Gesundheit... or something.

I made a new friend today. I was walking back to SQ from East Hall and I saw this guy in front of me who I recognized from calc last year, and I realized that if he was also going from EH at that time then he was probably in the other calc 3. So I (without giving it much thought) caught up to him and asked if he was in calc 3... and the conversation went from there. During calc, I talked the the bassoon player who I had sat beside today.

Once again I must say that Linguistics 211 discussion is pointless. Today was perhaps a little better than the other ones, but it still wasn't necessary in the least.

Tonight people from SQ had "game night" after Cru. We played Trivial Pursuit in the quad but my team lost horribly. Then 11 or so people started playing poker, but I decided not to join. I stayed and watched though and when I left it was almost 1am and there were still 5 people in.

Earlier today I listened to the CD that Ben had made me. It was very nice. :)

I'm tired... so I'm going to bed now.

If I could hear your voice...

There's a part of the path on my way to the MLB where the trees are thick and arch over the sidewalk. It creates a kind of green shaded tunnel... it's too bad the leaves are going to fall off soon.

Today felt like fall. It was and still is quite chilly and I noticed that the leaves have really begun to change.

I spent 2 hours in the math lab today. How frustrating. At least I made significant progress on one problem and got some insight on a couple others. Now tonight I was supposed to do linguistics homework with Tina and Karlie (didn't happen) and there was a SQ leaders' meeting tonight at 11pm to which I had to go. I kind of had a bad feeling about that meeting but it turned out alright. From 11pm to 12:30am, 1.5 hours sitting on a floor surrounded by a bunch of great SQ people... what could be better? Well, sitting on something more comfortable than a floor would make it better. I hate sitting on the floor.

Oooh! Good news! I definitely got an A+ on my first German exam! YAY! The final grade was 97.5%... it was originally 93.5% but I got 4 points extra credit. Woohoo! So far, German has been one thing that in which I've been able to do fairly well. It was so incredibly easy in high school and I've continued to do well in college. Math on the other hand... As much as I like math/calculus it's somtimes hard to justify continuing on with with it considering the amount of effort I have to put into it. Yes, I know I'm not the worst person when it comes to math, but the fact remains that math is not my natural talent. On the ACT, math was my lowest scoring area (31). In fact, both math and science (which I also enjoy) were below my composite score of 33. English and reading, on the other hand, were quite high (35).

...I know I'd be ok.

Where will you be when the smoke clears?

The only reason I'm writing a blog is because I want to write about campus band. It was really cool. More than once, he had us sing out notes, not like sight-reading but like actually since the pitch, hold it, and make a chord. Now, going back to my speech about vocal music, this chord had something so different and much better than the instrumental chord. It was just inspriring to hear these people sing out a chord boldly and they were in tune like a choir. It was hot. The conductor said some really funny things tonight, but I don't remember them. He's really cool. There's this one song we're playing where the trombones have 8 measures of this really cool rhythm and it's just fun. That movement kind of reminds me of the Hoe Down song (Beef, it's what's for dinner).

I got to walk back from campus band in the rain. At first I was upset but then my attitude changed. The rain was steady but light. It was cool but not cold and the sky was dark. The leaves of the trees were rustling and the rain was pattering on the road. It was nice and refreshing and I really enjoyed it.

Calc is beating me up right now. It's sad.

Yeah, that's all pretty much. I had lunch with Shalako... that was a nice and interesting conversation. I sucked on a Jalopeno this evening. That wasn't pleasant.

Searching for the Truth

The clouds look really close when I'm here on the 5th floor.

My one linguistics prof is kind of hot. Apparently I'm the only one who think this and I get laughed at for it. Oh well. He has an accent and so that adds to it I suppose. ...And he's really not that old (I think).

I filled out a college application today. It's true. I'm going to drop out of UM and go to Delta. No, actually, that last thing is not true (thank goodness). In all truthfulness, I am too far advanced to go to Delta at this point. For what I'm thinking about doing, I could not even go to Delta if I wanted to (which I don't). What is it that I want to do, you ask? I shall tell you. I am considering doing 2 majors and 1 minor and it will be very difficult to do this in the 2.5 years I have left. So I was thinking about taking summer classes at SVSU and that is what the application was for. Of course, if I stayed here over the summer I could just go to UM and no application would be necessary. Oh, and the reason why Delta is not an option is because UM does not accept transfer credits from commumity colleges after the student in question has already accumulated 60 credits, which I will have done by the end of this semester.

The past 24 hours were pretty much horrible. It all started around 10 pm last night with a few little things which I won't go into but which definitely played a role in the suckiness. I got back to my room (because I was in the League) and started doing stuff on my computer. I decided to burn a CD and while I was doing that my computer became very slow and so I did some calc. As I was doing calc, I realized that I could not even do the easy stuff at this point and that was quite upsetting and so I gave up. Then I went back to my computer (it was about midnight at this time) and saw that it was frozen. Great. I restarted it (and lost my partially completed blog post in the process) but then it was running really really slow and I got really mad at it and turned it off. I didn't know if there was a virus or if my computer was dying or what, and so that was stressful. I don't have $1000 laying around with which to buy a new computer. And sometime in there I pulled a muscle in my right upper leg and that was so bad that I was limping for the rest of the night. Then I went to turn my phone off of vibrate and hit the wrong button and ended up locking it up. My phone is still out of service because I can't figure out how to get it off of locked mode and so I can't use it whatsoever. And now I felt so disconnected from the world with no computer and no cell phone. Then I went to bed. This morning I woke up an hour earlier than usual because I had to pee very badly and that was annoying. Then when I went to take a shower, I had to wait for 10 minutes because the showers were full and so I was worried I would be late for class. Then there was something else involving people and things on which I won't elaborate. A little later as I was walking to class, I bit the side of my tongue, and then in German I was asked a question by the prof and I totally made myself look like a bumbling idiot in front of everyone. We got our essays back and I didn't do bad but it wasn't great either. Calc just made me more depressed about my math abilities. Lunch with Jenny and class with Brianna and Tracy was really uplifting though... the rare good parts of my day. Actually, the rest of my day was much better (except for the strange stomach pain).

Things have gotten back from the suckiness now. My phone is better and my computer is ok and calc still isn't going well, but the exam was moved back. My tongue still hurts but not badly and my leg is better. I got over the German thing and some other things, so it's all good.

There is a very disproportionate ratio of male friends to female friends in my life here at UM, and it upsets me. Many of my very best and closest friends back home are guys and here I don't even think there is one guy who would qualify as a good or close friend. I mean, I do have guy friends here but not at the level that I would like or am used to.

Anyway, I have some new CDs... yeah, ok I'm done now.

How Long?

The voice is a beautiful thing. Listening to a good singer really makes you appreciate the musical beauty of a voice. I know there are some who are adamantly for instrumental music over vocal music and that's fine, but (once again) it boggles my mind to think that these people who are so into music can't see how musical and wonderful the human voice is when lifted up in pure song. In a way, it is infinitely better than music made by instruments because it is so human and so expressive and can be so emotional. In the Lord of the Rings movies when Theodred dies and is buried, Eowyn sings a very beautiful and hauting song, and when Faramir rides to near certain death, Pippen's song captures it perfectly, and when Aragorn is crowned king, his voice and his song enhance the moment, and the list goes on. I don't think any of these moment's would be nearly the same if they just whipped out a trumpet or a flute or a violin and played a melody. It's the voice that makes it special. Pippen's song is against pure silence and the images of Faramir riding into battle. It's pure and human and captures things that instruments couldn't hope to find. The same goes for all the others. But anyway... that's enough of that.

I took a very short nap this afternoon. At one point I was jolted awake by the beginning of Canticum, and then I was officially awoken by someone IMing me.

There is a German exam tomorrow which I am not ready for. Oh well. Whatever happens happens.

To sleep, perchance to dream...

I got to calc late today because I had to walk all the way across campus (from 4th floor Frieze to 4th floor East Hall) in less than 10 minutes. Calc was alright. I didn't understand the last step in one of the things he did, so after class I asked him and he explained it. It was another chance for Chris the calc professor to prove his worth (loosely quoted from LOTR... who said it and what was the original quote?) and he did marvelously.

Last night I went to Toledo with other female Cru leaders and it was fun. I really enjoyed it... even though I didn't talk much. It felt like Monday today because last night felt like the weekend since I was not on campus. I think I got 5-6 hours of sleep last night.

I was a participant (a.k.a. lab rat) in a psych research thing today. It was annoying. I had to sit at a computer and choose between 2 of 4 cards to try and get the most points. I was confused most of the time and after a while I just got sick of it. I had no idea what was going on. The debriefing said something about incentives and whatever, but I don't get it. Maybe I'm just "slow". After calc today and that psych thing, I feel stupid. I could not figure out which stupid card I was supposed to pick. Arg.

A few days ago I found out that I like Diet Pepsi. It's not bad. When I get pop at lunch, that's usually what I get now.

My linguistics discussion is pointless. All we do it go over the points in the lecture and it's so redundant and boring.

I am so tired... and I got a new shirt today. Maybe you'll see it sometime. I'm watching Stargate right now. Stargate is good. I'm so tired, but I don't want to go to bed because I have to do homework and study tomorrow. Yucky.

Jenny Lunger does not like listening to concert band or classical music. It boggles my mind that someone who is that good at an instrument can not appreciate listening to the music and feeling the emotion that the music brings and just enjoying it in all its intricate beauty. I like listening to music...

Relentlessly Happy

My calc professor is wonderful. I went to office hours today... it was the first time ever that I went to office hours voluntarily and it was cool. The professor was trying to explain a homework problem to me and somewhere along the line he picked up that I didn't get it at all and so he said, "you don't get it, do you?" and I said no, and so he started all over again and he wasn't annoyed with me or anything.

Then when I got back to South Quad, there was a string quartet (made up of students) in the west lobby playing a song from Pirates of the Caribbean. It was hot.

Campus Band tonight was great. The conductor is superb... really fun and funny and a really good conductor. The class went well and towards the end of rehearsal, he said, "I'm really excited... I'm trying to hold it in!" We played the Ticheli, the march, the 9-pager, and the Bach. The Ticheli went very well and so did the march. The 9-pager went as well as can be expected, but it was infintely better than last week. Wow, it feels like so much more than a week since the last Campus Band. The Bach was about the same as last week. The two hours went so fast tonight. It was a good time.

I must do my German and calc now.

Schnell

Just a quick little update so you don't think I died. I'm usually a very regular updater and if I didn't update today, it would've been more than three days since my last update.

The song "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" by Green Day is my new favorite song of the moment. It just has beautiful music...

Classes are going fairly well. I have a lot of work and a lot of things going on this week, so that is why I haven't been writing. In taking on one more responsibility this semester, I inadvertantly added on infinitely more things that suck my time. Calc isn't going too well but I'm not really trying at all either, so maybe those two things are connected.

I had lunch with Bob from last year today.

Steph's baby, Anna Mary:


Das Ende.

In the end, it ended up being what I thought at the beginning.

Well, the game today was better than last week. We beat Eastern Michigan 55-0. EMU actually had negative total yards for all of the first half I think. Last game I realized why people jingle their keys when it's a third down for the other team... because it's a "key play". The marching band was totally hot this game. They did a skit type thing for halftime and it was awesome. It was something to do with Monty Python and the Holy Grail except it was the Holy Big 10 Grail. It was hilarious. I loved it. EMU's marching band wasn't great. It was probably the biggest crowd they will ever play for... 109,000.

There are some things that I feel strongly about: oil cartels, learning foreign languages, Bourne Identity movie vs. book, illegal immigrants and English, and the Euro. Here are my diatribes.

Oil cartels are stupid greedy butt-faces. They don't need to charge up the butt for a barrel of crude oil, but yet they do. They were plenty rich before they caused the price of a gallon of gas to raise into the $2 and $3 range. I don't even know how much gas costs now. Grr.

People, especially Americans, need to learn a foriegn language. You're all uneducated idiots if you don't. (Ok, so that was a harsh statement and I mean no offense to most of you). Most people in the other developed countries in the world are bi- or trilingual. And many Americans barely have a grasp on English. Pathetic. UM should not change the foreign language requirement to the "2-2 option". It's stupid. It is catering to students' trivial impulses and laziness. The four semesters of one language requirement is a wonderful thing that forces the thousands of students at UM to learn a language other than English and learn it to a certain proficiency. To change it would devalue the education of the American people attending UM.

The Bourne Identity was a much better book than movie. Whatever moron made the movie needs to be taken out back and stuffed in a garbage bin. The conflict with Carlos is a central point in the books and the movie is completely lacking that aspect of the story. The movie is simply a shadow of the books with little entertainment value and hardly any plot.

Illegal immigrants, get out. We don't want you here. Leave. And if you must stay, then at least learn the language... and by "the language" I mean English. Ugh, I'm too exhausted to go into this right now. English needs to be made the national language.

The Euro is stupid. Granted it does make traveling through Europe easier because of not having to constantly exchange money, but in the end it's just stupid. Using the Euro takes away an aspect of a country's culture and uniqueness. If things like that continue, soon there will just be a huge European country and no more France or Germany or Italy or Finland... just Europe. I mean, without each country having things like currency, language, and culture making them each special and unique, they might as well be one country.

Steph had the baby yesterday at 4:47 pm. She was 8 lbs and 20 inches long. I'm going to see them tomorrow.

The game tired me out. I had a chance to play some Ultimate tonight, but I passed. I'm sighing now.

Life is a beach... and I have sand in my shorts.

Just like Wednesday's theme was destruction, yesterday's theme was experience and adventure. Why, you ask? I shall tell you. I ate in Stockwell for the first time ever, I intentionally went to a lecture that I didn't belong in, and I ate foreign chocolate. Here is the story.

After German, Leah and I were walking out of Dennison and she mentioned that she was going to Stockwell to eat lunch, and so I jumped on the opportunity to eat somewhere other than South Quad and went with her. It was interesting and actually kind of reminded me of IN camp. Then afterwards she had a class in Angell Hall and I was going back to SQ, and so we walked together. While we were making our journey southwest, she randomly said, "Hey, want to come to my next class with me?" After some deliberation, I decided that it wouldn't hurt to go for a few minutes. While I was sitting there in the history of art lecture, Tian came in (because apparently she is in that class) and was like, "Sarah? Why are you here?" Of course, I had no logical answer. Then when I got back from Psych, Steph offered me some chocolate from Sweden and so I got to try that. It was quite good.

Today's theme was overwhelmingness. I just have to keep repeating my phrase, "When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time." I have so much crap to do: Calc HW, Psych paper and reading, Ling paper and reading, German paper and possibly other HW, the football game tomorrow, and I might be going to GR this weekend. ARG!

I am penniless. To quote a post-it thing in Ulrich's, "A penny saved... is all I have." Today I had to buy this stupid small thin cheap book for $16. Isn't the insane??? It's on Amazon for $11. They marked it up 50%, those bastards. I now have almost no money left to my name, and that is very very upsetting. Gosh, I hate money.

It was pouring rain and I had to walk to 1330 Mason to talk to an Honors advisor. It was a useful visit though. I found out that I only need 4 more social science credits and 3 more natural science credits, and that it does not make me ceritifably insane to want to do 2 majors and a minor.

I have quite a lot to do, so I'm going to go do that. Oh, and my sister went into labor this morning. They woke me up at 8:35 with a phone call during which I was still half asleep. And another thing, I love walking around UM and in the buildings on campus knowing exactly where I am and where to go without having to think twice about it. It's a beautiful thing.

Airs in the Mist

Today was a destructive day. Ok, that was overstating it a lot, but whatever. Someone tripped and dumped their tray with all the glass dishes all over the floor. Needless to say, most of the stuff broke. Then a few minutes later, a guy was trasporting a big stack of trays somewhere and the stack fell over and slid all across the floor making quite a racket.

My German prof annoyed me greatly today. Arg. I'm not going to do into it though. We watched a movie in linguistics lecture and that was better than a lecture but it still wasn't the most insteresting or entertaining thing in the world. Calc was calc. I was frustrated after doing my calc homework last night, but the stuff we did the first half of class today wasn't bad... mostly because I was already familiar with vectors because of Physics 140 last semester. I never did learn dot product though, so that was new.

I ended up being at lunch for 30 minutes because when I was almost done, Erin and Alison came and sat with me and so I stretched out the rest of my food so I could talk to them. It was a very pleasant surprise when Erin showed up out of nowhere at my table.

Before Erin and Alison came, I was reading the Daily. There was an article about how they are considering changing the language requirement from 4 semesters of one language to 2 semesters of two languages. I agree with the guy that is against it who said, "My fear is that the '2-2 option' would not only keep students from decently grasping one language, but that it would be such a surface-level overview of two that, in the end, they would retain neither." Well said, my friend. Most of the arguments for the change were based on that students should be able to choose and that the way it is now locks you in for a long time. They're just whiney.
---
I encountered Steve Dittenber again today. This time it was outside of Tisch Hall. We both had lectures in Angell Hall and I had just speed-walked from East Hall while Steve had leasurely strolled from West Quad.

I actually got most of my work done early today. Woohoo!

Apparently there is a math club at Michigan. Hmm... I hear they have free pop and pizza there and it's only for an hour. Maybe I'll be a complete geek/nerd and check it out.

First real campus band tonight. The director is cool, but I think I like Mr. Tally better. He handed out 6 pieces... 3 that were 1 page each, 2 that were 4 pages each, and one that was 9 pages. I didn't try out and I'm not last so it's all good... kind of. I have some issues but I will not go into them. The girl to my right is really fun, but the one to my left is kind of not fun.

All things considered, it was a nice evening though not the best day.

Perpetual and Infinite, Enduring and Without End

I never really experienced the "broke college student" lifestyle last year. I mean, there was one time when I was completely without cash, but that was just once. Now this year, I've only been here a couple weeks (not even that) and I'm definitely feeling the brokeness right now. I'm actually in debt kind of. I had $100 to use to start up a checking account here and there's only $30 of that left. It's sad. I'm definitely going to have to use that wonderful phrase, "send money".

My calc prof, Chris, is quite entertaining. Here are some quotes from him in calc today (keep in mind that these were all said with a British accent):

(Someone had just sneezed a few times in a row) "Ten times and you get a pot of gold."

"Never trust anything you read in a book, or even worse, see on a blackboard... and certainly never trust anything I tell you."

"Do any of you know a Pringles crisp? It's a Pringles crisp." (Referring to a hyperbolic paraboloid after his drawing was less than helpful.)

"That is an atrocious drawing." (Referrring to his drawing of a hyperbolic paraboloid.)

"I have a lovely little proof that I found. I read through 53 proofs last night." (He did this just to find out "diversion" of the day and apparently enjoyed every minute of it.)

This last quote also occured in calc class. I was sitting next to a freshman named Scott and he said something about physics, and so I asked him if he was an engineer. This was his response.

"It's pretty bad if people can sit next to me and tell I'm an engineer."

...

Anyway... It's so hot. At least all of my classes have been air-conditioned.

...

I randomly saw Steve Dittenber after German in Dennison today.

;;;

Yesterday I came to the conclusion that there is no way I could not eat breads and grains and stuff. Bagels, cereal, bread, pasta... These types of foods are usually my main course at any meal here... or any meal in general.

---

I'm definitely sick of homework. Yes, it's true and it's only the second week. I picked this scheulde because I thought it was going to be easy, and maybe it still will be, but right now it seems like a lot of work. I guess a lot of it is that I can't tell what is expected of me yet. Once I figure that out, I'll know what I actually have to do and that will take some of the work and stress off of my shoulders. Plus, I'm rather lazy when it comes to school work. A lot of my stuff is reading and that gets tiring. The linguistics reading is boring, but it should get more interesting as the semester moves on. Psych is pretty interesting, but there is just so much to read and the class is so crowded (500+ students possibly). Calc I like but it's not easy (as I quickly found out when I tried to do that homework this evening). Chris definitely needs to do more examples in class. I pretty much like German but I mostly hate the homework. I'm definitely living from weekend to weekend right now.

...

Today I bought my tickets to Band-O-Rama! Woohoo! They're in the first row of the balcony... $10 per ticket. It's on October 22... I'm excited.

...

Ok... going to bed soon...

Here With You

My first real linguistics lecture was today. It was rather entertaining but not overly interesting, if that makes sense. Calc was interesting though. I suppose I'm the only person who would think that it was interesting, but oh well. It was. We "reviewed" conic sections, and by "review" I mean that we (or at least I) learned it in a new complicated way. In German, we ended up only doing 2 of the presentations (as opposed to the total 25). I got an A+ on my first German quiz.

I am quite low on money and I love knowing all the people I know. Today I randomly saw many people whom I know (Alison in EH, Shalako on my way to State St, Joi outside of SQ, etc).

Ryan IMed me last night and was bugging me to help him with his "calc" homework while I was feverishly working on my German presentation that I thought was due the next day. I enjoyed helping though. The one question he asked was an exact question that I had on a homework assignment last year in calc 1. I remember it because I worked on that thing until I finally got it all by myself and I was so proud and happy, and then I told Doc my accomplishment and he laughed at me. It was the first time in who knows how long that I actually used my brain and sat and thought about the problem without running to someone for help at the first sign of confusion. Now it's incredibly simple. I also talked to Ross today and that was fun.

I'm excited about Campus Band and other things. I got about 20 emails today. That's a lot.

Today was hot... and that's the end. Interesting, I know.

;)

We Will Riot

That was awful. That was the worst game ever. There aren't even words to describe it. Two of my favorite cheers were the "bullshit" cheers/chants after they reviewed the calls and then called them against Michigan and the "we will riot" cheer/chant while they were reviewing a call. I would've been up for a riot at that point, but I seriously think that Michigan students are too smart to riot. Granted there are a few that are on Michigan State's level (like the idiots behind us at the game), but I think most wouldn't be the kind to do it. That game was awful. Michigan didn't even get a touchdown until the 4th quarter. Henne threw so many incompletes and they dropped the ball so many times. It was just awful. And now I have a sunburn on top of it. At least the marching band was cool. Alison got to march for pre-game and halftime today. Yay for Alison!



From Fox Sports:
"Notre Dame didn't need much help to beat the Wolverines, but instant replay overturned two calls in its favor in the fourth quarter.

On a sneak from inside Notre Dame's 1, Henne was ruled down, but a review showed that he fumbled and that the Irish's Chinedum Ndukwe recovered the ball in the end zone. On the ensuing possession, officials ruled that Quinn fumbled, but a review showed that his knee was down, allowing the Irish to keep the ball deep in their territory.

Each time, Michigan's student section responded by throwing water bottles and other debris on the field."
...
I'm dehydrated... or just very very thirsty.

My face and the right side of my neck are so sunburned, and my arms are somewhat sunburned as well. The one side of my face is redder than the other. it almost looks like I was punched in the eye and it turned red instead of purple. Also, I think my ankle scar might be a little sunburned.
---
People's away messages:
"half my face is sunburnt, the other half isn't"
"Worst game ever....if you need me, I'll be out rioting."
"food....then relaxing after a crappy game."
...
Homework is annoying.

The Americans Win!

They won 4 to 3. Yeah, I have 4 American instructors and 3 foreign instructors. My calc prof is English (he says "zed" instead of "z" a lot... it's cool), my German prof is German (imagine that), and one of my linguistics profs is something but I don't know what. The rest are American.

I got two new blue shirts today. One was the 2005 football shirt and the other was a hurricane relief shirt. On the front it says "Katrina Relief" and on the back it says "Ohio State Sucks but Hurricanes Blow!" I love it.

Being a sophomore is so much better than being a freshman. It just is. Maybe I like it better because I have much more confidence this year.

Today I hung out with Leah for a while. We had to buy our coursepacks for German and then we went to the M Den. Fun times.

The people on my hall seem nice/cool. I like it.

I've been discovering that a lot of people I know or have recently met are in my classes. Tina, the girl across the hall, is in linguistics and her friend who I met and had dinner with yesterday is in my linguistics section. Also, a girl from campus band is in my linguistics section. There is another girl that I know in my linguistics section but I don't know why I know her. I think she was in my calc class last semester. There are two people I know in psych and one friend and a couple other that I know in German. I've got no one in calc, but I talked to the kid next to me today. He was pretty cool... engineer but a freshman. I don't know his name though.

The trees in the diag were so filled with leaves that they provided almost complete shade. If I would've had my camera with me, I would've taken a picture. Speaking of trees in the diag, on my way to psych one day I noticed that there were dead leaves on the ground. The leaves had already changed and fallen off of a tree and it was only the 6th of September.

Originally my Friday was going to be ok. Mason Hall isn't that far from East Hall and so I wouldn't have much trouble getting from the two classes that were back-to-back. But then in my Linguistics 211 discussion (which was in Mason Hall), the GSI said that the class was being moved to the Frieze Building, which is definitely on the exact opposite side of campus from East Hall. To make matters even worse, it is on the 4th floor of the Frieze Building but my class in East Hall is also on the 4th floor. I was quite annoyed. So after calc today (my class in East Hall), I told the professor my situation and that I would most likely be late every Friday. He said it wasn't a problem and just to get their as soon as possible.

There is a lounge on my floor with couches and tables and a piano... it's the only one in South Quad and it's only for the people on the 5th floor of Bush House (west side 5th floor).

Cafeteria food and an analogy for other things:
You get sick of it after eight months and then when you get back, four months still isn't enough time away from it to not be sick of it but you eat it anyway because it's really not that bad.

My right ankle has been hurting lately and now my back is sore.

Cru was outside tonight. Fun stuff. I saw a bunch of people and talked to Jenny Lunger for like forever. Now I'm here.

I got four new posters today. Two are pictures and two are paintings. The pictures are entitled "The Road" by Hag (I think maybe) and "Sunset Over Artillery Lake" by Gavriel Jecan. The paintings are "Stormy Waters" by Anna Cohran and "The Forest" by Gustav Klimt.

There is a gun in my desk drawer.

Ok, so it's a water gun.

Festifall was today and I got a bunch of free stuff. I stopped at the Huron Hills table after my German class and hung out with Kat and Erin for a while. Then when I left there, I was walking down the sidewalk and I happened to look over my shoulder and see His House Christian Fellowship and I changed my course quickly and went to their table. The guy at the table was like, "Whoa, you just did an about-face there." I explained that my friend who goes to MSU got involved with HHCF and that she really likes it. He asked who she was and what year she was and what year I was and if I was involved with a group. I, of course, said that I was involved with Cru and then he mentioned someone who he was associated with at Cru whom I had heard of. He was really nice and if their thing wasn't on Wednesdays at the same time as Campus Band, I would probably check it out.

I tend to say "something like that" when I kind of disagree but want to avoid confrontation or I don't want to do in depth about my answer or if I can't commit fully to a yes.

Apparently the honors section that I am in for Linguistics has to do three extra homework assignments and a presentation. That really sucks. There are still 13 seats open in the class. Oh well. Maybe it will be ok. I don't know, my classes feel weird this semester. I need to make a three minute presentation about Bayern for German and I have to read a couple chapters of psych and some stuff. I really don't like homework.

My roommate might do a study abroad next semester. As long as I don't get stuck with a butt-face, I'll be fine with it.
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Ross called me last night and he said that Isaiah said that when he was in Dunham's last Saturday, he saw me on TV. It's possible... unlikely but possible... and it would be awesome if it's true. I guess I'll never know for sure.

"When eating an elephant, take one bite at a time."

Honey on Chicken

Today was another day of classes. I was having second thoughts about calc yesterday because if I don't do a math major or minor, I'm not going to need it and I could be taking something that would fulfill a requirement or something, but I liked it again today and so I think I'll stick with it.

German was German. We're studying Germany and the prof asked me how many Bundesländer (like provinces or states) are in Germany and I definitely got it right. There's 16, by the way. Now I have to memorize them all and their capitals. Calc was calc... imagine that. We reviewed integration today. The professor is weird/silly/funny and he's really lanky and kind of walks like Robert Kus a little bit. He was writing out a proof and someone asked how he got to the last line of the proof (because apparently it wasn't explicit... I wouldn't know, I wasn't really paying attention) and the professor said, "I got bored with doing it properly."

I had my first Linguistics 211 lecture today. There's nothing really interesting to report about it except that we got out 15 minutes early.

There is a bruise on my right arm from the volleyball on Sunday.

Ross will be glad to know that there were chicken nuggets at lunch today and they had a big vat of honey with the condiments on the salad bar. I even used the honey on my chicken nuggets. Be proud, Ross, be very proud.

Last night after I came back from the SQ Cru Bible study, I watched a Drum Corps competition on ESPN2 with Steph and Ellie. Let me tell you, those Drum Corps were hot. The way the group morphed into new formations constantly like a kaleidascope was awesome.

I went to the campus band meeting tonight and no I didn't sign up to try out. Maybe next time. The director, Scott Bersaglia, told us the songs he was planning to play and they sound pretty fun. I'm not going to tell you what they are though... not that many people who read this would even care now that Ross has deserted the internet. The director guy seems really cool. They sure have some quality people here at UM. When I got back from campus band and walked in the room, I growled and scared Stephanie. Hee hee hee.

My feet are getting many blisters. ARG! They hurt.

There are things I must now do.

Irrelevant information?

Well, today was a good day. The three classes I had today look promising. Before I went to my first class, I scoped out the location of my calc class. It's in East Hall and I had been there before, but never on the 4th floor. While I was there, I talked to this one guy who was also lost in East Hall and we were actually looking for the same room. Ok, so we weren't actually lost, but whatever. He asked if I was in 185 too, but I had to tell him that, no, I was not. And then I went to German.

I met up with Leah in the elevator lobby of Denison and we went to German together. The first thing the girl to my left said to me was that she saw Nick Lachey on campus today. It turned out that nothing big and important was happening and I understood most of what was going on. The professor, Peggy Wunderwald-Jensen, seemed nice and the class was cool too.

Then was calc and I was one of the last ones there. The class ended up being mostly freshmen. I'm not sure how I feel about that. The professor, Chris Hughes, was definitely not hot like the website said but he was cool. He seemed really nice and funny and whatever and he would constantly pace across the room when he wasn't writing on the board. I felt like a cat watching the broom as someone swept the floor... back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Today was just a review of calc one and it was boring.

After calc I had lunch. The cafeteria was packed and so I sat with an old lunch lady who just watches people go out the doors. She was interesting.

Then I went to my biggest class ever: Psychology 111. MLB 3 was packed to overflowing. Two friends from Cru, Brianna and Tracy, are in that class too so that was nice. Tracy described the professor, Shelly Schreier, as a "mom" and it turns out that she is a mother of three. She seems really nice. I'm excited about psych.

After my classes, I went looking for the M Den on South U and I never found it. So I went to the Michigan Union Book Store and bought some notebooks.

There's so much more to say, but it's midnight and I'm going to bed soon so I might tell it all later. G'night.

Drums, Drums in the Deep

I woke up around 9 this morning and when I went to take a shower, I heard drums outside. They weren't right outside... probably from Elbel or Revelli. Drums are fun.

Last night I watched The Ninth Gate. It wasn't that great, but it had Johnny Depp in it and it was on TV so I figured that I might as well watch it. I don't know, I kind of enjoyed it.

One of the guys in the guys' hall has been playing his music very loudly. I can't hear it on my hall, but when I'm waiting for the elevator I can. I'm glad my room isn't on that hall.

A breeze is blowing through my room and it's kind of chilly.

Ross and Ryan begin their senior year of high school tomorrow. It's weird... I was a senior once upon a time. Ok, so it's not as weird as it was last year and actually it's not weird at all anymore. High school seems like such a long time ago. Listening to the sounds of the marching band drift in through my open window makes me a bit nostalgic. It's their last day of band camp.

This afternoon I met Beth, Angela, Jackie, Erin, and Kat in the law quad. It was hot... very hot. We hit around a volleyball and sat around and talked. It was nice to see some more friendly familiar faces. Ross, Jeff, Steve, Dan, Sarath (I think that's how it's spelled), and Christine showed up later. When I got back to my room, I drank one whole bottle of water and another whole bottle of cranberry juice.

I was dreading the beginning of classes but then I looked at the couse syllabi (as apposed to syllabusses) for Psych 111 and Linguistics 211 and I got excited. On another note, it turns out my new $110 calc book is exactly the same as chapters 12-17 of my old calc book. The page numbers, problems, and everything are exactly the same. Perhaps I should return it. The only reason I'd want to keep it is if we had to bring it to class everyday... it's probably 10 times lighter than my other calc book.

Yesterday I listened to part of Birdland from my senior year just to hear Ben in all his bass trombone hotness.

That's all, I guess.

More People, Less Noise

I forgot to mention yesterday that the marching band was awesome. For one song during halftime they made the shape of a margaurita and for another song all the winds put down their intruments and danced. It was hot.

This afternoon I went to the poster sale in the Union, but it was packed so I left. Then I went back later and got a postcard of guys eating lunch on a steel beam and a poster called "Plaza After the Rain" painted by Cornoyer. It's kind of in the style of Monet I think. I like it. They had Johnny Depp posters too, but I was able to refrain.

If you type "later" wrong, it might come out as "alter" which is kind of German.

We had a hall meeting today for the guys' and girls' halls from 5 Bush. I knew a couple of the guys and I had met one of the girls (Ellie) beforehand. She was in one of Steph's classes last year. Her roommate looks a lot like my cousin, Katie Bragg, but I didn't tell her that.

At the football game, the guy to my right (Mike) had the brightest dark blue eyes I have ever seen.

A perk of being at the very butt-end of the hall is that not many people go by the room and so it is more quiet. A disadvantage of being at the very butt-end of the hall is that not many people go by the room and so there are less chances of people just randomly stopping in. Another disadvanage is that it's a long walk to the bathroom, but that could also be an advantage depending on how smelly the bathrooms get.

My computer is being slow, but I can't tell if it is slower than usual.
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Something odd is going on outside my window.

This is one of the views from my window. The view is considerably better than last year. I can see the score from here.

And it begins again.

I'm here again.
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Yesterday was stressful. I hate moving-in day... traffic, congestion, buying books. On top of everything, I couldn't get my internet to work for a long time. Finally this afternoon I gave up and called the ResComp thing and now it works.

At 12:30ish this afternoon, there was a group of guys below my window singing Michigan songs. It was like a choir or something and it was cool.
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I never realized how much space there was at home... two floors plus a yard and a garden and a car. I feel enclosed here. The room is really nice though. We have carpet and a little couch. It was pretty quiet on the hall last night and that was really nice. I need a longer USB cord and more extension cords and stuff, but that will all come in time I suppose.

Steph's baby is due on September 12. I'm fairly excited.

My roommate, Stephanie, is gone for the weekend. Apparently it is her boyfriend's birthday. It was a good thing she was gone because when I unpacked, my stuff covered the entire floor until I found a place to put it. She barely has anything here. I wonder if she'll bring more. It's kind of lonely being the only occupant of this room right now.

My space bar is having issues. When I press it on the right side, it doesn't always work.

The game was fun. I randomly met up with Cru people when I was on my way to the game. Michigan beat Northern Illinois 33 to 17. My seat was with a bunch of Cru sophomores. Now I'm sore. Arg.

The view out of my window is nice... Michigan stadium.

Where a million diamonds shine...

Monday was exhausting. Who knew that carrying endless amounts of textbooks from one room to another and then placing them on the shelves could drain so much out of a person? I did some more Wednesday, but it wasn't as much hard labor.

I played some Final Fantasy Tactics and I didn't die right away, though I did die eventually. It was sad when I was killed, but I had saved previously so it wasn't too sad.

There is so much to do before I leave on Friday... and then I just keep heaping the work onto myself. Sheesh. I really need to pack. I should be packing right now, but I'm sitting here writing a post for my blog.

Ugh, I feel sick.

Browsing through random blogs is fun. I found one from a guy in Grand Rapids and another one by a guy totally obsessed with ink cartidges. There were also a few in Spanish and some other interesting ones.

I leave tomorrow. It's weird. My roommate moved in today. I have so much stuff to take... I don't know if it will all fit in the car.

Apparently, I'm a slave to mediocrity.

Bonfire tonight at Ben's at 7:30ish. Come one, come all.