His nickname is "The Mouth," he says. "Everyone knows I eat tons and tons--pasta and seafood on plates as big as cafeteria trays."

But he says his favorite food, as of this year, is Belgian waffles.

"I live my weeks for Belgian waffles." he says. Besides the Sunday brunch standard, he wakes up early for breakfast on Wednesdays, when they are served in the Quincy House dining hall.

Extra Pressure

For Chen, the routine tasks that most students take for granted require constant effort.

He has developed a good memory, out of necessity. "If you have to remember something, you're going to remember it," he says.

Being blind gives even everyday life an added layer of difficulty. While Chen does most of his work on his computer, there are times when he can't perform tasks unaided.

And no matter how hard he works, he is often forced to compromise or accept special arrangements. For example, he says the reading service still has not arrived at a solution that would allow him to start classes on an equal footing with other students.

"There's a lot of miscommunication," he says. "Intentions aren't communicated."

Chen tries to accept the extra difficulties that come with his blindness, he says. But often, it's not easy.

"I can get angry at things," he says. "I know at Harvard I have to have people read stuff for me. Of course this is unfair. But if I weren't' this way, I wouldn't be me."

Most of the time, however, Chen doesn't give much attention to his condition. Many of the stereotypes about blind people, he says, are unfounded.

"Everyone asks me, do you count steps?" he says, bemusedly. "Do people really do that?"

In fact, Chen doesn't count steps, or number-off distances and says he just knows familiar places by instinct. To those who have asked him the step-counting question, he offers and analogy to set them straight: "after a while," he says, "you can walk around in your house at night in the dark."

Friendship and Faith