Something New

It’s really cliché to say this, but the wind is simply howling outside. I just got back from the outside coming in from O’Neil with my botany abstraction in hand, when the wind shoved me backwards. I held onto my assignment for dear life and trudged up the steps, hoping against hope that I’d survive to take my laundry out of the washer before someone else did.

Obviously, I did, otherwise I would not be writing this to you.

Saturday night was Hogwarts at Holy Cross, the main Science Ambassadors event of the year. I was doing the Iron Cereal experiment, which is moving the iron within cereal around with a magnet. Not going to lie, but a few days beforehand, I spent a good two hours in my room trying to figure out how to make it work (which is a little depressing in hindsight, but oh so entertaining). I finally figured out that if you placed the whole flakes in water, you could make the cereal move more visibly than if you just left them on a napkin. Also, I got to whip out the super strong neodymium magnets, which are a lot of fun. It was kind of cool watching some kids’ eyes bug out when they realized that the nasty grey iron fillings I showed them were mixed into their cereal.

And there was so much enthusiasm! Our Ron and Ginny Weasley, as well as the rest of the characters, did a great job running around and entertaining the little kids. I can’t wait to see how next year will turn out. My friend Tom suggested we try and get Venus Fly Traps for next time…

Montserrat has taken over my brain. I hate to say it, but it’s true. Almost every time I walk around campus, I keep wondering how I can apply what I see to that class. It’s so weird. My Montserrat seminar is called ‘Truth and Abstraction’ and this semester is basically talking about self portraits and what it really means to capture yourself in a photograph, or in a painting, or what have you. I’m finding it a bit frustrating because it’s not really straightforward. It requires a lot of introspection, and quite frankly, I don’t always have the time to ‘journal creatively’ everyday. On the other hand, because I am so keen on scenery, I have now walked around most of campus, and have seen some pretty cool sights.

I never really realized how pretty campus was until recently, when I was walking around and seeing how all the buildings popped out of the scenery.

In other news, we’re having a burst of warm weather! It’s so weird, considering that it’s the middle of February, but yesterday I walked outside without a coat on! Admittedly, it was only fifty degrees at most. Still, in comparison to the usual winter days here on the Hill, yesterday and today have been quite balmy.

Oh, well, until next time…Happy Early Valentine’s Day!

p.s.- Why yes, I did sketchily stand in front of buildings to take pictures for possible self portrait backgrounds…

Egads! It’s been so long since my last update. I apologize for the sheer agony you all must have suffered while waiting for my next update. How horrible! There are many excuses I could give you for my late entry, including keeping up with work, attending various campus events, going off campus, and sleeping. However, I shall cut to the chase and tell you the most recent exciting things going on right now.

You may thank me later for saving you from the rambles of the past two weeks.

At any rate, I went to the Kimball Student Office today to pick up my Kimball Captain application. I have been looking forward to the application opening for the past few weeks (much to my friends’ annoyance) and was horrified when I realized on Friday that I had forgotten to get one! So today before lunch I ran down there to get one. I’m so excited about filling it out, and really hope I get a position. It may be rather surprising to some of you, but I had a lot of fun working both last semester and this semester, and I’d like the chance to do it again, from a Captain’s point of view. Wish me luck!

On Saturday, Gordon, Linh, and I went to Providence Place Mall. It was my first time down there, and it was amazing. The mall was gigantic. There were five floors, the first two devoted to parking, Old Navy, and Borders, and the top three floors devoted to other stores, an IMAX theater and a Dave and Buster’s. Linh and I were on a mission to get clothes that somewhat resembled Hogwarts uniforms. Since Hogwarts on the Hill is coming up (it’s the Science Ambassadors’ biggest event of the year), we both wanted to dress up like Hogwarts characters. Since J.C Penney was conveniently having a sale, we both got ties for our respective houses. Linh got a Slytherin tie, and I got one for Hufflepuff. Gordon made an attempt at teaching me how to tie a tie, but unfortunately, I’ll have to ask him for further lessons.

Since the deadline for applications was January 15th, I wish you all the best of luck. I remember how irritating it was checking the mailbox every day and seeing no responses from schools, but don’t worry. The mail will come eventually…