(no subject)
Counselors from all over the country have flocked to NIU to assist in our "healing" process. For yesterday and today there has been a counselor in every classroom, giving his or her spiel and then reminding us that, have we need of any counseling, it's everywhere, we need only look for it.
My psych TA was very shaken up because one of the girls who was killed was in our class. She told us that the moment we had walked through the door on the first day we were hers, and she loved each and every one of us. Then we watched human tetrus and were dismissed.
Loretta was as cheerful and assured as ever. She told us about her trip to McDonald's in the middle of the afternoon in her PJ's, robe, and slippers to ger comfort food, her restlessness and inability to motivate herself during the first weekend, how she brushed her dog about seventy times in three days, and how she can now go fifteen minutes without needing to sit down somewhere and rock back and forth.
Herr Walsh, surprisingly, talked very little about it. As I expected, he moved our quiz to next Tuesday. He handed back all our test papers (he was shocked that I had somehow gotten 120 out of 118), and then gave us a very violent German fairy tale to read about this kid who got his thumbs cut off by a tailor with ginormous scissors because he sucked on them too much.
My chem teacher got right back into the lesson, though I wasn't paying attention...
Dr. van Dijk put it better than anyone. She didn't know anyone personally who was killed or injured, nor was she here on campus when it happened. She said it all seemed like a news report, and not something that had actually taken place, right here. She also said that our education here was precious, whether or not we wanted to believe it, and that it was absolutely terrible that such violence was now part of it. I think I love this woman. The room has to be completely silent for us to be able to hear her, but she does have a very nice voice. She gives the impression of being very small and frail, though I imagine we're around the same size. She's very intelligent, and extremely learned in Byzantine art. Which serves to make me a bit nervous. I threw out an interpretation of a slide we were looking at today even though I knew it was way off, just because no one else was talking, and I felt bad for her.
I went to a book discussion in the honors office last night. The speaker's name was Dr. Bough (pronounced "BOO"). His name elevated him to awesome status instantly. He was quiet too, spoke slowly and surely, and left long gaps of silence between points, which was sort of discomforting. I could only take him half seriously though; he was talking about the Screwtape Letters, and he truly believes that there are demons, or evil forces, out there that are exacerbating our fear and anger for their own ends. He's our school band director and a Tolkien fan. In general, he was interesting. I didn't want to hear about his life story though, it was more suited for church.
NIU is trying it darndest to make its students more comfortable...by shoving cookies down their throats, and putting dogs in our entrance halls to...pet?...
Operation COOKIE BOUQUET went down today. Heheh.
My psych TA was very shaken up because one of the girls who was killed was in our class. She told us that the moment we had walked through the door on the first day we were hers, and she loved each and every one of us. Then we watched human tetrus and were dismissed.
Loretta was as cheerful and assured as ever. She told us about her trip to McDonald's in the middle of the afternoon in her PJ's, robe, and slippers to ger comfort food, her restlessness and inability to motivate herself during the first weekend, how she brushed her dog about seventy times in three days, and how she can now go fifteen minutes without needing to sit down somewhere and rock back and forth.
Herr Walsh, surprisingly, talked very little about it. As I expected, he moved our quiz to next Tuesday. He handed back all our test papers (he was shocked that I had somehow gotten 120 out of 118), and then gave us a very violent German fairy tale to read about this kid who got his thumbs cut off by a tailor with ginormous scissors because he sucked on them too much.
My chem teacher got right back into the lesson, though I wasn't paying attention...
Dr. van Dijk put it better than anyone. She didn't know anyone personally who was killed or injured, nor was she here on campus when it happened. She said it all seemed like a news report, and not something that had actually taken place, right here. She also said that our education here was precious, whether or not we wanted to believe it, and that it was absolutely terrible that such violence was now part of it. I think I love this woman. The room has to be completely silent for us to be able to hear her, but she does have a very nice voice. She gives the impression of being very small and frail, though I imagine we're around the same size. She's very intelligent, and extremely learned in Byzantine art. Which serves to make me a bit nervous. I threw out an interpretation of a slide we were looking at today even though I knew it was way off, just because no one else was talking, and I felt bad for her.
I went to a book discussion in the honors office last night. The speaker's name was Dr. Bough (pronounced "BOO"). His name elevated him to awesome status instantly. He was quiet too, spoke slowly and surely, and left long gaps of silence between points, which was sort of discomforting. I could only take him half seriously though; he was talking about the Screwtape Letters, and he truly believes that there are demons, or evil forces, out there that are exacerbating our fear and anger for their own ends. He's our school band director and a Tolkien fan. In general, he was interesting. I didn't want to hear about his life story though, it was more suited for church.
NIU is trying it darndest to make its students more comfortable...by shoving cookies down their throats, and putting dogs in our entrance halls to...pet?...
Operation COOKIE BOUQUET went down today. Heheh.