Why Caltech students take people-classes.

I heard a joke, which may or may not be true: the pubs office at Caltech was trying to get students to buy the school newspapers, because they had extremely low sales. The problem was that no one was reading them. Solution? They taped the newspapers to the ground, so that the students would be forced to read the title page as they walked from class to class with their hands shoved in their pockets, their earphones in, and their eyes focused on the ground in front of their feet.

My friend said that that was probably a joke, but honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if it were true.

Caltech isn't that bad, don't get me wrong. I love the campus, I love that you glance up and there are the San Gabriel mountains on a clear, beautiful day. Palm trees everywhere, balmy temperatures, jacaranda blossoms galore.... and of course the academics are superb, since it's a school for geniuses nation and world-wide. My dad taught there, in fact, for over 20 years (he has a wikipedia entry, actually, to my astonishment and pride), so I grew up on the campus. I remember learning to ride my bike on the quad between my dad's building and its twin, in the shadow of the odd but awesome Baxter Auditorium. And once when we built a model sailboat, we sailed it in the pond (not the crayfish ponds, but the one with a fountain and bridge), even though technically that wasn't allowed.

I definitely wonder what it would be like if I still had an excuse to spend a lot of time on the Caltech campus.... my dad died a few years ago, so my growing-up-on-Caltech pretty much ended then. Chilling on the campus the other day for the first time in four years, I suddenly teared up, thinking that I'd know the campus so much better than I do if my dad were still alive. But that's not terribly feasible, so I thought that maybe I could take an initiative. Get to know Caltech a little better, meet the people, get a glimpse into Caltech and who knows, maybe gain some insight into my dad's life and work there.

So, since I've been terribly out of shape lately, and my mom and I still get discounted gym memberships through the Caltech pension plan, I've joined the gym. Not the intellectual haven that is the rest of the campus, but still. At least a little bit of Caltech vibes floatin around. Today: my first attempt to break into the antisocial bubble that is Caltech. Moderate success. I ran for 15 minutes, fast-ish, and debated whether the guy standing in the same spot for 10 minutes was watching me in the mirror (verdict: yes). Then I wandered from machine to machine, marveling at my weakness and at the strength of some of these apparently very buff (but still antisocial) Caltechies.

It definitely took me the first half hour to figure out that to change the weight, there's a small, invisible button that you have to press to change the peg. Yeah. Picture me wandering from machine to machine rattling the pegs with an expression of confusion, seeming to wonder "why is everyone required to lift the same amount?" Fortunately, most of the machines were at manageable weights, so I didn't have to make that much of a fool of myself. Finally, on a machine facing the corner, I gave myself the luxury of rattling the peg till finally - finally! - I accidentally hit that magic, hidden button, and voila, out it popped. So. Now I know for next time! In the event that I am ever working out next to anyone I do not want to embarrass myself in front of (namely, someone extremely, extremely attractive), I can smoothly change the weights, whip out that peg and change it to 30, 45, 60...... someday I'll be strong!

But I must say, not a word was spoken the entire time I was in that gym. In fact, I had virtually no interaction between any other person. Not that I particularly expected to, but still, there was just something about this silence that rang of GENIUS. You know how geniuses are brilliant at math or science or whatever their thing is, but don't know how to meet the eyes of the person they're talking to. Consider the following: I and a young curly-haired man were approaching the same machine, but he wasn't walking very purposefully, so I wasn't sure whether he actually wanted to use it. I stopped, asked "Oh, were you going to use this?" He stopped, seemed to freeze for a second while giving me a deer-in-the-headlights glance, looked at his feet and muttered, "No, no, go ahead." And he walked quickly off in the exact opposite direction. Well, I got the machine..... But honestly! Those Caltech geniuses. I knew before I signed up that they're not that talkative, though. Honestly, it's just about being on the campus again. It's pretty cool.

posted by Holly @ 5:18 PM