The blizzard helped me and Liz run out of things to do incredibly quickly. On Friday we watched the first half hour of half a dozen movies before we realized we simply just needed to get outside of our room. We ventured outside behind Baker House, only to get knocked over by the blizzard into a snowbank while taking pictures under the yellow cast of the street lights. 

Simply put, we had cabin fever.

I'm a California girl who hadn't seen much snow until coming to MIT. Nemo is by far the most amount of snow I've ever seen, and I've still been trying to figure out how to dress for a blizzard... 

If you're from a warm place and you are a female and generally struggle with dressing yourself appropriately even though it's blizzarding -- I have the answer for you: fleece lined tights. They are incredibly comfortable and warm and dry instantly unlike jeans or the yoga pants Liz decided to wear into the snow. You can also wear whateve you want on top, like a sundress or glitter shorts (above). Then you too can prance around until you are delirious from the cold!

Now that I've figured out how to wear what I want without dying from hypothermia, I've been able to explore the snow in my hideous moon boots to discover:

1) The unique snow fashions of Nicci, Erica and Nicole

2) Buxom yet modest snow snow(wo)men

3) The Civil Rights displays in Lobby 10

4) And the biggest institute wide snowball fight in Killian Court... ever?

Organized by senior Brendan Deveney, the snow war started Saturday at 4:05pm on the dot with the blast of a vuvuzela. Thanks to Facebook and the magical power of mailing lists (how everything gets done at MIT) a significant chunk of the institute came out to wade knee deep in snow to pelt each other silly with powdery ice.

Everything before 4:05 was lightheated...

And then people went for it.

By 5pm we were able to catch the sunset down the infinite and wade back home to stuff our faces with early dinner.

A beautiful end to a snowy day.

Although it's back to work this afternoon, the river is still frozen over and there are still mountains of snow around campus.

Nemo found.

It's a day long ordeal, with the actual career fair running from 10am to 3pm and then the banquet and afterparty following in the upcoming hours. Techfair isn't just any career fair -- you dress for the job you want, which in most cases involves your favorite t-shirt and jeans, and you leave the paper resumes at home in favor of "dropping them" online at Umeqo.

I went with my friend and old roommate Anji after tucking in our salmonella...

and we were immediately greeted at the door by BarBot, "a drink mixing machine that can build a custom mixed drink with robotic efficiency and precision". Looks incredibly useful!

Right next to Barbot was Dropbox, one of MIT's favorite startups. Just ask Tim!

I was spotted with my camera and asked what I used to upload my photos. I said Dropbox and immediately realized that was the best answer I could've given.

Next, Anji and I immediately turned our free notebook radar on and fatefully encountered the guys at Codecademy, an amazing site that helps you learn to code interactively for free. We didn't get away with the notebooks without some friendly recruiting (60% engaging material, 40% hand gestures), which Anji and I ended up enjoying thoroughly. Leng (middle) created the Javascript course that Anji and I love so dearly while Jimmy (left) works on Groups, a great way to connect with other beginning programmers from Missouri to Mexico. 

We kept walking to find Fitbit to check out their new gadgets before turning around to check out what companies like Bloomberg and Intuit were up to..

and we made a brief stop at Synaptics to check out their amazing touchpad technology. This little guy is incredibly sensitive and scuttles around to center himself around your touch.

We made sure to take a look at more MIT projects, like Sifteo (an interactive game system) and FormLabs (desktop 3D printing) before going back to find more student exhibitions.

The Solar Electrical Vehicle Team was showing off their latest work across the fair from Charles Hsu, an MIT junior who decided to pick up designing and building his own violins just three years ago. Talk about craftsmanship!

Finally before we left, we couldn't help but notice Palantir's dominating... presence. :)

Techfair is one of my highlights of the spring semester and it was fantastic this year. It's definitely something to look forward to :)

"Hey Connie, what are you doing this IAP?"

"Oh, you know. I'm working at a startup in San Francisco -- in SOMA, to be exact. Doing some design stuff."

"Oh, cool! What are you working on? What does your startup do?"

"We uh...

....

we're a next generation e-commerce startup. In stealth mode."

By October many of my friends and I started looking for an externship (a short internship) through the MIT Alumni Association facilitated program that matches students with job opportunities offered by MIT alumni. These positions cover everything from shadowing a doctor to working a brief stint at a finance giant in New York to doing research in Hong Kong. Naturally I gravitated towards positions that offered the opportunity to do design work. I finally decided to pursue a position at a fashion startup that boasted a fresh combination of technology and fashion design. By December I knew I would be working at MeCommerce, led by Heidi Zak and Dave Spector (two MIT Sloanies)!

We're doing some serious business by using the most advanced technology our in house developers can fathom and applying it to the gorgeous designs from our in house designers. And although the details are still hush hush, I can say a lot about the work I've been doing over the past two weeks. I immediately got started wireframing an iPhone app and have been finalizing the user experience using proto.io (silly-fast mobile prototyping -- it's gorgeous!) over the past week. Because we're a small team working on a huge dream, the office moves very quickly and the app is scheduled to be built ASAP. Talk about silly-fast!

And so far, startup life has been pretty much what I imagined. Everyone on our team is driven, great at their job, and happy to do anything to keep us moving forward. And it doesn't hurt that our pantry is stocked with Sugarpova, the gourmet candy line by Maria Sharapova (unfortunately my tennis skills have not progressed despite all the gummi sharks I've been eating). We work hard, play hard, and nobody (openly) judges me for lying down in front of the fireplace to work on my clipboard. It almost feels a little bit like MIT -- except with more Costco food and no tests. :)

I still have plenty of things left to do during the next two weeks. I came in with a list of goals, and I'm slowly accomplishing all of them. This happens to be an amazing place to pick up things on the job -- even overhearing snippets about working with different clients, coordinating with manufacturers, and making sure everything runs on schedule has taught me a lot about how a business should function. I learned that in the apparel industry, there are fit models who are brand standards for different garment sizing. There's even one bra model, Dorothy Galligan, who has been the quintissential 34B for decades, who is still going strong!

Working at this startup has also brought me home for IAP, which has been a blessing. Being so close to home has given me plenty of opportunities to run around the Bay Area and beyond to shop...

clockwise from top left: Sephora, Haight-Ashbury, Ranch 99 (DISCLAIMER: I did not buy the lamb placenta... because the store was closed), and Games of Berkeley

and eat..

.

Bacon, Apple and Brie with Tortilla Corn Soup from The Melt in SOMA, Classic Sliders and Tots from Phil's Sliders in Downtown Berkeley, and homemade brie and pear / smoked cheddar and ham grilled cheeses with the boyfran

and eat more...

Apple, Cinnamon and Honey Crepe from Crepe Express in Haight-Ashbury and an adorable cupcake from the Teacake Bake Shop in Corte Madera

and more...

Lots of korean food from Bowl'd on Solano in Albany with the girls

and just a little bit more...

Two gigantic scoops of green tea ice cream from John's Ice Cream in Downtown Berkeley for TWO DOLLARS! Yuuuuum.

And that concludes my journey to arteriosclerosis. Just kidding.

Come to me, preciouussssss...

And finally, in a desperate attempt to ward off diabetes, I've decided to author a cookbook featuring my father's delicious (read: the opposite of delicious) morning gruel recipes: 50 Shades of Gray: A Tale of Lust, Soybeans, and Flavorlessness.

Independent samples of gruel. #fml

If you're wondering, the gray color comes from the sorrow and tears of the soybeans that constitute most of the gruel. (And black sesame powder.)

In any case, I can't believe there are only two weeks left in the Bay -- but I'm making the most of it. :)

More from me soon!

And I can't tell you how luxurious it is to wonder what I should be doing right now (nothing) or when I should stop doing something (whenever) or when I can go sleep or draw or watch 30 Rock or ponder (also whenever). 

And finally being on break has let me catch up with some of my closest friends, make my eyebrows reasonably symmetric, watch Struck By Lightning while making my room look slightly less like a gulag...

and start working on my sister's wedding website...

(Yes, my sister's name is Bonnie. Yes, this makes me even more suspicious that my life is one big cosmic joke.)

And finally, I've been catching up on a number of DIY projects I've been meaning to get around to.

Here's one to try if you have a DSLR. If you don't, attack befriend the nearest hipster and then come back to the end of this post.

If you do, hopefully you have access to an obscene amount of holiday lights, a chandelier, or even streetlights.

Create Your Own Bokeh -- from DIY Photography

You need:

• a favorite shape
• a DSLR with a prime lens (large aperture)
• scissors or an exacto knife
• black/opaque paper or cardstock
• tape
• reasonable fine motor skills
• a pretty light source

Instructions:

1. Ponder deeply until you discover your favorite shape. Perhaps listen to some Nawang Khechog.
2. Locate opaque paper, the blacker the better. Trace your lens cap out on the paper loosely.
3. Cut out another piece of paper as long as the circumference of the circle you just drew and about an inch thick.
4. Cut out your favorite shape in the center of the circle -- nothing larger than 15x15mm.
5. Tape the sucker together by wrapping the long piece around the circle, securing the edges with tape.
6. Pop the cover onto your camera lens. Turn your camera to the lowest aperture possible.
7. Find your colorful light source of choice.
8. Take gratuitous amounts of photos and dazzle your friends.

Your facebook cover photo will thank you.

But in all seriousness, get some rest. Pusheen out.

It's rough.

More and more towards the end of high school, my friends and I would religiously check the results of a semester, year, or life's worth of effort. It boiled down to a desperate attempt to see an online grade, a college decision, or how many likes our Facebook profile pictures were getting. At the end of it all, we were usually left with a mixed bag of news (it turns out I am incredibly unphotogenic).

Blurred for your own safety. (Just kidding, my boyfriend doesn't know how to use my camera.)

And although I had a lot of fun sitting with some of my closest friends around town at odd hours, it was hard for anyone to come out of that situation with purely good feelings.

I don't regret the fretting -- but if I had the chance to take all the time I spent fidgeting, being anxious, overloading servers and stress eating Doritos, I would've done something else with it. And at this point in your year (assuming that you're a high school senior and you never again want to figure out how to condense your life into 100 words or less), I'm assuming you're exhausted. I was.

So I suggest two courses of action in no particular order:

1)   Find a project that you are really passionate about and think about how you'll start it during winter break. Plan on seeing it through next semester and hopefully into the summer. Find an area in the community you really care about, try to build an operating system, cure cancer, practice slam poetry, etc. But find something you really love, even if it's something you've never tried before. It’s an amazing time to get a head start on something that you might be able to continue into the next year.
2)   Expose yourself to new ideas, places and things.

I don’t know how well I can help you with number one, but I have a place to start for number two.

Here are 50 Shades of Break. This is a collection of the favorite study breaks of our very own bloggers -- some funny, some thoughtful, some beautiful and some a little crazy.

I encourage you to try them all. To laugh, learn, and maybe discover a new interest or two.

Connie
1) Question the state of humanity at http://theworstthingsforsale.com/
2) Embrace your inner hipster by listening to music your friends have never heard of at http://hypem.com/
3) Read some entertaining but mostly obnoxious pieces at http://thoughtcatalog.com/
4) Spend all your money on tasteful handmade things at http://etsy.com/
5) Admire gorgeous design at http://dribbble.com/

Natnael
6) Play Winterbells http://www.ferryhalim.com/orisinal/g3/bells.htm
7) Relax with a night of Zombocom http://zombo.com/
8) Watch Dozens of Five Second Films http://5secondfilms.com/
9) Earn some Achievements on codeacademy http://www.codecademy.com/
10) Learn a new language (of the programming variety) by doing Euler Problems http://projecteuler.net/

Anna
11) Writing (currently: spamming the MIT admissions site)
12) Singing loudly to, Disney music (currently: the Prince of Egypt soundtrack. more specifically, this song, this song, and this song)
13) Going for a long walk with a close friend who doesn't share the same stressor (I used to underestimate the importance of that last part.)
14) Playing Ultimate Frisbee, or badminton.
15) Watching these kittens (which used to mean tuning into a live stream, but now means rewatching old parts of the feed, since they were all adopted.)

Kirsten
16) Going on pinterest and finding noms that I want to bake for people
17) Find ways to divert all the sugar into cups (http://www.mathplayground.com/logic_sugarsugar.html)
18) Making all the dots as small as possible and finding a cute animal in the process (http://koalastothemax.com/)
19) Stepping away from my laptop to walk around and take photos. Sharing them with other people online is definitely the best part though (:
20) Do something randomly nice for someone you haven't hung out with in a long time.

Emad (who suggested the brilliant title for this post)
21) Going through Epicurious and just finding something to cook one day / weekend
22) Dr. McNinja (my spirit animal, in certain ways; he's a doctor who's also a ninja, )
23) 5 second films! So many of these films would probably cause my extended, rather traditional family to judge me hardcore. This recent, good one probably wouldn't, though!
24) Catching up with people over Chipotle, Trident, or some other combination of good food
25) And since I'm struggling to come up with just five things, readingwritingrhymingarmchairphilosophizingNetflix.

Ana
26) Telling people that I have shark teeth, nodding in response to their disbelief, showing them my shark teeth, and watching their reaction. (The best ones come from kids. lol)
27) Pondering about life. Asking myself why I do the things I do. Taking walks across the bridge at night while periodically squinting my eyes at the river (because when you do that and there's lots of colored lights in Boston, it looks magical.) AND Writing poetry about it all. Possibly gushy, but very to-the-core. If there's any methodology to my being happy, it's this.
28) Baking things for people! (past experience includes glass-sprinkled brownies due to thermal shock), Flailing/jumping & fanning alarms every time I forget I had something on the stove. I also like restaurants. a lot. *sheepish grin*
29) Being sore from running after a long time of not running.
30) Talking to strangers at the Cambridge Galleria. (I've only done this once, with a friend. It was awesome! I asked all kinds of people what superpower they'd want to have. Responses included everything from ending poverty, to having all of the candy that exists in the world and not sharing with anyone.)

Elizabeth (shared more than her top 5 and ruined everything just kidding we love her)
31) http://thehonesttoddler.com
32) http://www.nietzschefamilycircus.com/ and http://wernerhedgehog.tumblr.com/ and http://hipsterhitler.com/
33) http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/
34) http://cakewrecks.blogspot.com/ Always.
35) Science http://schaechter.asmblog.org/schaechter/
   a. Hilarious sports gifs, mainly supplied by Buzzfeed http://www.buzzfeed.com/jpmoore/the-best-gifs-of-the-nfls-fourth-week
   b. Farting around with people who very strangely put up with me. Occasionally this involves a social outing. More often than not, it just involves Nerf Guns or me doing very obnoxious things like blasting Fleetwood Mac's "Gypsy" repeatedly because it's my finals jam (sorry I'm not sorry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) and I am a bad friend.
   c. Reading, but rarely fiction because I am soulless.
   d. Playing music, but mostly listening to and watching musicians who are much better than me.
   e. I really like making people laugh. Like, I REALLY like making people laugh. I really like watching people laugh. It makes me laugh, which is also something I enjoy a lot. I have a problem. This is why I have no dignity. Welp.
   f. Sometimes I like cooking, but I like eating better.
   g. Momming out and reminding people to make good life decisions.
   h. Putting off writing lab reports by e-mailing nifty people.
   i. Making listz
   j. Listening to Liszt
   k. Help me
   l. I can't
   m. Stop

Rachel
36) Go for a run along the river (Until 5 weeks ago when I ran too much and got a stress fracture in my foot :/ )
37) Cuddle with a cat
38) Listen to music and find new music (Yay spotify!)
39) Find people on hall/in the dorm who are doing something exciting (climbing, building, watching movies, eating free food, finding free food, getting things posted on reuse first, baking, doing science, having spontaneous dance parties, having neon chalk wars, singing, cuddling cats, etc.)
40) Bake/cook something awesome for hall

Chris Peterson
41) Rock Climbing
42) Cards Against Humanity
43) Wandering around IKEA
44) TheChive.com
45) Improvisational Cookery

Natasha
46) This American Life and The Moth podcasts
47) www.bloglovin.com
48) Climbing on furniture and pretending the floor is lava
49) Bananagrams

And finally,

50) Do these with your friends. And document it, preferably with embarrassing cell phone pictures and a facebook status.

Let us know how some of these adventures turn out for you. :)

It was not one of my better days.

Thanksgiving break finished off a stressful week. After waking up from a pie induced coma, I spent the last few days working on those things I put off for "when I have more time" -- sleep, for one, but mostly art. 

Two hours of bliss in Photoshop, above. Shameless plug: I'll be selling prints soon.

Long weekends always kill me. They are a gift, but also a sharp reminder of how easy it is to pass a day without making the most of it.

I decided to draw. Expressing myself through color and bad Photoshop layer effects is so paramount in my life that it surprises others and myself when I admit that I haven't been doing it as much as I'd like to. I've managed to put this aside with a million reasons. I should be working. I could be sleeping. I should probably go scavenge for real food.

Lately it's been easy to put off what I'd prioritize on any given Sunday morning -- right now the time I spend working could be spent on soaking up the sun and watching inane animations of cats doing people things. And that scared me a little bit.

If you're Facebook friends with anyone between the ages of 11 and 9000, you may have seen this story -- and liked it, because you thought it was awesome that a paragraph put your life in perspective for at least 45 seconds. Here it is, if you've missed it:

"When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the two cups of coffee. A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was. The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was. The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes". The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided, " I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things in life. Your God, your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions, things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.

The sand is everything else, the small stuff.

If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life.

If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.

Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal."

Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always room for a couple of cups of coffee with a friend." " 

In my moments of clarity I can ask myself what's important to me -- family, friends, health, happiness, and avoiding arteriosclerosis.

But there are times here when I forget. There are times when a lab or a pset or a test sneaks up to the top of my list. It's hard to keep it straight. It's easy to forget to check in--I don't call my parents nearly enough. It's easy to miss meals--Doritos seem like a reasonable substitute for nutrition more often than not.

So how do we remember to step back?

I couldn't do it without the anchors in my life -- my close friends, my parents, my roommate Liz (and Anji and Nicole three doors down), my sorority sisters, my actual big sister, my big, Ruby, who I can look up to, and my little, Jessica, who inspires me to hold everything together so she has a reasonably functional human being that can support her. Oh, and my boss.

And on this Thursday night I know I haven't quite figured it out, but I'm slowly stepping back far enough to move forward in a direction where I don't forget myself and what I love.

After a breezy but sweaty 45 minutes of gabbing about everything from data visualization to volunteering to the perks of living in the Bay Area, we reached a sudden lull.

"So, do you have any questions for me?"

I came prepared but wasn't expecting to learn anything new. After all, I had pretty much memorized the admissions blogs and application info, and had a working knowledge of all the course numbers.

I asked him what he did as an undergrad. Gilbert and Sullivan, lots of chemical engineering, and oh, a fraternity. I tried to stifle a laugh upon the discovery of MIT greek life (but here I am, in a sorority and eating my words two years later).

Next. What was his favorite class? What did he recommend I do as a freshman? What were some events and programs I couldn't miss? All a blur now, but I distinctly remember him describing a solution to a chemical engineering problem that involved dozens of golf balls. (As of today, that is still the extent of my chemical engineering knowledge.)

And our conversation reached a natural end after an hour and a half. We walked in opposite directions, happy that we met each other, and happy that we could throw away the remaining two-thirds of the iced tea we tried not to drink.

Some of you might be having your first (or eighth) college interviews -- and I know it's hard. Exactly two years ago I had mine for MIT, and I had no idea what I was doing coming into it.

What should I wear? Should I have a notebook? Should I bring my resume? Should I show off my knowledge about the college? Should I show off my knowledge in general? Should I order coffee or tea?

In the end, these were all questions that were nice to have answered in advance, but they never came up directly.

First, some words of wisdom from an Educational Counselor, a recent graduate who is currently enjoying sunny Berkeley: 

The number one thing is to be yourself. Take it seriously, but not too seriously. I've had interviewees over-prepare, and interviewees who did not give it any though. Realize that the ECs are there to find out who you are as an individual so they can relay that experience to the admissions committee.

A college interview is an experience. Remember that the interviewer doesn't know anything about you beyond what they may have gathered from a transcript or very basic info -- and the interviewer is human too. Even if you know you only have 90 minutes or less to make a great impression on someone, it is unlikely you would immediately launch into a listing of your greatest accomplishments in descending order. Treat your interview the same way!

There are a lot of things that can come out during an interview beyond the straightforward answers you can give to the basic getting-to-know-you questions. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Think about your accomplishments and what you are most proud of. As a rule of thumb, if you can't talk about something you worked on during high school for at least 3-5 minutes, it's hard to tell whether or not that was really an important experience to you or just resume filler. 
• While preparing, think about why you did the things you did in high school and how they are meaningful to you. In general, what is meaningful to you?
• Think about what are you interested in learning and how what you've done reflects that. Or if it's something new to you, express your curiosity and reasons for looking into a new field.
• Use every opportunity to show off traits that might not come through on a resume. If you are curious, don't be afraid to ask questions! If you are funny, let it show! If you and your interviewer both happen to follow theoretical astrophysics, well... you'll have a ball.
• Use the interview as an opportunity to learn more about the school from someone who has had very unique experiences. They might have fantastic advice for you or point you towards trying something new!
• Thank your interviewer after your interview and possibly with an email or a nice card. (It doesn't hurt!)

And don't sweat it. The interview is one piece of a large picture of you a college is trying to put together, and unless that piece is missing or is incredibly offensive... it probably won't ruin the image as a whole. :)

Good luck!

The scintillating answer to those questions is yes.

Okay, so I actually did do something -- more than just baking all the time! Although I made these gingersnap lemon sandiwch cookies with Liz and they turned out awesome.

We also learned a few life lessons along the way:
1) For the grittiest frosting you'll ever taste (feel?), use granulated sugar instead of confectioner's sugar
2) Nobody will actually notice that they're shoveling gritty butter sugar paste into their mouth
3) Despite all the butter and sugar I've put into what I've been making, I have no problems with contributing to life lesson #2

But beyond that, I've also been working at the Media Lab under the Lifelong Kindergarten group on the Computer Clubhouse Village. The Village is an online community that consisting of youth age 8-18 across the country and globe that go to afterschool clubs to use technology to create everything from graphic design for personal websites, music videos, robotics and circuitry projects, and DIY crafts. Led by amazing coordinators who facilitate the work that gets posted onto the village, kids from Mexico will comment on projects by peers from Ireland as they all delve into their first (or hundredth) Photoshop, SketchUp or Sculptris project.

More specifically, I get to work with my awesome supervisor Chris (also an MIT alum!) on improving the site's usability. On top of creating a user experience that is intuitive and friendly to a younger age group, a lot of consideration is also put into reaching the international/non-English speaking audience, which makes up a huge portion of the site. As Ann Hutchinson Guest put it when recording a set of movements onto paper, the goal would be to "avoid words because they are a strong deterrent to international communication." Much of the site is translated by bilingual volunteers, but many nuances of the wording of labels and instructions are lost. An emphasis is put on the consistency of icons and the familiarity of the website to ensure that the artists make full use of the website's features.

Which is awesome, because I get to think about what goes on through an increasingly tech savvy youth's mind when navigating new software and new interfaces, and then I get to make them!

But what do I actually do? I've been learning a lot of Ruby on Rails to figure out how all the data actually works together behind the scenes to make up the Village. Designing the interface is one thing -- but making all the pieces connect is new to me, so a lot of the time it looks like this:

Luckily I've been in a super supportive environment, so even though the work is definitely a process, I'm enjoying myself immensely! :) 

In my free time I also broke out my tablet and started painting again (and might be doing a series of children's book illustrations? stay tuned!) which was super relaxing. Here are some of the fruits of my labor:

Thankfully no one was upset about me butchering their identities.

So all in all, not a bad summer. I'm not sure how this upcoming semester will turn out, but it's already gotten off to a good start because...

ANASTASSIA IS MY LITTLE TWIN STAR IN MY SORORITY! (What the hell is a little twin star? In short, it means I now watch over Anastassia like a wise and weathered guardian, helping her fend off the evils of 8.01 and poor life choices).

Blogger success! :)

But if you asked me for a recipe for my amazing summer, I could only tell you what I've concocted so far. 

1 box of questionable purpose

(If you're wondering, the Daiso Japan in Berkeley sells these for 1.50. I imagine they work marginally better than party balloons.)

1 night of fireworks, thunderstorms and embarrassingly patriotic clothing

4 pounds of assorted cheeses and breads with the notion that making every sandwich on this list (http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/40-amazing-grilled-cheese-sandwich-recipes) would be a good life choice

10 more excursions to cheap and delicious Korean places than I'd like to admit

BonChon soy & garlic wings (left) and Goon Mandoo from Buk Kyung II (right)

3 photoshoots with beautiful MIT aspiring fashionistas 

and 60 unforgettable nights with my closest friends in the awful humidity doing a little bit of... everything.

While I wouldn't call my summer a complete success...

       because I've come uncomfortably close to getting scurvy, probably because I overestimate the nutritional content of Doritos...

               and I went to one session of jiu jitsu only to realize that I'm the furthest thing from a fighter...

                      and I started giving tours of MIT and quickly appreciated the art of walking backwards and talking and pointing all at the same time...

I can't say it's been bad living right in the heart of Kenmore across from a frozen yogurt shop. 

So actually, scrap the entire recipe. The key to a successful summer is really living within 100 feet of a frozen yogurt shop.

And reserving some time in your day to paint.

"Want to be my roommate?"
"Yeah, sure."

Liz and I filled out our rooming forms together -- single sided sheets of paper with prompts like "Who do you want to live with?" and "Tell us something funny, we read a lot of these!"

It seemed to go pretty smoothly until she brought up that she would be waking up for crew practice diligently at 6am every day. Crap.

Not my ideal start to the year.

So a lot of people wonder what it's like living in a quad -- four girls in a glorious 500-something square foot room furnished with two sinks, huge windows facing the river, and just enough space to house our joint collection of shoes, sweaters, shampoo and study fuel (AKA our weight in ramen and hello panda) -- and it's not easy to describe. (For those of you worried about getting put in a quad, there are only 10 on campus, all located in Baker House. Don't sweat it!)

The year got off to a rocky start. I never quite recovered from Nicole claiming the first bed with a bag of grapes -- turns out they weren't even hers -- or realizing that at any point in time, someone in our room was rustling and some degree of awake.

You might ask how we've made it so far into the year without any issues, and all I can say is that we figured out how to be friends. Fancy that!

Our room is best described by the little signs that we leave that we've learned to read throughout the year. We know that someone's had a bad day when there's the faithful five ounce bag of honey barbeque Fritos in our trash can that someone grabbed at LaVerde's on the way back from class. We know that when we try not to turn on the lights and end up walking into rain boots, a swiffer, an iron pot, a laundry basket, two chairs and a lamp, all we really want to do is fall into bed and sleep and we're sorry that we made more noise than a street drummer. And we know that even after our good days, all we want to do is eat dinner at 5:30 on the dot because we missed lunch and we can't wait to order sweet potato fries and indulge in an occasional 0% fruit juice beverage of our choice (okay, it's HI-C, I admit it!)

Before the 8.01 final last fall -- from the left, me, Nicole, and Anji looking particularly cheery...

And we're happy when we're all in the room so we can laugh at bad YouTube videos, whatshouldtimcallme.tumblr.com, get ready to go out at night, or just stay in to karaoke at the top of our lungs and paint our nails. Our weeks start with a collective sigh Monday morning, and by the time our psets are finished by Friday we perk up and get ready for the weekend! Together we're good at solving life problems, boy problems, and differential equation problems.

Anji, Nicole, me and ... not our fourth roommate, but we love you anyways Sam! :)

All I can say is that in the past 8 months we've constructed a little home and a little family. I'll omit pictures of our room because it looks like we took four model room sets from Target, tetrised them all into a funny shaped brick room, and then transported the toiletries and school supplies section of Walmart and scattered it on our beds, tables, shelves and floors... oops.

Dressed up with Anji and Liz for winter fraternity formals (left) and with Liz for spring fraternity formals (right)!

And for all the accidental wake-ups, stuff everywhere, running around the room late for class, I'm sure as hell going to miss what we have in Baker 446.

My wall -- one of the few orderly things in our room...

... Good thing we're living in doubles in Baker next to each other next year! :)

Thanks Liz, Nicole and Anji for an amazing year. You guys are the best roommates I ever could've asked for, and then some.

Anji and Nicole being... Anji and Nicole.

It was... tough. What do you tell a high school senior during a surprise phone call on a balmy January evening?

"HimynameisConnieandI'mafreshmanatMIT... andIwasjustcallingtocongratulateyouonyourearlyadmissionanddoyouhaveanyquestions?"

The first few calls were just as surprising for me as they were for the person I called, but I understand if we caught you off guard or in the middle of homework. We had a team of roughly 25 students calling students on the East Coast, slowly moving across the US into the West Coast by 9pm EST. The best part of my job was calling students who were ecstatic that they were getting a call from MIT, their dream school!

The room, the fuel and the tool!

Luckily after two of my roommates joined me, the process started going a lot smoother. We got a chance to chat with students from Massachusetts, New Jersey (Anji's home state!), Florida, Georgia, Washington (Nicole's home state!), and California (my home state!)

Anji after a few successful calls... and Nicole after her first one!

We tried our best to answer as many questions as possible about CPW, housing, extracurriculars, athletics, campus life and everything in between. In case you thought of any questions or have more, please feel free to email me at connie.huang at mit dot edu or just comment on this post! I'd love to follow up with the students I got a chance to chat with and hear from the ones I didn't get to reach.

After Nicole and I finished our eightieth call, we downed the last of our chips and were serenaded by the Chorallaries, in the middle of practice in Lobby 10 for their upcoming competition!

Lookin' good, Hannah Wood.

Deceptive frozen water!

Beyond these valuable life lessons, I've also been lucky enough to take a wide assortment of classes that MIT offers over IAP, both for credit and not for credit. I've been running between kickboxing classes, business seminars, programming classes and even photography workshops and finishing off my day in a breaded chicken induced coma after I crawl under my comforter and reevaluate my dinner choices. (It's not as bad as it sounds.)

Over the past two weeks, I've attended two different business seminar series--the first, "Viral Marketing: Disseminating the Brand & Message" and the second, "The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans" (ranked by INC Magazine as one of the 10 Best Entrepreneurship Classes in America.)

I'd say the classes are comprised of roughly 70% graduate students and 70% men, where the intersection of the two categories gives you this:

Professor: "Who is your favorite celebrity? Who is on the cover of the stack of magazines by your bed?"
Slightly Unshaven Slightly European MBA: "I read the Economist so... Ben Bernanke?"

Note: Ben Bernanke is not how viral marketing is born.

And despite the business buzzwords (integrated marketing to build a viral events framework in a technology ecosystem), I've found that analyzing the success of Rebecca Black, the Old Spice Guy and selling staplers is a science. Our professor attributes the success of viral phenomena to possessing one or more of these qualities: being a simple story, controversial or outrageous, amazing or unique, positive, timely, truthful, funny, branded, impersonal, magical, historic or tragic. I'd call Friday something between unique and magical.

The Nuts and Bolts of Business Plans has taken a bit of a different spin, bringing in guest speakers every class to impart some of their entrepreneurial wisdom onto a similarly comprised class. Beyond the technical process of writing up executive summaries and full fledged business plans, much of the class has to do with exuding those time-tested business values that deserve to be typed out like the confident executive urged us to do:

with BOLDNESS, CONFIDENCE, PASSION, FOCUS AND ENGAGEMENT.

(That'll be fifty thousand dollars.)

I also just finished up my Python class, 6.s090, that culminated in a project of your choosing, provided you invest your life trying to figure out why your global variable isn't doing what it's supposed to be doing (hint: you're doing it wrong.) After many cups of knock off brand name cereal, my partner and I emerged victorious in creating our knock off Brick Breaker game:

Not a bad two weeks at all. My biggest concern is fighting off scurvy, now that the walk to the supermarket is 40% slipping on ice and 60% slipping on rock salt.

Wish me luck!

I recently got to knock off a task that is surprisingly easy to finish at MIT--participating in a charity event. I got to display the full range of my talents (or lack thereof) and learn more about the sisters in my sorority while smanging it. Hard.

Last weekend two sororities, Sigma Kappa and Kappa Alpha Theta held their signature philanthropy events and I was lucky enough to participate in both in very different ways...

SK Late Night

Sigma Kappa's variety show benefits Sigma Kappa Foundation, which is the 2nd largest contributor to Alzheimer's Disease research in the US. With a Glee themed event, there was little opportunity to go wrong--until I had to dance.

I cannot dance.

And there is video evidence.

Fortunately, the entire show was a success as break dancers, soloists and pledge classes showed just how talented and creative MIT students are while the SK sisters rocked the stage between acts.

KATwalk

Kappa Alpha Theta's annual charity fashion show supports CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) and features designs from Marc Jacobs, Free People, 344, LF, Britt Ryan, RompApparel, and Ministry of Supply. The entire event was a logistics challenge, but we pulled through and with enough hairspray, eyeliner and attitude, MIT students worked it on the runway:

With a team of over a hundred Theta sisters and the help of local sponsors and MIT's hottest performers, KATwalk was another huge success and an easy way to get involved in charity at MIT.

Take that, #39. :)

Let me say it's very different being an act and managing one -- but after a crazy weekend, I only have huge respect for both sides and even more respect for everyone who put in so much work to make the events run as smoothly as they did. But if anything, my favorite takeaway has been learning how to touch (or not touch) this, a la MC Hammer, as promised:

1) pitter patter
2) wave your knees in and out
3) roll your shoulders
4) touch yourself

"But I feel awkward--"

"You're doing it right."

How do we know when we get there? Exactly a year ago from today, teachers and classmates insisted the right place would be the one with the right "fit". I know by September, college applications have rolled around--this gorgeous month usually comes along with a big helping of the word "fit". At this point, it's a buzzword. Fit is something with a million different meanings, highly subjective and incredibly vague. A good fit is a place where you feel completely natural, where you can focus your efforts on achieving instead of diverting part of it to maintaining something you are not. The idea of fit is something that possibly determines your happiness across multiple facets of your life--how well you fit in at school, at work or at home affects more than we'd like. But when you find that true fit, that perfect place for you, it's much easier to be happy.

So in terms of colleges, I had no idea what the right fit felt like until I visited MIT in April for CPW. Long story short, I ate an absurd amount of liquid nitrogen ice cream. I made friends who weren't afraid to spout Maxwell's equations in regular conversation and then go back to talking about Jersey Shore in the same minute. I saw an incredible display of talent from down to earth, friendly peers just a few months or years older than me.

I wasn't convinced I was a right fit at MIT until I talked with my CPW host Erica, the most amazing 2014er you ever did meet. She told me that at MIT, everyone here was "the smart one" or "the ambitious one" in high school--sometimes that's all they ever were. But because everyone already shares that at MIT, people finally shine for other reasons--my host was already known as "the funny one" among other things. (The awesome one?)

That was my light bulb moment about MIT being the right fit for me. Fit is an experience and a quality that varies for everyone, but in the end you can't imagine yourself anywhere else.

You're probably thinking, "Damn it, Connie. You still didn't explain what fit means."

You're right. I could never really put it into words until I went through sorority recruitment last week, when I heard a sister explain what "fit" meant to her and how she hoped we would decide whether we would be comfortable in her sorority based on how she hoped we would find the best fit for ourselves.

She told us that we should look around the room and see if we could find pieces of ourselves reflected back at us. Could we see facets of ourselves that we would always hold true, as well as facets we would like to have from sisters we could look up to and admire? If so, we were in the right place.

In the upcoming months, look for those pieces of your current self and the pieces of who you want to be whenever you must look for the right fit--be it among friends, clubs, schools, groups and so on. If you can find those pieces, you're probably in the right place.

I have, and I haven't regretted it since.