Dinky Darts and Clumsy Kicks

The first week of school has not been too terrible. Things were initially rather bleak. I had no textbooks and the study lounge that had copies of the books was far too noisy for my liking though it often host to some rather amusing conversations amongst the upperclassmen. My books slowly trickled in and with the exception of Calculus, I was able to get my work done in a timely manner. Most of what we have gone over in physics and chemistry have been review. I'll save commentary on most of the academics till things ramp up. Islam, Middle East and West, my first choice when I selected my classes in the Humanities Arts and Social Science (H.A.S.S.) lottery, is far from light on reading. Skimming the syllabus, it looks like I've got around two hundred pages worth of reading to do over the next couple of weeks and I'm banking on that being a low estimate as I can't see the page count for everything. I don't mind so much as the subject matter is interesting and in class discussions have been rather enlightening especially with the diversity we have.

Freshmen here are cut a nice break for the first semester with the pass / no record system and while I hope I can keep up well enough to not have to take advantage of the no record half of that, it's nice to know my back is covered if I get too overwhelmed. Every upperclassman I have run into encouraged the freshmen to take advantage of the system but made it clear that that didn't mean slack off, just figure out what workload you can handle and toss in a few more extracurricular activities than you might normally.

I've always had an interest in marshal arts, specifically those dealing with weapons (hence my incessant spinning of sticks) and now that I have a chance to learn some, I am readily exploring my options though I think I have found one I like. Monday, I went to Jiu Jitsu class and yesterday night I went to kickboxing. I still need to attend an Aikido and Karate class, I'm pretty sure I will stick with kickboxing. It fits into my schedule well and doesn't seem like it will run into my Seminar XL study groups. Jiu Jitsu was awesome but until I break my tendency of doing things late in the evening, three practices a week from nine to eleven at night probably wouldn't float to well with my GPA. Varsity fencing* tryouts are Monday but I've decided not to bother as they have practice every evening from five to seven and until my time management skills improve, I don't want to get too involved in sports.

One of the things I like about M.I.T. is there are always random things you can do around here if you get too bored. Just last night, on my way from kickboxing, some students clad in medieval outfits and weaponry were fighting each other in one of the green spaces. Last week, I played Patrol. In Patrol, you get a small, cheap plastic dart gun that holds a single dart that goes about four feet if you're lucky. One shot, you're dead (temporarily) and have to walk back to a re-spawn point with your headband removed before you come back into the game. It's a rather good workout as there's quite a bit of running around and you can dodge the bullets which can make for some really fun duels.

(*) Most people join the fencing team with no prior experience. You train for a couple of weeks before they decide whether or not you stay.