Ramblings From Hell
I spend eight hours of my week in the undergraduate chemistry labs on the fourth floor of Building 4. If you are not Course 5, 10 with a minor in 5, or premed, I will now share with you a little secret: the labs are disgusting.
Rants and Raves
It was the beginning of my junior year, just four short semesters until my day of liberation from this stress inducing hell we call MIT. Wait … It was my JUNIOR YEAR, and I had no idea what I want to do with my life. I had to figure out my life plan just like all my other ’09 friends had already done. I needed to get an internship this summer and get ready to apply to grad schools or get a job next year. I needed to know what I was going to do, and I needed to know NOW.
Brouhaha Rhythm
On the long and not-so-distinguished list of things that we do even though we know we shouldn’t, daydreaming is bound to be in the top ten. Daydreams, also known as longings, fantasies, or delusions (depending on the subject matter), serve as a way of withdrawing from the world around us. We daydream because we’re uncomfortable, or because we’re bored, or because we think that the person sitting in the next row in math class is attractive enough to merit additional mental attention.
Figuring Out Fashion
With all the shopping we’ve done for Figuring Out Fashion, we found ourselves with a new trouble — waking up in the morning, staggering in a daze to get dressed, and finding so many choices, colors, and styles that we would just throw on the first thing we could see. We quickly realized we needed to simplify our morning routine by building a base of, well, basics. Comfortable clothes that always look put together without much effort. Here’s the list we came up with:
Ask A TA
This week features a fairly serious question that I think many of us have had to contemplate before. While normally we pride ourselves on answering questions we’re absolutely unqualified to handle, this week actually features knowledgeable answers from experienced TAs. As always, if you have any questions, e-mail us at <i>AskaTA@tech.mit.edu</i>.
Rants & Raves
When I first arrived at MIT, I went to a few graduate student orientation events to meet my new schoolmates and find out more about what other students at MIT were up to. While many were already too inebriated to speak or understand anything coherently, I did talk to quite a few new faces. The conversations went mostly like this.
It’s a Big, Big World
Every morning in Bangalore, my host father, Prabhakara, awoke at 6 a.m. to select fruits and vegetables from a freshly stocked sidewalk stand on the main road of Thyagarajanagar, his residential neighborhood. Afterward he stopped by a local restaurant to pick up warm idli (a white rice cake) or masala dosas that were neatly packaged in one sheet of thin wax paper, newspaper, and string. After his morning exercises and prayers, he prepared breakfast: sliced apples and carrot sticks, idli and chutney (think Indian salsa), homemade roti (flat bread) and curry, or my favorite — scrambled eggs packed with chopped vegetables and spices. Each morning I was greeted with a cup of chai tea and a food-filled circular metal plate with a vertical rim that I used to wipe away excess food from my eating hand.
Brouhaha Rhythms
Decorating my dorm room poses a peculiar problem. On the one hand, I don’t trust myself to nail anything to the wall that won’t bleed. On the other, the surfaces in my dorm, for some cosmic reason, are incompatible with duct tape and render it completely unsticky — which, if what you’re trying to hang is a) above your head, and b) heavy, is bad.
Figuring Out Fashion
A couple days after last week’s column came out, we overheard a group of unsuspecting critics reading the article on Tech Shuttle and comparing thoughts. We were confronted with overheard questions like, “why would they include drinking a glass of water?” and “what the **** does exfoliating mean?” So, we duly apologize for not explaining ourselves thoroughly and hope to do so this week.
Overheard At Harvard“I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and they didn’t even have it on the menu. I feel so powerful.”
Overheard At Harvard “I ordered a grilled cheese sandwich and they didn’t even have it on the menu. I feel so powerful.”
No Soup For You!
I can’t be the only one who’s noticed the absence of the formerly-famous clam chowder that used to be served in on-campus eateries every Friday. I can’t be the only one who came back from winter break aching for some proper clam chowder only to find that it’s nowhere to be found on campus. So where has it gone?
Give Me Back My Glove
My glove is lonely. I put him and his brother in my coat pocket when I threw my coat into the room with all the other coats. When I came back, I no longer had a pair of gloves. I had a glove. Uno. One. Singular. Sensation. This is not OK. I am devastated and I blame you for my catastrophic loss. Why?
Never Say That Again
Ever heard a phrase that made you absolutely cringe inside? The most obvious offender this week was “Asante Samuel signs with Eagles,” but there are far more. Think of anything that Howard Stern says, most of what President Bush says, some of what your parents say, and a little of what your “over-sharing” friends say. Here, for your reading pleasure, is a list of the phrases that have come up in conversations in the past seven days that I really wish hadn’t. If you have ever used these phrases, please, please, PLEASE never say them again.
Not Even Fit For a Last Meal
MIT food is a lot like Michael Bolton’s music — it’s kind of funny how bad it is at first, but after an extremely short while it gets old and eventually kills you. While part of this is due to the unavoidable nature of college food, MIT is noticeably lacking in one department: real, all-you-can-eat dining halls.
Woes of a Premed
This past December, on a lonely afternoon in the building 12 Athena Cluster, I finally decided what I wanted to do with my life. I filled out my Prehealth Advisor Request Form, available as a PDF on the Careers Office Web page. “The MIT Careers Office (MITCO) is now accepting prehealth advisor requests for individuals wishing to enter medical or other health profession schools in Fall 2009,” the Web site stated. Perfect, I thought, this is when I’m planning on entering! I spent two days writing eight essays for the application — not an invigorating experience, considering it was winter break. I filled out the GPA and course requirements form, and indicated I was interested in applying to MD/PhD programs. Then I addressed the envelope, sealed it with love, and placed it in the mailbox. (There’s no way to apply online).
Campus Life Special Edition: Rants and Raves
Let’s be honest, February sucked. Here at MIT, we were subjected to absolutely miserable weather and the resumption of hell, which the administration innocently refers to as “classes.” In the real world, or at least the world outside MIT, we witnessed nightmares such as the Patriots losing the Super Bowl, Britney and Jamie Lynne spiraling downward faster than anyone thought possible, and, oh yeah — numerous foreign and domestic government issues. We can’t remember a time when the collective student body sported more frowns or played more emo music, and included in this sad state of affairs is <i>The Tech</i>’s staff.