Time to relax

Well, I possibly arrived in Cambridge earlier than I needed to. That's not necessarily a bad thing, and it's certainly better than the opposite, but I have found that I've stopped being busy over the last couple of days. The only thing that's still taking time is getting my phone and laptop, and I can't make progress there until I get more bank details.

On Sunday morning I went to Mass at the MIT chapel. The singing was very impressive: only four singers (plus conductor, pianist and drummer) but they sang in harmony (and sang well in harmony). I arrived rather early, not quite realising just how close to campus I live (from the computer room where I'm typing this, I think that I could reach the nearest point on campus in under a minute - if I were being chased by a lion), but I may continue to arrive early in order to listen to them practising!

After Mass we had doughnuts, etc. in the room behind the chapel. I talked to a few people there, including one who recognised me from the open house visit in April! She is a fellow condensed matter theorist, so I'll be sharing an office with her this fall.

In the afternoon I continued study for Part I, this time by myself. Given that the pass mark is generally around 55%, I'm reasonably confident. Some questions completely bewilder me, but they're few enough that I'm not too worried. I'll keep doing a bit of study when I have time over the next few days.

On Sunday evening I went for a bit of a walk up the Charles River, and back down on the Boston side. It certainly isn't spectacularly beautiful, but it's nice enough. The weather was pleasant: it's been reasonably warm and humid, but nothing that feels strange to an Australian. My walk ended at the MIT Folk Dancing Club. The name may be a little misleading, because the people there were mostly of my grandparents' generation rather than my own. There were a few younger people (30's, at a guess), but only one other who seemed to be around my age (and she came fairly late). It's a pity there weren't more students, because it was good fun. I might try going again on a beginners' night, and see if there are more students then. Also, Dad, what was the name of the contra dance caller you were talking about? I can tell you if I see him there.

Monday morning was time for some more study, while I also continued reading 'The Fountainhead' (Ayn Rand).

In the afternoon, I decided to wander over to the Coop bookshop to buy a cookbook. When I first moved to Fenner, I had the little cookbook from Mum. After two years with that, it was time to be more adventurous, so I moved up to the After Work Dinners book (from AWW, I think). It's been another two years (more), so I've moved up again, to a cookbook from Food and Wine magazine. I think it is good to have some encouragement to make interesting meals. I remember talking to Adam,

Interlude: I'm planning to use people's first names only here. It's partly for privacy: I don't think it's a major worry, but I do think it pays to be prudent about the information one releases onto the web. It's more just so I have a consistent style. Just let me say that there are various names with which I have more than one friend, so don't get confused if I seem to be referring to people in incompatible situations - they could be different people.

who was impressed that I cooked proper meals even when cooking for myself. As a uni student, if you don't, you'll probably end up eating improper meals almost all the time, so it was just the habit I got into. But then I spent four years almost always eating with someone, at least the first time I cooked a main meal, so I want to make sure I don't fall into the habit he mentioned. I'll let you know how this cookbook goes. There are probably enough recipes in there that I could have a different one every time for the rest of my graduate career (actually, while that would be true on mere numbers - 700 recipes, approximately 5x350 days of grad school means 2.5 days per recipe, and I usually cook four servings - many of the recipes aren't main courses, so it probably won't turn out like that)!

In the evening I met my incoming class once more for a pub quiz at the Thirsty Ear. Our team was the Drink-along Podcasts.

That needs a little explanation (although it does get almost 700k google hits as long as you don't "quote" it). Soon after we arrived, someone suggested meeting up to study. We decided the best plan was to get together to drink on Friday, then to study on Saturday. I happened to be talking to Roberto about dominant internet brands (google, wikipedia, facebook and youtube are the examples that spring to mind), and we decided what we really needed to do was drink on Friday, study on Saturday and come up with the next big thing on Sunday.

Anyway, on Saturday night (back at the pub) we were talking about those who missed our study session, and wondering (ironically) whether they'd appreciated it if we podcast it for them. We decided we could also podcast our partying, and that's where the drink-along podcast idea arose.

Anyway, as the Drink-along Podcasts we managed second place, and a $7 voucher at Toscanini's. $7 doesn't go far between five people, but perhaps we can increase it in future.