| Stupid Stuff |
[17 Dec 2006|06:26am] |
On the twelfth day of Christmas,  firefly229 sent to me... Twelve international relations sailing Eleven movies talking Ten friends over-anylizing Nine comics learning Eight politics a-procrastinating Seven books a-skiing Six guys a-painting Five be-e-e-en folds Four sculpture gardens Three gilmore girls Two long conversations ...and a culture in a buffy.
If I actually got this it'd be pretty sweet.
PS. Have I mentioned I'm HOME?
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| One Down. Except for the first time I'm not counting... |
[14 Dec 2006|09:24pm] |
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music |
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Regina Spektor, Fidelity holyshit can't stop listening to it |
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I'M DONE.
I survived my first semester of college and being away from home for four months. I lived. Awesome. I will be home, in New Jersey, tomorrow night and it will be so sweet. I'll be home for a hell of a long time and would absolute love to talk to you about all sorts of things. Pick a time. Woot.
I'm kind of pumped. Maybe you can tell.
I also saw the Northern Lights today. It was pretty sweet.
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| I will be home Friday night |
[10 Dec 2006|04:56pm] |
I'm sitting in the library on the super-quiet fourth floor looking out over the sunset silhouetted skyline of downtown Grinnell (many churches, a water tower, trees, a couple of very boxy classic small town buildings and, in the distance, a giant grain processing type thing). I am trying for all I'm worth to write my paper (Mrs. Dalloway and existentialism, how very liberal arts of me) and study for my two exam style finals (french and psych.), but really first semester's over. In some ways the four months away from home which felt like eternity when I started them seem to have passed more quickly than any other time in my life, but in some ways it feels like I've lived lifetimes since I was home. I don't think it's possible to go to college, especially far away from home, and not change. But I'm not afraid that when I get home I won't connect with my friends. I'm more afraid that I will have changed (I know I have), but they won't know it at all. How could I expect them to? It seems to me to all be very very internal. I have always shared pretty much everything with my friends, but now I'm facing a major life experience which I don't know how to convey. And I know, at the same time, they've had their own major, unique experience which really I know almost nothing about. It just seems weird to me.
PS. I have been listening to Christmas music nearly nonstop, I am so ready to be home.
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| Somewhat in response to Tiff's entry on weather |
[03 Dec 2006|10:25pm] |
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I have discovered something about Iowa: it's always windy. Or at least breezy. It makes sense, it's the prairie, the great planes, there are no mountains to break the wind. It's like how its always windy at the beach. This wind thing has come to be particularly important now that the temperature has dropped to consistently around (or below) freezing as it has in recent days. Wind chill, let me tell you, is a bitch.
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| One Month Down. |
[19 Sep 2006|05:15pm] |
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During the drudgery that was high school, my days were made or broken by the lunch special. I really don't think I was alone in this. We would discuss the special in advance, look forward to certain meals, be caught by surprise by particularly exciting entrees, and in general shape our perceptions of the day around what it was we got to eat. A good special could brighten an otherwise bleak day, just as a lack of good options could put a sincere damper on the day.
Now that routine here has set in and the dining hall has begun to repeat items, I am finding that I am still highly affected by what fortune serves me at meals. I am taking it as a sign that I'm settling here. Or perhaps that you can only go so far and certain things will always be the same. Or maybe I over anylize and just happen to like food...probably...
Ps. This came to mind because today was grilled cheese day. If there's one thing Grinnell Dining Services can do right it's grilled cheese. Mmm....
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| State of the Kathleen Address (in lists) |
[17 Sep 2006|09:27pm] |
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 excited |
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It's officially been one month since I packed up an over stuffed car and left home from New Jersey. So far Grinnell has been pretty awesome and let me say right out I think I chose the right college. Seriously, I will plug this place to anyone and if you're in high school and curious, drop me a line. That said, I'm also more homesick than I ever possibly imagined I could be. I won't be home for another three months and the thought is pretty daunting. There is probably not a single day that passes that I don't wish I could be back home, just for a little while. I guess that's part of the experience, but I can't say I'm not envious of those who are going to school close enough to drop home on the weekends. Still, I am meeting some awesome people and am in some pretty awesome classes. Without further ado, the lists:
My Classes:
-Freshman Tutorial, Neighbors (This class is the only requirement Grinnell has and it's pretty much a make-sure-you-can-function-on-a-college-level type course. The topic focuses on conflict between groups that live together. So far we've discussed a Hasidic community that moved into small-town Iowa, Sunni-Shiite conflict, and now we're starting in on Bosnia. It's a cheery course.)
-Intermediate French (A French class that's actually structured...imagine...)
-Intro. to Psychology (My favorite class; I find it fascinating except for the labs which are long and take place in a windowless, posterless, colorless cell)
-Philosophy and Literature (Basically, an overview of philosophy somewhat through works of fiction, so far despite a ton of reading we've read very little literature, but I think we're getting there. At least it's forcing me to read some of the classics I wouldn't read otherwise, but should)
Things That Eat My Time:
-Academic Related Stuff (e.g. Class, Homework, Reading stuff for Class) this is most of my life. yay academically rigorous school.
-Swing Society, learning to swing dance, my new passion, it is incredibly fun
-Debate. I am unable to escape the desire to argue for solely rhetorical purposes. Debate here is not, however, model UN or model Congress, but rather some Oxford model that's completely different and I actually haven't witness, but sounds cool. Plus, debate kids are always the coolest kids.
-GRAMMA (GRinnellians Advocating More MAssage) It's not sketchy I swear!! It's a group of awesome people that like to sit around for an hour and give and receive back rubs. It is wonderful.
-Watch an infinite number of movies with the Loose Crowd.
-Check my email an obscene number of times
-Go for long walks though quite Midwestern neighborhoods and see beautiful vistas of endless cornfields (you think I'm joking...)
-Waiting on Line at the Dining Hall (sigh.)
Things of Note:
-I have officially eaten Iowa corn, cooked by the farmer who grew it
-I am less wierded out when strangers beam at me or talk to me like they've known me for years (ok, so this is still weird. seriously, random people on the street will tell you their life's story here, I am not kidding. It has happened.)
-It takes me less than 5 seconds to process what people are talking about when they refer to pop.
-Apparently I walk incredibly fast.
-I have been to a tractor parade. Just take a second to savor that. It was magical. (pictures forth coming on Facebook)
-When telling a woman at said tractor parade that we're from New Jersey she said, "that's nice, it's good to get out and see other countries sometimes"
What I'm Looking Forward to:
-Fall Break - Alternative Break! Alt. Break is a community service project. Every year it sends kids out to places that need serious help for hands on work. Because I (financially) can't go home for fall break in October I'm going to be going with several other students to Denver to study peace and conflict studies. I just found out that I was accepted to the program and I'm extatic. I'm going to be in some intense mediation workshops and then will be working in restorative justice and with at-risk youth to try and ease tensions there. While its no luxury trip (think sleeping on the floor), I'm incredibly excited.
-Grey's Anatomy Season Premier this Thursday. <3
PS. My roomate's a blogger so if you want to check it out it'll give you some idea what I do (and what I put up with :P) I seem to show up in it a lot. Probably because I live with her. Link
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| Update |
[21 Aug 2006|09:34am] |
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So, I'm here, at Grinnell. I've officially moved in, but I'm still in orientation and still haven't registered for classes. The only class I'm in is tutorial for which I already have homework (sigh, though I suppose it will only get worse when I have four classes). Everyone here is really nice so it's hard to feel too ackward or alone. I'll write more later, but for now this update is to inform all those concerned that I'm here, I'm settled, I'm ok, and I miss you all.
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| Time Passes, I think this may be a limbo period. |
[19 Jul 2006|04:41pm] |
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So a month from today I will be moving into my dorm at Grinnell, in Iowa, which is starting to seem very very very far away from, well, everything and more importantly everyone. I'm excited, very excited, but - there's definitely a "but".
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[18 Apr 2006|11:21am] |
I should be doing the homework that I stayed home today to do, but, inspired by the back-reading of my friends page, I am inspired to write my college rant. Because apparently its just what you have to do. (I'll write about my trip later, because I know you're all on the edge of your seats about that):
You may have noticed that whenever a person tells anyone who is not an intimate friend where they go or are going to college the response is almost always "Oh, that's a good school." It is the society established polite response. It doesn't matter if the school is Yale or Rutgers or Montclair State or even RVCC the response is the same: "Oh, that's a good school." I'm sure you've all experienced this.
I don't think I have. Whenever I tell anyone where I'm going (Grinnell) the response is inevitably something along the lines of, "Oh, Cornell! That's a good school!" or "Now where is that?" or mostly "...ok...."(as they desperately try to remember ever hearing of this school). The where question of course requires me to inform them that I will in fact be attending school in Iowa which almost never elicits a positive response. It's mostly "oh wows" and not, I typically infer, in reference the innate glamour Iowa holds. A reference to corn is almost always short in coming. Many comment on the distance. My mom tells me she is almost always questioned if she is "ok" with me going so far away, as if she was allowing herself (or maybe me) to be some sort of victim.
What no one says is "Oh, that's a good school" or even, "Oh, that's nice". Every time I explain where I'm going I feel like I am immediately asked to justify my choice. I'm tempted to start carrying around various references on Grinnell, proving that it is not some crap half-fake school along the lines of an internet college.
Because that's the thing. The thing which I, being polite, do not get to scream at them and feel awful trying to tactfully say (it seems like bragging). Grinnell is not a bad school. In fact, Grinnell is a good school. Hell, a great school. If I may be immodest for a moment, I've done well. (as have many others.) Grinnell is consistently ranked highly in all the college ranking shit that I expect most people use to judge college choices. Any expert on college or whatever will tell you it's a good school. And maybe its selfish, but I wish to some degree people would understand this on the same basic level that if I told them that I was going to UNC or Muhlenberg or BU or SUNY or RVCC or whatever, they'd go, "Oh, that's a good school". Every college bound senior seems to get some glory out of announcing their choice. People may know nothing about the school, but they've heard of it before. I suppose name recognition, like in any other field, is what counts. Or may it’s the Iowa thing.
So call me a bitch or greedy or say that I'm giving value to something stupid that doesn't matter. But it kind of bothers me. At least when I get to thinking about it.
Which I can't. Like everyone else it seems like I'm always thinking about college. All through my trip, while I was enjoying myself in beautiful foreign countries I've always wanted to go to, some part of my mind consistently dwelt on a small town in the Midwest. I'm nervous about going, I guess. Iowa is Iowa. It's a big change. Like everyone I guess, I'm scared I'm making the wrong decision about where to go. I constantly wonder if I'll regret my choice. Part of me just wants to be there, not because I'm exited, but just so have it done with, instead of this limbo stage where its all I can think about, but not at all where I am.
Thanks, that was a nice release.
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| Drug Search at Hillsborough High School |
[09 Feb 2006|08:58am] |
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I am currently locked in the school library as police dogs search the lockers of the school for "illicit" substances. I am lucky because I am in such a big area with so much to do in it. Most people are locked in regular classrooms. The search began an hour ago and could continue for another hour. It is a very weird feeling being "locked in".
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[15 Dec 2005|11:10pm] |
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Christmas stuff :) |
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Just FYI, the proper response to finding out where someone got into college should consist of something along the following:
-Congratulations!
-That's great!
-Good for you!
-I'm happy for you!
-That's nice!
And not something the lines of:
-WTF?!?!
-How the hell did you manage to get in there?!
-Affirmative action on your side, huh?
-Ew, I hate you!
-What were your SAT scores?!
-You're joking, right?
-Why would you apply there!?!
Just, you know, FYI
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| BERMUN |
[18 Nov 2005|01:50pm] |
So...this is me in Germany...
I'm in the library typing up my articles for the day which has the added challenge of using a German keyboard. The Y and Z keys are reversed so almost everz time i tzpe a y I have to back space and redo it. Also, I had to ask someone which key was the delete key as I don't know the German word for 'delete'. I felt rather stupid. You also have to hold down the shift key for this ' and the quotation marks are a shift off the 2 key.
Anywho, Berlin is amazing and is so cool to meet all the different people from such different places, although the international-ness of them all makes me feel rather uncultured.
Last night, after commitee, we visited some of the remains of the Berlin wall, that big gate thingy that represents Berlin all the time but who's name escapes me, and the Reichstag, all of which was amazing. A lot of the architecture here is quite remarkable, so, despite us all being lost a lot of the time, the scenery is normally rather good.
So, just wanted to say "hi" to you all and "see you soon with pictures in hand" MUCH LOVE! I can't wait to talk to you all when we get back.
PS. If you're a debate kid: everyone seems to be doing fairly well and enjoying the debates well enough. Of course you'll hear plenty of complaints (and praises) when we get back, things really seem to be going well. (A lot of stuff is reallz different though.)
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| you only think we're joking... |
[27 Oct 2005|11:29pm] |
fireflydream229: i had a dream in which i got in to college
fireflydream229: and the first thing i did was joined facebook
tiffsucksatlife: hahah
tiffsucksatlife: that is totally the first thing i'm doing
fireflydream229: i don't even remember what college i got into
tiffsucksatlife: its not the college thats important
tiffsucksatlife: its the facebook
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[07 Sep 2005|12:53am] |
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music |
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Casimir Pulaski Day, Sufjan Stevens |
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When I look back over my summer I notice how lazy and unproductive it was.
It was fucking awesome.
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| Good Riddance |
[21 Jun 2005|02:21pm] |
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mood |
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 calm |
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music |
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Something Pritty, Patrick Park |
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Here is what I thought the school year would be like. Here is what I thought of it at mid-term. This is what it actually was like:
Actually, I was generally acurate in my predictions: APUSH and Euro were huge amounts of work, I learned so little in French my ablities actually declined in certin areas, and I hated math. The only thing I was really wrong about was that in Physics I learned, as I'm sure my final will prove, nothing.
On the plus side:
*driving makes the world infinately better
*San Fran was awsome
*I have wonderful friends who I definatly had so amazing times with
*I guess I learned some cool stuff
*Another year down.
So, good riddence junior year in all your sleep deprivationness,
'SUP SUMMER
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[19 May 2005|06:40pm] |
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mood |
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 fine |
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Trouble Sleeping, The Parisher |
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As instructed by Tiff:
In the comments to this post, recommend to me things on this list. Then post this same list in your own journal to get some recommendations for yourself!
1. A movie.
2. A book.
3. A music artist, song, or album.
4. A journal user that's not already on my friends list.
5. An unusual food.
6. A website.
7. A quote.
8. A plan for the weekend.
9. Something you've always wanted to know about me.
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| That Wendy's Medetaranian Chicken Salad is GOOD |
[11 May 2005|08:08pm] |
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mood |
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The Beatles and Frou Frou |
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Yea, yea, I know, I pritty much fell off the face of the LJ planet.
Anyways, today I was spontaneous. Which, for me, is fairly big. I'm not exactly what you'd classify as a spontaneous person - more of an eat, sleep (sorta), and do massive amounts of homework, but not in that order, and make plans way ahead for the weekend. I am NOT the sort of person who randomly rings a friends doorbell and says, it's really nice out and I want to try this salad at Wendy's, get in the car, with complete and udder disregard for the homework I may or may not have and the sleep I could or could not be loosing.
But today I was. Possibly because for me the school year is pritty much over for me and what homework I still have I really don't give a damn about, but maybe it was because I wanted to let out my inner seventeen year old which was actually, like, normal, and free and less scheduled.
And though it didn't go quite as planned, it was wonderful. Windows down, good music on, laughing, most fun road I've ever driven wonderful.
So, I encourage you all to be more spontaneous. I know my friend and I planned to be.
Which I suppose sorta defeats the point.
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