Semester End Reflections/Year End Reflections

Although I did not know at the time, my 88 year old grandfather got very sick during my final exams. (Holidays and packing up to go home were interesting, to say the least.) He passed away a few days ago. He was smart, hard working, and very friendly. He lived a pleasant life and, being the goodhearted person that he was, was aware of what he had, even as Alzheimers and Parkinsons amongst other things, seemed to take that away.

He served in the navy, attended night school 15 years for an accounting degree he never used and accepted unusual work commissions with his glass installation company. He went fishing with his friends every weekend, as a young man. He did so many community service hours that a day in Connecticut was named in his honor, and cashed out his life insurance policy so that my mother could afford her last year of university.

He always had a resolution to be better, but I don't think he had any regrets.

That's how I felt, while dealing with the aftermath of my first semester of college. I had a great time in the city. I haven't spoken to many school people in this chaos, but I bonded enough with people that spring should be a blast. I passed all my classes and made Dean's List, although it seemed rather close. (My grades were the lowest I've seen in years. I haven't gotten the equivalent of a 3.7 since the start of middle school.) I don't have it all, or even a fraction of what CUNY promotes itself of capable of giving me. I want to be more social, more scholarly, and do find/develop the cool extracurricular that never materialized this semester.

I want to live life to the fullest in Gram-pa Larry's memory.



Is it in poor taste to post a picture of a loved one's hearse in a school related blog on New Years Eve? NO REGRETS, and have a great 2011.

Please let it not snow anymore!

As I am sure you have all ascertained by this point, there was a lot of snow the day after Christmas and there is still a lot of snow. I was supposed to work at the Rubin yesterday but the museum was closed as was most of NYC. I am still at home in Westchester and have had the opportunity to see many of my friends from home, which is great! The snow has forced me to hang out and most importantly, go and play in the snow like I used to when I was little. Sliding down a slide full of snow into a huge pile of snow in my 10 year old snow pants was a blast! I just hope it doesn't snow again too, too soon. I miss the hustle and bustle of the city and being able to go out and do things in Manhattan. I also miss working at the museum.

Right now, I am doing optional hours in Visitor Experience over the break and learning how to work the front desk. The computer system and protocol is much more complicated than I thought it would be but it is a really fun challenge. I enjoyed doing a mini-tour of one of the pieces in the museum with two groups of adults last week. Working with adults and children/teens is not that different but the adults did make me realize that I need to learn more information about the artwork in the collection. I am looking forward to doing some research over January!

In other news, I am still attempting to finalize travel plans and hope I will make it to Indianapolis and Florida over this January break. I just want to travel and snow is bad for traveling too!!! I am glad I am not taking a class and that I can focus on starting the Sociology club, DKMS Americas club and on volunteer work. I also hope to apply to an honor society that can help me with scholarships for grad school. GRE studying is also imminent. Well, I must go back to the city now. Enjoy the rest of this holiday season!!!

SNOW!

The past few weeks

So it has been a while since I last posted since it was finals week. It was a week of intense studying for a lot of us since we all egg each other on. Also no ones wants a low average anyways. Right now, for those of us who are taking bio, we are still waiting anxiously for our bio grades.
I managed to organize a night out for the people I have become closest with. We went out to eat at this really nice Thai restaurant called Room Service. The place had pretty nice decor but the food was amazing for the price. We were a pretty large group with 24 people and pretty much took over a subway car. After dinner most of us headed back to the dorms and had some of the brownies I baked and pretty much had a really nice time chilling together as the night winded down. What really surprised me was how tight knit of a group we have become since most of us come from near the city. At this point, I really can't imagine being somewhere else. I just spoke to one of my friends who is a senior at Stuyvesant High School. Early decisions just came out and she found out that she got into Brown University with almost a full ride. It was a bit surprising that she didn't feel particularly happy, rather she asked me some really interesting questions, which is: what if she decided to go to somewhere else? Who would she end up as? How would she change? and most of all, who would she meet? I thought about this too when I left Stuy behind. Looking back, there was absolutely no way to find out what the future has in store, you just have to take a pick. I never had any regrets about this decision.
The vacation so far for me hasn't been anything special and I am really not looking forward to tomorrow. We didn't really plan anything as a family. There is simply too much to do right now. I did drive my family around the town and took my baby sis to see the giant Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. As for tomorrow, I am getting three wisdom teeth pulled. I already had one pulled and I'm not much of a fan of going through the process consciously. It is not anything horrible per say, but it does feel like they are trying to break your jaw. The dentist wanted me to have general anesthesia since 3 teeth takes a fairly long time, but I wasn't able to schedule it since it requires me to go to the operating room. Still I wonder how I am gonna get back home through all the snow being all knocked out and bloody. Guess tomorrow is going to be interesting.
Anyways hope everyone else had a good vacation!

Ahhh... winter

New York clearly got the message about this being winter break - we are now covered in a couple feet of snow. Which is great because it's encouraging me to spend a lot of time lounging around in pajamas reading rather than doing something productive, and I always have a tendency to not really take a break on my breaks.

Actually, there is a fair amount of work to be done during this break. First off there's lab work to be done; though I managed to dig up about 12-15 hours a week to put in there during the fall, now that school's out I'm hoping to get some real work done. I also have to write a several different things and organize letters of recommendation for my application for the Goldwater scholarship, an undergrad science thing which I was nominated for. And write an application or two for some summer programs. And start to think about grad school, GREs, etc...

But in the meantime I'm still enjoying the fact that I can sleep a normal amount each night, drink about 1/3 as much coffee as I have for the past several months, and maybe even get in shape, if I'm really ambitious. At least until the spring semester starts.

- Celine

And so it ends.

It's hard to believe that finals are finally over. After days of studying for Bio, I feel like my life has no purpose anymore. Sure I have the holidays to enjoy but I know I'll be worried about my final grades and how they'll affect my GPA. It's so frustrating to have school invade every aspect of my life, but that's college for you! Hopefully I can salvage my vacation before Winter classes start.

Finals Finality (UPDATED)

So I finished finals yesterday, after I had my Law final, which ended at around 5:30. On the whole, I feel good about it - largely because Prof. Cohen gave copies of the answers after the exam was complete, so I know what I got wrong (which thankfully isn't much). I feel pretty good about all of my classes: my grades for my Arts in New York seminar were great (including a 105 on my final review, which I wrote at around 3 in the morning); I, and others, thought that my presentation for Dreyfus Affair was really good; and my Expository Writing final (my only other final) went pretty well, I feel.

(It should be noted that, while this is my first semester in college, this isn't my first college final - I took two Queens College classes last year, of which both had finals.)

After the exam, I went to Wafels and Dinges, because they had a free waffle promotion through Tenka - the waffle with chocolate fudge was, of course, wonderful, and a great way to celebrate the semester coming to an end; I also watched the lunar eclipse last night, which was actually really cool (and reminded me to put the Quadrantids meteor shower on my calendar).

Tomorrow, I meet with my fellow participants in the MHC program going behind the scenes of the Metropolitan Opera's production of Nixon in China in conjunction with Thirteen, after which I'll be heading back to southeast Queens for my mother's birthday, Christmas and New Year's. Thursday, however, will be back at the Macaulay building for the live show the Macaulay Vlog is doing. It's at 4:00, and the information will be posted on the event page on Facebook - tune in and watch us be funny!

Update: A+ in Law and Arts in NYC, A in Dreyfus and Expository Writing!

Final final finally finished

Today right around noon I walked out of my very last final - fall 2010 is completely over! Well, for me. A lot of people are still in the last bitter days. It was rather anticlimactic; for one thing, this final was really weird and out of left field, so I have no idea how well I did, but on the other hand it was not hard, so it only took me about half an hour, of the two hours allotted. Oh well.

I celebrated my completion of finals by getting a peppermint mocha, and going to my lab for the first time since last Wednesday. There wasn't much work to be done though so I almost immediately was overcome by overwhelming sleepiness and decided to head out.

I was, however, at lab long enough for my boss to emerge a few times from his office where he was reading grad school applications complaining vehemently about how poorly the applicants wrote, them go back in only to emerge shortly later with another painful sentence to groan over. It was pretty amusing. And I now know a whole slew of things NOT to put in my grad school applications, so that's good.

Tonight was all christmas gift wrapping and enjoying the chance to sit still for the first time in four months or so, and I've already begun to check obsessively for grades to be posted. Then tomorrow night I'll head back to Hunter to collect my boyfriend as soon as his last final is over and enjoy actually getting to see him look relaxed for the first time in four months. And then it's off into the wonders of winter break....

- Celine

Paper writing master...

It is my fifth straight hour in the Hunter library, and in that time I've successfully managed to read through 8 external sources for my paper on Richard Wright and guns. Woot! That's 8 books - articles within books, but still, at about 50 pgs. of usable material per book, I feel quite accomplished.

Time to reward my efforts with a very large vanilla latte, before I outline my paper tonight. Yikes. At least I have a thesis now. Research papers aren't so bad as they seem. You read other people's opinions, and by the time you're done deciding what you agree/disagree with in each paper, you have a thesis. It only takes...hours. But it's rewarding.

Happy Saturday evening, people with lives. I'll join you in 3 days.

- Katharine

Ahh, the end is near, in a good way. Having completed 5 tests in the past 8 days, I'm not just one test away from winter break, and I've got most of the weekend to study for it. I was quite leased with myself that I pulled off my philosophy final - two essays in two hours, with no advance warning about what the prompts would be - despite having gone out with my boyfriends family for a delicious German dinner around 9 o'clock last night, going to sleep sometime around 1 and waking up at 7. On the flip side though, I'm alway surprised by just how tiring taking tests is; each time I get out of one I'm completely wiped out for the next several hours. Those several hours after each final have been a good opportunity though to chill out, see people, and finally start my christmas shopping.

And now back to the books

-Celine

Art and the Holidays...

The semester is over in exactly a week for me and I can't believe it! It's seems so soon - too soon. I am not complaining because I am looking forward to the holidays, traveling, volunteering, and just having fun. But still... 2011 will be a milestone year for me because it will be the year I take the GRE and the year I apply to graduate programs. It will also be the year I study abroad or leave the US for the first time. I can't wait! It will be busy but deeply rewarding.

My classes have gone relatively well this semester although I noticed myself being the most distracted this semester compared to others. I am a little restless to travel and explore this winter. I have never really been anywhere outside of the tri-state area so going to Indiana and potentially Texas is infinitely exciting to me. I am also anxious to produce some artwork over the break and start studying for the GRE. Preparing for events for the sociology club and elections in early February will also be enjoyable. It may sound crazy but I can't wait to be productive with other things in my life besides classes. I will also be working in Visitor Experience at RMA to make some extra money and continue working at the museum over the break. I will miss seeing the school children and the teens. =(

Now I have two more finals and a paper to write so I will go do that. Hope the holiday season is going well for ya all!

~ Amanda

ailey, ailey, ailey.

I mean I guess part of that title can be "ail" as in yes, I am sick (finished antibiotics last night though so hopefully I'll be better super soon) but really the title was ailey as in alvin ailey as in wonderfulness.

background check: I love to dance. I danced all through high school with teachers from alvin ailey (my school was right by their studio so they taught dance at my school) and I really loved it. I've done ballet, hip-hop, jazz, modern (my favorite), afro-haitian...everything. really, everything. and I miss it so much. I want to start taking open classes or a class at hunter but I don't have the time yet. soon though.

so I've seen the ailey company perform before but tonight it was really, really gorgeous. everything was lush and beautiful and it was fun. my mhc seminar went together and, obstacle #1 was that our professor was totally m.i.a. before the performance. luckily, I spoke to the woman at group sales and she organized us and we were let in. that was good. and our professor made it for the second act, so that was nice.

in all other news, the snapshot exhibit is going up on saturday so that's going to pretty much consume my day (which means I get to cancel other plans to do that...growl) but it'll be fun and sunday's the exhibit! come see it!

and then wednesday is my only final and that is all. the semester is over. first semester of freshman year of college? totally almost done!

Finals? Now? What?

The end of the semester is upon us - only three more days of class! The only really consistent thing about college is how incredibly quickly the time seems to pass, but this semester has gone even faster than most for some reason. Finals week is just a stone's throw away. For me it's a bit anticlimactic; although I'm taking 5 classes for a total of 17 credits this semester, most of them are fairly easy so I only really have a couple finals that I need to worry about for more than a day or so, compared to last year when I studied for my bio and chem finals for several days straight each.

Looking back, this semester has been really good. I have to say, being an upperclassman is great - I didn't expect it to be particularly different, yet in some ways it is. For one thing this was the first semester I didn't have an honors seminar, or a German language class. But more importantly, over the course of the summer and this fall myself and most of the people I know in the class of 2012 have completely turned a corner in terms of knowing what we want to do, having specific goals, going off on our own paths, and the like. One really neat thing about taking upper level classes is meeting all these different people with all kinds of interesting goals ranging from entering the foreign service to attending graduate school in creative writing to becoming physical therapists. Of course, there are still plenty of people who don't know what their next step or their long term plans are - including myself at least 25% of the time - and that's fine too. But the general climate of the people I spend time with has certainly changed.

For me one of the biggest changes is that grad school is now staring me right in the face, and it's way scarier than I thought it would be. I've been talking the talk since I was in my mid-teens - going into neuroscience research was always the big plan for me - but now... all of a sudden it's all so real. The horizon is full of big decisions; am I really ready to commit myself to spending 5 or 6 years in grad school? Am I sure enough about my field to take that plunge? And if so how do I decide where to go? Should I say close to family? Try to end up close to my boyfriend? All of these things seemed so simple and obvious just a year ago...

Ah well, these are choices for another day. In the meantime I've got tests to worry about.

-Celine

It has been a long time....

I cannot believe I haven't posted for a few weeks. How inexcusable of me as a writer for the Macblog. Forgive me, but in order to compensate for the lack of entries, this will be a pretty long one.

What has happened to me the last few weeks that is noteworthy? Hmm, with my mind rolling and flipping through memories, here are just some of the highlights:

I have finally, FINALLY gone to Trader Joe's! This might not seem at all relevant to Honors life at Hunter, but having such an amazing grocery near the dorms makes eating fun and healthier, which leads to better studying periods for me. Its not necessarily near the dorms (its on 6th ave and 22nd, whereas the dorms are on 25th and 1st ave) as everyone who goes there knows, but its walkable, and as an avid consumer of milk, the prices are pretty good ( $1.79 for a half gallon in Manhattan is the cheapest I've seen thus far). When I bought all my groceries and went to the cashier, I was trying to figure out how to word my first experience at Trader Joe's, and he said it perfectly, " Trader Joe's is like the Disneyland of grocery stores". If anything, its the Disney World. Hopefully, this view of Trader Joe's doesn't grow any dimmer as time passes on.

Other than of course purchasing milk at Trader Joe's, I bought a very delicious gingerbread mix. I was thinking of baking a gingerbread cake, but alas, I forgot I had a 8''x8'' deep dish pan for it. So instead, I made a very holiday-like collection of gingerbread cookies- gingerbread men and women, triangles that were supposed to look like trees, stars ( one looked like Patrick Star from Spongebob), as well as regular cookies- with friends at the dorms. That's a huge plus side at living at the dorms- if you're too bored to make food for yourself by yourself, you can always just meet up with people and make meals together. Mini potlucks at the dorms are oh so efficient and enjoyable.

Although its not as epic as a shopping at Trader Joe's, I did enjoy the Indian Spice Drinking Chocolate twice at the Whole Foods in Union Square with my fellow MHC poster group members. ( If you haven't had it yet, try it. With hints of cinnamon and cardamom in this thick hot chocolate, it puts regular hot chocolate to shame). Its a great place to sit back , relax and unwind after a long week with friends, especially when you consider the view of uptown , and the view of the holiday fair in the park below from the large windows. The holiday fair at Union Square is worth a visit, but don't go during the evenings on weekends, because it gets very crowded with shoppers and tourists. But still a definite must on the holiday to-do list.

Enough with the food memories ( my stomach is violently growling now). Going back to that MHC poster I briefly mentioned, we presented it at the Macaulay poster session on Sunday. Although making the poster was an absolute pain in the butt, and having to trek to the Macaulay building on a Sunday morning was just as annoying, it really did reinforce the fact that there are other honors students at different colleges, and that Macaulay is a cross campus community. Without such events or cross campus honors and MHC classes, this simple fact is forgotten, which is a huge loss. At Hunter, the only way I know and meet people in the Honors college is through the honors classes. Sure, the MHC classes themselves are called to be a waste of time sometimes by students, but they are equally interesting, and introduce a different way of viewing the city. Most importantly, those classes bring together Honors students that wouldn't necessarily have met each other,because of how we all take different classes for different majors and tracks. Of course we have the honors lounge, but I feel that having such classes was and is the only way I have met some amazing people at the Honors college at Hunter.

Finals and then vacation!

Things have picked up lately with finals and final projects due in these few weeks, so I haven't had much time to do other things. I think this is one thing that is good about the Honors Seminar. My professor does her best to keep us out of the classroom. Today for class we went to see a tour of Alvin Alley Dance studios and tomorrow we will be going to City Center to see a performance by the Alley dance crews. Last week our teacher, Professor Weinroth, was actually able to get us an Q and A with an opera singer, which turned out to be awesome. Danielle De'Nase, who played Despina in Cosi Fan Tutte at Lincoln Center, was so open and friendly which was really a pleasant surprise since we were told stories about the vanity that some opera singers have.
Tomorrow will also be the last time we get to go out for a class, at least until next semester. I really wished we were able to get tickets to see a Broadway musical like the years before, but we still did a lot this year in seminar.
Anyways, as for me, I can't wait for finals to be over. I am planning a big group dinner for 17 friends who all hang out pretty often on the ninth floor. After that I am hoping to really take a month off and just get a normal sleep schedule. Arg just a few more days...

Let the Games Begin!

I probably shouldn't refer to finals as games. They're not fun, but compared to what I've been putting my self through, they might as well be. I was not well prepared for the end-of-semester last project-fest that has made the days that followed a rather joyous Thanksgiving Break, SUPER BUSY. (Sorry for not blogging in a while.)

I admit it hasn't all been projects. Hannukah came on the early side this year (ending yesterday) and brought with it quite a few Jewish seasonal commitments. I spent a fair share of time traveling from LI to the city.

But that's behind me, now... I think. My final schedule consists of three finals in three weeks. This should give me time to rest, reflect, run around the city doing interesting things, and study.

Technically, I have two exams. I took my first final today during my English 220 class period. Timed essays are still not my strong suit. I loved the readings, but this might be my last English class for quite a while. My inner-scholar probably hates me, but I miss the days when my English tests were multiple choice.

(My other finals are partially multiple choice:-)

so much stress, so little motivation.

so, last week of classes. kind of freaking out? half in the good wow-this-semester-is-over-it-went-by-so-quickly way and half in the oh-finals-are-in-two-weeks-cool way. so, while I'm stressed (anthro professor just wants us to finish books and articles, no big deal, of course. it's like anthropology is the only class I'm taking! or does she not realize that other teachers assign work too?), I have zero motivation to do anything (all my work that's left is anthropology)...and yes, that can be attributed to the fact that anthropology is BORING and annoying at this point and my professor is an egoist who just wants to talk about her stupid book that I don't enjoy reading! she is a very nice little old lady but I really didn't take anthro101 to just learn about the indians in mexico. it is taking all of my efforts to sit down and read that stupid freaking book.

on the plus side...I did my LAST reading for political theory which made me a little sad because I love my professor and the class and everything is wonderful. even though it's a reading intensive course, it's so enjoyable and the subject matter is so interesting and funny at times. psychology is pretty much done -- last class on thursday and non-cumulative final test next monday (thank the lord it isn't cumulative, I'd be killing myself). working on my mhc final project which is (surprisingly) going very very smoothly. pretty impressed about that.

the only down side of the psych test being on monday is that saturday I have plans to go holiday shopping with my friends and then decorate my friend's tree/bake cookies (the plus side to having a christian friend!) and sunday is the opening of the snapshot exhibit which I've been helping to curate all semester. hopefully that won't take too long and I can devote friday afternoon & sunday to doing that. definitely, definitely not a party weekend.

and now...back to anthropology. I'm crying inside.

More of the Same

My best friend wrote this on my facebook wall this morning:

"I hope you don't explode due to stress overload"

This essentially sums up my feelings at the moment, so you'll have to excuse me for not having posted in awhile. On my plate at the moment: my term paper for HIST 356, (History of the Early American Republic), which is already 18 pages long, and will probably be close to 25 when finished, my MHC 200 (the third Macaulay Seminar: Science and Technology in New York) oral presentation, which is about 2/3 done, and my Seminar 3 poster presentation: the poster is done, and the bare bones outline of the power point is done, so it just needs an hour spent spicing it up with pictures and rehearsing with my group. Of course, all of these things are due/taking place on Thursday, and it's not like my STAT 213 (Intro to Statsitics) or HIST 276.5 (History of the Middle East to 1800) have just stopped assigning homework.

The good news is, after Thursday, I'm FREE! Well not completely: there's still class on Monday, and finals next week, but since the last homework and assignments are all due Thursday, I have the whole weekend to study and Monday's classes are all review for above mentioned finals.

So this weekend, I'm looking forward to seeing the play my boyfriend is stage managing at NYU and then heading to my house in Brooklyn to help my family trim the tree with my best friend.

All assuming I haven't exploded.

Work Is Killing Me.

I've sat in the same place for the past four hours doing nothing but work...
Oh, why did I have to leave it all for this day?! Who made the nature of procrastinating so addictive...
I am swamped with so much work, I don't know which way to turn. I need to schedule my time better - this is what I tell myself. Nonetheless, as it is said, the road to hell is paved with good intentions; and boy did I promise myself to do work all this weekend. hmmm, maybe next time?

With that said, I was just dropping by to leave my mark once again. It has been a while. Kudos to those who have been regularly posting - it does take dedication!

Best of luck with the upcoming finals. Can't wait for winter break! Oh, wait. I think I'm taking a class...

Home Stretch

Frankly, I can't at all believe that finals is already upon us. My first semester of freshman year has gone by with a speed unrivaled by any of my terms in high school. (It should be noted that my semesters in high school were each a month longer. Even when I had my classes at Queens College, though, it felt a bit longer - which I can attribute largely to having other high school classes that met every day, &c.)

In any case as to the length of the semester, I have two finals this term: one for First Amendment Law (which my professor has said will be open-book), and one for Expository Writing (an essay which will be written over the course of two 75-minute sessions). In addition, I have a group presentation to complete (and, frankly, begin) for MHC and papers to polish for Dreyfus Affair (the topic of which I had already presented on with flying colors on Tuesday) and Expository Writing.

But the last few weeks have not been, and the next few will not be, solely studying (though they have involved and will involve a good deal of writing and studying combined). Thursday my fellow MacBlogger, Danielle, and I went to a free Goo Goo Dolls concert (which I wasn't 100% sure was free - hence why I didn't tell you, Betsy; sorry) at the Apple Store in SoHo, which was really great (even though they stopped on about 4 occasions, because they were recording the concert live for iTunes). On Friday, I attended the first meeting with my fellow Macaulay Vloggers; it was great to hammer out the next month of themes and finally meet the people I had only known on the Internet. On Saturday, I went to the Brooklyn Museum, because it was the final Target First Saturday of the year; along with seeing the new exhibit on Norman Rockwell's use of photography (which was very comprehensive, of which I was glad) I heard a performance by Canadian musician Carole Pope (heard being the operative term, as I was in the line for bag check at the time) and saw a screening of Julie Taymor's film, Frida.

Next week, I'll be attending a performance by the Alvin Ailey dance troupe with my Arts in New York class, and the week after that (when finals will be over for me), I'll be attending the final free concert at BargeMusic for the year!

Finally, here's this week's episode of TMV:

Work Hard, Play Hard.

Think going to a CUNY is going to be easy? Think again. Macaulay is actually a really challenging program, especially if you're considering Pre-Med. I met with my advisor today and she told me a startling statistic. Most freshmen on probation failed Bio 100. Even students who took AP science courses in high school aren't guaranteed A+. That class requires so much of your time and is so stressful. So to take some time for myself, I decided to start working on my MHC final project. That's right. I take a break from Bio by doing something for another. My friend and I are working together on a performance piece for the final and we're having so much fun trying to do a cover of a pop song. Don't get me wrong. It's still grueling work to hit the right notes, keep the beat, and produce an instrumental track. But it's just far more enjoyable.

I never really used to think that having priority registration as an honors student made much difference, but this year I really came to appreciate it. Now that I'm an upperclassman and thus not fighting with all the other Macaulay students for seminar spots, the whole registration process was extremely calm this semester. During my first few semesters it was crazy, and I still have a huge conditioned stress response to the entire thing, but this time everything worked exactly as it should. Moreover, I've since spoken to many other Hunter students who are being closed out of classes, and we honors students essentially have our pick. Unless you happen to want to register for a class that all the students on sports teams, with disabilities, and or in other special programs happen to want as well...

Last stretch

Only two more weeks of school left before finals, meaning I'll be done in three weeks! This semester has been so hectic, I don't remember October or November except for a few nights out. Between classes and my internship, everything has blurred together. Advice for all other highly/overly motivated students; if you're going to take 5 classes AND do an internship, be prepared for precious little free time. I feel like my social life has collapsed.

I'm looking forward to next semester, though! Norton can't extend my internship since they're getting quite a few applications, and I took that as a sign to take it easy next semester, lest I work myself into premature hypertension. So I'm taking five classes next semester, virtually finishing my two majors, without the added pressure of a professional commitment. In other news, Hunter thinks I'm graduating next semester - I have to make sure they know I'm just a junior!

Registration went super smooth on Tuesday - that tends to happen after one finishes the MHC seminars. So I'm registered for Workshop in Fiction 2, Literary Theory (with Professor Davis for the third time!), Survey of American Literature from Origins to the Civil War (which should be fun except for Puritanical prose...yuck), German Short Stories and Novelles, and German Literature from 1945-1995. I'm excited to just be a student next semester!

Till then, it's a constant drive to the end, although my work load seems to have decreased since Thanksgiving. But I get to see the nieces tomorrow and next weekend! And the building where I work is decorated beautifully for Christmas, complete with a 10 foot tall Christmas tree. I can smell freedom, and it smells like pine needles.

-Katharine