Randall Munroe = zeitgeist-capturing genius . He speaks the truth. (for those confused, i must point you to the wikipedia link embedded above...)

More importantly, however, let's discuss "The Magic School Bus." (why yes, my generation does love reminiscing about the television of our youth. guilty as charged). Because I graduated a little over a week ago, I feel compelled to at least pretend I have some salient advice to give. But I really think Ms. Frizzle summed it up best when she said "Take chances! Make mistakes! Get messy." I'll add to that only two things.

One : If you've got a Ms. Frizzle in your life, don't be afraid to take advantage of that resource (and thank them afterwards). Awesome teachers/professors/mentors/role models are often awesome because they love questions and interacting with students, so don't be shy!

Two : While you may not navigate a nostril, or surf through a river of lava with your classmates (like they do on the magic school bus), they are incredibly important. No one goes through MIT (or any school) alone; the help and camaraderie and collaboration with friends will see you through even your worst IHTFP moment.

That's about all I've got for advice. Stay tuned 'til next time when I switch to oversees correspondent. (ok so I'm already in Germany. but next time I'll talk about it!)

Kim has a collection of old Techniques (the MIT yearbook), and flipping through the pages from as far back at 1918, it was interesting to see what has changed, and what remains the same. Many of you will be experiencing MIT for yourselves this spring, whether for the first time on a campus tour or during CPW (for those of you attending-I hope you are getting excited! CPW is overwhelmingly awesome), but take a look:

This is what it used to take to get in to MIT-definitely a lot less work for the admissions officers, that’s for sure...

Of course, in 1918 there were only 216 undergraduates. Also, apparently it took 8.5 minutes to walk around Killian court inside, or 2 hours and 15 minutes if you took the scenic route. No sample size or standard deviation given though...

Once you were here, MIT offered a fine range of Courses (our numbered way of doing majors) for you to choose from. Can you guess which ones have changed a little in the last century or so?

If you think this stuff is as neat as I do, and want more,you are in luck! As part of the MIT150 celebration, both the MIT Libraries and the Archive have created a couple cool ways to browse historical material related to MIT. There is this awesome interactive timeline as well as the Libraries' "150 Years in the Stacks" blog, which is highlighting one book a day from their collection, for each year in MIT's history. The books aren't just about science/engineering-one of my favorites is this one, the book that inspired the always-hilarious Bulwer-Lytton contest. (for an easier to read link, there's always good ol' wikipedia).

The shuttle tracker has been key this winter, as Boston has certainly received its fair share of snow. (As has most of the US, except Florida. It makes me wonder what the global snow:no snow ratio is. I bid someone to go forth and Google! And then get back to me).

Anyway, at this point, there is really no place for the snow to go anymore in Boston. The snowbanks beside the roads are 3-4 feet tall; my friend Giulia '11 has trouble seeing over them. So what to do with all the snow? Well, back in 1948, the Mayor of Boston had the same conundrum. Except one of his ideas to get rid of the snow was flamethrowers . While totally awesome, this is also a really terrible plan. Luckily, he wrote to the president of MIT at the time, and asked for his opinion first. You can find the correspondence here . (Hat tip to the MIT news twitter (see, that whole first paragraph was relevant!) for linking from the MIT archives). I've got to imagine that this was a serious facepalm moment for President Compton, but when it's the mayor asking I suppose you have to answer.

I'm a complete sucker for historical stuff like that, which is why I love twitter and the interwebs in general. For example, "Letters of Note" is this awesome blog that posts old letters from famous people, often in response to fans/kids but just generally interesting. (Check out the "most read" on the side for a quick idea of what it's about). Then there is "Sunday Magazine" , which posts articles from the New York Times Sunday Magazines of 100 years ago. They are WAY more interesting than you'd expect. Some are funny in hindsight, some seem quaint, some sensational, and some are just plain hilarious. If I try to list examples this blog post will actually never end but here's one about the "original" way things went viral. And info on the blog here .

And then there is the reason I joined twitter. I was resistant and fairly hostile for a while, but then I read in the Boston Globe that the Massachusetts Historical Society was going to tweet the diary of John Quincy Adams. His journal entries are just about the length of a tweet, and they were posting an entry a day recording his trip to Russia as American ambassador there. I was intrigued, I joined, and I haven't looked back. They still post his entries here .

For all you lucky ones looking forward to a snow day tomorrow, I hope I've given you something to pass the time with. And as a final disclaimer, DON'T ATTEMPT THE FLAMETHROWER THING.

I did however, accomplish at least three things during IAP:

1.) Lots and lots of running. Indoor track season is in full swing and I’ve been kept passably sane by practice and meets and hanging out with the team. (Seriously, it’s no wonder the “Yellow Wallpaper” woman went mad. The line between relaxation and soul-crushing boredom is shakier than you’d expect).

2.) Watched the entire series of Veronica Mars and a couple seasons of Buffy . Gotta love shows with witty butt-kicking blondes, right? Also, big question for Buffy fans re: Faith’s accent. Where is she supposed to be from? She sounds like she’s trying for Canadian but got lost somewhere around theater-class New Yorker.

3.) Had a cliche rom-com revelation with...a blondie recipe? Stay with me here: hard-working girl is happy with her life but has been so focused on her career (or you know, school) she doesn’t realize what she’s missing(love, or baked goods) until she meets a guy (or a recipe) who opens her eyes (to the miracle powers of browned butter). Click here for the recipe. (Substitute white chocolate chips for toffee and your life will be changed forever). Also the previous only works if you say it in one of those movie-trailer voices.

I also inadvertently stumbled upon the hummus taste-off (link!) . If you didn’t think hummus could get any better, I present unexpected, free, hummus, in large quantities. It was pretty neat-three different companies came and had samples and there was a huge taste-off where people could make their own or just come and vote on their favorites. To me it was the epitome of IAP-random, awesome, and delicious.

But now it’s Registration Day eve and all of a sudden I have to go to school again! Weird (in an exciting, good kind of way). Here’s what I’ve got in my final (!) semester at MIT:

20.380- Biological Engineering Design. This is Course 20’s senior design class-in lieu of a thesis we work in groups over the course of a semester to propose a drug/device to investigate/treat biological systems/diseases. Last year the seniors studied inflammation and worked in groups on projects about cancer, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, and I’m excited to hear what our topics will be.

German II-Unlike any of my Course 20 classes, the title of this class is pretty self-explanatory. MISTI , MIT’s amazing internship abroad program allows recent grads to participate, and depending on the start date for my job, I might go to Germany. MISTI is very popular-my friends have gone to Spain, Germany, Switzerland, Japan and have all absolutely loved it. The MISTI people help you find work and help arrange travel and housing. There are language requirements, but they vary by country; I took German I first semester and liked it so even if I can’t do MISTI I’m looking forward to this class.

21L.702 Studies in Fiction: Jane Austen’s Reading List. Last spring I took Professor Perry’s Jane Austen class and it was the highlight of my semester. The lit classes I’ve taken at MIT have been hands down my favorites. I’ve also been on a British lit kick lately so I’m particularly excited for this one.

Should be a pretty good semester. I’m going to try to keep myself not too busy and just enjoy my classes and track, but we’ll see how that goes.

A plane ride and a time zone change later, we found ourselves in Minneapolis:

There was snow! We're definitely not in Boston anymore...

After a three hour drive, we made it to Waverly, just in time to check out the course before the sun set. (I'm going to refrain from the obvious commentary on the drive through Iowa-I come from a state that is also occasionally the butt of jokes so I won't go there. Except to say that the radio station we were listening to on our drive down was called...KOWZ.)

Thursday night, the team enjoyed a meal at that most venerable of restaurants, the Olive Garden(there is something about the Olive Garden that draws cross-country teams like moths to a flame. Perhaps it's because they've colonized all but the farthest reaches of our nation, inescapable no matter where we travel to. In any case, I've been to my fair share over the years...).

Claire '14 and Logan '13 await their pre-race pasta.

On Friday we went to the course again, just to give it another going over. This time we made time for a photo op:

The ladies at the course on Friday. In case you can't tell, it was pretty cold.

Friday night brought the NCAA DIII XC banquet. It gave us an excuse to get all dressed up:

The ladies, always classy.

The guys. Apparently their outfits were the subject of quite the debate-this is in direct opposition to my previous claim. In any case, I have to say the grey sweaters turned out well.

And then, it was Saturday. Meet day! While the craziness (like Maggie talked about at regionals, only MORE) went on around us, and the guys team raced (they got 12th! first New England team!):

This is some serious dedication-remember how i said it was COLD?

We stayed inside and tried to stay calm:

Chilling, or as close as we could get to it, before the race.

This was it. I mean, this was IT. All those summer workouts, morning pool sessions, mile repeats, and chocolate milks, and we were finally here. This was why we showed up to practice every day at 5PM. This was why we gladly gave up our Saturdays, our Friday nights. The last chance for us to race together. Our chance to prove that we could survive MIT and succeed at cross-country at the same time. For me, a last race as an Engineer.

And what a race it was! The gun went off, and we ran. (I'm going to forgo the action shots, because let's face it, nobody looks good when they're racing). In a race as large as nationals, you can't know what your teammates are doing; the field is so large and so clumped together that all you can do is hope to hear snatches of names as spectators cheer. But every person counts; any opponent you pass can make the difference between being on the podium or off. After a fourth place finish at regionals, only two points behind third, we knew this too well. You also can't always know how you've finished, or how your team has done. As runners stream across the finish line, it is enough to try to find your teammates, to gather your exhausted crew and extract yourselves from the chaos that grows around the chute.

So when my parents and teammates and coaches found us, excited and saying something about 4th place, I was mostly confused and a little overwhelmed. But then I looked at the scoreboard:

The unofficial results!

And it was true! Unofficially, we were fourth! Better than last year, when we had been ranked higher, had had higher expectations going in. It took the length of our cooldown for it to sink in to me-we had made the podium!

But that wasn't all-as we were sitting inside Wartburg's gym, waiting for awards, one of our coaches came over and told us that after taking out individual places and recalculating, officially, we were third! Again, I didn't quite believe it. But then the announcer was announcing places and suddenly fourth place was called and no MIT. So third it was!

The entire team, plus one very large trophy.

The freshman runner friends (now all grown up?) celebrate our last race together.

My parents! In high school, my dad never missed a meet and my mom volunteered at every home track meet, so it mean a lot for them to come out to my final race. It was also nice because they took home the stuff that wouldn't fit in my suitcase on the way back (like my hardware).

But the day wasn't done. Our tireless coaches drove us all the way back to Minneapolis, where we ate dinner at the Mall of America and celebrated a successful close to the season. (I'd like to take a moment here to thank Coach Taylor, Coach H, Coach Paterno, Coach Pete, and Coach Kate. Not only did they drive us all around Iowa and put up with our nonsense all weekend, but they worked harder then we did all season (and didn't even get to race!). They are the reason we had such a good season, and perhaps more importantly, stayed sane while aquajogging. (which is saying a lot!))