Steven On The Rocks

So, dear readers, it has been a while since I published anything on my blog. Not that there is nothing to tell, but I’ve been waaaaay busy with orientation, coursework, social stuff and getting settled in general. So, here is my account of the past month.

I arrived in Boston from the Niagara Falls… But only barely. It all started out at a very dark, and very sketchy bus stop at 1:30 AM. Turns out, the Greyhound bus is regularly about half an hour late, so I had to wait… Literally, the sketchiest thing ever. Anyhow, around 2-ish, the bus shows up, I get on, and we start driving towards Buffalo airport. We arrive at the border crossing (the same one where I had the whole 6 dollar problem…) and see that there are 3 other greyhounds waiting in front of us. Knowing that that bus runs every two hours, you can figure out how long they had been waiting there already.

An hour went by, two hours went by, three hours went by… And we were still sitting on the damn bus, with no opportunity to get off (since we were technically in an international zone). When we were finally allowed into the border checkpoint, it was already past 4, and my flight was leaving at the airport at 6:20. The cause of the delay was apparently a man who tried to get into the States with children who weren’t his… Sometimes, I really do doubt the average IQ.

But we weren’t there yet. The greyhound route went to Niagara airport first, and only then on to Buffalo. Sensing that we wouldn’t make it in time, I shared a cab with three other young guys from Canada, booked on the same flight to Newark as I was. But, they were getting a connection to LA, and I was connecting to Boston. In the end, we made it to the gate 5 minutes before boarding. I still remember the ride, thanks for the moral support guys!
Also, somehow I got upgraded to First on this flight, which means in a Bombardier Q400 aircraft (which is tiny and has propellers) that you get to sit in a seat apart (configuration is 1-2 in front, 2-2 in the back) and get served a glass of orange juice… Woo-hoow!

Upon arrival, the other three decided they wanted a drink, and so went to a conveniently-located Heineken bar right in front of our arrival gate at 8 in the morning. Keeping my Belgian pride, I politely refused to drink Heineken, even though after the whole ordeal, a drink was definitely in order.
The flight to Boston, four hours later, was fairly unadventurous. Upon arrival, I waited a little more (and got Dunkin’ Donuts), met up with the other arriving exchange students Andy and Carole, and got to meet our R2, Sarah. We got into the van, were updated on some Olin policies, got our keys and keycard, and started to settle in!

We arrived together with the incoming class of freshmen, doing the orientation together. Orientation is a couple of days during which the new students get to know the college inside-out, get tips and tricks, and get to meet and know each other. It’s generally a really fun time to offset the start of the new academic year, and get revved up and ready to go. For example, we went to Boston on a scavenger hunt, and my team came in first! The prize, $25 worth of ice-cream (for 6 people), still has to be picked up. Also, we got to ride in a very real, very yellow school bus!

The first week of actual classes was a bit of an eye-opener. Normally in Belgium, I’m used to classes gradually ramping up over the semester, culminating in a final exam for which you study quite intensively. Over here, however, classes take off like a fighter jet, and they give you tons of homework to keep you busy over the weekend and offset the fact that there are not really final exams, and almost every exam is open-book. It really is a different learning style.

The classes I’m taking over here are:

• HFID, short for Human Factors in Interface Design. It is about (duh) designing system interfaces, and over the course of the semester, we will actually create one ourselves, based on our own research. It’s very promising right now, but also a pain in the ass because it consumes a very big amount of my working time.
• Elecanisms, which is about mechatronics. For those of you not in the know, it is the combined fields of electronics and mechanics, so basically making stuff move in a controlled and very awesome way. Also, a lot of the class is projects where we need to work on outside of the class. So instead of doing homework, you finish a design, and hand that in. Super cool!
• Computer Architecture, which is based around how processors work. Up until now, a lot of what has been taught in the class is not new to me, but it is still good as a refresher. The teacher promised me that it would get interesting for me as well rather soonish!
• And the final one, which is a bit of a strange twist to my original plan: I’m taking a class called Computer Vision. However, it is not an Olin class, but a Wellesley class. Wellesley is an all-girls liberal arts college near here (about an 8 minute shuttle ride), and has a Computer Science department. The class is very interesting, comparing computer vision (for example object detection and stereo depth detection) algorithms to the way the human vision works. It definitely is more theoretical than my other three classes, but I don’t really mind. I have a feeling that a fourth project-based class would’ve overloaded my work backlog!

What is also very strange, is being the only guy in a 20-person computer science class. An experience on its own, that’s what it is.
Of course, not everything is always centered around classes. Because Olin is so far away from anything interesting, there are regularly parties going on in the dorms (think alcohol and beer pong), and a lot of activities get communicated through the use of mailing lists. Email is really indispensable around here.
One of those activities was a hiking trip including a camp-out to the presidential range (Mt. Washington) up in New Hampshire. I really had a blast!

Another fun thing we did, is going to a baseball game. Contrary to what you may think, baseball is NOT an active sport, as we found out. For an end score of 3-2 (Boston lost…), they took four hours! And still, the stadium (Fenway Park) was packed with supporters. We were lucky to get discounted student tickets at 14 dollars apiece, because regular seats in our section were 35, and the ones in the middle of the stadium (with the best views) go for over 300 dollars! Crazy!

We did get a good view of how passionate these supporters are of the Red Sox, Boston’s home team. Baseball is really a social event, and not so much about the score…

As for me, I’ve already adapted to the work pace (which as I said, is insane). I also regularly go running to clear my head, with 10 kilometers now being my default distance. It’s really refreshing to go out running, because Needham is an upper class residential area, and is literally covered with trees. There’s a nice route around the Babson-Olin campus, which means that I don’t have to run the same stretch over and over again. Yay!

I’ve also been asked by the Wellesley neuroscience lab to do some hardware stuff for use with their lab rats. I won’t bother you guys with the details, but the research topic is the minimum audible audio level which rats can hear, and I’m responsible for outputting the right levels. Expect more on this later!

This is it, I hope you enjoyed my first blog post out of Olin College. I’m trying to keep the updates coming more often as stuff happens, but am terribly busy. So no guarantees, capiche?
See ya!
Steven