The Ramblings of a Smithie

Hubbard House (being the coolest house on the Smith Campus) is doing secret valentines this year for everyone who wants to participate.  Marie got a fluffy pink walking pig with a bow in its hair last night, which goes to show you how cool the whole thing is.  For the recipient of my valentine (the alluring KJ) I got some beautiful dark chocolates (2 for $5) and I wrote her a poem.  Here it is, and Happy Valentine's Day to all of you!

( A Sonnet for KJ )

So much happened this week that I barely had time to write.  Since I probably should g back to my homework soon (I have a huge Latin test for Monday) here's the breakdown of the week:

Sunday:  Call-backs for Bat Boy.  I was really nervous at the start, but after awhile I started to get into it: singing and reading and generally just having some fun.  I walked back to Hubbard feeling good about all of it.  That night at dinner Barbara told me and Marie that she knew our parts.  We didn't get the cast email until three hours after that (torture!).  Finally it came: I'm Rick Taylor!  I am so pumped about this role.  It has a good amount of lines, a rap song (!) and it's so much fun playing a stupid, violent teenager (I'm going to go way over the top).  Also, Marie is playing Ron, Rick's brother!  This play looks like it's going to be a lot of fun.  The music gets stuck in your head so quickly because it's so good.  There's some questionable content in the show itself, so it might not be the best play to take children to, but the primary lesson of acceptance is pretty sound.

Here's a little of the opening song to the show, titled "Hold Me Bat Boy":

Monday: This is always a busy day, not the least of it being the three classes I have.  I went on an adventure to the supermarket, though, which was fun (I bought dark chocolate bars for my secret Hubbard Valentine, KJ!  I also wrote her a poem in which I kind of abused the rhyming dictionary and used lyrics from The Safety Dance, so it's pretty awesome).

Tuesday:  With only one class, I can finally sleep!  I was late to it, though, because I forgot I had to print this HUGE essay on Cleopatra by Plutarch.  Seriously, I am losing so much money (and killing too many trees) because the professor insists we print all the readings and bring them to class.  There is actually a grade *based* on whether or not you bring them to class, so it's kind of unavoidable.  I feel really bad printing 50+ pages a week, though, when it's just as easy to read them online and take notes.  Apart from all that, the first Bat Boy rehearsal was on Tuesday!  We started with warm-up games, most of which I knew from BEST.  After some introductions and such we did the first read-through of the play.  Seriously, it's going to be amazing.  Pretty much everyone is excited and totally into their role, which makes such a difference in theater.  By the time rehearsal ended at 10 I was pretty tired and went to bed as soon as I could.

Wednesday: Another day of three classes.  Argh.

Thursday: Bat Boy rehearsal # 2!  This time it was in Davis Ballroom, halfway across campus.  I was already in the campus center, though, because of the blood drive.  After my Italian Discussion group I volunteered for a bit, got some dinner then waited to give blood myself.  And waited.  And waited.  They were really behind because they were also doing 'Double Red', where people who are tall enough and weigh enough are asked to give blood and plasma (that's what I was told, at least).  It takes longer than usual blood-giving so they were really backed up.  It got to the point where I was waiting so long that even if they had called me in immediately I wouldn't have time to give blood before rehearsal.  I gave my number to someone else and tried to study Italian (city words this unit).  After awhile I gave up and went to the Davis Ballroom.  The directer Jess and her friend Maggie were already there.  We were locked out.  Even though public safety was across the street it took forever for them to get there and open it up for us.  When the whole cast was there we played some theater games, then started blocking the first number: Hold Me Bat Boy.  It was sort of a communal effort, with the whole cast pitching in ideas and suggestions.  We managed to finish it in an hour and change!  The whole staging is pretty dramatic, despite the fact that the song is interrupted a few times by quick spoken scenes.  When that was done a few of us stayed to block out the first scene, where Rick, Ron and their sister Ruthie first find the Bat Boy.  By the end of it all I was so tired.  Marie and I walked back with Jess and Maggie (they live in the house over, Lawrence) and when I got back to the dorm I talked with Seb for awhile on the phone.  Soon after I finally went to sleep.

Friday:  Only two classes, but I had to wake up at eight.  I took the Italian vocab quiz and I feel really good about it.  I had polenta with bean salsa for lunch, which I've been waiting to eat all week (On a side note, I've inadvertently become a sort of vegetarian.  I still eat fish, but rarely.  It's really easy here- there are so many vegan/vegetarian options at Smith).  I did homework for awhile, but eventually gave up and went to tea, where I gorged on grapes (YUM).  I was waiting for the arrival of KAYLIN, who is staying up with me here this weekend!  YAY!  I love love love having friends over so I can introduce them to the wonders and delights of Smith College.  She finally got here around 5:30 and after some debate we put her car in the parking lot behind the house, hoping no one would tow her (that would be bad).  I introduced her to everyone, grabbed Dagny, and the three of us ran over to Unity House for dinner.  Unity house is a co-op, meaning they make their own food, but the Japanese club was hosting a sushi-making event that night!  We paid $6 for two rolls, tea and miso soup.  There was no raw fish (salmonella is not fun) but plenty of avacado, fake crab and cucumber.  It was really fun to make the rolls ourselves, and easier than I expected.  Cooking is the thing I miss the most whenever I'm at Smith (we don't have a kitchen in Hubbard. only a dining hall and a tiny kitchette).  Finally we had our sushi- SO GOOD!  My rolls were a little thick and not cut as evenly as I wuld have liked, but overall I was pleased (I want to go find Uncle Frankie now and learn to improve... next vacation, perhaps?).  When we were done we walked over to the Campus Center and Dagny and I checked our mail.  I have a package!  Packages are the most exciting things EVER- I love opening my mailbox and seeing that I have one.  I can't wait to go to the post office today... I LOVE PACKAGES!  Anywho, I took Kaylin to the Campus Center and offered to buy her a drink, only to find I had no money (oops, need to put more on my onecard).  She bought one anyway and we talked for awhile.  When we got back to the Hub we watched Prince of Egypt and Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog.  I got a scary email from my Italian Prof about seeing her during office hours, but when I asked her why she said she wanted to work on my speaking skills a bit, which is totally understandable (I'm great at writing and reading Italian, but my speaking skills are pretty mediocre.  It's mostly my terrible, terrible accent, but I'm working on it!).  Kaylin and I chilled in the living room for awhile being total nerds.  Finally it was bedtime!  I love sleep.

Today:
Here's what I'me excited for:
1. Introducing Kaylin to the wonders of Hubbard weekend brunch.
2. Exploring the Smith Campus/Northampton with her (ADVENTURE TIME!)
3. Getting my package
4. Rehearsal #3 for Bat Boy (don't know what Kaylin's going to do)
5. Going to see a Valentine's Day show with the rest of Hubbard!
6. Enjoying a candy- and love-filled VALENTINE'S DAY!

Nothing much happened today, except that I tried out for Bat Boy: The Musical with Dagny and Marie and I got a call-back for tomorrow!  I am pretty excited about that... I'll let y'all know if I get in!

Yesterday was so busy.  I tried to wake up at seven to study Italian (no luck) and got up at eight instead.  I rushed through breakfast and getting dressed to my first class, Intro to Western Art (we talked about ancient aegean art!).  After grabbing Dagny, we walked to Italian, where we practiced using direct and indirect pronouns... Maria mangiavo le paste!  Maria le mangiavo!).  The new teacher's big on speaking, which is good for me but still a little tough.  I had to repeat the same sentence many, many times (gli is impossible!) including some pretty bad attempts at rolling my r's (not happening anytime soon).  I still hadn't taken my Italian test, so right after a PB&J from Chapin I studied and finally did it.  Soon after I got a call from Cassie.  Though reception was really bad I realized that I was supposed to meet her and Hil for lunch!  I totally missed it!  By then Cassie ws already riding the train to Albany, then Rochester, so I couldn't see her at all.  I feel kind of lame about it and I definitely want to see them both again soon.

I did Italian homework for a few hours until it was teatime.  I decided beforehand I would only have one cookie... then I had, like, seven.  I should not have sat near the cookie pile XD.  At least I ate a huge plate of broccoli and carrots to make up for it.  It was a study abroad tea, where older students who had studied abroad (or 'away') told their stories about their adventures.  Aliza went to Edinbourgh, Scotland; Chelsea did a half-year internship at a Smithsonian museum; Melanie went to Denmark and Julia sailed to the equator first semester AND went to Madagascar the second.  Everything they did seemed so cool!  While no one went to Italy now I'm really pumped up about Florence, though I wonder if it would be better if I just unenrolled from Smith for a year, went to a Italian college, then re-enrolled afterwards... it would be a lot cheaper, though I guess I wouldn't have support from the college.

Soon after was dinner.  During most of it I did some STRIDE work looking up books.  At 7:40, though, everyone was getting ready for the MassPIRG date auction.  MassPIRG, known as "an advocate for the public interest", is a volunteer group that seeks to reduce homelessness, environmental damage and a whole bunch of other issues.  Here it's a five college group, meaning it has students frm Amherst to UMass.  To raise money for a conference the group auctioned off dates with guys and a few girls.  Many Hubbardites went just to enjoy the show.  The auction was taking place in the Davis Ballroom, which was decorated with balloons and a disco ball (fancy).  It was so loud there; I actually got really angry at some people talking behind us as the MassPIRGers were talking about their goals.  Finally the auction started.  While I was there no one went for more than $25 dollars, which was surprising: there were some pretty cute guys there!  (A sign of the recession, I suppose...) It was mostly silly and fun, though, which I expected.

After awhile I checked my watch and realized that it was already 8:40.  I was going to see the animated movie Coraline that night, and our bus was at 8:45!  Elyse, a sophmore from Hubbard, and I ran out of of the auction and too the bus stop.  Aliza and Lizzie joined us soon after.  After a lot of waiting in the cold we realized the bus had been at 8:30 (oops).  After some debate we decided that we might as well go anyway, even though we'd be late.  Finally the bus came and we warmed ourselves up in it.  We talked and laughed and I taught Aliza finger chess.  When we finally reached the Hampshire Mall, Elyse and I ran to the Cinemax.  There was a huge, huge line!  In desperation I asked everyone if we could cut, as our movie was going on right now.  Everyone did (they were so nice!) and I grabbbed four tickets.  After handing one to Aliza (who went to get popcorn for herself) we rushed into the theater.  As it was opening night the only seats open were those in the front row, which meant we spent the whole movie craning our necks.  It was annoying at first, but soon I was lost in the story.  It's a stop-motion movie based on a novel by Neil Gaiman, and it was as delightfully horrific and fantastical as the book.  The story is about Coraline, a young girl who  moves into a new house with her perpetually over-worked parents.  Frusterated and bored with her life, she discovers a door which leads to a wonderful new world where her "Other Mother" and "Other Father" give her everything her real parents don't.  Soon, however, she realizes that everything is not as perfect as she thought.


The animation was absolutely spectacular: smooth, beautiful and emotive.  There was so much detail and many visual jokes.  I was worried that the bright color scheme featured in the trailors would take away from the horror of the book (Coraline has blue hair?  Really?), but I still got chills at some parts.  While I would have changed some parts it was everything I could have expected and more.

Here's one of my favorite scenes from Coraline when she meets her Other Father:




After the movie got out we walked to the bus stop and realized that the bus wasn't coming anytime soon.  With nothing else to do we walked to Trader Joe's, which was closed despite all the lights.  Right next to it was a McDonalds, though, and after an adventure walking in snow I got a small fries for everyone (which I toally shouldn't have eaten... groan).  We grabbed the next bus to Northampton and soon I was back at Hubbard and sleeping!

Today doesn't look like it's going to be any less busy; after brunch, I'm going to the gym for an hour, then auditioning for a show, then working for at least two hours on my STRIDE project.  Between all that I have to find time to clean my room and get some homework done!

I love you all!
-Maggie

I just realized most of you don't know what my room looks like... so, instead of studying Italian (which I should be doing) I took pictures!

Bad news about today: 

• I have a cold sore.  Gah.  Shouldn't have eaten chocolate at study break last night... but it was so good!
• IT. WAS. SO. COLD.  My hair froze walking to Hatfield!  That's less than a minute walk!  I don't mind winter weather usually but when it drops below 10F its just brutal.
• I still have to take an online Italian quiz (grr)

Good news about today:

• I slept in until 8:30.  I love Thursdays!
• We started reading primary sources for my Cleopatra class, and already it's more interesting. 
• I finished writing my resume, edited it at the CDO (Career Development Office) and sent it off to the RISD museum!  There's a weight off my chest... worse comes to worse, I have a great resume I can send off elsewhere.
• I decided to stay at home and do homework instead of auditioning for the Leading Ladies show tonight... I'll go to the auditions on Saturday.  So much less stress!
• I sat for an hour at dinner, talking and laughing and just having a great time with my housemates.  I love Hubbard!
• I'm listening to Gaelic Storm right now!

And, most importantly....

• Tomorrow's Friday!  IT'S ALMOST THE WEEKEND!

All in all, it's been a pretty good day.

This weekend was full of schoolwork and chores, which means that it would only be interesting to someone who wanted to hear a lot about the Roman Republic and Latin love poetry.  The only really notable thing that happened was I had my first almost-all-nighter at Smith while translating that aforementioned Latin poetry (procrastination is what kills me... I'm working on it!).  I ended up stumbling into my room at 3:00 and getting three hours of sleep.  Surprisingly, with lots of coffee and tea the next day, I felt totally normal.  I'm not doing it again anytime soon (and I got almost twelve hours of sleep last night to make up for it).

The biggest thing I learned is that the later it gets, the more efficiency goes down.  I measure this by the homework to facebook ratio.  Ideally that ratio is 1:0, but most days it's probably something like 25:1 (for every twenty-five minutes doing homework you spend one minute on facebook).  In the wee hours of the morning, the ratio is something like 4:1 (Four minutes of homework for one minite on facebook).  When it gets to 1:1, or even 1:2, it means that you might as well go to sleep because you sure aren't getting any homework done.

Monday was hectic, as usual.  Nothing particularly cool happened, except that there was a fire drill during my poetry class ("Cease all operations!  Evacuate the building immediately!").  You know it was a boring day when a fire drill seems exciting.

That night when I was browsing smith.edu/2eat (possibly the most visited site of any Smith site) I saw that Comstock/Wilder was having Indian food (YUM!).  Traditionally, they're the 'Asian food' house, though most days they just have what everyone else is having.  On some special nights, though, they live up to their name.  I've never actually eaten there, though my friends have gone the night they had sushi (the idea of eating assembly-line sushi sort of made me suspicious until my friends told me it was all vegetarian, so no worries of salmonella from raw fish).  Apparently when Comstock/Wilder had great food, there was a line out the door, so I had to go early.  I sprung out of bed and ran downstairs and into the night to realize that I didn't have my OneCard, which meant
a)  I couldn't get food
b) I was locked out
So, after calling my wonderful roommate Marie to come save me, I ran down stairs and into the night for good this time.

It's a rather long walk from Hubbard to Comstock/Wilder.  Well, a rather long walk for us.  For a normal non-Smithie not spoiled by a tiny campus it's only a ten minite walk, maybe a bit more if you're not rushing.  Still, it's possibly the farthest house from Hubbard:I started down at the bottom of the map (where it says, rather illegibly, "Hub, Sweet, Hub") and walked all the way to the Quad*, where I rushed to get my Indian food (to give you a sense of how close I usually stay to the Hub, I circled all the buildings where I have classes in blue.  I rarely leave that part of campus XD).  It was a balmy night, which was nice but rather disconcerting when there was snow on the ground**.  Without any bitterness in the air it was actually a really pleasant walk, and Paradise Pond looked very pretty in the night frozen and covered with snow.  I got to Comstock before the rush and filled up my tupperware with Chicken Masala, rice, Naan, and a little rice pudding for dessert.  I carried it all back to Hubbard and had a long, leisurely dinner to make up for the rushed one I had the day before.  The food was so, so good!  The Naan was really only fried bread (no spices) but the Masala was spicy and creamy and everything I hoped it would be.  I didn't have any homework, so after hanging out in the living room for a bit I went to bed early, at 9:30.  I love sleep!


* For most colleges, the Quad is the center of campus.  Here it holds the most out-of-the-way living spaces.  Go figure.

** A few days ago I saw a bunch of male robins puffing out their chests and looking territorial.  This was also disconcerting, because the tiny patch of grass they hopped on was surrounded by SNOW, and it's WINTER, not Spring.  (Though apparently the groundhog didn't see its shadow yesterday, so who knows).

The first week went by so fast!  It's going to be a hard semester (I was right to drop that drawing class, as much as I'm going to miss art) but I think I'm going to learn a lot, at least. 

I took an Italian quiz today and I'm not sure how I feel about it.  I had all the vocab words down but some of the questions (in Italian) confused me.  One of the sections was fill in the blank, but you could use words multiple times and I didn't realize that until I was done.  Gah.  At least I did pretty well in a meeting with my Latin professor.  We went over some stuff together, participles and verbs and whatnot, and I'm feeling much better about the class.  I also picked up my final exam and last paper from my Classical Mythology class semester and I did really well.

The highlight of my day so far has been tea!  It's a Smith tradition that every Friday houses gather together to drink tea and eat pastries.  Apparently it used to be a really formal affair: Sunday-best and gloves and all that.  Now everybody just piles on the couch in the living room and talks.  It gets so loud with all the talking and laughing you can barely hear anyone.  We have really great food, too.  Today we had an array of different cookies, along with some chips and salsa.  It really brings the house together and I love seeing people that are never around during the week.  Right after is dinner, though, so all the eating isn't that healthy... I just try to eat a lot of veggies afterwards!

Still have to do some homework and STRIDE and gym stuff tonight, but at least I'll sleep in tomorrow morning.  At least it's the weekend!

Walking home from the gym today all the trees were encased in ice.  It wasn't snow hanging from the trees or even just icicles.  Every branch and twig was surrounded by an even layer of translucent, perfect ice.  It looked like the wood was wrapped in clear plastic.  The branches glowed and glinted in the orange streetlight next to Lawrence House.  It was absolutely beautiful.

In other news, I decided not to go to the rugby meeting.  I don't think I'm going to play it for awhile.  Instead I think this semester I'm going to try out for the Leading Ladies, the musical theater club on campus.  They're doing Bat Boy: The Musical.  Seriously, how could I resist?

These last two days have been so busy!  I'm up to my neck in work and it's still the first week... gulp!  At least when the weekend comes I can organize everything a little better and maybe get ahead in some of my classes.  Everything I'm doing is pretty interesting, also.

Yesterday I had two new classes- Cleopatra: Histories, Fictions and Fantasies and Drawing I.  The Cleopatra class starts at 10:30, which is great, because it means I can sleep in if I need to!  The first day was the usual kind of introduction class, with the syllibus and introductions and whatnot.  It's a "Classics in Translation", meaning that we'll be reading everything in English, which is a nice break.  The professor is Nancy Shumate.  The class looks really fascinating.  We'll be talking about different views of Cleopatra from ancient times to modern days, and how the different ideas of those times affected how she was percieved.  We'll be watching movies, too, which is a plus.  I'm pretty excited to see how it goes.

The next class, after lunch, was Drawing I.  Walking into the studio felt so comfortable- I didn't realize how much I missed it.  It is a three-hour period, like most art classes, but we ended early.  The first day we did introductions, some art analysis, a little drawing, a quick critique of the art we drew, etc.  It was a nice class and I enjoyed it.  Afterwards I did some chores... riding to Stop and Shop was cold and I forgot my gloves.  It was icy, too, which was nervewracking.  At least it was a short ride.  I went back to Hubbard and translated Latin... then more Latin, then more.  It took me a long time to get back into the swing of it.  I haven't done Latin in almost a year!  With all the work I had to do, I realized that I couldn't take such a high level language course AND drawing at the same time.  While I still really want to take it, I decided to drop Drawing I this semester.

Today was the long day.  I woke up early to do more Latin and it was snowing!  Outside was already so white!  I had art history- this time we did Neolithic and Fertile Cresent Art:

Finally, after much ado and waiting, classes have started!  I celebrated by waking up at 7:30 this morning and enjoying a leisurely hour-long breakfast.  Eventually I got dressed and walked to Hillyer for my first class, Introduction to Western Art History.  The professor, Craig Felton, has been teaching at Smith for 26 years and still seems excited for the course.  Most of the period was spent on administrative mish-mash: his expectations, how we would be graded, etc.  Near the end we started on Paleolithic Art like the Venus of Willendorf:

What I wish I were doing:

http://vimeo.com/1778399?pg=embed&sec=1778399

I have a balcony outside my window- it's perfect!  However, all the money I could have spent on a flying suit I had to put towards books.  Sigh.


What I've actually been doing:
-Studying Latin
-Writing thank-you cards
-Writing out my schedule
-Wishing classes had started already

Today just wasn't exciting.

Ciao, la mia famiglia!  (and anyone else who may have stumbled on this page) 

As most of you probably know, I'm a student at Smith right now, but you probably don't know many of my day-to-day shenanigans.  This is because I am notoriously hard to contact and will do anything to keep from answering the phone, to my parent's chagrin.  The point of this journal, then, is to let everyone know what I'm up to and reducing the time I have to talk on my cell while rushing to class.

Unlike most colleges, Smith hasn't started classes yet.  I've still been busy this week, though, scanning photos for the lovely Saleema.  She works in the Art History Department here, focusing on Islamic Art and Architecture.  A few years back she went on a long research trip to India and took many, many photos, got engaged and never had the time to organize her work.  That's where I come in.  For six hours each day I've been organizing a huge box of photos then scanning them into the computer so we can identify them later.  There are so many photos.  Despite logging more than 30 hours I'm nowhere near done.  Still, the pictures are really neat, with temples and murals from all over India.  I'll post some examples later on- some are really beautiful!

I also went to a talk this weekend given by Alexandra Fuller.  Over vacation I read Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Memoir*, and I was really overcome by her  brutal honesty about her life there.  Still, you can really tell how much she still loves her family and Africa.  None of my friends had read it, so I went to Wright Hall alone.  Even though it was January Term there were a lot of people, though it looked like there were more adults than students.  After some waiting and introductions the author finally started to speak.  It was one of the best talks I went to all year.  She spoke with such freedom and animation that you could tell most of her stories weren't on a script.  She made me laugh so much!  Still, there were some serious moments, particularly when she talked about The Legend of Colton H. Bryan, her book about oil rig deaths in Wyoming.  She spent a lot of time on her efforts to pass a bill in the state legislature ensuring better safety standards and more accountability from oil companies.  As soon as I get my hands on it I'm reading that book.  

Today was much less busy than the rest of the week.  Instead of scanning photos I finished a lot of small chores, like cleaning my room and buying books for classes (including a GIGANTIC art history textbook).  Later in the day I went to the gym with my friend Dagny and soon after that was dinner.  Later we're watching Ocean's 11!  Hubbard House is filling up as people come back and it's really great to see all my school friends again.  Now classes just need to start and everything will be bacl to normal!


* Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Lets-Dogs-Tonight-Childhood/dp/0375758992