On Display

Another day, another chance to find a fun location to do homework. Today a group of four of us (Maddie, Jordan, Sauza, and I) decided that Lobby 7 (the main MIT lobby) would be a great place to study. There are four pillars in the four corners of the lobby that are great to perch on and study on. We packed up all of our stuff, including pillows and food, and headed over to Lobby 7 this morning. We climbed up onto the pillars at about 11:00 am and began studying. Maddie and Jordan are on one pillar studying 18.02, Sauza is on another doing HASS essay and I'm on a third, finishing up a HASS essay and studying physics. We joked on our way here that there would be a bunch of tourists taking our pictures because we're "Real Live MIT Students In The Wild, Being Creative And Rebelling Against The Man By Sitting In Weird Places Around Campus To Do Homework." We joked about having a competition to see who was photographed the most. Turns out we were more correct in our joking than we thought we would be.

2 large groups of asians (we refer to them affectionately as Asian Tour Groups, they're always here) wandered through and kinda freaked out when they saw us. Everybody grabbed a camera and started, pretty non-subtly, taking pictures of me, Jordan, and Maddie. By the time the group left I had been photographed 6 times and Jordan/Maddie 5. That's not the weirdest part though. Individuals who come in have started deciding that it's funny that MIT students are studying on pillars, and if you do the math you'll realize that only 3 of the 4 columns are actually occupied by us. There is one left that is empty, so can you guess what's happening?!!?!?

People are grabbing newspapers and climbing up onto the empty pillar so they can pretend to study and have their picture taken. Is this maybe a little weird? Maybe? A little? I mean, I know that in some random living room my picture is going to show up and they're going to be like どのように面白い！奇妙な場所にします。and I'll have no idea what they're saying because it'll be in Japanese and it'll be several thousand miles away.

Oh being a tourist celebrity, it's a fact of life I guess, I may as well embrace my popularity and start hamming for the camera. Maybe a few looks of agony or frustrated groans will add to the MIT-atmosphere of the whole scene. Perhaps a small potted plant for the corner of my pillar, maybe a small dog on a leash or a secretary? Do you think installing a drinking fountain would be going too far?