire plan for the year. I'm pretty sure Borja is my advisor but he's away until the first day of school. So I'm a little concerned about who will be taking care of advising his students during orientation.

Back Home!

We went fishing today! Didn't manage to catch any fish but it was fun. We have two fishing poles that we got a long time ago when we used to go to San Francisco to fish but haven't used recently. Usually you have to buy a fishing license to fish but the East Bay Parks have two "no license" days (July 4th and Labor Day) where you can fish for free. Anyway, we got all sorts of bait but apparently none of them worked. Casting the line was a challenge. There were a lot of people fishing but we didn't see any big catches. I think the serious fishermen came in the morning and were probably leaving by the time we made it over there (noon-ish).

I have one more week before I move over to Stanford. I've been repacking since I got home. I have so much junk. I've accumulated so much stuff over the past four years. And now there's so much stuff I want to bring over. I have a couple of boxes of notes and books that I feel like I need to have. It seems so weird to be packing all this stuff since I'll only be there for a (relatively) short period of time. Anyway, I hope this bookshelf that they provide is big. I think I'll need the space.

Sad news. I think the Oakland Libraries canceled their subscriptions to the Primsleur Language EAudioBooks on NetLibrary. Those things were so useful. I was just going to resume my foreign language learning hobby too. I mean, they could have been more useful had they decide to subscribe to the text that went with the audio but still... Anyway, I think I'm going to explore some more languages, just for fun. Now that I'm in grad school, I'll probably be meeting a lot more international people.

Stanford has this really cool website where you can plan out your classes. You can enter the classes you plan to take and it'll show you which requirements (undergrad) your courses will fulfill, their schedule (if available), number of credits, and expected number of hours of work per week. I entered my classes for the autumn quarter and apparently 10 units is considered a heavy load. Anything above this is an "insane load", which I found weird since I think most of the other Masters students will be taking more than 10 units.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to classes starting and having somewhat of a regular schedule again. Of course, once classes start, I'll wish it were vacation. When I'm at home, time just seems to pass by so quickly, without me ever seeming to accomplish anything. I guess I probably should go through my pile of magazines before leaving though.

Leaving NYC

One more hour until I leave for the airport. It's been a great summer. Job was cool. Volunteered a lot and saw some interesting neighborhoods in the process. Hung out with Yalu (finally a summer together!). Learned a lot about looking for and living in an apartment (MIT totally spoiled us with guarantee housing).

The past few days were pretty relaxing. Yalu, Mike, and I went to see a free HD screening of an opera outside the Met. There's always so much free stuff to do in NYC. I think I need to keep tabs on stuff like this for San Francisco. I probably could have done more of this stuff this summer but I worked pretty late (compared to previous summers). I mean, I've been to nearly all the big museums in Berlin, for free. Anyway, Saturday night was pretty long. It involves celebrating Yalu's birthday...Looking forward to the sunny, not humid weather.

Anyway, Xin moved into my room on Sunday and I moved all my stuff over to Yalu's room. We slept late on Sunday, watched a movie, ate lunch, and were napping when Xin showed up. That night we went out to a Thai place for Yalu's birthday. Should have taken pictures... I forgot I brought my camera. I didn't take very many pictures this summer. Wayy too many tourists taking pictures around me that I didn't feel like taking any myself.

Yesterday (Monday) I attempted to do some souvenir shopping but wasn't very successful. I did end up eating a frozen yogurt and one and a half ice cream cones though. I've been wanting to try out this Red Mango place and Mr Softie for the longest time. Didn't think I would try them all in one night though. I also attempted to run the Central Park loop. That was a total disaster. My left leg started feeling extremely tired after a short stretch. I managed to make it to the reservoir and back. It took me forever to do this since I was walking a lot of the time. My MP3 player also started acting weird. So it was just really sad. I think I need to get new running shoes. Hopefully my muscles will be in better shape when I get home so I can start running the lake again.

Looking forward to being home and having catching up with people! Once I get home, I'll be unpacking and repacking again. So much traveling and moving in the last four years. It feels strange to think about "settling" somewhere.

Saying Goodbye...

I spent an hour saying goodbye to everyone today. I got to work and basically spent the entire day clearing out stuff. I spent a couple of hours writing up memos on programs I've used and sending out emails about my work. Then I cleaned out my computers and saved my work. Then I spent a long time going through all my papers that I've collected over the summer. I kept nearly all the paper from all the projects I've worked on and have just been sticking them into a binder the whole time. So today, I chucked out all the duplicates and irrelevant stuff. I saved stuff that might be potentially useful in the future, namely calculations that I've done. I feel like I've actually done some useful stuff this summer and there are stuff that are actually worth saving.

The group took me out to lunch today. There were 9 of us total so pretty big group. We went to this Thai place that wasn't very Thai. But it was fun anyhow. We were sitting on these stools that were kind of shaky. Supervisor didn't manage to get a budget for the lunch so they all paid for their own means and chipped in some money for mine.

I also spent some time looking through the library of the guy whose desk I was sitting in. I found a really good book which I managed to download. I've been downloading some geo books and articles this summer. I feel like I need to start a collection and start using these resources. The first two years at MIT, I didn't really reference any books to do my psets. We just relied on each other and TAs. But then I went to Cambridge where I was way out of my depth and had to use the library and learn stuff from books on my own. And people there use the library a lot for school work. So I started doing that too. I think it's a good thing to do. The people at work are always flipping through books to find stuff. "So and so has a book on blah."

So at around 4pm, I figured I should submit my timesheet for the week. Turns out they had already closed my account and I was locked out. I ended up having to email my supervisor with the job numbers and such. I think he was a little disappointed that I didn't do very much today. He thought I was finishing up stuff for one of the guys and was extremely busy. But I had finished up everything for him yesterday. I was pretty busy in the morning though, writing up those memos and corresponding with people about my work.

Anyways, all the goodbyes got kind of sad after a while. I don't think I've ever felt this way about an internship before. I'm really looking forward to grad school but I think I will really miss all these guys. I said goodbye to everyone who's not in the group first. Those were easier. Those were just like all my other internships where we say the usual things and I leave. But saying goodbye to the group was different. They were all mentors in one way or another and good ones too. I hope that once I start working, I can find a group like this to work with.