12.07.2011

Studying Hot Spots // by Monica


In the spirit of dead week and finals, I thought it may be helpful to share my top 5 study places on campus…

5. Your room

Pro: No planning ahead or moving your laptop, notes, or 20 lb. books required, and comes complete with desk.

Con: My bed, which is only 2 feet away, looks more and more comfortable with every page I study… Studying here is really only good for an hour at a time before napping kicks in.

4. A friend/teammate’s room

This year, I tend to venture to Cassie’s room (i.e. upstairs) for a change of scenery. Studying with someone definitely cuts out the naptime, and can help you focus

Con: Our study breaks occur every 5 minutes, and often last longer that the studying themselves. What can I say, YouTube videos + Cassie = way more fun than studying

3. An off campus study spot, such as a coffee shop

Pro: One word- caffeine. No problem focusing here

Con: One word-caffeine. Good luck getting sleep tonight

2. The library of whatever subject you’re studying (ex: for chemistry, try venturing to Swain Chem Library… Have a public policy paper to finish? Head over to the Law Library!)

Pro: If you were ever that kid who thought sleeping with your history book under your pillow somehow caused osmosis to move all the info from the book into your head for an upcoming exam, think of this study place as an updated version of that.

Con: Getting a table at any library on campus during dead/finals week is a near impossible feat.

1. The Mausoleum!!!

Pro: What better way to get the thinking flowing that spending some quality time with our school’s founders? I mean, it is “dead” week, isn’t it?

Con: Zombies, everywhere.

12.05.2011

Go Big or Go Home! // by Kelsey


The final week before Thanksgiving break was SO epic! On campus, we call it Big Game week and that’s because on that Saturday we play Cal in football as well as some other sports, like Men’s Polo. The entire campus is flooded with spirit. Here are some photos showing how we get ourselves pumped up!

Here's a shot of the fountain in Old Union. All of the fountains on campus get dyed red for the entire week.

There's also the tradition of the "Bearial" where we "sacrifice" a stuffed bear at the top of the Claw sculpture in White Plaza
 
And then there is the LARGEST sign I have ever seen. It covers the entire face of Meyer Library!






























As you can see, we get REALLY into this rivalry. There's also the fight over "The Axe." Whoever wins Big Game gets to keep The Axe until the two teams meet again. There’s a story behind the Axe and our rivalry with Cal—click here to check it out!

This year at Big Game, all the returners on our team were presented with NCAA rings that we earned last spring. We had been waiting for this day for what seemed like FOREVER! As you can see, the wait was well worth it…

We got to go down on the field, and at half time all of our names were announced and we saw some bling for the first time! Melissa and Annika, who are currently taking the year off to train for the 2012 Olympics, and one of our graduated seniors Amber were able to make it and go through the ceremony with the rest of the team. I loved having all of them there! Of course our other seniors and captains from last year, Kim and Kimbo, were there in spirit. The freshmen were able to go down to the sideline and watch us, but hopefully next year they will be out on the field getting a ring of their own! Fingers crossed (: Click here to watch the whole thing! (Can you tell we were just a tiny bit excited?!)


Rewind about 2 hours from the time us returners got our rings, and the freshman were involved in a presentation as well… only this time WE were presenting THEM to the rest of the Stanford students! Every year, the freshman class puts together a half time show for one of the Men’s Water Polo games. This year, the upperclassmen chose Big Splash (Stanford vs. Cal). There was a huge crowd of rowdy Cal fans, and although our boys couldn’t quite pull out a win, the freshman still got our own Stanford fans pumped! Me and Cassie choreographed the land part of the dance to Dirty Pop by N’Sync and were SO proud of how they did! I hope they had as much fun with it as I did when I was a freshman (: Watch them do their thaaang – Class of ’15 Synchro Routine.

Big Game week never fails to be even better than the year before. Can’t wait to see what Stanford has in store for us in 2012!

11.18.2011

Heading Home // by Catherine


This has been such a crazy week. I have had 3 papers and a midterm, but I’m finally done and that means THANKSGIVING BREAK!! It is definitely time for a much-needed rest after such a busy fall.  Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays because I love being surrounded by family and friends and being able to share a meal together.  But let’s get real… I really love pie! Some of the things I most looking forward to about being home are the beach, the amazing restaurants in Newport, seeing all my family and friends from home, and finally getting to SLEEP!  I love everything about Stanford, but there is nothing like the feeling of being home. Currently, I have “Home” by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros running on repeat and loving every minute of it! Big Game weekend is going to be amazing and I’m just excited to drive home on Sunday because that’s one step closer to home, Thanksgiving most importantly food!!

11.10.2011

My First Trip to Oklahoma // by Cassie


It was the beginning of my first summer after college. I had finished my last final and was on my way to the airport for a little vacation... My destination: Oklahoma. Melissa drove me to the airport, and even though I was going to see her in two weeks, she cried when dropping me off. I think it was the feeling of saying good-bye. It was the end of our freshman year. Everyone was leaving. Our first year at Stanford was over. Anyone can agree its an emotional time, but then again its Melissa.
Oklahoma. Say it out loud. Next thing you know you'll find yourself singing the song from the musical like on that Bing commercial. That about sums up all the knowledge I had about it before I went to visit. Probably about as much as you have right now... Well it's that state right above Texas. Looks like a toothbrush, you know? I realized I was a true American and anything past Arizona was kind of a mish mosh to me. Moving on, I didn't think Oklahoma was going to be any different than California, except for the fact I couldn't hit up the beach anytime I wanted.

While landing there was a thunderstorm. I could see it off in the distance. 

Apparently spring time is their main storm season? I could see the lightning striking. Something we would almost never get to see in the regular season here in Cali. Freaked me out a little bit, especially when riding in the car to Midwest City there was a tornado warning! I mean, why would you stop right in the middle of the Black Eyed Peas hit “My Humps” to let me know a tornado was near but it wasn't a BIG deal.

At dinner I met Sterling's friends from high school. They were pretty cool guys. I understood about half of what some of them said. But the smile and nod and laugh every now and then really worked and got me through dinner. They invited us to go to the river the next day. Did I mention I LOVE the river? I was so excited.

I worked out at an Air Force base nearby then we met up with his friends. There were four of them, and they told me that we were going noodling at the river. I was so excited. I kind of pictured us all on a boat being pulled on one of those banana things. Never got to do it in Havasu so this was definitely my chance. As soon as we pulled over in the middle of nowhere in a two lane road, I was a little confused. We literally were at a river, so then I pictured us floating down the river on noodles. for some reason my body couldn't physically allow myself to get into the river. They didn't understand why I wasn't getting in the water.

Reason #1, they had told me I had to wear shoes to this river so my feet wouldn't get cut on rocks but the only shoes I had were Sperry's. They didn't understand either what Sperry's were or why I did not want to ruin them. (If you don't either... here's why)

Reason #2, people were fishing and pulling out fish that were as big as my leg out of the water they wanted us to go swimming in. Not cool man.

Reason #3, DO YOU KNOW WHAT NOODLING IS? Noodling is the act of fishing for catfish bigger than a toddler with your BARE hands. People lost fingers, even hands from noodling. Now if you ask me, thats a quality first date right there. Nothing more romantic than submerging yourself in doo-doo water and pulling out a fish that could possibly swallow me whole.

Now there's a good old fashioned American right there. Apparently there is a show about noodling now. Good. It can educate us over here in California. Remind us why fishing poles were invented.

Now the truth is, this was quite an experience, and actually made me a lot more open-minded. Plus as the day went on I began to understand around 80% of what his friends were saying to me. I'm not going to lie, they were hilarious. Oklahoma may seem like a completely random place to visit, but it's actually now one of my favorite places to visit. It is completely different from California in so many ways, but in a good way. Now that Hillbilly Hand Fishing is now a TV show, more people can be better prepared than I was.

Okieville. I salute you.

11.09.2011

Photos from a Fashionista // by Kaitlyn


You guys may not know this about me, but there are two things in life in which I absolutely love, photography and fashion. I was lucky enough to stumble upon a job this summer in which I am able to combine these two passions together into one, taking photos for a fabulous store called Trunk Show Couture located in downtown Palo Alto. The store is absolutely amazing from the moment you walk into it, whether it is the gleaming chandelier hanging from the ceiling, or the vintage posters on the walls, the store simply echoes romanticism, elegance, and fashion. Every weekend I set up a time with Kim (the owner) to go into the store to shoot a round of inventory in which we can eventually sell over the internet, as well as use the photos to gain more publicity over Facebook (you can check out the page here). I absolutely love this job; Kim and I go through the products which need to be shot and set them up in the best light and try to capture the best angles in order to show the true beauty of each object. From glamorous Chanel dresses to gorgeous Hermes handbags, the store has a unique array of some of the best vintage high fashion clothing, shoes, and accessories in which I could spend hours photographing. It is almost like going in and playing dress up with the mannequins, although not going to lie it took a little bit of time to get used to ripping off the mannequins arm each time I needed to dress her. I love taking photos of beautiful things and really being able to portray that beauty and more to the rest of the world. I always have such a fun time while working in the store with Kim as well, it is sort of a relaxation or better yet, break from the daily pressures of both school and water polo. To me keeping up with my creativity has always been important--math and science are definitely not my forte, but hand me a camera and a beautiful closet and I am all yours!




11.01.2011

One Crazy Weekend // by Ashley

I want to talk about two things: The football game and Halloween!

First of all, the football game was so ridiculously exciting.  The wopo (that's short for water polo) freshies along with Ron Burgundy watched the game in Cory's room and it was ridiculous.  I really like football and I normally know what is going on, but the whole thing was so chaotic that I had a hard time following and keeping my emotions in check.  I also learned that college football does overtime differently from the NFL...cool! Click here to relive it!

Secondly, although Halloween weekend is not over and in fact tonight is actual Halloween, it has been spectacular.  The first night I was an Indian and Em and Ki were cowboys so all together we were cowboys(girls) and indians.  Saturday night Carpie Em and I were the Stanford Dollies! And let me tell you, we looked so real that people asked us how we got back from USC so quickly after the game!  Then Sunday night Carpie and I were hippies and we just looked adorable.  And now tonight, I have NO idea what I want to be, but I plan on rummaging around in my costume box... I'm sure I will find something! Wish me luck!

10.30.2011

Procrastination // by Emily


Right now I am supposed to be doing homework, but instead I am listening to one of mah fav playlists, "the gangs all here," -- with songs like Suspicious Minds-Elvis Presley, Thunder Road-Bruce Springsteen, and Lookin' Out My Back Door-Creedence Clearwater Revival -- and stumbling; stumbleupon.com is literally what keeps me sane, and keeps my mouth watering...zomgg I love the fall
(click here for the recipe!)

and hellllooo desserts! #getmeouttahere.

(click here for more!)

I am super stoked that Halloween is tomorrow because that means DRESS UP WEIGHTS holla holla (aka just another opportunity for our awesome trainers to judge me). But like I am not even kidding I am so excited.

Its been real, over and out.

10.25.2011

My Pseudo-80s Playlist // by Kelsey


I’m pretty sure I was born in the wrong decade. Big hair and bright, neon clothes? Sign me up. I used to tease my parents relentlessly about their horrific taste in music and couldn’t possibly imagine how they grew up with that as their main means of entertainment. But as always, Momma Suggs knows best. And now the 80’s are BACK! Cassie and I even attempted to learn a jazzercise work out video over the summer… it wasn’t pretty. If you want to try it out yourself, click here!

Now I know nothing will ever truly live up to the real 80’s, so here are a few songs with a little modern twist. I’ll even throw in a cover of my favorite 80’s classic (:



10.19.2011

A Day in the Life of a HumBio Major // by Alyssa


Today was a great day on Stanford’s campus! It was a beautiful fall day without a cloud in the sky and it was a day where I was able to share all of the hard work I have put into my Human Biology Internship this past year. Human Biology is the biggest major on campus and it is one of the most flexible. You are able to design your own focus within the major and pick and choose classes you want to take. My area of concentration is Health and Human Performance. This means I take a lot of classes having to do with human performance, sports medicine, human physiology and health courses. The health courses are more broad and allow me to explore chronic disease prevention across the life course and health disparities in the United States. For my internship I was able to work with an Emergency Room doctor at Kaiser Permanente in my hometown. It was a Clinical Research Internship and it spanned from shadowing in the ED to writing a hypothetical research proposal and researching different health topics. In the ED I was able to see a lot of different cases and learn a lot about emergency medicine. I took an online course that taught me how to protect human research participants. After this online course I wrote a hypothetical study proposal that was to explore if the use of intrauterine devices for longer than five years caused an increase in breast and ovarian cancer rates. Intrauterine devices are a form of birth control that is gaining popularity in the United States. The doctor I worked with also writes a health interest column every other week for my local newspaper. I was able to do the background research for his topics and help him edit the column. The topics ranged from exploring the efficacy of fish oil pills to how to perform CPR and the productivity of multi-tasking. After participating in this internship for a little over a year I was finally able to put together a poster and present it at the Humbio Internship Fair held from 12-1pm today (October 13, 2011). It was a great experience to be able to walk around and see what fellow students have been working on and to share with others what I have been doing with my internship. The other internships ranged from sports medicine to burning man and how babies learn a language. Every Human Biology major is required to do an internship, but the topic has to relate to their area of concentration in some way. Other than those requirements, you are basically able to do whatever you wish. All in all it was a great day, and I was finally able to show off all of my hard work! :)

10.18.2011

Summer Highlights // by Pallavi


This summer was definitely one to remember! I spent the first part working at the Stanford Center for Innovation and Global Health and playing my 11th and final summer season with the Stanford Club! Two weeks after Senior Nationals I was off to Shenzhen, China (with Alyssa and Amber!) for the World University Games!! It was one of the most memorable and exciting experiences I have had. It was so much fun to finally have the chance to play with girls that are usually hot competitors during our NCAA season! A few days after we returned from China my mum and I headed to Hawaii for a little R&R (: It's been a sweet, sweet summer...



Summer Highlights // by Alyssa


This has been the busiest summer I have ever had in my life. The summer started off like a normal summer for me. I started playing summer polo for Stanford Club with the majority of my teammates and I took Physics 21 and 22 at Stanford. I lived on campus with my teammate Monica and I discovered a love for Boba Tea. I managed to survive the physics final on the road at Nationals and our team won a bronze medal in the tournament. After summer polo was over it was time for Pallavi and me to train for the World University Games in Shenzhen, China. The World University Games (WUGs) is like a mini-olympics for college-aged athletes. There were over 140 different countries represented and about 30 different sports competed. I was fortunate enough to experience this celebration of sport alongside former teammates (Amber Oland) and rivals from different schools (including USC, UCLA, and CAL). I am not going to lie, I would have been happy if we just won one game. It was invigorating to not know your opponents and not know what to expect. We seemed to defy everyone’s expectations when we started to win and once we started to win we couldn’t stop! We made it all the way to the championship game where we played China. We ended up losing to China but we still won a silver medal! The trip had far exceeded my own expectations and I made friends that I would have never had the opportunity to meet. After China I moved back home to Marin and turned 21! I felt like I was the last of my friends to finally turn 21! And I am now writing to you all sitting on a lanai in Kauai gazing out at a beautiful beach with my family…. Life couldn’t get any better.


 

Summer Highlights // by Monica


In order to enter the top secret building, I had to parachute over and land exactly through a small opening on the fourth floor. Once I accessed the building, I spotted my target, the rouge spy who had previously infiltrated the CIA. We engaged in a dramatic chase scene, through an obstacle ridden room.

Would I ever catch the spy??

I will never know... because at this moment (5:35am) my and Alyssa Lo's alarm clocks went off simultaneously, just like they did every other day of the week. They signaled the end of my action-packed dream and prompted us to get out of bed and head over to Avery Aquatic Center for summer polo morning practice. Living on campus with Alyssa made the morning commute to the pool average a 3 minute bike ride. Having practice in the morning generally meant for an early bedtime, aside from the one night a week when Alyssa and I decided it was worth loosing an hour of sleep to stay up and watch The Bachelorette. Our summer water polo season culminated in placing third at Senior Nationals, which was held in my home town Moraga. Everyday this summer after practice I headed over to Lorry Lokey Labs on campus to continue working on a research project I started in June 2010. The model organism I work with is yeast, which is an endless source of amusement for my parents and their pun-making capabilities, most recently my father telling me I should title everything 'Yeast Meets West.' Between working in the lab and studying for a standardized test (which I must admit I thought I was finished with those after my junior year of high school) I was fairly busy until the end of August, when I moved back home to spend some time with my parents. The last few weeks of summer I'm enjoying relaxing in Moraga and helping out my Mom in her kindergarten class.

Summer Highlights // by Victoria


This summer I had an awesome opportunity to work as an intern for a local nonprofit, Help One Child, which provides support to families with foster children. Working with the team at Help One Child and playing water polo was a great and super fun experience-- the summer flew by! After water polo, I went to Spain for a week with my family and biked from Barcelona, through the French Pyrenees, and down to the Mediterranean coast. The scenery was breath-taking-- so were biking the hills! The food, as always, was the best part!



Summer Highlights // by Alexis


For the first part of summer, I stayed on campus to take a summer school class, practice with the Stanford Club team, and best of all to coach a 12 and under girls Junior Olympic water polo team. Once the summer session of water polo and classes were over, my family and I went on a vacation to Hawaii. While I was there I was able to sneak in a visit with Kim Hall, who was one of the three seniors on our championship team last year and is now a med student at the University of Hawaii. Since coming back to the mainland, I've been running around visiting old friends and getting my last fix of the socal beaches before I head back up north in time for school to start!

Summer Highlights // by Jillian


I had the ultimate summer this year. After water polo ended I spent most of my time traveling...all over the world! I went to Wisconsin for a family wedding and I had about 100 people that were related to me. It was so hard to keep track of them all! After Wisconsin my brother and I explored to Switzerland, Italy, and Greece and had the most amazing time. It was an experience of a life time and I am so grateful that I was able to create amazing memories with my brother. When I got back I climbed half dome with my mom, sister and a couple other friends. What a sight that was! It was truly an unforgettable summer!

Summer Highlights // by Kelsey


This summer was really eye-opening for me. Not only was I playing for Stanford Club, but I was also coaching the 14U girls for the team as well. The girls were amazing and promised to come watch my games this year—I can’t wait! I grew really close with them over the summer. After I left Northern California in August, I had the opportunity to shadow a surgeon at UC Irvine. I got to scrub up and observe in the operating room. I saw lots of really cool anatomy, and I can’t wait to get my hands in that someday for real! Before heading back up to school, I absolutely had to hit up my favorite burrito joint in San Clemente—Pedro’s Tacos! Me, some delicious Mexican food, and my favorite beach spot… it was a perfect way to end the summer.


Summer Highlights // by Catherine


This summer I played water polo for Socal club for the first time and worked as a swim instructor. But the highlight of my summer was my senior trip with my best friend to London!

Summer Highlights // by Cassie


This summer was by far my busiest summer yet, but NorCal treated me well. I moved out in June into the apartment that I lived in the previous summer with the Lo sisters and Alexis Lee, but this time with Kelsey Suggs, K-Bizzle, the Legend, and one of Jillian's high school friends. It definitely was a party with two bedrooms to five girls but reflecting back on it now, I loved it. Knowing that we would be waking up at the crack of dawn to play water polo every morning, K-Bizz was in bed at about 9 PM sharp every night, except for that one night I came home late and didn't call. She was worried sick about me. I'm not oging to lie, when she said, "I was so worried about you! You can't do that! I'm up an hour past my bedtime waiting for you!" with her retainers in, it was adorable. The Legend, Kelsey, and I had the same guilty pleasures, and by guilty pleasures I'm talking about Teen Wolf, MisFits, True Blood, and Say Yes to the Dress. Im pretty sure Suggs has already started planning her wedding and knows what her dress is going to look like. Next to this guilty pleasure was usually KB calling into Yummy Yogurt asking for what flavors they had that day to see if it was worth driving the 5 minutes into Redwood City to get FroYo. I'm really not sure why KB even bothered calling in because she always ended up driving over to get yogurt anyways. Our apartment being located 5 steps from the CalTrain made it pretty fun to sleep at night too. Luckily for us, we never overslept for morning work outs because we could always count on the CalTrain to wake us up at 5:30 AM sharp, EVERY.... MORNING. :)

I also worked in the city with a fellow water polo alumni, Kelsey Holshouser. I interned at a start up company called StarMaker Interactive. I loved working in the city. The San Francisco weather allowed me to dawn jeans and sweatshirts. To quote my good friend Mark Twain, "The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." TRUTH. I loved going into the city whether it was work, karaoke, or a Giants game, San Fran is always a lively and colorful place to go.

This summer was busy but I learned a lot with my internship, bonded more than ever with the Stanford Club girls, and just lived the dream.

Summer Highlights // by Ashley


This summer was pretty much just filled with water polo. For the first month and a half of summer I watched a lot of water polo because I was out with a torn ligament in my thumb, but I learned a lot from sitting on the bench. During the second half of the summer I trained with the Junior National Team for the Junior World Championships in Trieste, Italy. Although we didn't do as well as we had hoped to, it was a great experience and I really had a lot of fun! Oh, and the food there was DELISH!

Summer Highlights // by Kiley


I had a great summer of water polo and work. I played primarily for my club team, Santa Barbara Aquatics club. We won the 18 and under national club championship. I also participated on the USA junior national team that traveled To Trieste, Italy. Lastly I worked as a junior lifeguard instructor for the city of Santa Barbara. This experience taught me a lot about responsibility and gave me the opportunity to meet many interesting kids. I had a wonderful summer that I will remember forever.

Summer Highlights // by Kaitlyn


My summer has been a blast from hanging out on campus playing water polo with our team and taking stats 60 to working two internships one with Snapette a really awesome and fun iphone fashion and shopping app where my job was literally to go shopping and find the coolest local boutiques (so if you are ever interested to know where the best shopping in San Francisco and Palo Alto is just ask me). My other internship was one with Shauns Shades who makes designer sunglasses and for each pair bought they donate a pair to someone in need in a impoverished country. Finally I ended my summer with an amazing trip the NYC with my three best friends from my freshman dorm where we went to Broadway shows, spent the weekend on fire island, had tea at the plaza, and spent a day at the MOMA. Right before school started we also took a family trip to Kauai where we enjoyed the warm and sunny beaches, ate amazing food, and attempted surfing.

Summer Highlights // by Kate


I trained with Stanford club (obviously) until Opens. In the months of August and September I traveled to New York City with Melissa for a week where we toured around and shopped and show a show on broadway. Then I went to Catalina with my family. After that I went to our house in Tahoe for a week with a friend to relax on the lake and wake board and jet ski. Just returned from Trieste, Italy where I competed with the Jr. National team at the Junior World Championships. The whole summer I was playing water polo while also getting to enjoy myself on some fun vacations!

Summer Highlights // by Emily


This summer, as like most of my previous ones, was very water polo oriented. I was able to play with the stanford girls in the mornings because I live close-by and practiced with my club NorCal in the evenings. I nannied for a family on mondays and wednesdays in between practices for the entire summer, swam in swim meets on sundays for the menlo circus club, and tried to spend what little time we had left with my friends. Once jo's ended I spent essentially the rest of my summer with my family, went to our vacation house in Three Rivers for a week and then got ready for Stanford!

Summer Highlights // by Kaley


I played water polo from start to finish this summer! Highlights for me included winning U21 JOs with my old club team, SOCAL, and a trip to Italy with the US Jr Team for the Junior World Championships!

Summer Highlights // by Lexie


I spent most of this summer in and around here, playing polo and working on campus. I was a field counselor for the Stanford All-Sports Camp, an athletic summer camp for children ages 5-13. It was really great, because basically I was paid to play all day. I also pioneered a water polo component to the camp, definitely the best part of my job. Although the kids had a bit of trouble getting used to only using one hand to hold the ball and not standing on the bottom. You can't blame them though, some of these kids were like 3 feet tall. After work ended, I headed home to Laguna Beach for a couple weeks, then up to my cabin in Tahoe for a bit. After getting some R&R, I'm ready to get back to business.

Summer Highlights // by Lizzie


This summer was awesome! i got to spend a ton of time with my family and got to take a trip up to Oregon to see two of my very close friends. While in Oregon I got to see lots of animals, a rock garden, giant hiking areas and of course lots of green.



Summer Highlights // by Cory


This summer I played water polo for SoCal club and received 2nd place for 18&U and 1st place for 21&U in Junior Olympics. In addition to this I was given the opportunity to work with kids. I coached Splashball, taught swim lessons, and also privately tutored spanish to children under the age of 10, jobs that were all extremely rewarding and very fun.

5.24.2011

NCAA Tournament Thoughts



NCAAs this year was really a dream come true. When I was a freshman we came in third, and
then as a sophomore we placed second, and finally as a junior we finished first. It really has been
a three year process for my class and there was no better way to send off our seniors into the real
world and Mel and Anni into the world of the Olympics than to win a National Championship
together. From McDonalds to Disneyland and finally to Band Run, last weekend truly was
unforgettable.







A great memory from the weekend was watching the "40 Greatest Speeches of All Time" with
my roommate, Monica, before our semifinal and championship game.

"A day may come when the courage of men fails... But it is not this day!  -Aragon





It was an influx of emotions topped off by celebratory squeals and quite a few tears. It felt
surreal; we had done it. I made it a point to focus on and really take in everything that was going
on in that moment. It's a great feeling when you know you're experiencing something that you'll
go on to talk about and remember for the rest of your life.







No team I've played on has ever been this good.
No team I've trained with has ever pushed me this hard.
No team has supported me in and out of the pool in this way.
There is no team like Stanford women's water polo.







When JT said "Do it for each other and do it for the seniors," that’s when it hit me, winning the
National Championship was so much more than my hard work paying off, it was knowing that I
had 18 other girls giving it their all and trusting in each other. In the end when I think about the
weekend what I believe really got our team going wasn't about winning for ourselves, but for our
teammates and that is what made all the difference.







 I am just so proud of everyone on the team. We all are such a diverse group of girls and everyone has something in and out of the pool that they are absolutely incredible at. This weekend, we were together, played to each other’s strengths, and then dominated as a team. The feeling during the seconds counting down to the end of the game was a mix of every strong emotion you could think of. Yet, the only word that came to my mind was: LOVE. Love for my team, for the coaches, for Stanford, for the parents, and for the sport that brought us together.






The Monday before we left for Michigan, we had our last weight lifting session of the season. This of course meant it was time for dress up weights, a long standing tradition of Stanford Women's Water Polo. Our theme for this year: #winning, perfect to get us in the mood for what we planned on doing the coming weekend. So whether we were dressed up as the lottery, superman, Coach Susan, or Kate Middleton (clearly, she won), we completed our final weight program of the season as winners.








As we jumped into the pool to celebrate I remember thinking to myself, "This it is. All of those swim sets, early morning practices, and weekends forgone. To experience this moment."









One of my best memories from this past weekend was during the final game against Cal. It was late in the 3rd quarter and JT was standing about the 5M line and wanted to call a time-out. The
ref could not hear JT and back on the bench Susan and Kyle searched frantically for the horn. In a moment of panic Susan yells, "where the hell is the horn!?" and Kyle, finally finding it, does this wind mill move with his arm and finally slams it down. KB and I were dying laughing.








When all is said and done, it's not the shots that won the championship that you remember, but the friendships you made along the way.







 I am so proud to be a member of this team. Looking around at the faces of my teammates after that buzzer rang, I knew all the hard work, the early mornings, the lost weekends, the stress, the
pain, the struggle, the everything...was worth it. It's worth that feeling of pride. It's a feeling from which I am still "warm" (as Kimbo would call it). That feeling and those girls surrounding me are my inspiration.





With a minute and a half left thinking to myself "try and score 4 goals before the game is over Cal ... because you can't". And then they didn't score another goal.




"Cherish and savor this now and for a good time to come. You will remember it until the day you die. Draw on it when necessary as it will buoy you when you are down. You have a well- earned “magic elixir” that will be with you ad infinitum."--family friend







 I will never forget how the whole team found where my Dad was sitting (slightly away from the other parent section due to the pool set up at Michigan and my Dad being in a wheel chair), so they could make sure they waved to him during the introductions before the championship game.





NCAA's was amazing. It feels as though we have truly finished a season off. Every year season ends, and it is just over. But when you work so hard for something as big as an NCAA title, your season never ends. This one stays with you for a lifetime :)






Winning a national championship was WAY better than eating a McFlurry!!








My favorite part of the weekend was the feeling I got watching the clock go down for the last minute in the fourth quarter of our Cal game. Vee sitting next to me on one side and all of us on the bench had our arms around each other, while the girls in the pool had huge smiles on their faces. The feeling I had at that moment was unlike any other I have had in my entire life. Playing with such an amazing team and knowing that we had finally reached our goal with the help of every single person on the team!




To finally go to NCAAs and come back a champion was the greatest experience I have
had. The last three years it was disappointing coming up short and this year made all of the
disappointment finally worth it. To go out on top is just so exciting and I loved this year and all
of my amazing teammates.








 I will never forget the feeling relief and ecstasy that came over me as the burdens of training,
the pressure to win, the disappointment of losing in the past, anything that could have possibly
weighed me down, literally flew off my body as I lifted our NCAA championship trophy in the
air.

5.06.2011

The birds and the bees and the bikes in the trees




Now that I’ve experienced some time on campus and discovered some of the stranger parts about campus like bikes in trees and squirrels eating pizza. I’ve begun to settle in and start really getting into the reason I really chose Stanford, the classroom. This Quarter I’ve been lucky enough to take a class on anatomy geared towards bioengineers. In the class we tend to work with multimedia tools like cadavers, computer 3-D imagery, ipads (usually as a study tool) and even the solid models you see in doctors offices. The most interesting tool we use though is a computer generated dissection table, which is the fist of its kind and apparently has a lot of hype in the world of medicine seeing as a few weeks into class people with cameras came to film us learning and using the table. Similarly when a guest professor brought plastiginated cadavers people again came to film us using them as a learning tool in the classroom.

Beyond just the learning tools themselves in the class I have been amazed at the types of guest lectures I’ve have the privilege of learning from. While learning about the upper limb we were visited by Professor Kenneth Salisbury who gave us an intro to robotics and brought prototypes of simple robotic limbs. In the next week when we were focusing on the lower limb, a prosthetic designer by the name of Joel Sadler walked us through his design process for the Jaipurknee. The Jaipurknee is a device he crated at extremely low production costs, which out performs many more expensive forms of prosthetic knees. The one thing he focused on the most in his presentation though was his inspiration a 16- year-old amputee(pictured below walking with the Jaipurknee) he had met and wanted to help by creating a device especially for the conditions in which he lived at an affordable price. Which brings me to why I truly love this class.

The people who are a part of the class and who Professor Srivastava refers to as the team(neurological experts, computer experts, wonderful TAs) are all people who are looking to teach their students. They spend their time trying to make all the bones, muscles, nerves, and systems easier and more fun to learn. Each individual also makes efforts to get to know their students inside the classroom and outside the classroom. Hopefully as I continue my years here at Stanford I will continue to find these encouraging and intellectual environments.


Jaipur Knee article:


4.28.2011

Mix It Up




Spring is in the air! And since summer is almost here, I’ve been listening to my (aptly named) “SUMMER!” playlist on repeat since Spring Break. These songs have been in my head, nonstop, while biking around our beautiful campus. With the sun shining, it’s hard not to be happy.

What's on your summer playlist??
1. “A Case of You” – Joni Mitchell (Joni’s voice = Sunshine)
(listen)

2. “Animal” – Neon Trees (Reminds me of my little sister, when we were biking through Canada last summer)
(listen)

3. “Fugitive” – David Gray (For some reason, this song is always refreshing and puts me in a good mood)
(listen)

4. “Worn Me Down” – Rachael Yamagata (When we have days off from practice, I love running or walking around Lake Lagunita to this song!)
(listen)

5. “Solsbury Hill” – Peter Gabriel (Pretty self-explanatory. If you haven’t heard this song, you’re missing out)
(listen)

6. “California On My Mind” – Wild Light (Because California is on my mind…)
(listen)

7. “I’ll Fly Away” – Alison Krauss (Again, self explanatory)
(listen)

8. “Float On” – Modest Mouse (Reminds me that no matter what happens, “We’ll all float on…”)
(listen)