weather and stuff by Fiona M. '20

I do not own any fall clothes. It seems that this is going to be a problem for me.

I Iive in a triple. One of my roommates, Claire, is from Wisconsin, and the other, Abby, is from San Diego. Last week I get home from class one day to see that Claire has received a big box of “fall clothing.” Abby and I stand in awe. What is this “fall clothing,” and do we need it? (The answer is yes; we do need it). I own some jeans and one or two warm long sleeve layers, but according to Claire and to wikihow, this is not sufficient. At home, I consider cold days to be days where omg I am actually wearing a long sleeve shirt. Here, I hope there will be days where a long sleeve shirt will be all I am required to wear.

Fall clothing means wearing scarves for something other than fashion. It means layers and boots. It means coats. It means I better go shopping soon.

It’s October and there’s a northeaster, which means it’s cold and gloomy and windy.

My first taste of fall. Yeah, I will admit I am freezing my butt off. But woah woah woah, hold on Fiona, its going to get a whole lot worse in the real winter (another season whose clothes I do not own (let’s not talk about that right now; I have to tackle the fall first.)). Until I’ve purchased some great fall layers, I’m putting all faith into my Patagonia jacket to keep me toasty.

Next House is like a 15 to 20-minute walk to any of my classes. With rain and cold spitting in your face, this walk could be a real nightmare (also I just realized that “nightmare” is not spelled “nightmere”). Luckily, I have a bike (thrifty me bought it for $45 off a grad student) which cuts my travel time down to no more than 6 minutes total, no matter where I’m going: I get to leave later and not be cold :) .

Off topic: so this bike is actually pretty popular around campus. I see it everywhere, and therefore I need to think of a good way to distinguish mine from everybody else’s. I was of thinking spray painting it but that would require somebody buying me spray paint (because apparently you have to be 18 for that…). Any ideas welcome ^_^.

Back on topic, the bike is great for now but once it gets unbearable (in the real winter) I will have to take the tech shuttle everywhere. It will also mean I have to use the tunnels for something other than when I’m running late. MIT has this super awesome tunnel system in which you can travel pretty much anywhere on main campus (even across the street) without stepping a foot outside (great for when the weather is brutal). I have ridden my bike in them. I’m sorry to whoever enforces the “Don’t ride Inside” rule but like I said, I was running very late and it was very efficient. They’re always empty whereas the packed hallways directly above will allow traffic to move at a speed of about 5 steps every 10 seconds (over-exaggeration, but you get the point).

…I’ve gotten off-topic again. Okay, weather. Not only am I going to have to bear the agony of temperatures below 70 degrees (I know you winter-lovers are laughing at me but just remember I’m not from around here) on land, but also I will have to bear it on the water. Because of the nor’easter (lingo), it’s been cold enough this week to wear dry suits while sailing.

These are pretty funny things. They are designed to be airtight (if you fall into the water while wearing one not airtight you will freeze and it will be bad), so after squeezing into it and zipping up you actually have to crunch into a ball, holding part of the neck out in order to “deflate” your puffy marshmallow self. (If this is unpicturable, think of squeezing air out of a Ziploc bag, but that Ziploc bag is big enough for a person). :)

Anyways, I was only wearing some leggings and a long sleeve under my dry suit, but I’ve been told that in the winter time you can wear multiple fleece layers. WOW.

So I don’t really have much more to say about weather, but I was inspired by Abby’s last post and am going to conclude this blog with a photo of the Boston skyline at sunset, from the sailing pavilion.

Thanks for reading!

-Fiona