Day 3 (8/5) - (East) Palo Alto
Waffling through breakfast
I was surprised. There was almost no graffiti on the Caltrains. Even European trains had more.
We were supposed to do "'field research' at various ethnic neighbourhoods", so a group of us went to East Palo Alto, a predominantly minority neighbourhood with a reputation of being bad. We went there in a group and in the day though, so it was alright.
Unfortunately, we got conned by a bus driver who told us to take the 297. After waiting for 45 minutes, we went to check the bus schedules - only to find that the 297 only ran at night. Grr.
Lots and lots of pinatas in a grocery store, none of which are the traditional ones.
I'm not getting *my* hair cut here.
I wonder why they have to proclaim this. Hurr hurr.
Apparently the Latina at a Shell station we visited (to ask for directions, IIRC) thought I was a girl, after which I was advised to tie up my hair so black guys wouldn't assault us because they were jealous of my hair.
Guan zheng identified this as an example of gentrification, with this being nicer than the houses around, and surrounded by gates which demarcated a cultural zone.
We went to the East Palo Alto Charter School, which Darren had identified the night before as a place to visit.
East Palo Alto Charter School
Despite our not making a prior appointment and just waltzing in (and thus being unable to photograph the kids) we were warmly welcomed and given a tour by the principal, making it so much easier to do research than in a Singaporean school, where we would be treated with suspicion.
Despite the neighborhood, it was a great school due to its autonomy, but unfortunately the other schools in the area aren't as good, probably partly because of the power of school boards and teachers' unions.
Courtyard
Classroom; much more colourful than a Singaporean one
Library
Garden
A major reason for health problems is that fast food is the cheapest food available; healthy food is too expensive for poor people, since fast food is the only way to feed a family for $20.
Picture with the principal. This was but one of the two days I was in shorts throughout the trip.
Normal, poor houses in the neighborhood along Runnymede Street. But due to high house prices even these cost about US$500,000
'Welcome to Palo Alto' - over the freeway bridge, a very different neighborhood lurks.
Given that Mexican gang wars rage so close by (if you look Mexican, you shouldn't wear Blue or Red or you may get shot since these are gang colours), it is interesting that here, just a stone's throw away, there is so little crime (comparatively). As one of the Stanford students was observing, with regard to drug crime, drug dealers usually don't kill other people for no reason. It's either for survival or to make money. Similarly, I'm guessing the Mexicans don't drive down to Palo Alto in their technicals and shoot people.
One of the many houses owned by rich people
Walking down University Avenue
It was a very long walk, and when we reached this Thai place that one woman we'd talked to had recommended, we found that it had closed at 3 (just after we'd started walking)
Downtown Palo Alto
Apple shows itself to be very colourful. Hurr hurr.
I was very pissed off with this place selling Gyros, since it didn't have pork Gyros. In fact, none of the Gyros places I saw in California sold pork Gyros - I think they were all run by Turks. This must be revenge for their loss of Greece.
When I took a picture of the logo the waitress gave me a weird look so I said it was to remember the place by. What I didn't say was whether it was a good or bad memory.
Toilet sign seen in the Gyros place toilet - multiculturalism indeed!
We then walked around Downtown Palo Alto. Outside one shop, I saw a whiteboard promising a free gift to anyone who could tell them what famous American landmark was constantly moving backwards. Since I knew the answer, I went on in and while waiting for them to get my prize (a handphone screen cleaner that can be hung from the phone - somewhat more useful than Winnie the Pooh, Hello Kitty, dice, stuffed toys, my name, crystals/jewels, tiny photo frames et al.), I realised that I'd walked into a handphone shop selling Samsung handphones. Only the word "Samsung" wasn't visible anywhere except on the phones - it was branded as "Helio" (as is my handphone screen cleaner).
Samsung Drift UI
Cheesecake Factory: 36 types of cheesecake! Ironically the non-cheescake items on their menu far outnumber the cheesecake items.
"Windy's Chinese Restaurant" is an unfortunate name. Maybe they don't use ginger in their cooking. And it doesn't help that they had a neon sign for Tsingtao beer, the logo of which (presumably a gourd) looked like a piece of shit.
We had dinner with some Singaporean students at Stanford, and then Guan Zheng and I went to watch part of The Fall of the Roman Empire with Sicheng, for his class 'Ancient Empires'; unfortunately we don't get many such funky classes in NUS. I wonder if this is because we're: 1) A Public University, 2) A Singaporean University or 3) NUS; probably all 3. Unfortunately I didn't find it very good, and presumbably many others didn't either as a quarter were on laptops (then again, maybe the fact that going to screenings counted for credit had something to do with that).
I suggested to the others that we buy Stanford shirts and wear them to Berkeley and got called lame. Vinod alone agreed to do this a few days later (I was supposed to do so too but didn't buy any Stanford apparel in the end because I thought it pretentious), but while we were there he chickened out (aww). I also had a Part 2 of this planned lined up - wearing Berkeley shirts to Stanford, and executed this part with a few uncoordinating accomplices.
Seen in an STA Travel window in Palo Alto was an advertisement for an "Ultimate World Traveler Internship". According to one online source:
"STA Travel is hiring one lucky student for a 12-week summer internship and Ultimate World Traveler trek across the globe.
The Ultimate World Traveler intern will visit 18 countries, and be responsible for blogging, capturing video footage, taking photos, and interviewing guides and fellow travelers along the way.
Highlights of the trek include:
* Eight European countries in 14 days, with Contiki Tours
* London to Rome in 14 days, including the Swiss Alps, Barcelona, and the French Riviera, with Topdeck Tours
* Australia for 14 days, with Connections Adventures
* Thailand for 6 days, with Intrepid Travel
* China for 14 days, where you’ll work in a conservation center that aims to preserve some of the world’s most endangered panda species
* Costa Rica 7-day adventure tour"
Unfortunately, applications had closed more than a month before I saw it. And for some reason the STA mailing list didn't tell us about this even though they spam us with as regularly. Gah.
Quotes:
'Rancho grande'. What language is that? Mexican? (Spanish)
All of us in this room are non-religious. *God is great*.
How come there's a Chinese [TV] channel? [Student: Why cannot?] That's what happens when you have 300 channels. One of them will be a Chinese channel. [Student: You're horrible.]