Stanford Book Prize Trip: My Diary

After a week of intense daily emailing with my contacts in Stanford, I finally arrived in San Francisco Airport on 7.May.01 at 7.30 p.m.

Weylin, who was my cheery roommate, and a committee member of SAS, and Shao Hong, who drove the car, met me at the airport. They recognised me by my bright orange suitcase! After which, we drove to a swanky restaurant in Chinatown where we had a great dinner with Weylin's father and family friends.

I reached Stanford University at about midnight, was greeted by Shiyan, President of SAS and brought to my room where I met Weylin's roommate. I was too tired to sleep. There was only the floor to sleep on, anyway, but then we plodded over to the "French House" where I got my air mattress and we took a lift back to Flo Mo, my dorm complex. I settled my account with Shiyan, who bought all my meals at the dinning hall. I also met Minal, who was to bring me to other electrical engineering classes.

I slept really late that night.

On Tuesday, the weather was unexpectedly hot and sunny, 27 degrees.

I breakfasted with Weylin and met Steph for theory lessons, which were useful for revision, as I'd done them before. We did modulations.

Next, I hopped over to browse at the Stanford bookstore.

I had lunch with Weylin, who later handed me over to Minal for some French Porn. After that, we visited the Stanford Store, which, as I learnt, sold cheaper goods than the bookstore. As Minal worked there, she had a 20 per cent discount.

After dinner I went for SLE on futurism in politics and art.

I was then handed over to Romina for a Bio ethics lecture, but I lost my way and decided to camp back in my room. Unfortunately Weylin was visiting San Francisco that night and leaving for New York the next day. Good news was that I would be occupying her bed when she was gone. She was a great host and I gave her one of the many tokens of gifts, which I brought from Singapore.

In the night, Kenneth, who was an alumnus of Raffles JC, came over to say hi and see if he could arrange things for me. He brought me around FloMo where I was introduced to most of the Singaporeans.

On , I went for social dancing lessons, where I spent the entire lesson horrifying my partners with my lack of dancing knowledge. It was fun though.

Next, I went for an electrical engineering class, which was absolute Greek to me! I was passed to Minal for an electronics class on Op-Amps, which was interesting as I am doing that for Optional Physics topics back in Singapore.

Then Wei Qing brought me for an interesting Computer Science class. After, Wei Qing and I went back to FloMo to tidy up and change into suitable slacks for kickboxing, after which we biked there on borrowed bikes.

Kickboxing was absolutely fun, a little like the Tae Bo I do during PE in school. However, as I was riding home, I took a spill and scraped my right knee and elbow. I cleaned up, and then met Dave Ong, whom I was first introduced to during the Stanford prize-presentation dinner in Singapore. He was working at the Silicon Valley and we had arranged to meet before I left Singapore. He took me for a ride around the campus grounds, to the Golf Course, Business and Engineering buildings, and the Church. After that, he took me to dinner where I had delicious roasted babyback ribs. Almost forgot to bring along my gift in my hurry to meet him.

On Thursday, I woke up bright and early for breakfast, where I met Shiyan in the courtyard. After that, I met Steph for music theory lessons. As I was supposed to have met Elise Maar at 10 am, I left at 9:30am for the Old Union. However upon reaching there, I learnt that the meeting had been postponed to 11 am, so I met the Music Professor at 10 am where he helped me with my music program notes.

I presented my SAT scores of full marks, taken in 1999, when I finally met Elise Maar. She was impressed and strongly encouraged me to go to Stanford. She then elaborated about the application process and inquired after my well being in the campus. After the talk, I presented her with a souvenir from Singapore.

After filling our stomachs during lunch, Rich took me up the Hoover Tower and to the Church.

Dinner was with Kenneth at the Spring Fair.

After dinner I went with Andrew and Fiona to the Electronics Laboratory class.

On Friday, I visited the Medical School with Rasi in the morn and afternoon.

After that I went to the Stanford store where I bought amost two hundred dollars worth of Stanford shirts, sweater and souvenirs.

After dinner, I went with Wei Qing to watch Picasso.

I arranged to meet the professor of Biology on Monday.

On Saturday, I rested and stayed back in my room to do my personal work.

On Sunday, I woke up nice and late at 11am. I had arranged with Dave to bring me round San Francisco for the day. He came in the gleaming red sports car he was so proud of and drove me to his hosts' place in a posh neighbourhood for a Grill. We met Uncle Sam and Auntie Chin Chin and little Mackinsey. The people at the grill were mostly Singaporeans in their early 20's, except for the host family. I was also introduced to the neighbours, Mike and Sue. The hosts and guests were hospitable and sociable.

After a wonderful lunch, Dave brought me around San Francisco.

Our first stop was Chinatown, where we had some famous delicious fluffy egg-tarts.

We then went shopping where I bought 3 T-shirts and peeked around the place. It was unexpectedly cold and I had to borrow Dave's jacket to avoid freezing.

We drove to Fisherman's wharf after that, and walked around the shops. I bought many souvenirs. The view of the sea was splendid and I took many photographs. We also visited the sea lions, which looked like huge beached skin-bags and smelled rather too strongly of the deep blue sea.

Next, we went to the Golden Gate Bridge where we managed to catch the sunset at the Golden Gate, and it was marvellous.

Then it was up to South Silito, where we had a scenic drive-through and dinner at a good upmarket restaurant. We had fried calarimari for appetiser and Dave took the shellfish platter while I took the Sand dabs. The food was fresh, most probably because it was near the waterfront.

We then took a drive down the "crooked street", which was fun and gave a good view of the City.

After that, it was to Twin Peaks where there was a spectacular view of the entire city with winking lights and all. It was also freezing and the car heater never felt so good!

By the time I reached my Dorm, it was already past midnight.

On Monday, At 12.30 p.m., I was met by Rassi who took me to meet the Professor at the Biology Building who gave me an informative talk and presentation on adhesion in cells.

Next, Yibin brought me to Chemical Engineering Class.

After the class, he brought me around the scenic lake and then drove me to the Rodin sculpture garden where I took a couple of photos.

Dinner was with Shiyan, Kenneth and a Biotechnology Professor. After which I left for the Stanford Bookstore where I did some more last minute shopping.

I had lots of packing to do when I got back to the room, and I had to sit on my suitcase to get it closed. My luggage weighed twice as heavy as before I came.

Shiyan came to get me at around 10pm, and then Kevin's ex-host from last year drove me to the airport. After distributing my small token gifts to all whom has made my stay memorable it was goodbye to Stanford and San Franz!

The trip to the Stanford University was an enriching and exciting experience. I enjoyed myself at the picturesque Farm and the wonderful sightseeing tour around San Francisco.

My itinerary in the campus was well planned by Shiyan and the people I met were nice, helpful and friendly.

It was a good break and now it's back to my routine hectic school work.