Blogger Retreat 2023 by Paige B. '24

A liveblog on the blogger retreat 2023 (check back in throughout the weekend to see the latest updates!).

Background

Slack Messages

Earlier this year, Kano suggested we have a blogger retreat this semester. We really be in our romanticism era. One month later, with an Airbnb booked, tickets for the commuter rail bought, and our laptops ready for blogging, we begin.

(Also deep thanks to Kano for the planning and brilliant execution of this retreat, we are all very excited!!!)

Liveblogging

Also about a month ago, in the middle of one of our blogger check-ins, Kano asked the question: What is liveblogging? The answer: (according to Wikipedia) a “blog⁠01 no shit intended to provide coverage of an ongoing event in rolling text”. Apparently this used to be something that the bloggers used to do more often on MITAdmissions. Essentially, like a giant X⁠02 formerly known as Twitter thread, we keep updating the blogpost throughout the day/event.

This idea sounded really cool to me, and when better a time to try liveblogging than on the blogging retreat? So, keep checking into this blogpost every now and then over the rest of the weekend to catch the latest updates!

The Journey Begins

Why the commuter rail?

Well as it turns out, many of us going on the retreat cannot drive, so we figured we’d take on the dark academia aesthetic of a train on a grey-skies-day. Five of us (myself, Kayode, Allison, Jessica, and Kano) grabbed lunch at West Garage and hopped on an Uber over to North Station where we had planned to meet Waly and Gloria.

Fun fact: starting today, the train going to our destination isn’t running due to construction on the line. Instead, there is a shuttle service into the city. Perhaps not as romantic as a train, but the retreat must go on. The five of us hopped on the shuttle to wait for the others to join and …. the shuttle took off lmao. Rip, we will catch up with Waly and Gloria soon enough.

The Two Left Behind

Waly: I walked from MIT to North Station, where the MBTA commuter rail leaves from. Which is about a 59-minute walk according to Google Maps, but 40 minutes at a New York walking pace. I got there before everyone else on accident, so since I had about 30 minutes to burn, I went to a local cafe. I got a matcha latte and a sandwich, but there was no sugar in the matcha latte so that was a bit awkward o__o. I wanted a little unhealthy drink but it felt too healthy now, so I added some sugar packets. I was walking back to the station to meet up with everyone else when I got a message saying the train-turned-bus had unexpectedly ditched me left. So I went to North Station intending to take the next bus with Gloria who also didn’t make it with the first group. However, I proceeded to get lost in North Station because the MBTA had negative signage explaining where the shuttle bus was. Eventually, I found an MBTA worker who told me to go down a sus little corridor to find the shuttle, and I met up with Gloria to take the bus to our destination.

Gloria: I was actually awake since much earlier in the morning, but due to poor time management and lack of executive function, I didn’t start packing until 2:30PM (when everyone else left campus). It doesn’t help that I’m a chronic overpacker, spending a good 30 seconds pondering if I needed to bring extra AA batteries (??), a portable phone charger (the bus ride was like 40 minutes), an HDMI converter, etc. At 3, I Ubered from Maseeh to North Station, got directions to the shuttle loading area, and met up with Waly! Our bus pulled out of the station just as the sun began to dip below the horizon, casting horizontal golden rays across the bus interior. Our surroundings shifted from city streets to worn New England homes to coastline, and then we were in northern Massachusetts.

We’ve Made It

House Meeting

We had like a 30-45 minute meeting talking about our goals for the retreat and the blogs we want to work on. We began with the icebreaker: “Would you rather have feet for hands or hands for feet”, to which all but Waly agreed they would rather have hands for feet. We discussed blogger struggles:tm:, the (abridged) history of the blogs, and things we want to write this weekend.

Shortly after, we ordered pizza for dinner (pepperoni and hawaiian),⁠03 much to Allison's dismay and began working on our various self-assigned projects.

Late Night Shenanigans

It’s currently 3am, and half⁠04 lmao just kidding, Gloria has now gone to sleep so 1/3 of the retreat remains awake of the retreat members are up and (mildly) active. We decided to turn on The Golden Bachelor about (checks watch) 6? hours ago? And it is still on. We are down to the final last three women, if that is of interest to you dear reader. Updates from tomorrow to come.

The Morning

The Airbnb had checkout at 11am, which for those of us who were up at 4am was a bit a stretch but we made it lol. Kano, Gloria, and Jessica were chilling/writing/watching TV downstairs while the rest of us were asleep (or half asleep) in various locations around the house. At around 10:30 we nabbed a polaroid and a selfie, and departed to the train station to catch the shuttle back to Boston.