Sunday, August 31, 2008
Fraternity Rush
Today is the second day of fraternity rush. For a little less than a week, the fraternities treat us like kings as they recruit freshmen. That means tons of free food. You also get guys from competing fraternities calling your cell phone and inviting you to tons of events. They have vans that will pick you up from anywhere and take you to their frat house and events, which sounds a lot like kidnapping children. One fraternity was giving out free ice cream to lure us in. Highlights of the past two days include steak and lobsters dinner, party hopping, and F1 racing (it's like go-karts but faster).
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Three Words
Twelve Pound Lobster!!
Uncle Jim and Aunt Barbara were kind enough to whisk me away for a day to their home in Dartmouth. Bob and Nami were visiting as well. I got the walking tour, ice cream, and a history of New Bedford from Jim. The best part was the delicious oyster, salad, corn, and lobster dinner. I had never seen a twelve pound lobster before, but it fed the five of us. They also treated me to breakfast and lunch that put campus food to shame. It was nice to relax, watch TV, play Racko and sleep in a home rather than a college campus. Thank you!
Monday, August 25, 2008
DEECS
My pre-orientation program was Discover Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, or DEECS. It was a five day project to introduce incoming freshmen to the department. We made a lego robot, which was supposed to navigate a course. We used light sensors to keep it on track and adjusted it's course whenever it sensed it was going off the black line it had to follow. The goal was to turn off as many light sensors as possible in the fastest time. We had to soder wires and program the software, which was new to me. Our robot ultimately failed. It was a short run, but I think it was a strong while it lasted.
Although the video doesn't do the robot justice, it had some more impressive moments earlier on when we tested it. Overall it was a good experience. We toured some labs, I was fed, and I made some new friends.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
The Big Apple
The initiative to make an expedition to New York started a month ago. After one failed attempt a couple weeks back (we overslept and missed our bus), we made tentative plans to have a second go at it. I was doubtful on whether or not we would go before school started.
It was 10:30pm Sunday night when Lesley walked into Jose's room. She said we were catching the 2am bus from Boston to New York, which meant we had an hour and a half to get to the T before the last subway left. I ran to take a shower and get my bag ready.
Me, Jose, and Lesley had to sprint across campus in order to make it in time to catch the last subway to South Station, which is a terminal in the middle of Boston for a lot of the buses and trains. Our sleeping schedule doesn't have us go to bed until 3 or so in the morning, so it wasn't a problem traveling so late.
We took the Lucky Star Chinatown Bus. There had been a lot of talk about it throughout Interphase. Mainly about how legitimate it was. It was supposed to take you to New York for $1, which I thought was impossible, but supposedly you can get tickets that cheap if you are the first to buy them. We paid $15 each way since we bought them on the spot. We handed the chinaman our money and he handed us our tickets. The driver did not speak English. We were also dropped off in the middle of Chinatown at 5:30 in the morning. It added to the adventure.
I don't know why anyone would want to be in New York at 5:30 in the morning, let alone be awake, but we were. We took a quick detour through little Italy and found our way to the subway station to begin our day.
Lesley was our tour guide. She lives in Queens, so she showed Jose and I (also from California) around for our first New York experience. Our first stop was Grand Central Station. It was about the time people were going to work, so it was kind of busy, although it doesn't look it in the picture. They had some constellation stuff painted up on the ceiling, which was kind of hard to see.
We walked out the front doors and I caught my first view of the vertical New York landscape.
Central Park was the next stop, since most things weren't open by 7:30 in the morning. I had heard that it was big, but I still didn't understand how huge it was until I walked through it.
They had some cool statues strewn about the park. I took a picture with Alice in Wonderland.
Fountain Action!
This was the lake, which was covered in algae, but apparently you can row boats through it during certain seasons.
There was even a wooded area that went on for a good while in the middle of the park.
Belvedere Castle
The Great Lawn
The Reservoir, which is a popular jogging track to run around
From here we took the subway to visit Harlem in search of some New York Pizza, which Lesley recommended
And it was huge! As a college student, I love pizza. I also love getting a lot a food for my money. When these two things come together, it is a great thing.
Seinfield! This was actually just what they used as the outside shot for the restaurant that was used in the show. The interior scenes of the restaurant were filmed on a set. Still cool.
We were going to go to the Brooklyn Bridge after this. But with less than 3 hours of sleep on the bus ride to New York we were dozing off on the subway. It was only noon, so we decided to take a nap in Central Park. On our way, we came out in Columbus Circle, which was pretty cool. His statue was at the tip of a pillar, and Trump's hotel was there as well (the tall black building).
After a nap we hit up St. Patrick's Cathedral. I am always partial to big Catholic cathedrals.
Next was Rockefeller Center, where they place the big Christmas tree during the holidays, and also put up an ice rink. At the time it was just being used for a restaurant or something.
I snapped some random shots as we walked down 5th avenue.
I tried to take a picture on my phone in front of Trump Tower to pretend I was on The Apprentice and send back home but it came out too blurry.
The Apple store in New York is open 24/7 and located underground, below this big glass box. It was pretty random.
Right next door was some toy store to which I forget the name. It had the big floor piano, which reminded me of Homer Simpson.
The Empire State Building! It costs $20 to take the elevator to the top. We settled for the ground view.
Our second attempt to visit the library was unsuccessful. The first time was at 7am, the second at 5:50pm, but the library was open from 11-6. Oh well.
Welcome to goodburger, home of the goodburger, can I take your order?
Walk down Broadway. We didn't have any time to see anything.
I almost cried when I saw the poster for Xanadu. Why would they bring back something so awful? We watched the movie in theater film history, since it supposedly was so bad that it killed the movie-musical genre that was popular in the 8o's.
We saved Time Square for the end of the day in order to see it at night. So we went into some shops until eight.
No, I don't want to grow up. I am a Toys R Us kid. Especially if they have a Ferris wheel in their store.
Finally!! I was not ashamed to be a tourist and stop in the middle of the street to take my Time Square photo. I spent almost four hours on a bus to get here.
Flight of the Concords shot:
It was 10:30pm Sunday night when Lesley walked into Jose's room. She said we were catching the 2am bus from Boston to New York, which meant we had an hour and a half to get to the T before the last subway left. I ran to take a shower and get my bag ready.
Me, Jose, and Lesley had to sprint across campus in order to make it in time to catch the last subway to South Station, which is a terminal in the middle of Boston for a lot of the buses and trains. Our sleeping schedule doesn't have us go to bed until 3 or so in the morning, so it wasn't a problem traveling so late.
We took the Lucky Star Chinatown Bus. There had been a lot of talk about it throughout Interphase. Mainly about how legitimate it was. It was supposed to take you to New York for $1, which I thought was impossible, but supposedly you can get tickets that cheap if you are the first to buy them. We paid $15 each way since we bought them on the spot. We handed the chinaman our money and he handed us our tickets. The driver did not speak English. We were also dropped off in the middle of Chinatown at 5:30 in the morning. It added to the adventure.
I don't know why anyone would want to be in New York at 5:30 in the morning, let alone be awake, but we were. We took a quick detour through little Italy and found our way to the subway station to begin our day.
Lesley was our tour guide. She lives in Queens, so she showed Jose and I (also from California) around for our first New York experience. Our first stop was Grand Central Station. It was about the time people were going to work, so it was kind of busy, although it doesn't look it in the picture. They had some constellation stuff painted up on the ceiling, which was kind of hard to see.
Central Park was the next stop, since most things weren't open by 7:30 in the morning. I had heard that it was big, but I still didn't understand how huge it was until I walked through it.
They had some cool statues strewn about the park. I took a picture with Alice in Wonderland.
Fountain Action!
This was the lake, which was covered in algae, but apparently you can row boats through it during certain seasons.
There was even a wooded area that went on for a good while in the middle of the park.
Belvedere Castle
The Great Lawn
The Reservoir, which is a popular jogging track to run around
From here we took the subway to visit Harlem in search of some New York Pizza, which Lesley recommended
And it was huge! As a college student, I love pizza. I also love getting a lot a food for my money. When these two things come together, it is a great thing.
Seinfield! This was actually just what they used as the outside shot for the restaurant that was used in the show. The interior scenes of the restaurant were filmed on a set. Still cool.
We were going to go to the Brooklyn Bridge after this. But with less than 3 hours of sleep on the bus ride to New York we were dozing off on the subway. It was only noon, so we decided to take a nap in Central Park. On our way, we came out in Columbus Circle, which was pretty cool. His statue was at the tip of a pillar, and Trump's hotel was there as well (the tall black building).
After a nap we hit up St. Patrick's Cathedral. I am always partial to big Catholic cathedrals.
Next was Rockefeller Center, where they place the big Christmas tree during the holidays, and also put up an ice rink. At the time it was just being used for a restaurant or something.
I snapped some random shots as we walked down 5th avenue.
I tried to take a picture on my phone in front of Trump Tower to pretend I was on The Apprentice and send back home but it came out too blurry.
The Apple store in New York is open 24/7 and located underground, below this big glass box. It was pretty random.
Right next door was some toy store to which I forget the name. It had the big floor piano, which reminded me of Homer Simpson.
The Empire State Building! It costs $20 to take the elevator to the top. We settled for the ground view.
Our second attempt to visit the library was unsuccessful. The first time was at 7am, the second at 5:50pm, but the library was open from 11-6. Oh well.
Welcome to goodburger, home of the goodburger, can I take your order?
Walk down Broadway. We didn't have any time to see anything.
I almost cried when I saw the poster for Xanadu. Why would they bring back something so awful? We watched the movie in theater film history, since it supposedly was so bad that it killed the movie-musical genre that was popular in the 8o's.
We saved Time Square for the end of the day in order to see it at night. So we went into some shops until eight.
No, I don't want to grow up. I am a Toys R Us kid. Especially if they have a Ferris wheel in their store.
Finally!! I was not ashamed to be a tourist and stop in the middle of the street to take my Time Square photo. I spent almost four hours on a bus to get here.
Flight of the Concords shot:
After a good 16 hours in New York it was time to head home on the last Lucky Star bus at 10pm. I had to be at my pre-orientation at 9 in the morning the next day.
We arrived back at 1:30 in the morning, then had to walk back from the middle of Boston since the subway had closed. We knew this would happen if we left on such a late bus, but had decided that seeing Time Square lit up was worth the walk. It was.
But this was just the first trip! We just hit up all the free things to do, to get a taste for the city. When I am able to stay longer, I hope to see a broadway show, watch a screening of Conan O'Brien (or David Letterman), and visit the Museum of Natural History. I will be back New York!
But this was just the first trip! We just hit up all the free things to do, to get a taste for the city. When I am able to stay longer, I hope to see a broadway show, watch a screening of Conan O'Brien (or David Letterman), and visit the Museum of Natural History. I will be back New York!
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