Food for thought - but actually no food involved in this post

Life here is absolutely wonderful. I am very happy and there is nothing else I would rather be doing in life right now.

However, I understand that I paint a very positive picture of the school and the students. It may seem like a country club of perks and fun. And yes, there are certainly elements that seem like this. I would just like to offer a few other thoughts that may put some things in perspective about life here.

Life here isn't perfect. Students here, including myself, experience pretty significant lows. We often cover these up but we also have learned to talk about it with each other. Many students had some really difficult experiences before coming here and some still struggle with those issues while they are at Stanford. Others face entirely new challenges and need a support system to help them through the challenges.

For example, most students were and are under an extreme amount of pressure. The expectations placed on them by themselves, their family, their teachers, and their communities are big. Students worked really hard in high school and before that and made different sacrifices to get here. A few sacrifices include sleep deprivation, social suicide, giving up of interests.

The pressure to succeed doesn't end when you get in to Stanford. Students feel a pressure to prove themselves at school and in the many years of life they afterwards. Everything we worked for up until now was basically preparing for life here and now we have to figure out what we are doing the rest of our lives. There is an expectation to get internships, get good grades, be involved, and be happy at the same time. When living with some of the coolest people in the world, it is difficult to balance work and social life.

People get into their own schedules. Some learn to work with and motivate each other while others learn to crack down at the library for a couple hours. We have to decide how many jobs or how many activities to do in order to maintain our sanity. I guess that isn't too much different from high school. But there is a lot of adjustment to a different atmosphere.

My classes

So I realized that I don't think I have shared what I am even doing this quarter! Here is a snippet:

History of Women and Gender in Science, Medicine, and Engineering:
This is a class in the STS core. We look at how gender issues and biases have contributed to development and research in science, medicine, and engineering. Today, my teacher was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences! Her biggest project is on this project called Gendered Innovations. The case studies are extremely informative and interesting. You can check out the website at genderedinnovations.stanford.edu. I am taking the class with Ethan. We have had some incredible conversations about the class. We think its important to talk and discuss gender issues but we think that occasionally the class puts a lot of blame on white males and focusses too much on a single problem.

Media and the Message:
Thinking matters is a required class for freshman that encourages students to think about subjects in new ways and from new angles. My class is called Media and the Message. It is taught by a History of Science Professor and a Film Studies Professor. We have interesting readings about performance, perception, media as extensions of the body, and thinking about cities as stories. My teaching fellow for the class got her PhD at the University of New Mexico and so we instantly connected.

CS 106B - Programming Abstractions:
I am bravely taking on a second Computer Science but still really enjoying it. I am learning C++ and thankful that I still have my dad to help me out. We are doing recursion upon recursion upon recursion. And if you don't know what recursion is, just think of a tree. According to Randy, anytime someone thinks tree, they think recursion.

Oral Communication Teaching Practicum:
This is a training class to become a Oral Communication Tutor next year. We offer free tutoring to students and grad students for helping them out with all stages of the presentation process. We also work closely with PWR2 classes. PWR2 is the sophomore required writing class that focusses on presentation more so than paper writing.

Oh! and of course I can't forget to say Yoga :)

ELI CAME TO VISIT ME

And I didn't take any pictures. How dare me!! I sincerely apologize to Eli and everyone else. But! We had a great weekend.

Wednesday night we went to TAP (The Axe and Palm) for burgers and then hung out in the dorm before going to late night for a smoothie and cookie.

Thursday: We took a run around Campus Dr. and came running up Palm Dr. to see the beautiful view of Memorial Church from afar. Eli came to my THINK lecture and Computer Science section. For dinner we went to Treehouse for a reunion with my intro sem from last quarter. Then we hung out in the evening.

Friday: Eli came to THINK section. We went to Ike's for lunch and split 3 sandwiches. We basically tried the entire vegetarian menu. Then we had CS lecture and got ready for Les Miserables in the evening. For dinner we biked down to University Ave for dinner at Crepevine and then Creme. Les Mis was absolutely fantastic. It was the most impressive work of non-professional theater I have ever scene and it was entirely put on by students. It was incredible. Our jaws were dropped during the most beautiful scene of all, "Bring him home." The music was so beautiful. Everyone is still talking about it on campus. We loved it!

Saturday: Eli enjoyed Wilbur brunch with all of its smoothie bar, crepe bar, pancakes, pastries, eggs, and waffles.

I was terribly sad to see him go. I loved having him here and showing him around my daily life. Hopefully he will come back sometime soon.

Dorm Days - Murder Mystery Dinner

We had a murder mystery dinner in the dorm. It was so much fun. For any of you who haven't done it before, it works like this:

You are given a character before the dinner and you come as that character and knowing their background.

As you eat dinner, you and the other characters act out a murder mystery. Everyone is trying to figure who committed the murder and more information is revealed to the characters as the night progresses. 

At the end of the night, everyone votes on who they think committed the murder. 

SO.... 

I was Rebecca Ravioli. I was the murderer. I killed my father at the beginning of the evening because he wouldn't let me marry the man I wanted to marry to cover up the fact that I already married the man I was in love with to save him from being killed by my father. 

No one discovered me as the murderer and I won best dressed. Yay!

Is this a job? - Cardinal Nights goes to a Giants game

My dad asked me what I was going to do Friday night:

I said I was going to a Giants game.

He said, "You would have to pay me to go to that."

I replied, "I am getting paid!"

Regardless, I really enjoyed myself. I asked the guy sitting next to me to explain the game and it made it really fun. Plus, it was just relaxing and low key. And!! There were a couple of exciting points in the game, home runs, and it came down to the last inning. 

I treated myself to a Salted Caramel Ghirardelli hot chocolate that was AMAZING.

And the fireworks show at the end of the evening was beautiful. 

Burrito Picnic

Maya and I took our burritos from Stern to go today and brought them outside to the turf and had a picnic. Lovely!

P.S. Maya and I never make normal looking faces

AZIZ ANSARI!

So he came.

I was really really excited.

I laughed my guts out of my body.

The tickets sold out in 5 seconds. But I got reserved seats since I was working the event.

Is this a job? I just...can't....don't know.

Mama Mia!

Second night back from spring break the dorm went to see Mama Mia in San Francisco. Then I went AGAIN on two days later with Cardinal Nights. So that was a lot of fun and excitement and singing. It was a great time.