DID YOU KNOW? The drummers for the bands Queen and Duran Duran are both named Roger Taylor.

I started writing two entries while at home this week, but I was just never really in the state of mind to finish them. So, someday in August, just remind me that I owe you two entries, called...

Don't let it control you! about the work/play balance at MIT.
I'm bleeding this about my awesome 120-mile bike trip with Tester Lab.

I'm counting on you, Snively. And all you other commenters. It's just that Snively was the first one I remembered because his name is funny.

This past week has been pretty good. Well, I graduated from MIT. I was the most worried little kid, because we all had to line up at stations and get our names checked off, all of this at like 8:00 AM, so we could stand in line for two hours. I misread my major in haste and accidentally went to station the for Course 10B, which is chemical and biological engineering TOGETHER, which is basically just chemical engineering but you take out all the hard classes and replace them with introductory bio classes. Not that I'm biased. So I went there and I saw all the names on the list, and they were all my classmates, but I wasn't there! I just whimpered, "but, but, but these are all my classmates, and it says 'degree awarded' on the website, and I got graduation tickets, and and and..." So the guy there was basically just, "Okay, no worries, just go to this desk." And so I went there and they were like, "No, no, it's station 8, STUPID." So I went to station 8, which was the station for normal chemical engineering majors, and pretty much everything was fine. I spent graduation getting to page 104 in The Giver, making me the only person at MIT who was actually upset when they got finished with all 2,500 names, because it meant I had to stop reading. I feel like that could be some sort of metaphor for my voracious academic disposition, but I'm actually one of the three or four laziest people at MIT.

Then my family and I went to La Groceria, which has really awesome bruschetta but a terribly annoying noise on their website. See for yourself. BWAAAAA!!

And yeah, graduation was super sad or whatever. Luckily for me, I left all my packing until the last minute, so I was too busy frantically putting my room in twenty thousand tiny jars to worry about saying goodbyes, or missing people, or even processing the fact that I'm leaving my home in Boston for the next six years of my life.

BWAAAAA!!

But in the end, it was all good because I GOT TO GO TO HERSHEYPARK! Riding in the front seat of Storm Runner at 11 AM was the culmination of four years of regret of not coming home for the summer. And even if we had to run from actual storms later that evening, I still had one of the best sunny early afternoons in recent memory.

Also, Sam's Mom made this delicious cake and, as she rightly pointed out, if I were still my old blogging self, I would have taken a picture of it as soon as I saw it, which I've done with like 8 other food items she's cooked. It was delicious, but I have no picture. Hmm, maybe I can reproduce it in ASCII...

.........
/_____
|xxxxx|
|_____|

The periods are whipped cream, the x is delicious strawberry filling, and everything else is sweet, sweet cake. I would also probably have taken a picture of my face after eating it, which would look like this:

^_^

Because I am an anime hero.

By the way, never see the movie "Die You Zombie Bastards!" While I almost always agree with my friend Allison's movie selections, this was by far the single worst movie I have ever seen, ever. Seriously. Never see it. For any reason. I turned away from the screen in utter disgust like twelve times. There was only one redeeming quality, and that is that there was a character named Super Inge in the movie, and the morning after I saw it I had to call up someone named Inge to work out my flight reservations to Germany. But even that can hardly be attributed to the movie itself.

Oh! Germany! I ended up taking the job as MISTI reporter, so basically I'm getting paid to travel around Europe and interview MIT interns, then write about them. I really don't know how I managed that. You can hear all about it in this blog, or possibly a special MISTI blog, or possibly both at the same time, or possibly both at different times, or possibly I'll fall into a canal in Hamburg and get eaten by piranhas.

Just playin', Sam's Mom.

I look really bad with facial hair, but mine grows relatively fast, and I'm also terrible at shaving. So I've always told people that facial hair is my punishment for some terrible transgression in a past life. Surely then, this MISTI reporter job must be my reward for some awesome karma that I gathered in a different past life. Maybe as a friendly goat farmer in the Swiss Alps or a nurse during the American Civil War. Or maybe it's just my reward for namedropping Frau Sigrid "These Boots Are Made for Finding Internships" Berka in my blog last summer. I'm not too sure, really.

Just think about it for a second. I'm getting paid to go to Europe. To paraphrase a great woman, "I cannot believe this! Look what MIT can do."

In all honesty though, it wasn't until I actually went through and planned out all my visits that I realized what a logistical challenge this is all going to be. If I miss one train going anywhere, I might end up scrubbing dishes in Düsseldorf for the rest of my life. So, while I'm excited to get a six week paid vacation in Germany, I'm also scared out of my gourd right now.

I'm so excited!
I'm so excited!
I'm so ... scared.

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

Lucky you.Make the best of it,such opportunities are honestly rare.

Posted by: Ken Mbeva on June 16, 2007

Werd dude. Congrats on graduating, and have a supercool time in Yoorope.

Brawl, ASAP.

Posted by: Mason on June 16, 2007

wow.. can I have that job the summer after graduation, too? =0)

congrats on graduation. your post was hilarious

Posted by: yg'11 on June 16, 2007

wait a minute. a QUESTION!

why did you say 6 years? aren't phd's 4-year programs?

Posted by: yg'11 on June 16, 2007

Yay, you are a good, intruiging writer, otherwise I wouldn't have read this Have Fun, learn some German! "schnitzel" thats some sort of steak and i think u eat it with noodles, traditionally, thats all I know, oh and "danku" means thank you, "trus" (troos) means bye and tousand means, u guessed it, thousand...

Posted by: KantoKid on June 16, 2007

I think you meant 'danke' und 'tschüs(s)' there, KantoKid. Plus Sam's studied German. But yeah, I'm no stalker. Much.

Posted by: Nick on June 16, 2007

Hey! Don't knock the 10B people - that's what I want to do! =)

Congrats on graduating, and getting that AMAZING MISTI job! You'll have a blast! (Take me with you?)

Isn't it weird that what makes us excited also scares us? 'cause that's how I feel about going to MIT - STOKED but PETRIFIED. Oh well. Humans are strange. I'm not good at psycology. I won't try =)

Posted by: Wings '11 on June 16, 2007

NO TIME! THERE'S NEVER ANY TIME!

I heartily enjoyed your ASCII art. It made the entry "come alive" for readers like me.

Have fun in Europe!

Posted by: Colin on June 16, 2007

hahahahah oh my goodness I miss you! have an amazing time!

Posted by: JKim on June 16, 2007

Hey look, it's Sam!

http://web.mit.edu/tester/images/labshots/biketrip_2007.jpg

I want that T-shirt.

Posted by: Paul '11 on June 16, 2007

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA. ^___^

Posted by: Christina on June 16, 2007

I think you look weird without facial hair. Well, maybe stubble. But your thumbnail pic on the Meet the Blogger's page is weird.

Posted by: Hank R. on June 16, 2007

You'll be fine. You're the fourth or fifth laziest non-urban planner, and if you're still homeless when I get to school in September, I'll come find you. I promise.

Posted by: Ruth '07 on June 16, 2007

Yessir Sam, I'll do my best.

Posted by: Snively on June 17, 2007

Congrats on graduation! And have a great time in Europe! Nice ASCII art, but I think the whipped cream is dripping off on the left side

Posted by: Arkajit on June 17, 2007

Good on you, Sam! I'm just in doubt that is everyone in US excited about going to Europe? Can you tell me more about this?

Posted by: Ronny CHEN on June 18, 2007

How I wish I could join you!

Posted by: aclose on June 18, 2007

i'm laughing inside at the quote at the end. inside because i am at work right now. yay first internship.

anyway, lol @ that, assuming it is from the amazing saved by the bell. oh jessie spano. (sp?) their music video is so rockin.

Posted by: rebecca on June 18, 2007

lmao you did not just quote that saved by the bell episode. i think that's probably one of the most famous episodes in that era of TV history. seriously everybody who watched saved by the bell (which is basically every teen during the run of that show) knows that episode. hehe

Posted by: Mikey on June 20, 2007

wow thta sounds really excited and really thrilling. either im reading your entry really fast, or your entry sounds like you had 3 cans of red bull. thats still a pretty good opportunity to go to europe though. and yes, hershey park owns all.

Posted by: debbie on June 20, 2007

Hooray for ASCII art.

Posted by: James Eastwood on June 22, 2007

Sam, you lucky bastard. Even my award only pays for plane ticket. But it does include 3 nights hotel stay, I bet that will be reaaaaally nice. But seriously. I can't wait to read about what you're doing, so write it all down!

Posted by: Ling on June 22, 2007

giornata mondiale dei diritti umani (il 10 dicembre): sarebbe stato giusto processarlo?

Posted by: clarina howard on June 27, 2007

More or less nothing seems important. It's not important. Shrug. Whatever. I've just been hanging out doing nothing, but eh. I can't be bothered with anything lately.

Posted by: simvastatin lipitor on June 27, 2007

Comments have been closed.