We say Illinois, Areg Danagoulian says ... Espresso Royale — for starters, anyway.
“I loved camping there working on my homework or doing the data analysis for my research,” says MIT’s Norman C. Rasmussen Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering (Ph.D. ’06, physics).
“The constant background noise was great at somehow compressing my consciousness upon the task at hand — at the same time providing the much-welcome relief with the occasional chat with someone I knew. I also wrote my thesis there, over a period of a year, in 2005.
“Another bright memory are the classes of Argentine tango — lead by our indomitable teachers, Carlotta Bullard and Joe Grohens — where we, a group of a few die-hard dancers tried to learn that complex and beautiful dance.
"This was in 1999, the era where very few people — including ourselves — knew what Argentine tango was.
“However, my favorite place was that little, sweet house on 705 South Grove, Urbana, which my then-wife and I bought in 2002, and where I experienced the biggest miracle in my life — the birth of my daughter.”
