21 December 2008 | Jason
“Our flight will take five hours. We are headed into some awful headwinds.” Our pilot told us as we were sitting at the Logan Airport about to take off. I hope my father doesn’t go to the airport too early and have to wait an extra hour. I settle into my leather chair with DirecTV and prepare for a long flight. No, I was not in first class, I was on a JetBlue flight. There is no first class and all the seats have leather. I made a good choice picking this airline. I watch a few House episodes and Mythbusters (although satellite signal sometimes died) and try to sleep a little. We finally touch down at midnight and I go to baggage claim to pick up my bag. Luckily it is the first bag out. I get picked up by my father and we go home. I immediately go to my (creaky) bed and crash.
I wake up the next morning and go to my high school. Sadly I get there after the faculty skit (I forgot about it) where they usually parody the students. All the faculty are at their White Elephant Gift Exchange and half the students are off campus getting lunch. I arrived at the worst possible time. Wandering the halls, I do find some of my friends there and eventually everyone returns. I greet everyone and EVERYONE asks how’s MIT. I try to best represent the pain and anguish the classes have caused me. At home, I try out the new OpenSUSE release.
The next day is an alum meetup. Everyone gets hugs including the short little asian senior girls. It is nice to see much of the class again and we all talk of our adventures in college. Many of them involve drunk people, naked people, and everything. We all go to the upper school to look at our class photo because rumor has it someone was cut out. We look closely at the photo, remark about how we’re all touched up so much and find our missing classmate. He was standing separate of everyone in the photo, so they decided he needed to be taken out to make the picture look better. Although it would be very awkward to have him standing alone, I still find it awful how they did that to him. We go to the Spicy Pickle for food, and had found some of our classmates leaving, going to the mall. We eat and try to join up with them, but just as we get there, they are about to leave. They only needed one thing and one of them had to go babysitting. We all head our own ways and I go visit my friend from middle school. She needs to go hang lights and I choose to fill the “management” position. That was quite fun, maybe I should think about course 15.
Today I had to ship my sister’s charger she forgot to pack. My sister and I missed each other by mere hours. She left before I got into Denver. Since it was Saturday, the post offices have shorter hours, so I searched online to try to find one that would be open. I find one in Littleton and head there to try to mail off the package. When I get there, I drive around but can’t find the post office. This is a small problem. I need to ship this off sooner than later. I go for one of my new toys, a GPS unit, (my other is a new camera), search for a post office, and head on my way. I get there and it is closed, but luckily there is a machine I can use to purchase postage. I send off the box successfully. I head to the library next to pick up some books so I can start hacking away at my booklist. I also buy some strings to get my tennis racquet restrung so I can play again in Boston.
Make friends, be social, don’t be depressed all the time, your school might disown you
18 December 2008 | Jason
As my blogging has gone down in its volume, I felt like I needed to remedy this. After all, I have just been “studying” this entire time. A summary of how my finals have been:
I studied all of Sunday at Next on 8.01 Physics Mechanics not for Masochists. Took the test Monday morning 9-12 and did not think it was utterly and completely horrible. It began with a post-diagnostic test, which should be 26 free points, essentially. Then the real exam began. Luckily we were allowed to drop a question so I dropped the one about a gyroscope in a car. The rest, I thought were decent, and I just hope I get a passing score on the test. Then everything will be good. They STILL haven’t posted scores. The other physics have their scores already. Anyway. After the test, I found Rachel and we got ourselves some soup from the LEM (Luteran Episcopal Ministry). I went to the student center to get some more food, and found the group of 8.012 people. We got food and moped around about our physics tests. I returned to my dorm to “study” for my 3.091 exam. We calculated it and I needed only about 4% to pass the class, so I worked so very hard to understand every little bit of information that I could absorb.
I walk in to Johnson Tuesday morning and find a seat in the back. Sadoway is dressed in a tux again and he begins the test. I quickly go over what I do know, skip over all things amino acid/lipids/organic and try to maximize my points before I leave an hour early. I return home, sleep, and try to start studying for 18.01, which I know decently well enough to pass enough without studying too much. Wednesday morning, Vivian calls me to remind me to meet her early for an quick cram session before the test, so I head out to meet her. We take the test and I passed the final with a 76/120. Yay. Afterward, we go to Anna’s to grab quesadillas and head to the Coop. We find Moose (yes, Moose) and all head over to Kendall where I obtain myself a MIT umbrella. I find a little stuffed beaver and cuddle with it for a while. A while being the rest of the time we are in the store. We look at the toys and see a dreaded gyroscope. Vivian wants it so I pick one up for her. We finish shopping and I drop the beaver in Vivian’s basket. After we purchase everything, Vivian and I exchange gifts ^_^. She got a gyroscope and a magnet saying “never never never give up” and I get a stuffed beaver. I think I win this trade. After all, the beaver is SO MUCH cuter cuddlier softer BETTER more stuffed than the giver of the gift. Hehe.
Vivian and I wander campus, visiting the physics department… and wandering a little in tunnels. We head back home because I need to start packing. I finally begin at around 3, finish in like 10 minutes, and decide I need to clean my desk. I do so and there is SO MUCH more room now than there was 25 minutes before. I make my bed, and my side of the room is clean and made. I just wish it could stay that way. I head out to Kendall to get to the airport. As I drag my bags along, I write a text to send to everyone.
Goodbye all! I am now leaving this dreaded place called MIT. I am going to a place where everything will be better. Goodbye. You will all be worse without me.
When I get there I find some other MITs waiting at gate C33 to Tampa. Their flight was delayed because the plane was simply circling the airport. Apparently Logan went into a ground state. They finally get on their plane, and I get onto mine a few minutes later. The flight takes longer than expected because of headwinds, and I make it to Denver around midnight. I am currently writing from my bed in Denver, it creaks a lot.
When you coddle a stuffed animal long enough in a store, eventually someone will buy it for you. Take advantage of this!