Finding routine in a faraway place
Or, what New Zealand taught me about finding adventure at home
You can’t walk across the Harbour Bridge in Auckland unless you’re also planning to jump off it – attached to a bungy cord, of course. Standing at the edge of the bridge myself, “caveman brain” did not fully grasp the concept of extreme sports. I sought comfort against the groundrush I was feeling by thinking […]
What to expect when you’re expecting… to start graduate school in the fall!
As a non-engineering student at MIT (yes, we do exist!), I wasn’t sure what to expect when embarking on my Masters of City Planning degree last fall. I’ve always considered myself a bit of a nerd. I don’t like to procrastinate, and I’m quick to follow up with professors after class or in office hours. […]
Why Formula 1 is the perfect grad student sport
An enthusiastic look at the fastest sport in the world, and the oddly familiar patterns behind it
I used to think Formula 1 was just very fast cars going around a track. This is technically true in the same way that a PhD is just “writing a dissertation.” Accurate, but missing almost everything interesting. Yes I know, F1 does not seem like the obvious grad student sport. It is glamorous, fancy, expensive, […]
Ice skating: The quintessential New England activity
My favorite film growing up was Mighty Ducks. Although the temperature in my hometown never dipped below fifty degrees Fahrenheit, I was drawn to the story and characters of this great 1990s Disney film. The plot goes something like this: a rich lawyer who grew up on the ice is forced to do community service […]
Finding light in the long New England winter
On an early spring day, with rare 60F air and blue skies, there’s barely room to walk along the banks of the Charles across from MIT’s main campus. Like the native spotted salamanders, emerging from their winter burrows to mate and lay eggs in vernal pools, graduate students and young professionals clog the packed limestone […]
