Foot of the Charles

The last race of head race season in Boston is The Foot of the Charles regatta. The course runs from MIT's boathouse to Harvard's, a slightly shorter distance than most head races. In terms of participation, it's much smaller than the Head of the Charles, with only college teams showing up to race in it.

MIT's lightweight men put out four boats: three freshman eights and a varsity four. I was in the second eight. We raced against Brown, Harvard, and Boston University, among others, all of which also put out several boats.

Because our boathouse was the starting line, all our boats had to be on the water before any of the races started. We wouldn't be able to launch once people started rowing past without interrupting the other races.

Typically, eights are the last event of any regatta and the Foot was no exception. So we dutifully showed up three hours before race time, clad in only racing spandex and a hat, got in our boats, and went out onto the water. Now, it's cold in Boston in November but it's even colder on the water, in the wind, wearing next to nothing, paddling around for hours on end.

Once the race started we warmed up quickly and were at full steam in no time. Despite the boat being composed half of walk on rowers - who's only experience in a boat had been at MIT - we focused and had the best row that line up had ever seen.

I'm second from the bow

After the dust settled and the results were out, we had done really well. Our first eight was the fastest light weight boat overall, beating Harvard's first squad. My boat, the second eight, came in third, beating Harvard's second, third, and fourth eights.

That was the last time on the water for the Fall season. Everything until March will be indoors: lifting, erging, and running.

Barker Stacks

I had mentioned previously that I was working at Barker library in my spare time to help pay for tuition. That is still true. However, I also mentioned that it was low key and I had a lot of downtime for studying or playing around on the internet. While I thought that was the case at the time, it is apparently no longer true.

After using some of what I thought was down time to study for some upcoming tests, I received an email from my boss regarding his "expectations" and how I was not fulfilling them. Needless to say, I was pretty scared. I had been slacking off and did not want to lose my position.

I spent some time thinking about the job and decided that it wasn't any different from rowing or classes. When I get in a boat or settle into a test, I want to do the best, be the best. That shouldn't be any different for heading up to the library. Just because I don't enjoy it doesn't mean I shouldn't bring the same level of discipline and dedication that I do with everything else.

Since receiving that email, I am proud to say that I have not used my time at the library to study or surf the web. I shelve the books, work on the inventory project, and generally tidy up around the library. Recently, I was asked if a new student could shadow me as I closed one night because I was "the best closer at Barker," and given a small bonus for letting her. While it might not mean much in the long run, I feel better about a job well done. Even if it means I have to sacrifice my down time to make up for the time I spend working at the library.

UA Dinner

Undergraduate students are encouraged, once a semester, to take a professor out to dinner. The idea is that they'll get to to him or her and form lasting relationships with someone who would be otherwise inaccessible. The Undergraduate Association (UA) happily foots the bill as long as you keep it under $20/person and fill out the required paperwork.

As a freshman, I didn't really know any of my professors. Three of my four classes were huge lecture situations where several hundred students shared one lecturer. Naturally, the good ones were overwhelmed with student requests for dinners and could probably go several weeks on end without paying for a dinner if they indulged all the students who inquired. The fourth class, Writing about Literature, was much smaller. Twelve students small. And it was taught by a relatively young and hip professor, Noel Jackson.

Class was scheduled for 3:30-5 on Mondays and Wednesdays, and as diligent  young students, we were roughly on time each day. Noel, on the other hand, was not. He strolled in regularly around 3:45 each day, which gave us plenty of time to talk amongst ourselves twice a week. After the first round of "UA dinner" emails went out advertising the idea, it was quickly brought up in this free time and organized.

Five students (the max is six) agreed to enjoy an early Friday night with Noel and cash in on a free meal from Bertucci's, a local Italian eatery. Conversation was interesting, starting with parents' occupations and going from there, hitting everything from academia and industry, robotics and AI, to Jay-Z and Kanye West. When it came time to order, we finally hit a pause. No one really knew what they wanted - would some people like to split a pizza, or order separate meals and share? Ordering food for a group of MIT engineers - myself included - had tacitly turned into a large, complicated optimization problem. And we had no paper to figure on!

Thankfully, one of the other students solved it easily with one simple fact. "Well, the UA will pay up to $20 a person. I say we take them for all we can!" Obviously, that settled it quickly. We each happily ordered an entire pizza with different toppings and promised to share with whomever was interested. That's right. Six people stroll up, sit down, and order six eighteen inch pizzas. The order goes in, conversation resumes, and is promptly interrupted again by the waiter preemptively bringing out six stands and setting them up around the table. When the pizza arrives, we are literally trapped in it. Surrounded by food, the only way to escape is to eat out way out!

Pizza embargo

With bulging stomachs and smiling faces, we waddle out of the restaurant carrying three leftover pizzas, enough to feed another six hungry customers. Noel thanks us for a great evening and hops on his bike to go home, and we saunter back towards campus.

Afterwards, the dialog in class felt much more relaxed and familiar. After all, half the class saw Noel as an entire human being, instead of just a teacher. An another (unintended) benefit from this experience was that last two essays were graded higher, perhaps I had become a better writer over the course of the class, but perhaps having dinner with him helped him grade a bit more leniently. I guess I'll never know. 

I'm definitely looking forward to doing this again in the Spring semester. I again don't know any of my professors but I am certainly happy for the opportunity to get to meet them!

Family weekend, Head of the Charles, Classes, oh my

Family weekend was two weeks ago - my mom came up from Florida for about thirty six hours. We hung out in Boston, campus, and Harvard Square. Saturday night we went to Harvard Square for dinner and couldn't find anywhere to eat - it was Harvard's family weekend too - and wound up wandering around until we hit a restaurant with empty tables. It was Upstairs on the Square, a posh eatery. We went up four flights of stairs before seeing a dining room or table. I got a delicious steak and my mom ordered the duck. After dinner, we caught the last three acts of an MIT a cappella concert. Everyone was amazing but the best part was the last song: "Up B," a parody of C-Lo's "Fuck You," written about Super Smash Bros. The video is not of the MIT a cappella group but the song is the same.

 

This was absolutely hysterical because the two parts of the joke - the original song and the content from Super Smash Bros - were both completely foreign to her. So not only was I laughing at the song, but I got to see her completely stunned reaction. Totally funny.

The next weekend was the Head of the Charles Regatta, the biggest regatta in the country if not the world. It wasn't that big of an event on campus; unless they were a rower or knew rowers, no one was particularly interested. Although I didn't get to row in it this year, I went and cheered on the team and hung out with the other guys who weren't in the boat.

This last weekend was Halloween - Friday night and all day on Monday I was dressed as a ninja.

There were surprisingly few other students dressed up for the holiday, but I did walk to my writing class with Wonderwomen. Otherwise, I saw the pink panther, several video game characters, and a viking or two. Saturday night I was a frat guy

Pictured here with Minnie Mouse and a zombie

and walked around Boston with some friends trying to get into the Halloween parties. It was the first real snow of the year, it was very cold in Sperrys and khaki shorts!

Unfortunately life at MIT isn't all weekends and rowing, I've been busy with schoolwork and the second round of midterms. We literally did rocket science last week in physics and I understood it on the pset. Either some things are actually harder than rocket science or I've got a very nice seven semesters lined up. I survived my bio midterm and am happy to report that I'm passing all my first semester classes.