Talk about your feelings of inadequacy . . .

So at the end of this week I'll be headed up to Boston for a couple of days. What will I be doing while I'm in ol' Bean-town? Teaching some folks at MIT, of course. While I'm up north (going from highs around 80°F in balmy Houston to highs of around 40°F in frigid Massachusetts) I'll be learning a little and teaching a little about the oilfield.

Okay, I still can't say that without getting a little weak in the knees.

Maybe you're thinking, "But Euphrony, I thought you were an expert in the field of drilling fluid rheology! What do you have to worry about?" What, indeed? I may know my stuff, kinda, but I'm going to be talking to people who know there stuff, as well. I feel a little like ol' Wile E. Coyote up there - a genius in his own right, but woefully inadequate to the task at hand. So I'll be going up to MIT (a place so genius that they refuse to take themselves too seriously, even in the small things like quirky messages appearing when resizing the online campus map) and converse with a professor and a few of his students in relation to a couple of papers we are coauthoring. Oh, there I go again, feeling unbalanced in the face of working as equals with a professor who is a bit of a legend in his field. I guess I'll get over it, eventually.

So, I'll be in Boston a couple of days. I should have a little free time one evening (it was $600 cheaper to stay an extra night than fly back early) - any suggestions on what I must hit while I'm there? Remember, I'll be either on foot or in a cab, it will be raining and near-freezing, and I'm a deep-Texas boy.

Tags: MIT, Boston, Inadequacy, Teaching