Tiring events

I had a late start on Friday: my first orientation activity was a visit to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in the afternoon. It seems to be a nice gallery, although we weren't really there long enough to appreciate it. Entry is free for MIT students, so I'll go and have another look later.

At the end of the afternoon I had a look at the various activities on offer. I was surprised at how much singing and dancing goes on here: they seem to well outnumber the typical 'nerdy' activities.

In the evening the Physics Graduate Student Council had a bowling trip organised. I actually didn't do very well, only scoring 200 aggregate for the two games (in fact I think I may have even just fallen short of 200)! I'm not sure what the problem was, but I seemed to be veering left most of the time, so I can't blame the Coriolis force!

On Saturday morning I went to the New England Aquarium with some other SP residents. They had some interesting fish and other water creatures, the main attraction being the very cute penguins (but no Jessica Alba - sorry Vik!).

In the afternoon I went to the Orientation Olympics. We formed a team called the Second Mouse. The name came because the only thing we really had in common (we were from several different countries and studying different subjects) was that we arrived early, and were put in team 1. We were thinking the early birds, but given that "the early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese" we opted for the mouse (after all, I believe cheese is much more palatable than a worm).

The olympics were rather exhausting - I ran 100m as an individual and in our relay team, played a couple of chinese games (毽子 and 躲避球), played a very exhausting game of ultimate frisbee (I was very glad it was basically two points on, one off), won a close game of volleyball and played goalkeeper in soccer. It was funny playing full team, full field soccer after so long playing four-a-side on a tiny court.

In the end we managed to win, being awarded a frisbee, a drink bottle and a voucher at Shaw's (the local supermarket). Someone else pointed out that their frisbee sparkled, and I was disappointed because mine didn't: until I turned the light off that night and saw that it glowed in the dark!

In the evening I went to a French restaurant in Boston for dessert with the SPICE (ICE stands for intercultural exchange) group. This seems like a nice idea - international students gathering to share a (free, or at the very least cheap) meal and talk about various aspects of life in their home country. I'll certainly keep you updated once it starts up for good.