This entry is a lot of things. Read!

First here are some pictures from freshman year. This is the dorm room which I shared with Kelly '09, all dressed up for Christmas.

This is my side of the room:

and kelly's:

You might be upset by the fact that there are 4x4's running through the middle of our room and you might even be wondering, "What?! Are those 4x4's running through the middle of your room?!" Well, yes. But here's why.

Chris '10 now occupies this room (his roommate de-doubled out of it over IAP when a single became available) and was kind enough to let me climb all over his bedding and his pillows to take the following pictures for the sake of clarity.

Because you see, we have a second floor to our room. Built as a double-loft, this imposing structure presides over more than 1/2 of the room and provides a comfortable living space below as well as one overhead. In short, it meant that you didn't feel the need to close the door when you napped and could always find a good hiding spot when evading responsibility.

This is the view from atop our loft. The interior design is an amalgamation of our individual tastes.

When we moved into our respective single rooms end of freshman year, naturally, we each got to have our own way with the decor. I spent weeks visualizing my new room and it took only 3 days in early June to turn my vision into reality.

This is where I live now.

And kelly's new (current) room:

We think stripes are pretty cool.

Me chillin' in my new room after all the hard work:

Here are some examples of other rooms around the place. (Yes, I am REUSING some of the pictures I took for the viewbook.)

A double in East Campus- 2nd west. these guys

Talia's room in Senior House (who graduated last year, I believe).

A single in New House (German House):

A single in Simmons Hall:



(there's a window under her desk. I probably couldn't handle that.)

Speaking of Simmons Hall. I ran into it the other day on my way to Brigg's Field. It was lookin' pretty good so I took a couple of pictures.

But don't be fooled by its grandeur. There are freshman singles, computer clusters, and private bathrooms in each dorm room. I hear it's quite a pain to live in.

I took these from the 3rd floor of lobby 7. Two pictures:

The other day, when a firetruck appeared atop the dome.

Rune, MIT's literary and art journal, hosted a open mic poetry reading with coffee and desserts. This was in the student center. I hear they might host another soon, you should probably go. I know I will.

Meet the kitties of first east:

kitty #1 - Blackjack. Though lazy and fat at first glance, this cat can go 0-to-60 in 6 short seconds!

(glamour shot for a glamour queen)

kitty #2 - Lestat. In full-blown teenage rebellion, this cat is catty and territorial. Likes to explore. Killer looks. Fits into tiny spaces.

kitty emeritus - Truman. Aw, Truman. Freshman year cat who graduated with his owner. Truman, who loves to eat hair and sleep in beds like a person. His favorite spot was our loft. His favorite time of day was naptime.

That's enough for now. Stay tuned for part II, if there is one!

Comments (Closed after 30 days to reduce spam)

These pictures are the best, they really give me an idea of living at MIT. How does MIT afford to allow all students to decorate, paint, basically destroy their dorm rooms? Thanks for posting, and 新年快乐！

Posted by: Q on February 17, 2007

Use KONICA-MINOLTA.

Posted by: 0 on February 17, 2007

More and more, day by day I fall in love with MIT.

Posted by: Solomon on February 17, 2007

So it's pretty easy to get a freshman single? Because I've done the roommate thing for two years now, and it's fun, but I'd really love my own room.

Posted by: Simone isn't my real name. on February 17, 2007

What's up with the eerie red lighting?

Posted by: 0 on February 17, 2007

Your dorms look incredible, particularly due to the freedom you have in decorating them.

Also, KITTIES! Your dorms look incredible, particularly due to the freedom you have in decorating them.

Also, KITTIES! <--- one of the things I love about some of the MIT dorms.

Posted by: Karin on February 17, 2007

I wish I lived in Simmons. I flagged it on Google Earth as "The world's coolest residential building?"

Posted by: James on February 17, 2007

Oh look, that's Dawn's cat!

Posted by: Keri on February 17, 2007

I'm really more of a dog person

Posted by: anonymous on February 17, 2007

These pictures are SOOOOOOO amazing. WOW.

Posted by: Christina on February 17, 2007

i hear you can have dogs if you live in the president's house.

Posted by: lulu on February 17, 2007

lulu, if i may ask, what drives your interest in photography?

Posted by: 0 on February 18, 2007

it's pretty

Posted by: lulu on February 18, 2007

From one photographer to another, you have an amazing sense of color and light in your compositions. I especially love the cat photos... but that's because I have a soft spot in my heart for cats. And I agree, the dorms look amazing. !

Posted by: Maha on February 18, 2007

Truman looks like my cat. Not in the coloring, but in the position- and favorite place to be- My bed!

Posted by: Elizabeth on February 19, 2007

LULU
yours are my favorite blogs

Posted by: ko. on February 19, 2007

You know if this whole "MIT-mad-scientist-muahhahaha" thing goes bust you can always get a job as a professional photographer =)

Posted by: chris on February 19, 2007

Lulu L is such an ugly woman that I have never seen. Her photo is really too ugly to post on the website.

Does she know the definition of "shameless"?

Posted by: 0 on February 19, 2007

:(

I no do again :(

Posted by: lulu on February 19, 2007

Lulu, thanks for the pictures of the dorms. You really brought it all to life.

Posted by: Parent of EA admit on February 19, 2007

Its so awesome that you guys get to personalize your room to every extent. I love the dinosaurs in Kelly's room. Also, I have a completely unrelated question. I'm dual enrolling taking Calc 2, and my calculator (a Ti-83+ Silver) can't do EVERYTHING I want it to do. I'm planning on continuing in math, so I was wondering if you could recommend a calculator?

Posted by: Jessica on February 20, 2007

True story:

One day I was a-napping in the loft. My bed was the one closer to the door (it has chris's blue bedsheets on it in the pictures above) and so you can barely tell that someone is in there if they are lying down, especially if you FORGET TO CHECK (cough cough). So this particular day I was napping peacefully, content in the knowledge that Lulu would be away for 3 hours in art class when...

BOOM! The door bursts open and Lulu chatters into the room and proceeds to tape the entire floor into 1'x1' squares. She leaves just as mysteriously as she entered and I settle back into the nap.

About 30 minutes later, there's quite a few feet outside of my door, and again BOOM!. But this time Lulu's entire art class is traipsing into our room, standing in the cleverly taped individual squares and observing the art that was our space. Stalwart, I continued napping, my sleep punctuated by such classroom remarks as "is this room a single?!" "look there's a sink" and my favorite ".......is there a girl up there?"

The moral of the story is: Before you get to MIT, try and learn how to sleep through anything, even being your roommate's art project.

And I love my dinosaurs too!!

~Kelly

Posted by: Kelly on February 20, 2007

Jessica-

You should get a TI-89 because even though I'm perpetually afraid of doing anything on it, it's actually not that hard to learn (i'm just stubborn and stupid) and it did all my crazy engineering integrals without breakin a sweat. Anything short of cooking you dinner, you can count on it. You can probably get it to do that too if you read the manual (I did not). it's usually around $120? probably less now. It's really nifty, yeah.

also, hi kelly :>

Posted by: lulu on February 20, 2007

You are crazy girls.

Posted by: 0 on February 21, 2007

Isn`t East Campus the dorm I want to be in? *cough* Yet I`m allergic to cats. It`s a sign. o:

Posted by: Eileen on February 21, 2007

pretty!

Posted by: Eric Wong on February 22, 2007

Oh, so this is East Campus (referring to Eileen's comment)? For you MIT students, which dorm would you recommend? I heard Senior House and Next were THE dorms to room in.

Posted by: Q on February 25, 2007

Wow those are fantastic pictures you took! I love to take pictures as well but well my digi camara doesn't hold out as well as yours! You gave me one crazy idea for living at MIT. Is it that fun?
(ur interior designs are awesomes by the way)

Posted by: LilKraze on February 26, 2007

Comments have been closed.