Goals 44 & 64: Back to School

They said the day would come, that the shuffling would have to end...

I moved from Orlando to Palo Alto in a swift 9-day coast-to-coast roadtrip (spending 3 days in New Mexico).

 I turned 24 in the process, which reminds me of a quote I read once but cannot find now that went something like:

"Everything you will become, you will be by the time you are 25."

Probably horseradish, but I still am going to do my best to become quite the person over the next year.

So anyway, I went to Disneyland (for free because I was still a castmember at the time). The greatest thing about it was going to the new Little Mermaid ride, which I worked on extensively back in Florida. It was such a trip! Like fast forwarding into the future, I saw it all put together, finished, where I had been watching the gradual completion at WDW.

I arrived in Palo Alto after a short stay with my friend Chandra, who I met in Sweden. When I got to Palo Alto, I called housing to find out about how I move into my room. Fun news, my room wouldn't be ready until Friday morning...it was Tuesday.

I didn't know anyone in the area, actually, since I was just getting there, so I had to call people I thought had people in the area. Well, my network won me three places to stay over the next three nights, one with a friend of a friend, one with a sister of a former co-worker (and friend), and one that I had met on my visit day to Stanford. Didn't had to sleep in the car once!

Goal 44: Start Grad School or Begin a Career

Well then I started school. My first class was ARTSTUDI 160, a course on visual language. The teacher was intimidating, saying things like "This will be the hardest class you ever take." At first I scoffed, thinking these were probably mostly first year undergrad students, but then when nearly everyone raised their hands in response to "How many of you are graduate students," the sir was not surprised in the least...in fact, he expected everyone to be graduate students... He spent an hour and a half going over the syllabus thoroughly, explaining the difficulty with each project. I was effectively frightened, and was more than happy to not get in.

My final schedule consisted of a class that took me to factories and manufacturers in the Bay Area every Friday, a design class, and a product management class. Here's some camera dissection at IDEO.

The rest, in brief, goes like this:

1. Started classes

2. Joined a dozen clubs to get free food everyday

3. Attended classes I wasn't taking

4. Watched classes online

5. Ran out of time for all the extra stuff (except free food) when paper bikes kicked into gear

Goal 64: Build Something I can Fit Into

That shit is a bike. A bike made of paper. It has a converting feature, allowing it to go from sliding to rolling, and its chassis is a tank. Here's a time lapse of the whole thing being built.

Our mega-team was victorious, winning 2 out of 3 in the paper bike rally of 2011. 

(New Orleans Skybridge)

Status: Tired of writing...

Goal 3: University of SoCal and Beyond

Opportunity arises in different ways at different times. Now is the time for visiting schools and traveling for free. I already went over my Purdue visit, now here's another.

The University of Southern California invited me out to visit the campus, and helped me pay for the trip. Sold. Moments later I rented a car, grabbed Whit, and we were on our way.

Jorje, of course, joined us for the ride. He was pleased with the luxury of the vehicle we acquired.

Passing deserts and mountains, it was a mostly nice drive.

We didn't make it in one day, so we stopped at this rest stop to sleep over. Whit took over the heavy lifting of driving, so she required morning stretches for the long day ahead.

After missing an exit, driving sixty miles towards San Diego, and getting stuck in bad traffic because of a terrible accident, this is what entering Las Angeles looks like if you were looking through a crystal ball in a dark room.

We were staying with a friend of mine who went to USC, Catherine Ames. She and I go way back to middle school at Taylor and Monroe middle schools in Albuquerque. I had seen her a couple off times since then, but we agreed that it had been at least four years since we saw each other last.

It was great to see her, and it was so nice of her to let us stay with her! Her and her boyfriend were kind enough to show us to campus, and I got to see a potential future of mine: USC Viterbi School of Engineering.

Visiting is such a prime way to make connections at a University. While I was there, I was able to catch a professor, Dr. Lin, whom I am interested in working with for grad school. Doing research in Design and Manufacturing under the mechanical engineering discipline, working for him seemed quite reasonable, and he was excited to talk to me. He even introduced me to some of his students, and showed me his lab.

The in-depth conversation we had was enlightening, and I realized some important things. First of all, if I'm ever going to be a professor (or professional of any sorts probably), I will need to know how to talk about what I'm doing in an awesome and passionate way. Second, USC may technically be a top-ten engineering school, but the students don't feel that way. Third, other important things about grad school, like MS degrees don't get funded.

So, an added bonus from my ability to seize opportunity during my last trip to Disney World arrived in the night. Her name is Felicia Provost, and she is a very good friend from Disney World. I paid half of her ticket with my Southwest Airlines Voucher. She had never been to Cali, and we had big plans.

Whit knew about Roscoe's chicken and waffles. I didn't know about chicken and waffles. Apparently an L.A. thing, she enlightened us all.

...and it was pretty delicious....very delicious.

Then we checked out Hollywood. Good 'ol Hollywood has some familiar names cast into the ground.

Being at the Hollywood that actually is, and isn't from movies, was pretty good. We got to see the real-world version of the great movie ride, and other replicated icons from Walt Disney World.

The next day was my big 'tour' day. Whit and Felicia went to Malibu while I found out more about the University of Southern California.

They dined me without wine, and I got to talk to a lot of people who had a lot to say about USC and the programs.

The band was called in for a little demonstration, which was awesome.

I was given a bit of a tour of the campus, and got to see some of the facilities, which seem...adequate.

I could imagine myself being a Trojan, and I definitely felt like I made a connection with the school. Not without disadvantages though...

Walking back to Catherines, I realized that living in California means increased fence danger.

The next day was what we'd all been waiting for: Disneyland.

It had been a long time since Whit or I had been to Disneyland, and Felicia had never gone. Luckily I'm still an employee of Disney.

It was interesting considering all the things people have said over the years about Disney parks. This was the third one I've been to this year, and first time I've been back to the Land since I've been working at the World.

Very good to see and experience some different rides, it was definitely different. Felicia commented that it was 'smaller' and 'hokey.' I couldn't help but agree a bit.

The Nemo ride is much, much better at Disneyland though.

...and considering Walt Disney World doesn't really have one, ToonTown at Disneyland rocks harder too.

Who woodah thought there'd be a skybridge IN the California Adventure theme park?

The girls got ice cream.

Did someone say Aladin show?

Probably the best show I've been to at Disney. The Genie is either given an awesome set of jokes, or he's a hilarious dude. He was set with about a hundred current pop jokes that were hilarious! He couldn't stop making fun of Jersey Shore, brought up Gaga, and even took it back to Austin Powers.
Let's just say that after the show we got Spanish krazied and danced our hearts out at a Tron 2.0 dance party.

The night ended with a "World of Color" spectacular. It was new, and liquidy, and painty, and colorful.

That was the end of our little adventure in Southern California. The next day we said goodbye to Catherine, drove Felicia to LAX, and headed home.

So after a big adventure, I should mention what came out of it....

Goal 3: Apply to Grad School

I guess I could go into all of the different things I did to apply to grad school...but that wouldn't be that interesting. Long story short, I learned about it through Purdue and USC visits. I learned more through reading and seminars. I interviewed Dr. Wedeward, the chairman of the Electrical Engineering department at NMT, to get him to know me better. Then I did my research, and I chose my top programs. I wrote my essays about eighty times, and on December 1st, I applied to UC Berkeley's graduate MS/PhD program (appropriate because my first school was the number one pick). Since then, I've applied to Stanford, USC, and the University of Michigan. Just a few months from now I'll know how I did!

Goals 11 & 14: Paris

Our first weekend long (6 day) trip, we went to Paris. We stayed with two most excellent couchsurfers, and did about every touristy thing you can imagine, and then some stuff that was not so touristy (like a catacomb party).

This post comes a little late, as Paris happened about 3 weeks ago now, but better late than never, right? While I was in Paris, I completed two of my goals, to see the Eiffel tower, and to go to Disneyland Paris. The Eiffel Tower was almost the first thing we saw, and we wouldn't see it again until just before we left.

Goal 14: See the Eiffel Tower

The work was really something. It was so industrial, yet so elegant. Such a symbol of industrial revolution, it was beautiful. It was really something to see THE tower that is featured in countless everythings.

Goal 11: Go to Disneyland Paris

Get ready for castle.....

Sleeping Beauty's castle was very ornate and...pink. It was a very nice castle, but I thought it a little cheezy. Was it really necessary to include Tinkerbell frozen in flight around the top steeple?

That is where my complaining about the castle ends, because everything else about it was excellent. You can actually go INSIDE of this castle, and it's filled with custom embroidery and stained glass that was beautiful.

The Fantasyland that the castle was connected to was also really good. It really gave the impression of a medieval little village, all joined up and part of the castle. I was a big fan of that.

Called "Tic and Tack", I'm pretty sure Chip and Dale were getting pissed at me for calling them by their American names. BUT, if that was the case, they certainly didn't show it. All of the characters were super chipper and fun to play with. Probably because it was a cold day, and there weren't many people in the park. Chip...Tic...Took the above picture on my camera for me.

Hollywood Studios is also part of the Disneyland Paris Resort.

Paris was a good little trip. Baguettes every day, Nutella every night. I saw epic and historic things every day, which was pretty neat in itself. Things like the Arc de Triomphe and the Mona Lisa make an impact on your memory once you've got your own point of view on them.

Although we did do lots of things, coming home I felt like I had not accomplished much more than being a tourist. Although we did do stuff a little out of the ordinary, such as the catacomb party, or the farmers market, we mostly stuck to the typical sightseeing things. Although I understand the necessity to get this kind of thing out of the way, future trips should be as much without the plain as possible.