just as uncertain and now with an aching back II

now with one night under my belt, I could start on:

FRIDAY

I woke up, a little stiff but otherwise excited, because today I would see the heart and soul of MIT: the classes! Whoopee!

After getting myself ready and walking down the "gray mile"- the creaky, squeaky, freaky walk between the dorm room and the bathroom with all the other dorms along the way- I went to get from grub. They had a bagel shop in their version of the Student Union. Their bacon, egg, and cheese bagel was delicious and probably high cholestoric.

First I headed down to physics as my first class. There were only a few people there, but a little before the bell would've rung (I never heard any bell, and their schedule is very simple. class from 10 to 11, then 11 to 12, etc, and they're not too picky on tardiness as long as your exucse is decent) the professor shoos us away, saying any prefrosh classes have been cancelled because they all had a pop quiz in his classes and didn't want us to bother them. Bothered, I went to an aeronautics class, which talked about buckling and core strnegth, which was interesting but used lot of diff eq's and partial derivitive symbols I was not ahppy about, but I kinda understood it and took good notes.

Later I went to their gift store/ supply shop, The Coop. For the longest time I wasn't sure if they meant coop as in a chicken coop or as in cooperation or co-op or something. The O's were intertwined, so it made sense that it would be the co-op, but I had the nerve to ask and lo and behold it is a chicken coop. That's just stupid, cuz nothing there is worth chicken feed. Plus, their shirts were very boisterous and full and of themselves. Upon entering one of the t shirts said something to the effect of:

CalTech
For people who couldn't get into MIT

and likewise for Harvard, though the other schools probably do something similiar, or at least I would hope so. I bought a snazzy new hat (snazzy is such a cool word, no?) and a binder.

I went back to the educational buildings to check out a couple more classes. I went to a multivariable calc class, and it seemed doable but more abstract than I would like. Laters I went to an Econ class. Now, MIT along wiht many schools do the whole the-prof-will-lecture-a-couple-days-and-a-grad-student-will-review on other days type of thing. So Olga was takling about the formulas for consumer consumption and the philips curve. Their econ is a lot more math based than Gray's, and is it weird if I say that I like the latter verion more? So then she gave a pop quiz. I almost got a passing grade on it.

I think I ate lunch, or at least I thought I did at the time, but I was never sure, though I did eat a cookie I bought from the bagel shop earlier.

Then it was over to the academics fair, about all the majors and what they can offer. The math people were flat out rude. "So what would it take to get a math major?" I asked. "About 10 classes." The guy remarked hotly. "Is that it? Really?" I asked. "yesssssss, but they're hard classes." she says with a look that clearly says I don't want to be here right now. The Econ group found it more valuable of their time to leave before I could see them. It's doable to get a minor in Spanihs, and I could make more money in my first year a an engineer than my mom makes with her 1 and a half jobs.

There I met the independant fraternity, Epsilon Theta. They're a coed fraternity (is that an oxymoron?) off of campus but very friednly and very nerdy, like nerdy to the tenth degree (I mean, even their initials are ET). I kept thinking about going to their events (Katamari Demachi contest, BOard Game-a-rama, Watching Star Wars and sipping Cocoa at Midnight) but never did, partially cuz I was uneasy about them being off campus and another that if I went there I'd surely have no chance of a real social life.

Then I went for a meeting with the financial aid advisor since I hdn't received an offer yet. I don't wanna talk about it.

Now feeling crappy, I looked in my book and found that some junior or sophomore (his grad year changed depednig on which agenda you looked at) and he was playing on his piano for a recital. He played a few pieces, and I think they were all from memory. One of them, called Photographs at the Museum of Something, was like a half hour long. It was very soothing and I think I kinda fell asleep for one of the pictures. Soporific- sleep inducing, that's like the one word that's sticked in my head from freshman year. But it was nice.

After that I think I went to get me some real food. My dorm BC was having a special buffet style dinner, each floor with a specific style of cuisine. The first one that caught my eye was a beach party at Connor 3 with hot doggies and burgers. Even though they have full kitchens with stove and everything, they were using the multi-purpose Geroge Foreman grill for everything, and they boiled all the doggies. It was edible.

Later I went to the Next Dorms to watch their annual musical production. This year they did "Lucky Stiff." Basically, take "Weekend at Bernie's", set it in Monte carlo, make it a musical, and VOILA! you have this play. It was cute, and a good production for a crappy story. The best part was when one lady sings the same song twice to two different guys.

Then it was about 10:30, and I walked over to bed. No one was around so I turned off the lights and began to snooze.

Then at 3:30 there's a big commotion.

How to get wasted in three easy steps:
1. Obtain necessary equipment
a. Bawl's energy drink (The Red Bull for Quake fans!)
b. vodka
2. Mix and consume
3. Try and puke on the top bunk while your roomate's pre-frosh is trying to sleep on the bottom of the apparently pretty permeable mattress.

But overall things were bright. My outlook was a little brighter. Only tomorrow would hold the answers and begin to close this ceremony.



Or would it?