MN day one

three and a half hour flight isn't bad. it's worse than what i thought. cramped seats and crying babies and punk stewardesses. thought i could get some NOvA reading done during flights, but the pressurized cabin worked better than a sleeping pill. a well-planned three and a half hour intensive reading turned into a three and a half hour nap.

none of my luggage were missing, so that was good.

the plane arrived at 6pm local time, and the first thing that came to mind as i walked out of the airplane is the international airport in indonesia. hot, humid, lots of mosquitos. well, i have not really seen the mosquitos at all, but i figured the hot and humid made it reasonable for them to camp out here.

everything here is air-conditioned, so that's a good thing. jeebus, this really feels like jakarta, only not.

dorm rooms are small, but that matters not. i'm sharing a room with a guy named bobby from rice university. i've spent a good three hours in the room, but he has yet to show up. this shows that he either: 1. has a life and is currently exploring minneapolis, or 2. is a nerd and is currently stuck in a lab running experiments.

as the plane was descending, i looked out the window and noticed that there's more trees than buildings here. that's nice. maybe i will like this place after all. maureen showed me a park in the middle of the city that has hiking place and is basically a jungle. that is beautiful. i could really use some trees and grass since i don't get to see them that often in sandiego. well, there are some, but it's hot as hell because it's almost summer and the grassy areas are never accompanied by trees.

heat radiation falls like 1/r^4 right? because right now my teapot is about half a centimeter away from my ice water, and i don't want the tea to get cold, or the water to get warm. and no, increasing the separation distance between the two is NOT a solution, for it requires effort.

i do not have an internet in my room, so i don't think i will be in there most of the time. apparently the dorm rooms does not have wireless as well. i guess that's something i have to get used to, living in a suburb like minnesota.

that, and the fact that food places close at 7. double you tee eff? i had to get off campus on foot and find some place to eat because apparently i fell asleep on the bed and didn't wake up until 9.45pm. it's somewhat funny because you'd think, oh man, i have to go to downtown to find a place to eat, and i have to walk. so there you are, walking, and then two blocks away from your dorm is already the downtown. convenient, i say.

the receptionist in my building told me about village wok, a chinese food restaurant that she said "super good." so i went there, ordered a wonton soup and a roasted pork fried rice. while waiting i took out my laptop, thinking i could do some more reading, and guess what i found? WIRELESS. NETGEAR. THREE BARS. and so here i am, blogging and eating fried rice.

gonna walk around some more after my stomach is full. maureen said peter want to see me at 9 tomorrow, so i better not sleep too late.

check out PHDComics's new strip. the fall of mike slackenerney.

cute asian girl at 3 o'clock. glasses, skinny, ponytailed. yummy.