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 […]
Any tips on tipping?
The plight of an international student new to the tipping culture in America
Picture having dinner at a restaurant with some friends. There’s a fun conversation going on right up to the point where the bill arrives. Perhaps it’s only me, but I feel that in the moments that follow, the conversation dies down a little as everyone enters their tipping ‘headspaces’. A few take their own initiative […]
Ode to crosswords
Are you down for a cross?
(If you are interested in listening along to me reading the poem aloud, click here) Eighteen across, “Ponzi scheme”: fraud. Twenty-four down, “Heap kudos on”: laud. “Opening word”, “Deli stock seed”, Two clues, one key, The word: sesame. “Catcher’s spot?” “With pastrami it’s bought?” As the hints would imply, The answer is […]
Shaking hands with death
My clinical experience through MIT
When I entered the room, I took a few moments to look around. The room was lit by a warm, orange glimmer sneaking through the window blinds, announcing the end of another beautiful summer afternoon. I took one step forward as the nurse pulled the bed curtain closed behind us. The patient was an old […]
