| Food and Drink |
[Aug. 22nd, 2006|07:02 pm] |
Whoa. LA food is heavy.
I got up this morning and headed onto campus with my roomate Sean, where he toured me around the Quantum Sciences group and introduced me to everybody. Lots of friendly guys (and one girl). I tried to get signed onto the apt. lease, but it turns out we have to wait for the former roomate to return from out of the country to sign some exit paperwork before I can get my gate key, etc. But overall it was uneventful until it was time to eat.
For lunch we went to the faculty club, where you can get a very nice meal for less than 10$. They even have happy hour on fridays, which I plan to check out. Afterwards, we went back to the physics bldg. where I got a cubicle and met more guys and had my ID photo taken.
Afterwards, I went to a local bar where I thought other incoming graduate students were going to be meeting. Unfortunately, I misread the email and missed the meet-up by a day, so I sat down at the bar alone. I ordered a Delirium Tremens and Mardesous 8 pint for around 10$ combined, and then headed out to dinner with Sean.
We went to a place with a lot of "local flavor" where I had chicken fried chicken and a local beer called Turbodog. I really hope I don't put on 10-20 pounds here. The food is so rich and the beer so plentiful...
Anyway, I just got back from dinner. Tomorrow is orientation, and I get to register for classes. Today while meeting other grad students I had about 5 of them over my shoulder looking at the offered classes giving me advice on which ones to take. I think having the sort of inside connection that I do will really benefit me in getting into the best classes and avoiding common pitfalls.
Later this week I hope to hit up some more local restaurants and also to get some much-needed shopping done so I can turn my barren room into a comfortable living space. |
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| Leeeeoooouuuussssiana |
[Aug. 22nd, 2006|10:10 am] |
So yesterday I boarded a 757 at LAX, sat on the plane connected to the terminal for 30 minutes while they fixed a sensor, and then flew to houston, then to Baton Rouge, LA. I stepped off the plane into the air-conditioned terminal, where they had Sean Hannity blaring on a large LCD television displaying a cruddy, mpeg-artifact-ridden image of his flapping maw. I saw chubby girls and fat men with bad haircuts.
My friend and new roomate Sean came by to pick me up a few minutes later after I had picked up my baggage. I stepped out of the terminal to be eveloped by a gooey wet blanket of 80F air at 9pm at night. We drove back to his place, and we chatted about his girlfriend who was angry over not recieving a souvenier from his recent trip to SF, and about the parts of Baton Rouge that I failed to see on my last trip out here.
After the 10 minute drive from the airport, we pulled into Oakridge Apartments, my new home. Dark and murkey on the outside but fairly luxurious on the inside. My new room has two tall door-sized windows facing south and west, with the door and large closet on the north wall. I have also been left a nice and sturdy computer desk by the previous tenant of the room.
Today I have to go cosign the lease and get my student ID card. Tomorrow is the first day of orientation, where I am told by my roomate I will be spoonfed bad advice which I should immediately disregard. It's nice having the resource of experienced friends.
Other random observations I'm not inclined to fold into actual sentences:
fat people on airplanes should be less fat or buy two seats
I didn't know so many people actually bought and used these video ipod things
watching comedy on said personal video player and laughing aloud is very annoying to those seated next to you.
on both of my flights there were passengers who at the end of the flight went up to the cockpit/crew galley of the airplane and stayed onboard there. Who are these people?
Why are people from the east so chatty? Unboarding the plane in Houston, everyone was politely milling out like good little sheep, but two knuckleheads from "newark" (no idea whether he actually meant Newark or New York) and "Noo Joysey" held us all up as they talked about how bad parking was at the Philadelphia airport. |
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| Alo |
[May. 24th, 2006|10:02 pm] |
| [ | music |
| | screaming babies | ] |
I feel just a little bit dirty. |
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