study break!

Tomorrow I have a bio test, and Wednesday is a practical lab quiz for bio. I've been studying a lot and am trying some new techniques. I hope it helps. I think it is working so far.

I have an "up to 6 pages" paper due on next Tuesday. I've started it already, wrote about a page today. Not a full page but it is about 4/5 of a page. I have general ideas and a sort of outline (not really an outline but it has the concepts I want to hit on) written. The professor wants footnotes, which I haven't used before (or if I have, it was a long time ago). The paper is to be on a topic of my own interest based on the articles in the book. I am writing about language and how it affects people's perception of each other. It's a fascinating topic (I really should be a linguist, eh?).

The following Tuesday (30th) the first round of presentations for Spanish are due. They are 7-10 minutes long and are supposed to have an audio-visual component. I am presenting on conservation in Costa Rica. I haven't done much research yet, but I will. I am just focusing on the paper that is due before then.

I'm looking forward to Thanksgiving but I'm trying to keep it fairly low-key. I have at least 4 people who aren't family who want to hang out with me during the break, and I'm hoping I can see all of them. Trying to make plans and still respect family plans and kind of stressing about this when I should be worrying about school! haha.

Okay, time to write some emails...

so...

A lot of things have happened since the last time I posted but honestly I don't want to write about all of it, so I'll give Reader's Digest blurbs about things.

- I've been home 3x and got to see my dear bf all 3 times.
- I went on a fall break trip to Omaha, which was fun, and definitely an eye opening experience as I served supper at a soup kitchen for the first time.
- I've been a listening ear for a friend who is dealing with a major life change, incidents at school, and other stressors.
- I had a cold this/last week but it is clearing up, which makes me happy.
- I bought an exercise mat so I can do Pop Pilates in my dorm room without getting bruises because the floor is hard. (Pop Pilates here with Cassey: http://www.youtube.com/user/blogilates )
- This month I am making a point of posting as a status on Facebook what I am thankful for each day.
- I am enjoying my classes and made it through midterms with all A's except one A-.
- I got to test view "The Candy Shop" by Whitestone Motion Pictures, which is a "fable about child sex trafficking" and it is intended to raise awareness against it. ( http://www.whitestonemotionpictures.com/Films/the-candy-shop/ )
- I have been doing a bit of service lately for Wesley Service and it has been fun.

That's all the (semi) important stuff, so there you go. A post at last. :P

well.

Clearly I didn't write more when I got back from class. Oh well.

Float Sink or Swim was fun, there were antics all around.

The game was good today. We lost but we were close to winning. Pep band is annoyed with the school for hiring a DJ for the game who kept INTERRUPTING us! Jerk. Anyway, he eventually got the picture that we were gonna play and he was gonna stop playing.

Other than that, not much to talk about. Tired.

homecoming and tiredness

This week is Simpson's homecoming. I am not terribly excited, but there's always the chance to watch people be dumb at Float Sink or Swim and Yell Like Hell (the pep rally), and the football game. Honestly, homecoming seems to be a waste. It's just taking my precious energy resources and putting them to a silly use. On the plus side, it's a stress-reliever.

http://www.simpson.edu/slideshows/150kickoff/ This is what was going on last Friday (the 24th).

I am very tired today as I woke up at least four times last night. I haven't been sleeping completely through the night lately, but that was just once a night, usually around 4 am, and I could deal with it. Last night was just a wash. My body aches, as well. I am guessing I may be getting sick. At least I got most of my homework done yesterday, so I was able to take a nap today. I had a dream involving a giant koi fish and me in a pond during this nap...

I finally started working on homework that I've been procrastinating on. I haven't gotten any part of it done, but I have started several parts of it. This makes me feel a little better.

I've been playing my clarinet a lot lately. I have been practicing for Chapel Winds. We will be playing for a special Sunday service at 10 on the 3rd. I will also be singing with Revelation Singers at that service.

On Saturday pep band was in the Log Cabin Days parade and we rode on a tour-trailer with a roof. The roof was a blessing because we were able to play despite the rain! It poured at the end of the parade and we didn't get soaked.

This song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GI01P4hCaGM&feature=related has been caught in my head a lot. The video is sort of related but not really.

I have more to talk about but I have to go to class now so I will write another post when I get back.

Labor Day Week

This has been another short week but still jam-packed with stuff to do.

Monday was Labor Day, durr, so no classes AGAIN. I would like to start a week normally! I'll get my wish this week.

This week I learned that everyone's got the wrong textbook for our Anthro class. On the plus side this means no more awkward speech thing. Possibly a speech thing, but not the awkward one.

I've learned some more Greek vocabulary. But what really is difficult for me right now is parsing, where you have to figure out all kinds of stuff about the word. I just haven't practiced with it enough, I suppose. I have a few friends I study with, so that helps.

None of my fishies have died yet. Good!

I don't know what else to talk about, so I'll just hush and go do my homework.

first week is over.

Well, my first week of classes was better than expected. Haha. Actually I enjoyed it quite a bit.

Monday I didn't have class, that's just the way Simpson started.

Tuesday I had anthropology at 8 am and Spanish at 2 pm. The class periods on Tuesdays and Thursdays are longer than the other days of the week. It's supposed to equalize the amount of time in class.

Anyway, anthropology was quite interesting. It almost felt like a philosophy class. The professor looks a lot like this guy: http://www.imdb.com/media/rm2537721344/nm0000125. Really. Especially in this photo. Here's the prof's photo on the Simpson site. http://www.simpson.edu/socialsciences/faculty/jones.html I don't think he really looks much like this photo.

Spanish was a class I was worried about, but when I got to class I felt a LOT better about it. We have to speak Spanish all the time but I have more vocabulary now, so I feel better about it. And the topic (history of central America) is rather interesting, so I think I will do okay in this class.

Wednesday was a very full day for me. I had Biblical Greek at 8, Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at 9, Biology at 11, Bio Lab at 2, and campus worship at 9 pm. Wednesdays will always be busy.

Biblical Greek was intimidating at first. I thought, "ack! Greek letters!" but I got them learned, and now I am reading words and able to translate some words! Yay! :) I've got a flash-card program called Anki that I am using to practice. It has helped a lot.

Philosophy was what I expected it would be. It's the same prof I had for philosophy last fall, and he's also my advisor, so I am not worried at all about this class. We discussed "Does God exist?" and "What is happiness?" "How is morality connected to happiness?"

Bio is not making me happy for two reasons. First, I have over 100 people in my class (a prof resigned last year and they haven't replaced him so they had to cram everyone in to the same class), and second, the lecturing prof and the lab prof are not the same person. The lab prof doesn't sit in on classes either. Yikes. However I feel like I am understanding the class thus far, and I will be going to SI on Tuesday nights.

Bio lab was fun, because we played a game. No point in explaining it but we competed and it was about evolution.

Thursday was basically a repeat of Tuesday and Friday was about the same as Wednesday except no lab.

Thus far this weekend I have been to Walmart, studied with a couple other people for Greek, and attempted to get even more organized.

Tomorrow I don't have class because it will be Labor Day. I would rather have a break in a few weeks, but whatever, a long weekend is kinda nice.

Well, back to working on getting organized.

back to school

Well, Simpson is back in session starting tomorrow. I've been here since Friday night. The pep band had to play for the freshman dedication ceremony thing, so we had rehearsal Friday and the ceremony Saturday afternoon.

Sunday my roommate moved in. We rearranged the room and I like the lay-out. The beds are in an L shape- one above the other, which makes the room feel bigger. People kept coming by when we were arranging and saying that the room was "huge!"

Today we don't have classes, but the freshmen have a lot to do. Sophomores upward don't have much scheduled but there are still things to do. For example, we went to a picnic for lunch, and the organization festival was today, and I helped with the pep band booth. Later tonight we have pep band practice.

Nothing particularly special has happened, but that's okay. It's nice to have a relaxation time with my friends :)