Orientation Camping Trip

The first event of UCSF Med '10 Orientation was a two-day camping trip for us to meet the others in our class. It was at Huddart Park, which amusingly was near Redwood City (close to Stanford). It's beautiful with lots of towering trees, open fields, and trails. The day started early at 8:30. We drove down to the camp site; I was in the carpool with Ben, Dave (recently married), Pratheepa, and Elaine (from UNI). There, we mingled (awkward, but necessary) and had a few icebreakers. There was this pretty standard activity where we simulated a world on the ground and stood where we were from, where we went to school, etc. Stanford apparently has the largest contingent in this year's class, and we were highly obnoxious. While everyone else just said their school name, we spelled out "Leland Stanford Junior University" (some silly thing the band does). In any case, I met a lot of people; we seem like a cool and diverse bunch. One student, a capoeira expert, was a stunt double for Halle Berry in Catwoman.

We had some team-building activities in a group of 14 random students. We went around completing challenges which were really quite fun. They were reminiscent of middle school science camp. I never went to middle school science camp, but it was exactly how I imagined such a camp would be so I'm making up for lost childhood. One of the competitions had a six foot pipe open on one end with holes all along the length of the pipe. In the pipe was a ping-pong ball. The mission was to stop up the holes with our hands and pour in seven gallons of water to get the ball out. It was ridiculous; I was soaked, but it was quite fun! In another competition, we were partnered up. One person was blindfolded and the other person had to verbally navigate them through an obstacle course. Yet another required us to throw balls into buckets. In the end, we won first place! Which was surprising and quite funny. I enjoyed it a lot.

Then, I hung out with and met new people. I don't particularly like the awkward socializing, but the crowd seemed really nice. We have quite a unique group; though most people came from California schools, we had a good representation of people from all over the country and world. After dinner, two kegs appeared and people started drinking. That night, we had skits, many of which were highly inappropriate but quite funny. I didn't sleep too well due to the coldness of being outside, but it was very pretty. Our tent had a net top which allowed us to see the stars. The next morning, we had breakfast and went home. All in all, I learned the names of some people, became acquainted with many, and enjoyed myself.