Excitement vs. Sleepless

Both last night and tonight I walked back my apt. with constant yawning through entire walk. most of my classmates looked the same as I do. I am very thankful for MIT's Infinite Corridor, which is not only the historical walking whenever you are there, but also keep you inside away from cold weather through campus, esp. keep your mind still engage on what you were doing previously in a very encouraging setting.

After Monday's Leadership presentation, Tuesday we have team building activities. Usually from all the organizations I worked, this is nothing special, working with assigned the team, completing tasks and discuss pros and cons. What unique this time is, there were 8 teams, but the three deliverable were from individual team, couple teams and entire teams. It mimic the tech firm from start-up to middle-size, what needs to experience, as well as the shift from opportunities to sustainability, also, how can teams work with each other, without boundary. there are so much to think through.

Today we have Prof. Katz's Human Side of Managing technological Innovation in the morning. He is a brilliant professor in his field, and excellent teacher to deliver his thoughts clearly and logically. Basically, if you records his entire 3 hours talk, you can completely transfer it to script without any modification, just precise and concise. He is CMU graduate, the way he described CMU made me wonder if I made a right decision to take MIT over CMU, certainly CMU gave me a very good impression. He speaks so fast, that I totally understand why people warn me with Bostonian's fast paste. He talked 3 hours straight, with full contents, no any wordy sentence. Every sentence he said can make you think for a while. In short, all of us just thrilled to be there. In my eyes, how to speak less to deliver the right information you want to deliver in professional world is two-way game. Both listener and speaker should engage in.

After is Statistics class that program wants to bring us up/remind us those concepts, preparing for Spring Semester classes need. Most of us are tech/engineering background, it was quite fun to go through.

Soon, reach the early evening back to Robot Design Challenge. I really like this NXT 2.0 lego kit, promising myself that when I graduate from here, I want to get one staying home and play for a week, nothing but play lego, and no competition, purely for fun. I finished the draft of opening ceremony and worked with teammates on modifying the program. The robot will do a few dance routine. The music I created was pretty funny, the team was on board, making me feel good. Since Jan. IAP has both '10 and '09 students, totally 59, only 4 ladies, one of ladies is not full-time. So women are totally minority here. you can imagine the music taste can be dramatic differently. When we discussed about music for opening ceremony, I thought about Puccini's opera Turandot, Nessun Dorma. What a lovely romantic piece! Since the rest four competitions are relay race, archery, scavenger hunt and sumo. The opening part can show our robot the sweet part. oh, my, after I mentioned this, all guys' eyes were like freeze there, seems telling me "what?". I realize that I am working with a bunch of tech guys, should think more about powerful theme, just like movie 300. Well, option 1 got shot down, but they did take my second suggestion. I have to wait till the final competition to present all these. Also at the opening ceremony, we need to dance with Robot, the movement we program in, no guy likes to do this. for years, I would never thought I would lead the efforts of figuring a robot dance for a team. The rest evening were more intense discussion/modifications on Robot's functions, testing, debugging, modify, then test, debug... the typical routine of engineering work, same for software world. Periodically we will make fun of each other. Suddenly I realized that in my team, 6 people from 6 countries, China, U.S., Thailand, Kazakhstan, Kania and Italy. The English accents were all-over the map.

Program feeds us so well, various food from different countries, sweets, literally we can eat from the time we walked in till the time we left. We joked that we got fed so well to prevent out sleep. Since we are seriously working so many hours, noone talks about on diet but only complain eating too much. I told myself that I do not have to worry until Feb. to think about how I am going to fit into a wedding dress :) Several classmates ask me how I am going to plan a wedding in this crazy schedule. I told them that I have the best families and friends who help me all and support me to concentrate study here. They just could not believe that as some of them choose to get married in Nov. before school start, one even keep the engagement longer through the study. I am so thankful!!

Late night we tested Robot's Sumo movement and Archery. I have to say, my Olympic observation on some reports definitely help the design. After last moment brief of the day, we looked totally beat up. One more thing we will do together, the homework of Statistics on possibilities. Soon, we realize that this was absolutely the wrong time for us to do this assignment together by the end of long day, as our brains were so fading away. We kept missing the fun of getting possibilities on the questions, like choosing cards, disease control percentage among population... I even completely flip the basic concept of P{x1 and X2} vs. P{x1 or X2} in the discussion, some people nod along until another team member pointed out, we were too tired to think more. Call it close of the day, but no one disagree with the excitement we had through the day.

One thing bothered me so bad through statistics work, one teammate decided not to involve the work but borrow other team's complete homework and copy. We all have years of working experience under belt, school is not the same as undergraduate time, not a place using exam to test knowledge, but learn to meet our expectation to ourselves. The only competitors for us are ourselves. Why bother to copy others work for the sake of Grade? Plus, this statistics class is a catch-up lecture, only pass/fail as grade.

Day 1 -- a full house for a diverse group

Until the end of day, I know how long the day can be, and how much fun the day could be. Today is Day 1 of IAP, I got up around 6:00a.m. taken from one of alumni's suggestion, getting exercise daily is so important to push through IAP. I never get up this early, even go to gym. Definitely feel good. prior to 8:00 reach Wong Auditorium, meeting classmates. There are clearly two themes going on, one, non Bostonian, discussing about the weather, getting lost and all the new things we see, then there is Bostonian, talking about sports and work stuff. I am glad that some of my funny experiences have happened to other classmates.

SDM provides all three meals for IAP, in order to get all students concentrate. It is a long introduction over 5 hours, but so worth it. Everyone has an interesting background, totally different. Then Prof. Shaloan gave two hours presentation on leadership, links to his ESD.930 class. His simple description of Leadership, down to heart, making you think and agree totally. By 6:00p.m. we began our first DC(Design Challenge) project. We were given a high-end Lego to create arobot to do opening ceremony, Sumo, relay race, Scavenger hut, and archery. Here is the site. Lego, that is one of my favorite childhood games. Here are my 5 teammates: Azamat from Kazkhstan, work for Prime Minister; Edoardo, Newclear Scientist from MIT; Charles, Ph.D. in CS from U.K, Negiarian, running a firm in D.C.; Robert, UTC Chief Engineer; Ace, Ph.D from TX A&M on Areospace, System engineer; Azamat has no engineer background, so he was our negociator and researcher. Team voted me as a leader and everyone is so easy to work with. We can disagree but we always find out the way to reach an agreement. Until we assembly two robot, it was over 11:30p.m. We all left before midnight, which other teams are still there. talking about energy, someone saide SDM is full of people 'on Drug' (metopher here.) In chinese, we call it as 'pump up with Chichen blood'!

I am so thankful that I got my new laptop Lenovo T400 today as my Vaio got little drownsy today. What a timing! While I type this post, I feel like the time in Olympic Game '08, trying to squeeze time to capture the day. I told myself to put in 10 mins per day, just typing whatever got into my mind for the day, otherwise I would not get chance. So, sorry, my loyal reader, it may not be fun to read a blog without any review attention :(

Time for me to go to bed. Tomorrow is an another long day. Our first Design Challenge competition will be this Saturday.

Getting ready

Since I received my classes textbooks, I have been spending a lot of time to read through materials, getting ready for the classes, esp. in this snowy days, staying inside is not a bad idea. But, still, how can I pass on the opportunity to make a snowman with these perfect snow. Actually I got into a snow fight, hehe, I was in, not sure which team to join but got introduced by the end of 'fight'. As we told each other's names, we also mentioned which dept. from, so far in that fight, the conclusion was: physics major is super good in the game, the chemistry major is completely useless, even aiming the target :) Jan. is IAP time at MIT, there are not a lot of students on campus.

I have not cook a single thing since I came here, but meeting with people having multiple dinners, trying different styles. Yesterday I went with XiaoFang and his husband at a Chinese north-east food style restaurant, oh, I ate a lot. It is really a treat as that is the kind of food that I grow up with and I have not had for quite a while. Tonight, my class has a gathering. Everyone has an interesting background. The Israel couple, one studies at Wharton, one comes here. The Kazakhstan couple are both in SDM program. Some from defense background, some from financial side. All of us know that we will have a tough Jan. schedule. If you look at left side of reference link, find the jan. calendar, we have a full day packed schedule. I thought it starts 8:00a.m.-10p.m. My classmate corrects me that it will run to midnight with the update calendar. well, that is what I signed up for and I am ready for this challenge.

One of my professors post a link of his advice to engineering student: 10 tips . Definitely good advice.

The highlight of today is that I got an email that I was selected to join iTeam(innovation Team). This can not be joined through registration but application. I have heard so many times that how much Sloan and SDM students love this experience. I am quite happy. In MIT there are E-Lab, G-Lab, New enterprises, $100K and iTeam. When you look at the whole entrepreneurship, there are before, during and after sections. iTeam is the stage of 'Before' launching start-up, how to concert innovation idea into start-up, how to capture the innovation. New Enterprises and $100K belong to during section. then E-Lab and G-Lab belongs to 'after' stage. I will start from 'Before' in Spring term.

Exploring

Somewhat I am still on the west coast time, 3 hours difference make quite a big deal. So far, I found out a lot of interesting things surrounding me. There is thermometer with F. & C. on top of shower nob. When you take shower, you can find out what is your comfortable shower temperature. Then, next time when you go to shower again, you can just turn to your comfort degree, really save time and water without constant testing. I found out that my comfortable temperature of shower is actually quite lower than I thought. Maybe you should check yours at home. My Jan. sublet building -- Sidney Pacific Graduate Housing website has everything. I mean everything, such as you can check your laundry room which slots open or how many still open before you go to do laundry; the shuttle tracking is so practical.

Since Dec. 31 and Jan. 1 the entire campus is closed, I was able to get my student ID on Wednesday, wondering around campus to get familiar the building locations which I will take classes in. The most crazy part was I got lost in CS building, just could find out the direction, at least I made to the destination. Then the person said "yes, computer science can be confusing, just bunch of nerds living here, you probably need a map." I looked at him, debating if I should tell him that I am one of CS too.

Today is 2009 New Year Eve. Arjun (my classmate) is so kind and considerate to classmates who are not from Boston. He initiates the class event to attend 'First Night Boston 2010'. It is such a nice idea to get to know Boston.

First we started at Hynes Convention Center by noon. Yes, it is snowing outside, so pretty! There are Sharon Kennedy's story telling, international dances, Gerwick puppets, we went one after another one. The favorite of my is African drum performance, very inspirational and festival.


Stepping out the Hynes Convention Center, there was Boston New Year Parade. We decided to walk on Boylston St. to Boston Common. It is my first time to spend quality time to be in downtown. The atmosphere was great.



There are ice sculptures around park. I was quite impressed with all these old Church/cathedral building, just beautiful architecture.




New Year celebration always has fireworks. It reminds me of Chinese New Year celebration in China.



Can you find 2010 among these frogs?



We head to Berklee Performance Center to see Anat Cohen live on WGB and NPR, nice Jazz. The organizer of First Night Boston 2010 must spend a lot of time and efforts to put all these together.

Later they went back Hynes to watch other dance and singing. I want to go to St. Paul's cathedral to see Commonwealth Shakespeare of 'A Shakespearean Cabaret', which presents a collection of funny, beautiful, touching modern and classic songs from and inspired by Shakespeare. It was a marvelous performance, the voice echoing through cathedral's ceiling, if music be the food of love, my favorites: I Feel Pretty, Tonight, and Somewhere. What a way to celebrate new year in this setting!

When we met again at Boston common, it was around 10:30p.m. The vote of going to bar and drink into the next year becomes the theme here. I back out and decided to go back my apt., still enjoying the lovely moments I have through the series of events and wanting to remember this as the way of welcoming 2010 instead of drinking. I guess I do not have those youth celebration energy here :) Plus, I really want to get over these 3 hours time difference before class starts, so I can be ready and rejuvenate for the classes. (somehow, this sounds like a quite old fashion.)

Happy New Year to you, to me, to everyone, have a wonderful blessed year of 2010!

Friends

For the past four weeks, I have overwhelmed with happiness, blessings and joys of friendship, while I prepared packing and moving to Boston. Moving to a new place and making efforts to adjust have never been concerns/issues in my mind, but organizing, packing and figuring out moving are completely different, huge pressure to me. Friends came to my place multiple times to help me pack, advice me to pass on/donate/toss out stuff I had for a while, show me what contents in what boxes... On the day of loading, I know there will be 4 people coming. By the time of getting truck into the parking lot, there were 16 men, 3 women and 2 kids here helping me. I had tears whole time, asking myself why to move, leaving all friends here and starting from scratch. One older man gave me a hug, saying "We will help you close this chapter and lift you up to next step, supporting you to go for your dream!". What could I say, any words seem like so less meaning to express my appreciation.

On 19th, we drove to Mt. Vernon storage place where a friend lets me to store my stuff for free. At lunch, these three dutch immigrants elders shared with me their immigration journeys and their life changes. What powerful statements I see them presenting to me! I feel so confident and ready for my continue journey.

Friends, I thank you for being in my life, supporting me and correcting me to let me grow and better myself. I cherish every moment we had in my heart.

Boston

At this moment, I am drinking hot locust flower and barley tea, looking through my new apt. window at MIT campus(trying to figure out the direction). It is a long day traveling, but went well. Very thankful my friends Bishop drove me up to airport at three-ish in the morning, now I am in Boston, beginning my new chapter.

The apt is small, not even reach my master bedroom size in Olympia, but furnished with everything in. I am quite happy and satisfied with the settings which are exactly what I need during my study. I have already met some of my neighbors, who are full of energy and fun to talk with.

Yes, Boston is so cold. Step out of airport waiting for taxi, I can feel the wind straight to the bone. Maybe everything is so new to me, I chatted with my taxi driver, realized that I could not understand his English at all. After trying several times, he at least knew that I need to get to MIT, which is a start. my, do I need to relearn English again here?

Co-ed

Do you know the meaning of Co-ed? Apparently, for over 11 years living in U.S., this word has never run cross any conversation or reading, but it certainly will stay in my mind after my housing search at MIT.

MIT online lottery housing required me to select options where I would like to stay, what kind of housing I prefer first, second, and so on. Due to high demand, in order to maximize the option, it is said that choose all the possible option. I did, by the end of selction option page, there is a question about if you are willing to take co-ed. I had no clue about co-ed, though something to do with Education major, which I was kind of happy since my roomate from Dordt Maria is education major. I enjoy her so much, esp. when she corrected my English and helped me to be farmiliar with curriculum. So I said yes for co-ed. until I got a notice for being select for on-campus housing, I went back the online bulletin board, seeing people complaining the co-ed guys are messy in one building, sort of odd, so I googled co-ed. goodness, I have to call graduate housing and explained that I do not know. Luckily, they assigned me to an one-bedroom apt. building, otherwise I will have a lot to explain to my family. How come they use co-ed? learning, keep learning, Charlotte!