It's Deja Vu straight out of Garrett County in the summertime: Everywhere one goes on campus, there are tourists of all shapes and sizes, snapping pictures, getting in the way, ignoring the flashing red lights and "DO NOT ENTER OR THE LASERS WILL EAT YOU" signs on the lab doors, driving badly (though that's mainly the local Bostonians), wearing outfits complete with fanny packs that look they belong to Grandmas in Bermuda, and whining about the weather.
Partly, it's a nuisance. Every time I've passed 77Mass Ave, the main entrance, I've seen at least one family doing the token "Smile in front of your future school, Douglas!" The poor disgruntled high school kid leers for the camera while trying to get a look at the building that, at the request of his parents, he is forced to face his back to. You can be understanding enough when you obligingly pause so as to not walk in front of a family getting the obligatory "Dome Shot" on Killian Court (see banner
above, and imagine in day time). However, I was on my way to class one day, stopping for breakfast at LaVerde's, the mini-mart/grocery/drugstore/lifeblood of the campus, and the girl in front of me was obviously a tourist. She was handing over her cash when we heard a shout: "WAIT! Let me get this!" A short Asian man, sporting the most lugubrious of fanny packs, jumped in front of me with his camera. The well-trained daughter paused, mid-taking change, and grinned as she was photographed buying lunch. I believe the phrase is "Oy Vey!"The non-nuisance part, though, is that you get to see where you were a year ago. Less than a year ago, for us summer pre-frosh, anyway. Spooky and relieving at the same time.
Classes are getting more and more difficult, to the point where every waking moment is spent nose-in-a-book, pen-in-hand. I'm enjoying things, especially Calculus and Chem (taught by Sammy and
Nia, respectively--very fun people), though some are a bit of a challenge. Like Physics: I'd never have thought that I'd be solving Mechanics problems with calculus and NO ACTUAL NUMBERS. Just letters. And half of them Greek.There's an interesting balance between the insanely hardcore classes and the..."fluffy" stuff here. For example, Humanities, the class where we learn about humans. Today I went straight from Chem, where we learned about atomic structure and Other Difficult Things, to Humanities recitation, where we discussed identity, writing fuzzy little personal essays and having a meaningful little chat. It's not really the subjects, juts the juxtaposition.
It takes an extreme environment, I found, to really make you examine the basics: eating right, sleeping (what's sleep?), and most importantly exercising. Everyone has a mandatory swimming or sailing class (it's a graduation requirement to pass the swim test), and an optional tennis class. You get P.E. credits for them, too. I've been taking tennis lessons and really enjoying it--honestly, where else can you get those for free? Our instructor is the Assistant Coach for the Men's team, a soft-spoken Australian guy named Spritely Roche. How much more awesome of a name can you get? He's a funny dude: today while he was taking a girl dropped her racket, and he stopped, saying, "Now THAT'S the kind of loose grip we like to see!"
This weekend offers a bit of a respite, being that we have no classes on the Fourth. Viva la Fin de Semana de Tres Dias! I've promised myself that if I don't waste time and work hard this week, I can do absolutely nothing on Friday. And what does "absolutely nothing" entail? Going into Boston! Already, they've got the barge out in the Charles from which they shoot off the fireworks behind the Boston Pops! stage. We can see it from main campus. Supposedly they put speakers all along the river on the Boston side, so all of Cambridge can listen in and see the fireworks. Some folks and I are going to stake out places on the Harvard Bridge so we can be about 500ft. from the barge. What can we say: we be nerdy pyros here...
Well, Chemistry awaits, Physics demands a look-over, an Humanities needs my opinion on an essay. When did I get so popular? Keep it real, peace out, and have yourself a happy little Fourth! Get lots of candy! Eat lots of chicken! Watch the annual "Indy-pendence Day" Indiana Jones marathon on AMC! Ciao!
