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.
Monday, December 10, 2007
Monday, December 3, 2007
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]]
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]]
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, November 26, 2007
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 member
s (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!
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 member
s (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!
Monday, November 12, 2007
I feel like I talk about my weekend more than anything else but it's also when most stuff happens. During the week I go to class, hang out at the library and work in Admissions. Sometimes a lecture or performance will break up the week but often they get pushed aside to write another paper or study for another exam.
Most of my week is mundane; I just don't know how many people really care about the great lecture Tom McBride gave today on semiotics, discourse and its relation to rhetoric and the Platonic archetypes. That sort of thing is right up my alley (heck, Tom even pointed me out for being a Rhetoric and Discourse major in front of the whole class).
Even my weekends are relatively mellow. I saw the comedian Rob Paravonian on Friday night (thanks programming board!) but otherwise I spent it painting my nails and watching Rushmore. Also that night was the Literary Ball hosted by Pocket Lint, the campus literary magazine. I attended last year but by the time I made it back to my room after seeing Rob Paravonian, it was nearly over. Alas, my Elizabeth Bennet dress will stay in the closet until it finds another use.
Saturday was low key as well. Sure, there was the Playaz Ball (an annual disco-themed party) but I stayed in to watch Sense and Sensibility and drink a pot of Earl Grey. We know how to party it up here at Beloit.
Sunday (was that only yesterday!??!) was busy, though. Starting Saturday afternoon I baked 4 dozen cupcakes to add to the other 10 dozen others had baked. Along with some campus Baha'is and local Baha'is, we hung out in front of Commons for 2 hours to raise awareness that there were Baha'is on campus! And it worked!
Or at least, all of the cupcakes were gone.
We gave out balloons, stickers, and informational pamphlets as well. Some people were happy enough to eat a free cupcake for breakfast while others eyed us more suspiciously, asking "What's the catch? What am I signing up for?" Apparently we're all cynics here!
Other than letting people know there are 5 Baha'is on campus this semester (2 are studying abroad), we also were letting people know that there was a Holy Day celebration that night! The founder of the Baha'i Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, was born on 12 Nov 1917 (190 years!). The local community (some even came from Janesville) were having some devotions before dinner. And
since it's on a Sunday, people are always looking for a free meal. We had 4 students from the college come with us and hang out and eat dinner.
For Holy Days such as this, Baha'is are asked to take the day off work and school but I find that hard to do while at college -- it's why I'm in Admissions right now, writing this entry!
Also, my mom sent me a present to celebrate the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh! It's a (fake) sleeping puppy that breathes. It's partially cute, partially creepy (especially since it doesn't have an on/off switch).
Her name is Pumpkin.
Most of my week is mundane; I just don't know how many people really care about the great lecture Tom McBride gave today on semiotics, discourse and its relation to rhetoric and the Platonic archetypes. That sort of thing is right up my alley (heck, Tom even pointed me out for being a Rhetoric and Discourse major in front of the whole class).
Even my weekends are relatively mellow. I saw the comedian Rob Paravonian on Friday night (thanks programming board!) but otherwise I spent it painting my nails and watching Rushmore. Also that night was the Literary Ball hosted by Pocket Lint, the campus literary magazine. I attended last year but by the time I made it back to my room after seeing Rob Paravonian, it was nearly over. Alas, my Elizabeth Bennet dress will stay in the closet until it finds another use.
Saturday was low key as well. Sure, there was the Playaz Ball (an annual disco-themed party) but I stayed in to watch Sense and Sensibility and drink a pot of Earl Grey. We know how to party it up here at Beloit.
Sunday (was that only yesterday!??!) was busy, though. Starting Saturday afternoon I baked 4 dozen cupcakes to add to the other 10 dozen others had baked. Along with some campus Baha'is and local Baha'is, we hung out in front of Commons for 2 hours to raise awareness that there were Baha'is on campus! And it worked!
Or at least, all of the cupcakes were gone.
We gave out balloons, stickers, and informational pamphlets as well. Some people were happy enough to eat a free cupcake for breakfast while others eyed us more suspiciously, asking "What's the catch? What am I signing up for?" Apparently we're all cynics here!Other than letting people know there are 5 Baha'is on campus this semester (2 are studying abroad), we also were letting people know that there was a Holy Day celebration that night! The founder of the Baha'i Faith, Bahá’u’lláh, was born on 12 Nov 1917 (190 years!). The local community (some even came from Janesville) were having some devotions before dinner. And
since it's on a Sunday, people are always looking for a free meal. We had 4 students from the college come with us and hang out and eat dinner.For Holy Days such as this, Baha'is are asked to take the day off work and school but I find that hard to do while at college -- it's why I'm in Admissions right now, writing this entry!
Also, my mom sent me a present to celebrate the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh! It's a (fake) sleeping puppy that breathes. It's partially cute, partially creepy (especially since it doesn't have an on/off switch).
Her name is Pumpkin.
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
For some of the SOIs, this is the first blog they've kept but I've been keeping another blog for nearly 5 years. And being a blogger, I read others' too. Some of the most fascinating and well written ones are those of television writers, most of whom were at the forefront of the blogosphere, and have been writing online for a lot longer than most us.
So, I know you all watch TV so don't forget to support the writer's strike that's going on right now. Because so many of us stream or download our shows know, they're getting the short end of the stick.
One of my favorite shows is the Office. Apparently Steve Carrell called NBC so say he was suffering from "enlarged balls" and couldn't work.
So support them. All they want is a few more cents.
www.unitedhollywood.com
So, I know you all watch TV so don't forget to support the writer's strike that's going on right now. Because so many of us stream or download our shows know, they're getting the short end of the stick.
One of my favorite shows is the Office. Apparently Steve Carrell called NBC so say he was suffering from "enlarged balls" and couldn't work.
So support them. All they want is a few more cents.
www.unitedhollywood.com
Sunday, November 4, 2007
What? I'm cold!
A fresh week. WHOO. Good.
But that's not to say lots didn't happen this weekend.
Saturday, luckily, was lazy. I listened to some podcasts, cleaned and stared at the ceiling. I don't know about the rest of you but for me, they are very cathartic.
Today, was another story.
I was asked by Japan Club to drive for their field trip to Mistuwa, a large Japanese superstore outside of Chicago. Getting off campus is always nice.
And we arrived just in time for lunch:
Mmmmm. Chicken Katsu, Tempura, Udon noodles.
By 3 PM we were all back in the van to head back to campus. We were each loaded down with snacks, tea pots, lunch boxes, ice cream, books and magazines. I even invested in Japanese decongestant to banish my on-coming sinus headache.
[Cat with her panda cookie]
Any reader of this blog (and Julia's) knows that I love to complain about the weather. Well, it's officially cold enough during the day and night to layer everything on. So I am, including my hat (which is as tall as I am!), Cuddl Duds, 75¢ mittens from target and fluffy coat.
What? I'm cold!
But that's not to say lots didn't happen this weekend.
Saturday, luckily, was lazy. I listened to some podcasts, cleaned and stared at the ceiling. I don't know about the rest of you but for me, they are very cathartic.
Today, was another story.
I was asked by Japan Club to drive for their field trip to Mistuwa, a large Japanese superstore outside of Chicago. Getting off campus is always nice.
And we arrived just in time for lunch:
Mmmmm. Chicken Katsu, Tempura, Udon noodles.
By 3 PM we were all back in the van to head back to campus. We were each loaded down with snacks, tea pots, lunch boxes, ice cream, books and magazines. I even invested in Japanese decongestant to banish my on-coming sinus headache.
[Cat with her panda cookie]Any reader of this blog (and Julia's) knows that I love to complain about the weather. Well, it's officially cold enough during the day and night to layer everything on. So I am, including my hat (which is as tall as I am!), Cuddl Duds, 75¢ mittens from target and fluffy coat.
What? I'm cold!
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