but lo and behold, those rumors hold some string of truth!!  let me tell you about my experience…

i waited patiently to get my resume reviewed because i was applying for consulting companies.  after twenty minutes of waiting, at last i got to meet with someone.  names were exchanged and a hand shake shook.  i told her that i’m an engineering major, but am looking into applying for consulting companies; therefore, i needed help to change my resume.  she asked me when the last time i came to career office; i said my freshman year.  she glanced at the resume and looked at me.  she asked, “and you got jobs with this resume?” appalled, i said, “yeah…. i worked at lockheed and bose.”  wow, what a jerkface.  don’t be surprised that people don’t need career office critique.  actually now that i’ve experience firsthand how they clearly belittle people, i probably won’t ever go back.  so lame.

First, let me say that it looks like fighting at the olympics would be AWESOME. There is one center stage, raised on a pyramid structure, with four corner judges sitting outside the yellow boundaries. The coach sits at the base of the pyramid while the two competitors fight, like gladiators on a pyre.

(from Day Life)

Tonight (rather, starting on Aug 20 at 9 AM Beijing time), the men’s and women’s fin/flyweight divisions fought. Included was American team member Charlotte Craig, the least spotlighted member of the US Olympian team, otherwise known somewhat simplistically as “All in the family.” You hear so much about the Lopezes that sometimes, it’s easy to overlook Charlotte, who also normally trains at a different studio (Jiro in LA, instead of Elite in Texas.)

But I have to say she came out blazing and her kicks were solid. You can see matches at nbcolympics.com, although I’m sure the finals matches will be much more interesting. I guess around this time (3 am) they are going to start the 2nd round of sparring, but I will probably be asleep soon, and will simply read about the results tomorrow.

I hope everyone gets a chance to watch the US team, as well as the other international superstars, fight through their brackets. On one hand, olympic taekwondo is such a high level of competition and is amazing to watch. On the other hand, you can really see that the basics we are learning are all that you need, but simply raised to a very high level of athleticism and experience. As we watched the match between Venezuela and Portugal, Master Sinn and I began to spar and kick hogu in my small studio apartment, trying to imitate the girls with the amazing left leg turning kicks. Yes, even the flyweight girls would beat me down.

The schedule and links to streaming taekwondo:

http://www.nbcolympics.com/taekwondo/index.html

anyway, onto the real purpose of this blog post. out of spontaneity, i decided to make a video of the mit sport taekwondo girls, specifically the A/B team girls. yes, just for fun maybe it’ll be used for orientation. then girls can see that they can do this kind of hard physical contact sport despite their athleticism.  sorry alum, there were too many girls ~.~ i got really of doing the video by the time i finished all the current members.

check it out:

avi version (~800mb): http://www.megaupload.com/?d=LF4L5YE5
mp4 version (~80mb): http://web.mit.edu/chui/www/sport%20taekwondo/tkdgirls.mp4

i’ll try to upload a wmv and mp4 version on the gallery.  enjoy!

I got home on June 11^th, flew in at Zia International Airport in Dhaka at night which is Bangladesh’s capital and not my home. Home sweet home is Chittagong.  The first person I saw was Abba (Bengali for dad).  I put out my T-mobile phone card from my razor and inserted my local SIM card and dialed my father.  We talked through the glass coz I hadn’t been cleared through my immigration paperwork yet.  A year is a long time not to see abba.

I couldn’t rest very long at Chittagong.  Although I am home, I have a HUMONGOUS project to carry out. I am working, with a friend, to implement a youth leadership training program that incorporates three different types of kids in my hometown.  There are three schooling systems here: English (of which yours sincerely is a product of) a.k.a. rich, spoilt kids, (which yours sincerely is NOT), Bengali (the state language and state supported schools) more middle class, and Islamic madrassas (which focus a lot on Islamic/religious education).  There is great disconnect between peers of these three mediums.  We want to bring these kids together in the spirit of responsible leadership through community service.  The project was one of the winners of the Davis Peace Prize 2008 (

English kid: OMG! Doooddee, I just learnt this killer break dance move from Step Up2.

Bengali kid:  I must have perfect grades so that I can go to a good university to support my family.

Madrassa kid: I am sidelined because people think I am a ‘Islamic fundamentalist’.  I will get rejected from a top-brass job because I have a beard and wear the Islamic cap.

Disclaimer: I am grossly stereotyping and would probably get shot if any of the kids saw this blog!

I started work on this almost immediately after I got here.  We are working here with a partner organization.  So the rest of June and the WHOLE of July has been swallowed up in getting applicants for the program, screening applications, getting a venue, training facilitators, keeping track of thousands of dollars, making ten gazillions phone calls, answering ten gazillion phone calls, and basically going nuts.  But by the grace of God, the program has kicked and is running with AMAZING colors.  The kids are so enthusiastic, so positive, they have been bonding really well, and they really believe they can make a change in their community and country.  We went for a field trip to a local slum yesterday.  The kids have to design community service projects that cater to the need of the slum dwellers. Example: one group came up with the idea of directing a play with the children of the slum to demonstrate the dangers of illiteracy, so that families send their children to school.

Program will end on August 16^th with a huge graduation ceremony inshAllaah. The kids deserve it, they have been working their gluts off.  True my summer is being swallowed whole with backbreaking work, and I am actually looking forward to the time when I will be back on campus doing solid mechanics classes and annoying psets (aaahhh good times ;)))  But this will be an experience for me to remember for the rest of my life and it might have even changed the course of my life. 

P.S.  I am also guilty of treason.  I have returned to my karate club, and have been training there for the whole summer. BUT I have been practicing my TKD kicks on my kicking bag and on my karate-mates.  I made my club use the same warm-up drills like plyo jumps that we do at practice. There were a lot of groans when I made everyone do the plank for 40s!

P.P.S  The whole credit for this entry to THE Mary.  She threatened never to cut weight to make me spar heavy for the rest of my life. 

Exhibit B: The Hole

On a faraway beach, in a faraway land where the sands sing to the weary traveler, was a huge hole. Deep, wide and wet, its volume was a phenomenon in a plain of ridges and dunes. Despite the closeness of the ocean, no tide has ever filled it, though the bottom is rumored to hold a mysteriously salty reservoir. Futile attempts were made to make it into a lake, a placid thing of beauty for pleasure barges like those Caligula built on the shores of Lake Nemi. Whoever those fools were, the only result was an abandoned canal stretching only partway into towards the sea. What was once a deep, ambitious mouth cut sharply into the sliding walls almost to the bottom of the pit, is now overrun by oozing sand, the whole affair most dissipated in its heedless dilapidation. A laughable testament to the impossibility of the task and the naiveté of its creators.

On the edge of this monstrous chasm perched a castle of sand, with dribbled towers sculpted like melted wax, all completely encircled by crumbling but formidable walls. There are only two entrances to this wall, one in the North and the other in the South. For the weary traveler, lost on sun-baked sands too hot to touch, this was no welcoming haven, its shadows too ominous to even tempt with its respite to the heat.

–

Romanticism aside, Sauza dug a humongous hole (it was really deep!) next to his sand castle, complete with wet sand-dribbled towers looking for all the world like melted wax. And sat in it. We tried covering him with a towel and debated whether we should put a frisbee in the middle and trick Bobby into coming over and have Dan leap out (or so the theory went). Finally we decided a random frisbee in the middle of a towel was too suspicious — particularly since the towel kinda sagged in the middle, and you can see quite clearly that SOMETHING was wiggling around under it. In fact, that was might have even been more freaky.

I found it quite comfortable, cool and the view rather romantic. With the afternoon sun slanting from the West and your head a few feet below the sand, the sand spires seemed to tower into the light, ominous spires outlines by a blinding glow. What could only ruin the experience was the ring of people standing around, giving one the feeling as if one was about to be buried alive in some barbaric burial ritual.

It is too much of a pity to let such a good hole go to waste, so we threw Sauza in and buried him up to his neck. (Actually it wasn’t so dramatic: I said “we should bury you”, and he said “OK”) The trouble came when we tried to dig him out. He had crossed his legs and wouldn’t budge. When we attempted to pull him, we almost got pulled in ourselves. The less compassionate of us were tempted to give him a straw and leave him there, which caused him some alarm. Fortunately, the more ethical decided to dig some more and finally, with an Olympic heave, Sauza from born once again from the sands. Although this would be the first a deity emerged into the world in swimming trunks.

Exhibit C: Vijay’s furry back — think exotic sea animal, in all the wrong ways. He even slings sand balls (Spiderman 2, anybody?).

Exhibit D: “Gordo” the built Mermaid, complete with uni-boob and an admittedly fetching tail

Exhibit E: Sand woman giving birth to a very pregnant Christin Chin. So Athena was born fully grown and armored form Zeus’s head, Aphrodite from sea foam, the Monkey King from a rock and Christ from a married virgin. But this, surely this, is something we haven’t heard of yet in mythology.

Exhibit F: For something a bit more tasteful, although more mundane (or NORMAL for god sakes), and a truly exquisite experience for the taste buds –

Fruity, rich, deliciously cold scoop of dripping chocolate raspberry ice cream.

Sweet.

wow, how to begin…

blogging seems so strange now. i used to be really into the livejournal scene back in middle/high school (yeah, yeah… i was a teenybopper. but at least it’s a step up from xanga? ^^). thinking back on it, i poured some serious love and time into my little online buddy…

but then MIT happened. and the frequency/quality of my writing took a serious turn for the worse. imagine something like this xkcd comic, but instead of “my overall health” and “the day i realized i could cook bacon whenever i wanted,” it would be “any semblance of writing skill i might have had at some point in my life” and the graph would crash at “the day i came to mit.” >.<

in fact, reading over my poor, neglected blog is pretty painful. starting september 2005, half of the entries are cursing the terrible boston weather and the other half are apologies for not keeping my blog up to date.

but at the same time… OMG I WAS A HAPPY, CAREFREE, ENERGETIC FRESHMAN!!!

exhibit a: (from sept. 30, 2005… almost 3 years ago! O__o)

“Be a hearty New-Englander” –Sunny, my roommate

It was 49 degrees when I woke up today. Yesterday I almost got blown away by 40 mi/hr wind gusts. I’ve unpacked my scarves, joined the facebook group “Afraid of Freezing at MIT,” and washed out my thermos. And I can’t stop coughing.

But for some reason I feel just fine!

::tears::

what happennnneeddd…

it’s pretty interesting, though, to read back over reflections on freshman year (few and far between as they are). oh, freshman year… ::cue cloudiness and reminiscent music::… that was when i got dragged to my first TKD p.e. class by my roommate!

on that note, i really miss tkd… oh yeah, and all you guys too. ;D every time i get one of mary’s social emails, i feel sad and lonely… just kidding! kinda…

i’ve been trying to stay in shape here. i don’t have a car so i can’t get to a dojang for practice, but i’ve been running on a pretty consistent basis and doing some stretching/curriculum review… so hopefully getting back into the swing of things won’t be so hard come september.

ah! you may be wondering where i am (or who i am, for that matter… oh boy, i have a feeling this blog entry is not very coherent @__@). well, this is christine lee (supersecretcodename: flyingtotoro), and i’m in san jose, CA, working for a MEMS research division of qualcomm.

things here are pretty nice. i can’t complain about much. well, i take that back– i can. but i will spare you (for this entry, at least).

for the time being, let’s just say i’m enjoying the beautiful california weather and the copious amounts of delicious, sweet fresh fruit.

i’m also very lucky to have wonderful tkd friends who came to visit me 4th of july weekend… jenn huang, jackie, and john came by and we went galavanting around the bay area (will upload pictures soon). i’ve also met up with our alum instructor conor, who is doing quite well, it seems.

other than that, i’ve just been… watching copious amounts of food network, travel channel, and bravo (to make up for the lack of those channels at MIT) aaaand… NOT progressing on my many summer goals.

hopefully you all are being more productive than i am.

… i know i’ve said this already, but I REALLY MISS YOU ALL!

::sending happy thoughts::
–Clee

and I did not quit TKD (yet).  I’ve been in and out of town, and when in town, drowning in work/patent bar review classes etc.

I would go to the social events, if I had a long enough attention span to read Mary’s e-mails.

Anyway, I went to June for a friend’s wedding in Italy, came back to work for a mad week of classes (I’m studying to take the patent bar) and work, then went on another vacation to Hawa’ii with my family.  We went to Honolulu and had a great time, but due to poor planning and general lameness did not do as many cool things as most people do when they are in Hawa’ii.  Certain siblings of mine preferred to stay in the hotel room all day. (???)  I practiced forms by the beach in the early morning when there were relatively few people to gawk at me.  That said, no one really paid attention to me, possibly because there were are lot of other people at the beach to stare at.  Also, the other people were scantily clad, whereas I was not.

Italy was a much shorter trip - I spent the first two days (one in Pisa and one in Milan) catching up on sleep and trying to fake it in Italian.  It went okay.  You can pick up a lot of Italian by repeating what Italians say to you.  Pisa was a nice small town, but I didn’t even go see the Tower, since I had just flown in and was sleep-deprived and jet-lagged.  Milan felt unfriendly and cold, except for some random friendly British guys I encountered.

Then I headed to Tuscany near Siena for three days of partying and “Sports Day” organized as part of my friend’s wedding.  It was a huge wedding group full of Caltechers (where the bride, groom, and myself went to school) and Londoners (as the bride and groom now live there).  British people are fun to party with, but some of them only seem interested in drinking.

At Sports day, we had a mad marathon of soccer, softball, bocci (?), flag football, and some bizarre fifth “sport.”  I played soccer and flag football, which was a lot of fun.  Our team (the groom’s side) lost. I think we weren’t just as athletic as the bride’s side, which was full of expert soccer players and people who cheat in sports.  (I was supposed to add that last phrase in surface support of the groom’s side.)

Well, hope to see you all again soon!

http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su08/elite-deresiewicz.html

If anyone has thoughts on this, I welcome the discussion. Just for myself, as an intellectual exercise from a debate with a friend, I’m putting down this blog:

Reactions, almost point by point (I am typing as I read, and have taken the liberty of quoting in >>)

====================================================================

<Visit any elite campus in our great nation and you can thrill to the heartwarming spectacle of the children of white businesspeople and professionals studying and playing alongside the children of black, Asian, and Latino businesspeople and professionals. >

Bullshit. There are plenty of people whose parents are immigrants, middle class, lower class, non-elite professionals etc. For people whose parents are researchers here, or in academics, it’s a cruel process and there is almost no way to fudge it beyond dedicated work. In addition, if as many people are getting “free rides” at Ivy Schools as they claim based on financial aid, these are examples of low-income families living out the American Dream.

However, one question to ask is about actual statistics of percentages of wealth and class for enrollment at Ivy schools (and MIT?). Is it the majority? I don’t know. But from Bush’s example, if you *are* rich, you sure can buy your way in…

<My education taught me to believe that people who didn’t go to an Ivy League or equivalent school weren’t worth talking to, regardless of their class. >

This might be what he got out of his Ivy League education, but I feel like it is a short-coming of his own mind. At MIT, and I think at a good number of other schools, students are more aware of the world — especially those who aren’t from the upper class.

I feel like this author is biased in terms of his own experiences. Perhaps if he had ventured out of his own Elistist group of friends and acquaintances at Yale and Columbia (not the whole school, mind you, just his particular group of friends), he would have seen completely different things going on.

On the other hand, maybe I am being too harsh, although he is ignorant, at least he has come to realize it — a product of the times? Diversity, public awareness, international awareness has increased dramatically over the past years. One example is the increasing focus on international development and international amnesty work. He is not giving schools now enough credit. But MIT is ahead of the game anyways. I take pride in saying we are a true meritocracy. George Bushes of the world be damned (not to digress, it is understandable and in keeping with their goals for elite liberal arts schools with gears towards politics/business to accept students with “prestigious backgrounds/connections”. They are, after all trying to increase the diversity of their population in political terms as well as ethnic, gender etc. However, the point is that this is NOT “merit” in the purest sense).

<I never learned that there are smart people who don’t go to elite >colleges, often precisely for reasons of class. I never learned that >there are smart people who don’t go to college at all. >

Unfortunately, this does need to be emphasized in ivy League/”prestigious” educational institutions (MIT as well, even though we are not Ivy league). I came to understand and believe the concept that “smart people don’t have to go to college” through my experience in MIT D-lab. Because it was international development work in a very hands-on way, and taught by Amy Smith who has done no little on the ground work herself, it was emphasized to us again and again how poor people are innovators and great collectors of knowledge. In fact, we not only *should* listen to, but *must* listen to them.

I also recently attended a talk by Anil Gupta, founder of the Honey Bee Network, which connects rural innovators and helps them spread their inventions. These so-called uneducated peons have come up with thousands of inventions, including things even Chemical engineers can’t figure out, such as a clay plate with a non-stick coating that doesn’t come off.

<The physical form of the university—its quads and residential colleges, with their Gothic stone façades and wrought-iron portals—is constituted by the locked gate set into the encircling wall. The gate, in other words, is a kind of governing metaphor—because the social form of the university, as is true of every elite school, is constituted the same way. Elite colleges are walled domains guarded by locked gates, with admission granted only to the elect. >

MIT: 1, Ivy Leagues: 0 !!! Woot, we have an open campus, bi-atch. And OCW. Also, although we have ’secret societies” (arguably ‘hackers’), they are open to whoever is truly interested, and not based on economic or social status.

>Graduates of elite schools are not more valuable than stupid people, or talentless people, or even lazy people. >

I get his gist, but this is not accurate. Some of us are more valuable, in terms of educational depth or breadth. It doesn’t mean we are “smarter’ per se, or “better” people, but to say we are definitely not more valuable is an exaggeration.

<An elite education not only ushers you into the upper classes; it trains you for the life you will lead once you get there…In other words, students at places like Yale get an endless string of second chances. Not so at places like Cleveland State. >

I have to agree with this to some degree: people with more opportunities are more coddles. That’s why there is still a “I went to public school, bitch” group on Facebook. We’re proud of not having as many ‘chances’ and ‘resources’ and ‘guidance’ as private schools, but making it anyways, through our own self-reliance, resourcefulness, will. However, this does not make these last things bad, merely fortunate. The real question might be to *appreciate* it — not take it for granted, to recognize these as privileges, but not rights. I think this should have been his his point here, instead of railing bitterly at good things.

<The elite like to think of themselves as belonging to a meritocracy, >but that’s true only up to a point. Getting through the gate is very >difficult, but once you’re in, there’s almost nothing you can do to get kicked out. >

MIT: 2000 Ivy leagues: 0 How many sleepless nights, boys and girls? ‘Nuff said. I’m sure Ivy League is difficult, particularly in some departments, but I have no doubt MIT as a whole is hell of a lot more hardass. I have a friend at Brown. She’s having a blast, and she claims to have lots of papers, which I have no doubt are graded rigorously. But in all honesty, if she has time to sleep and do a shit load, how much time do they have at Brown, compared to us? Not a judgment, just an observation…

<The feeling is that, by gosh, it just wouldn’t be fair—in other words, >the self-protectiveness of the old-boy network, even if it now includes girls…Anyone who remembers the injured sanctimony with which Kenneth Lay greeted the notion that he should be held accountable for his >actions will understand the mentality in question—the belief that once you’re in the club, you’ve got a God-given right to stay in the club. >

As anyone with half a brain can clearly see, this is not a problem so much with “Ivy League” education, or prestigious education — but the “old boys” network, the elitism within these so-called elite institutions. In other words, Yale seems to be less at fault for this type of thinking and behavior, than upper class entitlement, from elite groups like the Cross and Bones Society.

<An elite education gives you the chance to be rich—which is, after all, what we’re talking about…but what are such losses when set against >opportunity to do work you believe in, work you’re suited for, work you love, every day of your life? >

Again, this may not be so relevant to MIT. However, it is true that a little less than half of all MIT students graduating go to Wall Street. I encourage those who are interested to read President Faulkner (of Harvard)’s baccalaureate speech this year (http://harvardmagazine.com/web/commencement/faust-baccalaureate-address-2008). It addresses just this issue: the difficult dilemma that faces many of us when choosing between job security/money/prestige and other markers of “success” as defined by society and somewhat connected to our self-worth, and the need to do something meaningful, to make the intonations of “you are the future leaders” echoes at commencements all over the country at the most elite and prestigious schools, not just a hollow statement, but reality. I have been personally struggling with this in thinking about future career choices, but here is where I disagree with the statement as too stark, too closed-minded:

Although an elite education does give you the chance to be rich, it is not true that economic comfortability or even wealth is mutually exclusive with fulfillment of the soul, although it takes courage to both think about it and to not deceive yourself when the choice comes. True, you might wonder whether certain work is “beneath your education” if it lacks the prestige or money society so revered. On the other hand, it is not true that we are not equipped to fight this temptation, and use rationality to convince ourselves that social constructs are merely social constructs. Again, I give no judgment as to the choices people make, my only point is that there ARE choices, and a prestigious education does not necessarily doom you to pompous arrogance or entitlement.

His next point:
<This is not to say that students from elite colleges never pursue a riskier or less lucrative course after graduation, but even when they do, they tend to give up more quickly than others…students from elite schools expect success, and expect it now. They have, by definition, never experienced anything else, and their sense of self has been built around their ability to succeed. The idea of not being successful terrifies them, disorients them, defeats them. They’ve been driven their whole lives by a fear of failure… >

This is not relevant to MIT. I think here, it is the very opposite. Two thoughts. Most of us fail something at MIT, so this point is moot. Yes we have terrible problems dealing with it, but at least the crucible, the crisis happens *here*, so that when we graduate we are more resilient than ever, and aware of our un-invincibility, but also what to do about it.

<The true purpose of education is to make minds, not careers.>

Amen to that, although education for career is not wrong. In any case, again, I don’t think MIT has failed, to the contrary. Read the next line: “Being an intellectual means, first of all, being passionate about ideas” — this is what we do, and proud of it. He also makes a case about elite schools giving “vocational” training. This is a fuzzy issue for a Tech school, so maybe out of context, since MIT is “vocational”, although I still argue that with some of its emphasis in the humanities, MIT has been trying to put our vocations into context.

<I’ve been struck, during my time at Yale, by how similar everyone looks. You hardly see any hippies or punks or art-school types>

Ha, well, you see plenty of weird people here…for once, in the face of this ripping essay on elitist colleges, a comforting thought

Cheers,

Mary

As of right now, I’m sitting in lab, waiting for my post-doc to come in. This is a routine we have, I sit here and wait, because if I don’t wait I might kill something. So I decided to be productive and update you all about my summer.

This summer I’m working twice as much as last summer, which means that now I actually work more than a few hours a day. Instead of working 1-3 hours a day like last summer, now I go up to 8-9 hours. It’s pretty fantastic. I still have a fair amount of time to relax and, as many people that do biology research, I have plenty of time during experiments to browse the internet and check my e-mail.

I’ve discovered a few things while working this summer. First, everyone uses gtalk when they’re at work. It’s pretty interesting how my gtalk contact list has about 20 people logged in during typical ‘working hours’ (usually ‘busy’ or ‘away’ like I am), and after ~6pm it goes down to about 5 people. The other thing I discovered, 1 minute in lab can feel like an hour when you’re weighting out 10.00mg samples to a 1% precision.

Outside of lab, I’ve had a life. I’ve done extremely satisfying things such as eating, sleeping, and watching TV. Also, my mother got a trial of Amazon Prime and shared it with me, which means that I can order anything I want from Amazon.com and get free 2nd-day shipping as long as they have it in stock. I ordered two things already. By the way, if you order frequently from Amazon, an Amazon Prime account is totally worth it. You pay $80 a year, but you can share it with 4 other people, and you all get free 2nd-day shipping, so evenly split, you’re each paying $16 a year for unlimited 2nd-day shipping at a huge online store. =) Okay, that was not a paid ad, I swear.

Other than that, I’ve been meaning to do things, but often fail at it. I did succeed at something, spending money during the 4th of July weekend. Got a haircut, and a few things I wanted to buy at Newbury, and now I’m officially broke. Not really, I’m getting an iPhone 3G tomorrow. =)

Hope you’re all having an exciting summer. I’ll go back to my procrastination routine in lab and then I’ll go grade chemistry exams for a few hours. I’ll try to come back to TKD practice soon, I want my injuries to heal a bit more so I don’t start dying after a few kicks.

-Omar

After lunch came yummy chocolate cake. Lots of it. Some people had 1 slice. Others 2. Others 3. And then the really shameless ones had 4 (guilty). Bobby licked the knife.

***

Transactions: traded 1 sharpie for paper clip. traded 1 can of coke for 1 paper clip. passed up on a sunglass case. result: paper clips 2, cans of coke -2.

Conclusion: ???

***

VOLLEYBALL: the better than IMAX experience

Yes! Mary and Afsah learned how not to suck at volleyball (don’t punch: set…and please please please, don’t lace your fingers, you’ll break them…) Aaron managed to consistently strike striking Olympian-worthy poses (think “Thinker” without the chin thing, you know, something dramatic like that) while saving the ball from certain disaster. Alicia was totally awesome…as usual. Iliya treated the volleyball like a soccer -sorry, ‘foot’-ball (or as the Mexicans like to say it: futbol!). Bobby did amazingly fancy footwork — think of those ads where the person leaps up into the air and does a split jump or something — for some reason the volleyball kept trying to kill him. Sebastian and Andrew were dynamic duos once again (if it was Ultimate, they would have hammered, grrrrr): saving balls flying 20 yards away. Yes, ones that honestly shouldn’t be able to be saved. Christine showed off her ex-volleyball player skills. We all hilariously couldn’t manage to call for balls (e.g. Mary always assumed Sebastian would get it, which he does half the time).

Meander to the Hay market, hey hey hey…

WALL-E sold out at the last minute. But, a bunch of us went to Hay market instead! Neither Aaron, Mary, Sebastian or Andrew knew where it was. They decided to start walking in a semi-random direction. Luckily, they randomly ran into Ranbel, who saved her clueless TKD team mates and took them around the corner, where all proceeded to wade through the crowded hawking mayhem that are the fruit and vegetable stands of the hay market.

But the fruits were cheap and very sweet. Loaded with their finds, the very happy TKDers headed back to MIT and were, well…very happy.

5 hours later…

Karaoke: most awesome, but let’s just say that the details of what happened in that room, should stay in that room (unless someone else wants to elaborate). One overall comment: when it comes to singing, enthusiasm beats execution every time, and there was no shortage of either.

Hours later, our hoarse but euphoric group cozed up at Between Hours, sharing Asian slush. For some, it was a first time experience.

*sigh* No it’s not an Icee.

==========

It was really special to be able to just relax and spend time with each other. Thank you everyone for a truly fantastic day.Someone should post pictures to Omar’s gallery. I hope the rest of you will come hang out in the future.