not quite there yet

Today was my last day of class for the semester, and I couldn't be more relieved. I am so ready for a break and change of pace. But before that can happen, I have two papers and four finals. Somewhere around 11AM next Wednesday, I get out of my last final and then this train wreck of a semester will be over. Unfortunately, I don't get a break next semester. The only way I could do it was to take 17 credits, which is more than I have now. But I think I will like the classes better and I will definitely like my work hours better (fewer nights, more afternoons). Plus, interim should be fun. I'm hoping that I like my class and that the workload is manageable, because I'll be dorm president and treasurer while Jennifer is in London and Paris, as well as working more hours. I also want to have fun, because that is really what January is for. So here's hoping that I make it to Wednesday morning!

it's been awhile

This semester has been the hardest, most challenging time of my life. I have never been so busy or tried so hard. Between work, being dorm treasurer, and classes, I keep myself spinning. In the past month, I've also been figuring out 4 year plans for everything. I now have nearly every single class planned out from this point forward, and I'm for sure applying to go to York in the spring junior year.

On top of all this, my friends and I have been trying to figure out housing for the next two years. It looks like we may have found our place, but it has not been simple along the way finding it. The problem is that there are 12 of us and most of us are studying abroad at some point junior year, which means that people will be moving in and out during the year. What we decided to do is get two sides of a duplex, and that way, we can all live together without breaking too many housing laws about unrelated people living in the same house.

I was just realizing last night that one reason I am really disliking school this semester is because I don't like most of my classes. I abhor my spanish professor. I enjoyed spanish before I had her and now it's all I can do to force myself to go to that class. I am biding my time until spring semester when I am getting a better professor because any professor would be better than her. I also am getting fed up with my business professor. He doesn't know much of anything and his constant sexist remarks drive me up the wall. I don't think I am overly sensitive to sexist remarks, but when a prof calls you a mall rat just because you know what The Container Store sells or reels in shock when a girl (me) knows what chipboard is. I can tell that I am not the only girl who notices it either, and even guys pick up on it. He assumes that if a girl succeeds in business, it's because she is dating a successful guy in the field. I will not be writing him a good review at the end of the semester. Mostly, I get frustrated with him because I enjoy the textbook and I feel like I would enjoy business with any other professor but him. I am starting to appreciate aspects of International Politics and Relations, but no matter what I do, I cannot seem to do well in that class no matter how hard I try. I do like Self Defense most of the time, but we're working on bludgeon and knife attacks and I am horrible at it. Even my favorite class, Modern and Postmodern American Literature is overwhelming me. I have so much reading for that class, I automatically hate Monday and Wednesday nights because the class is on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also am not doing well in it at all, no matter how much I am enjoying it.

So that is basically why I am so busy and stressed all the time. I've gotten quite a few gray hairs this semester (I'm not kidding, I have even gotten some solid white hairs). If you actually read this far, I give you mad props for listening to all my venting.

many men are living here by the zoo where there's homeless people everywhere

I've survived three weeks of school so far, and I have to say, I love being a sophomore. I like knowing where things are and what I'm doing (sort of). The hard thing is that professors know that I'm not a freshman and my classes are much harder this semester. I'm learning to juggle a job, treasurer, and student, but it isn't easy. Life is good, though and I'm so happy to be back at school with my friends. Calvin is my home right now and it feels right to be here.

And the title is a suggestion from my friend Jill, who is studying for Social Work (in case you were wondering).

back in grand rapids

Yesterday, I flew into Grand Rapids, and I move back into the dorms this afternoon. Pretty soon, life will get busy, because tonight, after we move in, all ACs start moving in freshmen. Monday and Wednesday are the big days for We-Haul, Tuesday is decorating, Thursday is training and orientation day, and Friday is hopefully a day off. I also start as a deskie in Boer-Bennink on Tuesday. So all in all, I'm looking at a full week, but it'll be good to get settled in before classes get started next week. And I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Oh, here's a random tidbit: I've always wanted to have my suitcase come off first at baggage claim, and yesterday it did =).

a disappointment

While I was on vacation last week (which was great, by the way), I decided to read Twilight. Three or four people had told me that I had to read it, and how amazing it was. Supposedly it was the new Harry Potter. And I love Harry Potter, so I was eager to read something as engaging as the wonderful Harry. I tried to like Twilight, I really did. However, the book was a disappointing teen trash novel. The writing was over-the-top, and the dialog made me gag. It seemed like an unrealistic picture of the way things work. Obviously, it is fantasy, I get that, but what cool guy like Edward would actually like a girl like Bella? Frankly, I thought it was written to appeal to the part of girls that wants to be told that they are fascinating, interesting, perplexing creatures that guys don't understand, but just want to get to know better. Edward Cullen is like Mr. Wonderful, which is to say, unrealistic (and again, I get that he is a vampire and thus not realistic). Over time, Edward becomes more vapid and annoying in his glistening marble beauty that never ends and just keeps going on until you wonder if in the next scene, someone will fall dead from his radiant handsomeness. I mean, I suppose there is an appealing aspect to dating a vampire, because you get to feel all dangerous and different, but I don't think a real vampire would like Bella because she was a fairly boring and flat person. I'm not really sure what Edward saw in her; I agreed with Bella when she wonders what he loves about her--I was confused too. Ultimately, parts of the book were fun, and it was good, trashy beach reading, but my impression before reading it was that it was on a much higher tier than beach reading. So I guess I'm ranting because I had heard so many good things going into it. Thankfully, I read a much better book after Twilight called The Invisible Heart, but that deserves its own post. That's all for now.

bus reading material

Lately, I've been spending a good deal of time riding buses (with destinations in mind, I don't just ride buses for the sake of riding them). And part of it means that I have books I like to read on the bus. Preferably paperback, because I do have to carry it around with me. I started rereading Harry Potter, but I stopped taking it with me on the bus after the third book because they got too heavy. And today, I finished Life of Pi. It was phenomenal. I had been meaning to read it for a few years now, but I finally bought the book when I met Yann Martel and this summer gave me the chance to read it. It is an odd book about zoology and religion and all kinds of things. But mainly, Life of Pi is a quirky, enjoyable, while still thought-provoking read and I highly recommend it.

Next up: The Time Traveller's Wife.

found on stumble

I've always wondered who writes that on the bathroom walls and who would answer if I called it.

collect your novel petals for the stem

Summer is going well so far. I've been at my internship for over a week now and I start at Old Navy next week. Which means it will still be awhile before I actually make any money. But oh well. At least for now I can get experience. Plus, I finally watched The Godfather for the first time. And I got my mom hooked on It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. So all in all, life is moving along.

Oh, and as you can see from above, I've been into Getty Images lately. It's so much easier than, say, Google Image. Which I still use on an almost daily basis, but it just doesn't offer much in the way of quality. Unfortunately, Getty is a bigger hassle because they watermark all their photos if I don't want to pay for them, so I have to crop out their watermark every time. Oh well.

it made me smile

be jackson pollock

http://www.jacksonpollock.org/

check it out.

one more day

Tomorrow is my last day of class. I can't believe that I am one week away from being done with my first year of college.

On another note, I never knew how beautiful Calvin could be until this spring. All of these trees that I thought were ordinary, leafless and boring in the winter have blossomed. There are purple, pink and white blossoms floating everywhere now. And the tulips. Ah, the tulips. West Michigan can do tulips. Campus is glorious wherever you look. Unfortunately, all this blossoming and warmth makes me ready to skedaddle and go back to California for the summer. I'm almost there. Just finals and packing. It sounds so simple.

registration season

It's registration time! Oh boy! This is the third semester in a row that I have had last pick at classes. I had six classes lined up this morning, and I got into one of them. Grr. Ah well. I went to the registrar and I got into some other classes. At least everything I am taking counts for my major, minor, or core.

I am taking:
ENG 312. American Literature III: World War II to present.
I am excited about this class. The professor is supposed to be excellent and it's an area that I haven't studied at all but I have always been meaning to.
ENG 322. Modern Drama.
I have to take this for an elective, and I am a little bummed out about it, because I didn't want to use my English electives on this, but that's what it came down to.
BUS 160. Intro to Business.
This is fairly self-explanatory. I need it for my minor, and I hear it's a fun class with the professor I got.
POLS 207. Introduction to International Relations.
This class I picked up last minute because it fit my schedule and it was either this, or taking a night class on Judaism. Amazingly, they both fulfill the same requirement. But I thought it could be an interesting and useful class, and I had been thinking of taking an International Development class to get some experience in this field anyway.
SPAN 201.
Oh joy.
IDIS 110. Foundations of Information Technology.
A required computer class. But I got one of the better professors who doesn't sound awful.

All in all, I am looking forward to next semester. I wish I had been able to fit in a PE class, but not a single one fit in my schedule. Except for one, and it was closed long before I got to register. Ah well, I think I will try to take PE over Interim instead.

And one odd thing that I have noticed is that I misspell "professor" all the time because I am so used to writing it in Spanish, where there is no double "s". I am so ready for a class-free summer.

Ok Go/Bloodcat Love

Last night, I saw Bloodcat Love and Ok Go. It was very possibly the best concert I have ever been to. I had never heard of Bloodcat Love, and their music was so-so, but the lead singer was the funniest most entertaining and crazy lead singer I have ever seen.

Then Ok Go blew everyone away. They were so amazing and fun. They are a band to see live. At one point, they came into the audience and performed a song right in the middle of the crowd (and I was only a few feet away from them!). All in all, it was a great night.

lost in an elevator

Here's an interesting video of a man trapped in an elevator for 41 hours.
http://www.newyorker.com/online/video/2008/04/21/080421_elevators

fun in math class?

On Friday, math class was so interesting. We talked about the Sierpinski triangle and several other shapes you can reproduce based on the same format. It's so cool. I never thought I would be able to say that about math =)
http://www.stilldreamer.com/mathematics/chaos_game/

get smart!

I just spent the last two hours on a knowledge-testing website.
http://www.sporcle.com/games/
try the maps, the periodic table of elements, and Shakespeare's plays. It's so much fun. But now I feel so stupid because I only knew 21 elements.

a stroll downtown

I'm finally on Spring Break! And I'm spending it in D.C. with my aunt and uncle. Yesterday, Uncle Dan, Aunt Marti and I went to Monticello. I was surprised at how small it was in person. Monticello is only 21 rooms, and even though it sits on 5000 acres, it just is not that large of a house. But it was a beautiful place.

Today, I walked along Pennsylvania downtown and saw a few sights.

sweet prank

Meredith sent me this link, and it's too sweet to not share with everyone. Here's one of the craziest pranks I've ever seen:
http://www.gadling.com/2008/02/01/best-prank-ever-stopping-time-at-grand-central-station/
for some reason, the way to make links active is not working on blogger, so sorry about that.

Academy Awards

The Oscars didn't offer too many surprises. The people I expected to win won, and the movies I expected to win won. My favorite part was, by far, when Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová performed "Falling Slowly" from Once.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsc5XYnsYVg&feature=related

a good lunch

I hate the middle of the week. Tuesday, I'm tired and the weekend is nowhere in sight. The only thing that makes Tuesday tolerable is walking tacos. Lunch on Tuesdays is good. Not on the hot line, but at the Bistro Bar. Walking tacos are just taco salad, but they are taco salad with fritos. I love walking tacos. It's the best part of my Tuesday.

Homecoming

This past week was homecoming at Calvin, and I was out doing something nearly every day. Monday night was Calvin Improv, which is always a riot. Thursday night, I went to CTC's (Calvin Theater Company) production of Alice in Wonderland, which was an interesting show. It was good, but a little hard to describe. Much of the story was told through mime, so it was not your everyday, traditional play. I did enjoy it, though. Friday afternoon was the seminary pond jump, which I did. They cut a hole in the ice, and about 150-200 people jump in. The jump wasn't the worst part--the worst was how everyone had to stand barefoot on ice or in ice water (depending on what your position in line was) for 25 minutes. And afterwards, I realized that the ice was surprisingly sharp, and I have cuts all over my arms and legs from it. Friday night was Airband, which is a lip-syncing competition. People put together all kinds of groups for it. There were all kinds of things, such as a Hairspray dance, various hip-hop things, a tribute to classic rock via Guitar Hero (including songs by Boston and the Scorpions), and everyone's favorite, Nschmuck, who did 'Nsync and Backstreet Boys songs, with pretty good dance routines to go along.

All in all, it's been a busy few days. And now I have to spend my weekend getting caught up on homework. Fortunately, I'm really enjoying my classes, so homework isn't too bad of a thing. I even think my math class is interesting. Which is pretty amazing.

Chicago!

Meredith, Jennifer, Diane and I went to Chicago over interim break. It took us awhile to get there because we got stuck in a blizzard on the way and we just sat in the snow until they took care of accidents and cleared roads. But we had a good time even though we had less time there than we'd planned. And at the end of the trip, Diane got me sick with the flu, and I'm still getting over it. That's my excuse for not getting these pictures up sooner (We went last Thursday and Friday).

Here we are in front of the weird faces. There was another one across from it, and they rotate through different pictures of people.

The Bean.

The Chicago river looked so amazing.

Me outside the Felicity room at American Girl Place. We had all always wanted to go since we were little and it was a lot of fun. We didn't actually buy anything because it would have been too expensive so we just looked around. But there was so much new stuff there to see, so we weren't bored by any means.

Our dish-clearer, us, and Erin, the girl we stayed with Thursday night at The Melting Pot. Our fondue was amazing. We demolished all our food, especially the dessert. Chocolate dipped strawberries, cheesecake, pound cake, marshmallows, brownies, rice krispie treats, and bananas were what we got to dip.

A Picasso we saw at The Art Institute.

Another Picasso. The museum was amazing.

two items

Last night, I went ice-skating, and I forgot how much fun it was. Possibly the best part about it was that it was an outside rink. I've never lived anywhere cold enough to have an outdoor ice rink. And speaking of cold, it is so cold here. Right now, it's about 11 degrees, but with the wind, it feels about -5 degrees. I've never lived in the kind of weather where if you don't have a scarf, you feel like you've lost your breath and your throat is freezing and beginning to close up. It's an odd feeling, but I don't dislike the cold. Yet. The locals assure me that somewhere around mid-February the snow will no longer be magical and I will begin to hate it. We'll see.

Another item of note: last week, I discovered what my least favorite movie of all time is, and what could quite possibly be the worst movie I have ever seen. Shattered Glass. Don't even get me started on this movie. I know Lee Hardy is supposed to be a really smart guy, but it was his idea to make half of Calvin freshmen watch this movie, and I think I will forever hold a grudge against him for it. Aside from the fact that Hayden Christensen is potentially the worst actor ever to hit the big screen, the entire movie was pretentious, silly, and by the end, you are begging Stephen Glass to kill himself and stop whining about it. Of course, he doesn't kill himself. Instead, he insists on living on and writing a stupid book that was turned into the very movie you are watching. I don't normally wish death on people, but in this case, I am very tempted to do so. This movie made me hate every single character in the movie, so there wasn't even anyone to like or root for in any way. I am convinced that it was the biggest waste of 94 minutes in quite a while. I intentionally didn't write about the movie here right after I saw it because I was too incensed to write in coherent sentences. So there you go, my two cents on Shattered Glass. A movie to avoid at all costs.

new favorites

I have a few new things I love: Iron and Wine, and the movie Once.

Iron and Wine's album The Shepherd Dog is amazing. Every single song on it is the kind of song you can't help but replay every time you hear it. Plus, I found out last night that Iron and Wine is coming to Calvin in April (needless to say, Meredith and I screamed when we found out). So not only am I fully enjoying their new album, but I will actually get to see them live (and for only 5 dollars!).

My second new thing is the movie Once. Calvin showed it last night, and it was so good. It's the most unusual, funky, atypical movie/musical. I can't even describe it. It's sort of a musical/romance movie, but so much richer than that. The music in the movie was fantastic, but it was so natural and unassuming, that I loved it even more. The whole film was very simple and understated, but that doesn't even begin to describe it. I really enjoyed it and I can't wait to get the soundtrack (my roommate is getting it).

so this is the new year

I'm back at Calvin and very happy to be here. I had a great break, but it feels good to come home to my own bed and see all my stuff and sit on my own futon watching my own movies.

So far, I love my class. It's called Art: A Reflection of Culture, and I love it. Basically, we read ten pages a day, watch movies every other day, and discuss what we read and watch. My professor is pretty awesome, too. I'm really looking forward to the rest of January. It's great to not hate getting up at the crack of dawn (except that in the winter, it's before dawn) because I'm going somewhere I want to be. Our first movie we watched was The Constant Gardener, which was an excellent film. The point to this diatribe? Interim is awesome.

And last but not least, I'm doing a pretty good job of keeping my new year's resolutions. I worked out yesterday and I'm going back to the gym later today. And I haven't eaten dessert since I came back to Calvin (I only get to eat dessert on weekends . . . hopefully it will work). Plus, I'm getting back into recreational reading.

Life is good.