Home Is Where the Heart Is

One thing it’s easy to forget when you go away to college is how to live in your hometown. I experienced that this week, when I was home for Spring Break. I’ve never gone home for Spring Break before, either because I was rowing or because my little sister came to visit me and we were looking at colleges in the area (and I went on a trip to New York, which was quite fun). But there were reasonably priced flights home this year, and for a good month or so, I’d been in the kind of mood where you want to be home. Thus, home I went.  

But getting back to the forgetting how to live in your hometown thing- let me tell you a story about the differences between Seattle and Boston. For starters, in Boston crossing streets is a bit of a free for all. If you can make it across before the cars come, you do so, generally regardless of the status of the street lights. (Yes, this means jaywalking). In Seattle, you can get tickets for jaywalking. I’ve heard several stories from friends who have seen this happen. The whole traffic culture is different in Seattle than it is in Boston. Boston has a very ‘go for it’ attitude to getting places, as far as I can gather. If you’re not on top of it, you’ll get left behind. Car horns are a fairly frequent occurrence. In contrast, if you use your horn in Seattle, you’ll get angry looks and/or gestures, and possibly a ticket. People will wait for you to cross the street, and there’s just generally a more laid back attitude toward getting places in Seattle than there is in Boston.

The point of this diatribe about traffic culture in my hometowns (initial and adopted) is that I’ve forgotten how to be laid back about getting places. When I went on walks with my mom, I had to catch myself and make sure that I stopped at corners. When I drove to the store, I had to remember that I didn’t need to jump into traffic at the first opening- the cars behind me would be patient for at least two openings before they got angry (which is good, since I kind of forgot how to drive as well :P).

Another thing I’ve forgotten about how to live in my hometown is how to deal with the rain. Did you know it rains in Seattle? I know, craziness. It rained almost every day that I was home, which was actually oddly comforting. I’ve always liked the rain, especially when you get to listen to it falling, or enjoy the smell of wet concrete after a rain shower (incidentally, there’s a word for this- ‘petrichor’. It’s one of my favorite words).

What I’ve forgotten about the rain is how to be in it. Everyone in Boston uses umbrellas. In Seattle, if you’re using an umbrella you’re a tourist. While walking across the street in a rain shower wouldn’t have fazed me before college, I found that I was distinctly displeased with the idea last week. This probably doesn’t seem like a big thing. And honestly, it’s not. But rain is such a pervasive part of Seattle culture that not being comfortable in the rain is indicative of somehow being less of a Seattleite. It's weird to think that I might have changed that much in the 2.5 years I've been away from home. I don't feel like less of a Seattleite most of the time (particularly when I'm being passive aggressive about moving cardboard into the recycle bins). But there are moments when I'm in Seattle that make me realize that I have changed, at least in little ways like being comfortable in the rain. 

The one thing that doesn’t change though, in any city you’re in, is the people you interact with, and how you relate to each other. Yes, these relationships can be fluid. They can stretch, and bend, and even occasionally break. But the important ones don't break, regardless of the person you are at any given moment in time. So here’s a shout-out to my people, in Seattle and Boston and scattered all over the globe- thank you for being who you are, and for taking me as I am. It’s taught me that home isn’t as much about where you belong culturally as it is about who you belong with at heart.

So Many Exams, So Little Time

            Maybe I should just start doing biweekly blogs... it seems like I’d be more likely to be on schedule then. :P I’ve obviously missed a few weeks... so this post is mostly a recap of those few weeks and why I’ve missed them. Nothing super exciting, but it’s yet another crazy week coming up, so there’s not much I can do to give you exciting, unfortunately.

            Let’s start with the reason I’ve missed a couple of weeks. In what has been both a blessing and a curse, I only have one week with multiple exams this semester. While this might seem wonderful initially, it has a dark side that you might not guess at first- I have one exam, quiz, or project due date every week, with the exception of the weeks of our campus preview weekend (when I’ll be busy anyway, shepherding prefrosh around and showing them why MIT is the best place ever) and the week of Easter, which also happens to be the week of the Boston Marathon this year. Aside from those two weeks in a 12-ish week semester, I’m continuously being evaluated on how I’ve been doing in classes. Which is always fun, of course. And it’s even better in college than in high school, let me tell you. Night exams are totally my favorite thing (I’m being entirely sarcastic here, in case that wasn’t clear... it’s surprisingly difficult to focus on taking an exam when you’ve already had dinner and are in homework-doing-slash-chilling-a-bit mode).

            The constant go-go-go is great, until you realize that you’re mildly exhausted and decide that something has to give. Unfortunately, the thing that I’ve dropped for the past few weeks has been writing a blog post... which is sub-optimal, I know... but at some point sleep is more or less necessary. And honestly, when I say more or less I mean very... sleep is extremely necessary. I do far too little of it already, as is probably true for the majority of MIT and/or college students. Siblings, if you’re reading this, the single best thing you can do when you go to college is sleep enough. If you get less than six straight hours a night, your ability to process and remember information decreases (science facts... I’m not just making up numbers). And let me tell you, things move quickly enough in class these days that that whole remembering thing? It’s rather important. Okay. End rant. But the point is: sleep. It’s critical.

            Not too many exciting things have happened over the past couple of weeks, unfortunately. We had a brief period of almost-spring where I almost abandoned my winter coat for a lighter jacket. This was quickly brought to a halt by another quarter inch of snow though... Boston weather is actually ridiculous. (This week we’ll have a day with highs in the 20’s, and then another day later in the week with highs in the 50’s. On the plus side, at least I’m not bored. :P)

            After getting some absolutely abysmal results in lab the Monday before last, my grad student told me to take the week to study for my exam. This turned out to be a good thing, since I definitely needed the time to study. I was rather grumpy at myself for the horrible results though, which is never fun. On the plus side, when I redid the tests the following week (so last week) the results were much cleaner, even if they still weren’t what we were expecting to see.

            The one big thing that happened over the past two weeks was that we had Floormal, which is my floor’s formal dance that occurs once a year. We set people up with ‘blind dates’ (usually someone in their friend group, or at least their friends’ friend group). And then we dance and eat food, and it’s generally a good time. As floor chairs, Michelle and I were in charge of buying the food and setting things up this year, which was a great deal of work. I can honestly say that I’ve never bought so many things from Shaw’s in my life. I can’t say I never will again, since that would be tempting fate, but we bought a truly impressive amount of stuff. The party went pretty well though, so I’m happy with the outcome.

            That’s pretty much the majority of what’s been going on. I, of course, have another exam this week, but it’s almost Spring Break! Which means that I’ll be home in Seattle for a little over a week, and I’ll get to play with babies and see my family and possibly enjoy a good old fashioned Seattle spring rainstorm (I know my mom wouldn’t particularly appreciate that, since then we’d have to entertain the babies inside all day... but I do love a good Seattle rainstorm). And since I’ll be home next week, hopefully I’ll actually be able to post on time! (Maybe... it remains to be seen how much time I’ll have between catching up on sleep and hanging out with my family. :P) Here’s to another crazy week!

Better Late (and Short) Than Never...

            Okay, so I missed a week. And I actually did something fun during that week, so I’m going to go back and talk about it a little. And then we’ll get caught up on how other things are going. (This is going to be a short post though, because not much has happened and I’ve got a test to study for. :P )

            A little over a week ago, some friends and I went to a free showing of Mendelssohn’s Elijah, as performed by the Cantata Singers. The Cantata Singers are a professional choir who perform out of the New England Conservatory here in Boston. As you might expect, they’re rather amazing. It’s their 50^th Anniversary season this year, and to celebrate they were holding some free shows, to give back to the community. This was lucky for me since tickets, while not the most expensive things in the world, are more than I’m willing to pay on a regular basis. :P

            But anyway, we went to see Elijah, which is performed entirely in German. I don’t know enough German to have been able to follow along, but I could pick out a few random words here and there. I was extremely confused for about half of the show though, since in German the name, ‘Elijah’ is ‘Elias’. So I got a bit lost when I was trying to follow the story- I wasn’t quite sure where the main character had gone.

            The singing was gorgeous, and the performers got several standing ovations at the end. The show was rather long (almost three hours) but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did doze off for about 5 minutes right before intermission, but I was able to catch up on what had happened. I don’t remember much of the story of Elijah from high school or grade school, so this was a nice reminder. It is much more violent than I realized though- there were quite a few more murders of false prophets than I think we were presented with when we were growing up.

           

            Last week, I had my first exam. It was in 7.06 (Cell Biology), which is the one class I actually feel like I’ve got a handle on. It was nice having an exam and coming out feeling like I might have done alright. That’s not something that happens all that often here. In contrast, this week I’ve got an exam in 20.330... which is the class where I have approximately zero idea what’s going on. That one is less about Biology and more about engineering, which makes me question my life choices a bit. I’m glad that I’m in bioengineering, because all of the cool science advances that I get excited about are still largely due to bioengineering, but sometimes it’s harder than I think I’m cut out for. Particularly when the confusing bits are about flows and fields and things that I have very little background in. I’m also more interested in the cell biology side of bioengineering than in the mechanics side, which makes it difficult to get excited about this class. My professors are wonderful and highly amusing though, so maybe it will get better.

            This weekend, the class of 2015 held a Masquerade Ball. It was more fun than I expected it to be (I generally hate dances...). But it was nice to have an occasion to dress up for. I bought a new dress, and will provide pictures when they’re put up on Facebook. I didn’t take any because I was being lazy, and one of my friends was using her DSLR for pictures, so my point-and-shoot would have paled in comparison. There was also some excellent food at the event, which is always nice. :)

I think that’s all for this week... I’ll try to do some more interesting things this week so we can have an exciting update next week!