EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
-- MIT blogging was not always this fancy
-- I put my Course 14 skills to good use
-- MIT alums are cool

HISTORY OF MIT BLOGGING

I'll keep this short. During my CPW in April 2003 (wow), I took some photos of all the madness and sent them to Matt McGann. You know, the usual: a cappella concerts, liquid nitrogen ice cream, etc. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Matt's a big deal so he didn't respond immediately. I am very detail-oriented (some might use a different word here) about stuff like this so I sent him another email in November 2003 asking if I could delete the photos or if he still wanted them. He hired me on the spot to write some "photo journals" over IAP. Had I known this would have happened, I would have emailed him in September. Good thing I was on pass/no record still. (Check out that linkage -- not rusty at all!)

Drafting my first couple of "entries" was hilarious. I would make Word documents with photographs of things I was doing and punny captions below, and then email these to Mari to "post" to the old, old admissions site This was while everyone in the entire office is reading thousands of applications and planning CPW. I believe I wrote 4 entries: making fondue for Valentine's day, going to a formal, and then maybe some stuff about playing in the snow. I don't remember anymore - I'm an old.

Sophomore year, we moved to the Institute-wide MIT blogs site and thought we were pretty pro. Matt and I continued to blog and had a few other entries by another student, I believe. People who knew where these were seemed to like them, but they certainly did not click. In fact, I received more comments from older MIT students than I did from prospective students and their parents. (And no "First!" comments... it was the Dark Ages.)

Ben realized that the admissions office needed to customize its own site to unleash the magic and bring blogging to the forefront. By junior year, we had created a spiffy website and I had gotten my friends Bryan and Sam jobs. (No kickbacks, though.)

WHAT AM I UP TO

I now live in foggy, hippie, fair-trade San Francisco. Fortunately it feels quite similar to Cambridge - especially with the pi-themed pizzeria. I just finished the incredible two year consulting program at Bain, and now I work for the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. Gordon Moore is the co-founder of Intel (Moore's Law!! for all the Course 6ers out there) and he and his wife established this foundation to support the environment, science, and the Bay Area. I work as an investment associate, so I help invest the foundation's endowment (just like a university's) to fund all its excellent grant-making work.

HOW MIT HAS SHAPED MY ADULTHOOD SO FAR

It's funny how much MIT helped me identify my identity. Like I did back on Conner 2, I still wake up early to go running, and visit the library (1, 2, 3) bi-weekly. MIT's emphasis on using what one has learned to better the world certainly resonates with me, and I hope that all of my career and personal (I compost now!) choices continue to reflect this.

The best part of graduating and moving to California has been connecting with other recent alums, some of whom I did not know at MIT. We have a semi-shared set of experiences and friends (quantifiable on Facebook) so it makes it much easier to skip the niceties and jump straight to the nerdy pick-up lines. Thanks to all of the meaningful things that nearby alums are up to (e.g., finding breakthroughs in research, starting new companies, planning new transportation systems, making a mark in established firms, investing in new technologies and ideas), I am so proud to wear my brass rat. And I owe a final "bravo" to all 07s in other cities doing similarly amazing things -- can I crash with you when I visit?

P.S. In case you're as "detail-oriented" (see above) as I am, the answer is none. I don't remember any 18.06 at all.

As I wrote in a previous entry about Spring 07 classes, I took a short story writing class with Professor Junot Diaz. I was inspired to take it by Nadja '07 and Yang '09, each of whom had taken a class from him and recommended it. Good call, guys.

We students in the class knew he wrote a well-known book in 1996, but he never really discussed it and that was that.

Fast-forward to two weeks ago, when I was surfing the web and reading some of New York Magazine's picks for the fall. Junot (we didn't call him Professor Diaz) was interviewed about his new book, and I ignored the possibility of awkwardness just long enough to email it to the class. (Junot is also on the class list.... awk)

Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007
From: Mitra
Subject: NY Magazine raves
To: class@mit.edu

Here's a quotation from the article:

"Díaz, pushing 40 but looking 30, is talking about the eleven years it took him to follow up on his best-selling, six-figure-advanced, award-winning book of short stories, Drown—by most accounts the first great work of Dominican-American fiction. 'Every now and then you catch one, bro, and I caught a f*cking bad one.'

"At long last, thanks to his gentle agent, his hard-nosed editor, Sean McDonald (who also edited—and survived—James Frey), a good therapist, and “sheer ornery stubbornness,” his first novel, which fulfills his two-book contract, is done—and in many ways it’s even better than Drown."

Yay. Then, much to my surprise, Junot (sort of) emailed back.

Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007
From: Junot Diaz
Subject: And Time Magazine
To: class@mit.edu

Here's another juicy quotation for the click-averse:

"Then Díaz more or less disappeared for 11 years, long enough for most readers to assume that, like most next great hopes of American literature, he wasn't coming back.

"Now he has, and with a book so astoundingly great that in a fall crowded with heavyweights--Richard Russo, Philip Roth--Díaz is a good bet to run away with the field. You could call The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao (Riverhead; 352 pages), out on Sept. 6, the saga of an immigrant family, but that wouldn't really be fair. It's an immigrant-family saga for people who don't read immigrant-family sagas."

and my favorite paragraph of the review:

"Díaz has written Oscar Wao (a mishearing of 'Oscar Wilde') in a mongrel argot of his devising, a mixture of straight-up English, Dominican Spanish and hieratic nerdspeak crowded with references to Tolkien, DC Comics, role-playing games and classic science fiction. ('What more sci-fi than the Santo Domingo?' Oscar asks, 'What more fantasy than the Antilles?') In lesser hands Oscar Wao would merely have been the saddest book of the year. With Díaz on the mike, it's also the funniest. As Oscar and Lola grow up and go to college, they find themselves fighting the lingering dooms of the old country, the alien demands of New Jersey and the depredations of their romantic hearts, all at the same time. It's an unwinnable three-front war, and the outcome isn't a fantasy; it's brutal reality. 'You know exactly what kind of world we live in,' Díaz writes. 'It ain't no f*cking Middle-earth.' "

Yes, this is pretty much how Junot speaks during class.

We then shifted from trading reviews to trading tour info

Brooke


Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007
From: David
Subject: Re: go see Junot!
To: class@mit.edu

David


Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007
From: Louis
Subject: Re: go see Junot!
To: class@mit.edu

Ysabel swoops in again with a lifesaver email

Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007
From: Junot Diaz
Subject: Re: go see Junot!
To: class@mit.edu

Ysabel de Leon
Assistant to Professor Diaz

Um, how hot is it to have your tour schedule posted by The New Yorker? So very hot.

Finally came the big one...

From The New York Times review

"Junot Díaz’s Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao is a wondrous, not-so-brief first novel that is so original it can only be described as Mario Vargas Llosa meets 'Star Trek' meets David Foster Wallace meets Kanye West. It is funny, street-smart and keenly observed, and it unfolds from a comic portrait of a second-generation Dominican geek into a harrowing meditation on public and private history and the burdens of familial history. An extraordinarily vibrant book that’s fueled by adrenaline-powered prose, it’s confidently steered through several decades of history by a madcap, magpie voice that’s equally at home talking about Tolkien and Trujillo, anime movies and ancient Dominican curses, sexual shenanigans at Rutgers University and secret police raids in Santo Domingo.

Who wrote this review? Carrie Bradshaw-hating author and critic Michiko Kakutani. Nice.

Do check out both Drown and The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. And then laugh at people who think that MIT doesn't have a strong humanities department. (Give them the books too, since that was kind of mean.)

Edited to add:

Junot Diaz on Charlie Rose!

Transportation

Subway map: http://mbta.com/schedules_and_maps/subway/
Campus map: http://whereis.mit.edu/map-jpg
Transportation (subway passes, shuttle info, plus parking info for visitors): http://web.mit.edu/facilities/transportation/
ShuttleTrack (see which shuttles are where so you don't have to wait outside in the rain): http://shuttletrack.mit.edu/

Computing

Get certificates (super important): http://web.mit.edu/ist/topics/certificates/
MIT-supported software (download stuff for free, post pictures to your webspace, etc.): http://web.mit.edu/software/
Athena clusters & printers: http://web.mit.edu/olh/Clusters/
Email list management (check which lists you're on, add yourself to other lists, etc.): http://web.mit.edu/moira
Directory search: http://web.mit.edu/search.html
Webmail: https://webmail.mit.edu/
SIPB (students who help with computer stuff): http://www.mit.edu/sipb/sipb.html
TechTime, MIT's Calendar system (you may prefer another calendar system for personal use, but register for this too since nearly 5000 faculty/staff keep their public schedules on it): http://calendar.mit.edu/

Activities

Association of Student Activities (ASA) database, which has all officially-recognized groups: http://web.mit.edu/asa/database/index.html
Reserve a room: http://cac-ems.mit.edu/VirtualEMS/
Student Life Programs (SLP) support: http://web.mit.edu/slp/grouptools/asa.shtml
What's going on? Events Calendar: http://events.mit.edu/
Independent Activities Period: http://web.mit.edu/iap/
Group accounts: http://web.mit.edu/slp/money/
Tax exempt forms: http://controllers.mit.edu/site/procurement/forms

Dining

General (hours, locations, menus): http://web.mit.edu/dining/
Boston restaurants: http://boston.citysearch.com/find/section/boston/restaurants.html

Housing

Undergraduate housing: http://mit.edu/housing/undergrad/index.html
Repairs: http://web.mit.edu/sapweb/PS1/facilities_home.shtml
Dormitory Council: http://web.mit.edu/dormcon/
Interfraternity Council: http://ifc.mit.edu/
Panhel (sororities): http://web.mit.edu/panhel/www/
Independent living groups: http://web.mit.edu/slp/involved/ilgs.shtml

Finances

TechCash (money for dinner, laundry, textbooks, etc.): http://web.mit.edu/mitcard/
MITPAY (tuition): http://student.mit.edu/cgi-docs/student.html
Timesheets for campus jobs: http://web.mit.edu/sapwebss/PS1/time_home.shtml

Academic

UROP (undergraduate research): http://web.mit.edu/urop/
Public Service: http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/
First year info: http://web.mit.edu/firstyear/
Course catalog with times: http://student.mit.edu/@3713989.29448/catalog/index.cgi
Your personal Academic Record: https://student.mit.edu/cgi-docs/shrwstop.html
Committee on Academic Performance (CAP) petitions to add/drop stuff late: http://web.mit.edu/acadinfo/cap/petitions/types.html
Academic Calendar 2007-2008: http://web.mit.edu/registrar/www/cal0708.html
Study abroad: http://web.mit.edu/studyabroad/index.html
Undergraduate exchange with Cambridge: http://web.mit.edu/cmi/ue/
MIT International Science & Technology Initiative (MISTI): http://web.mit.edu/misti/
My #1 love, MIT Libraries: http://libraries.mit.edu/
Course Administrators: http://web.mit.edu/acadinfo/deptcontacts/undergrad_administrators.html
Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences (HASS) Concentration (which, at this time, is still required): http://web.mit.edu/shass/undergraduate/hass-req/concentration/index.shtml

Athletics

Zesiger center hours: http://web.mit.edu/zcenter/gen_info/z_hours.html
Physical Education (required!): http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/physed/
Varsity sports: http://mitathletics.cstv.com/
Club sports listing: http://web.mit.edu/athletics/www/clubsports/
Club sports council: http://web.mit.edu/clubsports/

Arts (selected)

Student Art Association: http://web.mit.edu/saa/index.html
MIT Symphony Orchestra: http://web.mit.edu/mitso/
MIT Radio: http://wmbr.mit.edu/
Concert Choir: http://web.mit.edu/21m401/www/about.html
Chamber Chorus: http://web.mit.edu/21m.405/www/
Concert Band: http://band.mit.edu/news.php
Wind Ensemble: http://web.mit.edu/mitwe/www/
Free tickets to the Symphony (BSO): http://web.mit.edu/arts/see/freetickets/bso.html

After MIT

Applying to Grad school: http://web.mit.edu/career/www/gradschool/
Premed: http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/premed.html
Prelaw: http://web.mit.edu/career/www/preprof/prelaw.html
Careers Office (very good resume critiques!): http://web.mit.edu/career/www/
Alumni Association: http://alum.mit.edu/index.html
Alumni Career Services: http://alum.mit.edu/cs/index.html

Secrets

Scanner for free at Rotch: http://libraries.mit.edu/rvc/services.html
Subject evaluations: http://web.mit.edu/acadinfo/sse/courselist.html
How to use the MIT logo properly: http://web.mit.edu/graphicidentity/logo/
Get on the homepage! (probably the best way to advertise anything ever): http://web.mit.edu/site/request.html

Let me know what I forgot

Meet and greet -- spots on campus

18.03 recitation (but don't date your TA until after grades are in)
Barker Reading Room
Campus Preview Weekend
Career Fair -- alums come back and recruit for their employers; everyone looks better with a reversed brass rat and ironed shirt
Killian Court
Lecture Series Committee
MIT Museum -- what's more romantic than holography and free entry with MIT ID?
Music practice rooms -- serenade your special someone in a locking (!) piano room
Steam Cafe -- no, it's not a sauna or spa
TechShuttle/SafeRide
Z Center -- the only place in the winter where I've consistently found skimpily dressed people; if you know of others, do share

Let's take this slow -- first date places

Athena cluster -- teach him/her about George Washington
Chilli Duck -- "if it's not working at Chilli Duck, it's not going to work" says Sam '07
Club Passim -- live music
Grendel's Den -- the turkey & havarti sandwich just might change your life
Middle East Restaurant & Club
Senior Ball -- pop quiz: which blogger inspired this one?
Star Market -- if you can't grocery shop with this person, you probably shouldn't marry him/her... and that is exactly what you should be thinking about on your first date
Toscanini's -- because I have a free ice cream coupon that I need to use soon

Out in Boston

Bank of America Pavillion -- I have been here exactly twice, junior year for a Clay Aiken concert and last Friday for a Keane concert; I am still deciding which rocked the house more
Black Ink in Beacon Hill -- where we found greeting card gems like this and this
Boston Common & Public Gardens
Boston Public Library
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Red Sox game
Mapparium at the Mary Baker Eddy Library
Mike's Pastry in the North End
Museum of Fine Arts
Wang Center -- I took someone here to see Jon Stewart perform, and I have yet to top it

Yum yum -- romantic dining

Aujourd'hui -- at the top of my list (and not just because it's alphabetical)
Enormous Room -- small platters, lounge atmosphere
Flour bakery -- high quality pastries, sandwiches are good too
L'Espalier -- French food, wine Mondays & cheese Tuesdays
Lala Rokh -- Persian food in Beacon Hill
Meritage -- amazing seafood, views of the harbor
Teuscher -- chocolates on Newbury
Top of the Hub -- views of Cambridge and Boston (food is okay)
Tangierino -- yes, hookah bar and belly dancer too

Go the distance -- far, but worth the trip

Apple picking in Nashoba
Ben & Jerry's factory in Vermont -- the Cabot factory has unlimited cheese samples, but Ben & Jerry's is easier to get to
Cape Cod -- or so I hear, I've never been; ask me in a week =)
Coolidge Corner Theater -- "the Boston area's only non-profit independent movie house"
Franklin Park Zoo
MIT Outing Club Cabin
New York City

It's not you, it's me -- best places to break up

Commencement -- if not now, then when?
Duck Tour -- all that quacking will drown out the sobs
Front desk of your dorm -- it's not so hard to find the way out from here
Park Street subway stop -- at the crossroads of the red line, the green line, and your future together
The Tech -- pop quiz: who did this? and are they back together? and if so, WHY???
TechTV video

(Of course, you can do many of these things by yourself, with friends, or with family)

We held it at the Boston Sheraton

In this picture, the Sheraton is the building with the red lights directly to the right of the Prudential Tower

A stock shot of a ballroom, all dolled up

Here are the 10 awesome members of the Senior Ball planning committee. Yes, we're all girls. The odds are good...

Here are Cathie and Kavita, who focused on design for the event. Notice the casablanca lilies!!1!!cos(0)!! I applaud your careful attention to detail, ladies

Crazy tents

People love them!!

Lost in the drapery

Sorry for all these tent photos. They were amazing.

For table centerpieces, we ordered Moroccan lanterns.

They don't look like much in these photographs,

but they created a nice feeling at the tables, no? (Especially when they illuminate butter)

Dinner tables

Our gift/party favor was a cocktail shaker. Fun yet practical

During dinner, we had a jazz band play

And then a DJ for post-dinner dancing

People go nuts

Five points if you can spot the rock star formerly known as Bryan in this picture

Some creative folks took pre-event pictures in Killian Court, where we will graduate in less than a month. Sniff

With Jeanna '07, co-president of the Undergraduate Economics Association (UEA)

With Courtney '09 and Adam '07

Many photographers

OMG Sam in a tux

**Many thanks to Gheorghe '07, from whom I stole many of these pictures**

As I wrote back in February, I'm reading three heavy-duty books in the class 21L.702 Studies in Fiction: "James Joyce and the Legacy of Modernism." Joyce's Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man were both difficult but possible to understand. I really enjoyed both of them, and am fairly confident that I knew what was going on in each book. I haven't often feel this way at MIT, so I was enjoying it.

Ulysses is something else. It is the most formidable piece of literature I have ever attempted, and, not gonna lie, it's been rough. Between the changing narrative styles, extensive vocabulary (250,000 words from a vocabulary of 30,000 words), and hundreds of jokes/puns/foreign phrases that require 700 pages of annotations, it is a monster to read... let alone understand. But enough complaining. I am in a superb lit class that is tackling this book, and I diligently take pages of notes each class to supplement my reading comprehension. All good, right?

Not last Tuesday, when I left my copy of Ulysses, along with my awesome notebook of class notes from Dubliners, Portrait, and Ulysses in the Building 4 Athena Cluster. I rushed out of the cluster around 5:15 PM when I got an urgent email, and forgot to bring my books with me. When I went back around 8:00 PM to pick them up, they were gone. Yikes.

On Wednesday morning, after a sleepless night (not kidding), I went to the undergraduate math office in the same hallway and asked if anyone had dropped off my books. Nope. I then left a short note in the unlucky terminal that said, "If you found a brown notebook or the book Ulysses, please contact [email], thanks!" By Thursday, I was pretty bummed, since I figured that if the person who took my books hadn't contacted me within a day, they were as good as gone.

With my last drop of optimism, I turned to the Athena gods. My awesome friend Phil '07 taught me the useful Athena command last. I typed this in on the Athena computer I had used Tuesday and learned the names of the last ~40 people who had logged in on the same computer. I emailed the following message to the 3 users who were there between 5:15 PM and 8:00 PM Tuesday

Hey [Name],

I left my copy of Ulysses by James Joyce in the bldg 4 Athena cluster, and I see you logged on after me. Did you happen to pick my book and notebook? If so, I'd be happy to come get it from you

Thanks,
Mitra

I got some very thoughtful responses, like

Hi Mitra, I'm afraid I haven't seen it. Good luck

and

Hi Mitra,

Sorry, I was actually in a rush to print something out, I didn't even notice anything on the table.

Sorry again! I hope you find it

At this point, I was beginning to lose all hope. Buying a new book wouldn't have been a huge deal, especially since I don't write much in my books, but the notebook was key. Then I miraculously received this email

Yes, I did! Sorry, I picked up the book and notebook intending to find out who owned them, but I got distracted. I have a big thermodynamics test today which has left me scatterbrained.

The test has got me jammed up today, and it would be hard for us to meet up. Can we meet Friday? Any time or place Friday is good for me.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience I've caused; I should have just left the books there and in all likelihood you'd have recovered them by now. Anyway, email me back and let's find a time and place to meet up and get/give back your stuff.

As you may have guessed, I was thrilled to get this email and am currently guarding my Ulysses book and notebook with my life. I am not sure what the moral of this story is, though I suppose it can be any one of the following: keep track of your stuff; learn your Athena commands; people at MIT can do great things for each other. Any others that I'm missing?

In any case, I'm off to reread and "Scylla and Charybdis" to try and figure out what Stephen Dedalus's deal is.

Learn Roman numerals -- On some forms and posters, people refer to their course (major) with these instead of Arabic numerals. If you don't know them, the party just passes you by.

Watch Chappelle's Show -- Everyone else on my IAP trip to Zambia had seen this show and quoted it nonstop. I had never seen an episode and missed most of their references to it; the most notable exception is the line that goes something like, "Oooeee, chicken!" which I found funny without knowing why.

Learn how to print from a non-Athena computer -- Sadly, I must admit that I never learned how to print from my PC to an Athena printer. I was stuck emailing documents to myself and trekking to an Athena cluster in the middle of the snowy night (uphill both ways) to print. Escape this terrible fate!! I imagine IS&T explains it sufficiently. Whether you learn this or not, you most likely will be fine without buying your own personal printer.

Go on the Orientation tour of the MIT Libraries -- There are so many resources available through the MIT libraries that nobody (especially undergrads) knows about or takes advantage of. For example, you can borrow a laptop, read MIT Alumni Nobel Prize Winners' theses, and hold meetings in group study space. If you miss the formal tours, you can request your own!! Seriously, MIT (and by extension, you) is paying a gazillion dollars to have a top-notch library system, so you might as well take advantage of it.

Fulfill your PE requirement early -- MIT requires you to take 4 physical education classes (or play 2 seasons of a varsity sport) and pass a swim test (remember?) before you can graduate. I am not advising you to finish your PE classes by sophomore year due to some inherent advantage in scheduling. Courseload varies so much by person and by major that broad generalizations like that won't apply. However, you will get so many annoying emails from various offices that you will have wished you got them all out of the way freshman year.

Do a UROP -- Undergraduate research is kind of the thing to do around here. I didn't particularly enjoy any of my UROP experiences, but I learned from them and used them to confirm that I wasn't ready for graduate school. Plus, you can get credit or get money, so it's a pretty good deal.

Go abroad -- You can go to study, to work, to do public service, to travel, to research, or to visit classmates. Find a way to go -- MIT will often help with funding if you do it through the Institute.

Prepare for the rain -- Rainboots are arguably the wisest investment I have made for the semester. As I said before, "I have to admit, it is pretty nifty to watch other people try to tiptoe around and hopscotch over these giant puddles when I just stomp right through them." In other important news, get a good raincoat.

Take one totally unnecessary class -- I took 5.12: Organic Chemistry freshman year basically to hang out with my friend Varsha '07, who secretly dropped the class right before drop date and didn't tell me until a week later. Three years later, Varsha is off to Harvard Medical School and I barely can remember if cyclobutene is flat or not (Sam, can you help?). Nevertheless, I'm glad I took the class and learned material that I am likely never to use in my future. For those of you who are going to wah-wah-wah through complaints like, "What if I get a bad grade?" don't be so lame. For the super risk-averse among you, consider Sophomore exploratory. When you take a class on exploratory, you can see your grade at the end of the semester before deciding if you want the class to go on your transcript or not. My point is, you meet a lot of cool new people and stretch your mind a bit when you take a class purely for the sake of learning (or, in my case, for the sake of hanging out), not for fulfilling a requirement.

Make friends with upperclassmen -- They are an invaluable source of guidance regarding classes, professors, TAs, scheduling, UROPs, dorms, extra-curriculars, jobs, grad school, your love life, etc.

Be nice to underclassmen -- Pay it forward, yah?

Eat at The Helmand -- This restaurant serves delicious and affordable Afghani food within CambridgeSide Galleria shuttle distance of MIT, rated 26/30 by Zagats. Plus OMG Matt McGann dines there!! (P.S. We both recommend the pumpkin (kaddo) dishes.)

Wear sunscreen

More coming later....

(Sorry I can't put up images)

and poured over it the last bit of my milk,

which may have been a problem tomorrow because the milk expires today,

but is actually perfect since Spring Break starts today!

(Does anyone know if milk is okay past the Sell By date? I don't think mine could have lasted another day or two...)

Sam and I are flying out to Los Angeles today for a one-week stay in the city of angeles. Man, I love it when vacations line up with food expiration.

Two years ago, Sam and I visited San Francisco, and had a ton of fun running up and down hills and looking for grammatical mistakes on street signs.

We have nicknamed this year's trip "The Amazing Race: Los Angeles," and I am so into the theme that I am packing a hiking backpack instead of a suitcase.

On our to-do list so far, we have

1. Roscoe's House of Chicken & Waffles (thanks, Bryan!)
2. Biking in Santa Monica (thanks, Laura '06!)

And, um, yeah. That's it. Do you have any ideas for things we should do/see/eat in Los Angeles? Thanks!

by Jhumpa Lahiri. Lahiri was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 2000 for her collection of short stories Interpreter of Maladies.

Jhumpa Lahiri is no stranger to MIT. She spoke here as part of the MIT Writers Series and visited campus again as part of a symposium on Asian Diasporas and New Transnational Cultures. Video of the latter is available in the Language Learning and Resource Center (LLARC)

Things the movie got right: Ashoke & Ashima's first years of marriage in America; the Ganguli's trip to India
Thing the movie didn't get right: Gogol & Moushumi's train station scene
Thing the movie didn't get at all: Nikhil's Yale years -- these were so good, why did you omit them?! Argh

Another cool connection: Ashoke (below, with camera), who gave his son Gogol (below, without White Castle hamburger) his name, came to America to research at MIT. Nice.

The event was sponsored by MIT South Asian American Students (SAAS), who purchased tickets for us in advance and offered them at half the cost. Many thanks!

We can mobilize and make this happen! Help eradicate the most prevalent and preventable problem in developing areas around the world... starting here and now:

http://www.globalgiving.com/pr/1700/proj1667a.html

In the summer of 2007, four Harvard graduates will go to Costa Rica to work with their partners in a community to eradicate the persistent and preventable problem of access to clean drinking water. They hope to create a model for global engagement for students and their partner communities across the world. Please help them take this first step. Click the link to find out more!

These are the children of the town of Jazmín, the individuals worst hit by a lack of access to safe drinking water. Worldwide, over two million children die annually from preventable and treatable water-related illnesses. Millions others remain ill for months.

The country is one of stark contrast; some of the best health and education systems in Latin America, but not reaching all of its citizens. However, it is also a promising environment with many opportunities to engage these challenges.

Despite a well-staffed clinic, with full support from FIMRC and countless international volunteers, the population still suffers from a lack of access to safe drinking water while saturating the clinic's capacity.

The geography of the community is an important factor in addressing the challenges faced by the people of Jazmín. Here you can see houses on the hill, with the pig farm in the distant top.

The area where water collects and flows down to Jazmín is downstream of a pig farm, the root of many ailments for this and surrounding communities.

If you want to learn more about this project, visit Alfinio's website here -- thanks

------

This entry is on behalf of my Zambia tripleader Alfinio, who is working on sustainable development all over the globe. He also researches with Susan Murcott, a lecturer in MIT's Course 1: Civil and Environmental Engineering department.

What do you do with a B.S. in econ?
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge
Have earned me this useless degree

I can't pay the bills yet
'Cause I have no skills yet
The world is a big scary place

But somehow I can't shake
The feeling I might make
A difference
To the human race

... the musical then transitions to a song entitled "It Sucks To Be Me" so let's pause here and answer the initial question

After graduating from MIT, most econ majors (like most other students at MIT, I believe) choose between two paths: work or more school.

"More school" is usually a graduate program in economics (either Masters or PhD), though it can also be in finance, mathematics, political science, etc. Similarly, in the economics PhD program at MIT, there are students who studied computer science, physics, mathematics, political science, and psychology as undergrads. Law school is another destination that recent alums I know have taken. It is becoming increasingly rare to go directly to business school (at least into an MBA program), but I should mention this option just in case. Most grads (I think) of econ PhD programs go on to research/teach as professors or employees of a think tank, like the Brookings Institute.

There are more varieties of "work" things than I can remember or fit into this entry, but I'll try to list as many as I can. The most popular jobs for the graduating economics seniors I know are in finance -- specifically, investment banking, sales and trading, and research. I have never worked at one of these jobs, but from what I hear, the general idea is as follows: long hours, high-pressure environment, lots of research, model-building, financial calculations, and presentation-making, fast-paced environment good pay

As you may have guessed, different types of companies come to MIT to recruit for corporate positions in finance/strategy, and these jobs (especially at tech companies) are popular with double majors. Another common career paths is consulting, which can be strategy, operations, environmental, financial, economic, law, health care, etc. And for people who want to take UROPing to the next level, there is research assisting for the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, or Fed (generally at one of the Federal Reserve's regional banks). You can also do this sort of work at places like the government's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Department of the Treasury, or Council of Economic Advisors (CEA)

Some of the other things people do after graduation include military service, volunteer work, and non-profit work, but I don't know as much about these fields. In addition, entrepreneurship is a huge part of the MIT culture, and econ grads can team up with grads from other departments to launch a new product/service and change the world. Later on after graduation, older alums sometimes switch into fields like private equity, venture capital, and corporate management.

Later on down the line, here are some of the things MIT economics alums are doing:

1. Ben Bernanke - Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
2. Steve Levitt - author, Freakonomics
3. Gary Loveman - CEO/Chairman of the Board/President, Harrah's Entertainment
4. Laura Tyson - former Dean, London Business School and Dean, Haas School of Business
5. Paul Krugman - professor and columnist, New York Times

And I'm copying these names from the admissions website's Notable Alumni page
* John Thain '77, CEO, New York Stock Exchange
* John Reed '61, Chairman, New York Stock Exchange
* Lawrence Summers '75, former Secretary of the Treasury
* Thomas Gerrity '63, Dean Emeritus, Wharton School
* Donald Layton, former co-CEO, JP Morgan Chase
* Denis Bovin '69, Vice Chairman of Investment Banking, Bear Stearns
* Gregory Palm '70, Executive Vice President, Goldman Sachs

P.S. A giant high-five to my special someone for giving me mojito-flavored gum- brilliant!!!

Last Wednesday, I knew it was supposed to snow pretty much all day, so I curled up in Hayden with Moll Flanders.

I usually sit up on the second floor, near the M-Z section of "Current Periodicals" so I can treat myself to New York Magazine during my breaks. Also, here I get an amazing view of Memorial Drive, the Charles River, and Boston.

There are also several small balcony sections from which you can get a nice view of the whole second floor.

At night, I put on my totally awesome red rainboots and trudged to the BPL (Boston Public Library) for the John Adams exhibit. I have to admit, it is pretty nifty to watch other people try to tiptoe around and hopscotch over these giant puddles when I just stomp right through them. I guess Lord Acton was right - absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Around Copley Square I saw a news crew filming, and since my secret life goal #11 is to get on television, I made a big show jumping in the puddles with the hopes of getting on the evening news. No such luck. The news anchor smiled and waved at me, but the person I was with obviously thought I was nuts.

So I realize that the first paragraph of this entry makes it sound like I didn't find the John Adams exhibit exciting, which is not true. It's just not MIT-related excitement. There was lots of Ivy League drama at the exhibit:

For present-day Ivy League drama, check out IvyGate. (Let's see how long I can keep this link up before I get in trouble. Ready.... Go!)

21L.471: Major English Novels
Description: Studies important examples of the literary form that, between the beginning of the 18th century and the end of the 19th century, became an indispensable instrument for representing modern life, in the hands of such writers as Defoe, Richardson, Fielding, Sterne, Burney, Austen, Scott, Dickens, the Brontës, Eliot, Hardy, and Conrad. The class alternates between 18th and 19th century topics, and may be repeated for credit with instructor's permission.
Professor: Ina Lipkowitz
format: two 1.5 hour lectures a week (~20 people, discussion class)
fun fact: Professor Lipkowitz delayed her trip to the hospital to give birth because she was so engrossed in reading George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans)
reading list:

Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Evelina by Frances Burney
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Mary Barton by Elizabeth Gaskell
Adam Bede by George Eliot
Lady Audley's Secret by Mary Elizabeth Braddon
Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

21W.755 Writing and Reading Short Stories
Description: Introduction to the short story. Students write stories and short descriptive sketches. Readings from European and American stories from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. Class discussion of students' writing and of the assigned stories in their historical and social contexts.
Professor: Junot Diaz (wikipedia bio)
format: two 1.5 hour lectures a week (~20 people, workshopping class)
fun fact: "Diaz’s 1996 book [Drown], a collection of coming-of-age short stories set both in Santo Domingo and New Jersey, caused a literary sensation. Twenty-seven-years-old when it was published, the young author was heralded as one of Newsweek’s “New Faces of 1996” and has since garnered a PEN/Malamud Award for short fiction (2002), a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers Award (2000), the Pushcart Prize, and the MIT Eugene McDermott Award (1998), among others. The New Yorker, Paris Review, Glimmer Train, and Best American Fiction, 1996, 1997, 1999 and 2000 all have featured his stories." (Spectrum Fall 2003)
reading list: A mix of our own writing, our peers' writing, and published short stories. We began with "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid, which first appeared in The New Yorker in 1978. You can read the 650-word story (which I LOVED) in its entirety here

21L.702 Studies in Fiction
Description: Intensive study of a range of texts by a single author or by a limited group of authors whose achievements are mutually illuminating. Some attention to narrative theory, and biographical and cultural backgrounds. Instruction and practice in oral and written communication. Previously taught topics include Stowe, Twain, and the Transformation of 19th century America.
Professor: James Buzard, head of the Lit Dept (MIT bio)
format: two 1.5 hour lectures a week (~15 people, discussion class)
fun fact: Professor Buzard is using parts of our class discussion as research for a follow-up to his 2005 book Disorienting Fiction: The Autoethnographic Work of Nineteenth-Century British Novels.
reading list:

Dubliners by James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce
Ulysses by James Joyce

(Yeaahhh.... Image courtesy of amazon.com)

Besides my first semester freshman year, this is my only semester at MIT without any economics classes. This is both exciting and sad -- I am head-over-heels in love with all 3 of the classes I am taking this term, but miss the thrill of constrained optimization. It's a nice change to be reading and writing so much, but we analyze these works in such depth that my homework is definitely as intense and rigorous as a problem set.

1. Free Jewel concert at South Station on Friday night

South Station is a transportation hub in Boston, conveniently 4 stops down on the red line from MIT, that connects the subway, buses, and trains.

My friend Seema '09 (Course 14: Economics) and I met there on Friday night to hear Jewel perform a free concert.

There was some tie-in with Verizon's release of a newer, condensed version of the Yellow Pages, but I didn't really follow. Jewel did her typical sing/yodel/tell a story about growing up without indoor plumbing thing, and the crowd went WILD. Well, not everyone in the crowd, because some commuters had trains to catch, but most of us.

2. On Saturday afternoon, my friend Nicole '07 (Course 8: Physics) and I spent a few hours in Central Square -- not a far walk from MIT at all. Not a warm walk lately, but not far either...

FIRST STOP: Rodney's Bookstore. Rodney's has an incredible selection of new and used books - I'm so glad I found this bookstore before I left MIT.

In addition to a large fiction section, they have a ton of non-fiction books on art, architecture, photography, psychology, and travel. Nicole spent a significant sum on four physics books, but as she dryly noted, it added up to less than a typical textbook. I bought a biography on Diana Vreeland (who may or may not resemble Miranda Priestly).

SECOND STOP: 1369 Coffee House. Again, another place I can't believe I haven't been to before. Nicole, I owe you so much for showing me these places! This coffee shop was bustling with what appeared to be a mix of MIT students, Harvard students, and local residents with their children.

It is a bit too crowded to do homework there on a Saturday afternoon, but it was perfect for a warm cup of almond-coconut hot chocolate (me) and bread pudding and Lapsong Souchong tea (Nicole).

THIRD STOP: Pearl Art. I needed to pick up some stuff for a Valentine's Day project, and commissioned Nicole to advise me. Mmm, I love art supplies. I could spend hours and hours just browsing the merchandise in art stores.

After spending 45 minutes assuaging in my fears in the paper aisle, Nicole told me it was time to move on. I don't think she realized we'd move on to the pen section. Har har

A fun Saturday!

I am still mentally, physically, intellectually, and emotionally reacting to the three weeks I spent in Zambia. To make a long story short, the only road to Mwape (the rural village where we were supposed to stay and perform water testing for two weeks) was completely flooded, so we were unable to make the trip. Instead, we spent more time in the capital city of Lusaka, where we: 1) met with government programs (the Agricultural Support Programme) and NGOs (Peace Corps, CARE), 2) visited orphanages, schools, compounds, and 3) tried to strengthen ties with the University of Zambia (UNZA) administration.

After this trip, I have some conflicting views on development work, humanitarian efforts and the motivation behind them, international aid, and globalization. Even before going, I thought and read about these issues often, but I think it is different now. It is one thing to understand a fact or condition (e.g. "In 2000, an estimated 73% of the population lived below the official poverty line") -- and I mean really to understand this fact intellectually -- and it is another thing to go somewhere and witness this fact living out its daily life. (Add to this the phenomenon of knowing that you knew so little and by extension still know so little, except now you are aware of how little you know. Conscious incompetence.)

As I reflect more on these issues, I will post my questions along with accompanying photographs, and invite you to comment with what you think.

For now, here are some photographs of our trip.

A legal compound a few kilometers outside of Lusaka.

A guesthouse, where foreigners often stay.

A school for 1000 1st through 8th graders, at least 70 of whom are parentless and sponsored by an NGO.

It is unclear if we are going to be in Lusaka this weekend or Mwape, but I hope
to have internet access again tomorrow. This morning, my team leaders have a
meeting with the Dean of Engineering at UNZA, and we have planned on meeting
our 3 UNZA student colleagues this afternonon. Take care!

Hope all is well for you! I'm not sure if I'll have regular internet access
again, so until then...

Through my awesome D-Lab class, I am going to Zambia today until Jan 31st. Zambia is a land-locked country in southern Africa (see above)

We will spend the majority of our trip in the community of Mwape, which is in the northeast corner of the nation.

Last January's D-Lab Zambia group installed solar panels on the roof of Mwape's primary school, so we will spend some time checking on the panels and assessing whether the school is able to hold adult classes in the evening.

Another one of our main projects is water testing and education. The community has a water safety committee with whom we will host chlorine and Sodis demonstrations. Sodis uses a method of water disinfection intended for the household level that takes advantage of solar properties to treat water. We are bringing different prototypes of their bags with us to see which features the community members like or don't like. In addition, we will be running coliform and presence/absence tests on Mwape's ~10 boreholes.

One of my groupmates is also conducting a survey on latrine usage. There are few latrines in the village, but before more can be built, all the stakeholders need to understand the reasons why the current ones aren't being used (location? design? stigma?). In a community in India (I think?), well-intentioned development workers saw a need for water in an area with few wells/pumps, and subsequently built each woman her own water pump. These workers failed to realize that the women were able to use their walk to the communal pump to meet up with other women, share stories, and get a break from their own household. A good reminder that not everything that seems "wrong" or "missing" really is.

See you in February!

1. Steven Levitt (author of Freakonomics and MIT PhD) came to campus on Monday and spent two hours at events for undergraduates

2. Iqbal Quadir (head of MIT's Program in Developmental Entrepreneurship and founder of the Grameen Phone program) spoke to our D-Lab class a few weeks ago about his work with the Grameen Foundation

3. Paul Polak (President of IDE: International Development Enterprises) spoke to my D-Lab class on Monday about the importance of small farms

4. Brigitte Madrian (Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard) educated my freshman advising seminar a few weeks ago on the ways form logistics affect retirement savings

Read on for more!

1. Professor James Poterba, the head of the Department of Economics, very awesomely emailed the Undergraduate Economics Association (UEA) and told us we would get 12:00 - 2:00 with Steven Levitt in early December. Naturally, we ran with it.

Before Levitt co-authored the book Freakonomics (which my boyfriend adorably writes as "Freakeconomics") with Stephen Dubner, he received his PhD in economics from MIT in 1994. His thesis advisor? Professor James Poterba. Now that he's a best-selling author, though, he's a pretty busy guy. We were pretty lucky to get him for a whole day until he flew down to New York City to appear on The Colbert Report. *Double swoon*

We decided to host a large talk with Levitt from 12-1 in one of the large Tang classrooms, and it ended up being Standing Room Only, so yay. From 1-2, we hosted a round-table discussion for Levitt and a small group of undergrads.

Levitt started out the large talk with a cute story about his first day of grad school at MIT. He told us he went to Harvard for his undergraduate economics degree and didn't have a very solid background in mathematics, so he was really confused during his first math lecture once at MIT. His professor wrote all sorts of symbols on the board, and after copying them down dutifully, Levitt whispered to the person next to him, "Are the regular d and round d symbols different?" Heh. The person then whispered back to him, "You are so screwed." A cute story, no? Surprisingly, Levitt did not re-tell it to Stephen "Green Screen Machine" Colbert Hthe following evening.

A big chunk of the lecture was centered on recent research around the dictator game. The traditional game puts two students together anonymously; the researcher gives one student $10 and names him "the dictator." That student can give as much or as little of the $10 to the other student, whom he does not see, will never see, and will never play against a second time. Economists expect that the dictator (rational consumer) will give the other student $0 since there is no point of giving any money at all. That the dictators give on average $3 is evidence, some argue, for altruism (or non-rational behavior). An economist has rigged the game by allowing dictators the option of giving up to $10 *or* stealing up to $10 from the other student. This, in theory, should not affect the students who were giving money. When this is a choice, more students give $0, and some students steal up to $10. These results suggest that the dictator game reveals more about the relationship between the student (oftentimes undergrad econ majors) and the researcher (oftentimes their professor) than it does between the two students. If these results hold, they would discount much research about altruism and also force experimental economists to re-think their experimental design. Intriguing,

He closed his talk with another nice story. Levitt teaches a class on the economics of crime at University of Chicago, and reserves a lecture for the economics of prostitution. The story is sort of long and uninteresting unless you are a huge fan of pricing mechanisms, but the punchline is as follows: What do economists and prostitutes have in common? They are the only two people in the world who can put a price on anything. Heh.

That proved to be the perfect segue into our gift to Professor Levitt -- the "Economists do it with models" t-shirt.

1. Steven Levitt (author of Freakonomics and MIT PhD) came to campus on Monday and spent two hours at events for undergraduates

2. Iqbal Quadir (head of MIT's Program in Developmental Entrepreneurship and founder of the Grameen Phone program) spoke to our D-Lab class a few weeks ago about his work with the Grameen Foundation

3. Paul Polak (President of IDE: International Development Enterprises) spoke to my D-Lab class on Monday about the importance of small farms

4. Brigitte Madrian (Aetna Professor of Public Policy and Corporate Management at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard) educated my freshman advising seminar a few weeks ago on the ways form logistics affect retirement savings

Read on for more!

1. Professor James Poterba, the head of the Department of Economics, very awesomely emailed the Undergraduate Economics Association (UEA) and told us we would get 12:00 - 2:00 with Steven Levitt in early December. Naturally, we ran with it.

Before Levitt co-authored the book Freakonomics (which my boyfriend adorably writes as "Freakeconomics") with Stephen Dubner, he received his PhD in economics from MIT in 1994. His thesis advisor? Professor James Poterba. Now that he's a best-selling author, though, he's a pretty busy guy. We were pretty lucky to get him for a whole day until he flew down to New York City to appear on The Colbert Report. *Double swoon*

We decided to host a large talk with Levitt from 12-1 in one of the large Tang classrooms, and it ended up being Standing Room Only, so yay. From 1-2, we hosted a round-table discussion for Levitt and a small group of undergrads.

AHHHH as I am writing this I just noticed I am late for class, and have to finish it this afternoon! Sorrrrrry
Levitt stories to add: Dictator game, prostitute, bladder control and m&ms

I ran into him yesterday in Lobby 7, snapped this photo (notice the tupperware! what a friend to the environment...), and ran away to a meeting. Here's what he emailed me today:

Mitra,

Where's the blog entry? I'm not seeing it. Are you busy or something?

When you do enter it please be sure to be clear about the bass so as not to confuse your audience. It is a 1998 Fender American Precision Deluxe, black with mother of pearl pickguard, ash body with maple neck and rosewood finger board. I got it on ebay from a really nice guy in Spendora Texas (who's exactly my age, by the way).

Fender also makes instruments in Japan (2nd best) and Mexico (3rd best). They also make student models called Squires. The Precision Bass is apparently the most popular style bass (I read that on the internet so it must be true!) The other style is Jazz (Ben has a Fender Jazz bass).

In addition to the standard split single-coil precision pickup the "Deluxe" version has an additional humbucking pickup by the bridge, along with a 3 band active EQ. I played it last night and it's awesome!

Congrats, Edmund!

Shockingly, I was pretty tired for my 9:00 AM lecture on Tuesday morning. (... but I still went to it!) As a preventative measure, I purchased a medium cup of coffee from Au Bon Pain in Kendall Square and drank it during the beginning of class.

I am not a coffee person. I rarely drink coffee. I do not like the taste of coffee. I oftentimes burn myself when pouring coffee. When I make appointments to "get coffee" with someone, I do not actually get coffee. Coffee = bad!

Here is my first page of 14.05 notes.

Notice that my handwriting is not that bad.

Here are pages two and three,

four and five,

six and seven,

and eight and nine. Nine pages! I have never before been this prolific in a 9:00 AM lecture. Maybe I should start drinking coffee every single morning...

...except I have no idea what I wrote towards the end of class. Something about capital mobility, I think. Can YOU figure out what I wrote??

Maybe I'm better off drinking less coffee and getting more hours of sleep.

This reminds me of the Undergraduate Mathematics Association (UMA) shirts

"A mathematician is a machine for turning coffee into theorems." -- Erdos

I would have liked to make up for lost sleep on Tuesday or Wednesday night, but as luck would have it, my gigantic CI-M paper for 14.05 is due tomorrow (Thursday) morning.

"In their junior and senior years, generally, students take subjects that are Communication Intensive in the Major (CI-M). These subjects are integral to each student's major program. CI-Ms involve instruction and practice in the forms of communication specific to the professional and academic culture of the discipline."

Sounds like it's time for more coffee!!

This time, I went to nearby Toscanini's to work on my paper. I ordered a latte (partially because I need caffeine, and partially I wanted the free wireless), and the guy who was working there made a heart on the top =)

It was really "awww" at the time...

... but now it is nearly 4:00 AM, I just finished formatting my footnotes, and I'm ready to sleep for the next 12 hours. Except I have 14.05 lecture again at 9:00 AM! How on earth will I stay awake in class?!?! I have an idea....

Our class's theme is the "5.0 Challenge" -- to achieve at least 50% participation in donating. Sadly, I don't think our theme is as incredibly awesome as the theme for the Class of 2000 through the Class of 2005: The Fibonacci Challenge!!

The Fibonacci Challenge begins with a $10 gift senior year, with the payment schedule following the Fibonacci series. First year out of MIT: Another $10. Second year:$10 + $10 = $20. Third year: $10 + $20 = $30. Fourth year: $20 + $30 = $50. The 5.0 Challenge isn't bad, though (thanks for thinking of it, Class of 2006). For those of you not familiar with MIT's grading system, our GPAs are out of 5.0, not 4.0 like most other schools.

(This could be where my "inflation" reference comes into play -- if you don't adjust for inflation, these amounts sum to less than $100 -- but wait, there's more.)

"MIT Alumni Association President Martin Tang GM '72 pledges to donate a generous sum of up to $25,000 toward our class project, but just how much he will give depends entirely upon our class participation. The more members of our class who give, the more Martin will give, so make your gift right away!"

It is pretty awesome to have the president of the Alumni Association serve as our alumni donor.

Below is the "grading scale" for how well our class will do on this "assignment." I find this hilarious, since correlates strongly with the grading scale in many of my classes. Not much Ivy -style grade inflation here.

I voted for tshirt design B, with a simple athletic jersey style logo. Stay tuned for the exciting electoral results.

We had all sorts of "international food" since our class gift is going to establish a grant for students who want to study abroad. I'm not sure what the application details are, but at least the samosas were delicious.

Here I am with Nicole '07 (Ryu from Street Fighter II, as chronicled by Sam '07) and Bryan '07 (Bryan '07 from MIT, as chronicled by Bryan '07)

When life gives you puddles, jump over them.

I wish!

You ask a fair question, though. After all, Sam does lean uncomfortably close to me in pictures.

Plus we do a lot of fun things together

Sam is an excellent running partner

CPW 5K:

Boston Marathon:

Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Race for the Cure:

We also try to visit New York City at least once a year
(Witness Sam's sleeping-on-the-bus face)

We've gone as far as San Francisco, CA

and have even explored the redwood forests of Santa Cruz, CA

Back at MIT, we have taken PE yoga together:

and done lots of weird things in our suite, usually after spending more time working than sleeping:

But to answer your question, there is no way Sam and I could be dating -- After all, Sam is way more fierce than I am:

Okay.... I SERIOUSLY need to work!

... And for my mother, who jokingly calls me "our family's wannabe Florence Nightingale" -- Britney and Kevin are divorcing.

MIT Campus Dining

MIT Medical

Iranian graphic novelist presents her recent works

The Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies will present an evening with Iranian graphic novelist Marjane Satrapi on Oct. 23 in the Stata Center's Kirsch Auditorium at 7 p.m.

Marjane Satrapi mixed explanations of her artistic process with nuggets of advice about life and criticisms of American foreign policy. All in all, it was a very informative and entertaining event.

I am going to have to misquote, so please forgive my poor memory, but during her talk Marjane Satrapi said something along the lines of:

"We live in such a conservative world these days. Mention eating, and people say 'cholesterol.' Mention smoking, and they say 'cancer.' And if you mention sex, they say 'AIDS.' But you know what? Before the cholesterol, before the cancer, before the AIDS, there is a lot of joy. And life without joy is pointless."

It's definitely something to think about.

This event, like the French Hip Hop I blogged earlier, is also sponsored by the French department, part of MIT Foreign Languages & Literatures.

Speaking of which:

French language program plumbs cultural depths
Students learn where the Pont Neuf meets the Brooklyn Bridge

That's my French III professor! Nice.

Here are some of the sculpture entries for Burton Conner (my dorm)'s annunal Apple Bake competition.

Apple swans, skillfully crafted by my Graduate Resident Tutor (GRT) Chris.

An apple-and-peanut-butter elephant.

The Caltech Cannon!

Remember?

Soft core porn -- my floor is so clever.

I love it!

Yum.

Remember the Student/Faculty dinners I blogged earlier? (If not: Our class council will reimburse us for taking a faculty member out to dinner, since they want to encourage student-faculty interaction.) My friend Varsha '07 and I decided to "shoot for the moon" in terms of faculty, and emailed Professor Eric Lander. I don't want to spend this whole entry describing Professor Lander's achivements (first-ever IMO team, Westinghouse, Rhodes, MacArthur, etc.) so I will link you to his Wikipedia entry, MIT Biology bio, and Broad bio. The things an undergrad might know him best for are teaching 7.012: Intro Bio, being founding director of the Broad (more on that later), and "world leader of the international Human Genome Project."

Anyway, we email and find out that Professor Lander is (unsurprisingly) booked until much later in the semester, but the dinners need to be in by late October for reimbursement purposes, so with heavy hearts we say that we will have to go with another faculty member. A few days later, we get The Best Email Ever that says lunch on Oct 19th just opened up, and we immediately agree to it. This whole experience totally confirms (yes, "confirms," not "restores") my faith in MIT faculty. 1) Professor Lander could have easily said he was too busy for this lunch (since, to be honest, he most likely is), but he made time to talk to two random students who have never researched with him. 2) The lunch itself was so fun, and Professor Lander was so genuinely interested in our experiences and worries; we had a very nice conversation, and Varsha and I left the restaurant extremely pumped up for our futures (and our afternoon classes). For both of these reasons, we are both super grateful.

Switching gears -- recall I am taking Development Lab (D-Lab), the class in which we made charcoal and through which I am going to Zambia this January. The instructor of this class is the amazing Amy Smith, who also has a MacArthur genius grant. What is it with these people?!

Earlier this week, one of my D-Lab classmates forwarded to the class the following email:

Dear All:

Sadly, the talk was during our D-Lab class, so nobody could go... but wait! Amy Smith contacted the Broad Institute and asked if she could bring her entire class to the talk. The Broad people replied that this talk was "closed to the public" so sorry, but no. Amy then asked again, and they then replied, "Fine, as long as YOU promise to give a talk at the Broad later this year." Haha, awesome.

So our class trooped over to the Broad at 3:00 to hear this talk.

The Broad is jointly founded by MIT, Harvard, and the Whitehead Institute, and is affiliated with many local hospitals. Eli and Edythe L. Broad are active philanthropists not just in Boston, but also in New York, and Los Angeles.

I could talk about Tracy Kidder and Paul Farmer at length, but I will try to truncate myself. Paul Farmer is a doctor and anthropologist who co-founded Partners in Health, which focuses on rural health, and Tracy Kidder is the journalist who traveled with him in order to write his book Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Professor Lander ran the event (introduced the two speakears and moderated their conversation), which was held in the Broad's beautiful auditorium:

It's really amazing to attend school in an area where these sorts of people's paths cross. No matter where a college is situated, it will attract great minds and good guest speakers, but there is something to be said for going to school in a city that is a hub of so much intellectual activity. (And I don't just mean biology/health-related activity -- this applies to business/economics, music/arts, computer science/artificial intelligence, etc.) As Professor Lander advised us at lunch, "Whether you know or don't know what you want to do in life, surround yourself with intelligent people and nice people." Indeed.

-----------------------------

Edited on Saturday, Oct 28th, to add:

In "news" that's not really news, Eric Lander has been named by the US News & World Report as one of the world's 20 best leaders.

Meditation Monday Series guided by Amy McCreath of LEM (Lutheran Episcopal Ministry) and hosted by LBGT@MIT (Lesbian, Bisexual, Gay, and Transgender at MIT).

Join us for an hour of relaxation, self-reflection, and personal growth. Our time will include some conversation about practices and benefits of meditation and an experience of guided visualization, a simple, nonsectarian form of meditation. Everyone is welcome: no experience, wisdom, or attainment of inner peace necessary! Dress comfortably.

I went to this meditation session tonight -- which I definitely needed after getting my French quiz back and after watching my chicken shawarma drip onto my pants today -- held in the Rainbow Lounge, which is in the basement of Walker Memorial

This was a fantastic session, short enough to appeal to beginners, but long enough to achieve a little harmony and inner peace. If you're on campus and free on Monday nights, I highly encourage you to attend!