Berkeley Winter 2012 Rubik's Cube Competition

On Friday 1/27, I left Princeton around 11:15am EST, and didn't get home until 8:40pm PST! After this trip, which lasted over 12 hours, I was very tired. But that didn't stop me from waking up early the next day to go to the Berkeley Winter 2012 Rubik's Cube competition! (Well, I guess jetlag helped me with getting up early.)

I haven't been "cubing" recently, but I decided to compete for fun. Along the way, I got to catch up with some friends from high school who are now studying at UC Berkeley.

In the middle of a solve.

Finishing that solve with a time of 14.47 seconds. This was my fastest solve in the competition.

Made a mistake during another solve.

I couldn't help but take a picture of Sather Tower!

Lunch break with some friends from high school!

Frozen yogurt break with some more friends from high school!

Food around Princeton

I've been I have finally accomplished a goal that I had set since coming to Princeton: go to the gym every day for a week. From January 12 to 18, I found some time to take a study break and exercise! These breaks were nice -- otherwise, I might have become both crazy (from all the studying) and fat (from all the food)!

My roommate's friends were visiting from Maryland, so we all went out to Red Lobster one night.

Visiting the International Food Co-op with Karen and Andrew! (The members of the co-op take turns cooking for each other. The food was great!)

Lunch with some members of the Princeton Rubik's Cube Club. Macky took a nice picture!

My roommate celebrated his birthday at P.F. Chang's with his family and friends!

Dinner at Charter, one of Princeton's eating clubs.

Some of my friends organized a going-away dinner for me at Hu Nan Chinese Restaurant! Thank you guys so much!

This breakfast, from the morning of January 27, was my last meal at Princeton. I left campus shortly afterwards. (I will miss going to all these 7:30am breakfasts.)

Snowball fight! (kind of)

I remember being so excited see all the snow in New Jersey when I came back from winter break a year ago. There was even a tiny igloo in the Whitman courtyard. When I got back this year, there was no igloo. In fact, there was no snow at all! (This was quite disappointing for a Californian like me.)

Fortunately, two weeks into reading period and exams, I woke up one day to see Poe Field outside my room covered in snow. It was quite a surprise!

I woke up Saturday morning, lifted up the shades to let some sunlight in, and saw this!

Taken from the 12th floor of Fine Hall (math department building). My dorm is near the top left corner.

After hours of studying, I decided to go for a nice walk through the snow in the afternoon.

I did get involved a mini-snowball fight. The day after all the snow fell, B threw a snowball at me! I would have thrown one back, except we were indoors! In fact, we were in a classroom along with 50 other students getting ready to take our math exam!

Finals period... and video games?

Unlike most other schools I know about, Princeton has finals after winter break. Not only that, we have a week and a half of "reading period" before the finals actually take place! This means that instead of finishing the semester in December, Princeton students return to campus for three weeks in January to study and take finals!

The result of this is a period in which everyone is studying and working, and each day goes by slowly. In addition to always reminding myself "Once you get through this month, you'll be off to Australia!", I learned that study breaks are very important for preventing me from going crazy.

For example, after a few hours studying (or arguing about) game theory, B invited Richard and me to his room to play Dance Dance Revolution! But there's a twist...

What is going on here? (Note the reflection in the mirror!)

B's playing DDR, but backwards!

My turn! (playing normally)

Richard's first time playing DDR on a mat!

B playing (without a mirror).