The Masochist's Institute of Technologyanecdotes of an ambitious MIT student

Between moving in, wrapping up my summer jobs, and fraternizing with freshmen, I haven’t had a chance to blog very much lately. Here’s a quickie post to show you all some bits and pieces of my new room!

After living at Sidney-Pacific for nearly three months, I think I eventually became a little spoiled. I got used to the huge room size, the oversized desk, the squishy carpeted floors, and the lovely armoire (upon which was affixed a full-length mirror). When I moved back into Next House – and I’ll admit it now – I was slightly dejected. Especially when I tried arranging my room in the orientation that I had planned, only to find that it didn’t fit that way.

Here’s my desk! It looks much the same as it did last year, only now the printer is on the right side. It is strategically placed right in front of the door, so that when people enter they may immediately see the irritated look on my face. In addition, it makes it feel more “office-like”, which – via an excellent placebo effect – somehow makes me want to work harder. And yes, that is a Rolodex on my desk. I am so excited to start using it! Other noteworthy items: raspberry-scented air freshener, bowl of candy, Caran d’Ache rhodium-plated solid silver pencil my uncle Banh gave me (it’s on the other side of the printer).

Right behind the desk is my food alcove. As you can see, I’ve already gone grocery shopping and stocked up on some delicious foods. There’s also some leftovers from last year (soy sauce). The sequined calendar was made by my mother, but I haven’t gotten the chance to hang it up on the wall yet. It will be placed on the wall to the right of my desk for a nice, quick reference when needed. Unfortunately, the chest of drawers upon which all this stands isn’t as deep as the one I had last year…

Most rooms at MIT come equipped with one desk, one uncomfortable chair, one bed, and one bookshelf. Some dorms have a wardrobe (like Burton-Conner) while others have a closet + chest of drawers (like Next). Last year, I was somehow fortunate enough to have two bookshelves in my single, which meant that I could spread out my stuff. I ended up using one for books and one for foodstuffs and random knick-knacks. This year, I’ve had to cram everything into only one bookshelf. As you can see, I even had to stack some boxes (they contain my winter clothes) just to get my three shelves (for silverware, office supplies, and technology, respectively) at an appropriate level. I have sorted my books so that the academic-related ones are on top while leisure reading is in the middle (the bottom shelf contains class notes, folders, binders, etc.)

My closet looks much the same as last year – thank goodness my hanging cloth shelf hasn’t collapsed on me yet. I’m not quite sure what I would do without it. I’ve hung up my suits and fancier articles of clothing, while the two boxes contain random items (like my iron and hair dryer).

Awesome things about my room:

• My desk has really deep drawers, for some reason. It’s useful!
• I really like the setup – it’s a perfect blend of cozy (the left side, where my bed and shelves are) and professional (the right side, where my desk is located).
• I finally got my whiteboard hung up on the wall. How awesome is that?

Not-so-awesome things about my room:

• The bed is not raised. This is my main complaint, as I can’t store boxes underneath, and it’s no longer fun to “climb” into bed.
• Next House is blazingly hot in the summer, due to lack of air conditioning. I’ve had to leave the window constantly open, but that brings up another thing:
• I have no window shade. This really isn’t a problem though, because…
• The view from my window is nothing but a green mess of leaves from the trees in the courtyard.

The positive things far outweigh the negative, though, and I’m really happy to be back with the undergraduates again =) It’s also getting really lively around here; today is the first day of orientation and the campus is teeming with freshmen!