first day at work

Many, many envelopes have been stuffed - all which are going to land up in someones mailbox, somewhere in Minnesota. Since it's so early on in the year, there isn't too much for us SOIs to do around the office. Give it two or three months and I have a feeling we will be swamped with prospective students to contact, phone calls to answer, and interviews to schedule - all on top of what already seems to be a heavy envelope stuffing load. No complaints though. This type of stuff provides a good excuse to put down my poli sci reading for at least a couple hours.


Don't get me wrong - the reading for my poli sci class (Comparative Middle Eastern Politics) is incredibly interesting, and if I could read it straight through on one sitting I would be more than accepting of the challenge. When you have roughly 200 pages due tomorrow, however, a little break is undoubtedly needed.

In the class so far, we have flown through the history of the entire Ottoman Empire, the Palestinian Mandate, and the Formation of an Iraqi National Identity in roughly six classes. Tomorrow will be the Role of the Military in Turkey. One thing that is really unique about the class is the fact that all of the in-class lectures have been intermixed with the perspectives of four international students from the Middle East; all of whom are currently enrolled in our approx. 20 person class. At this point, I have been bombarded with so much new information that I wouldn't even know where to begin explaining it you. Mandate, and the Formation of an Iraqi National Identity in roughly six classes. Tomorrow will be the Role of the Military in Turkey. One thing that is really unique about the class is the fact that all of our in-class lectures have been intermixed with the perspectives of four international students from the Middle East; all of whom are currently enrolled in our approx. 20 person class. At this point, I have been bombarded with so much new information that I wouldn't even know where to begin explaining it you.

So, I won't. I will tell you one thing however.

If I have learned one thing, it is that I have so much more to learn.

short and sweet

Okay – So I don’t really know how to start this without sounding like an awkward online dating ad. With that said, I guess I should just jump in, making the first blog short and sweet. If you read the bio, you know that my name is Erin and I’m a junior at Beloit. This past summer I worked for a nonprofit group that works for working families rights in Des Moines, Iowa. It was an incredibly awesome opportunity, but I would be lying if I said I wasn’t excited to get back to Beloit. This year will undoubtedly be different then my first two here. Friends are abroad, classes seem more important, and you start to realize that you are already half done with school. Scary. In that sense, falling back into the swing of things has been a little bit harder than I was expecting. Four weeks in and I finally feel like I have a handle of things. With that in mind, I am looking forward into letting you all know about the many adventures to come.