Guys, I'm getting scared by this.

Done
Finally I bought my ticket home. But since Portland seems to cost a million dollars I'm flying into SeaTac instead. And then I'll be taking the greyhound down to Portland. So maybe some of you Seattle friends can meet me at sea if you are around at 10:55 on Sunday the 9th? :o)

frisbee golf. strip frisbee golf. me? no. pineapple freeze in chinatown. the man who wants to invent the bivalve potato trip drove. tickets to portland cost more than to other countries. so i fly to seatac. gonna meet ethan. hmmm. one more final to go. paul comes home saturday. i wish more and more i could just fly over to ct. jen offered to loan me money. liviya offered to pay for half. i can't accept, but i'm flattered. i miss paul. it's sticky. my whole body is sticky and i feel like i'm breathing water. like God turned on a big humidifier onto Chicago this week. i've called home 7 times. we really need call waiting. busy signals are annoying. nicole informs me of this every day, and i agree. kate's been snowshoeing this week. i am so jealous. just a few more days just a few more days. know what i'm going to miss? satya wandering in for late night chats. sudeep singing all the time. meg's and trisha's smiles.

too busy to care
about blogger anyways.
i promise a better post tomorrow.

One Wish
I just want school to be over now.

Terror
I'm sitting in Crerar. Over the past few days I've studied my spanish book cover to cover. I've handwritten all of the vocab pages at least once. I talk to myself in my head (and feel so silly when I do) to practice my conversational spanish, and I'm still soooooooooooooo scared, but I don't know what else to study or do. My written/listening comprehension of my competency exam is tonight from 7-9pm. It doesn't seem like it'll be that hard, but then again, I always can surprise myself when I say things like that. But the read test which I'm worrying like crazy about is tomorrow. I have two oral exams. Why does 30 minutes have to cause so much nerviousness?! Oh wish me luck!

Please
I'm awake. And so scared for my first final today. Can I just jump back into my covers please?

My Mysterious Disapearance
I have officially been off instant messaging for over 48 or so hours. I haven't really been counting, but it's deifnitely over a day. And it's actually pretty nice because it's making me get work done. Just takes a little bit of slapping myself on the wrist each time i want to double click on the aol icon. ;o) I miss being online! But this is definitely so much better for my health. Also, it helps me get much more sleep. But already I've been missed. I called Kate last night and she was shocked that she had gone on twice and hadn't seen me online. She thought something might be wrong. lol. Nope, I'm just actually studying vigorously for a change! Four finals this week, a double physics problem set (which I pretty much finished today!), and an essay due. Plus organizing a few large projects and doing lots of errands before the end of the year. Also I'm organizing the last GeoUnion meeting of the year and trying to get them awesome senior presents. I have my eye on a certain something online. I shouldn't really say what it is in case any of the 4th years reads this online before we give them their gift, but let me just give some clues anyways. It's shiney. It's metal. It's from PORTLAND, OR and it will soon be engraved and has a leather sheath. Geez, I guess I pretty much gave that one away. If you know me well I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. I think it's great: check it out, the item I never am without. I have much to write about but little time. I must keep on studying the preterit and the imperfect and all those random clothes and house item names in español. My written spanish competency test is tomorrow!

Miracle Baby
I think this is one of the greatest things that I've read in a long time. It's a short CNN story: Tiny Miracle Baby

Master's Semi-Formal
Tonight I went to Harper Library to study for a bit. To my delight I found that the GSB (Graduate School of Business) had put in new comfy sofas and I took full advantage of them. Also, they have the wireless internet set up (I wonder how many years will it be until everyone uses wireless internet?). Walking back from Harper at about 9:40 it was so warm and nice outside. I couldn't help but sing walking back through the quads. ;o) Coming up the stairs to Pierce I ran into Sudeep and Solma who turned me around and walked me into the Master's apartment. Tonight was a "semi-formal" study break with nice appetizers and cheesecake and fantastic cheeses. Yum. So Sudeep was first to step into the apt. folled by Solmarie and I. We were shocked to see the hostesses in formal dresses and Mr. and Mrs. Cohen completely dressed up. And Sudeep was wearing his bathrobe! ;o) lol. I thought it was pretty funny. I think they were a bit disapointed in us though. Because when the next group of people arrived (luckily only moments later) they were all decked out in elegant attire and the Master's smiled and commented "now that's what we were talking about, that's what we were expecting". I sat around for a while as more and more people trickled in. And felt a bit embarassed because though I was in a skirt and my sparkly black top (thanks Nick!), I wasn't very dressed up. And then Chris entered. Dressed in Trish's black dress! We were all shocked. And Diane and I looked at each other. We were not going to be outdone. So we both headed back up to our rooms to change. I put on my red formal dress, sparkly earings, high heeled shoes, and a lace scarf and walked back downstairs. It's always fun to get people to turn their head or wink at you. :o) I got some very nice comments. I love dressing up!

I just read "The Clone Traders" article from the 18 May issue of Financial Times. It is about how advances in human biotechnology have highlighted the need for international regulation. But religious and social differences between east and west could make this impossible. It also gives this startling statistic: "In spite of ecdonomic modernisation and laws forbidding discrimination against femals, 117 boys are born for every 100 girls in China today as a result of sonograms and easy access to abortion. In South Korea in the early 1990s, the figure reaches 122 boys for every 100 girls." Sad.

I forgot to vote! ¡I am so mad at myself! This has never happened before. I was just cleaning my desk and realized that I have my absentee envelope and ballot sitting here. It came a month and a half ago and I just assumed I had so much time to fill it out. Arg. I feel like such a bad citizen now.

Frustrations: *Still not having a summer job *Ran out of minutes on my phonecard *Chicago weather *Having to hold my breath going through the lounge because of how horrible it smells *Having to wash my dishes in the bathroom sinks because the first 2 places I tried were overflowing with dirty dishes *Just the basic dirtiness of this dorm! and the disrespect for others that people have living here *Being charged $50 on my debit card for magazines that I don't want to subscribe to! *Not having a ticket home to Portland because they're $300 *Realizing I have about 4 letters that I've been meaning to write and send out over 5 weeks ago *Still haven't mailed two packages sitting in my room waiting to go--including my mom's mother's day present *The thought of packing for the summer *Having to prioritize studying and problem sets over the importance of sleep

Joys: *I have only 8 days until I'm done with school! *Knowing that I only ran out of minute on my phone card because I talked to Paul *Being able to walk through a forest today *Knowing that I have 6 days in Chicago to just have fun and relax after finals--I get to go downtown and just meander around *Getting to spend the rest of the GeoUnion budget on fun things (maybe even a trip to 6 Flags-Great America to study the physics of roller coasters! *The thought of seeing friends back home! *My parent's 30th wedding anniversary is this Monday *Getting excited to live with Karin, Sylvie, and Erin next year in Stoney Island *Constantly thinking of fun plans for the summer *Finding time to read the Bible every day despite a busy schedule *Getting uplifting mail *Having Memorial Day off to study *All set and ready to go to accomplish some awesome goals for the summer *Just the simple act of attending the University of Chicago--I am so lucky, so priveleged and most of the time I fail to realize this *The though of soon having time to spend redesigning some webpages and actually scanning some fun pictures in to share *Thinking ahead to Iceland and India!

It was supposed to be thunderstorms and constant rain all day long. Well, it wasn't! And we went to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore anyways, despite the bad predictions. It was sunny, warm at times, and a good relaxing day away from the city. Instead of rain on my face I got some sun!

Oh Happy Day!
How can the day ever be bad when I get a letter from Kate and from my darling Grama?! Kate's even was home-made with pictures of Mt. Hood and beautiful spots in Oregon. Gives me motivation to keep on studying--because in a few days I'll be kissing the ground in Oregon!!!! :o)Though busy, today was actually pretty fun. It started out with me sleeping in even though I wasn't supposed to let myself. But I did. And I'm glad I did (though I'm sure I'll be regreting this later). In soc we talked all about sex for 50 minutes. And it was a pretty funny conversation, especially when we got off topic and started going off on a tangent about SAT scores and Marie (my teacher) had to call the class back into order and told us to focus on sex. We couldn't stop laughing. Where else but the UofC would a group of college students stop talking about sex and have to have our teacher remind us! lol. Anyways, after soc I went to spanish lector, and we played memory games. Of course, I have one of the worst memories in the world (I'm pretty sure of this, and belive it or not it's getting worse too) so I felt bad for my partner because we didn't do as well, but it was still a fun last lector session of the year. I studied physics really hard for an hour or so and then went to convocation training. I'm actually staying 7 days later than I need to in Chicago just so I can attend graduation, but at least I can watch my friends graduate and also get paid for it. ;o) $7 is better than nothin. Physics quiz tonight went decently? I hope. I hope! And then after the quiz I ran into Jen, who told me that she was heading downtown in 30 minutes to go watch SpiderMan. Now, I've been eyeying this movie for many many months now and have been wanting to go see it since December but I just haven't had time. And of course, I had no time to go tonight, but I went anyways! hehe. We caught the 173 and went downtown to Michigan Ave, and watched the movie. It was entertaining but I was quite disapointed. I think it could have been much better. The script was very weak in some parts and the plot (well, I guess it was based on the comics--which I have only read a few) needed some work. Also, the ending wasn't so great, and the Goblin I thought looked a little ridiculous. It was a big letdown. But I really enjoyed the scenes of SpiderMan flying through the city and the fight scenes. Oh, and the upside-down kissing scene. Well, it was ok, but not so wonderful. I guess had too high of expectations. The cool thing was that after the movie the 173 pulled up in less than 2 minutes! (I know that will only impress a small audience of you readers, but it really is almost a miracle). So we got back to campus before midnight, just in time for me to stop by the new BartMart for some Mountain Dew and then start my spanish composition ;o) Now I must sleep. I'm hoping that the rain will stop so the GeoSci softball game won't be rained out like last Friday. But I guess that might be a sign saying that I should shut myself up in the Reg (now open 24 hours!) for the night, yes, on a Friday night, pathetic as it seems--but I have 4 finals next week! I'm so scared for my spanish competentcy. Soooo sooo scared. Nervous enough that I will even go to the library to study *shudder*. Well folks, I think I'm done rambling for tonight. I hope that you're all doing wonderful! Take care, and semd me an email sometime. ;o)

Good morning sunshine. Time to start a busy day.
Oh miracle of miracles. My soc teacher just emailed me right now with my current grade in the class, and my grades on each response paper that I've turned in. I'm actually shocked. I've gotten very good grades on all my weekly response essays this quarter (which I haven't known until today), and she told me that my class participation has been pretty good and gave me an excellent score for that. I'm wondering how that works considering I've only spoken about 4 sentences in class all quarter. But I have been very attentive and I love the class. Well, in any case, I'm in such a good mood now! Now, if only I could forget about physics! ;o)

Found cheap ticket to India, realized I only have $100 to my name and really can't spend any more money this year, REALLY NEED TO FIND A JOB, obtained a beautiful International Student Identity Card (with a good picture of me actually on it), had to call home and beg for money so I will be able buy my plane ticket home for the summer, and then begged for $1400 for India. I feel bad. My parents are too nice to me, even though they really don't have the money to give to me but will find it somehow, and even if I do intend to pay them back. Called Dell today and realized that they suck. My warrenty ran out in December. Too bad I was lazy and didn't call them then when I needed help, and waited until now when I have to pay. Anyone know where I can get a cheap laptop battery? Spent part of the day with Hannah. :o) After buying some supplies at Hallmark and the Coop we threw a "surpise" graduation party/celebration for Ronald for Bible study, complete with reduced fat wheat thins. :o) It was a fun evening. Oh, and the weather turned semi-warm again! hurray! :o)

INDIA
Today I had my second India Study Abroad meeting and I'm sooooOOOOOOooooooOOOOOOooooooo incredibly excited to go! My group of people who I will soon be traveling with (12 girls, 4 guys) seem very cool, and the classes that I will be taking really interest me. I'll be having 4 classes: Beginning Hindi, Sacred Texts and Religions (which will be focusing on Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainishm, Sikhism, and Islam), State and Society in Contemporary India, and History and Place in South India. That fourth class is actually more of an archaeology class and we'll be traveling for 3 weeks to some amazing ancient cities including: Bangalore, Hospet, Bijapur, Badami, Goa, and then we'll head back to Pune. Also, the assignments that I know about so far seem awesome (for instance the final for my Sacred Texts and Religions class will be mingling with the locals and picking a family or a certain person and writing about their ideas/beliefs/practices and my impressions--cool huh!) and the readings look a little time consuming but very interesting. There's so much to look forward to. But right now I really need to find a cheap ticket to Mumbai/Bombay. I'm a little angry because when I first looked on Orbitz the ticket was only $1200, but the head of the study abroad programs here said that he heard from a travel agent that the prices to India usually drop the beginning of June and we should really be patient and hold off buying a ticket. But the past couple of days I've been checking again and the prices have gone up to $1450, which I'm told is still a good price. But I just wish I had bought my ticket already and saved a couple hundred dollars. I'm crossing my fingers that the prices will fall as predicted, but I'm skeptical. If anyone knows of a really good travel agent or any place that I can get a cheap roundtrip ticket from Chicago to Mumbai/Bombay please tell me!

I finally got through to Greece! hurray!

What I had for dinner: Well, everything looked completely unappealing for dinner. So I ordered: "Grilled cheese, any bread, any cheese". So Tito looked at me and smiled. "Coming right up" I got a grilled american and provolone sandwich with one slice of white bread and one slice of wheat. And this is the most interesting thing that I have to write about today. Sad, huh.

I'm sick and whiney. And I will now stop complaining for fear of you never wanting to read this blog again.

This morning Melissa and I woke up early and walked over to the Original Pancake House with Sudeep and Solma for breakfast. It's always nice to go out to breakfast and to spend time with friends, even if you are very very sleepy. I haven't been able to wake up all morning. After breakfast I went to church (about 40 minutes late since they took a long long time to get our food) and I could barely keep my eyes open. Now I'm back and I'm just craving a nap. But there is just too much work to be done...

PS. So I put up a commenting system early this morning. I'd love to hear some feedback. :o) Also, I changed the colors of the page a bit, hopefully this makes it a little more appealing?

Red man didn't show up to the concert tonight. Rather disapointing! Lucky Boys Confusion came on first and they were excellent. I had heard rumors that they weren't that great, but I was thoroughly impressed, and kinda sad that I came late and missed the beginning of their set. Koala Kid was great, but the crowd wasn't really into it. I think it was because the setting was a little off. It was strange to watch a DJ for 40 minutes. But some of us got to dancing, and that was really fun. Then the MP'Z came on. They were ok I guess. And then.... Method Man. Sadly without Red Man, but Method Man was still great. The only part that upset me was at the end, when he pulled 5 guys onstage and had them do some freestyle rapping. Granted, three of the guys were pretty good and entertaining, but I didn't pay to go to a concert to see people from my own school get on stage and sing, I wanted the real people. But I can understand how hard it must be to just have your friend ditch out and have to play the whole set by yourself. Method Man said he hadn't done anything solo in about 3-4 years. So he was put on the spot. I guess they're kinda worried about Red Man thought because usually he's very reliable, but he is completely missing. Supposedly no one knows where he is. His whole crew showed up to the concert, but him. Hmmm. Strange.

Some Goals for the Summer:
*Teach myslef mineralogy through independent study *Learn how to make pad thai *Spend many hours at the Central Library *Explore downtown Portland to the fullest *Write many letters *Run, run, run, and don't let disgusting men's comments stop me from it *Hangglide from Cape Kiwanda *Plan a camping trip with friends *Climb Mt. Hood *Travel to: Seattle and Grants Pass at least once *Somehow manage to live without the internet at my house! (this is going to be hard) *Volunteer helping kids somehow *Help with the Outdoor School campaign *Write thank you letters to people who have helped me achieve goals thus far *Become non-lactose intolerant again *Learn Hindi! *Drink tons of tea, including frequest trips to Pied Cow and A Shot in the Dark *Get a teva tan (pretty much already accomplished this one) *Convince at least one long distance friend to come visit Portland *Not spend my money frivolously *Never stop reading *Enjoy many relaxing hours on Mt. Tabor *Finish my Iceland report early, not at the last second *Walk around barefoot often *Spend as much time outdoors as possible *Insist on using the new MAX, trolleys, and TRI-MET *Remember the sleep is for the weak *Shoot pool with the boys often *Take full advantage of my free movie rights *Buy a nice camera and teach myself photography *Try not to talk too much about school *Make lots of pink lemonade popsicles *Keep in touch with you.

Crickett Hill was great tonight!

The goal of going to bed early this quarter. Specifically before 2am each night to ensure adequate sleep. OH so broken. Especially this week. Which really sucks. But on a good note, I made a 1am Krispy Kreme run. I love the 24 hour drive through. ;o)

I went to Counted today just to check my stats. It's a neat site that keeps track of how people get to your site. If they just type in the url, or get to it by a search engine, or by a link on someone else's webpage. It's only my third time doing checking up on my blog, I haven't become addicted like Ruthie. ;o) But I thought that it was really funny that someone got to my site by searching for "Krispy Kreme site" on google. All the other random search engine people have been for song lyrics.

So today I was told where the secret keys are to get into two of the Hinds rooms. It's kinda cool, I'm starting to become part of the Dept community now. I know a lot of the grad students, most all of them I think? (well, at least the ones that are social and who actually come out of their office). I really like the dept, especially how small it is (the most they've ever had graduate at one time is 4 undergraduates). It's awesome. The faculty are great, the grad students are awesome, and the undergrads are so much fun to hang out with. I really look forward to every GeoUnion meeting just to talk and hangout.

Oh my! Jessie has just informed me that John Mayer is having a concert in Portland at the Schnitzer on August 9th! I am sooo there! Hoping that the tickets are cheap and go on sale soon when I can get them before they're all snatched up. Exciting. Now I have to call Michael and tell him to come visit the left coast that weekend.

Another whirlwind of a day with a bit of drama. Went to bed at 5am after hearing the birds chirping outside and realized studying physics will do me no good if I don't have at least 3 hours of sleep. The physics midterm was ugly. Terrible. And let's just leave it at that. Trying to unwind I walked by Hutch and ran into the lovely Parker. I sat outside Hutch for a while with him on the grass, and we listened to this really cool folky band perform. They had a bunch of guitars, some banjos, violin, a bass, and a guitar which I forget the word for. It was one of those guitars that you plan flat if you know what I mean. And then, this guy just whipped out a SAW and started playing it with his violin bow. It was amazing. He first played "Somewhere over the Rainbow" and then went into another fun lively song with the rest of the band. I was very impressed. Just an old rusty saw can make some pretty neat music. ... Walking back up University Ave. I ran into Arline! I love randomly seeing Arline! *hug* (oh, sidenote, Ruthie just IMed me and told me that the saw I was just mentioning is called a Dobro, and her dad plays one, pretty cool!). I was really really interested in seeing this movie called "Promises" which is part of FOTA (the Festival of the Arts) this week. It's a film exploring the Arab-Israeli conflict through the eyes of seven Israeli and Palestinian children living in Jerusalem. And following it was going to be a talk by B.Z. Goldberg (who I am think is the director and writer). I was even going to skip my IM soccer game today to attend, and even when it was absolutely gorgeous weather. But sadly, as I planned my day around this event, it moved locations and was changed to a different hour. Blah. So I went to the soccer game on the midway. We're in the graduate league/bracket for some reason this year. But it's better. We have decent competition and it's fun once you get the hang of dodging the trees that overhang into the field and make lots of obstacles. Today we played the Pritzer (the medical school) graduate team. So I scored a goal, and was having a lot of fun in the game. It was almost halftime, when the girl on the other team near me somehow tripped and fell going after the ball. She kept rolling and started to yell. Obviously in pain, she told eveyone that crowded around that she tore her ACL. I guess that she had done this in the past and had already had surgery. Scary scary. So they called 911, called an ambulence. The fire truck nearby came, the police came, but 30 minutes later when I had to leave to go to GeoUnoin, still no ambulence. I can understand that it's not an emergency, but still. We were playing right in front of the hostpital, you'd think it wouldn't be that big of a deal. So that was the crazy soccer team. The other team ended up forfeiting. But hey, I was happy I got to score and to play a little at least. I just felt sooo soo bad for that girl. GeoUnion was nice tonight, not much to say about it though, it would probably bore you all. But from a coupla grad student in the dept I got tickets to the sneak preview tonight of "About a Boy". The movie that comes out Friday with Hugh Grant. I was expecting it to be cheesy, corny, a total chick flick. It was so much better than I thought it would be. I actually enjoyed it, and it was very humorous! I reccomend it as an entertaining movie. And I got to see it with Ruthie, so that was fun. We ended up walking back to Hutch for Lallapolivingroom. A two-day concert with about 20 bands. We got there at about 11:30 and caught the end of the Starlister performance. They were pretty decent I guess. Michael called tonight. Great to talk to him again, I was actually planning on calling him in the next 24 hours or so. Silly to say, but it's lonely online sometimes without him to IM and for me to bother. ;o) Coming back to my room I just want to jump in bed and curl up. wish I had someone to snuggle. I'm exhausted. Worn out. Wishing I had more energy to finish my soc reading that I'm actually enjoying. It's funny. I come back all tired and ready to just relax, but I feel like I can't go to bed without writing in the blog. It's like a bedtime ritual or something.

Melissa is coming to visit this weekend. I'm excited. :o) She went to the UofC last year, but transferred this year to Cornell to concentrate in Nutrician (which the University of Chicago doesn't have).

Today has been a strange day. Busy, long, tiring, sad, but there were also some good parts to it. I think I'm just getting too stressed out for my physics midterm tomorrow. The day started out great though (besides waking up incredibly sleepy). The weather was beautiful and my running coach decided that he wouldn't put us through the workout that he had planned--instead we had 20 minutes to run whenver we wanted in Hyde Park. So Jen and I took off to the lake. It was a beautiful run. We ran down 56th, around the point and then came back. Soc class was actually pretty cool today. I think everyone enjoyed it. It sounds like a strange topic, but we discussed birth and menstruation the entire time. [see a blog below about the book we're discussing]. It felt kinda strange to be talking very bluntly about this issue, but we had some great debates. I'm looking forward to class on Thursday when we go over the second half of the book. The spanish grupo this afternoon was also kinda fun. We ended up writing our own theatrical productions in spanish and then acted them out at the end of 50 minutes. Ours was rather humorous, about people going to the zoo to see a blue turtle with a red stripe. Physics lab was kinda cool cuz we got to work with radioactive stuff, and some people got freaked out cuz we went to the basement to use this strange machine for part of the lab. Lab took so much longer than it needed to be because our TA told us to use the wrong thing in the beginning. Coming back from lab I got an email from Kate. Her dog Jesse died today. He is my favorite dog in the world and I love him so much. He is just so adorable and so loving. I've never had a dog before, but I've grown up with Jesse since 4th grade (my best friends' parents are like my second sets). It's going to be strange to go back and not see him around.

At the moment I feel like I could lay down and go to sleep and not wake up til morning. I am so weak. So exhausted. But I'll probably be staying up all night long studying for the physics midterm and doing lots of spanish homework. It seems like no matter how hard I try to prepare and get things done early, it hits me all at once. I studied/reviewed physics for about 6 hours last night, but I feel like I haven't even made a dent in my book. Arg.

Will gave me some lilacs tonight. It smells so good. I miss the smell. I brought the branch into the lounge as I was studying for physics tonight and just leaned over every few minutes and smiled. :o) He walked over to President Randall's house tonight and picked some from his backyard (supposedly they were lying over the fence). Flowers make me miss my yard at home. My parents are huge gardeners and whenever I call home I usually never catch them because they're outside....just sitting, or planting, or landscaping. And we always have many flowers blooming, or blueberries or something to be picked. When most people would be running off to the florist for boquets, we just walk out the front door and make incredible floral arrangements in minutes. In the summers I eat every meal outside. Either sitting on my front porch (on the second step from the bottom), right next to the lavender, or walking around barefoot in the grass. It feels so good to be outside during summer evenings and just to know that you're away from the city and in a little oasis....your own yard. I am so fortunate.

Gloomy day outside again. Yesterday you could even see your breath! And I thought it was supposed to be warming up. Well, nothing that new happened today. I'm madly publicizing for the NASA event this Friday: Native American Dancing and Drumming at the SMART Museum from 5-7pm. We've hired Crickett Hill Drum and some dancers. It's gonna be awesome! :o)

Paul called me last night at 2am. He's been in Israel all this time. My oh my. :o) I had no idea where he was going for his break. Not so much a shock for me, but definitely for Sudeep. ;o)

Pierce Tower's Team "The Notorious Amphioxous Posse" ended up getting 3rd for ScavHunt. I think that's pretty good considering we missed some major points.

I'm reading a very interesting book for Soc class: The Woman In The Body: A Cultural Analysis of Reproduction. By Emily Martin. Usually I'm not kind of interested in this kind of topic, but this book is actually quite interesting and Martin makes some great points. Check it out.

Today was actually pretty fun, although my goal of studying physics was not achieved (midterm Wed. I am really in trouble now). I went to lunch at President Randall's House for three hours. Talked with Randall for actually an extensive amount of time and met a ton of rich alumni. Including talking with the ex-CEO/President of Amoco for about half an hour. He was happy that I am concentrating in geophysics and was trying to convince me to get into the petroleum industry. I think not! Oh, that house in Sleepers (a movie that I've never seen but now really need to watch), well that was filmed in a guy's house who is a UC alum and a scholarship donor. coolio. Ms. Dolin wasn't at the gathering, I missed her, but it was still neat to talk to a bunch of people. There were some cute elderly people there...including a guy in a red bowtie and PLAID pants! LOL. And this was a very dressy elegant event. I was impressed by his style and spunk. Oh, the disapointing part of the afternoon was that they had sent me an email saying that there would be a lot of food. So, naturally, I skipped breakfast thinking that I would have a nice sitdown full course meal lunch thingy. I thought wrong. There was a lot of food, but it was all high-class, silverplater with orchid decoration finger food appetizer stuff. Not so great to fill your stomach with. Although there were some of the best desserts on earth there, I must say. I met with Boyer (our dean). And at the end of the lunch, when everyone else had left, I was with President Randall and we got to ScavHunt business. hehehe. Items #288: MTV's Cribs presents UofC President Tony Randall. [70 points] , #266 accomplished! I took a digital video camera and got Randall to give me a tour of his house. Three times! Embarassingly, the first two times had to be repeated because I couldn't figure out how to record. But he was supernice about it and patient. I was very impressed with how nice he was. The video turned out to be pretty funny, and he "kicked us out" at the end, just as they do in the show. Also, tonight I completed Item #22, which is 183 points! And it's even bound with reg materials, has an official stamp, barcode, receipt....everything! :o) Thanks Andy! Scavhunt is ......going. I guess that's all I can say. I'm pretty unimpressed by it this year for the most part. I mean, it's still fun, but there's just some component that's missing. Maybe we'll find it when the judging starts tomorrow. Wish us luck!

scavhunt. party on the quads. alcohol. drugs. stripping.honey.beerbongs. bodypartsiwishineversawonverydrunkguys. pete and ben pretending to be scavhunt judges and fooling everyone! ;o) being kicked off the quads by the ORCSA advisors cuz someone soaked them with water. fun? some. loved kickinit with parker and ruthie. scavhunt just isn't the same this year. the party wasn't that great. the enthusiasm from last year is gone. i miss kyle. I'm going to randall's house for lunch today. gonna try to make the Crib video. and get him to sign a music dictionary that's not his. think he'll do it? i hope!

no time to write. scavhunt is in progress! and i'm behind in hw, and i skipped soc today along with almost everyone else in my class. went to the cubs game. we lost, pretty miserably, but i saw sammy hit a homerun! couldn't get into the box to sing take me out to the ballgame, i was very upset. security was too tight, and they said i need a ticket which costs $100,000. anyone have money to give me? ;o)

The List, THE LIST, the sacred list, is finally online. Check it out: http://mariokart64.uchicago.edu/scavhunt02/node2.html. That's just a link to the items, for scavolympics, etc etc and the rest of the main site where you can follow links to other cool stuff, go to http://scavhunt1.uchicago.edu

The madness is here. The 2002 ScavHunt has begun.

Great Day! I woke up to an email from Karin saying that they got a room in Stony Island!!! From what I've heard, Stony Island rooms are the most luxurious rooms on campus. I've yet to check them out. I guess I'll just have to wait and see when I move in next January. I'm so excited about my roommates! Karin is my roomate, she's from Hong Kong and I'm so excited to be living with her. My suitmates will be Erin and Sylvie. :o) So even though I woke up late my morning was off to a good start, then spanish went well, physics was decent, and I went to a spanish lector session (because I have to make up mine for tomorrow if I'm going to the Cubs game!) which was actually pretty entertaining. And then, the best part of the day: running into Betul!!!!!!! She was my RH (Resident Head) of my house last year and one of the most amazing ladies ever. I love her! She moved to the North Side this year and so this is actually my first time seeing her. We've tried to meet up a few times this year, but we've both been so busy. But today I was walking back to Pierce and noticed her walking by and got sooooo excited. We both lit up seeing each other and the whole time kept giving each other hugs. It was pretty funny. I've missed her so much!

A hint on Summer Breeze:
So last night in physics lab I was talking to Kathy Lin, who is on MAB, and she was giving us little hints on the line-up though she couldn't really tell us anything. But one big clue that she did say is that the lineup is completely all male, and that there are absolutely no female singers, so no matter how trustworthy our "inside connection" is, saying that Lauren Hill is coming, they're wrong. Back to the drawing board. Well, I guess my Shakira hopes have just died.

So, here's the choice: Soc class and spanish lector, or reschedule my spanish lector and skip soc class (my teacher isn't even here this week), take a break from scavhunt for a bit, and attend the 1:30 Cubs game Thursday, for free. HmmmMMMmmmmm. I really do adore Wrigley field. This is a hard decision!

The neogothic buildings that usually surround me constantly are being strangled, completely covered, by ivy. It's nice, really. Spring is really here, and so is all the new growth. Gray stone, mud yards, bland colors, are disapearing and in their place are vibrant colored plants trees ground covering shrubs and flowers. Nature wins once again and overcomes the depressive sight that this university can sometimes portray after a seemingly long winter. Now if only the weather will cooperate.

This week many hours have definitely been spent thinking of home, and friends, and home, and how i really really miss home. Have I mentioned that yet? ;o)

Because I've been in a very musical mood lately, I thought you'd like to know what I'm listening to. But actually I have a bozillion mp3's, so this really doesn't reflect the real me. For instance, I'm listening to Method Man presently. Well, for starters, here's a taste of my Cd's (every single cd that I own, or have stolen from my parents!):

*John Mayer: Room for Squares
*The Smashing Pumpkins: Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, favorite song: Porcelina of the Vast Oceans
*The Presidents of the United States of America
*Stone Temple Pilots
*K-Ci&JoJo: It's Real
*Cusco: Apurimac II - Return to Ancient America"
*Message in a Bottle Soundtrack
*Boyz II Men: Cooleyhighharmony
*Sinéad Lohan: No Mermaid
*Live: Throwing Copper
*Phish: Junta
*Oasis: What's the Story Morning Glory?
*Collective Soul
*Santana: Supernatural
*Zap Mama: Adventures in Afropea 1
*Kíla: Tóg É Go Bog É
*Eric Clapton: Pilgrim
*The Katinas
*Sonic Flood
*dc Talk: Jesus Freak
*Shakira: Dónde Están Los Ladrones?
*Shakira: The Remixes
*Shakira: Laundry Service
*Afro Celt Sound System: Volume 1 Sound Magic
*Afro Celt Sound System: Volume 2: Release
*Afro Celt Sound System: Volume 3: Further in Time
*Les Nubians: Princesses Nubiennes
*Bob Marley: Trench Town Rock
*Bread: Baby I'm A Want You
*Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack
*Hyde Park Vineyard Church: Forgiven Much
*Spirit of the First People
*Luxury: Amazing and Thank You
*Timothy James Meaney: Looking for Lives
*Timothy James Meaney: Be the Child
*Real World: 10 out of 10
*The White Stripes: White Blood Cells
*Set Apart
*N*Sync
*Coldplay: Parachutes
*VR5: Virgin Recommends V.5
*David Sanchez

Wow! I'm impressed that I have 45 cd's or so. I think I've only bought about 8 of them personally, and somehow have acquired the rest. Pretty neat. :o)

So, besides John Mayer my new favorite musicans are Dispatch. And, coincidentally, they are having a block party concert in Chicago on May 31st! The Friday of reading period, right before finals. AND, Carbon Copy has graciously offered to subsidize at leat $5 of my $10 ticket. :o) Things are getting better and better. Would anyone like to join me?

My new favorite pasttime: illuminating my room with my two blacklights, looking at the phosphorescent paint I have put on my walls in constellations, listening to alternative music and blowing bubbles--which look really awesome under the blacklight.

It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything will be just fine, everything will be alright. -Jimmy Eat World, The Middle. hehehe. Ok so today I was trying to sing this in the car, just as I always do. And asked Parker what they were actually saying for those two lines (in bold) and he didn't know. And now I just asked Satya, master of song lyrics, as he came dancing into my room singing, and he didn't know either. At least I'm not the only one. ;o) Now it's settled, and now I don't have to make up my own lyrics like I usually do! ;o)

So cinco de mayo came and went. I roamed around Chicago with Parker today. He had Amy's car and we went to Indiana to the Lucky Horseshoe Casino to pick up Amy's keys (she works there as a cocktail waitress). It was soo sleezy, so trashy, and the people...yuck. I can't imagine having fun at that place, or really why anyone enjoys that kind of entertainment. Then the lovely Parker and I just prowled the streets of south chicago and worked our way northwest until we came to Krispy Kreme. :o) We stopped and bought a dozen of those amazing doughnuts, and went to Kmart since there was storewide closing sale. I bought a bunch of random things, including a card for my parents 30th wedding anniversary (which is on Memorial Day) and some socks for my mom for Mother's Day and a picture box. I was hoping for a cheap bike or some soccer cleats, but I was out of luck. Anyways, we drove through Little Village and possibly went through Pilsen, which was our actual destination, although we had no idea where it was located. Dinner downtown. I decided that our little venture was helping me with my spanish homework and studying for my spanish test tomorrow morning as I attempted to translate some of the signs along the way. ;o) Even though I feel like I really suck at spanish I was excited to actually recognize some words as we drove. Nice to gain a little confidence I guess.

Sleeping through my alarm (a whole hour of music!) I woke up at 1pm today. I was so upset at myself. I really didn't want to miss church this morning, and along with HPVC I missed softball practice too. I'm now cheering myself up by listening to Shakira (take note all: I am an original fan from years back!) :o) Wishing I could go lay out in the sun, but I have some 'zine pages to make for Carbon Copy. Happy cinco de mayo and Greek-Orthodox Easter everyone!

Tonight was so much fun! I went to Parker's apt for a BBQ and met some nice girls who live below him. A whole party of us ended up kickinit in his backyard all evening. "Broke" into a parked car (sitting mysteriously in their backyard). Good music, good talking. An all around pleasant evening. Until the shaving cream incident. It was almost a mirror memory from last year in the dorm when I lived with all the boys. hehehe. They ended up getting completely covered in shaving cream and ran around their apartment chasing each other. Then decided to throw one of them in the bathtub and soak him with beer. Not so great an idea cuz you know he's gonna do something back! So the crazy foodfight began. I, of course, ran the other direction out of the way the best I could, but still got close enough for a few snapshots. hehehe. I hope they turn out. So then Ruthie and I retired to Parker's room where we watched Shakira music videos. I really wish the UofC MAB (major activities board) would bring Shakira to sing at Summer Breeze in two weekends. I really want to know who is playing, and it's annoying that they haven't released the names of the bands yet. But there are a few speculations that I heard tonight. Like Kid Rock. Hmmm. So the night was entertaining, and it was great to talk to Parker Ben Jen Pete Mike Ruthie Tal Elena Ami Marissa and the other 8 or so people that i forget their name. It was a nice relaxing backyard bbq kinda night. Just what I needed.

I have completely wasted my Saturday. I've done nothing. The only actually good things I've done was talking to Kate (I was soooo excited to hear from her again!) and then went to the BSLC with Sudeep to pick up some cookies that he left there. Thought I was going to Pilsen, but was too lazy to actually take the blue line there (and I heard from a few people that it actually doesn't go there on the weekend). I guess I'm hoping that I will be going tomorrow for cinco de mayo. If I was in Portland I would be going down to the waterfront today for the big cinco de mayo party and carnival with the lovely Mr. Henry Cartagena. Oh well. I'm lazy. It's really hard to motivate myself to do anything school-wise today. I keep thinking of the many things I want to do just for fun. But weekends were made for fun right?! ;o)

I'm lyin' here with you
Listening to the rain
Smilin' just to see
The smile upon your face
*
And these are the moments
I thank God that I'm alive
And these are the moments
I'll remember all my life
*
I could not ask for more
Than this time together
Could not ask for more
Than this time with you
And every prayer has been answered
And every dream I have has come true
And right here in this moment is right where I'm meant to be
And here with you here with me
*
-Edwin McCain, "I Could Not Ask For More"

D.O.G.S Softball! We had practice today and it was so much fun. At Washington Park. :o) I haven't played softball in 5 years! Since freshman year of high school, but it brought back so many wonderful memories of my previous 7 years of games and practices. I'm thinking that I would love to join a low-key team this summer in Portland if I can find one and have time. I'm kinda sad I can't continue with this one all summer, but there is no chance that I'm staying in Chicago. I have my softball cleats, but my glove is getting dusty sitting at home. I feel silly asking my parents to mail it though when I'll just be bringing it back in about 4 weeks, so I'm borrowing Andy's extra one. Meaning that it's a kingergartoner's glove. For real. I was giggling about it the whole time. The sad thing is that it actually fits my hand, pretty well. But I keep overestimating it's petiteness and trying to catch balls about 3 inches over the glove, so they kept flying past me. But by the end of practice I was getting the hang of that silly mit. Hopefully I'll be able to find another one before our game on Friday.

Oh. The flood of memories! thanks Jessie. The Rock (you wouldn't understand).

I'm worried about you. Please be safe. Please feel better.

I worry too much. Have too much to say too little time to type and so many thoughts to spill onto my weblog. and then i hesitate, because in the future will i really want to have all this online for the whole world to read, but then i hesitate because i feel so dumb censoring myself. i guess i will just omit names, and make this a little anonymous/ambigous. but there are certain things heavy on my mind right now.

i miss home. so much. and this doesn’t seem like it has any connection, but i was crying missing home while watching the shawshank redemption for the first time tonight. it was such a good movie. maybe it was the comraderie of the people. or the sense of belonging to a community. i miss my neighborhood. i miss my city. i miss my land. i miss home. i know, it's completely screwed up that i'm comparing myself to a completely screwed up subject of a movie (prison and murderers), and not making any sense or doing well at this at all. i'm sure that those of you reading this can't see my meaning. reading this a couple of times even i don't know really how to start or express my thoughts. or why this movie really makes me so pondering of home. maybe i am making myself sound like a lunatic or something.... i can't really explain it. brooks. i fell in love with the guy. i don't know. the elderly just have a special place in my heart. and it made me really really really miss some friends (80 and 90 year old friends) from home. talking to them. reminiscing on thier past, thier childhood. telling them about my life. sharing experiences and differences. i just miss the lack of interaction between age groups here at college. there isn't any. unless of course you count the few conversations you have with your professors. and occasionally some at church. but other than that you're stuck here with all the other 20-something year old "kids". it just doesn't feel right.

today was national day of prayer.

today was Dierdre's amazing cello performance that i went to see at Fulton recital hall this afternoon.

today was also one of the greatest soc classes ever. For my soc, Democracy and Social Science we are studying health and democracy, at various levels. This week we've been discussing stem cell reserach, particularly embroyonic, which becomes a heated debate, although I think I might be the only person in the classroom thoroughly opposed to the issue. but today we had a guest lecturer. A Phd holder from Yale in neurobiology, who is now a Catholic priest. I wish i could tell you his name but I don't remember at the moment. He was a great speaker, started talking about the biology behind stem cell reseach, IVF, cloning and a few other things, and then pranced into the ethical and moral issues. he actually didn't get to finish his talk though because we had sooo many questions for him during the middle. i was very very disapointed 1.) that i was dumb and didn't tape record him 2.) that i couldn't stay after and talk wiht him cuz i had to run to spanish lector session and 3.) because his most important points were at the end and we didn't even get to hear his conclusion. but nonetheless i was thoroughly impressed. he came in his priest outfit (is there a special word for that?) wearing his color, and along with him a cell phone and computer wiht powerpoint with a little remote control that was oh so cool. classmates thought that it was rather amusing. he was so knowledgeable, answered every question extremely well, and seemed to care particularly that we understand the subject and especially the ethics that the science invaded. i wish he could have spoken for another couple of hours!!!

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courst of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young--a place near your alter, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God. Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere; I would rather be a doorkeeper in the hosue of my God than dwell in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is a sun and shield; the Lord bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold for those whose walk is blameless.

O Lord Almighty, blessed is the man who trusts in you. --Psalm 84:1-4, 10-12

The Hot Chocolate Club. I think it's one of the best ideas in the world! And it's now an official RSO (registered student organization) with the university. I'm so proud of Hannah for starting it, and a bit jealous that I didn't start it first. ;o) I can't wait to join. It's a club promoting the drinking of hot chocolate as a stress reliever and as a way to get more socialization on campus. They are going to make cups and put free hot chocolate packets in them to hand out at the new student orientation, they're planning a trip to a soup kitchen to help serve meals and then hand out hot chocolate, and also go on field trips. The sad thing is that because I am going away to study in India next autumn quarter and Hannah will be studying abroad winter quarter in South Africa we won't be seeing each other again until spring. I'm really going to miss our Bible study next year. I feel like we've grown pretty close these last few meetings. I'm going to especially miss rj, it hasn't really sunk in that he's going to graduate and leave until just tonight. :o(

On a completely different note, reading Jen's blog really stirred up something in me tonight. It's so true. The way our university seems to just shove our problems under the rug and try to keep it low-key. Suicide is such a huge problem here. And though the number of suicides has been "down" in the past year (ie. we actually didn't have one last year) this problem should not be ignored. Resources need to be put in place for people to be able to communicate thier problems so they will not have to resort to such horrible measures. I have dealt with suicidal-minded friends, friends with depression, friends going through terrible times. Just being there and being a resource to vent, and also a resource for my friends to come to so I can refer them to someone else (and tell someone when I think that they're in a dangerous mental suicidal position), I believe, has saved lives. Friends are important. Just basic talking and open communication is essential. Caring, loving, listening people need to be in place when someone needs to reach out. The University of Chicago's Niteline should not have been closed down, our counseling should be much more accessable, there needs to be a better support system in our university. Reacting to the suicides in our university community should not be silence, there should be discussion, the problem needs to be brought to the surface, out in the open and addressed so that we at least attempt to stop these tragedies! And the problem needs to be communicated in a straightforward, respectable manner, not how the campus newspapers presented this present one.

My new favorite person (for the day): The picture lady at Jewel Osco on 53rd. She was soooo nice, and I got a whole sheet of 16 passport pictures (that actually look decent!) for only $7.....if only I had known about this three weeks ago!