Wiidiculously fun start of classes

Posted 11:36 PM, January 11, 2007, by saerni

Classes started on Tuesday. I learned my lesson from last quarter and I'm only taking 2, although that isn't necessarily "taking it easy". I wanted to be sure to have time for my research rotation with Gill Bejerano that begins in February. I don't want to make the same mistake as last quarter, when I had barely any time to do work in the Sidow Lab.

The courses I'm taking are BMI211 and BMI217 (these are both required for graduation). I'm also struggling to decide whether or not to take CS228, which is known to be a very challenging class (taught by Daphne Koller). I'm still shooting to rotate with her, and she really wants me to take the class, but it's a tall order. Since 217 is newly required (for all students entering after Fall 2006) I figured it made more sense to take a broader-level class now and go into the specifics later. I hope to talk to my academic advisor to get her input.

After Amar's 211 class, I went to Serafim Batzoglou's 262 (Computational Genomics) class. I have been exempted from this class (a great part of having a Bioinformatics background), but I still wanted to audit the course. I'm going to try my best to show up to the classes when new or material I'm rusty on is being presented. However, it starts at the same time my BMI class ends, and they are pretty much on opposites side of the campus. Even if I had a bike on campus, I doubt I'd be able to be on time.

After Serafim's class I had a date with Alex and David to go rock climbing! We were super excited since we had been talking about it for awhile. Someone had mentioned that the ventilation system might have been installed there, and I was pretty sure that it smelled better, but once I got deeper inside I realized it was just as bad. I couldn't remember a thing from the belaying lesson last time, and I didn't get certified.

Alex is a climbing fiend. He's like a monkey when he climbs up there. I still can't even make it up the second easiest routes (I couldn't make it up one named "Kindergarten"), but at least I tried my best! Alex and I have the same types of shoes too! He has been a climbing guy for awhile, but I just got my shoes. But I still wear socks in mine, I can't help it! David is good also. He already kicked my butt at climbing last time around!

Me struggling on the "Kindergarten" climb

David showing off his climbing skills. Alex also has a crazy belaying technique!

Alex balances on the rope at the end of a climb!

After climbing we went to dinner at a Greek place on University. There are two, and they're both delicious. I ate everything in sight! I was SO hungry! Luckily Ryan wasn't so I could eat half of his. We were all super sore and tired, but somehow I was laughing really loudly (in regular form) and the people at the table beside us were staring! Oh well! We were talking about crazy video games that people spend years of their lives (literally in the David's case) on certain games. A lot of games track your number of hours. The funniest part about it is that David is right, while in college, he basically sacrificed in class time to the games. So in the most academically un-P.C. comment possible, we pointed out he had no net loss! Of course if he had been at Stanford he NEVER would have done such a thing!

Ryan and I went grocery shopping after against my will! I was so tired so I sat in the cart and Ryan pushed me around! It's pretty effective shopping. I just took items that were within reach!

Today we got our Wii! I was really tired and kept hitting the snooze button. Then around 11 am (yes that's pathetic) Ryan came in the door with the Wii, so I immediately jumped out of bed (here come my years of gaming). I then realized I had signed up for colloquium units (Tuesday and Thursdays). So I got little time to play. By the time I got back, though, Ryan's Mii was all set! It looks like a lot like him! Don't you think?!?!

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