Chris S. '11 | October 02, 2009
"SEPTEMBERRR"
I got back to Boston from summer vacation September 2, and it's like what...October 2? o_____O
One of my favorite stanzas to the Engineer's Drinking Song goes like this:
An MIT surveyor once found the gates of HellHe looked the devil in the eye, and said "You're looking well"
The devil looked right back at him, and said "Why visit me -
You've been through Hell already; you went to MIT!"
So I was going to write an entry about how this week was "hell week." (these things happen to everyone at MIT, depending on when their waves of midterms are - I realized that these weeks are usually really bad the first time around, since the first midterms usually fall on the same day, whereas when the semester goes on the exam schedule gets a bit more staggered, so it's better).
For example, yesterday - I had 3 hours of exams, 3 hours of cramming between exams, 3 hours of urop after that, and then rushed off to another 3 hour class at night, and then I still had a project proposal due today that I haven't started researching, so I took another 3 hours to research, and almost another 3 hours to write everything up and find enough citations. Yup - that was my day beginning at 9 AM, and ending at 4 AM. And you guessed it - this was following approximately 3 hours of sleep the night before, having studied hardcore on Tuesday.
Multiply that by four, and you have my week. :) What's really messed up this semester is that I don't have class on Fridays (two recitations only - yeah, but it's like death from Monday to Thursday), and both recitations are already cancelled tomorrow due to the tests this week, so I'm seriously going to snooze till 1 PM tomorrow. :P
But anyways, stress is not something that's too fun to write about, so here's September (along with a bunch of quotes from life):
Pranav '13: (while looking at a stack of chips during poker) Hey, those are stacked following the normal distribution!
Zach '11: (looks over) No, that's more like the Poisson.
Tourist from Hong Kong: (after I took her picture for her) So tell me, how do you win at blackjack?
Steve's math professor: (on the board, while trying to abbreviate "Associated Homogeneous Group") Ass. Homo. Group.
Overheard in Stata: Yeah, you know, biology makes no sense to me. It took me an entire semester to figure out that DNA is not really an amino acid...you know, the acid part was confusing.
Tiantian '13: (agonizing over an essay) I'm being selected against! I'm going to die!
CVS cashier dude: (I'm trying to buy Tylenol) Well, I need to see your ID.
"Uh...."
"You need to be over 18 to buy Tylenol."
"So how old do you think I am?"
"I don't know, 16?"
Coworker in my lab: So you know the freshman UROP who works in the room next to you? She's 15 and she didn't go to high school. She worked in a lab instead, and now she's at MIT.
"So I guess I'm the F1 generation and my parents are the P generation when it comes to learning English, since I grew up here and my parents emigrated without knowing the language."
"But what does that make me? I grew up in Taiwan but I went to an American school there."
"I don't know, the F0.5 generation?"
Tourist: (at Kendall Square) So which way to Harvard?
MIT student: You're at MIT, bro.
Kayla '12's FB status: orgo, i'm ready to kick your ass.
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The author has filed this entry in the "Work/Play Balance At MIT" section; check it out for further reading on this topic. |
Responses To This Entry:
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I'm drooling over the idea of that much academic stimulation concentrated into one extremely long day. College is going to be amazing! Thanks for the great post, Chris.
Posted by: Brittney on October 2, 2009 04:09 AM
Both Korean and Chinese foods were looking delicious.But I have to tell that big building you used twice in this blog looks more delicious like a German Chocolate :P
Posted by: Anonymous on October 2, 2009 04:16 AM
Professor Jackson! He was part of the Discover Literature FPOP (which I was a counselor for this year).
Back to 7.03 pset...
Posted by: Piper '12 on October 2, 2009 04:56 AM
Hmmm all those quotes seemed to amuse me a tiny bit, but now I have to take a giant calc test, so it doesn't matter HA.
Posted by: Vinay on October 2, 2009 07:47 AM
Twas hell week for me too, glad you got through it! Quotes during these kinds of weeks are the best - those totally made me laugh! Thanks :)
Posted by: Yun '12 on October 2, 2009 09:53 AM
wow great picture of simmons
Posted by: anon on October 2, 2009 10:44 AM
This post is great. I especially like this one:
Steve's math professor: (on the board, while trying to abbreviate "Associated Homogeneous Group") Ass. Homo. Group.
And this was by far the best:
Yeah, you know, biology makes no sense to me. It took me an entire semester to figure out that DNA is not really an amino acid...you know, the acid part was confusing.
Posted by: Outsider on October 2, 2009 12:05 PM
Lovely quotes there, Chris :)
Posted by: Shreya on October 2, 2009 01:01 PM
Sounds like my week
Posted by: Anonymous on October 2, 2009 02:22 PM
awesome entry. :] especially man v. physics.
Posted by: Liz ('14?) on October 2, 2009 07:02 PM
Nice entry. :)
Hell weeks like those build camaraderie.
Posted by: VAL ('14?) on October 2, 2009 08:19 PM
Hahaa all the biology quotes made me laugh...hopefully that wasn't a bio major?
Posted by: makesense on October 2, 2009 11:48 PM
my high school marching band is playing "september". this has absolutely no relation to the current thread, except by title.
Posted by: anonymous on October 3, 2009 12:13 AM
I love this entry. :)
Posted by: Anonymous on October 3, 2009 12:48 AM
Bad that there isn't a "like" button as in Facebook.
Posted by: Kenneth ('14?) on October 3, 2009 05:39 AM
Your week sounded exciting, but it also tired me just by reading about it. : )
Posted by: André ('14?) on October 3, 2009 04:43 PM
"Steve's math professor: (on the board, while trying to abbreviate "Associated Homogeneous Group") Ass. Homo. Group."
i was in this class XD
Posted by: Anonymous on October 5, 2009 08:45 PM
Hi, what is the address of the Korean place?
Thanks,
Posted by: a korean dude with no korean food on October 5, 2009 08:47 PM
It's in Allston, it's a Korean restaurant called Color (there's also a bunch of other Korean restaurants around there too - it's practically like K-town).
Don't go to Koreana - that's fake :P
Posted by: oasis '11 on October 5, 2009 11:51 PM
Sounds like a typical College students day. Thanks for Sharing.
Posted by: Adam on October 6, 2009 05:46 PM
