Jun 11, 2008

crazy hot weather (and the necessity of A/C)

My big sister got into town last night - she just finished med school and will be here doing her residency at Tufts. Coincidentally, it will take her five years to finish residency, which, assuming very hopefully that I get my PhD in the average six years it takes for MIT EECS students, means we should both become “doctors” five Junes from now.

Anyway, she and my parents drove up all the way from Texas (I don’t envy their two and a half days in a small Toyota Corolla cramped with boxes of junk), and I went by her place to help her unpack (and see the folks of course). Very nice apartment with large rooms, on the 16th floor with a great view of the city, and most importantly, her place has central air conditioning. Coming from Texas, I have always taken A/C for granted, and even when I interned in Seattle for a summer where my apartment didn’t have A/C, the heat was bearable. But walking from her nicely air-conditioned complex to the mucky outdoors that was Boston last night was unpleasant, to say the least. Compound that with my non-air-conditioned room, and I think I should have tried to overnight it at her place. Don’t get me wrong - I have been a fan of Boston weather so far. Fall was great (the leaves here actually change color), winter was fun (I got to see snow), spring was a bit dull (but had none of that constant rain or humidity), and summer so far has been fine (good breezes). There are just days in any place where you walk outside and feel absolutely gross and sticky. And apparently, Ashdown was so hot early this week that there was a camp out in the large Hulsizier room Monday night for those who wanted to bring their sleeping bags and try a nice cool night’s sleep. I guess if I really crave A/C, I could always start sleeping in my lab, but I don’t think my professor would approve (or maybe he would be happy?), on top of which I think I have enough of a “grad student image” without succumbing to that false stereotype.

This whole heat thing also makes me appreciate the new place I will be moving into next year. Sure, on-campus housing is great for convenience and for meeting people and making friends (one of the reasons I decided to be on-campus first year of undergrad and grad, that and I did not want to go through the hassle of searching for a place when I first move to a new city), plus you don’t have to worry about utilities, houses have free food opportunities like housemaster dinners and weekly coffee hours and brunch, and housing is very quick (same day response) about fixing any problems, even something as small as a burnt-out bulb. (Hey, I’m not really that lazy, but the lights are high up and me being a short person means rearranging furniture to even be able to scrape the bottom of the bulb. So yay for high ceilings giving the sense of a bigger room, but they come with a price?) Back to the issue, though, going off-campus just gives me this added sense of independence, and having lived off-campus for most of my undergraduate, I just like the feel better. (If you are willing to put the effort into the search, you can actually find great places within a walking distance of campus, though you have to be quick in your communication.) As you can probably tell from the tone of this post, one great thing about the new apartment is it has central A/C. Plus, my future roommates have already begun thinking of throwing parties since we will have a decent-sized living room and kitchen, and I know that I will make use of the big-screen one of them is bringing (a 20″ just does not do movies justice). As far as this summer goes, though, I suppose I should do the smart thing and go find a window unit or some fans so I don’t melt before my next post.

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