HUGE Burritos in a small world

Posted 10:36 PM, September 27, 2006, by saerni

Yesterday was my first full day of classes. I went to my statistics class with Noah and David. Noah was hanging out in the back, looking all relaxed, stretched out with his hands behind his head, and I really wanted to take a picture! But as it turns out he had food poisoning! During our 5 minute break he left the room and didn't come back until after class, at which point he let us know he was going home because it was "not a pleasant place to throw up". I'm glad I didn't take the picture!

David and I hightailed to Daphne Koller's class, which was great. Unfortunately it is one of the 3 classes from which I'm trying to pick. After that evolution class disappointed me, I added the prospect of Machine Learning (CS 229). However, I missed the first class, and the lecture notes look pretty intense. We'll see!

Lunch is usually a seminar, but today there didn't appear to be one, so after some time at our desks at MSOB (there's a picture of what I see when David talks to me from his-it's really funny to look up and see!) David and I headed to Lynx where he got something that looked really great, and I got something that looked a little less appetizing. We also ran into Nikesh, who informed me that 229 is best taken after MS&E 220 (my current stats class). I'm ambitious, but when these more advanced students give me advice, I try my best to heed it.

Maureen has given me loads of it, and it has been endlessly helpful. She was the one I called before making my decision to come here and we chatted on the phone! She was so great! She let me know about different courses, her background, what I could expect, how difficult it would be, but how free as well! She was so great. She really solidified my choice while I was wavering constantly. She even mentioned her Softball team which was a big sell. Even though she's the Czarina, she goes above and beyond her call of duty! Everyone in the program seem that way. Russ Altman spent an hour with me on the phone as well before I made my decision, reminding me of what "studs" the students were and all the available faculty. Both Maureen and Russ could just rattle off names to me for potential faculty that might interest me. It just showed me the network that is really tight here at Stanford! But that's all history!

After lunch we had a meeting with Daphne about potential rotations. It's pretty difficult for me to plan for the rotations, since I have to choose between the various courses that I need in order to come as a prepared student. She said I could come in the winter, but she would have to treat me similarly to an undergrad summer intern, and I definitely want to do my best to maximize what I can get out of it to get a real feel for what the projects are. Ultimately, though, I think I just need to remember that this are really just for getting a feel for the lab and what's in it.

I had two more classes, Mark Musen's BMI course, followed by Serafim Batzoglou's algorithms in biology course. After the latter, I spoke to the TA (a grad student in the Batzoglou lab) to find out what the best course was for me to take. He said the algorithms course would be great to get a feel for what's out there and what's relevant to the lab, but that 229 is a basic toolkit. We'll see what I decide. I think he's right that I may need to focus on my skill set more, before I delve into the more interesting science. Which is unfortunate since I love Daphne's class so far!

Ryan and I went to dinner at Whole Foods. This was pretty interesting since they have a Grocery Pickup. You just drive up and the unload your stuff. We drove by and some woman in her 40s was sitting in her VW Beatle, with this "deer in headlights" look. Her trunk was open and this guy was loading a couple bags in her car. I don't meant to judge her, but it was pretty ridiculous!

Today I went to 229, which was intense, but I could definitely follow it. I'm only concerned it will get more out of hand as I go along. David seems confident. We grabbed lunch at Beckman's basement, where you can get burritos that are the size of your arm. We were joined by some BMI postdocs, which was great! We all sat around and chatted about grad school, computers, classes and funding. As it turns out, Brazil seems to have laptops that are better built!

I went to a pretty useless discussion, as I was sitting under a desk on the floor and couldn't see anything that was gong on. Not to mention I was trying to learn some tricks in excel on my MacBook Pro, which is pretty hard since I'm trying to get the hang of keyboard shortcuts in the first place!
It also turns out that Noah went to school with my cousins on the East Coast! Super small world! He just saw the oldest of the bunch, Adam, at a party a few weeks ago, which is totally unfair since I haven't seen him in over a year! Noah and I seem to be fighting the same battle in trying to get relatives to move to the West coast, although we recently won one over who's attending Harvey Mudd in Pomona! Yeay!