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.

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.