Hello everyone! Group 3 has new updates for everyone as we conclude our second week in Stanford!
Upon taking time to settle down in the first week and finally ramping down on the admin work, we were ready to start living life to its fullest in the United States.
Cycling to lessons still feels like a foreign concept but something rather exhilarating. It was a great start to our days before sitting down for lessons. It was a great way to get active too, especially after eating the buffet-style meals almost everyday. The calories definitely had to be burned somewhere!
Lessons have also begun to kick in, and many of us are taking very interesting courses that we would not be able to take back in Singapore. Just to point out a few, De Rong and Zhen Hao are taking courses related to astronomy, Hui Ting is learning more about the art of decision making, Abu is taking Chinese and Glenda is taking an art class. It was very interesting to talk about what we were learning and these courses are sure to have started broadening our horizons.
Beyond the campus, we went on our very first road trip together during the long 4th of July Weekend!
The 4 day road trip consisted of National Park hopping. We visited Sequoia National Park and Kings Canyon National Park for the first 2 days. The most memorable part about this was the hike up to Heather Lake. Upon driving 7000 feet up the mountains, We took a 16km hike and ascended an additional 2000 feet, making us be about 9000 feet above ground level. The sights were truly breathtaking! Language is definitely not enough to describe nature’s beauty, so let’s take a look at some pictures ☺️
Look at how small we were compared to everything else!
This was the stunning Heather Lake waiting for us at the end of the trail. 
Feeding ourselves because, 13km hikes are long and we need energy for that (also, who can say no to red velvet oreos?!)
Tired yet satisfied faces after seeing the AMAZING views!
We are TINY next to the tree! Bear in mind – this is just the base of the it.
Subsequently, we went to many places of attraction along the Pacific coast as well.
Elephant seals basking in the sun — Oh how we wished we were one of them. (Those little things that look like smooth dark gray stones are actually seals!)
Visited many different beaches — As you can see De Rong is extremely happy to be able to play with the sand and water.
OMG. A beach with purple sand? WHATT?
Abu took us to a trail where a few of us decided to roll down the sand dune at the end of the trail. 10/10 experience!
To end one of our nights, we went to a drive-in cinema and watched Toy Story 4. It was rather chilly outside, but it was definitely a very unique experience sitting on top of a car/ chilling in the car boot to watch a movie.
Sitting on top of our cars.
We also visited the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk where many famous movies were filmed such as Us, the recent American horror film just released this year.
We were lucky to be greeted with clear blue skies during our visit here.
But wait– there’s more! — just as you thought that we have already done so many different activities already, we went berry-picking! We picked out some delicious Ollalieberries and Tayberries. Sweet ones were real sweet but we had to scout for them! 
We ended off the road trip with a delicious meal at the famous Sam’s Chowder house.
After this it was back to Branner Hall. It was a fulfilling weekend for each and everyone of us. Despite being tired, we were recharged, ready to face what week 3 of the Stanford Summer Session would bring us. Stay tuned for more updates!
