So, as I sit here, I am listening to the strains of electric music, punctuated by a distant train whistle, the blare of my nearby fan, and the intermittent whirs of power tools; from my perch on the 5th floor of the East Parallel, I can see sparse lights in the window across the courtyard, the gently blowing tops of trees and just barely the FRED banner proudly proclaiming the pride of my new, if potentially temporary home.. its certainly been an interesting two days.

Two days ago, I woke in a room much like this one: about the same size about the same shape, but 600 miles away and substantially less sparsely decorated. I got up, showered, got dressed, and ate breakfast. Then I left behind pretty much everything I’ve ever know for the last 16 years. Though I’d consider the things I took relatively few in number.. I suppose it depends a bit on context:

Packing: because what use are rearview mirrors really?

In any case, with everything packed, it was onto the road…   …for eleven hours. It was a VERY long and not particularly eventful drive. I spent most of it listening to my iPod and reading a lot of The Audacity of Hope by a certain Senator Barack Obama. I must say, it is very well written and while I disagree with some of what he says, I definitely get the feeling that his opinions are, in general, pretty good and that he is altogether a pretty decent guy. He definitely has my support (and about $150 of my money in campaign donations). Anyway, enough of politics. The only break in my car ride was a stop at a NJ rest stop. I must say it is certainly an interesting experience. Both the length of this line and the sheer variety of humanity in it are worth note:

Anyway, to wrap up the less interesting day, I eventually got to Camridge, checked into the Hampton Inn with my parents, accosted and kidnapped Karen from her temp at W410, and went with her and my family to the Asgard for some delicious faux-Irish food and decor. I then randomly went to Fred Desk and got my hall and room keys and was arbitrarily recognized by the person working desk (from CPW I suppose?). Then we headed back (after getting semi-lost and driving around the Memorial->Mass Ave->Main->Vassar loop an absurd four times before going back to Ames where we started.. *sigh*) and crashed.

Now to the exciting day. This morning I got up, ate the free Hampton Inn breakfast and was whisked off to campus. I checked in at the student center to find that my carefully selected ID picture had been rejected for no good reason (nor one that was explained). I imagine it is either the hat or the resolution. In any case, it still opened the door to EC and after much heaving and sweating I got all my stuff up to my room. Karen was also awesome and helped carry and put together my fan to keep me mildly cool in the un-air conditioned halls of EC. My roommate, Santiago, was absent when I arrived (though his stuff is in evidence) and, at this writing, I have not actually yet met him :-/ (I will let you all know how he and I get on when he eventually returns.. ).

After this I played run around campus with my family, deposited some money to my student account (it will later become TechCash), got a new picture for my ID, joined the COOP, picked up some info about employment with IS&T (which I am considering), then wished my family goodbye.. it was odd seeing them go, but I am not altogether homesick just yet. Anyway, after this I decided to go see Karen’s awesome room-mural in person.. but she wasn’t home. So I walked down 41W, and was going down the staircase at the other end of the west parallel when out of the PUTZ (2W) door popped.. Karen.. who dragged me in where I heard her and some junior reminisce about Chicago. I also heard snippets of plans for potential EC craziness in REX proper. It was altogether pretty fun. Then I finally made it back to her room, saw her supposedly sexy computer and mural. Then we hung out at her room. While crossing the courtyard we got a glance of things to come:

At this point over Karen’s objection on principle, I decided to go take the swim test. After finishing the swim test, I also took the boating test because I could (10 minutes of water treading just doesn’t seem that hard). It was actually a little harder than I thought, I passed but I was pretty tired afterward. Anyway, because of the fact that I came directly from the swim test, I didn’t have my camera and therefore have no pictures of the awesome stuff that followed. Its hard to crsytalize effectively, so I won’t really try too hard. FAP
unofficially started with a gathering around W20. I tried to learn other peoples’ names cause of the fact that I usually fail. I also actually met Jess Kim for the first time in real life. After this we all went square dancing. This doesn’t sound that awesome, but I must say it was a whole lot more fun than I really expected. We did some pretty interesting calls especially the interleaved grand squares and the little experiment in hexagon dancing. Anyway, its hard to explain, but suffice it to say that afterward I was tired, thirsty, hungry, and in a pretty good mood. Luckily, next was food. We had a catered dinner of cheeseburgers or BBQ chicken, then rounded it out with a trip to JP Licks. Besides being a delicious ice cream-y affair, it also constituted my first trip across the river into Boston proper. (If I had had my camera, you would assuredly be presented with pictures of smoot marks).

I thought I was done at this point, and came back here and started blogging, planning to go to bed soon after. Suddenly, however, Rachel Fong and posse and then Karen (in pursuit of misplaced sunglasses) appeared. This was followed by gathering of other EC residents (frosh and otherwise), discussions thereamongst, an impromptu tour of ECs various halls (which are now partially inhabited), and a substantial time hanging out in Chris Varenhorst’s 5W room marveling at his hydraulic door and discussing various peaces of MIT lore, apocrypha, projects, etc. It is now 12:30am .. and there is still no sign of my roommate, which is a little odd. In any case, I have some pictures of the EC constructions in progress, but I shall save them for a later entry as I am getting a little tired.

Anyway, despite the lack of work thus far, its still pretty odd being all collegiate (and perhaps a little more pleasent). Anyway, I have to get up for 8:30am breakfast ..so… night all ^_^

From MIT,

~Donald Guy