It’s almost here…

the end of the semester, the end of freshman year. Sorry for the severe lack of updates since after Spring Break, but it has been just a relentless amount of work, activities, life in general.

We’re one week into the finals period, two days into the exam schedule. I just had my first exam yesterday and a paper, both at 9AM. Next week I have my Latin exam on Monday, Astro on Wednesday, Rome on Thursday, and my final paper for Rome due by the end of the week.

All the while I’m trying to pack up my life essentially so that I can move out next weekend.

What a dreary Friday to mark the occcasion. But I’d rather have this than beautiful weather so that a. I’ll be less tempted to spend all my time doing nothing outside, and b. so that when I’m inside working I won’t feel bad wasting the sunshine.

So, I’m still alive…

I’ve been MIA on this blog for so long that it seems wrong to have such a brief post.  my apologies.

I am well and surviving the final stretch of this semester. 2.5 weeks of classes left, then finals, and that’s the end of my first year of college. crazy.

anyways, since this blog is supposed to be for Swarthmore, I’d like to say that I”m excited to meet everyone and anyone at RIde the Tide tomorrow/Friday.  I hope Swat is everything you expect it to be and more.

American Idol Butchers The Beatles…

What is this, the year that everyone decided to ruin Beatles classics?  First it was Across the Universe, and now American Idol? 

Alright, so maybe I shouldn’t be watching American Idol in the first place, but I don’t have cable here, and even with the local channels the program selection is pretty slim pickings.  So I watched the twelve remaining contestants do some not so great justice to Beatles classics such as We Can Work it Out, Eight Days a Week, and I Saw Her Standing There, all of which landed the singers in the bottom three, with David Hernandez getting booted last night for the last song.  Personally I thought the country-fied rendition of Eight Days a Week was just absolutely awful, but I guess America just can’t resist cute ditzy blondes.

And god, the group medley at the start of last night’s show…that’s reason enough that The Beatles should’ve never sold the copyrights to their songs.

Greetings from Pittsburgh!

So I’ve been on Spring Break since last Friday, and I’ve been here in Pittsburgh visiting my dad since Sunday. 

I never thought that I would have needed a break this badly, but the two weeks leading up to Spring Break were about some of the most trying days I’ve had in a while, not really because of Swarthmore, although the ridiculous amount of work I had made it all the more overwhelming. 

So I’ve been taking it easy over break…watching Arrested Development, reading some David Sedaris, dining on some girl scout cookies.  Hopefully by the time I get back to school, I’ll be refocused and ready to work for the rest of the semester.  It’s also crazy though that when we get back from Spring Break there will be 2 weeks left in March, and then it’s April!  And then once April is over, classes are over, and then it’s the end of the semester, and the end of freshman year.  It’s crazy how fast time is passing by…

p.s. it amuses me that I’m on the Swarthmore homepage again…especially because I had no idea that that picture was taken of me.

Has it really been over two weeks?

Time this semester has gone by incredibly fast.  I really can’t believe that it has already been two weeks since I’ve last posted anything on this blog.  So get ready for a post packed with everything I’ve been up to since the last post.

Friday, February 15th, was my friend Alex’s birthday and we went into the city to have dinner at Farmicia: Food and Tonics.  The food was delicious, but getting service/served for 13 people took FOREVER, and so two of my friends and I ended up leaving dinner early because we had to get back to Swat by 9/9:30ish to make it to our friend’s band’s performance at Da Vinci’s Cafe in the Ville (across the train tracks from campus).  The cab fare was expensive, but it was worth it, because his band was incredible.

Saturday, February 16th marked the return of Time to Get Obnoxious to WSRN FM 91.5.  I’m pretty sure we didn’t have a theme for the show, but I think a lot of what I picked to play was lazy-Sunday-stay-in-bed-music. 

The next week, it finally snowed again at Swat!  I feel like every year around my birthday it has always snowed, and the campus looked absolutely gorgeous.

Speaking of polaroids, I CAN NOT believe that they aren’t going to be in production anymore.  I guess now’s the time to stock up on as many film catridges as I can.

Friday night was an “American Astronaut” (based on the movie) themed party at the Barn, an off-campus apartment.  It was at this party that I took one of my favorite pictures ever:

Saturday, February 23rd, my birthday!  One year older and I feel like…it’s weird that I won’t be in the teens next year? 

Margaret Cho performed at Swat that night, and it was absolutely incredible to see her in person.

Saturday evening was the night of a cherished Swarthmore tradition: Screw Your Roomate.  Basically what happens is that roomates set each other up with a blind date.  They dress each other up in ridiculous costumes that are paired with their dates, and then go to the dining hall to try and find their date/have dinner together.  Then at night there is a dance/formal and good times had by all (and a lot of ditching of Screw dates). 

Sunday was the Oscars!  I’m incredibly happy that Old Country for No Men sweeped, especially because they were robbed at the Golden Globes by Atonement.

This past week was terribleee for me.  I didn’t sleep earlier than 3:30 everynight, but I would get up at around 7/8 in the morning every day.  As for the weekend, there was a show at Kitao Gallery (the student art gallery on campus) titled “Entropy” in which I had some of my photos showcased:

Mostly it was just pictures that I had messed up from my first roll of film from my Lomo Fisheye camera, but here’s one that I actually do like a lot.  It features one of my favorite trees at Swat:

 

Saturday night the band Saturday Looks Good to Me played at Olde Club.  Apparently they have a huge fan base at Swat, and I thought they were pretty good live, but not great. 

And that brings us now to Sunday night.  I’m exhausted, I’ve had a sinus infection all week, and this upcoming week is going to be absolute hell for me.  I have a lab due on Tuesday, and two midterms + a paper due on Thursday.  I actually cannot wait for Spring break to come this Friday…let’s just hope I don’t strangle myself before them.

Oh yeah, also, there’s a mouse in our room!  oy vey oy vey oy vey.

It is TREACHEROUS out there…

seriously, I almost fell at least 7-8 times on my way walking back from the Science Center.  In all my years living in PA, I don’t think I’ve ever seen anything as strange as this: is it sleet, snow, freezing rain?  I’m not quite sure…all I know is that I’m glad I’m not the girl who wiped out and got a bloody nose walking up the hill behind the library. 

So I’m all better from the flu now, although I’m still pretty congested/have a cough.  But still, that’s about 10293102983 times better than not being able to get out of bed and thinking you’re going to just pass out and die.

In college news, Alex and I are back for a second a semester of Time to Get Obnoxious, our radio show for WSRN 91.5 FM, Swarthmore’s fiercely independent radio station.  We have a much improved time slot this semester: 12-1 PM on Saturday afternoon/noon.  You can listen live on the radio, or via the website (which isn’t up right now, but will hopefully be up by the second show).  Or you can download the podcast, which will be available as soon as the site is up and running again.

I’m sick with the flu…

yep.  a lot of people are sick–the flu has been spreading around–and it’s absolutely terrible.  Between yesterday and today, I’ve stayed awake for maybe a collective 11 hours. 

Unfortunately, this is a terrible week for me to be sick.  I have a paper and a lab due tomorrow, and I’m just incredibly behind with everything. 

this is pretty much the extent of energy I can put into this post, which is sad because I haven’t posted in a while, and judging from how I’m feeling right now it’ll probably be another lull before I post again.

So it’s the weekend again…

it is absolutely disgusting out today.  weather.com said that it’s a high of 50 today, but I don’t believe it.  it’s windy, it’s freezing, it’s downpour-ing…all I want to do is curl up in my bed all day with some David Sedaris stories and a hot cup of tea.

I also missed the season 4 premier of Lost last night.  it’s weird because when the season ended last summer, I thought that this moment would NEVER come, but well, here it is.  hopefully ABC.com already uploaded it so that I can watch it ASAP.

I feel like a slob right now.  My room’s an absolute mess and I need to do laundry desperately, but somehow I feel that I’ll end up putting all of that off til next week anyways.

It’s not that I’ve forgotten…

about this blog, I’ve just been busy.  Busy, and a little overwhelmed, but not all the time.  But that might be also because all of my classes are clustered on Tuesday/Thursday.  Oh well, an almost four-day weekend is pretty nice.

So I’ve settled on my classes…I’m now taking:

Latin MF 9:30-10:20, T/Th 9-9:45

Intro to Astronomy T/Th 9:55-11:10, with lab from 8-11 PM on Tuesday.

American Lit. Survey T/Th 11:20-12:35

Rome and Late Antiquity T/Th 2:40-3:55

Aerobics M/W 5-6:30

So I don’t have class on Wednesday, and only one class M/F, which is really nice, but it does make my Tuesday/Thursdays hell.  I’m pretty satisfied with my classes, although Rome and Late Antiquity is probably going to make me want to kill myself a few times.  I have a paper due February 3rd, in exactly one week.  Add/drop for classes doesn’t even end until Friday!

Aerobics is amazing. 

Last Friday I went into the town of Media via the Septa R3 line to have lunch/buy art supplies with my friend.  Who knew there were so many restaurants there!  We ate at this pan-asian place classed Azie (I think that’s how it was spelled, I don’t really remember).  The decor was pretty modern and nice, and the seats were extremely comfortable because they were basically modern ikea-esque looking armchairs.  I really enjoyed the plating of the food…I wish I had taken a picture.  Oh, and they had wasabi mashed potatoes, which means I no longer have to go to Pod or Buddakan for them (although Azie’s mashed potatoes were a bit on the strong side).

In other news I’ve started an ebay account, which is probably very bad for a) my bank account, b) my grades, and c) my already overflowing closet.

I’m in a crisis…

So instead of trying to get my life together to start classes tomorrow, I spent the entire day lounging around doing nothing with friends.  It was great to be reunited, but wow am I not prepared for classes to begin.

So I basically had a crisis last week where I decided that I can’t major in history.  Well, it’s not that I can’t major in history, but that if I want to get certified for teaching history, then I’ll have to stay here instead of going abroad junior year, because that’s when 3 of the required classes to get certified are being offered.  Doesn’t that just suck?  So basically I’m back to plan A, which is to get certified in English education.  But now my schedule is just a mess.

On Monday I have Latin from 9:30-10:20.  And now I”m remembering that I did not keep up with retaining what I learned first semester in Latin.  Which means that I’m screwed for tomorrow…oh well.  Then I’m going to “shop” the seminar Transitions to Capitlism from 1:15-4, which basically means that I didn’t pre-register for the class, but I’m going to sit in on it to see if I want to add it while I can during the add/drop period (the first two weeks of the semester).  Then I have aerobics from 5-6:30.  Yup, aerobics, for an hour and a half.  Ridiculous I know, and I have it again on Wednesday, for the entire semester.

Tuesday/Thursdays I have Latin from 9-9:45, Astro from 9:55-11:10 (instead of Modern China, which I looked at the reading list and was overwhelmed, thus triggering my crisis on rescheduling my classes), and then American Lit Core Survey from 11:20-12:35 (which has about 15 books on the reading list).  Then I’m signed up for Rome in Late Antiquity for 2:40-3:55, but I think I’m going to take the class on Dostoevsky instead if I’m too overwhelmed by the workload in that class.  I’ll also have Astro lab every other week from 8-11 PM on Tuesday night.

On Wednesday I’m going to shop Eng. Renaissance Lit Core Survey seminar from 1:15-4, and then I’ll have aerobics again from 5-6:30 PM. 

On Friday I luckily only have one class, Latin from 9:30-10:20 AM.

This is going to be a busy week.