school's out for summer!

No more physics and stats until the MCATs! My 10 week summer school experience at URI came to an end today with the handing in of my final physics exam, and I let me tell you, I don't think I have ever been so happy to end classes. Don't get me wrong, I am really happy that I decided to live here and take classes, because this truly gave me even more independence and I have learned a great deal (statistical numbers are awesome), but I think I am even more happy that I have a month of summer, which I plan to stay busy with some nothingness, work, art projects, reading, hanging around with the brothers and all that summertime fun.

In other news, I have realized that drama is truly everywhere, and does not diminish with age, as I guess I so naively thought. And though it does provide for entertainment, sometimes I wish that adults would stop acting so childish. (this conclusion from drama at work) But all in all, the multicultural center job continues to be working out great, and I have had some rather interesting conversations. Speaking of work, last week was our World Voices, World Visions camp (where various folk artist come and teach classes) and on Thursday and Friday we held two concerts, where I learned that the bango, dulcimers, and other such folk instruments are amazing and I am sure I will be rocking out to some good ole folk music. I recently dipped into my chinese music collection again, and most definitely played Jay Chou's CD with the windows down when I was stuck in traffic (i'm a dork, I know. But all of you going away should pick up some foreign music and rock out like no ones business, even if you can only make out one word in the entire song).

Well I am off to get some cash from my textbooks and pack, which is always a grand time, but not even that can ruin this great day. oh! and I just found my 'O' key, which came off of my keyboard in some craziness and I thought was lost to that place where things disappear without a trace...this day is just going my way! :) Hope you all are staying busy and doing crazy things! peace and love, rach

Just another brick in the wall....

I watched the most fucked-up movie i have ever seen yesterday at work. (yes, i know. I shouldnt be watching movies at work but thats how boring my job is. Besides, no one at work has caught on yet to my movie watching habit) Aannyywaaayy, Pink Floyd's The Wall has to be the most messed up movie i have ever seen. I knew going into watching it that it wouldn't make any sense because thats what everyone has told me. I wanted to see it for myself just because I've listened to the album alot and want the visual images that go along with the musical mayhem. So i started watching it and realized it would take a lot of brain power to figure out what the hell its about. The majority of the time i thought i knew what was going on but by the end and the fucked-up cartoon clips i gave up. The only way i could possibly understand what the hell was going on with the marching hammers, the carnviorous flowers, and pink's breakdown of shaving his eyebrows and nazi saluting would be if i was high or on acid and we all know that that will not happen anytime soon for me.(actually, that will never happen for me) The Wall is so trippy that I actually said aloud (when no one was around in the office of course) "What the Fuck" when the movie ended. Just when i THOUGHT i knew what was going on, i really didn't. I did learn that WWII can screw up a child up for life and that the band Pink Floyd has some serious issues and needs to lay off of the smack. So in conclusion, if you want to watch a movie that is entertaining but will either scare the living bajeebus out of you or leave you in a constant state of confusion, watch The Wall....also Shaun of the Dead is a hilarious movie and you should all watch it...and yes, I watched it while working today, hahaha....Miss you all!!!

Ennui... or something like it.

Aha! I've found another way to avoid doing Chemistry homework and intend to milk it for all it's worth.

Today in class I was suddenly transported to Martha's Vineyard. I could feel the sandy grit under my bare feet on the painted porch steps, hear seagulls, smell sunscreen and salty air, feel the wind playing in my hair. It was so real it took me a while to convince myself I actually was still sitting in my rather uncomfortable desk listening to Professor Wicht talk about converting alcohols into alkenes. I want a summer, damn it.

Don't get me wrong. Orgo is going fine, I find it interesting, blah blah blah. But I've been finding it increasingly difficult to sit down and do work. I come home and watch crap TV until my brain is mush. I look for things to eat when I'm not hungry. I unload the dishwasher and feed the cats and basically use any excuse to stay away from my textbook and homework problems. I just finished Monday's homework today, and I have a test tomorrow.

So I suppose I should really get back to work. I love seeing all the pictures Drew and Seth have been posting. I want more! Give me something to look at instead of acid and base reactions, please. Missing you all and hoping that you are having the most lovely of summers...

Amanda

ps- read the latest Harry Potter book and absolutely loved it. Best yet of the bunch. Decided chemistry is like potions. (Yet I still think Hewlett Packard when reading H.P.)

Stardate: Thursday

First off: Rugby? Awesome.










I can't stress that enough. Jehanne, I can't believe you've been having all this fun and havn't let us in on this secret (obviously wanting to keep it all for yourself). Super fun, super messy, fast paced extravaganza, and the All Blacks (NZ national team) are the best in the world! This country is crazy about the sport, but I can see why. They like Cricket too, but thats still as boring as when I left. Short update of events: Camped out last weekend by the beach after playing a game of rugby on it when an attempt to go surfing was thwarted by the weather. This weekend: Blackwater rafting in a glow worm cave on the west coast. Film Festival next week (including an animation segment, Dinosaurs notwithstanding Amanda), and I'm going to have the chance to make a 3 minute horror movie short for a film class here. Sounds like fun? Well, there's a lot of nothing inbetween the weekends, but at least I have H.P. to keep me warm now, and in a shrewd political move, I may be making the transition from lame friends to good friends on this caving trip. We'll see. And no girls yet :(

Everything's Eventual,

Drew

It's Official

I am a huge chemistry dork.

Enough said.

Greetings from Swellesley!

I'm still so excited about this blog. It has been wonderful to hear what everyone has been up to and to see pictures of everyone's adventures.

Although I have not been meeting new people or living on farms and traveling to new places, I have been dealing with one situation that has certainly been testing my limits:

Rooming with my twelve year old cousin!

She's been living at my house for the past two weeks (this is her last) and every day has been an adventure. One time I even saw her fling herself onto her bed in the most proper pre-teen way before letting out huge sobs over horrid math homework (Mollie: does that sound familiar? guess it runs in the family!). My room looks like a tornado hit it (make that ten tornadoes), me, the only child, actually had an argument about who was taking up too much room under the table, and trying to get time to myself is nearly impossible. However, good times have ensued. We've seen scads of movies, gone shopping, played games, done art projects, etc... It's regular old Camp Rowell here on Elmwood Road.

In addition the babies at work keep me DAMN busy (as do my obnoxious coworkers). Although Babyland is officially staffed with the most repulsive childcare workers (I can't understand how they got their teaching licenses), I'm in love with the babies themselves. So that much is good.

And five weeks from today I'm off to travel and then head to Prague. I'm constantly fluctuating: most of the time I'm super excited and hyper about the idea and other times I'm totally nervous about not knowing the language not being able to eat all the meat etc... and I'm just plain nervous about getting everything done in time.

Well, that's that! My cousin is quietly in bed reading Superfudge so I should pack it in for the night, but keep posting and can't wait to hear more soon.

Back in the saddle

Hello my dearest friends. You are all missed very very much.
I mean it. Really.

Ok, on to the grits... Hello from freakin Australia! I have been on campus now for 2 nights, but I just got onto the internet today, so things are starting to settle in for now. Anyways, our Butler group of 80 kids, mostly from Vassar and Wake Forest, all had a 3 day orientation in the Blue Mountains, which are west of Sydney. Then, we had 2 days of living on a farm, which was definitely a cool and memorable experience, as the pictures below will show. We finally got back to Sydney on saturday afternoon. Saturday night was a sloppy night of American's (mostly drunk in a club), loud music and more Americans. But, I've met a few Aussies who live on my floor, they seem pretty cool.

Australia is incredibly beautiful. And, cold.

These are some pictures from our Orientation and Farm Stay (the little kids absolutely loved us). I'll definitely keep up with the blog a bit more than I have been now that I am settled. Ah yes, finally, I think that we should all use Skype (www.skype.com). Thank you.

- The Management

NZ

Left to right: China, Alaska, Santa Cruz

NZ

PS

HAPPY BASTILLE DAYYY!!!!!!

French camp...aww ouiiii

Well I leave for french camp on Sunday. So that gives me three days including today. Have I started packing? Not at all! Alright! What's leaving for somewhere if getting everything together isn't done in a mad rush? Nothing that's what it is. Yep. All of you who get a chuckle out french camp just keep on chuckling cause that's where I'll be for the next six weeks. The first week is orientation with other camps. Maybe Japanese camp will be there, I like when they all start yelling and you can't understand anything they say. With Spanish or Italian or really most european langauges you can kind of recognize stuff, but when someone is trying to convery some message to you in Japanese (with or without hand gestures) it's like they are throwing grapes in your face and you don't know why, but you don't mind the grapes and you even eat a few. So here I'm headed to dance sing talk basically be an idiot in Franche in front of 100 kids for the rest of the summer. GOOD TIMES! I come back Aug 28 and leave for school Aug 30, even betterrrrr. Okay well I've rambled enough. I hope you all have a great rest of the summer and your departures for adventure are faaaantastic! Conn will be an empty void sans you all!!

ps thats me in the jester get up

Drew - I'm doing a staged reading at Pace in Pleasantville, which as you know is on your street, and I passed your house today and saw your car, and it made me sad. I miss you! I hope you're having a good time down unda...

To everyone I saw on sunday - I had a wonderful time, it was so great seeing you all - good closure for us to all go our separate ways this semester. Can't wait to see everyone again next spring!

Amanda Wallas - Could you post or send me the pictures that you took on sunday? Thanks so much!

forever and a day

Hey all! nothing all that exciting to report, being I saw most of you the other day, but I will ramble for a few, since it is 2:00 am and I am way over tired and have spent the entire afternoon (well, on and off) uploading these pics from our get together. So, in addition to spending too much time on this, I have been crazy busy with classes and work (I think I should be a statistician). There was a cigarette butt in my shower, who does that?! I mean seriously, that is just gross, you can't even smoke in the shower, water and fire really don't work all that well together. Well that is my random ramble, but I hope to do something interesting and worth sharing soon, perhaps I will do something radical, ha, we'll see how that goes... Enjoy the pics (you all are worth the frustration of uploading), had a great time on sunday! peace and love, rach












p.s- totally sporting the care bear cupcake ring tomorrow :)

Kia Ora

So you know how doors in the US have a handle on one side to pull and a bar on the other to push? New Zealand hasn't caught up with the bar technology yet, so I look like a jackass about 100 times a day trying to pull doors open that are meant to be pushed.

I write to you from a country that feels more like a bizzaro version of the United States than an island that almost grazes the tip of Antarctica. No doubt the nuanced differences will build to a point where I can pinpoint an actual culture, but as of now, it all just seems...quirky. Trash is rubbish, vans are loafed cars, and according to my flatmate, shades are called "the hundred leafed window", but I think he's full of shit.

Speaking of which, our flat consits of: Cool outdoorsman from Santa Cruz, cool outdoorswoman from Alaska, handsome New Yorker, nice Chinese dude, quiet Kiwi (that’s a New Zealander, Rose), and MIA Japanese fella. The six of us live in a totally bitchin' flat and cook for ourselves, which is Cup 'o' Noodles-tastic for me so far, but by the time I get back, Rachel’s going to in for a surprise for our big cook-off.

I had heard that the south island (where I’ll be the next 5 ½ months) is the beautiful island. This is misleading. What I think they meant to say is that the south island is not the beautiful island. We spent our orientation at a YMCA at the Shakespear regional park in the North Island, and I was constantly floored by the beauty. It looked like some fantasyland cross between Ireland the carribian and a Dr. Seuss book. I took a couple pictures. Some of them are pretty shitty, but I’m going to try to post them up on shutterfly when I finish this post. When we finished orientation and flew down to the south island, my NZ experience suddenly got a lot flatter. If the south island is beautiful, its certaintly not within an hour of my university. All of the hills I grew to love on the north island taunt me out my window from far away. Christchurch was built on a huge, cold plateau, which doesn't leave much room for natural beauty

I’m not going to sugarcoat my experience so far, nor am I going to be excessively negative (or analytical). There have been ups and downs. It hasn’t been the experience of a lifetime yet, but it also hasn’t been a week yet. The cool people who came over with butler mainly went up to Auckland (on the north island), and I got stuck with the d-bags down here. Lemons in hand, I’ll see what I can do about making that lemonade.

Chester

PS. Did you know Zach (from Nick’s math class), Elise, Cammy and Tom are all here too? Zach is the only one at Canterbury with me, but it still seemed like a big coincidence that out of a group of about 45 butler students coming to NZ, 5 would be from Conn.

I must write

Today, the Secret Group of al Qaeda's Jihad in Europe claimed responsibility for a flood of bombings occurring in London’s public transportation systems during rush hour this morning. They claimed responsibility. Or at least they claim to claim responsibility. Because there is a big difference to pointing a finger proudly, proclaiming “I did that” and feeling the consequences of your actions. Do they really feel responsible? Do they really feel the weight of all those lost lives on their shoulders? The lives of the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, torn from this world in an act of bloody rage? I think not. I think they justify it because they are Right and those they killed were Wrong. Nothing is too awful when you have God on your side.

I don’t understand. I don’t understand. If an individual wants to die for their own beliefs, then perhaps that is honorable. Perhaps that individual could evoke sympathy from those around them, and cause people to want to make a change. But no change for the better can be made when other people’s lives are sacrificed; the point is made, but there is no sympathy. How can you decide that your beliefs aren’t just worth dying for, but worth other people dying for? How can one not only push their beliefs onto other people, but ask – no, not ask - people to die for them?

The bombings were clearly meant to send a message to the world. But to communicate in this fashion is no better than to act like a baby. An evil, selfish baby, who is hurt and angry, but cannot (or in this case chooses not) to communicate their misery except by making other people share in their own hurt and anger. Whose tears are bullets and screams fire, whose temper tantrums send innocents to their deaths.

What does this all do? Is the world going to be more receptive to those who can only express their emotions through rage and punishment? Are things going to get better because these lives were sacrificed? How can we respond except by becoming irate infants ourselves? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. The viscous downward spiral of hate, distrust, and fear continues. I listen to the radio in the car on the way home and scream inside.

I don’t understand.

whoops

that was supposed to read

ONION FOUND IN THE SHAPE OF FAINSTEIN'S HEAD

Onion Found in the Shape of Fainstein's Hotel

New New London, Connecticut -

A local grocer recently uncovered an interesting artifact while taking his inventory amongst his new crops. After checking all the tomatoes, he proceeded onto the onions. However, what he found was unlike anything he has seen before in his long and illustrious grocery career. "Well," said the grocer, Paul Farkinay, 78, "I was just tending to me onions and then I done found it. This, this thing popped out the spuds in the onions. It looked like a man, a very tired, not very attractive, not hard working man. So I tooks it to the police." Authorities were shocked and amazed at the article that had been handed over to them so simply. What Mr. Farkinay had discovered what not just a rare onion, it was the rarest of all onions every grown in Connecticut. The onion bore an exact resemblance to the soon-to-be-resigned president of Connecticut College, Norman Fainstein. "The onion I saw was actually better looking than Mr. Fainstein, but that's just my opinion, not the bureau's." The onion has been handed over to the Connecticut Museum Office and will soon be placed at the entrance of the Crazy Nut Lady's Museum of Nuts. It will also be placed on display in the Shain Library for a few months during the coming scholastic year.

at the state house

so i thought i'd write to you all from my lovely desk in room 413A at the Massachusetts state house. interning is fun at times, boring at other times, and just plain silly, too. i hate answering the phones, but enjoy writing press releases and op eds. the building is beautiful, and full of important people, which is cool i guess. but in all seriousness, i think that working in legislation is one cross out on my list of things i want to do when i grow up. but a good experience anyway.

if you haven't seen batman begins, you should.