Pride Parade & Exploring San Francisco
Week 2 started out with a bang at the Pride Parade held along market street in San Francisco. We boarded the Caltrain to San Francisco. The Caltrain was somewhat like the MRT that ran between Palo Alto and San Francisco. Everyone’s spirits were high as we watched waves of members of the LGBTQ proudly march down the street. Afterwards, we stopped for lunch at the esteemed Good Mong Kok bakery where we hunkered down with some delicious dim sum. Following that, we explored the nearby Chinatown area and got to see the Dragon’s Gate and the Fortune Cookie Factory. We also stopped by for some boba (bubble tea) at one of the many quaint shops dotting the area.
On campus activities
Back at Stanford, power was back to almost full capacity, hence it was back to the grind of lessons and assignments. Nonetheless, we still had other activities planned alongside our lessons. We made a visit to the Stanford tech park where we got to meet people from Tesla, Argo and other technology driven companies. There was also a working DeLorean from the movie Back to The Future. Great Scott!. We also had a tour of the Argo office and it was interesting to see how they structured the office space in a manner that fosters collaboration and creative thinking. One thing that struck me was how some of the standing desks even had a treadmill built below it!
Shopping at Gilroy
Lastly, who can forget about the weekends when we go off campus for a weekly escapade. First, we went out to Marshalls which was an outlet store that sold excess stock from name brands. You could get clothes from Adidas and other boutique brands at a fraction of the price you would pay at a retail store. We also went to the local Costco in Redwood City where the shelves were stacked with tons of wholesale items. They even sold a whole children’s playground set! To end off the week, we made our way to Gilroy Outlets which featured many big name brands like Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein, Under Armour and the like. They had excellent deals on handbags, sportswear and casual clothes; offers which delighted the inner Singaporeans in us. All of us did a bunch of shopping and left the place with a trunk-load of bags and a much lighter wallet. With week 2 down, we waited in anticipation for the next adventure.
