Something New

I’m sitting in the computer lab in Stein right now, with an hour left before my first Latin exam. I feel as if I know what I’m doing, but terrified that once I see the test, I’m going to forget it all. Normally I would be sitting downstairs at one of the little round tables next to Cool Beans 2, but all of them were taken when I got here, so now I find myself in this computer lab that is the only non Pepto-Bismol colored room I’ve seen in the entire building. Go figure.

Before I resume my last minute studying, I’d like to make note of the event of the week. On Wednesday, Greg Mortenson, co-author and protagonist of the book Three Cups of Tea came to give the 2YO keynote speech in St. Joseph’s Chapel. For those of you who don’t know (nor I, until last summer when I realized we had summer reading…again) the 2YO program is a series of events Holy Cross provides to its sophomores to help them find direction in their studies. Earlier this year, we had an “academic extravaganza” where we could all learn more about different majors and research opportunities.

But back to Greg Mortenson.

The first thing I’d like to say about him is that he was just as tall and bashful as his book described him to be. I find being bashful and interesting trait for someone who has taken such great strides to go from selling nearly everything he owned to build a school in Pakistan, to becoming someone who has risen so high that his book is now required reading for head military forces in the Pakistan/Afghanistan area. I suppose he never let being bashful get in the way of anything. For all of this, he was a lovely speaker. He threw in jokes here and there (I can’t help but think of Fr. McFarland as our ‘tribal chief’ now) and gave us all a more in depth version of how he went about building his schools and what we could do to help. When it came around to getting my book signed, his assistant took my book first, so when he held out his hands, I assumed he wanted my book, which I didn’t have. Awkwardly, I put my hands in front of me, which he took for a handshake. I was horribly confused and flustered, and ended up scurrying away quickly when the ordeal was done.

In terms of shyness, I reckon I’m far worse than he is.

Oh well, off to pass my Latin exam!

p.s.- This post was written Friday…and then I didn’t get around to posting until today, Sunday…oh well…

p.p. s.- More information about Three Cups of Tea and Greg Mortenson can be found at http://www.threecupsoftea.com/ You should definitely check it out.

Hey everyone! After spending my spring break vegetating (all I did was go on Facebook, watch the animated Redwall and Martin the Warrior series on YouTube, and work a tiny bit on my poetry essay), I’m ready to dive back into the action and pick up where I left off.

For starters, I have vowed upon my honor as a nerd/geek that I will do better in Invertebrate Zoology than I did in Botany. I want to do well in that class, and this time around I will! Albeit, I could never remember my phyla in botany, but I’ll get it down for invertebrates. Professor Ober seems like an awesome professor. She introduced our class to the Tree of Life yesterday and got really excited when she hit showed us some beetles. She seems like such a funny lady; I’m sure we’ll get along great.

Speaking of developing my inner nerd, I received an email from Professor Herrick inviting all of us Clavius Scholars (it’s a scholarship thing that Professor Herrick runs) to a poetry reading on Friday. It’s a poem about hemoglobin. I am not ashamed to say that I giggled in delight upon receiving said email and poor Kristy could only give me a look, which seemed to say “Why am I roommates with such a geek?”. However, I am a loveable nerd, so it’s all good…I think.

I had my Kimball Captain interview today as well. I was terrified. Apparently there was an unprecedented amount of applicants this year (which I suppose is not surprising, as my class was the year of unprecedented appliers to Holy Cross). It wasn’t as bad as it could have been though. Inigo (the Kimball Student Organizer, or KSO) was very nice about the whole thing. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what happens! Whatever the case, I had a great year working at Kimball and I just hope I get a spot!

And for all you seniors who applied to come here, I wish you the best of luck. Responses should be coming back, or have already come (I can’t remember the date they’re supposed to let you know). No matter where you go, I hope you pick the college that’s right for you!!

Sunlight! Oh good grief (as I steal Charlie Brown’s old saying), it seems like it’s been rainy and wet all week, and while there are still some grey wisps of clouds outside, I can also see blue sky and plenty of good sunlight pouring in. I’ve discovered somewhere along the past eighteen years that a little bit of sunlight really brightens up my day (literally and figuratively) so despite the fact that I have all my classes today, and a good deal of homework I ought to be doing, I’m feeling more or less ready to tackle whatever the Holy Cross academic departments care to throw at me.

Now excuse me as I slip into geek mode for a paragraph.

Today at noon I went down to a seminar that the biology program holds weekly, in which a speaker from outside comes and talks about things that seem pretty cool. The speaker was Kristin Lewis from Rowland Institute at Harvard University, and her lecture was about plant parasites. I must admit, a lot of things flew over my head, in part because I am a mere first-year and big fancy words confuse me. However, the parts that I did grasp were pretty cool. Like, she talked about doing experiments where green tea has a chemical in it called a catechin, and that chemical helps to keep plant parasites from growing on other plants. I totally have to tell my green tea obsessed friends that they’re drinking a type of parasite repellent now.

Beyond that, life has been good. I’m going home on Saturday for the first time since I got here, and I’m pretty excited about that. As nice as Holy Cross is, there really is no place like home.

I’d probably keep rambling (and more than likely slip into my geeky self once again) but I’ve got to run to Montserrat now. Until next time!