things im doing during break by Victor D. '27

I had no finals this semester, so my break started before finals week—after the Video Game Orchestra Concert on Saturday, December 13th. I was off to New York City by 6:30 AM on Amtrak, immediately greeted by some of the first real snow we’ve seen this year, which made for a spectacularly beautiful train ride along the Northeast Corridor. It’s too bad that I essentially pulled an all-nighter packing before, and was compelled to sleep during the train ride, but I still managed to get some window side videos of snowy upstate New York⁠01 the jury is still out of whether Westchester County is Upstate or not, fight in the comments below .

Then I got to stay with a friend (and former Putzen⁠02 Putz is a hall in East Campus, one of MIT's dorms ) who lives in Downtown Brooklyn. I met his roommate’s cat, Pickles, then spent the day with him, his boyfriend, and his roommate as we wandered around Brooklyn together. I especially enjoyed walking around Prospect Park at night; we’re very fortunate as MIT students to be practically enveloped by Olmsted Parks (see Emerald Necklace). Brooklyn pics:

The next day, Monday 12/15, by 4:00 PM, I was already on New Jersey Transit to Newark Airport to catch my flight back home, to LAX (Los Angeles). By the way, can New Jersey Transit work on making their system more legible please. I’ve done this route before and I still got confused (or is this a skill issue on my part).

My sister and her boyfriend picked me up from the airport and we immediately went for some tacos before heading to my house in Camarillo. I woke up at home feeling rather alienated, something I’m still processing. It was small things at first: when they replaced the playground down the street from my house about a year ago or the new super mega Vons or my parents changing the furniture inside the house, etc. Change is to be expected of course but from my perspective, given I’m not there so often, my image of the town jumps: my memory is not modeled by a continuous function but is instead disjoint, piecewise. It’s the first time where this trip “home” didn’t feel so much going home as leaving home; I’ve spent 2 and a half years in Cambridge and I spend no more than 4 weeks at home per year, and I think I’ve started to feel out of place where I grew up.

To be fair, I didn’t spend that much time at home. Here’s some things I did while in California:

• Went to a ton of doctors appointments (despite being right eye dominant, my right eye needs a prescription while I have perfect vision in my left eye. rip). Went to the hand doctor and got some injections that actually are helping with thumb pain a bit (maybe a health issues blog is in order).
• Opened and exchanged Christmas presents with my family (sister, her boyfriend, mom, dad). As you’ll soon see, there’s a reason we had to do this before Christmas.
• Three of my friends and I drove to pick up a friend from UCLA who was just finishing school, so we got to visit his apartment and wander around a plant nursery in Sawtelle (West Los Angeles)
• Went to Disneyland with my mom, sister, and her boyfriend! Almost every time I go home, I go to Disneyland which might sound crazy (given the absurd ticket prices) but my sister works there so she uses her guest passes on us :)
• Did some bike rides I used to do back in high school in the hills behind my town.
• Went to LACMA (LA County Museum of Art) and the Academy Awards Museum with my parents. I really liked the exposition at the art museum since it was impressionist art with lots of oil paintings. Oil paintings are really fascinating to me because of the textural/production artifacts left behind by the brush, which creates almost a 2.5-D effect (see gallery below).
• Walked Gemini Street with some friends from high school, which is a street in my hometown where there’s this nuclear arms race esque fever to have the house decked out with the best Christmas decorations.

This is perhaps better explained through pictures:

Then, I went to Mexico with my mom to spend the holidays here with my family, which I’ve never done! It’s been fun so far (especially since my Spanish is actually passable now). Here’s some of what I’ve done:

• Wandered around the historic center with my uncle (who I’m staying with) and my mom. While there, I had strawberry horchata which was so yummy, canuto (a sort of ice cream stick endemic to here), and buñuelos (kind of like a crispy doughnut).
• Went to two separate Christmas parties, one at my cousin’s house (Navidad, the 24th) and one at my uncle’s house (‘Murica Christmas, the 25th). Had a wonderful conversation about 15-minute cities and autocentricity with one of my cousins at the latter event, bless urbanism. I will clarify my cousins are around 20 years older than me because my mom is not only the youngest of 3 siblings but also had me rather late in life.
• Saw two childhood friends (from elementary school) who have been living in Guadalajara for about 4 years now. We went to Tlaquepaque together (technically a separate city though it’s conjoined with Guadalajara) and at night we walked around the Colonia Americana which is a vibrant part of the city. Then, we went to their house because I needed to see their 17 year old Chihuahua Noche who I was too afraid to ask about, as I assumed he already died. Well, apparently not.
• Wandered around San José de Gracia, Jalisco, with my mom and other family. After delicious lunch where I had a burrito mojado (basically just a burrito that sits in a soup of salsa), we went to Tepatitlán which is where my grandfather’s side of the family is from. There, I had an escamocha which is essentially a fruit cocktail except you pour orange juice over the fruit and add a bunch of chile (Tajin, Chamoy). It’s actually so fire. I will be making this when I get back to Boston.

Photos:

Now for some review:

Online Communication with MIT friends: I honestly miss East Campus and my homies so bad. Luckily, the Putz Discord server is thriving so I’ve managed to stay in contact with friends from hall :).

Music Arrangement Count: 0. I will be writing a Sonic arrangement for Video Game Orchestra this upcoming semester (though I have yet to start). Also, it’s hydro-city (two words), not hydrossity or whatever other blasphemy you concoct.

Book count: Let’s say 2. I’ve read one entire book Thanks for the Feedback, which I read excerpts from during 11.011 (The Art and Science of Negotiation) last semester. I’m also almost done with O Alquimista (The Alchemist), which I’m reading since it’s short an approachable Portuguese reading prep before going to Brazil!!! (whoops, just spoiled what I’m looking forward to). During my MISTI last summer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, I learned Portuguese but my vocabulary remains sus. Let’s leave this at I understand why Paulo Coehlo is a contentious figure in Brazilian literature. Lastly, I only have around 60 pages left of Paradise by Toni Morrison, as this is pre-reading requirement for Race, Place, and Modernity in the Americas, an MIT IAP course that takes students to Sao Paulo, Brazil for 3 weeks. Before I derail into talking about Brazil, this is what I’m looking forward to from today (date of publish), 12/27 while still in Mexico:

• publishing this blog (meta)
• allegedly learning to ride a motorcycle
• hike El Diente, which is a cool mountain I went to with a cousin the last time I was here 3 years ago.
• ride the light rail (train) in Guadalajara, which I’ve never done! My field of study obligates me to do this (urban planning).
• master the chords/bossa groove to Chove Chuva on guitar

When I’m back home:

• New Years Eve!  I’ll be going over to a friend’s house. This is always one of my favorite times of the year since I get to see so many of my friends at home together :’).
• New Years Day! More friends! And also one of my friends from Putz is going to come visit too, which is super exciting (he’ll be the 3rd person I’ve met at MIT to visit my house).
• figure out what to do with my last day in Camarillo before I go to Brazil (January 2nd)
• finish the pre-reading list for my class in Brazil

Then I leave to Brazil on the 3rd :O—which deserves its own blog, when the time is right.

Life update complete.