It feels so nice to wake up in the early afternoon from napping to mellow music and then to have some (relatively) free time to write.
So this picture summarizes my weekend: the Jimmy Eat World concert and "studying" for the organic chem exam I had this morning. On Saturday night Melkis, Steph, Jen, Amy, Jackie's friend Zach and his roommate Richard and I saw Jimmy Eat World at Avalon. I was running on very little sleep and food, but once they came on, I didn't care at all. They played such a good mix from Clarity, Bleed American and Futures. Midway they sang "For Me This is Heaven," and the background lit up with those twinkly star lights. I think those four minutes of bliss will last me for a long time. The rest of it was wonderful too. Their music reminds me of that girl in the Coke commercial who hands out Coke bottles to people she walks by. I want to be that girl, but instead of soda, I'd like to somehow package bits of JEW songs and pass out bottles of Jimmy Eat World goodness to strangers on the street. Little cures for troubles.
For the rest of the weekend I tried to maintain that feeling while cramming for orgo. I've never spent so much time in the Adams House library before. During the many study breaks I took I had a lot of time to just look at it, and enjoy how pretty it is. I like that it's just one room, like it would be in an actual house. I like the creaky chairs, the wooden panels, the old books. I forget sometimes how un-modern our campus and environment is, compared to California. There's something about being in an old place that makes you feel like you know more about the things around you, even when, like in my case, you don't.
At around 11 yesterday night Henry came in and joined me at one of the single tables at the end of the library. I don't think people realize half of the time how much their company matters. The first thing he did was make me laugh by informing me that he had a seven-pager due the next day for Helen Vendler's poetry class, and that he hadn't started. I spent a good ten minutes just listening to him type and wishing that I was writing an essay on poetry instead of figuring out how to synthesize organic compounds. But it was the same way last year, in reverse...when I was inundated with English papers I found myself actually wanting to do chem problem sets with the girls. I'm so difficult, mostly because I really resist specialization; there's too many things out there. After going back and forth for awhile, I feel this is the best balance. And now that chemistry's over, I can catch up on novel reading and paper writing.
A little later Henry asked me to read the first page of his paper (he writes crazy fast). I love reading essays written by people I know. It sounds stupid, but something so endearing comes from connecting every interesting phrase and grammatical choice to the person who wrote it. I don't think you can write anything and not have it say something, no matter how little, about you. This is why, even though I know they don't mean it that way, it makes me feel trusted when people ask me to read their writing.
I think I'm going to nap again...
Wednesday, November 10, 2004
Monday, November 1, 2004
halloween
What a crazy weekend. I have to give a disclaimer here: this is going to be purely a long recollection of events. I have no thoughts about anything other than it was all hilarious. I also know I’m going to use millions of superlatives because everything this weekend was the best.
Friday night was Adams House’s annual Drag Night. For weeks we’ve been looking forward to our tutor, Chris, performing Crazy in Love as Beyonce. Right before the show he knocks on our door and asks Melkis to be his Jay-Z. We convinced her that she couldn’t miss out on dancing on stage with Beyonce. So she frantically borrows some baggy clothing from guy friends and practices not cracking up while trying to look ghetto. She and Chris were set to perform in the middle of the show, so we had a few acts to watch before theirs. Before it started we saw baby Ethan in the most adorable pink outfit! He even had a little barrette in his cute wispy hair. The best part was that he was oblivious to it all and was as happy and charming as always. Oh, Ethan.
So Richard started the show with a gown whose slits were quite scandalous. Then a guy with better moves than most girls danced to Nina Sky’s Move Your Body. After him, the guy who was Catherine Zeta Jones-singing-Mariah Carey last Halloween came on as Christina Aguilera-singing-Celine Dion, and was even better than last year. Now I’m starting to forget the order of performers, but soon Chris came out as Beyonce with his tiny tube top (Melkis: Is that a bandanna?) and short skirt. I was getting really anxious to see Melkis go up and watch/hear everyone’s reactions because no one else knew she was performing with him. Then the Jay-Z rap started and she ran up to the stage; it was so so funny because Chris is about 20 inches taller than her, and at one point in the dance he whipped her around so that he could dance in front of her and she looked so tiny and fragile next to him. But she pulled it off really well and none of us could stop laughing.
After that there were some other really good performances, including our house masters singing A Whole New World as Aladdin and Jasmine (Melkis kept shrieking that it was her favorite Disney song). Their costumes were beautiful, and they sprinkled glitter onto the audience. It was so sweet; they are the most wonderful couple in the world. Afterwards we mingled with the other beautiful ladies, including Michael, our senior tutor who never fails to wear the best red dress; Bert, an awesome tutor from Claverly; and Bernard, who is the sweetest person ever. He’s our security/mail/everything man in Adams and he knows everyone’s names and is never not smiling. He also laughs at everything; I love people like that.
After Friday I tried to get as much work done as possible on Saturday so that we could celebrate Halloween. Instead, I slept in and took sporadic naps between lunch and dinner, and after dinner we went last minute costume shopping. We went through all the typical stuff—nurse, Marilyn Monroe, schoolgirl—before Melkis grabbed a fuschia wig and convinced us to get wigs instead. We couldn’t afford much after choosing wigs (Steph got electric blue, as you can see, and I took lavender) so we just got super long and gaudy fake eyelashes (Steph got blue to match her wig, Melkis got silver, and I took black with silver studs) and decided to wear our new stuff with all black outfits. Getting ready is always half the fun. We helped Steph bobby pin her super long hair under her wig, and she helped us put on our eyelashes. Jackie, as a quite bewitching witch, and Yonina, who also went the way of the wig (Amy: Yonina, I like your wig; it’s so messy. What were you doing?!), dropped by and after the obligatory camera-clicking we met up with Amy, Jen and Andrea.
Amy looked so fabulous; she was the self-described femme fatale from Chungking Express and was decked out in a tan trench coat, shiny knee-high black boots, sunglasses (which she wore all night, indoors and outdoors) and curly blonde wig. She completed the costume with a garter gun (I didn’t even know that existed…Amy: Wanna see my gun?) and a cigarette that she carried until the end of the night when it broke. I think she was already somewhat tipsy because twenty minutes after she first commented on our matching wigs, she exclaimed, “Oh! Matching wigs!” She’s hilarious.
We took the five minute trek over to A-entryway where the Heaven and Hell parties were. Hell was on the first floor and you pass Purgatory as you ascend the stairs to Heaven (I’m taking this description straight from my memory of Schmooze emails). We went to Hell first and stayed there for awhile; it was pretty fun except that the music wasn’t loud enough and I kept thinking that we could have compiled a much better mix. We stopped by Purgatory and Heaven but didn’t stay at either for very long. So after we left Hell Theresa helped us find the Crimson (I think I was heading in the wrong direction) but we didn’t get into the party because there was a guest list. It was worth it, though, to see Melkis tugging on the closed door, crying “I don’t have my ID!” and a guy coming up and simply knocking on the door to have someone open it. Melkis’s laugh is normally funny and prolonged as it is but she was pretty hysterical on Halloween; she just could not stop laughing. Then we ran into a guy dressed as Scooby Doo on the street, and for some reason I got into an argument with him about how he wasn’t the real Scooby Doo. And everyone else started singing the theme song. By that point we’d had enough of Adams’s Hell so we thinking of going to Currier (yeah...the Quad...) for their Heaven and Hell. On our way out we ran into some of the house tutors, who apparently told us to go home and I apparently said to the girls that of course they were going to tell us to go home because they were tutors, which I don’t remember saying at all, and apparently I kept insisting that I was sensible…which I think came about because everyone kept saying to me that I made sense. Which is a weird thing for people to keep saying to you, if you think about it. Anyway, in the end Melkis convinced us to go back to our room because it was too cold outside to make the trip to the Quad.
So then we had a mini-party with the five of us in our room, and I doubt I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. Jen and Amy requested that I blast Weezer and we were singing on the top of our lungs, with Amy impersonating Rivers at one point. I told them to take off their shoes because it was more fun to dance barefoot and Jen and I had to help Amy take off her boots, which was quite the difficult task. If there was anyone in the room below us, they probably hate us now. Then Melkis put on Beyonce, at which point I think we reached the height of our craziness.
[Amy dancing strangely but happily]
Melkis: Amy, what the hell is that dance move?
Amy: Oh, I'm frolicking in a field.
Throughout most of this Steph was so serene; she had the cutest floating, dreamy expression the entire night. I would put up photos of all this but there’s too many good ones and also I think I’ve embarrassed us enough.
Oh, an aside: Amy and I saw Rivers Cuomo today. Just walking along on a lovely, warm fall day. Sighs.
Friday night was Adams House’s annual Drag Night. For weeks we’ve been looking forward to our tutor, Chris, performing Crazy in Love as Beyonce. Right before the show he knocks on our door and asks Melkis to be his Jay-Z. We convinced her that she couldn’t miss out on dancing on stage with Beyonce. So she frantically borrows some baggy clothing from guy friends and practices not cracking up while trying to look ghetto. She and Chris were set to perform in the middle of the show, so we had a few acts to watch before theirs. Before it started we saw baby Ethan in the most adorable pink outfit! He even had a little barrette in his cute wispy hair. The best part was that he was oblivious to it all and was as happy and charming as always. Oh, Ethan.
So Richard started the show with a gown whose slits were quite scandalous. Then a guy with better moves than most girls danced to Nina Sky’s Move Your Body. After him, the guy who was Catherine Zeta Jones-singing-Mariah Carey last Halloween came on as Christina Aguilera-singing-Celine Dion, and was even better than last year. Now I’m starting to forget the order of performers, but soon Chris came out as Beyonce with his tiny tube top (Melkis: Is that a bandanna?) and short skirt. I was getting really anxious to see Melkis go up and watch/hear everyone’s reactions because no one else knew she was performing with him. Then the Jay-Z rap started and she ran up to the stage; it was so so funny because Chris is about 20 inches taller than her, and at one point in the dance he whipped her around so that he could dance in front of her and she looked so tiny and fragile next to him. But she pulled it off really well and none of us could stop laughing.
After that there were some other really good performances, including our house masters singing A Whole New World as Aladdin and Jasmine (Melkis kept shrieking that it was her favorite Disney song). Their costumes were beautiful, and they sprinkled glitter onto the audience. It was so sweet; they are the most wonderful couple in the world. Afterwards we mingled with the other beautiful ladies, including Michael, our senior tutor who never fails to wear the best red dress; Bert, an awesome tutor from Claverly; and Bernard, who is the sweetest person ever. He’s our security/mail/everything man in Adams and he knows everyone’s names and is never not smiling. He also laughs at everything; I love people like that.
After Friday I tried to get as much work done as possible on Saturday so that we could celebrate Halloween. Instead, I slept in and took sporadic naps between lunch and dinner, and after dinner we went last minute costume shopping. We went through all the typical stuff—nurse, Marilyn Monroe, schoolgirl—before Melkis grabbed a fuschia wig and convinced us to get wigs instead. We couldn’t afford much after choosing wigs (Steph got electric blue, as you can see, and I took lavender) so we just got super long and gaudy fake eyelashes (Steph got blue to match her wig, Melkis got silver, and I took black with silver studs) and decided to wear our new stuff with all black outfits. Getting ready is always half the fun. We helped Steph bobby pin her super long hair under her wig, and she helped us put on our eyelashes. Jackie, as a quite bewitching witch, and Yonina, who also went the way of the wig (Amy: Yonina, I like your wig; it’s so messy. What were you doing?!), dropped by and after the obligatory camera-clicking we met up with Amy, Jen and Andrea.
Amy looked so fabulous; she was the self-described femme fatale from Chungking Express and was decked out in a tan trench coat, shiny knee-high black boots, sunglasses (which she wore all night, indoors and outdoors) and curly blonde wig. She completed the costume with a garter gun (I didn’t even know that existed…Amy: Wanna see my gun?) and a cigarette that she carried until the end of the night when it broke. I think she was already somewhat tipsy because twenty minutes after she first commented on our matching wigs, she exclaimed, “Oh! Matching wigs!” She’s hilarious.
We took the five minute trek over to A-entryway where the Heaven and Hell parties were. Hell was on the first floor and you pass Purgatory as you ascend the stairs to Heaven (I’m taking this description straight from my memory of Schmooze emails). We went to Hell first and stayed there for awhile; it was pretty fun except that the music wasn’t loud enough and I kept thinking that we could have compiled a much better mix. We stopped by Purgatory and Heaven but didn’t stay at either for very long. So after we left Hell Theresa helped us find the Crimson (I think I was heading in the wrong direction) but we didn’t get into the party because there was a guest list. It was worth it, though, to see Melkis tugging on the closed door, crying “I don’t have my ID!” and a guy coming up and simply knocking on the door to have someone open it. Melkis’s laugh is normally funny and prolonged as it is but she was pretty hysterical on Halloween; she just could not stop laughing. Then we ran into a guy dressed as Scooby Doo on the street, and for some reason I got into an argument with him about how he wasn’t the real Scooby Doo. And everyone else started singing the theme song. By that point we’d had enough of Adams’s Hell so we thinking of going to Currier (yeah...the Quad...) for their Heaven and Hell. On our way out we ran into some of the house tutors, who apparently told us to go home and I apparently said to the girls that of course they were going to tell us to go home because they were tutors, which I don’t remember saying at all, and apparently I kept insisting that I was sensible…which I think came about because everyone kept saying to me that I made sense. Which is a weird thing for people to keep saying to you, if you think about it. Anyway, in the end Melkis convinced us to go back to our room because it was too cold outside to make the trip to the Quad.
So then we had a mini-party with the five of us in our room, and I doubt I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. Jen and Amy requested that I blast Weezer and we were singing on the top of our lungs, with Amy impersonating Rivers at one point. I told them to take off their shoes because it was more fun to dance barefoot and Jen and I had to help Amy take off her boots, which was quite the difficult task. If there was anyone in the room below us, they probably hate us now. Then Melkis put on Beyonce, at which point I think we reached the height of our craziness.
[Amy dancing strangely but happily]
Melkis: Amy, what the hell is that dance move?
Amy: Oh, I'm frolicking in a field.
Throughout most of this Steph was so serene; she had the cutest floating, dreamy expression the entire night. I would put up photos of all this but there’s too many good ones and also I think I’ve embarrassed us enough.
Oh, an aside: Amy and I saw Rivers Cuomo today. Just walking along on a lovely, warm fall day. Sighs.
Friday, October 29, 2004
on the way to something else
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.
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.
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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