more ladies...

I am just relocated to my new office today. It is above the Gas Turbine Laboratory so there are funny smell and heat around it. Location wise, this new office is worse than my previous one as it's detached from the main buildings, which are interconnected by the infinite corridor. This means that you have to put on your complete winter gear whenever you want to go to another place, including when you want to buy lunch/dinner/coffee/cakes. However, some of the good things are: it's not directly opposite your professor's office, as before; and it has windows, i.e., daylight.

In that building (or at least among my project mates), offices with windows are given to those with more seniority: research fellows/engineers, and PhD candidates. Master students have no windows in their rooms. Funny, huh?

Sharing the office with me are two female students. When the project coordinator passed me the key and showed me around, she made an interesting remarks: "There are more and more female students in this project." Well, ALL new incoming students are female (at least in our project). According to her and one ex-student who has become a research engineer, this is the first time it happens. At least now I am no longer the minority, as was the case in my undergraduate and my first job.

Superbowl

My leggy friend Sonja managed to drag some of us to watch Superbowl in Student Center. The interesting part is, she just read about it yesterday but has now given the impression that she was born with it and breathing it. She has fallen deeply in love with Randall (Randy) Moss from New England Patriots and have planned that if they EVER get married (yeah, you go girl) she'll name their daughter Kate.

So, the game became really interesting to us thanks to her. I believe she stole the attention and all limelight. It's obvious that some people just went there to get free dinner (pizza, chips, and brownies), as they just left afterwards. We stayed, of course. It was hilarious and entertaining to watch her, and she is not even American let alone real Bostonian. She screamed, shouted, jumped up and down, and everybody in the room knew if she wanted to pee =).

I've never known about American football before, but I picked it up as I watched the game. Sonja didn't really help though, as she also just learned about it and she got too emotional sometimes =). Our other friend, Jesus-lookalike who unfortunately has cut his hair short, explained to us. He's lived in the US for almost 6 years, so he is in the better position.

It was really fun, though we've lost =(. The after match was another drama. My leggy friend literally ranted and ran and kicked stones on our way back. Let just put it this way, Tom Brady should run for his life everytime Sonja gets anywhere close to him =).

Anyway... a pleasant day today. Sonja, Rachelle, and I went for and Indian buffet lunch in Harvard Square. Embarassingly, I was the one who has the weakest tongue. I poured so much yoghurt on the aloo gobhi (to make it less spicy) and they just laughed at me, this Indonesian-girl-who-can't-take-spicy-foods-at-all. The dessert was a sugar overload; it was a curly dough with just too much sugar coats. Nonetheless, I love the dosai, tandoori and naan (too bad garlic naan is not part of the buffet). So now my leggy friend has officially tried Indian food.

Go Mossie!!!!!!!!
(the two touchdown for Patriots are thanks to Moss)

A not so ugly part of the school

Everybody who has stayed at or visited MIT agrees that it is an ugly school. Don't imagine pretty buildings and vast green lawns like what you see in TV when you're trying to picture MIT. It's prudent that they actually ban all filming within MIT buildings, though the actual story setting is in this world-famous school, e.g., Good Will Hunting and 21 (adapted from the book Bringing Down the House, about the MIT's Blackjack team's success---real---story in Vegas). I saw the filming of 21 in Harvard bridge last year. They use BU (Boston University) campus for the on-campus scene.

If you notice, people visiting to MIT take picture mainly with the Great Dome (building 10), main lobby (building 7), and Stata building (building 32). There is, actually, another small building that I like: the MIT Chapel (see pic below). The interior is very nice too, especially during candle-lit masses (in Easter vigil, for example). The building is small, and looks like a giant chimney. It is surrounded by water that will reflect sunrays beautifully to inside the building. On a sunny day you'll see the reflection dancing (due to the rippling of water) on the inside wall. During winter, however, there's no water or else it will freeze.

flu updates

My flu came back two days ago and it wasn't pretty at all. My immunity collapsed whenever I stepped outside, and yesterday's nonstop pouring rain didn't do any good at all. I needed to walk quite a long distance under the rain (+ wind!!) and I forgot my gloves. Needless to say, my flu worsened.... I tried to do some paper review but to no avail, decided to sleep at midnight but couldn't. So I woke up again and read another paper, which is, luckily, much easier to read than the previous one. I guess I fell asleep after 1.

This morning I woke up at 8, as I've promised to bring a new girl in my dorm (a very nice Indian girl from UIUC, Illinois) to the Star Market at 9. So we did grocery shopping and came back at around 10.30 am. I somehow felt exhausted (again) and my attempt to do paper review again failed. I slept from noon 'til 1 pm, and had lunch at around 2.15 pm. I napped for another 10 minutes at around 4 pm. Only afterwards that I felt much better and could function again =).

So finally, I finished reading three papers and also did the short review, i.e., recording what did I learn/understand from them. One of them is very mathematical and I got stuck at around 11 pm =(. Anyway, I was done at 00:40 am and blogged =).

I am going to sleep now as I don't want to be late for mass. Hope tomorrow's weather is nicer and my flu is gone!!

not for hungry stomachs...

I made these two goodies before I flew off, for no ocassions. They are much simpler than I thought. I used the ready-made pineapple paste though, so yes I cheated. However, it wasn't that bad for the second attempt. I mixed shredded cheese into the pastry dough and I also used them to garnish. They rather look like floss, don't they? =) I guess the added cheese made the pastry crispier, which I loooove. I made half heart-shaped and the other half normal-shaped. How difficult it is to make the heart-shaped ones? I found a shortcut so it wasn't difficult at all. Try it!!

This is the double dark chocolate cookies that I modified from the normal chocolate chunk cookies. I don't normally bake cookies I am not usually in the kitchen so modifying a recipe is a trully a brave move. The appearance may look 'demoralizing' but wait until you have a bite. The secret lies on the dark chocolate chunk that I use instead of normal chocolate chips (they're too sweet and not as flavorful). I throw extra chocolate powder and sometimes I add two tablespoons of Baileys (or any coffee liquors). Forget the Baileys if you want them extra dark (bittersweet). The right proportion of Baileys, in addition to the vanilla extract, can somehow make the cookie texture softer and more fragrant. Add chopped walnuts if you have them in store... heaven.

These cookies are full of surprises. Despite their rocky looks, there will be oozing chocolate melt (!!) at almost every bite. They, to the last bite, can fly you to the moon and back. Hmm, come to think about it, you may like it ONLY if you have the same tastebuds as me =D. All modifications are made to suit my and only my tastebuds. Luckily, all my loved ones (or at least whoever lucky enough to try this) love it!!