Meme! Meme! Meme!

I would call this the College Meme. Hat tip goes to Nick B. and Jason P.

Go on ... just do it ... you know you want to ... repost this survey with memories of your college days...

I will fill this in using my undergraduate university. I went to UCSD, and specifically, Revelle College.

When you attended UCSD, where did you live?
freshman year: I made the approximately 30 mile commute from home to campus.
sophomore year: Pepper Canyon Apartments, 1700 Building (the first year they were opened)
junior year: International House, 400 Building
senior year: International House, 400 Building
senior year II: International house, 400 Building

Who was/were your roommate(s)?
freshman year: I was "adopted" by ... I think it was Discovery Hall on the Revelle Campus. Res Life had a programme where specific floors of dorms would adopt a Freshman Commuter Student. It was a great way to meet people.
sophomore year: Lynda Bacquiran and two other people whose names I've forgotten.
junior year: Anita Sit, Anita Chan (post-doc researcher at UCSD Medical Centre), a French post-doc whose name I've forgotten
senior year: Anita Sit, Sandry Chendra, Kyoko Endo
senior year II: Anita Sit, Sandry Chendra, Yoko Kobayashi (Engineering grad student, I think)

Do you still talk to them?
Lynda, Sandry, Kyoko, and I still exchange Christmas cards. I've lost track of Anita Je Je (Chan) and Anita Mui Mui (Sit). All I know is that the two Anitas are married, and are both practising Medicine in the West Coast.

Ever get in trouble in the dorms?
Not that I recall. The only trouble, really, was when I had the French post-doc as a housemate. The two Anitas and I had specifically requested a non-smoking house, and yet the French housemate was assigned to us. She smoked like a chimney. We finally ganged up on her and asked her to stop smoking in the room. We did ask her if she smoked, why did she request non-smoking roommates. Her answer: she did not want to live in a smoky house (?!?!!). In the meantime, two of us who had definite allergies to cigarette smoke were suffering from constant health problems all year as a result. Interestingly enough, said health problems disappeared when we asked French housemate to stop smoking inside the house.

Something you remember when you lived on campus?
two words: fire alarms

I concur with Nick and Jason. The most interesting incidents have occurred with the fire alarms, although my most interesting experience with it occurred when I was living in graduate housing at Clark University. 914 Main Street, Worcester, MA. Grad house was on top of a pub type of establishment. Fire alarm went off at 2-bloody-30 in the bleeding morning. It was snowing, probably around 6 inches of snow on the ground and growing. So there were a group of bleary-eyed and rather irritated graduate students, standing out in the snow, wondering what went on to set off the fire alarm. It was a bloody kitchen accident in the pub that did it. Oh yes, the other memorable fire alarm incident? Again at Clark, this time when the graduate house was located at 87 Florence Street. This time, it was a bloody mouse that set it off in the wee hours of the morning. At least there wasn't snow on the ground, but I will admit - I slept through the bloody thing, and Campus Police were not pleased with me at all - they had to barge in and drag me out of bed. (Yes, I am a heavy sleeper. I am only too lucky the Practical Jokers never caught on to that ...)

Your campus phone number or other number?
The most memorable was one that Sandry picked out herself. The area code at the time was 619 (this was well before the 619/858 split). The phone number: 558-6588. Sandry thought the combination was a lucky one. I'm not superstitious, but I went along with it.

First party attended?
I really wasn't into parties that much. I was either in a practice room either in Argo Hall or at Mandeville Hall if I was lucky, or sitting at either the Undergraduate Library, the Central Library, or the library at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography ... or sitting at the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, within a very easy walking distance of Muir College.

Favorite Pizza Place?
Didn't really have one. Can't really count Licorice Pizza, as they did not serve pizza, but was actually a (vinyl) record store.

Favorite place to go out to eat?
Anywhere that wasn't on campus. With La Jolla Village Square and UTC nearby, there was always someplace interesting to eat. The most interesting? Carlos Murphy's, featuring Mexican and Irish foods. Actually, if you had access to a car, there are heaps of great places to eat in San Diego. You only had to make the time ... and the money ... in order to partake. Contrary to popular belief, I did not partake in constant Denny's and Roberto's runs as I wasn't really a night owl when I was an undergrad.

Did you go to the library?
I believe I answered that question above. When I did my upper level Chemistry courses, I was spending time mainly in the Scripps library ... oh yeah, at the time, the Chemistry Library was located in Urey Hall. It has since been moved to the Central Library (now the Geisel Library, yes, named after Dr. Seuss himself.)

What was your Favorite Floor you'd always be on?
(blink blink) favourite floor??? I believe Pepper Canyon and I-House really only had two floors ... I'd say ask a Muir student who had the pleasure of living in either Tenaya or Tioga Hall. Maybe even ask the Physics students who had the pleasure of dropping various food items (eggs, watermelons, pumpkins, etc.) off the roofs of said buildings. Er, waitaminute ... perhaps the Watermelon Drop took place at the roof of Urey Hall over on Revelle Campus. I don't remember any more, it's been too long!!!

Where did you buy your books?
Whichever place had the cheapest, second-hand books. I always resented that the science students had to pay waaaaay more than the humanities students for their textbooks.

Play any sports?
Does Inner Tube Water Polo count as a sport? My graduate students friends in the CSE Department, especially Brian Russ, Bob Carragher, and Bob Carden, dragged me into most of the IM sport teams like volleyball, floor hockey, bowling ("and there was much rejoicing. yay." Delivered in a very deadpan voice, with a facial expression as devoid of emotion as much as possible ... used whenever one of the four of us bowled a strike or a spare) ... and yes, even Inner Tube Water Polo. I spent so much time with these blokes that everyone thought I was a CSE major!

Ever attend a sporting event?
(blink blink) - at UCSD?!? I wasn't a State (SDSU) student, where all the sport took place. They had their football, basketball, baseball, and parties. I had my books.

Ever attend a concert or comedic performance?
Concerts, yes. Mostly of the classical type. Also attended talks by Elie Wiesel and Simon Wiesenthal (my high school history teacher was so into Holocaust studies, and piqued my interest in this area as well). The closest to comedic performance I attended was screenings of The Princess Bride and the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Otherwise, time was spent watching foreign films as part of the International Film Series, or Japanimation as part of the Cal Animage, Beta group.

Favorite professor(s)?
Hmmmm. Humanities: Richard Elliott Friedman. It seemed like every Revelle student wanted to take a Humanities course with Professor Friedman. David Luft was really nice also - he even tried to convince me to take a double major in History and Chemistry; I think he wanted me to do some special studies with him, but I decided against it. Chemistry: absolute favourite was Francis Knowles. He was a Lecturer at the time, and taught the Organic Labs. As I embark on my teaching career, Professor Knowles is the person I want to emulate. I also liked Dan Harvey as well - I took Advanced Organic Chemistry with him. He was tough, but fair, and I learnt a great deal from him.

Have you ever spent the night on campus not in a residence?
Yes ... whenever I felt like it, I would roam around campus with my trusty Canon AE-1 in hand. Sometimes, this also meant sleeping in the grassy area over by the Sun God.

Favorite night to go out on, and where did you go?
Erm ... I didn't really go out that much. If I did at all, it would usually be in downtown La Jolla ... or trying to find our way over to Mt. Soledad so we could get a great view of San Diego, and sit by the cross (which the bloody atheists have been trying to take down with legal challenge after legal challenge ever since I can remember) for quiet reflection. On a dare, a group of friends hiked over to Black's Beach ... notorious for being a haven for nudists. We didn't see much, just an aging bloke who seemed very comfortable in his sagging skin.

Where did you buy your coffee?
I didn't really. I'm not so keen on coffee. I feel like I'm on drugs if even a drop crossed my lips.

Favorite Year of Halloween?
Erm ... I don't recall. We may have planned stuff over at I-House, but nothing really sticks out in my mind.

Favorite memory?
Too many to say here.

Go see a play or been in one?
Oh yeah. When you live in San Diego, and you're within shouting distance of the Old Globe Theatre, how can you not see one?

What did you hate about your college?
Parking!!!! Honestly, you pay heaps of money for the parking permit, and really all it is is a hunting licence! Hunting around for parking spaces, that is! Otherwise, nothing really sticks out at me as hateworthy concerning UCSD. It truly is a wonderful place to go to school, no matter if you're an undergrad or graduate student.

What did you love most about it?
I may have sort of answered that in the previous question.

Where would you believe is the best location to live?
At the time, I lived there - the Pepper Canyon apartments. I'm sure better res halls and apartments have cropped up since then.

Graduated or still attending?
Graduated

Year of graduation?
June 1992

Will you go back?
to visit, yes. If my parents had their way, I would try to apply for a faculty position at UCSD. However, I do recall somewhere in the recesses of that thing called my mind, that they rarely consider taking back their own, that as soon as they see you were educated at UCSD in your CV, they pass over you and look at someone else.

How many parking tickets have you gotten there?
I can only think of two.

Finally, ever gotten arrested?
No. The only time I had dealings with campus police was when I was asking them for contacts with the San Diego PD looking for forensics labs to visit for a field trip for the local American Chemical Society club.

Wow, that was a nice trip through memory lane!!! Okay, any takers for this meme? Anyone who reads this, please feel free to respond. Just leave a URL in the combox. I'd be delighted to hear from you.