Junior year successfully accomplished!

Finals week is over, and with it marks me somehow stumbling through three years of college - phew! Even with summer class starting in just a few days that does feel like a relief. And as my boyfriend and I were leaving Hunter for the last time this semester, we ran into a poster with our faces on it - and several other students', it should be noted - from our Goldwater win. A little poking around on the CUNY website led my to discover that we are now apparently "notable people," - http://www.cuny.org/about/people/students1.html - which I think is kind of funny considering that a few months ago CUNY had no idea we existed. Despite that blatant publicity stunt aspect of it though, at least they're nice pictures.

Happy summer every one!

- Celine

Finally approaching the final final

I'm now just one tests away from being done with my junior year - yay! It's been a calm finals week for me, as I only had two finals and only one of them is cumulative. But I've also been incredibly apathetic and unmotivated for finals this year, which is making it a bit challenging. For my bio final last week I studied on and off, then took lots of time off to study and spent about half of it goofing off before suddenly realizing this was not a good idea. Luckily the stress of it suddenly dawning on me that 1/3 of my grade for that class was about to be decided in less than 36 hours got me back into gear.

Now I'm wrestling the same disinterest to prepare for my organic chemistry final tomorrow. Part of my de-motivation come from the fact that based on my midterms and the class distribution I only need to get a 75 or so on the final to get an A in the class. But still, it would be awfully silly to mess it up now...

This finals week I've also been experimenting with a variety of different study spots. Last week, unable to find room in the Hunter library, I went over to the Macaulay building. That's a bit of a gamble in my experience, about half the times I've gone there to study there's been some event taking up the space. And for some reason I can't figure out the tech fellows tend to gather there and chat really loudly which can be quite annoying. Other times though it's a great spot and very quiet; as freshman my boyfriend and I several times went there to take naps between classes and that worked quite well. Last week it turned out to be good and productive.

My other favorite study location this semester is the statistics tutoring office; having use of that room is one of the best perks of being a tutor/TA for that class. It's very small though, and there are often one or two other tutors chilling out or working in there, but overall it's great Hunter real estate.

And then there's studying at home. Although I know many students have a lot of trouble studying at home, I've had great success by locking myself in my room and ignoring communication from family members. I've also found that my bed provides and excellent large surface to spread all my books out on. The only real challenge though is that some dog or cat (we have four of the former and two of the latter) invariably ends up on those spread out books sooner or later.

For now though it's time to get back to chemistry.

- Celine

I can see the light

It's so weird that I am two tests (and 1/2 a paper) away from summer vacation. I've been sleeping very little, but so far things have really been going my way this week. I've been reunited with some old friends, and actually made a few new ones while camping out in the 10th floor dorm. I also got my 1st choice internship at the New York Historical Society. I'm very excited to learn more about marketing, develop existing skills while promoting the museum before it re-opens and collecting opportunities fund money. Between this and a trip to Israel, summer is going to be great.

Finals aren't bad either. My Non-fiction film in-class paper has yet to be graded, but I enjoyed writing it and am confident in my interpretation. My first multiple choice test is tomorrow afternoon for Psych 170. Human Sexuality is a great class, and I wouldn't take this blog break from studying if I didn't think I was well prepared.

No, I don't mean that kind of light! I'm walking on sunshine!!!

Done! ...But still not quite

Since yesterday was the last day of classes, I am officially "done" in at least one sense. But with a paper due tonight, another one due Tuesday, a final Wednesday morning, and a final Thursday evening, there's still about a week of hectic work to get through. And then just four days later, my summer research position begins! And I have to move out this Sunday, after working 9-6 on Saturday and 9-6:30 on Sunday. Ahhhhhhhh.

Wish me luck!

One...More...Week

Just one more week till I get 5 days off! Woo hoo!

Then back to the grind, sort of. At least my summer busy-ness will be entertaining, not stressful and pretty eye-opening. I have 2 summer classes lined up ( Classics 101 and Asian American Woman Writers- I think that's how you call that last class!) to finish up my GERs once and for all! And I'm going to devote the rest of my time to interning at an environmental/marine biology lab at Baruch. I'm really excited for this opportunity because I'll most definitely gain some field experience- can't wait to work with oysters and other bivalves! I'll also will be (hopefully) volunteering at LIJ. A word of advice: apply for summer spots, whether they be laboratories, hospitals, clinics, anything, as early as possible! Spots fill quick. And don't be afraid to use your friends, relatives, friend's parents, and your own ( I did!) to get coveted opportunities.

I should probably go back to doing my online Environmental test ( I have 100 multiple choice out of 134 left, and 5 free response), or go back to studying for Orgo, or Stat, or Bio, or writing up my Bio lab report, or my paper for research. But it's just too nice outside.

That reminds me ( forgive me for my random and haphazard rambling in this post) to pack up my dorm room .Last year, my dad was helping me move out, and he got a huge gash on his hand from moving my refrigerator on a crazy day where you wait for the bins to move out your whole life, and where it seems like you will never be able to bring everything home in one trip. To save myself and my pops the stress and any chance of trouble on check-out days, I have been slowly packing up my room since Spring Break. I moved out my countless cooking vessels, my ironing board, a shelving unit, my useless rechargeable vacuum and some other small knick-knacks. Made my room look 3 times bigger. But I still have a ton of stuff left. I think, in order to productively ( and effectively) procrastinate studying for finals, I'm going to pack up yet another chunk of my room. Biggest question though: Should I defrost my fridge and pack it up now ( we only do have a week left), or wait a week till move out day? Decisions, Decisions!!

Writing two papers that are driving me insane...

I think the last time I blogged was sometime in January, when I spoke about winter break, how the semester went and how I was looking forward to this semester. However, this semester has been crazy for me and I have had little time or energy to devote to things other than my five classes and demanding internship. Now, however, I am back on the bandwagon (as they say) ready to do extra-curricular activities for the summer and thereafter.

This semester I was still interning the education department at the Rubin Museum of Art and leading tours for school groups and learning all about the role of museum education within society. The internship has taught me that I may be interested in arts advocacy on in some sort of policy that can make art accessible to all groups within society including minorities and those without money. However, I am still highly undecided and confused as to what I want to do with my life...

I have to get back to my papers for now but I will be back later in the week. As the title to my entry says, they are driving me insane at the moment...but I 'll be okay.

Under The (Sunny) Weather

My mysterious difference from the blogosphere seems to be a reoccurring theme. My last entry was in late March. I'm still alive. Spring sprung and I've gotton in shape but now the nice weather got to me and now I've reached a stage, where I'm so fixed on making it to summer that my present seems quite boring and I struggle to find a concise way to sum up my recent past.

Today, I impersonated a NYU student with another friend (also not a Violet) to go eat Chick-Fil-A. Yummy but rather salty and knowing now what the chain tastes like, there were several other restaurants we passed that I would have rather dined at. I did laundry and spoke to friends who have now made it to LI on the phone. I've also been working on papers and projects. In fact, although I'm still procrastinating, I've reached the point where I'm so up to my neck with Ancient Near Eastern Religion and the Peopling of NY, that blogging seems like a break.

My past activities of note include getting a dramatic FREE hair cut, vacationing in Buffalo, Arts Night, field trips, numerous Hillel events and social gatherings, Deans Dinners, Tests, Registration and meeting with several people to pursue my internship dreams. Those interested in stalking my past self might enjoy my writing on a field trip found here (http://theviewfromroom432.blogspot.com/) and the MacVlog I did as a SpringBreakSubstitution here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW9ezRV6wTo).

As for my future internship no one's bit yet, but I'll keeping on fishing for a occupation. Part of me desperately wants to compete with classmates working with museums and hospitals and Capital Hill. At least, answering surveys for the Hunter Psych Department and doing some marketing research has kept me in the green. As for summer plans, I know that I'll be spending two weeks in Israel and that I signed up for a summer Oceanography class....and maybe if you're lucky I'll remember to blog.

Done! ....Sort of

Sorry for the absence of posts. The final month of class is always hectic, not to mention most of us CUNY kids are filled with resentment that our classes go 2-4 weeks later in May than many of the other schools in the city/country. For example, my boyfriend, who goes to NYU, was finished as of 5PM yesterday. At the time, I really hated him.

But right now, I'm feeling good! After a presentation last night and a presentation this afternoon, I am officially done with the "class" part of school - besides sitting through a few more lectures/peer presentations. And this is something which I actually really like - alot of people complain about having to sit through dozens of presentations in class, but I think if students actually did a good job with their research/project, it can be interesting and informative (and easier than frantically taking notes for a lecture or having to do reading for a class discussion).

However, I still have two final papers (one of which is actually almost done) and two final exams (plus a small assignment due tomorrow). I'm trying not to let this false feeling of being "done" get to my head. But it's hard when the weather is so beautiful and thoughts of a weekend trip to Long Island (with my boyfriend, and swimming!) fill my head.

At least we don't go until the end of June, as those of you reading this still stuck in HS have to. But we're all in the home stretch...

-Kaitlyn

Surprise prize

Today I discovered that the freebie requirement-filling, it-sounded-interesting classes one takes can have much greater consequences than I thought. Last fall I decided to take an intro philosophy class in ethics, because I've always been really interested in ethics as a topic of study and because it's something I'm interested in applying to science and research. Anyway, it was a perfectly good class but a bit dull, and taking a 100-level class as a Junior it was a blast from the past in terms of easiness and work load. Overall I enjoyed though.

Then a month and a half ago I got an email from the professor asking if he could nominate one of my essays for that class for the Philosophy department's essay competition, so I figured I might as well go with it, considering the paper was already written anyway. So today I strolled sleepily into my lab (I say sleepily because the end of the semester crunch has just made that my normal physiological state) and check my email, and there is an email from the philosophy department saying that I've been awarded "Best 100-Level Paper" and I get $100 for it (which of course made me wonder, if it was best 300-level paper would I have gotten $300?)! So that was nice. Especially since I just had to buy my monthly metrocard for $104 today...

Anyway, I guess it goes to show that taking classes just because they seem interesting really can pay off.

- Celine

Almost done

The semester is coming to a close - which of course also means peak busyness. I kind of like it though, there's something very focussed about the workload. And I've lucked out this semester - out of my four classes only two really have finals, those two are 6 days apart, and only the last one is cumulative. Then I get a whole 5 day break before summer classes being...

I've been having some frustrating trouble with my major though; there seems to be a lot of disagreement and very little clarity about what exactly all the requirements are. I'm currently registered for a special topics neuroscience seminar and an honors thesis seminar, but no one seems decided on whether I have to take both, or only the special topics, and whether I have to take one semester of special topics or two. So it's pretty frustrating, but hopefully the matter will get cleared up in the near future.

Honestly, these kind of issues are one of the main frustrating things that come up in college, at least in my experience. Not that they even happen all that often, but it seems to happen to everyone in any department at least now and then and it's really nerve wracking to not know what's expected of you to graduate. On the bright side, I've fostered a good relationship with the director of my concentration so I never feel awkward emailing him to clarify things, although that doesn't always help as much as one might expect.

And on the really bright side, I'm super excited to be all registered and ready for my senior year! I can't wait to be a senior, even though it's going to be a very intense year for me. I'm also registered for the GRE, and am slowly but steadily gearing up for grad school applications. But first I've got to get through finals...

- Celine

The Lounge on a Sunday Night

In light of the breaking news, a crowd of people gathered in the lounge to watch Obama speak and talk about what this means for the upcoming reelection. People were throwing ideas around about unity, freedom, and justice, but immediately silenced themselves at the sight of Obama stepping onto the podium to speak. It's these moments that define America and its citizens; the ability to bond in spite of our many differences. I'm just so amazed at the turnout of students who care when finals are coming up and tomorrow is the start of another week. Well I'm going to call it a night now, but to whoever is reading this: Peace and love and good night.