TALK: The Green Mountain College Blog

So my last big project was completed approximately... 1 hour ago.

What a relief.

The education program here at GMC is absolutely amazing. And by that I mean the professors are doing exactly what they tell us to do in every class--constantly reflecting on the effectiveness of their methods.

So I decided to wander around campus and take some cool pictures today--which made me realize that I didn't post too much about Earth Week. Irony of all ironies.

Earth Week is like seven days of celebration at GMC. There are tons of fun and educational activities. We always have speakers, recent alums visit, and there are garlic mustard pulls (it's an invasive species around here), and of course lots of music, and much more.

Last year, we had a competition across campus to see who could stay outside for the longest amount of time all week. Though the competition didn't continue this year (I think because there were concerns regarding students who had a lot of classes INDOORS, which is clearly something they can't control), flocks of tents certainly went up. And as I wandered around campus taking pictures, I realized that many of them have remained up past Earth Week, which is pretty cool considering it's pouring out and people are still having a good time.

Here are some pics:

Last week was beautiful. And when I say beautiful, I mean like summer weather, hardly a cloud in the sky, and maybe a slight to moderate breeze everyday. People were discarding their shoes and jackets (and responsibilities quite frequently) to enjoy the sunshine. Hordes of college students made their way down to the river with bathing suits and bicycles, as others started up the grill for a nice outdoor barbecue. It was fantastic.

And now many are thanking the weather gods for this sudden onslaught of rain. I know I've discussed the subject with a lot of my friends--we all have papers due today or tomorrow or this Friday, and rain keeps us indoors working on that 10-page psychology paper, and away from the trails on Buckner Preserve or the canoes on Lake St. Catherine. Though Green Mountain College students are blessed with the number of outdoor adventures that lie relatively close to the school, such blessings can be curses when the weather gets really nice and the semester is coming to a close.

My solution? Visit Poultney in the summer. It's a grand old time.

Only three more weeks of school... and I think we're all seeing the major effects of this... lots of stress, lots of things due... and lots of low immune systems...

I got sick this past week. It's not going away. I may actually have to go to the doctors for this one. Bleh.

Even so, I did have quite a nice weekend. I ended up going to NH for my grandma's 80th birthday, which really just became a huge family reunion (ie: I met people related to me that I didn't realize were related to me. Hoorah for that.) I also got to catch up with some of the cousins I haven't seen in a long time-- such as my cousin Josh who has somehow managed to grow like a foot in a half in the past year. Yikes.

Or the other Josh who has lived in NYC for so many years, and then moved to Portland, ME that I seriously had to do a double take to see if he was actually related to me or had just married someone. Haha.

It was a surprise birthday party, and by some miracle, managed to continue to be a surprise birthday party (there are a lot of people in my family, which means a lot more people who might accidentally spill the beans). Here's my grandma's "surprise face."

What a delightful weekend.

So my friend Ben Jankowski... (checking for pictures...)

(request denied...)

(oh wait... nope... here he is on one of his sailing adventures...)

My friend Ben is not only good at sailing, but also happens to be a total drama geek (I know he will take no offense to that statement). Ironically, the first time I talked to him--which was wayyy before we started hanging out--was because he was wearing a NH Drama Festival shirt that indicated he had gone to the same festival I had performed in a couple years prior.

Anyways--the point is that he directed a musical this semester, and I had the opportunity to see it this past Friday.

AND it was amaaaazing.

So it's finally feeling like spring here!!!

FINALLY!

So I took the weekend off to enjoy the thrill of it all.

(This is a pictorial representation of the excitement this weekend created).

Something that I love about GMC is the fact that there's always music playing. There are a number of campus bands, some of which will jam out the coffee house or the gorge every now and again.

It's fantastic being around so many creative people, so many great musicians.

Wow. I was just going through the pictures on my camera, when I realized that I haven't even updated about my 21st birthday, my adorable nephew on Easter, or the fact that my pseudo brother is getting married.

You'd think I'd be on top of this.

So. Here's the inevitable Easter picture of my nephew, who is now almost 7 months old.

(Boy is he going to hate me when he grows up and realizes I've posted pictures like this of him on the internet. hahaha).

Yes, those are bunny ears; yes, my father yelled at my sister for putting said bunny ears on him (he's going to be a sissy! he says); and yes, you do see a little bit of drool on his face. He's teething, man. Give him a break. :)

There was this amazing speaker I saw tonight.

He was invited for a Voices plenary, which is basically a speech that all the Voices students (second semester freshman, mostly) had to attend to write a two page reflection on (but it's open to the public).

Normally, I wouldn't attend something like this. I just happened to get out of a meeting early and bumped into a girl who reminded me that the speaker was tonight.

I am so glad I went. What a once in a lifetime opportunity.

I'm going to be honest.

There's something about being at college (which entails doing crazy amounts of homework, or rushing around between meetings and classes and rehearsals, or going on rants about random things like Nietzsche with friends until the break of dawn, or a combination of all these things) that sort of discourages me from keeping up-to-date on world events.

I hardly watch television (it's too mind numbing for me), and even if I do, I definitely don't plop myself on my comfy black chair, wrap myself in my grandma's knitted blanket, and make a big bowl of popcorn just so that I can watch CNN. No. Definitely WAYYY too depressing.

But every now and again, someone sends me an email or makes a comment in class that shakes me out of my little world and makes me consider what's going on around the world.

And seriously? I'm scared.

I'll give five bucks to anyone who can name the musical that inspired this title. Seriously.

Tonight was the last performance of "A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer." Although I will quite humbly admit that my performance on Friday was significantly better than tonight's, tonight went fairly well. And at least I have a little something to laugh about.

So it has been a bit since I last updated. Kind of a busy young woman here, what with two plays, and school and two jobs etc, etc. I won't list it all again. That's just redundant.

Spring Break was not half-bad. Spent the majority of it getting a project and the homework I needed to catch-up on done. (Yes I know. I'm a pretty exciting cool cat.) It seems that I still didn't get as much as I would have liked to get done, but one can only spend so many hours in front of one's computer when good friends one hasn't seen in a while are around. True story.

This is a PSA regarding the types of hooligans that can be found at GMC. All travelers BEWARE!

We have....

NINJAS!

So. Since the pictures I added from that crazy ice storm to my other entry were rather colorless (and lifeless...) I decided to document that day AFTER said ice storm. It was seriously BEAUTIFUL. There was this pristine cloudless sky, and the trees seemed like they were on fire because of the way the sun reflected off the ice. It was amazing.

I've been talking to a lot of GMC alum's as a part of my work study job lately (I'm interviewing them for future articles in the GMC Bulletin). It's been so much fun discussing the similarities and differences between our experiences at GMC. The interviews usually end up becoming more like just genuine conversations, as we swap stories about the professors we have shared or the places on the river where we've hung the most. (I actually discovered from one of these conversations that there is a name for the hill out back that people like to look at the stars from. Though we have many well-known names for other parts of land behind GMC, I had never heard a name for this particular hill because it's so small. His name is Bud.)

It seems, though, that regardless of who I talk to, there is one general consensus about GMC:

The people here at GMC MAKE GMC.

And I've got the pictures to prove it.

As time pushes us closer and closer to Valentine's Day this year, I am reminded of the absolutely ridiculous snowstorm that we had on last year's V-day, which looked a little something like this:

Of course, last year's winter was quite unlike this one, in that we didn't have any substantial snow cover until that holiday, whereas this year we've been hit by one storm after another...after another. As I type, Poultney is being ravaged by yet another storm-- one that consists primarily of freezing rain. Despite my grumblings over the fact that we haven't seen sun for more than one day straight in the last THREE WEEKS (or so it seems), there's no denying that today's storm has had an amazing effect on the landscape.

So another weekend down here at the GMC. Cold and windy as it was, fun was still had by all, especially since four of my friends from home came up to visit! One was a total surprise for us--Mike just randomly showed up on Friday night after becoming "too bored" back home. The hilarious part about it was that we weren't even on campus at the time, so he showed up and started hanging out with some of the people we had introduced to him the last time he was "bored" and showed up at campus. Crazy. (As a side note, I'm not a very spontaneous person, so really anyone who will make a three hour drive just to hang out with his/her friends for a couple hours is crazy to me. But in a good way!)

And of course, we can't forget Karl and Jess...

(Seriously intense videogamers, eh?)

Or the Evan... though I'm lacking a decent picture of him because he, like my older sister, refuses to let people take normal pictures of them.

So, I've been considering getting a single on campus for a while for a few reasons. One reason is because of the increased workload that comes along with being a second semester Junior. My classes are harder, so they demand my fullest attention with as little distraction as possible. Another reason is quite personal: I'm one of those kinds of people who needs their own space every now and then to recharge from the multitude of social encounters that occur when living in a building with 80-100 other people. Finally, my former roomie and I have very different sleep schedules. Whereas she wakes up with the morning light ready to face the day, I have more energy at night. So I applied to get a single at the beginning of this semester, really just to get my name on the waiting list. I wasn't really expecting to get a single any time soon—there are only so many singles on campus, after all—I just figured I'd put my name on the list so I could at least have a single by the time I'm a student teacher, when my schedule will differ dramatically from any person on campus.

And then VIOLA! I got an email from student life and... I GOT A SINGLE!

Wow. It's been quite a while since I've found myself on this page, sharing my experiences up here at the good old GMC. But I'm back! And with plenty of odd pictures, to boot.

I certainly couldn't pass up the following photo opportunity...no one actually knows who wrote in the snow on Zach's car... not even Zach himself...

So this week has been quite on the musical side, too. I attended my mentee's concert on Monday, which was cute, as she had a flute solo for her father's favorite Christmas Song ("Little Drummer Boy"). It was adorable when she was talking to me about it, too. She was like: "Shhh. Don't tell my father. It'll be a surprise!!!"

[Man, I love being a mentor. She called me earlier tonight to see if I'd be willing to decorate Christmas cookies with her and her friends Saturday morning. You have no idea how excited I am.]

And then, on Tuesday, Brent's roommate Alex told me about the concert he was going to be in, so I went to go see it. I didn't realize that it was the final for the guitar and djembe classes, but found out when I got there. It was absolutely amazing. The last djembe song (which I did not record because I was far too involved in the music) almost made me cry. It was THAT powerful. Everyone was putting in their all, for sure.

Click here for some video footage of the concert!

I feel that as one gets older, one has less and less time to truly reflect, probably because one has more responsibility. It seems the MORE responsibility you have, the LESS time you have, and consequently, the MORE stress you have. And the MORE stress you have, the MORE likely you are to spend your sparse spare hours doing anything and everything MINDLESS--such as watching Southpark, or listening to Mitch Hedberg on youtube, or making funny faces in the mirror...

but every now and then you take a few seconds out of your busy schedule and come to some sort of conclusion about life, where you are in it, where you are going with it, and whether or not this is a good thing.

So here we go.

So I am officially in love with the English Department.

I'll give you a couple guesses as to what event this flier is advertising.

How about this one?

Details inside.

So. Then there was Thursday. I enjoyed a fantastic Thanksgiving dinner with not only one but TWO families on that much beloved day. I was a bit... nervous for the second one. I'm not quite sure if you've ever had to endure your significant other's family for a long period of time or not, but one's actions and conversations can get a bit awkward and/or overanalyzed during said period of time. Overall, I think everything went well, though. Most of them were pretty cool...

Managed to get decently healthy before break, which was quite the exciting accomplishment for me. I don't remember the last Thanksgiving I had without a severe sinus infection. Yay to that.

I also managed to get a ride HOME for break, which was yet another accomplishment. Initially, a couple friends of mine were supposed to come up, spend Monday night chilling with the GMC crew, and then bring Brent and I home sometime Tuesday evening. It all seemed a go--one of said friends has been up here before, fits in quite well, and is planning on attending next semester (I CAN'T WAIT!) and another of said friends is just a really good person I've been getting very close to lately, who has yet to meet the GMC crew, but will eventually, and will LOVE them, I'm sure. Unfortunately, plans got changed slightly, so they were going to come up Tuesday morning. And then it was raining and snowing and gross and cold. So we didn't know when we'd get a ride...

but they eventually showed up around 8pmish. When they arrived, they notified us that they had only decided to get us at the last second, and had actually called Brent's house in hopes that one of his parents would come get us... but Brent's parents never listen to their messages, so evidently, we would have been abandoned without even knowing it had they not decided to come get us.

Cool.

This is how delighted I was when they arrived:

hahaha. I love that picture...

And the sickness begins...

So. Try living in a place with 700 some odd other people WITHOUT catching something from someone at least once a semester.

Especially if the someone who gets sick is not only your roommate's boyfriend, but a good friend of yours, too.

Yeah. I guess that would do it.

That and the fact that I normally get sick right around Thanksgiving. I'm kind of glad that it happened before said holiday this year, though, since it is honestly one of my favorite holidays. Just think about it: it's a holiday devoted to being thankful for everything you have!!! Plus, can it get any better than chatting with family members you haven't seen in a while, playing touch football in grandma's back field, eating a bunch of delicious homemade food, and then spending the rest of the day in and out of sleep as the parade and/or game on tv stretches on and on and on? Especially now that my parents are grandparents. It's just cute. My nephew's first Thanksgiving! The pictures will be ADORABLE. I promise. (Nevermind Christmas. Goodness. What am I going to get him???)

All that aside, I've got the promised haikus. This entire experience has made me realize just how much fun they really can be. Back in high school, there was this student in my drama program who made haikus constantly. He was the Haiku KING. I always sort of shook my head at him, but you know, it really does brighten up the day. So here we go.

So. Many things to discuss.

Naturally, we've:

Ahh yes, the previously promised update regarding the events of Fall Break.

Can I admit this? I am convinced that it was all too much fun.

Is that at all possible? You ask, as you scratch your head in an overly-clichéd way.

Why yes. I'm fairly certain it is.

It all began with a little something like this:

I'm unsure if people do this often. Maybe it's just a teacher thing? But I like to give my friends fun yet intellectual and/or educational assignments for the week. These can range from using what I like to call a "five-dollar word" (and one day I really do hope I have enough money to give out five bucks everytime someone says a cool word. Man oh man, those geeky english majors) to using a particular word correctly in a sentence that they wouldn't use normally (they then have to share the reactions of others with me) to finding "fun facts."

About a month ago, the assignment was to use "groovy" in a sentence two to three times correctly without planning its appearance.

So my friend was talking to me yesterday when suddenly he commented on the "grooviness" of something... and I laughed. Because I had completely forgotten about it. I was quite amazed at his memory, however. Pretty rad.

So. Came back from a long day last week to discover a phone message from a good friend back home.

I'm officially a godmother!

So I am alive. Many apologies to any who may have been checking back here to see what my life has been like-- paper work, issues with the blogging site, etc, are all the excuses I have as to the delay. Oh, and I guess I really had to settle in here before having anything too exciting to report.

It's been a beautiful month. Absolutely gorgeous days, and only recently have we started to feel the effects of autumn, most certainly my favorite month. My friends and I have gotten into the habit of watching the sun set every evening on the back hill as of late. Although regaining motivation to do homework is very difficult after sipping coffee and watching the day end, I've certainly found the entire event quite relaxing (and certainly something to look forward to!). Here are a few pictures we've snapped.

Here's an au natural one:

And here's one that we tinted with the help of some orange sunglasses. Amazing how one's perspective can be changed so drastically with a simple pair of sunglasses.

Our last day on the other side of the world was spent in Beijing. Rather than having a schedule to follow, however, we were permitted to explore the city freely. We were given some suggestions by our tour guide Barbara and our professor on where to go, but otherwise, it was up to us (which was rather exciting!)

The evening beforehand, Hali asked if we could switch roommates for a couple nights: ie: if she could spend the night in Kate's hotel room and if Caitlyn could be my roomie for a night. This was pretty cool, as Caitlyn and I had gotten pretty close by this point, and Kate and Hali are actual roommates at the college they attend. So everyone was satisfied!

As such, the day started off fairly late (9am...) for us, as Caitlyn and I just wanted to sleep as much as possible. We managed to wander into the breakfast buffet just before it closed, and spent a good deal chit chatting with other members of the tour group to see where they were headed. Eventually, we bumped into Kate and Hali, so we all decided to head out together (taxis are cheaper in numbers... then again, they were pretty cheap in Beijing to begin with, at least when compared to taxis in major cities in this country).

The fourteenth day of our adventures on the other side of the world was spent traveling, mostly. It was a bit of a drive returning to an airport that had flights out to Lhasa, so we stopped off briefly at the oldest building in Tibet. It was a hike climbing up to the actual building, but there were various animals that one could ride for 5 yuan on the way up.

Now, as I was explaining earlier, the members of our vehicle were rather obsessed with yaks by the end of the trip. Ryan’s excitement inspired Caitlyn’s fervor, and her interest sparked mine. At one point, Caitlyn proclaimed that she had only two more goals left to complete in Tibet—ride a yak and go swimming in one of the rivers. I sort of laughed at her, since riding a yak seemed a ridiculous feat and the local water was filled with all sorts of diseases. I later found out, however, that we would have the opportunity to ride yaks! So I became extremely interested in doing this as well.

I felt amazing when I woke up the next morning, at least compared to the day before. I still didn’t have much of an appetite, but I did manage a piece of toast. I was rather excited about this day, too, as this would be the day that we would take the hour-long ferry across the Brahmaputra, the holiest and quite possibly the largest river in Tibet, so that we could visit the oldest monastery in Tibet, the Samye. So at least I was feeling better mentally, considering I could feel excitement at all.

Here's a picture of the Brahmaputra.

So. I woke up at 4am on this day extremely nauseous and pretty much spent the next three hours in the bathroom trying not to wake up Hali. I was SICK. Really sick. I could hardly move without needing to vomit. Naturally, I was really freaking out. When Hali and Caitlyn woke up, they discovered how sick I really was and immediately went to go find Jim. It took them a little bit as they had to search the entire hotel. At last, he arrived. He asked me a number of questions, told me it was probably food sickness, but if I felt like I had a fever, I should start taking my dysentery medication.

After a period of time in a foreign country, you honestly just get homesick. Regardless of how much cool stuff there is to do and see, you start getting tired or start missing your friends and family or real food or… or… the list extends. So by day eleven, we were and weren’t thanking heaven because the trip seemed both way too long and way too short at that point.

But I guess no one’s ever truly satisfied…

The day began with a visit to the Shalu monastery. It was sort of a medium-sized monastery, with plenty of new artwork to look at and issues to discuss.

The day began with a visit to the Sakya Monastery. The entire monastery was under construction at the time, so we got the opportunity to hear a few more traditional Tibetan work songs, as well as see this scrawny guy carry a gigantic rock on his back with the help of a wooden board. Many members of our group moved to help the guy, but he refused! Woah.

Here’s a picture of the front of the monastery.

The ninth day began with a booming sound that echoed throughout the entire hotel. “Boom, boom, boom…” It was the sound of my professor knocking on the door and telling us to get ourselves out of bed. Oh yes, our professor was our wake up call that morning. How odd is that.

We all got up rather quickly, considering we were so incredibly excited to hike up Mount Everest. And although it looked a little overcast at first, it slowly started clearing as we were eating our delicious peanut butter covered waffles, so we grew even more eager. Some of the members of our group didn’t even eat anything… they just began the long trek up there. I wasn’t really that hungry, but I ate a lot, knowing it was going to take a bit more energy than usual to get up this trail.

It was beautiful by the time we started our hikes, so we got a bunch of pictures of Everest before the clouds took over again.

So. The day started off rather early, since we had a long drive ahead of us before we would reach the Everest Hotel. I think this was the first day I was actually on time for breakfast, as I had only recently gotten the hang of packing up my entire life in a suitcase in the half an hour “I just woke up! Give me a break!” haze that I’m u