Snowy, Happy Day

This was a good day. It was the first day of snow on campus, and we got a lot of it!

I went to Stephen's house and he had a real Christmas tree with white lights, which I much enjoyed. And he served us (Ben, Ted, me) mint ice cream. I wanted to play Christmas music from my computer, so I asked for suggestions. Stephen mentioned White Christmas, so I typed that into grooveshark and found that Taylor Swift had made a version. Naturally, I added it to the playlist and we listened to it...until Ben requested she be silenced. I've got to say, it was a bit slow.

Thoughts on Sleep

I relish sleep. And I relish naps. But I will admit that I've got dreadful sleep habits. I'm sure it's quite terribly unhealthy. At school, I generally sleep for about 4-6 hours per night. Not ideal. And then when I go home for breaks, I sleep all the time. Literally. I know people talk about "sleeping in" over breaks; however, I think my home sleep habits are probably abnormal, because I can sleep for hours upon hours--basically the whole day away. It's kind of ridiculous.

As I was saying, I love naps. I frequently take naps during the day at school. Like today. I woke up around 6:30, did the usual morning routine and had class from 8-9:50. Then I came back to my room and slept until lunchtime. Then I went back to my room a bit past two and slept until dinnertime. Of course, I was on the computer for a time while I was in my room, before napping on both occasions. Tuesdays are lovely, because they are one of my least busy days and I can get away with this. I suppose if I didn't sleep on Tuesdays, they would also be great days for accomplishing lots of homework and laundry and cleaning--general catch up like that. Ahh well.

Normally, I'd just take one, shorter nap. Luckily, I can sleep just about anywhere and fairly easily. So if I know I've got something going on, I'll just set an alarm and get a quick nap in. On Mondays and Wednesdays, I've got a class from 1:45-2:50 and another from 3-4:50. They're just at that time in the afternoon when one gets sleepy... So sometimes I'll find a quiet place and take a quick nap for the few minutes in between classes. It's funny, because it's gotten to the point sometimes where I'll prioritize sleep over food. A nap instead of a meal--*gasp!* Yes, that's what I just said. Rare, but it will happen (I love to eat also).

Tomorrow is going to be a much busier day...and so with that I ought to bring this to a conclusion and get some sleep. Good night!

"No day is so bad it can't be fixed with a nap." - Carrie Snow

From a Harvard article about sleep: "Although it is common for people in many western societies to sleep in a single consolidated block of about eight hours during the night, this is by no means the only sleep pattern. In fact, following this schedule and foregoing an afternoon nap would seem highly abnormal to many people around the world."

Modern Dance

Check it out, this is intense: Kaba Modern

And I miss dance...

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

There were several Canadian students at breakfast who'd gone all out for this in Canadian apparel. Apparently they're having a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner later on today, which I think is great! :)

My Sunday

I went to Mt. Irenaeus this morning and it was beautiful.

More to follow...

Here's another new experience for me--I went to a volleyball game for the first time on Thursday evening. It was Houghton vs. Buffalo State. I had to leave for play practice before it ended, so I don't know who won. When I left, Houghton was in the lead.

Meh.

I'm not entirely sure why, but today was one of those days where little things kept irritating me.

I finished watching Så som i himmelen tonight.

On a brighter note, there were several positives things about today: the heat is on in Lambein, my Bible study began, and our floor had a pizza dinner together.

Monday...

I had a wonderful breakfast.

Improv everywhere after chapel.

The heat is not turned on in Lambein, though Shen and Gillette (two other dorms on campus) both have heat already. Needless to say, I hope the dorm is soon heated.

Australia program.

I need to study for linguistics--our exam is on Thursday!

Cookie night and play practice tonight.

Remember that pumpkin specialty drink I got from Java last night? Well, as it turns out, that may not have been the smartest idea. I was thinking about the short term advantage of it keeping me up for my shift working at the desk...not about how it would keep me awake until 2 a.m. Yes, that's what two shots of espresso, plus coffee with a late dinner, will do to me. And so I got a grand total of four hours of sleep last night. I did take a 20 minute nap before dinner.

On a completely unrelated note, I went to an informational talk about a Mayterm in Costa Rica tonight. I am really excited about the possibility of participating in the program; it looks amazing! I'll need to start brushing up on my Español pronto! :)

Today was a good day.

Wednesdays tend to be my busiest day of the week, and today was not quite an exception. But it was still good.

Last night, Kel stayed in my room. I got more sleep than usual--around six hours. During my first class of the day, Culture Change, we watched the movie Rabbit Proof Fence. It was quite interesting, though also a somewhat depressing film--certainly not a light, feel-good type of movie. I missed seeing the last ten minutes or so, because I had to leave class early to go to chapel. The dance group on campus danced to "Be Thou My Vision" during chapel. I thought it went well for the most part. It was a slower dance, and fairly simple. We'd only been rehearsing it for a few weeks, so it came together quite quickly. After chapel I went to my second class of the day, Fitness for Life. We had our blood pressures checked and then watched a movie about eating disorders. Yes, right before lunch. After that I went back to my room to quickly switch my notebooks to the ones I needed for my afternoon classes. I also dropped off my dance stuff. Then I went to lunch, which was not exceedingly noteworthy.

During the afternoon, I had my other two classes of the day: Intercultural Competencies and First & Second Language Acquisition.

I learned that the Australian program has been approved for the fall of 2011, which means that it is an excellent possibility for me. :) I am also checking into a program in Lithuania, which looks promising and exciting! There are just so many great study abroad programs. I've also checked into a Latin American Studies Program. We'll see what works out...

After my classes ended at five, I went to the campus center and hung out with the usual people. I finished watching Rabbit Proof Fence. I was feeling quite tired, so I took a short nap before going to a dance meeting. The sky was absolutely majestic. The clouds were all a beautiful pink-orange type of color.

Later on, I met Rebecca, Liz, Susan, and Trish for a transfer meal in Big Al's. I got a chicken wrap without the chicken--thus, a veggie wrap; it worked out nicely because they were out of chicken tonight...and I wouldn't have eaten it anyway.

I would love to do some sort of dance for chapel that's more modern than ballet. We've pretty much only done ballet type of dances...which are fine, but it would be fun to have something different.

Right now, I'm working at the Lambein desk and sipping some sort of pumpkin specialty drink from Java 101 (the college coffee shop). I got two stamps on my free drink card, which was a bonus. It's sweeter than I'd like, but oh well. Someday, I want to get some hot cider from Java.

Random thought: I want to take up knitting again.

New experience of the day: I went into the organ loft in the chapel and it was SO cool. The organ sounds so different from up there, because of being surrounded by the pipes.

First post!

Hello, world! Some time ago, I decided I needed a blog and set this one up. However, I never actually got around to posting anything--which entirely defeats the purpose of having a blog. This post is to remedy that problem, however, it is unfortunately going to have to be super short, as I am currently on my way to Europe for Mayterm with a group from my college. I’m very excited about this trip, as we’ve spent the entire semester in classes preparing for it! This weekend was a flurry of packing and preparations, but the time has come and tomorrow I will find myself across the pond with 27 other first-year students.

Until my next post, peace be with you!