Coincidences

Here are some interesting little stories that I forgot to mention on my earlier posts. In other words, here's the more interesting stuff.

My hostel room in Munich was number 309. That's the number of the room that Yalu and I stayed in sophomore year. I couldn't believe my eyes when the person at the desk handed me the key.

The first night in Bonn, my friend mentioned that she had a linear algebra book from MIT. As we were already in bed, she couldn't show me. But I was like, linear algebra+MIT=Strang? She then goes on to say that it was useless for her because her linear algebra class was much more theoretical and that book had more applied stuff. I knew it had to be Strang's book. I told her I took his class and we have two linear algebra classes at MIT, one that's more applied and the other more theory. She showed me the book the next day and it was indeed by Strang, translated into German. I showed her the introduction where he dedicated the book to his grandchildren. I also showed her OCW. She was pretty impressed and looked through the physics stuff.

My roommate in Berlin, Hua-Chen, had a Neuorscience book that looked really familiar to me. I just checked the textbooks in Course 9 and I was right. They use the same book in 9.01. Hua-Chen also has some books by Noam Chomsky. Published by MIT Press and everything. She even had a book that was a collaboration between MIT and Cambridge.