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When I woke up today, I was not expecting to go anywhere; I had expected a lethargic Sunday in which I stuffed my face with Cheez-Its from the Lounge, read my 5.111 textbook, scribbled down answers to my 18.01 p-set, and dragged myself around 4W trying to find people to converse with. Since this weekend is extended due to a suicide prevention day on Monday (no idea how one day off prevents suicide, but let’s not question it), many of my acquaintances have journeyed to horizons new and old - some returned to their homes if they were close enough, and others visited friends from other schools (for example, Chao went to visit friends at Yale; Lindsey and I were originally planning to take a trip to New York, but we decided against that).

Instead, I was greeted by Hongyou striding into my room and announcing that they were leaving for Costco at three, and that there was no room in Emily’s car for me. I announced indignantly that I would manage to get there myself and back with much of the same efficiency, thanks to the wonderful MBTA subway system. In response, she just snickered and crept back out.

… fine then, Hongyou. Just watch me.

Ben and I left Next House 20 minutes before 3pm in order to visit an ATM machine and walk to Kendall station, greeted on the way by Tim Peng calling us just to say, “Did you two just pass Macgregor like, 20 seconds ago?” (which we had, but I didn’t know people still engaged in the art of watching the world from their windows anymore in this day and age). So far so good. Red line to Downtown Crossing, orange line to Wellington, which is out in the middle of nowhere in a town to the northeast called Everett. Everything’s still fine. Now all we have to do is catch bus 97 right into Gateway Center…

Oh shit. What do you mean the next bus isn’t until 4:23pm? And that it’s only 3:45pm?

There was only one thing to do in such a situation. Ben and I mustered up all the sense of direction we possessed within us and began walking across the bridge of the Revere River, eventually arriving at the Costco parking lot in 20 minutes, just in time to call Hongyou and–

WHOA-MY-GOD. THERE SHE IS IN EMILY’S CAR DRIVING OUT OF THE PARKING LOT. Hongyou, freaking turn around, we’re standing right here, loser!

No amount of arm-waving and screaming into the phone manages to register the fact that they just drove past us until 5 minutes later, when Hongyou begins to apologize profusely for not acknowledging our presence, tired and exhausted as I dropped to my knees and let out a pitiful, plaintive whine.

Since we were already there, Ben and I decided to go in anyways, and eventually came back out with two armfuls of stuff - pasta, Cheez-Its, tomatoes, potstickers, and more. Now came the hard part.. how were we getting all of this stuff back to Next House? Ah, of course. It’s only 5:20pm, we have three minutes until the bus comes to take us to the T station so we can catch the subway home.

5:23pm: …the bus must be late.
5:25pm: let’s just stand around some more, it’ll come eventually.
5:27pm: okay, if it’s still not here by 5:30, we’ll walk.
5:30pm: …yeah, it’s not here. Let us dispatch.
5:33pm, as we’re walking back towards the bridge: OMFG NO WAY. THE BUS JUST ARRIVED.

20 minutes or so later, we drop onto the hard subway station benches and pop open a box of grape tomatos. For some reason, the subway takes forever to arrive, so by the time we manage to step out of Kendall station, it was already 6:30pm or so.

Okay, that’s not too bad. Let’s find a shopping cart or something so we don’t have to carry this stuff all the way back to our dorm. Oh hey, look: it’s Hongyou and Lynda on their bikes. Passing us as we trudge back to Next House. Not wasting any pity on the fact that our weary legs are about to collapse and our arms are about to fall out of their sockets. Yeah, guys, thanks a bunch.

What’s worse, there is no shopping cart in sight, either on the east side of campus, or main campus, or west campus. So how the hell do you ECers transport all that crap you bring home with you?

7:00 pm and we’re back at Next House. I shuffled out of the elevator, stumble into the White Rabbit Lounge… and make a dramatic show of falling over from exhaustion. Thirteen freaking miles: that’s how much we walked today.

After a quick rest, Ben and I cooked pasta for everyone (rotini, angel hair, & penne with tomato sauce), and we all feasted on said food, coupled with grape tomatos, petite brownies, and Fanta. Not too bad for a day’s work. Not too bad. As you can tell my by diminishing sense of verbosity and elegance in word choice, I am totally exhausted from the adventure. It’s not every day that you get to walk 13 miles, and I guess if you need some inspirational ending statement, I will admit that it truly humbled me and made me realize how dependent we were on technology and automobiles. As Ben and I put it, we paid homage to our ancestors who had no other means of getting places besides walking for days and nights.

… and now back to 18.01 p-setting.

Welcome to the Masochistic Institute of Technology. Don’t mind the anguished cries of students still awake at 4am working on p-sets; you’ll soon become accustomed to it.

Thursday marked the one-month duration of my stay here at MIT thus far. It’s almost hard to believe - at times I feel like I’ve only just arrived on campus, and other times I feel like I’ve been here for the longest time. Ever since my random epiphany and endowment of resolve a week ago, I have integrated myself seamlessly into the lifestyle here at MIT. It is no longer a chore nor is there a conscious need to force myself to plan out my time accordingly; rather, after I get home from classes I flow right into what needs to get done, be it p-sets or violin practice or replying to e-mails. Not only that, but it gets easier and easier to speak to new people and become fast friends with them. Although I already have my little group of WRL people, but I’m constantly branching out and meeting others to collaborate or hang out with.

In celebration of my monthiversary, I’ll provide with you a list of the ten most amazing things I’ve done here at MIT thus far, in no particular order =)

1. My oh-so-fabulous FPOP, of course
2. Completely understanding the second 8.012 p-set
3. Making it into both MITSO and Concert Choir
4. Playing Steal Scrabble in an elevator
5. DanceTroupe auditions - 4 hours of straight dancing is awesome
6. Hot pot with the WRL inhabitants + others
7. … actually, anything done with the WRL inhabitants
8. Getting a ton of free stuff at the Career Fair
9. Free BSO college cards.. which means I get to go to free concerts :P
10. Turning all p-sets in on time. Thus far.

On a closing note, I find it amusing that most of the bloggers I talked with over the summer (and thusly put on my blogroll) have seemingly ceased this practice due to time constraints. And those who did not stop ended up talking about nothing but MIT… like me. I swear a more industrial and real-world-applicable entry is in store later, but I’m sure I’d find some way to connect it to my present experience somehow. Sorry guys, I just like it here too much =3

… especially when you’re trying to work out 8.012 problems.

This is the community board for the White Rabbit Lounge. Usually it’s full of euphemisms, pictures, and random doodles.. but when it’s time to do some intense p-setting, this is what it morphs into. And yes, most of that is my messy handwriting, with contributions from Mallika and Chao. And look, the bridge problem (top) is even colour-coded to look all nice =D

And now, off to 5.111 lecture!