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I guess this brings me to my question of what I miss about Swat, Philly, etc. People always said that college isn't just about the academics but the experiences and life lessons you share with other people, and I think it's just starting to sink in. Call me crazy but I do sort of miss my seminars (they were amazing) but more than that, I miss the people...hanging out in Parrish Parlors (check out the Facebook group), sitting in Sharples for hours, and even standing outside for an hour in the drizzling rain while a friend tried to convince us that Cornell was the best library to study in. I also miss walking into Mertz at 5 am and telling Neena to wake up....and I also miss her waking me up at 11 am on Sundays to make it to Sharples by 11:15 am. I miss IMing people when we're sitting next to each other and I miss that gross-looking chocolate pudding that I eat a couple times a week. I miss hanging out on Parrish Beach, munching on food, and talking about things. So, yes, please come to Swarthmore so you can also meet amazing people, have amazing conversations....and eat that delicious chocolate pudding. yum.
I recently read an article about blogging (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/maga
I guess one of the questions that is asked of me or any Swattie is "how hard is it really at Swarthmore?" And so I guess it really depends on the person. It'll change with every single person you talk to. Some will say that it's not that hard, some will say that it's like chewing on a dusty brick, and others will just shrug. There really is no real answer because it depends on so many factors including what classes you're taking (balance being very important--writing classes, reading-intensive classes), what professors you have, what subjects, whether you're taking any pass/fail (1st semester, how I loved you so!), your level of preparation from high school, etc etc. I think you get the point now. So to answer that question, usually I tell people that I personally think it's pretty challenging. I've never had such deep discussions, been challenged to think so far, been forced to read such complex articles (hah, forced...bad word), and had to work so hard before. Honestly, high school was pretty much a breeze. Yea, there were those times when I complained about having to read 5 pages...how embarassing! so anyway, to summarize, yes, I do think that Swarthmore is very challenging. :)
In other news, I'm still happily in the assassins game. I'm steadily growing more paranoid and having worse luck. Oh well, someone could have gotten me last week because I was in such a great mood but now this week? no, don't touch me!
- Music:Christmas music, duh
Sooo it's been another long intense 2 days of PARLI!!! I think I'm starting to appreciate it more and in fact, I think this was the tournament where I actually improved because I'm starting to understand the way of thinking and the format so much more! D.C. was such a nice city. I loved the city, as a city. Now going to a college/university in the middle of the city, I don't know. It was quite unnverving to see that there was a need for cops and police cars at every other block. ANd in some cases, more than one on the same block. I know that obviously was put there to ensure the safety of the students but after seeing wayy too many ambulances and cop cars flashing their lights and blaring their sirens through the city, whoah whoah yeah. Wayy too much. However, I would love to be in a city like D.C. for grad school I think. I really love the peace and quiet at Swarthmore...way too quiet sometimes, haha but at least it's easy to get away to Philly if needed. So yep, I loved the restaurants and stores and parks interspersed throughout the city and within walking distance of the campus and I'd love to go back there sometime.
With that aside, I got to have a reunion with my oldest/youngest friend from wayyyy too long time ago!! We've known each other since 3rd grade? 4th grade? I remember she played the viola and was really quiet....not anymore! Just kidding, Reesie :) It was so great seeing her. I took the shuttle from the main campus of GW to the part she lives on, Mt. Vernon and as I got off the bus, we screamed and squealed and screamed and jumped and hugged some more because I hadn't seen her since the day before I left for college. It was so nice :) We ended up walking around till the middle of the night around D.C. through the Reflecting Pool, Lincoln Memorial, World War II Memorial, and Vietnam Veterans' Memorial. After that, we headed to 7-11 and decided to share a pint of Ben and Jerry's and gummy bears for me (she's a veggie). Awww, yea so we had a great time to catch up, eat lots and lots of frozen yogurt while prancing around the sidewalks of D.C. in ....30-40 degree weather? haha? I was still wearing flip-flops? haha? Hmm, anyway, makes me miss high school & high school friends & teachers all back at the Convent. Ahhh! Well my other friend Nicole from Berkeley is coming to visit me this week! Whooo!
And for my shameless plugs (phrase courtesy of my LA Youth editor, I think?) of the day, I was just browsing around Yahoo!. Well actually it's my homepage (yea, I'm old-school, I still use Yahoo!Mail. so sue me haha). I saw this headline on the news section "More liberal arts colleges embrace engineering students" http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071103/ap_o
My 2nd shameless plug for the day is ...my radio show (KLamor) on WSRN-FM 91.5 @ Swarthmore College! It is the featured show of the week (yay) so here's the description...
"KLamor It's the show where Katherine and might-as-well-be-co-hosts Omer Ikizler and Abe Bae spend an hour chatting around with Swatties about the 'burbs, nerds, hot people, society, all that great stuff! It's the show where everyone divulges their deepest, darkest secrets and discusses important issues in society (such as the 'burbs) on the side. If you have suggestions for topics or want to join along for the midday Monday fun, e-mail klam1@swarthmore.edu If not, listen in at Monday from 12-1 p.m.!"
Download the podcast (www.wsrnfm.org) or listen live!
Time for some big resting before tomorrow. Two papers due this week plus many many other things...I love pass-fail. Come to Swarthmore so you can have a pass-fail first semester.
Happy Halloween!!! The day of the ghosts, vampires, pumpkins, and many many family birthdays! Well, just two. But they're quite important though! Today is my sister's 21st birthday and my cousin's 20nd birthday!!!! Too bad I'm not there to celebrate it with them *sniff* :( Oh yea and yesterday was my other cousin's 29th birthday. We have an insane amount of October bdays for some reason. Neena and I were analyzing that last night. haha.
Ooh and I'm not sure if I explained who Neena is. She's my roommate, the most wonderful roommate ever! Thanks to Liz Derickson (Swat alum & housing coordinator) who I finally met today for putting us two together! I write paragraphs about Neena all the time for French so if you ever want to read them, go ahead and ask me. Well of course I have to tweak Neena a bit everytime for the particular assignment...so I suppose if you read all that I wrote about Neena, it wouldn't really fit together into one person. haha. but Neena doesn't mind (I hope)! All that aside, we get along so well together. We are able to effectively distract each other from homework and we are even perfectly capable of having 20 minute laughing/giggle sessions! I know that sounds so "girly" or whatever one may want to call it but we do seriously have lots of fun, especially when we have our ____ nights. For example, we have nights where we will only listen to Destiny's Child and Neena makes the BEST faces ever when she's singing "Say My Name"! Haha...I suppose if you come to Swarthmore, you can beg her to sing for you ;) And the other night, we just had a J. Lo night. I think the best thing though is that we look out for each other. If one of us wants to nap, talk, hug, or simply vegetize after a crazy day, we're there for each other. I don't think Neena reads this thing but if she is, Neena, I love youuu!!
So second order of business, actually first, sort of, I'm not too sure, of why today was such a good day...I LOVE MODERN DANCE. That class is amazing! To put this into perspective, the first time I ever heard of a college Modern Dance Class was from my sister. She basically said it was a class for sleeping...and other things. And so when I told her that I was taking Modern Dance, she laughed and told me to "have fun" or something along the lines of that... So I went into the class being a bit skeptical of what I would be doing. And since I'm taking it for PE credit only, there are no papers to write and I'm just required simply to show up and work hard! I've gotta say, after 8 weeks of taking this dance class, I am finding myself more and more engaged in it everyday. Sharon, my dance teacher also Dept Chair, is one of the most inspiring teachers I have ever had! She always connects dancing with being confident in life, connecting with ourselves, and all the great artsy connecting-with-myself stuff I never think about. And if you ask anyone from high school, I was the antithesis of a dancer. I am scarily horrible (how awkward) with dancing and coordination and in fact, during the first days of class, I couldn't even walk correctly. Haha, yea, I know, how sad. But this class is something I'm really starting to appreciate because it's so different from my other academic classes. I think dancing is just something that really takes work and effort. Something that Sharon always pushes us is to stop making half-baked (I went to find a synonym on thesaurus.com and this was the best one I came up with--lame, I know!) moves but to reach F A R, and make our movements STRONG and BOLD. I'm thinking of taking Modern Dance II next semester but I really want to try out Ballet so we'll see.
Well I'm going to do some Hardcore Trick-Or-Treating tonight at 10:40 pm with some friends. And by that, I mean that we're going to try to win this trick-or-treating contest by hitting up all the dorms ....within an HOUR. Hah!
Have a great Halloween night!
- Location:Mertz
- Music:Elton John--Rocket Man
