To Catch A Thief
Unbeknownst to me, the thief was yours truly.
I woke up in my huge, luxurious bed around 8:30, had my normal cereal, then proceeded to my old dorm room to clean up a little and throw a few things away. I left behind some hangers, a pillow, laundry detergent, and some trash bags as I no longer need them and I thought they might come in handy for the future resident. After taking some pictures, I slid my key card under the dorm manager's office and made my way to lab.
About an hour and a half later, Miss Wu rushed in on a cell phone to find me and said the dorm was missing a telephone that was supposed to be in my room. I was at first thoroughly confused, but then I realized my blunder.
'Oops, it's at the Yus',' I said. I turned around and walked back to the apartment to get the phone and return it to the dorm.
When I had arrived at the TIGP dorm the first night, there was a bunch of stuff on the bed, including sheets, a comforter, and pillow that Alice had left me. There was also a new phone in a box on the bed, which I had assumed she had also left me. In packing up, I threw everything in a bag and transported it to my new residence.
'You mean it doesn't belong to Alice?' I asked Miss Wu.
'No, it's the dorm's,' she replied.
My bad.
The whole snafu was cleared up rather quickly, and I dropped off the phone to the security guard as the dorm manager wouldn't be in until later in the afternoon. It's so nice that they simply called me to report the mistake and I could simply correct it right away. I could only imagine what kind of armageddon-like hassle that would have been with ResLife of my home university.
Tonight Alice and I had dinner together in the apartment. John was going to join us, but had to dine with coworkers over a meeting at Academica Sinica. I'm amazed at how hard those two work, and for how long. I also found out that both their kids did their medical education at UCSF, turning down Harvard and Johns Hopkins acceptances for financial reasons. Maybe if I hang around here long enough these genius genes will seep into my being. Any chance of that happening?
I talked about my political science background and how I want to do international health things, and then Alice informed me her daughter was at first a political science major. She took some classes at JFK School of Government, but then realized she couldn't stand her classmates, so she ended up going into medicine. It's interesting, but given I have been in similar situations, I agree with that assessment. Political science graduate students act as if they are God's gift to research and cannot possibly know any more than they already do, while science students are smart enough there is so much to know that there is no way they can know it all. That's my theory, anyway.
Seriously, how does this family have so much success? What is their secret? Is it the Taiwanese water? Do they tell us not to drink it because the government wants to harvest its secret powers for its political elite? Is it really all a conspiracy to divert the genius water to those with the money?
I close with some pictures of the old and new residences. While I most definitely prefer the latter, I will miss the talking elevator.
I woke up in my huge, luxurious bed around 8:30, had my normal cereal, then proceeded to my old dorm room to clean up a little and throw a few things away. I left behind some hangers, a pillow, laundry detergent, and some trash bags as I no longer need them and I thought they might come in handy for the future resident. After taking some pictures, I slid my key card under the dorm manager's office and made my way to lab.
About an hour and a half later, Miss Wu rushed in on a cell phone to find me and said the dorm was missing a telephone that was supposed to be in my room. I was at first thoroughly confused, but then I realized my blunder.
'Oops, it's at the Yus',' I said. I turned around and walked back to the apartment to get the phone and return it to the dorm.
When I had arrived at the TIGP dorm the first night, there was a bunch of stuff on the bed, including sheets, a comforter, and pillow that Alice had left me. There was also a new phone in a box on the bed, which I had assumed she had also left me. In packing up, I threw everything in a bag and transported it to my new residence.
'You mean it doesn't belong to Alice?' I asked Miss Wu.
'No, it's the dorm's,' she replied.
My bad.
The whole snafu was cleared up rather quickly, and I dropped off the phone to the security guard as the dorm manager wouldn't be in until later in the afternoon. It's so nice that they simply called me to report the mistake and I could simply correct it right away. I could only imagine what kind of armageddon-like hassle that would have been with ResLife of my home university.
Tonight Alice and I had dinner together in the apartment. John was going to join us, but had to dine with coworkers over a meeting at Academica Sinica. I'm amazed at how hard those two work, and for how long. I also found out that both their kids did their medical education at UCSF, turning down Harvard and Johns Hopkins acceptances for financial reasons. Maybe if I hang around here long enough these genius genes will seep into my being. Any chance of that happening?
I talked about my political science background and how I want to do international health things, and then Alice informed me her daughter was at first a political science major. She took some classes at JFK School of Government, but then realized she couldn't stand her classmates, so she ended up going into medicine. It's interesting, but given I have been in similar situations, I agree with that assessment. Political science graduate students act as if they are God's gift to research and cannot possibly know any more than they already do, while science students are smart enough there is so much to know that there is no way they can know it all. That's my theory, anyway.
Seriously, how does this family have so much success? What is their secret? Is it the Taiwanese water? Do they tell us not to drink it because the government wants to harvest its secret powers for its political elite? Is it really all a conspiracy to divert the genius water to those with the money?
I close with some pictures of the old and new residences. While I most definitely prefer the latter, I will miss the talking elevator.
Old bed.
New bed.
Old closet.
New closet.
My dorm door. My 'key' was a plastic card that I simply held up to the box to the left of the door. It was a very smart key.
posted by Shannon @ 8:47 PM
<< Home