Recently in College Life Category

I have one final left - phil and eth. Not looking forward to it, but I have all the rest of today and tomorrow morning to study, and I'll be able to study with people, and as long as we do the study guide it should be fine. Today I had Lit Trad final at 9am and econ final at noon. I finished Lit Trad in an hour or so, probably could have done better but I couldn't have at the same time. It was okay. I finished econ in fifteen minutes and spent the next half hour wondering if I really answered all the questions. Most of the questions were from old tests and the graph questions were just graphs, and then there were two short answer questions and that was it. I still feel like maybe I forgot something though - I mean, fifteen minutes?! That's just ridiculous. (Needless to say, it was an easy class.)

So I got back to my dorm and I packed instead of studying. I just finished a final in 15 minutes, I deserve a break from studying! My clothes (four drawers full) are now neatly in the laundry basket. All the stuff I hang up is still in the closet though. I also have a laundry bag about half full with dirty clothes. The bottom drawer of my desk was already packed, because it just has Skittles and breakfast bars in it and I never took them out of the grocery bags. The second drawer is waiting to be packed, because its contents are basically going to be transferred to a box once Luke gets here with them tomorrow. The top drawer has three skeins of yarn in it (and a baby blanket in progress!) which will be put in a plastic bag at some point, my purse, and then a bag of random stuff, most of which never came out of the bag. I do need to figure out a place to put my quill pen and the glass ink bottle though....My "keyboard" drawer is also empty. Power backup, computer, alarm clock, lamps, etc. will all be taken care of tomorrow, as will the photo frames, jewelry box, earring holder....I've been packing my schoolbooks as I finish the courses, so the only books on my shelf right now are a Catholic Catechism (because I'm a non-Catholic theology major at a Catholic college), my three phil and eth books (Plato's Complete Works - no we didn't read nearly close to all, Pieper's Four Cardinal Virtues, and Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics) and my notes for that class, and then a German grammar and dictionary (because I borrowed them from someone and I'm not sure if they want them back), a One Year Bible, two library books (_The Fires of Heaven_ and The Constant Princess), my diary, and my Bible....

Can you tell I can't wait to get home?

Tomorrow I'm checking out at 3:15 (after the final at 12), leaving at 3:30. Luke's picking me up. We're going to Chipotle before going home because I have a free Chipotle coupon (thank you bookstore who gave me way too little money for the books I sold back) and there aren't any Chipotles close to my house. Then I'm going home, and probably to youth group....

I survived my freshman year of college! Yay!

and I will be done with my first year at college.

My class schedule next year consists of two advanced German classes, Am Civ I, Philosophy of Man, and Western Theological Traditions. I'm also auditing a graduate theology course. I'll have four MWF classes: Phil of Man, Am Civ, Western Theo Trad, and then the German translation course (M and W only). It'll be interesting.

I am not living in student apartments, though. It didn't work out. I'm hoping for a triple in Theresa, which means I'll have to eat in the cafeteria again. Maybe semester after next I'll be in student aps.

I lied about writing more, sorry...college is insanely busy.

I was working on a paper on Paradise Lost earlier and it was surprisingly easy to write. So I'm half done with this paper already, yay!! And it's not due till Friday!

I like school..but I am really excited for the summer.

Luke makes me smile. I just thought you all should know. :P

I'm starting to work on my class schedule for next semester. I will be taking the second and last core theology class, the second of the three core philosophy courses, the next course in German, the first of two required Western Civilization classes, and a grad course in which one translates German. I will also be auditing a grad theology course which will probably not be offered again until after I graduate.

I went to see the professor of that grad theology course today. I'm pretty sure he thinks I'm crazy for wanting to try and audit it, but he said I was welcome to. However, he said the likelihood of me not understanding everything that is going on is very likely. I wouldn't be trying to audit it if it wasn't possibly the only time it would be offered while I'm here...

In other news, I went to see 27 Dresses last night with one of my roommates and two friends of ours. It was really, really good. I loved it. It made me wish I was going to Joey's wedding this weekend, haha....

I will probably be living in a student apartment next semester and NOT be eating in the cafeteria!! I'm very excited about this prospect. The cafeteria food gets old pretty quickly, and it would be cheaper to eat at Taco Bell every day than to eat in the cafeteria, so..yeah.

I will try really hard to write more later/this weekend I promise!

Luke: You should update your blog.
Me: Why?
Luke: Because it's been fo'evah.
Me: So? Do you read it?
Luke: Yes (with emphasis). Well, you read my Facebook every day...
Me: What?! How do you know that?
Luke: laughs. a lot

Anywho.
I'm back at college. I'm in a quad. It's interesting. My textbooks were way too expensive. I start classes tomorrow and I promise I will update and tell y'all about them and give more info about my life thusfar at college.
In the meantime, I'm going to go eat parfait.

Well. I'm home. I haven't been home too much, though, because I've been house-sitting. Through that, I have learned that I don't like being alone in a big empty house. In fact, I would really prefer to never live alone - at least not in a house. Also, I don't do too well with hyper dogs.

I've also discovered that I really do love my family. My almost-five-year-old sister Judith came up to me when I got home tonight and said she was scared of robbers. So I pointed out to her that there are three adults and six older kids in the house and that SOMEONE will hear the robbers, plus few people know our neighborhood exists, plus even if robbers did come she would be safe because there are nine bigger people to protect her. Then I told her about the time when I thought I saw a robber and screamed extremely loudly but it wasn't anything at all. Then she told me about presents. It was really sweet. My younger siblings miss me when I'm gone, they really do. I forget that. They can be overwhelming, but they're not bad kids.

I also realized that I do belong at home. Maybe this should be obvious. There are a lot of people in my house, though. I seriously thought there wasn't room for me. But they made room. Now my dad's office is half "bedroom" because they moved one of the couches in here, so I'm sleeping on a couch but it's in a different room, which I do have rights to at night. And now that there's only one couch in the living room, there's room for a baby crib. I don't want to live anywhere else during breaks, even though I might have a bed. Because I know that I belong here.

I volunteered at the local public library yesterday and today. I'm volunteering tomorrow, as well, and I think I'll keep volunteering until the children's librarian gets back from New Zealand. Basically what I do is sit at the desk of the children's librarian and make sure no one does anything against the rules. So far there haven't been any problems. I get to read, for MYSELF - no classics!!! I'd forgotten how nice it was to just READ.

Today I read a lot and helped a little girl find The Westing Game. That made me smile because I remember reading and loving that book. I also saw a little boy with about five books. Not kid's books, either; each book was at least half an inch thick. It reminded me of me when I was young. I love just being in the library. Luke commented today that I look so at home there. I basically grew up in the library, mostly in the children's section. And I would probably love being a librarian, possibly even a children's librarian. I can't explain it and some of you will probably think I'm crazy, but there's just something awesome about seeing little kids who love to read. Maybe it's just that I was that kid. I don't know. There was a little boy, probably between one and two, running around in the library and getting books and he was so excited about it. There's no way he could have read them yet, but he loved them, it was obvious. It made me smile a lot.

Then there's the library itself. Being around books makes me happy, even if they're books that I wouldn't necessarily read. Being in the local public library was especially nice because I know where to go to find books without having to look up the title in the card catalogue! (Library of Congress is CON-FU-SING!!! Dewey Decimal is so blessedly simple, though it is also possible for more than one book to have the same call number. That can get confusing once you've been around Library of Congress only for four months.) Bookstores just aren't the same as libraries, because in libraries you can pick the books and take them home and bring them back and it's probably free. It's just awesome.

Anyway. I'm home. I'm so glad to be home. Whenever I drive by the way to UD I point and go "HAHA I'm not going that way!!!" At this point, I honestly haven't missed anyone. And while I know I'll have fun when I go back, right now I'm not looking forward to it. I'm liking home too much.

That semester of college has taught me things, not all of which I have discovered yet. For instance, I've learned that I actually do what I'm supposed to do most of the time, and in any case I probably do more of what I'm supposed to do than everyone else I know. (This applies to high school as well.) But I also like learning. I don't like papers too much, but when I can get things out of the lectures I enjoy them. Not that super happy joy, just the mild school joy. Also, I'm taking out loans to pay for college - too many loans in my opinion. Because of that, I'm not going to slack off more than occasionally or if I KNOW I can get away with it and the professor sucks so I don't care anymore (and even then, some people would not consider my slacking really slacking). At the same time, though, I don't do extra work. I just do what I'm supposed to. I also go to bed earlier than others, because I know I really do need my sleep. I go home on the weekends because I want to see my family and my boyfriend and go to my church and youth group. So I'm not around campus as much as I could be. Towards the end of the semester I was feeling left out because of that, among other things. Some of the other things may have been in my head, I don't know. I've had that happen before, so I have to be careful with that.

I'm learning I don't have to apologize for being who I am. I don't need to do things simply so that I will belong. I will probably never have a large circle of close friends. I'm beginning to think such things are myths anyway. Now I just need to get to the point where I truly am okay with that all the time, not just sometimes.

I'm still finding my place in my world. But places tend to change anyway. The important thing is that I know where I belong right now:
Sitting outside my house in a car with Luke, talking about random things - like the way I wouldn't be able to capture the way the tree branches looked slightly distorted through the wet windshield and how you just have to live life because it's impossible to capture it perfectly. My grandmother's house on Christmas day and my mother being really happy about the Panera gift card I got her. In the library reading a book.

As a side note, I have As in half of my classes. Which means that right now I have a 4.0. Now I just need to find out what my Under the Bible, Politics, and Lit Trad I grades are........

I have found ants on my wall, on the baseboard next to my roommate's bed (that would be on the wall closest to the hallway), and in my closet. They aren't fire ants, thankfully, but they are still ants. I don't like ants in my room. Especially not in my closet. The result is that my room has been smelling of Raid and I slept with my window open all last night to air it out. It was quite nice having the window open actually, because they turned the AC off and the heat is ridiculous and doesn't work properly so we haven't had it on. I know it may seem counterintuitive, opening the window when there are ants in my room, but they're not coming from the window. I can't figure out where they're coming from. I think they built Catherine with ant-infested materials or something....

Thanksgiving was nice. Anna, my best friend from high school who I hadn't seen since end of our junior year, came and stayed for a week. She also got to come to Thanksgiving dinner with us, which was nice. Thanksgiving dinner had the most people at it that we'd ever had.

Great, now there are ants on my desk and I STILL don't know where they're coming from AND I need to go to breakfast now! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So tonight we had a class meeting about stuff and Rome. Good news: Apparently very few people who are eligible are actually excluded from going to Rome, and seeing as my GPA will hopefully be a significant bit above 2.2 (the minimum GPA), I shouldn't have a problem with that. Bad news: Apparently Rome is..expensive. Like, $3000 spending of various types not including transportation there and back expensive. Good news: If you have a certain type of financial aid which I have in the largest amount they give out, it may be possible for you to get extra scholarship money. Bad news: It's still a lot of money. >_< Good news: I'm probably not going till spring so I have extra time to earn it!

In other news, I made satisfactory grades on all my midterms. Right now I have three As and three Bs, though two of those As are German. Anna is coming in nine and a half days. I'm excited. Technically I could take two classes next semester and be a sophomore at the end of the year. Hee.

I was a bad girl. I bought CDs: Across the Universe full soundtrack and Lee Coulter's first CD. They were both off iTunes music store though, so they got me some kind of miniscule credit with Upromise and they were cheaper than normal CDs. I'm not allowed to spend any more money this month though. I don't like loans and expensive Rome. I think the good music may have been worth it though.

My room is really humid and smells slightly funny. It's not too bad though.

Onions make sandwiches taste better.

Next semester I'm going to fourteen meal plan because I miss meals too often and I can't afford to waste money. I think if Mom's still buying lots of cereal that I'll just take some from home every now and then....

I found this really interesting looking non-fiction "series" called "History of Private Life." I'm reading the first volume right now.

That's all I can think of right now....

Today in German class we read "Erlkoenig" by Goethe. We also listened to it put to music by..Schubert, I believe. Anyway. It was so awesome. I read that poem for poetry reading at German competition, and I think it's a really cool poem.

This weekend I stayed up till three in the morning on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday morning we were watching Grease. I never realised how much bad stuff is in that movie.....I was singing along to at least half of the songs. It was nice.

I'm looking forward to the next couple weekends. This coming weekend Luke will hopefully be coming up and hanging out all day. There are several people who want to meet him, so we'll be hanging out with them too. I'm really really looking forward to that. The weekend after that is the Mute Math concert, which I'm coming home for (hint hint, Dad!).

And the weekend after that..on the seventeenth....ANNA IS GOING TO BE HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SO excited about that!!! I'm coming home that weekend too, but whoever picks Anna up can pick me up on the way to the airport, so it works. Right now the plan is that Luke and I will be picking Anna up. I'm not sure what all else will be happening that weekend, but it'll be awesome. And Anna and I are going to go to Taco Bueno. And it's going to be awesome.

Then Thanksgiving, then the weekend after Thanksgiving. I'll be home for Thanksgiving! So yeah. That's coming up and I'm excessively excited.

Last night I accidentally walked into the crochet and knitting club. So now I have yarn, a crochet hook on loan, and I'm making a scarf. I learned double crochet!!! That makes me smile. I've been smiling a lot today.

I have to think of something to write about for Understanding the Bible. It has to encompass Old and New Testaments. I'm really not sure. I'm thinking either something with the Psalms or something about Jesus as the Passover Lamb...yeah. Help? We only need to have a rough outline turned in Thursday, and we can change our topic, but yeah. The paper isn't due till after Thanksgiving break.

Yeah. Smiling is awesome. I'm having a really good day. Little things make me happy.

I hosted a prospective Friday night. That was exciting. I won't be able to host again until next semester, because the next Odyssey weekend is the weekend Anna's coming, so yeah.

I love how my window looks out on rush hour traffic about this time of day....

there was something else but I forgot what it was so yeah.

I was a naughty girl. I stayed up till 2 in the morning talking with Anna. And Luke. Three-way phone conversations in the wee hours are the best. I hadn't really talked to Anna in a long time so it was really nice. And I was pretty sure we had three way calling, so hopefully I wasn't wrong....

Today in German I went on a "date" with this guy in my class. We're learning relationship turns (I can now say "kiss" and "cuddle/make out" in German!) and so we had "dates" that we had to describe...It was pretty funny, and what the "couples" came up with was pretty hilarious. Dr. Eidt is going to type up our stories, print them out, and have us guess which one goes with which "couple".

Tomorrow I have no classes. But I still have work-study. So that's pretty much no fun. It'll be all right though.

Today was absolutely gorgeous. It was one of those perfect Texas days. I ate lunch outside with twenty-five or so other people; we'd pushed seven circular tables together in a line. It was awesome. I love this place.

Oh yeah, I'm looking forward to your emails Dad! And if you want to buy Leopard, I have an education discount....hint hint....

Here's an update!

I'm sure Mom and Dad remember Bill Ferris. He's kind of hard to forget, with that red hair. Well, one of the Charity Week things is a shave-off -- you specify an amount, people donate, and if you raise that amount you shave your head. Bill Ferris did it, and shaved his head. Most of it went to Locks of Love, which is good. That was about a week ago, and now he looks like he just got a buzz cut.

A week ago was the dance. I wore that one dress Anna made me buy back in junior year. The dance was so much fun and SO much better than the choir banquet dance sophomore year. Some of my friends and I went to Empress of China beforehand and IHOP afterwards.

Speaking of IHOP, we also went there on Tuesday (I thiiink) evening and Thursday night. The people who went on Thursday night decided that it will become a biweekly tradition, occurring after those with work-study get their paychecks...Speaking of paychecks, I need to go to the bank.

Schoolwise -- I'm making an A in German. We played Twister in German the other day. That was extremely amusing, because it was ten college students and one doctoral candidate playing. That doctoral candidate is an adjunt professor in the theology department and teaches some of my friends, so I got to tell those friends I played Twister with their professor. One of the girls was wearing a really short skirt. Somehow she managed to get things that did NOT require her to bend over, THANKFULLY....

I had a Politics exam on Monday. I still don't know how I did. Theology quiz Thursday, which I didn't do too well on, but I know I almost certainly made somewhere in the 65-75 range, so that's okay. Still haven't gotten the English paper revision back. Speaking of English, I don't have it on Monday morning because my professor is doing PhD stuff and can't make it. We're either going to have him on Wednesday or a sub, and Friday is Fall Reading Day. But we're ahead in that class, so it's okay.

The thing about my classes is, I have to have at least a B average to keep my scholarships for next year. If I don't have my scholarship I can't go to UD. I need to have a slightly higher average for the National Merit scholarship, but I can survive without that one so I'm not too worried. But right now I don't really know any grades, so yeah.

On Friday, Duncanville tennis had a match against Arlington Lamar. We don't like Arlington Lamar. Anyways, Duncanville team won 10-9. Luke lost doubles, but won singles. And I got to go watch, because Mrs. Olsen is a very, very nice lady. I also got to go home and see Lydia's adorable dwarf hamster!

I'm hoping to go to Incarnation tomorrow morning. I don't know if that'll work out though.

The thing about my bed at college is that it is ridiculously comfortable and makes it extremely hard to get up. This is at once a very good thing and a very bad thing, especially when one must get up early than one would like.

That's all for now!