FREE FOOD! by Jess K. '10

This morning I got a frantic call from my mother.

MOM: Is it true?
ME: What?
MOM: You’re not really kicked out of MIT, were you?
ME: Yeah, I’ve already returned my MIT mug to the Coop.
MOM: THAT’S NOT FUNNY.

Okay, so, in retrospect it may not have been the best idea to freak my mother out, seeing as she already has high blood pressure. (Tomorrow morning I’ll be getting another phone call: “THAT IS A FAMILY SECRET!”) But guys, I’m really not leaving MIT. Not yet, anyway. We’ll see once classes start on Wednesday. (I’m still kidding! Oh man, I’m a terrible daughter.)

The article was created at The Tech booth at the Activities Fair, where they took anyone’s picture and name and stuck it in seamlessly. (The gender pronouns didn’t come out too well, though.) While the article itself is not true, I will say the picture very much is, and I did enjoy all the ridiculous amounts of free food I got this week. In that particular picture I’m eating cake (white with buttercream, to be technical, because I miss my job) also from The Tech booth, as well as popcorn from the Lecture Series Committee. I’m working off of a breakfast of granola bars and passion fruit icees from the Health Faire, too.

All the meals during Discover Mechanical Engineering were entirely paid for (as was the program itself), which included a night out to Bartley’s. On the first day of Orientation Susan Hockfield spoke in Killian Court while we munched on bagels and muffins; later there was free food in our dining halls for the rest of the day. One late night Colin ’10 and I walked into New House and were caught completely by surprise by blueberry Eggos and pancakes. Tuesday brought a party at the Stata center hosted by several of MIT students groups that included face painting, belly dancing, and of course, more food; and don’t forget that last night the entire class of 2010 got down on the tiniest dance floor floating down the Charles River, working off the pizza, nachos and smoothies provided in part by SaveTFP, as well as the free dessert. Basically, Jason ’09 (one of the guys who drove the free freshman shuttle from the airport) said it best: “If you’re paying for food in the first three weeks, you’re doing something wrong.”

Orientation lasts around a week, during which you go to events to (for lack of a better word) orient you with being an MIT student. Free food aside, it’s pretty easy to have a great time, since classes haven’t started yet. More than that, though, it helps you realize just how many opportunities MIT students are privy to. The Academics Midway provided information about all the majors, as well as internships and job fairs, through which I wandered wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and continued to have no idea what I was doing with my life. Over a hundred student groups were present at the Activities Midway alone, where I got information about everything from the hippocratic society (complete with Skittle “pills”) to chocolate science. At the same time, you’re meeting so many new people, who are so friendly and ready to help you out. For women, there are spa parties, movie nights, and information sessions almost every night about having a uterus at MIT. And of course, these opportunities all came with free food.

Free food was also present at Next House dorm rush, where all the freshmen were taken around the dorm to check out the different wings – each with members of the wing talking about what it’s like to live there, stereotypes of the wing, etc… etc. including serving free food from smoothies to red bean buns. After we toured, we were put in random order from 1-136 and allowed to pick a room with our roommate, if we had one. Thanks to a pretty low number in the lottery, I’m in an excellent double with the view of the river, right near the bathroom and the elevator, in 3rd East. After we got ourselves into a wing, they took us out for dinner, from pizza to Greek food. It’s been a good week for my stomach.

Frat rush also started today. Which means events from paintballing to go-kart racings. And especially, more free food for me, even though I’m not pledging (as much as I may want to). Which means nothing, not even this dismal weather we’ve been having, can get me down. Take that, weather machine. (It’s said there’s a weather machine that makes it warm and beautiful when the prefrosh are at MIT and cold and ugly when they leave; apparently it rained during CPW, so maybe the weather machine is broken anyway. Problem is, this weather is like winter for me. Boston weather is going to destroy me faster than Yoshimi battling pink robots.)