Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

Remember how it was my birthday a few weeks ago? Well I never finished what happened during my birthday week! Not only did my friends surprise me with dinner and decorating my room, they also threw a surprise party for me that Friday! I was getting a little suspicious because they kept disappearing randomly and Gus kept making up excuses like “they’re umm…making cookies….” and “I need to go meet with friends to practice our role-playing game…” It was a lot of fun and I was definitely surprised. I got homemade cake and we danced to music late into the night. My friends are awesome!

For Valentine’s Day, I cleaned Gus’ bathroom (three guys sharing a bathroom….can you even imagine—or maybe you don’t want to—how awful that was?). They were very appreciative though, and now it isn’t gross anymore…at least for a little while. I figure that my present was practical and since it was disgusting it means I care about him….or something like that. I also made him breakfast. Gus surprised me during Valentine’s Day by having the Muses (an all-female a capella group, you can hire them to sing for your sweetheart the week before the big day) serenade me during my 8.022 lecture. Then we went to dinner over the weekend at Harvard (gasp!).

I helped Annelise with a Quiz Bowl Tournament one weekend. I had to be a score keeper. For the first round, I was pretty bad (I totally screwed up the score….and it was embarrassing), but then for the other rounds I didn’t screw up at all, and I became pro! I just needed some practice.

In the meantime, we had one of our friends, Jongjin, dress up like a girl. He actually wasn’t a bad looking girl….kind of funny. Annelise and I have also been working on Simmons’ I3 Video. MIT sends videos of each dorm to incoming freshman so that they have an idea of what all the dorms are like. It’s been fun filming things around the dorm and getting people to do weird things for the camera. I think it will be pretty good when it’s done, and we were recruited at last minute to do the entire thing! Next year if we start earlier, it will be even better.

Only one more week until my spring break! Everyone else has spring break this week, so I will miss everyone when I get back. :-( Gus is coming with me to California, so it will be amusing. I’m sure (and I hope) that my parents and him get along. This weekend I am studying for two tests I have next Wednesday (18.03 and 5.12).

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day!

Tests Ahhh

I have two tests on Wednesday for 5.12 and 18.03, so hopefully I do well! I will update with more news later.

Spring 2006 Classes

I’m taking four classes (48 units, for 12 units each) this semester. You are only allowed to take more than 57 units if you get sophomore standing, which can be read about here: http://web.mit.edu/firstyear/advisors/advyear/sophstatus.html. Annelise got sophmore standing and one of my other friends did as well, so they are able to take 5 classes. I didn’t want to kill myself especially since I’m thinking about getting a UROP, so I decided against it.

5.12 Organic Chemistry I [B. Imperiali and B. Berkowski]
This is the class that doctors hated in college and most students fear. Annelise LOVES organic chemistry. So far, the lectures have been very enjoyable. Two women are teaching it, one will teach the first half of the semester and the other will teach the last half. Both of them seem very energetic, which I am thankful for—I have stayed awake in lectures! Lectures are interesting and easy to understand, the professor speaks clearly and I look forward to going to class. During our first lecture, they both emphasized how they wanted to make Ochem as fun and non-stressful as possible, because so many people have bad experiences with it. Hopefully it will be fun!

8.022 Physics II [G. Sciolla]
Since TEAL physics (the type I took last term) is sort of annoying, and I wanted a challenge, I decided to take the more advanced version of 8.02 (Electricity and Magnetism). I really hope I don’t die. Annelise and Kaitlyn are also taking it, so I have a study group. The professor for this class is also energetic, she seems to be good. This will probably be my most challenging class besides 5.12.

18.03 Differential Equations [H. Miller]
This class seems pretty standard so far. I really wanted Professor Mattuck to teach it (I’ve heard he is a great professor), but no luck. I’ve been able to understand the lectures and the prof doesn’t put me to sleep, but he isn’t “exciting” either. I’m happy because my kickboxing teacher from last semester might end up being my TA! She’s very enthusiastic and is a great teacher (her name is Hoho).

21.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories [S. Lewitt]
I enjoy creative writing, and I’m really sick of analyzing books after all the English classes I’ve taken in highschool and last semester, so I thought I’d try this class. It is well organized (weird for an English teacher) and it looks like we will actually be covering HOW to improve our writing, which is wonderful. Most creative writing teachers seem kinda of flimsy, this one got her undergraduate and PhD at Yale, so maybe that’s why she is not.

After the first few weeks have gone by, and I’ve taken a few tests, I’ll give a more detailed description of my classes and what I think of them.

It's My Birthday! And IAP is over :-(

It’s my birthday today! I turn 19! Wow, in one year I will be 20, that’s pretty crazy. Gus made breakfast for me today, and then my friends decorated my desk and bed with a happy birthday sign and streamers and glittery ribbon. Gus also bought me flowers :-). After people got back from classes, Gus called me to go “play DDR,” but we actually went to dinner with friends at an Irish Pub called Azguard. I feel so appreciated!

IAP is now over :-(. Classes started yesterday and so far everything is going well. I will talk more about my classes in the next entry.

Annelise came back from Italy. She had a great time but was happy to be home. That night we went to a science fiction movie marathon in 26-100. We saw Serenity (very good, especially for fans of the series!) and Twelve Monkeys (really really bizarre, but good). I was falling asleep during Twelve Monkeys, which made it even stranger than it was. My last week of IAP consisted of trying to finish up lots of things, but not really getting anywhere. My GRT is still trying to help with my Matlab program, so my research is not completely ready to submit yet. I also had sorority recruitment from Wednesday to Sunday. (I know what you’re thinking---why on earth would a girl like me want to join a sorority?). At MIT, sororities are different than other schools. Whereas a stereotypical sorority has lots of parties and the girls don’t get much work done, MIT sororities are dry and they are more like a network of friends. I would never even think about joining a sorority at another school. Throughout the week I visited the 5 sororities at MIT and talked with the girls. Each day you are invited back by fewer and fewer sororities, until you end up with one or two that want you in their group. After it was almost over, I decided that a sorority wasn’t for me (I didn’t want to put too much time into it and I felt it was lame to pay to meet people every week, I already have a close group of friends and I can make other friends easily). If you want to learn more about sororities though, go here, because they are very different at MIT and you should at least check them out. http://web.mit.edu/panhel/www/recruitment.html



Last weekend Amanda, Gus, and I decided to go to the Galleria (mall). I still had to drop off my defective speakers at UPS, so we (meaning mostly Gus), hauled the package around Kendall Square for a long time. We were sent on a wild goose chase trying to find the UPS store. When we were FINALLY in the right area, we had to go all the way around the building to get to it. Guess what!? It was closed!!!! Gus called his graduate student friend (who has a car), and after pleading with him (and bribing him with a free dinner), he came and picked up the package and we drove to the Galleria. We had wasted almost two hours trying to find the UPS store, so we didn’t have much shopping time. It was very fun because we went into stores and forced Gus to try on clothes. We made him buy $15 jeans at Old Navy (great deal, isn’t it?) and then he tried on a $140 outfit at Express for Men (pic below).After this torture, we decided reward Gus by going to eat at California Pizza Kitchen. All in all we had a good time and now have a funny story to tell people (although, I don’t think others really find it very exciting….oh well). The last day before classes Gus and I went to Target to buy school supplies. It took us a little while to get there, but at least we could take a series of buses and not walk outside in the cold (although, we still can’t complain much about the weather). Afterwards we went to the COOP to get books.

I wish it were still IAP, but I have definitely had a long enough vacation. Hopefully this semester won’t be too hectic.