Many thanks to the Global Grand Challeneges Summit staff for the photos, and to Ed McCann and Mark Murcko for some of the anecdotes and quotes of the scientists featured here.

Flash forward four years and you'll see that my 2013 Pi Day was equally exciting, though in a totally different way. Actually, I had a week that was a little nuts. Shall we recap? Let's do it!

It all started a couple weeks ago, when I had an email exchange with my academic advisor that went a little something like this:

Advisor: "Yo dawg do you want to go to London next week?"

Me: (Calmly) "UmmmmOKAY."*

*Note: Liberally adapted from original discussion.

Figure 1. My internal reaction to my advisor.

Wednesday night: Travel agent books my airline tickets and hotel confirmation for my trip that's supposed to start in less than 48 hours.

Figure 2. MIT's travel agent.

Thursday morning: Spend the morning with my 20.380 group working on our design pitch. I'm currently taking the Course 20 (Biological Engineering) senior capstone class, which is essentially a course on "How To Make Stuff And Not Have It Suck" as it is related to microbes. We spend a semester together with our team and develop a novel product to tackle antibiotic resistance, cancer, and/or manufacturing/synthetic biology while considering experimental design, testing, business models, patent issues, cost analysis, and all the fun things that you sort of forget about when you're taking regular classes. I frantically assemble some slides to illustrate the motivation behind our team's product for the upcoming design pitches.

Figure 3. Making things work.

Thursday afternoon: Swing by lab to finish up some experiments for my undergrad research project (UROP). I work for this guy on caged nanoparticle drug delivery. Then go to 21A.301 (Medical Anthropology of Disease and Health in Society) and watch a pretty intriguing documentary. Also, only at MIT would the entire class stick around voluntarily after a movie to discuss it, even though the professor isn't there.

Figure 4. My UROP.

Thursday evening: Go to MITSO (MIT Symphony Orchestra) rehearsal to prep for our upcoming Rite of Spring CD recording session and concert. I return home and feel like I'm forgetting something. O RITE (get it?), I'M LEAVING THE COUNTRY TOMORROW MORNING. Frantic packing ensues.

Friday: I mosey on over to Logan Airport not-so-bright and early in the morning. I have no idea who's going on the trip from MIT, nor do I really know much about what I'm supposed to do there. 

I arrive in Heathrow Airport, and marginally expect my life to play out like a scene from Love Actually, because all scenes in Heathrow Airport play out like this, right?

No? Well, that's okay, because I got to ride the Heathrow Express from the airport to the heart of the city, and the Heathrow Express sure beats Boston's equivalent Silver Line.

Figure 5. Maybe if we host the Olympics we can have nice things, too.

Saturday: Wake up and meet up with a friend from high school who is studying abroad in London this semester. We galavant around the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum like typical American tourists (or about as typical as a Peruvian American and Korean American can get?), which involves being loud, running into things, and looking the wrong way before crossing the street. Admission to almost all of London's museums is free. And as we all know, free is my favorite number.

Figure 6. Seb and me hanging out with Darwin at the Natural History Museum of London.

Sunday: My liberal arts side geeks out as I visit the National Gallery of London to see works by Saurat, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Da Vinci, Raphael, Vermeer, and a new favorite - JMW Turner. Then I book it to Tate Modern where high school Elizabeth sees works from her heros, Man Ray, Mark Rothko, Kandinsky, Picasso, Matisse, and Magritte. Then I get massive LOLz trying to locate a Roman Catholic church in the heart of London.

Figure 7. Not my hotel, although it was right next door to it.

Monday: The real reason why I'm in London! I put on big girl clothes (wut iz this business attire you speak of??) and walk over to the Royal Academy of Engineering, where folks from RAE have organized a Microsoft-sponsored student day gathering around 60 engineering students from around the world to tackle one of 6 global challenges. After splitting up into groups consisting of undergraduate and graduate students from all over the U.S. and U.K., we hear from industry professionals - everyone from the guy who designed the 2012 Olympics velodrome to an academia spin-out company founder - who teach us principles about design and presentation. On my team are students from London, Chicago, Ohio, and even an MIT alum who also worked in the Langer lab! We get roughly 5 hours to come up with a design pitch of a solution to one of the global challenges, and then have to present it to a team of mock angel investors who will select a team to present to the RAE, National Academy of Engineering, and Chinese Academy of Engineering-sponsored 400-person conference on Wednesday. Basically, we had about 5 hours to solve the world's problems. NBD. Well our team ends up not doing too shabby, as we win the thing, despite us literally coming up with an idea 30 minutes before the pitches were supposed to happen and as I literally doodled a Powerpoint presentation together minutes before we went up to present. Where is that Beyonce gif when you need it?

Figure 8. Our team tackling the challenge of health care accessibility. Many thanks to the Global Grand Challenges Summit Staff for the photo!

Monday night: A hilarious dinner with rowdy Americans, Brits, an Italian, and a Cypriot. I wish I had photos now but you'll have to hold on and trust me on this one. Meeting new people = the best. I met so many thoughtful folks from all over the world, from so many universities, all trying to make the world a better place. Never has it been more evident to me that it doesn't matter where you are so much as what you do. It was humbling and exciting and gave me a renewed sense of purpose, which was unexpected but something I'm grateful for nonetheless. 

Figure 9. How I feel when I meet new people.

Tuesday: The other real reason why I came to London - The first ever Global Grand Challenges Summit begins, as roughly 400 engineers gather to discuss how to - literally - solve the world's problems. This day and the following merit their own blog post, so worry not - there will be LOTS more on this, I promise! But in a nutshell, I heard speakers ranging from Craig Venter (who I have some serious beef with, which made for an interesting experience) to MIT's own Bob Langer (oh hey!), Angela Belcher, Neil Gershenfeld, to fashion designers, to FIRST's Dean Kamen. Quick highlights:

• When Jeffery Sachs totally called out policymakers for their total bull when it comes to stiffling necessary innovation and doing good in the world, and then when Shell's Environment VP had to follow him on the panel. AMEN to J. Sachs.
• When Neil Gersenfeld was trying to describe MIT to the audience and he said, "MIT is a place where strange people who don't fit in anywhere else go."
• When will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas randomly showed up to the education panel and point-blank told the audience, "Kids don't worship the people who are solving the world's problems like they do athletes or movie stars, and it's no one's fault but yours." I disagreed with some of the details, but agreed with the overall sentiment.
• When half the nerds at the conference didn't know who will.i.am was.

Wednesday (Pi day): More conference! More speakers! More on this later! Our team presents to the conference and we even get some people e-mailing us about investing in the project. So, who knows where it'll go?

Figure 10. Two of our team members pitching the idea of Telehealth Express.

Then I book it to the airport, where I BARELY make check-in thanks to a delayed flight. I pull out some papers I need to write and a manuscript I need to finish, but end up talking to the lady sitting next to me for hours. Turns out that she's from France, but flying to Boston from Vienna, and she's recently met one of my documentary professors from last year. The world is so small! We talk about Mozart, my research, her research (turns out she lectures at Harvard Medical School), and pastries. Like I said, meeting new people = the best.

Figure 11. Go team! Many thanks to the GGCS team for the photo.

Thursday: I wake up in a bit of a daze and join my 20.380 team early in the morning to rehearse our design pitch (ack so many pitches!) and in an hour, we deliver it to the class. More class in the afternoon, a quick dinner, and I head over to Kresge Auditorium to join MITSO as we begin our first day of recording Rite of Spring. It's the first time we've recorded a CD since I've been in MITSO, so it'll all pretty exciting.

Figure 12. My crappy photo of MITSO getting ready to record.

Friday: To be honest, I don't really remember what happens. But I do remember playing the MITSO concert to a sold-out Kresge.

Figure 13. How I feel when I'm playing Stravinsky.

Saturday: Work work work to make up all the work I didn't do in London. Then I head over to WMBR to host my radio show (P.S. remember that one time I blogged about crossing off #12 on my senior bucket list? Well I loved hosting a radio show so much that I decided to apply to have my own, so now that's a thing.). Then more work!

When the evening rolls around, I meet my friend, Steven, who has given me possibly the GREATEST BIRTHDAY PRESENT OF ALL TIME... We end up having a hilarious conversation with a random Emerson College student on the #9 bus (again, meeting new people = the best), who ends up showing us the way to our destination - Brighton Music Hall, where the Dropkick Murphys are about to play one of their annual St. Patrick's Day/weekend concerts (which I get to witness because I have an awesome friend who knew what #5 on my senior buck list was). We squeeze in with a couple hundred diehard, Bostonian fans, and proceed to witness a most supreme show. So much noise. So much sweat. So many Bruins jerseys. So. Much. Fun. Also, can I just comment that punk musicians and fans are some of the most women-respecting and considerate people around? Really. And the guys in the band were incredibly nice, bringing people on stage at the end for "Dropkick Karaoke," where they had fans pick songs to sing. I cannot think of a better way to ring in St. Patrick's Day and my birthday. 

Figure 14. "Is there anybody hooooommmmeee??"

Sunday: For the first time, I actually go into Boston on St. Patrick's Day, to meet up with a friend from middle school. I talk to some random people also trying to navigate their way to South Boston, but we end up giving up nagivating above ground because the parades have slowed the buses down. For once, Bostonians are friendly and awesome to talk to - maybe St. Patrick's Day has put everyone in a better mood? I proceed the next hour going in a circle because I accidentally get on the subway going the wrong direction, but eventually I DO make it over, find my friend, and toast to 22. The city is surprisingly civil and unrowdy, and I absolutely love seeing everyone dressed up in tacky amounts of green. I love it. Then it's back to MIT where everyone seems to be wearing black (hahahaha) and where I finish up some work. Another study break ensues in the late evening as some of us head out to the Asgard, a nearby Irish pub, for one last hurrah before the week and see Tin Can Hooley, a local Irish band.

And here I am now, almost a week later, still a little out of breath and still catching up on some stuff. Was it worth it? HECK. YES.

Figure 15. How I feel now.

Edit: Evidently I am not so good at predicting outcomes of NFL games. But seeing how this post-season has been going, I can't possibly be the only one...

"I'm about to watch a movie," he hastily answered, clearly oblivious to the day's events, continuing with his trademark "Whatchoowant?"

"Oh, you know, just wanted to say hi."

"I miss you. I'm bored. Love ya, sis!" 

"Love you, Ry."

The next morning, I rolled my cello to Lobby 7, the area under the dome that serves as the unofficial entrance to MIT's Infinite Cooridor. I met up with a handful of other MIT Symphony Orchestra friends, along with some musicians from the Brookline Symphony Orchestra, who had all assembled thanks to the idea of Adam Boyles, our director. Quoting Leonard Bernstein, Adam began the impromptu and somewhat makeshift memorial concert for the victims of the shooting by saying, “This will be our reply to violence: to make music more intensely, more beautifully, more devotedly than ever before.” Tourists, passersby, students undoubtedly heading to the library to cram for finals - people who in any other circumstance would be hurrying on their way - all stopped to pay tribute to a community located a couple hours away. 

Afterward, as I packed up my instrument, I saw a professor wiping away tears as she zipped up her toddler's coat. "Thank you for doing this," she softly spoke before zipping up her own. I managed to sputter in reply, "Of course," before realizing that I had my own tears to wipe away. I've been so moved by the emotions I've seen in friends and mentors here in response to the tragedy, reflective of the compassion that connects friends and strangers alike. No amount of music or prayers or consolations, written or spoken, will ever be enough to even begin to bring peace to the families and all those affected by Friday's events. I cannot start to imagine what they are experiencing now, and what they will continue to endure. My heart breaks for each and every one of them. But we offer these things up for them - the only things we could possibly give to the people of Newtown - because we are called to do so as brothers and sisters of this world and I hope that in some way, however miniscule, it will contribute to their healing.

A Mister Rogers quote has been circulating the internet these past couple days that I find particularly pertinent - “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, ‘Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.’ To this day, especially in times of ‘disaster,’ I remember my mother’s words and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers -– so many caring people in this world.” 

I am in awe of the many unfathomably brave people whose selflessness towards protecting others will never be forgotten, along with the innocent and beautiful people who passed away. I am in awe of the grace, poise, and sense of community that Newtown as shown our country in light of inexplicable heartbreak. A profoundly awful tragedy merited a profoundly poignant response, a testament to the resilence of the human spirit and the goodness of many. I am in awe of the kindness of people like Adam, who, instinctively reached out to console others to their best capacity, and I am in awe of the many strangers who I saw that morning standing in solidarity with our neighbors. Being reminded of this compassion made me infinitely grateful to encounter such people in my life, and to share another day with the people I love. Tell these people - who I'm sure are also in your lives - that you love them. Every day is a gift, and every person is a gift. These are the things I will remember.

Friday's events and the ensuing media chaos has initiated some conversations that our society desparately needs to be having. I am hopeful that this will be the start of our country's movement toward creating a more understanding, peaceful, and fraternal one. But like Adam told me after I thanked him for organizing the memorial concert, "I'm so sorry it had to be under these circumstances." 

Adam closed our concert with this excerpt from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Eulogy for the Maryred Children," which was delivered during the funeral services of three girls killed in the bombing of a Birmingham, AL church in 1963. Newtown, for what it's worth, there is a community here mourning with you and for you.

Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever—flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever—changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters. And if one will hold on, he will discover that God walks with him, and that God is able to lift you from the fatigue of despair to the buoyancy of hope, and transform dark and desolate valleys into sunlit paths of inner peace.

And so today, you do not walk alone. You gave to this world wonderful children. They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died... And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare: Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. And may the flight of angels take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.

I am proud to present evidence that so far I'm 3 for 15. Hopefully I will have things to keep you guys posted about as the year progresses.

Huh. Guess I introduced this post afterall. ANYWAY

#6. Get Junot Diaz to sign my book.

This is Professor Junot Diaz. This is a book that wrote, one of my all-time favorites. When I accepted my offer to come to MIT, one of the first thoughts that crossed my mind was Holy moly I am going to be in the vicinity of Junot Diaz and I am going to get him to sign my book and holy moly I am going to walk the same hallways he walks and holy moly Junot Diaz. Between classes and life and his travel schedule, I just never got around to stalking him visiting his office. But then the universe decided to throw me a bone. Though he's not teaching a classes this semester, he decided to give a reading of his new book and talk about his writing process, which was during a night that I was supposed to have MITSO rehearsal. When I found out that MITSO had been cancelled (which had never happened during the previous three years I was in MITSO), you better believe I booked it over to the Stata Center like nobody's business, where the auditorium had already overfilled with people that had come from all over the Boston area (and beyond!) to hear this incredible man speak. I got one of the last chairs in the overflow room, where the talk was being projected live. I highly encourage you to watch that video of the talk, but be forewarned that it's pretty explicit (so Mom, don't let Ry watch it! He already knows enough bad words!). Prof. Diaz is an incredibly eloquent and humble man, and I was in awe just listening to him speak; despite the packed audience, he managed to make the talk extremely personal, intimate, and genuine. I'm so happy that he is on the faculty of a place like MIT. Hearing someone so full of life and purpose and insight was so beautiful and I feel like a total goober but it literally almost brought tears to my eyes. He feels so much a part of this world and its people. Afterwards, he patiently signed books and took pictures with the hundreds of people that flocked to see him, addressing each individual as if he or she was a family member. I wish there were more people in the world who carried his demeanor. I thought it'd be fitting to get my book signed for my high school English teacher, since she shares a lot of the same authentic, caring qualities as Prof. Diaz. I was so lucky to have an educator like her. You can never be thankful enough for a good teacher, and in some ways you won't realize how important of a role they play in your life until you back at the experience. Look how Prof. Diaz signed it, too! What a great man.

#13. Find people to dress up as the cast of Hey Arnold! or The Magic School Bus for Halloween. I call Phoebe.

I have always wanted to dress up as Phobe from the cast of Hey Arnold! for Halloween. Am I reaching an age dispairity with the blogs' readers where you guys no longer understand my pop culture references? If so, please make no indication of it. Just Wiki Hey Arnold! (or even better, YouTube some episodes) and nod along and everything will be fine.

^The greatest cartoon of all time. 

Well, we didn't get around to dressing up as the cast, which is a genuis idea I've had since high school. I also don't think there are many people who share my enthusiasm for the show (which is a total bummer since it was such a great show!). In fact, a lot of us were hosed with work, so we were just going to call it a night [read: I was being lame], but luckily some of my friends dragged me out of my lab reports. The following costumes were assembled on varying degrees of notice (1 day-5 minutes).

Left: Well, these guys kept the Nickelodeon cartoon thing going. Maita '13 and Elizabeth '14/Korra and Aang.

Middle: Yours truly as:

Right: Cosmos '15 dressed up as Luke '14. 

But the best cosume(s) of the evening?

They might kill me if they found out I put this on the internet, so these goobers are going to have to remain anonymous. First person to identify the reference get points. But the rules are made up and the points don't matter, so hey! (<- First person to identify that reference gets more points.)

#12. Go on WMBR as Eunice.

WMBR is the MIT radio station, and as I recently discovered, it is rather amazing. Keri has somewhat-extensively blogged about this hallowed place. I can't even fully classify it as college radio, though, since so many people involved are lovely community members from around the Boston area. Maybe community radio is a more appropriate designation. In any case, it's pretty stinkin' cool, and I can't believe I waited until my senior year to actually get my butt over to this place.

During my freshman year, one of my friends (who has an exceptional radio voice) had a running joke that we were going to have a show on WMBR called "Liz and Ted's Excellent Adventure" (a reference to this, and yes, his name is Ted) and only play 80's Madonna. That didn't happen (do we sense a pattern here?).

The universe intervened again, as the station needed a host to fill in for a last-minute emergency, and I happened to be one of the first people that the Program Manager happened to actually run into. A couple days later, I was in the basement of Walker Memorial, carrying my playlist that I'd assembled literally minutes before and hoping I wasn't going to screw things up. Some things I learned:

1. Djing is really, really, incredibly fun. 

2. DJing is also pretty hard. I kept pushing the wrong buttons. There was a lot of awkward dead air between songs as I fumbled with the equipment. I also incorrectly announced the first song of the hour. In retrospect, I probably should've just done the show from my laptop, but I ended up learning a lot about the equipment so in the end, it was all [marginally] good. I was really repetitive on air because I hadn't really planned anything to say, aside from the awful classical music puns I kept uttering. I also played my first LP on the air! 

3. Listeners can be really nice. Some of them are kind of weird. I even got some callers during the show to give me words of encouragement! The MIT community is incredibly expansive and filled with all sorts of characters. Ultimately, I think that's a pretty good thing.

^Me during most of the hour. I also realize that I happen to be wearing that shirt in several instances were I am on the internet. I swear, I wear things besides St. Louis Cardinals shirts.

I definitely could not have gotten through the hour without Eduardo and Allison, who patiently guided me throughout the DJing process, kept me company, and humored me in a few dance-offs. Thank you for being super! They host The Paradox Box on Saturdays from 1-2 and actually know what they're doing.

Eunice is my politically-incorrect alter-ego. I should probably not blog about her here. Also, she's probably not FCC-friendly, so she couldn't go on the air.

Alllllrighty! On to the remaining 12!

  <-- (I actually look like that in real life)

Guys. Science is really, really cool. It's amazing. Holy moly, I'm still reeling from the geniusness of this group. Now I know you all are all:

so I will take you there. I will take you to this magical science place. But before I do, a big disclaimer is that I have UBER simplified some genetics concepts in this explanation. I want my [granted, pretty sharp] 10-year-old brother to understand this, even if he doesn't know what an enzyme is. My apologies if I end up offending hardcore geneticists out there, or if I breezed over some of the background science too quickly. Trying to please everyone here.

(Here. In case you want some light bedtime reading. :P)

... which also meant that the average hilarity level of Cambridge, MA increased with the arrival of my 10-year-old little brother, Ryan (who insists on being called a pre-teen).

There are very few things that you need to know about Ryan, and those things are:

1. He loves the Oregon Ducks.
2. He is hilarious.
3. He is a ham.
4. He owns me at pretty much everything. Laughing contests, chess, Madden, knowledge of college football, lines from movies, knowledge of sub-saharan wildlife, etc.

You may even recognize The Goober from his appearances in some of my videos. The folks on campus certainly did, as upwards of six people (parents and students) recognized Ry on campus, and I wasn't even with him. "Guess what, Elizabeth! Someone recognized me from the blogs again!" Do you know how many times I got recognized during that weekend? Zero. Once again, my brother owns me... at my own job.

So here are some pictures from that weekend so more of you guys can recognize him the next time he visits me and he can ham it up even more: 

a) Without fail, the first thing that Ry tells me when I see him isn't "Oh I missed you so much," it's "Can I play in the Simmons ball pit????" (Yes, my dorm has a ball pit. Yes, I play in it during the year.)

b) Ry and Dad are fans of Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (which is one of the few things we disagree on - I personally can't stand Guy Fieri), so they (read: Dad) begged to have lunch at Mr. Bartley's Burgers in Harvard Square, which was recently featured on the show. (I seemingly-begrudingly obliged, but secretly rejoiced at the opportunity for a burger. Mr. Bartley's are awesome. Also, their sweet potatoes. Also, now I am really hungry.) I call this photo, Little boy retires to local tavern after long morning of first-world problems.

c) Ry is a huge fan of Quinton McArthur - he wasn't able to meet him last year, so this encounter pretty much made the kid's life. Here is Uncle Q, Tim, and Ry.

d) My family's experts at the whole Family Weekend shpiel, so the past couple years we've shipped up (or is it down? I still haven't gotten used to New England geography...) to Cape Cod. We drove to Wellfleet for the Oyster Festival, during which...

e) ...Ry tried his first raw oyster.

f) ...He soon found something else at the fest that he found more palatable.

g) Then we drove to Provincetown, which is at the very far tip of Cape Cod, mainly just to say that we made it all the way to Provincetown (last year we got too distracted in Sandwich so we didn't quite make it up all the way). General observations - Provincetown is cool to visit... ....so you can say that you made it all the way to the tip of Cape Cod.

h) ...So then we drove back to Sandwich. Last year we ended up stopping at the Snow Goose Gift Shop to ask for directions, but ended up talking to the shop owner for a while, who incidentally happens to be one of the nicest people on the planet and also incidentally happens to own the nicest and most photogenic Golden Retriever on the planet. We had to stop by the shop to see if Donna and Donald were still there, and not only were they there, but she remembered us. If you're ever in the cape area, stop by this store. Good people/dogs.

i) We booked it back to campus to catch the annual Family Weekend a capella show, where Ry showed off his best Asian-Tourist-At-MIT impersonation (except it wasn't an impersonation, it was real life).

Until graduation, MIT will have to wait for the return of The Goob.

Some categories to think about:

• Biology (including research techniques)
• Chemistry <- my least favorite subject, but if someone comes up with a good chemistry question I'll take a shot at it
• Physics (mechanics and E&M; if you ask something related to quantum I'll have to rope in my Course 8 suitemate)
• "Engineery" things like fluids, thermodynamics, etc.
• Computer science (I have a very limited understanding of it, so I'll have to ask some Course 6-ers for help if you guys ask really complicated questions!)

I.

AM.

A.

SENIOR.

I walk down the halls of Simmons and see freshman frantically p-setting even through they're on Pass/No-Record, and I think to myself, "hahahaha n00bs" and then immediate proceed thinking, "Wait I'm not one of you anymore," which leads to internal sobbing and then I'm jolted back to reality when I inevitably run into the door frame. I wake up in the morning feeling like P.Diddy, then realize, "Ermegerd, this is my last sixth day of school EVER!" (Just kidding, but it does start each day off rather epic-ly.) It also means that people 'round these parts assume I know some stuff about stuff. I haven't decided how I feel about this.

Actually, things have been pretty business as usual, thank goodness. Take my last two days, for example...

Figure 1. Thursday

1a) First stop in the morning. 3.055 Biomaterials Science and Engineering. Not sure if there are any readers out there who remember back in the day when I used to doodle in my notes. The doodling kind of stopped last semester, so I decided to dig up some notes from the other day in class and add a little something to them. Just. For. You. All things for the greater glory of blogging. Fun fact No. 1: I fell in lurve with biomaterials last fall after taking 20.441 Biomaterials-Tissue Interactions. Fun fact No. 2: One of the professors of this class lives in my dorm as a Resident Scholar. Fun fact No. 3: She's my high school math teacher's doppelganger.

1b) Lecture for 20.309 Measurement and Instrumentation for Biological Systems, followed by the entire afternoon spent in lab. Lab 1 is to build a fluorescent microscope. Our team managed to bolt down our "first draft," after which one of the instructors pointed out that we'd kind of built the whole thing incorrectly... OOF STORY OF MY LIFE.

1c) A quick dinner is followed by MITSO rehearsal. I creepily snapped this photo while we were filing out of sectionals. Dvorak has a way of redeeming 4 hours of epic-lab-fail-time.

Figure 2. Friday (Day)

2a) First stop in the morning. After frantically reviewing some protocols, I bike over to the Koch Institute for some par-tay time at the Langer lab, where I UROP. I work for a post-doc on nanoparticle drug delivery. He fist-bumps me every time I see him. DID I LAND THE AWESOMEST UROP OR DID I LAND THE AWESOMEST UROP? (Answer: I landed the awesomest UROP.)

2b) I call this one, Wait Wut Why Do My MIT Notes Look Like Dis? This summer I was looking over my degree requirements and realized I was one class away from getting a music minor. So I was all, okay harmony and counterpoint, YOLO. (Please don't smack me. I promise to never say that again.) After finishing some ligation reactions in the morning, I ran over to the piano lab component of 21M.301, where I spent an hour lamenting that I never practiced my scales (they've literally come back to haunt me every year since I've been in college) and apologized to the instructor for my hilariously shameful theory knowledge.

2c) Bolted from piano lab to some more 20.309 lab lecture, where I learned about signal noise (and by "noise" I mean "everything-that-can-and-will-break-everything-you-attempt-to-make-this-semester-and-cause-you-to-commence-self-loathing"). Ate lunch with a 309 classmate, talking about how awesome summer was and bracing ourselves for the impending misery of the semester. (Just kidding. Seriously. It won't be that bad, right?) Ran back to 309 lab, where my partner and I literally went back to the drawing board, fixed our sad little 'scope, and reached a local maximum of success. Science - it 10% of the time, it works every time.

Figure 3. Friday (Night)

3a) Friday nights in college. I mean, this is a normal experience, right? People building a super-secret project in the basement of a dorm, other people creeping/blogging about it... normal, right?

3b) ...Projects involving 12 new TVs, drilling, design, programming...

3c) ...I mean, normal, right?

Figure 4. Friday (Night, continued)

4a) ABNORMAL. MIT students referring to the product manual. Wut. Iz. Dis. Madness.

4b) The cruise-ship captain of this project. You might recognize Cosmos as the director of behind putting Colbert on notice (actually, that'd be colossally creepy if you did, as he's never in the video...). 

4c) Productivity. I am an immensely valuable asset of moral support and tomfoolery. Are any of you wondering what these goobers were up to last night? Well, I guess you'll just have to check the blogs soon to find out...

HOOK LINE AND SINKER, SUCKERS. 

Now I don't know about you beautiful folks, but I still have four glorious days of summer break left, so I will continue to unapologetically blast some 90's Mariah Carey in my car, but if her jamz don't float your boat, here are some other tunes I've been playing this summer. Warning: They are mostly borderline-saccherinely peppy songs. 

"Tallulah" by Company of Thieves - This is the kind of song that you enthusiastically sing along to alone in the car at 7 in the morning and other drivers stare at you but it's like, I AIN'T EVEN MAD because you're in such a good mood. This is completely uncharacteristic of the rest of their material, just sos ya knows.

"The Walk" by Mayer Hawthorne - This is the kind of song that you play in your head as you walk around like a badass until you realize that you are really just knocking over the displays at the Gap. Warning: he's got a lil' bit of a potty-mouth in this video, sorry.

BUT NO LONGER! Ladies and gentlemen, you are about to witness the Blogs' Goofiest Video Ever:

Homies. Have. You. Seen. My. Arms. 

This was my response to the conversation: 

(Minus the fact that I DO NOT HAVE STEVE AUSTIN'S ARMS/UPPER BODY STRENGTH!) I also don't have the greatest track record with climbing things. Over the summer, I climbed a tree in a banana suit (long story) and got stuck.

(I call this one, "You thought I was kidding but I actually totally wasn't.")

Thus, I immediately dismissed the entire notion of rock climbing. So while the blip was more like a bloop, it was still a bloop nonetheless, and I went about the rest of my week unaffected by this new nugget of knowledge. 

Turns out the rest of the week was kind of hard for me and for a lot of other people, as I discovered during dinner on Friday night when Luke attempted to eat one of the centerpieces. 

Yup. It was just one of those weeks. And I was just glad the week was over. I was ready to unwind and veg for a couple hours. I was going to watch a rerun of Modern Family. And then Luke, unaware of my brief encounter with the wall earlier that week, HAD to bring up that by some FREAK COINCIDENCE he was going to climbing at the wall that night, and the rest of the table - who apparently all frequent the wall because I have been completely unaware of the fact that they are avid climbers - were going too. Why was this wall haunting me?? Here is the reader's digest version of what followed:

1. Luke tries to convince me to go climbing. See conversation with Chris.

2. Chris D., a staff member of the wall and fellow Simmons resident, says he's bringing strobe lights for a disco-themed climb night at the wall. My position still stands.

3. Other people decide to go as well. GrumblegrumblepeerpressureI'mstillnotgoing.

4. Luke: "If you go, you could blog about it..." OKAY I'M IN SUCKERS! 

Thus, Luke, Sasha, and I made our trek to Walker Memorial. It used to be a gym but now it's a multipurpose building and houses the offices of many of the student groups. I don't have fond memories associated with the building, but then again, I've only been there to take exams. 

We made our way up to the third floor and found the room that houses the climbing wall. Chris D. was pretty excited for the evening when we got there. This is actually him in the middle of saying, "I'm so excited!" When we arrived, I met an alum who told me that the climbing wall was built by students around 2006. People in the MIT community use it for bouldering, which doesn't involve climbing super high. Upon discovering this, my blood pressure significantly lowered. With a $1 fee, I picked up some climbing shoes and I was ready to go! Well, almost...

I think this is Luke in the middle of saying, "Stop asking me if you're going to fall and break your neck, you're going to be fine, Elizabeth."

And actually, things went pretty well! I made it up my first route and was feeling on top of the world (or this room, rather). And then Chris D. turned off the lights and turned on the strobe lights. I must say, if you ever try bouldering, doing it with blacklights and dubstep your first time is... an experience. My phone went a little nuts trying to capture photos.

It's super fun, but a little difficult when all the tapes that mark the routes are changing colors...

Nathan, another Simmons resident, it a pretty super climber. Look at that lil' monkey go! (Just kidding. Nathan, I don't know you that well, so if you read this I hope you don't take offense at me calling you a monkey.) People stopped by throughout the night and were super friendly and helpful to n00bs like me who had never touched a climbing wall before. Thank you to Nathan, Chris D., and Luke for humoring me while I obnoxiously shouted, "Wait, where does my foot go next? Wait how am I supposed to put my arm over there? Wait, how does this work?!?!" while hanging paralyzed on the wall.

Ootz ootz ootz ootz

"O hai"

So, moral of the story is - Mom, I tried something new! Something that I didn't want to do at first but then ended up having a lot of fun doing! Also, MIT has a bouldering wall! And now I know what I'm going this Friday night! But for now I'm going to stop typing because my arms are still sooo sore... oof.

Filing that one away in my list of Things To Refer To When In Situations Requiring Social Interaction - I foresee the situation arising tomorrow. "Hi, it's nice to meet you - the gravitational force between you and me is about 10^-7 newtons. Let's be friends!"

Okay, no really, I swear I listen to the things my professors are telling me.

Yup. Takin' notes, learnin' things! 

Okay. I'm just kidding. I'm actually learning a lot of things in this class called 20.330 Forces, Fields, and Flows in Biological Systems. Mainly I am learning that I am not so good with numbers. But hey, I'm surviving! And it's actually kind of a cool class in that I'm just like "equations, equations, modeling (on the computer, not on the runway...), equations, whoa science is actually kind of weird." I'm excited. Hopefully by the end of the semester, I'll be a fluid-flow-transport-electrokinetics-booty-kicker. I'm looking forward to it!

See? I'm a quarter of the way there! Even my professor says so! Prof. Manalis has a really kind face. As in, he looks like a really nice person. His face is the most indicative of his personality out of everyone I know. He acts exactly like he looks. Like a kind person. Except his exam was not kind. But I forgive you, Prof. Manalis, I know you probably didn't mean for it to be so mean. He and Prof. Han are pretty nice people and have co-taught this class for six years. They're pretty nifty. 

Prof. Han really loves Oliver Heaviside (of the Heaviside step function variety). It's kind of goofy that Heaviside is known for that lil' step function when he did so stinkin' much for physics and math, like figuring out Laplace transforms the obscure way. He was the original hipster, folks. I mean, check out his outfit! Whatta math hipster.

Also, I'm taking 7.06 (Cell BIology) this term, which is kind of great because it gives me a legitimate reason to use my crayons. Otherwise I just use my crayons for blogging, making cards for people, and other less acceptable reasons. Why yes, I am indeed an adult! Thank you for asking!

My favorite quote from the semester thus far has come from Prof. Iain Cheeseman, who co-teaches 7.06: "So I've gotten several comments in my end-of-semester evaluations that I say the word 'awesome' too much during lecture. Well, if I was teaching thermo or orgo I'd understand the complaint, but since I teach CELL BIO I think I'm perfectly justified in saying 'awesome' all the time. Cell bio is AWESOME! So I'm gonna say it all I want. Also, don't tell the thermo and orgo professors that I said that."

Also, Prof. Cheeseman's nickname is "The Big Cheese." Also, he is adorable. PROFESSOR CHEESEMAN IF YOU EVER READ THIS I THINK YOU OWN!!!

I'm also taking STS.068J (Advanced DV Lab), which is a continuation of the making-and-learning-about-science-documentary class I took last semester. Most of our assignments are video projects, but every now and then we have to write papers (= sad) so I add pictures (= happy).

And with that being said, I am... off to class.

I DIGRESS.

The point is, as many days as I begrudgingly dragged myself to the dinner table like a snotty teenager, not having family dinner time was one of the things that made the transition to college the hardest for me (I know. I am a GIANT BABY.). Lucky for me, I have a different sort of family with my fellow Simmons sponge-dwellers, and when the clock strikes a nice and early 5:30 PM (because we actually have the lifestyle habits of people four times our age), we round up the gang (I really need a cowbell for this...) and mosey on down to ye olde Simmons dining hall.

Okay, so dinner at MIT looks a little different from dinner at home. Look Mom, we are playing CHESS at the dinner table! Watchin' YouTube videos on Luke's phone at the dinner table! Eatin' Lucky Charms after dinner! Oooh yeah we are rebels!*

Frame one: We joined up with some former 3AB dwellers (Isaac and Drew from freshman year, Luke from sophomore year) to catch up on life (read: catch up on YouTub videos). 

Frame two: Luke's staple dessert is Rice Krispies mixed with Lucky Charms. 

Frame three: This was during Sasha and Sneha's chess phase, which lasted all of one week. At any other university, people whipping out a chess board during dinner would probably get us socially shunned for life, but here, we had a crowd going to watch and join in. We are really cool like that. MIT OOH YEAH!

Frame one: Like I said, CHESS IS INTENSE. (As a side note, learning how to play chess is still on the to-list, along with learning how to solve a Rubik's Cube, watching an entire episode of Star Trek, and going to a Dropkick Murphys concert on my birthday.)

Frame two: Justin, Maita, and Steven doing... I don't really know what they were doing. 

Frame three: So apparently tomorrow my taste buds are gonna be dazzled, y'all!

*I love you, Mom.

I spent the last 26 days in my hometown – Columbia, MO. Located in the heart of the Show-Me State, Columbia is a lively college town, except for the parts like this:

(I call this one, What The Two Hour Drive To The Airport Looks Like...The Entire Time...)

Teeming with basketball fans, college kiddos, and old folks who really like our retirement communities--ah, screw it. I cannot keep up with the Nicholas Kristof/Frank Bruni writing. Here’s what’s been going on in my life:

I had a conversation with a friend that went a little something like this:

Me: “Man, I really love wrapping Christmas presents and loading the dishwasher. If only I could make a living out of doing these things.”
Maita: “Like being a housewife?”
Me: 

*
And then I went back to reading my Martha Stewart Living magazine.

[*Just got to say that I have a poop-ton of respect for housewives everywhere. It is EXHAUSTING. I love you, Mom!]

So anyway, after that moment of brief defiance against social constructions, I decided to embrace my newfound sense of domesticness and set out to make a bunch of stuff. Because if I was going to do the housewife thing over break, I was going to do it like a good MIT student:

I made some peach pie and I made chicken pot pie from scratch (do not laugh at my n00b crust-decorating skills, it was my first one):

But then I decided that it wasn’t masochistic enough to use pre-made dough so I made cinnamon rolls from scratch. I should also mention that I love cooking but hate baking, so I did this entirely out of the desire to hardcore om nom nom on these suckers to prove my domestic prowess.

We had ridiculously hot weather while I was here (it was 67 degrees when I left home today), but last Thursday we had a freak snow storm (and by “freak snow storm” I really mean “it’s been 60 degrees all winter so when we had a couple inches of snow my town forgot how to handle it”) and my little broskie got a snow day. Naturally, chocolate chip banana pancakes and pizza you-guessed-it from scratch was in order:

Then on Sunday, my mom and I came together to create one uber Housewifeformer™ and churned out three outfits for our new dog, Scooter (who deserves his own blog post and will be getting one soon). They were fashioned out of Ryan’s old sweatpants and sweatshirts and some scrap fabric. All together now – WE SO RIDIKALUS.

And last, but not least, I made a video. Now is this one over-achieving blog post or whaht?! (Not quite back in Boston yet, but we are almost over Albany, which is close enough.)

*I’m totally not anymore. Sitting in Simmons.

Peace out home fries!

1. Had two exams
2. Had two final projects
3. Had two final exams, both of which were yesterday. It’s funny how slowly three hours passes by while you’re on a plane, yet so fast when you’re taking a final exam and all you want is a few more precious minutes to figure out that damn structure elucidation problem…

Anyway. The point is I’ve done a lot of work – good work, the kind where I do it and then I’m like, “Whoa! I know stuff!” – in the past month, but as a result, my desk at home has suffered. It was kind of a bath of crap (my roommate, Sneha ’13, can attest to this. She’s had to live with the mess for the past month). But last night, as I packed my things, I managed to clear off what is supposed to be my workspace (although I rarely use it as one – I avoid doing work in my room as much as possible). They say a person’s desk reveals a lot about their minds. Well, let’s have a tour of the clean, organized and happy version of mind. Away we go!

A. There is a running joke in my family (and among friends) that I’m actually Irish. This is because I’m obsessed with Irish culture, music, people, history, etc. And I was also born on St. Patrick’s Day. This was a sign that my mom sent me last year. The Nerd Pride pin is just… well… I really don’t feel like I need to justify that one. It is what it is. You’ll also spot a sticker that pretty much sums me up in the most succinct and accurate way possible – Warning: May Contain Infantile Humor. Aaaaand then there’s a current draft of My Life Plan.

B. I like that these pictures are some of the first things I see when I wake up and get out of bed in the morning (besides my alarm). The picture that the arrow points to is one from my freshman year, taken with my brother and the Punch Brothers, a modern bluegrass-jazz-alternative fusion groups and one of my favorite bands of all time. I ended up seeing them three times in three different cities that year.

C. My baby! Just kidding, I’m not that attached. Actually I am. Nooo technology! I hate you but love you so much!

D. One of the neat-o things about Simmons Hall (the dorm I live in) is that every year we have a couple of residential scholars that live with us – usually these are visiting professors/really cool grown-ups. As a part of their “residency,” they put on events at Simmons for the MIT community. Often times these are discussions, performances, or guest lectures. Katharina Ribbeck, who is a residential scholar and is a visiting professor in course 20 (biological engineering), happens to be pals with Mark Bathe, who is a professor in course 20, who happens to have a sister who is a professional sculptor. So while the past residential scholars events have been things like, “Let’s watch the Republican presidential debate and then talk about it!” (side note: these events are actually pretty cool), Katharina’s was “Let's invite an artist over and OMG arts and crafts time let’s play with clay!” I started out making a cup, and then I decided to be all creative and turn the cup into a tree trunk, but then the trunk ended up looking like a cup with a bunch of tails instead of a trunk with roots, so then I decided to turn it into a volcano, but that didn’t work, so then the next logical manifestation of this progression was obviously an octopus. Behind the octopus cup is another mug that my brother painted for me this summer, among other random desk trinkets.

E. A picture ripped out this article that was featured on the front of the New York Times. It’s funny – while I never disliked watching sports, I wouldn’t have considered myself an avid fan of any sports teams or athletes (with two exceptions – I loved Kurt Warner and Mark McGwire just like every other good Missouri kid in the late 90's). I’m thinking it was a combination of my little brother’s fanaticism and a weird sense longing for nostalgia after leaving home that suddenly piqued my interest in following sports once I got to college. Or maybe I just enjoy getting a peek at life outside of MIT every now and then. In any case, go Cards! And just for the record – LaRussa and Pujols, I forgive you. Barely.

F. The lighting in Simmons is notoriously crappy. Which is exactly why I have TWO desk lamps.

G. One more downside to Simmons is that since it’s the only dorm on Vassar St. (all the others are on “dorm row,” which runs along the Charles River), half of the rooms get a pretty nice view of campus/Boston, and the other half gets the lovely view of train tracks and the backs of various biotech companies in Cambridge. Guess which view I got? (Hint: not the former)

H. I use a paper planner. I know I’ve mentioned it before, but technology and I have a weird relationship, so I tend to stick to what I know (which is not Google calendar, my iPhone’s calendar, or any other organizational device that is acceptable to use in the 21st century).
 

A) Study break to make Matt (or rather, Papa Matt!) a congratulatory card.

B) On Wednesdays and Fridays, I have class from noon to 4, so I usually eat lunch during my documentary class. This day I was feeling particularly preschooler-like when I packed my lunch.

C) Tech Catholic Community's annual fall retreat in Kennebunk, Maine. The sand was the perfect dampness for writing, so I proceeded to write little messages all over the beach...

D) Mark Zuckerberg visits MIT

E) It was an unusually gorgeous day in December (it got into the mid-60s!). This is the view from Simmons' 8th floor terrace.

F) My friend Maita '13 (her feet featured in Fig. 1C) decided to add a little something to my cello case while I was out of the room.

G) My hallmates and I have taken to sitting out in the hall. This is one of our handful of thinking spots (mine is right across from this one and is labeled "Happy Place" and sits next to a poster of Jimi Hendrix).

H) Sasha '13, one of the 3AB goobers, had his first fencing tournament of the year the day after we made these posters (you'd be surpised how handy a stack of construction paper, three packs of markers, and 120 crayons have come in handy in the past 2 years). 

I) Our GRT (MIT's equivalent of RAs) threw a "Harvard Study Break" the other night. This consisted of cheese, fancy crackers, sparkling cider, a couple of us dressing up in sweaters, and pretentious conversation (I couldn't take it for very long, though, and I soon changed into my Spongebob pajamas). Reinforced the fact that I am extremely averse to blue cheese.

After finding out that my name had been drawn for the lottery to see him and Mike Schroepfer (VP of Engineering) have a discussion with our chancellor Eric Grimson, I packed up my FlipCam, skipped my Monday afternoon class, and biked on over to the auditorium. And just for you guys, I got some footage of his talk. Sorry in advance for all the shakiness. Here is ~10 minutes from the 1 hour talk:

(Now let me just preface my $0.02 that I'm about to spill by saying that I am by no means and expert in anything related to business, internet policy, legal stuff, technology, society, OKAY LET'S BE REAL I'M NOT AN EXPERT IN ANYTHING.)

Things Elizabeth Learned From Attending Mark Zuckerberg's Talk: 

1. Why he was here in the first place - I actually didn't know, and no one else seemed to know, either. He had a random press conference in the morning. Then we all realized that he was here to basically recruit people to work for Facebook. I guess that'd be cool if I wasn't a n00b. So, sorry Mark. Can't help you out, but Rachel can!
2. There are some people who make it big because they are ridiculously, ridiculously brilliant, relentless and special. Then there are some people who make it big because they are pretty smart but ridiculously, ridiculously lucky. Zuckmeister seems to fall into the latter category.

How Elizabeth Felt After Hearing Mark Zuckerberg's Talk:

1. Significantly more terrified of the internet, technology and the world than I ever was before.

Now, you might be thinking, Hold up, echoe - you got to see Mark Zuckerberg - the youngest billionaire in the world, the founder of Facebook - talk. Wasn't that SO cool?! And my response is yes, there was definitely some degree of novelty to his visit, but at the same time it made me soberingly-aware of how much we rely on technology despite its gaping holes. I don't mean to take jabs at Zuckerberg's intellect or anything (and I'm certainly not the one to judge, as I am one of the n00biest coders 'round these parts), but my general impression of the guy was that he is sort of aloof and unaware of the power and influence that he holds and that he has a lot of [dare I say more competent] people working for him while he gets to enjoy being the celebrity of the company. There are many things I admire about him, sure, but at the same time I couldn't help but take in some of the things he said and the way he downplayed a lot of issues with a sinking sense of horror. Take, for instance, the way he responds to the question about privacy issues at the end of the video - there are serious repercussions to the way Facebook has handled their privacy policies, yet he simply spun it off as a "Oh, we're this company and we make mistakes but overall things are going okay and we're learning from them" sort of deal. Right after I stopped taping, he actually talked about how different pre-Facebook and current culture are in tolerating people' mistakes - that because with Facebook, you run the risk of posting pictures or things that you might regret later on, it's - and this is a direct quote - "Making the world more forgiving and understanding and more empathetic." 

Whaa--?

The thing that was so unsettling for me wasn't the stuff about sharing embarrassing photos with potential employers, it was the sharing of more personal information to, say, advertisers (or other, similar parties). Zuckerberg talked about the future of the platform as it could incorporate into things outside of "social networking," like the health care system, in which case I foresee a lot more hell breaking loose. It was overall a very bizarre experience as I realized that the world's youngest billionaire is a kid. He's a kid. He makes and has made mistakes that impacted a lot of people because although he is a very smart kid, he didn't really know how to play fair (or play at all) in an adult's world at the beginning. He didn't know how to run a company, but he also really lucked out in that it seems he's found himself a very good support staff. Who knows where all of this technology is going to go in the future? Alls I know is, being at MIT and being surrounded by cutting-edge technology all the time, there are three things I want to have when I grow up and start a career:

1. Courage
2. Perspective
3. Humility
4. (Luck would also be really, really nice.)

What are your thoughts?

My interaction with Prof. Silbey was in Spring 2010, when I took 20.111 (Thermodynamics of Biomolecular Systems), so we weren't exactly best buddies. In fact, I think the one time we actually had vocal interaction was when I finally worked up the nerves to ask a question in his class, only to confirm that there is such a thing as a stupid question (the answer was right there on the lecture handout). That being said, he was - and is - one of my favorite professors I've had at MIT. He managed to take something that I found inherently boring and not only make hourly lectures of it bearable, but interesting, dare I say fun...

The man was such a great lecturer that he was one of two people ON THIS PLANET (or at least, in my book) that could get away with using Comic Sans (the other being Prof. Bawendi, who co-taught the class).

One of my favorite memories of Prof. Silbey happened during his lecture on Valentine's day - one of the a cappella groups on campus delivers singing-grams on Valentine's day, and as a member of the Logs ran into our lecture hall in the middle of class screaming, "We come delivering a message of love!", Prof. Silbey let out a huge, surprised yawp before proceeding to lay on the desk in front of the blackboard to comfortably enjoy the Logs as they serenaded a girl in the class.

Now I realize my view may be a little biased, but I did a little researching and found out that I'm not the only person who admired Bob Silbey and recognized that he was a great guy. Not only was he a fellow of the National Academy of Sciences and regarded as one of the leaders in theroretical physical chemistry, he also won just about every teaching award that MIT gives (including the Baker Award for Undergraduate Teaching, the nomination and selection of which is determined entirely by undergrads).

At any school, teaching is a difficult profession. You'll get people who teach well but whose research doesn't live up to their lectures. Or much worse, you'll get people who have pioneered a field, have won a Nobel, and may literally be the smartest person on earth, but can't speak coherently for 50 minutes. Professor Silbey was not any of these people. Any time I feel inclined to gripe about the amount of work I have to do, I remember the opportunities I've had to learn from people like him at MIT. I consider myself very lucky to be in the company of the Bob Silbeys here. He wasn't my mentor, adviser, friend or relative, though it seems as though he was a great one to many other people. To me, he was simply a great teacher, in every sense of the word. He was also extremely dedicated - he did things like work on a study of the status of women faculty in science at MIT in the early 90's, which was one of the first to bring up the gender discrimination in academia. He was a department head, a dean, and on top of that, I'd often see him in the audience at our MITSO concerts.

Professor Silbey, I didn't know you well, but in the semester that you taught one of my classes, I learned this much - you loved your job and you loved sharing your love of science with your students. I learned a lot about thermodynamics, too. (And not only that the second law is hard to teach, as you said, but also kind of hard to understand...) At that time, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life but I at least knew that I wanted to be doing something someday with the same amount of joy that you had in teaching us. Perhaps I this is a grossly-simplified view of you, perhaps I have no grasp on any of the politics you dealt with (or how you really felt about) being a professor, researcher or dean. But I knew you well enough to be thankful to have had a teacher like you that made me excited to be at MIT, to learn.

For that, I am eternally grateful.

I will tell you a secret because I have that much love for you all - I was really not looking forward to this semester because I was really bummed about my classes. You can ask my mother - I was super mopey the day before I left home. But here's the thing - I luuurve the schedule I've settled on this semester; it's probably my favorite course load I've had so far. I'm starting to feel like a real engineer and it's super. So yeah - putting on the big-girl pants and leaving Debbie Downer Elizabeth back home was probably a good decision. And with that introduction, boom - away we gooooOOOoo!

20.320 Analysis of Biomolecular and Cellular Systems

The boring description: We learn how to code predictive models of biological processes using Python and MATLAB. 

The awesome description: We get to build virtual organisms. And I have this guy as my professor, which is handy because he somehow manages to be adorable and make a 1.5 hour 9:30 am class interesting for the entire lecture and he has cookies at office hours. If that doesn't epitomize skillz, I do not know what does.

We also learn about biological processes so, you know, we know what we're coding. I also take very professional notes. It's very important stuff, people!

20.441 Biomaterials: Tissue Interactions

Professor Spector is the Chris Kaiser of this year - just a hilarious goober-teacher. He also makes the impossible feat of making a 1.5 hour class (during the after-lunch-drowsiness block of time, mind you) interesting seem like a cake walk. He also looks like Henry Winkler (what Henry Winkler looks like now, and not what he looked like when he played The Fonz in Happy Days). 20.441 is probably my favorite class this semester - we talk about prosthetics and implants, how to make 'em, why so many of them right now are crappy, and how to make better ones. On this particular day, Prof. Spector decided to start the class with a hypothetical situation - say you wanted to pitch a business idea of making synthetic blood vessels and he was the main investor. How were you going to convince him that you had a good idea (and convince him to give you his cash moneyz?)? What's that you say - you say you have no idea where to start making blood vessels? TOO BAD! He's got a roster complete with pictures of everyone in the class and he's gonna cold-call you and make you think on your feet about how to apply the last two week's lessons into something for the real world in front of the whole class even though you were totally planning on doodling through the next 1.5 hours! (Thank goodness he didn't call on me. Maybe that's why I still like him.)

5.13 Organic Chemistry II

There is not much to be said about this class except that sometimes in life, we have to do things that we may not want to do, but they will help us grow in perseverance and character. And they will give us the utmost motivation to colossally kick its ass.

STS.064J DV Lab: Documenting Science Through New Media

I'm learning how to do legitimate filmmaking! No doodles for this class because I never take notes. For 3 hours on Wednesdays, my class of 6 students, 2 professors and 1 TA watch science documentaries and talk about techniques and film theory. For 3 hours on Fridays, my class of 6 students, 2 professors and 1 TA take really, really nice cameras and really, really nice sound equipment and practice implementing those techniques (well my instructors don't, they follow us around to make sure we don't drop our cameras into the Charles River and things like that). So basically, this is a class on learning... HOW TO MAKE SCIENCE DOCUMENTARIES. Is my life complete? UM YES I THINK IT IS! I cannot wait to film a blog video with these suckers...

So that's all for now. And also, in case you missed it last time - I'm doing a Q&A video with Stu Schmill, our dean of admissions (yes it is going to be as awesome as it sounds... I'm still debating whether or not I should whip out my guitar again and improv-sing my answers like I did in my first Q&A video...). Send me your questions (either by posting the comments or e-mailing elizabizzle at mit dot edu). It's your once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to ask a dean of admissions your questions! So do it! Gimme yer questions!

Not going to lie, folks. Being an admissions blogger is the bomb-dot-com - I get to make silly videos, draw doodles, write my opinions and then have my self-esteem bolstered when pre-frosh recognize me at CPW and then ask to give me hugs (side note: I love hugs and freely dole them out). And on top of all of that I make dat cash moneyz. So, you know, it's an awesome gig.

Now I'm going to be even more self-absorbed and obnoxiously braggy and say that on top of all of that stuff, I even like some of the other bloggers and sometimes we get together and have blogger fun. The best kind of fun. And so when Snively suggested that our annual beginning-of-the-year blogger get-together be held at SkyZone (i.e. playing dodgeball on a court made of trampolines), I was all:

(I call this one Shoot Buttons, I Knew I Should Have Taken a Math Class at MIT)

See, I wanted to write a post on stuff I've been listening to this summer, but I quickly realized (as the list started exploding into a bunch of craziness and hoohah) that I had no governing factors to guide my list-making besides "I'm just going to list a bunch of music that I've been listening to this summer." Thus, I had to come up with my Elizabeth's Totally Objective Song Summerness Equation, which determines a song's relative "summerness" based on qualities of catchiness, aesthetics, singability, relatability and associated memories. It's all totally not subjective at all - I mean, I spent a whole two excruciating minutes coming up with this equation. It also explains why, despite the fact that I do listen to a lot of jazz, classical and instrumental bluegrass, those songs are no where to be found on this list (though you should listen to jazz, classical and instrumental bluegrass because they are good for you).

Also, before I get to the list, a disclaimer: R should not be confused with Rs (can't do subscripts, sorry), which refers to seeming-relatability. Songs with a high Rs value address topics that people would think that other ordinary people would deal with on a regular basis (but which never actually happens in reality). Top 40s producers seem to think that a Rs value correlates to commercial success. And judging from the radio play of "The Lazy Song," "Last Friday Night" and every single Taylor Swift song ever produced (SERIOUSLY. No one lives in a Taylor Swift song world.), the country's music consumers are proving them right and making me real sad. But I digress. The list!

1. "East Harlem" by Beirut: This is by far my favorite song that I've been listening to this summer and my favorite song that has been released this summer and a song that has a very summery feel to it. Not too many memories associated and a low R value with this one, but it's SO CATCHY. I sing it when I do the dishes. SO SO CATCHY.