Back at Smith!
And it's good to be back. Mom and I headed off on our road trip last Tuesday. We visited Al and Kris for a couple of days in North Carolina. Quite a pleasant visit. Their puppy is too cute. We wandered around the botanical gardens at Duke for a bit, enjoying the better-than-Florida weather. I took a lot of pictures of pretty things, but I have a terrible backlog of photos to upload and sort through so those will get posted hopefully this weekend.
We then headed up to Maryland to visit Eric and Amanda. Also a pleasant trip. I got to actually see DC; I somehow never managed to get there before during previous travels. Luckily we went the week after the Glenn Beck rally. That would have sucked. One night we went to a Capitol Steps show. It's a group that sings songs about current political goings-on. Pretty entertaining. I also got to see where Eric teaches, although he didn't have any classes we could spy on.
We arrived at Smith Sunday afternoon. There was much hauling of boxes up stairs and we were soon pretty exhausted. Beer and burgers for dinner followed by more organizing and shopping. Mom stayed until Wednesday morning, checking out all of my favorite Noho shops and supplying me with anything I needed or had forgotten. We got a bajillion plants. I currently have 15 in my room, although I brought up 2 papaya trees, 2 banana-ish looking things, and one rather wilty-looking banana from home. My room is so green and festive. I'm still finishing putting my stuff away and hanging things on walls, but I'll post some pics of the room when I'm done.
Classes are going well so far. Here's what I'm taking:
Dante: Kind of self-explanatory. We'll just be focusing on the Inferno. I have to have the first 30 lines memorized by next Thursday. "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita." One down, 29 to go.
Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance seminar: Basic bio seminar, only meets one time a week. My friend Jen is in the class with me but she might drop it for another class. It's taught by Rob, so basically I can make snarky or humorous comments during class without getting in trouble.
Molecular genetics of eukaryotes: Sam was supposed to be in the class with me, but she too might drop it for another class. Lame. Class today was all stuff I already knew, giving me ample time to write Dante on flash cards.
Philosophy of science seminar: Should be pretty interesting. The class is a mix of people who know shit about philosophy (yours truly) and people who know shit about science, with four philosophy/science double majors (one of whom is Jen). The professor is really nice and funny. And then there's Kevin. Kevin is a student from UMass who Jen wants to shoot in the face. He starts talking and no one, not even the professor, can understand what the hell he is talking about. He admitted early in the class that he knows practically nothing about biology, a fact he later demonstrated clearly. I like watching the faces of the science people wrinkle in confusion and fury when he speaks.
Italian conversation: pretty straightforward. I took the same course last time I was at Smith. It's not too demanding: show up class, talk a little, do a presentation.
I went today to talk to Bob, my boss from sophomore year. We chatted for a while about what we've been up to. I asked him if he would be able to rehire me for this year. He says he's not sure because he has four honors students and someone else on work-study, so he referred me to Rob. When I first asked Rob if he had a job for me, he was pretty hesitant. He said he wasn't sure if he could guarantee me a job, what I would be doing, etc. By the end he seemed to warm to the idea once he realized that I already had a lot of research under my belt and that Smith would be paying for me. So hopefully that will work out.
Anything else? Um, maybe, but I forget it right now. More later!
We then headed up to Maryland to visit Eric and Amanda. Also a pleasant trip. I got to actually see DC; I somehow never managed to get there before during previous travels. Luckily we went the week after the Glenn Beck rally. That would have sucked. One night we went to a Capitol Steps show. It's a group that sings songs about current political goings-on. Pretty entertaining. I also got to see where Eric teaches, although he didn't have any classes we could spy on.
We arrived at Smith Sunday afternoon. There was much hauling of boxes up stairs and we were soon pretty exhausted. Beer and burgers for dinner followed by more organizing and shopping. Mom stayed until Wednesday morning, checking out all of my favorite Noho shops and supplying me with anything I needed or had forgotten. We got a bajillion plants. I currently have 15 in my room, although I brought up 2 papaya trees, 2 banana-ish looking things, and one rather wilty-looking banana from home. My room is so green and festive. I'm still finishing putting my stuff away and hanging things on walls, but I'll post some pics of the room when I'm done.
Classes are going well so far. Here's what I'm taking:
Dante: Kind of self-explanatory. We'll just be focusing on the Inferno. I have to have the first 30 lines memorized by next Thursday. "Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita." One down, 29 to go.
Antibiotics and antibiotic resistance seminar: Basic bio seminar, only meets one time a week. My friend Jen is in the class with me but she might drop it for another class. It's taught by Rob, so basically I can make snarky or humorous comments during class without getting in trouble.
Molecular genetics of eukaryotes: Sam was supposed to be in the class with me, but she too might drop it for another class. Lame. Class today was all stuff I already knew, giving me ample time to write Dante on flash cards.
Philosophy of science seminar: Should be pretty interesting. The class is a mix of people who know shit about philosophy (yours truly) and people who know shit about science, with four philosophy/science double majors (one of whom is Jen). The professor is really nice and funny. And then there's Kevin. Kevin is a student from UMass who Jen wants to shoot in the face. He starts talking and no one, not even the professor, can understand what the hell he is talking about. He admitted early in the class that he knows practically nothing about biology, a fact he later demonstrated clearly. I like watching the faces of the science people wrinkle in confusion and fury when he speaks.
Italian conversation: pretty straightforward. I took the same course last time I was at Smith. It's not too demanding: show up class, talk a little, do a presentation.
I went today to talk to Bob, my boss from sophomore year. We chatted for a while about what we've been up to. I asked him if he would be able to rehire me for this year. He says he's not sure because he has four honors students and someone else on work-study, so he referred me to Rob. When I first asked Rob if he had a job for me, he was pretty hesitant. He said he wasn't sure if he could guarantee me a job, what I would be doing, etc. By the end he seemed to warm to the idea once he realized that I already had a lot of research under my belt and that Smith would be paying for me. So hopefully that will work out.
Anything else? Um, maybe, but I forget it right now. More later!