As I spent much of my time around first years, I found myself giving copious amounts of unsolicited advice. Even if they didn’t ask for help nor prompt the discussion at all,⁠01 ahahaha sorry not sorry I had many tips to share, so I thought to pass them along to the blogs, too. I guess other class years could also benefit from this tip list, but it’s largely written with first years in mind. This is in no way a comprehensive list, but there should be at least one useful tip. Think of this less as a “how to do MIT” and more like a “here is a hodgepodge of advice that will hopefully maybe possibly make your MIT life better.”

1. Hold onto your 101 Things To Do Before You Graduate List, in case you find yourself on one evening trying to think of something fun to do. I know people who’ve regretted losing theirs. The list has some really wonderful local, well-thought-out activities. Consider highlighting ones that you accomplish as you go through these four years.
2. Make time to wander around. MIT has a lot of funny corners, and maybe you’ll stumble upon your new favorite spot. 
3. Complete MakerLodge. This is the Project Manus maker training program, made specifically for first year students. By completing it, you get a free Arduino, toolbox filled with tools, MakerLodge T-shirt, and MakerBucks ($50 stipend for maker supplies). This program is not available after your first year,⁠02 </span><span style="font-weight: 400">To clarify, upperclassmen can still do the exact same activities included in the program, but they just wouldn’t receive the free stuff. so get it in sometime this year. FYI: It takes a few weeks for us to publish our maker calendar (last year, there were 50 mentors, which is a lot to coordinate). Also, because I’m a Project Manus Mentor, you may even see me at an orientation or training! If you mention you’ve read this blog, I’ll show you some of my favorite secret art around the maker space. :)
4. Download Splitwise and Venmo, because you will be sharing costs with people at some point. I swear by Splitwise for group transactions. I use Venmo to actually process payments and Splitwise to calculate cumulative group payments.
5. Skim through the full course catalog. No, this doesn’t mean you have to read every single page, instead get a sense of what classes are offered in each major. What sounds cool to you? What major do you tend towards? Any HASS (humanities, arts, and social sciences) classes stick out? I think casting your net wide and observing what you find yourself interested in is a good way to really figure out what you want to do. Your interests may (and probably will) evolve with time, but, regardless, this is a good tool to employ.
6. Get a Harvard library card,⁠03 scroll to the bottom of the <a href="https://library.harvard.edu/visitor-access?_gl=1*hmlmtp*_ga*MTkwMTQzNTY2LjE2OTM3MTE0MzY.*_ga_3CXC97RWEK*MTY5MzcxMTQzNS4xLjEuMTY5MzcxMTQ2Mi4zMy4wLjA.#access-cards" target="_blank" rel="noopener">site.</a> we‘re classified under “Ivy Plus and BorrowDirect”  because it’s a means to a good escape out of the MIT bubble for studying. It’s a bit of a process, but a short one. I had to apply online, book an appointment, go in-person to get my identity verified and photo taken, and ta-da: out popped a Harvard ID! It’s also just cool to have some custom memorabilia from that other school in Cambridge.
7. Try every dining hall, so that you can gauge which ones you like most and get a spacial sense of most dorms. 
8. Make a list of all clubs that you have any ounce of interest in. Join their mailing list. Drop by one of their meetings. What do you have to lose? See if it fits your vibe. I think casting your net wide during freshman year is helpful in feeling self-assured with deciding your commitments. Also, this is the time to explore, so do make use of it. Of course, exploring is a large part of life as a whole, but freshman year is especially fruitful for it.
9. Get your physical MIT ID. You can get them at any kiosk. I don’t understand why the institute didn’t print them by default this year (it’s been printed every year I’ve been here so far). Your phone may be glitchy or out of battery, so mobile ID would be bust. Maybe you want to tap onto the bus or subway with a CharlieCard, which is built into the handheld ID. Some businesses may only apply a student discount if they see the physical card. It’s also nice to have as a knick knack. Plenty of reasons to get one.
10. Think of one thing you can look forward to every morning. It can literally be anything. A cup of tea? A good stretch? Opening up the windows? On tougher days, it’s nice to have at least one thing to help get you out of bed.
11. Check out the gym. All students get a complimentary full gym membership (whereas it’s ~$100/month normally), so one shouldn’t take it for granted. I know I’ve felt the difference when having to pay for the gym out-of-pocket while interning abroad this past summer. You can try out swimming on the weekends with friends, walking with an incline on the treadmill, or whatever else feels good to you. If working out is a bit intimidating, the Engineer Your Health Plus Program may be a good place to start. And, maybe the gym just isn’t for you, which is chill, but at least see what’s available to you.
12. Set aside a weekly time to do your chores. Sometimes, time can slip by and the lingering laundry pile can grow into a monstrous one. That can be avoided. 
13. Don’t be afraid to say no to a party. Parties will always happen. But, tonight will only happen once. Your time is precious, and if you don’t feel like going, that’s totally fine and perfectly normal. Some nights are for sipping some tea, lighting a candle, and binging your favorite show, at least I know some of mine are. 
14. Reach out if you need help. This one sounds obvious, but you’d be surprised. In the past, I know I have certainly done a lot of mental gymnastics to get out of asking anyone for help. Here are some examples of thoughts I’ve had: If I ask for help, that’ll show that I’m weak. I won’t do it. If I ask for help, it shows I’m not doing enough. I’ll just work harder. If I ask for help, I’ll just be an annoying bother to whoever I ask. I’ll just keep it to myself. If I ask for help, it shows I’m not cut out to be at MIT. I have to prove that I can do it myself. In retrospect, the logic is kinda funny because asking for help actually does the opposite of what these thoughts claim: asking for help is an act of strength in taking care of yourself, a means of working smarter instead of harder, and a display of being a resourceful MIT student. The resources MIT offers didn’t just come out of thin air; they’re there for a reason. You can start with asking anyone: a friend, blogger (we really do respond to our blog emails ), associate advisor, TA (teaching assistant), GRA (graduate resident advisor), advisor, professor, S^3 (student support services), SMHCS (student mental health and counseling services), among many other options. Please. I’m begging you. Ask. For. Help. You’ll need it. We all do. 

I hope you found some nuggets of wisdom in there. As you’ve probably already heard a bazillion times before, welcome to MIT. We’re so lucky to have you.

P.S. if other upperclassmen have unsolicited (well, I guess now solicited) tips to share, please drop some in the comments below!

It’s been three months since Ring Delivery, where sophomores receive their class ring to celebrate being halfway through their journeys.

The event is somehow both underwhelming and overwhelming. Underwhelming, in that there are no activities other than taking pictures, snacking, and dancing—which are, of course, fun but it’s really just that. Overwhelming, in that everyone is there. There are few moments in the MIT journey where a whole class is together, and this was one of them. It’s fun seeing who knows who, especially the overlaps between people you knew separately but not together. No one warned me how chaotic timing would be. Everyone wanted a bite out of everyone for photos, which panned out disastrously and beautifully among a thousand students. Picture this: a group waits on one person before taking their photo but that one person is in another group photo and that other group is waiting for another person who is also taking pictures with another group… and so on. It’s fun. We managed to figure it out, for the most part.

bloggers!!! jebby, andi, ella, and i

xuan l. ’25 and i ganging up on sonny x. ’25 (we weightlifted/kickboxed together on campus, so this photo paid homage to that)

jade d. ’25 & i (and two others caught up in the background lol)

my heart, the chaos table (alonso h. ’25, caitlin o. ’25, isaac l. ’25, me, daina n. ’25, asal v. ’25, and malachi m. ’25)!!! (credit: maxwell y. ’23)

a silly little selfie

married to the ‘tute

After Ring Delivery, I’ve noticed that the Brass Rat elicits three main things for me: (1) a regular fondness for MIT, (2) interactions I wouldn’t have otherwise, and (3) an eye for media spottings.

one

The ring depicts a lot of physical entities around the campus area: the Boston skyline, Cambridge skyline, a map of MIT’s underground tunnel system, the Great Dome, and the Charles river. Sometimes, I glance down at the ring and am reminded of some wonderful memories I’ve had at these places.

two

Right after school ended this past spring, I attended Summer 2023 Wildfire, a northeast fire spinning retreat. Every attendee had to work shifts to help put the event on, and I was a greeter. Several alumni that I had never met before were wearing their Brass Rats and I thought to point them out! It was fun connecting to MIT fire spinners of the past, especially through a physical item we both regularly wore. Outside of that retreat, I’ve also bumped into other MIT students and professors at airports, restaurants, and other public spaces. The ring always sparked a sense of camaraderie.

three

MIT alumni sometimes appear in media—like movies and news articles and such—and they often don the Brass Rat. It’s still very strange for me to feel… affiliated? It’s fun to look at an image online and think “oh, I have the same thing!”⁠04 technically, every class gets a custom ring with their year and class-specific design modifications, but they all have core similarities It’s like a lifelong game of iSpy. The ring is a great way to feel connected to beavers past, present, and future.⁠05 There’s a rich history behind the ring—if you wanted to dig in more, it’s laid out well on both the <a href="https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/history-of-the-brass-rat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">blogs</a> and <a href="https://alum.mit.edu/about/brass-rat" target="_blank" rel="noopener">alumni site.</a>

tony stark (from the 2008 'iron man' film)

erin gilbert (from the 2016 'ghostbusters' film)

buzz aldrin (astronaut who was on the first mission to the moon, apollo 11)

t.j. creamer and nicholas patrick (astronauts on the ISS)

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More Brass Rat info linked here for Iron Man, Ghostbusters, Apollo 11, and the ISS. Bonus: a Grad Rat (graduate equivalent of the Brass Rat) appearance in a McDonald’s commercial.

I feel old. I’ve always felt old, but now especially with this ring. I don’t think this feeling is necessarily good nor bad, just a feeling. I am moving through time; time is moving through me. The finiteness of my time⁠06 not just at MIT but also life as a whole at the institute is real. But, that finiteness enables me to spend my time more wisely and fully. I’m excited for these ~upperclassmen~ years.

it’s quaint

tucked away in an abundance of nature

yet has a family-sense of liveliness in the streets

i biked the town this past weekend, from the top to the bottom

(this sounds long, but the town is around the size of a 1 mile square)

and saw some really cute things

two girls, around 6 years old, were riding around in grocery carts after the shop closed up

a few little boys were ripping up grass and throwing it at each other, like some alternative form of tag mixed with nature’s confetti

an elderly couple was just exiting an ice cream shop together when i passed them, with ice cream in one hand and each other in the other

cute dogs being walked every now and then

and it’s not really… missing anything?

it just has, like, *one* of everything

need a shoe repaired? there’s the shoe shop

want to dive into some history? there’s the town museum

looking for a book? there’s the library

it simplifies life. ive enjoyed the juxtaposition between this peaceful style of living as opposed to the bustling life of mit, and i mean that fully: i like the contrast. it’s not that one draws to me much more than the other, rather, the experience of both makes me appreciate each one more. i think they’re delightful in their own rights. being in st ives has reaffirmed something ive always thought of myself: i love both the rural and city, and want to have both in my life. i dont need to… pick? i feel like that’s a question that’s commonly asked, akin to “what do you want to do with your life,” and i’ve never been able to pick one place. i can see myself living out in the city for work and such because i love the thrill of urban areas, but also frequently camping or maybe building my own cabin one day⁠09 fun fact: the <a href="https://mitoc.mit.edu/rentals/cabins" target="_blank" rel="noopener">mit outing club</a> (mitoc) owns 2 cabins that any mit member can use at any time, and both were built entirely by mitoc members! because i love silence. we’ll see what happens.

ive taken a few photos while out here, during quiet pockets of my day. i thought you might enjoy them:

while wandering outside

flowers growing out of the town bridge cracks

cows in a field

I FOUND ONE

gatekeep gaslight girlboss butterfly slay queen <3

a hidden bench in the town center, surrounded by lush flowers and bushes. i wanna read here

soft greens hanging over the st ives chub stream, which feeds into the river great ouse

i initially biked past this but couldnt get it out of my head and biked back to learn why the grass was long (it's to support the local birds, bees, and other pollinators). i thought this to be really cute. this sign didn't have to be here, but someone thought to let the people know

a queen elizabeth field, of which there are 564 all across england. they were set up all over the country 2012-2014 to commemorate (1) the queen's diamond jubilee and (2) sporting events (the 2012 summer olympics and paralympics in london and the 2014 commonwealth games in glasgow). ultimately, this was an effort to encourage the protection of playing fields, aka public grass where people can have fun

view from the town bridge, with a local church in the distance as noted by the pointy bit

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while vibing inside

the soft amber glow from a neighbor's house looked so magical to me this evening

some wine, tea, dumplings (i think), and chocolate cake while watching the season 3 finale of killing eve (it's largely based in the uk, so i thought to pick it up while im here). that show has ruined me

soft green glow (just look at the way the leaves are so luminescent from the backlighting of the sun!!)

i ran to the nearest tesco (most popular convenience shop here) and bought one of the cheapest bottles of rosé in preparation for this fine evening. i live for nights like these

plant in the shower room

(a bit further to the left) the warmth of the sun shone through the frosted glass and softly illuminated the windowsill. there's a subtle gradient of blue to orange on the left rim. conducive to a good shower that night

me and boris, the landlord's dog <3

(receipts, maps, post cards, stickers, boarding passes, and other flat things) me trying to catch up on a many months' worths of scrapbooking. i allotted 2 hours but instead spent 5 LONG HOURS. im caught up now. it's okay. it's nice thumbing through these old memories

another cute little drink: mango juice + kombucha

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cheers to the quiet beauty

Every day, a cube calls to me.

one decade ago

Summer boredom loomed, then curiosity got the best of us. On one sweltering day, my oldest brother and I scootered over to Walmart with one goal in mind: acquire a Rubik’s cube. We had nothing else planned for the day, and decided to try something new. Intently following the instruction manual together, like building IKEA furniture, we eventually solved our first cube together. Oh, did joy fill the room! It wasn’t as hard as we made it out to be in our heads—we just patiently followed the book. “If the cube problem looks like this, here is the next step.” Man, if only life were always this easy.

a love letter to polyhedral puzzles / a morning tendency

Solving puzzles like these is one of the few activities that has stuck with me, like an itch that I just can’t shake. Polyhedral puzzles are beautiful both aesthetically and mathematically—visually simple yet mentally rigorous. There’s immediate satisfaction. The goal is straightforward. I can take it anywhere with me. Virtually every problem is new and different. There’s so many types of puzzles, ranging in shape, color, and movement. Pretty artwork and messages can be configured on them. Other people can scramble the puzzles for me. I can do it for a minute or for hours on end. I can hold the puzzles, and sometimes I admittedly hug them. I can’t help myself—they’re just so cute! And above all, it’s fun. 

Over the years, I’ve loosely played with these puzzles off-and-on, meaning I picked them up whenever a random urge would hit. Only this past spring did I find myself incorporating them into my daily regimen. I don’t know what got into me, really—it just naturally came upon me. Gradually, every day, I found myself starting my day with the same thing.

Every morning, the first thing I do right after I wake up is solve a Rubik’s cube.

averting morning brain drain

This routine has been especially helpful for getting me out of bed, among other things that the cube gets me through in life. Sometimes, the morning can feel like such a drag, as if the entire world were jello and it’s a slog to move through any of it. So, in the eyes of someone who has just woken up, the combined ease of a cube being an arm swing away and gratification of a solve makes it an approachable, achievable goal. This helps me stay off my phone in the morning, too. I sought an activity to replace the stimulation that my brain likes from perusing the internet⁠10 and possibly getting sucked in for hours via the Dangerously Entertaining Forces of Scrolling with something that was offline, which brought me to the cube. It helps set the tone for the rest of the day. Like, before I’ve even gotten out of bed, I’ve already achieved something. Something about solving a tiny problem, in some way, makes me feel like I can solve big ones too. 

“it’s the little things”

It seems silly, but I’ve found that the cube gives me something to look forward to every day. I think that’s important. In fact, the “small” joys can feel even more central in my life than the “big” joys because they shape my daily life. I may not ride roller coasters every day, but I do solve my little cube. I enjoy the pillowy softness of my lotion when I apply it after a shower. I love the bittersweet mellowness of matcha in the morning. I like walking through my neighborhood and passing by this one tree with a tire swing hung from it. There’s so much to love, even in the simple things. So, I try not to let the little moments of delight slip by. Every day, I do my best to squeeze as much joy as I can out of this sponge called life. 

on habits

Two quotes come to mind:

• “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” —Annie Dillard
• “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” —Will Durant 11 derived from Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, which I read in CC.110 Becoming Human, a philosophy course I had to take in my freshman year because I was in the Concourse program

I think the act of maintaining a habit ultimately comes down to perpetually caring about your future self. Like, will brushing my teeth right now do that much for present-me? No, not really. My teeth feel about the same. But, will future-Kano be thankful for having healthy teeth because present-Kano brushed every day? Of course. With regard to the cube, I know I’ll be grateful for always trying to start off my day well. 

Also, noticing my relationship with habits has helped me better understand how I feel. I’ve noticed that when I start to neglect the small things, the big things seem to unravel. Some specific cues that I’ve noticed include neglecting to brush my teeth, leaving the dishes overnight, and not watering my plants. They’re little checks to keep myself out of delusion. Specifically, there are times when I’ve convinced myself that I’m doing okay when I’m really not. The thoughts in my head may say one thing, but my actions say another, and I trust the actions.

Albeit, I do admit that habits can feel strangely… confining? Like, ah yes, I am putting myself in habit jail for the rest of my life. But, I think that can be reframed as “I’m giving myself things to look forward to,” whether that be a nourished appetite, healthier skin, or simply happily getting out of bed in the mornings. And, of course, things change: the habits you live by can and will evolve with you. On the topic of reframing, I also think not being 100% on top of habits all of the time is perfectly okay. It’s natural. Instead of dwelling on a missed day, I try my best to remind myself that these moments are normal, accept that it has happened, and try to do better the next day. 

So, yeah, most days I solve the cube. Some days, I don’t. And that’s okay. I just make my effort every day, for that’s all I can do. 

nihilistic cubes / gamification of life

The Rubik’s cube feels like a good metaphor for life. Why scramble it? Why solve it? All to come back to the same place in the end? 

These questions remind me that I have a choice. I choose to play with cubes because I want to. I find it fun. I like the journey of the game, despite the ultimate perpetuity of making it through. John Green elaborates on this well in one of his vlogs, where he said “I work when I feel hope, when I am able, as F. Scott Fitzgerald once put it “to hold in balance the sense of the futility of effort and the sense of the necessity to struggle.” Ultimately I believe that effort is never futile so long as there are people to share in that effort and people who might benefit from it. In the grand scheme of things, maybe nothing will matter, but we don’t live in the grand scheme of things—we live here in the day-to-day.”

mit and the cube

I would be remiss not to acknowledge MIT’s relationship with the Rubik’s cube. Yes, there’s a decent cubing scene. Our club hasn’t been active for a hot minute, 12 although, there have been efforts in the past year to revive it but there are cute, small pockets of cubers around campus. Yes, we hold the world record for fastest solve time by a robot. Yes, the cube is scattered in bits all around the website. I do feel funny clarifying this, but if it wasn’t already clear, not everyone knows how to solve a Rubik’s cube, and nobody needs to. In fact, I’m pretty sure that most people I know at school don’t play with cubes. It’s just a fun thing some people do. 

my collection

I feel like a polygonal mother. These are my precious children. <3

I simply love them. They’re my little playthings, always there to elicit some joy. This summer, I’m learning the 4×4 and 5×5, with around a month left to go before the fall term begins. Wish me luck!

I hope you have found or will find your “cube,” something that brightens your day—even in the slightest of ways. It makes all the difference.

Every night, the last thing I do right before bed is scramble my Rubik’s cube.

Every Tuesday evening, right as the sun was setting in the horizon, I’d embark on a long bike ride over to the complete opposite side of campus.

At Building W97, the Theater Arts building, I took 21M.601 (Drawing for Designers). It’s one of my favorite classes so far. There are other bloggers who have written about this class, including Waly (who focused on gesture drawing), Afeefah (who shared their favorite pieces), and Danny and Allan (who commented on the art class scene as a whole at MIT). I focus more on the struggle of drawing, a selection of my pieces, and how drawing connects to everything.

From 7 to 10pm, the class was a long three hours, but it was always so worth it. As a class, we had one goal: learn to apply line and tone to capture reality. I liked the bare bones premise because I could focus better. Additional artistic factors like color, paint, imagination, and so on would’ve made art as a whole more overwhelming, at least I know it would in the beginning for me. Instead, our class used mostly-monotone pencil, crayon, and charcoal. It was approachable: here are a few tools, now draw what you see. 

being ~bad~ at drawing

I must preface that I never thought of myself as a drawer.

In fact, for the larger part of my life, I’ve thought of myself as very bad at drawing. Like, anytime I tried to depict people, I’d end up with wonky stick figures. It was always a bit frustrating having images exist so vividly in my mind—so clear, they felt real—but they would get lost in translation to the page. One instance of this happened in high school robotics, where I tried to explain a DR4B linkage⁠13 double-reverse 4-bar linkage! they have such sleek movement. i loved building these. more info <a href="https://wiki.purduesigbots.com/hardware/lifts/dr4b">here</a>. to my teammate, and my drawing was just an atrocious overlapping of rectangles and circles that ultimately looked like nothing. This difficulty in depicting “real” things led to my interest in the “unreal.” In my free time, I’ve enjoyed abstract painting, but largely because it’s hard to mess up “abstract,” if not impossible. It was safe. Reality was always difficult to do justice.

Basically, I’ve always wanted to learn to draw, and this class was an opportunity I eagerly decided to take on. It seems this want to draw is shared amongst many MIT students, because this is one of the few classes that requires you to apply for it through a Google form (FYI: most MIT classes you can just register for, no questions asked). Gosh, I essentially wrote a love letter to drawing in my application. I badly wanted to take this class, and am so grateful I was able to. 

things i drew

Each class began with a demonstration of drawing techniques, followed by timed drawing prompts where the class applied what we learned.

Behind all of the polished class drawings, there exists many warm-ups and drafts. Every class ended off with a final piece that would be added to our portfolio. Here is a selection of mine:

inanimate objects

my first in-class drawing! i had never worked with charcoal before this and was pleasantly surprised with the result of learning that new medium.

in class, we all zoomed in on different sections of the table

for an assignment, i had to create a setup in my room. this was stuff i found and scrappily placed on my sink lol

3 views of a marble bust: front, side, and angled

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animate objects

Live models came in to pose for class a few times! It was really cool to work with real people. I wasn’t allowed to take photos, so I won’t be adding any references along with the drawings, but you get the idea.

okay so technically speaking, this was modeled off of a statue (i.e. not directly a real person), but i thought to include it here because it still ultimately depicted a human

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After one class, my friend Charlotte W. ’23 asked me what felt different between drawing a real human vs. a not-real human. This was our conversation:

Context: I worked as an 8.02 TA for Professor Dourmashkin

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C: how was it different than drawing a not real human
K: it was soooocoolllllleeeee. okay so you see them breathe. and get to keenly observe the way a breath translates to subtle movements in the rest of the body. the guy moved around to a bunch of different strange positions and we had 1 minute each for this one 20 minute warmup. I could go on but those are the main things I really enjoyed
C: I feel like it’s cool to notice so many little things. With drawing it general. It seems like it teaches you to take notice of things most people just rush by
K: it’s a visual romanticization of life
C: It makes sense that you would enjoy/be good at it because you romanticize (stealing your word) things already
K: awwwh thanks . it reminds me of a convo i had with dourmashkin recently where we talked about how he comes up with such great examples. he just watches life through such a physics lens and appreciates all the little seemingly-fleeting things like how a paper delicately floats down after being brushed off a table or the electric shock we sometimes give to each other. he really loves this stuff it was so endearing to hear him gush
C: Awwww I feel like this is a common physics major thing lolol. Romanticizing the little things once you realize how complicated they really are. Or maybe a STEM thing
K: omgyeah stem thing. or really any academic thing. everything is really complicated and trying to understand those things feels like a form of appreciation/love

rooms

for one class, i walked around the building looking for an area that was enticing to draw. this nook had really cool curvy vents.

the CEO of Intel (??? i was stunned), Pat Gelsinger, gave a talk and i took many notes. at some point, next to my list of questions to ask him, i found myself sketching out the room for fun. this summer, i'm working as a semiconductor manufacturing intern and, accordingly, i was particularly excited about this event.

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self portraits

For one assignment, I had to produce two self portraits. I decided to draw a literal piece (that spoke more to the ego) and an abstract piece (that spoke more to the id and superego). I wanted my body to be turned away, but my eyes to be on the viewer. I find myself looking back to observe things a lot, and hoped for the first portrait to reflect that. The second piece feels best left unexplained, especially considering the abstractness: take from it what you will.

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master copies

The name captures these assignments well: I had to copy masters (select pieces and emulate them).

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everything is connected to everything

I had a lightbulb moment!

One great thing about this class is you can do 1-on-1 consultations with Professor Sharon Lacey, who is a professional artist. I went into our call full of questions.

cad (computer-aided design)

While workshopping one of my self portraits, she suggested I add “construction lines,” which are temporary lines that help anchor permanent lines. I drew vertical lines descending from the corners of my eyes, horizontal lines to enclose my lips, midlines through my forehead and nose, and many other lines to orient all the features into place. Additionally, I revisited the “Sighting Method,” a technique I learned in class where one repeatedly compares the angles and lines of objects in real life to what is being drawn. How does the angle of the eyebrow compare to the angle at which the glasses sit? Because the eyes have been moved up, how does the mouth now sit? How does the nose size compare to the eye, but also the ears and cheek? Every feature affects every other feature.

This process felt oddly familiar, but I couldn’t put my finger on why. All of a sudden, it all connected: this was exactly like CAD. There’s literally a type of line in CAD softwares called “construction line” that functions exactly the same as the one I learned with Professor Lacey, and I voiced to her that connection. I’ve been teaching myself Fusion360 for the past year, and have found it challenging to create some intricate shapes, but it all became easier because of this drawing class.  Every skill was transferable. In addition to applying line in CAD, I also learned to use tone. Changing the view settings in Fusion360 allows me to see how shadows fall to best capture what I’m trying to depict. I came out of the class excited to 3D design objects that were previously too intimidating for me to take on.

massage therapy

Similarly, I was also reminded of my mother’s work as a massage therapist. I told Professor Lacey about a time where I felt extremely sore in my shoulder from weight lifting and asked my mother for help. She began with massaging my leg, which I was really confused by. My legs didn’t hurt at all. My mom proceeded to explain that there are nerve “lines” that run through your entire body, and they’re all connected. To get to massaging even remotely near my shoulder, she had to tend to the lines that connected to it first. The bend of your leg changes the flux of arm muscle. This fascinated me, because I always thought of components of the body as very separate entities; one can move each limb independently. However, applied to drawing, I can look at how the adjustment of one limb affects the rest of the body, even in the subtlest of ways. 

the butterfly effect

I had to mention this. The Butterfly Effect is known as the idea that small changes can ultimately lead to big changes. Mathematically, the effect has a much more deep, extensive definition. However, that’s beyond the scope of this blog, which centers more around the philosophy than the math. Edward Lorenz, the Father of Chaos Theory,⁠14 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_theory">one of my favorite theories EVER</a>, partly because of its engineering applications but mostly because itʻs just so beautiful. i love viewing the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenz_system">Lorenz Attractor,</a> which is basically a set of chaotic solutions (solutions that are super sensitive to what the initial conditions of a problem are) to the Lorenz system (a model of atmospheric convection). and the attractor, when graphed, happens to look somewhat like a butterfly, which I think is a cute coincidence of naming. first coined the term in 1972 when he shared in a lecture that “a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil can produce a tornado in Texas.” In the context of life, the theory asserts that the smallest moments of the past, even ones that don’t seem to have to do anything with us, affect our present day and future. On the scale of drawing, the theory reminds me that even the tiniest of pencil strokes can make massive changes to a picture.

conclusion

I learned a lot of things from this class, both technical and non-technical.

Finally, I feel comfortable with at least attempting to draw things. Now, I find myself sketching in the margins of museum maps, my school notes, napkins, anything I can get my hands on. The class was formative to this comfort, but I’ve also come to learn the accessibility of drawing. Anyone can draw, so long as you put pencil to paper and practice. And, of course, I’ve learned that nothing, and I mean absolutely nothing, is left unconnected in this world.

Source: The Tate Gallery, 1992-3

… and everything nice!

My favorite dish in the whole wide world is called pakaprow.⁠15 spelling variations include Pad Gaprao, Pad Kra Pao, Pad Kraprow, etc. I love it so much that it’s been my Instagram username for the past 2 years. For the entirety of my freshman year, it was literally the only dish I cooked. I made it 7 times, which comes out to around once a month. In times when things were tough, I often turned to pakaprow. To me, it brings a sense of comfort like no other. It’s neat having things in life that you can always count on to brighten your day.

So, what is this dish? Pakaprow is a spicy Thai basil meat stir fry. The sensation of cooking it is always such a riot. Spicy smoke fills the room and the cook always ends up coughing and crying, unless they’re well-acquainted with the difficulties of this dish. It’s almost like an ayahuasca ceremony,⁠16 plant-based psychedelic ritual (FYI: I have never done one and have only heard of them) at least from the experiences of others that I’ve read up on: one relinquishes control, fights to stay afoot, and feels an exhilaration of energy. It’s tough, but I like a challenge.

a snippet of when I had it in Thailand, where my family is from

It holds sentimental value because it’s the only dish that every adult in my immediate family has cooked for me. My mother’s version leaned sweet and had perfect texture; my father’s was a funny amalgamation of flavors; my uncle’s was, by far, the spiciest; and my aunt’s version best highlighted Thai basil. Everyone had their own take and I enjoyed all of them.

I love my Thai culture and how it has spread around the world through cuisine.⁠17 the gastrodiplomacy of Thailand is quite fascinating! <a href="http://yris.yira.org/essays/3080">here</a> is a great article, if you wanted to learn more Although, back at my middle school lunch table, I remember being confronted with “lunchbox moments,”⁠18 <a href="https://lucnguyen14.medium.com/my-lunchbox-moment-3f0886efcedb">defined</a> as an "instance of extreme embarrassment caused by the introduction of an unfamiliar ethnic food in the presence of peers unfamiliar with said food." more nuanced take <a href="https://www.eater.com/22239499/lunchbox-moment-pop-culture-tropes">here</a>. which feels like such a cliche as a first-generation Asian-American student of immigrants, but that doesn’t make it any less true. Prompted by the intense smell of the dish, a few people would turn their heads and scoot further away, unwilling to try to understand a dish of something new. Eventually, I started bringing lunches of less piquant smells. I felt a tad dejected, like I was the odd one out at the lunch table. Like, I understand that people like some foods and don’t like other foods, but the immediate and curt responses struck me.

This glum experience made me all the more surprised to see people in college so excited to try my Thai cooking, let alone enjoy it. It was refreshing. Perhaps there’s something about being somewhere new and starting fresh that enables people to be more open-minded. I don’t know, really. But, at the very least, what I do know is that I, along with the people around me, loved sharing this dish together for the past 2 years.

During every season of MIT life, different situations have prompted me to learn how to make this dish in incrementally more-difficult styles, all of which I had never attempted before…

1. sharing with my floormates (Beast)

As the months went by during freshman year, I started sharing the dish with people on Beast.⁠19 a floor at my dorm East Campus I had never made it communally before, only for my personal meal prep. I didn’t even have to announce that I was making the dish: the aroma permeated the walls. People flocked into the kitchen and would shyly ask if they could have a little bit, to which I would enthusiastically respond “absolutely!” I remember a small group of people eagerly asked me to teach them how to make it. As I did, they jotted down notes and prodded with questions, like they were doing a study of this dish. It warmed my heart to see people not only enjoy the dish, but also learn how to make it themselves.

2. meal-prepping for ~42 people in my living group (pika)

The summer after freshman year, I lived at pika: an MIT independent living group where we cooked and cleaned together. One day, I was the lead cook and decided to make pakaprow for the MANY people that ate our daily dinners. Not only had I never made it for nearly that many people before, but I had never had to accommodate for so many different food preferences: gluten-free, vegetarian, non-spicy, dairy-free, and all that jazz. It was a little scary, but I think that made it all the more exciting.

3. serving it for a spice competition (CPW event)

from the East Campus CPW schedule

This sophomore year, I was roped into making the dish for a Campus Preview Weekend⁠20 a weekend where admitted students visit MIT to experience a ton of fun events and, in that process, see all that we have to offer event: Super Spicy Food, where challengers came in to take on our spice challenge. I’ve never included more peppers than I did in this dish: 40! Yes, forty. A floormate and I collectively served three dishes, in order of ascending difficulty: (1) turkey-parmesan sandwiches smeared with Habanero jam, (2) Texan dry-rubbed baked ribs, and, of course, (3) pakaprow. We laid each dish out on the table, exclusively queued up Red Hot Chili Peppers⁠21 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers">a rock band</a> songs, and let the feast begin.

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It was funny watching the time lag of spice hit people. They would insist that they were fine, but, after a few moments, would be downing massive amounts of water (which I absolutely do NOT recommend because capsaicin, the chemical that triggers the spice sensation, is oil-based and would only be moved around in your mouth to trigger even more pain receptors), ice (which somewhat helps because it numbs your tongue, but will ultimately result in the same fate as drinking water), and milk (which is very good because it actually breaks the bonds between capsaicin and taste buds). My personal favorite remedy is to slowly chew on carbs, typically rice (because it absorbs the capsaicin).

nom nom nom (front view)

nom nom nom (bird eye's view)

before chopping

after chopping

imminent pan frying

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The Recipe

I’ve hyped up this dish enough already that I might as well share my recipe. Apologies for the lack of measurements: it’s very vibes-based (I used to be annoyed at my mom doing this, but look at me now ). This version certainly isn’t the only way to make it, but, at the very least, how I do it.

1. Grind up Thai chili peppers and garlic cloves in a mortar and pestle. 
   1. Alternatively, putting the chilis through a food processor or finely chopping could work work, but it’ll be a bit different. The manually mashing of the pestle causes the breakdown of the ingredients’ cell walls and that, in turn, releases the spice and tang of the respective ingredients. 
2. Fry that mixture in oil.
   1. This step is basically just creating fresh chili oil.
3. Mash in the protein.
   1. Once the garlic turns golden, put your protein in the pan. Then, with a wooden spatula, mash the protein such that it starts to break apart into little pieces (roughly 1 cm cubes). Keep mashing until the protein is all broken up.
   2. The staple protein is ground pork, but you can substitute any protein here. Chicken breast, diced tofu, seitan, whatever suits your fancy.
4. Pour in each of these sauces.
   1. You don’t have to have these exact brands; these are just the ones my family uses.
      1. Squid fish sauce
      2. Kwong Hung Seng thin soy sauce
      3. Maekrua oyster sauce
      4. Golden Mountain seasoning sauce
5. Toss in Thai basil leaves.
   1. Mix up the dish for 1 more minute then turn off the heat. 

Voila! Serve with Jasmine rice and a sunny side egg for full authenticity. I like to tack on a bitter melon soup as well. Sometimes, I make an ~illegal~ combination and instead of eating it with rice, I dump it into a bowl of mac and cheese. It is such a fantastic melding of flavors; I feel like Remy from the movie Ratatouille every time I have the combo.

Whenever I was homesick last year (and I mean really homesick), I made pakaprow. No matter where I was in the world, I knew this dish would always feels like a hug from home.

Food is so much more than just sustenance: it’s an experience that tingles your senses, elicits a consistent bit of joy, captures memories, and acts as means of communion. It’s a part of life we all have to partake in anyways, so we might as well relish in it. 

To quote the above almond can that I snacked from while studying one late night, “crave victoriously.”

It all started with a dormspam.⁠22 dormspam refers to emails sent out to the entire MIT undergrad population, which usually amount to advertisements of events and programs and people trying to sell clothing At some point last year, I got an advertisement for MIT Spokes that caught my interest. Every year, Spokes gathers a group of students to bike across the country, from DC to San Francisco, and host “learning festivals” at local schools along the way. Though I really like the idea, I couldn’t work it into my summer plans. Still, the idea of a long-distance bike trip caught my attention. I had never thought about it before, but it seemed like a perfect way to really see a region, and not just the big cities. Then, sometime over the summer, I learned about Eurovelo, a network of intercity bike routes stretching all across Europe. It seemed like the perfect way to get into bike trekking – some of the routes promised clear signage and well-maintained roads. I swore I would try it out sooner rather than later.

The idea of biking along a Eurovelo route rattled around my brain a while longer, following me through the fall. I would idly look at different routes, and eventually one in particular caught my eye: Eurovelo 8. It stretches all along the Mediterranean coast, from Spain to the Balkans. All the photos I would see from the route looked absolutely gorgeous. Plus, I had never been to Spain. That was it. I decided I wanted to bike along the Spanish coast, and that I wanted to do it over IAP. Why wait?

Intro [Kano]

As for me, it all started with MISTI Italy GTL.⁠23 MISTI (MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives) runs global travel experiences for MIT. GTL (Global Teaching Labs) is the specific program that I was going to be a part of in Italy I was supposed to go for my freshman IAP, but it was postponed to sophomore year due to COVID-19 spikes. Then, sophomore fall came around and, due to a series of unfortunate events, I decided to take leave for the semester. Before making this big decision, I asked S^3⁠24 Student Support Services “will I still be able to do MISTI Italy?” I was told yes, and decided to proceed with a leave. Two months later, to my surprise, I received an email from MISTI stating that I would have to again postpone my program to the next IAP, accompanied with a sincere apology from S^3 stating that they had provided me with the wrong information. 

For a short while, I was pretty bummed out. I learned that, as a student on leave, I couldn’t participate in any MIT-funded programs or classes. Additionally, by the time I found this out (which was mid-November), virtually all non-MIT travel programs like interning or teaching abroad had been booked up. Every time I called, emailed, or applied to a program, I was met with no spots left for me. By this point, I strongly considered solo-backpacking Europe,⁠25 Amber, a fellow blogger, has also blogged about this, linked <a href="https://mitadmissions.org/blogs/entry/my-gap-year/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">here</a>. or something akin to that. I knew that by this point, with my goal of travel in mind, I had to carve out an itinerary of my own. And, luckily, I had savings that I could pull from, which I built up by working during my gap year. Though, I was still feeling a bit queasy over having to plan this solo trip out.

In the midst of planning my trip, with what felt like the voice of the gods, I came across an Instagram story from Gosha. The stars aligned, and so did our itineraries. I’d like to note that Gosha and I barely knew each other by this point. We had spent maybe an hour total together in-person from randomly bumping into each other on my dorm floor. In many ways, this was a risk on both of our parts, but a risk we were both willing to take. And so our trip planning began.

Planning [Gosha]

Of course, planning a bike trip on a different continent that would fit in the span of 10 or so days is a difficult task, especially when you’ve never done anything like it before. Given the ambition of the endeavor, I didn’t want to do it alone. Plus, things like this are generally more fun when there’s someone to share the memories with. Unfortunately, none of the friends I asked about maybe joining the trip seemed interested/available. Many were doing GTL, others didn’t want to bike, etc. Finally, growing a bit desperate, I decided to post a story on my Instagram, asking if anyone might be interested. Surprisingly, the story got a lot of replies – most of them commenting on what a cool idea it was and wishing me luck, though the people themselves couldn’t make it. One person, though, seemed interested – Kano.

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Over the course of a couple of weeks, Kano and I set up a series of video calls over which we ironed out the details of the trip. Kano wanted to go to Italy, and I had never been. So why not join her? We decided we would first go to Italy to see different cities and then to Spain, where we would bike along the coast. Specifically, I wanted to bike from Barcelona to Valencia. I had heard that this stretch was absurdly beautiful, and it seemed to fall neatly on the EuroVelo 8 route. The problem was, it’s hard to estimate how long you can bike for when you’ve never quite done anything similar, and all you have to work with are Google Maps and your own estimating abilities. Between the uncertainty in what the trip would look like, our desire to see more cities in Spain,⁠26 Madrid, anyone? and difficulties with long-term bike rentals, the biking aspect of the trip kept on getting trimmed down. In the end, we decided to just do something simple. Instead of biking from one city to another and running the risk of falling behind schedule, we decided that we would just bike out of Barcelona for one day and then bike back the next day. This way, we could just see how far we could go without having to guess ahead of time. Plus, we wouldn’t have to backtrack to return our bikes, since our route would bring us back to where we started.

The final piece of the trip came together when my friend Selena expressed interest in joining the biking. Selena would be spending IAP with the Spanish incubator⁠27 an MIT literature class taught in Spain every IAP program in Madrid. However, if Kano and I went to Italy first, Selena would finish the class just in time to join us in Barcelona and bike from there. Selena also kept talking about going to Paris, since she’s in Europe already, and I was intrigued. Plus, two of our friends would be in Paris for a semester-long exchange program, and I wanted to visit the city while we were there. I knew that I couldn’t do all of three at once: spend a while in Italy, bike in Spain, and go to Paris. In the end, I decided I would get to Italy later than Kano and only see Milan,⁠28 and, spontaneously, Venice, but we’ll get to that then use the extra time to go to Paris after Spain, while Kano would fly back to Boston. Thus, a relatively simple idea turned into a race to see as much of Europe as possible in two weeks…

Notion [Kano]

We had so much going on with this trip so, accordingly, we needed a planning platform that could handle a lot. I remember starting off in a very rough Google doc with Selena and Gosha and thinking, *sigh* “this would be so much better in Notion.⁠29 all-in-one notetaking and productivity platform I love this application so much. We had 2 phases of planning: (1) selecting locations and dates based on all of our travel needs and (2) booking all the things. All three of us had very different reasons for going on this trip and somewhat-overlapping timelines, and we put that information in a Notion calendar to find our common ground. With trying to balance interdependent factors, things got complicated real fast. So, we decided to establish our “hard points,” a.k.a. must-do things: biking along the coast of Spain, taking a sunset train to Valencia, staying in a hotel at our final city of the trip, and so on. All in all, things eventually fell into place. 

full itinerary (calendar view)

transportation

lodging

funsies

personal itineraries (just mine for sample)

full itinerary (table view)

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I need to gush over Notion more. With the first tab of our planning database, you can see everything that’s going on. With the following three tabs, each category of planning is separated: the “Transportation” tab laid out how we planned to get around each day, the “Lodging” tab laid out where we would sleep every night, and the “Funsies” tab laid out all of our activities. This allowed us to easily catch any gaps in our planning. We also attached screenshots of all the bookings we made into each applicable entry of the calendar. The final tab houses personal itineraries that were automatically generated from the group itinerary, which I find so mentally satisfying. With no stone left unturned, we were ready to embark on this adventure.

January 17th: Las Vegas → Rome [Kano]

From the US to Italy, I went! Even while I was in the Las Vegas airport, this entire trip felt surreal. It couldn’t have been happening for someone like me. As a first-generation, low-income student, I never fathomed being able to go on a trip like this for my entire life. It always felt out of reach, something that I could only daydream about. I had always wanted to see the world, but didn’t know quite how. For IAP, my inner child was truly over the moon.

packed up and ready to go!

On the plane, I made friends with the person sitting next to me: a fellow university student who happened to be a Roman local. She gave me some wonderfully specific recommendations: order the Negroni Sbagliato from the bar On the Rox, wander to a cute cafe and order a Cornetto with a cappuccino for breakfast, and so on. It’s nice to see a place through the eyes of someone who lives and breathes it. As they say, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”

January 18th: Rome [Kano]

In search of things to do in Rome, I browsed Google Maps and noticed line art symbols that accompanied notable locations all over the city. In short, there were historical marvels everywhere. Certainly, sites like these existed in the US, but I had never seen such a deep concentration of beautiful places on my phone map before. 

the rain paints the ground in reflection

My suitcase wheels were met with old, beaten Roman tile. Lugging a checked bag, carry-on, and filled backpack was not the vibe. If you ever go on a hostel-centered trip, I highly recommend only having a carry-on. The main reason I had my checked bag was because I was traveling to MIT immediately afterward, but knowing what I know now, I would’ve asked around more diligently for someone else to take my checked bag. Hostels, at least all the ones I stayed at, offered lockers that could only fit carry-ons anyways. While trudging through the rain with all of my heavy belongings, I felt, in a funny way, cinematic. Anyways, I made it to my hostel, settled in, napped, and prepared for a fun evening.

a warm welcome from my hostel

hostels typically host community events

a very enticing bossa nova & rock 'n roll concert ad

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First, I visited the Trevi Fountain. It was still raining, and that added to the water of the fountain feeling more alive. The sea foam blue color against the yellowed stone looked stunning. 

Oceanus, Greek sea God and uncle of Poseidon, is depicted in the center in a baroque-style sculpture

Second, I visited the Pantheon. That was brief. I thought the towers looked cool and partly wished I had more time, but I knew I had to move on with my night to meet a friend before joining a group dinner. 

looks just like the Jefferson Memorial <3

Third, I met up with MIT Concourse.⁠30 In my freshman year, I was a part of this freshman learning community centered around blending STEM and humanities through philosophical discussion. Last year for IAP, we went to Greece together to study Greek history and philosophy. This year, they went to Rome, and I joined in for their final dinner. Different continent, same people: ingredients for a wonderful dinner discussion.

4 people around me, including myself, got the exact same dish: a yummy carbonara

January 19th: Rome → Florence [Kano]

Alright, Rome Day 2! Roman breakfast was light and cute, a perfect accompaniment to people-watching from the hotel window.

this apple was scrumptious

First, I did the most quintessential tourist-in-Rome thing and visited the Colosseum. I kept imagining what it would’ve been like to witness shows and fights from the audience. This was their “television,” where they, too, tuned into different shows and let their minds be entertained. 

outside

inside

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Unbeknownst to me until the night prior, the Colosseum ticket also granted access to two other places. Next, I headed to Palatine Hill, the mythical founding place of Rome and The Roman Forum, where citizens used to carry out day-to-day shopping and officials would hold public affairs (law courts, public meetings, gladiatorial combats, etc).

windy

16: "So-called" Temple of Romulus

oh, how the Romans lived!

there were so many hidden pockets spread throughout the Forum

i can't believe security let my blade through

the underside of the entry arch had beautiful square detailing

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Originally, I was going to head directly to Milan to meet Gosha and Selena, but decided to leave a day early from Rome to spend a night in Florence. It was on the way, anyways. Late into the night, after arriving in Florence, I grabbed my first Italian pizza, accompanied with a beer and viewing of football. I ended my night at a hostel, which had the most mirrors and the biggest bathtub I’d seen of the whole trip. I was so surprised to find this in the corner of the hostel. That night, my hostel mates and I sat in a small circle of five on the wooden floor, where we shared hostel pointers and fragments of our travel stories. It felt like a kind community—I slept well that night.

the crust was so thin and meat so delicate

the aforementioned humungo bathtub

my hostel hosted an open mic night <3

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January 20th: Florence → Milan [Kano]

Florence quietly tapped me awake with its quaint sounds and soft light. By morning, I still couldn’t believe that I was in the birthplace of the Renaissance. Like, what? I wanted to see the city wholly, or at least get as close to that goal as I could, so I set three goals for that day: cross a cool bridge, stare at a cathedral, and explore any museum. One of my friends had been to Florence before, so I referred to the travel spreadsheet that she had sent me and a few Google searches to inform my own itinerary.

I started my morning with mushroom ragu and a glass of rose. At that waterside restaurant, I was the first customer of the day and had the place to myself—sweet quietness. American love songs played as I ate and looked through the window to watch the calm flow of the river. As much as I love dining with others, there is something special about my solo meals. Because my mind can focus more on the dining experience in-and-of-itself rather than whoever I may be eating with, every sensory experience is more intense: the flavors stronger, smells sharper, and sights more charming. 

an excellent wine/pasta pairing

It was easy to wander and marvel at the ornate architecture and impressive collection of statues. I spent most of my time around Loggia dei Lanzi, a 14th-century building that’s home to a ceremonial open-air gallery of Renaissance sculptures. Every other corner had something absolutely stunning to look at that it felt like I didn’t even have to actively find a museum because the entire city was one. Walking through a narrow alley, I eventually stumbled upon a traditional stationary store. I bought wax seals and cards, because I enjoy mailing notes to my friends and the store offered wonderful designs. Something is so cute about spending a few extra minutes to close off an envelope with a wax emblem.

mesmerizing architecture littered the town

this felt like art flooded into the space

looked up

open air gallery

the lines are so not orthogonal. i love the wonkiness

look at how tiny this cute red truck is. my intrusive thought was to kick it over, and i did not act on it.

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Next, I had to cross the Ponte Vecchio (the coolest bridge in Florence)—I just had to. Local shops, food vendors, and people lined the entirety of it. It was a peculiar site: the bridge acted less like a liminal space and more like a place brimming with life. Around here, for the first and last time of my Europe trip, I bumped into a hostel mate. It made sense, as we were both tourists exploring the city, but there was nonetheless a serendipity in that moment. We shared our itineraries for the evening and moved on. 

the light posts had interesting feet

I got lost finding the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, so when I did end up finding it, the view of it hit me like whiplash. It was absolutely insane. None of my photos do it justice. It grips your gaze from afar and pulls you closer. Every time I looked at it, it appeared different. From my first gaze, it was a monolithically beautiful sight. As I took a few steps closer, it became an epic of many tales. In total and utter awe of the cathedral, I realized that I had never experienced this type of aesthetic allure before. Every time I tried to leave, I couldn’t help but turn back.

ahhhhhhhhh

the dome :0

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That was the last stop of my Florence excursion. I headed back to my hostel, grabbed my bags, and took a train out to Milan to finally meet Gosha.

January 20th: Boston → Milan [Gosha]

Every time I go to Europe it feels like a revelation. I can’t pinpoint the exact reason, either. I think a big part of it is just urbanism – the places I like to go in Europe are large, dense cities with diverse and often beautiful architecture, which just happen to be my favorite type of place. I feel most at ease in a big city where I can get lost in the crowd, where no one pays me any attention but I can people-watch at my own leisure. I love public transport and seeing how its designed in every new city I visit. There aren’t that many places in the US that fit this bill. But it’s more than just the city structure. Something about being anywhere in Europe feels familiar and right; I suspect it has to do with being raised in a European culture, albeit one quite different from Italy or Spain or any of the other places I’ve traveled to recently. Or it could all be a sample bias of being on break from college, the freedom of travel, etc. My bet is on all of the above.

I thought I looked a little cool taking the T to the airport with my big backpack

This is all to say that when I stepped out of the Milan airport, I was in an incredibly good mood. I had flown in on a red-eye flight, meaning I had the whole day ahead of me, which only lifted my spirits. Kano’s train to Milan was originally supposed to come in only a couple of hours after my flight. However, after a series of misfortunes, her arrival was delayed to sometime in the evening, so I ended up spending the day alone wandering around the city.

I love wandering cities alone. It’s grounding, in a counterintuitive sort of way. Faced with the rush of things and people, I am reminded of the reality of my existence. It’s too easy for me to get caught up in my studies, my research, whatever drama is going on in my life. But stepping out onto a bustling street, forcing myself to walk with my thoughts… it gives me perspective. So that’s exactly what I did: I walked around and I thought about my life. It was lovely and very necessary. One of the researchers in my UROP group is from Milan, and he gave me a ton of recommendations before I left Boston. Following his descriptions of the character of different neighborhoods, I walked around, admiring the architecture and observing the people. I had never been to Italy before, and for some reason wasn’t fully convinced that it’s as… Italian as it’s made out to be. Turns out, yes, Italy is in fact very Italian.⁠31 no, I can’t explain this feeling better. iykyk, i guess I fumbled through buying coffee and learned how to say basic things in Italian, like “please” and “thank you”. I saw the Duomo illuminated bright orange at golden hour. I talked to an old man on a bus in French, for some reason. At twilight, I bought some hot wine from a street vendor and sat on a bench outside of the natural history museum and watched the day fade.

some scenes from my walk around Milan: fun architecture

the Duomo, Milan’s famous cathedral, at golden hour

more beautiful architecture...

the historic areas are full of little passages like this one

Milan has a wonderful tram system. I’m obsessed with the color of the interior

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Much later in the evening, when Kano finally made it to the hostel, we went out for a late dinner. Being the college students that we are, we sought out the cheapest and closest option we could find. This turned out to be an incredible cafe with the cheapest,⁠32 just 8 euros for a big portion!! most delicious pasta I have ever tasted. I’m not usually big on Italian food, but I ended up coming back to this cafe a couple of times in the course of our weekend in Milan.

this pasta was so good. so so good.

after dinner we took a little walk down a nearby canal, which was lined with lively bars and cafes

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January 21st: Milan → Venice → Milan [Kano]

As a 7-hour round trip commute, Venice was so out of the way, but it was Venice, so we had to go. Accordingly, we dedicated a full day to visit. Isaac L. ‘25, one of my other friends that I had convinced to do GTL, met up with Gosha and I in Milan before we embarked on this trip together. The three of us took a lovely train over land and water to reach our destination: Venice, an island city constructed on a group of 118 small islands that are partitioned by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. It sounds straight out of a fiction novel. As someone from Las Vegas, I kept exclaiming “wow, this is so much better than the Vegas version!”⁠33 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Venetian_Las_Vegas" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">The Venetian Resort</a>

brick bridge with a collection of warm-toned buildings surrounding it (credit: Isaac L. '25)

pretty canal (credit: Isaac L. '25)

venetian waterways

dim alleyway (credit: Isaac L. '25)

pants (credit: Isaac L. '25)

rose-colored lenses <3

yellow hues

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First things first: food. Gosha led the way to lunch. On the way, we stumbled upon this one honor-code shop. There were no store clerks, only items strewn across the windowsills and a box on the ground for payment. It was endearing: battered books, yellowed postcards, and miscellaneous trinkets. The three of us made our selections, tossed in our coins, and proceeded to lunch. We decided to pair our seafood-filled meal with two glasses of aperol spritz, partly because it’s an excellent drink but mostly because it originated in Padua, only a 30 min train ride from Venice. Things taste better closer to home. One of our table centerpieces was a mystery plant, and, because our group couldn’t figure out what it was, I decided to take a bite. This was the start of the end—I’ll come back to this point in a bit. 

octopus bucatini, clam risotto, and lasagna of some variety

you can even see the aperol spritz sign in the background

a smol bridge, quaint canal, and aged architectural scene painted a lovely background

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After our delicious meal, we headed to Basilica S.Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, the largest church in Venice. On the way, we walked in awe of the still, teal canals and adorable architecture. It was all so strange to see no cars, only boats. We stumbled upon a set of stairs that led down to the Venetian waters, and I dipped my hands in. We eventually made it to the church. This was, perhaps, the most grand religious building I saw in Italy. The red was so deep, gold so shimmery, and stone so bare. Inside, goth was clearly kept alive with a wide array of pieces honoring that culture. Partaking in Catholic culture, I paid a euro to light a candle for my grandmother.

stained glass artistry

red lights

i enjoyed this juxtaposition

the lighting against the gold was so stark and grounding

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Afterwards, we waited in line to enter ​​Saint Mark’s Basilica. At this point, I started to feel a bit funny. My mind span and stomach churned. I felt a physical pain emanate throughout my body that I had never experienced before. I told Gosha and Isaac that I “wanted to be horizontal” and swiftly headed to the nearest bench. I laid flat and felt marginally better. When Gosha and Isaac were told the cathedral line had already closed, they walked over to my decimated self and asked if I was okay. I wasn’t. Lifting my head made me nauseous and walking was very difficult. In an effort to get to our train station ASAP, we decided to take the ferry over instead of getting there by foot. 

the cathedral that we didn’t get to enter, but at least admired from the outside

the incident: vomiting in venice (not vital to the story, but hilarious)

The night sharply turned grim aboard the ferry. It was packed: a middle aged woman to my right, elderly Italian couple in front of me, and Isaac to my left. The tossing and turning of the boat made my head spin. I told Isaac “I don’t want to throw up,” as if to set a comically bad prophecy for what came next. Remember the meal that I had mentioned was the start of the end? Here’s the end: in one swift movement, just seconds later, I grabbed the tapestry that I had bought out of its paper bag, chucked it at Isaac, felt a ~whoosh~ in my tummy, and violently projectile-vomited directly into the now-emptied gift bag. Multiple times. So many abdominal contractions. (Isaac wanted me to add that this undersells how intensely my body was moving. It was like every fiber of my being was being contracted, head to toe.) Think: Total Drama Island throw up. I felt so bad for myself, but mostly for the other ferry goers. Their stares of pity fell onto me. And, my gosh, of course the paper of the bag eventually ripped and the bag of vomit just had to sit under my seat in a sad blob. There was no public trash can aboard, so we all sat in awkward tension. That was the longest ferry ride of my life. 

Upon arriving at the train station, Gosha and Isaac searched for our train while I went to use the restroom. I thought that my sickness was over, but I felt a rumbling rise in me once again. 20 minutes passed. At that point, Gosha and Isaac called to check on me, inform me that our train would arrive in 4 minutes, and ask if I could make it. I told them that I was throwing up again, knees down on the restroom floor and elbows on the seat. I need not bore nor disgust you further with the details. Mustering up all the physical willpower I had left, I said yes to boarding the next train, cleaned up, and headed out. 

We sat in the very back row, with me in front of this one dude, Isaac facing the aisle, and Gosha sitting in front of someone else. A few minutes passed, and I felt that I was in the clear. Peace at last. But, I was wrong. I was, once again, going through the motions and promptly gestured to Isaac to help find a bag. In panic, he handed me a plastic one. The man sitting in front of me looked forward with such horror in his eyes; I felt sorry for him. This was the third, and thankfully final, time.

After an hour, I reached a stable state and asked around for a napkin. A sweet man frantically searched his bag and kindly gave me his dense pack of tissues. I freshened up, took a deep breath, and was finally able to nap. A few hours later, we made it to our hostel in Milan and rested. I spent the next few days eating “safe” foods so as to not upset my stomach. It felt so silly walking into a grocery store, ripping a single banana from its cluster, and buying it. What had to be done was done. 

After a few more days, I felt I was back at normal digestion and finally moved on with my life. I was still surprised that this whole ordeal occurred because up until that point, I had never had food poisoning before. I’ve always had a strong stomach, I think largely due to the conditioning of my volatile Thai diet. That was the second worst physical pain I had experienced in my entire life, and I was just glad it was over. That incident was one for the books (or, I guess, a blog).

January 22nd: Milan → Barcelona [Gosha]

selfie in front of the Duomo on our last day in Milan

more shots from around Milan: the Galleria with its beautiful roof

a statue for some important guys...

more columns!

there was just so much cool architecture

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On the afternoon of our last day in Milan, our group split up. As Kano went to search for a dress for ring delivery,⁠34 a big fancy event where the sophomores receive their class ring, called a brass rat I decided to visit the Ambrosian library, one of Milan’s several collections of Renaissance art and artifacts. The museum was founded in the 17th centuries, and holds a number of works by famous Renaissance masters, as well as the world’s largest collection of original Da Vinci sketches. It was mostly the latter that interested me. I’m not usually very interested in art from periods earlier than the 19th century–I tend to find it a bit tedious, both for the subjects and the style of painting. This time, however, something had changed⁠35 if we’re being honest, I think I just grew up and my taste evolved in me. I walked through the museum completely in awe. Suddenly, Renaissance art was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen: the colors, the subjects, everything about it. The building of the library was also incredible, full of intricate tiling, stone floors, mosaics, and a cozy garden. The Da Vinci sketches were housed in a huge library room, walls filled floor-to-two-story-ceiling with old books. The entire experience was something close to life-changing. I also think I had forgotten just how much I love art and going to museums, since it’s not something I have a lot of time to engage with while at MIT. After my experience in Milan, though, I made sure to go to museums in as many of our other destinations as possible.

shots from the Ambrosian Library: the colors here are so good, I stared at this piece for at least five minutes

Raphael’s original sketch for his famous “School of Athens”

the museum courtyard

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That same evening, we had to catch a bus to Barcelona. This is quickly becoming one of my favorite travel “hacks”: instead of wasting a day traveling, I take a night bus from point A to point B. That way, I sleep on the bus, so no need to pay for a night at a hostel. Plus, it’s cheaper than a flight or a train, and takes longer, which is good if you’re trying to get a full night’s sleep.⁠36 not that you will get it, since sleeping on a bus is ultimately not that comfortable

interesting aesthetic in the night bus

Our bus left Milan at around 8 pm and got into Barcelona the next morning. Busses feel very down-to-Earth, as far as modes of long-distance travel go. I guess this is true literally, since busses are relatively slow. But I mean it metaphorically, also: because they are slow, it feels like you actually pass through the places you drive past. Every couple of hours or so I would wake up from my (admittedly not super comfortable) sleep, check Google maps, and appreciate the progress we had made–first out of Italy and through the Alps, then past Grenoble and further on, across the south of France. Thus, although it was night, and I only exited the bus at some truckers’ rest stop, I really do feel like I was in those places, if only in passing. At some point towards the morning, I woke up from my latest round of sleep and was startled by both the fact that it was light outside and that right outside of my window was a huge mountain, lit in soft pinkish tones by the sunrise. Waking up to that after a long night of fitful sleep, being surrounded by beautiful scenery and just hearing the silence of the morning was almost a spiritual experience. I genuinely cannot find the words to describe it. I refused to go back to sleep after that, so I just spent the rest of the bus ride watching the sun climb up over the Pyrenees.

I woke up to this!

Final Words [Kano]

That concludes the Italy leg of our trip. We hit four cities, each with their own charm: Rome felt ancient, Florence felt romantic, Venice felt cozy, and Milan felt grand. None of these adjectives do each of the places justice, but they together help paint a fuller picture of Italy. Stay tuned for part 2: Spain and France!

Google defines it as “in a new or different and typically more positive way,” which I think perfectly captures my return to MIT after taking leave this past fall. I’ve been thinking about the breakdown of it. The structure of the word entices you to wonder what’s next. It’s literally “a” and “new”. A new… what?

You may be wondering why I decided to take the last semester off. There’s much to unpack, so I’ll save my leave for another blog and instead focus this one on my return. 

I just came back, and everything feels lovely. It feels as if rose-colored glasses⁠37 Listen to <a href="https://open.spotify.com/track/2RJfK2pOvGpnxC255YOy5k?si=7b5523d087c6456b" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Rose-Colored Boy</a> by Paramore. It’s so good! have been put on me, leaving me to see the world with happier eyes. MIT has welcomed me back with open arms and I’ve fully felt its embrace. I can’t seem to find better wording to describe my current state other than “violently joyful?” Like, I feel I could explode into a flurry of confetti at any given moment. Gosh, this is so cheesy I could throw up. 

This joyful state is most provoked when I stroll through campus and observe things. I love the danger signs that line the entirety of the labs in the tunnels. I enjoy passing by quick performances in Lobby 10, from flute ensembles to juggling acts. It’s funny watching people try to look so ~serious~ as they make their way down the Infinite,⁠38 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Corridor" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">long, central hallway on campus</a> and I am guilty. The Stata Center continues to still look so weird, like a fantastic piece of art that changes every time you look at it. I wonder about the stories behind the things people carry, like why was this one dude holding three rubber ducks, the guts of a desktop computer, and an orange?

Coming back to the namesake of this blog, here are some things I find anew this semester (told in alliteration because why not?): 

1. People

Since freshman year, I’ve lived on Beast, a floor in the dorm East Campus. While I’ve been away, the culture of our floor has flourished. There’s always someone in the lounge to hang out with. The group chat is so alive, yet not overbearing. It seems there’s always a game of nertz⁠39 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nerts" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a fast-paced multiplayer card game involving multiple decks of playing cards</a> or questionable cooking going on. One-off and regular events happen left and right. It’s obvious that people want to spend quality, fun time together. I could gush on, but instead, I’ll give you one line that captures my love of Beast: every night, I look forward to coming home. 

My friends generally seem more settled into college life, as people tend to be after their first year. It’s refreshing. Some have figured out more about what they want to study or do after graduation, at least for right now. Some have found cozy times in their days to cook healthy meals or go on runs. Some feel less like imposters and more like comrades. It’s lovely to watch people grow, as I also have from afar while at home.

2. Places

I finished building my loft! In the fall, during the week before school began, I very quickly constructed a loft for my room with the help of my neighbor. Though, something funny happened in the time between the fall and spring semesters: my twin mattress mysteriously disappeared. Luckily, I happened to have a spare queen-sized bed that I was using as a bouch⁠40 bed couch under the loft that I decided to move up on top of the loft. This required I build an extension to my twin-sized loft frame so it could become a queen-sized one, so I spent my first Saturday morning of the spring semester measuring frames, cutting wood, and screwing all the pieces together. It’s extremely convenient that my dorm has a woodshop, tool room, and tons of free wood in the basement. Some beasties⁠41 residents and friends of Beast helped hold up the extension while I secured everything in place. 

created a CAD model of my room for reference in designing the loft

mid-build of my fall loft

There are a few other structural changes I made to the room because I love interior design. I’ve been stuck in many house renovation YouTube rabbit holes. Here’s the summary:

• Secured a super long 80/20 metal⁠42 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-slot_structural_framing" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">my favorite prototyping metal <3</a> bar, which I found in the Stata loading docks,⁠43 a dock underneath the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stata_Center" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ray and Maria Stata Center</a>, where MIT people tend to dump their tech trash (aka my treasure) to an existing hanging shelf, effectively creating an extended closet. It’s kinda scuffed the way I did it because I chopped 45° wooden slats and slid the metal bar through four somewhat-colinear screws that were definitely not made to hold up 80/20 metal, but it worked.

cursed screw usage

• Moved an old coat rack from my closet to my door, so I can coat up right before exiting.

ty to the previous resident for leaving this here :)

• Mounted curtains to the underside of my loft, creating a cozy nook where I nap, read, and reset.

• Drilled in screws for my neon lights.

I finished the structural modifications in the first two weekends and plan to get aesthetic modifications done in the coming two weeks: painting the walls, installing background lighting, and hanging up art. Stay tuned!

Another place close to my heart is Metropolis, one of the central maker spaces run by Project Manus. As someone who’s mentored for them since my freshman year, I’ve been so pleased to see how the maker community has grown. It’s actually been insane. Last year, there were 15 mentors. This year, there are 50 of us. 50!!! Also, for context, I can count on one hand the total amount of people that attended my trainings and open hours last year; it was dismal. This year, all of our sessions are flooded with people eager to learn how to make cool stuff. I think we’ve finally overcome the post-covid maker slump. Also, we have so many new tools this year. There’s now a welding lab, glasswork station, table saw, flush trim sander, multi-color 3D printer, electronics lab, 3D AR photo booth, and so much more! Shout out to the three Project Manus staff from last year (Seth, Jess, and Robyn) for setting up the important groundwork and to the two new staff (Lee and Alicia) who have worked really hard to grow everything. I’m so excited to learn how to make all of the things, and perhaps even more excited to teach others how to make too!

3. Pursuits

I haven’t formally taught since my gap year, so it’s been around 3 years. I missed teaching in an academic setting and have a deep-seated love of waves, so those two things coalesced in my decision to TA for 8.02.⁠44 work as a teaching assistant for the class Physics II: Electricity and Magnetism  Waves are so strange. Please ask me questions about them.

Teaching a subject after having learned it makes the content feel new and big. I feel like I have fresh eyes and can understand the topics more wholly. There’s much I enjoy about this role: practicing explaining complicated stuff in simple ways, learning to listen to what specific things people are confused about, and so on. But, the particular thing that makes me love TAing is seeing people light up from understanding new concepts.

There are a few thoughts that have been recently playing on repeat in my internal brain jukebox, and one of them relates to 8.02. I’m about to change your life. *breathes in, puts hands together in a serious manner* Okay. Have you ever thought about how waves are LITERALLY all around you? Like, there are a gazillion waves (sound waves, light waves, radio waves, microwaves, etc.) pulsating through you at every waking (and sleeping!) moment. In fact, Wi-Fi signals (radio waves) probably have transmitted this blog to whatever device you’re reading on right now. Sometimes, I just sit in my room and look around at my technology wondering “could I build this from scratch?” Like, who would think that if you put this metal with this wire you could send waves across the entire world? The overwhelming bulk of recent human innovation has been founded on seemingly-invisible waves that we’ve learned to detect, create, and bend to our will. They permeate through everything, everywhere, all at once.⁠45 i love this movie so much Isn’t that terrifyingly beautiful? 

And, of course, blogging is one of the things I’m most excited about this semester. I was actually supposed to start blogging this past fall but had taken my leave and subsequently decided to postpone. I absolutely was not in the state to blog. There are a lot of different cues I know about myself that indicate a bad state, and one of them is a lack of creativity. I had no blog ideas. I couldn’t seem to put words on the page. I hated writing. But, thankfully, that season of life has passed.

Nine years ago, in 2014, I first heard about this little place called MIT. After my friend’s dad mentioned that it was a decent school, I looked it up and immediately found myself reading the blogs. I devoured them, binge-reading during empty pockets of the day. I so loved how open, silly, and sweet everyone was. It felt real. I basically knew nothing about college by this point and exclusively visited the blog tab of the school website, not even bothering to look at other tabs until weeks later. I remember trying to find blogs from other schools as well, but they were largely sparse and empty. It made MIT feel like that much more of a special place. The school really cares about the student, for the most part: centering their voices, providing freedom of expression, and letting the world see for itself what it’s really like on campus. I love it here, and I hope that my stories make you at least consider falling in love with it too.

What a wonderful world.