Testimony from an ’11 by Bryan

So I technically wasn’t supposed to blog – but my fellow prefrosh, Fangfei, has willingly given up her ‘opportunity to blog’ to me since she has decided that there are better and productive things than simply stalking other prefrosh on facebook or refreshing the MIT Admissions webpage in hope of a new entry every hour. Anyways, since I basically spent most of my weekend with her, I figured that it wouldn’t make too much of a difference – we’d share the same experiences.

So if you other prefrosh have attended the dorm information session (yes, the one for the students), then you’ll understand when I say “Hi I’m [Debbie], my major is [undecided, but most likely Course 20], I’m class [2011], and I’m tempted at [Burton Conner – the Burton side]. If you get this, you can laugh along. If you don’t, well, I assure you that I’m not too weird.

So I arrived on campus on Thursday, and I was actually delayed about 6 hours (I arrived at 7, but was supposed to arrive at 1) because we had a malfunction in our darn WINDSHIELD WIPERS. I was stuck in an auto-repair shop in Strousbridge (?) for about 5 hours, and it did not make me happy. But yea, when I finally arrived, I registered and met up with my host at Burton 5th (the “quiet” floor), and ate dinner with her at Baker Hall. It was actually pretty good food, considering that I had not eaten all day. BTW, TechCash is awesome, and we had $20.11 in honor of our 2011 class! (Later I was told that we were jipped because previous prefrosh had gotten about $40 for the weekend, but whatever). Afterwards, I met up with Fangfei at the Welcome Festival, where we were greeted by the Logarhythms who sang “Over My Head” by the Fray! The Fray = awesome. (Go ahead, Google them right now) We also attended the CPW Festival, where we got free bubble tea and liquid nitrogen ice cream. (Hands down, Nerd Heaven) We also met Matt McGann, and we overheard two guys talking to Matt, whom I thought were pretty funny. One was leaving on Friday to go to prom. He was single. The other one decided to stay for CPW, even though he had a girlfriend. Matt was like “what the heck, that doesn’t sound right.” Yes Matt, I concur. Curiously enough, I managed to encounter four people who worked in my research lab over the summer – it was basically a research reunion! Then, we then headed over the French house to have some scrumptious midnight snacks and hot chocolate – so delicious! But yes, after all the excitement I managed to return to BC and sleep by 2 am (even if most of the students were still up doing an 18.03 p-set).

At first when they said “Logarhythms” I thought it was spelled normally… and then maybe after about half an hour I realized… err… yea.

I know a picture of this is up already (by Snively?) – but I couldn’t resist?!

Ice cream, in the making….

Don’t be fooled. It really is good stuff, I tell you.

Some highlights from Friday include the welcome from Susan Hockfield/Marilee Jones/keynote speaker and the activities and academics fair, where I learned so much about potential majors, and got this really cool T-shirt from the visual arts center booth. Speaking of the visual arts center, we passed by the building with the ‘black, red and yellow’ squares that are considered ‘art.’ I mean, after hearing the wonderful hacking story of the mysterious ‘mint’ square, you’d think that it was a really big monument or something. But alas, contrary to popular belief, these squares are… well. You’ll see in the picture below. Later, I ate dinner at a sorority called Sigma Kappa, and gaped at how spotless the place was compared to my room. Speaking of which, I haven’t unpacked thoroughly yet – the suitcase is still in the center of my room. Lastly, of course, one could never forget the “fruity thing in Lobby 7…”

Marilee Jones! Just because she’s awesome like that.

President Susan Hockfield. Inspirational. She reminded of us why we were special. Even if we thought we got in by mistake.

Me: “I went to CPW and all I got was this free t-shirt!”

Fangfei: “You’ve GOT to be kidding me.” (In reference to the mysterious mint square hack)

And of course one could not to go CPW without going Dorm Touring! Fangfei ’11, Drew ’11 and I (as well as various other people we encountered throughout the day) headed off bright and early on Saturday Morning to Simmons Hall to eat some awesome pancakes and French toast for breakfast, accompanied by delicious smoothies. Then, we headed over to MacGregor (or MacArthur, according to Fangfei) and took a tour of the place. Unfortunately, their smoothies weren’t as good – maybe they should steal Simmons’ smoothie recipe. Anyways, we then headed over the McCormick to eat some good takeout food for lunch, and some Asian snacks and MORE BUBBLE TEA (I think it’s just an Asian obsession, correct me if I’m wrong). We then looked at New House, Next House, and took a tour of Simmons. After that, Fangfei left me to go home, but alas I was whisked off to eat dinner with an old friend (current student) who I attended high school with. She also took me to a party at Phi Delta, which was a pretty cool experience, especially since they were really good about staying dry (alcohol-free). Before I went back to my dorm though, I made a quick stop at MacGregor convenience to use up the rest of my TechCash (there was so much free food over the weekend, it was insane).

Oh btw, apparently there’s this myth that the weather is supposed to be ‘rainy’ for CPW weekend, but it always clears up for us prefrosh. Well, the rain did clear up on Friday and Saturday, only to return on Sunday morning (haha, just in time for the Boston marathon!). But yes, I had a lot of fun, and let me tell you MIT, you have stolen my soul and I’ll have to look for again this August when I come up to Cambridge. Ahhh – I was so wiped out that I just slept the entire drive back – and luckily no breakdowns this time.

*Just a note! Caltech’s ‘prank’ this year was pretty sweet – they make a fake issue of the Tech and filled with funny things. (Milena ’11 posted a pic of this) My personal favorite things were the two-space sudoku and the weather update “You wish you were in California right now.”

Some [Random] Pics!

When we toured Simmons, we curiously inquired about the ducks in the architect’s prison. Apparently there was much controversy over these ducks, and they’ve even developed a ‘duck committee’ to deal with rubber duck maintenance. Or so I’m told.

Well, I just have to say, this is one of the coolest drapes I saw at East Campus.

Wow this is such a random picture. But like, I guess the university needed a restock after the weekend! This is still pretty cool, though.