My first day at Stanford I got to explore the campus, watch UConn win the final four game and have dinner made for me by Kate, the Stanford president! It was a great day for all those reasons and the weather was beautiful for wandering around Stanford and Palo Alto.
During my visit I stayed with Kate and her roommate Emily, who is also in AEPhi. They live on campus in a dorm called Murray House (pictured below). When they told me it is not a very desirable dorm or location I was shocked because it is close to the gym and both student unions, plus it is so pretty! The building is fairly small as dorms go and is actually set up similarly to a sorority house, in the sense that everyone knows each other and the kitchen staff serves dinner in the kitchen Sunday through Thursday. Something I personally liked was the RAs decorated the building with a How I "Murray'd" Your Mother theme. I thought it was pretty clever and obviously I liked seeing all the quotes and cast pictures around the hallways.
One place I really liked on campus was the Coupa Cafe. It is an outdoor cafe with a huge menu of breakfast, sandwiches, pastries, teas and coffees. Everything I had from there was great but the set-up of the outdoor tables is what really made it for me. I like to sit out in the sun when the weather is nice, plus the little cafe tables gave it a very European feel. I don't know exactly what it was but at some points while sitting out there I had a weird feeling that I was in a Parisian cafe. I heard that San Fransisco and the Bay Area can sometimes have that European feeling so I'm going to go with that.
There was some good shopping right near by too. There is the Stanford Shopping Center right on the edge of campus, which has a Drybar, SoulCycle, Sprinkles Cupcakes, JCrew, etc. Then there is the Town & Country Village, a smaller shopping center with a lot of restaurants and a Trader Joes. Downtown Palo Alto was also a great place to explore when I had the time to wander a little more. I had a great time shopping and window shopping with some of my free time throughout the week!
I also found a few great places to eat during my visit to Stanford. I was told I had to go to CoHo, which is a cafe in the Tressider Memorial Union. I ended up having the same caprese panini twice because it was that good. I also had a great pesto pizza at Howie's in the Town & Country Village. I really love ice cream when it's hot out and I found two different places. Scoop is a little micro-creamery with a shop downtown that makes some interesting flavors and Tin Pot Creamery is in the Town & Country Village and had a line out the door so I knew I needed to try it. Both were great!
The above picture is the quintessential image of Stanford. In the middle you can see the top of Memorial Church and the paths lead out to Palm Drive, the road that is lined by palm trees and connects the beginning of campus to downtown Palo Alto. It is so pretty and my pictures don't even do it justice. Additionally, a major fact about the campus is that EVERYONE bikes. People literally bike everywhere on and around campus. The amount of bike racks was actually insane to me and they were always full. Kate often had a hard time finding a spot to lock up her bike at Murray when we came back late because there were already dozens of bikes there.
Formal recruitment finally began right at the end of my visit. I spent Friday doing last minute recruitment errands with the ladies and one of the places we went was Party City. I don't know if this is the same chain we have in the Northeast but this place was nuts. It had absolutley everything you could ever want or need for a party, plus so much more. I had a great time seeing all the crazy things and imagining all the great parties I could host!
That evening went well with Open House round and after we had cleaned up and were getting ready to vote, people started breaking out the snacks. I brought out a bag of Munchies (Maya's and my favorite cheesy late-night snack) and somehow it got passed around and most of the chapter had some. I don't really know how it happened but I though it was really funny because by the time the bag made it back it was empty. People also asked me after what it was so apparently I introduced Stanford AEPhi to their new favorite snack!
Palo Alto by Radiohead
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