19 December 2007
phew
DONE!
I can't completely fathom how much I produced in the last four days... an 18-page paper, a 5-page theory paper, 4 in-class essays. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh it's all over!
Now I'm just absorbing this reality and doing laundry, vacuuming, cleaning, running errands, spending the last night here with friends, and then I'm sleeping tonight for as long as possible.
17 December 2007
gooey
Big sigh. Don't really know where to start.
Quick update on the cold: it was a freaking BITCH. The night I wrote my last entry was the worst night of the whole thing... it was my third night of getting four hours of sleep. Luckily it started getting better on Thursday and I could sleep horizontally (and proceeded to sleep for twelve hours a night for the rest of the week), and things were pretty cleared up by Friday as predicted although I still sounded hoarse until today. I'm glad that our concert was two weekends ago and not this past one, or else I'd have been screwed for finals week.
What day is it? Was it? Monday. Right. I had my Music final today (not cumulative, easy). So that's done. I really didn't study for it at all and therefore BSed the whole thing, but he's an easy grader and I got an A on every other assignment so I'm not worried. This morning I also basically finished my agricultural subsidies paper for Politics in a Globalized Economy that is due tomorrow night. I went into the paper on Friday dreading doing the research, but I got more and more into it the further and further I learned about the topic; I'm really interested in things like the politics of food and natural resources. It ballooned from being about the US Farm Bill to incorporating NAFTA and the WTO, as well as Australia's model example and the current ethanol boom. Yes, lot's going on... but it IS all relevant! My paper is now a huge 18-pager (with 35 sources) and I'm sort of worried it might be a bit too long. But, sigh, I don't really know what to cut out, nor do I really want to cut anything out, so he's just going to have to read the whole damn thing (the syllabus says 15 pages). I'm proud of my baby, and it feels extra professional because I used Chicago style in order to utilize footnotes. Footnotes make everything look better.
So two classes down, two to go. Tomorrow is my American Politics final which will be just like the midterm: pretty routine... and I have a 4-6 page paper due Wednesday for Political Theory which I haven't even started. That was the plan for tonight... but I was so tired from spending 25 hours this weekend on the ag. subsidies paper that I just needed a quiet evening, so I reviewed my Am Pol notes and giggled with Eva about words we like and don't like (like: ethereal, aria, kernel; don't like foot, plastic, glue). I've been going up to the lounge at Harvey Mudd to study for the last couple weeks, because it's a cross between a library and a cafe: it has lovely large leather chairs and is a place to study and talk quietly, but people are often moving through the room and there a free espresso machine. Also, there are lots of cute guys who keep me mentally sane.
I'm quite ambivalent about going not really wanting to go home. Near the end of each semester my friends and I all bond together and I love the fun things we do and caffeine-crazed conversations we have as we all cram for finals. I love that my relationship with each of my friends continues to evolve and deepen over the course of college. They are the best girls. I have the best conversations with them, and they are all so different that there is always someone up for something. So I don't really want to leave! I also don't like my routine being disrupted, nor do I like being thrust from one life into another, especially for so long. Four weeks is way long. I also don't really want to have to undertake the five-hour drive for the sixth time this semester, and I don't want to pack. But once I'm home and the holiday obligations are over, it will be nice to have lots of time to read books for fun, and exercise every day and get as much sleep as is necessary to make up for this week of late nights. And it will be even sweeter coming back all fresh and ready for spring... for more conversations and enlightening classes and cute guys at Mudd.
I can't believe Christmas is in... a week! And that its almost 2008. Where has the year gone?
12 December 2007
fidelis
So my friend in choir gave me her cold, which was bound to happen since we spent ten hours together last week at rehearsals for the concert. I woke up Saturday morning with a slightly sore throat and knew, I just knew things would only get worse. And they did. Today is what... day four? Definitely the worst yet. My throat is now ragged. I can't breathe through my nose. My hearing capability waxes and wanes throughout the day. I have terrible and constant sinus pressure for which I feel like inserting a needle into my nose just to let it all escape. I also have a relentless headache, and my head basically feels like a huge bowling ball sitting atop a flower stem. It just wants to flop over and lie down... but then I really can't breathe. I don't have the energy or stamina to work out, so I feel like a bloated pig. Sleeping has been near impossible since I have to sit upright in order to relax enough, but it still doesn't really work. I basically have to wait until I'm so exhausted that my body simply shuts down for a few hours. It's now 12:20am... and I desperately want sleep but it's going to be a while until I'm at the physical breakdown point. So I drowning my woes with chamomile honey tea, Ricola cough drops, and dark chocolate. I also am grudgingly doing research for my Farm Bill 2007 paper due next Tuesday since there's only so much dillydallying one can do on the Internet at midnight. I'm listening to Gregorian chant, which is soothing and a nice respite from my iTunes Party Shuffle, which seems to have shuffled so much that it's back at shuffle list number one.
It's also FREEZING in Southern California right now. I mean, like dry mountain cold, like in Colorado in ski season - it shrivels the lungs, numbs the fingers, tears up the eyes. Especially after the sun goes down. It's also been pouring every few nights and occasionally during the day as well. Rain, clouds and cold... mmmmmm lovely! However, I hear that it's actually colder in Scottsdale. Whenever it's like this (for the few weeks of the year) I wonder how I could ever live anywhere but the sunny southwest. Really, I'm such a wimp now. It only turned this cold a few days ago, but I'm already excited for warmth to return. Lame! I think I just like winter in theory. We'll see what the future bodes for this thin-blooded woman.
Anything else? Ah, yes, more complaining. My Tylenol Cold Multi-Symptom SEVERE (it's in caps on the box) isn't doing a damn thing. I might as well not even take it, except that the pills are sweet when they sit on your tongue and I kind of like that. I've also consumed an entire packet of Ricola cough drops in twenty-four hours. Pure sugar, but nice natural herbal sugar, right? Right. Getting through four hours of class today was pretty difficult since I was sniffling and downing water the whole time, but apart from an hour tomorrow and Thursday I'm done with actual class. I have two papers (one 15 p., one 6) due next Tuesday, and an exam Monday (easy) and Tuesday (moderate). So not terrible, although it'll help if my body kicks this virus in the ass by the weekend so I can actually write and study in peace.
Seven days.
Me the other week, pre-hair dying and pre-cold. Considering that when Eva smiles her eyes do scrunch up into slits and that Carolyn often looks quite unconvinced, I think they both look quite natural.
08 December 2007
crackle
The Christmas spirit is invading my life and I am quite pleased. It's gotten colder, there are only ten days left before I go home, and Harvey Mudd has Christmas lights on the trees in the dining hall. Unfortunately this doesn't put me in the best frame of mind to write papers on illegal immigration and agricultural subsidies, and that needs to happen before I can fully enjoy Christmas. I hate that by the time I'm home, there's only a week before Christmas and all the "pre-Christmas" festivities are almost over. December is probably my favorite month just because of the warm memories I associate with it: my mom hanging up Christmas cards and baking mince meat pies, my Dad and brother pulling in a gigantic tree from the car roof, my siblings and I wrapping up presents on the floor in my parent's bedroom, groaning about but also secretly enjoying the traditional Christmas choral music my parents insist on playing, decorating the tree with ornaments that all have old memories attached to them, seeing our stockings lying by the fireplace, singing carols at the Christmas Eve service, the beautiful feast of food for lunch on Christmas Day, christmas crackers, the English Christmas cake made by my mom in November and left wrapped up in the cupboard to mature, champagne, forced family photos, and dressing up for the holiday party at the Ciarfalias.
Last night the choir performed our holiday concert and it was a great success. Leonard Bernstein's Chichester Psalms were a highlight, but all the pieces were beautiful and our conductor looked ecstatic. Paul the organist was crying at the end. Right now I'm listening to "An English Christmas Collection" online through the Naxos Music Library subscription that the colleges have and it's just gorgeous, and now I don't want to do anything except decorate the house, string up lights, and roast a whole chicken and potatoes.
Speaking of roast chicken, I've started buying raw chicken breast cutlets from the grocery store and broiling them on a cookie sheet in the dorm kitchen... because it tastes much better than the oily grilled chicken that the dining hall provides. I keep them in a ziploc bag in the fridge and then have a delicious snack or addition to a salad. Today I rubbed them with lemon juice, salt and pepper and they were beautifully browned around the edges and all sizzley when I took them out. I've also started to make "tuna peppers" by mixing a can of tuna with chopped celery and a little bit of mayonnaise, putting it in the open halves of a bell pepper and broiling for five minutes. Oh, and the other day I made salmon cakes by mixing canned wild salmon with some rolled oats, diced onion an egg, shaping it into two patties and roasting it for a bit. I cook sweet potatoes in the microwave and top them with cheddar cheese and salsa. I make scrambled egg whites with chopped sundried tomatoes and bell pepper. And with my blender I make delicious smoothies with plain yogurt and fresh raspberries and blueberries. So yeah, I've basically become self-sufficient in terms of food, although I still use the dining hall for veggies and fruits. I'm quite proud that with only a metal bowl, teflon pan, cutting board, spatula, knife, baking tray, minifridge and microwave I've been able to make real food in a dorm without too much hassle. Mmmm, I think next time I'm at Sprouts I'm going to buy brussel sprouts and roast them with sea salt and olive oil.
02 December 2007
torpedo
Ack, I can't believe it's December. Only two weeks left until Christmas break! As I drove back after Thanksgiving I had resigned myself to a frantic end of the semester... but my final exams and papers have somehow been magically divided equally among the next two weeks and the huge amount of work that needed to be done is being cut into nice sizable portions. So I'm not freaking out anymore, and just getting on assignments as they come around. I think it will be a relatively painless end of the semester.
I register for classes on Wednesday. This is what I'm taking in the spring:
I hope Water in the West is cool. Since several people have been confused about the title, I'll just explain that its a history class about the history of water rights/use in the Western US. It's a once-a-week seminar at Pomona and that school is basically always top-notch, so I think it'll be a good class. I love learning about the history of the West, and since I live in Arizona, go to college in California, and want to work in urban planning somewhere in the Western US, being knowledgeable about water issues seems quite pertinent.
My mom has requested my Christmas list and I still have no idea what I want. I don't need anything, really. I mean, I always like books and music but I'd rather just pick them myself when I discover something that seems interesting. Getting a bunch of gift certificates for Christmas kind of sucks, though. I'd sort of like a magazine subscription to a women's health magazine, but from the reviews on Amazon, there seem to be two categories of magazines: "fluff" and "hardcore". I'm not a bodybuilder and don't drink protein shakes, but I don't want sex tips that burn calories and pictures of bikini-clad models on a beach demonstrating how to perform lunges. Meh, I just don't care about presents anymore... now that I'm away in college the nicest thing about Christmas is being with my family. That's all I need. Boring, but true.
Over Thanksgiving break I kind of really got into college football. My dad and I watched like four games, and by the end of the holiday I'd gotten a basic grasp of the rules. I once dismissed it as America's padded version of rugby, the real man's sport, but I've come to appreciate football in its own way. It would be nice to have a nationally-ranked team and go to games and cheer on those strapping young men who represent your college. Maybe for graduate school?
Speaking of football, have you ever seen so many blond guys together in one place? Can you guess which state they are from?
[Taken from an article in the NYTimes about high school football].