April Showers Bring May Flowers... Or is it Vassar's Greenhouse?

Spring is probably my favorite season at Vassar. It’s not blistering hot or humid (don’t get me started on summer…), the campus turns from gray to green, and students finally emerge from their caves and let you know that there is, indeed, life on campus. On a more depressing note, this morning I was reminded that this is my last spring at Vassar when the AAVC (Alumni Association of Vassar College) emailed me their May newsletter. WHAT??!! If you’re going to send me your newsletter, you’d better give me my degree.

Yesterday the class of 2008 was officially welcomed to the AAVC, which began at convocation (I’ll come back to that…) and was proceeded by a big free food and beverage fest at the Alumnae House (foreshadowing?). Of course, it was all fun and games yesterday… then I opened my email this morning and realized that, indeed, all good things must come to an end.

It’s hard to think about packing my things when the weather is 65 degrees and sunny and my classmates are relaxing on blankets outside of my window—reading for class or for pleasure (with the former being much more likely). As much as completing my finals will be a relief, it’s also a bit scary to come to terms with the fact that I only have two more college classes left, and then I’ll be on my own. I will never again return to the welcoming gate of Vassar College after an exhausting summer of living (perhaps “surviving” is a better term) at home, and share stories with my friends of how bored I was without homework occupying my time (that’s only a bit of a stretch). Goodbye, Vassar Bubble, hello…. Real World?

Convocation, as I mentioned earlier, is basically a ceremony honoring seniors that occurs biannually—once in the fall and once in the spring. While many people are bored by it (let’s be honest), I always feel like I should go because I can. What happened during this convocation? The president addressed the class, the VSA (Vassar Students Association) President addressed the class, a graduate from the class of 2001 addressed the class, college dean Ron Sharp addressed the class, and the choir sang a few times. Voila! Convocation! Okay, so it doesn’t sound too impressive, but it can be interesting. In front of me, a few people were playing convocation Bingo, which basically entails a homemade Bingo sheet that includes terms such as “future,” “sustainability,” “Internet,” and all those other things we talk about at Vassar. (Can you connect five? You win!) My neighbor on the right got a much-needed nap; my neighbor on the left peered at the sports magazine held by the guy in front of him. As for me? Well, given few other options, I listened. Besides, there are very few times when I can just sit, listen, and not have to fully absorb what is lectured.

At the very end, we were shepherded out by the Vassar faculty and instructed to pose for a class photo. I picked a place on the very end between my housemate and my boyfriend, which was strategic for getting to the Alumnae House in time to grab my free food and spiked party punch before it disappeared, which turned out to be a wise idea.

This time of year always brings a mix of feelings—which are best described as happiness and sadness—although what is different this year is that they are also accompanied by fear. I am happy to be done, but at the same time it’ll be hard to leave my home and my friends for somewhere completely new, which is where the sadness and the fear come in. But to use the perspective of one of my favorite professors, there is also an element of excitement awaiting me alongside absolute freedom. Nowhere to go and nothing to do is liberating, and it’s something I’ve never experienced before. I guess we’ll see where my experiences take me.

M.I.A. Was Here??!!

Last weekend was THE big concert on Vassar campus—and while we may not have the money to score such acts as Radiohead (who does?), we do pretty well for ourselves. In the past, we’ve had artists like Wyclef Jean (my sophomore year), The Clash (wait, The Clash played at Vassar? Huh?), The Roots (if only I was here for them!), The Red Hot Chili Peppers (that must have been before they were famous…), Vampire Weekend (pretty popular right now), TV on the Radio (last year… they were good but the venue was awful), and Talib Kweli (awesome!). This year we were fortunate to get rising hip-hop star M.I.A., who, if you have never heard of her, just released her second album, entitled “Kala” (a personal favorite of mine). While I may kind of live in the Vassar bubble, *I think* she’s becoming pretty big in the “real world.”

The concert sold out in record time, 3 hours (I’m sure the smallish size of the venue was also a factor), but luckily, yours truly was able to score a ticket at 9:30am the day the ticket office on campus opened. Thank God I have an awesome boyfriend who was willing to wake up early enough to stand in line, because within the next couple hours the tickets were G-O-N-E.

Judging from the rate at which the tickets sold out, we knew the concert would be ridiculous (but in a good way!). We decided to arrive about halfway through the opening act, and I’m kind of sorry we purposely arrived late because he turned out to be pretty awesome. The opening act was a DJ, and while I’m skeptical of DJ’s (they are a live act, but I never thought of them as being as authentic as a band), I’m glad that I decided to check it out because it was a lot of fun.

At around 9:30, M.I.A. came on stage. The crowd went WILD (well, what were you expecting?). I called my poor brother at West Point (he’s also a fan) and let him listen to the screams of the crowd as M.I.A. went into her first song. She proceeded later during the concert to let the guys on stage for the song “Boyz,” at which point a bouncer had to come on stage and knock out some guy who tried to push his way past security guards after M.I.A. decided that there were already too many guys on stage, which was exciting. She also had a pretty amazing encore where she sang “URAQT,” one of my faves from her last album, and her new single “Paper Planes.”

The concert was probably my favorite at Vassar thus far, despite having a huge guy (who probably weighed close to 250 lbs) in front of me for about half the concert, stepping on my feet, and then leaving the concert without hearing and an awful ringing in my ears that lasted throughout the next day. Oh well—it was still awesome!

Over Halfway to "Over The Hill"

As you may or may not know, I just turned the big "2-2." That's old.

Overall, my birthday was pretty mediocre. On the positive side, I turned in my thesis. Happy Birthday to me! The negative? I had 4 hours worth of class afterwards and accidentally had the sandals I bought for myself sent to my parent's old address. Ooops.....

My birthdays at Vassar have overall been pretty good. First off, all of my birthdays except for this one have taken place over the weekend, plus, they tend to fall on "parent's weekend," which means my parents take me out for a SUSHI BOAT at Tokyo Express down the street. (Mmmm. Sushi Boat.)

But my 21st birthday--that was another story. Everyone knows the typical 21st birthday saga. 21 shots (otherwise known as suicide), free drinks from friends, cocktail shaker from your brother, you know, the usual. My birthday? I had the stomach flu.

It all started with a turkey sandwich. Now, I'm not sure if it was the sandwich's fault or if the disease had already manifested itself within my system, but by that night I knew my birthday wouldn't be a good one. My parents stopped by the next day for parent's weekend, and at that point I was still in decent health. I hung out, went to some events, and even stayed up pretty late. But by 10 o'clock that evening, I was certain that I wouldn't make it to 21. I had a high fever, but was still getting chills, and I hadn't been able to eat since breakfast. I barely remember Pat seeing that I made it back to my room, and recalling a scene from the blockbuster hit "Titanic," I said, "I'll never let go Pat, I'll never let go...." and promptly laid down in bed, awaiting my death. Okay, so obviously I didn't die, but the next day I made sure to see the school doctor to make sure that my birthday wasn't a total disaster. (It still was.)

That night, my parent's took me to the Alumnae House for my birthday dinner, and everyone, including my 16 year old brother (yeah, that was a mistake), received a drink, except me. There was nothing on the menu that I felt like my stomach could handle except for the fish and chips, and even then I was still taking swigs from a bottle of Pepto-Bismol when the waiter had his back turned. Everyone else at dinner thought it was a riot, but I just wanted to be able to eat my food without feeling like I was seasick.

That night I managed to make it back to the dorm without getting as sick as I had been the night before and decided to attempt heading out to the bar. Figures I would be the Designated Driver at my own 21st birthday party. I ordered a beer and promptly handed it to my friend who had turned 21 the week before, then sipped my seltzer water while sighing about my misfortune. What did I get for my birthday? Well, I may have still had the flu, but at least I was no longer having the hallucinations from the night before.

In retrospect, the experience seems pretty comical, but I definitely preferred this year's birthday despite freaking out about my thesis and attending four hours worth of classes afterwards. My parents got me a class ring (yay!) and Pat is taking me out to dinner Thursday--but most importantly, I'm no longer nursing the pink bottle.

I LOVE Berlin: Part Two

My thesis is due in exactly one week, and now that it's crunch time, the prospect of packages is the only thing keeping me from insanity. Oh, and free food. Which reminds me--tomorrow my Memories and Legacies of the Holocaust class gets to attend a *free dinner* alongside Holocaust survivor and German literature critic Ruth Kluger. I am currently reading her memoir, "Still Alive: A Holocaust Girlhood Remembered," which covers her experience as a young girl living in concentration camps. (This is really big for me because the only other time I was ever invited to a special dinner by the college it turned out to be a mistake and they revoked my invitation. Ever since I've been a little bitter, but hopefully tomorrow night's dinner will make up for my sophomore year tragedy.)

As you all should know, I spent my Spring Break in Berlin. As I mentioned in a previous post, the final assignment for the class is a collaborative project between the German students and my classmates that will be presented via video conference in late April. I wouldn't go so far as to say that I'm terribly excited to create a final project (it is work, after all, and I have serious senioritis), but the really cool part is that the German students are currently visiting us in New York to explore some Holocaust memorials in the city and to work on the final projects.

The Germans arrived last Thursday and have probably been about as busy as my class was when we visited them in Berlin (which means non-stop action from morning to evening). But over the weekend my class organized a party for both groups to socialize, and Saturday night a few of the German students spent some time at the seniors 50 nights party at the Alumnae House, which is the college's hotel. It's been a really unusual experience for me, coming from a small suburban town in Ohio, to have the opportunity to socialize with so many people from another country. While a good amount of international students attend Vassar each year, I know very few of them because up until recently most of them lived in the same dorm, and it's rare to have more than just a few in your classes--although I did have a friend from Bosnia who I visited in his hometown of Sarajevo when I was JYA last year.

My group, which consists of myself, one other American student, and three German students, is doing a project comparing Holocaust memorials in Berlin and New York (very uplifting project, I know). You can read about it here!

What is interesting about the course is that it is not actually about the Holocaust (of course, we did read a book on the history of the Holocaust for background information), but is more of a theoretical study on the memorials themselves. I think it's a cool topic (in a depressing sort of way) because the way things are remembered was never something I had considered before, but now I find myself analyzing memorials all the time, for better or for worse. [Insert joke about Holocaust memorials here---yeah, not easy to make funny.]

So yeah. I'll try not to flip out completely this weekend and keep you updated on whether or not the final draft of my thesis makes sense. Yikes!

Online Quizzes Are For Procrastination

What Animal Were You In Your Past Life?
	You were a platypus. You were eccentric and unclassifiable and it still shows. Your strength lies in your diverse associations with all walks of life. Although many people try to identify you, only you know your true self. You're a self-thinker and a bit of an introvert.
Find Your Character @ BrainFall.com

They seem to have forgotten "extremely good looking." Ah, well.

I LOVE Berlin: Part One

If I were asked to name one thing that I dislike more than exams, it would probably be getting sick. And while I don't get sick very often, when I do, it's usually pretty bad. Right now I'm on day five of whatever illness I happen to have right now (it's something involving a cough and a sore throat, an awful headache, and tons of, excuse me, snot), and the nurse at the school clinic said she hopes I'll be better by Monday. It's Thursday. And I've already watched all of the Harry Potter movies. Sigh.

I visited the school clinic today and, after checking my basic vitals and interrogating me about my latest misfortune, they finally gave me the good stuff (my current favorite is the 12-hour Sudafed) and wished me a good weekend. Good weekend, indeed. At least I have an excuse to be lazy (my boyfriend did make me dinner and has been preparing tea at my every request), although I'm pretty upset that I'll be missing a hike at Mohonk Preserve tomorrow. Check this out! Not that we're going to the spa resort house thing, but the picture is pretty. Although a spa would be really nice right about now....

I suppose you could consider this disease my souvenir from Berlin, considering that's where I got it from. Luckily I only had it the last day we were there, then brought it back with me (shh), although it was pretty painful when I realized that upon my return I'd have to write a paper within two days for one of my classes. Looking at readings about the Habsburg Empire for nearly 12 hours straight two days in a row is pretty tough under normal circumstances so I'm pretty proud of myself for actually turning something in (keyword: SOMETHING). Remind me never to do that again.

But Berlin! It was probably one of the coolest experiences I've ever had in a class. Actually, no--it is the coolest. And yes, the picture is of me kissing a graffiti-ed figure on the last remaining mile of the Berlin Wall.

We stayed at a 19th century hotel WITH FREE BREAKFAST that happened to survive World War II in a really neat neighborhood by the Berlin Zoo. To our misfortune the transportation system was on strike for the first few days there and Berlin is a HUGE city, so trust me, my calves are about the size of Arnold Schwarzenegger's right now (okay, a bit of an exaggeration...).

One component of the course is the requirement to keep a journal during the trip that is used as a forum for personal thoughts, opinions, ideas about the memorials that are later typed up and used for our projects (so yes, we kind of did work). For the first week in Berlin, we did things throughout the day with the class, such as viewing memorials around the city and writing down our reflections about them, but we did get the evenings free. I'm not gonna lie, one night I did fall asleep at 7 pm because I was so exhausted from walking all day long, but most nights I went out with my classmates for dinner and/or drinks around the city.

We saw most of the Holocaust-related memorials in the city and also explored a Jewish History Museum (although I think a lot of us were so tired from walking all day that after several hours in the museum we napped in the kids section while watching Felix The Cat), but then ventured beyond the city to visit Ravensbrook, a women's concentration camp, and a synagogue and Jewish Museum in Hablerstadt that included a FREE gourmet lunch--my favorite! Basically, we got a really good tour of both Berlin and the German countryside that week, which was a great experience, although right now the illness is really getting to me, so perhaps I'll post some more about Berlin later.

Ugh. Be glad you don't have this. (And yes, I love to complain.)

Real World: Fahnestock State Park

Perhaps the coolest class that I'm taking this semester is my hiking and backpacking class--you know, something simple that doesn't require you to think beyond admiring nature. I may have to wake up every Friday morning at 9am to go hiking (which is REALLY early by Vassar standards), but unlike most early classes, losing some sleep for this class has a few benefits. First of all, my professor has a ridiculously adorable puppy and I LOVE animals. I've really missed my dog since coming to Vassar and because we aren't allowed to have un-caged animals, I feel like I tend to adopt my professor's/boss's/current house fellow's pets as my own. Let's be honest--watching my house fellow's puppy grow up was akin to watching my own child turn into a crazy, rebellious teenager (minus the secret tattoo and shady boyfriends), and then a nice, sensible--and of course, good looking--young adult (does that sound like me?). The second reason I love this class is that New York is beautiful and it's great to spend a day outdoors taking pictures instead of sitting in class, gazing at the beautiful, sunny day that I'm not enjoying. And for some reason, three hours of hiking in that class passes 435790231587756.8 times more quickly than that 75-minute class I took on Cognitive Science (which was soooo NOT my thing!).

So far this semester, we've been to some pretty cool places within a 20-minute drive from campus, including the Appalachian Trail and Fahnestock State Park. In order to prep ourselves for the trail, our professor (perhaps instructor?) gave us a few lessons on trail gear and safety before just letting us loose in the woods. I'd been hiking and camping prior to signing up for this class, therefore, I happen to possess proper hiking clothes and boots, so all I really needed was a pair of fast drying pants to wear under jeans. Technically you're not supposed to wear cotton on the trail because if it gets wet, it doesn't dry--especially in cold weather (can you sense my foreshadowing?)--so I made a $20 investment in nylon/spandex pants to wear running and hiking and started hitting the trail.

Last Friday we went to Fahnestock State Park, which contains a portion of the Appalachian Trail. We ended up hiking on part of the Appalachian Trail (which, or so I am told, is also referred to as the "AT"), as well as some trails in Fahnestock that happen to intersect with it. It was a beautiful, sunny day, which was great for taking pictures, even though it was maybe only 15 or 20 degrees outside in the morning.

Near the beginning of the trail, we happened upon a raging river (okay, probably more like a raging stream) and I took a few pictures (see above!) before realizing that the trail ended and there was no clear way to get to the other side. One girl found a pretty large log and attempted to cross, but ended up getting her foot wet on the way so the rest of us tried to find a safer way. After walking a bit further downstream, we found another log that looked easier to cross because it was a more direct route, slightly wider, and it was over ice, which made it look safer. The other ten people in my class managed to cross the stream by sliding themselves across the log, making it look like no problem. And I may be a bad dancer and do not have the best coordination, but come on; it wasn't like I was competing in some sort of bizarre Olympic event. But of course, as soon as I tried to cross the stream, the ice (which was thinner than it appeared) cracked, I fell in, and before I knew it, was up to my thighs in freezing water. Everyone else freaked out, but I tried to remain calm by saying stuff like, "Oh, this happens all the time," and "Sure, I've fallen into freezing water before," but I couldn't ignore the fact that I was wearing cotton jeans (which we learned don't dry) and the insides of my shoes and my only pair of socks were wet. To put it in Oregon Trail lingo (because it was equally dramatic), I'd attempted to ford the river and failed, and was probably about to die of dysentery--or, more likely, frostbite.

But luckily I was wearing THE pants--you know, the spandex-y nylon-y ones--and was able to borrow another pair from my hiking instructor to wear over them. By moving my toes constantly and hiking for a couple other hours, I managed to get away with only red toes rather than blue ones, which was good news. And my instructor’s dog kept me in good spirits, which is always a plus.

My lessons for the day? Always bring extra socks, avoid wearing cotton, and most importantly, don't walk on thin ice.