Tuesday, February 12, 2008

the cny dinner on friday wasn't very good, just decent. it cost a hell lot too - US$39 per person. but i don't regret going, just because it was the only way I could have celebrated cny, and because the company more than made up for the cost. that was the first time i really realized how overwhelmingly post-grad the sporean population at Stanford was. some of the grad students are pretty interesting to talk to. there's one who graduated last quarter, and is staying on campus for one more quarter, learning how to trade on the stock market. he wakes up every morning at 6am because that's when the NY stock market opens. the dinner was also when i discovered that one of my batch disliked Stanford and wished that he had chosen to study in UK instead. the subject came up since there was a sporean UCL student visiting his friend here, and he was at my table. plus, i ran into a couple of my mum's students, one of whom used to be the chairperson of the horticulture soc (Priska says hi.).

first half of this week was pretty crazy. i was completely owned by the CS midterm on wed, but that's ok, cos i think i tried my best. i also had a paper due wed, which i finished on wed itself, which is a first for me cos i generally get papers out of the way at least the day before they're due. yesterday was valentine's day. for no reason i was in a ridiculously good mood. well, maybe not for no reason. my spanish presentation went really well in the morning, making staying up till 4am and getting up at 7.30am to prep for it worthwhile. skipped my IHUM lect aft tt to sleep. participated in a really fierce and non-too-civil debate about whether Euripides' Medea or Sophocles' Antigone was the better play for IHUM section, and my side (Euripides) won. got a B+ / A- for my first IHUM paper for the quarter. had a good run in the aftnn down Palm Drive. dining served strawberries with choc and white choc fondue cos it was Valentine's day. baked ginger cookies for my very appreciative dorm mates. and the highlight of the day - forming my first ever human pyramid. so, we were enjoying brownies and OJ and milk in my RF's apartment (because every other Thursday 9pm is RF study break time), when i mentioned that i'd nv been part of a human pyramid. my neighbor immediately gathers four other people, we go to the lounge, and attempt to make one with me right at the top. there were three reasonably solid guys on the bottom row, two really really skinny ones on the second, and me on top. even though i offered to be on the second row, seeing as how i definitely weigh more than both the skinny guys combined. but they insisted. so when i finally managed to clamber on top with the help of two other guys (not part of pyramid) and a table, the skinny guy on the left goes, "she's f***ing heavy!" i don't think i'd ever laughed so much this quarter. it was darn hilarious, and so are the photos (facebk!).

hopefully more ginger cookies will be on the way later today. (: i love feeding people <3