A little background, with a lot of parentheses: I just got picked to be a FAP (Freshman Arts Program) counselor, which is an FPOP (Freshman Pre-Orientation Program) that takes place the week before orientation (the week before classes start for freshmen). FAP involves spending a little time in your discipline (either music, creative writing, visual arts, photography, dance, theater, or film - my discipline, which you should all sign up for) and the rest of the time participating in random arts activities (like building a city out of trash, or seeing an improv show in Boston, or having a talent show/karaoke/dance party). Not only is FAP one week of pure awesome (I mean, come on, you get to hang out with The Angela Monster), but you also just might get the chance to participate in crazy incredible opportunities like this one.

Three weeks ago the Office of the Arts invited a handful of MIT undergrads (all FAPers, though not necessarily from film) to participate in the Michel Gondry exhibit at the Deitch Gallery in New York, inspired by his new movie, Be Kind Rewind. The movie features two guys left in charge of a video store (Mos Def and Jack Black), one of whom is accidentally magnetized and causes all the tapes to be erased. Left to their own devices, the pair is forced to recreate all the movies in the store, or "swede" them. "Sweding", a term coined in the film, implies that the movie is made under a strict time restraint and creative use of limited resources, i.e. switching the camera to "night vision" for a evening shot, with the characters wearing photocopied masks of their faces so as not to invert their skin tones.

Gondry is most famous for this type of organic innovation, as seen in his 2004 Academy Award-winning film "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind". He is also known for his visually stunning music videos such as The White Stripes' "Fell in Love With a Girl", Foo Fighters' "Everlong", and Radiohead's "Knives Out", as well as several videos for Björk. He served as an artist-in-residence at MIT in 2005 and 2006, and also just recently came to visit us at the begining of February to screen Be Kind Rewind. "[At MIT,] you can try something, and even if it don’t work, you can try something else," he said, during an interview after the screening. "And I really like that."

So it takes four hours to get from Boston to New York, which means we had to get on the earliest possible bus - 8 AM. Getting on the earlierst possible bus meant getting on the earliest possible T, which meant getting up at 5:30 AM. And it was raining.

After breakfast at McDonald's and a four-hour nap, we got off the bus and, lead by the director of the artist-in-residence program Michele Oshima, headed off into New York to grab food. Thus began probably one of the most well-fed days of my collegiate life. Lunch was at an organic French bakery/restaurant and MIT Office of the Arts picked up the tab, so when they asked us if we wanted dessert the answer was DEFINITELY a yes. (Except for Ken, who got another quiche.)

After eating, we visited a small gallery featuring the short films of an Australian artist, Tracey Moffatt - "Artist", "Lip", and "Doomed" - all of which were compilations of movie clips, edited to create an ironic social commentary. "Doomed" resonated with me in particular, as it showed several clips of large-scale disasters in succession such that that we were essentially desensitized to it upon leaving the gallery.

And finally, we made it to the Deitch Gallery!

We were told that we would have two and a half hours to make the movie - 45 minutes each in Workshops 1 and 2, where we would plan it out, and 1 hour to film. We were then directed to Workshop 1, where we were given a variety of instructions, including picking a genre, a title, writing out a 8-10 sentence storyline, and considering the different sets we had available to use. I became the cameraperson, which means that's my ugly handwriting on the whiteboard.

Workshop 1 was conveniently located above the rest of the gallery, so that we could look over the balcony and see the various sets available:

After Workshop 1, we made props and storyboarded the movie at Workshop 2, which we later discovered we did mostly wrong. But we continued on to make our movie anyway! Filming was pretty crazy and stressful, but we were pretty much used to that from school, so I really enjoyed directing. The movie starred Sila '11, Dave '10, and May '11, the last three emotional people in a world of apathy, who decide to use their talents to cure everyone of their indifference and are eventually get sucked in themselves. (Hence the giant "FAIL" on the whiteboard.)

Oh, and then Michel Gondry came and watched our movie.

We were all kind of embarrassed about showing it in front of people in the first place, but showing it in front of Michel Gondry felt a little like throwing together everything you have in your refrigerator at the end of term (for me, hummus, saltines, and orange juice) and serving it to Martha Stewart. It was certainly not the best job we could've done, especially filming in just one hour with no editing, but that's not to say it wasn't a ridiculously fun experience. Running around and trying to find the next set to film in was something I'll never forget.

And I'll definitely never forget Michel Gondry coming to dinner with us.

Over dinner we talked about a variety of different topics ranging from our movie ("It was.. okay!") to the importance of proper storyboarding ("This (our storyboard) is not the best one I've seen.."), from Eliot Spitzer ("I don't see what the big deal is") to prostitutes ("They are so mean!"). Mostly, though, he told us about his new movie, about a girl who comes to MIT to discover a world of possibility in various experiments being run underground. Hearing him talk about the film, as well as ask us pointed questions about the feeling of arriving at MIT for the first time, was incredibly uplifting, as a lot of movies try to portray MIT pretty unrealistically. The script is still in its early stages; even so, I'm so excited for its release.

As a whole, we left New York feeling inspired, and May left with a kiss on the cheek from Michel Gondry. Except she didn't know it was coming, so she moved away right as he was about to kiss her goodbye, and left Michel Gondry hanging awkwardly. "Uhh.. I was trying to kiss you, but I will just shake everybody's hand instead." And everyone was disappointed. Thanks a lot, May.

Though I think Dave summed it up best when we got back to South Station:

Dave: Can you believe we were here just this morning?
Sila: Look, even the McDonalds menu is different now!
Dave: (wistfully) So much has changed...

(Thanks to Michele for making this entire incredible experience possible!)

From: jess
Subject: IT'S PI TIME (PIE IN THE 132)
Date: March 14, 2008 10:13:04 PM EDT
To: burton1

There is an ABSURD amount of homemade pie (two apple pies, apple torte, vanilla cream, chocolate cream) in the 132. Bring your own plates and forks. Warning: you may get pied in the face (Kes was the first victim).

Happy pi day!
Brought to you by your social chairs + eva + anna haaaas

I'll be back next week, when I return home for spring break and attempt to recover being blasted away by six midterms and a sugar overdose. See you soon!

The only thing that makes it worse is that I have two entries on hold that I really want to write, but can't, because I'm only allowing myself a ten minute study break before I have to go back to reading six chapters for my first exam on Tuesday. So, there'll be an entry responding to your questions from last entry, and the Burton 1 Cribs entry about the different rooms on Burton 1 soon, I promise.

Because Ben did it last summer, and because my blog bio is essentially the same one I wrote in my first entry as a blogger, I recently decided to write a new blog bio. Not only that, but I decided to write a survey. It would be mind-blowing, I decided. It would have all those questions you always wondered but never wanted to ask, like my favorite kind of chocolate bite-sized candy or my favorite Guitar Hero. It would totally win all of Ben's surveys.

However, I ran into a wall while trying to write it, and so I requested help from Sam, whose mind is a creative vesicle of survey questions just waiting to be tapped. And so I tapped that. His mind, I mean. Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you: The Sam Survey.

(Questions written with help from Sam)
Name: Jess
Major: 9 (Brain and Cognitive Science)
Year at MIT: 2010
Residence: Burton-Conner (Burton 1)
Previous Residences: San Francisco, Next House (3rd East), Burton 2
Extracurricular Activities: MIT-EMS, MedLinks, ESG (5.12 TA), Dance Troupe, and UROPing in the Gabrieli lab
Favorite class taken freshman spring: 5.12 (Organic Chemistry I)
Favorite Thai restaurant in Cambridge: Pepper Sky
Favorite animal: Dinosaur
Favorite chocolate bite-sized candy: Toss up between peanut m&m's and peanut butter m&m's
Favorite Guitar Hero: Guitar Hero II
Favorite kind of eggs: Omelettes, scrambled (either with pepper or cheddar cheese), hard boiled, over easy, in that order
Record for number of grapes held in mouth at one time: 21 (they were big grapes)
Favorite flavor of gummy bear: Green, closely followed by red
Favorite fabric softener: Bounce (not to be confused with the Gwyneth Paltrow movie)
Favorite Arcade Fire lyric: "If you want something, don't ask for nothing! If you want nothing, don't ask for something!" -Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
Favorite member of Penn & Teller: Teller
Favorite German word: Schmetterling
Favorite state quarter: Toss up between Oklahoma and Wisconsin
Most recent grocery list: Cheese (feta, parmesan), tortillas, salad, vegetable broth, bread, leeks, basil, Go-Gurt, instant ramen, microwaveable curry
Favorite combination of colors for argyle: Light blue, brown, grey
Favorite line of the T: The caves of the green line always makes me feel like I'm at Disneyland
Song used as the opening credits of your movie: The Shins's cover of "We Will Become Silhouettes"
Favorite accountant from The Office: Kevin
Favorite kind of kick: Roundhouse
Favorite piece of EMT terminology: Spontaneous pneumothorax, or "sucking chest wound"
Best Scrabble word: "SQUEEZE"
Favorite pencil: Papermate Sharpwriter. They look like real pencils, but they're mechanical. They make me feel like I'm staying true to my roots
High score on Helicopter: 1433
Favorite building: 46
Favorite palindrome: Go hang a salami, I'm a lasagna hog
Favorite non-Beaver athletic mascot: UCSC Banana Slugs
Favorite Burger King commercial: This one
Anticipated method of death: "In a breakdancing contest. That turns into a riot." -Sam

What have YOU always wanted to ask? Comment your questions in. (By the way, I probably won't change my blog bio. I kind of like the old one. Sorry, Sam!)

Going to Harvard as a MIT student can sometimes make you feel like the only boy at Wellesley. You can easily pick me out of a crowd, rocking ratty untied Chuck Taylors and an MIT Orientation Leader 2006 shirt, wondering where the heck the building numbers are and why my recitation ('scuse me, "section") is in a place called "Malinckrodt". (I wasn't an Orientation Leader in 2006, obviously, because I was getting oriented. The t-shirts were free in a box outside 7-103.) Amongst a sea of generally well-dressed, well-groomed and well-mannered Ivy Leaguers, my knotted, unwashed mane that serves as home to many a transgenic fruit fly and is slightly remniscent of Amy Winehouse sticks out like I'm wearing a Tim the Beaver suit.

Nina, on the other hand, fits right in with her peacoat and colorful scarves. The people sitting in her suite kitchen with me right now have recently come to the consensus that Nina is one of the best-dressed people on our floor, and effortlessly so. And yet she still manages to be an excellent pset buddy and lab partner, so you can see why I'm taking Harvard classes - basically, I'm hoping that in time her intrinsic fashion sense may somehow rub off on me. Like in those chick flicks where the girl becomes hot, but still learns that it's what's on the inside that counts. Or not, like in Grease. Or she becomes an ogre, like in Shrek.

Nina also was the one to convince me of how easy it was to cross-register, since she had a pretty good experience taking Chemistry 17 last term. In fact, it's pretty much just like registering for normal MIT classes - you have a separate form that needs to be signed by the Harvard professor, your advisor, and the director of the HASS (Humanities, Arts and Social Science) office, which then gets turned in to both the MIT HASS office and the Harvard registrar. No more than half of your classes can be Harvard classes, and you must be a full-time MIT student to cross-register (paying full MIT tuition, which you kind of have to do anyway if you're taking MIT classes).

So about four times a week now, I take the T or the 1 Bus to Harv, which means I have to factor at least 10-15 minutes' travel time into my morning routine of sprinting out the door with a Go-Gurt (portable breakfast food FTW). As easy as it was to register and as easy as it is to get there, though, at times it can feel like I'm studying abroad. There are cross-cultural differences aplenty and a definite language barrier - 5.13 becomes Chem 27 and Course 5 itself is now Chemistry and Chemical Biology; teaching aides are no longer TAs but TFs (teaching fellows); and of course there's the whole dressing up for class thing. (I guess over there they just call it "getting dressed".)

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely glad to be taking advantage of this opportunity, and I enjoy the mixed experience. But I can honestly say, and I think Nina will agree with me on this one, that there is no greater feeling than getting off the bus at the end of the day and stepping back onto MIT ground. There's nothing better than knowing that you've returned somewhere where you can punt your 7.03 p-set all day to code a wiki for Burton 1, and you can tell someone that, and they will know exactly what you mean. Basically there's no place like home, like in The Wizard of Oz. (Or not, like in Poltergeist.)

My schedule, if you're wondering, consists of:
Stat 100, a Harvard class that fulfills a Course 9 requirement (in place of 9.07, Statistics for Brain and Cognitive Science). It's probably one of the easier classes on the Harvard spectrum, seeing as every exam is open notes/open book. When I heard that my jaw just about unhinged and crawled away. Nina was like, "Welcome to Harv."

Chem 27, my other Harvard class, is sort of a weird amalgamation of 5.13, 7.05, and 5.310 (or I guess 5.36, since the lab is a little more geared towards organic reactions). That's Organic Chemistry II, Biochemestry, and a chem lab; so there isn't really any class like this offered at MIT (of couse, Harvard doesn't really offer 5.13 or 5.310 either, and so because MIT splits them into two classes they're taught really differently). Twice a week we have an hour and a half of lecture; once a week we have one section (recitation), and one five-hour lab (most MIT lab classes meet twice a week for five hours, and once for a one-hour lecture). This also means I am blessed with the glory of Tuesdays, in which I get up at 7 to bus over to Harvard for a five hour lab, hightail it back to MIT for my attendance-mandatory Japanese class, sit through another hour and a half lecture of 9.00, then bus BACK over to Harvard for Chem 27 section. By Tuesday night I can usually be found limping, battered and bruised, back to Burton-Conner, sometimes with bits of an unknown organic acid in my hair.

Chem 27, if you're wondering, is definitely one of the harder classes on the Harvard spectrum. Exams are pretty close to what I'm used to at MIT, and lectures contain all sorts of gems like the glucosidase inhibitor "deoxynojirimycin". (I remain unconvinced that "deoxynojirimycin" is an actual word. I'm still waiting for the professor to announce, "By the way, you remember that glucosidase inhibitor I told you about the other day? Deoxynojirimycin? I actually just fell asleep on my keyboard when I was writing the lecture slides, so uh, that's not real. Hahaha.")

21F.502, or Japanese 2. A lot harder than Japanese 1. One similarity between MIT and Harvard - languages in college are definitely not like languages in high school. Yeah, they start you off with "domo arigatou" and all the basics, but it's a lot faster paced, and from day one they speak rapid Japanese at you (same as when I took French for one week, and Chinese for one week). We've all sort of gotten used to it now, but on the first day everyone was like, "er, this is Japanese 1, right?"

9.00, or Introduction to Psychology. Professor Gabrieli is not only one of the more interesting lecturers I've had, but I also just started working in his lab this IAP. Rather than your average introduction psych course that sticks mostly to Freud and thinking really hard about your feelings, 9.00 has more of neuroanatomical applications - i.e. in yesterday's lecture, where we discussed the limitations of the lateral geniculate nucleus in visual processing. He also starts every class with a song from his iTunes playlist; today's gem was "You've Got My Attention" by Copeland.

And, there's also my UROP, which I'm doing for credit (as opposed to for pay, or volunteer). I get to write programs for people to look at while they're in the MRI, and sometimes in lecture Professor Gabrieli talks about what I'm working on and I get all excited and My Friend Matt Cohen is all like, "nobody thinks that's cool but you."

Here is something cool, though - the girl who works next to me is Nupur Lala, the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion and star of the documentary Spellbound.

The thing is, they probably should have never told me that she was the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion. Because now anytime she does anything, like ask for programming help, I think to myself, "The 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion just asked for programming help." Or, "The 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion just got up to refill the toner in the printer." Or, "The 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion is TAKING A NAP AT HER COMPUTER." Not only is it a pretty big line to get in your head, a lot of the times I also forget to add in that she was the star of the documentary Spellbound. "I mean, the 1999 Scripps National Spelling Bee Champion and star of the documentary Spellbound is TAKING A NAP AT HER COMPUTER!!"

Nupur is my hero.

This was the only thing that really disappointed me about the ring - its complete lack of controversy. I would've loved to see a woman on the seal. It seems illogical that people would complain about defying tradition in previous years, when the point of having all these quirky symbols is to defy tradition and create an identity that represents your class as a whole, so why not, in an era in which we have a female president and a female running as a major Democratic candidate, represent us with a woman? (Melis and Laura wrote similarly about the subject, especially since Melis's class was right after the class of 2007's Brass Rat had decided to try using a woman once again. It was changed for the first time in 2002).

Anyway. Continuing on..

The half-moon, which I didn't have enough room to describe in the picture, is because the moon was in the half-moon phase when we first came to MIT in August 2006, and will be once again when we graduate in June 2010. (AAAWWW.) Also, another thing: there are 20 hidden 10s on the ring, 13 of which are on the bezel.

Regardless of the lack of controversy this year, though (it seems every year something comes up, from the woman, to a leaked design, to hidden cult symbols.. no, wait, that's Disney movies)... the Brass Rat remains one of the strongest Institute traditions that is recognized all over, from grad school professors noticing you went to MIT undergrad to a lady at a coat check. So getting your Brass Rat is a pretty amazing part of being an MIT student, especially since it's one of the few times that your entire class assembles on their own free will.

(Also, because Ring Comm was giving away a Wii.)

For more information about the Brass Rat:
The 2010 Ring Comm Website
Article in The Tech about the 2010 Brass Rat
Mollie's 2006 Brass Rat Entry (sorry, Mollie!)
Matt's 2007 Ring Premiere entry
Mitra's 2007 Ring Premiere entry
Melis's 2008 Ring Premiere entry
Article in the Tech about the 2008 Brass Rat
Laura's 2009 Ring Premiere entry
Article in the Tech about the 2009 Brass Rat

Still, I like to decorate, so I did spruce it up a bit:

This picture really doesn't adequately represent how small this room is. It's smaller than my AP Chem teacher. She was like 4'3". Basically, it was a pretty big step down from my double during freshman fall, but most people move out of doubles freshman year into singles if they choose to stay in the dorms (about 50% of MIT guys pledge fraternities, and a large percentage of them move into those houses). Still, mine wasn't especially ideal, since it had a view of the other side of the dorm. The design is a pretty big downside to Burton-Conner - most of its residents can see most of its residents, and while that works out great for Marty's dad in Back to the Future, my main purpose behind living in Burton-Conner is not checking out the ladies.

Fortunately, the senior who lives in the room around the corner from me moved out at the end of IAP, and the floor held re-rooming for her room specifically. And this entry would be really anticlimactic if I hadn't gotten her room, so luckily, I did. You can all send Kaitlin thank you letters for saving the plot from certain death. (Although we could've buried it in my coffin single.)

First step to moving in: the room required a paint job. Getting to paint your room and walls is a pretty big upside to Burton-Conner (as well as in Senior Haus, East Campus, Bexley, and I believe Random?..), so although I'd moved twice before (from Next to Burton 2 to Burton 1) I was REALLY excited to get this new room. The coffin never really quite felt like mine, since I didn't get to pick it or paint it, so I got to remedy that with the help of my dad (my parents were visiting that weekend) and Gillian '10:

The pre-roomwarming party went through several stages: from just Gillian and I loudly singing Ingrid Michaelson, to Rich '10 and Praveen '10 serenading us, to a personal Ben '11 concert (one of the most musically talented people I've ever met, Ben can play pretty much any instrument and pretty much any song, after listening to a few measures i.e. Hot in Herre on the acoustic guitar), to a tea party, to a cleaning party. People will be talking about the pre-roomwarming party of '08 for YEARS, I swear.

A note on that back wall: Gillian and I couldn't decide on a color for it, since I had a great teal color that went well with the light blue of the wall to the right (which I later used on that very wall, for the mural), but Gillian was a big fan of the light orange. So we both painted swatches and decided the swatches themselves looked cooler than just a solid color. The wall became a subject of great controversy between Gillian and my mom later that night.

They both, however, liked the mural:

That particular image (printed on a sweatshirt I bought last term) was the result of an internal struggle between that dinosaur and this dinosaur. I was initially leaning towards the latter because of my great affinity for sandwiches, but I went with the former because it seemed like it'd be a little easier to sleep under.

Ready to see the final room? I don't think you're ready for this jelly.

I HAVE A FLOOR NOW. I can flail my arms wildly about in circles FOR NO REASON! Man, it's great. I know the photos don't really represent it well, but you can sort of tell this room is a lot more spacious - in the first photo, my bed is lofted and the futon/chair are underneath, and the desk is basically a foot away from that entire structure (nicknamed the "PLANETARIUM FORT".. the reason behind that is kind of a long story, but basically it implies I have a really small room). But here I have enough room to just put my shoes under my bed, and leave the futon and chair against the back wall.. so the "PLANETARIUM FORT" name no longer really applies.

Which is where you come in. What should I name the new room? Examples of other rooms on Burton 1 include "TREEHOUSE" (for the tree mural painted in the corner), "UNITED NATIONS" (for its diverse residents) and "LOVECAVE" (for obvious reasons). Right now I'm thinking "JURASSIC PARK", but I'm definitely open to suggestions.

So those are the new digs. Coming soon: Burton 1 Cribs, an inside look at the other super sweet rooms on my floor! (Also an entry about the classes I'm taking this term - I'm cross-registering two at Harvard - and Ring Premiere, which on Monday. I'm personally more excited than Evan.) Speaking of my floor, the boys surprised all the girls yesterday with valentines on their doors:

I almost died from the cuteness; seriously, nearly went into cardiac arrest. Hope your Valentine's Days were all similarly lethal! (Send me your room suggestions. It'll be your Valentine's Day gift to me. Also, questions!)