The Kickoff

It's official: the holiday season (my holiday season) has started. This year, it started with a special kickoff. Now, some things start with a bang - cars, firecrackers, nitro glycerin, you get the idea. Some things start with a spring - the ending of daylight savings time, those clicky-pens, and slinkies. Some things even start with a regular kickoff, for instance Football, as we backward Americans call it. But, very few things are good enough to warrant a special kickoff. How do you tell if something started with a special kickoff? Here's an example:

This year, my final exams ended at 8:30 pm, Thursday, the 8th of December. After that, I was free to do as I pleased (I assure you I did). I met my new roommate - and she ROCKS! Not only does she love Johnny Depp, she loves movies, toilet humor, and my new bed spread. We have so much in common that next semester is going to be great. After that, I traveled down to Charleston to spend the weekend with three of my favorite people in the world.

The weekend was spectacular! I stayed up late watching A Walk To Remember, and crying through the entire end. I love that movie, but it turns me into a weeping mess every thirty seconds of the last half. The next morning, we went to IHOP (and I found my new favorite sandwich), and then shopping (and I kind of liked it!), and then to Mama Fu's, and then to this really cool Christmas light show. There, we got to see Christmas lights like no other, drink hot chocolate, and roast marshmallows on overpriced sticks for smores. And then I spent the rest of the night playing mau mau and learning sodoku (not sure if I spelled it right). The next day my big brother bought doughnuts for breakfast and then we played Penn Stateopoly. I didn't have a chance of winning, but we were so into it that we were late getting to our movie - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I loved it! I even shed a few tears - surprise surprise. Then we went to this cool pizza/Italian place and had a buffalo chicken pizza, mmmmmm. And then it was time to go back to Raleigh.

This weekend rocked!! It was a vacation to kickoff my real vacation. I'm now totally absorbed into the Christmas spirit. I'm listening to Frank Sinatra sing "Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas" and I even redid the entire appearance of my blog just to emulate my new holiday high. That top collage - I put that together. And click on any of the links - see what color they underline. I'm so proud of myself!

I don't know when I'll write again, so until the next time, Merry Christmas, Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noel, Gute Vaynakhtn, Mele Kalikimaka (also a very good song), Nollaig Shona Dhuit, Feliz Navidad (a song that will stick in your head), Bon Natale (will also stick in your head), 'Ave a Bonza Chrissy Mate, Srekan Bozik, Shinnen Omedeto, and Wesolych Swiat. (They all mean Merry Christmas)

Ok, So I Didn't Die...

But he did ask us to define what an American was and who was an American! I never expected that that would be the question asked of us, because of the indefinability of the concept, and thus I didn't prepare for that one. And, it was the in the third hour of the exam when I started that particular essay, so I am quite sure that my markings on that essay will be dismal indeed. The other essay I think I did alright on - but not great. I am sitting here thinking of all the things I could have said and referenced and made the essay a whole bunch greater - but I didn't. I did try to keep the paper unified, but my organization was off I know, as was the amount of my specific supporting details. To make a long story short, this was not my best exam - I don't think I made above a B on it, and I am quite sure that I will get a B in the class. But I will have earned it, and that is what counts, right? So, I am free! I'm going to meet my new roommate tomorrow, and then I'm going to Charleston for the weekend, and then I'll come back to school, and then I'll go home for Christmas. I can't wait.

We Who Are About To Die Salute You

Well, my last exam is minutes away. I have reached the point where I feel that if I study any more, I will go insane. I know I should study, but I just can't make myself. I have studied for this Early American History exam for twelve hours - I'm ready to call it quits.

I think I understand why the North and South went to war, and I can sympathize with the British soldiers who were exposed to such infamy during the Boston Massacre. I can name all of the Radical Republican Reformation guidelines that had to be met by the confederate states before they were allowed back into the union. I know what the significance of the Lincoln-Douglass debates is: they put Lincoln in the national spot light, informed the people of the ideology of the free-soil party (now the Republican party), and explained Lincoln's stand on slavery - he was against slavery, but he would preserve the union first and foremost, and that meant allowing slavery to exist untouched, but not allowing it to grow any further. I can put the themes of the course into perspective of historical events - unity vs. Disunity, conflict vs. Consensus, inclusion vs. Exclusion, dissent and protest, What does it mean to be an American, and who is an American.

The latter two questions I hope my professor does not ask because I cannot formulate a decent answer to the concept of what or who an American is. I don't even agree with the usage of the term "American" because the United States does not have a monopoly on it. Canada, Mexico, Belize, Panama, Brazil, Argentina- and all other countries in North, South, and Central America all have a claim on the term "American." So why can't the United States come up with a new term - United-Statesian - or something or other. Spanish has a term for and citizen of the United States - Los Estados Unidos, a person is said to be "Estadounidense," not "Americano." Anyway, I am only typing to dispel my nervous energy. The exam will consist of 10 multiple choice questions, 6 short answer questions, and 2 essays. I have parts I and II down, but the essays frighten, terrify me. There are so many options out there as to what Dr. Matthews could ask - and only a limited number of ways that I can BS my way into sounding like I know what I am talking about. And since the main format of the exam is essay, I have to recall everything from memory without the aid of multiple guess or matching. I hope it won't be so bad, but my gut tells me - be afraid, be very afraid. And so as I go to meet my doom, I leave with one last remark to the exam Gods, "We who are about to die salute you."

I Feel It In My Fingers...

The end is in sight! I can count the hours until I am free for Christmas break - 44 and one half hours from right now. All I have left to do for my last exam is to study like mad, say a few dozen prayers, and sacrifice a freshman to the exam gods. Studying like mad is not so bad, come to think of it. I pulled an all-nighter last night studying for my Botany exam that took place this past morning. Even though I didn't get any sleep, I was wide awake while I studied. Runners experience a runner's high and I think that those who take studying to extremes experience a similar high. Of course, the elated and alert feelings may just be the result of hours of tedious work finally paying off when you can determine that Selaginella is the only vascular cryptrogam to exhibit heterospory and endosporic development of the gametophyte in addition to exhibiting anisophylly, or when you can explain why one resonance structure of carbon dioxide is favored over another because of the minimized formal charge and the placement of any negative formal charge on the most electronegative atom, or you can identify the species of Australopithecus that lived in South Africa from 2 to 1.7 million years ago, with heavy facial buttressing including a sagittal crest, extreme anterior zygomatics, and anterior pillars or when you can see the Moorish influence in the Spanish word Ojalá (may Allah grant). But now, I've been awake for two days and I'm ready to crash. Tomorrow, onward with my studying, and then I'll meet and overcome the last barrier to my Christmas vacation. ¡Deséame suerte!

Procrastination

Have you ever noticed that when something needs to be done, you can find a million other things to do other than that one thing you have to do? I created this blog when I was supposed to be studying. In fact, I'm writing right now when I'm supposed to be studying, but I'll worry about that later. There is so much to do with my blog! I had no idea how to change anything, but then I experimented with the template page and randomly typed in font names and font sizes. IT WORKED! I was able to change the appearance on my blog just by typing a little something in the midst of indecipherable code. The result has been the placement of my undivided attention on the edit template page for the past four hours, and I really have to stop. It's been fun. Adieu. (I'm minoring in Spanish, why do I keep using French?? Adí­os)

My Quarters

My roommate has moved out. I don't mind, we were never close - more like two indifferent strangers that shared a room. Now she has moved to room with her best friend and that is perfectly understandable. However, waiting until the day she moved out to inform me of her decision is just a tad bit late. Informing me of her decision by leaving a written note on my desk was a bit strange, but all right. Having to miss the new episode of ER because she took her TV with her was very unfortunate but unavoidable. But such is life, and holding a grudge requires too much effort. Partly for consolation and partly just to have something to do, I spent all of Thursday night and Friday morning redecorating. I have remedied the barren state of the opposite side of the room and I now find myself situated most comfortably in a fabulous space. I went into cleaning mode the day she moved out, vacuuming, scrubbing, dusting, and the like. It's scary when I get like that - I can't stop nor do I have any wish to stop. If only I had a natural 'studying mode.' So, in summation, I have my own room until the start of the spring semester, said room has been redecorated, and is currently spotless.

Traduction

La Vie en Rose is French for "Life in Rose." I first heard this expression mentioned in Sabrina (1995) by Julia Ormond's character Sabrina, where she translated it to mean "looking at life through rose-colored glasses." The song La Vie en Rose is performed most notably by Audrey Hepburn and by Louis Armstrong, and the melody is simply beautiful. To me, it means being optimistic, to see the good in everything and not to center on the faults. Although I rarely see anything in this manner, it's always refreshing to try. Did I mention that I love roses?