extra | ORDINARY.

summertime | and the livin' is easy

2012-06-22T22:09:00.004-07:00

don't expect updates in the near future while i pack up and move out of my dorm for the summer.

next year i'll be living in this building.

(i took this photo from the top of hoover tower, by far the tallest building on campus. when we went up it was so clear and sunny that you could see all the way to san francisco.)

as excited as i am to live in this gorgeous building, moving out gives me an empty, achy feeling. a year is enough time to put down a lot of roots, and it hurts when they're all pulled up. especially when it's happening in such a hurry, with packing and finals and goodbyes all in the span of a couple days.

i didn't enjoy taking down all the stuff surrounding my desk, which has evolved considerably in the past few months.

goodbye, 94309. see you in september.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

boardwalk day | in the hot, hot rays

2012-06-03T13:39:00.002-07:00

took a day trip to the beach at santa cruz as a last hurrah before finals.

perfect weather, with the spirit of fun and frolic.

the beach at santa cruz also has a boardwalk amusement park.

the whole place gives off the candy-coated vibes of a carnival, coupled with the fresh, salty breeze of the pacific.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

stylish | and sustainable

2012-05-30T17:18:00.001-07:00

i volunteered to photograph for stanford's sustainable fashion collective.

i think they misinterpreted my offer, which is how i ended up modelling for them. an interesting experience, to be on the other side of the camera for once.

a behind the scenes peek at our photoshoot in lake lag.

with a little help | from my friends

2012-05-14T21:26:00.001-07:00

this is a photoblog first and foremost. so whenever there's less photography in my life, there are fewer updates.

although i haven't been taking many photos, i've still been up to other creative shenanigans! i drew on the front of a tshirt (inspired by a shirt i refused to pay $50 to buy from urban outfitters).

then i tie dyed the back of the shirt at froshapalooza, an outdoors BBQ party thrown by stanford dining this weekend.

in addition to the tie dye, froshapalooza also offered slacklining, DIY henna tattoos, and friendship bracelet braiding, so my roommate and i made each other bracelets.

to readers who keep asking about my roomies and my dorm, i've posted photos of my quad before, and you've also met my roomie, too. i might post photos of our other two quadmates soon. and when the results of the stanford housing draw come out in a week or two, i'll keep you updated with where i'll be living next year.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

spring | in my step

2012-05-06T19:25:00.000-07:00

they tore down most of a building (the thornton center) recently,

and this week it opened to the public as a park, featuring one long reflection pool.

that means another fountain for fountainhopping - and right by my dorm, too!

the tiny upright figure in the distance is my roomie (readers may recognize her from previous posts), and another friend of ours is sunning himself on the bench like a beached whale.

of course, midterms are looming, and i've already spent a good chunk of time going to the midnight showing of the avengers movie with my dorm. therefore, my other fountainhopping companion was none other than...

my econ notes. yup, partial derivatives and elasticity... fun times.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

the warmer | the waves

2012-04-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

went on a public service leadership weekend retreat through stanford's community service institute, the haas center.

all of us girls piled into this wonderful beach house, where we had direct access to the water.

the haas center staff members made amazing ice cream and vegan pizza - from scratch - in this kitchen. i'm still full from their homemade breakfast, and it's past seven-thirty... at night!

(and on an unrelated note, remember how my friend ran for student senate in the ASSU?

he won! thank you to everybody who voted for him.)

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

the happiest | place on earth

2012-04-16T20:36:00.001-07:00

i've never been too familiar with disneyland because i'm from the east coast. disney world is both closer and bigger.

a week ago our dorm took a crazy trip to disneyland, leaving by bus at midnight friday night and driving six hours to anaheim, then parkhopping from opening time to midnight, followed by another six hour ~~drive~~ nap on the way back. it was a blast.

my RA grew up living within a twenty-minute drive from disneyland, so he had plenty of cool disney trivia to impart.

apparently walt disney originally envisioned a jazz club in the empty little alcove pictured below:

world of color in california adventure and fantasmic in disneyland were both dazzling.

if you think you're too old for disney, you're probably not. as you can see, i spent most of the trip smiling.

...now back to the real world (sigh) with real food (score!).

stats problem set, here I come.
(problem no. 7: "determine the probability that god exists." not joking, folks.)

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

shakin' | to the top

2012-04-08T20:25:00.001-07:00

one of my good friends, christos "chris" haveles, is running for senate next year in the assu, stanford's student government. elections are next week.

i shot these photos of him hanging out around the quad this weekend as a sort of contribution, in my own way, to his campaign.

his odds look pretty good, since there are only 17 people running for 15 seats.

if you're a student, why not check out his campaign page?

no matter who you vote for, might as well be informed.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

congratulations | new admits

2012-04-01T16:17:00.002-07:00

between spring vacation and the start of a new quarter,

this little photoblog has taken a backseat...

...but i just have to say congratulations to the new members of the class of 2016!

(i'm even going to be hosting two of you in my own room for admit weekend this month.)

see you on the farm!

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

an opportunity | to win a $500 new wardrobe!

2012-03-15T20:07:00.001-07:00

remember how i mentioned before that i shot a one-minute video application for a job/scholarship contest?

now if you go on facebook and take ten seconds to vote for my video,

you're eligible to win $500 worth of new clothes from hip british brand Jack Wills!

{ clickyclicky for voting fun! }

to find my entry, search for my name, megan.

you can vote once every day,

and each vote is another entry to win the $500 prize,

plus you get a special discount off everything from the Jack Wills website - just for clicking!

my roomie and i shot the video on campus on a beautiful sunny day, and in it, we go fountainhopping in the fountain above.

so if you want to see us twirling in fountains and getting up to other stanford shenanigans, click on over to my video!

edit:// i've gotten a complaint that somebody has been spammed with links to this blog.

which is funny, because i've never really posted its address anywhere. i've only sent the URL to some of my friends, and i also include it in my online signature.

so if somebody is spamming this link, i apologize, it isn't my doing. mystery spammer, please stop irritating people on the internet. nice to know i have readers though. :)

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

food | for thought

2012-03-12T22:59:00.001-07:00

...organic locally grown food, to be precise. like this blood orange, which came from a dining hall.

as did this panini, with shiitake mushroom soup and adorable little tomatoes on the side:

arrillaga, the new dining hall, always makes paninis available.

but my favorite foods come from tresidder union, such as bubble tea, jamba juice, fro-yo, etc.

however, as any college student will tell you, the best food of all is...
free food!

lately my roomies and i have been on the receiving end of so much free food. tonight is midnight breakfast. also my parents sent me cookies through the stanford parents' club, which delivered this package to my room.

we've also gotten free sprinkles cupcakes leftover from meetings of one of my community service groups (so of course, i surprised my very happy roomie with a box).

and free singaporean cookies, courtesy of the international students next door.

and now...

i'll continue to work my way through that open q&a about life at stanford.

(you can still leave your questions in the comments here.)

Q: "how many times do you typically leave campus a month?"

A: not very often. although san francisco is quite close, the truth is that campus pretty much provides for all of our needs. once a month i'll make a convenience store run, and sometimes my hall will go do something together, like skating in redwood city or dinner in palo alto. i probably leave campus once every couple of weeks, although it wouldn't be difficult to go off campus much more frequently. we also take dorm trips - our last one was to yosemite; our next one is to disneyland. maybe i'll post photos of those someday.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

fountains | of youth

2012-03-04T18:57:00.001-08:00

this weekend my roommate and i shot a short film on campus, which involved a lot of twirling and laughing and frolicking in the sun on my part. more details on this project to follow soon!

it was so warm and sunny - a perfect afternoon, which ended

with fountainhopping in the claw, a.k.a. the fountain in white plaza.

(unsure what it means to "fountainhop"? click on the word to check my spiffy new stanford glossary.)

since i promised to do an open q&a about life at stanford, i figured i'd answer questions one at a time. don't worry if yours isn't posted yet - we'll get there soon.

(you can still leave your questions in the comments here!)

Q: "what was it like to meet your roommates? do most of your friends come from the same dorm you're in? do you live on a co-ed floor, and if so, what's it like sharing a bathroom with guys?"

A: i do live on a co-ed floor, but girls' and guys' bathrooms are separate. i have three roommates (since, as you've already seen here, i actually live in a quad). actually, stanford has an unusual policy of not allowing freshmen to know who their roomies are until the day they move in and meet the other person in their room. it causes some small inconveniences when it comes to planning ahead (i brought a fridge... oh, you did too? oops), but at least you arrive without any preconceptions about your roomie based on their hometown or their fb profile, which is nice.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

west coast | best coast

2012-02-27T12:23:00.000-08:00

travelling from one coast to another can involve some culture shock. my mom just came for parents' weekend. she had to admit that there definitely are benefits to living in cali.

for example, i can pick oranges outside my PWR classroom.

another difference? in-n-out burger joints.
we don't have those where i'm from. man, people here go crazy for this stuff.

i've decided to do an open q&a post... if you want to know anything about life on campus, i'll offer you my take on it. just leave your questions in the comments below. no sign-in required.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

a room | of one's own

2012-02-21T12:30:00.001-08:00

the request i get most often from visiting friends and family: "can we see what your dorm's like?"

i live in a quad, meaning i have three roomies. there are two bedrooms attached to this common room.

it looked like that when i moved in. now it's a lot messier since i've ~~cluttered~~ decorated my desk.

on valentine's day morning, our RA (click here if you don't know what an RA is) rolled us out at the unholy hour of 6am to give us ghiardelli's chocolates and these flowers:

what is rolling out? it's a stanford tradition. usually you get rolled out when you join a club - the club members come to your door really early in the morning and pound on it, yelling, until you stumble out, groggy and annoyed. then they shout disgustingly cheerful congratulations at you and usually whisk you away to feed you breakfast.

edit:// i've now created a glossary, for those who don't speak stanfordese, and there's a link to it in the sidebar. definitions of "rolling out" and "RA" can now be found there.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

the weekend | our time now

2012-02-19T17:07:00.000-08:00

people usually think of the stereotypical college weekends as frat parties and (when in season) football games. it's true that that's usually an option, but there's always other stuff going on at stanford.

this weekend I went to the thirtieth anniversary concert of one of the student a cappella groups, the fleet street singers. you can see their humor and originality for yourself in these videos from their previous concert.

the weekend before that, i was at snowchella, a free annual charity concert hosted on the lawn of one of the frat houses. (the name, for non-hipsters who might be out of the loop, is a play on the coachella music festival.)

i went with three of my girlfriends. behind them is the dark outline of a typical stanford greek house. these photos are blurry because the lighting was less than perfect and kept changing colors.

and the weekend before snowchella, i went to the annual stanford viennese ball.

my date, incidentally, wore his fleet street suit and tie. gotta love that red bowtie.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

california dreamin' | on such a winter's day

2012-02-02T11:49:00.000-08:00

it is winter, and the leaves are beautiful.

(how many people can say that?)

one of the places frequently cited as the prettiest study space on campus is the bender room on the fifth floor of green library. i like to study there, although some of my roomies find it too imposing.

the reason i come up so often is, in large part, because of the view. i love a good vista, and something that is truly beautiful makes my heart ache a little bit. it's such a good feeling.

my love of vista probably explains why i take photographs - here's the view from a window in the bender room.

i can't believe i get to study here. i'm such a lucky girl.

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]

day trippin' in san fran | flowers in your hair

2012-01-29T19:59:00.000-08:00

to those in the bay area, i recommend crepevine for brunch.

a little touristy-ness never hurt anyone.

(or has it? has anybody ever died by freak flying-tourist accident? good story for parties, right there.)

photos taken at golden gate bridge, palace of fine arts, fisherman's wharf, pier 39

[all original photos - no reproduction without permission]