This week, I am fulfilling my dream of taking over the Admissions page with a series of six consecutive posts. I am calling the takeover Yultide (credit to the bloggers for the awesome name). Today is Yultide Day 2. Check out Day 1 – “Sketches from the Independent Activities Period.”
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Residential Life
1. – 3. “Things that should not be where they are… the things in this case being the 1E cats” – credit for caption and images goes to Nisha D. ‘21, fellow blogger and 1E resident.
4 (left). From a surprise goodie bag left at 3am on the the doors of East Campus residents (probably by our head of house Rob Miller #robmillerprovides).
5 (right). Food from the annual 1E Hall Thanksgiving, cooked entirely by students and alums of First East.
6. Carrot cake baked by the First East Birthday Bunnies for my birthday (credit to the wonderful Kristen Y. ’19 and Jamie C. ’19!). All residents get the cake of their choice the midnight after their birthday, and we all sing scream “Happy Birthday” very loudly in the lounge. We’ve even had pizza cake.
8. This year for freshman hall rush, I decided to beautify my room by letting the frosh spray paint it. You can see from the bit on the left why the tapestry was necessary afterwards. By the way, it is technically not a tapestry based on Disney’s Tangled, but I suspect it’s the closest the artist could get to Tangled without breaking copyright laws. Image also features the leather couch and Ikea bed I got for free.
9. The East Campus courtyard is beautiful in the fall. Notice the Boston skyline peeking through the trees. I’ll miss seeing it while carrying my laundry.
10. Every Monday at 10pm, our wonderful hall GRT (Graduate Resident Tutor), Mary, makes us waffles with diverse toppings (including vegan options).
Local Outings
11. Seen from Porter Square, Sommervile, a different world only three subway stops away from MIT. 10/10 would recommend for escapist entertainment.
12. Seen in Harvard Square.
14. From the annual Harvard Square MayFair chalk art competition (more on the MayFair coming soon).
17. Shortly after I turned 22, I went to see My Little Pony: the Movie in theatres at 10:30pm on a Friday night. I was one of two people in the audience. In my defense, I saw it so I could tell my 7-year old sister about it. Also in my defense, the My Little Pony series features many strong female leads, most of whom are leaders and/or successful entrepreneurs (also, Rainbow Dash is totally queer). Would not recommend The Movie though.
18 (left). Poster bought at ArtBeat festival in Davis Square, Somerville because it escribes East Campus/MIT life perfectly, in my opinion (we actually build a fort every year!).
19 (right). Seen in a minimalist Japanese store on Newbury street, Boston—”natural water” is way more expensive than regular H2O.
20. + 21. European store Primark is “Very Good” at Russian (Eastern European kids will understand). Left: if you add quotation marks around a wrongly spelled Russian word, it’s fine, right? Right: Notice the traditional tsar font in the top row.
Miscellaneous Life Stuff
24. Eastern European kids will understand. Bought at local Bazaar. The store’s slogan: “Royal delicacies at peasant prices.”
25. – 27. This year, I bought a steamer, easiest “cooking” appliance. Now I eat a lot of combinations of boiled eggs, fish, and potatoes.
28. Relatable content from Target.
30. + 31. I pierced extra holes in my ear just to create fun “scenes.” My faves are this and the rocket ship + astronaut ensembles. By the way, the gears actually turn.
33. – 35. Picked up a new hobby recently to go with my Hulu/Netflix/YouTube. I wrote about it in Yultide Day 1.
School Stuff
36. + 37. From 6.00 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming lecture slides. Left: a joke. Right: a professor promoting questionable habits in an introductory course.
38. Notes from 24.260 Topics in Philosophy, a pre-graduate seminar required for Course 24-1 (Philosophy) majors and minors. Look at all those graphs and formulas— it’s philosophy MIT-style.
