pure-bred geek

I'm sitting here in Admissions trying to locate the USB port for this computer. Where the heck is it? Apparently, this computer doesn't have one even thought it seems to be only a few years old. I've got some lovely photos on my flash drive but can't get them off there onto the computer!

Anyway, I'll continue.

[EDIT: I added photos!]

I recieved two packages last week, on the same day. One was a new bubble umbrella (clear with a blue stipe) and the other was a care package from home. We have 5 apple trees, a pear tree, an asian pear tree, 2 plum trees and a necatrine tree in the yard so my parents send a box of apples and pears. I've given some away (like to my RA, Connor, for helping me carry the box) and others I've eaten.

I love autumn in Wisconsin, there are so many more colors than at home (silly evergreen trees!). In Botany today we took a field trip around campus to see some of the trees! Most of them are still green but a few have been turing beautiful shades of orange and yellow.

Alas, I'm also lacking in a beautiful picture of the trees. But I'll add some tomorrow or later tonight! Pretty leaves!

I can see from the blog counter that lots of people have been visiting the blogs from all over the country and the world! It's really nice to know people are reading because for a few weeks there it seemed like only the other SOIs were reading the blogs. That and our parents (Hi Mom and Dad!).

Trapped in Beloit

I've decided to carry my camera around more this semester because my first year here at Bel-wah wasn't documented all that well.

On Friday my Botany class took a walking field trip to the Turtle Creek Floodplain which is about a mile off campus.

Had we walked another mile we would've made it to the movie theater, Starbucks, Jimmy John's, Culver's, Wal*Mart, Menards and the Hormell plant. They're all close to campus but just a bit far to walk (especially since the sidewalk ends at one point). Luckily, every few weeks, a van does errands to the stores down there for free.

Along the way I took some photos of other plants which made my fried Rhiannon and I a little behind the rest. We caught up in time to hear Yaffa, the professor, explain the lab we were doing.

Look! A rubber plant from someone's yard!

We wandered in the old fields and down to the riverbank while being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The real point was to see how the land has changed since it was abandoned and turned into a park. We could see where fields used to be and the succession of the plants.

The white flowers to the left are Late-Flowering Thoroughworts which we focused on for our lab. It looks like each bundle is a flower but really over a dozen packed together smaller than my thumb nail.

That night, after watching half of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for the 204750294385th time, Allison and I bundled up and sat outside in 35 degree weather in the new amiptheater to watch Chapters 1-22 of R. Kelly's Hip-Hopera "Trapped in the Closet".

We cheered, boo'd and had appropriate reactions to it all. By about chapter 17, Allison and I had drunk all of our Earl Grey tea and were frozen so we went back to my room to thaw.

That’s us trying to be gangsta. We were supposed to be representin’ the MW (mid-west) but our hands got cut off. Oh well.

I’ve got a paper to write, bed to make, and dinner to find (Sunday nights we’re on our own!)!!

First Post!: Boring Subject Line

Hello inter-webz! Hello world!

Well, it's the end of the 3rd week of classes and I'm ready to relax. A cold must've snuck into my room last night because I've been sniffling all day. Some more tea and baking cookies will help with that, though.

So far this semester I've done a lot, met new people, read more than my eyes can take and not taken quite as many naps as I would like. Also, I've taken lots of pictures. Here are some from the first 3 weeks back on campus!

Here's my room. Last year I was in 609 Emerson but this year I'm in Aldrich.




Last weekend I dyed my hair from the red-brown it was to black. I was hoping for a dark brown but it went darker. Also, this is one of the plants I rescued from Botany; her name is Lilith.




They raised the prices of laundry this year (from $.75 to $1) so new machines were needed. The old ones ended up in the parking lot for a day.




I start working for Admissions on Sunday night as a SOI (student outreach intern) but until then I'm going to nap, dance the night away and do some baking.


And homework too.