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sweetprince| [ | mood | | |  meh |
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| [ | music | | | The Stone Roses-Getting High | ] |
Got the worst cramps ever today, so I went jogging as I try to do when the cramps get really bad. WORST MISTAKE EVER. It was roughly 400 degrees out on an uphill street with weirdo constructions workers leering at me almost the entire way. I ended up lying in the shower cursing the fact that God gave me legs to run on in the first place!
So I have been lying in bed watching Prison Break. Nothing like prison inmates to cheer one up!
I sold my car. So at least I'll have some money in the bank, rather than being a completely starving student. He's an a very goodlooking Stanford Grad Student from New Zealand. Meow. And now I have all these delicious phone messages from.
Speaking of Stanford . . .
So I've been reading a lot of fanfiction lately, for lack of anything better to do, and really, who needs an excuse. I've noticed several fics set during Sam's time at Stanford and none of them are glaringly wrong, I'd just like to point somethings out, give some pointers that might flesh these stories out a bit.
Stanford is the second largest university in the world, beaten only by the University of Moscow. It is the largest University in the United States, 47 Harvards could fit on it. There is no way Sam could walk across campus in five minutes. And if we say that he is walking from Stanford Linear Acellerator (Slac) it would take him oh, roughly five hours.
Stanford has several schools, although it's probably best known for engineering. Certainly its law school is excellent enough, if Sam had decided to continue with that at Stanford. No doubt he would've had some classes there, possibly had my dad as a professor at one point, or at least someone I know.
For Sam and Jessica to live off campus would've taken an incredible amount of money. Real Estate in and around Palo Alto is more expensive than Beverly Hills and the houses are certainly NOT as large. Although it's feasible for the two of them to live in College terrace and not be totally murdered by the rent.
Parking on the campus is practically impossible. Unless Sam somehow snuck Dean a case permit, he'd be driving around a long time trying to find a space that he wouldn't be ticketed at. As mentioned earlier getting around campus on foot is a daunting prospect, most students own bikes and cars, so you can imagine it gets a little full.
As an undergrad Sam would most likely dine at Tresseter, the largest dining hall on campus, however, most of the buildings have cafeterias of their own as well.
There are no fraternities, only theme houses. The majority of them are along Mayfield, and they have ridiculous names like Bob and Xanadu, because they were ORIGINALLY frat houses. The theme houses still have parties though, so Sam could definitely find himself at one of those.
There are two clubs in Palo Alto, Nola and The Blue Door, however it's rare to find students frequenting them because they are chock full of young professionals working out on biotech hill or the other dotcommers out and about(Steve Jobs, the illustrious founder of Apple, lives in Palo Alto. I ran into him at Whole Foods once, it was scary). If Sam wanted to go clubbing he'd have to go to either San Francisco or San Jose. Although Mountain View has a few spots as well, however, once again I think they're mostly full of young professionals not co-eds.
Stanford is famous for it's athletics. They put an amazing amount of money into their sports programs given their reputation as a more academically inclined school. They have a very good men's basketball team, and the Sixth Man Club, who comes to every game and occupies an entire wall of bleachers, is the campus's largest club. The Stanford Band is at almost every home game and they are, without a doubt, CRAZY.
The band doesn't really have a uniform, often times people are half-dressed or are cross-dressing, about the only thing that they all share are those white fishing hats with the red bands on them. They play songs during halftime and time-outs, which the dollies, NOT CHEERLEADERS dance to.
Stanford is in a very interesting situation with cheerleader, they disappeared in 1996 due to low numbers an were only started up again in the 2005/2006 academic year. They're good, I think they actually have more guys than girls, but they often fight for floor space with the dollies, who always win.
The dollies are a group of five girls, in little red dresses, and white gloves who dance to the music that the band plays. They're very well-trained and it's pretty traditional dance. Not like hip-hop or such. I, for reasons unknown, very much wanted to be one when I was little.
Stanford's rival School is UC Berkeley or Cal, things can get pretty vicious around the time of the Big Game, which from the time I was 5 till the time I was 14 Stanford always won, they even won the hundredth anniversary of the Big Game. Recently the football team's record hasn't been so brilliant. Their stadium was just rebuilt because the old one wasn't adequately designed in case of a fire.
Stanford Sports teams are called Stanford Cardinal, as in Cardinal Red not the bird. The Mascot is an evergreen tree and every year the Senior class gets to design the outfit. One year they had a palm tree, I was never very clear on that.
Typical hangouts include:
-University Coffee Cafe, which is open till ridiculously late and has good desserts.
-Darbar, a good Indian restaurant which is fairly easy on the wallet.
-The Starbucks on Stanford Avenue, which has a special area set up specifically for students who have to study.
-Happy Donuts (a lot of the local high school kids are here too), which is open 24 hours and has free wireless.
-Pasta?, a restaurant and bar combination which is often full of young people, but rarely anyone else.
-California Pizza Kitchen, which a lot of the sports teams go to after practices and games.
If Sam was going to the grocery store there are several places he could hit. Although I'm not sure if Tresseter Express is still open, he could certainly go to JJFs, a small supermarket with an awesome deli section which is just down the street from an oft student-frequented laundromat in college terrace.
If Sam wanted to go to San Francisco, he could get there a number of ways. If there was a car involved he could take either the 280 or the 101 North and then he could get anywhere in the city itself (without a car, several busses are often involved to navigating oneself around). From Palo Alto, it takes roughly 30 minutes to get to the city. Public transportation to San Francisco from the Peninsula (which is where Palo Alto is at is not brilliant). If he wanted to take the train he could take the baby bullet, and from there take BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) anywhere from Berkeley to Oakland.
San Jose is in the exact opposite direction as San Francisco, and though it is certainly not the buzzing metropolis that San Francisco is, it is the eleventh MOST populace city in the United States, The City is considerably smaller. If Sam were going to concerts he'd likely go to San Jose, because HP Pavillion is huge and holds several venues. The other place he could go to for concerts is Shoreline Amphitheater which isn't far from Century Sixteen, the biggest movie theater in the area.
Well, if I think of anything I'll add it. If you read all of that, I'm proud of you, it was certainly long and exhaustive. Did I miss anything?
I think I mostly wrote that because I'm getting all nostalgic over the fact that I'm leaving for college in a few days, but hey, what can you do. Hey, you know what this means? If Sam or Dean were real they were practically running around in my Backyard, considering I've lived here since I was seven. I could've spied on them going at it. Oh, woe for missed opportunities.
Shyeah, I'm sure you're all wondering where I misplaced my sanity.
no subject
Date: 2006-08-26 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-09-03 11:40 pm (UTC)hahahhah
stef