Erwaman's Personal Journal - May 2010

JHU Visit, Day 4, Monday, April 26, 2010: First Day of Classes (for me)

I woke up around 8:45 am today because Andy had 9 am class and I wanted to go check out his classes. When I got up, Andy was already up (not surprising, since he had fallen asleep around 8:45 pm the night before). He told me after he woke up, he had finished the paper for his Materials Science class.

I ate some more of his cereal, and then we went late to his first class, which seemed like some sort of electronics/physics class. Today, they were discussing transistors, and I was reminded of the Circuits class I took my freshman year. The professor closed his eyes often while he was lecturing and seemed to be talking to himself at times. Andy says he doesn't really care too much about this class because the professor sucks and the material is not too interesting.

Andy's next class, at 10 am, was History of Philosophy, but we skipped it, as Andy said he sometimes does, because he really dislikes the class. I asked him why, and he told me it's because the TA in his discussion section just gives another lecture during section when what Andy really wants to have is a discussion. So instead of going to Philosophy class, we went to Einstein's, a Starbucks-like cafe inside of Charles Street Market. There, I ordered the same thing as Andy - a spinach omelet bagel - wanting, again, to get the Andy Tien experience.

At 11, we went to his Electrochemical Properties of Materials class, which is Andy's favorite. The professor was very clear and alert, and the material was more interesting; however, due to lack of sleep, my eyes started drooping and I fell asleep. What I do remember about the class was that the topic was creep, "the tendency of a solid material to slowly move or deform permanently under the influence of stresses" [Wikipedia]. This reminded me of the Zerg race in StarCraft because the Zerg have to build all their buildings on creep, which is like an alien organic carpet that nourishes the Zerg buildings and units.

After class ended, we ate lunch at the Silk Road Cafe inside the Mattin Center. I got a warm noodle + 3 item combo (teriyaki chicken, 2 tea eggs, and stir-fried tofu). The food was really bland. The noodles were cooked completely plain. No sauce added. I should have requested stir-fried noodles or fried rice instead. Also, the tofu and teriyaki chicken were surprisingly tasteless as well. I think curry chicken or spicy basil chicken would have been more appetizing.

After lunch, we went back to the place where the bboys had a meeting the first night I was there (also part of the Mattin Center). There, Andy and I studied for about forty-five minutes. Then we returned to Andy's apartment, so I could drop off my stuff, and then we went on a field trip to a battery manufacturing plant with Andy's electrochemistry class (different from the Electrochemical Properties of Materials class I attended earlier that day). The company we visited was called Saft, and our tour guide had a Ph.D. in electrochemistry and while showing us all the different chemicals used, he was explaining to us the theory behind some of the chemical properties and reactions that were relevant and utilized in the battery-making process. I didn't understand too much of what he said (or I just took for granted what he said was true without really understanding the theory behind it), but I was reminded on Dr. Siebert and my chem days in high school.

We got back a bit early, around 5:15 pm, so we went back to the game room in McCoy Hall and played foosball and ping pong until 6. Then we went to Tambers, which was right across the street, to get dinner with Roger, his girlfriend, and Angela. We almost had everyone from WP who was going to Hopkins there. Only John Wedemeyer (WP '09) wasn't there, but none of us knew him very well nor had his number.

Dinner was pretty good. Since I had already suspended my vegan diet, I decided to go all the way (back to full omnivore) and ordered a smothered burger. Hadn't had a burger in so long, so this one tasted so good.

Andy wasn't too hungry, so he decided to just get a side of mac and cheese. When it was his turn to order, he pointed to it and said he just wanted a mac and cheese. The waiter replied, "Anything else? The mac and cheese is pretty small," gesturing a circle about the size of a hamburger. Andy responded, "Oh, really? In that case, I'll get two mac and cheeses."

So our dishes arrive, and Andy gets his two sides of mac and cheese, which turn out to be bigger than expected. Also, Angela got two small dishes of applesauce, which was surprising because it didn't seem to go with what she ordered. So when the waiter came to check on us, we asked him if Angela's dish was supposed come with applesauce. He said, "Oh, no, the applesauce goes with the mac and cheese." After the waiter left, we discussed how Andy must have gotten the best deal out of all of us. Each mac and cheese was only $2.95 and came with a sizable bowl of mac and cheese and a small dish of applesauce. An incredible deal. This was Andy's first time at Tambers, even though it's on the same block as his apartment building. However, he said that after finding such a good deal, he would come here to eat more often.

Later on, we got the check and were figuring out how to split the tab. Then Andy noticed that his mac and cheese, which should have been $2.95 × 2 = $5.90 instead turned out to be $8.95 × 2 = $17.90! Andy asked the waiter about the issue, and the waiter said $8.95 was the cost of the mac and cheese platter with applesauce. Apparently, this was a different item from the mac and cheese side, and when they looked at the menu together, the waiter pointer to the mac and cheese platter, which was in a blue box next to the sides.

Andy ended up paying $17.90, but he was pretty angry, and we all agreed that he had been gypped. We left and stood on the sidewalk outside the restaurant and continued chatting. In a lull in our conversation, a chubby homeless man came up to us, saying he hadn't eaten for four days, and asked us for a few dollars. We were all silent, waiting for someone to speak first, and then Andy jumped in, and started, "I'm sorry man. I can't give you any money right now because the restaurant just ripped me off and now I don't have any money left in my account. Fuck man! They just ripped me off." The homeless guy put out his hands in a "there, there" gesture and weakly said, "Yeah, I know how it feels," and drifted away, probably a bit intimidated by Andy's outburst. We all congratulated Andy at having scared off a homeless person.

After that, we parted ways. Andy got his cello and then we went to the Mattin music center. Andy practiced cello with a friend while I practiced piano for my keyboard lab final exam [this keyboard lab is part of the Elementary Musicianship I class and teaches you how to play figured bass exercises]. We practiced for about an hour, and then we went to the Freshman Food Cafe to get some late night. Andy's friend Will, who has a lot of leftover dining dollars, paid for us. Again, having temporarily suspended my vegan diet, I went all out and ate so much bad food - wings, burgers, french fries, eggs, ice cream, cereal. My goodness, late night was so delicious.

Having stuffed ourselves, we went to a building called Alumni Memorial Residence Hall 1 (where the StarCraft tournament was held last year when I visited). There, Andy had to do an APTT (A Place To Talk) shift with Kathy. Originally, there were supposed to be new trainees, and Andy was going to pretend to be a troubled person and come in to talk. I told him I could pretend I was coming out of the closet and come in and talk about that.

However, apparently, there were no new trainees that night, and so Kathy, Andy, and I just lounged out in the cozy APTT room - there were some comfy couches; many large stuffed, plush animals; and lots of comfort food and candy.

We found a cigarette lighter in the room, and Andy got an idea. We went to the kitchen, where there was a sink with a very crude drain:

Over the sink, Andy proceeded to do the following:

After enjoying Andy's pyrotechnics, we went back to the APTT room. There, somehow we started talking about smoking, and Andy related the story about how he began smoking in high school, but hid the fact from his parents. Then, Kathy told us how she and some friends had started smoking a while ago, but now she probably only smoked socially about once every four months. The only catch was Andy had made up his story while Kathy hadn't.

Then, Kathy told us about how she'd be doing consulting in the DC area after graduating (she was a senior), and she even told us how much she'd be making when Andy asked. She said when she told her family, her parents and her sister said it was more than any of them earned.

Kathy happened to live in one of the apartments that Andy, Will, and Sean were considering, and she didn't mind showing Andy her place, so after the APTT shift, we headed back toward her apartment. We were discussing gayness, and one of us asked how do you think people would react if they found out you were gay? Prompted by this question, Andy went up to a passing group of guys and said to one of them, "Excuse me. How would you feel if I told you I were gay?" One guy responded, "Um, are you gay?" "I might be," replied Andy. Then the guy walked away. Discussing the conversation afterward, I suggested the person he talked to maybe was uncomfortable about the topic of gayness. Kathy offered an alternative explanation, which was that the other guy was gay and got excited when Andy asked his question, so he wanted to know for sure if Andy were gay.

Well, we got to Kathy's apartment, and I thought the building looked pretty spooky at night. There were lots of trees around it, and the big, 5-story apartment complex seemed like the perfect place to shoot a horror movie about a haunted hospital. Kathy said apparently the building used to be an insane asylum before being converted into an apartment complex.

Kathy's apartment was surprisingly large - the living room was a very big rectangle, and her bedroom was fairly large, too. It seemed like a nice apartment to live in. On our way out, I decided to slide down the fire escape slide. It was dusty, but fun:

FYI, the fire escape chute was pitch black. All these pictures were taken using flash.

The slide was surprisingly steep.

Pretty dusty inside, as you can see.

I slid down to the second floor, and then I waited for Kathy and Andy to come downstairs and meet me.

Surprising them with a flash.

Hi, there!

The light at the end of the tunnel!

Next time I go down this slide, I want to go down FAST, and come flying out the bottom.

Only one way out.

As you can see, my shirt is pretty dusty from sliding down the slide. In case you're wondering why there's a garbage bag behind Andy, it's to protect his cello case from the rain. Fortunately, it wasn't really raining by the time we left.

On our way back to Andy's place, I commented, "Can you imagine us walking together down the street fifty years from now, still friends?" Andy replied, "Yo, I'd still be breaking." "Yo, I'd still be cubing." "Yo, you'd be senile and would have to relearn all your PLLs every day but it would still be fun."

We got back, I showered, and then we visited Angela's suite again. We chatted with her for quite a while, and then we went back to Andy's room and went to sleep.