All Right Now!

Wow. This was a good idea, Bern.

People are always talking about Stanford being laid-back - I think that's a good description, especially when contrasted with MIT. What surprises me the most is how comfortable and settled I am here. It's a beautiful campus, and I'm constantly reminded of how lucky I am to be here. The best part is my fellow students, who are all simply amazing people. For one of the first times since TASP, I'm not "the smart kid" anymore. It's a refreshing feeling.

Big self-discovery moment of the quarter: I love programming. My introductory computer science class is sweet - I live for the problem sets and the rush of discovering that my code works. I have to save my CS homework for last or I never get anything else done. My Introduction to the Humanities class is also pretty wild - the professors have us playing the online role-playing game Second Life so we can "interact with a machinic world." Our first paper (due tomorrow!) is supposed to compare the machine-like attributes of Plato's Republic and this online society. Math class is math class: after my first math lecture, I realized that although college is amazing, it is still school. But hey, I like school, I like math, and I am loving college.

One thing that's not going so well is figuring out when I'm supposed to jump when the Stanford Band (finally off probation, though still banned from traveling) plays "All Right Now." It's a good thing I have 4 years.

I started work at the biology lab. It's kind of an informal family atmosphere, with flexible working schedules all around and traditions such as summer barbecues and a pumpkin-carving competition against the other labs. So far I haven't been assigned a specific project to do, but I'm enjoying being in the lab at all.

I don't have any real anecdotes of debauchery or promiscuity (which, frankly, I'm glad about). I have participated in a certain amount of obligatory craziness, however, notably the traditional scavenger hunt in San Francisco, where dorms are split into groups and sent into the city with a list of crazy stunts to perform, with point values assigned according to craziness: getting a taxi driver to do the Macarena with you, protesting the mistreatment of wax people at the wax museum, getting a stranger to feed you an orange, trying on a wedding dress at Neiman Marcus, getting one's hair cut in a mullet, etc. The group with the most points (backed up by photographic evidence) wins. Results are yet to come in, but I think my group has a good shot at the title. Although I was one of the less intense team members, I did eat garlic ice cream, hop down Lombard Street on one foot, and kiss the lion statue at the entrance to Chinatown.

I met a transfer student from Deep Springs the other day. !!! The L.L. connection here seems to be pretty strong (there's even a TASPers at Stanford facebook group!), and although I haven't talked to the other '05 TASPers here yet, I've seen at least one of them once or twice. I'm hoping to get involved in the reading of TASP applications this winter.

Reflecting on my choice to come to Stanford (one of the best I've made in my life), I'm convinced that my desire to recreate our six weeks together was a big part of what pushed me out here. So thanks, TASPers. Life is good. I'm hoping to head up to Berkeley this weekend to hang out with a certain poet of our mutual acquaintance, and I'm confident I'll run into several more of you, whether or not a full, in-person reunion materializes.

I love you guys!

Groetjes,
Sam