So here is my monthly update! I don't really have time for anything more. I think last time we left off I was talking about Halloween and my future and other odds and ends...
Well Halloween was a lot of fun, I dressed up as a French maid (how original I know!) and I pretty much stuck to Megan's side for most of the night (she was a firefighter). We went to a couple of different parties but we decided to stay on campus instead of venturing out to the bars. They were probably crowded anyways and I actually didn't want to walk around downtown Carlisle in a costume. Plus I didn't feel like paying for drinks because I am poor. A lot of people dressed up as the swine flu since Dickinson has been hit really hard by the epidemic. A couple of weeks ago, a lot of people were being sent home to recuperate. However it seems to have subsided for now. I'm actually vaccinated now, Dickinson received a bunch of doses last week and had a free open clinic kind of thing so I'm hoping the vaccine will keep the H1N1 at bay.
Last weekend the Dreamcatchers mentors and mentees went to DC (I talked about this in my last post) to the Natural History Museum. I had already been there this past summer when I visited Megan. Ugh, can I just say this time around the trip was crazy. I had to get up at 7 AM because we had to leave. Well, on the way there, we got really lost because we had the wrong directions (apparently there are two Air and Space Museums, one in VA and one in DC). The bus driver got mad at us for being unprepared and also kept yelling at the kids in the back who were getting antsy. She also had someone on the phone helping her with directions and she kept losing her temper with that person as well. We stopped at a gas station to get directions and of course all the kids had to get out and use the bathroom. We finally made it to DC but by the time we got into the museum, we had to eat lunch first to use the vouchers we had for the cafe. After going into the gift shop to appease the kids, we really only had maybe 2 hours to visit the museum. I love my mentee, she is great, but she has a very short attention span and is very energetic and dramatic. She kept zipping past all the exhibits while I tried to catch up with her so I didn't really get to see anything. The only part she slowed down in was the small exhibit with live bugs such as tarantulas and caterpillars and bees. One museum volunteer had a caterpillar out for kids to see up close and she was letting people put it on their hands for a few seconds. My mentee and I decided to see what it felt like, and while it wasn't slimy, it was very sticky!
So yeah we left around 3:30 PM and got lost on the way back again... when we finally got back to Carlisle I was so exhausted, I went to bad at 11 PM. On a Saturday! I really do enjoy Dreamcatchers though, despite the stressful trip. As an end of the semester get together, we are apparently going to watch The Polar Express in 3D with the mentees and their families. I actually really like that movie even though a lot of people are creeped out by the graphics.
And oh of course New Moon came out yesterday and literally everyone I know (well all the girls I know at least) has already seen it! I'm disappointed I wasn't able to go yesterday but I had a paper to email to a professor at midnight (this would be my scary seminar professor who shall remain nameless) so I wasn't able to do much unfortunately.
And of course I've been swamped with papers and projects and after Thanksgiving, it will only get worse because I will have all my final papers/exams/projects deadlines looming. I'm looking forward to going home for a few days and relaxing... but I will probably have to do some kind of work/have a serious talk with the parents about my future. Ugh, I hate growing up! It's so scary and intimidating. Aren't there any self help books about this? Transitioning from adolescence to young adulthood?
Added later:
And as you can tell I'm writing this post on another day because I am actually home now until Sunday! Yesterday was Thanksgiving and we all ate a wonderful meal complete with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, brussel sprouts (which I did not touch), pumpkin bread... and dessert had pumpkin cheese cake, some kind of chocolate cake, apple pie and yeah we were spoiled! It was low key this year and not very crowded. Mom's sister's family is in Puerto Rico celebrating my aunt's birthday (I think?) so it was just my family plus el primo frances and my mom's brother's family and my uncle's college roommate. Oh and the dog, we brought him along which we probably shouldn't have because he basically feasted all day long on crumbs and kept trying to eat the appetizers on the low table pre-dinner.
In sad news, a family friend passed away last Monday, a day before I came home. The place where we went for the wake was the same place we had the wake for Grandpa 3 years ago so it brought back a lot of sad memories. Nobody likes going to wakes or funerals because if you are directly part of the grieving family, it's obviously hard. If you are a family friend unrelated to the family, it's always kind of awkward because you never know what to say. Asking "How are you doing?" is sort of useless because obviously the family members are mourning. Death in general pretty much sucks. Yet it's still a part of life so it's not something we can ignore either. I know the family will get through this because as they say, time heals all wounds. And while I've always been on the fence in what exactly I believe religion wise, I'm sure that particular family member is definitely in a better place now. May he rest in peace.
Other than that, I've seen a few friends, seen some movies, and been ignoring my homework. I finally saw New Moon and it's definitely an improvement of Twilight! The girl who plays Bella pretty much pouts and stays depressed throughout the whole movie just like in Twilight but it's the actor who plays Jacob, Taylor Lautner, who steals the show. There were literally gasps and whistles when he first ripped off his shirt. The actor is only 17 in real life but that's not stopping me from crushing on him! I've decided Robert Pattinson, the guy who plays Edward, is too moody and emo for my liking. And I obviously will go see Eclipse and Breaking Dawn when they come out in theaters, I am a Twilight fan after all even though I recognize that the books aren't that well written. There are a bunch of other issues as well but for the most part, I've been sucked into the Twilight universe.
In other campus news, not only do we keep getting email updates about prowlers sneaking into student housing, but a girl was attacked in front of the library around 2 AM early Tuesday morning. Some sketchy guy wearing a hoodie grabbed the girl and threatened to kill her. (I swear nearly all student/Carlisle resident altercations involve the perpetrator wearing a hoodie) Around that same time, I was actually at Fast Eddie's (I know I vowed never to go there again however it was nearly devoid of townies on a Monday night) celebrating a friend's 21st bday. I ended up getting driven home that night and it's probably just as well considering the attack. The girl managed to escape and immediately notified DPS/Carlisle police. Honestly this really scares me because the library is a very public, very central location on campus. A lot of the email alerts we get involve students walking to parties off campus/to the bars and getting accosted by sketchy weirdos preying on students, hoping to steal their wallets. However every once in awhile the confrontations get violent and I remember sophomore year a student was "knifed" right by where I used to walk to and from the clay art studio.
I live on the fringe of campus, close to the Carlisle residential neighborhoods. Unfortunately, our campus is located smack in the middle of Carlisle, it's not off to the side of the community like a lot of small liberal arts schools. Relations between the Carlisle community and the students aren't that great, to be honest. Dickinson is a great school and if it weren't for the school, there is no way I would ever think to actually live there. It's in the middle of absolute nowhere. The town has gotten better over the years and it's not as bad as you'd think (I've gotten used to its weirdness). However every once in awhile something ridiculous happens and let's just say I'm happy to be getting away from the town once I graduate.
Oh and a professor is suspected of child pornography... yeah it's been exciting at Dickinson. Can't say so much for my hometown though, pretty much the same as ever. And that's probably a good thing. I have to say though, I keep forgetting how big the houses are here! Whenever I come home I keep thinking all the big houses are new when they actually aren't. Houses in Carlisle are smaller and I forget I come from a community of McMansions.
Anyways this was a much needed break. Only a few more weeks of torturous classes and then I am free until the end of January!
Now I'm going to go google image pictures of Taylor Lautner to add to my computer.
Happy Thanksgiving to everybody and may everybody count their blessings!
Amelie
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Mish-Mash: Halloween, a Ridiculous Day at the Museum, Thanksgiving, New Moon, Carlisle is going to the dogs
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Estoy todavia viva...
Yup, I'm still alive. Even after 2 very stressful midterm weeks. And of course the work doesn't stop there, it never does!
So what is going on with my life? Sort of a repetition of the last blog post. Work, study, eat, sleep... party? Maybe? Most weekends I have no energy to go out and I just want to stay home and sleep! So far I've only been to one bar in "downtown" Carlisle. (I put that in quotes because Carlisle doesn't have much of a downtown area) The first weekend we were back and had no actual work, I somehow ended up in Fast Eddie's with one of my Theta sisters. The bar is about as sketchy as the name and after the interesting experience, I doubt I will be going back there anytime soon.
However last weekend I got to go home for a few days and some of my Theta sisters came home with me! Well sort of. One of my friends from Dickinson lives in my area and she let the two other girls that accompanied us home sleep over at her house. These girls are both from the South and they haven't been to NYC very often (actually I've talked about Megan before in my blog, she was the friend I visited in Scotland last April).
We got to spend the day in the City which included a visit to the NY Public Library (where Carrie Bradshaw gets stood up by Big at her wedding in the Sex and the City movie) which I have never been inside. It is absolutely beautiful in there though I don't think I would actually get any work done because of all the people coming and going. We then meandered over to Bryant Park where NY Fashion Week is held and decided to revisit our childhoods and ride on the carousel. We also briefly stopped in Times Square before taking a taxi to Magnolia's bakery which is famous for its cupcakes. A friend of mine has worked there for the past 2 summers and we actually went to the one she usually worked at on Bleecker Street. We each bought 2 cupcakes and they were absolutely delicious! The frosting is so rich though that after eating one cupcake, I had to save the 2nd for later.
We then went to Chinatown and wandered around the stores. I ended up buying a fleece like jacket for 22 bucks as did Megan. We then went to the TKTS booth in Times Square to buy tickets for a show that night. I have never done this before and it is something I should probably do again in the future. We got tickets half off for Mary Poppins and it was definitely worth it. We absolutely all loved the show, especially the song "Let's Fly A Kite" because apparently that song was written specifically for our sorority (the kite is one of our symbols). And the tap dance during the Chim-Chim-Chimney song is fantastic! There were a lot of special effects included in the show but then I've liked all the Disney shows I've seen on Broadway (Lion King and Beauty and the Beast were the two others). So yeah Mary Poppins is definitely a show to go watch and there are some songs in the show not included in the movie.
The rest of the break was pretty quiet. I got to see some family one night at dinner. Oh and I got to go shopping with Mom for a whole day at the mall and bought some essentials. Then that night I met up with Megan and Morgan at a comedy club (my other friend had left for Philly to go see a concert). It was a lot of fun since I've never actually seen live stand up before. It was a very intimate setting but I was a bit confused about our host when he began interrogating the audience and where we were from. When he found out I was a Spanish major, he muttered something in garbled Spanish that I could not understand (he was not a native Spanish speaker and had terrible pronunciation) However we got ripped off with the whole drinks thing but whatever, it's NYC and everything is expensive.
Then we headed back to Dickinson the next day. I read Morgan the directions as her copilot and Morgan drove as we followed the very confusing Googlemaps directions that told us to go North on I-95 to go South... but we figured it out in the end! Poor Megan slept in the backseat the whole way because she had not been feeling well the night before at the comedy club. As it turns out, she definitely had the flu (no idea if it was swine, the Health Center isn't even testing for it anymore because it is too expensive and so many students have gotten sick). She is feeling better now but she was MIA for most of last week getting rest and being quarantined in her room.
Then Big/Little week kicked off and if you don't know what that is, basically each sister in our sorority gets paired up with a new member and becomes her "Big Sister." I was very excited for this because I was abroad last year and therefore had not gotten a Little. Megan and I share the same Big so we are "twin stars" (twin stars are the other Theta symbol). During the week, we sent packages and cards to our Littles' mailboxes with tasks for them to do. Some girls had to wear Hawaiian lei necklaces or tiaras or take pictures with a certain number of frat guys... I did not make my Little do any of this because I didn't really see the point in all that. During the scavenger hunt last Friday night, they were given clues about who their Bigs might be. They then were all gathered in the Theta houses and their Bigs were revealed to them. My Little found out who I was and we were both jumping up and down and hugging each other. We then changed venues and I gave her her Big/Little basket and welcomed her to the "Cat in the Hat family." (All Bigs/Littles belong to some sort of animal themed family) If you are wondering why some of my pictures on Facebook include a girl wearing a tiara and a Cat in the Hat hat, that explains why.
Oh and the Dreamcatchers sessions are finally underway! For those of you that are curious, this club is not a support group for insomniacs! It is a mentoring program for middle school students from the Carlisle community. Once a week we meet with our mentee to help them with homework for an hour. Then the 2nd hour we do some kind of pre-planned fun activity. I was involved in the program sophomore year but I didn't really like the mentee I was paired up with. However this year my mentee is awesome and she even hugged me when she had to leave. We also go on a field trip once a semester. For reasons beyond my control, I didn't go on any of them sophomore year. This year we will be going to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum in DC which I actually visited this past summer (my friend Megan interned there this past summer so my friend Katie and I went down for a weekend to hang out with her. Same girls I hung out with during Fall Pause). I also just recently saw the movie Night At the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian so all the more reason to go there! The club tries to keep the field trips fun but educational so museums/zoos/aquariums are usually the places we tend to go.
And I still have yet to figure out what I will be doing next year... it is the Great Mystery. I am trying to stay positive about this. I like to think I'm Nancy Drew, one of my favorite book series ever as a kid. And so like Nancy, I am trying to solve a mystery except the clues are very vague and the bad guys are possible future employers/grad schools. We had a grad school fair yesterday and there was some university from Hawaii called Southern Pacific Hawaii University or something like that... While I'm sure being a student in Hawaii is awesome, do people outside of Hawaii actually go there? Why would you go all the way to Hawaii when there are plenty of good grad schools within the continental US? And it's not like they offered special grad programs... it was all pretty generic.
There was also a University of Stirling table and if you remember, I visited Stirling in Scotland with Megan. I did not get to visit the university campus (I didn't even know there was one there) while I was there but a Theta sister of mine is completing her veterinary studies at the University of Glasgow. And Megan has now studied abroad at St. Andrews. Studying in Scotland would be kind of awesome but I'm trying to actually decide on a grad. school field before I decide on the location.
Oh and Halloween is coming up. I'm wondering if we are going to get any trick or treaters because the apartment I live in is on the fringe of campus, near a residential area. Mimi and I will probably buy some candy so we will see! I bought a maid costume to wear but I don't even know if I am going to actually wear it... after 9th grade dressing up sort of lost its appeal for me. I miss being able to carve a pumpkin though.
This week is Semana Poetica, a week of poetry sponsored by all the language departments of Dickinson. Every night one or two different poets read their poems and do some Q & A. And since it is hosted by the language departments, as you can guess the poets are from all different countries. I went tonight to hear one the poets speak, Isabel de Perez-Montalban, since she is coming to my class tomorrow to talk about her poetry. Some of the poems we were given to read for class were read tonight. The other poet was Russian and he did his reading sort of strangely. Hee would read a line in Russian on an index card of his poem, followed by an American student reading the same line in English. It was kind of bizarre. The Q&A was kind of funny because at one point a question was directed at both poets and since neither of them really spoke English, there were two professors on hand to translate the question for them and their answers. The Spanish professor translating was actually my seminar professor who is kind of scary and intimidating.
And one last thing: I am pretty sure I will be graduating next spring. I probably have to talk to my advisor/academic advising to confirm it but after this semester, I only have one class left for my major and one or two classes left for my minor. So I'm 85% sure I will be graduating next May which means you should start looking for hotels to book in the Carlisle, PA area if you haven't already. Hotels fill up early so I suggest you get a reservation now. And if I don't graduate next May for some reason (but I should), you can always call the hotel and cancel your reservation. I already made the reservation for my family so you should too if you want to come! The graduation ceremony itself is very boring but the Dickinson campus in the spring is absolutely gorgeous. And much prettier than St. Lawrence's... :P
And there you go. My life in a blog post basically.
Amelie
So what is going on with my life? Sort of a repetition of the last blog post. Work, study, eat, sleep... party? Maybe? Most weekends I have no energy to go out and I just want to stay home and sleep! So far I've only been to one bar in "downtown" Carlisle. (I put that in quotes because Carlisle doesn't have much of a downtown area) The first weekend we were back and had no actual work, I somehow ended up in Fast Eddie's with one of my Theta sisters. The bar is about as sketchy as the name and after the interesting experience, I doubt I will be going back there anytime soon.
However last weekend I got to go home for a few days and some of my Theta sisters came home with me! Well sort of. One of my friends from Dickinson lives in my area and she let the two other girls that accompanied us home sleep over at her house. These girls are both from the South and they haven't been to NYC very often (actually I've talked about Megan before in my blog, she was the friend I visited in Scotland last April).
We got to spend the day in the City which included a visit to the NY Public Library (where Carrie Bradshaw gets stood up by Big at her wedding in the Sex and the City movie) which I have never been inside. It is absolutely beautiful in there though I don't think I would actually get any work done because of all the people coming and going. We then meandered over to Bryant Park where NY Fashion Week is held and decided to revisit our childhoods and ride on the carousel. We also briefly stopped in Times Square before taking a taxi to Magnolia's bakery which is famous for its cupcakes. A friend of mine has worked there for the past 2 summers and we actually went to the one she usually worked at on Bleecker Street. We each bought 2 cupcakes and they were absolutely delicious! The frosting is so rich though that after eating one cupcake, I had to save the 2nd for later.
We then went to Chinatown and wandered around the stores. I ended up buying a fleece like jacket for 22 bucks as did Megan. We then went to the TKTS booth in Times Square to buy tickets for a show that night. I have never done this before and it is something I should probably do again in the future. We got tickets half off for Mary Poppins and it was definitely worth it. We absolutely all loved the show, especially the song "Let's Fly A Kite" because apparently that song was written specifically for our sorority (the kite is one of our symbols). And the tap dance during the Chim-Chim-Chimney song is fantastic! There were a lot of special effects included in the show but then I've liked all the Disney shows I've seen on Broadway (Lion King and Beauty and the Beast were the two others). So yeah Mary Poppins is definitely a show to go watch and there are some songs in the show not included in the movie.
The rest of the break was pretty quiet. I got to see some family one night at dinner. Oh and I got to go shopping with Mom for a whole day at the mall and bought some essentials. Then that night I met up with Megan and Morgan at a comedy club (my other friend had left for Philly to go see a concert). It was a lot of fun since I've never actually seen live stand up before. It was a very intimate setting but I was a bit confused about our host when he began interrogating the audience and where we were from. When he found out I was a Spanish major, he muttered something in garbled Spanish that I could not understand (he was not a native Spanish speaker and had terrible pronunciation) However we got ripped off with the whole drinks thing but whatever, it's NYC and everything is expensive.
Then we headed back to Dickinson the next day. I read Morgan the directions as her copilot and Morgan drove as we followed the very confusing Googlemaps directions that told us to go North on I-95 to go South... but we figured it out in the end! Poor Megan slept in the backseat the whole way because she had not been feeling well the night before at the comedy club. As it turns out, she definitely had the flu (no idea if it was swine, the Health Center isn't even testing for it anymore because it is too expensive and so many students have gotten sick). She is feeling better now but she was MIA for most of last week getting rest and being quarantined in her room.
Then Big/Little week kicked off and if you don't know what that is, basically each sister in our sorority gets paired up with a new member and becomes her "Big Sister." I was very excited for this because I was abroad last year and therefore had not gotten a Little. Megan and I share the same Big so we are "twin stars" (twin stars are the other Theta symbol). During the week, we sent packages and cards to our Littles' mailboxes with tasks for them to do. Some girls had to wear Hawaiian lei necklaces or tiaras or take pictures with a certain number of frat guys... I did not make my Little do any of this because I didn't really see the point in all that. During the scavenger hunt last Friday night, they were given clues about who their Bigs might be. They then were all gathered in the Theta houses and their Bigs were revealed to them. My Little found out who I was and we were both jumping up and down and hugging each other. We then changed venues and I gave her her Big/Little basket and welcomed her to the "Cat in the Hat family." (All Bigs/Littles belong to some sort of animal themed family) If you are wondering why some of my pictures on Facebook include a girl wearing a tiara and a Cat in the Hat hat, that explains why.
Oh and the Dreamcatchers sessions are finally underway! For those of you that are curious, this club is not a support group for insomniacs! It is a mentoring program for middle school students from the Carlisle community. Once a week we meet with our mentee to help them with homework for an hour. Then the 2nd hour we do some kind of pre-planned fun activity. I was involved in the program sophomore year but I didn't really like the mentee I was paired up with. However this year my mentee is awesome and she even hugged me when she had to leave. We also go on a field trip once a semester. For reasons beyond my control, I didn't go on any of them sophomore year. This year we will be going to the Air and Space Museum and the Natural History Museum in DC which I actually visited this past summer (my friend Megan interned there this past summer so my friend Katie and I went down for a weekend to hang out with her. Same girls I hung out with during Fall Pause). I also just recently saw the movie Night At the Museum: Battle at the Smithsonian so all the more reason to go there! The club tries to keep the field trips fun but educational so museums/zoos/aquariums are usually the places we tend to go.
And I still have yet to figure out what I will be doing next year... it is the Great Mystery. I am trying to stay positive about this. I like to think I'm Nancy Drew, one of my favorite book series ever as a kid. And so like Nancy, I am trying to solve a mystery except the clues are very vague and the bad guys are possible future employers/grad schools. We had a grad school fair yesterday and there was some university from Hawaii called Southern Pacific Hawaii University or something like that... While I'm sure being a student in Hawaii is awesome, do people outside of Hawaii actually go there? Why would you go all the way to Hawaii when there are plenty of good grad schools within the continental US? And it's not like they offered special grad programs... it was all pretty generic.
There was also a University of Stirling table and if you remember, I visited Stirling in Scotland with Megan. I did not get to visit the university campus (I didn't even know there was one there) while I was there but a Theta sister of mine is completing her veterinary studies at the University of Glasgow. And Megan has now studied abroad at St. Andrews. Studying in Scotland would be kind of awesome but I'm trying to actually decide on a grad. school field before I decide on the location.
Oh and Halloween is coming up. I'm wondering if we are going to get any trick or treaters because the apartment I live in is on the fringe of campus, near a residential area. Mimi and I will probably buy some candy so we will see! I bought a maid costume to wear but I don't even know if I am going to actually wear it... after 9th grade dressing up sort of lost its appeal for me. I miss being able to carve a pumpkin though.
This week is Semana Poetica, a week of poetry sponsored by all the language departments of Dickinson. Every night one or two different poets read their poems and do some Q & A. And since it is hosted by the language departments, as you can guess the poets are from all different countries. I went tonight to hear one the poets speak, Isabel de Perez-Montalban, since she is coming to my class tomorrow to talk about her poetry. Some of the poems we were given to read for class were read tonight. The other poet was Russian and he did his reading sort of strangely. Hee would read a line in Russian on an index card of his poem, followed by an American student reading the same line in English. It was kind of bizarre. The Q&A was kind of funny because at one point a question was directed at both poets and since neither of them really spoke English, there were two professors on hand to translate the question for them and their answers. The Spanish professor translating was actually my seminar professor who is kind of scary and intimidating.
And one last thing: I am pretty sure I will be graduating next spring. I probably have to talk to my advisor/academic advising to confirm it but after this semester, I only have one class left for my major and one or two classes left for my minor. So I'm 85% sure I will be graduating next May which means you should start looking for hotels to book in the Carlisle, PA area if you haven't already. Hotels fill up early so I suggest you get a reservation now. And if I don't graduate next May for some reason (but I should), you can always call the hotel and cancel your reservation. I already made the reservation for my family so you should too if you want to come! The graduation ceremony itself is very boring but the Dickinson campus in the spring is absolutely gorgeous. And much prettier than St. Lawrence's... :P
And there you go. My life in a blog post basically.
Amelie
Friday, October 2, 2009
The crazy college life and what about life after college?
So I know I don't post here that much anymore but that is because the college life bubble has engulfed me. I seriously don't remember being this busy as a sophomore. Whoever said senior year was the best year totally lied! The last few weeks I have been buried under papers and readings. The Waidner-Spahr library has become my second home, I've barely been in my apartment all week! However there is now a cafe in the library so when I take a break, I can meander over and buy a croissant and some tea!
Yes, I know there is a cafe in our library this year! Granted I try not to study near there too often because I end up seeing too many people I know and I end up talking instead of doing work. My Spanish professor who teaches my seminar this semester decided this location would be the perfect spot to have class. I think we might have to find a new place for class because I can't hear anything with the coffee machine whining in the background.
So yeah, Dickinson put a cafe in the library which sounds cool and all but they implemented a printing quota, a laundry quota, took away trays in the cafeteria, and took away our cable. I'm not so upset about the trays even though it means getting up a lot more to get things but I'm exercising at mealtimes so I guess that is good. However it is a challenge when I get up to leave and have to collect my plates, cups, silverware, etc. to dump in the bins over by the conveyor belt. I also don't really care about the cable, I mostly watch tv online anyways.
As for the laundry, it now costs 2.25 a load. Which means we have a quota of one wash and dry load per week. Laundry in general is a hassle this year because I no longer live in a dorm (no convenient laundry room nearby now) which means I either have to truck my laundry all the way to the HUB (Dickinson's student center) OR I can use the Theta houses (my sorority houses) which are a lot closer to where I live now on campus. And get this, the Theta house laundry machines do not operate on that stupid ESuds program and I don't need to swipe my ID card and have money deducted from my laundry quota! I'm friends with a lot of the girls in the houses and they don't mind me using their machines so it looks like I still have access to free laundry for the time being.
However the printing quota is the one that REALLY maddens me. Sophomore year Dickinson installed this program called Equitrac on all the campus printers to keep track of how many pages a semester their students were printing. After a few semesters, the system's data revealed the average number of pages printed out by a single student seemed to be between 500 and 600 pages.
So now we have a printing quota of 60 dollars. One page costs 10 cents and because Dickinson is obsessed with sustainability, the printers obviously print double sided. A double sided printed page costs 20 cents because it counts as 2 pages being printed out. Whatever, that is fine. However, a lot of my professors post readings online and I am down to about 20 dollars already and we are only one month into the semester. I would use my own printer but I am technologically challenged and can't figure out how to insert my own ink cartridges in my printer. (Mimi and I both tried for about half an hour and we couldn't figure it out together.) I was counting on my dad showing me how to do it on Parents' Weekend but my parents are no longer coming (which is fine, I'm going to be home the following weekend anyways, I just wish I had room to bring my printer with me so Papa could explain to me how the heck to make it work!) So this means sometime next week I have to go down to the HUB and add more money to my printing quota. I understand Dickinson is trying to promote sustainability but I really think this quota is unfair. I don't ever print out useless pieces of paper for my own entertainment, it's ALL academic related.
A lot of these changes are due to Dickinson's obsession with being a green campus (I mean we even have a College Farm!) but a lot of them are also due to the economic crisis. And whenever I think of the economic crisis, I start to think about the real world and what I am going to do after graduation. The consensus among my peers is that we don't talk about it, that we don't think about it but I know this is a huge lie. I know a lot of my classmates have already taken the GRE or are preparing to take the GRE (I signed up myself to take it in January) and are considering grad. schools/job interviews/Peace Corps/marriage.
And it's been on my mind a lot this week. I've been browsing the sites of the grad schools I might be interested in, trying to understand their application processes. The ones in Paris (yes ok, I am considering grad school in France even after a semester in Toulouse of non-academic productivity) really confuse me so I guess I know what I will be doing during my weekend home with Papa! I don't know if I am considered to be an international student in France if I have a French passport, it is quite the conundrum.
In case you are interested, I am considering getting a Master's in Translation/Interpretation. This is not a very common master so this dramatically reduces the number of grad schools I can apply to. Also my Spanish has suffered greatly after 8 months of non-use. I still understand it and can read it but my speaking skills have completely disappeared. This means I probably need to go immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking environment before I go off to grad school to translate Spanish.
I'm considering not going right back to school after graduation next May. What I will do for six months/a year is up in the air. I also don't know if I should apply to grad schools now and see where I can get in and ask the school to delay my admission. Or I could just wait until the 2011-2012 academic school year (when Hermana will be a senior in college, oh god.)
So yeah I have a lot of important decisions to make in the next couple of months. Any advice you would like to give me I will gladly take. I realize grad school isn't mandatory (and neither is college, but let's face it in the area I live in it's the norm for everyone to go to college) but it seems most people are going back to school during the financial crisis because there are no jobs out there.
And if you happen to know anyone who works in the translation field, please send his/her name along to me and contact info. I am trying to be proactive about this after enduring a whole summer of my parents nagging me about my future.
And that is basically my life. Study, work, eat, sleep but it's usually in a really strange order. And obviously Theta has been taking up a lot of my time now that I'm back on campus. I don't mind too much though, after a year being out of the loop it's nice to see all the girls again. Not to mention I'm on the Up til Dawn exec board, a French tutor, a Dreamcatchers mentor and I've been trying to avoid swine flu. The Purell bottles the health center has been sending to our mailboxes are greatly appreciated (by me in any case).
Oh and in between all that, like I said above I need to figure out my future.
Yeah I don't know how I'm going to survive this year either. Winter Break is only a little over 3 months away though so I'll hang in there until then.
And I keep thinking back to a year ago, I was enjoying the Malaga sunshine and still wearing t-shirts and flip flops at this time of year while sipping tinto de verano on the Mediterranean. Where did the time go?????
Ok I'm going to take a nap. It's Friday afternoon, so give me a break.
Amelie
PS. Forgot to mention last post that it was my 50th post! Well now it's my 51st! Cool.
Yes, I know there is a cafe in our library this year! Granted I try not to study near there too often because I end up seeing too many people I know and I end up talking instead of doing work. My Spanish professor who teaches my seminar this semester decided this location would be the perfect spot to have class. I think we might have to find a new place for class because I can't hear anything with the coffee machine whining in the background.
So yeah, Dickinson put a cafe in the library which sounds cool and all but they implemented a printing quota, a laundry quota, took away trays in the cafeteria, and took away our cable. I'm not so upset about the trays even though it means getting up a lot more to get things but I'm exercising at mealtimes so I guess that is good. However it is a challenge when I get up to leave and have to collect my plates, cups, silverware, etc. to dump in the bins over by the conveyor belt. I also don't really care about the cable, I mostly watch tv online anyways.
As for the laundry, it now costs 2.25 a load. Which means we have a quota of one wash and dry load per week. Laundry in general is a hassle this year because I no longer live in a dorm (no convenient laundry room nearby now) which means I either have to truck my laundry all the way to the HUB (Dickinson's student center) OR I can use the Theta houses (my sorority houses) which are a lot closer to where I live now on campus. And get this, the Theta house laundry machines do not operate on that stupid ESuds program and I don't need to swipe my ID card and have money deducted from my laundry quota! I'm friends with a lot of the girls in the houses and they don't mind me using their machines so it looks like I still have access to free laundry for the time being.
However the printing quota is the one that REALLY maddens me. Sophomore year Dickinson installed this program called Equitrac on all the campus printers to keep track of how many pages a semester their students were printing. After a few semesters, the system's data revealed the average number of pages printed out by a single student seemed to be between 500 and 600 pages.
So now we have a printing quota of 60 dollars. One page costs 10 cents and because Dickinson is obsessed with sustainability, the printers obviously print double sided. A double sided printed page costs 20 cents because it counts as 2 pages being printed out. Whatever, that is fine. However, a lot of my professors post readings online and I am down to about 20 dollars already and we are only one month into the semester. I would use my own printer but I am technologically challenged and can't figure out how to insert my own ink cartridges in my printer. (Mimi and I both tried for about half an hour and we couldn't figure it out together.) I was counting on my dad showing me how to do it on Parents' Weekend but my parents are no longer coming (which is fine, I'm going to be home the following weekend anyways, I just wish I had room to bring my printer with me so Papa could explain to me how the heck to make it work!) So this means sometime next week I have to go down to the HUB and add more money to my printing quota. I understand Dickinson is trying to promote sustainability but I really think this quota is unfair. I don't ever print out useless pieces of paper for my own entertainment, it's ALL academic related.
A lot of these changes are due to Dickinson's obsession with being a green campus (I mean we even have a College Farm!) but a lot of them are also due to the economic crisis. And whenever I think of the economic crisis, I start to think about the real world and what I am going to do after graduation. The consensus among my peers is that we don't talk about it, that we don't think about it but I know this is a huge lie. I know a lot of my classmates have already taken the GRE or are preparing to take the GRE (I signed up myself to take it in January) and are considering grad. schools/job interviews/Peace Corps/marriage.
And it's been on my mind a lot this week. I've been browsing the sites of the grad schools I might be interested in, trying to understand their application processes. The ones in Paris (yes ok, I am considering grad school in France even after a semester in Toulouse of non-academic productivity) really confuse me so I guess I know what I will be doing during my weekend home with Papa! I don't know if I am considered to be an international student in France if I have a French passport, it is quite the conundrum.
In case you are interested, I am considering getting a Master's in Translation/Interpretation. This is not a very common master so this dramatically reduces the number of grad schools I can apply to. Also my Spanish has suffered greatly after 8 months of non-use. I still understand it and can read it but my speaking skills have completely disappeared. This means I probably need to go immerse myself in a Spanish-speaking environment before I go off to grad school to translate Spanish.
I'm considering not going right back to school after graduation next May. What I will do for six months/a year is up in the air. I also don't know if I should apply to grad schools now and see where I can get in and ask the school to delay my admission. Or I could just wait until the 2011-2012 academic school year (when Hermana will be a senior in college, oh god.)
So yeah I have a lot of important decisions to make in the next couple of months. Any advice you would like to give me I will gladly take. I realize grad school isn't mandatory (and neither is college, but let's face it in the area I live in it's the norm for everyone to go to college) but it seems most people are going back to school during the financial crisis because there are no jobs out there.
And if you happen to know anyone who works in the translation field, please send his/her name along to me and contact info. I am trying to be proactive about this after enduring a whole summer of my parents nagging me about my future.
And that is basically my life. Study, work, eat, sleep but it's usually in a really strange order. And obviously Theta has been taking up a lot of my time now that I'm back on campus. I don't mind too much though, after a year being out of the loop it's nice to see all the girls again. Not to mention I'm on the Up til Dawn exec board, a French tutor, a Dreamcatchers mentor and I've been trying to avoid swine flu. The Purell bottles the health center has been sending to our mailboxes are greatly appreciated (by me in any case).
Oh and in between all that, like I said above I need to figure out my future.
Yeah I don't know how I'm going to survive this year either. Winter Break is only a little over 3 months away though so I'll hang in there until then.
And I keep thinking back to a year ago, I was enjoying the Malaga sunshine and still wearing t-shirts and flip flops at this time of year while sipping tinto de verano on the Mediterranean. Where did the time go?????
Ok I'm going to take a nap. It's Friday afternoon, so give me a break.
Amelie
PS. Forgot to mention last post that it was my 50th post! Well now it's my 51st! Cool.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
A Trip Across the World Does Not = A Solution to Your Problems.
I like to check Le Monde's website (one of France's most popular newspapers) every now and again to bring me up to speed on French news. I read a very interesting article today called "Ces syndromes qui frappent les touristes etrangers." (These syndromes that affect foreign tourists). Here is the link for those interested: http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2009/09/01/ces-syndromes-qui-frappent-les-touristes-etrangers_1234348_3224.html
Obviously it's in French, so if you can't read French, well sorry!
About a month ago some Russian lady threw a cup of tea at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. The painting is protected by bullet proof glass so the famous work of art suffered no damage at all. The Russian visitor was brought to a psychiatric hospital and was said not to possess all her mental faculties.
The article then goes into depth about Stendhal Syndrome, a disorder I've never even heard of. First coined in 1990, the syndrome is applied to people who are overcome with feelings of incredible emotion, usually brought about after visiting places of historical importance in the art world or just places with a powerful and emotional history. Places like Rome, Florence, India, and Israel which all are key locations in religious and art history apparently are hot spots for tourists who are diagnosed with this syndrome.
Honestly I think it's just extreme culture shock. There are many people out there predisposed to emotional imbalances and outbursts. Or people who just feel things more deeply and who become disturbed or upset when placed in locations they are unfamiliar with.
The article ends with very wise advice:
Dans tous les cas, on ne fuit pas ses démons et mieux vaut partir au mieux de sa forme plutôt que de croire que les voyages seront la solution à notre mal-être.
Translation: in any case, we should not flee our demons. It is better to leave one's country when one is in good physical and mental health, instead of thinking that a change of scenery will solve everything.
So true. Unless you want to find yourself running around the streets of India kissing cows or nearly drowning in the ocean because for some reason you have it in your head you must swim all the way back to your homeland, don't think that taking a trip is the miracle cure (both real cases according to the article). If you recall, a friend of mine in the Toulouse program ended up leaving in the middle of the semester. Being in France only exacerbated the issues she had been dealing with before she left home, to the point where she couldn't deal with it anymore.
So if you are considering traveling somewhere in order to escape your problems, please reconsider. All joking aside, I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through that kind of emotional or physical stress.
Going abroad isn't for the faint of heart. There are some people who just can't be away from home for a variety of reasons. Please consult a health professional if you have any doubts at all when it comes to your well-being.
I did experience awe and wonder at some of the places I visited and obviously culture shock, which was unavoidable. There were highs and lows. But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle, even though I was scared out of my mind when I arrived in Spain that first day.
I always encourage people to go abroad and I got frustrated in the past with people who showed no interest in traveling beyond their own backyard. However now I will think twice before harrassing someone about it. Going abroad isn't for everyone, just like eating green vegetables or solving mathematical problems isn't for everyone (specifically me).
So yeah, just thought I'd share this psychological aspect of traveling.
Now I'll go back to freaking out over my hectic college life and my future.
Amelie
Obviously it's in French, so if you can't read French, well sorry!
About a month ago some Russian lady threw a cup of tea at the Mona Lisa in the Louvre. The painting is protected by bullet proof glass so the famous work of art suffered no damage at all. The Russian visitor was brought to a psychiatric hospital and was said not to possess all her mental faculties.
The article then goes into depth about Stendhal Syndrome, a disorder I've never even heard of. First coined in 1990, the syndrome is applied to people who are overcome with feelings of incredible emotion, usually brought about after visiting places of historical importance in the art world or just places with a powerful and emotional history. Places like Rome, Florence, India, and Israel which all are key locations in religious and art history apparently are hot spots for tourists who are diagnosed with this syndrome.
Honestly I think it's just extreme culture shock. There are many people out there predisposed to emotional imbalances and outbursts. Or people who just feel things more deeply and who become disturbed or upset when placed in locations they are unfamiliar with.
The article ends with very wise advice:
Dans tous les cas, on ne fuit pas ses démons et mieux vaut partir au mieux de sa forme plutôt que de croire que les voyages seront la solution à notre mal-être.
Translation: in any case, we should not flee our demons. It is better to leave one's country when one is in good physical and mental health, instead of thinking that a change of scenery will solve everything.
So true. Unless you want to find yourself running around the streets of India kissing cows or nearly drowning in the ocean because for some reason you have it in your head you must swim all the way back to your homeland, don't think that taking a trip is the miracle cure (both real cases according to the article). If you recall, a friend of mine in the Toulouse program ended up leaving in the middle of the semester. Being in France only exacerbated the issues she had been dealing with before she left home, to the point where she couldn't deal with it anymore.
So if you are considering traveling somewhere in order to escape your problems, please reconsider. All joking aside, I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through that kind of emotional or physical stress.
Going abroad isn't for the faint of heart. There are some people who just can't be away from home for a variety of reasons. Please consult a health professional if you have any doubts at all when it comes to your well-being.
I did experience awe and wonder at some of the places I visited and obviously culture shock, which was unavoidable. There were highs and lows. But it wasn't anything I couldn't handle, even though I was scared out of my mind when I arrived in Spain that first day.
I always encourage people to go abroad and I got frustrated in the past with people who showed no interest in traveling beyond their own backyard. However now I will think twice before harrassing someone about it. Going abroad isn't for everyone, just like eating green vegetables or solving mathematical problems isn't for everyone (specifically me).
So yeah, just thought I'd share this psychological aspect of traveling.
Now I'll go back to freaking out over my hectic college life and my future.
Amelie
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
To all my fans in Plano, Texas
Dear Plano, TX reader,
Seriously who are you? The curiosity is killing me! Don't pretend like you don't check this blog frequently, I can tell thanks to the live Feedjit! Just post a comment or something, it's not that hard. You don't have to tell me who you are, just say hi or something.
And don't pretend to ignore this post yet continue to check this blog without acknowledging the fact I've dedicated an entire post to you. That would be rude.
I'm just very curious about the fact that you keep coming here regularly when I've made it clear that I won't be posting very much in the future since I'm no longer abroad. And I'm pretty sure it is the same person coming on here each time, unless some kind of fan club devoted to me has suddenly sprung up in Plano, Texas. I'm 99.9% sure that is not the case.
And I seriously don't know anybody in Texas except for some cousins once removed temporarily living in Houston.
So seriously, who are you? You like my blog that much?
Sincerely,
a very perplexed NY blogger
Seriously who are you? The curiosity is killing me! Don't pretend like you don't check this blog frequently, I can tell thanks to the live Feedjit! Just post a comment or something, it's not that hard. You don't have to tell me who you are, just say hi or something.
And don't pretend to ignore this post yet continue to check this blog without acknowledging the fact I've dedicated an entire post to you. That would be rude.
I'm just very curious about the fact that you keep coming here regularly when I've made it clear that I won't be posting very much in the future since I'm no longer abroad. And I'm pretty sure it is the same person coming on here each time, unless some kind of fan club devoted to me has suddenly sprung up in Plano, Texas. I'm 99.9% sure that is not the case.
And I seriously don't know anybody in Texas except for some cousins once removed temporarily living in Houston.
So seriously, who are you? You like my blog that much?
Sincerely,
a very perplexed NY blogger
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