Playing in the Rain

Yaochen Zhu, a Ph.D. student in Applied Math, came to play the piano on a rainy Friday. Despite being under the canopy of trees, rain still dripped down from between the branches and onto the piano. "It's not how I would normally interact with a piano," Yaochen laughs as he crouches in front of the piano and pries up the stuck keys one at a time. "It's kind of fun!"

He reflects on the uniqueness of the instrument: "Every time I press a key, I have to reset it. So, it sort of changes the dynamics of how you usually do things. ... [Usually] it would bounce back, and now you actually have to reset it yourself, so it becomes a one-time-only thing. So, you cannot go back, you cannot do the same thing, you cannot do repetition..."

Days in place: 225

Weather: rainy, 62°F