School
Hey here's most of an email i sent my mom to update everyone on college life here at Scripps college!
Last night I practiced ballroom dancing (namely, cha cha) for a little under an hour. Pomona ballroom had open ballroom hours so a couple other newbies met up and we danced. Unfortunately, among the three guys that showed up, one was on the good side and two.... well...I'll tell you about them. So this first one is hysterical. He's short (i.e. 5'3" if not smaller), dressed up like dad, but no tie, glasses, just... dork. I mean, he might be nice enough, but just overwhelmingly dork, that it's hard to keep a straight face or a not annoyed face. I tried to avoid him while dancing because he was overeager and pretend to be know-it-all... I'd be dancing by myself to get myself oriented and he'd start mirroring me a couple feet away. He'd say something like.. "You just look like you're having so much fun dancing by yourself!" Haha. I had to hold back, that, yes, I was quite enjoying dancing by myself, so please, don't bother me. ;) The other guy was nice enough. Unfortunately, he had this sort of strange stance that pushed his shoulders forward, his arms floppy, and his knees/feet too far forward as well. A "c" shape let's say. So then he'd be too close to my face and our knees kept inevitably bumping. So I'd gently remind him to keep his back straight, his frame solid, etc so that we wouldn't be bumping knees. Instead, while going into a turn, he smacked into my foot. Hurt like hell, but we had both gotten off time. So we continue. It wasn't until I looked down after he was gone, that I saw what I felt. My toe was completely bloody from the nail. It got pulled back about a 1/4 of the way. It's more cracked than seriously injured, but it looked absolutely sick. So, luckily, one of the girls who was on the dance team was there, I borrowed some surgical tape, cleaned up the toe, and wrapped it up. Continued on to capoeira.
So after ballroom dancing, I joined in on this Capoeira group. Capoeira is this Brazilian martial art/dance. It's really awesome, it looks like you're fighting, but you're never really supposed to touch the other person. It is very very rhythmical and beautiful. There is a lot of power, grace, and balance involved. It was a two hour class, we payed $7 each for this session, but they have free, less intense ones on Tuesday nights as well. (Rebecca joined me at this part!). So we do a basic, side-to-side motion with music, slowly work into these combinations of kicks, bends, etc. We do floor exercises, where we go from a crouching position to cartwheels, etc. I didn't even remember I could do cartwheeels! It was pretty exhilirating, difficult, and intense. We ended with a capoeira circle where all the guys who had done it for a long time, "played," in the middle of the circle while they chant, play music with drums, a sort of single string instrument, and a tambourine like thing. Tons and tons of clapping. I got in the circle after awhile too, and I probably didn't look that great, but better than some! That's what Rebecca told me anyway! ;)
I am so so so so so so sore! My legs and core especially. In addition, I am PMSing like no other. I feel like crying every other minute. It makes doing physics hw, infinitely harder bc I get so frustrated! Luckily, I was doing it at Greg's room, so he was there to help me! Rebecca borrowed Greg's car to go skate. She seemed to really really miss it, so I expect she'll be excited when she gets back.
Tonight is Friday Night Movie Guys - the movies that Greg, Angie, and their friend, Andy, host at Mudd in their academic building. Tonight they're showing 12 Monkeys (Brad Pitt and his butt make an appearance, apparently), Run Lola Run, and Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise!!). I think I'm going to the last two. Til then, I might try to get ahead on some reading. I also have two essays coming up - they're due two weeks from now, I believe. One for Writing the other for Core.
I still really dislike Writing. The other day, we watched this horrid avant-garde film called Meshes of the Afternoon made by Maya Deren. It was a high contrast b&w film with scary Japanese music in the background. It involved her following this phantom with a mirror face, many strange symbols like a key that turned into a knife, that turned into a poppy flower. All these different versions of herself go through the same actions, more or less, with twists in the symbols, then finally, a man appears on the scene. There seems to be conflict between them. He becomes a symbol of the phantom, or vice versa. Then she ends up dead, because she slits her throat. We analyzed it in class, which was ok, and then we were going to watch it again, but the video didnt work (good luck!!!), so we had extra time. So each group shared their interpretations. End. So now we must write a paper about Odyssey/Bible language usage or some such other boring aspect. O well. I don't think the class is getting any better, but it's only for one semester.
Core apper we just got the assignment today. I think I might focus on Adam Smith and how he argues that self-interest that is a powerful ethical force that creates community (in the words of the essay topic they gave us). So I hope I'll figure out a ... what do they call it.... a hook? Anyway, I have a feeling next week will be busy!
Here's bits and pieces of the room:
Our awesome bunk beds... well not really, but that's all that fits in this room
My rather messy desk space (notice cool new poster by van gogh)
a super hot pic of my roommate, rebecca
hot pic of me in my new swimsuit! Yes...
both taken at the lovely scripps pool that I would like to spend as much time as possible at
So there you go!
Last night I practiced ballroom dancing (namely, cha cha) for a little under an hour. Pomona ballroom had open ballroom hours so a couple other newbies met up and we danced. Unfortunately, among the three guys that showed up, one was on the good side and two.... well...I'll tell you about them. So this first one is hysterical. He's short (i.e. 5'3" if not smaller), dressed up like dad, but no tie, glasses, just... dork. I mean, he might be nice enough, but just overwhelmingly dork, that it's hard to keep a straight face or a not annoyed face. I tried to avoid him while dancing because he was overeager and pretend to be know-it-all... I'd be dancing by myself to get myself oriented and he'd start mirroring me a couple feet away. He'd say something like.. "You just look like you're having so much fun dancing by yourself!" Haha. I had to hold back, that, yes, I was quite enjoying dancing by myself, so please, don't bother me. ;) The other guy was nice enough. Unfortunately, he had this sort of strange stance that pushed his shoulders forward, his arms floppy, and his knees/feet too far forward as well. A "c" shape let's say. So then he'd be too close to my face and our knees kept inevitably bumping. So I'd gently remind him to keep his back straight, his frame solid, etc so that we wouldn't be bumping knees. Instead, while going into a turn, he smacked into my foot. Hurt like hell, but we had both gotten off time. So we continue. It wasn't until I looked down after he was gone, that I saw what I felt. My toe was completely bloody from the nail. It got pulled back about a 1/4 of the way. It's more cracked than seriously injured, but it looked absolutely sick. So, luckily, one of the girls who was on the dance team was there, I borrowed some surgical tape, cleaned up the toe, and wrapped it up. Continued on to capoeira.
So after ballroom dancing, I joined in on this Capoeira group. Capoeira is this Brazilian martial art/dance. It's really awesome, it looks like you're fighting, but you're never really supposed to touch the other person. It is very very rhythmical and beautiful. There is a lot of power, grace, and balance involved. It was a two hour class, we payed $7 each for this session, but they have free, less intense ones on Tuesday nights as well. (Rebecca joined me at this part!). So we do a basic, side-to-side motion with music, slowly work into these combinations of kicks, bends, etc. We do floor exercises, where we go from a crouching position to cartwheels, etc. I didn't even remember I could do cartwheeels! It was pretty exhilirating, difficult, and intense. We ended with a capoeira circle where all the guys who had done it for a long time, "played," in the middle of the circle while they chant, play music with drums, a sort of single string instrument, and a tambourine like thing. Tons and tons of clapping. I got in the circle after awhile too, and I probably didn't look that great, but better than some! That's what Rebecca told me anyway! ;)
I am so so so so so so sore! My legs and core especially. In addition, I am PMSing like no other. I feel like crying every other minute. It makes doing physics hw, infinitely harder bc I get so frustrated! Luckily, I was doing it at Greg's room, so he was there to help me! Rebecca borrowed Greg's car to go skate. She seemed to really really miss it, so I expect she'll be excited when she gets back.
Tonight is Friday Night Movie Guys - the movies that Greg, Angie, and their friend, Andy, host at Mudd in their academic building. Tonight they're showing 12 Monkeys (Brad Pitt and his butt make an appearance, apparently), Run Lola Run, and Vanilla Sky (Tom Cruise!!). I think I'm going to the last two. Til then, I might try to get ahead on some reading. I also have two essays coming up - they're due two weeks from now, I believe. One for Writing the other for Core.
I still really dislike Writing. The other day, we watched this horrid avant-garde film called Meshes of the Afternoon made by Maya Deren. It was a high contrast b&w film with scary Japanese music in the background. It involved her following this phantom with a mirror face, many strange symbols like a key that turned into a knife, that turned into a poppy flower. All these different versions of herself go through the same actions, more or less, with twists in the symbols, then finally, a man appears on the scene. There seems to be conflict between them. He becomes a symbol of the phantom, or vice versa. Then she ends up dead, because she slits her throat. We analyzed it in class, which was ok, and then we were going to watch it again, but the video didnt work (good luck!!!), so we had extra time. So each group shared their interpretations. End. So now we must write a paper about Odyssey/Bible language usage or some such other boring aspect. O well. I don't think the class is getting any better, but it's only for one semester.
Core apper we just got the assignment today. I think I might focus on Adam Smith and how he argues that self-interest that is a powerful ethical force that creates community (in the words of the essay topic they gave us). So I hope I'll figure out a ... what do they call it.... a hook? Anyway, I have a feeling next week will be busy!
Here's bits and pieces of the room:
Our awesome bunk beds... well not really, but that's all that fits in this room
My rather messy desk space (notice cool new poster by van gogh)
a super hot pic of my roommate, rebecca
hot pic of me in my new swimsuit! Yes...
both taken at the lovely scripps pool that I would like to spend as much time as possible at
So there you go!