<p>Wow, </p>
<p>'Tis unbelievably cold! Much colder than I expected... in fact, I have to put on pants at night now! Also, the heaters are quite crappy (ie. the heat venting out is really weak), but most people don't even bother turning on their heaters. </p>
<p>OTOH, this should be a great year for skiing!</p>
<p>Webhappy, it's good to hear from you! Other than the weather, how do you like CIT? Are you fully adapted to the work load? When are finals?</p>
<p>My heater works fine :)
my alley's warm anyway though (Hell).</p>
<p>Finals are next week.</p>
<p>Someone posted on another thread that weekends are valuable work-time, and I have to agree with that sentiment. OTOH, I live/work next to a bunch of people who tend to work pretty hard (ie, we tend to finish sets at least a day before they're due, in contrast to most ppl who finish the night before they're due). We leave campus for a couple meals during the weekends, but most of our time is in our rooms.</p>
<p>I should update my sentiments regarding the houses. Basically, the impressions I had before are not accurate. My house has a strong dual personality. When you visit during prefrosh or rotation week, you'll probably see a strong drinking culture, but a sizable portion is actually quite nerdy and hard-working (of course, this is probably why they will invisible compared to the loud and rowdy people chugging beer). The overall alcohol consumption in my house seems to have decreased, but I tend to stay on my floor so I'm not really sure. Also, a large number of people in the house eat dinner before the waited dinners, and I've joined this trend because I find it more comfortable. Basically, I think my house is the easiest one to turn into a normal dorm. We had an interhouse party a couple weekends ago when there were some drunk people puking all over--at least my house dues went to pay for some decent beverages (such as some GREAT Dole pineapple juice).</p>
<p>I'm going pretty aggressive with the pass-fail scheme, so I'll probably lower my number of units starting third term.</p>
<p>Webhappy - great to hear from you! I'm glad to hear that the housing situation is better than you were expecting. How do you like it generally? What's the social atmosphere like for the non-drinkers? Eating before the waited dinners and staying in one's room on week-ends sounds a little isolating. Do the serious studiers band together?</p>
<p>I've gotten to know 5-6 others who also have started eating before dinner. In some regards, I feel that this trend does isolate us from some members of the house. However, I've observed some other groups who also like to eat before the waited dinners. So this answers your question regarding the serious studiers banding together.</p>
<p>BTW, I should clarify that when I say "staying in our rooms during the weekends," only a small portion is spent in my own room working by myself. A lot of the time is spent in my friends' room collaborating, socializing, etc.</p>
<p>There are at least a few houses that are unified and have a relatively dry social scene. There are also some houses that are more wild than mine. The two times I've been busy Saturday were for the ACM programming contests, so I can't talk about normal social experiences yet. I'm fairly sure this school offers the best social environment (in a geeky fun kind of way) for non-drinkers, though.</p>
<p>It is super-cold! I just got my Icelandic wool gloves (off of eBay for like $9!) in the mail today and I'm super happy they're here. </p>
<p>I'm also glad to hear that you've found some kindred spirits over in Page, webhappy. </p>
<p>Galen</p>
<p>It gets COLD at Caltech? What??</p>
<p>I'm from (and currently in) Maryland, and it's FREEZING here. I was hoping one major perk of going to Caltech would be year-round warm weather.</p>
<p>Remember these are Californians talking here -- they're freaking out because it's getting down to ~40 at night. In the day time, it's still around ~60-65. (It's amusing, though, to watch all the news stories about how 'cold' it is in SoCal.)</p>
<p>This is seriously a phenomenal year for skiing--if it weren't for Caltech, I could've been skiing during Halloween!</p>
<p>where you skiiing, mammoth, big bear?</p>