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.