day six: i'm bad at this

Here's another sloppy, quick post. This is devolving fast. Sorry, I warned you I wasn't cut out for diaries.
Morning: class, working on the paper, yelling at my printer, flipping out when something i had to hand in came out in green ink, giving up on life.
Afternoon: more class, foreign policy review session picnic-style with orangina (so picturesque that tourists were snapping shots...seriously), boring stuff you don't need to hear about
Evening: dinner, filming another video for chinese class...and then dinner again. my mom was here meeting up with some old law school friends (25th reunion), and when i stopped by to say hello everyone was eating burgers. life rule, never turn down a good-looking burger. my order: as raw as they'll serve it to me (don't judge, i'm just a product of my raising), any cheese but american, extra ketchup and mayo, no raw onions please. i think there was a question about a salad diet in the comments? lol
Night: work. stress. be jealous of people having thirsty thursdays. blog. sleep

also, note that this week highly unrepresentative in that i saw my mom twice in five days. this never happens. if you follow my twitter at all, you know that my parents have forgotten i exist and don't even answer my texts

day five and how to write a paper like a tiger cub

Too tired for this. Crazy day for my brain -- I did this thing last night where I went to bed thinking about the big ideas I need to tie together in my research paper, and somehow connected the dots right as I fell asleep. When I woke up, I knew I had figured it out, but I couldn't quite remember how.
0545 Alarm goes off. Out the door by six.
0625 Sprint workout at MIT.
1100 Fast-forward through long breakfast and longer chunks of wasted time, until I realize I've been away for five hours and still haven't done any work on my research paper (the assignment, fyi, is to "enter into a scholarly debate" on something in the field of animal consciousness)
1130 Marching myself to Lamont, the uncharming but not unwelcoming undergraduate library. I spend about half an hour scrawling bubbles, bullet points and arrows in an attempt to piece it all together...
1200 Flipping through some philosophy book my professor put on reserve, when all of a sudden I see a throwaway comment that sounds exactly like what I've been trying to articulate. That terrifying moment when it looks like what you've been trying so hard to say has already been said...I find the footnote, no author named. So I google the keywords, and sure enough I find an article using the exact thought process I laid out in my sleep...to support the exact opposite conclusion! VICTORY. This is great because now I know that 1) my thoughts are not completely whack and are actually -- like this article -- grounded in the work of Rawls; 2) what I want to say hasn't been said yet.
1300 Feeling way better about this even though I haven't yet written a single word. Off to Chinese.
1500 Sociology lecture.
1600 Gym break. If you've read my study guide, you know that I'm a fan of scheduling stuff into homework-heavy days. The less time I have, the harder I work. Short lift, zumba, abs.
1800 Straight to dinner, where I lingered for way too long with friends (the ones who don't mind my sweaty clothes) talking about Game of Thrones. I'M ONLY ON BOOK TWO NO SPOILERS IN THE COMMENTS.
2000 Back to business. On a mission to find Rawls. Lamont copy is checked out, so I prepare for my first adventure in the Widener Stacks. Widener is probably the most intimidating building at Harvard. I never study there, ever. The Stacks are even eerier than I imagined...especially the section I find myself in, which is full of crumbling 19th century journals. I open one up out of curiosity. It's a collection of essays summarizing the state of Parisian finances in 1898. My French is terrible, and the subject couldn't be more boring, but I find myself weirdly moved by phrases like "I want to call attention to a largely overlooked..." and "the key to understanding this is..." These were someone's eureka moments over a century ago. They clearly weren't big ideas, and maybe they weren't even good ideas, but they probably came in moments of inspiration. And someone was probably excited by them, in the same way that I'm kind of getting excited about this paper. I think I might start studying in Widener.
2040 Sadly, there is no Rawls in sight. Last hope: I can try to chase him down in the Design School library. A philosophy book in there? I'm skeptical, but it's worth a try. Also, I feel like I'm reclaiming a connection to libraries that I abandoned along with my middle-school self. Twisted much?
2100 Got him. Finally. This better be the best damn theory of justice I ever read in my life
2130 Back to the dorm for our entryway's weekly study break. We're having fresh mango and grapes, two fruits I've been missing like crazy.
2200 Hunkering down, trying not to be distracted by my beautiful and wildly entertaining roommates. Struggles.
0030 So much Rawls.
0100 On the bright side, I'm looking forward to a great conversation next time I see my philosophy major dad.
0200 More Rawls.
0300 Blogger's guilt; still strangely amped about paper process and restoration of diplomatic ties with the Dewey Decimal System
0333 Going to bed, sorry this is incoherent. Almost didn't post, but a promise is a promise, right?

day four: tuesday

I'm starting to bore myself, so I understand if you guys are hitting the unfollow button this week.
To answer some comments:
Q: "I hope all these praises don't ever make you feel complacent."
A: Thank you so much for the reminder, I constantly forget that I'm not perfect and that a good deal of people dislike me and everything my family stands for. Oops!
Q: "What are you guinea pigging as?"
A: I just fill out surveys and do puzzles and stuff as part of the study pool. They're pretty tricky in how they formulate the studies, so you usually can't guess what they're testing you for. At the end they ask you what you think they were studying before they tell you...I always get it wrong.
Q: "Hey Sophia! I was eating at Kirkland last night too, but I didn't see you! I would have loved to meet you. :)"
A: By all means -- if any of you are Harvard people or prefrosh or something and you happen to see me, please say hi! No judgment, I'm hard to faze. And I'd rather have a conversation than be watched. Seriously.

0800 Waking up, tending to all my internet affairs. It's like cultivating a garden -- okay, maybe a little less rewarding, but more addictive and you can't be neglectful.
0900 Over to MIT for some errands. I kind of live there.
0950 Shortest breakfast ever with the roommates...at least I made it, a rare occurrence.
1000 Foreign policy class -- today we mainly looked at W's doctrine in light of his predecessors'.
1115 Got out early, headed back to my dorm to do some reading before section. Predictably, got sidetracked and ended up online...and stumbled upon (literally) an idea for my research paper! Hint: it has to do with dogs in warfare. And I decided that someday I'm adopting an MWD (military working dog). From the Vietnam War until 2000, MWDs were considered "expendable equipment" and were euthanized after they retired. But Clinton signed a law making retired dogs available for adoption instead! Look at this:

http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/category/one_time_tags/rebeccas_war_dog_of_the_week

I'm gonna cry. Anyways, sometimes getting sidetracked can end up being productive.
1200 Sociology section. Interesting debate about the ethics of "enhancement." If we could, should we eliminate genes for, say, heart disease? Should parents be able to pick and choose genes for their children? Should two deaf lesbians be allowed to select a deaf sperm donor so their kids will "share their culture?" One argument in favor of all this is that it's not like embryos have any choice either way; we would just be replacing the "natural lottery" with parental preferences. Introducing genetic enhancement wouldn't be robbing the fetus of any agency, because it has none to begin with. On the other hand, if disease and disability are social constructs -- case in point, the couple who considers deafness a "culture" and a "blessing" -- where do we stop? Do we tamper with genes for big noses and freckles? Is this all just a sunnier form of Nazi eugenics? A very edgy topic. I'm excited to see what my prof has to say in class tomorrow, as well as to finish up the Harris reading that the discussion was based on.
1300 Expository Writing class.
1400 Chinese section -- this week's topic? What Old Chinese People Do For Exercise. Truly riveting.
1500 Stopped by Expos office hours to see if my research paper idea was crazy or viable.
1520 Back to the room, loitered on "what should we call me" and its derivatives for way too long.
1600 Running by the river with the roommate. Okay, confession: I hate running by the river! Everyone talks about running by the river like it's some kind of transcendent experience. I get bored. And demotivated. I guess I've been conditioned to run in parks that double as body dumps (yay New Haven), because I just don't see the charm of dirty water and a highway. And a bunch of identical bridges.
1630 FRUIT NIGHT IN THE DINING HALL
1730 Back to the room. Wasting time on the internet. Writing this.
2000 Finishing up my part of the Chinese project from last night. Online comics break.
2100 Errands in the square.
2200 Studying then bed.

day three: monday

1000 So nice to sleep in -- yay Patriots' Day! We don't have this holiday where I'm from, but I'm a fan. Half an hour of leisurely facebook stalking, pinteresting (sorry, I sold my soul), and catching up on email.
1030 Reading for Sociology class. The book is John Harris' Enhancing Evolution: the ethical case for making better people. 
1145 Exercise time. Today is the Boston Marathon, and running would just make me feel bad about my life, so instead...lifting and ZUMBA!! I like zumba because it's provides a healthy mental incentive: the less you care about looking like a fool, the more effective your workout.
1400 Stopping to grab an iced tea (Free! Harvard gives us $130 to spend in its cafes and the money expires at the end of the year. I have about $50 worth of coffee that I still need to buy...finals week may be super caffeinated this semester) on my way to Chinese class (no Marathon Monday off for Harvard!) in Vanserg Hall. Vanserg is probably the ugliest and most inconvenient building on campus; it's a humid, orange trailer built during WW2 for radar tests or something that nobody bothered to tear down. Awesome.
1500 On to the Science Center for my sociology lecture. Today's topic was how social factors can affect your biology. For example, herder populations developed genetic mutations that allowed adults to digest lactose; hunter-gatherer adults, who don't really chase down wild beasts to milk them, were/are mostly lactose intolerant.
1630 Psych studies! Guinea pigging for money. The pay is about $10/hr, which is probably more than I'd make in a job given my current qualifications.
1700 Errands in the square
1720 Dinner with roommates in our future house (the postcard below makes me feel warm and fuzzy and part of something greater)

1800 Theta chapter! Can't tell you anything more, it's secret :]
1830 Caught up with my awesome "big" over froyo (sorority betch move right there...haters gonna hate)
1900 Back in the room, losing to Lulu in Scramble with Friends. Typing this. About to get some work done.
2000 Taking a break from reading about the Iraq War circa 2004, visiting friends upstairs. Back to the room to knock out some Chinese homework (most time-consuming class by far).
2200 Meeting up with kids from Chinese class to work on our final project, which is a course trailer video. I got lost in the Science Center and ended up locked in a biology lab for about 15 minutes, but they saved me and we figured out our plan. I really want there to be secret agents in the video so I'm hoping that will happen.
2300 Posting. A little more work (read as: compulsively hitting "refresh" on this blog to see if you guys wrote any comments) before bed -- Tuesdays are rough.

day two: sunday

1100 Woken up by phone call from my parents. Super psyched, because they've been ignoring me all week...seriously why am I the one sending texts like "hi guys, i know you're really busy and having a lot of fun but please call me! i haven't heard from you in ages"? Oh well. Needy tiger cub can't survive on her own.
1200 Brunch with roommates. I make weird concoctions out of oatmeal, fibery cereal, and peanut butter while I crank out writing assignments for Expository Writing class. The final project is an open-ended research paper, and I have no idea what I'm doing. It's great for productivity, though; I'm getting all my other mini-assignments done out of procrastination.
1300 Typing this as I prepare to leave brunch. Overheard from the kids sitting next to me, who are ubiquitously dressed in red shorts, collared shirts, vineyard vines belts and boat shoes: "Guys, there's a difference between mainstream and popular." I'm lol'ing. Please, tell me more about how you listened to Wiz Khalifa before he was cool.
1400 Time to get pumped for Yardfest! Like all other Harvard students, I get ready for big social events with soft drinks and board games.

1700 Ditching the concert to hang out with tiger mom, who is in town getting an award. Prudent decision? Debatable, but I love seeing the family :) Plus, it's the Cataracs this year, which is nice, but we had Far East Movement last year and there's only so many times I need to hear "Like a G6" live.
2200 Finally home! The event was "Literary Lights," a black-tie gala at the Boston Public Library. I'll be honest -- one first world problem I have with my uber-privileged upbringing is that I don't naturally get to be the underdog very often. So, although I try to seek out those situations -- by speaking up in my smart-Harvard-male-dominated foreign policy class, for example -- it's still a culture shock when I fall into them. Tonight, I really felt like I had landed in a scene from Age of Innocence. Everyone was so charming and witty and elegant, and I was Scrappy McScrapperson, totally ignorant of the workings of this social network, armed with nothing but a handshake and "Sophia, pleasure to meet you." But you are who you are, right? Rule #1 of being a tiger cub: no shame. It was fun and, as windows into other worlds always are, a learning experience.
2300 Posting. So meta

day one: saturday

Time to start this little experiment...I know it's a little counter-intuitive to be starting at the end of the week, but I just couldn't wait! Anyways, come on into the ivory tower and make yourself at home. Pop your collars and lower your expectations.

0030 After a roommate movie night, it's time for a little reading before bed. Tonight's assignment is Surprise, Security, and the American Experience by John Lewis Gaddis. Nothing like a little Bush Doctrine to sweeten my dreams. Cough.
0100 Bedtime! The usual routine: planning out the next day while I brush my teeth, drinking a ton of water, and then a set of pushups to tire me out :)
1030 Wake up and get moving -- I have to be out the door in twenty minutes for Chinatown ESL, a program run by Harvard students that provides free English classes to Chinese senior citizens. (fyi the name is a little misleading -- the classes take place at Harvard, and almost none of the students actually live in Chinatown)
1100 It's the last class of the semester, so we just have fun and review. We start off with vocab jeopardy, and then I open it up for the students' questions ("What does 'all set' mean?" "How do you say, "I lost my Senior ID and need a new one?'"). We celebrate the end of the school year with an incredible potluck that includes noodles, turnip cakes, tea eggs, and six kinds of dumplings. They insist that I take home all the leftovers, as well as photos of our class and newspaper clippings about the tiger mom...

1300 Feasting makes me tired, and I'm just not feeling the productivity today. I finish up the Gaddis reading, laze around, and then make myself feel better about lazing around by doing laundry. After conferring with my classmates, I realized that I'm not the only person who lives by the Underwear Principle: you know it's time for laundry when you're trotting out your cutest undies...under your gym clothes. I may or may not have tried to put my dirty laundry in a dryer today, and also may or may not have had to go back to my room after I forgot detergent. Don't judge, it's been a while.
1700 Roommate and I dragged our butts outside for a huge exercise compromise. Ran twenty minutes through urban Cambridge (me), twenty minutes back along The River (her), did a weight workout (me), abs (both), elliptical (ALL her). I can't do machines. I run faster away from the treadmill than I do on it. Also, at least when I wipe out on my face on the sidewalk, I get bloody wounds and people feel bad for me.
2030 Back in the room after dinner in our historic dining hall, Annenberg, which has slightly higher security than Guantanamo Bay. Seriously, they have bouncers who will throw people out the door, and they profile Asian kids who look like tourists. Honestly, I don't really see the appeal. I think it's supposed to look like Hogwarts and fill us with awe, but the stained glass portraits of Chaucer and Milton just don't really do it for me. Am I supposed to worship them or something? Whatever, Harvard, just keep on trying to be Oxford. Which is the actual Hogwarts. I understand.

2153 Posting on my blog like a social outcast. Hitting "publish" and then cracking down. I need to get stuff done today! Tomorrow's Yardfest -- Harvard's big spring concert -- and I definitely don't plan on working. Bye now, sorry my life is boring!

0100 Rescue missions, getting everyone back where they belong: unspoken duty of the night off

who says harvard's no fun?

i'm home for passover and that other holiday where there's a rabbit and you dye eggs! i'm also supposed to be studying for two midterms and writing a paper, it's whatever. that said, it has come to my attention that the world sees harvard as a heartless, cut-throat school where the students feed off each others' flesh and live for competition. this is absolutely not the case; we have excellent dining halls with diverse menu selections. anyways, i just want to reassure you -- especially if you're a prospective student -- that we harvard kids have plenty of fun. here are just a few highlights you can expect in between research papers...

lady gaga comes to play:

we have sex week:

...and sleep week (leave it to harvard to make sleeping a contest. literally the only way to get kids here to go to bed):

we do classy...

and semi-classy...

and not classy whatsoever...

and of course, we do ancient rome (toga praetexta, tunica, stola -- we don't mess around, most harvard kids were latin champions in high school):

...and, as promised, we sometimes rap in chinese class.

I'm going to regret posting that, I'm sure. Anyways I'm thinking of doing a set of week-in-the-life, diary-type posts this coming week. Sound good? Suggestions in the comments please!