Jadestone posted a long message about her adventures in Collegeland. We thought the subject merited a room of its own, so we’ve moved her comment from the Random Thread. Other collegians feel free to add your adventures.
From Jadestone:
Okay, so LONG POST AHEAD. Today is my sort-of-free-time day, because I do laundry so I have to hang around the building a bit. But it gives me time to post a large Life Update, since I’ll have really had time to say on here is short posts with not much detail.
ANYWAY. Collegeland, it is awesome. I’ve made a lot of friends, which I admit was something I was worried about, since unless I really push myself I’m tempted to just stay in my room all day, and since I don’t have a roommate I was sort of on my own a bit the first day. But of the 4 freshman on my floor in my dorm, NONE of us had roommates the week of orientation (the other girl got a single, and the two guys were roomed with sophomores, which is odd), so we got to know each other anyway. Also, the two people i spend the most time with are pretty social themselves, so I meet a lot of other people through them which is good.
CLASSES
My classes this semester are:
– Chemistry, which I am not overly fond of as a subject (partially because I had a terrible teacher for it in high school), and I don’t think the teacher really teaches in a style I learn well from (lecture + writing on the board). The teacher also wrote the textbook we’re using so we can’t really get two perspectives on how to do things (usually you get teacher’s way and book’s way, in this case they’re the same), but I’m not doing too badly. All the grades are our weekly quizzes and big tests though, which is a bit scary. It also means our only homework is studying, which I am terrible at, but maybe it’ll force me to get better at it : P
– Odysseus and Identities, which is a classics class of only freshman. It’s really cool. We read a lot of stuff (not just The Odyssey–we’re going to start Life of Pi soon, which is one of my favourite books ), and we have a paper due every 3 weeks (there’s a rotation for them with 3 groups, it’s kinda cool) but otherwise no tests or assignments. And because it’s all freshman, we’re sort of becoming friends as a class. Not let’s-all-have-lunch-together friends but smile-and-say-hi-in-passing, which is nice.
– Geology, the teacher for this class is HILARIOUS. He says the most random things in class. “Glass is a liquid in drag,†“…till the cows come home. From space. Where they migrated when they realized humans were evolving. Didn’t know that, did you [there was no backstory to that. He said it randomly XD],†“the biosphere is now located in a building in Arizona,†etc. Keeps me awake at least. And the informaton is really cool. It’s just an intro course, so it’s like an oversimplified version of everything, but it’s really interesting and enjoyable to learn. Also it’s kind of like bio for me in that it makes sense and I don’t have to review it more than once to understand it, so yay.
-Photography. It is awesome. It’s a black and white film class, and I’d never tried film before I got into it, but I absolutely LOVE it. The darkroom is so much fun, and it’s so satisfying to see a print come to life and know how/why it works. If people want/the GAPAs don’t mind, I can send in some of the scanned prints I’ve done. Our first assignment was 6 prints of “the absent, the hidden, the denied, and reflections,†which we only sort of followed, but it was fun and I did a lot of dark prints which was cool. We have a mini-assignment due tomorrow (that I still have yet to do, oops, after this post/my laundry is done I’ll probably head off to the photo lab) on contrast levels, but our next big project is 8 prints emulating a photographer. I chose Ralph Gibson, mainly to try taking more pictures of people (in general I prefer to take nature or macros, so it’ll be good for me). Part of his style is to just have part of a person in the frame, which I like a lot. He also uses very high contrast so that’ll be an adventure to work out.
– Chosen: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, yes this is a class. Sort of. It’s an ExCo, which is the “experimental college.†Basically, students can teach semester-long classes that people can take for credit. There’s all sorts–fencing, Korean, Lost (the tv series), Lady Gaga, one on pirates, one on birding, etc. For mine I go to about two screenings a week and watch 2-4 episodes at each, then on thursdays we have an hour or so of discussion. It’s really interesting. We’re talking more about the significance of certian images and portrayal of things versus just the plot, so it’s really cool to think about. I’m not taking it for credit (I easily could have, looking back, but for my first exco I wasn’t sure about it).
And then I also have geology and chem labs. For the geo lab we either do activites like looking at an analysing topographical maps in the room, or we go on field trips to various places and learn about how they were formed, the impact, etc. It’s fun. Chem lab we do different experiments each week. That one’s a bit stressful because I am Very Much Not Used to being in a REAL LAB, with EQUIPMENT instead of my crappy high school classroom. So I always feel a bit behind my partner, who knows the stuff more and is faster at it, but I think I’m doing okay and it will probably get easier with time.
So that’s weekdays! And weekends have all been SO MUCH FUN so far. I’ve never had anything like a social life before with all my sports and homework (practices every saturday night/sunday day, etc), so it’s weird to go out and do things but also really fun, because the people I’ve met are so awesome. I have way to much to say about each weekend I’ve spent here, so I’ll just do a brief synopsis of each:
WEEKEND ONE: Orientation stuff, lots of planned activities and such which were okay
WEEKEND TWO: Friday was the Quidditch info meeting, and later that night two of the people from it and several others wandered into the lounge with a bunch of instruments and played music till 1 am or so. I was doing hw listening to it the whole time, and it was awesome.
On saturday I was kidnapped by GRANT AND EBETH AND LIZZIE and we stormed Cleveland. I don’t think I need to elaborate on how awesome it was XD
WEEKEND THREE: On thursday after Quidditch practice (I will spend a post talking only about Quidditch right after I write this one), I talked to two of the people (who’d played music in th lounge from weekend 2) who are really big fans of a band I love, Great Big Sea, and we decided to meet later that night in one of the lounges of my dorm and sing(in my case)/play (in their cases, guitar+bouzouki+accordian+drum-thing+even more) and we kept at it from about 9 at night to 3 in the morning. It was SO worth it. And then friday night was a midnight Quidditch scrimmage, which we played in the field house, and nearly a hundred people turned up to watch which was really cool. We’re getting fans! We went till like 2 in the morning, and it was a ton of fun.
WEEKEND FOUR: Friday night was Organ Pump, which starts at midnight, and people (conservatory musical people) play things on the super amazing organ in the chapel. At the end everyone went up on the stage and laid down on it so we could feel all the vibrations for the last song. Then on sunday night I went to a really cool showcase/musical theater performance with various songs/scenes from musicals performed by students. It was a really small theater and we were close to the same level of the actors, which was cool. After that, I joined sci-fi hall people in watching the premiere of Sharktopus (a hilariously bad sci-fi horror movie) in one of our lounges, and then after that we all took turns reading bits of My Immortal out loud for laughs.
WEEKEND FIVE: (Warnign: This will be a REALLY LONG AWESOME ONE) Started out with my photographing a paint balloon fight (like water balloons, but with paint in them as well as water, so they color you where you get hit!) between some people I know (most of them I knew through Quidditch). I didn’t join in (didn’t have any clothes I could ruin), but taking pictures was fun as well XD After that I went rock climbing with some people, which I hadn’t done for YEARS, even though I used to even take a rock climbing/high ropes course class when I was younger. Then I ate dinner and went to the campus contra dance (there’s one the first friday of every month). The friends who I’d stayed up late playing music with in weekend 3 were both in the band playing the music for the dance, which was fun. I took pictures of the dancing for the most part, but I joined in the last two dances. I am terrible at it, but it was fun and good for me to push myself into trying (I do not dance. ever. at all).
After that, the friends mentioned above (Okay from now on I’m going to have to name them since I talk about them a lot: they are now A (male) and Ali (female)) invited me to go with them to a Grateful Dead cover band concert (A is sort of obsessed with TGD XD), and I went with and it was a lot of fun! The band was really good, and we stayed for their whole set, which ended around 1:30am. A was really jealous when I mentioned that I’d been taken to a The Dead concert when I was like 12 (I was too young to appreciate it then, alas!)
Then all 3 of us went back to the dorm where A and I live (Ali lives in a different one, but came with us) and we decided we weren’t dead-ed out yet (it is probably not possible to be so ) so we went to another lounge (picking up 3 guitars and A’s roommate on the way) and played Grateful Dead songs until 4 in the morning. In the middle of this was a fire alarm that Ali and I missed because we’d walked back to her dorm on the other side of campus so she could grab some stuff (we decided she should sleep over in my room, because she needed to be at my dorm the next morning anyway and it’d be easier if she just stayed there). So we were a bit confused to walk back and find A and his roommate standing outside playing music (everyone else in the dorm had gone to sleep on the floor of the lounges of the dorm next door, apparently), but after a while we got to go back inside (someone had decided to take a fire extinguisher and coat the first floor hallway in it’s spray) and played more XD We also made and burned popcorn and we were afraid it’d set off the fire alarms again, so we threw it out the window and I barrel-rolled out after it and threw it in some bushes far away. It smoked for a while, but nothing caught on fire so it was all good XD
Then we went to bed, and woke up about 10am and Ali and I went to the lounge and watched/helped A cook breakfast (he always cooks breakfast for everyone who went to the contra dance the day after, apparently). We ate about 11, it was delicious–potatoes and scones and chocolate cheesecake (which they made the previous thursday night in the lounge, until 2 am, and I was doing homework there so I helped them(aka licked the spoon)) with a snitch drawn in choclate shavins on the top. Later that night I went to my friend’s orchestra concert; he played a cool solo on english horn in it.
Then on sunday I actually did homework and stuff. That night I also helped one of the guys on my floor and his friend get their costumes ready for the swim team’s annual Pimps and Ho’s party. It was rather hilarious. I built a Katy-Parry-style cupcake bra for one of them out of construction paper, loofas, and present bows (not to mention lots of glue and tape); and lent my fedora to/decorated the other guy’s face with little rhinestones swirling from his eye after my other friend helped him put on large fake eyelashes. Later some people wandered in and asked if any of us wanted to go run around in barefoot in the freezing rain/puddle jumping, so I did that for 15 min or so (until we realized none of us had a key to get back inside or a phone to call anyone, but it only took like 5 min to find someone to let us in). Fun times! ANd then I was up till 3 am or so trying to finish all the homework I didn’t do, but it was fine in the end.
WEEKEND SIX: Friday afternoon I had a lovely chat with our favourite Paul Baker about bagpipes, because I am hoping to buy a set sometime (hopefully soon!) and wanted to know more about them. And now I REALLY want a set
Then that night I went to ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW. It was awesome, needless to say, and I could write a ton about it but I’ll spare you all. Basically I was all dressed up and threw things and had to recite the pledge (but not humiliate myself in front of everyone, they only picked 5 virgins to go up) and at the end me and my friend (we were the only ones sitting in the 2nd row, all our friends filled up the 3rd, and the first was filled with props) got sat upon/straddled by the girl playing Bradly for a joke. It had started about midnight, so I got to bed at maybe 3am.
Saturday I helped some people bake for a north campus vs. south campus baking competition, and it was delicious I went to bed that night about 1:30 am…
…and woke up at 4:30 sunday morning to go to a QUIDDITCH TOURNAMENT AT MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY. Which was fantastic and awesome, but I will probably talk more about it in detail in the Quidditch post I am going to do after I finish this one (though I may have to wait to write it till tomorrow, since I sort of need to get work done at some point today and it’s taken me over an hour to write this so far (to be fair, I am simultaneously doing my laundry) (Anyway, END OF TANGENT, WHERE WERE WE?). We left around 5:30am and got back at about 10pm. Also this was on a sunday. So I was up till 3am again doing the homework I hadn’t done on saturday like I should have XD But it was fantastic and I took a ton of pictures there, so yay.
WEEKEND SEVEN aka this past weekend (this will also be a bit long because I remember it best): Friday night I went to the observatory on top of Peter’s Hall (the prettiest building ever, it makes me feel like I go to Hogwarts) and looked at the moon/stars/Jupiter+Io/Europa/Ganymede/more stars through these cool really fancy telecscopes. Then we used the SUPER HUGE AWESOME telescope and looked at The Andromeda Galaxy which basically made my life. I want to just live in the observatory and never leave, it’s so cool. After that I went with two friends (D and C) and listened to them play a piano duet (on two separate pianos) in the conservatory building.
Then C and I went back to our dorm (North) and we sat in the lounge and watched 3 episodes of Doctor Who (series 1, with Rose, first 3 eps. She’s seen a few eps here and there and liked them so I am making her watch all of it XD) and had tea and popcorn and chocolate. Then on saturday, in the afternoon we (me and C and J and B) went to listen to this really great Oboist play a piece for a competition on english horn, she was INSANELY good, but didn’t make the cut After that we went to this store and played with kittens (the store does this thing where they foster found kittens, and invite all the college kids/anyone who’s nearby to come play with them in the back room so they get used to people, which makes them more adoptable). So we held them for a bit, then we got ice cream and went to eat it in the park. We sat on this stump that’s like 9 feet tall and was cut off above where the branches started, so it’s set up like a table (trunk) with 4 chairs (sawed branches) around it (except at the same level). It’s really cool but hard to explain.
After dinner I went to watch How to Train Your Dragon with people in the tiny auditorium/theater in the basement of Mudd (the library) with C (and a lot of other people were there), which I’d seen before but was awesome and adorable anyway. After that I went to the photo lab and processed negatives, then at about 10:20 while they were drying wandered back to North (my dorm) for the supposed floor meeting we were supposed to have. But my RA and I were the only ones who came for it (I’m pretty sure he said the wrong date in the email…), although C was doing homework in the lounge. Then A wandered in and came back with a guitar, and my RA got his bass, and they played some music and I sang along with the songs I knew. Then after the RA had to go A and I sang/played a bunch of Great Big Sea songs until midnight (seriously, I feel like no matter what I’ve done on the weekend it ends up with me and him and sometimes other people in a lounge playing music till very late (or very early, depending on how you look at it), and it is the best thing ever) when I finally went back to the photo lab and cut/organized my negatives. Then I went back to North again and watched the movie Alien in the sci-fi hall lounge with a ton of people and went to bed around 3am again (I seriously cannot remember the last time I was in bed ready to sleep before 1 XD). Sunday was a Quidditch scrimmage (we have them every sunday!), and in the afternoon I bought a ticket for a Great Big Sea concert that I’m tagging along with A and people to, and had a long music sharing session with A in a lounge. I have 785 new songs to listen to XD
And then last night me and some people had a mini-party in the bathroom while Z shaved off his beard (most of the bathrooms here are gender-neutral). As he went he made it into different shapes, which was amusing. He looks REALLY WEIRD without it though, and also a lot more like Harry Potter (he used to get mistaken for Daniel Radcliffe when he was younger, apparently, and he even has the round glasses. He’s on the Quidditch team though (and was seeker with me!) so it works out perfectly XD).
And now it is today! And I am nearly done with my laundry finally, and this post is going to be super long, oops. If you read it all you are my favorites. And if you didn’t I secretly don’t love you anymore, but you’ll never know because you didn’t read this. XD
And yeah, thursday is a Great Big Sea concert and I am REALLY EXCITED if you can’t tell, haha. College has been really great for me. I had a lot of rough patches in high school for various reasons, and being out of there and older and not as emotional is really good for me. I still get worried about school stuff and being social sometimes is overwhelming and panic-y but I’ve been handling everything really well so far (which I admit was a concern for me). So yeah, life is awesome finally and I’m really relieved because getting here was hell but this more than makes up for it all. Wooo!
Anyway long post is long so I’ll end it here with a note that soon I’ll do a big (though not THIS big) Quidditch post since people have been asking about it.
Hahaha thank you, this is probably better than me filling up the random thread XD
Re:Shriya (on Who’s Here): I applied there! I was on the waitlist, but I decided to go to Oberlin and let them know so I didn’t technically get in. But I really liked it from my visit. Also the essays for there were interesting to write. How do you like it so far?
geeeeze jade you weren’t kidding
i don’t have time to read it all now but skimming through it seems like i’ve heard a lot of these stories…but i will read it anyway when i get off work
hmm, i may have to do a matching monster post sometime…sounds better than homework, at any rate
Wow! Jadestone! Collegeland for you sounds super awesome! I considered going to Oberlin for awhile, but then I didn’t. (Haha, I feel like whenever someone talks about a college I applied to, I tell them about how I almost went there but didn’t.
) But yeah! Your college life sounds really similar to mine, with Quidditch and rock climbing and awesome classes and such.
And hello MuseBlog in general! I stop by occasionally, but there are usually so many threads and I never know how to jump into conversations because they go so fast! But this one is just beginning, and now I can add to the overwhelmingness by posting a novel of my own!
But anyway! I’ll talk about my college life, too!
CLASSES and general other stuff:
–Ecological Biology. This class is pretty much exactly what it sounds like. So far, we’ve done quite a bit up study about general ecology, natural selection, climate, etc. We’re finishing up a research module, during which we created and executed our own research projects. I did mine about squirrels! We set up nut cafeterias all around campus/back campus/the surrounding “city,†and checked them every hour for a loooonnnnngggg time, to study their feeding habits, food choice (natural/foreign foods), etc. It was awesome! It’s a really great class, and we’ve had wonderful weather during our lab sections, so we can go out into the woods and gather data and observations ourselves.
–Spanish. I’m in “Advanced Spanish,†where we basically just read lots of stuff and talk about it and write essays. I took a Spanish literature class last year, so I was worried that I would have a lot of overlap in content, but this class is much more focused on studying relationships between indigenous people in Spanish-speaking countries and slavery, ethnic cleansing, and modern society, and less about literary works. The teacher is really energetic and pasisonate about the issues we’re discussing, so it’s really easy to learn from her.
–The American Empire: Are We Rome? (politics seminar). This is a fantastic class! It’s super reading and writing-intensive, but I’ve been learning so much. We read The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire (Peter Heather) the first few weeks, then we studied the British Empire, and now we’re getting into the American Empire and analyzing its fate in the world. We’re about to start a giant research paper about possible reasons for the fall of the American Empire, and it seems very daunting, but I’m excited to begin. I think I’m going to write mine about energy resource scarcity.
–Introduction to Outdoor Education. This is one of my favorite classes–it combines educational theory (focusing mainly on experiential education and facilitation) with educational practice. A few weeks ago, a group of 70 high school students came to my college and our class lead them through the low ropes course. We had a mid-semester break last week/end, and we went on a 5-day wilderness trip! The class broke into a bunch of smaller trips, and I went rock climbing in Devil’s Lake, Wisconsin, which is beautiful! We learned about climbing in general (all of the gear, how to set anchors and lead climb, etc.), and then how to lead and plan a rock-climbing trip. We each led a day of the trip, gaining educational and leadership experience.
My school is really well known for its wilderness and experiential education programs, and I’m really glad I’ve been able to get so involved with it. I went on a backpacking trip in Utah for a month before college, which was an absolutely spectacular awesome amazing super fantastic experience. The weekend before last, I went rock climbing in Red River Gorge, Kentucky, just for fun! (And just two days after we get back, I went rock climbing again, on the Outdoor Ed trip!) We borrowed all of the climbing gear from the Outdoor Education Center, found someone with a car who could drive, and just went for the weekend! My college also has an indoor rock-climbing wall, so I’ve been going pretty much every day, too.
–Choir. This is technically a class because I get credit for it, but I’m not really sure what I can explain about it except for the fact that it’s choir! The director is really happy all the time, which makes it happy to be there. This semester, we’re singing “Vier Gesänge” (Brahms), “Five Hebrew Love Songs” (Whitacre), “To Be Sung on the Water” (Barber), “How Can I Keep from Singing” (arr. Gwyneth Walker), and “Duo Seraphim” (Victoria). Next semester, we’re singing Carmina Burana!
And Jade, I’m on the Quidditch team, too! We haven’t played against any other schools, but we were all sorted into houses and just play against each other.
I’m not going to discuss each weekend individually, because I’ve technically been in college for 13 weekends already. (4 weekends for the Wilderness backpacking trip, which wasn’t actually at college, but it was a college program, then I’ve been at college for 9 weekends so far.) But they’ve all been awesome! I think small liberal arts colleges are very muserly.
And Shriya! I have a friend going to Tufts this year, and her name actually seems really similar to yours. Same letters, except a little switched around and without the y.
Good to hear from you, Purple Panda, and I’m very glad your college career is off to such an exciting start!
Jade– EVERYTHING SOUNDS AMAZING! wow okay i’ll admit i’m kind of fixated on the chocolate cheesecake right about now….*____*
especially quidditch! AND CHOCOLATE CHEESECAKE, SERIOUSLY? FHFHSKDJFSDJK
that geology class sounds super cool, i love teachers like that! xD just reading about your photography class is exciting, i hope you do decide to post some of your pictures cause you know how i feel about your photography haha 8D 8D 8D
everything you’re doing sounds so fun! i’m so happy you’re enjoying college, that all sounds so ideal and awesome
Pan — experiential learning sounds really interesting to me, i haven’t had a whole lot of experience with it i guess (haha..bad puns) but it sounds great
and so much adventuring, that sounds fantastic! the american empire class also sounds really great! that paper sounds really interesting, if you do end up writing on that i’d love to hear a little bit about it if you don’t mind 
kinda sad to say that my college experience has been a huge disappointment so far…pretty massive let down, actually. i’ve kind of been thinking of transferring but i’m pretty sure the problem is at least 60% me, so i don’t know that it would really help
i’m glad you guys are having such an awesome time though! it’s good to know that people do have good experiences, i’m just pretty dang envious right now since i don’t think i’m one of them haha
What about it isn’t working for you, Axa?
it just hasn’t really lived up to my expectations, i guess. which were probably way out of proportion to begin with…i feel kind of bad complaining on this thread…
i just don’t feel any interest in much of anything right now. still feeling just as academically apathetic as i did in high school. also still painfully shy which is probably more of a problem -___- i’ve tried with clubs and stuff but none of them have been that great…but i’m sure it’s all about attitude and everything and i guess i don’t have the right one? i dunno
i just feel kind of out of place but that’s a common theme which is why i say it’s probably just me.
Don’t feel bad about being honest. My own college experience also started out as a disappointment. More truthfully, a near disaster. I too felt out of place and shy, even more so than in high school, and I felt trapped because my freshman grades were too awful to transfer. But the situation did improve eventually. Discovering art turned the corner for me, because I finally had work to feel passionate about. And in the social arena, I eventually found the lunatic fringe I didn’t even know existed. Senior year I worked harder and had more fun than any previous school year ever. (Graduate school was even better, though, and much more what I had once imagined college to be.)
So don’t give up hope! Don’t give up looking, either; you may yet stumble into a club or group that fits. If the rules allow, try auditing some classes that sound interesting. I audited quite a few courses, and they were often much more rewarding than the ones on my official schedule. Be patient with yourself. I’ll be heretical and say don’t worry about your attitude (unless you believe you’re depressed). If all you’re up to at the moment is plodding along, then plod, just participate at whatever level you can until something catches fire. In the meantime, think of college as the opportunity to experiment with your interests, if that helps.
thank you for writing all of that, it’s really helpful!
it’s good to know things can get better. and that it’s okay to plod along (since that is basically what i’m doing now…)
i’ll think about auditing courses, i hadn’t considered that before. i’m pretty sure we can do that. i am a little concerned that i might be depressed since i feel like i’ve really lost interest in everything…but i’m seeing someone tomorrow to kind of talk about that hopefully so i hope that helps. i know i have the bad mindset of “everything is bad now so that means it will never be good!” and i know that things will probably get better and you never know what will happen….but i still just feel kinda sad. but thank you so much for writing all of that, it’s very encouraging! i just have to keep on keeping on i guess
Collegeland! I am deep in the jungle of papers and tests and late nights spent with friends. I have been walking through this place for two years now. So. Oxlin’s view of collegeland:
People: are generally pretty awesome. I have one large friends group (which is sometimes divided up into smaller ones) from the school science fiction fantasy club. I miss the people I used to hang out with freshman year. They were seniors and juniors and have since graduated. I love all the people who are around now, but I miss that feeling of a cohesive /group/ to hangout with. I do have another group of friends that consists of mostly sophomores and they are awesome. Some of them are a part of the club but some are not.
Classes: I am an anthropology major and a museum studies minor. I love to learn about ancient things and how people relate to objects and how objects form people’s viewpoints and how culture informs people’s lives and so, so much. Another subject I like is cognitive science. I took a class on artificial intelligence last semester and that was really cool and opened up new thought areas of my brain
Spare time/lackthereof/weekends/what I do when not studying: I hang out with my friends a lot but I also write and I read Sherlock Holmes. Some neat things I do with my friends are go on short road trips to nearby areas, just sit around in lounges, like Jadestone’s friends, sometimes we have random sing-a-longs and those are great.
I bet I’ll think of more. This is in no way comprehensive of my view of college-land, but it is a start. I love it here.
Sigh. I read all of these and I hate being fifteen. I seriously cannot wait five hundred and six school days (why yes, I’m counting them down, whyever do you ask?) to get to do this stuff. Why can’t time move faster just for me?
</whine Seriously, you guys seem to be having a really great time. Concerts and midnight Quidditch and wilderness trips and Buffy class and Rocky Horror and watching the stars! Keep it up!
jade – grateful dead, ukuleles, rocky horror, you are so college! love it!
pan – sounds like you’re having a fantastic time as well! hurrah!
axa –
i am sorry college is not being spectacular for you! but even if the problem is partly you, it’s possible you could be more inclined to work on it if you were in a better environment. where do you go to school again? i forget :-/ what about it don’t you like?
hokay. here goes my monster post. this will be highly abridged though, to be honest i don’t even remember most of college so far. today at work someone was like “i saw you yesterday eating brunch” and i was like “i had brunch yesterday? …OH YEAH BRUNCH”
anyway. classes. not fantastically exciting, but here you go
Italian – sucky. i hate languages. last class though, i’ll be done after this! and i mean it’s not TERRIBLE terrible. it would be a much better class if i actually did the work and understood what was going on half the time, which i will get on as soon as i have some time (famous last words, amirite?). no, but i really do need to get a-studying, i’m not that far behind yet but i will be soon if i don’t get on it.
bio – auuugh. not a bad class, but it’s 101 and turns out i knew a lot more about biology than i thought i did. plus there are people in the class who are against evolution what the cake, this is COLLEGE. religion can stuff it.
english 202H – good class, but not quite as good as i was expecting. i sort of thought since it was honors, it would be a much higher level of discussion. it was definitely a much higher level than my non-honors college classes have been, but still not quite to the level of AP english in high school. plus i’m coming to realize that i actually dislike quite a few english majors. “y’know what i mean?” punctuates almost every idea, and incorrect uses of the phrase “in and of itself” leave me twitching with annoyance. plus it’s mostly romantic poetry which isn’t really my favorite. but it’s still a fun class, mostly.
history 514 – again, really fun topic but not always the most exciting class. i really like the period in history, but it’s not a terrifically high-level class. i’d probably get a lot more out of it if i, say, did the reading. i feel like such a terrible student. on the other hand, the prof complimented me on my discussion questions and told me i was well-informed…after a class period which i was late for about two and a half weeks in when i’d still done none of the reading. :-/ it’s a fun class though, probably my best right now
also extracurricular things!
band – technically a class, but i sort of didn’t go all last week. oops. it’s been fun though. i’ve just been doing concert band this quarter, no time for a-band until winter. i can’t wait for it though, i love getting into hockey games for free
sci-fi club – this is the big one this year. i am the secretary and a founding member! it is quite exciting. i have bonded with people over geekery! actually everything i’ve been doing this quarter has been super geeky
but yeah, this week we’re doing our first discussion-based meeting since the first one, so i’m interested to see how that goes. eventually we are also going to be playing laser tag and debating star trek vs star wars and other awesome things like that.
board to death (the gaming club) – has also been super fun! i’ve been a lot more involved with it this year (i only joined at the very end of last year). they had a convention a while back that i volunteered at for about half the day which was a lot of fun. you basically sit around and play complicated board games, it’s a lot of fun. we’ve also been inviting the newly formed magic: the gathering club to hang with us since they don’t have a room of their own yet and we usually have a game or two of magic going at b2d anyway. that’s thursday nights, when i always complain about how late i’ve been up because we stay until the union kicks us out (they’ve said they’re going to start kicking us out at 11:30 now…we’ve been staying even past 12 because we’re all bffs with mitch, the guy who cleans down there. he’s a gamer too). after that we all go to sloopy’s (the diner in the union, it’s open until i believe 4 AM…the only times there are no campus dining places open is between 4 and 7 AM, it’s great) and play card games. thursdays are great.
i do various other things sort of…i have decided to start fencing but i’ve only made it to one meeting so far :-! so i’m really behind on that. but the one time i went it was really fun! and i’m definitely going to try to make it back this week. i also wander in and out of anime club. i’m not really huge on anime but i have a lot of friends in it, and i often meet up with them after the club to hang out. or just hang around the hallway talking to people.
weekends…oh boy…i don’t think i’ll remember it all. but here’s a sort of overview ish? first weekend…got a lot of free stuff, saw a lot of people i hadn’t seen in a while, saw weezer, played college games, watched alex and casey play acoustic guitar…very college. next weekend i believe was more college games, watched firefly, hung out with some people…again, it’s been a while. weekends and weekdays are blurring together, but i went to kate’s birthday dinner and met a lot of people, bill came to visit, we hung out on the oval in large groups playing silent football, a guy sitting on a skateboard attached to a bike went riding past a few times…i’ve had a couple all-nighters (or almost all-nighters) so far – rock band with steven, hanging out with jake, hanging out with large groups of people in the drackett lobby…none for homework yet, i’ve scheduled all my classes late enough that i have actual significant time in the morning to work on things, which helps a lot
i don’t know. it’s all blurring together. the weekend before my birthday i went to the football game on saturday. our seats are SO GOOD. it is perhaps telling that we are seated right by a big 10 news camera. then on sunday i went home for a combined birthday celebration with my brother and my dad. we had a fancy lunch and went to the symphony and i got the first two scott pilgrim books, the age of innocence, and the complete sherlock holmes in 2 volumes, along with a bunch of food for my dorm.
HvZ started! that was fun! i’ve sort of talked about that already i guess. i was an OZ which was fantastic
and also makes me feel really special because there were two OZs out of over 800 registered players. i haven’t really had time to participate hardcore though, which is a shame because i’d really like to. it’s always this big internal struggle, go to class or go hunt humans…most of the time i actually do go to class, especially since midterms are coming up 
maybe in spring i will have more time for it (there is a spring game as well)
this last weekend i had my sort of birthday gathering of sorts. we ordered pizza and pokey sticks (these pizza stick things, they are delicious) and hung out in the lobby of drackett. i spend so much more time in that lobby than i do in my own…it’s right near my dorm and i have a bunch of friends who live there. i might actually start doing laundry there too, our laundry room is really bleak and depressing. we watched the game, which was depressing (we lost to WISCONSIN, whaat) and then we watched boondock saints and piled everybody on top of each other on the beanbags and traded hats and occasionally a few of us jumped up and ran outside after passing humans. it were good times up in this hurr collegeland. and then sunday i went to brunch with some people and went out to the south oval to wait in line for about four hours to see the obamas. it was so worth it, we ended up being right behind the priority seating section, which in a crowd of 35000 people is what i woud qualify as damn good spots. (sorry GAPAs, “cake good spots” really makes no grammatical sense and is also a little ridiculous). i don’t know if you guys saw the speeches on the teevee but i thought it was fantastic and had a pretty awesome time.
oh and JULIA was present at some of these shenanigans which TOTALLY MAKES THEM ALL KOKONS, RIGHT? right.
oh i also saw iron&wine! i forgot about that one! i may have mentioned it on music though. that was the most relaxing concert ever in the history of ever, he got the whole room to just sit down and listen to him and it was amazing
man i sort of killed it didn’t i
my knees hurt
i asked tom for a piggyback ride and i’m used to having to jump on peoples’ backs because they’re tall and/or lazy, but tom thought “hmm, she’s short, i better bend over” and bent like a straight 90 degrees towards the ground. so he bent over right as i jumped and i sort of vaulted over his back and hit the sidewalk. massive bruises on both knees and scraped most of the skin off three of my knuckles. woo college!
so uhh yeah but final mission for hvz tonight! we’re dressing up as zombies. and i’ve figured out my halloween costume, i’m gonna be kim pine from scott pilgrim. it will be so easy, i’ll just have to go thrifting for a tracksuit and a skirt and borrow some drumsticks from someone and maybe get some temporary hair dye
WEEKEND THE EIGTH
Thursday night (weekends apparently include thursdays now, or any other night I do something fun) I went to a Great Big Sea concert, which was the best concert I’ve ever been to. Not that I’ve been to many, but it was REALLY great. A small venue but enough people who really love the band to keep the energy really high the whole time, and the band looked like they were really enjoying themselves and joked around a lot.
But yeah, at 6 my friend A and I went and found the people driving us, and after an hour’s drive or so got to the venue. My seat was originally farther back than his and in a different section, but my section was lame and not standing and dancing and singing along. So halfway through the first set I went and sat (well, stood in front of while bouncing around) in one of the only empty seats in the place (it was sold out, so someone must have decided at the last minute not to come), which happened to be right next to A, so that was awesome. GBS had long sets, which was excellent. The set list:
The Chemical Worker’s Song (Process Man)
Captain Kidd
Irish Paddy/Festival Reel/Roger’s Reel
When I’m Up (I Can’t Get Down)
Lukey
Safe Upon The Shore
Concerning Charlie Horse
Nothing But A Song
Good People
The River Driver
Dear Home Town
Yankee Sailor
Run Runaway
Long Life (Where Did You Go)
Love Me Tonight
England
Beat The Drum
When I Am King
General Taylor
Scolding Wife
Helmethead
Consequence Free
Mari Mac
Ordinary Day
Encores:
Wandering Ways
Excursion Around The Bay
Fortune
Oh Yeah
The Old Black Rum
In the middle they also did this thing where Alan, one of the members, would play a few bars of a fairly well known song and the audience would sing a few lines of it, then he’d do another song. I think as a group we managed all oo them pretty well XD They also would have the audience sing sections of their songs, which is always fun, and at the end they improvised a little song for the town we were in because they’d never been there before. The whole experience was basically the best thing in the history of ever. Also, afterwards we went up to the stage to try to snag the set list, but even though someone had already got it I got Sean’s (guitarist/singer) guitar pic
Then we had to go back, alas. We got back a bit after midnight, which wasn’t bad at all.
Then friday after my classes were done Fall Break started (it ends the day after Halloween). I carved a pumpkin (that I sneakily stole from the cafeteria decorations) into an octopus and named him Gregory, and gave him to my friend to pumpkin-sit for this week while I’m back in IL for break. After I carved it, I went and joined some friends in someone’s room and we watched Wizard People, Dear Reader, which is an amusing dubbed narration over the whole first Harry Potter movie. We also ate cake because it was a firned’s birthday on wednesday, yum.
Then at 3 am I was picked up and driven to the train station with a friend. We got in just as a train was pulling up, even though ours wasn’t scheduled to come for another half hour. The employee on it asked if we were going to Chicago, and we said yes, and he let us on. Then he told us that even though the train we were on was going to Chicago it wasn’t the one we technically had tickets for; the one we were supposed to get on was like 5 hours late. But he said we could ride this one so we wouldn’t be waiting outside (the “station” is a stop with two benches) for ages. He is basically my favorite person for the week now. The train we ended upon was the more expensive one with fewer stops, and I’m pretty sure he gave us better seats than we had originally paid for too.
I catnapped a bit on the 6 hour ride, then went to a different train station in chicago and took a second one for about an hour to a town near my home and got picked up by a parent. The lack of sleep was making me really weird at this point, so I took a nap when I got home. I slept for maybe 45 min, and then woke up to go hang out with a friend (I was also really confused when I woke up. Some things made sense then that I can’t even comprehend now). We got coffee-like drinks then sat on a peir and talked, then went back to my house and watched part of A Very Potter Sequel and talked and listened to music so yay. Still planning out the rest of my week.
Also man what is with me and long journal-posts lately? Probably no one is reading these, but OH WELL. Writing them makes it easier for me to remember them, and also if they’re written down I can always come back and read them later, woo.
Oxlin- Random lounge sing-a-longs are the BEST. And the artificial intelligence class sounds very cool and like a lot of fun! As do your classes in general ^^
Ebeth- HvZ sounds like SO MUCH FUN! I’m glad you had a blast
I have heard a few dispatches from friends who’ve graduated college-land. Recently one of those friends of mine moved from [far away homestate] where he was living with his parents to [city near college where bunches of alums go to live]! [my college] is on this route and so he stopped by. I hadn’t seen him since my freshman year. He’s a bit of an older brother figure to me and it was very very excellent to see him and get plenty of hugs. He’ll be visiting next weekend too!
THE SERIES CONTINUES
WEEKEND NINE
aka fall break; Friday I was still in Collegeland though. In the group of people I’m friends with, the guys have “man-date mondays” every now and then, and they had one on the friday but since it wasn’t actually a monday invited girls as well. So I ended up in a crowded room watching Wizard People, Dear Reader until around midnight-thirty. And then I stayed up till 3, because that was when me and my friend, B, were getting driven to the train staton. Because the trains that come through here only do so at 3 and 4am. Yeah.
So we got to the train station about 3:15 and just as we got out of the car a train pulled up. Ours wasn’t supposed to get in till 4, but a conductor-person stuck his head out the door and asked us if we were going to Chicago. We said yes, and he told us to get on, so we grabbed our stuff and did. While we were putting our stuff in compartments he told us that this wasn’t technically our train, but that ours was 5 hours late. So we really lucked out with getting there just in time to catch that one, not to mention that they were nice enough to let us on. I ‘m pretty sure he gave us better seats as well so that was yay.
So I was on the train till like 6am. I sort of catnapped a bit, but not a lot. Trains are nit the ost comfortable. Once in Chicago, B got picked up by her brother-in-law and I took the metra back to a suburb near me. It’s about an hour ride but I was so tired I kept nodding off for a minute or two at a time and losing time. It was really weird. Also if my eyes were closed I wouldn’t hear what people were saying around me properly and it’d transform into REALLY weird stories in my head that somehow made sense.
I ended up back home around 11, ate some food, and then at 11:30 crashed for an hour. Then I went and hung out with a friend which was fabulous. That week I also visited 2 other friends who go to college nearish my hometown, and visited my old high school tech crew yay.
WEEKEND TEN
I carved Shelia the space squid pumpkin and also a dragon pumpkin woo! That was thursday and friday. Don’t really remember saturday, it probably was just me avoiding packing all day. Oh no actually I had to get up EARLY and accompany my family to the sibling’s cross country meet.
But sunday I got driven back to Collegeland! I missed it a lot so that was great. I brought a bunch of extra stuff to put in the empty half of my room as well (I didn’t and still don’t have a roommate, though the situation is sort of weird now). That day was Halloween, so after dinner me and some people got together in costume and watched Repo! The Genetic Opera, and then went reverse-trick-or-treating (running up to people on campus and giving them candy). Woo! Then went back to a lounge in my dorm and talked to all the people in costumes. There were all the Dr Who characters from the most recent season (plus a Tardis and Dalek), Spike from Buffy, Spock, Princess Mononoke, Death and Delirium from Sandman, and a ton of other awesome costumes. Whee!
I have to go take a geology lab test now, so I’ll do weekends 11-14 later. I don’t except anyone to read these really, but it’s a good way to help me remember everything. This place is the best and I never want to forget it.
I know what you mean about writing things down. Events happen that I think I couldn’t possibly forget, then I read an old email and…*facepalm moment*.
12.1- I know! And Just writing it is sometimes enough, even if I don’t go back and read it it sticks better in my head just from typing/writing it out. That’s how I memorize a lot of poetry, by rewriting it. Kinesthetic learning woo!
WEEKEND TEN CONTINUED
NaNoWriMo began! I had to make the executive decision last week to stop working towards 50k (grades and stuff : P ), but that first day I went to a NaNo club meeting which was cool. Lots of fun people. And I wrote 6001 words! In like the first TWO HOURS I was already at like 3000. It was glorious. Me and my friend A (from other weekends) were the last ones writing, and we also had a write-in in our dorm lounge the next night. Sadly, he’s had to give it up in favor of passing classes as well. We’re both seriously considering JanNoWriMo at least.
WEEKEND ELEVEN
Friday night was a contra dance! As well as Guy Fawkes day. So I went to the dance for a bit and stumbled through stuff because I am he least coordinated ever. I also left my room wearing sandles, walked outside, and saw it was snowing. On November 5th. And I was in a knee-length skirt and sandals did I say. But I was to lazy to walk back up the stairs and change so my toes just sort of went numb on the way over/back, haha. After the dance me and my friend C went back to my room and watched V for Vendetta and had snacks, yay. It was relaxing compared to some previous weekends, heh, but it was nice. And juuust as we’d finished watching and she’d left to go to her room, the fire alarm went off. This was about 3am. So at least I hadn’t been sleeping already I guess.
Saturday I had breakfast with the contra people again, yum. And then later on had another dramatic reading aloud of My Immortal, which was lulzy as always.
Sunday was FIRST HOCKEY PRACTICE. I hadn’t skated in 6 months. I don’t think I can describe how that was for me… I hadn’t not been on the ice for that long since probably 3rd grade. It was hard. But I play on my college’s coed club team now (I say coed, but 2 girls dropped out after the first practice, so it’s just me and the goalie… but oh well). It’s a lot different than girls hockey and I am waaay out of practice, but I can hold my own which is a relief. Yeah. It’s good.
WEEK TWELVE
Yes, week. It was a fun one.
Monday I spent a lot of time in the darkroom working on my photography project (which was due the thursday of that week), and after that I went to Harry Potter Trivia night at the ‘sco (=dance club, except it’s a geeky college so it’s mostly awkward standing around I hear XD). My team was the Magical Bouncing Ferrets, and was me, A, Matt, and A’s friend Mel who I didn’t know at the time but sort of do now. Matt, A and I are all on Quidditch. The team we were rivaling was other Quidditch people, including Ali (also mentioned earlier), and they were the House Elf Liberation Front. Other teams were the Dumblewhores and the Blast-Ended Skanks (who won best name contest), and like 10 others. It was intense, with a lot of really tricky questions (where are each of the houses located in Hogwarts, what did Olivander produce from each champion’s wand at the Triwizard tournament, name all the Hufflepuffs, what did Hermione use on her hair before the Yule Ball, etc). And the crazy part was we WON. Even though the House Elf Liberation Front has all the people who know EVERYTHING. A and Matt are really good though, so that was what saved us.
Tuesday a bunch of Quidditch people went to a lounge and we watched HP&tSS. And had a facebook war where all of us changed our profile pictures to pictures of our teammate Z and “liked” every profile picture of everyone on the team. Yeah it was random. Thursday we watched Chamber of Secrets. We bonded a lot. It was rather fantastic.
WEEKEND TWELVE
Hung out with J and C friday day, but in the evening met up with a bunch of people from sci fi hall/friends of theirs from other places, including Ali who I am really good friends with now. We watched this interesting video game going on in sci fi lounge that was like… a nuclear was simulation. You had a map of the world, and one person played the US and one person played Soviet Russia, and you arranged nuclear weapon towers and things to destroy weapons and fleets of ships and just go to war. Kind of like if Risk had long-range weapons.
So we watched that, then ended up in a cuddle pile on the floor for 15 minutes or so until Mike came and sat on us all
Then we went to the ‘sco to see if Anamanaguchi were playing yet, but not even the pre-them band, Starscream, was going to start till 11 or so. So then we went to someone elses room and had another cuddle party (sort of) until 11 and then walked back to see Starscream, who were all right. Then Anamanaguchi came on and a legit mosh pit started, which was crazy since that sort of thing never happens here apparently. I managed to stay at the front of it jumping around nearly the whole time (had to leave twice to put hair back in ponytail before it turned into dreadlocks, but got right back in). At the end like half the people (including me and friends) went on stage and moshed WITH them, which was cool, and they loved how energetic everyone was. Then several of us (slightly different group, but overlap of people) went and hung out in Z’s room. It was like 3:30 before we all wandered back to our rooms to crash, 4 before I fell asleep. Fun times.
Except then I got up at 7am for a dentist appointment because I’d chipped my tooth somehow the friday before… yeah. Not fun. Was WAY to tired for it. Got back ot my room mouth all numb around 10:30 and slept for an hour, when my family arrived for parent’s weekend. We got lunch, went to a cool a cappella concert, and for dinner went to OLIVE GARDEN which is like REAL RESTAURANT FOOD mmmmm.
My sister stayed in my room that night in the extra bed since I have no roommate (LONG STORY WILL TELL LATER), and we watched Scott Pilgrim Versus The World in sci fi lounge with lots of awesome people. That started around midnight, so I went to bed at like 2:30 or so.
Sunday I got up and played a Quidditch match for parents weekend whee. Then I had hockey, and then went to watch Prisoner of Askaban with Quidditch till about 3 am. That became sort of the theme for the week, it being the week of HP7 and all.
I’ll do week/weekend thirteen (aka last week) tomorrow probably, since it’ll take a while to type up and I want to do it justice
And then I will be all caught up yay!
WEEK TWELVE
Monday: registered for classes for spring semester. As of now, my schedule will be
– Biology (genetics, evolution, and ecology), + a bio lab on wednesday
– Chemistry, + a chem lab on friday
– Intro to Cultural Anthropology
– Intro the Psychology
– Quantum Mechanics (a 1-credit, pass/no-pass class that should be really interesting)
+ Traditional Irish Music ExCo (=Experimental College, where students can put together a course and teach it to other students for credit. It’s really cool and there are so many fun options! This semester I’m in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer ExCo :D)
Plus ice hockey and quidditch. So uh, a really full schedule. But it should be lots of fun!
Oh I also spent a couple hours on Monday fangirling over the new developments in terraforming and the possibility of sending humans to Mars by as early as 2030. EXCITING STUFF MAN. But no seriously I went on about it for ages and just went around finding friends I hadn’t talked at about it yet so I could. AXA WILL UNDERSTAND ME.
Tuesday: That night went to watch Goblet of Fire with the Quidditch team, but before we did that we rehearsed for the flash mob reenactment of the Final Battle form the 7th book. More about that later, but each of us decided to change our names on The-Site-That-Shall-Not-Be-Named to the name of the character we were acting. Mine was Bellatrix Lestrange (who is the best ever. For real.), so I was “[Jade] Lestrange.”
Then we changed our profile pictures to the actor’s and started posting comments and wall posts and stuff in-character on each other’s walls and creating general confusion among the rest of our friends.
Wednesday: More rehersing that night, then Order of the Pheonix. Also a lot more in-character-posting on You-Know-Where.
Thursday:
…is to come later! Because even though I staretd writing this like 3 hours ago I keep getting distracted and now I’m off to hang out with friends. SOME DAY I WILL BE CAUGHT UP WITH THIS. Just not today.
oh yeah i did that scheduling thing too
i have something at 8:30 m-th, but that means aside from band, i’m done at 10:30 AM tuesdays and thursdays. m/w i have a class in the afternoon that’s out at 3:30. no friday classes!
i haven’t scheduled work yet but i am trying to leave weekends free for ROAD TRIPPING. going to see liv and monty in january and going to a concert in jade in february! assuming everything works out, which hopefully it will. also some of my collegefriends and i have been talking about a road trip to canada (also been talking about this with liv’s friends…two canada trips, perhaps? WE SHALL SEE) to visit julia and go to a pub (drinking age is 19 there)
winter could be a lot of clevelanding. there’s also a streetlight manifesto concert the week before ensiferum that some of my collegefriends from cleveland are going to, and if they’re taking a car up i might tag along (don’t want to pay for two buses in two weeks though)
in more collegiate terms, i feel like i’m failing at everything (even though i’m really not – i just get easily stressed). mostly history, i feel like i’m in way over my head. i have a research paper due tuesday and i am way behind on it and i am freaked out for the final exam. but it’s just two more weeks of freakouts and then break so that should be good. gonna try to go see les miserables with people after exams, also possibly demetri martin but not sure about that one (no student discounts, so it’s a bit expensive)
but today is the michigan game, that will definitely be an Experience. gonna try to stay for the whole game this time (usually i leave when i see that we’re winning by lots, around the third quarter :P) i was thinking about staying on campus afterwards but i get even less accomplished in my dorm than at home so i’m gonna just stop by and pick up my phone charger (oh god life without texting is a barren wasteland) and maybe stop by the library and get some books so i can not fail at life
so yeah haven’t been doing anything much fun lately. the usual college shenanigans, wandering around the railroad tracks, introducing everyone to doctor who, having a boyfriend (what? oh right that’s a thing now o.O i’m still kind of “hooow did that happen?”)
There will most certainly be a concert in me in february. You all are invited.
I just went back and reread all my old posts. And I was definitely right, I had forgotten a lot of really fun stuff happened! But now I remembered and man I want to go back. Soon at least! And later tonight my roommate/good friend Ali mentioned in these posts is going to come to visit me so it will be bearable I guess
Hey GAPA(s), do you think we might have another one of these? I know it didn’t get a ton of use last year, but we’ve got several more musers just getting to college now, so it may get more use. And I really want to hear about what they have to say, but once I get back to campus I won’t have time to sift through the random thread anymore.
lulz just noticed the “back to school” thread, slow Jade is slow today