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Okay, so I’m thinking Next House is pretty awesome after all, if only for the fact that 4W totally trumps every other wing in the building. And if you need evidence to convince you, just take a look at what we were doing last night!

… what do you mean you have no idea what we’re doing? What do you mean half of those people don’t even live on 4th West? Quite clearly it’s an amazing dinner study break, and I’ll zoom in on the goods to show you…

Yes, dear readers. That is indeed the venerable feast called hot pot! The story to this enjoyable meal, however, was more than extraordinary; it all started when Hongyou sent a bunch of people a cryptic e-mail stating simply, “Hot pot at 5 or later in 4W lounge.” Intrigued, I scuttled over to investigate what kind of flimsy meal was being prepared for us. I was in for a shock, though; she had gone overboard and bought a bunch of things for us to munch on. There was bok choi, bamboo, broccoli, squid, shimp/fish balls, spinach, noodles, tripe, lettuce, beef, and much more. Several other people who had been hovering around, once they realized this was going to be a HUGE dinner, decided to pitch in their own foods.

I made grass jelly and almond tofu for everyone, although only a few were brave enough to try the dark-coloured jelly. Also, the method with which I made the almond tofu was really makeshift - I had no pot to put on the stove, so I just got out my electric hot water pot and boiled the water in there, and poured it into three paper bowls to put in the fridge, haha.

Anyways, so after we finished preparing the meal (which involved me biking to Macgregor Convenience to get drinks after ours were stolen from the basement kitchen’s and getting rained on pretty badly), we called all of 4W over to eat and were joined with vagrants from all over the place - 4E, 3rd floor, 2nd floor, and even other dorms such as Burton-Conner. We all gathered around the hot pot and took turns stuffing things in and extracting them again with our disposable chopsticks, all the while laughing, talking, and enjoying ourselves while the movie 21 played in the background.

After the food was gone and most of the non-4Westers had left, we gathered in our usual place at the elevator lounge to do p-sets, play cards, engage in another game of Contact, and welcomed Chao’s friend as she sought refuge at MIT while Harvard was having a power outage. All in all, an extremely memorable and enjoyable first weekend with all my newfound friends =)

Such a feeling’s coming over me.
There is wonder in most everything I see.
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes,
And I won’t be surprised if it’s a dream.
~ the Carpenters, Top of the World

As I write this, it is 10pm by my clock, and the first week of school is wrapping up. Bids for frats and sororities come out soon, auditions are finishing, and finally a weekend arrives again; a humble break amidst the flurry of activity of our classes and assignments.

It’s actually pretty hard to consider this the first “week” of school since it’s only been three days, and much of it was spent doing introductions, reviewing course syllabi, etc. My mind is still partially stuck on the happy carefree days of orientation, where the only things we had to worry about was whether we could get from EC to Burton-Conner in time to attend both parties, or where in Boston we would be headed on our evening walk, or whether we wanted to take 18.01 or 18.01A, or whether anything interesting would happen in our FPOP that day.

It’s almost a rite of passage, but as little frosh, I think we’ve just stepped on board. Fortunately, I think I’ve finally begun to find where I am on the map and where I’m headed. I think this merits a list of the good things that have happened to me this week, don’t you think?

1. I’ve finally been hit with enough resolve and determination to do p-sets hardcore.
2. I made it into Concert Choir yesterday =)
3. I made it into MITSO today (!!)

That’s right, I am now a member of the world-famous MIT Symphony Orchestra! Who cares if I’m the 10th chair of the Violin II’s? All I care about is the fact that I finally get to play with a group; my entire life I’ve been trained towards playing solo (piano, flute, etc.) but my true love is playing together as a unit with others (i.e. orchestra or band). And besides, did I ever mention that I love the Violin II parts? We’re the beautiful second sopranos of the orchestra, and everyone knows that second sopranos get the most gorgeous harmonies ever ;)

Guess what else happened today? I received my care package from home in Texas!

When my mother shipped my ballet shoes to me (so I can audition for DanceTroupe tomorrow), she also stuffed the shoebox full of stuff, including Welch’s Fruit Snacks, my waterproof bag (which I got from Austin Energy Regional Science Fair ;D), some of the softest socks I have ever felt in my life, and green gloves for when it starts getting cold up here. And a letter reminding me that I need to go deal with financial aid (which I have already done). Good stuff; definitely made my good day even better!

As I was walking back from MacGregor early Monday afternoon after making devilled eggs with a friend’s borrowed pot, I ran into the 4W group (which has yet to be officially named). All 10 of them seemed to be determinedly on a mission, so I inquired of their plans.

“Oh, we’re going to eat dim sum with a frat.”

… hells yes, count me in!

The frat van drove up, and we attempted to pile all 11 of us into a 6-seat van. Just as Chao, Lindsey (sp?), and I were climbing into the trunk, a cop drove out and demanded that we get out.

Bummer. I at least wanted a picture of our attempt.

We waited around for another 10 minutes playing Contact as we waited for the van to come back around to pick us up. Once we finally arrived, we managed to snag a 10-person table and had fun eating our “afternoon meal”, as Chao put it. The experience was a bit different, as our [predominantly Chinese] group attempted to translate our Chinese names for the dishes into English, and also cross dialect between Mandarin and Cantonese. The waitresses were also a mix of Cantonese and Mandarin-speaking, so on occasion I was called to help order (as the only Cantonese-speaking member of the group). They ended up not having pineapple buns (well, that was our consensus on the English name) or egg custard tarts, so dessert was a bit ruined, but that was all remedied afterwards…

… when we went to an Asian supermarket. We each got some food and then we’re planning to cook together (since Hongyou has the only pot and I have the only rice cooker). I bought some bok choi and straw mushrooms and quail eggs. I think all I have to do is steam them with my rice, but I’m actually not completely sure, haha! I also got two Asian pears and a can of grass jelly ;D My friends bought rice noodles, tea, mantou, ramen, eggplant, and lots of other things. We should have a huge feast to celebrate the start of school sometime soon.. hm.

… puzzles get finished in a flurry of grandeur! =D

So for the past half a week or so, there’s been a Hazard Puzzle sitting nonchalantly on the table of the 4W lounge at Next House. Random passersby have attempted to put it together a piece at a time, but after quite a few days only about 8 pieces of the 36 had been successfully pieced together. As I waited for my ramen to cook, I sat myself down at the table and carefully shoved about 10 addictional pieces onto the main block.

The microwave beeped. Ramen was done!

… or not. It ended up way too hot to stick in my mouth. Back to the puzzle. My roommate Mallika, who had been speaking with her father over the phone, sprawled out on one of the sofas in the lounge, came over and munched on some of my Triscuits as she mused over the enigmatic pieces with me.

Then the speed of our conglomeration accelerated. Bit by bit the image came together; part by part the puzzle spoke to us and told us how to reassemble it in all its splendor. Lo and behold, 10 minutes later we ended up with a gorgeous image!

And naturally, I couldn’t leave without announcing to everyone who had solved the hazard puzzle, so I ran back to my room to get my camera and a sticky note:

On an unrelated note, I biked over to Shaw’s to pick up some things - ingredients to make devilled eggs, strawberries, Triscuit, and unsweetened soymilk (!!) - and managed to make it back in one piece even though it’s extremely hard to bike against ~15mph winds with a bag of stuff clamped to your bike and two slung over your shoulders. At least now I know where to go if I need stuff that can’t be bought at La Verde’s, and I now have unsweetened soymilk!

And -that- is the story of my early-afternoon adventures =)