just another manic wednesday by Shuli J. '22, MEng '23

i really loved joon’s everyday post, so here is my own unnecessarily detailed day! watch as i stumble my way through like sixteen hours without ever leaving a ~0.04 km^2 area. dis boi long, so buckle up (and feel free to skim, if you’re into that).

Location: East Campus

6.02 am: i wake up abruptly from a dream in which i miss my flight home.⁠01 i'm leaving in eight days, next thursday, and damn am i ready to be home although i should be trying to get back to sleep, instead i start thinking about all the stuff i have to do to get ready to leave for the summer. as i do, tentative lines from a poem pop into my head. and a few more, and a few more.

6.05 am: i actually open my eyes⁠02 the morning light comes in bright blue around the edges of my windowshade, and my room is painted blue; i feel deliciously underwater. in order to write down the poem on the paper i keep by my bed. here it is, scanned, below. (please keep in mind: it wasn’t light enough to actually see the paper and i had just woken up. this is like a zeroth draft)

6.17 am – ??: i try and fail to go back to sleep.

?? – 9.24 am: i actually go back to sleep. my roommate’s alarm wakes me, but i was getting up in six minutes anyway.

9.24 – 9.35 am: i check my email and catch up on MITConfessions.

9.35 – 9.45 am: i reluctantly get out of bed, debate showering and decide to do it tonight, use the bathroom, and throw on some clothes.

9.45 – 9.57 am: i walk over to the kitchen⁠03 every floor in east campus has its own communal kitchen, fridges, stoves, and all and eat my traditional weekday breakfast of almond milk and applesauce.

Location: Building 26

9.57 am: i go to 6.009 recitation to get my checkoff.⁠04 lots of lab classes will have you work independently, then explain your work to a TA or LA (lab assistant) to receive full points. i am number 16 in the queue, but i quickly jump to the top; no clue who changed their minds. despite technical issue strugs, i get the checkoff! it’s my last one for this class (today is the last day that any assignments can be due, since classes end tomorrow).

10.15 – 10.58 am: normally there would be an actual recitation being held during this time, so now i don’t really know what to do with myself; i only woke up for 10 am because i was worried the checkoff queue would be long. i start writing this blog post and help out a friend, also at recitation, who hasn’t finished the lab yet.

Location: Stata Center

10.58 am – 12.25 pm: i walk over to my linguistics class, 24.9000. it’s our last meeting and i’m really sad — i’ve had so much fun in this class! today our topic is how languages change over time, and oh boy do i nerd out about etymology (which was one of my fave topics in high school).

12.25 pm: right next to my class is the stata cafe.⁠05 it's basically a miniature dining hall -- it has tons of food options and is usually packed during lunch, since the closest actual dining hall is fifteen minutes' walk away. i pick up my usual, their vegan⁠06 i'm not vegan, but i am lactose intolerant, and i swear to god EVERY other food they sell is covered in cheese indian food.

Location: Building 26

12.28 – 12.55 pm: my friend from linguistics has also picked up lunch at stata; we walk over to the Banana Lounge⁠07 this is new in the past couple years -- a student government committee, UA innovation, spearheaded a student lounge with places to work and sleep, and which is always in stock with bananas. there are honestly very few good study spaces on this side of campus, so it's always well-used. in 26 to eat.

12.57 – 1.56 pm: i’m back in 26-100, where my 6.009 recitation was, for 18.03 lecture. like linguistics, this is our last lecture, but i’m a little less sad about this: i love the content of this class, but i don’t always feel that it’s being well taught. towards the end of the semester i’ve started zoning out more than i should in lecture.

1.57 – 2.54 pm: i have a UROP meeting at 3 in stata, so i don’t want to head all the way⁠08 when you spend all your time in one place, five hundred meters starts to seem a lot more like a trek home just yet. i go back to the banana lounge to update this post, read facebook, and contemplate whether i should study for my test tomorrow⁠09 my last one before finals! i'm so close to release asdjfsldf or take a nap. in fact, it turns out i’m too tired to have willpower, so instead i just hang around on the internet for twenty minutes, then do a few practice problems for my physics exam next week. shrug emoji

Location: Stata Center

2.58 – 3.15 pm: my UROP meeting is quite short! the grad student i work with and i mostly prep for the longer meeting we have tomorrow with our PI. this is good, because it’s freakin cold in there, for some reason. i head home to snuggle under some blankets until my next meeting (also for my UROP, also in Stata). on my way back, i spot some people selling tshirts that are a very pretty red and look soft! i am now the new owner of:

Location: East Campus

3.17 – 4.46 pm: even my room is cold :( but two blankets and a soft couch helps! i update this post and do a bunch more physics practice problems. notice that i have not yet studied for the test tomorrow? i am scared to. i tell myself that if i finish all my other work first, then i will be able to tackle it unfettered. thinking face…

Location: Stata Center

4.46 – 5.35 pm: back over to stata for another UROP meeting! (i take a different, more indoors route, because i am cold.) i tell my supervisor about how i have not been able to solve the problem i was given at all and the code base is not doing what i think it should be doing. my supervisor tells me that she also does not know how to solve this problem and thinks the code base, which i didn’t write, is just borked. i am extremely comforted (and wish i had spent a little less time near tears trying to fix this).

Location: East Campus

5.40 – 7.18 pm: and with that last meeting, i’m home for the day 😍 everything gets a lot simpler now that i can work on my own schedule. on my way home, i stop to take a couple pretty photos! yay for spring :)

i plop down on my couch and finish off the physics problems⁠10 and surf the internet, and listen to music with my roommate... :D i am very happy, because this represents most of my studying for that exam and now i can put it behind me for a while.

7.18 – 8.05 pm: then i get hungry. i made rice pilaf yesterday and had leftovers, plus i froze a big batch of curry a while ago; i make liberal use of the microwave to “cook” a yummy dinner. it is The Dinner Hour, so the kitchen and lounge are full of people! we hang out. it is fun.

8.05 – 9.57 pm: i finally begin to study, somewhat frantically, for my test. it is Latin translation; I have 60 lines of poetry left, plus reviewing the other 200+ lines i’ve already done.

9.57 pm: i finish translating all 60 lines!!!! i feel glorious. especially since HouseComm⁠11 east campus has a biweekly house meeting, attended by the exec, representatives from each of the ten floors, and any other resident who wants to go. is at 10.

10.05 – 11 pm: the floor that is in charge of snacks brought oreos AND fresh fruit. i am delighted, thank you 41w!! we discuss changes to our rooming process and elect a new secretary.

11 – midnight: i intend to keep reviewing for my test, and i kinda do that, but also wordpress takes a long-ass time to upload images, so really i just finish off this post.
overall, this was not my most productive of days, but that’s OK, because i didn’t have too much to do! plus, by this point in the semester i’m pretty burned out, so i try not to judge myself too harshly.
today i walked a paltry 4,500 steps, but that’s also OK, because wednesday isn’t one of my workout days. (although there’s a gym in stata, so if it was, i wouldn’t even have to break out of my 0.04 km^2 box!)

midnight: bedtime at last! i need to wake up at 9.30 for a meeting, and it takes me like 20 minutes to get ready for bed, and like another 30 to fall asleep, and i need more than eight hours of sleep to feel rested (thanks body >.<) and so, about four hours earlier than everyone else i live with, i go to bed.

good night and sweet dreams, everybody <3