ESP, SWE, and life in general

Okay, quick updates on my life.

Last Sunday, Yalu and I went to a ESP retreat. There were 20 of us all cramped in a basement talking about various issues that affect ESP. It probably wasn't as efficient of a process as it could have been but it was nice to hear everyone's views on things. Overall it probably served better as a bonding experience than a getting things worked out party. We went out to dinner together at a "Asian" restaurant at Harvard. It's one of those places that tries to be Japanese. The food was probably not very authentic Japanese but I liked it anyway. And of course, ESP paid for it so I'm not complaining.

Monday was a holiday. I tried to make up on not doing any work on Saturday and Sunday. So.. not very exciting.

I woke up feeling sick on Tuesday. I think it was being in the basement with 20 other people, some of whom were sick. Anyway, it's not too bad and I'm feeling better now. Tuesday was one of those disruptions of the space-time continuums at MIT. We ran on a Monday schedule. This is because most holidays are on Mondays so this makes it fair for classes that are on a MW schedule as opposed to a T,Th schedule. This worked out really well for me since I don't have any classes on Mondays. Yes, this meant that I had a 4 day weekend.

So instead of having to go to class, I went to work at the real estate office. I'm working part-time again. I'm not sure how long I can keep this job though since I plan to be pretty busy later on in the semester. haha, yes, I plan to be busy.

Anyway, after working, I went with MIT SWE (society of women engineers) to the Boston Children's Museum to volunteer for Engineering Week. We had a activity exhibit teaching kids how to clean up oil spills. We had pans of water and the kids made boats out of foil, spilled oil on the water, and tried to clean up the oil with tissue and string. I was surprised how many kids did not know what to do when we said make a boat. We wanted them to make very small ones, the size of their thumbs and even had sample boats. But they just had no clue what to do. I tried to get them to do something, test it out, and then fix it. I mean, that's what we do in science and engineering: trial and error. But these kids just stared at their "boats" and couldn't fix them. Okay, some of these kids were little, like 5 years old. I helped those. But I wasn't willing to help those 7-10 year olds. And then I wanted to just hand them the string and tissue and tell them to again, trial and error. But they just stood there, waiting for instruction. They seemed to work best when there was a step-by-step copy-the-instructor demonstration. What fun is that?! If I were the kids, I would want the instructors to shut up and let me experiment on my own. But... I don't know. Is that just how I always behaved? Or it is a product of these few years of studying engineering? Be interesting to do a study on how much college education changes your way of thinking.

Aside from playing with water with kids, I discovered the amazing-ness of the Boston Children's Museum. That place is like a huge playground with lots and lots of toys. It looks like so much fun. There were all these kids dragging their parents around. I wish some of the parents could be less... in the way. I think they should only help their kids figure out an exhibit only when it's absolutely necessary. The exhibits are professionally made, catered to kids. I just think parents should be less intrusive. If the kids want to push around giant chess pieces with no clear purpose, don't make them play a game of chess with other kids. Seriously, did they think the designers expect 6 year olds to be playing chess with each other??

There was a Class of 2009 event on Wednesday night. They rented out the 4th floor of a pub. There were appetizers, a dance floor, music, and a cash bar. So after much discussion about what to wear, a few of us from McCormick went together. It was cool to hang out with people who I will probably not have time to talk to again.

And I've been doing a bit of teacher recruiting for Stanford Splash, which is on April 4th and 5th. Yalu and I will be going! Excited. This will warrant an entry on its own.