Pictures from First Week

I can tell that I am usually the earliest to wake up on the 1st floor. The bathroom lights (which is activated by movement) are usually dark when I enter in the mornings. On Monday, the RAs (Kevin, Wade, Meg, Eric, Gloria, Aaron and Peng) woke all of us up at 7:30 by running up and down the hall, screaming and banging on our doors. I was already awake and dressed, but everyone else was dragged out in their pyjamas to the lounge where coffee and cakes were being served.

My bike is still always parked on the bike rack right outside my room. To get to classes, I cycle out the back of the dorm.

"Good luck Rinc :)"

All over campus, messages written in chalk suddenly appeared over Sunday night.

"FloMo (Florence Moore) PWNS Math 51"

There were hundreds of these messages covering most major walkways.

Entrance to Building 380.

The bike ride to Building 380 (on the corner of the Main Quad furthest from Rinconada) took around 5 minutes. I have my Math 51 lectures in the basement of this building.


I enter this door, make a left turn, and take the stairs down to the basement. After Math lecture on Mondays, I have ten minutes to make it to my IHUM lecture at the opposite end of the Main Quad. On foot, this wouldn't be possible.

Analyzing death in IHUM:Visions of Mortality

The Physics lecture takes place in a very nice little auditorium in the Hewlett Building. The guy at the whiteboard is Professor Blandford, and he uses a Mac. Professor Osheroff also uses a Mac, and so does my academic advisor from Caltech. While we are on the topic, my roommate also uses a Mac, and so do the guys who live opposite us. In fact, 80% of the computers I have seen here are Macs.


For my TB test on Monday, I cycled only 4 minutes to get to the Vaden Health Centre. It can be seen from the back of Rinconada, but is less accessible than it used to be because of the ongoing construction project. The bubble that was injected into my arm disappeared very quickly.

Breakfast on Thursday: Grapes, some melon, cereals, hash brown, scrambled egg, bacon, banana and grape juice

Dorm food has been okay so far. Roughly the same food is served everyday, but there's a fairly large selection of food, so things don't get too dull. The only cutlery provided for all 3 meals are forks, knives and teaspoons. My Singaporean friend, Silvanus, says he will bring his own tablespoon to meals in the future.

Lunch on Thursday: More melon (the same melons are served every meal), salad, cauliflower, fried rice, kway teow, apple, some juice

Dinner: Salad, fruits, Tofu, carrots, tomato, breadstick, some pasta

The only plain water served has lemon and funny things dipped in it with a funny smell. So I prefer to drink juice. Today, I found out how to get green tea in the dining hall. :)