Cool. You have a view now.

great ,
i appreciate your courage to give up a complaint letter dealing with a lot high frequency oscillations ..
but surely i would recommend a bundle of cotton swabs to let u sleep more efficiently ..:D

It's pretty much a construction extravaganza at MIT these days. I work in a building at the far east end of the campus, right next to a new building going up. My office is right there and, on some days, I would keep one eye on my computer and the other on the huge crane swinging about 6 inches from my window. Better to look and see it coming or not look and die instantly? On other days, it seemed as though a herd of T. rex were stomping around as the aforesaid cranes amused themselves by picking large blocks of stone up to a height and then dropping them.
I'm hoping the new building will be sufficiently lovely to make up for the noise- since this is MIT, what are my chances?

Yeah, I'm experiencing lighting problems of my own right now. My bedroom light burned out and I'm pretty sure nobody's going to fix it. I submitted a report and all that good stuff, but it's still very dark in here.

^ Why can't you just buy a bulb and replace it? (then you wouldn't have to wait?)

I wasn't even aware that we could ask Facilities to fix it for us, lol =p the last time my room light burned out I took the old bulb to Target and asked them for another one.

target is far dude, and some dorms have weird-ass lights. I guess for me I figure cooking for myself is already plenty self-sufficiency, and I'd rather not spend the time and money light-bulb hunting all over the state.

I spent the better part of 2 weeks tugging at a clogged sink in my room last year, and wasted a lot of money on drano-like quick-fix solutions til I finally told the house manager about it and the "drain doctor" appeared at my door within a day's time and cleared it right up. Take advantage of the resources you have dude!

The construction on Vassar Street was sometimes an issue when I lived in Simmons, but I never had a big problem with it. I can't wait until they finish the landscaping - it should be amazing.

One quirk about living in a fraternity is that you get used to taking care of things for yourself. You might say that my brothers and I are our own maids. ;)

that's how come most frats are filthy.

i'm not talking about yours, paul :P

Lulu, you make me laugh. :)

I moved from Simmons to Senior House during REX running away from the noisy construction site, and turns out I got a room facing another construction site right in front of Senior House. I woke up every day at 7am to drilling noises. Thank goodness I got a room in the other side of the dorm for next year!

Also, I thought you (lulu) lived in 1E. Did you move for the summer or what?

Paul/Lulu/anyone - what's a good place for random dorm room shopping once I'm in Boston? I'll probably buy last minute things once I'm in town for orientation and want to know a good place that's close. Any suggestions? Thanks.

target

That is really just too early for construction. That is cool that they are now going to be doing it at nine in the morning instead. Pretty good pictures.

Are mice and cockroaches common visitors to all the dorms...or just Bexley??

Sure, as long as we share this earth with smaller creatures that don't understand the boundaries of personal property, they will try to pay us visits in our home. So you'll get the occasional squirrel, cockroach, mouse, etc passing through. My suitemates here had a problem last month with a particular squirrel coming in the window and peeing on their desks. Although I'll say that of course no dorm has an airtight seal, the older a dorm, the more holey its exteriors and the more likely and often you will have issues with tiny intruders, and asbestos, but also the more freedom you will have as a resident to influence the look and feel of the place. So that's a trade you may want to consider when choosing between, say, Simmons and EC, for instance.

But also a lot depends on your personal habits, whether you leave the window open a lot, whether you are a slob, whether your roommate is a slob, etc. So to answer your question, no of course bexley is not the only dorm playing host to the occasional cockroach/mouse, but if impeccable and germ free living quarters is super important to you (and this is for all freshmen), I'd really think twice before picking the older and cheaper dorms (EC, SH, Random, Bexley...or even BC).

@Omar: Yeah, Target is great - there's one in Somerville that's only two miles from 77 Mass Ave. You can walk there if you have to. Dorms often arrange group trips to Ikea or similar places a little later on in the school year, but Target's a great place to start.

Suggestion: if possible, don't buy too much until after REX is over and you have your final rooming assignment. Even if you're staying in the same dorm, you will probably switch rooms, and having less stuff will make you happy. :D

@lulu
Yeah, BC has some nice little rodent problems from time to time. I saw a mouse run out of the Conner 3 floor lounge the other day but I'm pretty sure it's the same mouse that's laying dead at the end of the hall now.

:)

there's also a bed bath and beyond in the fenway area, just take the number 2 bus. it's much more accessible than target.

as far as i know, there really is a campus-wide vermin/pest problem. i hate walking around at night...i almost always see huge rats rustling around the bushes or dashing across the streets.

@Anon: Wait, really? I've walked back to Simmons late at night many a time, and I never saw a single rat...maybe they're afraid of Simmons' monolithic exterior. :D

i think rats kinda come free w/ any city campus package.

I've never had a problem with roaches or mice in SH. (Which is great, because I hate hate hate hate roaches.) Once it starts getting colder, though, tiny spiders come in from outside. I've heard that this happens in nearly all buildings, but I could be wrong.

I've never seen many rodents in my life until I came to Boston, and since I see rats scurrying in other parts of the city at night, I wouldn't attribute it to exclusively a MIT problem.

But it's true that there are many mice/rats running around the campus at night, perhaps I see them because I always return to the dorm so late and have to walk so far down amherst alley.

Personally, I don't mind them that much, as long as they stay out of the dorm rooms. And something else that I find that's funny - I've never seen a rat (ie. black) indoors yet. All the rodents I've seen so far in an actual building have been the brown furry mice variety (and not very big). Hmm.

when would simmons' construction outside finish?

I guess I'll be ok if I get McCormick. I don't mind mice, really. I handle them everyday in the lab I work in. It's the cockroaches I'm scared of. I hate roaches. They just scare me, like spiders and centipedes. I'm not a bug person. Even grasshoppers terrify me sometimes. I'm probably gonna arm myself with bug spray and do a full inspection of my room when I get on campus.... -__-;;;

ahhh...there are definitely roaches and mice in mccormick. sorry. they are rarer on the higher floors, but i lived on the 6th floor and saw maybe 2 roaches during one school year.

...or, if you really hate having wildlife in your room, and want to live in EC/SH/Random/Bexley, get a kitty. i'll take cat hairs over ants, mice, and roaches any day. plus she's cute and friendly and furry and cuddly and full of purrs. =)

ps. since moving into senior haus at the beginning of the year, i have seen exactly 2 roaches, both in the kitchens, and one mouse, which was in my cat's mouth. my biggest problem has been ants. lessons: don't ever leave food on the floor. ever. also, ant traps are your friends. moving up to the third floor and getting a cat this summer has helped a LOT, though - haven't seen any ants in this room yet. *knock on wood*

Right, always one way to go is to introduce natural predators into your room. But you might want to avoid anything that is above you in the food chain, and watch their reproductive habits.

Lawl... a cat would be nice, but I get allergies to fur sometimes.

My dad told me that if I ever find mice in my room, the best way is to catch one, beat it, and let it go. It usually goes back to its little colony of friends to "warn" them never to return. It sounds cruel and weird, but it actually works.

Bexley has lots of mice. And roaches. Great big ones. I stayed there during CPW and I was afraid to sleep on the floor in my host's room because of all the bugs.

you pansy.