Hamsika C. '13 | October 23, 2009
"Snow-bama"
Hailing from the notoriously hot and humid city of Houston, in which snow-that-can-barely-be-called-snow deigns to appear about once in ten years, it was understandably a big deal for me when last Sunday, in the midst of 30-something-degree weather, it began to snow.
Much to the amusement of floormate Swetha '13 and with the full support of my roommate Jeanne '13, I pulled out my camera and literally took pictures for about ten minutes:
All my pictures turned out like this...it was snowing, I promise!
Clearly, I'm from Texas :) And the first snow of the 2009-2010 academic year was pretty exciting to me.
But not nearly as exciting as President Obama's visit to campus today!
I was unfortunately not one of lucky students to score an invitation to his speech; thus, my hopes of seeing President Obama were forced to realize themselves through a more creative outlet.
It all began on the balcony of the McCormick's East Tower Penthouse. Unable to see through the trees that lined the streets and ordered not to leave the confines of McCormick, Swetha '13, Carin '13, Divya B. '13 and I sought an aerial view of President Obama's arrival. We were soon joined by others, who seemed to have had the same bright idea. We stood out there, victims of the natural elements, for about an hour.
This is me being cold:
L-R: Me, Shireen '13
This is everything being so completely worth it:
Did you hear the voices at the end of the video? That was Secret Service! WE GOT KICKED OUT BY SECRET SERVICE!!!! How exciting is that??! They TALKED to us. And we didn't get arrested! Or shot by the snipers:
As you can no doubt tell, I was a little hyper by this time.
And the fun wasn't even over! We left the penthouse and headed to various other locations in the building, hoping to continue following Obama's trail through MIT. We eventually settled in the dining hall, where we watched the live stream of the president's speech:
And then the best part:
WE SAW HIM AS HE LEFT! In the second limo! Ahhhhhhh!!!!! If only my video-editing skills were more impressive, I would zoom in - over and over and over again. And then all of you could see him too! But for now, you simply have to believe me when I say we were less than five feet away from the president of the United States.
Things were slightly anti-climactic after that. Within a couple of hours, the barricades were removed, the number of security personnel dwindled, calc lecture took place as usual, and only the shiny, recently-cleaned windows of Kresge Auditorium hinted at the fact that the president had just visited campus.
In other news: Happy Mole Day, everyone!
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Yay! Best day of my life!!!
Posted by: Divya B. '13 on October 23, 2009 09:45 PM
Nice - pretty cool! What did you (all) think of his speech?
Posted by: Elias('14?) on October 23, 2009 09:55 PM
Snow! I'm jealous :P
Posted by: Narinta on October 23, 2009 09:55 PM
We're so cool ;) I love how we were all screaming ridiculously when he went by. Seriously one of the most exciting days at MIT!
Posted by: Carin '13 on October 23, 2009 10:13 PM
hahaha. exciting =]
and yes it is happy mole day. clements decided to have a mole pledge of allegiance too. -.-
Posted by: jialing on October 23, 2009 11:16 PM
Nice Blog !! And it was so nice that you got a chance to see President Obama from less than five feet as all those plans worked!! lolz
But a silly question from me, I want to select a course to join MIT, what are the best things in course 9 (brain and cognitive sciences)?
I mean the areas of study and all, from the point of view of revolutionising the world (thats my interest) ! Ahh !! That question is important for me !! Thats why I asked !!
Thanks.
Posted by: Sambheet Krishna on October 23, 2009 11:35 PM
Thanks for the great Barack-u-mentary!
Posted by: Quinton on October 23, 2009 11:40 PM
loved this post hamsika!
such dedication...
but yeah the secret service part was super cool!
i was tryin to walk thru kresge, but police started yelling at me, and i almost wanted to run in and taunt them....at the time i did not kno bout the presence of snipers --so im very glad the rational part of my brain took over....
ANYWAYS. GREAT POST.
Posted by: jenny '13 on October 24, 2009 12:44 AM
I was on the fourth floor of W20. We were wondering why the group on top of McC left :D
Posted by: Piper '12 on October 24, 2009 01:37 AM
Hamsika! This is so cool...you guys are hilarious. "Because it's the freakin president!" LOL. I somehow feel that because this is an MIT blog I should watch my grammar or something. Unlike you, I probably won't be seeing snow anytime soon here in Cali where it's 65-80 and sunny every day.
I can't believe you guys ran into Secret Service! Your blog is totally legit ;D
Posted by: Ian on October 24, 2009 02:37 AM
"Did you hear the voices at the end of the video? That was Secret Service! WE GOT KICKED OUT BY SECRET SERVICE!!!! How exciting is that??! They TALKED to us. And we didn't get arrested! Or shot by the snipers:"
Made my day. It sounds like an amazing experience. Only at MIT!
What's Mole Day? *off to wikipedia*
Posted by: Justin L. on October 24, 2009 03:28 AM
Snow? It is 30 degrees celsius here near meditarrenean sea we don't know what snow means since 5000 years!
We also don't know what Obama means but it is not about climate or sea :P
Posted by: Zeki '14? on October 24, 2009 04:11 AM
Mole Day sounds so awesomely cool! Too bad it was over before I knew it, though.
/This/ is why MIT is so special -- Presidents visiting and students getting inordinately excited about it. (:
Posted by: peiyun on October 24, 2009 04:39 AM
Great blog and great videos!
@ Zeki
I know how you feel :) Where are you from?
Posted by: Luka ('14?) on October 24, 2009 07:43 AM
YAY SNOW! I want snow toooo...too bad we don't have much snow in the netherlands...it is damned cold but NO snow...just rain...
Posted by: sepideh on October 24, 2009 07:46 AM
The secret service kicked you out!! That is so awesome, and hilarious. :)
Moving completely away from the subject, do you know the etymology of your name?
I think it is a really cool name, do know what it means or where does it come from?
Posted by: André ('14?) on October 24, 2009 09:57 AM
Sorry, just to correct the last phrase:
I think it is a really cool name, do you*** know what it means ou where does it come from?
Posted by: André ('14?) on October 24, 2009 10:01 AM
There isn't snow even in winter on the tippy top of the tallest mountain in Taiwan!(or is there? Never seen it though)
And there's no way Obama's gonna be even just five hundred feet away from me!@@
Good that I can feel the joys vicariously through the blogs...=)
Posted by: Val'14? on October 24, 2009 10:30 AM
yayy! :)
and great post!!
Posted by: Hana '13 on October 24, 2009 11:42 AM
Avogadro's number: 6.022 x 10^23
Thus 10/23 is Mole Day
Posted by: jbhasin '14? on October 24, 2009 12:32 PM
@ jbhasin
Nice Logic ! But then Mole Day is 6.022 times smaller than Avogadro's Number and I think that some part of October 23 should only be called Mole Day !! I suggest it should be Happy Mole's Fraction Day !!! ie because it is 6.022^-1 (6.022 x 10^23) as its only 10^23 left !!! lolz
Posted by: Sambheet Krishna on October 24, 2009 01:23 PM
More exactly, that fraction would be the first 3.985 hrs of Oct 23rd.
Posted by: Anonymous on October 24, 2009 02:58 PM
@Luka
I'm from Turkey and in fact 80% of Turkey is snowy in winters but It is special about my homecity -In Southeast Europe,North Meditarrenean- named "Mersin".
Posted by: Zeki '14? on October 24, 2009 04:56 PM
@zeki 14
however you have "uludag" to be proud of...;)
Posted by: sepideh on October 24, 2009 06:36 PM
How funny was that? I seriously thought the ss guy was going to blow a fuse when he had to go to the other penthouse to kick people out again!
Posted by: '13 Bahar on October 24, 2009 08:15 PM
Enjoyed the laughs, giggles and the fun in the air! I felt like one of you when I watched the video clipping!
Posted by: Mom on October 24, 2009 08:21 PM
Awesome blog! I never thought that getting kicked out by the secret service could be such a fulfilling experience until I saw this post!
Posted by: Anonymous on October 24, 2009 08:41 PM
@Zeki'14
just out of curiousity, How come turkey is in europe while %90 of it occupies the asia?
Posted by: Anonymous on October 25, 2009 06:12 AM
I don't know why I can't stop from refreshing this site an unhealthy amount of times per hour.
Posted by: ThisIsMoreThanStalking on October 25, 2009 06:38 AM
@Sepideh
Of course :D
@Anonymous
Turkey has both Asian and European borders.In past because of politics Turkey was called "in Middle Eastern" but today every simple Western geographist calls it "in Europe".Both two of explanations are right but today Easter countries like Russia are being accepted as European.Turkey also a member of European Council and candidate of European Union.We managed half of Europe 625 years.İstanbul is the greatest proof of our being European.
And my homecity is geographically in Europe with Cyprus.
Posted by: Zeki '14? on October 25, 2009 08:49 AM
@ Andre
Yup, I do know the etymology of my name. In Sanskrit (an ancient Indian language that's still semi-existent in patches about the world today), my name means 'as graceful as a swan' and 'the one who brings happiness.'
My parents are awesome name-choosers :)
Posted by: Hamsika '13 on October 25, 2009 10:38 AM
Tyra Lequisha Snowbama Black
Posted by: yo mamma on October 25, 2009 05:22 PM
Sanskrit! I should have known, I tend to like words and phonemes of great historical languages, specially Latin, Old Norse, and Sanskrit.
And yeah, your parents are indeed awesome name-choosers.
I do like my name as well, it is related to christianity and comes from Ancient Greek : ]
Posted by: André on October 26, 2009 01:34 PM
That is so awesome that the secret service talked to you! You should have kept recording! :)
Posted by: Chris on October 26, 2009 07:50 PM
lol, how am I not surprised about your reaction to snow, Hamsika?
AND GETTING KICKED OUT BY SECRET SERVICE PART IS SO COOL. That's my new goal in life.
Posted by: Shree-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named on October 28, 2009 08:21 PM
