It's been a busy summer....

...but I'm back in neo-Cambridge now.
I have to tell you about all of my adventures!
They were not brave, or explorer-y, but did involve junk food (SPOILER ALERT - oreo donuts, filled with "kreme", at 5am. Terrible error. Obviously)

Scooperbowl!

I had relatives visiting for the first week in June, which was super awesome! I got to do fun Boston things, learn about the city (because they had been on tours, and then reported their findings to me), and hang out with my family. One of the fun things I got to do, that I would never have noticed on my own, was go to the Scooperbowl!! You pay $10 and then enter a fenced off area with all you can eat ice cream! Yum!

You entered through a giant pink ice cream cone!

There were many different stands from different ice cream makers and you could just wander up and take which ever flavour took your fancy. There were even people wandering around offering chocolate sauce to go with your ice cream! I'm sure you're not surprised that I always picked the most brightly coloured and weird flavour at each stand. This was a mistake.

I ate:

• Espresso chip - the tastiest, because I hadn't yet adopted my "eat the blue one" policy. Not pictured, because I was too busy eating to take photos.
• Popping candy - did not pop. Was very blue, with a violet swirl. Tasted sugary. And wrong.
• Cotton candy - Very pink, with gritty rainbow choclate chips. At this point I was realising that the "choose the most colourful" policy didn't seem to be a particularly good one.
• Lemon poppyseed - this was a nice pale yellow, as befits a delicious ice cream that may have seen actual lemons (no blue ice cream available at this stand, thank goodness).
• Lunarmax cheesecake - a MIB3 tie in from Baskin Robbins (like the donut). It is green because the moon is made of green cheese (I am not kidding, this is what the ice cream lady said). However, the ice cream wasn't minty, or pistachio-y, it was just cheesecake flavoured. I was flagging by this point.
• Americone Dream - apparently I am not a fan of blueberry ice cream, even though this wasn't spectacularly blue.

A respectable SIX cups of ice cream. Totally worth $10.

The rest of my family made more sensible choices and generally had more delicious ice cream. The take home message, I think, is that you should almost always choose the ice cream that sounds tastiest, not just the most colourful.

I bet most of you realised this long before you were 28 and a half years old.

Confetti Cupcake Pop-Tarts: a terrible error

You might remember my previous Pop-Tart experience, but it is safe to say I have learnt nothing from that, as when I was in the grocery store the other day and noticed new Pop-Tarts then it was inevitable that I would buy them. Especially because they were covered in rainbow sprinkles. 

I present - Confetti cupcake flavour Pop-Tarts!

Confetti cakes, which are just white cakes with rainbow sprinkles in the cake and in the frosting, are fairly common here. You can get "Funfetti" mixes in the supermarket (I like the name and their rainbow-ness). They are highly colourful, but very mild in taste. So I figured it would just be a mild sweet flavour and I could totally polish off 8 Pop-Tarts. And how wrong I was.

The photos don't really explain the icky "birthday cake flavour". A lot of things are cake flavoured here, I have eaten birthday cake oreos (mint ones are far superior) and cake batter oreo ice cream from JP Licks (very batter-y in flavour and far superior to actual birthday cake oreos). However, these Pop-Tarts were a complete failure, filled with nasty cake-y flavour cream and bland sugary-ness. I swear I could feel my tongue drying out from all the sugar (like an osmosis thing?). So I took the bite that you can see in the top photo, broke a piece off for the second photo, then tried to make myself eat another bite, gave up and had a nice bowl of Weetabix (from Wholefoods, which also sells Nandos sauce! Joy!). One week later I accepted that I didn't want to eat any more cupcake Pop-Tarts and that I didn't know anyone who did. No more cupcake Pop-Tarts for me, I gave up and threw them out.

Shame I'm missing out on those eight vitamins and minerals. And all those weird colours. It would be nice to start each morning with a rainbow.

MIT maths department art, featuring Spongebob!

The other day I was walking through the maths department (or math department, I suppose) and I found......

Yep, "TRASH ART", positioned in front of art which probably cost money, in the form of a mural.

There were four bits of art. The helpful coffee cup sign, and then these three guys...

How wonderfully nerdy is this?!?!?! Fourier Trasform Spongebob, a boxcar, and get a sinc-ed up Patrick.

I didn't expect to see Spongebob Fourier transform themed corridor art at MIT, but I don't really expect most of the things I see at MIT.

It's-a-me, Post-It note Mario (and friends)

Whilst I was away these appeared in the windows of the Koch Institute at MIT

It's-a Mario! A glorious 8-bit post it note Mario! (Halfway down the photo, a third of the way in from the left, in mainly red and green) 

It's like all those offices in Paris did last summer. But it's not just a Mario, also a gooper! And a Link, and probably a Zelda - I don't think it's Princess Peach, and she's standing right next to Link, so it's probably Zelda.

I hope they do an 8-bit Yoshi soon. I like Yoshi.

The Galaxy runs on Dunkin'

I have returned from my wanderings (which do not count as exploring, as I just returned to the original Cambridge, no Brave Explorer badges earned) and can report that in my absence there have been some pleasing donut developments:

1. Cherry blossom related donuts are OVER! *Dance dance dance* Although they were pink on the inside they were not very tasty.

2. The new Men In Black 3 promotion is most excellent and has brought a delicious new donut that is shaped like a star! And stuffed with a delicious chocolate goo. It also has star shaped jimmies.

Dunkin' donuts was my first stop on my Boston return. It was not a disappointment, due to the "Undercover Black Cocoa Creme" donut (the second best donut ever!). Coincidentally, the main Dunkin' rival, Krispey Kreme, was my first stop on UK soil. I used to love the Krispey Kreme at Terminal 3, particularly the lemon meringue doughnut, but US Dunkin' has ruined it forever.

As well as fancy new star shaped donut, there is a boring chocolate glazed one ("Chocolate lunarmax") and there is also special Black Cocoa Creme iced coffee, which tastes like "cookies and creme" according to the poster. I am not tempted. But, let's face it, it is probably just a matter of time. I'm going to crack on with some hula hooping now, in an optimistic attempt to avoid developing my very own spare donut.

Acrobats under the dome

On Wednesday morning (the day after the dalek got put on the Stata Center) I walked into lobby 7 to discover a CIRCUS had appeared under the dome at MIT!

I love it so much! Although the dummies are a bit creepy.....

Unlike the appearance of a dalek on the Stata Center, every person who passed by this hack noticed it. You can see from my photos that lots of people stopped to have a look and take pictures. I thought the the ribbons to turn the Dome into a big top were particularly pretty and I love that there were so many performers to look at! The suspended ones were really impressive.

There was something on or above all four platforms (headstand guy balanced on chairs, upside down hanging guy, ringmaster and hanging circle guy, man being shot out of a canon), a tightrope walker going across the middle of the dome and my personal favourite, the trapeze artist above the main automatic doors.

You can even see the trapeze artist from Mass Ave, outside lobby seven.

The most astonishing thing was that the trapeze guy had a SWINGING mechanism!!

I'm sorry about the poor quality of the gif, but note the swinging!
Also marvel at my ability to make gifs. Marvel.

The campus appears to have a higher than normal number of visitors at the moment. I think that that might be why the hackers felt the need to put lots and lots of this sign up around the dome this morning (on day two of the hack). 

Maybe people were confused? MIT hacking is confusing initially (in my case, after being exposed to a hack for the first time I thought it was an official thing). I do like the fact that the circus has a name too;

"Mens et Manus Bros. Lobby 7 Circus"

Back to back hacks this week, people! *And* it's been a four day week (for Patriots Day, I patriotically went shopping in American Eagle and Clarks, whilst feeling sorry for the poor marathon runners in the 30C heat). I wonder if there will be any more hacks this week? It seems like a lot of the hacking space is already in use. Don't worry - I'll keep my eyes peeled.

EXTERMINATE! EXTERMINATE!

Yesterday, there was a DALEK on top of the Stata Center!!!!

Look on top of the inverted cone, right in the middle of the photo.

It took me 40 minutes of sitting on the grass in front of the Stata center yesterday lunchtime before I noticed the dalek. It blended in pretty well to the glorious shininess of the Stata, which is my favourite MIT building. I even had to ask my lunchtime companions if the dalek was always there (the answer was a resounding no). I went back in the evening to try and take some clearer pictures, but the light had changed unfavourably. I'll check today to see if the dalek is still there and try and take some more pictures, or alternatively you could look at the photos on the hacks website (they're awesome).

Dalek at the end of the day

I wonder if the dalek will join some of the other old hacks inside the Stata building..... The area around the cafe has a cow wearing a mortar board (from this hack) and the police car that ended up on the dome.

Hacks of yore

As it's nearing the end of term, I imagine the hacks might start ramping up a bit, so the students can blow off steam during this stressful time. Poor lambs.

Papier mâché bomb under the dome!

There's a papier mâché bomb under the dome this morning.

I wonder why......

Quidditch on Boston Common - mission accomplished

When I first got to MIT I was MASSIVELY excited to pass a poster for the MIT quidditch team, the most-excellently named MIT Marauders. 

Quidditch is the sport from Harry Potter. You know - with a snitch? And bludgers, and beaters and a quaffle? Played on flying broomsticks?

Here's a video of Oliver Wood explaining quidditch and here is what it looks like in the films (I am sure both links will break soon enough, as they are clearly copyrighted material)

Now here is a video of it being played by muggles.

My friend Rita has seen the Harvard students playing (I think in the yard!?) and said it was very surreal. So, obviously watching quidditch had to be added to my list of things to do, but I kept failing to actually make plans to go and find a Quidditch practice. It also seemed kind of creepy to actively go to some random sports field to watch a bunch of undergraduates running around with brooms between their legs. Plus, they might talk to me and then I might find myself playing quidditch. Contrary to the impression you may get from blog title, I am not really very good at the whole "talking to people you don't know" thing, I am still more of a cowardly explorer at heart.

Watching quidditch got put on the back burner until I got brave enough to meet new people and have converstions and stuff. But fortunately, when I was meeting a friend from the other Cambridge and I was showing him around Boston (we went to the cupcake shop) we stumbled across muggles playing quidditch on Boston Common! I shouldn't really have been surprised, muggle quidditch is big in Massachusetts as this Boston.com slide show on the quidditch world cup proves.

Real life quidditch seems very complicated. There are as many officials as there are players on one team, the brooms have to be regulation in some way (tape was required to fix one before the beginning of what seemed like the second half), there are several balls involved and most confusingly the snitch is a real person. A real person wearing a yellow jersey, yellow tights and fairy wings with a ball in a sock hanging out of the back of his shorts. 

This looks like the snitch is returning to play

The first job of the snitch was to run of the pitch and down the road, only to disappear into the common. It was unexpected. While the snitch was not on the field quidditch seemed a bit like lacrosse and a bit like dodgeball and generally like quite hard work. When the snitch reurned to the field it became even rougher, as the seekers were trying to retrieve the sock. There was some kind of time penalty that would get applied to the seekers and so sometimes the snitch would be on the field but not being pursued and at that point he would try and interfere with the play of the other players.

The whole thing was remarkably complicated to watch, but lots of fun. It was also nice the way other spectators were so chatty, and were also fairly bemused by the whole experience. I think there is quidditch most Sunday afternoons from 1-3 on Boston Common, although I imagine it's fairly seasonal and is about to be replaced by softball. However, I highly recommend watching quiddditch! Especially in a public park, then you don't seem creepy and weird. 

Ahoy there, Happenings in the Infinite Corridor

First day back after Spring Break and what happens? MIT becomes all MIT-y again.

All aboard the fail boat?

So yeah, there's just a sail boat in lobby ten (under the dome of Killian Court, here's a map to help you out).

Just in case you were in any doubt, here is a more close up photo of the boat. I think it has a rudder?

"Why is there a sail boat in lobby ten?" is what I guess you are wondering.....

I asked this very question at lunch of my officemates, and later of the internet, and apparently it's because the MIT sailing pavilion is now open. Beginners sailing for students starts on April 3rd. I'm guessing that the boat is one of the tech dinghies, but boats are not one of my special Mastermind topics. Or even something I have read about on Wikipedia.

Interesting boat-related MIT fact - the students who complete the sailing, fencing, pistol shooting and archery courses offered by MIT can now formally receive their "pirate certificate" from the physical education people.

“Ahoy, Avast, and finally, Arrrrrr!’’

P.S. Lobby ten is the place where I see people juggling on a Friday evening. I may have mentioned this to some of you IRL as it confused me. I checked the MIT calendar and a) The juggling people are in the MIT calendar every nearly Friday afternoon/evening and b) If you try and juggle they will give you a cookie!

It was summer for two days in March

Ten days ago it was 28 degrees C! 82 F! On a Thursday in the middle of MARCH!! I bought a comforter on the 28 degree day and the man in Macy's laughed at me (justifiably, and in a friendly way). His precise words were "A comforter?! In THIS weather?!!?". Unsurprisingly, the comforter was on sale. And now it's below freezing, so who is having the last laugh? Me! That's who! 

The result of the record breaking weather that we've been having is that it looks completely and utterly like spring now! Despite the new coldish snap, the trees have committed to spring very whole heartedly and it is beautiful! But risky for the trees. 

Blossom, cheery bridge graffiti and sunset from the Esplanade, with MIT visible over the river

Here is a collection of the pretty blossom-y photos that I took when in first got pretty, nearly two weeks ago now! (The pink trees I made a special trip across the river to take photos of, because I spied them from the Cambridge side. Just a little bundle of pink level with the Prudential Center, you can see then in the south west photo of the collage below).

Apparently the buses always wish us a nice day, but I didn't notice that until the weather became beautiful. The magnolias are on Commonwealth Avenue, in the Back Bay.

It's cold again now (where cold means that wearing ballet pumps is a mistake, even in sunshine. I didn't realise that last Monday morning). It was even meant to snow at the weekend (I wore my Boston coat), and it hailed today! Let's remember warmer times, when I could wear my sunniest of sundresses and flip flops, and when the blossom had not been pelted by hail until it was driven from the trees. 

Boats on the totally not frozen Charles (Explorer not for scale), Instagramed blossom on the Esplanade and pretty, pretty blossom outside the Walker memorial

PS I'm wearing heart-shaped sunglasses in that photo, not because they are fabulous (although they are!), but mainly because my regular pair are broken. You now what else is broken? MY KINDLE!!!! Electronic devices continue to be falling like flies. Do not lend me anything that you value, because I am clearly still the destroyer of electrical things (not worlds, not yet).

Mission accomplished - go to flour

Pre-emptive update: This post (and the triumphant completion of a challenge) dates from before the superbowl, I think it must be 4th February from looking at the dates on the photos. I think I had plans to take some photos of the actual cafe, and not just the food, but I clearly just become transfixed by the cakes whenever I go in and forget. Better late with a post than never though, right? And yes, I'm sorry it's just more blurry pictures of food. I have plans to do stuff, not just eat stuff. And I've taken to hula hooping in my bedroom, perhaps that will minimise my donut podge?

I can formally tick one thing off my list of things to do in Boston (the list on the right hand side). Obviously it's one of the ones to do with eating.

I went to flour, which is a bakery on Mass Ave, a short walk away from where I live. I met my friend there on Saturday and we were really lucky that we didn't have to wait very long for some table space to open up. They are so busy on weekends! We chose flour because it was on a boston.com list of the best hot chocolates in Boston. The fiery hot chocolate is very delicious. Initially it tastes like normal hot chocolate, and then it's suddenly a little bit chili-y. So to ease the fire-y burn you take another sip of creamy hot chocolate...and so the cycle continues until you have numbed your mouth enough to be out of the infinite duckling loop and your hot chocolate is all gone.

Hot chocolate was boring in photos. Look! A cookie in the shape of a football!

Splurgey splurge

It was the Superbowl on Sunday (i.e. the day after we went to flour), and the New Englands Patriots were playing (Go Pats!) so they also had special oreo style cookies in the shape  of American footballs. Flour's oreo style cookies are also semi-famous on yelp. However, they are crunchier than actual oreos, so you inevitably end up with some buttercream filling splurging out of the cookie. Hard to eat in a ladylike manner. Fun though! In some ways it makes me wonder why Oreos don't have this problem.... The runaway frosting was in a variety of Patriots colours, i.e. red, white and blue, as well as the not very patriots-y pink. I think we seem to have had a red one.

As well as the fiery hot chocolate, flour's other big draw is the sticky buns. They are incredible. So sticky (look at all the stickiness on the plate!) and so buttery! They almost taste like croissants they are so buttery. Yum. Yum yum yum. I'm glad that I was sharing it with my friend though as they are incredibly rich. Subsequently I have eaten a sticky bun for dinner from flour (it's on my way home!) and although it is possible to eat all of one, it is not necessarily advisable if you are not very hungry. 

Noms

Flour runs bakery classes, and also has it's own cookbook, so there is no reason for me to keep going there... I could make a (probably vain) attempt to learn how to make their delicious treats. But going to flour is such a delicious treat that I don't want to give it up! 

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - Laser in use!

It's 7pm, it's spring break and MIT is relatively quiet - the corridor is pretty empty. That means it's the perfect time to get some experimenting in - especially with LASERS!

Laser in use when light is flashing! Eep!

Actually, laser based experiments seem to happen pretty frequently - the light is often flashing. The main effect of spring break was to make me less embarrassed about taking photos.

The Shamrock Shake does not rock my world

I cut this a little fine, as I bought my one and only mint flavoured Shamrock Shake from McDonalds on their last day of sale at 10pm. Even though I (sensibly as it turns out) got a small I still said yes to whipped cream and a cherry because you have to jump in with both feet. Brave explorer etc. So I signed up for an astonishing 500 calories of milkshake. The calorie count was not the only astonishing thing. It really was THAT GREEN. No fancy filters here. Just more luminous, green, enormously processed food for St. Patrick's day. As an aside, so much "St. Patty's Day" stuff, not St. Paddy's.... why?

You see how the shake is kind of stripey, that's because the shake machine squirts green liquid and then white milkshake and then green and then milkshake and so on. I couldn't find a way of surreptitiously taking a photo, but fortunately the history of the shake is preserved in its layers - stratigraphy! The layers are kind of runny though, particularly the green liquid stuff (ug, it all sounds so unappetising - how did I drink ANY?!). I have to admit that I wasn't excited about trying the shake, even before I saw the squirty machine and the layers, and afterwards, well.....

Unsurprisingly, even after mixing the shake remains really quite green.

For some reason, this is still quite layered......

It tasted very green. I mean, it was kind of minty, but it was mainly GREEN. It even tasted kind of familiar, probably like some luminous foodstuff from my eighties childhood, before such bright colours were frowned upon. I drank an inch or so of the shamrock shake over the course of about 45 minutes and then gave up. I even had a jetlagged visitor who I attempted to palm the rest off onto. She agreed that it tasted green and managed about two slurps before saying it was just too sugary. This was a person that hadn't sleep properly for over 24 hours and badly needed energy. So instead of Shamrock shakes we ate Chipotle chips and some nutritious, very green, but not luminous at all (fortunately) guacamole.

Alarmed face! A least the milkshake nearly matches my cardigan?

Shamrock shakes are a seasonal St. Patrick's day McDonalds thing, which were available nationwide for the first time in 2012. I imagine they were always available in Boston though. Unusually, for a luminous minty foodstuff, I do not recommend them. Sorry. With any luck they won't cross the pond.

PS Here is the official McDonalds Shamrock Shake page - but hurry, it'll be gone soon! I don't think I'll miss it.

Beacon Hill. For the 1%. And Brave Explorers at the weekend.

The only time I stayed in Boston proper, I stayed at the John Jeffries House, which is a strange hotel. It used to be nurses' accommodation for MGH and now houses a combination of MIT and other Boston visitors and people who are staying there because it is right by the hospital. This means when you check in you have to answer a lot of medication and general health questions, particularly about ear, nose and throat complaints. However, I thoroughly recommend it, for several reasons:

1. They get the Weather channel

2. Free breakfast in the morning and free coffee all day.

3. It's right by the river (and not expensive by Boston/Cambridge standards)

4. It is on Charles Street, the fanciest of all the Boston streets, in the fanciest of all Boston neighbourhoods, Beacon Hill. Every dog looks expensive and all the signs that hang from shops are black and gold.

A few weeks ago I went for a mosey back to my old stomping ground. The weather was good, in stark contrast to earlier in the week, so I walked from where I live, over the Charles (pretty views) and along Charles Street to Boston Common. It was a good day. 

Charles Street has the business with my absolute favourite name in Boston.

Sorry about my finger being in the photo. I was on my way to meet a friend when I took this and keep forgetting to take another, better, one. 

Oh yes. BosTAN.

It is also has a most excellent cupcake shop - Curly cakes - which does delicious cupcakes in many forms. Most notably in Vegan and Gluten free forms on particular days of the week (Vegan on Thursday and Sunday, GF on Tuesday, Wednesday and Saturday from the looks of the sign below). They are many people-friendly cupcakes. 

Vegan chocolate mint cake is all gone! Snarfle snarfle. 

It also has Beacon Hill Chocolates, which I'm sure will sell delicious wares, but I like it because of this sign:

It's my new philosophy - "Chocolate is sunshine on a cloudy day". Mmmmm. This is particularly relevant to those of you in the UK, you made need to buy more chocolate.

When you've had a relaxing mosey along Charles Street, you can pop across the common and watch a film at the Boston Common Loews. It is a notable cinema because it has many, many, many screens, a giant popcorn box over the concessions stand and a place where you can dispense butter onto your own popcorn (in the US the question is not "sweet or salted?" with popcorn, but "buttered?"). So naturally I ended my walk down lovely, elegant Charles street with a saccharine film and an even more saccharine white cherry icee. 

Just say no. White cherry icees are much worse than a coke icee, and that was bad.

Maybe next time I will skip the icee, unless they have blue raspberry flavour. I love blue raspberry.

Happenings in the Infinite Corridor - a miscellany

Despite Pi day, this week has been a bit of a disappointment in terms of interesting happenings around MIT. The dome has gone back to being a normal colour and everything. A lot of the poster boards are being redone, so there are fewer unsanctioned posters for crazy stuff. So instead of one crazy story from the infinite corridor, this week I will show you all the weird little things that I have taken pictures of in the infinite corridor since I arrived that don't really warrant their own post. I'll try and do it so they go from the East side of campus to the west, finishing under the dome in lobby 7.

Proof that the infinite corridor is so-called by everyone at MIT, even sign makers.

Here is a helpful light to guide you down the infinite corridor. It was only there for a day, but I saw someone video-ing it as it flashed away, so perhaps it has been saved on the internet for posterity (the lights all flashed, to make the light look like it was moving away from me, down the corridor).

Miscellaneous painted posters from the class of 2008. There were a lot more than just these two, but I couldn't stop at every poster board in the corridor! Also note the nerdily named Valentine's dating site, nChoosetwo.com - oh MIT, you are so MIT-ish.

The cute little beaver in the collage below is an app competition mascot. The little sign for the Green Room reads "The prime location for MIT students to take a break or nap while travelling down the infinite corridor". I have never seen anyone napping in the Green room, but I did once see a girl with a totally fantastic unicorn hat. And not forgetting the robot overlord poster under the dome...

Finally, more pictures of the dome being purple, including a purple ribbon last Friday.

 I still find the robot overlords sign funny. I'm not sure anything will be as good a "happening" as that.