Hi all,
It's been a while; I never seem to get around to writing no matter how often I remind myself I should. Tonight, however, I have a term paper to procrastinate and therefore the perfect excuse!
I would definitely say that life is accelerating in all its facets: I seem to be spending more time on everything and less time on nothing... classes, research, friends, my radio show... and there is this crunch-time vibe rippling through campus as each of us realize that we'll be home for break in two weeks--and all the work we have to do before then :)
Some exciting tidbits to share....
Apparently the guys downstairs have a deal with some people who dispose of dry ice because it keeps showing up in various creative and sometime explosive experiments around here. The coolest part is that the young woman in the foreground of the picture, Jen (a junior on my floor), as she was playing with the vapor pouring out over the sides of the container, commented: "fluid mechanics are so cool. I used to understand them better: It's all about the Navier-Stokes equations that completely describe the motion--they just aren't solvable." It's mind-boggling to think about all the things people here know that I will never, ever know or understand.
I found out that I got into the 4 week class to become certified as an EMT - emergency medical technician - the first responders that arrive in an ambulance. That's what I'll be doing this january, and after that I'll be able to volunteer at the student-run MIT ambulance. It's going to be intense, but I'm really excited at this chance to learn how to give real patient care, and see whether medicine is the life for me.
I'm getting more involved with our radio show "Spherio: The Local Voice of Our Hemisphere" and actually co-hosted one of our recent shows on AIDS. It was not a little bit nerve racking, but awesome at the same time.
Perhaps the biggest life development is that I have mastered the art of procrastination. Up until college I did pretty well with the idea of putting aside schoolwork in favor of anything that was really worthwhile... the problem is that, here, in any given evening there are probably at least three things that meet that definition. There are so many events I'd rather go to, people I'd rather talk to, and ideas I'd rather explore than sit down and do my homework :) But such is life, and it is the best kind of problem to have.
That's all the news I can think of around here -- I try to pull out highlights but really, everything runs together into a mishmosh and what once seemed extraordinary becomes a mundane routine. I do my best to keep it fresh, and for the most part it seems to be working!
Hope you all are enjoying the beginning of winter. I'd love to hear what is going on with you, so please write if you get the urge.
