9/21/16: First day back at the U!

1. 9/21/16
1. Wake bright and early, finish packing the van. Say goodbye to the sisters and their companion animals and head out!
2. Sleep most of the way there.
3. Arrive just in time for volunteer orientation. The orientation is routine and logistically plagued as usual, but I run into lots of people I know. First Lindy from last year’s Dawgs Crew, then Catherine from last year’s floor, then Trevor and Kasey from last year’s ill-fated housefinding project.
4. Chat with Trevor, who’s just finished JPL internship. He plans to return next year.
5. Inside the auditorium, run into Sara (global floor) and Alanna (Rick’s). Then meet Trevor and Kasey’s roommates, they seem like cool dudes. Wesley, Peter, Spencer (when I told him me and the other swing Spencer were Spencer 1 and Spencer A, he replied he goes by Big Spence (he’s a diminutive dude).
6. Meet parents at McMahon, go to pick up keys. Trees are beautiful and leaves are falling. Behind McMahon desk, am surprised to see Camellia from Honors Phys. Turns out we’ll be in quantum together.
7. Go to 2104, Hiroki my current roommate (the swap to get back together with Xin hasn’t gelled yet) is absent, his spare belongings across one side of the room.
8. Unpack, get Indian food with Mom and Dad, and head back to 2104.
9. Meet Hiroki! Nice guy, from Waseda U. in Japan, liberal arts major. Here for a year to study English, though his spoken english is quite good. Trade factoids about our respective countries.
10. Do work, answer email (one intriguing one from an investment manager of the UW’s endowment, to whom Raj Rakhra from last quarter’s Global Trends class referred me. The position looks really exciting, a full time junior financial analyst job. Should at least look into it.
11. Go out, look into lofting bed, Hansee custodial office just closed. For tomorrow! (the procrastinator’s battle cry).
12. Go to physics complex, hang out waiting for Margot to get advising notes. Margot never finishes, but while she’s helping another student I
1. Order socks, underwear and tupperware on Amazon
2. Meet a dude named Kevin and discuss electro-magnetic equivalence. We couldn’t figure out how the magnetic force on a charged particle comes out linear to the velocity.
3. Theorist dude named Marcel walks in (he was at the ice cream social); overhears me say “but magnetic fields are linear, right?”. In friendly condescension assumes I’ve made some weird assumption about magnetic fields in general. Put him right on that assumption and get to ask him about our E&M textbook. He prefers the one he wrote :)
13. Finally overhear Prof. Olmstead in the next room, she’s the ugrad advising head now. Ask her about my missing notes, and since she’s getting off work she takes me upstairs, we find the notes. Good time in the physics dept! Looks like I gotta take statmech, so much for japanese film :(
14. On way back to 2104, get sucked into a pickup hoops game at Denny. I hustle but my offensive skills are rusty.
15. Shower, off to dinner with Hiroki! Take him to Som Tam, good conversation.
16. On way back, stop by kitchen to hang with some girls from the room over, who were going down to cook as we went out. Abbie and Selorm. Abbie bustles away making squash soup, it looks like it’s going to take her 3 hours. She’s a “Soch” or sociology major, looks a little Hispanic. Selorm, a returning 2104 resident, sophomore dance and biochem major, is gregarious. She starts spinning stories about the dramas of 2104 past--one girl who got pregnant, the time she threatened her boyfriend with a chopstick… Turns out she’s originally from Ghana (she’s black but her English is really good, once I listen I can hear a bit of an African-sounding accent, a little lilt). She wants to go to the Nook, invites me along, so we run over there and back.
17. Return, put away stuff in room, more work. Reply to financial investor email, lots more stuff. Get Google photos autouploader working. Super nice. And the wifi (just UW, don’t even need a router) is screaming fast.
18. Read great math article.
19. Off to Safeway! Actually QFC. The prices are right and I load up on sandwich and breakfast supplies. By the time I get back and label all the stuff in my fridge (that’s right, it’s annoying!) it’s 1am. Write this journal and hit the hay.