Explosive Donut

As of an hour ago, I have been to all of the classes I was thinking of taking. Harvard has something known as “Shopping” for classes. This means you go to any of the classes you’re even thinking of taking for the first week and then you pick your classes from there. It’s a nice system because you actually see what the class is like instead of just counting on the hip blurb about the course when you sign up (i.e. UPenn). At the very least, it forces profs to make the class interesting for a week.

The one downside is that I have three classes I wanted to take, when I’m only supposed to have two. I’m doing research on top of my classes (at least I think I do) so I don’t want to overload myself. I’m not really sure which class I want to axe but it looks like I’ll be doing the reading/homework for all of them. Yikes.

I’ve also learned the difference between Grad and Undergrad classes at Harvard. At Penn, there really wasn’t much of a difference – in many cases it just meant there were fewer problem sets. At Harvard, it seems to mean that you read 20-40 pages of articles twice a week and write what seems to be a book report for each article you read. One prof said that this would probably be taking at least 12 hours per week for his class. I have two classes worth of reading and reports due on Thursday, so I gotta get cracking on that. A problem set in the other class should be coming along shortly.

Suddenly, I didn’t feel too bad about only taking two classes.

I also have to plan out my research. This is difficult because I have no idea what to do. I’m not really sure what topics exist, let alone are feasable, so I keep bouncing off of my advisor and one of his older students. I’ve got to have a plan in by Friday so gotta work on that too.

I haven’t had any commitments for the past month, so Friday seems a lot like every other day. I guess I’m more likely to go out, but that’s just because everyone else has to work. Yesterday was the last of these Fridays as class starts on Monday. However, I had another day of orientation so it wasn’t like I was hanging out at home (or Ikea).

The department/division/area I work for needs some explanation. Like at Microsoft, I am not entirely sure what each level of organization is called. Here is my best guess: first, I am under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. This loose organization seems to span many schools at Harvard. Under that is the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS). Below that is the Division of Engineering and Applied Sciences (DEAS). Apparently it’s not its own school due to some crazy endowment from long long ago which dictated that it be part of GSAS. I’ve heard DEAS is going to become a school soon though, so all this may be meaningless in a few months. Under all this is EECS, which doesn’t even seem to be any real organization, just some loose affiliation of some DEAS people. I’m studying Computer Science so that seems to be my pseudo-department, although there aren’t really any truly separate departments in DEAS. For instance, my advisor is an Electrical Engineer and I’m studying Computer Science (there’s a lot of overlap).

The orientation was good and I met a bunch of people. It was really long though, extended from the original two hours to seven. There was a few speeches and a lot of advice, but I think they easily could have covered everything in under five hours. I got the feeling they over-estimated how long things would take and we were frequently killing time until the next planned event.

One of the events was a teamwork challenge. We had to break into groups and each group would try to build the tallest self-standing structure with just paper and paper-clips. We didn’t win, but we got ours to stand at 108 inches.

 
The Leaning Tower of Fiber

Orientation ended with a barbeque, which always floats my boat, even if it was catered. I must say I prefer my hamburger, although they were able to pump them out faster. I was too full to eat pie.

After my last hours of orientation, I rode my bike back to my apartment. I was pretty tired of listening to people talk all day so I watched last night’s Daily Show and Colbert Report and listened to them talk some too.

I was hungry again (somehow) so I made pasta with a side of veggies and potatoes. It was all Trader Joe’s ingredients and took about fifteen minutes to make. It was really tasty and healthy too. I also learned Melody doesn’t like carrots.

After some indecisive hijinx from Melody and her roommates, we went out to a post-orientation party hosted by GSAS. I saw a few people from orientation and there was free beer, so it was good in my book. After we had our fill, we walked over to the Noir (a bar in a hotel) but it was already at capacity so we made our way to Red Line.

The ladies next store

 
Melody and I enjoying Red Line’s liquid refreshments

We got a few drinks and Melody’s roommates (and a friend of theirs) split off to go dancing somewhere in Central. By this point, Melody had two drinks which apparently is (at least) one too many. I walked her home which was tricky because she can get inquisitive about alleys, trash cans, and bushes after having a drink. After at least a half an hour, we successfully made it back with no injuries.

Yesterday was my 25th birthday. Most of the day was pretty uneventful. I woke up, got the keys to my new office, signed up for one of many email accounts I need (for reasons beyond my understanding). After that, I checked out Hemenway Gym. It was pretty cool in some ways: every cardio machine had its own flatscreen TV and the multi-floor layout had an Escher feel to it. After frequenting the Pro Club when I was working though, it seemed pretty small. There was only like 40 cardio machines total for the Law and Grad School! You have to pay extra for towels and you have to bring your own lock! It was shocking me although I realize it’s all pretty common. I almost feel guilty mentioning it.

After that I rode my bike back. Riding my bike around Harvard Square has been frightening lately. A lot of streets veer in random directions, arbitrarily go one-way, some turn into highways without warning, and cars enjoy honking at me for what seems like no reason. I haven’t gotten hit though and having biked around a few times, I’m starting to see which routes to take. Also, my bike has not yet been stolen.

After that, I started unpacking my kitchen stuff. I behave a ton of kitchen things and my roommates are also fully stocked. Mostly, I unpacked my stuff, realized we already had whatever I had just unpacked, and re-packed the box. There were a few things that I do need to keep but the kitchen is full so I’m going to need to reorganize before I can put that stuff away.

Melody got home from work soon after and gave me a birthday present! She gave me a new digital camera (Canon SD500)! It’s really sweet and seems to take pictures that makes people photogenic. It also has a lot of complicated features and a huge manual, which makes me very happy. I’m sure there’s going to be a lot more pictures on this site. My old camera was pretty ragged and falling apart – most of the buttons stopped working so I couldn’t even delete bad photos with it!

 
One of the inaugural photos taken by my new camera

Although it was raining, we ventured out to Oishii, which is widely known as the best place to get sushi in the Boston area. We went to the original location in Chestnut Hill (part of Brookline). It’s a really small place with a sushi bar and a couple of small tables. It’s like a really classy and Japanese version of Thai Tom. Since I love sushi, this was a good choice for a birthday dinner.

I started with a sushi/sashimi special which did the basics: tuna, salmon, and some other fish sashimi, plus some squid, eel, etc. maki. We also had a really tasty black cod appetizer, Melody’s favorite. I also ordered “The Maki”, which was my favorite (and included asparagus of all things). Melody had a grilled steak dish which cooked on a giant stone dish in front of her and was quite tasty too (I snuck a taste).

 
My Sashimi Sushi Special

Melody’s Tenderloin Yaki Ishi 

 
Our Grilled Black Cod with Sweet Miso Sauce appetizer (aka “Intermission”)

“The Maki” - Described on the menu simply as “Trust me. It’s OISHII” (aka “Happy Ending”)

 
The happy couple after some sweet sweet sushi

After dinner I had the urge to get ice cream at Herrell’s. I had a cup of heath bar crunch with fudge and whipped cream. Melody got an ice cream cone, which I also used as a prop for photos since my fudge got everywhere (it took about five minutes just to clean up after myself).

Melody and her ice cream cone

Me, with Melody’s ice cream cone

It ended up to be a really fun birthday night and now that I have a new camera, everyone wins! Hopefully I’ll be posting lots of new photos, not just taking them and promptly forgetting to do anything with them.

Mom and I woke up slightly past Cleveland and went to the continental breakfast. I thought I was moving slowly because mom beat me to breakfast but then she got stuck doing the crossword and I finished before her. I guess I had to load the car (it’s a one-man job) so it didn’t really matter. In the end I think she was waiting for me. For once, time was an issue because we were meeting two different people. Figuring out exact arrival times when driving across multiple state is not easy.

 
Gas is “cheap” in Indiana

We drove out to upstate New York and had lunch at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo, NY. This was definitely my choice – this is where buffalo wings were originally created, supposedly by accident. The wings were true to form although the spicy was not very spicy at all. I bought myself a bottle of their “suicide” sauce before leaving. I decided not to try it in-restaurant as I would be trapped in a car all day.

First Church of the Holy Buffalo Wing

Our next stop was at Rochester, NY. We were meeting up with my former babysittter (when I was a baby). Her husband was also in residency with my dad. Mom and her were friends as a result I guess. It was a bit odd as I had no recallection of this woman despite having seen her daily for a year. Thankfully,she did not hold this against me, but was happy I was now potty-trained.

Mom and I then drove to Syracuse, NY to visit my cousin, Naomi, at school. We had dinner at Meditteranean restaurant and my pasta was really good. We had some fake ice cream which was tasty depite lacking the unhealthy cream. Naomi is doing really well. She’s a senior now and seems to be ahead of her class requirements. She’s also lives at her sorority, which is the sweetest housing I’ve seen, in and beyond college. She’s got her own room, a huge walk-in closet, meals ar cooked for her, and there’s a kitchen with food ready to heat. Pretty sweet.

Syracuse is not populated by walking oranges

Mom and I jumped back in the car and fueled up (gas + espresso). We decided to see how far we could get and we made all the way home, in Northampton, MA. Dad was waiting up for us. I vaguely remember wandering through the fridge a few times before passing out.

The cross-country trip only took five and a half days. I was surprised how fun it was. Mom and I saw a lot of the country, tried some interesting food and met up with some interesting people along the way.

Thanks for coming (and packing) Mom!