all i want is a room somewhere...

The fax machine keeps spewing out random fax cover sheets every few minutes since I sat down tonight.

I wish sitting down meant I could have a break, but it's Monday night which means no.

I feel like all the professors got together and decided that they would assign lots of reading and then response papers/journals as homework. With three of my classes doing this [and the other just assigning insane amounts of reading], my week nights are booked.

In just the next few weeks I have at least this:
- poetry recitation
- 10 page non-fiction essay
- 6-8 page essay for rhetoric
- multiple small projects for the two biology classes
- presidential scholarship weekends
- vagina monologue rehersals
- sleep?

Two weeks in and my brain is getting fried. This is not a good thing.

I do keep sane by going through my Netflix queue and browsing pretty sites like Apartment Therapy. The more I read that site, the more I want to save up to buy my own Eames Lounge Chair [and ottoman] and go antiquing for DYI projects.

What Rhetoric major wouldn't want a dictionary wall?

Most of these are viable in a dorm room but that didn't stop my roommate and I from hanging a clothes line across the room or insulating our windows against the cold [Ace Hardware's window film is a miracle]!

For now though, I must be content with the computer chair here in Admissions as I write up a wiki article for my Environmental Studies class.

carmex

My red scarf covers half my face as I breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. I can smell the heavy medicinal menthol of the Carmex I have smothered on my lips with each warm breath that is filtered through the fleece. I pull my hat down more to cover my ears but resist tying the strings because, even in the dead of winter, one still cares if they look like a dork.

I shuffle through the snow, already inches high only hours after maintenance has all gone home for the night. With my hands so tightly jammed in my pockets, if I slip, I will just roll into a ball. This is a constant worry for me; thoughts of a childhood fall involving broken teeth replay in my head and I slip my way over the powder.

The pristine snow glitters off the orange street lamps like the sparkles all the girls wore on their eyelids in elementary school. I can see each individual snow flake on my sleeves, each with its unique formation of crystals holding it perfectly together. They really do mirror the snowflakes we cut out of paper in my Californian elementary school.

I re-adjust my scarf after a few choice snowflakes drift in, only to have the red fleece stick to my Carmexed lips.

2008? What? Already?

Well, it's a fresh semester. That means fresh classes, fresh activities, fresh people and fresh homework!

Lots of things are already going on this semester! This weekend is the Beloit International Film Festival. Films from all over the world are being show throughout campus and town, bringing in people from all over to see everything from Harry Potter marathons to prisoners-training-puppies documentaries to short films with no plot! I didn't make it to any last year because we had 3+ feet of snow on the ground and it was below zero. Sadly, it's not all that much better. The snow is only about 2 inches BUT it's below zero WITHOUT the wind chill factor. Brrr.

Let's see, what else is a-happenin'?

Oh, my roommate situation worked out fine. My prayers were answered in the form of an email that my friend Rachel sent at the end of the semester. I was already home, unpacking and napping when Rachel decided to move out of her sorority. A few emails between us and Residential Life and it was set. We're both settled and it's working out just great.

Soon, it's going to be the biggest weekends of the semester for all of us associated with the Admissions Office: PRESIDENTIAL SCHOLARSHIP WEEKEND! Contact the Admissions Office and make your plans. It's a great opportunity to grab a scholarship and just one of the many ways Beloit wants to help you come here.

Since its January, shows are beginning auditions and rehearsals are packing people’s schedules. Back in December, dance majors put together the December Workshops out of which 8 pieces were chosen for the annual Chelonia performance. It’s packed full of tap, hip hop, modern, ballet, jazz and mixed dance forms for a great show in early February [and during Presidential Scholarship Weekend!].
A few weeks later is the annual performance of the Vagina Monologues. I had the honor of performing in it last year and will also be in it this year. Last year was an amazing experience. We backed the second floor of Pearsons’ Hall to the point that people were turned away. This year, we’ve managed to secure Wilson Theater and have two performances so that everyone can come see it. If you want to schedule a visit around that time, come see the performance! The first people to get there get chocolate vulvas!
**P.S. I apologize for the last entry from last semester; I was heavily doped up on medication to rid me of a terrible sinus infection.

a pretty heavy entry for the last one of 2007

I was going to post at least two more times before I head out for break but the sinus infection that has been brewing for the last two weeks finally hit me full force. I'm on a high dosage of an antibiotic that should get me pretty well before I hope on the plane home early next week.
--
This week a weird week. Mon-Wed are classes (with Tuesday being a Thursday schedule). Thursday is a study day followed by finals days on Friday and Saturday (3 time slots per day, 9-12, 2-5, 7-10). Sunday is another study day with Monday and Tuesday rounding out the days for finals. Wednesday of next week is the last day in the halls but if you're lucky you can leave before hand.

I've got a paper due tomorrow, one due Friday, and exam Saturday afternoon and a paper due next Monday...but I'm rearranging so that I'll be homeward bound by Monday afternoon.
--
Between now and then, I also have a few other things to figure out. First, how to sleep enough to get this sinus infection gone. I guess that's what Thursday is fore.

Second, what am I going to do about my roommate situation!??!

Marija, my current roomie, is moving into her sorority which means I have a few options:
1) Find another roommate on campus to move in with or to have move in with me
2) Wait and get placed with a returning, transfer, or international student
3) Hope that all the returning, transfer, or international students are placed elsewhere and get to keep my double as a single.

So far I've been employing option #3 because I didn't want to think about but today I got a letter from Residential Life saying I needed to find someone. I've made a few calls. We'll see...
--
I've also been having some issue with study abroad. Beloit tries to get 55% of students to study abroad but it's getting harder and harder with less money for the number for the number of students and programs being cut (mostly at the local level).

This has hit me in a different way that this school hasn't ever had to do before: wait listing.

There are two deadlines, one each semester, and usually the fall deadline gets less than 30 applicants. This semester the Study Abroad Office received 87. Because of this, they got nit-picky. By next semester's deadline (Feb 1) I have to write a supplement about what Environmental Studies classes I plan to take here at Beloit before and after studying abroad. When I wrote the first application I didn't know what courses were available for this semester so my application was weak in that area.

I can write that over the semester break, though.
--
Question: Could a Christmas Medley of Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby get any better?!
Answer: No.

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!

---

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]]

A list. I like lists.

1) Long underwear is fabulous.
2) TV shows with musical breaks are my favorite. (Yes, Julia and Erin, I watched more Flight of the Conchords...)
3) Long scarves are toasty-warm.
4) Being so cold anything in your sinuses freezes is uncomfortable.
5) Getting all one's classes the first time around is relieving.
6) Powdered cocoa is only okay
7) especially when it's in a syrofoam cup
8) then it's just bad for the environment
9) but when it's in a waxy-paper cup it doesn't work
10) because the wax melts into the drink and the cup falls apart.
11) I learned that the hard way.

Long Time Gone

Sorry, I know it's been a long time. It's the time of the semester where it's projects, performances, papers and presentations! The week and a half before Thanksgiving is the calm before the storm. We were lulled into a false sense of security; just regular reading and papers.
Post-Thanksgiving is hell (but I won't get into that yet, since I've still got 3 weeks before the end of the semester).

Thanksgiving break, though, was awesome.

I'd never been to Minneapolis/St. Paul before, except through the airport. Now I understand why all my friends from the area love it.

My cousin Mike hosted Thanksgiving this year so I trekked up there with friends on Wednesday afternoon. Because the rest of the Milwaukee-area family members (another 13 people) weren't heading up until Friday, I cooked and baked with Mike and his house mate Liesa on Thursday. Six hours in a newly remodeled kitchen with a dessert chef (Liesa) is a great experience though it put my "I can make brownies from scratch!" skillz to shame.

Then we remembered that nothing is open on Thanksgiving night, not even Cub Foods. Whoops. We ate in a local bar before retiring to the couch with the cats for the night.

Friday is when everything happened. Though dinner wasn't to start until 4, all of the 14 other people coming (family + a friend) arrived by 2:30. The turkey, of course, didn't make it in the oven until 3:30 which meant that some of the other dishes didn't go in until closer to 7! Liesa, Mike and I were in and out of the kitchen all night, serving, cooking and cleaning until the rest of the family finished and took over. It's wonderful to have aunts, uncles, cousins and grandmas who don't mind washing dishes and wiping counters.

Plans were made for the next day and everyone dispersed. Liesa had work at 6 AM the next morning (she works at a local non-profit kitchen) so Mike and I watched Fresh Prince reruns late into the night.

Saturday was another early day with a trip to the sculpture garden before lunch. Brrr, it was cold out there. The pond beneath the spoonbridge was frozen solid and covered with snow!

We had a great time walking around and critiquing the modern art ("Is that Prometheus dancing on a hot dog, or is it just me?") before getting back to the car.

Lunch was a reheat and buffet of Thanksgiving dinner and all the dishes we hadn't made it to (potatoes au gratin, green bean casserole, stuffing) and left overs of everything else. Some people departed for the Mall of America while others started the trip back to Milwaukee. The remaining 8 of us piled into cars and went to do some shopping.

We hit up stores of knick-knacks and Christmas presents before stopping at the one I loved the most: Robot Love. I ended up coming out with my very own labbit (complete with mustache, banana, bubble gum and ice cream).


That night we drove over to St. Paul and had dinner at the Chatterbox Pub. We played Uno and watched others play Duck Hunt and Tetris on televisions around the restaurant as we waited for our food to come. Though we were full we all went over to Nye's Bar and Polonaise Restaurant for drinks (I didn't have anything). It was crowded and loud but fun, even though the ambiance hadn't been updated since it opened in 1949.

We stood (for there were no seats available) in the bar and to listen to Ruth Adams and the World's Most Dangerous Polka Band while playing "Name that Tune that they somehow made into a polka". By the end of the night we concluded that the trumpet player/singer was actually the Swedish Chef in human form and Ruth Adams somehow sneaked a tiny yappy-type dog into the bar. That was a bizarre night.

Since Laura and Jon (my ride) wanted to get out of town by noon, brunch was rather early at another local spot: Bryant Lake Bowl, part restaurant, part bowling alley, part theater. Never has bowling alley food been so good and never have I had granola that was so tasty (they put cashews in it!).

By 12:30 we were in the car on the way back to Robot Love for a quick purchase by Jon (and an impulse buy by my roommate Marija).

A few bathroom breaks and naps later we were back in Beloit by 6 -- just in time to order some Jimmy John's and crack open those text books.

Hopefully I'll make it back to the Twin Cities some time soon (and possibly when it's warmer). Now I'm off to do some more homework and prepare for the avalanche of papers and projects that are headed my way!