Reasons to cook for yourself
An optimization problem
Have you noticed how MIT seems to repel good restaurants? Go Northwest to Harvard Square, and you’ll see a squadron of restaurants catering to fortunate Harvard students. Go South, across the river, and you’ll see a delightful selection of restaurants catering to happy shoppers. Go further East to Chinatown, and the whole place is teaming […]
Finding a Cambridge coffee home
An inner journey in pursuit of good coffee
* Writer’s Note (September 2020): Wow, how things have changed. Re-reading this piece, which as written pre-COVID, makes me feel as if I’m now in my late seventies, looking back fondly upon the simpler times of my youth. Ironically, I write this note while drinking jasmine tea, alone in my garden, which evinces of just […]
Beer in class—but peers afar
Navigating the Freedom and Isolation of Virtual MIT
I sat in class, the professor again repeating the technique we were expected to learn but about which I was still woefully confused. I was immediately struck with self-doubt. I put my head down on the desk and started to cry. The small upside was that at least no one could see my meltdown. Because […]
Playing Avalon on Zoom
How a virtual board game keeps us connected during quarantine
Many of us feel lonely during quarantine times, especially international students who are now outside the US, such as myself. To stay mentally healthy through this pandemic, it’s important to stay connected with friends back at MIT. So recently, we reconstructed a favorite Friday-night ritual of ours — playing the board game Avalon — on […]
Bench, bath and beyond
Transform your apartment into a yeast lab, and have fun doing it!
One of the very first lessons you learn in microbiology is that while countless things can – and will – go wrong, you can almost always count on your microbes to grow. There is some strange comfort in knowing that what looks like clear liquid today will reveal countless gleaming colonies smiling up at you […]
