My life, at Houghton and elsewhere

A poem

2012-02-08T00:35:00.001-05:00

I'm back at Houghton and recently had two of my poems published in The Candle, a short, monthly publication the current editors of The Lanthorn have started. I thought I'd share one of them...

Geological Thoughts

When I decided that my thoughts were a braided stream,

flowing in a network of interconnected rivulets

around numerous bars,

I immediately realized

I’d been studying geology too long.

In NZ

2011-11-03T05:03:00.001-04:00

So, my laptop has died (just the computer and not the hard drive, fortunately), and with it all my plans of uploading photos, catching up on blogging, and getting homework done. Right now Nora is kindly letting me use her computer, but I feel bad taking it from her to often, so I probably won't be getting nearly as much done as I intended. On the plus side, I won't be staying up late online, either. Anyway, all that to say that my posting schedule is not going to be as promised the other day. Maybe I'll write some retrospective posts once I'm home, if anyone's interested in that? (If you are, let me know...)

But for now, here's a little more on where I am now and what's been going on: Nora and I are staying with a family who live in a suburb of Auckland. The dad is from New Zealand and the mom is American (from Michigan); she moved here with him after they got married less than 10 years ago. They have three children, ages 2, 4, and 6. The kids are all quite high-energy, and the youngest, especially, has been playing with us a lot. She likes to make me pretend to go to sleep and then sing, yell, or hit me with a pillow to wake me up. She's super cute; they all are. We've been eating great home-cooked meals with them and we watched NCIS (an American crime show that I'd never heard of before we came here) with the mom the other night. So it's been fun so far.

For the past two weeks we've had Gary Baxter, a Houghton art professor, with us to teach the Art and Film courses. So for the past three days our classes have consisted of watching New Zealand films, which is fun. The movies are, in case anyone's curious, Once Were Warriors, Whale Rider, and Boy. All quite good, all dealing with some hard issues--Once Were Warriors is especially dark, very disturbing. Boy had a good amount of humor in it, so that balance was good.

Today we visited a super nice public school and heard about it from one of the teachers and chatted with some of the students and then had a wonderful afternoon tea there (here and in AU they eat so many times in one day; breakfast, then morning tea, then lunch, then afternoon tea, then dinner [which they call tea--so many teas! But it never means just tea, there's always food too], and sometimes supper, which is a light snack before bed). Tomorrow we have a guest lecturer in the morning, and then we have a free afternoon. Not sure what I'll do; maybe try to get into the city by ferry if it's not too expensive and if I can figure out the bus system to get there.

So yeah, I guess that's a pretty good overview of things right now. Not sure when I'll post again, but I'll try to at least once or twice before I come back on the 18th!

A post!

2011-11-01T06:24:00.002-04:00

Wow, my last post was September 9th--I lost my momentum early! But here's a quick update on what's going on with me now (I just copied and pasted from an email... :P). I definitely have more free time this week than I've had for ages, so there will be more posts--both on NZ and the past weeks in AU--soon!

NZ feels very different from AU. Much quieter and less busy--you can tell the population is smaller. We were in Auckland yesterday and today, and the city just feels so empty compared to Australian cities. The countryside, what we've seen of it, is beautiful--the shoreline is cliffs, and there are lots of rivers and sand flats. So it's a nice place, and I hope we get to see more of it. The area where we've mainly been--we have classes at the church where most of the host families go--is kind of ugly, all developed with stores everywhere. And the suburb where I'm staying is just packed with houses; you look out the window and just see tons of them, as if they're piled on top of each other (it's really hilly here, so it's kind of a funny perspective. Driving in Auckland was scary because the hills were so steep).

We went to the Auckland Art Gallery on Monday and the Natural History Museum today. Who knows what we'll do tomorrow!

The past week

2011-09-09T08:30:00.003-04:00

This week we’ve gone into the city (Brisbane) every day for “classes” with Peter Breen, a former pastor who now runs Jugglers Art Space. According to the website, "Jugglers Art Space Inc. is an Artist Run Initiative that is committed to supporting emerging artists across a broad range of genres. It was founded in 2002 to address the critical shortage of exhibition and studio spaces available in Brisbane." PB wanted graffiti artists, especially kids, to have a place where they could do their art legally. Now artists have shows there, and Jugglers has rented property from Queensland rail which they in turn rent to artists to use as studios.

So anyway, we’ve been going in and basically chatting with Peter Breen. He’s talked about the church and art and about loving and serving people. Monday we just stayed at Jugglers and talked. Tuesday we visited two of the studios Jugglers rents out and the artists talked to us about their work. One man was part Aborigine, and he makes and plays dijeridoos. (He played one for us, and it was amazing. Then some of us tried, and it wasn’t so amazing. You have to do this weird circular breathing thing, which takes a while to learn.) He also paints, and his work is inspired by Aboriginal stories. You can see some of his paintings here: http://www.artbyanthonywalker.com/ Then we went and talked to Nic Plowman, who also paints. His most recent work, some of which he showed us, has been inspired by his recovery from a bad fall. It was really interesting to talk to both of these men and hear the stories behind their art.

On Wednesday we talked with Peter Breen more and also Terry Fitzpatrick, someone Peter knows (I forget exactly how…). He and Peter both have some ideas about God and Christianity that are very different from everything I’ve heard before, such as, in Peter's words, that "love is an end in itself"--you don't necessarily have to evangelize to people; it's okay just to love them. It’s been great to hear a completely different perspective, especially when I agree with a lot of it.

Yesterday, Thursday, we went to the Queensland Art Gallery and the Gallery of Modern Art. We didn’t have any instructions or assignments, we just got to wander through the Australian art area at the QAG and the surrealism exhibit at GOMA. Surrealism can be pretty disturbing, especially when you’re seeing so much of it at once. But it was really interesting, and it was nice to just be able to go through at our own pace.

~An interjection--I wrote this post yesterday, so we've been to Jugglers and back today, but I'm really tired, so for now I'll leave the paragraph that I wrote yesterday about today as it is, and write about today another time.~

Tomorrow there’s a new art show opening, so we’re going to help with that if our help is needed and also just participate in it (we’re going to be throwing paint balloons at the currently white tunnel walls). It’s been a good week; it’s been nice to get out of the NTC and see a little more of the city and hear from a cool Australian guy. And not having traditional classes is really nice. There’s also not really been any homework; we do have to write two papers, though, one four-page one having something to do with this past week and one one-page reflection on the sculpture we’re building. Oh, yeah, another part of this week is that we have to build a sculpture out of objects we’ve found. It’s kind of hard for 12 people to build one sculpture, though, so it seems like a few people have been doing most of it. So it’ll be interesting writing a reflection on it…

We don’t have to be at Jugglers till 2 tomorrow; we’ve been getting there at 8:30, meaning I’ve had to get up at 7 (although twice I slept through my alarm and my roommates had to wake me up), so it’s going to be really, really nice to sleep in.

My flying horse

2011-09-09T08:15:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I had a dream that I flew to America to visit for the weekend on a flying horse. It was really quick and easy. I stopped at Houghton and then I went home, where I asked Mom, “Want to know how I got here?” because I was really excited to tell her I flew in on a flying horse. But she never answered me, and I was disappointed. Then I was thinking about how it wasn’t possible for me to actually have gotten there on a flying horse, so I decided I must just be imagining that I was there, but it felt so real. Then I thought I would just imagine myself flying back to Australia, and I knew that would feel real too, but then I thought how everything that happened in Australia after that would only be in my imagination, and that I would eventually wake up and have to live all that time over again.

Photos

2011-08-29T23:33:00.004-04:00

A few photos are on Facebook, for anyone who hasn't found them yet: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.2285409341911.2132604.1449219994&l=792464d5b9&type=1

Classes, church, bus fail, food

2011-08-29T23:29:00.001-04:00

Well, classes have started... 9am every day this week we have Music with a professor from Houghton who lectures via Skype. So far it's been about music in general rather than Australian music in particular, which I think is a little weird since it's only a week-long class. But it's been pretty interesting. Some of it just goes over my head, and sometimes there's this horrible echo on Skype so you can't really understand anything, but there have been a lot of YouTube clips of different types of music from around the world, so that's been cool. In the afternoons we have another class, Engaging Australia Culture (I think...), but we don't really know what we're doing for that one yet. Yesterday we talked about different stages of adjusting to a new culture and intro stuff like that.

Let's see... on Sunday we went to church, not the one where we had youth group but a different one, Southgate Wesleyan Methodist, I believe. It was kind of in the middle of nowhere and was a big square building, not particularly church-like. There was a peacock in the front when we pulled up--they're wild here. The service was pretty normal; we sang some familiar songs and some new ones, Prof. Kettelkamp preached, and that was about it. Afterward we had snacks and tea and chatted with the Australian people. An older man told me about his grandsons and how to make pumpkin soup.

Back here that afternoon, we didn't have anything to do and wanted to do something exciting, so we decided to try taking a bus for the first time. We walked to the bus stop and waited 10 minutes or so for the bus to Victoria Point, where we'd gone shopping the first day. When the bus was in sight, we all watched and waited expectantly for it to pull up and stop. But, as we all stood there, waiting and watching, the bus drove right by us.

Of course we were all like, "What? What was that?" especially because the next bus wasn't for another hour (they run the least on Sundays). Then we saw that on the sign for the bus stop, beneath a picture of someone waving to the bus, it said "Hail driver." So, realizing our mistake, we headed back the way we'd come to the other close bus stop, deciding to take a bus in the other direction, where there's another shopping center. When that bus came into view we all waved frantically, and were very relieved when it pulled over and stop.

But then, after talking to the driver for a minute, we realized that that bus wasn't going where we wanted to go; the bus we wanted didn't run on Sundays. So we finally gave up and headed back to the college. It was pretty sad.

But after a little while of sitting around in the lounge area, some people got a ride to Victoria Point with one of the Australian students here, and Adam, Nora, Bekah and I ended up biking there, led by the only American student here, who's really into biking and was happy to show us the way. It was a nice ride there, all downhill. We bought a few groceries--everything was closed but the grocery stores and Kmart; things shut down around 5 here, it seems like--and then we had to bike back. All uphill, this time, with our groceries. It was exhausting, but we made it (walking up the last hill helped). And we'd had our adventure for the day.

Yesterday Prof. Kettelkamp drove us to Victoria Point--he'll be doing that every Monday and Thursday, which is nice because I was expecting to have to pay for the bus every time we wanted groceries--so Nora, Adam and I went and got even more food. The three of us have decided to cook together, and now we should be set for a while with food. There was a community dinner last night for everyone at the college, and we ate burgers with fried egg and beetroot. It was different, but good.

Class time... more soon.

Jetlag and awesome Australian animals

2011-08-27T06:03:00.002-04:00

Still very jetlagged and exhausted, but I want to write about things before I forget them. Today we went to a koala sanctuary, and I got to hold a koala! The zookeeper lady had me hold my hands a certain way to support it, and then set it in my hands facing me, with its hands on my shoulders. It was so cute and soft! They have lots of other animals at this place too--a platypus, dingoes (my favorite--they're really pretty and look like normal dogs), wombats, lots of birds, and kangaroos. We got to go right in with them (the kangaroos) and hand feed them and pet them. Most were really small ones that looked a lot like wallabies, but there were some red kangaroos, which were a little bigger and more like typical kangaroos.

We also saw a sheepdog demonstration. The dogs were so eager to herd the sheep, and it was so cool how they knew exactly what to do. When a sheep didn't go with the group, one of the dogs ran right over and got it back with the others. They herded the sheep into this small fenced area where they were all packed together, and to get from one side of the group to the other the dog would jump up and run right on top of the sheep!

It was raining pretty much the whole time, which is normal since it's winter here now. It also starts to get dark around 5, which is very weird because I'm used to it getting dark around 8. That makes adjusting harder, because it feels a lot later than it is. I can't believe it's not even 8pm yet.

Last night at the youth group thing was a weird time. The first thing we had to do was wash each other's feet, and I was so tired and it was such a random thing to do on my first night in Australia that afterward it felt like a strange dream. The whole thing was like a weird dream, actually, because after a short message we had a Wii tennis tournament. Playing Wii tennis in Australia while exhausted and jetlagged was pretty surreal. I lost my match.

We were there for a pretty long time. By the time we got back it was after 9. I was in bed about 10, and I feel asleep right away but woke up at 1 feeling really nauseous. And then I couldn't get back to sleep; I would close my eyes and then "wake up" later feeling like I'd been asleep, but when I looked at my watch barely any time had passed. Actually, I think I was sleeping, but just very lightly, and I kept having this dream where this man was telling me and the rest of the Houghton group about these different Australian boxes and how they were used for different things, and I had to do something with them but I couldn't figure out which box was used for what even though the man kept explaining it. This kept going on, and I kept looking at my watch and seeing that time was hardly passing, and at one point my over-tired, sleep-deprived, half-awake brain reasoned that something in my dream was preventing me from going to sleep, and it seemed like there was something I could do about it but at the same time I couldn't do it... That probably makes no sense, but at the time, it was very logical.

But I finally did get to sleep, and I only woke up very briefly hours later when I heard the kookaburra, which they told us like to make noise early in the morning, and then I slept right till 9:15. I woke up feeling great, not sick at all anymore and very well-rested. After I got up, though, I started feeling off again, and that's continued all day. But I know soon my poor body will be adjusted.

Tomorrow morning we're going to the church where the youth group was; Prof. Kettlekamp is preaching. Then we have the whole day free before we start classes on Monday. Sometime soon I'll write about this place where we're staying; it definitely deserves a post of its own.

P. S. I forgot to mention our trip to the koala sanctuary. The group was in three cars; I was in the second one, following someone who had a GPS. It seemed to be taking a long time to get there (over an hour); I'd gotten the impression it was closer. We were driving through the city, and had been for a while, which seemed kind of strange. And then we got lost. We had to stop at a red light, while the car we were following had made it through. This had happened before, and the lady driving would pull over somewhere and wait for us, but there must not have been anywhere good to pull over that time, because when we drove on we didn't see her anywhere. So we kept driving and then asked for directions at a gas station, drove some more, then asked for directions from a guy walking, drove some more, saw signs for the place, followed the signs, stopped seeing the signs, saw a sign pointing back the way we'd come, followed the signs again, and finally made it there, after almost two hours.

On the way back we stuck to the highway, and the drive took 50 minutes.

Australia!

2011-08-26T04:03:00.001-04:00

Right now, I really wish I wasn't sitting. My legs are aching, just like they ached the whole plane ride over here. What I really want to do is lie down, but that isn't going to happen for a while, because if I lie down I'll fall asleep, and we have to be somewhere at 7 (right now it's about 6 here; we're 14 hours ahead). This day has been ridiculously long. I've had way too much time (a very uncommon problem for me)--they gave us 3 hours to unpack, then 3 hours to shop, then 3 hours before some sort of youth group at 7. And originally we were told we'd be able to sleep at 7.

But it's been really exciting, too. About an hour or so ago I saw my first wallaby, and it was pretty amazing. Then he hopped, and it was even more amazing. I saw a bunch more wallabies, too; they're all over the campus, just hanging around, eating, watching us. And I saw this cool bird called a curlew, and we've been hearing kookaburras and magpies, and Professor Kettlekamp told us there are koalas all around this area, and I saw koala and wallaby crossing signs, and we drove on the left side of the road and it was super weird, and we can't go off the paths here because of snakes and who knows what else... I'm actually in Australia! It's actually real! It's very cool, very weird, and very overwhelming.

I fell off a horse

2011-04-08T19:55:00.001-04:00

Yup. On Wednesday during horsemanship. The first time I've fallen off a horse since horse camp when I was about 10. It was pretty scary.

I was cantering--that's what we're learning this semester, in Horsemanship II--on Dream, a big mare. She's not that big, but she's bigger than Brooks, the horse I'd been riding. Just a few weeks ago they switched several of us to different horses, so I'd only ridden Dream once before. She's a lot faster than Brooks, and I'm just not used to her. But I was cantering, and it was going well, until I was supposed to slow down. I tried, but Dream wasn't ready to stop yet. Megan, one of the TAs, was there to help everyone stop, and she reached for Dream to slow her down. But that freaked Dream out, and she twisted away to the right--while I kept going to the left.

All I was aware of during this was that I had lost control of Dream. As she rounded the corner, I felt myself shifting and realized I was going to fall off. And then I saw where I was going to fall. We were right next to the wooden mounting ramp that runs along one side of the arena, and as I was sliding off I knew I was going to hit the edge, and that it was going to hurt.

I hit the ramp just like I knew I would and then flipped over somehow--people said I bounced off--and then I was lying on my back. The floor of the arena is covered with little bits of rubber, so hitting the ground was really soft. But my legs had smacked right into the ramp, and I just lay there, not moving, because they hurt so much. Adam told me later he was afraid I was unconscious because I didn't move for so long.

Andrea, our teacher, and the TAs came over and asked where it hurt, if my head was okay, stuff like that. I could talk to them fine; I was completely okay except for my legs. They mentioned ambulances, and I immediately said I didn't think it was that bad. Andrea and Cindy, one of the TAs, helped me stand up, and I thought they were going to help me walk into the classroom, but then Andrea just picked me up and carried me out of the arena. I was pretty impressed.

I finally got to see my legs once I was in the classroom sitting down, and they weren't pretty. There was a huge scrape on the left one and a big bruise on the right. Andrea got me ice and had someone come make sure that there were no worse injuries, and there weren't. I tried to walk and I could, although it hurt. Then for the rest of the class I just sat with my ice. I had been kind of shaky already just from the shock of it, and having the ice on my legs didn't help. But I did get calmed down and more relaxed.

I walked a little slower than usual the rest of that day, and the next day I was somewhat sore and it still hurt to walk, but I've been doing everything I normally do, like my cleaning jobs. I did skip going to the gym yesterday; I didn't think running or biking was a good idea. Although, today I went to a scavenger hunt floor event where we raced other teams, and we had to run a lot for that . . . so hopefully I won't be too sore tomorrow!

So yeah, it was scary, and not fun, and I'm going to be bruised for a while, but it hasn't made me scared to ride or anything. Next week is the last time we're riding, so it's my last chance to get that canter right!

Alvira

2011-03-05T13:42:00.004-05:00

I've been home on break this past week, and on Tuesday Joyce and I went out to the former town of Alvira. The short version of the story is, in 1942, the valley where Alvira was was chosen as the site of the Pennsylvania Ordnance Works, a TNT manufacturing plant meant to supply the US army. The residents of Alvira and the surrounding area were forced to sell their land for low prices and find other places to live. The government promised them that they would be able to buy the land back when the plant closed, but even though it closed after operating for only eleven months, hardly any of the people actually got their land back. All the town buildings were destroyed, and today there are just old foundations, rubble, and tons of TNT storage bunkers. Most of the land is now state game lands, although some of it belongs to the Allenwood Federal Prison Complex.

For the long version of the story, go here: http://www.sungazette.com/page/content.detail/id/525751.html.

Today, you can go to the game lands and see the site of the former town. My main purpose of this post is to share some of the photos I took, because I think they're pretty cool and there really aren't a lot of pics. of Alvira online that I've found. So, here a few of the best.

One of the many bunkers; most are locked up now.

Looking down an old well . . .

. . . which is inside here.

The Montgomery Area Historical Society put up markers where all the houses were.

Another old well . . .

. . . with what looks like newsprint on the stone? This really intrigues me; I don't understand it at all . . . if anyone can explain to me what this is, I would really appreciate it!

Someone found all this old glass and left it here.

The most intact thing we saw; it might've been a church?

This open bunker was set back from the main road.

Kind of spooky inside, and really echoey; Joyce had a lot of fun.

The entrance to Washington Cemetery.

It's in pretty bad shape.

I'm home!

2010-12-17T02:08:00.001-05:00

I made it through finals and am now back in PA. I love being able to relax--it's such a wonderful feeling to not have anything I have to do! During the last two weeks at Houghton there was always something weighing on my mind, a paper to write or an exam to study for, and I would work and work and get one thing done only to have another to start on the next day, but now I'm free! I think I did fairly well in all my classes; I guess I'll find out when we get our grades at the end of the month.
It's nice to be home with my family and my pets. We don't have snow here, though, which is sad. But that also means it isn't quite as cold as it is at Houghton, which is nice. It's weird to think that people are still there and some still have finals to take; I got really lucky this year, having all mine on Monday and Tuesday. It's so great to be on break!

Lanthorn update

2010-11-20T01:10:00.000-05:00

The party last night went really well. People actually did come, several staying the whole time (including two professors) and a bunch stopping in for a little while. The lecture ended before the party, so some people came by afterward. Almost all of our food got eaten, but not quite all of it, meaning we had just about the right amount. We had readings from the book, some people reading their own work and some reading other people's. And everyone told us we did a great job. People especially seemed to like the cover a lot, so I was pretty happy. A lot of the books got taken, which was good, and then Adam and I spread the rest (except the black and white ones, which are in a box in our office) around campus. All the ones in the Chamberlain Center are gone already. In class today, my Lit. by Women professor congratulated us on it and told us how nice it looked and told everyone they should read it. So I'm happy with the way things turned out. Now we just have to do it all again next semester . . .

Lanthorn craziness

2010-11-16T20:45:00.000-05:00

So, I asked people if I should keep blogging, and my family and Hanna said yes, but I still haven't been. Mostly that's because of time, but today I have lots of time for some reason, so I thought I would write a post (and I'm still being lazy, because most of this is copy and pasted from an email I wrote).

Adam and I are having the Lanthorn release party this Thursday. It's been a crazy process. First, we couldn't figure out what software we were supposed to use. The college said they were going to get us new software, but they never did. There was a layout/design program on the computer in our office, but it said it wasn't the full version and would put a watermark on all our pages. So I emailed the former editor, and from her I found out that they'd never used that program, but had had access to a different program through the school newspaper. So we ended up using Microsoft publisher, which worked fine but wasn't the best.

Putting the book together took a lot of time, and then we tried to email it to the print center, but it was too big of a file. Because the print center lady was going to be going away for a few days, I had to leave a class to go back to my room to put The Lanthorn on a blank CD and then bring it to her. And then her color printer wasn't working, so we thought we were going to have to do it in black and white, but after printing 60 black and white copies she got the color to work. So now they're all printed, but they needed to be folded and stapled, which Adam and I will be working on tomorrow.

We've also had issues with the party; we didn't hear back from the guy in charge of Java 101 (the campus coffee shop, where the party will be) that we actually had it until today, so we only just sent out the campus wide email, and there's some lecture going on at the same time, and everyone we've talked to is either going to that or has other plans already. So we'll probably have only five people show up to the party. It'll be okay; the book will still have been successfully published, and even if not many people get them at the party we'll still leave them around campus for people to pick up, but the whole thing has just been way more frustrating than I expected. Having it done will be a big relief, and I'm sure I'll feel better about it then. And at least next semester we'll know how to do things better.

Readers?

2010-10-18T18:51:00.000-04:00

Should I post on this blog? Does anyone read it? I haven't been keeping up with it, but I could; it wouldn't really be worth it, though, if no one's reading.

A disclaimer

2010-07-13T23:04:00.000-04:00

I hope I don't come across as complaining in my posts about Europe; I just like to emphasize the unfortunate things that happen because they make good stories. :)

Prague, day 1

2010-07-13T22:55:00.001-04:00

It was hard to sleep on the bus to Prague, so when we arrived, a little before 6 in the morning, I was exhausted and couldn't wait to get to Nora's friend's house, where we were staying. But that wouldn't happen for over an hour. For one thing, the bus had gotten in a little early. Worse than that, though, I had told Nora's friend the wrong time to meet us at the bus station. I had assumed there was a time difference between Paris and Prague, and I didn't find out otherwise until right before the trip. Consequently, I'd had Nora tell her friend the bus would get in at 7:15, when it was actually supposed to arrive at 6:15. We had no way to contact her, so we just had to wait.

We sat inside the bus station, but it was still cold. Around 7 the bus station food shops began to open. I kept watching the people who came in, wondering if each woman was Lucie, Nora's friend. At 7:30 the real Lucie came, and we took the Prague metro to her apartment (which was on the other side of the city from the bus station). Once there we ate breakfast; I was so tired I ate with my eyes closed, practically sleep-eating. Afterward I took a much-needed nap. A few hours later Nora woke me up so we could go into the city center. I was still pretty tired, but the sleep had definitely helped.

Lucie had the day off from work, so she took us around, which was good because I at least wasn't up to navigating a new city by myself (Nora was much more awake that day than I was). Now that the sun was up it was really hot out. First we went to the castle area, which was a complex of buildings (like a palace and a huge cathedral) and not an actual castle. It was on a hill, so we had a good view of the city. Later on we walked across Charles Bridge, which has lots of statues of saints on it.

I don't really remember a lot about that day except walking a lot and being tired, hot, hungry, and thirsty. Besides Czech Lucie spoke Swedish and English, and since her Swedish was the better of the two, she mostly talked to Nora in that language. Because I know absolutely no Swedish, I couldn't really follow the conversation, so I didn't always know what we were seeing or where we were headed. Eventually we went to a pizzeria for lunch. I was so looking forward to drinking a glass of water--but when the water came, it was fizzy water, which was pretty disappointing. Apparently that's the norm there, and regular water is pretty expensive. I swished it around to take some of the fizz out, and that helped, but it still wasn't the same.

After lunch we rode around on trams some and got gelato at one point (I had peach, which was awesome) and later got citronada, which was like lemonade. At 5-something we headed back to Lucie's apartment. We got back to her neighborhood after the long metro ride and went to the grocery store. Although Lucie only got a few things, we were there for a while because the checkout line was so long. When we finally made it out we went to the post office to buy stamps for the postcards Nora and I had bought in Paris. Again, we had to wait a really long time, although there we at least got to sit down. At last we got the stamps and went back to the apartment, around 6:30, and Nora and I both lay down and went right to sleep.

Paris

2010-06-25T20:35:00.003-04:00

My flight arrived in Paris only a little late, somehow. We didn't have to go through customs or anything as far as I remember. I came out to where all the people were waiting for their friends who'd been on the plane and looked for Nora, but she wasn't there. I was hungry and tired and in a foreign country, so I freaked out a little. I just stood off to the side and waited, but all the time I was wondering if something had happened to Nora and trying to think of what I would do if she didn't come.

Then I saw her in the crowd of people, and everything was okay. She was just late because she'd missed the first train to the airport. I felt much better, and we went off to our hostel. Nora and the two friends she'd been in Paris with for the past week were staying in a three-person room, and I was in a four-person women-only room upstairs. I rested a little, and then Nora and I went out to Victor Hugo's house. It took us a long time to find it, even though we had a map and there were signs supposedly pointing the way. I didn't mind, though, because I enjoyed just wandering around Paris. We happened upon a big market and looked at stuff there for a while. Pretty soon after that we did make it to the house; it was interesting to see, but not that exciting.

We got pizza for lunch and then went to the Louvre, which is free the first Sunday of the month, exactly the day we happened to be there. We just wanted to see the most famous things, but we kept making mistakes and going the wrong way (the map confused me), so we ended up walking a lot more than we needed to. Every time we sat down to rest I started to fall asleep. But it was cool to see so much famous art, and we really barely saw any of what's there, because the Louvre is such a huge place. I would love to go back for a whole day sometime when I'm not exhausted.

We went back to the hostel when the museum closed, and I finally got to relax. My sense of time was really skewed, and it felt like it had been a really long day even though it was only early evening. I went to bed around 9 and slept pretty well.

The next morning I got up and had breakfast with Nora at the hostel. After the other two girls came down and ate we checked out of our rooms. I accidentally left my pajamas in my room, but before we left one of the ladies who'd been in the room with me came and found me and told me, which was nice. We left our luggage at the hostel and headed off to Sacre Coeur, a big white church, which was pretty close by. It's on a hill, so we got a great view of Paris from the top. Then we walked around the area, Montmarte; the weather was beautiful, so it was really nice just walking around.

Nora and I had to be at the bus station to check in for our bus ride to Prague at 3, so we left Montmarte before long and picked up our luggage at the hostel before heading to the bus station. We checked in and then just had to wait till our bus left at 4. Nora had realized that she left her iPod charger in the room at the hostel, so she went to look for a place to get internet (on her iPod touch) to email her friend, who was staying at the hostel another night, and ask if she could get it, while I stayed with the luggage.

After a while our bus pulled up and people started getting on. Nora had said she would try to be back within half an hour, so after half an hour had passed I started getting worried, both about whether something had happened to Nora and about missing the bus. I had a plan to ask the bus driver to wait and then tell one of the bus station workers that Nora was missing if she wasn't back by five of 4. But then, around 3:50, Nora came in. She'd had a hard time finding somewhere where she got internet, but she finally had, and then she'd hurried back. We got on the bus, and pretty soon we were off to Prague.

Airport adventure

2010-06-21T18:23:00.004-04:00

So, I went to Europe. It was my first time flying alone, and after I went through security and left my family behind I felt very independent and a little nervous. I quickly got way more nervous when my backpack didn't come out of the security scanner and the lady watching the scans called someone else over. I waited while they talked, wondering what in the world could be in my backpack that could cause a problem. I'd packed everything I needed for 10 days in Europe in there--clothes, a few small guidebooks, shampoo and toothpaste in 3-ounce containers sealed in a plastic bag. There was nothing wrong with any of that, was there?

They let my backpack out, and a man felt around inside. "Do you have maple syrup in here?" he asked, and I suddenly remembered that Nora's mom had sent a quart of maple syrup with me as a gift for the friend of Nora's we would be staying with in Prague. None of us, not Nora's mom, not my mom, not me, had realized that I wouldn't be able to bring that in a carry-on. I wondered if they would confiscate it, leaving Nora's friend gift-less, but the man just told me, "Next time, put that in your checked luggage" and let me take my backpack back.

Very relieved that I wasn't unwittingly carrying explosives or illegal drugs, I headed to my gate, where I found that my flight had been delayed. Even after everyone boarded, it still didn't take off for a while; I actually fell asleep while waiting. So began my trip to Europe.

It's summer

2010-05-07T17:29:00.000-04:00

Hi. I don't even know who still reads this, but I have a random half hour to spend, so I thought I'd just write a quick update.

Sophomore year is over. I was done on Monday the 3rd and came home on the 4th. It's a weird feeling, being halfway done with college. It's just not right. I'm really glad to be done with schoolwork, but I miss Houghton. I would have loved to stay for Mayterm, but it didn't work out with my Europe trip. So here I am, back home. I like being home, but of course there are things I don't like too, which I won't get into. It is good to be back.

Unfortunately, I don't have a job. I applied to five places over Easter break, and I hadn't heard from any, so yesterday I stopped by four of them. The first two said they didn't need me, at the third the girl there said the manager would call me (she hasn't yet) and at the fourth the line was too long to wait in. Since I haven't heard anything, I'm assuming none of them want me. The first two (who said they definitely don't need me) were my best options, so now I'm not sure what I'm going to do. A local McDonald's is hiring, but I really really don't want to work there. Mom was suggesting just looking for odd jobs, which is a possibility, but I probably wouldn't make much money doing that.

So far since I've been home I've been really lazy--sleeping a lot, watching Lost (which some of my friends from Houghton recently got me into), playing games with Joyce, reading for fun. And it has been nice just to be able to relax, but I know it'll get old after a while. Last summer I was really bored and unhappy, and I don't want this summer to be like that. So if I can't get a job I'm planning to volunteer at a local animal shelter, which is something I've wanted to do for years. It'll help them out and keep me busy and get me out of the house, even if I won't be making money.

So yeah, I guess that's pretty much it for now. It's warm here, but not hot yet, and I like it.

Lanthorn editors!

2010-04-27T18:48:00.004-04:00

Adam and I are going to be editors of the Lanthorn next year! We applied a while ago, and we found out last week that we got the position! It's really exciting, and also kind of daunting, because we're going to have so much responsibility. But it'll be really cool. We even get our own office, complete with a computer. I feel so official.

The semester is almost over; I'm done with exams on May 3rd, and I'm going home on the 4th. I had all my big papers and projects due last week, so now I just have finals. Only two of them are actual tests, though, and only one is cumulative, so it's not going to be a problem. Tomorrow is geology, the cumulative one, and I haven't done much studying yet, so I'd better do that now. Bye!

Next semester's schedule

2010-04-01T16:26:00.003-04:00

I'm home! Spring/Easter break starts today; I came home last night, a day early. It's really nice to be here.

Last Friday was course selection day. Here's what I'll be taking next fall:

French Level 1

Fiction

Literature by Women

Horsemanship 1

Writer's Worskshop

The workshop is something writing majors are supposed to take as seniors, but since I'm planning to go to Australia fall of my senior year, I have to take it junior year instead. I'm a little nervous because it's going to be me and a bunch of seniors, so that's kind of intimidating. I'm definitely going to be doing a lot of writing.

Poetry

2010-03-25T15:12:00.004-04:00

I've been meaning to post some of the poems I've written for my poetry class for a while, and now that Mom's reminded me I'll actually do it. So here are a few; they're the ones I like best, and/or the ones that the professor liked.

This first one is, obviously, about the power outage I wrote about in the last post.

Power Outage

Total darkness below,

but above, the stars—

I never knew there were so many.

I could stand and stare forever.

When the lights came back on

most of the stars disappeared

and I can’t look at the night sky anymore

without thinking about all the stars I can’t see.

This one is a villanelle.

An Attempt

I tried to write a poem for you

to let you know how things could be.

(But not a word of it was true.)

I tried to show you something new.

I tried so hard to make you see.

I tried to write a poem for you.

I didn’t put in any blue;

of course there’s none, to you, from me.

(But not a word of it was true.)

I gave you more than just a clue—

I gave you the entire key.

I tried to write a poem for you.

I gave you what I thought was due

so that you wouldn’t choose to flee.

I tried to write a poem for you

(but not a word of it was true).

In this next one, the part about my wanting to go to Australia is true, but although there is a possibility that the program won't be offered until fall of 2012, it should be offered fall of 2011, meaning I will be able to go.

Hope

Turning in the paper

hoping for an A-, at least—

and getting it back with a B+.

Walking into the dining hall, starving

hoping there will be good pizza today—

but finding it a sloppy mess.

Getting excited for Australia

hoping the program will be offered—

then hearing it’s been pushed back another year.

Hearing rapid footsteps behind me

hoping it’s you, coming to apologize—

only to see a stranger stride by.

And one more.

Fog

There’s almost nothing to this fog

but it builds up between us

so that I can barely see you.

Yay! The power's out!

2010-03-18T23:26:00.005-04:00

On the 16th, around 9:45, I was vacuuming up on the fourth floor of Gillette. Suddenly, the vacuum shut off. And all the lights went off too. It was a power outage, the first time that ever happened while I was at Houghton. It was new and exciting.

There were emergency lights in the dorm halls and stairwells, which was really good. I had been planning to meet people in the campus center at 10, so I put the vacuum away (fortunately I had been almost done) and headed out. All the outside lights were off too, of course, and I could see all the stars. It was amazing. I didn't know you could see that many stars. It was beautiful.

I found my friends in the campus center, and we hung out there some and walked around outside more. People were running around all over the place, screaming and yelling. Someone was setting off illegal fireworks, and I heard that someone drove a car on the sidewalk. People also climbed on the roofs of buildings, and the next day graffiti was found in several different places. That really annoys me, because most people were just enjoying the novelty of the power being out and admiring the stars, but some people thought, "Oh, the power's out, it's a great time to do bad things!" Which is stupid.

Anyway, it was an adventure. The Student Life office handed out glow sticks, as if they'd been prepared for this. The lights came back on a little after 11. Apparently the power had been out in several towns in the area, and I still don't know why. But I really didn't mind at all; it was fun and different.

I'm back at Houghton

2010-03-06T22:02:00.007-05:00

10:15, Saturday night:

Yeah, here I am, at Houghton again; I've been back for a week, I just haven't blogged at all. This was a semi-busy week for me, at least compared to how the rest of the semester has been. I had a geology test Thursday that I was studying for and freaking out about all week. When I actually had to take the test, though, I knew almost everything and went through it really fast, so it was way better than I expected. I also had two short soc. papers due on Friday, which I put off until Thursday night. That was a bad choice, but I got them written.

And then yesterday was Friday, and I was finally done with everything, and I watched Ratatouille with Adam and Eri after work at the dining hall. Today I went to the college play, Jake's Women, which was really good. Right now I'm watching The Italian Job with some girls on my floor, which is several of their favorite movies, although I've never heard of it. The main characters are in Venice right now, which is where I'm going in June! On Monday Nora and I are meeting for dinner to plan a little more about where we're going and how we're getting there.

2:55, Sunday afternoon:

I stopped writing last night because I got into the movie. It was pretty good, a fun, action/adventure movie. After that Jaela, Alexa, and I watched half of Harry Potter 6. Also this week, on Thursday after my geology test, I watched Where the Wild Things are, which the school showed in the chapel. It really wasn't what I expected; it was sad and kind of dark and even disturbing at times. I think it was good, though.

I also started a new job this week, vacuuming the fourth floor. I do that Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday while my other cleaning job is MWF, so now I'm working every day. It's good; I have the time for it, and I'm making more money.

The weather's been really nice here, which is great. And I guess that's it for now.

I went skiing for real

2010-02-25T16:11:00.004-05:00

On Tuesday my ski class took a trip to Swain Ski Area, about 40 minutes from Houghton, so that we could experience an actual ski resort. It was my first time ever going to a real ski place. The hills were so tall. It was a rainy day, so the top was hidden in fog. At first we took the shorter ski lift, which only went halfway up, so we could do some easy hills. I was surprised at how high off the ground the lift was, so although it was fun it was also a little scary. Getting off and on took a little getting used to.

The actual skiing felt really different from skiing at Houghton, because even the short hills were way longer. After a few times the TA had us get on the long ski lift, going all the way up to the top. Everyone was saying how ominous it felt, riding up slowly into the fog. The TA took us down the mile sweep, which was still an easy one, but it didn't feel like a mile because I was going so fast. Every time I went down any slope it pretty much felt like I lost all control, and it was only through luck that I didn't fall. I actually did fall once, when I tried a blue square hill. The whole time I was so scared of falling, and then at the very end it suddenly got really steep and I wiped out. My hat flew off, one ski came off, and I lost my poles too. Fortunately I didn't get hurt at all.

So yeah, skiing was interesting; a very unique experience. By the end I was really wet and cold. I liked it, but I'm really not that good at it, so I don't know if/when I'll go again. But I'm glad I got to try it.

Right now I'm home on break. It's really nice to be away from school and be with my family and be lazy. I always feel so different when I'm at home from how I feel when I'm at school; at Houghton I have to be organized and responsible and get to places on time, while here I can do what I want when I want and don't really have to worry about anything. It's weird living at such extremes. Houghton feels unreal now.

I went skiing

2010-02-16T20:26:00.004-05:00

So, today I had my skiing class, so I skied, and I fell down a lot, and it was really discouraging. But I kept trying, and I actually started to do better. Next week we're going to a real ski place, Holiday Valley. I don't really feel ready for that, but it will be nice to ski on real slopes and to actually have a chairlift; here they just have a tow rope, which is really uncomfortable and hurts your arms after a while. Speaking of hurt, one of the time when I fell I did something to my knee. I didn't really notice it until I was done skiing and was walking around. It hurt and it swelled a little, so now I have ice on it. That's my story for today. :P

I've been watching a lot of the Olympics; figure skating, my favorite event, was really good last night. The Chinese were pretty awesome.

An away-from-Houghton adventure

2010-02-14T14:27:00.006-05:00

Yesterday Adam, Steve, and I borrowed Alexa's car and drove to Rochester to see Avatar in 3D. I drove, and no, we did not get lost. There was a lot of traffic as we got close to the city, and there were pretty strong winds, but everything went fine. We got to the theater and watched the movie, which was almost 3 hours long. The story was really cliché, but the effects and the 3D were really cool, so it was worth seeing.

Afterward we went to Adam's house for dinner. His mom made us calzones, which were amazing, and we had real salad, so much fresher than Houghton's, and brownies and ice cream for dessert. It was a delicious meal.

Then it was time to drive back, which was when it really became an adventure. Steve drove, since I'd driven the whole way there. It was snowing a little, and it was dark since it was about 9:30 by the time we left. We made it onto the highway and back off fine and continued to follow the directions I'd gotten from Mapquest. But the directions must have been wrong, because we'd been going for a while and hadn't seen the road we were supposed to turn onto.

Then I suddenly recognized where we were--the tiny town of Short Tract, which was really ironic because Eri and I and some other people had been lost there on the way back from church a few weeks ago. We'd called Dan and he had looked up directions and told us how to get back, so I was pretty sure I remembered. But we'd driven past the road we needed to take, so we had to turn around, and the inside of the car was getting really fogged up and the defrost wasn't working very well, so Steve pulled over so we could clear it up. But he'd pulled onto a side road with a good amount of snow on it, and it turned out to be deeper than it looked. We opened a window and wiped the fog off the windshield, and then Steve tried to pull back onto the road. But we couldn't get out--we were stuck in a ditch.

I definitely had a moment of panic, wondering what we were going to do. Adam and I got out of the car and Steve drove forward, able to move in that direction but still not able to get back on the road. It really looked like we were stuck there. Then Steve tried backing up, and as Adam and I watched the back end of the car pulled up and out of the ditch, and the front end followed. After jumping up and down in celebration, Adam and I got back in the car. Steve turned it around, very careful not to go back in the ditch, and we drove back the way we'd come. We had to turn around several more times because I was confused about whether the road we needed was on the left or right, but we found it, and it was the right one.

It was about 15 or 20 minutes back to Houghton from there. The only other problem we had was that Steve's window wouldn't close--Alexa's car is pretty old and beat up, and the driver's side window gets stuck. There's a special way you have to close it, but I didn't remember what that was, so we had to drive the rest of the way with the cold wind blowing right into the car. I felt really bad for poor Steve!

But we did make it back, finally; it was almost midnight and I'd expected to get back around 11. It was definitely an adventure, with its scary moments, but it ended well and makes a good story. It was great to get away from Houghton for 9 hours and see a movie in a theater and eat a real meal in a house with a family.

***

Right now I'm half-watching the Olympics. The biathlon is on, which is a weird sport. Before that was ski jumping, which was pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to catch some of the figure skating tonight.

10 million fireflies

2010-02-12T20:45:00.006-05:00

So, now that I don't have Facebook I'm going to try to start blogging more regularly, provided people are actually reading this. So leave me a comment once in a while if you are, so that I know this isn't a waste of time. :)

I started another blog last month, mostly for myself, where I post pictures, poems, and songs/song lyrics that I really like. I wanted to have a place to "collect" all these things, so that I can find them quickly and easily. In case you're interested, it's http://alyshkalia.blogspot.com/. There are a lot of poems on there already, so if you just want to read the ones I like best, go to the right side where it says "labels" and click on "favorites." A lot of them are ones I read in my poetry class this semester.

I mostly mentioned that because I don't have much else to say right now. Today was an okay day; I went to class, cleaned in Gillette, watched half an episode of the sci-fi series Firefly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)), worked as salad runner during dinner, and not much else. So yeah, pretty boring. Tonight Jaela, Alexa and I are going to watch the 4th Harry Potter movie, which is probably my favorite one (not sure though, because I've only seen it once).

So yeah, I guess that's it. Enjoy the weekend!

I quit

2010-02-11T22:38:00.004-05:00

This week I quit one of my jobs, sweeping and mopping floors in the dining hall once a week. I really didn't enjoy it, because it was supposed to take only an hour to an hour and a half, but it always took me at least two hours. And it was a pain, because it's such a big area and it's always really dirty. And it was boring, because I wasn't allowed to listen to my iPod while I worked. So on Monday I told my boss I quit, but I had to work today because he hadn't found anyone to take over. It was utter misery, and I'm really not exaggerating. It took me two hours and twenty minutes, the longest it's ever taken. I was really hot and tired and in a bad mood by the end, but now I'm done forever, and it's such a relief.

I also deactivated my Facebook a few days ago, which probably anyone reading this already knows. Not only did I spend too much time on it, I also was frustrated with the surface-level connection it provides. Status updates simply state what someone is doing, or, if they do talk about anything more serious, it has to be masked by quoted song lyrics. I don't think everyone should be completely honest on Facebook; that wouldn't be appropriate. But that's the point--Facebook isn't meant for deep connection with people. So if I'm not truly connecting with anyone, why bother?

I have other issues with Facebook as well, which I won't get into now. Suffice it to say, I'm very happy it's gone. I actually enjoy getting on my computer and realizing there's no Facebook to check. So that was definitely a good decision. Maybe in the future I'll be back, but for now I'm staying away.

Blah

2010-01-20T21:17:00.002-05:00

From an email:

My first week went pretty well, and this week is going okay too, but it feels like time is going by really slowly. I'm tired of school and ready to be done already! I don't have a lot of homework or anything, just reading so far, but I'm not enjoying my classes this semester as much as I did last semester. None of them are bad classes, but it seems like none of them make very good use of class time--for Principles of Sociology we just go over what was in the reading, so it feels like a waste of time because I already learned the stuff, and one of my poetry classes is mostly discussion, so people get to talking/arguing and we don't really get anywhere, and for Physical Geology the professor gives us the powerpoint slides beforehand, and then the lecture is pretty much exactly what's on the slides. So going to all of those classes kind of feels like a waste of time or is boring.

I am enjoying skiing. We just had our second class yesterday, and it was icy because the snow melted some, so it was a little harder to ski on, but it was still fun. I got to ski down the smaller hill backwards, which I thought would be really hard but actually wasn't too bad. It reminded me of backwards roller skating a little.

So, everything's going okay . . . it just seems like this is going to be a really long semester.

A new semester

2010-01-13T21:52:00.005-05:00

Email to Mom, January 11 (first day of classes):

I'm a little nervous for my classes--Principles of Sociology has a lot of assignments, Modern and Contemporary American Poetry is just going to be hard because it's analyzing poetry, and for the poetry writing class we have to write a poem a week. We'll also be doing a lot of peer editing, and the professor was emphasizing the importance of reading poetry out loud, so it sounds like we're going to have to read our poems out loud to each other, which of course I don't want to do. But it still sounds like a good class. And the other classes seem good too. We're starting with Robert Frost for the other poetry one, and I'm really enjoying reading him.

Other random things (not from an email):

I had my first skiing class on Tuesday, which was hard and tiring but also lots of fun. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I'm also working for the first time this semester, cleaning one of the stairwells in my dorm as well as cleaning floors one afternoon a week in the dining hall and being "salad runner" one night a week in the dining hall. The only one I've done so far is the stairwell, and it's really not bad. The whole time I think, "I'm making money, I'm making money," and I feel happy. ;)

From an e-mail 10/25

2009-10-27T19:47:00.002-04:00

Last night i went to bed at 2:30 and didn't get up today till 4; I woke up some on and off and read for like an hour at one point, and then went back to sleep and woke up at 4 and finally got up. i didn't eat till then either. it's weird because i'm not sick, but somehow i just was able to sleep a lot. a lot of people here are sick, though. i hope i don't get it. (Yesterday, the 26, I started to get sick, but today I'm feeling better; I just have a cough.)

i'm going to try to get a job here because i might travel with nora in europe after her east meets west program. i e-mailed someone about a cleaning job in gillette, but i haven't heard back yet.

yesterday i went to the zoo for conservation biology. our prof. assigned us a few questions to think about/things to look out for, but that was the only school-like thing we had to do, so basically it was just a fun trip to the zoo.

jaela's parents were visiting over the weekend and staying at a cottage nearby, and on friday night jaela, alexa and i went there for dinner, and on saturday night us and a bunch of other girls went there to play games. it was really fun. we played one game where you have to stand on one leg and bend down and try to pick up a paper bag in your mouth, and every round you cut off the top of the bag, so it keeps getting shorter. once i got the hang of it it wasn't too hard, but when it got really short i couldn't do it. today my leg is sore!

soon we have to do course selection for next semester; it's weird to be thinking about next year already. it's also weird that thanksgiving break is in a month. i'm so excited to actually go home and to go to boston and see everyone!

For Uncle Mark ;)

2009-10-05T15:54:00.003-04:00

This weekend I went to the homecoming dance. At first I didn't like it because I felt silly all dressed up and I was bored, but then I danced with Dan and Steve, and that was fun. On Saturday there was a London reunion on at one of the girl's flats; the TAs were there, back to visit for homecoming. That evening there was Spot, the big talent show, which was really good. I saw the Kahlers before that and ate dinner with them. Yesterday Liz, Jaela, Alexa, Liz's roommate Alissa and I went to Letchworth for a few hours. We went up on the railroad bridge, but we weren't supposed to (although there were lots of other people up there) and a security guy came up and kicked everyone off. It was cool, though. We also walked in the woods and sat and read while Liz played her guitar.

Studying for tests . . . When the prof. gives a review sheet then I know what to study, but when they give no guidelines I just read my notes and hope I'll remember what's on the test. Cons. Bio was this morning; some stuff I remembered, some I didn't. On Friday I have a test for Intro to Christ, but we have a review sheet for that one.

Basically, life here is going well. I am definitely looking forward to October break in two weekends, though.

Another e-mail excerpt

2009-09-23T22:46:00.005-04:00

I have my first long paper due on the 2nd; it's for Literary Nonfiction and is to be on a writer or piece of writing and basically your interactions with them/it. I have to know what I'm going to write about by tomorrow, and I still have no idea . . .

We got our group project for that class back (the end result was a several-page document) and we did kind of badly. It hadn't been proofread very well and some people had had bad grammar and used sentence fragments, and he said it wasn't put together well. That made me more annoyed about it because if I had done it myself I wouldn't have had any of those problems.

This past weekend Jaela and I went to the Civil War weekend in Angelica, which was fun. It was kind of like heritage days with lots of tents set up and people at them showing/selling different things. It was nice to get off campus. Also this weekend I watched a movie with a bunch of people outside at night; the movie was Signs, and there's a creepy cornfield in it, so we watched it right next to a cornfield. It was scary and fun, and freezing cold.

The writing festival was last week; they had writing festival chapels which I went to, and I went to one of the other events. The one I wanted to go to was the readings, but I couldn't because I had class. The thing is it's so dependent on what writers they have and what genres they write, and I wasn't super interested in any of them, so although it was good it wasn't that relevant to me personally. For Literary Nonfiction we were assigned to go to some of the events, so I would have gone to the readings if I could, because out of all the events that was the one I was most interested in; my professor for that class was reading (he writes poetry).

I got one of my papers back today (from the fantasy class), just a short one-page one, and I got an A. I didn't think it was that good, so I was happy.

We're reading John Muir for bio; I remember learning about him in homeschooling a long time ago. I like his writing; it's usually pretty interesting, although sometimes his descriptions of trees and plants get a little long.

On Friday there's the first Lanthorn meeting. The current editor is a senior, so next year I might apply to be editor. I think it would be really fun.

Adam wrote an article for the school paper on the new 4-credit system and quoted me in it. It's going to come out on Friday. It's not that big a deal, but I think it's cool.

Today was rock climbing class again. I've definitely retained some of my skills, because I can still figure things out and do most of the routes fairly easily.

This is really random and snippety. I'm curious--does anyone actually read this anymore besides my immediate family? Let me know if you do, please, so I know that it's worth it to post!

I haven't been posting . . .

2009-09-14T23:20:00.005-04:00

Sorry. Not much is really going on here yet. It's been great to see friends again, and I'm enjoying the academic aspect for the most part. Here's part of an e-mail I wrote to my mom:

Right now in Literary Non-Fiction we're doing a group project where we read an article the prof. gave us and then had to look up and compile background info on the author, information on the other authors he mentioned, and stuff about the historical events he mentioned. I found I really don't like working with other people on something like that; it's way easier when it's completely up to me what I do and how. Although, Adam and I are going to work together on a presentation for the fantasy class, but I'll like that better because it's just one other person who I know, and it will be less stressful presenting in front of the class with Adam up there as well.

I stayed up late a few times this week, but last night I was asleep by 11:30. This weekend Jaela and Alexa went to Alexa's house, so I had the room to myself, which was nice. On Friday I watched a movie with some other London girls, and a few of us stayed up till 1 talking about London and telling travel-afterward stories. On Saturday my floor went to Letchworth; it wasn't a very nice day, so we didn't really do much, just had a picnic and talked. That evening Adam and Eri and I hung out in my room until Adam got kicked out, then we went to the basement of the campus center and hung out there. Adam and I haven't been playing chess as much, just once a day recently or less. I'm up by 6 now.

School is going well; homework remains easy, and I'm getting it all done in plenty of time. Tomorrow I'm not going to have much at all to do, since I did most of Wednesday's reading today.

I didn't say this to mom because I forgot, but last week we had our first rock climbing class where we actually got to climb, and that was all we did; the guy filling in for the usual teacher (who's away, in Alaska!) basically said, "Go boulder," so we did. It was a really fun class. That's definitely going to be the easiest.

I like Conservation Bio as well. It's not a typical bio class at all, which I'm really happy about; we've been learning about people like Carl Linnaeus and John Muir, and our lab last Thursday was to go out and count as many different species as we could. There are so many different plants around Houghton! We had to write a short paper about it, and today in class the prof. read parts of some people's, including mine and Dan's. That was fun.

So I'm really enjoying being back at Houghton. There are some things I don't like, but I'm not going to start complaining now. I'll probably continue to post sporadically as the mood strikes, or as interesting things happen. I guess that's it for now.

P.S. You can see pictures of my new room on my facebook; there's a link on the left.

Next semester

2009-08-01T14:21:00.003-04:00

I'll be back at Houghton and back on here for the upcoming fall semester. Classes start August 31st. My schedule:

Conservation Biology MWF 9:00-9:50
Literary Voices: Fantastic Truths (an English class on fantasy novels!) MWF 11:05-12:10
Introduction to Christianity MWF 12:30-1:35
Literary Nonfiction (essay writing) MWF 1:40-2:45
Rock Climbing W 3-4:50
Conservation Biology lab R 2-4:50

So, as you can see, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday are going to be crazy (especially Wed.); fortunately those two classes that I only have five minutes between are in the same building! It will be nice, though, to have nothing on Tuesday, and only that lab on Thursday. I'm really looking forward to the English class and rock climbing; not so sure about bio and the essay class, but I'll just have to see how it goes.

My London blog

2009-01-17T14:15:00.001-05:00

I started a second blog just for London, and originally I was just going to post all those posts over here also, but it makes more sense and will be easier to just send you all over there. It's http://threemonthsinlondon.blogspot.com/. :)

Getting ready for London

2009-01-12T21:17:00.004-05:00

I've been shopping . . . and shopping . . . and shopping some more. And soon I'll have to start packing. Fun fun. Since I don't actually have much to say, I thought I'd give you all an overview of what exactly the London Honors Program is.

According to Houghton's website . . .
"Houghton College's London Honors Program combines an integrated curriculum with a European experience. This course of study in the spring semester for selected first-year students merges a traditional humanities curriculum with the opportunity to study in London. Combining history, literature, philosophy and the fine arts, this curriculum is a connected narrative of western ideas and culture from the ancient Greeks through the 20th century, affording students a thorough preparation for more advanced study."

In other words, lots of work but also lots of fun! A five-page paper due every week, three-hour lectures, tons of reading, museum visits, trips to the theater . . . For more info, visit http://www.houghton.edu/admission/fyhp/london_honors/. And you'll certainly learn all the details once I get there!

Home

2008-12-22T23:48:00.003-05:00

Here I am, back at home. I've eaten good food, done silly things with my family, gotten together with friends, gone to my old church, petted my animals, taken a walk in my woods . . . basically, things almost feel back to normal--normal meaning the way it was before I left. Something doesn't feel quite right, though, and that's because I have a new normal now: Houghton. I miss it, and I miss my friends there. Now I have two places and sets of people that I'm attached to, and being at/with one means I'm not at/with the other. In a way it's sad that I'm growing to love a place other than home, but it's good in a way too, as it shows I'm really comfortable at Houghton. Anyway, overall I am definitely glad to be back, and I know I'll miss home and my family when I leave. For now I'm going to enjoy the time I have here with them.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas party

2008-12-16T17:45:00.004-05:00

Last Saturday Jaela, Alexa, Liz and I organized a cookie-baking/Nativity Story watching party. We made and decorated sugar cookies, which was a lot of fun since I've been missing making cookies with my family. Then everyone assembled in the fireside lounge (which is a big room in the basement of Gillette with lots of comfy couches and a fireplace) and we watched The Nativity Story, which is a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. It makes the Christmas story so real.

Doing fun things like this makes me sad that I'll be leaving Houghton tomorrow. I don't feel ready for the semester to be over! Well, I'm glad that I'll be done with classes and the school aspect, but I'm not ready to leave campus and my friends, especially the ones I won't see for a long time because I'll be in London next semester. This time, going home is going to be bittersweet.

Finals

2008-12-16T17:33:00.004-05:00

It's finals week here at Houghton. I had one on Saturday and two today. One tomorrow and I'm done! They haven't been bad at all; none were cumulative, and the major portion of Bib lit (on Saturday) was a take-home exam. At the actual exam time we were supposed to have to write all the books of the Bible in order with correct spelling and then write an essay on different Biblical genres, for which we could bring in a page of notes. I got there and wrote the books of the Bible, and was prepared to write the essay next when Dr. Friebel made an announcement. "The essay is optional. If you want to write it and try to boost your grade, you can, but you don't have to. And if you have a 94 or above I'm not going to let you write it, because you can't improve your grade any more." How wonderful that was--a professor telling me not to write the exam essay! That was definitely my easiest class, and the one I did the best in.

This morning I had my American Lit final. I'd been a little worried about it, because on the last test I didn't do that well. But this time the questions were a lot easier, and I think my essay was pretty solid. This afternoon I had Psych, which wasn't bad, although I couldn't remember what the Premack principle was. Other than that it was fine. Tomorrow there's Lifetime Wellness, which we're allowed to use our notes for. So that one should be no problem. I feel so fortunate compared to the people who have actual finals or a lot of finals or papers and projects. My "finals" have treated me very well.

A vist to the Spanish church? Not quite . . .

2008-12-07T17:17:00.004-05:00

Jaela had convinced me to go to the Spanish church in Rochester (about an hour away) with her and Alexa and the Spanish club this morning. When I got up at 7:30, I was surprised to see that several inches of snow had fallen overnight. Outside it was very pretty, but freezing. We met the Spanish club people at the campus center and then dispersed into the three cars that were going. Jaela, Alexa and I were in the lead car. We were driving down a back road about fifteen minutes away from Houghton, getting close to the highway, when suddenly the car started to fishtail, and the girl driving lost control. We ended up spun completely around on the opposite side of the road, stopped by the deeper snow there.

It wasn't even scary while it was happening; Jaela and Alexa also felt no panic, just a realization--"Oh, we're spinning." And it was over so fast I never had time to get scared. But then we saw the next car coming, and it was way scarier watching them; they were sliding too, just like us, and it was obvious the driver had no control over the car. They hit a guardrail on the left side, swerved back onto the road, and ended up crashing into a mailbox. Everyone was okay, but the front bumper of the car was messed up.

Fortunately the people in the third car saw us and stopped before they hit the slippery area. Someone went to tell the people in the house about their mailbox, and they came out to make sure we were okay and give us some advice--don't drive to Rochester today. The third car went back to Houghton, and pretty soon my car did too. But the other car was stuck and was going to have to be towed. That situation ended up being kind of complicated, because the girl who had been driving that car wasn't the owner, and she had to call the owner and tried to get everything sorted out. The owner wasn't sure if she had insurance for other drivers or not, and then they were having phone trouble . . . I don't know how all that got resolved, because we left before there was any conclusion to it.

Anyway, no one was hurt, but that certainly wasn't how I expected to spend my Sunday morning.

Work

2008-12-07T11:35:00.002-05:00

I finally got to work at the climbing wall last week--but it was a rather disappointing experience. Only two people came and climbed, and both just bouldered (which is when you climb without ropes and don't go very high), so there wasn't much for me to do. Basically, I got paid to sit and do my homework. Hopefully next year I can get a real job there!

Thanksgiving break . . .

2008-12-07T11:26:00.005-05:00

. . . was wonderful! It was great to go home after three months' absence and see my family, pets, and friends. I enjoyed living in a house again and eating good food, and not having to do schoolwork.

I played lots of games with my family, went shopping with my sisters, went climbing at the Milton Rock Gym with friends, and went to my old church. I didn't want to leave! But soon I'll be back again; I can't believe I've only got a week of classes left, then finals, and then . . . my first semester of college will be over! It's gone by so fast . . .

Gillette Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T16:54:00.005-05:00

Tomorrow Thanksgiving break starts. I can't wait! To see my family and pets again, to actually be home, not to have classes or homework . . . it's going to be wonderful.

Yesterday Gillette (my dorm) had Thanksgiving dinner, cooked by the RAs. It was delicious, especially after eating cafeteria food for so long! And in a few days I'll get to have another Thanksgiving dinner, this one with my family. :)

Mmm . . . I especially liked having real mashed potatoes!

Snow!

2008-11-18T19:31:00.005-05:00

It snowed here Sunday night, our first semi-big snow. The campus is beautiful, but it's freezing out there! That hasn't kept me from having fun in the snow, though; on Sunday, after an inch of snow had accumulated, Jaela, Alexa and I went out in and threw snowballs at each other and then ran around shaking snow off the trees and onto ourselves. When we were covered we stumbled into Gillette (our dorm) and collapsed on the floor, gasping about the terrible blizzard and how we were lucky to make it back alive. Silly, but fun.

The next day after my classes were over I felt an intense longing to do something outside; the snow was making me think of my siblings and how we always went out sledding and had snowball fights. So I found a friend, and we made a snow penguin, which was originally supposed to be a snowman but ended up looking like a bird. When we finished my gloves were soaked, my hands numb, but I was happy.

Here's a link to more pictures: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2007936&l=4b439&id=1449219994

The release of the Lanthorn

2008-11-13T00:51:00.006-05:00

I really should be sleeping right now, but I'm too excited to go to bed without posting the news--one of my poems was published in the Lanthorn! It was released at a coffeehouse tonight, and during set up one of my friends noticed the books, opened one, and saw my name. Ever since I submitted I had been wondering whether anything of mine would be included or not, and finally founding out that something was made me so happy. Then, wanting to read something but not knowing what, another friend asked if she could read my poem. She did, and she did a great job. Here it is for all of you to read:

Lament for an Empty Ames
Oh, Lewisburg Ames, I remember the days
when you were full of merchandise;
when you supplied me with the things I needed.
And I remember how your parking lot was full of cars
and inside the customers shopped
never suspecting that your doors would soon be closed
and that everything you were selling would disappear.

When you announced that you were shutting down
I remember my family coming to you
and searching through the maze of your gutted innards
for roller blades.
I don’t remember if we found them or not
but I do remember the emptiness that filled you.
And at a sister store, in a different town
(she was closing too — you all were)
I remember how we looked for shoes
and all we could find was an ugly pair of leftovers.

Now, Ames, the letters of your name have been removed
leaving only their outlines;
a reminder of what you once were.
Your parking lot stretches large and empty, and you sit
your respect and dignity stripped away, like those letters
while up the road, only a mile or so
resides a Wal-Mart supercenter
well-fed and prosperous.

It's very encouraging having it published, even if it is in a very small publication. And one of the editors-in-chief told me how much she liked it; she even mentioned it in the introduction to the book. So maybe I really can write.

The focus shouldn't be on just me, though--there's lots of other great poetry and artwork included in the Lanthorn. And the coffeehouse was fun too; I enjoyed hearing people read their own work and that of others, and it was nice to just relax and hang out with my friends. :)

Snippets

2008-11-08T15:18:00.003-05:00

Last month I received a packet of submissions to The Lanthorn, which I read and graded on a scale of 1-5 (except without 3--giving a neutral grade isn't helpful for deciding what's in and what's not). Then we met and discussed what grades we gave and why and tried to argue each other into changing our opinions. I missed most of that, though, because I had to leave to go to a surprise birthday party for Jaela, which another friend and I set up. That was fun, although Jaela left after cake and a few games of Dutch Blitz because she had to call her boyfriend. ;)

A few weeks later we were given a packet of faculty submissions (for a separate book) to grade, which was daunting at first. But when I stopped thinking about the people who wrote them (they didn't have the names on them, but I knew it could be one of my professor's poems I was reading) and focused on the works themselves, it was easier. On Tuesday we had a brief meeting about that. Sometime later this month The Lanthorn will be published.

~~~

Last Sunday my floor (3rd Main of Gillette Hall) went shopping for Operation Christmas Child (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/), which our whole dorm is doing with a goal of 100 boxes. We're having a packing party next Saturday, a week from today.

~~~

I finally made it to the climbing wall again, only my second time since I've been here. I enjoyed climbing again, and I'm going to try to go more often. Unfortunately, I still haven't worked at all . . .

~~~

This weekend Houghton is having their annual bus trip for prospective students, and two of my friends are coming up and are going to stay with Jaela and I! That's pretty exciting, since I haven't seen them/you (if you guys are reading this) for over two months.

~~~

Overall things are going well here; I've been doing plenty of fun stuff with my friends while still keeping up with schoolwork (I got over 100% on two tests, thanks to extra credit). :) I miss my family, though, and am looking forward to Thanksgiving break in less than three weeks!

Houghton Halloween

2008-11-04T17:09:00.004-05:00

My family has never celebrated Halloween (I've never gone trick-or-treating), so I was surprised that Houghton had several Halloween events. I didn't think there was anything wrong with that, but having come from a background of not having anything to do with the holiday, I hadn't expected a Christian college to celebrate it.

There was a costume party the night before. At first Jaela and I weren't going to dress up, but then we saw that Alexa, our sinkmate (who's also on the soccer team with Jaela) had found an outfit, so we decided we would too. Jaela remembered her overalls and became a hobo, and she lent me her soccer clothes because I didn't have anything else.

They had a haunted house set up in one corner of the dining hall--black curtains hung around a maze of tables and chairs that hid people who jumped out and you and grabbed your ankles as you walked by. I thought it was funny, but Jaela got scared. ;)

On Halloween kids from the area came to the dorms to trick-or-treat. They were all really cute; I enjoyed seeing their costumes and handing out candy to them since we never get any trick-or-treaters at my house.

Anyway, it was good, innocent fun--Halloween Houghton-style.

One Art

2008-10-29T23:44:00.003-04:00

Last week, our writers' group read poems that we liked. This was one we studied for AP English last year; I didn't understand it at first, but after several readings and through writing about it I realized what she was talking about and actually ended up liking it a lot.

One Art
By Elizabeth Bishop

The art of losing isn't hard to master;
so many things seem filled with the intent
to be lost that their loss is no disaster.

Lose something every day. Accept the fluster
of lost door keys, the hour badly spent.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

Then practice losing farther, losing faster:
places, and names, and where it was you meant
to travel. None of these will bring disaster.

I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or
next-to-last, of three loved houses went.
The art of losing isn't hard to master.

I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster,
some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent.
I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster.

— Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture
I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident
the art of losing's not too hard to master
though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster.

Simplicity Initiative phase two

2008-10-25T17:35:00.004-04:00

The second part of the Simplicity Initiative is a consumer fast. Quoting the sheet they handed out, "We want to say to the Lord together, 'Lord, you are more important to me than the things I consume.' We set these things aside in order to worship more fully and think of others before ourselves specifically during the advent season."

We will:
1. Not purchase anything unnecessary, excepting things that are used for spending time with others (going to a concert with a friend, gettting together for coffee)
2. Take time to consider where we should really be directing our resources and pay special attention to giving to others (not just monetarily)
3. Refrain from time spent shopping or looking for items to purchase
4. Think creatively and give meaningfully this Christmas; buying presents is okay, but giving of your time or making something yourself would be better

Already I've struggled with this; I wanted to get something for myself at the coffee shop, but how could I spend 3 dollars on a drink when I could have tea back at the dorm without spending any money? I'm not sure what I'll do about Christmas presents--the only crafty thing I do is hemp necklaces, and not all my friends would wear them, and I've already given them to family members. I still have several months to come up with something, though.

Anyway, I think this is a really good idea, and I'm going to stick with it as much as possible!

Break photos

2008-10-20T21:41:00.002-04:00

Here are links to my photos from October break.
Album one: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006058&l=b28c3&id=1449219994
Album two: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2006063&l=e0c0d&id=1449219994

October Break

2008-10-19T19:35:00.007-04:00

Over October break (Wednesday-Sunday) I went to Hills Creek State Park with my family and stayed in a yurt, which, according to Wikipedia, is "a portable, felt-covered, wood lattice-framed dwelling structure used by nomads in the steppes of Central Asia." And for some reason, they have two of them at Hills Creek.

They're heated, but since the walls are so thin, they didn't stay very warm. But despite being constantly cold, I loved being there with my family. We canoed, walked, rode bikes, played Scrabble, ate good food, sat around and read . . . ahhh, how relaxing it was not to have to even think about school or homework!

Now I'm back. It felt strange returning to Houghton, I miss my family, and I'm not looking forward to class tomorrow. In a way, though, it is nice to be here. I'm with my friends, I don't have to walk outside to get to a bathroom or sink (the yurts didn't have running water), and it's warm. The latter alone is enough to make me happy to be at Houghton. :)

Another essay--The Milton Rock Gym

2008-10-13T15:24:00.005-04:00

This is essay 2 for my advanced comp. class; we had to write about a person or a place, and I chose the rock gym where I used to work. If you take the time to read it, please let me know any ideas you have for revision--my second draft is due on Wednesday. Thanks!

The Milton Rock Gym

When I walked in that first day I had no idea what I was doing. The Milton Rock Gym was under construction at the time, and the noise of an electric saw grated on my ears. High up to my left a man stood on a ladder leaning against the wall. “Hi,” I called, and he looked down at me. “Do you know where Sharon is?”

“She’s in the cave,” he answered, pointing further into the gym, through a small arch. I thanked him and stepped forward, careful to avoid piles of rock holds and tools. There was the cave, a recess in the bottom of the wall to my right. As I approached, Sharon crawled out, holding a wet paintbrush. She was shorter than me and stocky, not what I had expected a professional climber to look like.

“You must be Tabitha,” she said, and I nodded. “I’m Sharon. Nice to meet you.” After setting down the paintbrush she proceeded to show me around the gym. Only a few walls had holds; the rest were covered with small holes where the rocks would be fastened. In the front were the top-roping walls, stretching up thirty-five feet to the ceiling, which contained two skylights. The back half of the gym was for bouldering, climbing on lower walls without ropes. All around was clutter, boxes, boards, and cords. In the back room I met Jac, Sharon’s husband and co-owner of the gym. Their Chihuahua, Louie, sniffed and barked at me, darting away when I bent down to pet him.

I filled out an application and was basically hired that day. In the weeks that followed I came in for training with my fellow employees and learned how to belay, how to tie different kinds of knots, and how to take down and put up holds. A few months later the gym opened to the public. Now styrofoam covered the floor of the climbing area, several inches thick, with a layer of bright blue padding on top. Chalk dust was sprinkled about, in piles in some spots. Rock holds sprouted from every wall, all different sizes and shapes, from bright pink ones with deep pockets to tiny toe holds made from real rocks. In the top-roping area the ropes trailed down from high above, figure eight knots tied and ready.

Sharon stood behind the counter, manning the cash register, inputting customer information into the computer, and handing out harnesses and shoes. She was matter-of-fact, blunt, strict, but never unkind. Jac was easy-going, casual, often smiling. His job was walking the floor, making sure everyone was safe, stopping to give a word of advice when someone was struggling. Sometimes even the starting move of a bouldering route eluded me, but I could always turn to Jac for help. Wearing his sandals, he would show me how it was done, and then stand back and watch me attempt it, giving encouragement when I fell, congratulating me when I made it.

One of the first regular patrons I met was Chloe. At eleven or twelve and just a little over four feet tall, she could climb routes that I couldn’t. I often used “I’m too short” as a reason why I didn’t make it to the top, but I never heard Chloe complain about her height. If she didn’t make it the first time, she tried again, sometimes working on a route for days, weeks, until at last she got it.

Peg was seventy-nine when she first started coming to the gym. Her grandson had gotten her interested in climbing, and she had decided that for her eightieth birthday, which was in a few months, she was going to climb a wall. Several times a week she came in to practice, and soon she was going up the 28-foot with no problem. On her birthday newspaper reporters came in, and her climb made the front page of the local paper.

Most of the people my age who climbed there were better than me, the guys by default because they were taller and stronger, and the girls because they came in every day, while I didn’t have the time. Since they were more advanced than I was, I didn’t hang out with them much, but we’d still say hi to each other, and I could always turn to them for help.

There are as many different climbing styles as there are different types of people. Guys new to the sport muscle their way up the wall, relying on the strength of their arms. Taller people take huge steps, skipping half the holds. Experienced climbers move with ease and grace, every turn of their body as natural as if they’re taking a stroll. I loved to just sit and watch them.

~~~

On a rainy day the gym is full of people, from beginners just learning to belay to lead-climbers—meaning that their rope isn’t attached at the top of the wall; they have to bring it up with them and clip in to carabiners as they climb. One guy stands on his head in the bouldering area, stretching his feet up to reach the holds on the dome that descends from the ceiling. A group of kids watches in awe as he does a sit-up while hanging upside down, grabbing a hold on the dome with his fingers and let his feet slide out. When he’s done the kids swarm around the dome, stacking mats underneath so they can reach it.

The kids are there for a birthday party, and I’m their belayer. A young boy asks to go up on the ropes, and after I clip him in he flies up the wall as if he’s racing. As soon as I let him down, he asks, “Can I do it again?” But now it’s his sister’s turn, and as I make sure her harness is tight enough, she stares up at the wall with trepidation. “You ready?” I ask, and she nods, just barely. She reaches out a hand, grabs a hold with trembling fingers. Her other hand goes on, then her feet. Turning, she looks at me, her eyes wide. “You’re doing great,” I tell her. “Keep going. I’ve got you.”

Sometimes the scared little girl continues to climb, taking her time but eventually making it to the top, and ends up loving it. Other times she gets two feet off the ground and starts crying. Even then she can occasionally still be convinced to go higher, whether by me, a parent, or Sharon. But sometimes she just has to come down, even when her father is insisting she stay up there. Has he forgotten what it’s like to be in a strange place, doing something new, and feeling afraid?

Even now, when I’ve climbed nearly every wall in the building, I can still get nervous when I’m thirty feet up in the air, trusting my life to the rope and my belayer. Sweat breaks out on my hands continually, and I keep having to stop and smother them in chalk from my chalk bag. In an awkward position, straining my body, my leg begins to shake uncontrollably, but I press on, moving up one hold at a time. The belayer cheers me on, calling, “You’ve got this.” My hand slips off a small hold, and I reach up again, clamping my fingers onto the edge. Above my head I can see the finish, marked by two pieces of tape—all the way to the top tape marks the way, showing me what holds I can use. Each route is labeled with its difficulty level, from 5.6 being the easiest in the gym to 5.12 being for experts only. 5.10 is the highest I’ve ever done, and it wasn’t easy.

I step up one final time, raise my right hand, and grab the last hold. An official finish requires both hands, but if I let go with my left I’ll fall, so I decide I’ve done enough. After I sit back in my harness, my feet against the wall and my full weight on the rope, the belayer lowers me to the floor. I’m exhausted, my arms and fingers aching, but it was worth it. When you make it to the top, or even just make it farther than you did last time, it always is.

When I get home I notice the smell: a mixture of sweat, chalk dust, and grime. I inhale deeply, for with that smell comes memories of triumphs, and the people who helped me achieve them. I now know so much more than I did when I walked into the gym that first day, but there’s always more to learn. Fortunately the Milton Rock Gym is full of good teachers. “Building stronger bodies, minds, and community,” proclaims MRG’s website, and that’s exactly what it does.

Craziness

2008-10-05T15:07:00.004-04:00

Oh dear, it's been a whole week since I last posted. I have a good excuse though . . . two, actually: I've been busy, and nothing really post-worthy has happened. There are a few small things you might be interested in hearing about, though.

1. I got an A- on my sleep essay. My teacher had a lot of good things to say about it and just a few suggestions for changes. Now I know I can do well in that class.

2. I got 100% on my Bib lit test. Now I know my study methods work well, and that class should be easy.

3. I had an American lit exam on Wednesday. There were some fill-in-the-blank questions, a short-answer question, and a long essay question. I hate having to sit down and write an essay and hand it in with no chance to think over and revise it. But the prof had given us the topics beforehand (we had a choice of 5), so at least I was able to get a good idea of what I wanted to write about before actually writing it. I think it went okay; I haven't gotten that test back yet, so I'll have to see. The essay could have been better, but it wasn't awful.

4. This past weekend was homecoming and Houghton's 125th anniversary celebration. There were no classes on Friday -- it was wonderful. Yesterday there was a parade, then a festival on the quad complete with food, games, and a ferris wheel. The highlight of the weekend was SPOT (don't ask me what it means), a twice-a-year talent show that originated in the 70s. The acts were incredibly funny; they have ones from past years on youtube, and I'm sure this year's will be posted soon if you're interested in watching any. The bad part is, it went till 1:15 -- AM. It was supposed to start at 10 (last night), but they didn't even let us into the chapel, where it was held, till 10:30. And then it still didn't start for a while. Since I got up for church this morning (a special service at the chapel) I'm exhausted now. And Jaela and I are going to hiking soon. Just what I need.

5. Last night was our second writers' group meeting, and although there were only four of us there (because of all the homecoming/anniversary stuff), it was still fun. There are so many brilliant, creative people here.

My mind has gone blank, so I'll end this random, haphazard post. Thanks for reading.

The Houghton Inklings

2008-09-28T23:08:00.004-04:00

I'm sure most of you know who the Inklings were, but in case you don't, they were an informal group including J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S Lewis who met and discussed their writing. (If you want to know more, look it up on Wikipedia. That's what I did.) So, as you've figured out from the title of this post, some friends and I are starting something like that here at Houghton. It began after a friend and I had had multiple conversations about writing, and the other day he said, "Wouldn't it be cool to start a group like the Inklings here?" I was all for the idea, so we recruited a few people, some writing/English majors and others who just like writing, and tonight we had our first meeting in the campus coffee shop.

It was amazing. Seven other people who like writing as much as I do . . . that basically says it all. Since it was the first time, we went around and said what kind of writing we each like to do, and then talked about what kind of things we want to do during our meeting times. For next week we decided we would all write on the same topic, using whatever format we want: poetry, fiction, non-fiction, whatever. Our topic is impossible goals, specifically, if a goal is good but you know you won't be able to achieve it, do you work toward it anyway, and if so why? -- something along those lines. And next week we will read our writings to each other and discuss them. Other times we might have people bring in past writing that they'd like to share or want input on, or we might have book discussions some weeks; just basically whatever we feel like. I'm really excited about it already. Now I just have to come up with an idea of what to write for next time . . . and actually write it.

(By the way, we're not actually calling ourselves the Houghton Inklings; right now we don't have a name, but, since we're all writers, I'm sure someone will come up with something.)

Lost in the woods

2008-09-24T23:40:00.003-04:00

I only have one class on Wednesdays, at 10 AM, so after lunch I had a whole afternoon free. After studying outside for a few hours (we've been having beautiful weather here), I put away my textbooks and headed out to Houghton's hiking trails for a long walk. There's a ropes course up there, as well as a pavilion and some camping shelters, but as you go further in it's all trees. There are many paths that cross and intersect, and I was a little worried about being able to find my way back, but not enough that I stopped exploring and stuck to the main trail. I was a little confused when I started hearing cars, though, and even more so when I saw houses up ahead. The path ended at a road; I don't know which road or where exactly it was, but there was a sign at the edge of the woods saying it was college property, which was a relief since it meant I hadn't wandered too far.

So I turned around and went back, on a different trail since I find going to a place and returning the same way boring, and eventually found myself exiting the woods into a large field -- a soccer field, it turned out, not too far from where I'd started. So I never actually did get lost, which I was grateful for. Except for the constant feeling that I might be lost, it was a relaxing time of being alone, getting off campus, and taking about a hundred pictures -- a portion of which you can see here: http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004541&l=a9060&id=1449219994.

My first test

2008-09-23T17:03:00.002-04:00

Today I had my first college exam ever, in the class Biblical Literature. Since it was my first one, I was a bit nervous. I had been studying, and I went to the review session the night before, and read over my notes again right before class, but I was afraid I would forget the definition of canon or the six genres of the Old Testament. When I actually began the test, though, it went surprisingly smoothly. I managed to remember everything, even the answers to questions that weren't on the review sheet the professor had given us. So I think I did pretty well. It's definitely a relief to have it over with! But I think there's a psych exam next week . . .

Trash pick up day!

2008-09-20T18:29:00.004-04:00

Today was FYI service day, so all the freshmen went off to different places with their FYI groups to do volunteer projects of various kinds. It's a tradition for the London and the East Meets West (the other honors program) groups to go together to Buffalo to clean up the area near a river there, so that's what we did. I got up at 6:30, which was somewhat painful, especially on a Saturday, but since we had to meet at 7:20 it was necessary (I'm slow in the morning). The departure time was supposedly 7:30, but we didn't end up leaving until 8:15, for what reason I have no idea. After an hour and a half ride on a bumpy school bus, during which I did manage to sleep a little, we arrived at the headquarters. There we had to fill out waivers and were given free t-shirts, as well as food.

After that it was back on the buses and on to our true destination. The area was actually quite pretty, despite all the garbage. We got our bags and then went to work, without gloves, unfortunately, since no one had thought to take any from the base. There were all sorts of nasty trash around, but a few interesting things too, such as a Chevy bumper one guy found and a TV sitting almost in the river. It wasn't even smashed or broken at all, surprisingly. If you look at the pictures from the link I'll post at the end, you can see some of the things that were fished out of the stream.

An hour later, trash bags stuffed full, we returned to the buses. Originally we had planned to go back to the base to eat lunch, but to save time we ate it there. Because of that the only way to cleanse our hands was through hand sanitizer, which was better than nothing, but I would have liked to do a real wash before eating. Anyway, we were soon heading back; I managed to get a good amount of studying done, but that was the only good thing about the long ride. Once in the dorm, I scrubbed my hands and then took a shower. Ahh, it felt good to be clean.

Despite the few annoyances, it was a fun day; I enjoyed hanging out with the London people and helping make the world a little cleaner. Here's a link to photos:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2004267&l=8dd55&id=1449219994

The Lanthorn

2008-09-18T22:42:00.004-04:00

Pronounced "lantern", the Lanthorn is Houghton's literary magazine. I went to a staff meeting on Tuesday night, where we made posters to let people know they can submit poetry, prose, and artwork. The first issue of this year will be published in November, and they plan to print two more after that. To be on staff you just have to come to all the meetings and help with the annual coffeehouse, which will also be in November. Staff members will help choose which pieces are included and work on editing (as far as I know; we didn't talk much about what our actual duties will be). Anyway, poster making was fun at least -- we cut up old magazines and used the pictures and advertisements.

Re-reading this post, I realize it's sloppy and disjointed, but I don't feel like rewriting it and don't want to take the time either; it's not that I'm lazy, but I have some more studying to do and then I really need to get to bed. Good night!

Church wall paper meeting

2008-09-16T12:29:00.005-04:00

No, this post isn't about choosing how to decorate the walls of a church. The title refers to four different things -- the church fair yesterday, my training at the climbing wall last night, the essay I wrote, and the London meeting this morning.

***

First, the church fair. There must have been about 20 churches there, and it's hard to tell much about a church just from seeing a display and a brochure or even talking to someone. So my upcoming Sundays will be spent visiting the ones that I thought might be a good fit for me, and of course I'll be praying about it too.

***

Climbing wall training went pretty well; I'm almost glad I won't be a regular worker, though, because of everything to remember and be responsible for. Besides belaying and just keeping an eye on things, I'll also teach people how to belay (which I've had experience doing with my siblings). Then there's opening and closing the wall, which requires a key to unlock the cave and the ropes (I'll take pictures sometime so you can see what I mean). I also had to learn a new way of belaying, because they do things a little differently, making the way I learned not as safe. Everything might be a little confusing at first, but I think it will be fun.

I stayed afterward to climb for a little while, which was when I really realized how limited their wall is compared to MRG. There wasn't room on the wall for everyone who came to be climbing at the same time, and there are only four or five ropes, compared to MRG's 12 or so. Still, I am glad that Houghton has a wall at all.

***

Last night my advanced comp. teacher e-mailed me to ask if we could workshop my essay (the sleep one) in class tomorrow. I was really nervous about it, but I agreed, so today I had to read it out loud to the whole class and then listen to their comments. Surprisingly they were mostly positive; people said how funny it was and what a great voice I had. So that went much better than I thought it would. The version I read in class was a second draft, a little better than the one I posted on here. If you're interested in reading it let me know, but I won't post it on here because it's not a lot different from the original.

***

Last but not least, we had a meeting this morning about the London program. The most important thing I found out were the dates of my break: March 25-27, which is Wednesday to Friday, so it's not as short as it seems because I'll have the weekend too. A few other random facts/dates (which might only be interesting or relevant to my parents): Families who come to visit can actually stay in the building where we'll all be living, the Highbury Centre. At the end of the Fall semester I'll have to completely move out of my room and then completely move back into a different room for May term, which starts May 12. The program ends April 20, so there are about three weeks in between; I'll probably plan to travel for two or so of them.

Sunday = church and the sabbath

2008-09-14T21:20:00.004-04:00

Today I went with Laura, my FYI leader (First-Year Introduction -- it's a class all freshmen have to take; we're split into small groups with upperclassmen as leaders) to her church. It's a Mennonite church, like my church at home, but it's quite different. For one thing, it's in the afternoon. Today they met outside someone's house, although they do have a building where they usually meet. We all (under 50 people) sat in a circle around a fire, and whoever wanted to could call out a song, provided it was in the blue hymnals we all had, and the two guitarists would play it and we would all sing. It was an interesting way of doing worship, letting the congregation choose the music.

After that there was not a sermon, as you would expect -- they don't even have a pastor, but rather there's a man who directs things, who I believe is a professor here. Anyway, we broke up into small groups and discussed forgiveness, specifically the movie series they had been watching on forgiveness, which meant I didn't always know what they were talking about. After that we sang one last song, and then we ate dinner; it was their monthly potluck. It was nice to eat homecooked food instead of cafeteria stuff.

So it was quite different, but I did like it. Houghton's church fair is tomorrow, so I'll look around there and see what other churches I'd like to visit.

~~~

Today was also my first attempt at keeping the sabbath. It was so nice to have a day with no homework. I slept in really late, made yogurt-bran muffins with Laura for the potluck (the muffins sound really weird, but they were actually quite good), and went for a short bike ride. And am now doing computer stuff, obviously. So it was a good day.

Guess What?!

2008-09-12T18:22:00.003-04:00

I actually did get a job at the climbing wall!! Only as a sub, meaning I'll fill in when the regular workers can't make it, but still, that's better than nothing, so I'm excited. Tonight they're having a wall-stripping party, meaning they'll take down all the holds and then completely redo the wall. And on Monday they'll be open for people to climb! Yay!

The Simplicity Initiative

2008-09-11T22:40:00.003-04:00

The Simplicity Initiative is a program here at Houghton that whoever wants to can participate in. I missed the beginning of the meeting they had tonight, but my basic understanding of the point of it is, as the name implies, to simplify our lives. There will be four areas of focus throughout the year, each emphasized for about six weeks. The first one is the concept of the sabbath -- making Sunday a day of rest. The list of guidelines for doing this is as follows:

1. Worship with a local church body on Sunday.
2. Spend time in prayer and Scripture reading.
3. Rest (however you thoughtfully define it).
4. Have a meal with those you would consider your community.
5. Refrain from homework and typical chores (cleaning, laundry, etc.)
6. Get 7 hours of sleep each night and go to bed no later than 12am.

It's not required that we stick to this; these are just suggestions. I intend to try to follow them as much as I can, though. Can you guess which will be the hardest for me? ;) Besides going to bed before midnight, I'm already stuggling with the idea of doing no homework on Sundays; it just doesn't feel right. However, I do think it is a good idea, and I am going to do my best.

Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. You'll be hearing more about how it's going on Sunday.

On Sleep (the essay that I agonized over)

2008-09-11T22:34:00.003-04:00

On Sleep

I love to sleep. Every morning when I wake up, I wish I could close my eyes again and return to that state of peace and restfulness. Some afternoons I can’t keep myself awake, so I take a nap. Even then, it never feels like enough. I am addicted to sleep.

And I don’t know whether that’s a good or a bad thing. Of course I need sleep; everyone does. But does my perceived need for it go too far? Should I really value it so much as to spend two hours of my afternoon on it, hours that I could have been studying or writing this essay? Is sleeping a waste of my time? When I think about it, it seems like a crime to spend the whole night unconscious. I could accomplish so much more if those hours were available for me to use.

Besides, sleep isn’t always the blessing it seems to be. I have experienced some of my most terrifying moments while sleeping, in the form of nightmares. In one a wolf attacked me; in another, I actually died (although I was somehow resurrected the next day). But how can something that’s supposed to be good for me cause me the fear and anxiety that these dreams did?

Naps also pose a problem. Today I nearly missed dinner because I took one, and I felt disoriented and confused for a long time afterward. Although I had only slept for a few hours, it felt like a whole night had passed, making it seem like it was Thursday instead of Wednesday. Also when I woke up my head felt thick and cloudy, and my movements were slow and awkward. I was almost worse off after the nap than I had been before it.

And then there are mornings. When I get up I feel miserable, maybe like a drug addict in withdrawal. I want to remain asleep, spend all my time sleeping, in fact – because, like drugs, sleep makes me feel good. While I’m sleeping, at least. Then I am blissfully unaware of everything; when I wake up, however, I am rudely thrust back into the real world of responsibilities, deadlines, and problems.

Sleep, then, is an escape. When I’m sleeping, I don’t remember that I have an essay due or that I haven’t done the reading for a class. Is that why I find it so addicting? Because it lets me get away, in a sense, from my life? I have to admit that that’s partly true. Without sleep I would never get a break from the pressure and anxiety I experience every day, and I think that break is necessary to my survival.

Still, I don’t like the feeling that I am a slave to sleep, and sometimes I think that maybe it would be better to avoid it altogether. But that’s impossible, of course. No matter how long I put it off, no matter how late I stay up, if I want to stay alive, sleep is inevitable.

So obviously not sleeping isn’t a choice. Sleeping less, then? It’s not a pleasant prospect. Even when I’m getting eight hours a night I always feel like I need more. I wish I could do it all at once, maybe sleep for a year or two, and then forego it the rest of my life. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

Maybe, then, I should change how I view sleep. I would never say I love food, except when I’m exceedingly hungry. Food is necessary, so I eat, but there are many other things I would rather be doing. I think sleep, however, is wonderful, and many times it is the thing that I would prefer to be doing. If I were to stop glorifying it, perhaps it would lose its hold on me.

How do I do that, though? Even now I’m getting tired, starting to slow down, and longing for the time when I can go to bed. I can’t function as well because my body needs rest.

It appears I’m stuck, then. An addict can be weaned off drugs, but I can never give up sleep. At least, not in this life. In heaven, the Bible says, we won’t need to sleep anymore. Sometimes I feel a little disappointed when I read that, but ultimately I think it’s a good thing. Being asleep is often used as a metaphor for being blind or oblivious to something, while waking up means coming to a realization. Although it’s not always pleasant, both in the literal and figurative senses, in the end it is better that way. After all, what’s the point of sleeping if you’re never awake to enjoy the benefits? Sleeping is valuable precisely because it allows you to be awake and alert during the day; the only time you can be aware of the good it has done you is when you are not doing it.

So I will continue to sleep, but now when I am awake, instead of longing for the time when I can sleep again, I will be grateful for my past sleep. And when my alarm goes off tomorrow morning, I will remind myself that the very point of sleeping is to wake up.

I welcome comments and suggestions, as my second draft is due next week. :)

Random stuff . . .

2008-09-10T23:31:00.008-04:00

First, I have heard nothing about the climbing wall job, so I'm guessing I that means I was not hired. If I wasn't so tired I would probably be disappointed. But I'll apply again next year, and for now I'll look into getting a job at the writing center.

Also, I wanted to post a few pictures of my room. Some of you have already seen these on Facebook, but for those of you that haven't, here they are. It's normally a bit messier than that.

One more thing -- I'm turning in my first essay for my writing class tomorrow, and I don't think it turned out very well, so if you want to pray about that, I would be quite thankful.

The rock wall meeting

2008-09-08T22:05:00.002-04:00

Somehow I completely forgot about this when I posted earlier, but now that I have finished my psych reading I can tell you all about the meeting I went to for people who want to get jobs at the climbing wall. First -- there were a lot of people there, more than I expected anyway, about 20. And they have 8 jobs available. So out of 20 people, 12 will not get jobs. As if that wasn't bad enough, the rock wall coordinator said that they typically hire upperclassmen. Making my prospects even grimmer, he also stated that experience isn't necessary; he and the other rock wall in-charge people can easily teach belaying, knot-tying, etc.

So with being a freshman working against me, and my experience of being an employee at the Milton Rock Gym for a year not working for me, I have to admit that I am not at all certain that I will receive this job. *Sigh* . . . it did sound fun. But anyway, you never know; the guy said they'll e-mail the chosen ones within two days. So I'll just have to wait and see.

The perils of perfectionism

2008-09-08T20:37:00.004-04:00

I have a short writing assignment due tomorrow for my Narrative and Personal Essay class, and although I thought I was finished with it, now that I read it over again I wonder if it's good enough. So I revise it a bit, but still feel that it could be improved . . . so when do I stop revising and decide that it's good enough? I guess that's something that I'll have to learn as I continue to gradually adjust to college life.

Another tricky thing is the reading; I've had trouble just figuring out when some of it is due. Different professors require different things -- one said we should have the reading done by the time of the exam, not necessarily before each class, while another makes us sign "reading reports" certifying that we have done the assigned reading. And while some of it is enjoyable and interesting, it still takes up a lot of time, causing me, a perfectionist, to feel extreme pressure to get it done.

Why am I on here blogging, then? Well, besides the fact that my younger sister (I won't mention any names) asked me to post something new, sometimes, I just need a break. Right after I finish this, though, I will print out my writing assignment (after one final read-over) and then sit down with my psychology book, and do nothing else until I've finished the necessary reading. My perfectionist brain will not allow me to do otherwise.

My first dance

2008-09-06T23:41:00.000-04:00

So, how was the dance? Surprisingly, it was fun. I don't like dressing up often, but once in a while it is nice to wear a pretty dress and look beautiful, and Jaela even helped me straighten my hair.

This is the first year Houghton has allowed dancing (I believe), so I wasn't sure what to expect. Of course, I'd never been to a dance before, so I wasn't sure what to expect anyway. When we got there a dance caller was teaching everyone how to do old-fashioned, Pride and Prejudice style dances. Jaela and her boyfriend, who came to visit for the day, went off to dance, and I watched the dancers, which was interesting and also funny at times because people often made small mistakes.

Eventually I wandered over to get some punch, and I ran into a few people I knew and talked to some of them. Technically it was a masquerade dance, and since I didn't have a mask I made one at the mask-your-own-mask table. (Don't be disappointed that I'm not wearing it in the picture; it was a white plastic mask with three fake feathers glued onto it. Nothing at all impressive.) Then things got a little boring and I was considering going back to the dorm when, unexpectedly, a guy I didn't know asked me to dance.

It was a little nerve-wracking, but since I'd always thought that kind of dancing looked like fun, I agreed. The first dance was a promenade, basically walking around in a big circle, so that was nice and easy to start with. The next one was more complicated, but eventually I started to get the hang of it, although since no one quite knew that they were doing it was a little sloppy. After what seemed like quite a long time, the dance ended, my partner thanked me for dancing with him, and I gratefully went outside into the cool air, still breathing a bit heavily.

So yes, I definitely enjoyed it; learning to dance was confusing but fun. If only I got to do it as often as Jane Austen's characters -- then I might actually get good at it. ;)

Hi everyone . . .

2008-09-06T23:37:00.000-04:00

I started this blog because it got a little tiring saying the same thing in ten different e-mails to ten different people, so now I can write stuff once where everyone can see it. I still welcome e-mails and I will still reply, but general stuff, like "How was the dance?" which whoever knows about it will ask me, will be posted here. Enjoy! :)