pics of Golden Gate Bridge

We were on the tour bus most of the time when we went around the Bay Area, so didnt take any picture except when we were dropped off for snacks at a vantage point to see the Golden Gate Bridge (one of nine bridges at the Bay area). These are some pics of the Golden Gate Bridge although it is shrouded in fog...

more pics at Cal

some more pics of Cal - Cal is quite different from Stanford in the sense that it was built around an existing town (with shops and facilities on campus grounds), whereas Stanford's school campus is distinct and any shops or towns are outside of campus.

Day out in SF Bay area & Uni of California Berkeley

We went on a tour of SF Bay area and the University of California, Berkeley (Cal for short), organised by the Int'l centre, on Sat 23rd Sept.

There was a football match going on at Cal that day, so it was a bonus for us to see their Band in action (plus some cheerleading eye candy). We learnt that Cal and Stanford have always been "friendly rivals" for sports and probably among the students as well. Their official colours are blue and gold, while Stanford's is red and white.

We had stickers pasted on our tops that day with our names and countries where we came from, so it is easier to strike up conversations with fellow int'l students. We met a Japanese lady who is working with the Japan embassy in Russia for 2 yrs before she was sent here to undertake studies in Russian Language and Culture - cool right?

These are some pics we took that day at Cal...more on the SF Bay area in next post

demanding pace, different education system

HL started classes on Monday 25 Sept. He is doing 14 units this Fall Quarter.

Found the pace of studies here to be fast and demanding. Students are expected to read up before certain classes and complete assignments before lectures. There is actually this particular class where the professor requires students registering for his class to do a 2.4km run in the morning together to drive home the importance of discipline!

There are no tutorials, only lectures for subjects. Grading is determined by your combined performance and scores for assignments, projects and final exam.

HL is the only Singaporean in his School (CEM). Truly different experience from our NTU days...

squirrels

over here, you will see squirrels roaming freely on campus, this one taken has blackish fur, the ones with brown fur look cuter - in fact, doesn't this one look like a big rat with a bushy tail?

food and our fridge!

my first home cooked meal - and it came from a box in the freezer - stir fried chow mein (but at least it is not fast food)

looks decent right? =)

we also filled the fridge with those trips to the supermarket...it is really easy and tempting to stock up on snacks and titbits here - everything is on offer ("buy one get one free", "2 for $5" "10 items for $10" etc), now I can understand why american waistlines are still expanding, beside the huge portions of fastfood here

downtown palo alto

we had some free time last thurs, in between the orientation sessions and workshops organised by the International Centre for grad students, and decide to explore downtown palo alto (nearest town to us).

There are restaurants, theatres, bookstores, pharmacies, ice cream stores etc - it is a place that we will be heading to from time to time for our stay here...

this is also near the palo alto transit centre, where we can take the Caltrain to SF

some pics of our apt

here are some pics of our apt - it is actually pretty decent, although we had to get our own pillows and TV, and stuff like hangars, table lamp, cutlery, mugs, toilet paper...(the list goes on, it is basically furnished to a bare minimum only)

some pictures of campus

these are some pictures taken on campus...

1st week at stanford

it's been a week since we arrived at Stanford on Sep 17, Sun. It was my birthday too actually, but when I asked HL for my birthday present, he told me bringing me to US for 10 months is a gift in itself....hmm, somehow, I didn't quite buy that..

When we first arrived, I was struck by the sheer size of the campus! It is huge, and also as we meet more people, I realised truly international as well. We have met people from Isreal, Zimbabwe, Greece, Berlin, and of course, Asia countries like Japan, Korea, China, Malaysia and our fellow Singaporeans.

The first 5 evenings saw us making daily trips on the free internal shuttle provided by Stanford to Walmart, Target, Safeway to get our daily living neccesities and to stock up the fridge, so we don't have to rely on Jack in the box and Macdonalds for dinner (which was what we had for 3 dinners last week).

day before we fly off

most of the packing has been done - although we still have some clothes items that we just washed last night, and need to be dried by a hair dryer later (heavy downpour earlier).

For some strange reason, we are feeling more nervous as it slowly dawned on us that this is it!

We are flying off tomorrow morning to our new home for the next 10 months. New place, new friends, new lifestyle and new environment...It is a mix of excitement coupled with apprehension and maybe a little bit of anxiety as to what awaits us for the next 10 months..

No matter what, I believe the coming months will form some memories that we will cherish in the future...San Francisco/Palo Alto/Stanford, here we come!