AthLetes (I can't spell)

One thing I love about Stanford is the fact that we have an amazing athletics program, as demonstrated by the 14 consecutive Director's Cups (given to the school with the best overall athletics department). Some of my best friends here have Olympic aspirations, collegiate national championships, etc. This past week, though, I realized how some of the people next to me were actually really famous.

Exhibit A: Toby Gerhart, Stanford's star running back, is in my Probabilistic Analysis class, and while I have known this since the first week of school, it suddenly became kind of surreal yesterday, when I was reading articles online and in the Stanford newspaper (yes, yes, slacking off during class--but at least I don't fall asleep, DANIEL) about Toby's performance. And there he was, sitting 2 seats to my left, taking notes/doing a crossword.

Exhibit B: After the last football game (which we won), we all had to sing the absolutely cacophonous and disgusting alma mater (you think PVPHS's was bad? try listening to a few verses of "Hail Stanford Hail"). Apparently it's a tradition for us to embrace in a line and sing + sway together after our victories, which are happening with more regularity now! My friend pokes me and whispers "dude go grab Michelle Wie." Lo and behold, Michelle had just walked down the stairs and was right next to me! Being too shy....errrr, too respectful and too much of a gentleman, I decided to leave her alone. Whatever, it was still cool :)

Exhibit C: I'm taking this (hopefully) joke of a class in the Communications Department called Media Psych, and the class is dominated by athletes. I've seen basketball players, track runners, etc, and never really cared too much. But there was one girl who particularly stood out, since I was convinced she looked just like Candice Wiggins, a basketball player who led us to the Finals last year and was drafted 3rd overall in the WNBA draft. But I figured I must be wrong, since she already finished her first professional season. Yesterday, though, a class roster was put up to divide us into groups for a project, and her name was on the list! I was right! haha. Guess she came back to finish up her degree.

Also, I apparently took a seat in the dining hall that was just vacated by Robin Lopez (Phoenix Suns rookie who left Stanford last June after finishing his Sophomore Year) a few weeks ago. Lucky him--he got to sit in the seat that Andrew Kao has blessed with his presence.

next up on Andrew's post: How I outsmarted a prank attempt!