Funny... Pass/No-Record ended and so did my blogging :-p. That's not quite the reason. I guess I kinda forgot about this thing, but looking back on my old posts made me feel all happy, so I will try to continue.
Hmm... quick synopsis of the past year: I started second term, hung out in the dorm a bit more, made some new friends, took some new classes (I took: 6.001 (Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programming) which I enjoyed to an extent, though I'm more of a build stuff engineer than a coder; 6.050, a 6-unit (most classes are 12) course on Information and Entropy which was taught by amazing faculty and was really enjoyable; 8.022, ie the cool nifty version of E & M, just like 8.012 was the cool nifty version of mechanics; 18.03 (Differential Equations), a pretty straightforward class but had some interesting diversions too, and 21M.011 (Intro to Western Music), which was really fun and in which I learned a lot about music and gained more enjoyment out of listening to it), and ended my freshman year. My brother came to visit for his spring break, and I went home to visit my parents for mine. At this point I also reached an important milestone in my life: I can finally snap my fingers! I began interacting more with people in my lounge (attempts at social groups in Simmons), became a little more adventerous in some ways, and in general had quite a bit of fun and learned a lot, both about science/math/stuff and about life/people.
The summer was interesting; I missed MIT and kinda had campus-withdrawl-syndrome. That wasn't so bad though, because I got to see my family, whom I really missed. The summer was relaxing and refreshing; I was able to put aside all the stress of the problem sets and social drama of school, and just have fun. We went on an amazing trip out west; it took quite a while to leverage ourselves into actually going, but it was very much worth it. My parents, my brother and I (and Kovax :)) went out, saw the Rockies, Yellowstone, the Badlands, and lots of corn :). It's amazing how much beauty there is... I think that seeing how awesome that huge chunk of country that people usually fly over really gives me pride in living here. For me, it is that openness and beauty that makes America great, and I guess maybe it would be fun to live in the country someday. I've never been much of a suburbanite though, I guess :) (and while cities are fun to visit, I really don't like living in them so much). I think we grew closer as a family through this trip, and it's interesting how much there still is to learn from people you've lived with for eighteen years. Having an awesome family is something I'm very thankful for, because no matter how manny schoolmates and random people let me down, my family is always there for me. My first year of college taught me a lot, but it also confused me, and I think though I acted more distant over the summer than I usually am; years from now, I will look back on the unforgettable drives across the empty Wyoming landscape, or joking with my bhaiya whilst hanging out near a waterfall at Yellowstone and smile (actually I'm doing that right now, and I'm not even old yet :). Unfortunately, like all good things, summer came to an end, but I was eager to come back to MIT too. I came back early to help out Simmons with rush, and even designed a t-shirt (though it wasn't actually made untill later on, near campus preview weekend). I will probably put pictures from vacation and random snapshots throughout the year on my website when I have more time.
I came back to MIT in August, helped run events for the little freshman (we set up an inflatable water-slide, had some fun dances and lots of events involving waffles (thanks to the dorm's shape :) ), tye-dyed shirts, etc), and met quite a few really cool ones. I started going hacking a bit more, and encouraged others that were interested to get involved (Simmons isn't known as the most "quirky" hacking-buildingthings-being nerdy dorm, and though this rush was fun, I'm hoping to make the next one even better (more on this later!)). One morning during orientation, I went down to help out with this breakfast that we were having, and sat at a table with just the sort of cool freshmen that Simmons needed; one of them was named Amber, and though I didn't know it then, she was to play an important role in my semseter (more on this later). I also got a single this year, which is across from one of the cooler lounges in the building, so my living situation this year has been really nice.
After orientation was over, classes kicked into gear. This was to be my most challenging term yet. I took: 6.002 (Circuits and Electronics), my most challenging course but also my favorite, since this is the sort of thing that I really enjoy doing; 6.041 (Probabalistic Systems Analysis), which, though at the time was a bit dry, has since come in quite handy; 8.03 (Vibrations and Waves) taught by Prof. Walter Lewin, who was an amazing lecturer; 18.700 (Linear Algebra with Theory), again kinda dry/confusing at the time but has since started to fall together and make other things really make sense and; 21F.011 Indian Popular Culture, essentially a class on Bollywood, ie, very fun. Classes took a lot of time, but I also made time for fun. I didn't have as much time to follow up on the freshmen friendships I'd made during orientation at first and probably wasted too much time trying to keep the social dynamic of the group in my dorm the same as it was during freshman year. I did learn an important lesson through all this that while some people drift apart, others grow closer together and new people enter into your life. My brother came to visit for his fall break, and it was really good having him around; we talked quite a bit college stuff, and we also were able to just sit around and chill, which doesn't happen so much now that we're both in college. Another really awesome thing about this year is that Rajiv (my nephew) goes here! It's his first year of grad school (his mother is my cousin, hence nephew :)), and he's always been one of the "fun" people at family reunions, etc, so it's really nice to have him at school. So, term plodded along, an interesting combination of problem sets, papers, bollywood movies, parties, lab, etc. In November, our dorm had this formal, and I went with Amber. We had quite a bit of fun in the weeks after she asked me, and I started meeting more people again, both through her friends and also through going out more and hanging out more with my friends from other dorms. We went to a live-action role-playing game together, and also got some hacking friends to show me one of the most scenic locations on campus. Things got a little awkward after the dance, but my friends and my schoolwork kept things from getting to me too much. Later in November I visited some family in Connecticut and my parents came up. It was a rather meat-less Thanksgiving :(, but fun nonetheless. Rajiv no longer wanted his old nintendo systems, so he donated them to me. After coming back, Amber asked me out, and we've been going together ever since :). She and her friends threw me a really wonderful birthday party (my birthday was the last day of classes), and though finals were very stressful, learning to chill out about the little things in life and enjoy the good things helped me to have a reasonable time with things and not let the stress get me down.
I came home for break, which was rather shorter that I would have liked. Kovax was quite happy to see me (he was also really bouncy during Thanksgiving... he misses my brother and me a lot). I ate lots of cookies, hung out with the family, played video games, and we celebrated Christmas together. New Years' came, thankfully sans stomach illness this time. It's hard to believe that it is 2006 already, and that Abhijit will be graduating.
After coming back to school, I took a class on Relativity during IAP. It was a very enjoyable class... more work than I expected, but I learned a lot and was able to make solid my fuzzy sci-fi understanding of what all this stuff meant. :) I also had more free time during IAP and was able to rearrange my furniture, clean up my room, hang out with people I'd not seen in awhile, and read for pleasure (including textbooks for stuff that I wasn't quite solid on last term... but it counts as pleasure reading because I enjoy that sort of thing :). IAP ended, and I registered for the classes I'm currently taking: 6.003 (Signals and Systems), a rather interesting class that uses a lot of what I learned in 18.03 and makes me realize that it indeed had a point; 8.04 (Quantum Mechanics I), which is obviously really cool; 8.044 (Statistical Physics I), also cool and makes me appreciate the probablity and the stuff I learned about entropy in 6.050; 21F.040, a class on modern Indian culture; and 21M.600, Intro to Acting, a nice way to end my Mondays and Wednesdays and also a nice amount of exercise :). Classes this term are as challenging as last term, but I'm learning more and more how to balance work and make myself have lots of fun and not too much stress. For spring break, I visited Amber's family in California. They live in a really beautiful area, and it was a really good time to just kick back and have fun. Her parents are really cool, and I was happy to meet them. More recently, work has been piling up more and more. I'm doing a UROP (MIT's Undergraduate Reaserch Opportunities Program) in the Media Lab building an interactive communications badge, and I will be working on this over the summer. I've also been grading for 8.02 (Physics II) this term (I graded for 8.01L and tutored for them last term. I like doing this sort of thing because I find that by teaching others I grow more solid in my own understanding of the subject), and also have been working the front desk at my dorm (I'm going to be desk captain over the summer). Campus Preview Weekend happened (My friend Nunu and I were elected the Rush Chairs of the dorm so we were in charge of this), and it was really fun! I rather wish I'd have gone to it my senior year, but it's also fun for us MIT students, even though we have work to do too. The rooming lottery for next year happened recently, and I'll be in a single again in one of the towers of the dorm, facing Boston and living with lots of friends, so things should be fun. Finals are approaching, and I must get back to work, but I will try to keep this more updated than I've been.
Take care!
-Gus