2 weeks and counting

Friday night kicked off the last weekend before people really start buckling down to study.
Saturday morning made sure we will all be staying in.

Snow on the ground on the first day of December was a good enough reason for me to start playing the Christmas tunes. Even though I don't celebrate Christmas, really, the music is great! Of course in the rotation are the classics (multiple versions of White Christmas) but also the more obscure (Spike Jones' Christmas album and a Tom Lehrer song).

The snow stuck but then it warmed --- just enough, of course, to have the falling snow turn to sleet and cover everything in a coat of ice. Walking across campus to see the cult classic "The Man Who Fell to Earth" was a very frightening experience...

Luckily, by this morning, housekeeping and maintenance had cleared enough paths that we students could make it to class (albeit, bundled and frozen). THANK YOU PHYSICAL PLANT!

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A rarity occurred in one of my classes today --- we had a guest speaker in Tom McBride's The Art of Professional Lying class (don't worry, it's just an intro rhetoric class)! Michelle Kristula-Green, President of the Asia-Pacific Division of advertising agency Leo Burnett, came to talk about advertising from Pakistan to China to Australia and her experiences as a woman in that field. She showed us advertisements from the last two quarters -- everything from Thai condom ads to Chinese Tide to a radio ad for the World Wildlife Fund.

I also had the chance to eat lunch with her. Though I had to bug out early to get to class, it was so nice to hear about how she managed her family life while traveling all over her division. She talked about how balance isn't necessarily equality -- it is about finding what works for the individual.

But what interested me most, out of all she spoke about, was the wide marketing campaign she was involved in for Sydney's Earth Hour. On 31 March 2007, 2 million people in Sydney turned off their lights and unnecessary devices off for an hour. It is part of a year-long campaign to reduce Sydney's carbon emissions by 5% and raise awareness about climate change. Planning is already underway for another Earth Hour in 2008 with the possibility of it happening in other cities as well.

Each individual can make a difference!

Well, I've got books to read and papers to outline...

[[Next time: The Saga of Study Abroad]]