The calc homework is conquered once again.

I actually have something to tell today. Today I figured out that there is someone who has almost the same schedule as me. Weird, huh? I mean, out of the tens of thousands of students that are here and out of the hundreds of classes to choose from, there's thousands of possible combinations and someone has almost the same schedule as me. He's in my Honors Calc class, I believe he's in Great Books, and I saw him in my Music Theory lecture today. I think that's as close as it will get.

My partner in German today was a guy named Dave. He was cool and he likes bagels.

Radio U is doing a pledge/money-drive thing. I'd like to give money, but I don't have a lot to spare right now. Maybe I'll call in. You should all call in and give money because Radio U rocks!

I like it when they're giving tours to prospective students and their parents because then when I'm walking down the hall towards my room with my backpack I feel cool. Like, "I'm already a student here and you're not! Ha ha nanner nanner."

So I was sitting in front of the TV doing my calc and I thought of something to write, but I can't think of it now. Hmmm... over half of my books are calc books. I have 3 textbooks and one student solutions manual, not to mention my Calculus for Dummies book or the Calculus Cliff's Notes (and Algebra and Geometry).

I am a freaking genius. No, not really, but I feel good about my learning capabilities right now. I had these two problems in calc that I was having trouble with. I worked and worked and I realized that my problem with number 14 was algebra. So because the problem was algebra, I knew it was hopeless to keep trying since we all know how good I am at algebra... or adding fractions for that matter. ;) Then there was number 60. The homework was due tomorrow so I decided to write down the best answers I could come up with. Then I remembered the math lab that my roommate had talked about. So at 7pm I made the trek to the math lab in East Hall. After I found it (I almost got lost at one point), I signed in and asked the guy at the "front desk" what I was supposed to do. He asked what my math class was and I said 185. He said that he wasn't sure if there was anyone around to help people in 185 so he told me to pull up a chair and he would help me. We started with 14 and to my complete surprise, I had been doing it right and I just didn't take it far enough. The algebra that we ended up doing on it was stuff that I had thought about doing. So that made me happy. Then we went to number 60. Number 60 was three parts: a, b, and c. The answer to part a was pretty much what I had written down. The answer to part b was almost exactly what I had done. The answer to part c was exactly what I had written. I was so happy. I was ecstatic. I almost wanted to skip back to my dorm I was so happy. I mean, back in high school, stuff like this never happened to me. I was never able to figure out stuff on my own without Doc walking me through it. And now I've done this many times already. Things that I had so much trouble with last year are easy now, and I love it... but I still want my solutions manual.

I went to a Bible study this evening and it was really fun.

My throat has a tickle in it.

And, Ryan, you made my night when you said to me, "this may sound weird, but I really miss your sarcasm... nobody pulls it off like you do." Aww, it put "warm fuzzies" in my heart.

Three Words

This week has been awfully boring... mostly because I have so much work to do... papers and tests and confusing calc and reading... I'll never get it all done. I guess that's why my life has been boring lately... there's just too much work.

None of you are a wolverine "to the power 2" (as Jani, me calc instructor would say). I like that I am. I think it's cool.

My GB paper was turned in today. At least that's over with.

I spent 2 hours on my calc today... homework and studying for the quiz on Friday. I have my first calc test on Wednesday the 13th of October. I'm supposed to read 6 books of the Odyssey before tomorrow but I don't think I will.

What should I talk about? I accidentally got spicy cheese on my class ring today. I figured out how to work my febreeze today... or yesterday... I don't remember. I put up some more pictures today. My space is very cozy. You should all come visit me and then you could see my cool area.

A Pointless Post

This is my list of work and the order in which it should be done:
- GB paper
- german homework
- calc homework and reading
- other calc homework
- 6 books of the odyssey to read
- study for calc test on friday
- MT homework
- study for MT and german test
I know, it sounds incredibly fun... you all wish you could get in on this action.

Today I had lunch with Alison, Priya, Bob, and Denny. Yesterday I had supper with Steph and Shivani. Also yesterday, I was partners with Lauren in my german class... she's cool. The pizza was really good today. I'm drinkin Sobe right now.

I'm almost done with my GB paper. I can't wait until I'm done.

A few days ago I realized that I have never had to walk to class in the rain.

I would marry a tree.

Actually Ryan, I was not working on my paper when you IMed me... I just didn't want to talk to you. Just kidding. If I'm ever at my computer when someone IMs me I always answer it no matter what I'm doing. But, ya know, sometimes when it says "Away" I actually am away... who woulda thunk... and that was the case tonight. I wasn't even in my room. When Ryan IMed me tonight around 9pm I was at a weird bubble tea place with my friend, Tian. I had a good time, but most of my day today that wasn't spent in classes was spent writing my paper... my paper which is coming along but not nicely. So because of that fact, I will be keeping this short tonight.

Tian and I had a nice talk. She's really great. One of the things we talked about was "if I could marry an inanimate oject, what would it be?" I chose a tree. She chose a rubber ducky. Her roommate chose physics.

I have a lot to do but there's nothing that I really have the motivation to do right now. Maybe I'll blow my nose. *30 seconds later* Well, that was fun.

"Hold me when I'm here, right me when I'm wrong, hold me when I'm scared, and love me when I'm gone. Everything I am and everything in me wants to be the one you wanted me to be. I'll never let you down, even if I could. I'd give up everything if only for your good. So hold me when I'm here, right me when I'm wrong. You can hold me when I'm scared, you won't always be there, so love me when I'm gone." <-- the chorus of my senior song.

"If it is your goal, strive for it."

Good news... I finished my German homework for tomorrow and actually looked at and thought about my Great Books essay that is due Wednesday. There are 3 topics that look do-able for me and now I just have to pick one that I can get 4 to 5 non-BS pages on.

Alecia came to Ann Arbor with me today. It was fun to share my "new home" with an old friend. But then when I got here and everyone left, I missed everyone 10 times more than before. This weekend was so fun, so great. I was so happy that I got to tell Mr. Smith about my 4 on the AP bio test. He said he was glad someone finally passed.

Well, I'm tired and emotionally drained... the past hour I was writing letters to people saying what I always wanted to tell them but never did to make sure they would know if I ever died before I was able to tell them... not that I'm planning on dying anytime soon. Some people have influenced and impacted me more than they know and I just wanted to make sure it was documented so that even if something happened to me before I got the chance to tell them then they would know how important they are... they deserve to know. But hopefully I will be able to tell them myself without the letters.

Good night and may God bless you.

Me = (Wolverine)²

Well, this is the first time I've written a blog from home since August, I believe... and I might not even get to post it if the internet keeps acting dumb.

Yesterday was so great. I got to see so many people: Bonnie, Jake, Mrs. Gordon, Angie, Caden, Morgan, Sienna, Hope, Ms. Herrela, Kev, Jen, Isaac, Gabe, Caleb, Ben, Aubree, Ryan, Isaiah, Mrs. Macheske, Ross, Alecia, Hannah, BethAnne, Chad, Winky (Tony), Rebekah, Susan, Jillian, Glen, Andrew, Mr. Smith, Doc, Carol and Eugene, some old lady that neither Hannah nor I knew but who knew both of us, a bunch of random people (Joel, Kady, Clark, Doug, Sally, etc), and I even caught a glimpse of Mr. Krohn. I am glad that I was talked into coming home.

On the ride home I read 3.5 books of The Odyssey and made good use of my time. I stopped in town and watched the parade before I even went home... and it was a good thing I did because I saw a ton of people there. Then I went home for a little bit but then went up to the school and hung out with Ryan, Ross, and Hannah. After a while, Hannah and I went out to the football field and waited for the game to start. Hannah and I were sent on an errand by Mrs. Gordon and BethAnne to get BethAnne's tuba from the band room. The game was fun... we won 48-0. After the game, I went back to the school instead of going home right away because I didn't want to go home. When I was at the school I got another calc book and gave Doc money so he will get me the instructor's solutions manual to my calc book. Then I went home. Today I hung out with Ross a little and watched TV while I worked on my calc homework.

I am so happy for my AGS football team. It kind of annoys me that they waited until the year after I graduated to be good, but it's still my school, my alma mater. My other Wolverines are doing ok as well. I'm not sure if they beat Iowa today or not, but last I checked they were ahead.

Sarah The Slacker

'Tis a strange thing to walk on brown fallen leaves as an 85 degree breeze wafts by one's face.

There is this guy, Cody, who looks like a goatier version of Bobby. Also, there's this guy in my German class whose mouth expressions look like Hugh Grant's (the actor).

I am so tired of doing homework. I just want to sit back, relax, and hang out on the internet or watch TV or listen to music or talk with friends. There really isn't anything that I need to do before tomorrow... there are just things that I should be doing so there is less to do later, such as my GB paper or studying MT or studying calc or reading The Odyssey. Will I actually do it or will I be a slacker? Slacker is the more appealing option right now.

I hate it when my Yahoo says I have new mail but I don't. I like Stargate... I'm watching it right now. I have a word document open with my name typed in the corner that is titled "The Iliad"... it makes me feel like I'm getting something accomplished. The rest of my night will consist of sitting here until 9pm, watching the season premiere of CSI until 10pm, and then watching the season premiere until 11pm.

Last night, I went to a Cru thing called East Madison Night and/or prayer and praise. It was cool; I enjoyed it. There were maybe 20ish people there and there were 2 guys playing guitar. First we sang a song (Come Thou Fount, maybe) and then Tony read a verse and said a little something and then everyone prayed silently and people could lead out if they wanted. Then we sang another song (Meet With Me, but not the one by Ten Shekel Shirt) and Tony read another verse and we all prayed again. Then we sang Prince of Peace which is a totally cool song that I love and one of the guitar players closed it with prayer. I like Cru and the people involved with it.

Very little was accomplished by me today. I finished my German homework and that's about all I did. I think I'm just excited to go home.

I have a pharmacy above my computer.

BIG NEWS! Well, it might not seem big to you, but it was big to me. But I'll get to that later.

I love Wednesday mornings because not only do I get to sleep in until 8:45 but I get the room enitirely to myself from when I wake up until I leave for class. I think Tuesday is my favorite day of classes because I get to do everything right in a row without having to go to the dumb GB discussion (but today in the discussion I totally answered a question that my GSI asked... the answer was andromache). I like Mondays because I get to go to the 7th floor of the bell tower for music theory. Thursdays are nice because my classes get done at noon. Fridays are good because they're Fridays.

The shelf above my computer is like a pharmacy. It has pepto bismol, contact solution (and extra contacts), tylenol pm, 2 bottles of extra strength tylenol, aleve, children's motrin, nuetrogena clear pore treatment, centrum vitamins, deodorant, hairspray, and some other stuff.

I might go out and do something before I go to sleep tonight, but I'm not sure if I will. After all, I do like to sleep. I don't feel as sick as I did yesterday but I still feel a little feverish. I am coming home on Friday... I was thoroughly talked into it. I went all the way to the Hatcher Graduate Library today to find a specific calc book but they didn't have it. Talk about a rip-off.

So (big news time) I was at lunch in the cafeteria thing. I had just gotten my food and was walking towards the desserts for a cookie when someone said my name. I didn't pay much attention to it because there are tons of Sarahs so I kept walking. Then the person said my name again, so I turned around and there was... can you guess?... ooo, I'm keeping you in suspence... you'll never know who I saw. I didn't recognize the person instantly; they had a hat on plus I hadn't seen them in a year and a half, but it only took me a split second to figure out who it was. It was Kyle! (Kyle from Au Gres... graduated in '03) I was totally surprised. Who would've guessed that I'd see him in my dorm when he lives in West Quad. It was cool. Just two days ago someone had asked me if I had seen any of the people from Au Gres and at that point the only one I had seen was Steve. And that was my big news.

Delta Epsilon your mother.

What did I do today? Well, let me tell you. Today I sat with Alison in GB. I got a 98% A+ on my first German test. In Music Theory, I leanred about triad notation and how to specifically differentiate between major, minor, diminished, and augmented triads. In calc, we went over some more of the delta epsilon stuff. I realized that others were having the same problem as I was: they knew the steps but didn't understand what they were doing. Then we went on to easy stuff. I went to lunch and, as I was looking for an inviting empty table, someone yelled my name and I saw Bob (who I had met last Monday) and walked over there. I sat down and he introduced me to his friend, Denny. After a little bit, Alison came and sat with us. Alison is in Calc 2, and I mentioned the delta epsilon thing to her. Denny heard and started laughing and Bob talked about his experiences with it. Apparently, everyone hates delta epsilon.

Speaking of delta epsilon, last night I had an interesting conversation with my High School calc teacher. I had been struggling to understand the delta epsilon definition of a limit for a week. In that time, it went from no understanding at all to a fuzzy understanding. So with a fuzzy understanding of it, I called up Doc. After that conversation and my class today, my understanding is clearer but not completely clear. But, Doc is supposed to order the solutions manual for me, so that will be nice to have.

So, after lunch I went for a walk to Ulrich's to cash in my refund. Then I went to the drug store and bought Halls and Children's Motrin. I was listening to my Launchcast radio and Blessed Be Your Name came on... Tree63 was singing it. it made me happy. I read 4 books of the Iliad... only 4 more to go... before Thursday. At 9 I went to a Bible study. It was alright. Now I'm back in my room and ready to sleep. I feel sick.

Should I go home on Friday? I wasn't going to but then someone told me I should and that "everyone, every alumni (alumnus) comes back for the homecoming game." So I don't know what I'm going to do. What do you think I should do?

I Love Apple Juice!

Sometimes my feet smell. My feet never used to smell until my sandals shared a plastic bag with Alecia's. I guess the smelly foot disease is contagious.

I wrote about Ross in my German class today. We were taking our first test and the last question was "write about your best friend." So I thought, 'Who could I write about? Well, there's Alecia, Ross, Leslie, and the rest of the youth group. I can't write about all of them.' So I picked Ross, and this is what I wrote:
Mein beste Freund ist Ross. Er ist sechzehn Jarhe alt. Er ist in High School, aber er will an CMU in Mt. Pleasant studieren. Ross kommt aus Au Gres, Mi. Er spielt die Trompete sehr gern.

I was sitting on the 9th floor of South Quad working on my calc homework when I happened to look up and saw a blimp outside the window. It was in the sky, casually floating around Ann Arbor... good ol' Outback Steakhouse blimp.

My little area is nice. I like it. Everything is arranged so neatly in a way entirely pleasing to me. You'll have to come see my area.

I registered to vote today because they were giving away free t-shirts. Bribes do work.

Without A Trace...?

I like the Sunday lunch here. It goes from 11:00 - 2:00 and it consists of eggs, sausage, hashbrowns, doughnuts, and many other things. I guess it's like a brunch.

Skillet's CD Collide reminds me of high school... and it makes me sad. I listened to this CD in my car for weeks at a time. The songs became my theme songs... many songs described my feelings at some point. I remember driving to school one early Friday morning and sitting in the parking lot before my chem lab listening to this CD. I remember driving home after a tough day or a tough class with this CD soaking up my feelings. And now as I listen to it once again, vivid memories rush through my brain, faded experiences and forgotten feelings float to the surface of my consciousness. Once again, I miss and long for my high school days.

I read 3 books of The Iliad today. I'm sitting on my bed right now and my head is a few inches from the ceiling. There were carrots sitting on our chair. My ear hurts from hy headphones.

Does the word "Away" mean anything to anyone anymore?

My sleep was very fulfilling last night.

I totally missed lunch today. I thought lunch went until 1:30 but apparently that is only on weekdays. So I got a smoothie from the Cafe Con.X.ion instead, and it was quite good.

My Wolverines are losing at the moment. (Notice that I update this various times throughout the day before I post it). Grr. I thought for once I wouldn't be at a school where they were the underdog in everything, but it appears I might be wrong. But actually we won, so it's all good.

Yesterday evening I went to a "Cru meeting"... everyone who was involved with Cru at UM went to MLB 3 and there was a band playing worship music that we sang with and then there was a speaker and music. I didn't know any of the songs but it wasn't hard to catch on... well, I knew one, but it was a little different. After the worship, Cru treated us to coffee at Starbucks. Then I went back to SQ with some people, and we went up to the 6th floors where more people were and watched My Best Friend's Wedding. I had a really good time.

So I napped for a while this afternoon. I was reading The Iliad and fell asleep in the middle of book 11. It was a nice sleep... an hour or two. It was my first nap since the one time when I was watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and I couldn't keep my eyes open so I went up to my room and fell asleep to the Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack... but that was months ago.

Juxtaposition?

Often times you don't realize how valuable or beneficial something is until after the fact, until it's gone. It is hard to tell what will impact you, what will leave an impression on you until much later. For example, I took art last year and somewhat regarded it as a blow off class. 'I'm not learning how to write or add, how important can it be?' It wasn't until two days ago that I saw the benefits of the class. I went to a poster sale in the Union, and looking through the boxes of posters I noticed that many were reproductions of famous works of art. As I flipped through them, I could recognize the Van Goghs, Monets, Dalis, Ganguins, and others easily. It was because of my art class that I was no longer ignorant in the area of art. I was able to look at those paintings and appreciate them much more than if I hadn't taken art. This may seem like a "so what" thing, but to me it's not. I never would have imagined that I would be at college thinking about and thankful for my high school Art 1 class. Also, this brings back a memory from when I was in Algebra 2, back when teachers had websites through the school's website for their class. One day I went to the Algebra 2 website created by the "infamous" Doc. There was a little story on the front page that, in summary, was something like this: "A guy was walking along the beach when he encountered a supernatural being. The S.B. told the guy to pick up the pebbles, put them in his pocket, and then the next day he would be both happy and sad. So the guy did was he was told... he picked up a handful of pebbles and put them in his pocket. The next day he looked in his pocket and where the pebbles were, there were now diamonds. The guy was happy that he now had diamonds but sad that he hadn't picked up more pebbles when he had the chance. So it is with your education." And just like that story, I am now glad that I took art but I regret that I didn't allow myself to get more out of it. Naturally, I feel like a dork because I still remember this, but (illustrating my other point) it shows that you never know what will leave an impression on you, and by extension, you never know what little thing that you do will impact those around you.


Anyway, I took my first college quiz today. It was in calc and it wasn't very hard, although I do not know if I did well or not. At first, it was 2 questions long... one on the front of the paper and one on the back. Each question was divided into different parts... question 1 had 4 parts and question 2 had 2 parts, but because there wasn't as much time left to do it as he had planned, he told us not to do the second part of number 2. Number 1 was exactly like the problem in the chapter review that I did last night when I was studying for the quiz.

I think college has been good for me in an educational sense. Things that I had "learned" in high school but never actually knew how to do are now simple when I learn them here, and I wonder why I had so much trouble with it in HS. I believe the answer is that here I take the time to actually learn it, whereas in HS I didn't. I don't think it's the teaching/teachers or the books or the homework that is making the difference, it's my attitude. Plus, everything goes by so fast here. Well, not everything... the weeks and days aren't going by very fast, but the subject material is.

Today at lunch a girl came up to the table I was sitting at and asked if I was at the Campus Crusade for Christ (Cru) thing. I said yes, since I was, and she said she thought I was there and asked if she could eat with me. I said sure and we talked over lunch. It's fun to meet new people. And, actually, she lives on my floor, so that's cool.

Blizzard is my trusty fan.

If yesterday was uneventful then today was dead. Nothing at all happened... so I'll take you through my day anyway.

I woke up around 7 a.m. for my class at 9:00, but I think I'm going to push that back to 7:45. I got ready, ate an apple, and headed out for the Modern Language Building around 8:45. It ws a 15 minute walk, so I arrived at 9:00. By the way, whenever a class is scheduled to start it's actually 10 minutes later, so my GB class didn't actually start until 9:10 this morning. It's called Michigan time. My mind drifted significantly during the Great Books lecture, and then I was off to German on the 2nd floor of the MLB. German was typical. After German was Music Theory, also in MLB... we learned about minor scales today which took all of 5 minutes and then he was back to majors. I like that professor. Then I went back to my room, ate lunch with Steph and Shivani, worked on my German, went for a walk to the Union, studied for my calc quiz (I was on the 9th floor where there is air conditioning and my hand went numb), read book 10 of the Iliad, went to dinner with Steph and Rebecca, watched TV, talked to the RA, watched more TV, and now I'm on the internet.

The only highlight of my day was finding out that Falling Up and Hawk Nelson were going to be at 5529, but it's sad because I can't go.

Moving here wasn't really an adjustment for me. It all seems normal and it's been like that since I got here. It's almost like I belong here.

Today was rather uninteresting and uneventful.

I was in my Great Books discussion which was in Mason Hall. The class was supposed to end at noon, but at noon people were still talking... they were discussing whether or not Achilles was actually the "hero" of the Iliad. They discussed and discussed and discussed it to death and then beat it into the ground 5 times over, 6 feet under and they kept going. Finally at 5 after, people began to leave, so I left as well. I speed walked down the sidewalk and across the Diag, under a building, up a few flights of stairs, and into room 221. There were only 2 desks left, and so I had to squeeze into the corner. Not 30 seconds after I sat down, Jani said, "Hello for everyone." This is what he says every single day at the beginning of class. Well, anyway, that's that and calc was relatively boring today but there was no homework.

There isn't as much racial diversity here as one would think. White people are definitely the majority. In my observations from most to least it goes White, Asian, Arab, and Black. I'm sure there's others but that is all I've seen or been able to distinguish. I don't know... I just got the impression before I came that it was so much different here than what I'm used to, and I really am not seeing it.

I ate a cookie dipped in milk at lunch and it reminded me of this cereal that I used to eat at my grandma's house all the time... it was my favorite cereal.

I am victorious!

I was eating lunch and for some reason started thinking about what the opposite of a funeral would be. It wouldn't be a birth, because the pair there would be birth and death. A funeral is more of a ceremony type of thing, a formal event, so I thought of birthdays. But birthdays are annual and a funeral is only once. But that got me thinking about what birthdays are really about. Is it just, "I'm a year older, woohoo," or is it a celebration of life, a celebration of your life... the anniversary of your first day alive as an individual on this earth, the day your life began. A celebration of your life on the day your life began seems appropriate. And so, President's birthdays which are marked on the calendar are not as inconsequential as I once thought. If their birthdays are thought of as a celebration of their lives instead of just the day they were born, then the day seems much more important... or at least it does to me. And those were my thoughts during lunch.

I found the ketchup today. Unfortunately, I found it as I was walking out of lunch, but at least I know where it is now. One day last week I had chicken nuggets and because I had no clue where the ketchup was, I dipped them in spaghetti sause. Speaking of lunch, I think it's funny that UM can still have better meals and more variety than high school even though UM has so many more people to feed and so many more meals to make per week... twice to three times as many per day. But, I guess there's only so much you can get with $1.25 per day and the school food is good for the price you pay. I pay more than that per meal but it's included in my housing cost so it doesn't seem like I'm paying anything.

Calc was funny today. First, this one guy (guy-A) said something that was wrong and he was corrected by know-it-all guy and some others. Then later he gave an answer and Jani said it was too advanced for the time being, and guy-A said, "I know. I was just trying to redeem myself." That was humorous, but I suppose you had to be there. Then a little later someone asked, "could it be a removable discontinuity?" and another guy (guy-B) yelled out, "What the heck is that?!" Everyone busted, and I was happy because then I realized that I wasn't the dumbest/least informed/least prepared one of the class. Then after know-it-all guy gave another crazy answer that once again proved he was too advanced for the class, Dan yelled to him, "Why don't you get into a better class?" (better meaning higher level) and there were quite a few laughs around the room and the teacher was smilling as well. That was a comment after my own heart.

Good news: I finally conquered number 50 of section 1.1 in my calc book. I had been struggling with this problem since Friday-ish. Once I realized what was going on in the problem it actually wasn't too difficult... I just had to get past the initial "crap, I can't do this... what the heck is going on" mentality and actually think about it. It was quite an accomplishment for me though.

I went to the women's Campus Crusade for Christ Bible study tonight. It was alright.

Time to SLEEP.

The water smells like lake-water.

Today I ate lunch with this guy named Bob. He just came and sat across from me like sometimes people do. Anyway, he informed me about the campus band, which is open to all students and not very competitive... good for me. Practices are on Wednesdays from 7:30-9:30, there is one performance per semester, and it is one credit. I might check it out either this semester or next. It's a concert band and the practices are not on north campus which is also good for me.

Music theory is insanely interesting. My Monday music theory class is on the 7th floor of the bell tower. Calc is easy and yet not. I might have to email a certain HS calc teacher for some help on the homework.

I waited in line for 1.5 hours to get one of my "books" for German. It's not actually a book, it's a coursepack, and I had to copy it myself.

I went home this past weekend. That was nice. I saw my friends but not Ross sadly.

** New Pics on ImageStation! **

I can see the football stadium from here.

My computer has been running very slow lately, and that is quite annoying. I did a virus scan and it found a virus, so I think that is the cause. I'm in the process of removing it right now, and so I'm typing this in the computer lab on the 9th floor of south quad. There's a great view from here.

The squirrels here are insane. It's like they don't even notice the hundreds of people walking by them. Today I saw a squirrel with a golfball size green nut thing in it's mouth. Yesterday I was walking down the sidewalk and there was a small bird hopping around on the grass. When I walked by I was only about a foot away from it and it didn't even flinch.

Today is Festifall. Festifall is where all the groups, clubs, activities, whatever go out on the Diag and set up their little stands. I walked around for a while. There was every group imaginable and tons of free stuff. I signed up for something involving watching women's gymnastics and for some Republican thing. Also, I filled out a survey at one of the church tables and got put in a drawing for a bike, got some info about fencing, and picked up some free stuff (Bush sticker, football magnet, highlighter, marker, Bush pin, etc). I never really realized how much stuff there actually is to get involved with. There was a recreational sports club (euchre, poker, chess...), a free palestine thing (free as in liberate, not as in cost), tons of singing groups, community service opportunities, fraternities, rugby, dancing, and basically anything you can think of.

I thought I saw Adam Supernant in south quad yesterday. I don't know if it was him or why he'd be in south quad, but it looked a lot like him. He was walking in front of me towards the exit, looked back for a second, and then went down to the ground floor.

I got my new cell phone on Tuesday and I picked up the package from Alecia yesterday. The paskage from Alecia was filled with many wonderful things. :)

My classes today were fine. The lecture in Great Books was interesting but I kept looking at my watch anyway. German was ok. Intro Music Theory was really interesting. He talked more about inervals today and really explained it all very well. It's like we learn why the intervals are what they are (minor third, augmented 4th) instead of just memorizing what is what. I really like that class. At this point it is my favorite of the 4 and is followed by Calc in second, and German and GB are tied for 3rd... GB is interesting but it's a lot of reading and will involve writing papers, and the fact that most of German class is in German annoys me but it is also interesting and I like the idea of learning a second language.

You guys are all missing out if you don't come to UM. You should all apply at least... cough*BethAnne-and-Alecia*cough... and it wouldn't be a big deal if you didn't get in because, I mean, I was rejected too. ;) I think that the only way someone wouldn't like it here is if they sat around by themselves and never got involved with anything... and if I can go out and get involved, make friends, and have fun, then anyone can. Do you know how cool it would be to have one of you here? We could be roomies (or not, whatever) and if we were, you wouldn't get a dorm miles away on north campus or Markley (the freshman dorm) with teeny-tiny rooms... no, you'd get South Quad or West Quad or Mosher-Jordon... the good dorms.

I'm considering coming home this weekend, but I don't know if I will or not. Right now this weekend and next weekend are my possibilities. If I don't come home tomorrow though, I'll have to do my own laundry, and we all know I don't want to do that. But if I wait until next weekend, I can go to the football game. I don't know... maybe I'll come home both weekends. If anyone ever wants to come visit me, I would suggest coming on a day that is not a home football game.

My chair has leaning-back capabilities.

Yesterday in my German class I met a girl who was from Big Rapids. I told her that my sister's husband was also from Big Rapids. She asked what his name was. I said Dan Tuuri. Then she said that her sister was friends with one of his sisters and that her brother was friends with Dan. Small world.

Calc was boring today and my Great Books discussion wasn't fun either. German was fine... the professor/teacher/GSI/whatever-she-is reminds me of my aunt Kathee.

Last night I went to a Campus Crusade for Christ thing that was in "the underground" in South Quad. There were a lot of people there and some of them I had met before, such as Dan and Callie. It was fun and I met some more really nice people.

Speaking of Dan (in the last paragraph), I had first met him in the honors discussion of Faster on Friday and then I met him again last night. Then today when I walked into calc, he was sitting in the front row. I was like, "Wow, I didn't realize he was in this class." Turns out that he had just switched into there from Math 115 (normal calc 1). So I went to lunch and sat by my lonesome for a grand total of about 2 minutes. Dan came and sat with me and a little bit later Steph came to our table. We were talking about our calc class and Dan said somethng like, "I sat next to the guy who was a little too overqualified for that class." I laughed because it was the same guy who I thought was an annoying know-it-all in that class yesterday. He was no less annoying today. And, actually, it was annoying guy's third time in a calc 1 class. Someone should kick him out.

But now, I get no more fun until I finish reading 60-some pages of The Iliad.

My first day of classes and stuff...

So I walked all over the Diag trying to find all of my classes. It was really hot and I got nasty sweaty but not too sweaty. Then I came back and ate dinner... BBQ short ribs... yum.

When I got back from the class search, I saw that I had goten an email from a Christian group at UM that read:
Hello and welcome to U of M!

Questions you may be asking yourself as an incoming student at U of M:

What do all these acronyms mean?
Why is North Campus more east than north?
Is it humanly possible to get from Dennison to the MLB in 10 minutes?
Where can I go to find out more about God?

We can't help you with the first three, but we're all over the last one!

...and I thought, 'yes, I have been asking those questions.' In fact, I was just wondering about the Dennison thing because I have a class in MLB and then one in Dennison 10 minutes later. So when I was on my little class search, I tried it and timed it. It took me 7 minutes at a quick but not strenuous pace. I had never thought about the North Campus thing, and there are a ton of acronyms here... MLB, BMT, CCRB, GSI, LSA, SAPAC, UGLi, ONSP, and RC to name a few.

So anyway... I went to all of my classes today except for the great books discussion which is tomorrow. I must say that so far I am in love with my classes and professors... perhaps it's just the excitement flowing over into the impressions, but I really enjoyed today. I was a little worried about getting from MLB to Dennison, but that all worked out.

First, I went to great books. The professor is HD Cameron. He is quite funny and looks kinda like Colonel Sanders. Today was basically a Greek history/mythology overview. I met the girl who sat next to me... Emily I think.

Next was German. Since it was right after GB, I was one of the last ones there. The tiny room was packed by the time I got there and I had to sit at the end of a table. We sat there for a while and wondered if the prof was coming. After a while she came in... Stacy Swennes. She was very bubbley and fun. The first 3/4 of the class was 99% in German and the rest she spoke English, but I was able to keep up pretty well.

Then I ran back down the stairs to Intro Music Theory. Since, once again, I was one of the last to get there, I ended up in the very front row. The professor is Andrew W Mead. He was funny and so far the class was pretty interesting. I ran out of that class and halfway across central campus to Dennison building.

The room where my calc class is was small and the desks were close together and small. The professor's name was Jani Onninen and so I thought "Janie = woman." But then a very tall, very skinny man walked in and set his stuff on the front desk, so I was like, "hmmm, maybe not." As it turned out, Jani was pronounced "Yonni" and the prof was from Finland. He had a heavy accent but it was understandable. I met Kristen, the girl sitting next to me. There was one kid who seemed like a know-it-all, and so naturally that got on my nerves. But Jani was talking about even functions and he asked what was the typical example of an even function, and I said, "x squared" and he said, "yes, exactly." So I felt special. I like that class because it's not a lecture... we can ask questions whenever we want or stop him and ask him to go over something again.

Then when that class was over, I went to the bathroom (yes, I'm sure you wanted to know that), took some pictures around campus for your enjoyment (if I didn't send you the link to my album, post a comment with your email and I would be glad to send it), and then ran back to my dorm for lunch (they quit serving lunch at 1:30). I got some food and sat down by myself as usual. After a few minutes, this one guy came up to my table and asked if he could sit with me. I said sure and he sat. His name was Ben and he's from Washington DC. He lives in 4th Hunt in South Quad... and that's cool because he's just one floor above me and in honors. So we talked until we were done eating, and it was fun. It was the most conversation I had over a meal since I got here. He's really into Middle Eastern stuff and he's taking Arabic this semester.

That's all for now.

My Fuzzy Penguin Slippers

I slept in a little today... I haven't really done much since I woke up. After lunch, I walked to the Diag and sat on one of the concrete benches for a half an hour. There was a group called Billionaires For Bush about ten feet to the left of me. They were all wearing suits and playing croquet and monopoly. They had a little table set up with plastic wine glasses and fake pearls on it. After my trip to the Diag, I sat in front of my computer for a while. Then we had a hall meeting and now here I am again. Yesterday I watched Never Been Kissed. I had never seen that movie before. Also yesterday, I went with some people to a restaurant called Little Brown Jug. I got Caesar salad and it was good. Everything that everyone got looked good. ...and today at lunch I came to the conclusion that the food served in the UM cafeterias is better than the school food back home. Right now Brian and Rebecca are watching something on TV at the other end of the room. Classes start tomorrow... that should be interesting. I think I'm going to go time the walk between them.

Oh, and I'm wearing my fun penguin slippers.

As the heat fries my brain...

I could not figure out how in the world to hook up my TV to get cable. I tried everything. So then I was talking to Steve on the internet and I got him to come look at it. He didn't know what to do, but apparently he wasn't looking too hard. Anyway, he went to Mike's frat and then I went out with some people... the usual group. We met up with some drunk people and went to a pizza place. The pizza wasn't overly good. One of the guys (Matt) had to leave to make sure some really drunk friends of his didn't do anything stupid. He was nice. Drunk people are stupidly funny. So then we walked around for a while and then came back to my room and sat there. On the way, we passed a club that was just like you would see on a TV show with the huge roped line of people out front and the big muscley guy scrutinizing the IDs. We also passed some people who had just got into a fight with each other. That was interesting. This was all occuring around 1:30 a.m. While we were sitting around in my room, we got Eugene to set up our cable. Eugene was born in the Ukraine and moved to the US when he was five. He came here from New York.

Today I went for a walk to the ticket office but they were closed. Later I think I might go to Ulrich's.

I totally forgot to bring pencils. I brought pens but no pencils, and I had like 50 new ones.

Current Thoughts

It's kinda strange walking down the hall in a bathrobe and passing guys. You'd think that by now people would know to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom. My knee decided to spontaneously hurt this afternoon. I'm listening to 12 Stones. After the rain, it got cooler and so I don't have my fan on. I spent a lot of time today on the internet. The hot "have fun at U of M" poster is directly above my head. There is a very annoying zit on my neck. People keep walking by and looking in here. The guy, Brian, reminds me of a mix between Adam Supernant, Evan Storey, and Mr. Krohn. My computer is very warm. I don't like having the door closed because then I feel isolated. You should all mail me letters and pictures and stuff.

The Drums of War

Have you ever woken up to the sound of a marching band down the street? I did this morning. Most of the time all I could hear were the drums, but then I sat up in bed and heard them play "Hail to the Victors".

There was a thing at Meijer last night from 10pm to 2am. They had a bunch of free stuff and games for the college kids and a lot of stuff was on sale.

The fridge freezes the water in my water bottle.

I am so tired. The dumb people came back at like 2 a.m. and were yelling in the hall, keeping me awake. It was annoying... they did that the night before too. Then today I went to some honors thing and book discussion... whooptee. But after the book stuff we got free food while we listened to a band called The Dan Band. Then we got in groups of 20 and went on a scavenger hunt around campus... we had to go to different places and do different stuff to get points. The first place we went was the cube where we had to throw wet sponges at a guy and see if we could hit him. Then we went to the bell tower and sang Hail To The Victors backwards. Next was the MLB and riddles, some in different languages. Then we went to the Diag where we had to get as many people on a pizza box as possible for 3 seconds. It was on the big M in the middle and legend is that if you step on the M before your first blue book exam then you'll fail it. Then we went to the CCRB where we had to hold hands and pass a wooden ring around the circle. After the we went to Dennison where we did the human knot. We stacked shoes at the engineering arch but didn't make it to the art museum. We lost but it was really fun. Now I'm back in my dorm room. Maize Craze is at 4, but I don't know if I'm going to go to that.

The 3rd post in a day.

Potato curry is good... and spicy. I went to the new student convocation in Crisler Arena. On the way there I made a new friend: Kim from down the hall. There was staff at the convocation thing and they were wearing those graduation gowns that the teachers wore at our graduation. It was alright. U of M's class of '08 is the largest class they've ever had. Everyone left at the same time, so there were casually 5,000 kids walking down the streets back to central campus. We went to Escapade and Artscapade after that. I saw an actual Monet painting and got some free Wendy's chicken nuggets. I also met some more people: Eugene from NY from north campus, Brian from north campus, and Shivani from Toledo from across the hall. Gabe from room 3114 reminds me a lot of Aaron Willis and Brian from 3114 reminds me of Adam Supernant and someone else that I can't place. There was a lot of people in my room but now there's only Steph and me. I have to get up earlyish for honors stuff tomorrow. The fraternities have large houses. There were a lot of parties there tonight. It's still weird being here but it's a fun experience. It would be nice to make more friends though. That's been my day. I've been here for two days but it feels like forever.

More on this new life..

I had pizza, Caesar salad, Indian lentils, and milk for lunch today. It was good. I've decided to try something new each day. The Indian lentils were ok but they had weird spices. Supper last night wasn't great, but I wasn't hungry so that probably made a difference. I put my apple juice in the fridge and it was cold for this morning. My roommates slept in forever. The bed is comfortable but I still prefer my own bed. I got up around 8:30. The showers/bathrooms aren't too bad. They could definately be worse. The food isn't bad. Steve is supposed to move in today. I haven't seen him yet though. Stephanie, Becca, and I went shopping today. I didn't buy anything, but I got some free stuff in a sponge bob box. We saw some people around that we had met. I had to install XP pro and microsoft office and re-install my antivirus stuff. That wasn't actually too much of a pain. I took a few pictures and I'm going to put them on imagestation soon.

I requested 12 Stones "The Way I Feel" on RadioU during the IRS. They played it and read my comment, "I just moved to college... I need to hear some good music." I put that my city was Ann Arbor. Heh, I love Radio U.

Right now I'm talking to Danielle on MSN and going to all my favorite sites and marking them.

Email me, people! Don't leave me hanging!

The Ann Arbor Life

Well... I don't know where to begin. I moved in yesterday... bought my books... met some people. My roommates are nice, especially Stephanie, the one from Birch Run. There's some fun guys down the hall... Brian from Kalamazoo, Gabe from LA, and Brandon who is in the marching band. I wish I was in the marching band. I could hear them practicing this morning. Last night my roommates, Brian, and I walked around campus for no apparent reason, and then we went back to Brian's room and watched an episode of Family Guy with Brian's roommate, Gabe. All in all, I'm not sure how I feel about the whole thing. I think I would rather be home with my wonderful friends.