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.
Top 5 Albums to Blow Out Your Eardrums
1. To Live and Shave in L.A., “The Wigmaker in Eighteenth-Century Williamsburg”
Ask A TA
This week features TAs asking TAs questions because you undergrads don’t ever write in. You also never show up to recitation. You think we like having recitations just so we can monologue to ourselves? Seriously, if you have any questions about life or, hell, even the midterm, write to us at <i>AskaTA@tech.mit.edu</i>. Putting it off until the night before won’t be fun for either of us.
Quotes from the Facebook Group: Overheard At MIT
To submit quotes, join the Facebook group!
Figuring Out Fashion
We here at Figuring Out Fashion know how hard mornings can be. Mornings are a time for the ring of a monotonous alarm clock, grumbling showers, and the unpleasant jolt of cold air in our faces upon leaving our dorms. Dragging ourselves to class is far from an easy task, and when combined with brushing teeth and eating breakfast, the challenges of the typical morning seem insurmountable. Most mornings, the last thing on our minds is fashion. Yet, we found it was no coincidence that the mornings we dressed well and felt good about ourselves led to our best days. In the interests of our own future happiness and that of our audience, we’ve collected a set of morning tips from our most stylish friends and acquaintances. The plan? Doing just one of these every day to make our lives more positive and fashionable.
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.