Cape Cod Day Trip

I seriously considered not writing this post. 

It’s not that I didn’t want to write it, but how in the heck am I supposed to capture so much awesomeness with my limited vocabulary!?

Once again, I am humbled by the generosity of the people that I’ve met here at Harvard.  Yesterday, a classmate opened up his vacation home on Cape Cod for the members of our class that have decided to stay in the area during “summer break”.  (There is a two week break between the Summer Program aka Boot Camp and the official beginning of the Fall Semester.)  It was only a day trip, but well worth the 2 hour drive!

The first thing I asked about upon arrival was about sharks.  I’m not kidding.  Earlier this summer (July 30^th to be exact) there was attack by a 12 foot great white shark on a swimmer in the same town. I needed to know my odds of being shark food before I got too happy about the prospect of frolicking in the water.  Our gracious host confirmed that yes, the incident happened in the same town, but 1.) The guy that got bitten was swimming with seals, who are real shark food and 2.) We’d be swimming on the bay side of the Cape and not the Atlantic side and sharks don’t come into the bay. (Do they have a ‘keep out’ sign written in shark?  Water is water, right?!) 

Sharks: Keep Out! I'm trying to swim over here!

After our afternoon of hanging out on the beach, we went back up to the house were we feasted on an American Style Cook-out with some raw oysters thrown in to keep it New England Style.  I didn’t get a pic, but we had two adorable helpers help us to finish the cookout with s’mores.  

raw materials

finished product

 
 

Like I said, I didn’t think I’d do the greatest job trying to articulate how special the day was.  After relocating, cramming 14 weeks of instruction into 14 class days, having all my free time be scheduled with compulsory and “optional” activities, missing home and family, it was nice to get away among new friends, listen to the waves and replenish my vitamin D stores.  Even The Lame Foot calmed down and allowed me to walk with almost no limp. Yay!

Needless to say, we closed it down!

Actual sunset from the day's festivities

Two Appointments

I’m supposed to be doing Econ and Quant homework, so I guess this post falls into the category of procrastination!

The summer boot camp is starting to wind down. Tomorrow is the last day of instruction and finals are next week. I don’t know how Harvard did it, but I think they altered the space-time continuum. How can one month seem like forever, yet go by so quickly?  I’m going to have to find out how they did it…and patent it. That way I can become rich and repay my student loans.

Today, I had two important appointments. The first one was with a faculty member to analyze my course selection for the upcoming year. I liken the course catalog to a buffet where you can only choose 4 items on each trip, but some of the items on the buffet are generically labeled. For example, the label may say “glazed orange vegetable”.  I look at it and I think it might be carrots (which I detest) but the color’s a little off, so I consider it might sweet potatoes.  I load up my plate thinking I’m going to chow down on some glazed sweet potato and it’s actually butternut squash! It’s not that I don’t like butternut squash; it just wasn’t what I was expecting….and I can’t return it to the buffet! I’m stuck with it. The course catalog lists “The Art of Communication” But upon closer inspection, it is progressively difficult political speech writing and delivery, with a *filmed* mock TV interview concerning a crisis situation. In the interview we are expected deflect ad-hoc questions like Wonder Women deflects bullets with her magic bracelets i.e., with poise and professionalism expectant of a graduate of Harvard University.  Uh..OK??!

The second appointment was with Health Services.  The Lame Foot is still quite upset with me. I can’t get the swelling under control, it hurts to go up and down stairs and throbs like a toothache at night. I don’t have my car here with me, so I’m expected to walk most places. I’ve been here a month with 9 more walking intensive months to go, so I don’t see the situation getting better. Until I get in to see the orthopedist next week, I’m supposed to R.I.C.E it. Rest, Ice, Compression (in those ugly white compression stockings) and elevate.  It really puts a damper on the things, but I need take care of sooner than later.  I think there is a cortisone shot and some more physical therapy in my immediate future.

Just for the record, I haven’t been taken many pictures of my time here. I plan to get better about taking pictures and posting them…but until then, here’s a pic that was taken of me at the JFK Forum on the second day of class. We had 15 seconds to share something about ourselves that wasn’t a part of our resumes.

"My name is Michelle Hood, from Chicago USA, and I am a chocaholic."

Lessons Learned

This was the week of “mid-terms” for the summer boot camp that I’ve been enduring for the past couple of weeks. There are only 2 weeks left of boot camp, before I have about two weeks off before the fall semester starts. On the evening of my Quantitative mid-term, my AWESOME quant instructor Selin had our class over for a Turkish feast.  Oh. My. GUT! Not only is Selin the sweetest, bad-ass roller derby-ing mathematician that I’ve ever met, but she can burn in the kitchen! Stuffed eggplant, lentils with mint, spinach pie, meat pie, meatballs, red lentil balls with cumin, tabouli, Turkish quiche and bottles and bottles of red wine. 

Which leads to me the things that I have learned this week:

 

1.      Red wine is off limits.  Possibly forever.  Let’s just say that I couldn’t get up the next morning for my 7:50AM class.  I barely made it to my 9AM class.  One glass (yes, it was only one) is not worth that kind of suffering. UGH!

2.      The Lame Foot still hates me. On the night of the dinner, I think I walked a total of 2 miles. The Lame Foot let its displeasure be known immediately, and several days later it’s still letting me know who’s large (swollen) and in charge!

3.      I am a princess.  Air-conditioning is now required of all future living arrangements. I’m not kidding.  I’m tired of being hot, sweaty and bloated because of the heat.  I will not give you the details of the itchy/scratchy heat rash that I had to go along with the discomfort of just being hot and hung over. Use your imagination, then multiply by a factor of two.

4.      Last, but not least, I learned that I’ve got some pretty awesome classmates.  The wine loosened some tongues and made for a more festive atmosphere. We’re an eclectic and motley group from the four corners of the earth, but somehow it works.

Although the first three lessons were not fun to learn, they made lesson four COMPLETELY worth it. Hang over, heat rash and foot hate aside, I had quite an enjoyable evening. I look forward to our next outing because I’ll be bringing the white wine!

Boot Camp Has Begun!

That damned placement test. 

I guess I didn’t do so hot, because I’m in the section that meets five days a week instead of four.  So, while my classmates are sleeping off their hangover from Tuesday night, I’ll be in classes for most of the day on Wednesday.  Does it suck? Yeah, but I’m kind of glad it turned out this way. 

Each of my instructors has made it known that I shouldn’t take my class placement personally, and in all honesty, I don’t. 

Many years ago, I used to fly airplanes and I was actually quite good at it.  I knew all the checklists and V Speeds for the airplane I was flying and could execute a smoooooth landing.  But if you were to put us in an airplane right this second, you’d have better said your prayers because we are going to crash and burn!  Given the right refresher, I’m sure I could quickly come back up to standard and feel comfortable flying family and friends around safely.

This is the same situation. Instead of getting a refresher in flying, I’m getting one in Quantitative Methods and another in Microeconomics. And did I mention it was fast?  I believe we’re covering 14 weeks of material in 14 class days, and there will be a midterm and a final.

This is the perfect intro to a rigorous one year program, so I say BRING IT!