29.3.09

Limited Four Day Engagement

46. That's how many events planned for Thursday mention food. About ten of those are ice cream, and another ten are Barbecue, those being two of the three things I miss most of American food (the third being Slurpees). Oh, it's good to be going back to the USA.

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, or the Awesome Place of Awesomeness) is hosting a Campus Preview Weekend (CPW) for prospective students (affectionately called 'prefrosh') to come and experience MIT. CPW lasts from Thursday, April 16th, to Sunday, April 19th. Now, I've know about this for a while, since MIT likes to send me emails about it, but I had never actually planned on going. A round-trip ticket from here to Boston costs upwards of $850. However, MIT sent me an email recently saying that they wanted to pay for the flight so that I could attend CPW. I was pretty excited. So excited that flames burst out of my stomach.



After I took some heartburn medicine, I settled down to the nuts and bolts of planning this thing out. First, I realized that while I wanted to surprise my friends from MITES who are going to CPW, it would probably be a good idea to tell at least one, so that we don't miss each other through a freak accident. Therefore, I informed Kristina, who, besides being the most likely to keep a secret of the three going to CPW, is also the only one who reads my blog. It's been fun telling the others how disappointed I am that I won't be able to attend CPW, just to watch them cry. Well, emoticon cry, by going T.T .

That settled, I talked to my brother, who gave me some sound advice. It went something like, "Yeah, MIT's going to have a lot of quote-unquote mandatory events for you to go to, but they're stupid, so just ignore them and hang out East Campus." He also asked one of his friends, one Keja Rowe, who I met at Jesse's graduation, to host me. This is good for two reasons. It means I'll be at East Campus, which is good not only because East Campus is Awesome Central of the Awesome Place of Awesomeness, but also for resolving scheduling problems, which I'll explain momentarily.

*moment passes*

So yeah. The time it takes to get from Quito to Boston is one day. Like, leave in the morning, arrive in the evening. But that doesn't work for me, because I don't want to arrive Thursday evening to be late for the festivities, nor Wednesday evening and be way too early to actually go to MIT. Arriving at Boston in the morning would require staying overnight in one of the airports, which is doable, but isn't preferred. Now that I have a host, someone I know through Jesse, it's possible that I could stay with him Wednesday evening, in addition to the regular CPW nights, and avoid an overnight airport stay at all! That is, if the T runs at 9PM. I dunno. The upshot of all this is that I have to confirm things with Jesse before making my final plans, which has to be before this Thursday.

Flight plans thus ignored for the time being, I put myself to (oh noes Spanish grammar invading my speech!) planning out what I would actually do while at MIT. Now, there are a couple of things that I have to do, like buying shoes, a Slurpee, and beef jerky, that can't be done at MIT. Unsure of what was being offered, I looked at the MIT schedule plan. Now, that's just Thursday, but there are over 75 individual activities planned. Most of them, as I noted before, mention some form of food, be it refreshments, free snacks, or the Muffins of the Patriots. My plan, therefore, revolved around the following idea: Pick a few things that are so awesome I have to do them (like the Jurassic Park movie marathon), and then as many of the food things as I can. Why yes, I will attend the Campus Crusade for Christ meeting, if it means free Pizza and Klondike Bars. Do you know when the last time I had a Klondike Bar was? AUGUST. AUGUST. I can hear Frank cheering from all the way over here ("$850 plane ride and free food? Ô_Ô"). My ill-laid plans are, of course, subject to what my friends want to do, since I want to maximize my time with them, and how long I can deprive myself of sleep. Interestingly enough, the longest time I've gone without sleep was at MIT, as was the only time I've ever experienced fatigue so intense I couldn't move (separate incidents).

So, there are three really good things about this.
  • I get to go back to America and buy new shoes.
  • I see some of my MITES friends again after several months (You Florida people are garbage for hanging out without me. Okay, I forgive you.).
  • I get to eat American food, like Barbecue and ice cream, that they either don't have here or they have in a lame, watered-down form.
Thank you, Ben, for commenting. It was Chavez who said it. Thanks, Mom, for commenting as well. And thank you Piper. Yes, people are strange. That's why I find it best to just hit them with a Carebearstare.



kthxchow.

3 comments:

vickytoria said...

this post made me laugh more than the rest. especially the pictures.

have fun in Boston!

that's all.

Kristina said...

I feel honored. I can't wait to see their faces!

rainbows?

Unknown said...

OMG!!!


It's the fire from magic land!!!!!!