It was such a gorgeous day today.
There are a lot of scattered concrete events to look forward to: Drag Night, Halloween party-hopping, Jimmy Eat World, Bob Dylan, Thanksgiving, Harvard-Yale, showing the girls NorCal over intersession...but images like these make the in-between flow of days just as worthwhile.
Thank you to Amy for Voyage to India and to Henry for Acoustic Soul--India Arie is perfect fall-weather music.
Friday, October 29, 2004
Sunday, October 24, 2004
happenings in bulk
The past few weeks have flown by, and thank goodness because last week was not fun. But maintaining sanity is my number one priority this semester, and so far I've been mostly successful, despite what some might say about momentary lapses…=]
On Columbus Day I saw Interpol at Avalon, and though I'm really happy I got to see them, I'm not sure it was so good for me at that time. I was a little moody that day, partly because I'd been studying chemistry all weekend instead of having fun, and Interpol made me moodier. They were characteristically aloof—few words, crisp suits and cigarette smoke curling in the dark. But that was probably the point, and worth it.
Later that week we surprised Jen for her 20th birthday (such a young one). We were supposed to hide in her room but her roommate forgot to leave us the key so we staked out in Henry’s room. When she came by, eager Amy sprang out first while the rest of us lagged behind (she left us the left-over surprise factor) but fortunately we didn’t miss the what’s-going-on expression on Jen’s face. We went to Blue Fin for sushi. Since we had time to kill before getting a table, we cruised the narrow aisles of a Japanese supermarket, where we were amused by super size Pocky, “sweat” water, and the Asian obsession with light skin and plastic surgery. When we finally got a table, we ordered lots of sushi rolls, tempura and dumplings. My stomach’s growling now that I’m remembering the tuna, eel, avocado, salmon, shrimp…sigh. I can’t remember anymore exactly what we were laughing so much about, but I know that laughing comprised the majority of the night (the eating took about ten minutes). Andrea has the best facial expressions ever. She also showed us the “I-want-you” handshake which literally put us all in hysterics. People are so funny. Humor is like beauty, in that sense; everyone has it, I feel. There are of course varying degrees but I don't think that's so much important as the varying degrees in how long in takes you to realize it in a particular person.
Last week I had a chem exam on Monday, English paper due Tuesday, and bio exam on Wednesday. So I pulled my first ever all-nighter before an exam, for bio. Well, I got three hours of sleep, from six to nine. Chris told me that doesn’t qualify as an all-nighter, but that’s probably the closest I’ll ever get. I’m never going to do that again. Thankfully Melkis was up too. By the middle of the night, we would just randomly stare at each other, blink, and then look down to our notes again. And I became even more inarticulate than usual. That Wednesday was a horrible, horrible day…but then the Red Sox beat the Yankees, craziness ensued, and it was better.
Last Friday night we went to Mr. Bartley’s. I pass by the restaurant every day, and the warm burger and french fry smell makes me shiver in my winter coat, which I’ve already started wearing because it’s been so cold. When we got there it was packed, as usual, and the compactness made it all the more distinct from the cold outside. I had a Tony Blair with the famous Lime Rickey, Melkis and Frank had Jesse Venturas, and Chris had a Colin Powell (I just realized we all went for political burgers). Soooo good. Afterwards we went to the Square theater to see I Heart Huckabees…where I was carded! That hasn’t happened since I was 18. And no one asked Courtney, Frank or Melkis. Okay, so they do look a lot older than me. But I was still slightly miffed. Anyhow, the movie was good. Some very, very unnecessarily strange moments, but overall I liked it a lot. Frank came over yesterday night (and as Steph said, brought music and poetry with him). I think Frank is the only person who has ever made me feel even slightly like a pessimist, because he’s such an adamant idealist (in a good way). So we were talking about the movie, and I said to him that it wasn’t exactly optimistic. He replied, but it wasn’t pessimistic either. And we agreed that it was just there. Which is the best part of existentialism. I got so teary-eyed when Albert sees his face in Brad’s image; that was my absolute favorite part of the movie. It was surprisingly touching, and sweet.
I always start out thinking I have so much to say, and I do, but by the end of it, it doesn’t seem like much at all. I wish I had time to write about these events in isolation rather than in bulk. They come off—not exactly unimportant—but not as strongly as I feel them. Emotions begin so intensely and sometimes descriptions dilute them. Or maybe it’s just my descriptions. Something Frank said yesterday prompted me to finally begin this entry. He said, someone asked him why things have names and he responded that things need to be classified; and the person replied that that’s not the reason, that the reason things have names is because they’re important. So I start out writing about these things to prove that they are important, if only to me. But I end by realizing that there are a lot of things important to me that I don’t have names for.
On Columbus Day I saw Interpol at Avalon, and though I'm really happy I got to see them, I'm not sure it was so good for me at that time. I was a little moody that day, partly because I'd been studying chemistry all weekend instead of having fun, and Interpol made me moodier. They were characteristically aloof—few words, crisp suits and cigarette smoke curling in the dark. But that was probably the point, and worth it.
Later that week we surprised Jen for her 20th birthday (such a young one). We were supposed to hide in her room but her roommate forgot to leave us the key so we staked out in Henry’s room. When she came by, eager Amy sprang out first while the rest of us lagged behind (she left us the left-over surprise factor) but fortunately we didn’t miss the what’s-going-on expression on Jen’s face. We went to Blue Fin for sushi. Since we had time to kill before getting a table, we cruised the narrow aisles of a Japanese supermarket, where we were amused by super size Pocky, “sweat” water, and the Asian obsession with light skin and plastic surgery. When we finally got a table, we ordered lots of sushi rolls, tempura and dumplings. My stomach’s growling now that I’m remembering the tuna, eel, avocado, salmon, shrimp…sigh. I can’t remember anymore exactly what we were laughing so much about, but I know that laughing comprised the majority of the night (the eating took about ten minutes). Andrea has the best facial expressions ever. She also showed us the “I-want-you” handshake which literally put us all in hysterics. People are so funny. Humor is like beauty, in that sense; everyone has it, I feel. There are of course varying degrees but I don't think that's so much important as the varying degrees in how long in takes you to realize it in a particular person.
Last week I had a chem exam on Monday, English paper due Tuesday, and bio exam on Wednesday. So I pulled my first ever all-nighter before an exam, for bio. Well, I got three hours of sleep, from six to nine. Chris told me that doesn’t qualify as an all-nighter, but that’s probably the closest I’ll ever get. I’m never going to do that again. Thankfully Melkis was up too. By the middle of the night, we would just randomly stare at each other, blink, and then look down to our notes again. And I became even more inarticulate than usual. That Wednesday was a horrible, horrible day…but then the Red Sox beat the Yankees, craziness ensued, and it was better.
Last Friday night we went to Mr. Bartley’s. I pass by the restaurant every day, and the warm burger and french fry smell makes me shiver in my winter coat, which I’ve already started wearing because it’s been so cold. When we got there it was packed, as usual, and the compactness made it all the more distinct from the cold outside. I had a Tony Blair with the famous Lime Rickey, Melkis and Frank had Jesse Venturas, and Chris had a Colin Powell (I just realized we all went for political burgers). Soooo good. Afterwards we went to the Square theater to see I Heart Huckabees…where I was carded! That hasn’t happened since I was 18. And no one asked Courtney, Frank or Melkis. Okay, so they do look a lot older than me. But I was still slightly miffed. Anyhow, the movie was good. Some very, very unnecessarily strange moments, but overall I liked it a lot. Frank came over yesterday night (and as Steph said, brought music and poetry with him). I think Frank is the only person who has ever made me feel even slightly like a pessimist, because he’s such an adamant idealist (in a good way). So we were talking about the movie, and I said to him that it wasn’t exactly optimistic. He replied, but it wasn’t pessimistic either. And we agreed that it was just there. Which is the best part of existentialism. I got so teary-eyed when Albert sees his face in Brad’s image; that was my absolute favorite part of the movie. It was surprisingly touching, and sweet.
I always start out thinking I have so much to say, and I do, but by the end of it, it doesn’t seem like much at all. I wish I had time to write about these events in isolation rather than in bulk. They come off—not exactly unimportant—but not as strongly as I feel them. Emotions begin so intensely and sometimes descriptions dilute them. Or maybe it’s just my descriptions. Something Frank said yesterday prompted me to finally begin this entry. He said, someone asked him why things have names and he responded that things need to be classified; and the person replied that that’s not the reason, that the reason things have names is because they’re important. So I start out writing about these things to prove that they are important, if only to me. But I end by realizing that there are a lot of things important to me that I don’t have names for.
Thursday, October 21, 2004
bostonian hysteria
A million people in the square. Blocked streets, church bells, drums, cops wearing vests with reflectors, streakers, honking cars and trucks, screams, music, stampedes, drunks, anthems, years and years of pent up craze.
So amazing to see so many people happy about the same thing. And I don't even care about baseball.
So amazing to see so many people happy about the same thing. And I don't even care about baseball.
Wednesday, October 6, 2004
work and play
No more lazy summer days.
And it seems like New England's decided to skip over that listless autumn phase I love so much. Maybe it's just coming late.
Anyway, things have been busy and good. A rundown of work first...I've been thrown (or, thrown myself) into the pre-med English mix again. So far it's been pretty much what I expected. I'm taking five classes for the first time--
Magic Realism: My junior tutorial for English (a tutorial = small class/reading-writing intensive). The smallest class I've ever taken here (4 people including me). It hasn't gotten to the cozy stage yet but I expect it will. It's pretty laid-back and the reading list is great. There's a lot of South American literature, which is nice because since I didn't take Spanish in high school I haven't really read much Spanish lit. Half of the syllabus is open, so I was able to choose to have Like Water for Chocolate on the reading list.
19th Century American Novel: I'm taking this class with Steph, so it's nice to have someone nearby to talk to about the books we're reading. The reading list consists of all those books you're supposed to have read at some point in your life but usually haven't until you're in a class that assigns them--Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc--though there are some others that most people have read, like Huck Finn, Little Women, Red Badge of Courage. We're supposed to read the Last of the Mohicans next, which is great because I've seen that movie about twenty times. Victo also got me the book for a dollar at our Notre Dame library so I'm glad I'll finally read it. I've always wanted to take a class with Professor Stauffer but I can't pass too much judgment on him yet because the first book we read was incredibly boring and I don't think anyone could have made it interesting for me. But Steph and I do think he's funny/odd because we believe his motto is "The book made me do it!" He keeps telling us stories about how books he's read have induced him to do certain things. I always thought I lived too much in fiction, but he's in a whole other category.
Evolutionary Biology: Okay, so I like worms and frogs and penguins as much as the next person. But there's really nothing interesting to say about this class except that we get to dissect things tomorrow. The lectures aren't very good, and I've stopped reading the book. The best thing about the class is that Melkis, Amy and Maciej are in it and all we do during lecture is laugh, at everything from the professor saying "rectangular square box" to Amy mispronouncing "oocyte" to Melkis's freakishly neat notes.
Organic Chemistry: The professor is as good as everyone says, and so far nothing's been totally over my head though it is pretty fast-paced and I definitely need to review my general chemistry. I still don't like the sensation of sitting alone in that big pre-med-filled class; I'm not used to that freshman feeling or that pre-med feeling anymore. But I've met people to work with more quickly than I thought; I'm glad I managed to get over my initial reluctance and anxiety about that. And though Chem 17 isn't as structured as Chem 5/7, I like it so far. Orgo doesn't provide as much support as the general chem classes did, but I guess that's the point of advancing. And so it continues that chem classes are way better than bio here.
Statistics for Behavioral Sciences: Okay, so I could tell you that I'm taking this class because the social worker at my volunteer program is working on a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of our program and therefore uses this type of stats, and because we work a lot with psychologists and read about studies that require these stats. But really, there are three main reasons why I'm taking it: 1) it's easy; 2) Melkis and Jordan are in it; Jordan's pessimism is the only kind that can make me laugh so much, and in the morning, of all times; 3) the professor is adorable. He's short and skinny, and has a lisp, and he likes motorcycles and the OC. And he somehow makes lectures about statistics pretty interesting.
Okay, so on to the fun stuff.
Garden State for the second time: Even better than the first time around. I love how everyone watching it for the first time had the sniffles at the end. Isn't it nice to happy-cry? I've never cried because I was happy, but I like to imagine that someday I will.
My first Master's Tea: I've never been able to go to tea because last year I worked all day on Fridays. So this year was my first, and mmmm the food was so good. The bruschetta! I love how everything on the plates disappears less than 2 seconds after they've been put on the table. It was also during this time that baby Ethan said my name! Yeah for having a monosyllabic, three-letter name.
Shoe-shopping: It's so nice to be able to walk around where I live and have stores right there--so different from seeing everything from a car window (which is nice in its own way). I don't miss one or the other mode of getting around; I just enjoy each as I'm experiencing them, and it's so rare to feel that way about things. Anyway, the important thing is: 4 pairs of shoes for $40. It's compensation for my lifelong shoe deprivation.
Club night at the Roxy: Soooo much fun. The Roxy's really pretty and equipped with all the novelties, like cool lighting and foam. And the DJ was DJ Scribble from old school MTV! And they played Mo' Money Mo' Problems...only the best rap song ever. And as everyone already said, Frank was our awesome bodyguard (because we're the unfriendliest girls on the dance floor). The Roxy was also a lot better than Avalon because it's in downtown, not the sketchy Lansdowne area...not that downtown's not sketchy, but late-night crowded Boston is so much fun. Even though we were freezing and couldn't find a cab for twenty minutes, it's nice to be in the streets with so many people at that time. That never happens back at home.
Motorcycle Diaries: Landscapes in film always make me weepy. So beautiful. So many moving images. A little slow, but intentionally, I think. Suprisingly funny. And we've all agreed that Gael Garcia Bernal is aesthetic perfection. What eyes.
Painting: So what you see above is our masterpiece, an original Alvarez-Chang-Nguyen. Inspired by Andy Warhol's Flowers (suggested by Victo) we split our square canvas into four squares and each took one, and did the fourth square (the one with the butterfly) together. We stayed up till four to finish it and it's going above our fireplace. None of us paint though Steph took lessons as a kid, but it was really fun. Stay tuned for our next project, the gigantic watercolor.
Keane Concert: Yay! I'm glad we decided to go...I went with Jen and her friend David. It was pretty crowded but we got a good view. They sounded really good live, exactly like on their album. And the pianist and drummer were absolutely nuts. Especially the pianist. He was banging on the keys and his hair was flying all over the place and every limb he had was flailing. It was hilarious, especially because their music is kind of mellow. The singer was also really corny. He introduced his songs with lines like: "This song is called sunshine. I hope you find sunshine as the winter comes." It was funny, but sweet because he was so unabashed. We concluded it was a European thing.
And kind of in between work and fun is ASK. Coordinating fall semester has been a lot more work than spring semester, what with all the new volunteers and the 2-day retreat. Which, by the way, was so much fun. We stayed in one of the campus coordinator's 17th century house in Connecticut. It was one of those things I was dreading because it seemed like such a long time to be talking about our programs, but it really did prepare me for the semester and got me really excited about the things that we're doing and all the improvements we're hoping to make. Plus, some of the people are just so funny and crazy. Steph and Lara went crazy with corny jokes, we had some scary-movie moments, and I saw a camel! We saw one at the county fair, which we didn't actually enter because it was too expensive, but the drive there was fun and I saw my first ferris wheel at night. And we could hear a band playing Beatles songs, and it was all so small-town. Too many memorable moments to list.
Well, I wanted to get back here because I was growing restless in California, so I can't complain. And even if I hadn't asked for this crazy busy-ness, I'm glad it's this way. I don't think I've completely gotten over turning 20 yet, and I still believe (probably falsely, but when does that matter) that the faster my life is moving, the faster exciting things will happen to me. So you can wait for them with me.
And it seems like New England's decided to skip over that listless autumn phase I love so much. Maybe it's just coming late.
Anyway, things have been busy and good. A rundown of work first...I've been thrown (or, thrown myself) into the pre-med English mix again. So far it's been pretty much what I expected. I'm taking five classes for the first time--
Magic Realism: My junior tutorial for English (a tutorial = small class/reading-writing intensive). The smallest class I've ever taken here (4 people including me). It hasn't gotten to the cozy stage yet but I expect it will. It's pretty laid-back and the reading list is great. There's a lot of South American literature, which is nice because since I didn't take Spanish in high school I haven't really read much Spanish lit. Half of the syllabus is open, so I was able to choose to have Like Water for Chocolate on the reading list.
19th Century American Novel: I'm taking this class with Steph, so it's nice to have someone nearby to talk to about the books we're reading. The reading list consists of all those books you're supposed to have read at some point in your life but usually haven't until you're in a class that assigns them--Moby Dick, Uncle Tom's Cabin, etc--though there are some others that most people have read, like Huck Finn, Little Women, Red Badge of Courage. We're supposed to read the Last of the Mohicans next, which is great because I've seen that movie about twenty times. Victo also got me the book for a dollar at our Notre Dame library so I'm glad I'll finally read it. I've always wanted to take a class with Professor Stauffer but I can't pass too much judgment on him yet because the first book we read was incredibly boring and I don't think anyone could have made it interesting for me. But Steph and I do think he's funny/odd because we believe his motto is "The book made me do it!" He keeps telling us stories about how books he's read have induced him to do certain things. I always thought I lived too much in fiction, but he's in a whole other category.
Evolutionary Biology: Okay, so I like worms and frogs and penguins as much as the next person. But there's really nothing interesting to say about this class except that we get to dissect things tomorrow. The lectures aren't very good, and I've stopped reading the book. The best thing about the class is that Melkis, Amy and Maciej are in it and all we do during lecture is laugh, at everything from the professor saying "rectangular square box" to Amy mispronouncing "oocyte" to Melkis's freakishly neat notes.
Organic Chemistry: The professor is as good as everyone says, and so far nothing's been totally over my head though it is pretty fast-paced and I definitely need to review my general chemistry. I still don't like the sensation of sitting alone in that big pre-med-filled class; I'm not used to that freshman feeling or that pre-med feeling anymore. But I've met people to work with more quickly than I thought; I'm glad I managed to get over my initial reluctance and anxiety about that. And though Chem 17 isn't as structured as Chem 5/7, I like it so far. Orgo doesn't provide as much support as the general chem classes did, but I guess that's the point of advancing. And so it continues that chem classes are way better than bio here.
Statistics for Behavioral Sciences: Okay, so I could tell you that I'm taking this class because the social worker at my volunteer program is working on a research project to evaluate the effectiveness of our program and therefore uses this type of stats, and because we work a lot with psychologists and read about studies that require these stats. But really, there are three main reasons why I'm taking it: 1) it's easy; 2) Melkis and Jordan are in it; Jordan's pessimism is the only kind that can make me laugh so much, and in the morning, of all times; 3) the professor is adorable. He's short and skinny, and has a lisp, and he likes motorcycles and the OC. And he somehow makes lectures about statistics pretty interesting.
Okay, so on to the fun stuff.
Garden State for the second time: Even better than the first time around. I love how everyone watching it for the first time had the sniffles at the end. Isn't it nice to happy-cry? I've never cried because I was happy, but I like to imagine that someday I will.
My first Master's Tea: I've never been able to go to tea because last year I worked all day on Fridays. So this year was my first, and mmmm the food was so good. The bruschetta! I love how everything on the plates disappears less than 2 seconds after they've been put on the table. It was also during this time that baby Ethan said my name! Yeah for having a monosyllabic, three-letter name.
Shoe-shopping: It's so nice to be able to walk around where I live and have stores right there--so different from seeing everything from a car window (which is nice in its own way). I don't miss one or the other mode of getting around; I just enjoy each as I'm experiencing them, and it's so rare to feel that way about things. Anyway, the important thing is: 4 pairs of shoes for $40. It's compensation for my lifelong shoe deprivation.
Club night at the Roxy: Soooo much fun. The Roxy's really pretty and equipped with all the novelties, like cool lighting and foam. And the DJ was DJ Scribble from old school MTV! And they played Mo' Money Mo' Problems...only the best rap song ever. And as everyone already said, Frank was our awesome bodyguard (because we're the unfriendliest girls on the dance floor). The Roxy was also a lot better than Avalon because it's in downtown, not the sketchy Lansdowne area...not that downtown's not sketchy, but late-night crowded Boston is so much fun. Even though we were freezing and couldn't find a cab for twenty minutes, it's nice to be in the streets with so many people at that time. That never happens back at home.
Motorcycle Diaries: Landscapes in film always make me weepy. So beautiful. So many moving images. A little slow, but intentionally, I think. Suprisingly funny. And we've all agreed that Gael Garcia Bernal is aesthetic perfection. What eyes.
Painting: So what you see above is our masterpiece, an original Alvarez-Chang-Nguyen. Inspired by Andy Warhol's Flowers (suggested by Victo) we split our square canvas into four squares and each took one, and did the fourth square (the one with the butterfly) together. We stayed up till four to finish it and it's going above our fireplace. None of us paint though Steph took lessons as a kid, but it was really fun. Stay tuned for our next project, the gigantic watercolor.
Keane Concert: Yay! I'm glad we decided to go...I went with Jen and her friend David. It was pretty crowded but we got a good view. They sounded really good live, exactly like on their album. And the pianist and drummer were absolutely nuts. Especially the pianist. He was banging on the keys and his hair was flying all over the place and every limb he had was flailing. It was hilarious, especially because their music is kind of mellow. The singer was also really corny. He introduced his songs with lines like: "This song is called sunshine. I hope you find sunshine as the winter comes." It was funny, but sweet because he was so unabashed. We concluded it was a European thing.
And kind of in between work and fun is ASK. Coordinating fall semester has been a lot more work than spring semester, what with all the new volunteers and the 2-day retreat. Which, by the way, was so much fun. We stayed in one of the campus coordinator's 17th century house in Connecticut. It was one of those things I was dreading because it seemed like such a long time to be talking about our programs, but it really did prepare me for the semester and got me really excited about the things that we're doing and all the improvements we're hoping to make. Plus, some of the people are just so funny and crazy. Steph and Lara went crazy with corny jokes, we had some scary-movie moments, and I saw a camel! We saw one at the county fair, which we didn't actually enter because it was too expensive, but the drive there was fun and I saw my first ferris wheel at night. And we could hear a band playing Beatles songs, and it was all so small-town. Too many memorable moments to list.
Well, I wanted to get back here because I was growing restless in California, so I can't complain. And even if I hadn't asked for this crazy busy-ness, I'm glad it's this way. I don't think I've completely gotten over turning 20 yet, and I still believe (probably falsely, but when does that matter) that the faster my life is moving, the faster exciting things will happen to me. So you can wait for them with me.
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