one month+ entry. i hate when i wait this long.
These are things not related to dancing. Dancing will come in the next entry.
Classes:
-6.042 is going okay, there's not as much work as last semester because I don't have to read the lecture notes anymore. Plus, it's less stressful because the problem solving just comes at the end of lecture, so everyone's working at the same time and Prof Meyer comes around and asks them questions too, so I really only have to be a helper. It's just grading that is a pain in the ass. I spent like four days of grading sessions this past week because I got behind on my pset grading, and I was stuck on one with all these induction proofs where everyone had these whack proofs that made no sense and took forever to decipher. I also thought I lost someone's pset today but it turns out he took it home again by mistake. Thank goodness.
-I finally learned how to use LaTeX. Actually, it was pretty easy, I learned it in a matter of minutes reading some background information. I still have to look up a lot of commands, but I was able to put together a pset and also do my 6.865 project writeups. It's very cool.
-Staff meetings are in the faculty dining room, and the food is all-you-can-eat for $9. This is expensive, and I don't really like paying it, but it was comforting that the professor paid for it twice. The food is pretty good, but I always get too much and end up stuffed, which is slightly uncomfortable afterwards.
-I've basically stopped working on my thesis, which is bad, but I've gotten sort of overwhelmed with projects for both graphics and comp photography. Now that they both have projects, the due dates overlap and they are never easy enough to knock off in one day. I actually missed one Tuesday of classes, which I hated doing, because I was finishing a comp photography pset. But the projects are cool, and you get to do cool things post processing photos, so I don't mind. It's like building your own version of photoshop out of matlab.
-Graphics we finished our Monte Carlo ray tracer. It was cool because there were soft shadow lights and depth of field focusing effects, but I felt kind of lame that I didn't have time to implement any other cool things like other students did. We had to present in class, and it was cool to see what everyone else was able to do.
-I did go to Lawrence one more time so that we could discuss our proposal plans with Rebecca. Daniel drove me, and we got Coffee Coolatas on the way, so that was cool. Though he said that Ricarose's brother just died in an accident, and that was really sad. I know I'm unproductive when I don't have classes, but now I wish that classes would go away so that I can at least pretend I'm going to focus.
Fun:
-(2/10) Muyi's birthday dinner before Armin's.
Muyi is 30! Geez, after I found that out I went on facebook and looked up all these people I know, and it turns out a ton of people are 26+. I mean, Jay my fellow TA is 29. WTF. Now I'm really starting to feel old that all my friends are almost 30. It reminds me how young I am, because seriously, 7 years is a long time, you experience a whole life in that time. Anyway, Muyi's dinner was at Penang, and there were people from his lab and then a couple of ballroom people, though not that many, and there was some ballroom discussion about how all the good open MIT couples are the ones who have left Armin, and this was coming from Donny and Dayna and Tuan, and I never knew that there was such dissent about Armin, but I can kind of see it (and I'll get into this later).
-(2/13) First and last yoga class.
I tried it, but the woman teaching it was so bitchy. There were 31 of us, and I had forgotten to go to the first class, and she was being so anal about how many people need to be there, and then she picked on this girl who wasn't doing something because of some hip condition, and she was like, "Oh, if you guys have some problem, just remind me and I'll give you something to do. Otherwise I will just assume you are lazy." I mean, come on, it's a PE, not a class. It doesn't have to be so strict. Anyway, plus sideways things made no sense to me because my hip always got in the way. I would have liked to have kept going, but I got too unmotivated, also because it was late afternoon and I preferred going home.
-(2/13) First and so far last TEP lab lunch meeting.
I met a bunch of people from the TEP lab that I didn't know because they were working on other games, and we had some yummy Indian food to go with discussion of journals that we should keep up with. The whole thing was supposed to be like a journal club. They were all really cool, so I really think that people who end up working on creative things like games really preserve their inner child very well. Unfortunately, the week after I overslept in the Terrascope room, then the week after I was working on my 839 assignment, and then the week after I had 042 grading, so I haven't been since that first one. Now I'm nervous to go back, but I think I'll try again this Wednesday.
-(2/14) VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
So first I went over to Andriy's place where he got me a dozen roses that I proceeded to take lots and lots of picture of. I had also bought Sweethearts and Nerds from CVS, which were tasty. Then Andriy and I went to Mantra, this fancy Indian/French fusion place near Boston Common. That was a mistake, it was sooo expensive. This trumps $8 tomato expensive, and we didn't even have a choice because they had a special Valentine's Day dinner, and you couldn't order anything that wasn't on the Valentine's dinner menu. They did give me a single rose and gave Andriy a cigar, though. There was a nice jazz band playing, and the food was delicious. We were so bad though, we kept taking pictures during dinner, which is sort of lame because it's so unclassy, but it was fun. I had an avocado salad and grilled lamb chops and chocolate creme brulee. The only bad thing was that we had to rush because we needed to go to the ballet afterwards. I was actually stressed out quite a bit getting to Mantra too because we were already running late. I hate being late when it matters.
Unfortunately we got to the ballet 10 minutes late, and they wouldn't seat us until the first act was over. Fortunately we were one of the first people late, so we got to stand/kneel on chairs right up against the window, which wasn't too bad. It was nice to sit after the first act though. So we saw Romeo and Juliet by the Boston Ballet. I have to admit, I thought that was one of the best ballets I've seen. Apparently Jeremy was there too, but I didn't know that until he told me at staff meeting, and he said he didn't really like it. Ratmir and his girlfriend Kiki were also there, and I chatted with them during intermission, and Ratmir was like, "It's as good as a ballet can get, I suppose." But I really loved it. First off, the costumes were amazing. They were so elegant and regal, with all those folds like they had in Shakespearean time, lovely colors and materials. The dancing was unique, I enjoyed the street performers dancing with a lot of tricks. But most importantly was the girl who played Juliet. She was phenomenal. The thing about this ballet was that it was not like Nutcracker, which is a lot of just showing off dancing, but Romeo and Juliet is first and foremost a play and a story, and the acting was really expressive. I think I felt more emotion watching this than watching the actual play, because the play a lot of it is words, and words are words, especially in Shakespearean language, don't necessarily connect all the time. But the way that you could feel every emotion through the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, that was really amazing. Key to that was the choreography. Whoever the choreographer was did a great job, because it really told the story very well. Anyway I loved it.
When we got home we made creme brulee and sat and ate it in candlelight and took some more pictures. It was very romantic and lovely.
-(2/16-17) BU Comp.
I'll save the details on this for my dance entry, but I need to mention something to preface into my dentist appointment. So BU comp was cool because it was right next to my house, so I didn't have to go very far. Also because it's right above Jamba Juice, so I was able to get a Matcha Green Tea Blast. But after the first day of competition, there was two hours before the show, so I went with Wei and Andriy to Brown Sugar. While we were there, I did something stupid, which is that I bit into my fork and chipped my tooth. I don't know, I feel like I've bitten into my fork before with no ill effects, but this time, I knocked a piece right out. It was probably a millimeter square on my front tooth, and I had to keep tonguing it afterwards because it felt so weird. Consequently I had to make a dentist appointment.
-(2/18, 3/03, 3/05) Dentist appointments.
So I went to the dentist a series of times. I found this place really close to my house. Turns out it's awesome. Why? My dentist looks just like Tom Cavanaugh, aka the guy from Ed, aka JD's brother on Scrubs. Except a younger version of him. Like, seriously, so much. And not only that, he talks and acts like him too. When he was filling in my tooth, he let me choose a color that I thought matched my tooth, and he was like, "I think it's A3, but it's up to you. Most of the time I'm pretty good at picking, but then sometimes people are like, 'No, that's way off!'" Then when I was getting my initial checkup he was concerned about my teeth grinding and told me stuff about people with dentures, and then he was like, "I know, I'm just trying to psych you out, but it's true." Imagine Dan Dorian saying that to you, and that JD is just somewhere in another room and will come in at any moment. That's how I felt the entire time I was at the dentist's. He's pretty cute, I'd say he's probably late 20's early 30's. I <3 him. The third time I went was just for cleaning, and I got a woman. That sucked.
-(2/24) Coffee Table.
I finally gave in to Zipcar. I must admit it is kind of awesome, particularly no gas. Andriy rented a big Zipcar, and we drove to Everett to meet this guy from craigslist, and now I have a coffee table. It's just the kind that I wanted too, oak colored, matches my entertainment center, square, right size. I'm very happy. The trip was also fun, it's always nice to get out of Boston however briefly.
-(3/08) Robbie and girlfriend 5 year anniversary.
We didn't really stick around for this, since we had to practice standard for the Harvard Comp the next day, but we did briefly pop our heads in. Robbie and his girlfriend Kendra had a 5 year anniversary party, which I thought was just adorable, and they got some guy who I think was one of their friends from Delaware or something to come an play music. This guy was pretty good, when we were upstairs and heard it, we thought they were playing a recorded CD. But the fact that nobody was talking led me to believe that some guy was actually performing, and that was just really slick. I'm glad that our basement room can be used for something like that, it was really cool.
-(3/14) Simon's birthday party.
Is it possible that I didn't go out the entire time in between? Sad. But when I went to Simon's party I was like forgetting what it was like to be at a party, it had been so long. I brought the Zubrowka bison grass Polish vodka, since I knew of all people Simon would appreciate it. I did kind of hope to drink more of it, but he opened it and a couple of us (including Yue-Hann!) drank some, and then he stored it away for safe keeping. But I'm glad that other people that I didn't know so well didn't get to waste it by making drinks that are not tasty apple juice vodka. It's really a cool drink though, because of the blade of grass inside, it really does taste a little bit grassy, but in a good way, and I was actually able to just drink some of it pure without being overwhelmed. Jaime had his camera, so he took lots and lots of pictures of me, because I was the only who volunteered to pose. A lot. I felt like Jiji, and then I felt sad that I most likely will never know a way to get back in touch with her.
Then I danced a lot until the cake came out and everyone moved into Simon's room and then went home. Those of us that were left, however, finally got to play Nintendo Monopoly. Finally. I was the Link shield, and after not being able to buy anything forever except for Mario Kart, I was finally able to buy Mario (i.e. Boardwalk). Andriy had Luigi, and I finally convinced him to cut a deal where he would give me Luigi, I would buy all hotels, and he would get 50% of the cut. Which is really a good deal for him because I'm paying for everything. But we told people that it was something like a merger, which was misleading and set them off into a panic. After that, Yue-Hann, Christian, Jaime, and Sally made a four-way merger, covering the whole board, and unfortunately Andriy and I had to go right after that, and we got screwed landing on the same spot full of hotels. So we went bankrupt, which was okay because we wanted to go home. Simon and Nora were one person, and they were now up against the four-way merger, but I think the game disintegrated after that point. It was actually incredibly stupid, because the way that we merged we were still our own people. But what they did was basically gave all money and assets to Sally who then because a Sugar Mama. It was fun though.
Assorted Notes:
-I discovered that I washed my passport, twice. This sucked because it's super expensive to get a new one, and I wouldn't have it in time for spring break, so I couldn't go anywhere cool. We contemplated going to Florida again, but I honestly think I'm just too tired for that right now. Lev recruited me into his road trip down to Florida, but we couldn't get enough people, and I was honestly having second thoughts, so I guess for the first time ever I'm just going to stay home and chill during spring break. It's a little bit depressing, but I think I will appreciate not having to finish all of my projects this week even more.
-Lost is getting good. Where did Benjamin Linus get 324 cadavers?! OMG Jin is dead?! Michael?! Yay I'm excited.
-Beauty and the Geek sucks now, the whole charm of the show was getting to see the beauties and geeks interact, and now they barely have time to do that because they have to prepare for challenges alone with their own gender groups. Lame. But I am glad that girl Amber is gone.
-I've been really into the show America's Best Dance Crew. I mean, IT HAS SHANE SPARKS. And the dancing is just fabulous. Jabawockeez and Kaba Modern are just sick, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you'd better youtube them because it's amazing. It's cool because after I saw it, Sam told me about it (citing Shane Sparks and his amazingness), and then Erica sent me links to youtube via facebook wall, and of course I had to then share with Kunal. I love America and I love dance shows and I love that reality shows never went away, even though we made our effigy thing in senior year Spanish a volcano of reality TV shows.
-Incidentally, speaking of Sam, Mike Blaisse emailed us asking us for advice because he is going to be in Bayer this summer. And I emailed him back like a ten paragraph email full of advice. Sam emailed back like ten minutes later with the SAME email. It was in his words and slightly reorganized, but he had all of the same bullet points in almost the same order (BKG, Eurail, Schoeneswochenende, Bundesland, Junior Ticket, fly to other countries, hostel), it was pretty crazy. I had to email him back to tell him that we should start our own agency because we have become the same person, and then he mentioned something about banks, and I replied about having to use ATMs, and then he replied the same thing about having to use ATMs, and I really started to get creeped out. I miss Sam.
Classes:
-6.042 is going okay, there's not as much work as last semester because I don't have to read the lecture notes anymore. Plus, it's less stressful because the problem solving just comes at the end of lecture, so everyone's working at the same time and Prof Meyer comes around and asks them questions too, so I really only have to be a helper. It's just grading that is a pain in the ass. I spent like four days of grading sessions this past week because I got behind on my pset grading, and I was stuck on one with all these induction proofs where everyone had these whack proofs that made no sense and took forever to decipher. I also thought I lost someone's pset today but it turns out he took it home again by mistake. Thank goodness.
-I finally learned how to use LaTeX. Actually, it was pretty easy, I learned it in a matter of minutes reading some background information. I still have to look up a lot of commands, but I was able to put together a pset and also do my 6.865 project writeups. It's very cool.
-Staff meetings are in the faculty dining room, and the food is all-you-can-eat for $9. This is expensive, and I don't really like paying it, but it was comforting that the professor paid for it twice. The food is pretty good, but I always get too much and end up stuffed, which is slightly uncomfortable afterwards.
-I've basically stopped working on my thesis, which is bad, but I've gotten sort of overwhelmed with projects for both graphics and comp photography. Now that they both have projects, the due dates overlap and they are never easy enough to knock off in one day. I actually missed one Tuesday of classes, which I hated doing, because I was finishing a comp photography pset. But the projects are cool, and you get to do cool things post processing photos, so I don't mind. It's like building your own version of photoshop out of matlab.
-Graphics we finished our Monte Carlo ray tracer. It was cool because there were soft shadow lights and depth of field focusing effects, but I felt kind of lame that I didn't have time to implement any other cool things like other students did. We had to present in class, and it was cool to see what everyone else was able to do.
-I did go to Lawrence one more time so that we could discuss our proposal plans with Rebecca. Daniel drove me, and we got Coffee Coolatas on the way, so that was cool. Though he said that Ricarose's brother just died in an accident, and that was really sad. I know I'm unproductive when I don't have classes, but now I wish that classes would go away so that I can at least pretend I'm going to focus.
Fun:
-(2/10) Muyi's birthday dinner before Armin's.
Muyi is 30! Geez, after I found that out I went on facebook and looked up all these people I know, and it turns out a ton of people are 26+. I mean, Jay my fellow TA is 29. WTF. Now I'm really starting to feel old that all my friends are almost 30. It reminds me how young I am, because seriously, 7 years is a long time, you experience a whole life in that time. Anyway, Muyi's dinner was at Penang, and there were people from his lab and then a couple of ballroom people, though not that many, and there was some ballroom discussion about how all the good open MIT couples are the ones who have left Armin, and this was coming from Donny and Dayna and Tuan, and I never knew that there was such dissent about Armin, but I can kind of see it (and I'll get into this later).
-(2/13) First and last yoga class.
I tried it, but the woman teaching it was so bitchy. There were 31 of us, and I had forgotten to go to the first class, and she was being so anal about how many people need to be there, and then she picked on this girl who wasn't doing something because of some hip condition, and she was like, "Oh, if you guys have some problem, just remind me and I'll give you something to do. Otherwise I will just assume you are lazy." I mean, come on, it's a PE, not a class. It doesn't have to be so strict. Anyway, plus sideways things made no sense to me because my hip always got in the way. I would have liked to have kept going, but I got too unmotivated, also because it was late afternoon and I preferred going home.
-(2/13) First and so far last TEP lab lunch meeting.
I met a bunch of people from the TEP lab that I didn't know because they were working on other games, and we had some yummy Indian food to go with discussion of journals that we should keep up with. The whole thing was supposed to be like a journal club. They were all really cool, so I really think that people who end up working on creative things like games really preserve their inner child very well. Unfortunately, the week after I overslept in the Terrascope room, then the week after I was working on my 839 assignment, and then the week after I had 042 grading, so I haven't been since that first one. Now I'm nervous to go back, but I think I'll try again this Wednesday.
-(2/14) VALENTINE'S DAY!!!
So first I went over to Andriy's place where he got me a dozen roses that I proceeded to take lots and lots of picture of. I had also bought Sweethearts and Nerds from CVS, which were tasty. Then Andriy and I went to Mantra, this fancy Indian/French fusion place near Boston Common. That was a mistake, it was sooo expensive. This trumps $8 tomato expensive, and we didn't even have a choice because they had a special Valentine's Day dinner, and you couldn't order anything that wasn't on the Valentine's dinner menu. They did give me a single rose and gave Andriy a cigar, though. There was a nice jazz band playing, and the food was delicious. We were so bad though, we kept taking pictures during dinner, which is sort of lame because it's so unclassy, but it was fun. I had an avocado salad and grilled lamb chops and chocolate creme brulee. The only bad thing was that we had to rush because we needed to go to the ballet afterwards. I was actually stressed out quite a bit getting to Mantra too because we were already running late. I hate being late when it matters.
Unfortunately we got to the ballet 10 minutes late, and they wouldn't seat us until the first act was over. Fortunately we were one of the first people late, so we got to stand/kneel on chairs right up against the window, which wasn't too bad. It was nice to sit after the first act though. So we saw Romeo and Juliet by the Boston Ballet. I have to admit, I thought that was one of the best ballets I've seen. Apparently Jeremy was there too, but I didn't know that until he told me at staff meeting, and he said he didn't really like it. Ratmir and his girlfriend Kiki were also there, and I chatted with them during intermission, and Ratmir was like, "It's as good as a ballet can get, I suppose." But I really loved it. First off, the costumes were amazing. They were so elegant and regal, with all those folds like they had in Shakespearean time, lovely colors and materials. The dancing was unique, I enjoyed the street performers dancing with a lot of tricks. But most importantly was the girl who played Juliet. She was phenomenal. The thing about this ballet was that it was not like Nutcracker, which is a lot of just showing off dancing, but Romeo and Juliet is first and foremost a play and a story, and the acting was really expressive. I think I felt more emotion watching this than watching the actual play, because the play a lot of it is words, and words are words, especially in Shakespearean language, don't necessarily connect all the time. But the way that you could feel every emotion through the bodies of Romeo and Juliet, that was really amazing. Key to that was the choreography. Whoever the choreographer was did a great job, because it really told the story very well. Anyway I loved it.
When we got home we made creme brulee and sat and ate it in candlelight and took some more pictures. It was very romantic and lovely.
-(2/16-17) BU Comp.
I'll save the details on this for my dance entry, but I need to mention something to preface into my dentist appointment. So BU comp was cool because it was right next to my house, so I didn't have to go very far. Also because it's right above Jamba Juice, so I was able to get a Matcha Green Tea Blast. But after the first day of competition, there was two hours before the show, so I went with Wei and Andriy to Brown Sugar. While we were there, I did something stupid, which is that I bit into my fork and chipped my tooth. I don't know, I feel like I've bitten into my fork before with no ill effects, but this time, I knocked a piece right out. It was probably a millimeter square on my front tooth, and I had to keep tonguing it afterwards because it felt so weird. Consequently I had to make a dentist appointment.
-(2/18, 3/03, 3/05) Dentist appointments.
So I went to the dentist a series of times. I found this place really close to my house. Turns out it's awesome. Why? My dentist looks just like Tom Cavanaugh, aka the guy from Ed, aka JD's brother on Scrubs. Except a younger version of him. Like, seriously, so much. And not only that, he talks and acts like him too. When he was filling in my tooth, he let me choose a color that I thought matched my tooth, and he was like, "I think it's A3, but it's up to you. Most of the time I'm pretty good at picking, but then sometimes people are like, 'No, that's way off!'" Then when I was getting my initial checkup he was concerned about my teeth grinding and told me stuff about people with dentures, and then he was like, "I know, I'm just trying to psych you out, but it's true." Imagine Dan Dorian saying that to you, and that JD is just somewhere in another room and will come in at any moment. That's how I felt the entire time I was at the dentist's. He's pretty cute, I'd say he's probably late 20's early 30's. I <3 him. The third time I went was just for cleaning, and I got a woman. That sucked.
-(2/24) Coffee Table.
I finally gave in to Zipcar. I must admit it is kind of awesome, particularly no gas. Andriy rented a big Zipcar, and we drove to Everett to meet this guy from craigslist, and now I have a coffee table. It's just the kind that I wanted too, oak colored, matches my entertainment center, square, right size. I'm very happy. The trip was also fun, it's always nice to get out of Boston however briefly.
-(3/08) Robbie and girlfriend 5 year anniversary.
We didn't really stick around for this, since we had to practice standard for the Harvard Comp the next day, but we did briefly pop our heads in. Robbie and his girlfriend Kendra had a 5 year anniversary party, which I thought was just adorable, and they got some guy who I think was one of their friends from Delaware or something to come an play music. This guy was pretty good, when we were upstairs and heard it, we thought they were playing a recorded CD. But the fact that nobody was talking led me to believe that some guy was actually performing, and that was just really slick. I'm glad that our basement room can be used for something like that, it was really cool.
-(3/14) Simon's birthday party.
Is it possible that I didn't go out the entire time in between? Sad. But when I went to Simon's party I was like forgetting what it was like to be at a party, it had been so long. I brought the Zubrowka bison grass Polish vodka, since I knew of all people Simon would appreciate it. I did kind of hope to drink more of it, but he opened it and a couple of us (including Yue-Hann!) drank some, and then he stored it away for safe keeping. But I'm glad that other people that I didn't know so well didn't get to waste it by making drinks that are not tasty apple juice vodka. It's really a cool drink though, because of the blade of grass inside, it really does taste a little bit grassy, but in a good way, and I was actually able to just drink some of it pure without being overwhelmed. Jaime had his camera, so he took lots and lots of pictures of me, because I was the only who volunteered to pose. A lot. I felt like Jiji, and then I felt sad that I most likely will never know a way to get back in touch with her.
Then I danced a lot until the cake came out and everyone moved into Simon's room and then went home. Those of us that were left, however, finally got to play Nintendo Monopoly. Finally. I was the Link shield, and after not being able to buy anything forever except for Mario Kart, I was finally able to buy Mario (i.e. Boardwalk). Andriy had Luigi, and I finally convinced him to cut a deal where he would give me Luigi, I would buy all hotels, and he would get 50% of the cut. Which is really a good deal for him because I'm paying for everything. But we told people that it was something like a merger, which was misleading and set them off into a panic. After that, Yue-Hann, Christian, Jaime, and Sally made a four-way merger, covering the whole board, and unfortunately Andriy and I had to go right after that, and we got screwed landing on the same spot full of hotels. So we went bankrupt, which was okay because we wanted to go home. Simon and Nora were one person, and they were now up against the four-way merger, but I think the game disintegrated after that point. It was actually incredibly stupid, because the way that we merged we were still our own people. But what they did was basically gave all money and assets to Sally who then because a Sugar Mama. It was fun though.
Assorted Notes:
-I discovered that I washed my passport, twice. This sucked because it's super expensive to get a new one, and I wouldn't have it in time for spring break, so I couldn't go anywhere cool. We contemplated going to Florida again, but I honestly think I'm just too tired for that right now. Lev recruited me into his road trip down to Florida, but we couldn't get enough people, and I was honestly having second thoughts, so I guess for the first time ever I'm just going to stay home and chill during spring break. It's a little bit depressing, but I think I will appreciate not having to finish all of my projects this week even more.
-Lost is getting good. Where did Benjamin Linus get 324 cadavers?! OMG Jin is dead?! Michael?! Yay I'm excited.
-Beauty and the Geek sucks now, the whole charm of the show was getting to see the beauties and geeks interact, and now they barely have time to do that because they have to prepare for challenges alone with their own gender groups. Lame. But I am glad that girl Amber is gone.
-I've been really into the show America's Best Dance Crew. I mean, IT HAS SHANE SPARKS. And the dancing is just fabulous. Jabawockeez and Kaba Modern are just sick, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you'd better youtube them because it's amazing. It's cool because after I saw it, Sam told me about it (citing Shane Sparks and his amazingness), and then Erica sent me links to youtube via facebook wall, and of course I had to then share with Kunal. I love America and I love dance shows and I love that reality shows never went away, even though we made our effigy thing in senior year Spanish a volcano of reality TV shows.
-Incidentally, speaking of Sam, Mike Blaisse emailed us asking us for advice because he is going to be in Bayer this summer. And I emailed him back like a ten paragraph email full of advice. Sam emailed back like ten minutes later with the SAME email. It was in his words and slightly reorganized, but he had all of the same bullet points in almost the same order (BKG, Eurail, Schoeneswochenende, Bundesland, Junior Ticket, fly to other countries, hostel), it was pretty crazy. I had to email him back to tell him that we should start our own agency because we have become the same person, and then he mentioned something about banks, and I replied about having to use ATMs, and then he replied the same thing about having to use ATMs, and I really started to get creeped out. I miss Sam.