First Month

It's been a while. I'll have to break this down into several posts. This month, my first in college, has been absolutely amazing. I'm already getting the sense of the love-hate relationship I'll be having with TFP. The work is definitely difficult, and I've had to drop down one level in physics because the pacing is so fast, especially for somebody with no high school background in physics. However, multivariable calculus and intro to solid state chem are going fine. I've gotten used to referring to them as the course numbers, and I have to refrain from doing that off campus. I remember thinking I'd never remember all the course numbers, but it's actually really easy once you get here and interact with them each day.
Also, I'm taking a Comparative Media Studies course on Worldbuilding with Professor Junot Diaz. And whoa, is that man amazing. He's so bawss. Plus, the 10 page essays we have to write for this class are actually stories with progressively more fantastic worlds, so this is like the writing workshop class I always wanted. At least once a day, I stop and think to myself how lucky and grateful I am for the Institvte, and how awesome it is to be a part of it all.
For a week before orientation started, I participated in a freshman pre-orientation program (FPOP), called DME (discover mechanical engineering), where we built small soccerbots. The bots were pretty fail, but the camp was invaluable. Not only did I get semifamiliarized with the machine shops and the building process, but I also got a feel for the MIT campus and I made friends. Getting to know people in my class really decreased the intimidation factor, and although I'm closest right now with the people on my hall (we'll get to that in another post), I love being able to pick out familiar faces in the crowd of freshmen, all because we basically spent twelve hours per day together for a week. I know from other freshmen that they had similar experiences from their FPOP, and so I highly encourage any prefrosh to apply for an FPOP. It's possibly the best introduction to the institute as an insider.
Here are some pictures.

And I will continue with my adventures and photos in the next post.