How many cookies can we fit into a coffee cup?

Saturday was largely unproductive as far as school goes. I made a Spanish-ish scramble with chopped green onion and manchego cheese, which was actually pretty good, served with some toasted bread that Saori had picked up.

Fortified by a late breakfast, we headed out on a St.Louis field trip. Saori had asked me to take her around the city as a means to get her acquainted with a city that I've been inhabiting for the better part of a year and a half. So we drove out to the place I think is really interesting in far north St.Louis, the chain of rocks park and bridge.

Constant reader, you may remember that I took a lot of photos and spent a lot of time documenting an old road which was build and consequently abandoned for at least several decades, and I took Saori to hike around there. It was very different denuded of leaves, much less 'magical' if you want to call it that.

Of great interest to Saori was the huge field at the top of the bluffs, which was the former site of an amusement park, since one of her initial interests for design thinking is homo ludens, or the playful human.

We also satisfied my curiosity by walking almost all the way across Chain of Rocks bridge, which is an ancient steel girder bridge which spans the Mississippi. It once served two lanes of cars, but its now a pedestrian crossing. It makes me wonder how many exclusively pedestrian bridges cross the Mississippi. It's actually quite beautiful with the rusted girders and the epic sweep of the river below. We actually crossed over the state line into Illinois mid-span. The full length of the bridge is almost exactly one mile.

We grabbed lunch at the Mexican place and headed in to studio to get some work done around 3 o'clock in the afternoon.

This morning, we also had a slow start, but we met up in studio a little after 11 to go have some brunch. Saori and I were joined by Dew, Chuck, Kenny, and Freda, and we walked over to the South 40. The South 40 refers to the undergraduate residential/amenity center of Wash. U. Little shops, a laundromat, a bicycle repair center, a convenience store, all with dorms above. There's a broad promenade connecting it to the main campus, and then you enter this roundabout plaza with a clock in the middle of it, and you think, when did I get to Disneyland? The promenade takes you down a series of terraces with the little village of dorms around you and at the base, there is the massive cafeteria.

This is a wonderful secret for graduate students. Saturday and Sunday, the cafeteria offers an "all you care to eat" brunch buffet for less than $9 (although you do have to use your campus card to pay for it). It runs from 11 until 2pm. All the stations. Pancakes, Belgan waffle maker station, custom omelets, donuts, yogurt, Kosher food (served by a Hisidic Jewish student), pizza, roasted turkey breast, cereals, fruits, coffee, fruit juice, and more. I was in heaven, totally overloading my plate even with the french toast sticks that I knew came straight from the freezer aisle. The first thing that Chuck did was to make himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. As I went by with my giant plate teetering full of carbohydrates, grease, and protein, I found myself chastising him and telling him how many rules of buffet dining he was violating. But then, I realized that not everyone immediately attempts to see how much syrup the plate can hold.

It's called the Bear's Den and it's full of undergraduate students, looked like most of them residents of the dorms, i.e. underclassmen. You can tell they also all wear either track pants, short shorts, sweats, or basketball shorts. The opulence and lavishness of the brunch speaks to the concern of the parents for their little darlin's off to school and away from mama's kitchen for the first time.

When I was a freshman, I sure didn't truck with that kind of foppish fluff. No luxury brunch or cushy meal plan for me, no sir. It was hardtack and dirt, twice a day. And most days, no hardtack.

It's kind of funny to be a graduate student (read: starving wolf) in the midst of the happy little Eloi of freshmen. While students around us were casually eating bagels and yogurt, the table of architects were trying to figure out how many cookies and other foods we could smuggle out and stretch our food budgets.

Still, seeing all those freshman, I am so incredibly happy to be a graduate student. Even undergraduate was so much hand-holding, I feel like I'm finally in the place which is stimulating, challenging, and self-directed enough to really gain traction. And no more hardtack for me, no sir.