Michael Tran
California-native Michael Tran wears a ‘west coast hipster’ style even in the Syracuse snow: Vans Anaheim flip-flops, white Wayfarer sunglasses and a belt imprinted with the words and bear from the California flag.
‘This is my favorite article of clothing,’ said the junior biology major. ‘I wear this belt every day.’
Wearing his California pride around his waist, Tran still loves California, and it’s part of the reason he attends Syracuse University.
In his senior year of high school, he had to choose between SU and the University of San Diego.
‘San Diego is my favorite place in the world, and I thought struggling through college might ruin San Diego for me,’ he said. ‘So why not pick the east coast, somewhere cold. Get out of California for a while.’
After leaving the ‘chill environment and hip people’ behind, Tran came to SU and met four of his best friends. As he called them, ‘the core five’ met freshman year in Boland Hall, floor five.
‘We all came together mainly because we had an affinity for dancing,’ Tran admitted, with a grin on his face. ‘One night we went out to Archbold, practiced in one of the racquetball rooms, dancing to ‘Gonna Make You Sweat’ by C+C Music Factory. We had a whole dance routine, too.’
This year, the core five and three other friends live together in a house on 120 Comstock Place.
‘It’s definitely made college a hell of a lot better,’ Tran said. ‘Me and four other of the guys, we’ve been friends since the beginning of freshman year. We had a core five and then three other guys got on last year, and we just clicked. And it’s really awesome because we’ve been talking about it since freshman year and, wow, it’s really happening.’
The front yard of their house is decorated with some interesting finds. Computer chairs, two big fish tanks that one of the roommates wants to make into a waterfall and a bunch of wood chunks found on the side of the road or Salvation Army. If the roommates think that it can be made into something cool, they pick it up and see what happens.
There is a family quality among Tran and his seven roommates.
One Saturday morning, Tran and his roommate Tim Han made eggs, flapjacks and homefries for the house. They cooked more than 20 pancakes, 18 eggs and a lot of homefries.
‘That was our first official family meal,’ Tran said.
Tran makes a point of cooking for his family, whether it is his roommates or his 13-year-old sister, Dayna, back in California. During the summer, Tran had his sister taste test different breakfast options including Snickers pancakes, strawberry frosted flakes pancakes and Cap’n Crunch french toast.
‘I’d like to think I’m the best cook in the house,’ Tran said. ‘I love pancakes, I love making pancakes.’
In addition to cooking and living a no meat lifestyle, Tran finds time for listening to music, playing guitar, video games and, of course, dancing.
‘My favorite song (to play is) ‘Wherever You Will Go’ by The Calling,’ he said. ‘A direct quote from one of my roommates, ‘I sound like drunk Elvis when I play it.”
Published on October 6, 2008 at 12:00 pm
