Extracurricular Information by Jess K. '10

So this morning I went to lunch with three of my friends from high school, Curtis ’10, and Adam and Lia, who go to another school in Cambridge. They haven’t actually started classes yet – they have something called a “shopping period”, in which they get to sit in on classes and decide if they want to take them. MIT is similar in that our drop date is in November, so we get a long time to decide our final schedules. I’ve been exercising this quite a bit with my switch to 5.112, adding my HASS – Disease and Society in America (which I really love) – and thinking about switching into 18.023, calculus with applications. Especially when I’m tired.

We talked a lot mostly about what we’ve been doing outside of school, though, and I started to realize that maybe I’m doing a little too much. I’ve always been an extracurricular fiend (Amnesty International, school webmaster, Odyssey of the Mind, marching band, writing awkward blog posts about my family…), but on top of an MIT courseload, I’m not sure how this is going to work out. Here’s how the schedule goes right now:

– Concert Choir, five hours a week. We’re singing Carmina Burana, which you’ve probably heard in every other commercial on television if you don’t know it by name. (Dah dah, dah dahhh… dah dah, dah dah… dah dah, dah dahhh, dahhhh, dahh dahhhh… anyone? No?) It’s pretty exciting because I recently switched to soprano, and have been singing at pitches only heard by canines in China.

– Dance Troupe, currently only Saturdays 1-2, but will have more hours during the week later on. I’m learning popping. I’ve never really taken any official hip hop in my life. College is a great time to start.

– MedLinks, which I just applied and was accepted to, so I’m not sure about the hours, but there are several CPR/First Aid training sessions that I’ll be going to over the next month, and then I get to take care of sick students in my hall and at MIT in general, which I’m really excited about.

– One of my close friends just pledged to Phi Delta Theta last night, which is hilarious to me because he’s very much the artsy, pianist, feelings-book kind of guy, and not at all your typical frat brother. This really has nothing to do with my extracurriculars, I just wanted to make the point that MIT fraternities are really different from the one in Old School – especially during rush week, which just ended. It starts with the Greek Griller – free bbq for everyone, and you can go around and meet the guys from each frat and get information about the events they’re hosting, which included paintballing, go-kart racing, and trips to the North End/George’s Island/other sweet places to go outside of MIT. Guys go to find out more about frats, girls go for fun. Oh, and the food. Steak and lobster almost every night (which I didn’t partake in, but I heard was ridiculous), ribs and chowder (made by a former chef from Legal Seafood), Korean bbq, regular bbq, chocolate chip pancakes (made not by the chefs but the brothers, and the PANCAKES were fluffy and incredible), Thanksgiving dinner, and SO MUCH MORE. Which brings me to my other point – I’m going to be very well-fed.

I’d like to participate in, but not sure if I have time for…

– being a social member of French House, a cultural hall in New House, which basically means I get to help cook dinner once a week. And I love to cook. But there are other aspects to being a social member as well (learning French?) that I might not have time for (Je suis toujours un anana), so I may have to give it up.

– Pungmul practice, to re-learn how to play janggoo, a Korean drum. It’s a pretty great stress reliever, and there was a cute Korean family that came to play with us, and they gave us kimchee chigae and patbingsu (Korean fermented cabbage stew and a red bean shaved ice dessert), and it would make my mom happy, but it’s a three-hour practice every week, so we’ll see how it fits into my schedule.

– Children of Eden, because I have a secret passion for musical theater and Stranger to the Rain is one of my favorite songs to sing ever, but on top of everything else I’m already doing, I don’t know how it’s going to fit in. It’ll still be fun to try out, though.

Anyway, as we left the restaurant (California Pizza Kitchen at CambridgeSide Galleria), we were getting on the shuttle (it’s free from the mall to Kendall T station, which is right near the Stata Center, so it’s pretty convenient for all those dorm essentials and lunches with people from high school) as my mom was leaving. My mom came all the way to Boston to help my sister (who also goes to that other school in Cambridge) move in, and she was leaving today. I won’t be seeing her until October, so I hugged her and kissed her and told her I loved her and I hoped she had a safe trip. It was a very lovely, touching, Lifetime television-esque moment.

We got on the shuttle and I looked out the window wistfully, thinking of how much I’d miss my mother in the coming month. Suddenly, my cell phone started buzzing. It was my mom! I picked it up excitedly.

Me: Hello?
Mom: I’m just calling to tell you that you have something green in your bottom teeth.

You know how it goes.