Life Across the River...the Charles River

CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSSETS—Sadly, my life isn't particularly interesting.

From what I understand, most of my fellow Crimson postcard-ers have found themselves in all sorts of cool locales that are on my bucket list of places to visit.  If you thought this postcard was about a vicariously sexy, exotic experience in Europe, Asia, or even in non-Massachusetts America, then I'm sorry.   I'd advise you to stop reading and find something else to waste time on at work.  This three-postcard series is just my pseudo-blog for documenting my average summer life in Boston.

Since the end of freshman spring, I've wandered a solid three miles or so from the third floor of Canaday E to the fourth floor triple of Pi Lambda Phi on Beacon Street.  For those of you who don't know, PLP is an MIT frat.

You may find this kind of funny, especially if you have previously met me, arguably the definitional opposite of what we might call a “frat bro.”  The word “frat” itself carries certain connotations that register immediately in people’s minds (see Dartmouth).  But living at PLP has actually been pretty chill and pretty awesome, for lack of less vague terminology.  I thought at first that it might be some slightly bizarre, regrettably memorable experience, but there’s been nothing to warrant those initial suspicions.  Or at least, nothing yet.  I’m living with one of my best friends from high school and one of my other best friend’s best friend in college (yes that’s how I phrase it when I tell people), so rooming has gone very smoothly.  In my first month or so in Boston, I’ve also met cool people, gone cool places, wasted time in a cool manner (I’ll admit, I’ve been playing a lot of League of Legends lately).

Frat life, at least at MIT’s PLP, has been mostly indistinguishable from normal college life in a dorm, except maybe a little messier.  It’s certainly not “Animal House.”  Although, we do actually share our room with the occasional mouse or two—they’re incredibly cute, especially when you see them run by, but I know not everybody shares my sentiments.  Maybe it was inevitable.  On a bad, or really a normal day, our room looks like a small jungle (one of my roommates described it as an “ecosystem”).

So basically, not much has changed for me.  It’s still the same old dorm-style living, the same old hanging out with college-aged people, the same old awkward under-21 phase of American life.  But that doesn’t mean it can’t still be a good time.