I figure that with decisions coming your way in four days and an orgo test coming my way in a week, it'd be better if you guys were distracted in my stead. It is with this notion in mind that I present you with the following means to prevent the insanity inherent in counting down the hours, minutes, and seconds to 3/14 at 1:59 pm:

1) xkcd

2) sporcle

3) ImprovEverywhere's many accomplishments

4) hulu

5) Potter Puppet Pals! (Yes, I realize this is old, but it's funny anyway :D)

6) StumbleUpon

7) iSketch!

8) The Onion :)

9) I Will Derive!

10) And my most favorite lecture in the world:

Just four days of waiting left! ♥

(P.S. Thank you, Kuljot '13, for helping me come up with this distracting list ^_^)

Because my EMT-B state exam is coming up in just over a week, I've spent the past few days cycling between an absurd sense of calm and an overwhelming sense of panic. I've forgotten so much of what I learned in the EMT class I took over IAP, and I haven't had a whole lot of experience on shift. The latter, though, might actually be a good thing, since - as I discovered earlier this week - I'm not that great at working the stretcher when anyone more than, say, 10 pounds is on it. So basically, that's everyone minus newborn infants. Yay.

As you can imagine, an EMT that can't handle a stretcher with someone on it isn't all that useful. Channeling the spirit of "practice makes perfect," I e-mailed a few of the crew chiefs on duty this last week, asking if I could come in and tinker with the stretchers a little bit.

And thus were born the scratches, the soreness, and the wary suspicion that biceps and triceps might need to be a larger part of my life - asap!! I was slightly jealous of the other members of my EMT class, none of whom seemed to have any trouble lifting people on the stretcher. For me, every moment was a struggle, and my mind juggled with constant reminders: Place your feet properly! Lift with your legs, not your back! Pull the trigger! Don't let the wheels drop! Communicate with your partner! Ahhh, brain overloaddd.

It was certainly a learning experience. On some level, I'm grateful that this happened, since I'm now aware of the limits of my strength and the techniques I need to work on. I'm also now fully aware that MIT EMTs are some of the kindest people around - close to ten people encouraged me, helped me, and stuck by me as I fumbled my way into a modicum of stretcher grace. A special thanks to Vidya '12, who came in when she wasn't even on shift to bravely be my patient and to further my ambulance-related education :)

Also - a thanks to all of you EA Admits who participated in the event last night. Your questions were great, and both Paul '12 and I had a lot of fun answering them. I hope I made sufficient eye contact; I think I forgot that the webcam was there, absorbed as I was in reading the questions. I'm sorry we couldn't answer all of them! If you have any queries you really want answered, feel free to drop me an e-mail.

Good luck to all of you waiting for RA decisions!!

As the host school, we didn't actually compete in the contest; we did, however, perform the opening number:

I'm really proud of this video! We practiced sooo much for this performance. It seriously feels as though I spent more of last week in dance practice than I did in class. Most everyone on MIT Natya has been walking around with bags underneath their eyes for quite some time now. Saturday (the day of our show) was particularly chaotic, though I admittedly had fun using the "Build Your Own Pizza" app on the Domino's website to order pizza for all the teams.

MIT Natya is one of several dance teams on campus; I chose to be a part of it because Indian classical dance has been a part of my life for well over ten years now. It's been a huge outlet for me, an activity that compresses all of my pent-up frustration and energy and translates it into emphatic footsteps and sharp movements. It's easy to smile when performing on stage and even easier to forget that the audience is there. And dancing with the other members of MIT Natya is rejuvenating - it feels like a lively celebration - with the best of friends :)

For your viewing pleasure, here's a set of photos from Laasya ~ all photo credit goes to Arfa '13.

Oh - and a shout-out to Brian '13, who not only supported MIT Natya by coming to Laasya but also desperately wanted to be mentioned in the blogs :)

But my favorite class right now is definitely 21W.755 (Reading and Writing Short Stories): hard proof that MIT has humanities classes. And that they're awesome.

For 21W.755, I get to write a short story every week. There's generally a prompt, but the professor encourages us to go outside its boundaries, challenge it if we so wish. There are no dumb stories; there are no limitations. We write about what we want to write about, and then we read it aloud to receive feedback from both the professor and our peers.

I was scared to read my story aloud. Incredibly so.

The prompt for this week was to think back on our lives, pick out a memory that seems insignificant yet somehow memorable, and then write a story that starts with, "I don't know why I remember..."

I wrote the following - a slightly embellished story that is nonetheless true in its essentials. Before I share, let me put out the following disclaimer: I am not a professional author, and the following was written in about one hour and never consequently edited. Please don't judge me too harshly! :'(

Now, without further ado, The Short Story I Read Aloud:

~*~

I don’t know why I remember reciting multiplication tables to my mother.

I was maybe six years old - carefree, fearless, intoxicated by the New Zealand beauty that surrounded me. Our home was quaint – a one-story house, white with turquoise shutters, kept exceedingly comfortable by central heating. There were three bedrooms, two living rooms, a small study, and a kitchen. I spent most of my time in the larger of the two living rooms, in which resided four squishy, mustard-yellow couches, perfect for me to jump on when I got tired of my trampoline or bed.

My parents sought to channel my elastic energy into something more productive than bruised knees and bloody cuts; as such, there came a day when my mom led me outside, onto the back porch, and handed me the two times table to learn.

Undaunted, I ran about the landing with the paper in my hands, climbing onto ledges and catapulting myself off of them. Before every launch, I glanced at one line of the table, committing it to memory. After twelve such instances of perfect projectile motion, I was done.

I turned my attention to my mother, who had been plucking plums all the while, with minimal success. At 5’ 2”, she was a good four feet shorter than the tallest branch on the plum tree, even with the added height of the porch. While the branches closest to her had been neatly stripped of their fruit, the ones farthest away drooped pitifully with the weight they bore.

The plums that filled my mother’s basket were beautiful. Standing on one of the wooden ledges, I had a clear view of their deep magenta coats and still-attached stems. I crept closer and poked at a few of them, just to see what would happen. My un-cut nails easily pierced the skin of one plum, shattering its seamless surface and allowing its captive juice to ooze out. Momentarily surprised, I looked up at my mom, who was still reaching for some higher-up fruit, her face creased with effort. I glanced back at the fruit I’d punctured, touched the juice with my pinky, and slurped it up with a natural indelicacy.

Delicious.

My multiplication tables forgotten, I gathered the two bottom ends of my t-shirt to create a makeshift basket. After checking to make sure my mother was still otherwise occupied, I began shoveling plums into my cloth cradle, hoarding as much as my Youth Small shirt could hold. I crept away with my loot, curled up in the tiny space separating my bed from my wall, and feasted. Fifteen minutes, ten plums, and a stomachache later, I presented myself to my mother in shame, fully expecting to be lectured on the immorality of thievery. She studied me for a little while, noting my new purple mustache, as well as my sticky, still-dripping fingers. And then she laughed.

It was such a clear, high, joyous laugh. I stared at her in open confusion, which only served to intensify her mirth. Unable to speak coherently, she gave me a pat on the head, and still chuckling, gestured for me to follow her into the kitchen and swallow some strawberry-flavored medicine to ease my stomach pain. I loved that syrupy medicine so much that I would have consumed the whole thing, had it not been kept on the highest shelf in the fridge. As I licked my spoon clean, I continued to watch my mother, wary of further surprises.

Her giggling finally under control, she opened her mouth. I braced myself.

In Tamil, she said, “Hamsika, will you recite the two times table?”

I froze. For the life of me, I couldn’t remember what came past two times one is two.

“Um…” I faltered. My mother’s eyes were still dancing from the plum incident. I noticed the amusement and had an idea.

“Amma, can I tell you the two times table outside, on the porch?”

She agreed, her eyes now filled with curiosity rather than hilarity. The minute we were outside, I climbed up onto a ledge and jumped as high off it as I could. Within seconds, the two times table came rushing back into my memory.

“Two times one is two! Two times two is four!” I chanted with a rhythm fit to rival a metronome. “Two times three is six!”

I continued in this manner until finally, with one last gallivanting leap – “Two times twelve is twenty-four!”

I landed triumphantly on the ground, right in front of my mother, breathing heavily. She smiled at me, and I grinned in return. Thirty seconds later, I got clocked on the head by a plum, as if it too were offering me some kind of congratulations. I fell down, dazed. My mom helped me up, then handed me another sheet of paper. Two times table down. Three to go.

~*~

Thus ends the tale of what was most likely my first ever math lesson. Moral of the story: Take this class!!

One last thing: I want to thank Varun, a prospective student, for sharing the following video with me:

Writing isn't the only way to remember the past :)

Case in point: Where did my weekend go?!
Follow-up case in point: Where does every weekend go?!

I'm sitting here, in my room, at my desk. It's nearly 11:30 pm on a Sunday night, and I feel as though I've spent the last forty-eight hours traipsing through puddles of psets, EMT drills, writer's block, dance, and reading assignments with only a moderate degree of success at remaining dry and unruffled.

Much of this weekend was admittedly fun-filled: EMT drills consisted of eight hours spent gulping down donuts and pizza, simulating emergency scenarios, and capturing embarrassing videos of fellow EMTs. Writing a short story for my HASS class was entirely entertaining and made me wish that every class I was enrolled in graded me for my ability to come up with bizarre plots. And both my bio and physics psets were actually doable. Shocking, I know.

But there are so many things I wish I had more time to do. I actually have a list:

1. Visit the Museum of Science/Museum of Fine Arts - MIT students get in free to a lot of the local museums. Which means that I really have no excuse not to go.

2. Read - For my birthday, I received some great books, including "The Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell and "The Happiness Project" by Gretchen Rubin. I keep reaching for both of these - and then I realize that I have an orgo book that I need to be reading.

3. Watch Avatar - Yes. I know. It's sad that I haven't seen it yet. I have been informed so by several people on various occasions. I inform myself of this fact quite frequently.

4. Write letters to friends - I love getting mail from friends, and I always mean to return the favor. It's happened maybe once so far.

5. Bring myself up-to-date on goings-on outside the world of MIT - What? The Superbowl? Today? Huh?

6. Draw - It's been so long since I last took out my color pencils and drew for fun.

7. Learn how to iron my clothes - At least I know how to do laundry...

8. Watch every episode of Arthur in existence - Aardvarks are cool.

9. Learn how to solve a Rubik's cube - I have a friend who can solve it in about twenty seconds. He keeps telling me to learn how to do it. Apparently, it comes in handy when you're trying make new friends.

10. Figure out how to make smoothies that actually taste good so I don't keep craving Jamba Juice when it's 20 degrees outside and I don't feel like walking across Harvard Bridge and into Boston, where the closest Jamba Juice, to my knowledge, exists.

Someone give me Hermione's Time-Turner, por favor.

I'm taking the following classes:

7.013 - Introductory Biology
8.02 - Physics II
5.12 - Organic Chemistry I
9.00 - Introduction to Psychology
21W.755 - Writing and Reading Short Stories
9.URG - Graded Undergraduate Research in Course 9
Total: 72 units

I'm way more enthusiastic about my classes this semester than I was about my classes last semester. I loved biology in high school - mainly because I had a great teacher who complemented lectures in class with several hilarious stories concerning jellyfish, nodules, and hermaphroditic cats, but also because I found biology slightly more relevant to my existence than, say, gyroscopes (*cough* 8.01 *cough*) - not that I have anything against gyroscopes. They were entirely entertaining to play with last semester.

I also had an awesome time taking psychology in high school. That was the one class where I actually liked reading the textbook. We'd watch a whole bunch of videos by Stanford's Philip Zimbardo, whose prison experiment some of you may have heard of. Towards the end of the year, we also got a chance to tour an MRI lab and take a look at the psychology in movies like "I am Sam" (I LOVE that movie!). I've heard a lot of great things about 9.00 here at MIT, so maybe it'll eclipse my high school psych experience.

I'm taking the writing class for a couple reasons - first, I have a lot of fun writing and think it'd be great to improve my creative writing ability, or current lack thereof. Second, every MIT student has to pick a HASS concentration, and I want mine to be writing! It'll give me a little break from the demands of science and math classes :)

9.URG is just a continuation of the Course 9 research I started doing during IAP. I love my lab! Everyone is nice, calm, helpful, and quick to guide me when I have questions regarding any independent work I'm doing in the lab. One of my floormates now has a UROP in the lab a few doors down from mine - I see this as a fantastic benefit to working in my lab because when I'm done with my work, I can pop into her lab and annoy her =P Or give her chocolate, since she REALLY likes chocolate :)

All in all, the only two classes I'm slightly wary about are physics and orgo, since physics always takes me longer to master than other subjects do and because I've never been exposed to orgo before. As a 'sophomore,' I'm allowed to designate one subject as an Exploratory subject, which means that I can take the class, see my grade, and decide whether I want to keep that grade or change the class to non-credit. Guess what I picked as my Exploratory subject? Yup, orgo. Ahh, that class is notoriously difficult...*cringe*

Other things I'm up to this semester: EMT shifts! I'll be taking the state EMT exam in mid-March, but until then, I'll be trying to get as much experience as I can continuing to work as a third rider on the MIT ambulance. Basically, anyone who's CPR-certified can be a third rider on the MIT ambulance - so any of you admits who decide to come here next year should bring along your CPR certs and work with MIT-EMS! I'm also doing the same getfit program that Jenny blogged about earlier. Week 1 just ended, and I logged 660 minutes of exercise :) But now that classes are about to start, I'm not sure if I can keep it up. It might not be too hard, though - there are a few Indian dance shows coming up this semester that I'm going to be participating in. I'm sure we're going to be practicing a lot. Time management is going to be crucial...

I hope you guys are having a blast as second semester seniors!! I had a lot of fun last year just spending time with people and cruising through school. Make sure you collect lots of little memories :)

Regardless, it is my hope to now give you a virtual field trip of sorts - into my dorm: McCormick Hall :)

To begin with, here's the front - in all its December snow-covered glory:

McCormick has two towers, each with seven floors and its own penthouse. The tower on the left (called the East Tower) is filled with several singles, whereas the tower the on the right (logically called the West Tower) consists of a mixture of singles, doubles, and triples.

On the first floor of McCormick, you'll see a lot of little rooms called 'date rooms,' in which people generally lock themselves up during exam time and study until their brain cells are no less than fried. You'll also see a courtyard:

And two large living rooms - appropriately named the Brown Living Room and the Green Living Room:

A lot of interesting goings-on take place in these living rooms - house meetings, dance practices, a capella rehearsals, study sessions, and much more. Right next to these living rooms is our dining hall:

McCormick's dining hall is open for dinner five days a week (Sunday - Thursday, except during IAP - which makes me sad because I have to walk over to Baker dorm next door and don't get a chance to fully exploit my potential to be lazy). The food isn't bad - there's a good deal of variety, and McCormick residents get a 50% discount at all the dorm dining halls (in addition to a $300 base semester fee). I get tired of the food every now and then, though, which is fine, since there's a Shaw's grocery store pretty close to campus :)

If you take the East Tower elevator up to the East Penthouse, this is what you'll see:

A music room -

A kitchen -

A reallyyy nice common room (with a TV!! except I don't get to watch TV that often...) -

In the West Penthouse, you'll see a similar common room (minus the TV) -

As well as some study cubicle-type things -

Notice how clean everything is? It's because boys can't live at McCormick! Haha, just kidding. It's true that boys can't live here, but the cleanliness is not due to their absence but rather due to the amazing members of McCormick's cleaning staff, all of whom are super-friendly and do a great job of keeping McCormick absolutely pristine. Unfortunately though, I still have to clean my own room. This is generally a serious concern, since room-cleaning takes on a somewhat lower priority during the school year...

The above picture was taken a long time ago by my roommate Jeanne '13; while it accurately demonstrates the size of our room, it does not provide a faithful representation of the extent to which our room can look like utter chaos. I cleaned my side of the room at one point though, as evidenced by this picture:

So that basically concludes this field trip. During the Early Action Telethon, a lot of you new admits asked questions about dorms - I hope this helped out a little! Let me know if you'd like to know anything else about McCormick :)

Oh - one more thing: a view from the East Penthouse balcony -

See why I love my dorm? :D

And this:

And this:

And maybe even this:

I am utterly in love with this building. Everything from its 90-foot-high atrium to its bamboo forest to its bold colors to its people. This is Building 46, home to all that is Course 9: Brain/Cognitive Sciences. Which, as of January 15, 2010, happens to be my major.

Generally, MIT students declare their major at the end of their first year; however, each December, the registrar sends out letters to some freshmen, offering them Early Sophomore Standing. The freshmen who choose to accept this are, as far as school records are concerned, sophomores. Which means that they no longer have a 57-credit limit for the spring semester, nor do they fall under the A/B/C/No Record grading system that second semester freshmen are privy too. The greatest advantage to Early Sophomore Standing is that if you know what major you want to pursue, you can declare it and be assigned a departmental advisor, who can guide you through the course selection process. There are so many different requirements at MIT (the HASS requirement, Communication requirement, General Institute Requirements, major-specific requirements) that it sometimes becomes slightly confusing.

I know several individuals so far who have elected Early Sophomore Standing. I chose to accept it primarily because I love the Brain/CogSci department here at MIT - the research being done, the classes offered, and the opportunities presented. I applied to MIT with an interest in Course 9, and nothing I experienced first semester did anything to diminish that ambition.

It did feel strange to declare my major. When I walked out of the Course 9 Undergrad Adminstrator's office on Friday, I was a little too cheerful and smiling a little too much. I finally felt like I was a real college student and that I was going somewhere in this world. I still have a few GIRs left to complete, but after that, I'll only have to study what I really want to study.

There's something incredibly satisfying about that.

My 4 pm-11 pm shift this past Sunday agrees with about 2/3 of that answer: Yep, it was good (despite the to-be-described misfortune, I did enjoy my first shift), and no, there were no calls. It wasn't, however, what I would call 'pretty uneventful.'

Before I begin my little tale, I'd like to take full responsibility for Sunday's events. I did, after all, hope that something exciting would happen on my first shift ever. What followed that wish was just. my. luck.

~*~

My shift began on the doorstep of my dorm, where the other two EMTs on shift kindly picked me up in the MIT ambulance. We proceeded to the ambulance bay, where I spent at least an hour going through a massive checklist of everything in the ambulance. Among the items I diligently checked off were epi-pens, gauze pads, blankets, AEDs, nasal cannulas, and traction splints. Colorful images of injuries requiring the use of these resources often danced in front of my mental eye as I plowed through my task; I tried my best to block them out but cannot claim any real semblance of success.

After completing the checklist, I settled down into the designated third rider seat, making myself comfortable as the first rider on shift unplugged the ambulance from its battery-charging socket and attempted to ease the ambulance out of the bay.

Too bad it didn't move.

It whimpered feebly and then sputtered into silence. Ironic, that the three of us (well, the other two more than me) had considerable knowledge concerning broken bones and cardiac arrests but that none of us knew how to revive a dead ambulance. So we called in for a little help.

Enter the DAO (Director of Ambulance Operations). And commence the awkward dancing about I do when it's cold and I'm trying to keep warm.

After two unsuccessful jumpstarting attempts (and several minutes spent FREEZING), our DAO brought the ambulance back into the realm of smooth automotive function and insisted that it be kept running for at least two hours. By this time, I was numb and greatly regretting my pre-shift plea for thrill. It was at this moment that I was given the opportunity to drive the ambulance.

Driving, you must understand, is something I greatly miss in college. I'm all for cardio and exercise and all that, but sometimes, I'd love to drive to class instead of wrapping myself in five layers and walking out, whispering a brief prayer as I become a victim of chilly winds and interminably dry skin that no amount of lotion seems to fix.

After signing off on a few papers, I became a driver's ed student once again and for the second time in my life, drove something larger than a Toyota Camry. It felt amazing to drive again, to know that even after six months of not touching a steering wheel, I remembered how to navigate a vehicle on a road.

The two hours flew by, and the three of us returned to the ambulance bay, got out of the ambulance, and headed to the bunkroom, where MIT EMTs basically hang out and wait for calls. As my eyes were pretty tired, I sat down on the sofa and closed my eyes. Soon, I heard this:

"Is she asleep?"
"Yeah, I think so."
"Let's draw on her!"
"No, that's mean."
"But she's sleeping!"
(Me: laughing on the inside and wondering how long I can keep the charade up)

Five Minutes Later
"Okay, fine, let's draw on her."
*patter of shoes, a pen briefly touches my cheek*
(I move slightly (no way am I getting drawn on) and they scatter)

Ten Minutes Later
*click!*
(Me: Aw, crap. They took a picture of me 'sleeping.')

And that's what happens when you pretend to be someone/something you're not.
Sigh...

Yes, I am known for my impeccable sense of timing.

But anyway - Now that I'm in the IAP EMT class, I get to experience the flip side of the victim-EMT dealio. Which means that I get to deck myself in black, belted cargo pants (which took forever to find, by the way), a white polo, and waterproof boots and help those in pain, instead of being in pain myself. Undoubtedly a nice change, I must say.

Having just concluded week one of EMT training, I can honestly claim that I know how to administer CPR, use an AED, help a choking person, take vitals, find pressure points, and bandage wounds. Not that I'm amazingly brilliant at those things. Right now, the quality of my bandaging would probably do more harm than good, as I clearly have issues wrapping the bandage tightly around human appendages. Part of me wants to grab rolls of toilet paper and practice on unsuspecting passersby, effectively mummifying them. I'm not sure how much that would be appreciated, though...

The EMT class is much more intense than I'd originally anticipated. While I knew that the class ran for over 30 hours each week, I naively assumed that that was it and that I'd have oodles of time outside of class.

Wrong!

We're assigned chapters to read each night, and each day we're quizzed on information derived from lectures as well as the textbook. This past week, several students took blood pressure kits home and practiced taking their dormmates' vitals. Basically, this class requires a lot of work.

But I'm definitely still glad to be in it. When I interviewed for the class a few months ago, I was almost completely sure that I wouldn't make it in. Designed to test an individual's ability to recall important information, remain observant, maintain composure, and respond effectively when under the stress, the interview was different from any other I've previously experienced. How many of your past interviewers have spontaneously asked you to tell a joke? Or stand up, turn around, and tell them the color of their hat? Certainly none of mine. I faltered quite a few times in the interview and walked out slightly flushed and convinced that I'd ruined any chance I had of being in the class. Imagine how excited I was to have made the cut and joined 29 others, all incredibly diverse, in learning medical basics, practicing life-preserving skills, and riding with style on the MIT ambulance.

If nothing else, the EMT class has further encouraged me to be pre-med. Listening to Mark (the class instructor) tell stories from his massive arsenal of experience is both interesting and humbling: there's so much I don't know, and so many people who need help! Tomorrow, I get to actually ride on the MIT ambulance as the third rider. I can even DRIVE. I haven't driven in six months, and even when I drove, it was nothing so large as an ambulance. I'm pretty freaked out by the prospect of driving the MIT ambulance. Good thing they train us...

I also get to start researching! After a two-hour orientation at the ECCL (Early Childhood Cognition Lab), I am now competent enough to enter and exit the Brain/Cognitive Sciences building whenever I so wish and whittle away some hours each week coding. 'Coding' is actually a pretty loose term in this case, since it primarily involves watching tapes of kids' reactions in specific situations and recording pertinent information. Regardless, the videos are interesting, and I'm hoping to start coding either tonight or tomorrow.

But right now, I'm hungry. So I shall leave you folks for now :)