Balancing Life, School, and More Life

Balancing Life, School, and… More Life Ahhhh. Wednesday. Veterans Day. A day FREE of classes. A one-day weekend! Wooohooo!!! Yesterday, I decided that today would be perfect for a movie/drama/DDR marathon! So I found my friends Tuesday and asked, Have any plans for tomorrow? Their responses were like this: Tomorrows my chance to STUDY! I have some major catching up to do! AHHHHH evil physics test on Thursday! I am locking myself in my room and never coming out! Somehow I found about three people that said they could do SOMETHING today. So I made a nice schedule: I would wake up at 9:30ish, watch the fourth episode of My Girl (one of the best asian dramas out there, w00t!) with my big Jessica (a girl from my sorority) at 10, get to the Terrascope room at 12 and stay there until 2 or 3 to work on our final plan for lowering carbon levels in the atmosphere with carbon sequestration and by lowering countries CO2 emissions levels, go to the physics review session from 3-5 for my own physics test on Thursday, and then find my friends to watch the Prestige and DDR. And then call it a night. So what REALLY happened: I ended up watching 2.5 episodes of My Girl with my friends until 1ish, then stayed up until 3:30 AM studying for physics. Luckily I texted my friend and told her I might not be able to watch the drama at 10. So I woke up at 10 AM, turned off the alarm, woke up at 12:30, went to the bathroom and saw my left eye glaring at me in all its bloodshot glory. I am pretty sure that I dont have pink eye because Ive had a red eye a million times before for allergies or from overuse (ahem maybe staying up till 3:30 like EVERY NIGHT), but theres always a first time, so Im heading over to medical after I finish this post. And maybe after I study a bit more for physics. Because I didnt feel comfortable going into the Terrascope room or to the physics review session there would be 30-80 people there that could get infected or scared at least So now its 3:30 and Im trying to get down and finish this annoying mass transfer problem and then go on to the rest of physics. No DDR or movies I suppose But I found something SOOO much cooler that I can do while I work in my room! XD Its called OWL CITY!!! I have Fireflies and Saltwater Room on repeat right now XD So, if youd read my last post, you may be asking: Whats your life been like since that nearly-failed 18.022 test? We had ANOTHER test, but this time I scored right on average (70)! And last time I checked (two days ago by email), I was passing the class with a B-! And since freshman year is pass/no record, I was in paradise. Some of my friends are still struggling though and didnt crack that test =( Hopefully well all make it through! In other school news, Ive been getting more involved in Terrascope. Were supposed to work like 6 hours outside of class a week so since the deadline for our project is coming up soon, from now on Im spending an extra 6+ hours a week on Terrascope =P I also have to plan what Im doing during IAP and the summer. I would LOOOVE to do something with Outward Bound or another group, hiking/mountaineering somewhere but everything Ive found is too expensive so far so Im going to look for a class/UROP/internship for IAP and an internship/program for the summer. Some people already have applied to internships and programs Im one of those students who doesnt work efficiently and thereforehasnt X____X Also, Ive been trying to balance my life more outside of classes. For starters, I joined a sorority (*gasp!*) and we just had initiation yesterday (*DOUBLE GASP!*). We also had relevations this is where we get paired to our big as in big sister (sophomore or junior from the sorority) whom we bond with for the 2-3 years we have together at MIT, and beyond! So yeah, my big Jessica and I have been watching Asian dramas! =) Yay bonding XD Ive been trying to spend more time with friends, not just in the sorority (I really should go to more of their events). I went to Salem for Halloween with friends from MIT and one high school friend that goes to Brandeis. There were so many costumes! And we went to an Italian place which had wonderful pumpkin ice cream. Unfortunately I dont have pictures from there, but I did get one of this evil flower my friend found in some hidden lair Look! Witness the evil! (My friend almost flew to the other side of that train while holding that flower. I am serious.) I also have a good friend in McCormick whom I work with on 18.022 when we dont get distracted by watching movies, playing with Photobooth, or doing weird things to hair (like mine) I was working on an 18.022 pset while she (aka The Master of Design) did THIS to my hair Master of Design: CAPTAIN JACK SPARROW! And this is us deciding to play with Photobooth on a Sunday morning You said TEST? In terms of clubs outside of school I joined LTI the Leadership Training Institutes Expansion team. Im going to try to help with the logistics of LTI-Brazil and LTI-China however I can with my limited experience (and time X_X), but Im also trying to see if we can bring this awesome program (to train high school students to lead their own community service projects!) to Puerto Rico! Gotta work on my spanish skillz X_____X In addition, Ive been trying to get more involved in environmental stuff outside of Terrascope. For instance, Im helping Biodiesel @ MIT with their Biodiesel @ Brazil project (were writing the proposal now gotta work on this!). Ive also joined the Organizing Team for MITs Sustainability Summit, taking place the Friday of Earth Day week (I believe) in April 2010. Almost everyone organizing this event is from Sloan (MITs graduate school of management) except for me, another college freshman, and a Ph.D. candidate. Its pretty awesome. We had a social last night and they took us out to dinner XD They also had some great ideas about good green careers. Ill elaborate on an upcoming post about going green! One last thing on that environmental note: I defied time by biking all the way to Northeastern University for the Boston Vegetarian Festival two Sundays ago. Sooo much food, sooo much info it was amazing. Beyonnnd amazing. I only wish I had more pictures I had like a brownie, samples of raw food bars, cous cous, hummus, asian food, etc., etc. Im also trying to get back into Sport Tae Kwon Do, but I wanted to take a look at the variety of martial arts MIT has to offer as well. I really need to get back into shape, thats one of my goals, havent been exercising much at all treadmills work wonders, it would be a dream to run/swim/do weight training/one of these at least four days a week XDD Ohhhh, and on THAT note I should try to stay healthy. Got to start cooking healthy foods (theres oatmeal and stuff to make lentil burgers sitting in my room). And I need to force myself to sleep at 12-1. At least 80% of the time if possible. And I need to go to medical and get this eye checked out. And then study for physics. And then do chem. So theres one chapter of my quest to find a balance at MIT. So maybe life will be balanced in the next chapter! In two? Or in 20 chapters! Or 100! Or IS there a balance? Well see!