CityDays and ClayNights by Mitra L. '07

Clay Aiken! I’m not sure how to explain the phenomenon I witnessed on Sunday night. There are many hundreds of thousands of women across the country who attend Clay Aiken concerts. They spend hours on several Clay Aiken message boards, and hundreds of dollars on hotel rooms, tickets, shirts, buttons, dinners, posters,, CDs, etc. One of these citizens of P.R.O.C. (the People’s Republic of Clay) was generous enough to invite me to Clay’s Boston concert.

The Bank of America Pavillion is right off the Silver Line, which hits the Red Line at South Station.

These pictures do not do justice to how Clay-obsessed some Claymates are.

I don’t know where Clay got the idea he could fill out a pair of leather pants like Elvis, but….

Here I am with my very own personal Clay. Sort of.

People hold up cell phones and stream the concert onto the web. It looks like MIT’s mission to use science and technology to improve the world is being embraced by Claymates as well.

Chocolates in custom-made Clay wrappers. (I’m not making this up.)

—– CityDays is an optional Orientation event focused on volunteering. From an email, “This year, we had almost 800 students sign up for CityDays to go work with 45 community agencies.” Our group went to Wellmet Project.

Our group leader Spencer ’07 (note the blue shirt) insisted on stopping at Dunkin Donuts and getting coffee before we started. He runs about 90 miles a week as a member of MIT’s Cross Country team, so he can afford the calories, and he UROPed at MIT this summer, so he can afford the price.

Our location was near Central Square, so we were able to walk.

Sam and I prepare to scrub the carpet like it has never been scrubbed before.

To entertain ourselves, we played Would You Rather while cleaning. This game is really versatile and works on many levels. Witness:

Nutrition
Would you rather eat only green foods or only red foods?

Pop culture
Would you rather date Angelina Jolie or Jennifer Aniston?

Technology
Would you rather give up e-mail or web search?

Hygiene
Would you rather go a year without showering or cutting your fingernails?

Makes ya think, doesn’t it?

People goof around during our lunch break. (The red shirts designated normal volunteers from blue-shirted leaders like Spencer.)

—— West Campus luau. Sorry, I didn’t get photos of some of the activities (jello wrestling, volleyball, 3 bands), but here’s what I have.

Tiki bar.

Soccer pinata.

BBQ patience.