If you think the architecture on the outside is crazy, wait until I post pics from the inside.
I love Simmons. It is one of the farthest dorms from classes (about a ten-fifteen minute walk), but it is so worth it. It is located across the field from where all the other dorms, so we are sort of by ourselves. We have the most free food out of all the other dorms, we are the newest dorm, and the people are really cool. Although some people say that since Simmons is new, it doesn’t yet have a personality, I disagree. We have our own quirkiness and social atmosphere. There is a large variety of people: we have jocks, studiers, partiers, East Campus-like people, and of course, all of us are nerdy is some form. Our pride in Simmons unites us. Simmons isn’t a party dorm, but we do have social events, which I will describe later. In general I would say we are all relatively laid back: we work hard, but we also have fun. My Graduate Resident Tutor (GRT) is really sweet. She keeps giving us study breaks! Amanda (the girl from my school) is also in Simmons, which totally rocks.
Simmons is on the west side of campus. There is also the east side of campus. East and West both have stereotypes associated with them. East Campus pulls all the pranks and is considered the stereotypical nerdy student residential area whereas west campus people are more “normal.” And I would like to emphasize that normal is relative at MIT. To make it more confusing there is a dorm called “East Campus” on east campus or “EC” as we like to call it. When people refer to East Campus they are normally referring to the dorm.
I really like my roommate, Annelise. We are so perfect for each other it is scary. We have the exact same computer, the same lamp, and some other objects that I can’t remember, we also like to go to bed early and get up early, we both get headaches if we don’t get enough sleep, and we are both moderately neat, the list keeps going….etc. Annelise is really into anime and chemistry. She plans on being a Course 5 (Chemistry) major. Although she is from a small town in Minnesota, Annelise does not have a Minnesotan accent. We have been getting along really well so far. My two other good friends are Amanda (a different Amanda than from my school) and Kaitlyn who live in the temporary room we had during orientation. Amanda is from Philadelphia and Kaitlyn is from Maine.
Our room rocks! Since we are on the 6th floor we have a great view of the football field and the Boston skyline. We have 18 windows in our room! Crazy isn’t it? That’s Simmons for ya, tons and tons of windows. We also have our own bathroom that is right outside of our door. This means we have to clean it, but it’s not like people really clean public bathrooms, right? So it will be way cleaner than most bathrooms! I actually enjoy cleaning, since it is a break from studying and it looks (and smells) nice when you are done. We have lots of colorful thing in our room, and even better, everything matches! My bed is red/orange/green and Annelise’s is purple and blue. We have a very bright carpet by our beds that ties all of these colors together. I must say that our decorating skills are brilliant! :-). Annelise brought posters, so we also have a wall covered with various pictures.
Annelise's bed/wall. Our closets.
My lovely desk and bed.
Our many windows, and the view from our room. The other dorms are across from us.
Our front door and pantry/fridge area
Simmons has its own dining hall. We have to pay for every item we eat, but everyone who lives here gets a discount, so it’s not too bad. On the first floor, there is also a little café. There’s no breakfast or lunch in the dorm, so I’ve been eating power bars and milk for breakfast and I make my own sandwich for lunch (there are places to eat on campus but I enjoy being in my dorm room). Simmons is unique because it has a “Lounge” system. Throughout each floor there are lounges spread about. These are used as study areas, but some have kitchenettes and TVs. Certain lounges have a group associated with them. For example, I signed up for the “Schrodinger’s cat lounge”. Here’s their description: “We're the superposition of study and lounge, work and play, pain and pleasure. Bring us your impossible problem sets and we'll feed you. Who knows, maybe you'll even get salsa lessons from or serenaded by some of our members.” (And if you want to learn more about what a Schrodinger’s cat is, go here: http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/0,,sid9_gci341236,00.html)
The lounges are essentially like clubs. Each lounge gets $30 per person, so we get to go out and do fun things! We haven’t done anything yet but I’m sure we will soon.
Another cool thing about Simmons is that ANYONE that lives in Simmons can attend the government meetings. It is similar to a town meeting, where everyone gathers together to discuss issues in the dorm. We discuss anything from giving out money from the house funds for DVDs, brooms, hiking trips, etc. No other dorm has this unique government.
The day we moved into our final room assignments, Simmons had a mini “Mystery Hunt.” During Independent Activities Period (IAP we get the whole month of January off!) there is a week long series of puzzles that people stay up for days trying to solve. The people who solve the most get to organize the next year’s Mystery Hunt. We stayed up past twelve trying to solve some very tough puzzles. One of them Annelise solved because it was a beefed up word search with anime characters! After solving these puzzles, we had to use the answers to solve an even larger one. Our team did very well—we got second! This is what MIT is all about: problem solving. Once I come out of this place I will be able to look at an “impossible” problem and solve it.
More about classes will come later, so stay tuned.
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