No organization on this post whatsoever. Just things that I've liked/disliked about the week.
LIKED:
- An A on my first paper for my LAS!
- An A on my first test for Psych!
- Hanging out with my awesome friends in room 222!
- New Bible study called Atta Ha'eesh (You The Man) led by that one guy who is involved in everything. We're going to watch a Paul Washer sermon next week. I'm excited.
- First Wesley Service Scholar meeting. Not bad.
- Cornerstone youth group
- My paper for LAS is almost done, just have to do the Works Cited page.
- Doing almost a whole day of service at the United Way food drive (tomorrow, actually)
- Humans vs. Zombies game starts next week!
- Discovering the Grill Express actually has pretty decent food. Only problem is they don't serve milk with the meals.
- Talking in Spanish with the TA from Argentina and actually understanding and being understood!
- I'm not sick! No H1N1 or MRSA for me this week.
- Family is coming on Sunday!
- Revelation Singers and awesome Campus Worship!
- Discovering that my floormate who also scored the Duffy Obama poster has Skype!
- Discussing controversial topics in LAS- it's fun.
DISLIKED:
- My dorm room door is broken! It doesn't always lock, and it's the weekend, and the earliest it will get fixed is probably Monday. Bah. I just have to be extra careful and make sure it locks when I leave. (No way to tell if it is locked from the inside.)
- The Achilles Fly in room 222 that wouldn't leave me alone.
- Realizing that I am out of shape. And gaining weight. I did do some exercise tonight, and I'm going to do some every night from now on (Hold me to that!), and I am going to start my dance classes soon, so I will be ok.
- I had a case of writer's block with my second LAS paper. But it is almost done!
- Missing the research project I signed up for because I took a nap. On the plus side, that nap was really good.
All in all, it's been a pretty good week. I can't really complain. I'm enjoying it, and I am looking forward to seeing Mom, Dad, and Grandma this Sunday. :)
Friday, September 25, 2009
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday Newsday
Timestamp says this morning because I started the post this morning. It's really around 8:00 p.m.
I really don't have much to talk about.
Monday's LAS class was fairly similar to last Friday's class except the actual professor taught, but we talked about the same things as Friday. Claims, warrants, and reasons. Not a difficult concept.
Psychology had a 60 question multiple choice test. I am fairly certain I passed it.
Spanish class was different. We analyzed news articles in Spanish and we analyzed a poem in Spanglish. It was pretty fun actually but rather difficult for me because I just do not have a big vocabulary in Spanish.
English was boring. I wouldn't usually say that but this time it was not very engaging. We were pre-writing for our essays, and we were following the questions in the book, and I tried to take the time she gave us for each question. It just was too much time for me because I would complete the task quickly. And I was tired too, and it was difficult to stay awake. Not a good experience, but we got out early, and there's no class Friday and Monday.
I did my psych and LAS homework and then I hung out with my floormates. There's nothing that is of major interest to blog readers there; we just talk and behave like girls our age do.
My roomie and I filled out the roommate contract. Pretty simple and we had no major conflicts about it.
Today I got up and went to the coffee shop where I actually got to make some coffee and a shot of espresso! Gasp!!
I went to the Study Abroad Fair and I really want to go to Argentina or Spain. A country that is Spanish-speaking would be a plus for my Spanish minor experience. Besides, college in Argentina costs next to nothing, according to the TA for my Spanish class. She should know since she is from Buenos Aires! :)
I finished my homework this afternoon and read four newspapers. One of the girls and I were chatting about our respective high schools, and so I showed her the senior video. She thought it was pretty good. :)
I have Bible study in about an hour, so I think I will read for a while. I feel pretty settled-in now that I have cooked steak on a pizza pan, learned the combo to my girlfriends' room, and spoken with the cleaning lady about how contacts feel.
I really don't have much to talk about.
Monday's LAS class was fairly similar to last Friday's class except the actual professor taught, but we talked about the same things as Friday. Claims, warrants, and reasons. Not a difficult concept.
Psychology had a 60 question multiple choice test. I am fairly certain I passed it.
Spanish class was different. We analyzed news articles in Spanish and we analyzed a poem in Spanglish. It was pretty fun actually but rather difficult for me because I just do not have a big vocabulary in Spanish.
English was boring. I wouldn't usually say that but this time it was not very engaging. We were pre-writing for our essays, and we were following the questions in the book, and I tried to take the time she gave us for each question. It just was too much time for me because I would complete the task quickly. And I was tired too, and it was difficult to stay awake. Not a good experience, but we got out early, and there's no class Friday and Monday.
I did my psych and LAS homework and then I hung out with my floormates. There's nothing that is of major interest to blog readers there; we just talk and behave like girls our age do.
My roomie and I filled out the roommate contract. Pretty simple and we had no major conflicts about it.
Today I got up and went to the coffee shop where I actually got to make some coffee and a shot of espresso! Gasp!!
I went to the Study Abroad Fair and I really want to go to Argentina or Spain. A country that is Spanish-speaking would be a plus for my Spanish minor experience. Besides, college in Argentina costs next to nothing, according to the TA for my Spanish class. She should know since she is from Buenos Aires! :)
I finished my homework this afternoon and read four newspapers. One of the girls and I were chatting about our respective high schools, and so I showed her the senior video. She thought it was pretty good. :)
I have Bible study in about an hour, so I think I will read for a while. I feel pretty settled-in now that I have cooked steak on a pizza pan, learned the combo to my girlfriends' room, and spoken with the cleaning lady about how contacts feel.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Steak!
Yesterday, my girlfriend and I decided we were sick of Pfeiffer food. In the early afternoon, we went down to Hy-Vee by way of Moats Park (a playground with the most awesome equipment ever!) to get some food to have for supper. It turned out that we discovered a Hy-Vee deal that we could get 3 palm-sized steaks for $4. We both are meat eaters, so we decided that she'd buy the meat and I'd buy the seasoning. We returned to our rooms after our purchases and spent time doing homework and watching TV and talking in her room.
Finally, we decided we were hungry and it was time to make the steak. I pulled out my pizza pan and a knife while she brought a fork and plates, and we went into the little kitchen. (This kitchen is not much bigger than the average bathroom, and it has a stove, sink, and microwave. There are no utensils or anything.) I slapped the steaks onto the pizza pan, and we cooked them on the biggest burner there was. Once the steaks started to get done, I made Parmesan couscous from a box. The steaks finished cooking and we put them onto a plate, nearly drooling at the sight and smell of Real Meat. She scrubbed my pizza pan because there was a considerable amount of black charring on it, and when she flipped it over to rinse it, we discovered a scorch mark from the burner. No big deal. We went back to her room and I cut each steak in half so we could each have similar taste experiences. We divided the couscous and then, we ate.
To say that it was a pleasurable experience would not be a lie. That steak tasted so very delicious, savory, with the right combination of seasoning, meat flavor, and juiciness. It was like manna from heaven, it was so wonderful. It's making me nearly drool to remember it!
Finally, we decided we were hungry and it was time to make the steak. I pulled out my pizza pan and a knife while she brought a fork and plates, and we went into the little kitchen. (This kitchen is not much bigger than the average bathroom, and it has a stove, sink, and microwave. There are no utensils or anything.) I slapped the steaks onto the pizza pan, and we cooked them on the biggest burner there was. Once the steaks started to get done, I made Parmesan couscous from a box. The steaks finished cooking and we put them onto a plate, nearly drooling at the sight and smell of Real Meat. She scrubbed my pizza pan because there was a considerable amount of black charring on it, and when she flipped it over to rinse it, we discovered a scorch mark from the burner. No big deal. We went back to her room and I cut each steak in half so we could each have similar taste experiences. We divided the couscous and then, we ate.
To say that it was a pleasurable experience would not be a lie. That steak tasted so very delicious, savory, with the right combination of seasoning, meat flavor, and juiciness. It was like manna from heaven, it was so wonderful. It's making me nearly drool to remember it!
Friday, September 18, 2009
I'm Back!
As usual, don't believe the timestamp on this post. It's 1:23 A.M. right now. And this post is EXTRA long since it's been about 5 days since I posted.
I got my computer back yesterday morning (Thursday), and boy am I happy about that. It's just not as comfortable to use a school computer. I feel more like "Big Brother is watching" when I am on a school computer, even though I know they can monitor this one too.
Let's see, what was the last day I posted about? Sunday? So, I should talk about Monday. To be honest, the week gets so full so quickly I don't remember much of what happened. Good thing I put the date on my class notes!
LAS was a continuation of understanding certain things in the textbook, so I won't bore you with the details of structuring arguments.
In Psychology we discussed the anatomy of the human brain, which was pretty dry and sleepiness-inducing. That all changed when the professor opened up a 5-gallon bucket and showed us what was inside: a real human brain that had been donated to science. He picked up the two pieces (two parts of the right hemisphere) and showed them to us, and he gave us the opportunity to hold the brain pieces. Only 4 of us did, myself included (there are 25 people in the class, I estimate). It was really cool. I wondered a little bit about who the person was that the brain had belonged to. Of course, the professor couldn't tell us, but it was still fascinating to see an actual human brain.
In Spanish, the TA gave a presentation about immigration in her country, Argentina. She caused jealousy when she told us that public college education in Argentina is FREE! Private college education is inexpensive as well, only about $100/month. So, guess where I want to study abroad? haha.
English was just note-taking over things that any high school junior or senior would know, so I'm not going to bore you with those details either.
Tuesday, I got up and went to the doctor for a follow-up on my ear infection. It feels better, but he told me it still looks pretty nasty in the canal. He told me to keep using the ear drops and to come back and see him in 2 weeks (we had to change that to 3 because he isn't going to be in the office in 2 weeks), and if the ear was not any prettier then, he would refer me to the ENT because it could be fungus-related. No fun guy jokes please. Anyway, I had to order a refill on the ear drops because I will run out tomorrow, and I haven't picked it up yet because I've forgotten.
I took my computer in to the IT folks and began to suffer withdrawals. (I'm joking.)
Not much else happened on Tuesday other than I did homework and volunteered in the coffee shop where I met a commuter student who was a mom and a pre-med major. She was nice to me and we chit-chatted. At the end of the day I went to Cornerstone, the youth group for freshmen. We decided we are going to go to Wesley Woods and do the high ropes course October 11th. I'm excited.
Wednesday I started working on my paper after discussing it on Tuesday with my professor (who also happens to be my advisor).
In LAS we discussed the problems with using analogies to make arguments. We spent the entire 50 minutes talking about the watch analogy for proving intelligent design. The professor concluded that the watch analogy breaks down for the proponents of intelligent design. He said that the people who are arguing for intelligent design usually want there to be only one designer, and that we cannot reasonably conclude that there is only one designer, if there is a designer. In my own opinion, some things just have to be taken on faith. I believe that there is one designer and that is God.
In Psychology we discussed child development in terms of Piaget's stage theory. Then we discussed the errors/fallacies in Piaget's theory, and then class was over.
Spanish was a game day. We had memory, pictionary, and charades. I never won but I did have fun anyway.
In English we discussed the professor's favorite topic: Show, don't tell. We also went over an essay by Annie Dillard called An American Childhood which was about an experience she had with a man who wouldn't give up chasing her in order to chew her out for throwing an iceball at his car.
In the evening, we had a debate for Constitution Day over the constitutionality of gay marriage. The gay man won, I think. He certainly presented his arguments clearly, precisely, and with proper emotion. The other man, who was a Christian, kept bringing up the phrase "procreation potential" in reference to hetero marriage. He tended to polarize the audience against him because he was repetitive and his arguments were flawed (one such flaw was he argued that gay marriage caused lower rates of marriage and childbearing in the Netherlands after it was legalized there. Correlation does NOT equal causation!)
However, the Christian made a point that I will share with you: The problem people have with gay marriage is the word marriage. The power and the history and the meaning of that word, to most people, means one man and one woman bonded. It's not that people want to keep rights away from gays, it's that they want the meaning of marriage to remain the same. I'm all for equal rights but I don't think the word should be corrupted to mean two men or two women. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin. I do not judge you if you are not straight, but I do hate your sin. Disagree with me if you like, but please be polite about it.
Thursday I worked on my paper all day until about 3:00 when I went to help with Warren County Habitat for Humanity. We sodded a yard for a new house. It was a small yard, the sod was dry, there were about 10 of us doing the work, and so it went quickly. We found a Sphinx Moth that had just hatched. It had shriveled-up wings and a large body. By the time we left it had pumped up its wings in order to be ready to fly.
There was another Forum event, this time featuring Brian Duffy, the former editorial cartoonist for The Des Moines Register. He talked about what it is like to be in a dying industry, and about how he got canned from a 25-year stint at the Register. He showed us his static cartoons, and some animated cartoons that he is doing for KCCI, the local TV station. Then he closed out his talk with a question and answer session, and as he answered questions, he drew caricatures of famous political people. The first he drew was Obama, and he also drew Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Glenn, Arnold Schwartznegger (spelling?!), Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. After he finished, a girl from my floor and I both were interested in the caricature of Obama, and we waited in line to talk to Duffy. We let him know we were interested in the Obama caricature, and I said I didn't have to have it, I'd take a different one, but he drew an Obama just for me! I thought that was pretty cool. Also, Obama's position on Kanye West is definitely one that both liberals and conservatives can agree on. ;)
Today has been the same kind of day as Wednesday. I turned in my paper and the LAS class got out early because the professor was gone with his kids (they're twins, 17 years old).
Psychology was a continuation of development using Erik Erikson's theory of development and somebody else's theory of morality. We had an exercise on morality in terms of cheating on a final. Fairly interesting and it ended up that we had more reasons to cheat than to not cheat! Don't worry, I will not be cheating at any time.
Spanish was a continuation of game day and I still didn't win, but I did learn that the TA's handwriting is tricky.
English was a discussion of narration and narration techniques. Things I already knew, but then we had time for listening to our peers read what they had written. My one girlfriend who is in the same class made me laugh with her story about victory over spiders.
This evening was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and RLC's interfaith division sponsored a meal with a Jewish math professor. The food was good and I don't remember any of the Hebrew names for the food. There was a sweet carrot stew, raisin-nut bread, pitas, hummus, cucumber, tomato/pepper, pomegranate seeds, dates, honey-cake, apple, and grape juice. There was wine but I didn't drink any during the ceremony for Shabbat (the Sabbath). The professor's home was pretty and simple; so far she and her husband have not gotten moved in quite yet. I'm jealous of the heated tile in her bathroom, though. We got to see their marriage license. It was written in both Hebrew and English. It's gorgeous- truly a work of art. She had a canopy (Fiddler on the Roof will help you understand) and this canopy was handmade for her of a similar design as the buildings and colors used on the marriage license. Very beautiful.
After we ate, the professor's in-laws showed up, and we left to get to the service, which started at 8:00. The temple is Reform, so we could sit where we wanted; women were not segregated from the men. They even had a female cantor and a female speaker! However, the rabbi and his helper were both male.
The service began with the cantor walking in, singing a capella. She had a beautiful voice, haunting and clear. Then there was the lighting of 3 candles, and a blessing. After that I don't recall clearly but there was standing up, sitting, Hebrew prayer, Hebrew songs (Lots of them, by the cantor and a recorded male voice- wonderful combination), opening and closing of the Ark with the Torah inside, a sermon by the rabbi (in English- he referenced Fiddler on the Roof! Woo!), and a final song that was written in transliterated Hebrew so we Gentiles could sing along. The service was an hour and 40 minutes long and they gave us candy at the end for a sweet new year. :)
Some things I noticed about my surroundings: the pews were segregated by little walls of wood- each person had a compartment! Most of the men wore the yarmulkes but not all, since some of us were Gentiles from RLC. They had little baskets of white yarmulkes in case the men forgot. Women were dressed fairly conservatively but in nothing that was particularly memorable; no head coverings or things like that. There were these poles in front, and I kept trying to figure out the significance of the poles, and then I realized that they were Bose speakers... Needless to say I felt kind of dumb. There was a cupola at the top with a gigantic chandelier made with stained glass hanging from it. The Ark was built into the wall, covered with beautiful wood, and inside were silver objects (I am not sure what they were, couldn't see them very well through the white translucent veil). Ornate decorations covered much of the ceiling and upper walls. The lectern had 5 microphones attached to it! I was wondering if there was going to be a press conference. :p On the front walls there were menorahs with light bulbs instead of candles. They had an "eternal flame" in honor of the dead, much like Catholics. It is now 5770 for the Jewish calendar.
Well, that's what happened for this week. This is BRIEF. Leave comments for clarification and I will try to answer. :)
I got my computer back yesterday morning (Thursday), and boy am I happy about that. It's just not as comfortable to use a school computer. I feel more like "Big Brother is watching" when I am on a school computer, even though I know they can monitor this one too.
Let's see, what was the last day I posted about? Sunday? So, I should talk about Monday. To be honest, the week gets so full so quickly I don't remember much of what happened. Good thing I put the date on my class notes!
LAS was a continuation of understanding certain things in the textbook, so I won't bore you with the details of structuring arguments.
In Psychology we discussed the anatomy of the human brain, which was pretty dry and sleepiness-inducing. That all changed when the professor opened up a 5-gallon bucket and showed us what was inside: a real human brain that had been donated to science. He picked up the two pieces (two parts of the right hemisphere) and showed them to us, and he gave us the opportunity to hold the brain pieces. Only 4 of us did, myself included (there are 25 people in the class, I estimate). It was really cool. I wondered a little bit about who the person was that the brain had belonged to. Of course, the professor couldn't tell us, but it was still fascinating to see an actual human brain.
In Spanish, the TA gave a presentation about immigration in her country, Argentina. She caused jealousy when she told us that public college education in Argentina is FREE! Private college education is inexpensive as well, only about $100/month. So, guess where I want to study abroad? haha.
English was just note-taking over things that any high school junior or senior would know, so I'm not going to bore you with those details either.
Tuesday, I got up and went to the doctor for a follow-up on my ear infection. It feels better, but he told me it still looks pretty nasty in the canal. He told me to keep using the ear drops and to come back and see him in 2 weeks (we had to change that to 3 because he isn't going to be in the office in 2 weeks), and if the ear was not any prettier then, he would refer me to the ENT because it could be fungus-related. No fun guy jokes please. Anyway, I had to order a refill on the ear drops because I will run out tomorrow, and I haven't picked it up yet because I've forgotten.
I took my computer in to the IT folks and began to suffer withdrawals. (I'm joking.)
Not much else happened on Tuesday other than I did homework and volunteered in the coffee shop where I met a commuter student who was a mom and a pre-med major. She was nice to me and we chit-chatted. At the end of the day I went to Cornerstone, the youth group for freshmen. We decided we are going to go to Wesley Woods and do the high ropes course October 11th. I'm excited.
Wednesday I started working on my paper after discussing it on Tuesday with my professor (who also happens to be my advisor).
In LAS we discussed the problems with using analogies to make arguments. We spent the entire 50 minutes talking about the watch analogy for proving intelligent design. The professor concluded that the watch analogy breaks down for the proponents of intelligent design. He said that the people who are arguing for intelligent design usually want there to be only one designer, and that we cannot reasonably conclude that there is only one designer, if there is a designer. In my own opinion, some things just have to be taken on faith. I believe that there is one designer and that is God.
In Psychology we discussed child development in terms of Piaget's stage theory. Then we discussed the errors/fallacies in Piaget's theory, and then class was over.
Spanish was a game day. We had memory, pictionary, and charades. I never won but I did have fun anyway.
In English we discussed the professor's favorite topic: Show, don't tell. We also went over an essay by Annie Dillard called An American Childhood which was about an experience she had with a man who wouldn't give up chasing her in order to chew her out for throwing an iceball at his car.
In the evening, we had a debate for Constitution Day over the constitutionality of gay marriage. The gay man won, I think. He certainly presented his arguments clearly, precisely, and with proper emotion. The other man, who was a Christian, kept bringing up the phrase "procreation potential" in reference to hetero marriage. He tended to polarize the audience against him because he was repetitive and his arguments were flawed (one such flaw was he argued that gay marriage caused lower rates of marriage and childbearing in the Netherlands after it was legalized there. Correlation does NOT equal causation!)
However, the Christian made a point that I will share with you: The problem people have with gay marriage is the word marriage. The power and the history and the meaning of that word, to most people, means one man and one woman bonded. It's not that people want to keep rights away from gays, it's that they want the meaning of marriage to remain the same. I'm all for equal rights but I don't think the word should be corrupted to mean two men or two women. The Bible says homosexuality is a sin. I do not judge you if you are not straight, but I do hate your sin. Disagree with me if you like, but please be polite about it.
Thursday I worked on my paper all day until about 3:00 when I went to help with Warren County Habitat for Humanity. We sodded a yard for a new house. It was a small yard, the sod was dry, there were about 10 of us doing the work, and so it went quickly. We found a Sphinx Moth that had just hatched. It had shriveled-up wings and a large body. By the time we left it had pumped up its wings in order to be ready to fly.
There was another Forum event, this time featuring Brian Duffy, the former editorial cartoonist for The Des Moines Register. He talked about what it is like to be in a dying industry, and about how he got canned from a 25-year stint at the Register. He showed us his static cartoons, and some animated cartoons that he is doing for KCCI, the local TV station. Then he closed out his talk with a question and answer session, and as he answered questions, he drew caricatures of famous political people. The first he drew was Obama, and he also drew Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton, John Glenn, Arnold Schwartznegger (spelling?!), Jimmy Carter, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford. After he finished, a girl from my floor and I both were interested in the caricature of Obama, and we waited in line to talk to Duffy. We let him know we were interested in the Obama caricature, and I said I didn't have to have it, I'd take a different one, but he drew an Obama just for me! I thought that was pretty cool. Also, Obama's position on Kanye West is definitely one that both liberals and conservatives can agree on. ;)
Today has been the same kind of day as Wednesday. I turned in my paper and the LAS class got out early because the professor was gone with his kids (they're twins, 17 years old).
Psychology was a continuation of development using Erik Erikson's theory of development and somebody else's theory of morality. We had an exercise on morality in terms of cheating on a final. Fairly interesting and it ended up that we had more reasons to cheat than to not cheat! Don't worry, I will not be cheating at any time.
Spanish was a continuation of game day and I still didn't win, but I did learn that the TA's handwriting is tricky.
English was a discussion of narration and narration techniques. Things I already knew, but then we had time for listening to our peers read what they had written. My one girlfriend who is in the same class made me laugh with her story about victory over spiders.
This evening was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, and RLC's interfaith division sponsored a meal with a Jewish math professor. The food was good and I don't remember any of the Hebrew names for the food. There was a sweet carrot stew, raisin-nut bread, pitas, hummus, cucumber, tomato/pepper, pomegranate seeds, dates, honey-cake, apple, and grape juice. There was wine but I didn't drink any during the ceremony for Shabbat (the Sabbath). The professor's home was pretty and simple; so far she and her husband have not gotten moved in quite yet. I'm jealous of the heated tile in her bathroom, though. We got to see their marriage license. It was written in both Hebrew and English. It's gorgeous- truly a work of art. She had a canopy (Fiddler on the Roof will help you understand) and this canopy was handmade for her of a similar design as the buildings and colors used on the marriage license. Very beautiful.
After we ate, the professor's in-laws showed up, and we left to get to the service, which started at 8:00. The temple is Reform, so we could sit where we wanted; women were not segregated from the men. They even had a female cantor and a female speaker! However, the rabbi and his helper were both male.
The service began with the cantor walking in, singing a capella. She had a beautiful voice, haunting and clear. Then there was the lighting of 3 candles, and a blessing. After that I don't recall clearly but there was standing up, sitting, Hebrew prayer, Hebrew songs (Lots of them, by the cantor and a recorded male voice- wonderful combination), opening and closing of the Ark with the Torah inside, a sermon by the rabbi (in English- he referenced Fiddler on the Roof! Woo!), and a final song that was written in transliterated Hebrew so we Gentiles could sing along. The service was an hour and 40 minutes long and they gave us candy at the end for a sweet new year. :)
Some things I noticed about my surroundings: the pews were segregated by little walls of wood- each person had a compartment! Most of the men wore the yarmulkes but not all, since some of us were Gentiles from RLC. They had little baskets of white yarmulkes in case the men forgot. Women were dressed fairly conservatively but in nothing that was particularly memorable; no head coverings or things like that. There were these poles in front, and I kept trying to figure out the significance of the poles, and then I realized that they were Bose speakers... Needless to say I felt kind of dumb. There was a cupola at the top with a gigantic chandelier made with stained glass hanging from it. The Ark was built into the wall, covered with beautiful wood, and inside were silver objects (I am not sure what they were, couldn't see them very well through the white translucent veil). Ornate decorations covered much of the ceiling and upper walls. The lectern had 5 microphones attached to it! I was wondering if there was going to be a press conference. :p On the front walls there were menorahs with light bulbs instead of candles. They had an "eternal flame" in honor of the dead, much like Catholics. It is now 5770 for the Jewish calendar.
Well, that's what happened for this week. This is BRIEF. Leave comments for clarification and I will try to answer. :)
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Posting Interruption
Hello all,
I do not currently have my own computer as it is in the IT guys' hands for repair. I also have a 3-5 page paper due on Friday. As such I will not be blogging for the rest of the week.
I do not currently have my own computer as it is in the IT guys' hands for repair. I also have a 3-5 page paper due on Friday. As such I will not be blogging for the rest of the week.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be pastors!
Since it is Sunday, I thought a song about pastors would be appropriate. :) Take it with a few grains of salt- it is meant to be humorous.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
Forgot to mention
I forgot to say in my last post that Simpson has a suspected case of H1N1 (that's Swine Flu). I don't know who it is. They (health services) are taking precautions. I am using ridiculous amounts of hand sanitizer. I doubt I will get the Swine Flu. And if I do, I doubt I will get super-sick and die. If I DO end up getting it and dying, I will get to see Jesus that much quicker. But I think He has a plan for me that doesn't involve dying from Swine Flu. ;)
You may need to block out the next 30 minutes to read this post.
Don't believe the timestamp- That's when I started writing this! It's actually 9:55.
Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat and my nose draining like a faucet that had been left on. I had nothing to do during the day because I had already done my homework, and I don't have classes on Tuesdays. Mom had been after me to go see the nurse about my ear (it too was draining), so I went to the nurse in the morning. She took my temperature, looked in my ear, and referred me to the doctor. I called the doctor's office and scheduled an appointment for 2:40 the same day. After I did that, I went to the coffee shop, where I was scheduled to volunteer and sat there by myself. Three people came in while I was in there, but none of them wanted any coffee. It's probably because people don't want coffee at 11 in the morning.
I didn't do anything except try to rest in my room until about 2:00 so that I could figure out just where the medical clinic was and fill out paperwork when I got there. It ended up that I had to do 4 forms and then wait until they were ready to see me. The clinic was very efficient. I got in, they took my weight (117.6 lbs, Mom), my height (5 foot 5 with tennies on), and my temperature (97.7). Then the nurse led me back to this tiny room, about 10ftx10ft and she took my blood pressure (can't remember, she said it was good though) and my pulse. I was sort of surprised she could even feel my pulse, but she said it was good too. I told her what was wrong with me and then she left.
The doctor, an average-sized brown-haired young guy, came in, shook my hand and asked what I was there for. His medical student, a tallish blond guy stood off to one side. I told the doc what was wrong with me, he looked in my ear, said I had otitis externa (read: swimmer's ear, basically), and then asked if the med student could look in my ear. I said, "Sure, I don't mind." So the med student looked in my ear. And looked in my ear. It felt like ages that he was looking and he finally stopped looking right before I was about to giggle. I felt silly because he was looking in my ear for so long... Anyway, the doctor gave me a paper with my prescription on it, and told me I could go to Medicap to get the prescription filled. He left and I went to the receptionist and made another appointment for 9:50 this coming Tuesday.
I walked approximately two blocks to get to the Medicap, where I handed the woman my prescription, my insurance card, and my ID so she could fill the prescription. I waited for a while, and they had the prescription filled. They called my name and I went up to the register to get the medicine. The manager told me that the insurance company has my birthday wrong, so I have to get that straightened out. She then proceeded to ring me up, and it turned out to be $100 for one little bottle of ear drops! She looked in the records and found that she could give me a different (non-generic) bottle of drops for only $30. She had to call the doctor's office and get the proper approval for me to have the medicine, and it finally worked out. I paid my $30 and then left.
When I got back to campus it was about 4:30 so I decided to hang out with my girlfriends until 5:30, when I had Food for the Soul in the chapel lounge. The speakers were from Shalom Zone in Des Moines, and they told us about what they do and how they help kids have someplace safe to go to after school. It sounded like a good ministry. Free food was provided and it was walking tacos with fresh crunchy veggies as a side. It was nice to have fresh veggies- Pfeiffer usually has steamed, but not often fresh (I'm spoiled by Mom's garden!). After Food for the Soul I went back to my girlfriends' room and we watched some Monty Python sketches (Spanish Inquisition and Dead Parrot) on Youtube. The Spanish Club was having game night at 7:00, so I went to that around 7:20, and I had a hard time hearing, so I left again.
Next was Cornerstone youth group in the chapel lounge at 9:00. Cornerstone is for freshmen and it is led by some of the upperclassmen. One of the guys from my LAS class is in it, so that is a comfort. We introduced ourselves and ate leftover brownies from Food for the Soul. The RLC has a Question Ball, a beach ball with questions written on it in permanent marker. Wherever you catch the ball, you have to answer that question. It was fun to hear people's answers to the questions. After everyone had a chance to answer a question, we brainstormed things that we want to do as a group. Among the ideas were trapshooting, night sledding, and Thirty Hour Famine. Once the ideas died down, we went around the circle one more time, saying our name and why we love Jesus. My reason is pretty simple: He loved me first. :D
So that was Tuesday. Wednesday was a class day, so I got up, packed my backpack with lots of kleenex, and traipsed off to my LAS class. This class is a philosophy class. I have been in the habit of sitting front and center in the curved rows of desks, so I tend to be right in front of the professor. I don't actually contribute very much to the conversations, but rather just listen. This particular class was about why and how we argue, a continuation of last Friday's class.
I know I need to learn how to argue well, because I don't like how the professor attacks religion. He has said some things against faith that have made me uncomfortable. However, the boy I mentioned earlier is much more verbal than I am, and he defends faith. It's hard to defend my faith without using the Bible, and the professor has attacked the veracity of the Bible. He insinuates that it is not very intelligent to believe in intelligent design, saying things like "It'd be silly to believe that the earth was made in 7 days" and then giving reasons based on scientific evidence. But he has also been somewhat of an apologist, because he thinks that there is not necessarily a VERSUS kind of debate. He asked, "What if we could put together evolution and intelligent design? Each has its strong points." The main thing for me is, what do I do with this kind of thinking? If I believe that the Bible is my framework for life (and I do), am I allowed to pick and choose what I believe from the Bible (ie believe that God created the world, but not that the world was made in 7 days)? I don't think so. The question remains: How do I defend my faith without being made to look like a fool for it? And so I remain silent when we discuss God.
Next class is Psychology, and we discussed research methods and how correlation works. The lectures are fairly simple, with consistent examples and writing on the board involved. I have the opportunity to participate in a research study for extra credit, so Friday the 25th I have a 30 minute survey to fill out. It should be interesting, and it never hurts to have extra credit.
Spanish was bewildering. We tried to watch a video that the professor had downloaded onto her computer, and the voices and lips were NOT synced at ALL. To add to the confusion, it was in Spanish, about immigration, and some of the speakers didn't seem to breathe while speaking. Also, the voices and video were so off at certain points that a man's voice was matched to a woman's face! Confusing! However, the professor played it again, actually from the internet, and the sync was much better. I understood about 3% of the whole thing, but the professor knows it is difficult to understand at first. The rest of class felt a bit... ineffective? The word escapes me. But we just got several unnecessary papers and not much for actual Spanish speaking or activity. I think this was an isolated incident, though.
I had lunch with one of my girlfriends and we found out that a mutual friend's father had a stroke. Her father has since passed away. Please pray for her and her family. Please also pray for my girlfriend's father- he was the doctor on call when the stroke happened. Thank you.
Next was English class, which I enjoyed. The professor wrote this on the board: "She is playing." She told us to write what the picture was that popped into our heads and gave us about 5 minutes to do so. Then, she had some of us read what we thought, and she made the point that we didn't imagine the same thing. As a class, we played with language and expanded the sentence quite a bit so that it was almost ridiculous. Next, she divided us up into groups and gave us five more sentences. The room was full of laughter and playful words as we expanded the sentences. One of the sentences was "We went to the mall." EVERY group expanded "the mall" as "Jordan Creek Mall". I thought that was humorous. Once each group had read their first four sentences, the professor decided that the room was too hot, and we were released ten minutes early. She has told us not to get used to getting out early, but so far we have gotten out early during EVERY class. I agree with her that the room was fairly miserable, but my reason is different. The air conditioner clanks something dreadful sometimes. Right now my hearing is limited because I am not wearing both of my hearing aids (Thanks, otitis externa!) and the air conditioners on campus just make class a little harder to hear. (No Mom, I am not having trouble hearing the professors- the FM works just fine. It's just that I realized what I was missing when I got the second hearing aid and now I have temporarily lost what I was missing.)
After classes were over I did homework. You'd think it would be boring, but it's really not. I love my Psychology textbook! I really do enjoy it (twas the most expensive of my textbooks but it is a fun read).
I had supper in the Grill with my girlfriends. At 7:00, our section of the floor decorated tee shirts in the classroom in the basement. Mine says "I Heart Simpson Storm" and has a cloud and tornado on it. It's actually semi-decent for a puffy-painted shirt that I have decorated. My one regret is that the shirt was actually wider than I am when it was laid out flat, so my design does not exactly fit my front. That's okay because I won't be wearing it anyway.
I left tee shirt decorating to go to Revelation Singers in the basement of the chapel. There were seven of us girls there and we sang old-school praise songs like "All in All" and "The Heart of Worship". Let me correct that: They sang. I croaked and sniffled and blew my nose. They had a concert planned for tonight (Thursday) for the Village, which is the old folks' home here, and I told them that I wasn't sure if I would come because I felt like I was losing my voice. After singing we went upstairs to campus worship in the chapel.
Campus worship is really cool. It's good to know that there are other Christians on campus, and to see some of them get all fired up about God is inspiring. There's a guy who is super-involved, he's a football player, he squirted everyone's hands with hand sanitizer at the beginning of the service, and I think he is a junior or senior. He was literally on his knees with his arms raised during the music that was playing for communion. Wow. I am not that expressive, but he was inspiring and he made me tear up a little bit. Anyway, worship was awesome. I had communion and I was served by the same pastor who served it to me on Sunday, which I found amusing. My only complaint about the worship is the music- our chapel is one of those great big cathedral-types, and the music bounces around so very much. I have a hard time hearing the voices and end up lip-reading to keep up, but that isn't a bad thing, because I don't think anybody else is having it any easier than me! haha.
Today I woke up with no nose drainage! I was thrilled. I ate breakfast with one of my girlfriends, went to the BSC to check my mail because I had a package notice last night, opened said package and was slightly let down by the fact that it was simply an extension cord for the vibrating part of my alarm clock, and came back to my dorm room. I got onto Skype and the internet and debated with my boyfriend about an article I read on the internet called "John Rock's Error". The article is about John Rock, the inventor of The Pill, as well as effects of The Pill- the whole thing is rather involved- and you can read it here: http://gladwell.com/2000/2000_03_10_a_rock.htm I really recommend it, even if you don't believe in The Pill. It is a fascinating look at Rock and his reasons for inventing The Pill the way he did. Did you know he was Catholic? He truly believed that he was not going against the Catholic church's dictate about using 'natural' birth control only. This discussion took up a lot of my morning.
I went to lunch at 12:30 for class at 1:00. This is my LAS discussion time, where we discuss Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Today's main topic of discussion was: Why don't the man and boy commit suicide? Is suicide, in this circumstance, an "easy way out" or a "logical, rational choice"? We talked about Hope and we tried to find out the essence of why the people in the book either were strong and didn't eat others, or why they ate other people. I really enjoyed it today. There was no discussion of religion, and the professor was making jokes. He seemed a little bit more human today, because he had to leave class early to go pick up his mother in Des Moines and take her to the doctor. He also couldn't find his cell phone. The teaching assistant took over when he left, so we didn't get gypped out of class time.
After class I went to the poster sale in front of the BSC. I bought three posters: a Star Wars one for my boyfriend, a "What is Love?" one, and an "E-cow-nomics" one which explained economics using cows. I put the second two posters up in my room. It took some effort because masking tape doesn't want to stick to my ceiling. I finally had to just move that poster onto the wall. I really wanted the "What is Love?" poster to be on my ceiling above my bed so I could be reminded to love when I got up, but it wouldn't stay. Alas.
After all this finagling, I went to the BSC again to meet the Revelation Singers for the concert tonight. We went and ate supper with the old people, and then we sang for them. There was another act there, a Simpson boy who played guitar and harmonica as well as sang. We traded off songs. When we got done singing, the hot air balloon people started to blow up their balloon, which was no surprise considering this is Indianola and it is famous for hot air balloons. We left. I came back here and started blogging about the past three days. Now I'm going to shower and go to bed.
Tuesday, I woke up with a sore throat and my nose draining like a faucet that had been left on. I had nothing to do during the day because I had already done my homework, and I don't have classes on Tuesdays. Mom had been after me to go see the nurse about my ear (it too was draining), so I went to the nurse in the morning. She took my temperature, looked in my ear, and referred me to the doctor. I called the doctor's office and scheduled an appointment for 2:40 the same day. After I did that, I went to the coffee shop, where I was scheduled to volunteer and sat there by myself. Three people came in while I was in there, but none of them wanted any coffee. It's probably because people don't want coffee at 11 in the morning.
I didn't do anything except try to rest in my room until about 2:00 so that I could figure out just where the medical clinic was and fill out paperwork when I got there. It ended up that I had to do 4 forms and then wait until they were ready to see me. The clinic was very efficient. I got in, they took my weight (117.6 lbs, Mom), my height (5 foot 5 with tennies on), and my temperature (97.7). Then the nurse led me back to this tiny room, about 10ftx10ft and she took my blood pressure (can't remember, she said it was good though) and my pulse. I was sort of surprised she could even feel my pulse, but she said it was good too. I told her what was wrong with me and then she left.
The doctor, an average-sized brown-haired young guy, came in, shook my hand and asked what I was there for. His medical student, a tallish blond guy stood off to one side. I told the doc what was wrong with me, he looked in my ear, said I had otitis externa (read: swimmer's ear, basically), and then asked if the med student could look in my ear. I said, "Sure, I don't mind." So the med student looked in my ear. And looked in my ear. It felt like ages that he was looking and he finally stopped looking right before I was about to giggle. I felt silly because he was looking in my ear for so long... Anyway, the doctor gave me a paper with my prescription on it, and told me I could go to Medicap to get the prescription filled. He left and I went to the receptionist and made another appointment for 9:50 this coming Tuesday.
I walked approximately two blocks to get to the Medicap, where I handed the woman my prescription, my insurance card, and my ID so she could fill the prescription. I waited for a while, and they had the prescription filled. They called my name and I went up to the register to get the medicine. The manager told me that the insurance company has my birthday wrong, so I have to get that straightened out. She then proceeded to ring me up, and it turned out to be $100 for one little bottle of ear drops! She looked in the records and found that she could give me a different (non-generic) bottle of drops for only $30. She had to call the doctor's office and get the proper approval for me to have the medicine, and it finally worked out. I paid my $30 and then left.
When I got back to campus it was about 4:30 so I decided to hang out with my girlfriends until 5:30, when I had Food for the Soul in the chapel lounge. The speakers were from Shalom Zone in Des Moines, and they told us about what they do and how they help kids have someplace safe to go to after school. It sounded like a good ministry. Free food was provided and it was walking tacos with fresh crunchy veggies as a side. It was nice to have fresh veggies- Pfeiffer usually has steamed, but not often fresh (I'm spoiled by Mom's garden!). After Food for the Soul I went back to my girlfriends' room and we watched some Monty Python sketches (Spanish Inquisition and Dead Parrot) on Youtube. The Spanish Club was having game night at 7:00, so I went to that around 7:20, and I had a hard time hearing, so I left again.
Next was Cornerstone youth group in the chapel lounge at 9:00. Cornerstone is for freshmen and it is led by some of the upperclassmen. One of the guys from my LAS class is in it, so that is a comfort. We introduced ourselves and ate leftover brownies from Food for the Soul. The RLC has a Question Ball, a beach ball with questions written on it in permanent marker. Wherever you catch the ball, you have to answer that question. It was fun to hear people's answers to the questions. After everyone had a chance to answer a question, we brainstormed things that we want to do as a group. Among the ideas were trapshooting, night sledding, and Thirty Hour Famine. Once the ideas died down, we went around the circle one more time, saying our name and why we love Jesus. My reason is pretty simple: He loved me first. :D
So that was Tuesday. Wednesday was a class day, so I got up, packed my backpack with lots of kleenex, and traipsed off to my LAS class. This class is a philosophy class. I have been in the habit of sitting front and center in the curved rows of desks, so I tend to be right in front of the professor. I don't actually contribute very much to the conversations, but rather just listen. This particular class was about why and how we argue, a continuation of last Friday's class.
I know I need to learn how to argue well, because I don't like how the professor attacks religion. He has said some things against faith that have made me uncomfortable. However, the boy I mentioned earlier is much more verbal than I am, and he defends faith. It's hard to defend my faith without using the Bible, and the professor has attacked the veracity of the Bible. He insinuates that it is not very intelligent to believe in intelligent design, saying things like "It'd be silly to believe that the earth was made in 7 days" and then giving reasons based on scientific evidence. But he has also been somewhat of an apologist, because he thinks that there is not necessarily a VERSUS kind of debate. He asked, "What if we could put together evolution and intelligent design? Each has its strong points." The main thing for me is, what do I do with this kind of thinking? If I believe that the Bible is my framework for life (and I do), am I allowed to pick and choose what I believe from the Bible (ie believe that God created the world, but not that the world was made in 7 days)? I don't think so. The question remains: How do I defend my faith without being made to look like a fool for it? And so I remain silent when we discuss God.
Next class is Psychology, and we discussed research methods and how correlation works. The lectures are fairly simple, with consistent examples and writing on the board involved. I have the opportunity to participate in a research study for extra credit, so Friday the 25th I have a 30 minute survey to fill out. It should be interesting, and it never hurts to have extra credit.
Spanish was bewildering. We tried to watch a video that the professor had downloaded onto her computer, and the voices and lips were NOT synced at ALL. To add to the confusion, it was in Spanish, about immigration, and some of the speakers didn't seem to breathe while speaking. Also, the voices and video were so off at certain points that a man's voice was matched to a woman's face! Confusing! However, the professor played it again, actually from the internet, and the sync was much better. I understood about 3% of the whole thing, but the professor knows it is difficult to understand at first. The rest of class felt a bit... ineffective? The word escapes me. But we just got several unnecessary papers and not much for actual Spanish speaking or activity. I think this was an isolated incident, though.
I had lunch with one of my girlfriends and we found out that a mutual friend's father had a stroke. Her father has since passed away. Please pray for her and her family. Please also pray for my girlfriend's father- he was the doctor on call when the stroke happened. Thank you.
Next was English class, which I enjoyed. The professor wrote this on the board: "She is playing." She told us to write what the picture was that popped into our heads and gave us about 5 minutes to do so. Then, she had some of us read what we thought, and she made the point that we didn't imagine the same thing. As a class, we played with language and expanded the sentence quite a bit so that it was almost ridiculous. Next, she divided us up into groups and gave us five more sentences. The room was full of laughter and playful words as we expanded the sentences. One of the sentences was "We went to the mall." EVERY group expanded "the mall" as "Jordan Creek Mall". I thought that was humorous. Once each group had read their first four sentences, the professor decided that the room was too hot, and we were released ten minutes early. She has told us not to get used to getting out early, but so far we have gotten out early during EVERY class. I agree with her that the room was fairly miserable, but my reason is different. The air conditioner clanks something dreadful sometimes. Right now my hearing is limited because I am not wearing both of my hearing aids (Thanks, otitis externa!) and the air conditioners on campus just make class a little harder to hear. (No Mom, I am not having trouble hearing the professors- the FM works just fine. It's just that I realized what I was missing when I got the second hearing aid and now I have temporarily lost what I was missing.)
After classes were over I did homework. You'd think it would be boring, but it's really not. I love my Psychology textbook! I really do enjoy it (twas the most expensive of my textbooks but it is a fun read).
I had supper in the Grill with my girlfriends. At 7:00, our section of the floor decorated tee shirts in the classroom in the basement. Mine says "I Heart Simpson Storm" and has a cloud and tornado on it. It's actually semi-decent for a puffy-painted shirt that I have decorated. My one regret is that the shirt was actually wider than I am when it was laid out flat, so my design does not exactly fit my front. That's okay because I won't be wearing it anyway.
I left tee shirt decorating to go to Revelation Singers in the basement of the chapel. There were seven of us girls there and we sang old-school praise songs like "All in All" and "The Heart of Worship". Let me correct that: They sang. I croaked and sniffled and blew my nose. They had a concert planned for tonight (Thursday) for the Village, which is the old folks' home here, and I told them that I wasn't sure if I would come because I felt like I was losing my voice. After singing we went upstairs to campus worship in the chapel.
Campus worship is really cool. It's good to know that there are other Christians on campus, and to see some of them get all fired up about God is inspiring. There's a guy who is super-involved, he's a football player, he squirted everyone's hands with hand sanitizer at the beginning of the service, and I think he is a junior or senior. He was literally on his knees with his arms raised during the music that was playing for communion. Wow. I am not that expressive, but he was inspiring and he made me tear up a little bit. Anyway, worship was awesome. I had communion and I was served by the same pastor who served it to me on Sunday, which I found amusing. My only complaint about the worship is the music- our chapel is one of those great big cathedral-types, and the music bounces around so very much. I have a hard time hearing the voices and end up lip-reading to keep up, but that isn't a bad thing, because I don't think anybody else is having it any easier than me! haha.
Today I woke up with no nose drainage! I was thrilled. I ate breakfast with one of my girlfriends, went to the BSC to check my mail because I had a package notice last night, opened said package and was slightly let down by the fact that it was simply an extension cord for the vibrating part of my alarm clock, and came back to my dorm room. I got onto Skype and the internet and debated with my boyfriend about an article I read on the internet called "John Rock's Error". The article is about John Rock, the inventor of The Pill, as well as effects of The Pill- the whole thing is rather involved- and you can read it here: http://gladwell.com/2000/2000_03_10_a_rock.htm I really recommend it, even if you don't believe in The Pill. It is a fascinating look at Rock and his reasons for inventing The Pill the way he did. Did you know he was Catholic? He truly believed that he was not going against the Catholic church's dictate about using 'natural' birth control only. This discussion took up a lot of my morning.
I went to lunch at 12:30 for class at 1:00. This is my LAS discussion time, where we discuss Cormac McCarthy's "The Road". Today's main topic of discussion was: Why don't the man and boy commit suicide? Is suicide, in this circumstance, an "easy way out" or a "logical, rational choice"? We talked about Hope and we tried to find out the essence of why the people in the book either were strong and didn't eat others, or why they ate other people. I really enjoyed it today. There was no discussion of religion, and the professor was making jokes. He seemed a little bit more human today, because he had to leave class early to go pick up his mother in Des Moines and take her to the doctor. He also couldn't find his cell phone. The teaching assistant took over when he left, so we didn't get gypped out of class time.
After class I went to the poster sale in front of the BSC. I bought three posters: a Star Wars one for my boyfriend, a "What is Love?" one, and an "E-cow-nomics" one which explained economics using cows. I put the second two posters up in my room. It took some effort because masking tape doesn't want to stick to my ceiling. I finally had to just move that poster onto the wall. I really wanted the "What is Love?" poster to be on my ceiling above my bed so I could be reminded to love when I got up, but it wouldn't stay. Alas.
After all this finagling, I went to the BSC again to meet the Revelation Singers for the concert tonight. We went and ate supper with the old people, and then we sang for them. There was another act there, a Simpson boy who played guitar and harmonica as well as sang. We traded off songs. When we got done singing, the hot air balloon people started to blow up their balloon, which was no surprise considering this is Indianola and it is famous for hot air balloons. We left. I came back here and started blogging about the past three days. Now I'm going to shower and go to bed.
Monday, September 7, 2009
Labor Day
Sunday was a pretty good day. I felt better and I went to a new church. It looked like a Catholic church but it was a Methodist. The services were fairly traditional, even the 'contemporary' service. This church is bigger than the one I am used to, and it has two preachers. Cool. Communion was fairly similar to home too.
Today has been a good day. Not much has gone on, but I did get some supplies, like a trash can, notebooks, and a paper planner. My floormates returned today so I feel less anti-social. My one floormate gave me a piece of chocolate cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Yummmmmm. We had a little party in the Area Coordinator's apartment. I got to meet her dog and play Wii.
Tomorrow I don't have class, but I am volunteering in the coffee shop on campus. Free drink every time I work, woot woot! :) I don't drink coffee, but they also offer smoothies. Yum.
Homework is nearly done. I have 10 more Spanish vocabulary words to do and that is it. Yay!
Today has been a good day. Not much has gone on, but I did get some supplies, like a trash can, notebooks, and a paper planner. My floormates returned today so I feel less anti-social. My one floormate gave me a piece of chocolate cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory. Yummmmmm. We had a little party in the Area Coordinator's apartment. I got to meet her dog and play Wii.
Tomorrow I don't have class, but I am volunteering in the coffee shop on campus. Free drink every time I work, woot woot! :) I don't drink coffee, but they also offer smoothies. Yum.
Homework is nearly done. I have 10 more Spanish vocabulary words to do and that is it. Yay!
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Happy Saturday
I got sick this morning, so instead of going to the service project like I had intended, I stayed here. My breakfast didn't agree with me and I didn't think the group would want me to handle food after I threw up. But I am feeling better now.
I missed the dining hall hours, but the grill was still open, so I did get to eat once I got to feeling like I wanted food.
Believe it or not, it has actually been a fairly decent day. I've been here a week and I think I will grow to think of Simpson as home.
Right now, I have my window open, and I can hear frogs croaking in the park, as well as cicadas and crickets chirping. The temperature is wonderful. I see people in the park under the lamp lights. It's a tranquil summer evening.
I missed the dining hall hours, but the grill was still open, so I did get to eat once I got to feeling like I wanted food.
Believe it or not, it has actually been a fairly decent day. I've been here a week and I think I will grow to think of Simpson as home.
Right now, I have my window open, and I can hear frogs croaking in the park, as well as cicadas and crickets chirping. The temperature is wonderful. I see people in the park under the lamp lights. It's a tranquil summer evening.
Friday, September 4, 2009
Time flies...
My day Thursday was pretty bland, marked only by the arrival of my new alarm clock and the college's Convocation. I didn't really do much that is blog-worthy.
Today was another day of class for me. In my LAS we got into a discussion about affirmative action and the arguments for and against it and how to test the validity of arguments. There were puns going around before we got into this discussion because we were also talking about how to use humor. The class was not very structured but we had some laughs.
Psychology went over what the textbook said and discussed a few psychology perspectives. It was familiar but it was good to see the subject matter again.
In Spanish we went through our goals for the class and then we brainstormed words to write for our next class.
English was a simple class; we only had to tell a story on paper and then we were free to go. I got done with about 15-20 minutes to spare.
This afternoon I said bye to my floormates because they went home for the weekend and I worked on homework. Really, there isn't much going on right now, but I'm going to go to bed soon.
Today was another day of class for me. In my LAS we got into a discussion about affirmative action and the arguments for and against it and how to test the validity of arguments. There were puns going around before we got into this discussion because we were also talking about how to use humor. The class was not very structured but we had some laughs.
Psychology went over what the textbook said and discussed a few psychology perspectives. It was familiar but it was good to see the subject matter again.
In Spanish we went through our goals for the class and then we brainstormed words to write for our next class.
English was a simple class; we only had to tell a story on paper and then we were free to go. I got done with about 15-20 minutes to spare.
This afternoon I said bye to my floormates because they went home for the weekend and I worked on homework. Really, there isn't much going on right now, but I'm going to go to bed soon.
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
September already??
I was just getting used to it being August, and now it's September.
Yesterday was a not very busy day. I didn't have classes or any major things scheduled. I did go to a required meeting about degree audits. The degree audit is a piece of paper (or in our case a webpage) that says how many credits we have earned and how many we need in order to graduate. It is the ticket to graduate from Simpson.
In the evening I went to a RLC leadership meeting. They asked what I wanted to lead in, but I didn't really know, and I told them what I was already involved in. They said I was fine and I could just hop around from group to group. There was free Godfather's pizza. Yum.
Today was a big day for me, as it was the first day of classes.
First was my LAS, which is Philosophy 109. We had a discussion about "What is an argument?" Fascinating. I contributed a few sentences, but I mostly just listened. Our main question for the course will be "What is truth?" The professor said that we are basically an applied logic class.
Second was Psychology 101B. The professor in that class had a different way of learning our name, rank, and serial number (Name, hometown, and major). He went around the classroom with a video camera and had us talk to the camera rather than to him. I thought that was a pretty good idea, since I can't remember people's names either! He talked about psychology as a science. Several very familiar concepts were brought up. This class will be one of my most homework-intensive, I think, because I will have an online quiz for nearly every day of class, with five exams interspersed in that. It's not bad though- I won't have to get a perfect score to get full credit on the quizzes, and I can retake them as many times as I want/need.
Third was Spanish 202. This is the class I was most nervous about. The professor put me at ease almost immediately, though, when she said "I don't expect perfection; I will grade on effort." I am actually excited for this class now. The professor said we would be learning to actually speak Spanish, not worry about vocabulary, grammar, and other things like that. There's a few familiar faces in that class, so that is good.
I ate lunch and then went to my fourth class, English 102. This was where I learned the joys of getting out of class early... My class got out half an hour early, which means I spent less than half the scheduled time in class with the professor. I was surprised, pleased, and a little irritated. What am I getting myself in debt for if I get out of class like that? However, she said that we shouldn't get used to getting out that early, if at all.
I spent the afternoon doing my homework and putting my syllabuses into my Google calendar. That will help me keep on top of it, since I have several assignments for several classes. I have almost all of the homework assigned today finished, except for one little essay for my Spanish class.
This evening, I attended a forum event called "Non-Violent Sexuality" with my floormate friends. The forum was not so much about sex as it was about having respect for oneself and for others. A quote: "To treat things as if they were people is an illusion. To treat people as if they were things is violence. To treat people as if they were people is justice. To treat people as if they were yourself is love."
It was very humbling to look around and see how very broken our world is, and how broken our students' lives are. The speaker asked us to raise our hands if we knew someone in various categories of violation/hurt, from having an std to an unwanted pregnancy to having drug/alcohol issues to being in an abusive relationship. Once he had asked about each category, he asked everyone who had just raised their hands to put their hand up again. Then, he told us to look around... Nearly every person had their hand up. It was very eye-opening and humbling.
The speaker also gave a definition of violence which I think I may adopt. He said that violence is when a voice is silenced. When I thought more about it, the definition made a lot of sense.
After the forum, I went to campus worship, which was an experience. There were five people playing guitar, four singing (one of whom was playing guitar too), one on keyboard, and one on drumset for the praise band. Guitar overpowered the voices on most of the songs, but I could still follow along by lipreading.
I like the chaplains, both of them. They seem to be strong leaders in faith, and I have had pleasant conversations with both of them. The older one gives the message at worship and the younger one prays. It's a good way of working together from my observation.
All in all, today was a day that made me feel like a sponge. I have been taking in so many different ideas and concepts that I am truly excited to go to class. I have textbooks that are interesting, and my psych text even has a sense of humor!
College is so cool. :D
Yesterday was a not very busy day. I didn't have classes or any major things scheduled. I did go to a required meeting about degree audits. The degree audit is a piece of paper (or in our case a webpage) that says how many credits we have earned and how many we need in order to graduate. It is the ticket to graduate from Simpson.
In the evening I went to a RLC leadership meeting. They asked what I wanted to lead in, but I didn't really know, and I told them what I was already involved in. They said I was fine and I could just hop around from group to group. There was free Godfather's pizza. Yum.
Today was a big day for me, as it was the first day of classes.
First was my LAS, which is Philosophy 109. We had a discussion about "What is an argument?" Fascinating. I contributed a few sentences, but I mostly just listened. Our main question for the course will be "What is truth?" The professor said that we are basically an applied logic class.
Second was Psychology 101B. The professor in that class had a different way of learning our name, rank, and serial number (Name, hometown, and major). He went around the classroom with a video camera and had us talk to the camera rather than to him. I thought that was a pretty good idea, since I can't remember people's names either! He talked about psychology as a science. Several very familiar concepts were brought up. This class will be one of my most homework-intensive, I think, because I will have an online quiz for nearly every day of class, with five exams interspersed in that. It's not bad though- I won't have to get a perfect score to get full credit on the quizzes, and I can retake them as many times as I want/need.
Third was Spanish 202. This is the class I was most nervous about. The professor put me at ease almost immediately, though, when she said "I don't expect perfection; I will grade on effort." I am actually excited for this class now. The professor said we would be learning to actually speak Spanish, not worry about vocabulary, grammar, and other things like that. There's a few familiar faces in that class, so that is good.
I ate lunch and then went to my fourth class, English 102. This was where I learned the joys of getting out of class early... My class got out half an hour early, which means I spent less than half the scheduled time in class with the professor. I was surprised, pleased, and a little irritated. What am I getting myself in debt for if I get out of class like that? However, she said that we shouldn't get used to getting out that early, if at all.
I spent the afternoon doing my homework and putting my syllabuses into my Google calendar. That will help me keep on top of it, since I have several assignments for several classes. I have almost all of the homework assigned today finished, except for one little essay for my Spanish class.
This evening, I attended a forum event called "Non-Violent Sexuality" with my floormate friends. The forum was not so much about sex as it was about having respect for oneself and for others. A quote: "To treat things as if they were people is an illusion. To treat people as if they were things is violence. To treat people as if they were people is justice. To treat people as if they were yourself is love."
It was very humbling to look around and see how very broken our world is, and how broken our students' lives are. The speaker asked us to raise our hands if we knew someone in various categories of violation/hurt, from having an std to an unwanted pregnancy to having drug/alcohol issues to being in an abusive relationship. Once he had asked about each category, he asked everyone who had just raised their hands to put their hand up again. Then, he told us to look around... Nearly every person had their hand up. It was very eye-opening and humbling.
The speaker also gave a definition of violence which I think I may adopt. He said that violence is when a voice is silenced. When I thought more about it, the definition made a lot of sense.
After the forum, I went to campus worship, which was an experience. There were five people playing guitar, four singing (one of whom was playing guitar too), one on keyboard, and one on drumset for the praise band. Guitar overpowered the voices on most of the songs, but I could still follow along by lipreading.
I like the chaplains, both of them. They seem to be strong leaders in faith, and I have had pleasant conversations with both of them. The older one gives the message at worship and the younger one prays. It's a good way of working together from my observation.
All in all, today was a day that made me feel like a sponge. I have been taking in so many different ideas and concepts that I am truly excited to go to class. I have textbooks that are interesting, and my psych text even has a sense of humor!
College is so cool. :D
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