Orientation Cont.

Every time I try to type in this website on my computer (app.standardnotes.com is where the blogs get written), the first thing that it autofills to is apply.commonapp.com. It's a very unpleasant experience.

Upon further examination, I have decided that I should just put all of Orientation into a blog post because I again feel bad for those of you who subscribe to this who get notified everyday. A blog post should be a special occasion, like the end of Orientation, which is a good special occasion. Plus, it puts less pressure on me to create a polished blog post everyday. In the future, I might combine the day 1 post with this one for brevity and ease of access.

I should first talk about the entire Orientation process. We have all the standard things of a college orientation: what to do in emergencies, alcohol, sex, etc. I think the best and most important part of orientation was REX, which stands for residency exploration. Each dorm puts out a bunch of events for those interested to take part in to explore the dorms and their cultures. Each dorm has a certain culture (some more prominent than others). I'm staying in MacGregor, which is known for being full of singles. Each dorm has subsections, of which have their own subcultures. REX is a lot about finding out what place is a good fit for you. I think this attention to detail is really nice, because this is where you're going to be making friends and living. It's one of the many things that makes MIT MIT.

Day 2:
Convocation!!! We got to sit in a big tent and watch the President Kornburth, speak. It was generic I think because I can't remember it now. Something about change. Push yourself and grow? I don't really remember. All I remember is afterwards I went to some more events and now I think I have a good sense of what each entry of MacGregor is like! Well, a decently good sense. B entry is the party one and C entry is the quietest. G and H are best friends and do things together and J is a cult. I do want to write a more detailed description of each dorm and entry by the end of the school year because I want to put more information out there for people who might be in my position, deciding which dorm they would like to be in.
I said goodbye to my parents. We hugged and stuff. I'm not the kind to get homesick so it wasn't really that big of a moment to me. I mean, it still hasn't sunk in that I'm going to college. Denial is WINial. Afterwards, the entire class gathered again to watch a rather humorous student production about alcohol and drug abuse, chant the MIT Emergency Services number, and have dinner. I really enjoyed the skit, though someone said that it was cringy, clarifying later that it was in a good way.
After that, I tried to get some taiyaki (which is a Japanese waffle-like pastry traditionally filled with red bean paste and shaped like a fish), but their taiyaki machine broke and so I got some ice cream and talked to more MacGregor people. After that, I made the trip to New Vassar (which is very nice and new) and played some poker. I knew practically no one there and again, the people there are very different from MacGregor. MacGregor people are so nice. It's not that the other people are mean, but they're just not as nice. It's hard to put my finger on it.

Day 3:
I was liking how Sunday was all REX events because sitting in Kresge Auditorium is just not it. In the morning there was a very cool talk about DEI. I met with my academic advisor, who neglected to email all of us in his advising group until 3 or so hours before our meeting. He's a pretty chill guy, though. My associate advisor is a course 6 (I think) and 18 student. I didn't really pay attention to his first major. Everyone else in my advising group was a student athlete. It was scary. I really need to get back to working out. I think they try to fit similar people together in an advising group, because I've met people who were mostly aero/astro majors, etc. I mean, it's definitely not a coincidence that everybody else in the 5 person group is a student athlete. I'm just the odd one out. There was more presentations and after that, I played Overcooked, crocheted, and played poker, which was the highlight of my night. I suppose that's fitting for a math major. I'm not a big poker player at the moment, but I would like that to change in college. I would like many things to change in college. I'm sure a lot of people feel the same as well. College is a very interesting place and if I were an anthropologist, I would study it. I should take some anthropology classes.

Day 4:
I tried out the MacGregor music room and practiced my clarinet for the first time in a while. This is obviously problematic because I have MITSO and MITWE auditions in a little more than a week. It's okay, though, because I met some MITSO and MITWE people (along with the conductors) at the club expo that I went to later on, and they told me that it was a pretty chill audition. Afterwards, I showed up to some more orientation presentations. There was an expo afterwards with booths about the different majors and other academic things. I was told that there was going to be a lot of free stuff. There were, but mostly in the form of papers and pamphlets. I did get a plastic ice cube like cube that would light up when in water. I don't have enough of a background to explain this using the proper words, but essentially the water that you put the ice cube conducts electricity and completes the circuit. Outside of the pseudo ice cube, there was nothing good that I got. I'm someone who enjoys going to every booth at an expo, and so I was there the entire time, up until when all the booths were packing up. I didn't end up going to a booth that I wanted to go to (global languages, because I am considering taking a foreign language). Afterwards, I went to EASE, which really just consisted of touring each entry, and that went on for way too long. I was planning to go to another poker event but I was too tired from the whole entry exploration and picking of entry process to go. I was told later that they were playing until 6 in the morning. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like if I lived in Next (which was where the poker was at).

Day 5:
I had to wake up at 7 in order to pack and leave my room by 8. I think I checked out at 8:15. I elected to not have my room cleaned before I moved in. It was a very wise decision. The cleaning that the house provided was vacuuming, which I did by myself. I don't think it even did much, though. The floor is carpet, and that means there is years and years of dirt and grime hidden within the nylon and whatever other material they use to make plastic. I thought that vacuuming thoroughly was enough to make the room a shoes-off zone. I walked around with my socks on in that room, unpacking, and I ended the day with a very considerable amount of dirt on the bottom of my socks.

I had a friend who was waiting on her dorm for a really long time. It turns out that the previous resident was still asleep at 8 and woke up at around 10 after she knocked on the door. There were two people in the single dorm. They were from the same high school, according to someone who also went to that high school. I found that quite amusing. This was the first of the many, many amusing things that will occur in my entry. I unpacked for most of the day. I went to an event put on by the Student Support Services, a handy dandy school organization that helps with mental health and sexual assault and alcohol abuse, among other things. We got to paint pots and pot succulents. I tried to decorate it like the Nine Lives Valorant skin line, specifically the one with Viper on it. I'm a Viper otp. I love Viper. I thought my pot came out looking very nice! I registered for classes and went to Harvard with some friends, but we didn't really do much. I just noticed that the Harvard bookstore had a math section containing a sum total of three math books. I was sad.

Oh boy, was the house meeting interesting. We had a little entry-wide meeting about entry expectations and just general living things. The way the meeting was set up is important to what I'm about to say. The GRA (graduate RA) stood in a corner of the room. Us, the frosh, sat in the couches that surrounded the TV next to the GRA. The GRA talked at us. There was a bottle on the ground behind the GRA. I stared at that bottle for most of the meeting, wondering what it was. After the meeting, I hung out in the entry lounge and we ended up cleaning. I picked up the bottle. All I should say is that it was left here from last year. The place looked much nicer after some cleaning and redecorating. A bunch of people dropped by. An upperclassmen walked by and we started talking about the history of my entry. I suppose this is a story for another time. Well, this is definitely the start of something very new. I can't say that I'm too dispirited about it.

Day 6:
This was the last official day of orientation. The day started with taking a class photo in front of Killian Court. There was a closing ceremony that was preceded by reflections about what our goals are for our time at MIT. I realized that I don't really have any academic goals (outside of get good grades), and I don't know what I should do about that. All of my goals are social or health-related. I chilled in the entry lounge for a couple of moments before I headed to Midway, which is kind of like a club expo. I signed up for a bunch of clubs, but the clubs that I was most interested in joining wasn't there (badminton, mostly). I did sign up for a dance club because I wanted to try out dance, so we'll see how that goes. We went to the aquarium afterwards, which one would think would be pretty cool, except it was at night and the staff turned off some of the lights to let the fish and penguins rest. Well, the penguins weren't resting, probably because of the gaggle of MIT students that were in the place. They hosted a puzzle hunt in the aquarium. I think more people were on the tables and the floors trying to solve each puzzle than people looking at fish. I think there was a sizeable number of people at the dance floor that they set up on the pier. I flip flopped between wanting to solve the puzzles and wanting to look at fish. In fact, I am only writing my blog right now because I ran into a contradiction on the sudoku puzzle I got from the aquarium. Yes, I am still working on a puzzle from two days ago. To my defense, I hadn't looked at it between then. It's also a very interesting puzzle! Afterwards my suitemates and I got cannolis and coffee (well, one of my suitemates got an espresso) in where I assume is the Italian part of Boston. I found out that G has the same birthday as me at that coffeeshop. I was astonished by how casually he said, "me too" when I told him my birthday. Mouth agape, jaw dropped (well I suppose this applies the other), astounded.

And that's orientation for you. This weekend is Rush, but I haven't gone to a single frat event yet. I don't think I have the energy to do that, considering how I have to start cooking for myself. My suitemates and I have some kind of rotating cooking arrangement. I cook rather eccentrically. Well, the food I make is kind of plain, and I'm fine with that. I like savoring the natural sweetness of boiled vegetables, so much so that I even drink the water that it was boiled in. It is nice, easy to make soup. It really had not crossed my mind that other people would find it strange. I also have/had to meet with a couple of friends in the Boston area which will also take time. I want to chill these days. It would be nice, methinks. Classes start on Wednesday. Some other thoughts:

Over the last couple days, I've said "It's not that deep" when someone brought up a problem. I wonder if I'm not taking things seriously enough. Overall, I feel like I take failure much less seriously than other people. I think failing is part of the journey and one should enjoy the journey. It's chill. I'm chill about many, if not all, things.

I haven't been doing the write everyday thing very well these past days. Hopefully it'll be better, since REX really just throws events and events at your face. Hopefully.

Well, cheers to classes starting. Good luck, myself.