Wednesday Madness
Warning: Backdated Post
So, holy shit, I just had the most amazing time down in Cambridge today with Gui. I've been having a pretty good time at Olin so far, but I haven't been getting out to meet the locals as much as I would like... my own fault, I guess. However, today was a total departure, and I'm glad I got some time to get to know Gui better.
First things first, it's a 10 minute car ride to the nearest T station (Mass Transit Train), so Gui conned yet another Oliner-with-a-car into driving us there. On the way there, a bus coming the other direction decided it didn't need to wait on silly lesser vehicles, and took a left turn directly in front of us. Curious drivers here on the East Coast, I guess. From there, the T takes about 40 minutes (according to Gui, I didn't time it) to get into Boston. We talked about how on repetitive trips you just sort of memorize the pattern of things going past you. I didn't say so at the time, but I still remember every landmark along Woodinville-Duvall Road from the Safeway to Katie's house.
So, we got off at Harvard Square, and wandered aimlessly for a time. Saw some Mint Syrup that I wish I'd picked up for Nate, but I just am not really a gift buyer, I guess. We saw signs for a new store opening called Hemptopia, and we tried to find it, but the signs lied - the store had not yet opened. In the same mini-pike-place kind of establishment, however, we found a quaint little anime store (they had soundtracks, yay), and escaped only moments before our wallets took heavy losses. Mmm, and then we had some Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. I got the "baklava" flavor, which tasted nothing like Baklava and yet was still tasty.
After that we found Mass Ave and wandered in what we thought (correctly) was a MIT-esque direction. Stopped by the Harvard Bookstore (Amartya Sen is giving a lecture weekend after next, not fair), and a Salvation Army (for dance clothes, but no luck), and a store that advertised hats but had none, and almost by the MIT museum of Robotics, but it was closed.
About a half hour of walking later (it could not have been an hour), we arrived at MIT, and stopped by the Student Center to rest our heels. I'd been here once before, but I was struck by the resemblance of the MIT Student Center to UW's Schmitz hall (it's that grey upside-down ziggurat look). Gui showed me some of Jen's (his other gf) artwork, which he claimed was scary and I felt was sorta ... meh in terms of gothiness. In fact, Jen was advertised as scary and alpha and really goth, and... well, maybe I just didn't get to meet her much.
So, after sitting for a while (needed after I cracked my back and screamed... just a little), Gui asked if I wanted to see the CSAIL lab (which is where Katie is probably doing her graduate work). So we walk on over to some building (by way of the infinite corridor, which has no less than 4 distinct changes in flooring material) jokingly called "Peewee's Playhouse" (you'd have to see it, it's what the EMP should have looked like). And of course, it's after 5, so the lab is locked. Ahh, but this is no impediment to Gui...
So, Gui notices some guy through the glass that had taught a guest lecture at Olin just last week. He waves him over, and gets him to unlock the door, and Gui is on him telling him how they know each other before the other guy can even be confused. We're after the office of some robotics guy (Gui wants to work for him this summer), so we get directions and go wandering off in the lab. Now, mind you, this is a CS lab, so it's not like there's yellow caution tape on the ground or anything, but still. We wander into a few places, each time just asking for directions (or, rather, I'm just following Gui, who is doing his darndest to appear like he knows what he's doing). Eventually, we get to this guy's office, who sorta does a double take when he sees Gui. "How'd you get in here?" Haha, hehe, hoho... apparently this guy is notorious for not answering emails, so it is productive for Gui to come see him like this... anyway, we head back out and check out a sweet motion capture setup for the LittleDog project, and then finally towards the street.
Okay, except here's where the twilight zone thing starts to happen. First off, even before we leave the building, Gui runs into someone he hasn't seen in like, oh, months, and convinces her to come to the MIT dance starting next week. Then, (after we decided that Legal Seafood was perhaps a bit high brow for us) Gui tries to break into a car stopped at a light (turns out the driver was another student from Olin). We chased the car down Mass Ave, jaywalked across twice (we got a little confused as to which car was which), and finally met up with (Erin?), who was at MIT to audition for some student plays. We all go to dinner at the student center (which is where the Dance in a couple hours will be, convenient that), and run into more of Erin's friends, (Anna?) and Hector. Anywho, we all grab really fake mexican (makes that place in the HUB look authentic), and sit down and gab.
So, at some point we're just explaining how we all know each other, and when I say, "yeah, I'm just Katie's friend, I go to the University of Washington," Hector's like, "hey, you might know my sister then." We don't end up following this until I later mention that I'm doing CS, at which point he's like "Maybe you do know my sister then, her name is Jenny Yuen." Now, I'm not close friends with Jenny (actually, I'm having trouble disambiguating which one of two people in my head is actually her), but I do know the name, so now we had this connection cycle (of length 7, for those of you counting).
Hector was lab partners with Anna, who went to high school with Erin, who goes to college with Gui, who is dating Katie (she's also at Olin, but... hush), who knew me from HS, who knows Jenny Yuen, who is Hector's younger sister. wtf crazy.
Anywho, after a while Katie shows up, and a bit after that the dance begins. Preluded by a nice little lesson on movement (unfortunately, didn't teach any real dances, so we had some very confused people). Some very cool friendly people, including yet another person who had been on my flight from Seattle (and it was NW Girl Jam, not Fest). I danced a horrible round of bal, followed by a quick refresher (three or four songs long) on lindy by Katie. No offense to the swing kids, but WTF were you teaching? I have now unlearned everything I thought I knew about lindy, to learn what actually feels right and dances right. Biggest revelations dancing with Katie are when she leads me... heh, we got to the 5 count and I nearly got tossed across the room. turns out body leading IS the answer.
Woot.
Anywho, dance over, bit of awkward poly drama for Katie and Gui, and then T ride back, and to bed. Little miffed over third-wheeliness, but it'll pass. Okay, that's all for now.
So, holy shit, I just had the most amazing time down in Cambridge today with Gui. I've been having a pretty good time at Olin so far, but I haven't been getting out to meet the locals as much as I would like... my own fault, I guess. However, today was a total departure, and I'm glad I got some time to get to know Gui better.
First things first, it's a 10 minute car ride to the nearest T station (Mass Transit Train), so Gui conned yet another Oliner-with-a-car into driving us there. On the way there, a bus coming the other direction decided it didn't need to wait on silly lesser vehicles, and took a left turn directly in front of us. Curious drivers here on the East Coast, I guess. From there, the T takes about 40 minutes (according to Gui, I didn't time it) to get into Boston. We talked about how on repetitive trips you just sort of memorize the pattern of things going past you. I didn't say so at the time, but I still remember every landmark along Woodinville-Duvall Road from the Safeway to Katie's house.
So, we got off at Harvard Square, and wandered aimlessly for a time. Saw some Mint Syrup that I wish I'd picked up for Nate, but I just am not really a gift buyer, I guess. We saw signs for a new store opening called Hemptopia, and we tried to find it, but the signs lied - the store had not yet opened. In the same mini-pike-place kind of establishment, however, we found a quaint little anime store (they had soundtracks, yay), and escaped only moments before our wallets took heavy losses. Mmm, and then we had some Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream. I got the "baklava" flavor, which tasted nothing like Baklava and yet was still tasty.
After that we found Mass Ave and wandered in what we thought (correctly) was a MIT-esque direction. Stopped by the Harvard Bookstore (Amartya Sen is giving a lecture weekend after next, not fair), and a Salvation Army (for dance clothes, but no luck), and a store that advertised hats but had none, and almost by the MIT museum of Robotics, but it was closed.
About a half hour of walking later (it could not have been an hour), we arrived at MIT, and stopped by the Student Center to rest our heels. I'd been here once before, but I was struck by the resemblance of the MIT Student Center to UW's Schmitz hall (it's that grey upside-down ziggurat look). Gui showed me some of Jen's (his other gf) artwork, which he claimed was scary and I felt was sorta ... meh in terms of gothiness. In fact, Jen was advertised as scary and alpha and really goth, and... well, maybe I just didn't get to meet her much.
So, after sitting for a while (needed after I cracked my back and screamed... just a little), Gui asked if I wanted to see the CSAIL lab (which is where Katie is probably doing her graduate work). So we walk on over to some building (by way of the infinite corridor, which has no less than 4 distinct changes in flooring material) jokingly called "Peewee's Playhouse" (you'd have to see it, it's what the EMP should have looked like). And of course, it's after 5, so the lab is locked. Ahh, but this is no impediment to Gui...
So, Gui notices some guy through the glass that had taught a guest lecture at Olin just last week. He waves him over, and gets him to unlock the door, and Gui is on him telling him how they know each other before the other guy can even be confused. We're after the office of some robotics guy (Gui wants to work for him this summer), so we get directions and go wandering off in the lab. Now, mind you, this is a CS lab, so it's not like there's yellow caution tape on the ground or anything, but still. We wander into a few places, each time just asking for directions (or, rather, I'm just following Gui, who is doing his darndest to appear like he knows what he's doing). Eventually, we get to this guy's office, who sorta does a double take when he sees Gui. "How'd you get in here?" Haha, hehe, hoho... apparently this guy is notorious for not answering emails, so it is productive for Gui to come see him like this... anyway, we head back out and check out a sweet motion capture setup for the LittleDog project, and then finally towards the street.
Okay, except here's where the twilight zone thing starts to happen. First off, even before we leave the building, Gui runs into someone he hasn't seen in like, oh, months, and convinces her to come to the MIT dance starting next week. Then, (after we decided that Legal Seafood was perhaps a bit high brow for us) Gui tries to break into a car stopped at a light (turns out the driver was another student from Olin). We chased the car down Mass Ave, jaywalked across twice (we got a little confused as to which car was which), and finally met up with (Erin?), who was at MIT to audition for some student plays. We all go to dinner at the student center (which is where the Dance in a couple hours will be, convenient that), and run into more of Erin's friends, (Anna?) and Hector. Anywho, we all grab really fake mexican (makes that place in the HUB look authentic), and sit down and gab.
So, at some point we're just explaining how we all know each other, and when I say, "yeah, I'm just Katie's friend, I go to the University of Washington," Hector's like, "hey, you might know my sister then." We don't end up following this until I later mention that I'm doing CS, at which point he's like "Maybe you do know my sister then, her name is Jenny Yuen." Now, I'm not close friends with Jenny (actually, I'm having trouble disambiguating which one of two people in my head is actually her), but I do know the name, so now we had this connection cycle (of length 7, for those of you counting).
Hector was lab partners with Anna, who went to high school with Erin, who goes to college with Gui, who is dating Katie (she's also at Olin, but... hush), who knew me from HS, who knows Jenny Yuen, who is Hector's younger sister. wtf crazy.
Anywho, after a while Katie shows up, and a bit after that the dance begins. Preluded by a nice little lesson on movement (unfortunately, didn't teach any real dances, so we had some very confused people). Some very cool friendly people, including yet another person who had been on my flight from Seattle (and it was NW Girl Jam, not Fest). I danced a horrible round of bal, followed by a quick refresher (three or four songs long) on lindy by Katie. No offense to the swing kids, but WTF were you teaching? I have now unlearned everything I thought I knew about lindy, to learn what actually feels right and dances right. Biggest revelations dancing with Katie are when she leads me... heh, we got to the 5 count and I nearly got tossed across the room. turns out body leading IS the answer.
Woot.
Anywho, dance over, bit of awkward poly drama for Katie and Gui, and then T ride back, and to bed. Little miffed over third-wheeliness, but it'll pass. Okay, that's all for now.