...the words seemed wrung out of him almost against his will

lmanville99: <3
lmanville99: a heart/butt.

8:51pm
Today was a weird day.

Got into the car for the first time. It was raining. Sorta scary. Had a sandwich and a peppermint mocha (YUM!) at my neighborhood Starbucks. Read the paper. Drove into Georgetown. Didn't have to parallel park (yes!). Went to Urban Outfitters. Spent a long time there. Got a lot of Christmas gifts. (You can guess the kind...) Drove back to my neighborhood CVS and bought blank CDs and a photo album. Put my UChicago pictures in the album, chronologically. (I am an organized freak.) Read a little. Got a call from John, who was stuck at AU. Picked him up and brought him here. Weird. Probably weirder for him. Colliding worlds. Good to know he feels very much like the way I do about being home, like, "What do I do now?" Had dinner with my mom. Talked with Maren and Alan a little online. Maren seems a little shaken by being home. (Aren't we all?) Alan was with Sarah, making her take the Homestar quiz; she's Coach Z, like me! I hope I get to see Alan sometime over break! Talked with Yitz on the phone; he sounds so far away. Much moaning, the sad, When Harry Met Sally-type. :-( At least he says he'll call; he had better!

Alright, going to go read.

COME HOME!

Check them Out
(You’ve been warned.)

Current Mood: Weird.

I don't know if I advise it.

It was the weirdest sensation coming home. I kept thinking about...everything and everyone. Worlds colliding in my head.

Of course, when I got home, Panda let out a big meow and promptly forgot about me. I wonder if he remembers my smell at all...

My room is the same way I left it. A lot of papers and crap on the desk. It was weird unpacking stuff and trying to make a note that I should take it back to Chicago. And there are some things that I already know I want to take back. It all also makes me wonder why I ever thought I needed all the junk that is in my room.

There's a lot more. Couldn't say it all. All I know is that I wish I was back at school. :-(

I think every part of me has been challenged, tweaked, pulled, shat on, dominated, in control, and rebirthed. Quite crazy to think about, actually.

And how much farther there is to go...

Current Mood: working
Current Music: "Innocent" by Our Lady Peace

9:22pm; you will never read this, but it is to you.
“Those who are faithful know only the trivial side of love: it is the faithless who know love’s tragedies” --Oscar Wilde

11:29am There are somethings I am looking forward to at home.

And there are somethings I am not:
http://www.aclu.org/Privacy/Privacy.cfm?ID=11419&c=130

As Peter responded,
"Yeah, we could get into trouble if someone was able to watch all that we did and where we did it...."
Speak for yourself, Peter! :-P

9:29am
Reading period is seriously one of the weirdest times of the year, I think. You feel pressure to work--and then don't. Meanwhile, people are leaving left and right. Alainna is leaving today to go back to Boston because all her finals were last week!

There’s been a big rush ever since I got back to school. Presently we are in reading period, our two-day period to catch-up and work before finals. (I hear a lot of other schools have a week for reading period. I guess that’s what I get for going to a school with the quarter system!) The good news is that I do not have to do my final Mind paper because I did really well on the second paper about natural and complex symbolic languages. Now I have more time to work on my challenging Media Aesthetics paper. M.A. has quickly become my hardest class. What I have realized is that while in high school, one was a “good writer” for having a good handle on the material and exhibiting her understanding, in college it’s more about your own argument and how you use the evidence just to substantiate your thesis. I am not yet sure what my thesis for M.A. is, but it involves Judy in Hitchcock’s _Vertigo_ and Dorian in Wilde’s _The Picture of Dorian Gray_ and how they create their own fantasies/fetishes, which relates to Mulvey’s famous article about the objectification of women and castration (Freud). Complex, eh? Yeah, leave it to Jess to do that. I’ve met with both my professors, though, so I have some ideas. I may also write a rewrite for Wednesday, but that paper is giving me too much trouble right now.

Somehow, everyone else seems to be chill during reading period. Meanwhile, I’ve been spending two hours in the language lab each day plus other review in my room. It’s pure madness, and I am starting to *think* only in Chinese. I’ve had to recall the dialogues from each of the lessons, numbers and math, and other madness. I can’t wait to get the oral out of the way. My written exam is on Monday. No one is quite sure what the format of that exam is.
I’ve come to realize through the challenges of this class and the frequency of the class (every day), we all have really bonded. We always see each other in the language lab or in the dining hall, but in other places, we are always drawn to each other. Further, new common interests are discovered.
Wednesday was Professor Chao’s last day of teaching. He has taught Chinese nearly forty years! He said, “I have mixed feelings.” It was quite sad for us, even though we have only known him for a quarter.

In Mind this past week, we discussed intelligence and gender/race. Interesting arguments. Finally we had a decent discussion yesterday when we talked about the cultural and societal institutions that affect our understanding of gender, such a separate bathrooms. Did you know male bathrooms do not have couches?

I was elected secretary of the House next quarter, which is cool. We might have change of presidential power, which would certainly make House meetings very different. There’s also a new position known as House Thugs. They are basically elected to cause trouble with other houses. Dan, Yitz, and Alan are running together; and I hope they win!

I finally mastered the CTA, rail, and the Loop last week. Jacob and I rushed out to Tower Records the day the Smashing Pumpkins Vieuphoria came out, last Tuesday. But he taught me about all the lines and all the possibilities. I hear that U of C students get out into the city once a week. I don’t think I could say I do, but at least I’d feel a lot more comfortable doing so.

Last week, I attended the 56th annual Latke vs. Hamantash debate, where four professors debated about which Jewish food was better. There was a mathematician, doctor, social thought professor, and business professor. It was quite hilarious! As always, the latkes won. Yay! (Oh, and I got another picture on the front page of the Maroon for this event.)

Two nights ago, Maren, Anna, and I went to hear Mark Regev, chief spokesman for the Embassy of Israel, speak. We knew he’d have a pretty biased view, but we wanted more information about what has been going on recently and wanted to at least consider his views. Indeed, he was fairly impassioned and said that he was “more optimistic than ever before” and saw “no reason to be pessimistic.” There were some quite angry people in the audience who asked challenging questions; sometimes they were a little too extreme. Interesting speech, though.

Last night, a lot of us when to Alan and Tim’s concert, Fall Swing Menagerie. They are in the Jazz X-tet. Tim plays the trumpet, and Alan plays the saxophone. It was quite an amazing performance, really made the audience want to get up and dance—or swing! Well, only if we could!

Yitz is the biggest programming nerd I have ever met. He wants to teach me how to do perl or java. I’m hesitating because I don’t know if my brain can take it! And he’s just so advanced. (He’s been programming since he was eight.) He’s patient, though. I’ve come to realize that it is romantic when he says, “I was thinking about you when I was programming.” Haha.

I think everyone is getting ready to go home. I think we all want to leave, but it’s that we want our own room or a Faccia pizza (or the equivalent). We all agree we’d want to take a lot of the people here back with us. I’m glad that so many people live in DC, and I am going to try to see Alan in Philly. It’s going to be interesting with Yitz in Germany, which means I don’t really expect to hear from him that much. Or at least I’ll go into this vacation with those [lack of] expectations. However, I am not too worried. I think I can easily make myself busy, and I will be so happy to see people at home. I cannot wait to see everyone!

Okay, well, I should probably head to the language lab before my exam.
I am coming home on the 11th, earlier than ANYONE else I know. I’ll probably be at NCS sometime during the last week, and I hope to visit Jessie at the end of next week…

My name is Alan, and I am from Argentina and am driving a car full of aardvarks.
Jo Momma.
Africa pics.
Calc review.
Moon pillow.
Musak.
Delirium.
Love.

Where can I start?

Talked with Andrew about it a bit today. I can't wait to see him. I'm glad to know he knows what I mean.

Thanks.

People need to stop being awkward, stop being a pussy and avoiding the subject.

For instance, why is everything so awful with Sara all of a sudden? Maren feels miserable about it. I try to support her, tell her everything's going to be okay. Sometimes it's hard because Sara treats me even worse than she treats Maren, but I don't give a shit anymore, really. I just don't like seeing Maren upset.

Secondly, things with James are still weird. If I asked him why things were weird, he'd deny it. I wish I didn't feel like I was invading his space when I stopped by; on the other hand, I feel like a bitch if I don't stop by, taking everything from before for granted. Wow, it would be funny if he read this.

Or maybe that's the point. Maybe he should read this.

It's all about timing, I guess. Everything works out in the end--they just might not work out the way you want them to.

12:16pm
Wow, I just recently realized how much I am going to miss my friends at college when I am back home. I mean, I am really looking forward to seeing my friends from home, but it will be weird not seeing my friends here every day...

12:51am
Crazy past two nights. Probably shouldn't do that anymore.

It’s been a hectic week. I don’t know why the days move so slowly, but suddenly a week is over. Chinese is hard. Sorta slacked off in the language lab this week, so I went for an hour and a half today. Can’t wait to try some of my Chinese out during Thanksgiving break. We’re definitely getting into the realm of unknown vocabulary. And our final is going to be so incredibly difficult. Wow.
We discussed intelligence in Mind this week. Much on Piaget, which reminded me of my psychology of human development class sophomore year. It was cool to be able to relate my experiences with the Kindergarteners in this week’s question. It’s also interesting all the data about intelligence with race/gender (the effects of stereotypes). What exactly is intelligence? Is it academic? Interpersonal? Organization? Music? Spiritual? Apparently the last paper I wrote on language is my last big paper—unless I do badly on it and want to do another one to replace the grade. It’s weird to think I might be done with that class for the quarter. In other news, apparently we get different teachers next quarter; that will probably be good for the sake of our lacking discussion section, which more often turns into another lecture session. Our professor is good, don’t get me wrong, but he can’t seem to start a conversation with us!
In Media Aesthetics, we read two pretty complex articles, one on minimalist art and one on the objectification of women in film with a Freudian twist. This class makes me look at art and film in a whole new way; I have a lot more respect for filmmakers and modern art (though I am still not the biggest fan of a blank canvas being “art”). I have a big paper due on Monday. Probably should get to work on that…

People are definitely starting to drag now that we’re at the end of the eighth week of the quarter. The quarter system is pretty brutal. Well, I was warned!

Last Saturday night, Alan, Jacob, Aaron, Hobbs, Yitz, and I went to Belmont to eat at a Philly Cheese steak restaurant. Alan is from Philly and wanted to see if this restaurant deserved all its hype. Well, in the end, Alan decided that it did, and the rest of us agreed—except Yitz, who keeps kosher and ate cheese pizza instead. Afterwards, we went across the street into some stores.
From there, Alan, Yitz, and I walked two and a half miles IN THE SNOW to the location of Second City, a famous comedy group in Chicago. It was a pretty funny show, really reminded me of Capital Steps. A little more lewd, however. It was weird how I found some skits so incredibly funny, but then Yitz would tap my shoulder and ask me what they were talking about. There’s so much we take for granted…

Last Sunday I went to Maren and Alan’s wind ensemble concert. Maren plays the trumpet (she’s the chair!) and Alan is the tenor saxophone. The title of the concert was “Forgotten Gems,” so all the music was songs I had never heard before.
That night, I met with three of my high school classmates who also go to UChicago to catch up (Ham, Charlotte, and Malkah). It was so amusing how two of them, who I remember being so quiet, now talk up a storm and are major partiers (it seems). Plus, two of them who said they never had guy friends in high school now have a ton. I guess we all come out of our shell eventually. It was interesting sharing news about classmates and sharing experiences about the college. We all agree we pretty much like it here even though there’s a lot of work and even though the core classes are a pain.

So, people keep asking me about the volleyball scandal. Basically, Woodward House and Graham House were the top in the league. However, the IM organizers lost all the scores from the games on Halloween, which included our win against Snell-Hitchcock. Therefore, on Monday we were alarmed to find out that we had a match against S-H, which was probably our most difficult win. Distressed and angry, we played against S-H, who had a ton of people there—and lost. We thought we were cheated out of a spot in the playoffs. However, so many people in our house appealed to the IM organizers, and we were suddenly matched up against Woodward, the best team in the league, on Wednesday. We played an awesome and passionate game. In the end we lost, but it was exciting and fun. The season is over now, and the new focus is basketball. Apparently I am being “recruited” for my height. Right, Jess playing basketball. Scary middle school memories.

I’ve practically turned into the House editor. I’ve edited four people’s papers, more than one paper for some of them. I love editing. It’s interesting to me how differently people write, essentially saying it’s “interesting” what everyone learned through high school. There are some things I bring up that they say they never thought of, such as some comma rules or making a sentence active instead of passive. It’s these times when I’m really grateful for my NCS education.

I got a picture on the front page of the Maroon! It’s not a picture of me this time but a picture of my Chinese professor, who is retiring next quarter. I decided I’d get more involved on the Maroon photo staff and attended a photo meeting tonight. Amusingly, there were only five people there. Luckily, we take the assignments as we please. I might have to buy some film in bulk, however. The GREAT news is that because I am on the staff, I can use the Maroon darkroom! In fact, it is encouraged! Now, apparently the darkroom is pretty dusty and has some old chemicals, but I am definitely going to have to check it out sometime next quarter—with all that free time I have, of course!

I also attended a meeting on Study Abroad programs in Asia tonight. The first thing the guy said was, “The ironic thing about this meeting is that there are no programs in Asia.” Apparently, there is only one program to India, but other than that, the U of C doesn’t sponsor any programs. If anyone goes to China, they go with Princeton in Beijing during the summer. It’s tempting, and I am thinking about it… I don’t think I’d want to go this summer, but maybe the summer after that? Funny how I haven’t even mentioned this to my parents yet… sorry!

Donnell is definitely improving with reading, but apparently he did very badly in math this past grading period, which is strange to me because he always does so well during our tutor sessions. Unfortunately, he says he no longer likes math. I think we can still salvage his desire to do math, but it worries me that kids can be discouraged so quickly.

Last week during WYSE, we talked about Sexual Decision making. It was quite an interesting session, especially when we realized the lack of information (and incorrect information) the girls had. For instance, they didn’t know how their period really worked but could be considering having sex nonetheless. Next week’s topic is “Birth control and the politics of motherhood.” Apparently we’re watching a movie of a fifteen-year-old giving birth during the session. Watching such a film could be the best type of birth control!

Maren and Yitz introduced me to the Disney movie The Emperor’s New Groove last weekend. It is incredibly funny, and I definitely recommend it to anyone. If you’re down, it’s the perfect pick me up. “Sharp rocks at the bottom?” “Most likely.” “Bring it on.”

Another great thing about being in college is all the stuff you can share with people and all the stuff you can learn from other people. (How articulate!) This fact is probably evident to EVERYONE reading this. For example, a guy in my Chinese class, David, and I have been making mix CDs for each other for a couple weeks now. First, we’re pretty amazed that the other has heard of some of the groups that we like, but even better is that we can share other songs and groups with the other. But in general, we collegefolk can share favorite movies, different customs, Socialist theory (riiiiight), different languages, different organizations, different foods (Anthony had never heard of dim sum before), little factoids…. What a place college is!

I put up one of the pictures of Kira (for those of you who don’t know, Kira is my cousin’s new baby!) by my computer, the one of her in the purple suit. She is the cutest little baby, and looking at her smile makes me persevere in my studies. I can’t wait to meet her in December!

most beautious!

"Amanda likes her cervix."

"You have HERPES! You should have used a CONDOM!"

Melissa's gestures...

Classes were pretty cool this week. The highlight was today’s Media Aesthetics class discussion about Shakespeare’s _The Winter’s Tale_. We were making all these connections with mediation, women, nature, infidelity, love, time… It was exciting to completely dissect the work. I kept scribbling down paper topics, and somehow they all inter-relate, and my head’s still swimming with ideas. I think I must have had a big grin on my face during the whole class, being so excited to be in this environment.
In Mind, we were talking about the evolution of language. It’s a pretty tough topic because there’s only so much data and many theories that only slightly differ. For this week’s question, I put myself out on the line and dissected this one linguist’s argument to ultimately say it was faulty in many ways. I ended up doing well, but more reassuring was that he pointed to a lot that I said in my question during the discussion itself. I have a big paper due on Tuesday that I am sort of struggling to write. I hope to meet with my TA tomorrow or this weekend.
Chinese is getting pretty hard. We found out this week that we have to know all the dialogues for the final, and overall he’s VERY picky about our pronunciation. We’re still in the realm of familiar vocabulary. I cannot imagine starting anew with this language and being comfortable at the level we are learning now. I spend so much studying (i.e., in the language lab) for this class, but to have to teach myself the vocabulary and grammar is unfathomable to me.

W.Y.S.E. was really intense last week; the topic was “Introduction to racism, homophobia, and cultural awareness.” Yeah, we had to pack that all into two hours. It was really interesting what the girls had to say but also quite depressing. We tried to get them to consider why they were thinking these ways and saying these prejudiced and often-hateful words. Some of the girls recognized that they thought that way because of their parents or because of what they see on TV or just because they don’t understand (or see or know) those types of people. I think we actually got through to some of the girls and had some really good discussions. Next week’s topic is “sexual decision making,” which will be challenging because it’s a subject the girls are very interested in but very misled about. Plus, we mentors needed to discuss how we were going to deal with a lot of their questions. As always, this experience is very challenging but rewarding. Oh, and we finally have our mentee assignments. As of now, my mentees are Jackie and Maria. (I say “as of now” because we’ll have to see if they come to sessions.) I look forward to building a friendship with them.

Maren purchased a fold-up chair for our room last weekend. It’s very cool to recline and read in our room, especially when we have the window open. The buildings are incredibly overheated! We go around with T-shirts under fleeces, hats, and coats. It’s quite ridiculous, actually. Hmm, but that wasn’t the point of this paragraph…

There’s been a strange epidemic of shaving heads in our house this past week. One guy, Jeff, shaved his head a few weeks ago, but suddenly four other boys followed suit, including Yitz. They all say they love it—but would they really say otherwise? They don’t look that bad, actually. Hair grows really fast!

Did you hear that UChicago has the second best college campus food in the country? Yes, it is after Yale’s, but… it’s still pretty damn good! I love the muffins. I drink a lot of tea. I’ve definitely had my share of sushi. Well, there’s other stuff to eat as well!

It’s been really nice talking to NCS prospies about UChicago. I’ve seen both Elizabeth R. and Lena J., and they both love UChicago. I guess I feel I can go on and on about this school and about how it’s a great fit for me. It also gives me a chance to look back on my life at NCS. Ultimately, the transition has been very smooth.

Our volleyball team did make it to the playoffs! We are playing Woodward, the undefeated team in our league, on Thursday. We can definitely beat them, though! It’s a single-elimination tournament, so we’re going to have to play well.

This weekend is quite busy. I’m meeting with the other three NCSers for dinner on Sunday; I thought it was about time to meet up with them and catch up. I am also going to Second City on Saturday night; Second City is a comedy group. Maren and Alan are playing in a wind ensemble concert on Sunday, and there’s a brunch with the Resident Masters on Sunday, as well. I might actually get around to seeing _My Big Fat Greek Wedding_ on Friday—finally! Oh, and I’ll be doing some work, too. :-)

I’m going to try to go to sleep early tonight…

9:32pm
put up new pictires
Uchikah pics

and

The Key Players in my journal

Funny how I was going to have The Winter's Tale done before midnight...

(thanks Jacob, Alan, Aaron, and Co.)

Gonna head off to lunch and then to WYSE. Today's topic is "introduction to racism and homophobia." I really don't know how 20 middle school aged girls will deal with the topic. Should be interesting.

The week has ended very well. In Chinese, Laoshi gave everyone their Chinese names and went around the room to explain them. I explained where Wei-ming came from, and he added, “You will light the universe with your intelligence.” I hope that’s true! I sort of slacked off in the language lab this week, but I am still on top of the classes and the quizzes. I was one of the few people to learn this three-page list of countries (yeah, I am a dork). Some of the vocabulary from high school is coming back, and it comes into use sometimes. The goal for the week is to learn this poem called “Four equals four.” Okay, that sounds lame, but it goes along to say 4=4, 10=10… and if you know the words, you’ll know this is a BIG tongue-twister in the end: si shi si, shi shi shi, si bushi shi, shi ye bushi si… It sounds really cool—my suitemate, Sharon, learned it when she was young and can say it really fast—and I am going to get it down, too! The quizzes are getting a lot harder, but my ears are a lot more sensitive to the sounds.

We read The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde in Media Aesthetics this week. I liked the story, though I wish I hadn’t been rushed to read it. (Well, that was partially my fault.) My professor is really good. She picks out all these little details that make the world of difference in the interpretation of the text. There are some people in my class who make some really good comments, as well. And I am starting to speak up more. I sometimes wish the class were smaller, but I am learning a lot nonetheless. For Tuesday I need to read Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale.

In Mind, we have begun to talk about language-acquisition. For this week’s question (we turn in a question each week before discussion), at a loss of a question, I decided to interview Sharon, who speaks Chinese, and Yitz, who speaks German, and to consider how being bilingual affects their thinking. It was really interesting talking to them: Sharon says when she is doing math, she thinks in Chinese because she learned her multiplication tables in Chinese. Yitz talked more about verbal communication and how at his bilingual school he’d slip into another language because he could express his idea better that way and might access the word in the other language faster. When I turned in my question, I worried that I was turning in a horrible assignment. However, in class today, my professor suddenly started talking about my question and approach to the weekly question, saying it was a great idea and interesting topic. He wanted the student to raise her hand, and I am sure I did so blushing. I talked with my professor after class about the question, as well. Wohoo!

Speaking of languages, Yitz and I are teaching each other German and Chinese, respectively. (At first, he was teaching me German and Russian, but I couldn’t handle two at once.) It’s a really funny process. We literally sit down just to teach each other words. When I teach him duzi (stomach in Chinese), he teaches me the German equivalent, which I don’t know how to spell… Interestingly, if I want to be a linguistics major, I need to take Chinese for three quarters, which I was planning on doing anyway, and either German, French, or Russian for three quarters. I took French from 1st-8th grade, so that’s out. So maybe I’ll actually start taking German here. We’ll see.

I had my meeting with my advisor on Monday. She’s pretty nice, but, like a lot of things around here, she’s very unorganized. My plan for the rest of the year is to pick up another class second quarter, probably in the biology sequence. My best bet is Core Bio, which has the potential to be very boring. However, I think I can make it exciting if I want to. Because I haven’t had bio since ninth grade, I’ll probably be put into the breadth track. Luckily, I only have to take two quarters. What was also great to hear is that my AP credits DO count for something. (Whoever said UChicago doesn’t consider AP scores was horribly mistaken.) So I already have about six elective credits under my belt, plus the math and physical science requirements in the core. This leaves me a lot more time to take classes just because they’re interesting.

The WYSE Halloween sleepover last Friday was a ruckus. Apparently the girls misbehaved more than they ever have. The “highlight” was at 4am when suddenly we heard 10 girls screaming and running back into the room. Apparently someone had been telling a scary story and had jerked her body. One of the mentors yelled at them and made them go to sleep although they had all planned to stay up the whole night. The activities we had planned were pretty fun, and luckily they were into them. I realized how vicious girls can be, though. There were two pretty distinct cliques at our party, and there was some full-blown tension, conveniently late at night. I was lucky enough to get to sleep before midnight—hey, it had been a rough week—but it was hardly a good sleep. I slept on a hard floor on a rolled up blanket with my jacket over my back for warmth. It was also a chance for the mentors to get closer together, which is definitely key to making this whole organization work. Anyway, it’s an experience I won’t forget.

We had our big IM volleyball game against May House today. We were missing three of our starters and had to pull a girl out of her room to play, but we won and are now in the playoffs (we think)! It was awesome, and we are pumped up.
In other news, unfortunately, our IM football team was kicked out of the playoffs—they were number one in the league—because our team manager missed two of the games he was supposed to ref. Ref-ing is another duty of the team manager. We had to fight to even stay in the season, so the IM people (whoever they are) decided to compromise. Now our house is getting ready to dominate basketball…

This week has been Sexual Harassment Awareness week. Last Friday, Sara and I attended a session on “Sexual Harassment, Self-Mutilation, and Eating Disorders.” Yeah, sort of a downer. However, it was very interesting and brought up some points I hadn’t thought of before. More interesting, though, was the conversation Sara and I had with Yitz and Alex afterwards in the dining hall that lasted over an hour. It was more like a debate, almost argument. We got into the objectification of women—you know how intense I am about this debate—and ultimately we explained to them how difficult it is to be a girl in an American/European society with all the pressures of physical attractiveness. Alex was just being ignorant and in denial, but Sara and I think Yitz did not understand because of his culture, next to the fact that he is a guy. It was an intense debate, somewhat painful at some points, but it was important to everyone involved. I really felt like I was living up to the intellectual atmosphere of U of C.

Last weekend I got two rolls of film developed. There are some really nice pictures of me with my friends. Maybe one day I can get them up on the computer, but for now they are on my walls. It’s weird having college pictures and home pictures next to each other. It’s a whole new world. I hope one day that people back home can meet my friends at school. Luckily there’s a large contingent of DC-Maryland-Virginia people in our house, but we’ve also go those stray Illinois, California, and European friends…

Time to stroll the halls. Hope everything is well where you are.

It’s been a pretty awesome week. My classes were all really interesting and invigorating. In Mind, we talked about the innate-acquired debate. Basically, the best way to look at this controversy is to take a new perspective of generative entrenchment; this allows scientists, philosophers, and psychologists to look at the *development* of the behavior or trait, mainly what influences these characteristics. There are more dimensions to consider, essentially. It’s sort of complex but incredibly interesting. I also got my first big Mind paper back today, and I did well! Yay, first big college paper! A taste of Media Aesthetics: while talking about Plato’s The Republic and Aristotle’s Poetics, we discussed Jurassic Park and Armageddon. I promise, it actually made sense! I have my second Media Aesthetics paper due on Monday, and I want to make it really good… so that’s my mission for the weekend. Chinese is definitely getting harder, but my professor is right: going to the language lab is the only way to improve. I am doing pretty well, though. There are about five of us that he looks to when no one’s saying it correctly—not to say that we always get it right! Outside of class, people still make fun of me for Chao Laoshi’s obsession with my linguistic family. However, I will admit, after taking Mind and Media Aesthetics and Chinese, I am wondering if maybe I’d pursue linguistics here at U of C. I don’t have to decide until next year, but the idea is in the forefront of my mind along with psychology or human development.

Last weekend was parents weekend. It was really nice seeing my parents. I miss them a lot. We ran some errands, ate in the dining hall, and went to the Smart Museum, which is right across the street from my dorm. (I should check it out more often.) We went to the Berghoff for dinner with Maren and her parents, Yitz, John, and Sharon on Saturday night. A great German meal! (Yitz said it was the best meal he had had since he got here.) It was really weird introducing them to my friends here; it was a total colliding of worlds. And how was I supposed to tell my parents how cool these people are just by stopping by their dorm rooms?

Last night, we had another IM volleyball game. The other team wasn’t that good, so we won pretty quickly. (We’re really bitter because we should be ranked, but we’re not because of our lame loss at the beginning of the season. In other news, our IM football team is #1!) Afterwards, we started a scrimmage game. The reason why I didn’t write my weekly update last night was because I was playing volleyball until 10:45 last night! Gosh, I love that game so much. By the end, it was Jeff and Hans versus Jacob and me. In retrospect, the teams were probably a little unfair because Jacob and I both play club volleyball (he is actually on the men’s team here), and Jeff had a messed up back and Hans was wearing socks. However, they would not give up until they won. (Although they will tell you they won the last game, they did not win!) We played four fifteen-point games. Needless to say, I am really tired and sore today. My serves are “deadly,” apparently. And spiking the ball!—Ahh! It is so much fun! Jacob, Courtney, and I promised to go to club volleyball this Sunday. Somehow when Sunday rolls around, there’s always too much work that we put off.

I’ve been spending a little more time on the third floor lately. It seems like a whole other world, honestly. There’s almost a particular personality for each floor. Like, Alan definitely belongs on the fourth floor with us, but that’s also because he has an awful roommate. Third floor is a more social group overall; they stay up MUCH later than we fourth floor-ers. But don’t worry! I still get my sleep! (sometimes…)

Unfortunately, Donell didn’t show up for tutoring on Wednesday. Steve, Donell’s brother’s tutor, and I spent half an hour waiting and wondering if we missed them. We ended up leaving early, but it gave us a chance to talk. We reminisced about our childhood and elementary school. We figure we were stood up because of Halloween.

Next weekend is a convention called “Abolish the Racist Death Penalty Convention.” John and I are considering going. I am definitely not as up-to-date as he is, however; he’s actually a member of the club, for instance. (John and James encourage me to read the news every day—every hour!—from different sources. I definitely feel more aware of what’s going on, which is good in an intellectual environment like this! :-)

I was really excited to get an e-mail from a senior at NCS yesterday who’s coming to visit UChicago this weekend! Ham and I will hopefully meet up with her and convince her to come!

Tonight is the WYSE sleepover in one of the dorms across from the Midway. It’s going to be a ruckus: 30 middle school aged girls! We’ve been warned that by Saturday morning, we’re going to hate the girls. Hopefully that’s an exaggeration. (And I hope I was never that bad as a middle schooler!) So I will be a little cranky Saturday, for sure. Beware! ;-)

In an hour, Sara and I are going to a seminar on sexual harassment and eating disorders by the Gender Studies department. It sounds like a really downer topic, but it’s about how these situations and more affect one’s behavior. (We’re both interested in psychology/gender studies/human development.) This week there are a lot of seminars like this, including self-defense and a showing of “Tough Guise,” which explores the exploitation of men’s bodies in today’s society. (You remember this movie, Lindsay? With Pearl Jam’s “Better Man”?)

I’m going to go take a nap before the seminar, though. Have a great weekend. Wednesday, October 30th, 2002; 9:08 pm; "Group hug! Group hug!"
Put up pictures from parents weekend. See some of my friends! Rock on.

James Joyce is my hero.

I am obsessed with Deftones now.

Waiting to talk...

The dull light fell more faintly upon the page whereon another equation began to unfold itself slowly and to spread abroad its widening tail. It was his own soul going forth to experience, unfolding itself sin by sin, spreading abroad the balefire of its burning stars and folding back upon itsef, fading slowly, quenching its own lights and fires. They were quenched: and the cold darkness filled chaos. --James Joyce

11:29am
LOBSTER STICKS TO MAGNET!

"All I know is I don't wanna know." --Counting Crows

Anyway, it’s been a crazy week. It’s significantly colder, and it was raining a good portion of the week. Cold, windy rain is never good. Thank goodness for gore-tex!

Work was sort of a struggle, too. It was midterm week, and I could feel the tension in the air. (Luckily, I didn’t have any.) It’s “amusing” that I always promise myself that I will not leave assignments until the last second. One thing about college—as you are experiencing or know from experience—papers are often due in the afternoon. So it’s much easier to put it off because “I have time tomorrow.” I end up doing a lot of last-minute work between classes or late at night… The library is becoming my friend because it’s the only place I can *really* work if I have something I need to do. The cubicles are frighteningly plain and institutional. I don’t really know how to explain it, but it works!

I ended up writing my Mind paper on being half-Asian and what how that “system” affects my perception. I felt like I was writing a college essay, but it was interesting to look at myself from another perspective. We get it back in a week (!!), but I did well on my weekly question. In fact, I got a “great!” comment, which I have never received before. Our TA pointed out today that our professor is probably a pretty easy grader, so that was a relief, as well. In Media Aesthetics, we finished The Republic and are moving onto Aristotle. It’s ridiculous how everything connects.

Chinese continues to get harder. We’ve all agreed that we get tongue-tied when he suddenly asks us how to say something; our professor just thinks that we don’t know the words, but we just get intimidated. Many more hours in the language lab. Because so many of us did badly on the quiz at the beginning of the week, he arranged individual meetings for all of us yesterday. It was sort of daunting because he asked all of us to speak to him. Again, it’s just a matter of being caught off-guard. (By the way, I actually did well on the quiz, don’t fret!)

Last Saturday was U of C homecoming. (Wait, we have homecoming?) In the morning, some of us played tug-o-war versus other houses. It was difficult getting people up at 9am on a Saturday morning, but we had seven girls and seven guys, the team maximum. We got second place! It was so exciting. We’re finally starting to make a name for the new house! Plus, we were the only team to beat the winning team in an earlier round; their team had two really big guys as their anchors, so it was definitely a challenge. At the same time, I got to know two people who live in the 3rd floor better: Jacob and James. Jacob is from El Paso. He’s one of those big, friendly guys. He plays club volleyball, rugby, and tennis; and he helps coach our IM team. James is from Louisiana. I’ve never really met a guy like him before. He started an ACLU chapter at his high school, causing the whole neighborhood to hate him—he came from a pretty prejudiced town—but he was willing to sacrifice it for his beliefs. He’s an important part of ACLU here, as well.

Saturday was also Sara’s birthday. Maren and I surprised her with flowers, magazines, and candy in the morning. That night, the three of us, John, Yitz, and Alan went downtown for dinner. We forgot that making reservations on a Saturday would have been a good idea—some of the restaurants had up to a three hour wait—so we ended up squished in a four-person booth at Johnny Rockets. However, it hit the spot. The whole night was sort of a weird experience for Yitz. He really started to miss Berlin, and the diner was very, very strange to him. Luckily, we were all able to bond over familiar songs on the jukebox. I don’t think Yitz will be going off campus very often, however. He’s incredibly enthusiastic about the university, but he has no fondness for America itself. The cultural shock is something he still grapples with each day.

We also had a House auction to make money for the House. (Fancy that!) I bought an $11 trip to the Asian quarter of Chicago, a tour with one of the upperclassmen. I auctioned off a photo shoot, which I am apparently doing for Shuba. (I mentioned her in one of the first e-mails; she’s from Kentucky.) Alan was also nice enough to buy me 30 minutes of playing with John’s hair for $4—even though I’d play with his hair anyway. (He has incredible hair!) Some of the other highlights were Aaron’s soul (Dan bought it for $13), a three-butt mooning, a drive downtown, a tour of the art institute, and an epic poem.

One thing I realized is that you learn how to live on about half the amount of sleep you think you need.

This week has been sort of a struggle for the girls of suite 408: best friends, boys, and schoolwork. We’re all looking forward to the weekend. This Saturday, my parents, Maren’s parents, Sara’s parents, Sharon, John, Yitz, and I are going out to dinner in the Loop area, the Berghoff to be specific. (The Waxmans suggested it, so it’s gotta be good!) I’m not exactly sure what I am going to do with my parents on Saturday. We’re doing a mad cleaning tomorrow afternoon, but Maren’s parents might come tonight apparently, so… Eek!

We won our match against Snell tonight in IM volleyball! This is a big achievement because Snell is everyone’s rival—they sort of inbreed for four years and are all the early acceptances, or something—and they had some pretty good players. (They were all blond. Eww.) I was all over the floor to get the balls, reminded me of high school games. Ahh, I love it. It’s one of the few things that can make me *truly* happy. I’ll be sore tomorrow, though.

Some people have been asking me about the food here. Bartlett apparently has the best food on campus. You can always find something you’ll want to eat. Usually you can get a good sushi to go or a calzone. The quick things are luckily really good most of the time. There are other stations where you can wait about 10 minutes for the meal of the day: stir fry, quesadilla, pasta, hamburgers…etc. There’s a kosher deli that is pretty popular and a sandwich counter. The desserts are superb. But, as most people complain on their campuses, it can get pretty repetitive. There’s also Bart Mart, which is like a 7-11. That’s always convenient for the caffeine fix at midnight.

Things with Donell are going pretty well. We learned about fractions and pictographs during yesterday’s session. He’s definitely warming up to me. He’s a mischievous little one! Reading is still very difficult, and I am trying to figure out some new techniques. I am thinking about asking some of the other tutors for tips, as well.

WYSE last Friday went really well. The group of seventh graders is very amusing; there were about 15 girls last Friday. I would have NEVER expected seventh grade girls to talk so much about BOYS! Literally, if there was ever a silence, they’d suggest talking about boys. Last week’s topic was cooperation and teamwork, so we organized skits, the human knot, and a hot-potato game. This week’s topic is human identity, one of those nice, abstract things you can easily talk to seventh graders about. Well, it’s time to actually get some homework done and to clean… I am excited to see my parents tomorrow! This means I have been at school for just over a month. Wow, I feel like I’ve been here forever… I’m not sure if I can call it home yet.

I was glad to hear about capturing the potential sniper today. Very great news.

12:18 pm
Not to be crass, but could the sniper please stop shooting people in my home town? What is the world coming to?

You gave up. I have no sympathy for you or your pain.

6:27 pm; The Matrix
Neo: Why do my eyes hurt?
Morpheus: Because you have never used them.

6:24 pm; The Chicago Life V
Because I am really awesome at procrastinating, I am writing you all an e-mail. But also because I *want* to. I actually keep a list of things I want to mention in my weekly e-mail—and if you know me well, doing so is not that strange of a habit.

You might also realize that I am writing to you on Thursday, not Friday. I think e-mail (and laundry) day will be Thursday, for my mentoring program takes up four hours each Friday. And I do hope to have some sort of a life and get out on Fridays, so…

(What an intro!)

It has gotten SO COLD here. I broke out the fuzzy coat two days ago, and my hat is my new best friend. As everyone said, though, it’s really the wind that gets to you. My whole body is warm, but my face is freezing. Luckily all the buildings are well-heated, but it’s almost too hot. Maren and I have quickly realized that while she is always hot, I am always cold. We’re trying to find some balance in our room. It will get interesting, I bet, but she’s by the window, so we’re doing okay for now.

Classes are still going really well. We’re getting into real vocabulary in Chinese now. I am realizing my background in it is actually really hurting me because I learned the words with the pinyin, not with the sounds or concepts. So when I say book, I think s-h-u, not the sound it makes. However, I am doing well on the quizzes, despite my teacher’s mega-pressure on all of us. He likes reading the hours and number of times each student has gone to the language lab every Wednesday—somehow I am always on the lower end—and when returning the quizzes, he returns them in grade order. I’m finding this way of teaching is definitely a Chinese thing, though; a lot of the teachers at Sidwell did the same sort of thing. Bah. Mind continues to amaze me. We got into a really interesting discussion about linguistics today, which I am definitely interested in. Did you know that the first six months of a baby’s life is the most sensitive time to learn all the sounds? If you want to know more about this discussion, I’d be happy to share. :-) Media Aesthetics is pretty cool, as well. We’re reading The Republic right now (yes, Peter, I should have read it this summer when I had the chance), and I think Plato was either a loney or a genius. Maybe somewhere in between. All in all, I am getting exposed to lots of philosophy, which I like. I have a BIG paper in Mind for Tuesday and a smaller Media Aesthetics one for the same day. So yeah. Here are my weekend plans!

This Saturday is Sara’s birthday, so Maren and I are planning on getting some stuff (lots of pink, she loves pink) to put into her room when she’s asleep. (It’s still a secret, shhh!) In addition, a bunch of us will probably go downtown Saturday night. Who knows what might happen! It twill be fun.

People have begun to adopt my slang around here. I love it! People particularly like “sweat” (did you know no one uses that word the way we did at NCS?), “shikah,” “party up,” and “like a mo.” (But maybe they’re just humoring me…) I’m starting to acquire other people’s slang as well: we got the California-Midwest-European thing goin’ on. ;-)

Tomorrow is my first session in Little Village with the girls. We had our first meeting on Tuesday, and I found out that I am working with 7th graders, not 6th graders like most of the first-timers. I think I was put in the 7th grade group because of my discussion about Schoolgirls, the book I mentioned last week that moved me to do such a program. The seventh grade group is comprised of three third-years and two second-years and I think another third and first year. (Sorry, that’s confusing.) There’s one girl who seems kinda bossy, but the rest of us are able to keep her under control. Every Tuesday we make a plan for the session. This Friday we’re doing one of those name games, the human knot, journal writing, and whatever else suddenly comes up. Our plans cannot be too solid with a bunch of teenage girls. The weekend after Halloween, we’re having a sleepover with the girls! That will be a ruckus but lots of fun! It will take me back to middle school—wait, is that a good thing?

I met with Donell again yesterday. The reading is *really* difficult for him, so I am going to look into some other methods or approaches for next week. I wonder if his teacher ever works with the students individually. Donell has an older sister in fifth grade who apparently helps him out a lot. While this is sweet, I think he relies too much on her help at home. He’s getting to be more open with me, which makes the sessions a lot more comfortable and smooth. He can be a sneaky little one, as well!

As Sara says, “This suite is messed up.” Besides needing a constant vacuuming, each of us have had little sagas. To be short (and vague): Maren’s choosing between a really nice guy and an insensitive hippie (my views are not slanted, I swear); Sara’s missing her boyfriend back home and is in a constant battle with Chemistry; Sharon has a secret lover (we just tease her); and I’m just too easily distracted. We’re still all getting along. We have little discoveries about each other that we still are getting used to, but it’s all good.

Second IM volleyball game tonight! We’re playing against Bishop House, which we believe is in Shoreland, the really weird dorm near the Lake. There are about four of us who are really, really dedicated to IMs, but in general, it’s hard to get anyone really into it. It’s different than what I am used to, but at least it’s volleyball!

Okay, maybe I should start on my crazy homework for the weekend. Hope everyone’s doing well.

I miss you.
I love you.
I wish you all the best.

Standing out in the rain under a lamp post with Yitz

Dinner with Sara and Maren

WYSE training

It’s been a pretty good week. Looking back on it, it went pretty quickly. It started off sorta crappy-ly with my Chinese teacher reading off each person’s name and saying how many times s/he went to the language lab and how many hours that amounted to. I was under five hours, so I was told to “go more.” Since then, I’ve been at the lab an hour each afternoon. (The pressure works!) However, practice does make perfect. I think I am one of the better students right now, which doesn’t have anything to do with my past experience because I never had good tones. (This also doesn’t mean that this tendency will last.) In addition, after I told my teacher last Friday that Y. R. Chao is my great grandfather, he has mentioned him, my great grandmother, and my grandmother each day. He keeps thinking of other stories to tell me—and the rest of the class. I just want to hide under the desk, but it’s turned out to be a funny experience. I’ve actually begun to make friends with people in my class; you begin to create a bond when you see each other every morning at 9am and in the afternoon for an hour in the language lab. The lab is definitely becoming my second home. Scary.

My other two classes are also incredibly awesome. I met with my Mind TA on Wednesday, fearing that I was just not getting it and not understanding the assignments. After talking with him, I have a better idea of what I am going to need to do and what he expects. I actually got an A on this week’s assignment! We have a bigger paper next-next week. That’s sort of freaking me out. But I really love that class. I always come out with a new perspective. Media Aesthetics gives me a similar feeling. We’re talking about images, perception, reflections…etc. this quarter. It’s about reality—or what one thinks is reality. Media Aesthetics and Mind complement each other well. I am starting to talk in Media Aesthetics, but I’m going to really have to put myself out there in Mind discussions, when I am comfortable enough.

I’ve also started the two tutoring programs that I’d really like to continue though college if all goes well. Every Wednesday for an hour and a half, I am tutoring third grader Donell. He’s really bright, but reading and spelling is going to be a great challenge. He’s pretty focused compared with the other twenty kids in the room, half of whom do not have personal tutors. It gets pretty rowdy, but Donell is fixed on finishing math homework. It’s a big responsibility, you know? And then on Fridays, I am going to be going to a school in Little Village to mentor and “empower” middle school-aged Hispanic girls. During my independent project last year, I read this book called Schoolgirls by Peggy Orenstein. It focused mainly on African American and Hispanic girls: their self-esteem, their self-image, their pressures, their success…etc. Anyway, the stories really hit me. This program, W.Y.S.E., is just what I want to do. It’s worth the 10-hour time commitment. I am psyched and scared. It’s going to be intense, but support is very important…just being a friend. I am also doing club volleyball. Last weekend I played with a group of three girls and ten guys. I was certainly not used to this, but stranger was that we were playing on a men’s net, which is seven inches taller than what I am used to. I realized this half way into the game. :-( So I have to go back this week and take back my PRIDE! :-) Just kidding. It’s a lot of fun, and I am happy to be back on the court. We had our first IM volleyball game yesterday night. Unfortunately we lost, but afterwards some of us played a pickup game, and that was a lot of fun. I think the Graham House volleyball team can be good if we practice, which we plan to do. We have co-ed IM volleyball in the spring, and we will kick BUTT!

I am such a fan of our House. (Have you noticed?) Since I am secretary, I sent out the “mighty Mintues” after our meeting on Tuesday. Been getting lots of positive comments. We’re trying to get a fundraiser together to make money for the House; since we are a new house, we have no money! But I realize I like being involved but not the leader, so being secretary (the tool, essentially), I get to be involved. I like the position, despite popular belief! And I sending out group e-mails (if you can’t tell)—e-mails to about 100 people. :-)

Our room continues to be the hang out. We’ve sort of created a posse, or people who return to our room. The “core” is Maren, Sara, Yitz, John, Alan, and Eric (Annapolis, MD). We “study” together—I’ve found studying in our Common Room is good—and just hang out. We’re not big party people. As everyone pointed out, you find “your people.” I’m also making friends outside of our house, though, don’t worry! I like how I can walk anywhere and see at least one person whom I know, a friendly face. It helps that our campus is a good size.

Well, we’re all congregating in the common room to watch a movie. Have a good weekend, everyone.

Good day today. Met with my Mind TA and actually found out that I am actually on the right track, that things will get more comfortbale with time. I guess I could have told myself that. It's still going to be a very hard class, but I think it's all worth it in the end. The class is truly amazing.

Also got in contact with my Media Aesthetics teacher and talked with her about Waking Life. I like being *close* with teachers, though I know I will not have the same relationships as I did with my teachers in high school. And I know I'll still have to work my butt off.

I really need to get to sleep early tonight. Too many distractions!

Peace and love.

12:41 am
Dunno what I am doing writing when I have so much work to do. I guess it's another night of working late and waking up early. I am not doing very well with this whole balance thing.

I love my Mind class. It blows my mind. Incredible.

I have my first tutoring session with Donell tomorrow. I am sort of nervous, but I am looking forward to the experience. I am also looking into W.Y.S.E., a program to empower middle school aged girls in the Chicago area. It's definitely up my alley. Again, it's another big responsibility, but it's something I really want to do.

The only thing that gets me through these times is the trance music, strangely. I guess it gets me going.

Fun night.

Work like a mad woman tomorrow.

Nancy Reagan.

I’ve almost finished my first week of classes here. It was sort of ironic that it became overcast the day classes started and has pretty much stayed the same way since. It’s also been getting a little colder each day. It hasn’t rained much, just a few drops sometimes. Sometimes I wake up, and the ground is totally wet, and the air is clear and cool. It’s refreshing—especially when I am rushing to Chinese every morning.

I’ve definitely struggled with my schedule this week, but I am finally happy with it. I dropped Honors Calc the day after I was in it just because I realized that I am not into the theoretical (proof) part of calculus. (And I got lots of crap from the other 16000’s on my floor!) I might take up the 15300 sequence (third quarter of calculus) next quarter or third quarter this year. Or never. In all technicality, I never have to take math again! It’s tempting… but I’d feel sort of lame if I never did math again. Then I picked up Fundamentals of Psychology and realized I am SO interested in the class that I won’t take it this quarter. Okay, that sounds weird, but I know I won’t be able to put in the time and work that I would like to in the subject. Plus, I will better comprehend the subject matter with some other classes under my belt. So presently I am taking three classes. Chinese meets every morning at 9, which sort of bites, but it’s fun. At first I thought I’d have an advantage because of my experience in high school, but it turns out that I developed some bad habits in the pronunciation that I now have to work harder to get rid of. I go to the language lab every afternoon for, on average, and hour and repeat MA MA MA MA (with the four tones)… and some more intricate patterns, of course. Our class is big, but we’re bonding over our lack of tones and crazy/great professor, who is unfortunately retiring next quarter. It’s good we got him when we did! To answer a common question: there are actually only a few Chinese people in my class. There are actually a lot of Japanese and Thai students; about half of the students are Caucasian. My social science sequence is called “Mind” and is also called “Out of Your Mind” behind closed doors because it can be incredibly difficult. It is definitely going to be the hardest class I’ve ever taken. It’s ABOUT the mind, and I will be learning how to USE my mind in a brand new way. It’s incredibly interesting, and I am definitely scared because I am one of the few first-years in the class. I feel that I was privileged enough to get into the class, and I should be able to show the professors that I was worth taking. (Random fact: Alex MacKenzie is also in this class. He sort of keeps me sane.) And then Media Aesthetics is my Humanities class. It is also quite interesting and ties a lot into my Mind class. This class has more first years, however, so there is a big difference in the atmosphere. I don’t really know how to explain it, but I definitely feel more comfortable in the Media Aesthetics class. I met another girl named Jess in this class, and she’s from San Antonio. (Emma: She says she lives right across from Trinity!) So I will definitely be keeping myself busy in these three classes, especially when we start learning the characters (in mass quantities!) the second quarter. However, I was thinking about taking up an art or Integrative Bio the second and third quarters. We’ll have to see.

I’m still really close to the people in my house. (I am actually the secretary of our house, which is sort of a tool job, but I love things like this, especially if I can get involved in my awesome house!) Sara and Maren have adopted Alex, a third year who lives next door. He’s sort of awkward but very nice. They say he’s in our room more than I am, which I don’t really believe. If I am not in my room, I am probably in the language lab (groan!), the Reg (our library), or the suite of 409. Yitz makes me incredibly happy. John, the one I’ve known since forever, is incredibly cool, too. John is the suite’s older brother. He threatens to beat up anyone who bothers us. Tim and I get along pretty well, too. I finally got up the nerve to ask him if he actually “hated” me during high school. It turns out his reason was really vague and that he didn’t even remember anymore, so we then agreed that we could be friends. And then there’s Dan, who still spends a lot of time talking to his girlfriend, who is at Skidmore, and is actually going to go visit her this weekend. Aww… In addition to the boys of 409, I am getting to be friends with Alan. He’s from Philly and plays the saxophone. He’s been all over Africa and is very interested in biology; he’s trying to get a research assistant position in a lab near the University. I am getting to be better friends with the girls next door—Ali, Alainna, and Suzanne—as well. They are very down to earth and chill. There are some boys on the third floor who like smacking Big Red gum wrappers on their foreheads to feel the tingle. I guess all in all I KNOW that this is my place. These are my people. :-)

Like Vicki, I tried out for a capella this week. I chickened out on Tuesday but took the opportunity on Wednesday after my hallway encouraged me. In the end, the group didn’t want me, but I am still glad I tried out because I would have never known. I signed up for a lot of other things at our student fair that I am following through with. I want to do Student Teachers, which is a club where two students create a lesson plan to teach 4th-8th graders about literature every week. It sounds really interesting and would take a lot of responsibility. (Hmm… that reminds me that I need to actually do the application.) There are two other tutoring programs I am looking into as well, one where K-12th graders (about 10 from each grade) are brought to the U of C campus, and we work with them for two hours once or twice a week. The other group is for empowering young women, which you ALL know I’d be all over. In addition, I want to copy-edit for the Maroon because that was my favorite part of my job of The Independent. Apparently I have to take some copy-editing test tomorrow to show my stuff. I guess, as all things go, if it was meant to be, it was meant to be. I am also doing club volleyball, which meets two hours each Sunday.

I always feel like there’s more that I should say. More I could say. But I am thinking about you and miss you a lot. I was actually listening to some music today that reminded me of the summer and the end of high school. It made me remember the past few months, which seem so far away now but that I will always cherish. Cheesy but true!

One thing I've learned: No one looks out for you. You miss a class? It's your fault. You want to go to that club? That's your responsibility. Need more toilet paper? You need to go the store. These concepts are quite simple, but I guess I didn't understand it until I lived it.

I'm missing friends back home. I am realizing I am not being as good about keeping in touch with them as I wanted. I talk to Jessie a little each day, but other than that, it's much less frequent.

Well, I gotta go head to the Reg. Peace.

I am signed up for all these clubs and organizations. I am so psyched to get involved.

I love my house. They are all my brothers and sisters. Well... yeah. Yitz is amazing: "The more you look, the more you see."

So that's that. Who knows when we'll meet again. Friday, September 27th, 2002; 10:00 pm; The Chicago Life II
Here's the second edition of the Chicago Life. As a summary: life is awesome. I haven't been this happy in a long, long time. I think I am always with a smile on my face--unless I sleep through my alarm the morning of my registration appointment. Yep, that was me this morning...

In the Rockefeller Chapel, we heard the most amazing speech by a sociology professor last night called the Aims of Education. In the end, though, he showed us that education IS the aim--that education just makes life better and that education can come in any form. In fact, he even said we don't have to pick up a pen or pencil for the next four years because there's a guarentee that we'll be learning anyway. Concentration and/or GPA does NOT directly correlate with income. That was good to hear. Now, you know Jess won't slack, but I have this entirely new perspective on education, my purpose...etc. It was definitely one of the best speeches I have ever heard, and I had the biggest smile on my face.

Yesterday was the first time I spent more than two hours in my room, and I was just relaxing. I find it hard to nap 'cause I always think I am missing something or someone. Our room is the party room of the 4th floor--or, rather, it's where a lot of people congregate. We are finding a little segregation between the 3rd and 4th floors, so we are thinking about drilling and making a trap door between 408 (our suite) and 308. Well, not really, but Maren and I vow to go down there a lot more. Alan makes a mad Korean soup!

Maren and I made it onto the front cover of The Chronicle in our first week of college. We are representin' Graham House. It's so awesome! We have it hanging on our door. Our room is definitely not as big as it looks, and it's more decorated at this point. We are having a hard time trying to get the glow and the dark stars on our high ceiling.

I like my house more and more each day. People are starting to find their groups (again 3rd and 4th floors are a little too segregated), but when you keep the door open, you never know who will stop by. Our suite is pretty cool. Sharon is out a lot, but she's very cool and independent. Sara's been getting the partying out of her system, but she is incredibly smart and nice. Maren has her trumpet audition today, and she is going to kick butt! She's awesome. Amusingly, I see Tim S_____ a lot 'cause he's two doors down and rooms with John and Isaac. They surprise me more and more each day. I'm really enjoying getting to know Isaac (aka Yitz). Some of my favorite moments so far have been introducing him to hash browns; and teaching him how to pronounce Tylenol, Aleve, Excedrin, and Midol. (I told him he didn't need to remember the Midol.) On the other hand, he teaches me about German politics and culture.

So, I did make it to my registration this morning. I am taking Intro to Chinese, which will kick my butt; Mind, which seems like the perfect class for me; Media Aestheics; and Honors Calculus. Both Soc and Hum (Mind and Media, respectively) will have six papers a quarter. So basically I am setting myself up for a butt-kicking. But I am so excited, and I think it's supposed to be this way. I am realizing my NCS education will definitely come in handy. ;-)

Current Mood: happy

7:31 pm; i'm not going to stand here and wait --chad krouger
Bleh, first crash. Oh well.

All I can say is sorry.

Gonna go out. It's Friday night, after all.

12:10 am
I haven't been this happy in a long, long time.

Darest thou now O soul,
Walk out with me toward the unknown region,
Where neither ground is for the feet nor any path to follow?

No map there, no guide,
Nor voice sounding, nor touch of human hand,
Nor face with blooming flesh, nor lips, nor eyes, are in that land.

I know it not O soul,
Nor dost thou, all is a blank before us,
All waits undream'd of in that region, that inaccessible land.

Till when the ties loosen,
All but the ties eternal, Time and Space,
Nor darkness, gravitation, sense, nor any bounds bounding us.

Then we burst forth, we float,
In Time and Space O soul, prepared for them,
Equal equipt at last, (O joy! O fruit of all!) them to fulfill O soul.

I really like my house. The dorms are split into houses, and we are Graham House (named after Katherine Graham), formerly known as New House. This is because we are the newest house on campus and opened Winter quarter last year. This newness means a lot of things: one key thing is that we have little money. We need to fundraise, and Sara (an O-Leader) suggested an auction. She is really keen on auctioning off dates, but most of us realize some of us will be left with fifty-cent bids and a horrible date. Either way, one of our RA’s, Diwalker, has a car, so he might auction off a ride down town, and our Resident Heads have a washer and dryer… so these little services might make us some money. Our house is also looking forward to starting new traditions and making a name for ourselves, and I am thinking with Isaac and John, our two socialists, it won’t be too hard. I like this housing system because it makes it easy to meet people and to throw yourself into awkward situations knowing everyone else is feeling awkward. We have 55 first years and 95 students in all. We are one of the smallest houses. I like how they make us sit together, at least for the first two weeks; at least you’re never too lonely in the cafeteria and can strike up a conversation.

The people in my house are awesome, and I haven’t met anyone I don’t like. Isaac and John are hilarious. Isaac is from Germany and was actually one of the really annoying people from the message boards because he always had something to say. It’s true even now, but he’s not so bad. I have known John all of my life because his mother is colleagues with my mom; it is quite ironic that we ended up at the same school—let alone the same house! I’ll talk about my room mates and suitemates in a second… Tim S_____ is in my house, and I’ve actually had to be in his group many-a times. He’s a cool guy, really chill. Shubah is from Kentucky (I have never met anyone from Kentucky!), and she has traveled everywhere… 49 states (not Nebraska) and many, many countries all over the world. Noam is from Boston; he took a gap year last year to work on various farms in France and Massachusetts. He’s very sweet and is always smiling. Yesterday was his 20th birthday. Alan is from Philly. He’s pretty silly. Dan is from Brooklyn, and you can tell by the way he dresses and acts and talks about the city. He’s got a girlfriend whom he talks with all the time, and we all know it’s really hard. Haans is from Orlando, originally Haiti, and runs cross-country. Kara is from St. Louis. I think she’s a little homesick still, but we are trying to make her feel better. Matt is an O-Aid, and he’s… pretty amazing. (His name is Matt Brown—haha. Well, it’s with one “t.”) He sings in the all-male A Capella group and is a bio major; he is a third year. There are many more quirky people I could mention, but I am not sure how to even start talking about them. I am finding it very valuable that I am good with names, however.

Our suite of 408 is pretty cool. Maren and I are getting along pretty well. She is an early-riser (I was up at 7:30 after going to sleep at 2am) and seems to like the room pretty cold. She’s very organized (I cannot compare!). I figure I’ll get to know her better with time. Sharon and Sara are getting along as far as I can tell, though there were some bouts about furniture the first day that still haven’t really been resolved. Sharon is pretty independent and pretty serious. She’s been spending a lot of time on the phone—but I suppose we all are. She’s pretty nice. Her birthday was yesterday, as well. (Amusingly, yesterday was Sharon, Noam, and Alex MacKenzie’s birthday; and they were all turning a different age, 18, 20, and 19, respectively.) Sara is pretty cool. She broke up with her boyfriend before coming here (he’s still in high school back in Macomb, Illinois), so we’ve been able to console each other. She’s made friends with the boys across the hallway: Kirtan and Jeff are like her big brothers.

Wow, I feel like such a slacker: all my room mates are going to take a language placement test. Of course, I could use this time to write you an e-mail! Somehow I already have a lot of things I need to get done or check out. I believe I will be busy, even if I don’t want to be!

Unfortunately, I must say I am pretty disappointed with the advising system in that my advisor has 95 advisees, and we meet with her one-on-one once during orientation and once every quarter after that. I dunno what I expected. During the meeting we had yesterday, she didn’t seem able to answer most of the questions—granted, they were pretty specific and individual—and Maren says she recalls reading that the advisor relatively new. We’ll see. Following that meeting we had our calculus placement test. Wow, I felt so violated after I left that room! Maybe I could have studied harder, but many of the questions seemed undoable and ridiculous. I left most of the second section blank. Ahh, welcome to the University of Chicago! Whatever. I figure I’ll probably be taking calculus this first quarter at whatever level no matter what.

Last night our house (and many other houses) went downtown to do a scavenger hunt. We had to do things like go in front of Wrigley Field and sing “Take me out to the ballgame” (Courtney and I were the only people to finish the full song), write down the name of all the stones on the front façade of The Chicago Tribune Tower, ask someone in Giradellhi for a taste of his or her chocolate (Dan did a great job!), and reserve a place for “you and your 55 children” at a restaurant. Isaac did a great job and faked his German accent, and we think he might still have his reservation! It was tons of fun, and we finished up with a real Chicago pizza. Yum! We also watched Fight Club afterwards, which was apparently followed by a conversation about chauvinism, materialism, and who really knows what else when it gets in Isaac and John’s hands!

There’s probably many things I have forgotten to mention, but I sense some more e-mails in your future. ;-) I hope this wasn’t too boring. I miss you and think about you a lot. It’s hard putting up all my pictures, which, of course, I have done, but… yeah. I just think to myself how awesome of a time you all must be having and hope you’re thinking of me too! :-)