school starting
I guess maybe I might do a summary of summer stuff, but for now let's talk about school starting. I'd rather not dwell on the anxiety of upcoming life decisions and things to get done - I wanna keep this an optimistic lj!
Monday night the new tenants from 165 all met to have a house gathering. We didn't know where to go, and after wandering all down Newbury and back up Boylston, we ended up at Cactus Club. The only people left from the original gang are me, Sandra, and Yale. We had some fun reminiscing about stuff that happened, and I realized that even though we didn't have much of a house community, we did still have some nice memories together (like when I ran into Sandra on my bicycle, or when Mike Sidorov thought that Lev was some old guy sleeping on the couch).
The people who went out were two Korean students (one guy one girl whose names I will butcher), a German guy named Matheas, a Brazilian girl named Gaby, and the three of us. They were really nice, and I finally got the guts to speak a little German with the Matheas. I found it started to come back more naturally as I spoke, but then we went back to English cuz the Korean guy couldn't understand. At Cactus Club I got some guacamole (which Sandra had never heard of, so I was glad to spread the good word) and a passionfruit margarita. We were out for about two hours and had a great time. Then when we got back we went up to the rooftop and sat around enjoying the nighttime air.
I registered yesterday and chatted a bit with Prof Freeman and my "assistant advisor" who is this MEng who is probably younger than me, but it was cool having her around because I always think one on one talks are kind of awkward. I spilled some doubts about my future, and they were like, "Don't worry!" I always doubt that they really understand the my dismal situation, but positive words are what I need, so I decided that I need to just boost my academic self-esteem. Also, I read this article in the tech written by some senior that just basically said to relax and enjoy because we'll be fine. That was really really nice actually, I thought to write her a facebook message to say that she had made my day, but then I thought that might be creepy.
Last night Dima and Olga came over to Andriy's house and drank some beer and talked about stuff. I had class this morning at 10am, so I went to sleep at 1am, but they didn't get to sleep until like 5am, and when I got back from class today they were all still sleeping, and when they woke up they all looked super tired. Olga just got back from Africa, so it was really interesting to hear about how different life is over there.
I'm finally taking 18.06 after dropping it two semesters in a row. Since I basically don't have a choice, and I figured it might be useful... but at least I like the lecturer this time better than the one from two semesters ago. The only thing I lament is the fact that there are all these young undergrads like some of my former students in the class, and sitting in it I just feel like, "I am so over this." The whole style of the class is just very young feeling, I guess in a sense I am ready for more advanced things. I had 18.085 right afterwards with Gilbert Strang, who is great. He's like this old guy who kind of has an eye twitch, but he's so cute and funny and a great lecturer. Today's class was like a really quick linear algebra review (which is ironic because my other class is intro to linear algebra), but I'd encountered a lot of that stuff before, and I liked how he went about giving meaning to the matrices, which I suppose is what this whole class is supposed to be about anyway.
So the most fitting moment today, right before I ran into Bao and we talked about how old we were, was when I passed by WILG giving out their traditional free cookies in the middle of the stairway to building 16. I took a cookie, and the girl tried to give me a rush calendar, and I just had to say, "Oh, honey, I'm way too old for that."
Monday night the new tenants from 165 all met to have a house gathering. We didn't know where to go, and after wandering all down Newbury and back up Boylston, we ended up at Cactus Club. The only people left from the original gang are me, Sandra, and Yale. We had some fun reminiscing about stuff that happened, and I realized that even though we didn't have much of a house community, we did still have some nice memories together (like when I ran into Sandra on my bicycle, or when Mike Sidorov thought that Lev was some old guy sleeping on the couch).
The people who went out were two Korean students (one guy one girl whose names I will butcher), a German guy named Matheas, a Brazilian girl named Gaby, and the three of us. They were really nice, and I finally got the guts to speak a little German with the Matheas. I found it started to come back more naturally as I spoke, but then we went back to English cuz the Korean guy couldn't understand. At Cactus Club I got some guacamole (which Sandra had never heard of, so I was glad to spread the good word) and a passionfruit margarita. We were out for about two hours and had a great time. Then when we got back we went up to the rooftop and sat around enjoying the nighttime air.
I registered yesterday and chatted a bit with Prof Freeman and my "assistant advisor" who is this MEng who is probably younger than me, but it was cool having her around because I always think one on one talks are kind of awkward. I spilled some doubts about my future, and they were like, "Don't worry!" I always doubt that they really understand the my dismal situation, but positive words are what I need, so I decided that I need to just boost my academic self-esteem. Also, I read this article in the tech written by some senior that just basically said to relax and enjoy because we'll be fine. That was really really nice actually, I thought to write her a facebook message to say that she had made my day, but then I thought that might be creepy.
Last night Dima and Olga came over to Andriy's house and drank some beer and talked about stuff. I had class this morning at 10am, so I went to sleep at 1am, but they didn't get to sleep until like 5am, and when I got back from class today they were all still sleeping, and when they woke up they all looked super tired. Olga just got back from Africa, so it was really interesting to hear about how different life is over there.
I'm finally taking 18.06 after dropping it two semesters in a row. Since I basically don't have a choice, and I figured it might be useful... but at least I like the lecturer this time better than the one from two semesters ago. The only thing I lament is the fact that there are all these young undergrads like some of my former students in the class, and sitting in it I just feel like, "I am so over this." The whole style of the class is just very young feeling, I guess in a sense I am ready for more advanced things. I had 18.085 right afterwards with Gilbert Strang, who is great. He's like this old guy who kind of has an eye twitch, but he's so cute and funny and a great lecturer. Today's class was like a really quick linear algebra review (which is ironic because my other class is intro to linear algebra), but I'd encountered a lot of that stuff before, and I liked how he went about giving meaning to the matrices, which I suppose is what this whole class is supposed to be about anyway.
So the most fitting moment today, right before I ran into Bao and we talked about how old we were, was when I passed by WILG giving out their traditional free cookies in the middle of the stairway to building 16. I took a cookie, and the girl tried to give me a rush calendar, and I just had to say, "Oh, honey, I'm way too old for that."