BEDUS Day 30: More Work

I was afraid these days would come: the days where I am so busy that I barely have time to write. As evidenced by my last blog (and this one too) I have been reading and thinking and searching and reading and thinking and I am pooped. I will read and think more tomorrow.

*Short blog*

Goodnight.

BEDUS Day 29: Late Night Thinking

I am up late night thinking about how to make complex molecules. With coffee. See you later.

BEDUS Day 28: Time Travel!

I haven't done anything very exciting today, and I'm not feeling terribly creative or poetic at the moment, so I thought I'd just freewrite until I have enough text to justify a blog. A lot of times when I was younger, I'd dream about going to sleep and waking up in another century or another time and place where I could have adventures like those kids I read about in books (Magic Treehouse!). And just now, I thought, once again, that that would be a great adventure. Right? If I could just have an adventure and come out of it, back to where I am right now, so that no time has passed at all, that would just be awesome. I'd have to take a friend, of course; otherwise, I'd have no one to blab to afterwards without seeming like a total lunatic.

The issue always arises, however, when I imagine where I'd go. The kids I read about where mostly of some kind of European descent because that's what you get for reading young adult American literature, and so whenever I imagine myself on one of their journeys in history, I'd suddenly realize that even without the modern clothes and out-of-place gadgets, I wouldn't be able to blend in because of my skin color. Even if everyone spoke modern English, I wouldn't be able to effectively complete my quest without probably being thrown into slavery or beheaded for looking odd. If I arrived in America before...I'd say the 1970s, no one would talk to me, from being too mellow, or from a racist streak left over from the Second World War. Thus, I couldn't travel anywhere outside of East Asia which would limit the friends I could take and the conversations we could have with people. In the end, I decided that the here and now is probably the best place for me. It's kind of a weird thought, I know, but I realize that these considerations are especially true even now. Having traveled to Greece and Italy, I realize that I don't fit in, and really wouldn't in the past. *Feeling quite lucky to be living in this century.*

See you tomorrow!

BEDUS Day 27: My First Hockey Game! (or "It's All Your Fault!")

For several years now, I've been aiming to go to Yale hockey game because it's the one sport (apparently besides volleyball) that we're pretty good at. Whenever I give tours, I tell people to go to hockey games because the atmosphere is supposed to be electric, and yet, it's taken me four years to get here. This may be that the Whale (Ingalls Rink) is halfway up Science Hill, though in reality, it's actually relatively close to campus, or it may be that every time I've gone to a sporting event, we've lost (sometimes quite horribly in fact).

But this night was absolutely awesome. We played Clarkson and won 5-1, and although for the most part, the team looked like they were just very haphazardly searching for the puck, there were shining moments of great teamwork and subsequent goals. From what I saw, we just happened to have a better goalie than Clarkson did, as there were some tense moments where they got quite close to scoring, but our guy prevailed.

I also realized that sports fans are rabid. They don't just cheer for our team; they boo down the other team, and demoralizing the opposition is as much a winning strategy as playing well. In hockey, the idea is to make the other goalie feel every goal he's let through. So the band would play our fight song and they'd chant to the other guy, "It's all your fault!" Poor goalie! One older alum even came a little late to the game, sat behind us with his friends, and after a few minutes, noted to his friend, "I want us to score so I can tell him whose fault it is."

So even though I was ecstatic every time we scored, I couldn't help but feel bad for this other goalie, who seemed pretty frustrated by the start of the third quarter.

BEDUS Day 26: Sandra Bullock is Badass

It's been a bit of a chill Friday for me. I feel like I've not done much today even though I've actually been quite productive today. The most exciting part of my night was when we watched Miss Congeniality, in which FBI agent Grace Hart puts on a dress and becomes a beauty pageant contestant. I haven't watched it in a long time, but it's just as funny as I remember, just as charming, and just as badass. It's probably one of my favorite comedies of all time, just a good-hearted, funny movie.

Even though Miss Congeniality was a generally mindless movie, we had a great discussion afterwards about the dilemma looking for classes to take outside your major/interests for distributional requirements, and the way that the education system worked in general. In fact, even as I am blogging right now, we're still conversing which is why this blog is going up so late. I think I will reflect more tomorrow and continue with these conversations.

See you later!

BEDUS Day 25: Happy Groundhog's Day

Groundhog's Day is a funny phenomenon and something you don't really think about after elementary school. Back in the first grade, it was such a big deal; we colored pictures of groundhogs and made shadows and everything and today, I think a lot of us just forget that February 2 is still a holiday (albeit a nonsensical one).

This Groundhog's Day, Phil predicted that there would be six more weeks of winter, but to be honest (no jinx!) it hasn't felt like winter here in a while. It was so nice and warm today and I feel very lucky to be in New Haven right now. Boston and Chicago are getting hit quite a bit harder and although I will be traveling there next week, I'm relishing the above 40 weather these days.

At the moment, I feel a great sense of camaraderie with my suitemates. We spent the past couple of hours looking up pictures of attractive men and baby animals and although it was probably not the best use of my time, it was a nice break from the past couple of days and a bit of a refresher. I'm constantly reminded that I'm getting older and acting like a teenager without responsibilities has always given me a bit of a breather that I miss when having intellectual conversations with those around me. Having been predominantly surrounded by boys for much of my life (boys who I still love dearly), I never really had too many close girlfriends to slumber party and gossip with and have never seen someone bash Eva Mendez so hard for dating Ryan Gosling ("she's so dumb, he has to explain things to her!" hahaha) It's nice to be able to hang out with the ladies, especially in an environment where intellect is probably one of the most prized attributes in a significant other (at least for me) and just be cathartically superficial for a few moments. [[Every feminist woman I've ever known is cringing at this statement, but I don't care.]]

So I will end this blog here and go listen to some music and read some Little Women before going to sleep. I forgot how wholesome the book was, and after what we made Piyumi's desktop background, I think I need some wholesome in my life.

BEDUS Day 24: Happy February!

I can't believe I've been blogging straight for more than 3 weeks now. More than that, it's a little insane that we're ALREADY A MONTH INTO 2012!! And not even one of those 30 day-months. It's been a whole 31 (and I guess by the time this post goes up, 32) days since the new year began. The time does go by so quickly, especially with travel eating up the last couple of days.

I had a lot of class today and since it's Wednesday, it's once again, Treasures of Yale day. We looked at the Charles Ives collection in the Music Library today, and I have to say that because I am a very melody and lyric-driven person, Charles Ives' music doesn't really appeal to me. Kelsey's band director loves him, but I'm not a huge fan. However, I do appreciate the meaning behind his music. As we said in class, it's definitely music that needs explanation; it's definitely not universally wonderful. Two really cool things that we got to see was an original piano sonata that Brahms had written for Clara Schumann and one of Mozart's hymns. Freaking awesome.

I also began choreographing my pieces for the Phoenix Spring Show today. Super excited. It's always nice to be able to put creative energy into something. I'm actually excited for rehearsal tomorrow. Whoo!