It's occurred to me that I haven't ever actually blogged that yes, I accepted enrollment at MIT. Hence the preparing to move from Camillus, New York, a little suburb outside of Syracuse, to Cambridge, Massachusetts. (I.e. the Cambridge where you get to pick your email!)

Not only that, but I have a job. A job at the MIT Media Lab, Tangible Media Group. They use Gentoo (on cygwin...), but I forgive them at least for now since it's a heck of a lot more interesting a job than the crap retail jobs that my friends are queueing up for the summer. Though it means that I won't be able to party with them for the last summer before university, since I won't be home.

Why I have the job is mostly Mako's fault. So, I was staying at him and Mika's place when I was down visiting MIT, and I met him outside the Media Lab the night I arrived since it's right across the road from East Campus, where my undergrad student host lives. I got an awesome tour, got to check out the shiny toys, and got introduced to a few people. A day after I get home, I have forwarded email from Mako in my inbox from one of the people I was introduced to (another grad student at the Lab), who's looking for people to hire this summer. Zing, nifty. The position's basically a temporary UROP, hence the post title.

A month and a bit later, I've paid my June rent for my sublet in Cambridge and am making lists of stuff to go shopping for. If you want to be helpful, tell me something you took to college and never used. Though keeping in mind that I'm in a small, rented house for 2.5 months until I move into my dorm in late August. Or, point me to quick and easy recipes. I've never really done a lot of cooking before, so I'll be using the kamikaze "cook or don't eat!" method here.

I have 9 days of high school left until classes let out for exams, and I'm pumped. I'll only have one final exam this year since the only classes I'm taking that have 'em are Economics and AP Physics, but I managed to cut through the numerous layers of red tape necessary to get out of taking the New York State physics regents exam since it's given on the very last day of testing, and I am leaving before then. (I'm heading down on June 19th; it was supposed to be the 22nd.) Seriously, red tape. Talk to guidance counselor, talk to academic dean, talk to guidance counselor again, talk to admissions officer from MIT whom I'm acquainted with, give guidance counselor his phone number so she can fulfill the school politics requirement of having official confirmation of okay-ness, get the go-ahead from guidance counselor afterward.

The economics exam is on the first day of tests, w00t (June 12th, IIRC). Commencement is June 17th. Walk across the stage (I'm giving a speech!), then drive across the Northeast to the rest of life.