Through My Eyes
Murder. Genocide. Political unrest. Displacement from homes. Here at MIT, most of us are fortunate to say we have never experienced these griefs first hand. Most of us are even so fortunate to say that we do not have close friends or loved ones who have experienced these horrors first hand in Sudan, Iraq, Haiti, or even in more stable locations like Kenya and South Africa. However, with MIT’s diverse student body, growing focus on international development, and increasing number of students traveling to countries all around the world, events occurring in locations hundreds of miles away are coming one step closer to our lives and our hearts.
It’s a Big, Big World
I returned to the United States with a penchant for tea. On late Buenos Aires afternoons, I’d join my family for mate, an Argentinian drink made from a holly-like herb. Each member of the house would take turns drinking the hot water infused with herbs from a hollowed gourd using a metal straw. After coming home from classes in Bangalore, my host mother would ask me if I’d like to “take tea” and would proceed to create her chai masala concoction of tea, milk, and spoonfuls of sugar. In Beijing and Shanghai, my hosts would serve tea after meals. While waiting for the tea to brew, they’d douse the cups with hot water to pre-wash, pre-heat, and pre-rinse them. Throughout our hour long conversations, they’d graciously pour and refill my mini teacup with fresh tea.
Brouhaha Rhythm
People have declared for ages that, for a man to be a proper boyfriend, he has to be willing to watch an occasional chick flick with his significant other from time to time. As a point of policy, I’ve responded by proclaiming how wonderful it is to be dating a woman who doesn’t even like chick flicks, thereby negating the cookie-cutter advice. Yet I’ve recently come to the horrifying realization that I may be gravitating more towards the genre than I thought I would.
Life Lemmas
A few years ago when I was 18 and moving out to university, my mom gave me an iron. Don’t get me wrong, practical gifts are great and by no means am I ungrateful. I’m sure you can imagine every 18 year old male, bags packed, shipping out to the big city, dreams of receiving an iron to go with that kiss from his mother. The truth is I don’t remember using an iron in the first 18 years of my life. Why not just keep it that way for another 18? It’s not like one needs an iron to navigate the tribulations of frosh days. Rather, one could dream up half a dozen more vital items: a coffee machine, a hockey stick or a gross of Mr. Noodles. I contained my thoughts, graciously accepting the iron wondering if I would ever actually use the thing. So it sat in my dorm, unopened for months, as a bookend holding up our friend Michael Spivak’s <i>Calculus</i>.
Figuring out Fashion
As spring semester kicks off, long hours in freezing classrooms and psets galore are bringing us back to earth after the good times of IAP. We all would love to show off the fruits of our holiday bargain shopping, but the cold is forcing us to cover up with the usual MIT sweatshirts and baggy sweatpants. Isn’t it frustrating that cute, affordable clothes in the winter seem to come only in short sleeves?
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
Top 5 Jazz Ballads to Put on While Engaging in Sweet Baby-Making Love
Top 5 Jazz Ballads to Put on While Engaging in Sweet Baby-Making Love
It’s a Big, Big World
Here is a list of phrases that I wrote to describe Bangalore immediately after returning to the United States: meandering cows, trash, spit bins, extended families, the head nod with multiple meanings, auto rickshaws, colorful saris, noise, outdoor eating, markets, no maps, two wheelers, temples, men holding hands, <i>masala dosas</i> (a Southern Indian omelet), spices, bucket showers, squat toilets, hard mattresses, crazy traffic with underutilized lanes, broken infrastructure, and learning to cross the street without getting killed.
Brouhaha Rhythm
There are an awful lot of student organizations available at MIT, but for a school as unusual as ours, they start to seem a little boilerplate. I suppose I’m not really an authority on student clubs here, since the only thing I’m a card-carrying member of is Blockbuster, but even so, I can’t help but feel like we could be weirder and more distinctive — no offense meant to the Tiddlywinks team.
Figuring Out Fashion
It’s Valentine’s Day! People are in love, chocolate boxes line the streets, and all you see is pink and red (not that we’re complaining). Yet, it isn’t all fun and games. For many of us not so caught up in the rush, this is a dreaded time filled with forced reflection on both single-hood and the dreary rut of longtime couple-dom. So how can we here at Figuring out Fashion be of any help? Well, there’s really only one way to cure the V-day blues — a makeover! After doing some exploring, we came up with an affordable plan to reinvent your look and spirit this weekend.
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
“She wants to spend money on me. I mean, it’s not that she’s senile …”<i>—Unknown</i>
WMBR Top 5 Songs to Robot Dance to
1. Take It Like A Man, “Dragonette (Felix Cartal remix)”
It’s a Big, Big World
Near the end of my six weeks in Bangalore, I was seriously craving American food. Masala dosas, curries, rice, vegetables, and limited amounts of chicken created a healthy diet, but at times I desired a big, juicy burger. I hate to admit it, but to get that fix of junk food I hopped an auto rickshaw to the McDonald’s on Brigade Road, a shopping mecca for trendy Bangaloreans and foreigners. Although I settled for a Filet-O-Fish, the familiarity of being inside a McDonald’s was almost comforting, albeit strange. Here I was, an American halfway around the globe, savoring a sandwich that tastes exactly like one I could’ve picked up at the McDonald’s down Massachusetts Avenue.
Brouhaha Rhythm
It’s about the time of year that the sound of a “cough, cough” may mean more than an incoming innuendo. In spite of the abundant medical resources here on campus, sometimes one simply cannot help getting sick. The extended, close-quarters communal experience of college, by my reckoning, constitutes a trial-by-fire for the human immune system. As with other adversities, the inevitable rampant pestilence requires longer to adjust for some than for others. I mention this because I’m sure that neither I nor anyone else who has managed to dodge the illness bullet this far into the winter wishes to get sick now, so in the interests of self-preservation, I offer some at-home measures for avoiding disease like the plague. Or, you know, diseases such as the plague.
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard at MIT
“No, with screws, Mom. With screws. With SCREWS! I don’t know why you’re deaf!” <i>—Woman on cell phone in Building 68</i>
Figuring out Fashion
Hi everyone! We’d like to introduce ourselves. We’re the staff of Figuring out Fashion here at The Tech, and our job is to do what you wish you had time to do yourself. We will research, shop, try new things, ask experts, and decide how you can look and feel your best every day. For our inaugural article, we wanted to look into the role fashion plays at MIT, what is unique and cool, and what we can all work on!