topsy-turvy

It kind of sucks that I miss home when I'm at school and school when I'm at home.  I wish I could have both worlds at once.  

homely

It is such a mixed blessing to be at this home again.  

Here are four things I love about here:

my bed

friends

such good food

pleasure reading

Here are four things I miss about my other home:

my bed 

friends

eating in the cafeteria with friends even if the food is sometimes odd

going to town

Snow days

Contrary to the idea of this city being pretty close to sea level, we got an arctic freeze (say what?) this weekend and we're snowed in.  But for this area, that means we got a few inches of snow and a lot of ice and so everything is shut down.  People who had finals today either have them online or they've been postponed till we get back in January (thankfully, I didn't have any scheduled today).  Yesterday, we went down to south campus, which is really beautiful during any weather, but especially during snow.  I took about a roll and a half of black and white film over the course of the day, but given that its film, I can't really post any pictures right now.  I hear that it's snowing back home, too, so that's also exciting.  I really love snow until I get tired of it.  Hopefully, that won't happen for a while. 

I'm flying home on Thursday.  I'm finally starting to be ready for it.  I know I'll be really excited to see friends and family in the next few days, and then I'll get to be excited to see my new beloved friends again.  I have so much that I want to do, now that I won't be working over break.  Here's my list of things to do over break:

Finish Lamb

Finish 1984

Knit happy things

Listen to good new music

Find somewhere to volunteer

Read The Road

Read The Autumn of the Patriarch

Go running 

Go hiking

Do yoga

Spend time with friends

Cook

Bake

Play mandolin

I think that sounds like a good plan for break, yes?  Part of me just wants to spend the whole break holed up in my house with my books and crafty projects, but a bigger part of me is more excited about spending time with friends.  It's possible that when I'm in Mexico, I might just be really anti-social... or "on retreat."    Whatever.  The thing is, living in the dorms is fabulous because it's so social but that's also sometimes a downside in ways I don't really think about very much. That is to say, it is really good because it so friendly but sometimes it's a little bit stressful just because it's so hard to get personal time.  Maybe that's just me personally.  I just want to be out in the common room with my friends (even just studying) if I know they're out there.  

This semester has been really good.  I'm only halfway done with finals, but I feel pretty solid about them, especially the Islam one.  That is a reward all by itself, but the knowledge that I can do this and do it well is the biggest reward of all.  

forsooth!

The sun is shining, friends and there's not a cloud in the sky.   It's like home.  It's so easy for me to take it for granted that there will be about seventeen days just like this one before it gets cloudy and cold and drizzly again.  Even though it looks warm, its freezing, though, so I took advantage of the sun and went for a run.  It was beautiful and even though I am truly the worst runner in the world.  I also did some yoga on the soggy football field which was really lovely.  Yoga is great anywhere but it's twenty times more enjoyable in the sun.  

I'm working on a paper about Frankenstein and "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." "Rime" is one of my favourite poems, so I have things to say about it.  That's always a good feeling.  I've been doing alright with my writing up here which is a relief since I see a lot of my friends struggling.  It makes me really glad that I took composition at the community college last year.  I got the same grade (88%) on all of my essays for Islam.  Being that close to (and yet so far from) an A is a little bit painful, but at the same time, I am grateful that I've been doing that well also (I have a little bit of a relativity problem with grades).  My grades in general have been pretty solid.  I expect As and Bs, and I also plan on this having been my most relaxed semester; I plan on as many As as possible in the future.  

I think I'm finding a solid core group of friends.  Last night, one of them, Casey, who is a mind-blowingly awesome person, read to me out of her journal something like "doing something with [college] friends. And the bracketed word is slowly fading."  That describes it better than anything I could have said.  It's really good to have people with whom I am truly finally becoming comfortable.  

Finals are looming nigh.  I am nervous for the potential stress of it, but I feel very certain that I know what I need to do to get ready.  It's going to be a lot of work, but I know how to prepare.  That's a nice feeling.  Midterms were pretty stressful because of their newness.  Also, the reward for finals is getting to go home for a month.  I'm really looking forward to it, but after the last few days, I know it's actually going to be a little bit difficult to leave this other home.  There's something just so right about the way things are.

claire's adventures with purple part deux

It's so nice to be home for thanksgiving.  

 I thought this would be a convenient time to re-dye the purple into my hair.  It's been looking on the light purple to pink side, and since I'm really not much of a pink person, it was definitely time to get rid of it.  I persuaded my mother that this would be a fun Thanksgiving evening project, so we pulled out the dye and tinfoil and latex gloves.  I perched on the edge of the bathtub for optimal angle and we commenced.   Now I'm sitting on my floor in my own home waiting for the dye to set.  Here's a video I made for my friend Raubry.  It's me imitating one of those characters in Princess Mononoke that rattles its head when the forest is healthy:  

dichotomies in truth

One thing that people from anywhere but here will tell you before you move here is that it rains a lot. One thing that people from this city will tell you before you move here is that it really doesn't rain that much. One arrives here confused about what the weather will actually prove to be on a consistent basis. And it turns out that the real story is that the weather is inconsistent and erratic and that is why everyone is so confused about what it's like here. It does rain a lot. Sometimes it pours on and off for days on end. Sometimes the sun comes out a few days in a row. People around here say it's technically a mizzle- that is, a drizzle and mist- but it is often a downpour. And downpours frequently occur when one is traveling from class to class and then conveniently quit once one is safely installed indoors.

can it be next semseter yet?

Here are the exciting classes that I will be taking next semester:


French 202: Intermediate French
Political Science 102: Comparative Political Systems
Religious Studies 355: Sufism: Islamic Mysticism
Exploration and Discovery: The Pursuit of Happiness
Music 220: Intro to Electronic Music
Yoga

Be excited with me for these classes! I was only taking the first four classes, but that didn't feel like enough so I signed up for yoga. Then that still didn't feel like enough either so I signed up for Intro to Electronic Music. I had no idea that class was even offered... but it's something I've been interested in for awhile. Mixing beats and layering sounds should be really awesome. Maybe I can even bring my classical experience into it. It's only a two credit class so it will be lower stress than my other classes. I wanted to take photography, but that was four credits and a lot of class time, so this definitely makes more sense. I've been feeling a little bit super-academic lately, so a creative outlet should be excellent.