Kirkwood Trip

Posted 12:09 AM, February 06, 2007, by saerni

This weekend was our Kirkwood trip! FINALLY! The weeks leading up to it were basically a mad rush to get everything done (I think pretty much every entry starts like this). 217 had a midterm the following week, along with homeworks in both my classes, and a start of research with Gill Bejerano!! I've also been trying to get more involved in non-BMI things.

Finally we've had some rain (and hail) and were hoping that meant good things for the trip, but ultimately that did not translate to snow (although we got a nice rainbow)!

We met with the Arbor clinic last week on Thursday, Friday, and then David and Alex went to the clinic itself on Sunday and the following Friday again. It is a non-profit clinic intended to serve the communities around Stanford which do not have health insurance. It is run weekly, and gives pre-clinical students the chance to meet patients, which are ultimately overseen by attending physicians! It's pretty amazing! We are hoping to design an EMR system (Electronic Medical Record) for them, if they are interested. It is for our 211 class. We saw a talk by a couple of med students on Friday to present their own ideas, for a product called Chart Biopsy. We're not sure it's the greatest idea for this clinic, but we will be offering them an alternative.

Last Thursday I participated in something called the Science Bus (because I have so much extra time). A group of students goes to an East Palo Alto Charter School and has an after-school science program. We helped students build a large tower that is supposed to support a certain amount of weight using popsicle sticks! I worked with 2 girls who are so bright! I didn't have time to go again, but I hope they won! I also have tried to quite coffee which has somehow just translated into headaches and such. I'm going to give in pretty soon, after all, how can I resist when we have an amazing coffee machine!! (Ted is fixing it, he is our coffee machine guru, and apparently got one of these at home-he is beyond saving).

On Tuesday we had "girls' night" for BMI (which Alex refers to as the BB, Bioinformatics Babes). I headed over to Coupa Cafe before going to Blue Chalk, with every intention to either do work or update my blog. I started cropping pictures, but I called David who came, and I basically ended up chatting with him about his work. He is continuing his rotation in Atul's lab. I'm pretty jealous, since he basically has an advisor. He was submitting a paper on Friday at midnight, which basically kept him from coming to Kirkwood. Atul mentioned that it was due at Midnight, "any timezone". So he was working like mad until that deadline. Eugene dropped of Marina, and we headed over to Blue Chalk.

The girls all sat around the fire, and we were basically the only people there. The bartenders were playing some kind of video game, and weren't terribly interested in serving us since we were mostly drinking water and diet cokes. After all, we have two expecting mothers!!!! (Yael and Rong)! It's REALLY exciting! Diane was telling us all about this class she was taking about managing people. They sit in a room with a group, and talk about things, without any syllabus. Basically, people start by saying what they like about others. Diane pointed out (quite rightly in my opinion) that it all seemed a bit contrived! And they started to argue!!! But I'm pretty sure that's precisely what is supposed to happen. They are not allowed to talk about anything external, so it's just totally strange. We're all pretty convinced that there is a hidden camera somewhere.

On Friday Beth and I left pretty early (after my Arbor meeting) for Kirkwood. We were trying to beat the traffic so she stayed over the night before, and went on a date with an interesting character in Palo Alto. We got there ahead of everyone else, picked our room, made beds, had dinner at Bub's Pub, and watched the Phantom of the Opera. I got pretty concerned about everyone at one point. Guanglei, Marc and Ryan arrived next, they had some trouble finding the condo. It was right next to the slopes (the picture below is the view from our condo!), but since nothing has addresses around there it was really difficult to let everyone know how to get there.

Barry, Tania, Alex and Csongor showed up next. They were relying on their GPS, and so since there was no address to provide, they had a lot of trouble finding the place. I decided if the other boys were able to make it, they would too, and let them sweat it out (it was freezing outside) until they found it. Significantly later were Annie, Shirley and Sam. They were most disconcerting since, although they left later than everyone, should not have hit as much traffic, and Annie's phone hadn't worked a couple times I had tried. Ultimately it turned out they had taken some weird thing called the Mormon Trail, and had been stranded. Shirley saw a "road closed" sign, but they thought it looked okay so they ended up getting stuck, until some stranger drove by and towed them some 20 miles!!! Apparently it was ROUGH! Thank goodness that person drove by!!! Shirley likened it to the Kim's! That was VERY dangerous! No service on the phones, a closed road (so unlikely someone else would drive by) and it was cold! I'm glad they made it.

The next morning we all got up early, and made it to the slopes when it opened (most of us at least). We took it pretty easy in the morning, except for Csongor and Tania who ski WAY too fast for me. They just zip down those slopes without stopping! I definitely do not have the same habits. I generally stop and take in the sights, chat a bit, stop for chocolate, and relax. We decided not to go to lunch back at the place, even though I had brought food for everyone to eat. The whole organization bit was a mess. I've decided I will never organize such a trip again, and certainly not be responsbile for others, or invite people I do not know. I truly appreciate the work that Christine and Carol puts into all of our events! I cannot imagine!

In the afternoon we skiied until everything closed (and we were exhausted). Guanglei had some trouble so I tried to help him, but ultimately we pushed him too hard, and he had to get driven down on the back of a snow-mobile! He just went by with a big smile on his face, it was pretty funny. He returned his skis, got a refund on his 2nd day of the ticket, and got a ride back with Annie, Shirley and Sam (who left the next morning to get back in time for the superbowl.

Ryan made everyone a delicious chicken and pasta dinner, but we were mostly too wiped out to do anything. Marc, Beth, Ryan and I went to Bub's to get hot chocolate and play some pool, but basically came home and crashed. All in all it was a great trip, but I was glad to get back and get going with studying for my 217 exam (which no one finished, except for Prof Chen and Prof Morgan)!! Pretty crazy! We'll see how the grades go!!!