whew! where did november go?

How about that. Last month just flew by. Now it is December and there are only three weeks left of class. It's funny how the work-weeks seem to be never ending, but when you look back you cannot imagine how and a half months have come and go so fast. Craziness.

To put it in concise terms, November was craziness. It started out with me getting the cold that seems to infect everyone on campus. College fact: if one person gets sick, most people will get sick. That was followed by at least two weeks of papers and tests, papers and tests, papers and tests, etc.. Yes, that scene does seem quite unappealing, but it helps you remember why you are really here and how generally it feels pretty good to accomplish so much. Rewarding, I guess you would call it.

The week of academic rigor was followed by an amazing trip to Chicago with for a Model United Nations Conference. The conference was great. You always get to see the most ridiculous things (in a good way). This year Beloit College was South Africa and I was on a committee discussing an urban development program called UN Habitat. Our African block pulled a fast one on the European Union's draft resolution on the last night and to be frank - hell broke loose. You had delegations storming out and bashing on each other from across the room. You could think that sounds a little nerdy, if you are probably right, but I can tell you it was the best thing I have ever witnessed. Maybe not the best, but pretty close.

Thanksgiving break and back to school. The past week was tough, but that was rewarded by snow and a great weekend. There was so much going on and everyone was out and about. The night started by going to a concert in the basement of a fraternity to watch some friends' hip/hop group preform. That concert was proof that there is something special about the Beloit social scene. The fraternity was having a private pre-party that night for a big dance party that would be taking place later. The band wanted to preform one more time before break and the frat opened up the party to everyone on campus. It was great to have so many people you just get a kick out of in one room.

That was the weekend and now December. Yikes! Finals are coming up and the campus is going to be getting very serious and studious. There are worse things though. Personally, I can tell you that I am currently wishing for more time.

and a couple weeks pass.

whew! What a day it's been - no, more like what a week this will be. While it will be busy, today was a good start.

Today was marked by our first jazz choir rehearsal with the jazz band. It may sound a little nerdy, but it is really an awesome feeling to be singing in front of such a powerful group.



Not only was that opportunity interesting, it also changed the dynamics of a group tonight. No music buffs, I do not mean we were strategically louder or softer than usual. I mean that we all left the rehearsal room rejuvenated. As a group, we are undoubtedly a hodge-bodge of a ten person group: 2 Phi Psi's, 1 the peace house, 1 German international student, 1 that is in BSFFA (beloit science fiction and fantasy association), 1 trance dj, 1 guitar rocker, and myself - [insert an incredibly vague characteristic here). In other words, most of us do not usually pass a good deal of time with each other outside of our 6 hours of rehearsal a week.

However, tonight we all left the rehearsal together and walked back to residential side of campus laughing and joking around (by this, I mean speak in heavy Russian accents - its something we have been doing a lot lately). I was thinking why tonight was different and why we didn't just part ways like we do every Monday. I came to the conclusion that as we have grown together as an ensemble, the relationships between the members of the group have grown as well. Tonight was an awesome experience that a large number of people never get the chance to experience and we were all able to experience together.



*the are from chamber singers, not jazz choir - nonetheless, they are still nice.

halloween and autumny things

Last night was the big night for us students at Beloit College to dress up for halloween. Usually, I have a lot of trouble thinking of a costume. This time, however, it was a magical series of events that transformed four of my friends and myself into a robot army. The day was nothing but amazing.

It started off with a five hour pumpkin carving fiasco at the CCOC (campus and community outreach center). My friend jenny is in charge of setting up of campus events and was planning on having people carve pumpkins for a jack-o-lantern auction in downtown Beloit. When these said pumpkin carvers failed to show up, a couple friends and myself rushed over and were met with TWENTY FIVE uncarved pumpkins. YIKES! Needless to say, those pumpkins took a long time to carve. A couple cuts from an Exacto Knife later, we had about ten pounds of pumpkin guts on the floor and a trunk full of pumpkins.

After that, we did a little dumpster diving for cardboard boxes that we used at our robot bodies. Dancing around with boxes on our heads out of pure excitement, we undoubtedly offered a humorous sight for any passerby. Three hours of taping, cutting, and spray painting later - we became an unrecognizable group of machines meandering about campus. Excellent.

welcome home

"Welcome home." With this statement, all of Eaton Chapel busted out into uproarious applause. Homecoming had begun and with it came hundreds of Beloit College alums. I guess I have always taken this weekend for granted, noting that homecoming weekend are generally solely marked by an influx of "old people" partying at the wall. But for the first time in my two years here, I finally took part in the festivities (largely to do with the fact my attendance was made mandatory by choir). And while I was a little perturbed about having to be up at Eaton Chapel by 11:00 am on a Saturday, I must say that my eyes were opened in regards to how much this place means to so many people. Classes from over thirty years ago had up to half of their graduating class in attendance, that cute old guy still had his Beloit College sweater from 1942 draped around his shoulders, and amazingly enough most of them all knew the Beloit College songs (nobody knows them anymore). There was such a distinct sense of pride in all of them. They truly love this place, even after the passage of so much time.


Okay. So in the process of writing this blog, I was trying to find some pictures to put up on this thing. I went to the little Google image search miracle we all know and love to look for something to put up. I stumbled upon a genealogy website for Rock County, Wisconsin (which is where Beloit is located) and found some awesome postcards from the early 1900s. Kind of lame, I know. However, I think they are interesting so they're going up.














Downtown Beloit, 1915














Indian Mounds on campus, 1907
















Emerson Hall, 1911















Middle College, 1943

(where I'm typing this right now)

















These two are of the Sports Center's field house and of Maurer, Chapin, and Brannon residence halls, undated

sandwiches - 30 minutes and counting

Ah, yes. Just a half an hour of work to go, and I will have a lovely Jimmy John's sandwich waiting at my doorstep.

No, I didn't sleep through dinner tonight. It's Sunday - and as all Beloit students know means no dinner will be served. While this fact may be annoying to a student trying to watch their bank account, the no dinner Sunday rule was initially established to make the students be a bit more proactive about their food consumption, instead of just mindlessly filing in and out of commons (looking like a scene from Pink Floyd's the wall).

This forced freedom is definitely nice, even though we are known to complain about every now and again. It allows us to take some time off of Beloit, venture into town and experience something a little different every once and awhile. When the checking accounts start to dry out, this no dinner Sunday gets pretty interesting. Usually, the meal ends is made up of some form of pasta (anything from spaghetti to easy mac), some type of vegetable (usually those baby carrots that have been sitting in the fridge for awhile), and dessert (granola bars, gushers, etc.). Its not the greatest, but if anything it makes everyone a bit more satisfied with the meal served in commons on Monday.

Well, the Jimmy John's delivery guy just called and that means I have a sandwich to attend to. Yum!

it's monday - already.

Once again, the weekend has ended and the work week has begun. I'm going into this week refreshed from a weekend trip to Madison. While the weekends are fun here, it is always nice to find an excuse to get off campus and see new faces. This weekend my excuse was my friend Jenny's birthday.

In Beloit style, this excursion was shoddily put together about three hours in advance. We didn't really know where we would stay, what we would do, and who we would be joining us. By five o'clock, however, we managed to fill the car with five people and find a place to stay with a friend of a friend. Only being about an hour and a half drive away, we arrived in Madison and finished our dinner just as the Madison football fans filed out of the Iowa vs. Wisconsin game being played that night. Pushing through a sea of red Badger t-shirts, I found myself thankful for living in a multi-colored world. We meandered through the streets, saw the sights, and inevitably ended up on a porch having heated discussions about everything from favorite crayola crayon colors (personally, mine is macaroni) to the positives and negatives of capitalist systems. Surprisingly enough, the latter was the more heated of the conversations. Next thing we knew, the sun was rising and it was time to catch a couple hours of sleep before returning back to Beloit. The trip back was pretty mundane. I kept myself busy reading a Supernatural/Myth Encyclopedia that we picked up somewhere along the way.

Once I was back in Beloit, the realization that Monday was quickly approaching led me to the library - where I spent most of my evening. Now, the week has started and I will be facing my toughest week so far this year. Spanish test. Spanish paper. Astronomy quiz. Astronomy paper topic due. Social Stats project. Poli Sci paper topic due. Whew, I'm tired after just reading the list. On a positive note, next weekend will be even better knowing that I accomplished SO much in just five days.

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.