Pumpkin, pumpkin everywhere

Literally one month into the semester, and I haven't done a real post yet! Shame on me!!!


Let me introduce/re-introduce myself- My name is Jemi, a senior majoring in Biology on the Pre-dental track. When I'm not in class, I coordinate the Macblog, am a part of the Senior Research Forum team, a member of the Peer mentor group at Hunter, the P.R rep for the Project Sunshine chapter at Hunter,  the Hunter College section editor for the Macaulay Messenger, and I volunteer at a dental clinic in downtown Brooklyn. And oh yeah, I'm afraid I might get allergic to the mice that I just started to really work with on a cerebral malaria project at Weill Cornell. Whew, I think I wrote my entire resume there.

This semester ( my last fall semester ever at Hunter, *GASP*), I'm taking African American Narratives ( to fulfill that last honors class out of 4, finally!), Medical Geography , Physics 110, and Molecular Neurobiology. At "only" 13.5 credits, I thought that this semester would be a "breeze", but I just had to go and jinx that out loud ( by telling everyone hey I'm only taking four classes!) and have multiple sleepless nights already.

As was my habit for the past few years writing for the blog, I often write blog posts when I can't sleep, or when I don't want to do that nagging assignment that's due tomorrow. I've started my first short paper for African American Narratives, but just seemed to busy myself with everything else important in life- organizing my planner, painting my nails, chipping my nails, painting my nails again, and eating dinner.

Enough about my horrible habits though- this past weekend (actually, the weekend before to be exact), I went on a retreat with the Goldsmith Scholars to Petersham, Massachusetts to the Harvard Forest to learn more about the ecological research happening to sustainably bring back forest cover to historic levels.  It was beautiful and amazing to escape the city for a while, which allowed me to milk a goat, pick organic vegetables, witness a tree being sawed in half by a seventy year old, and to climb a CO2 research tower  that was at least 100 feet into the air (and very rickety at that). I now know why many flock to New England to witness fall at its finest.

This picture always calms me- the most beautiful introduction to Fall ever.

The carrot I picked at a sustainable farm up in Petersham, MA. 

The CO2 tower,which Harvard researchers use to analyze CO2 levels. A rickety version of the Tower of Death.

Now that Autumn's here, I can't wait to have pumpkin in everything, from my soup, to my Starbucks drinks, to pies, to bread. Yay!

So I’m a little slow on the upkeep with this, as I am with most things (since when is Devo not party music anymore?), but here it is.  Intro time.  Get ready.

My name is Gabrielle Brown, and I’m a freshman at Macaulay Honors at Hunter.  I haven’t yet declared my major, though I’m thinking about taking on Psych (since I’ll spend a good deal of my professional life schmoozing up to people, might as well get to know them...) For fun, I act, write satire and comedy, make hot chocolate, exercise occasionally to sparingly, and peruse the isles of Gracious Homes and Pottery Barn.  I enjoy creating rhetoric on political matters that I hope to one day be qualified enough to make cogent points about.  I believe I am part-housewife, part-ten-year-old-boy. 

My experience thus far at Macaulay has been strangely utopian.  Initially, I felt a bit like James upon walking into the giant peach and seeing all the insects I had never been aware existed—not because my peers were slimy and had four more legs than the average college student, but because everyone looked alien to me. Indeed, I thought they were going to be—the utter horror—normal people.  As my schooling in the giant peach progressed, I started to see that the insects and I were more alike than I thought.  A guy on my floor never walks to the bathroom, but rather commutes there via skateboard.  My friend carries a tub of vegetables the size of her head around in her schoolbag.  We’ll often stay up until ungodly hours of the night watching low-budget 80s horror films (Killer Klowns From Outer Space, anyone?) or taking a crack at the Donald Trump board game, a treasure we accrued in the game room for free.  As it turns out, my college experience has been a paradise for a freak like myself; if you do anything that you think is weird, there will be someone here who does it too, and to a degree ten times weirder than you. And that’s awesome.

Anyway, for cohesion’s sake, I think I’ll put out posts every Friday.  I got no classes today so I think I’ll go make some noodles or refill my potpourri jar.  Now, stop procrastinating you kids! Adios my little blogees! 

Adventures in Cooking

Hey guys! I had a really packed weekend and I finally got a chance to blog about it. On Friday night I went out to St. Mark's with friends to get food, listen to music and hang out in Washington Square Park. Saturday we went to breakfast for my friend's birthday at a place called Yaffa on St. Mark's which has an amazing brunch special ($11 on weekends, $6 during the week), then we walked around Union Square and went shopping and got yogurt. Saturday night I made fried zucchini with pasta and tomato sauce for dinner which I shared with my friends while we talked about politics and career choices. Intelligent conversation and food is the best part of college. Sunday morning, my friend walked into the kitchen and told me how she'd gained so much weight since starting college. She wanted to start a healthy diet. So we decided to make a healthy dinner. We all went shopping together at the Trader Joe's on 26th and 6th and bought all the ingredients for Thai chicken and vegetable stir fry that we would need. We combined the ingredient lists from two different recipes. Here's what we put into the mix:

zucchini
edamame
red and green bell peppers
chicken
crushed cashews
onions
garlic
soy sauce
lemon juice
vegetable oil
salt and pepper
red pepper flakes

It was my first attempt at cooking at the dorm and I'd say it was pretty successful! Don't be afraid of cooking guys. If you have a pan and vegetable oil, you can basically cook anything. I also got a chance to use my rice cooker for the first time. Stir fry is amazing for college students because you can basically throw all the vegetables in your fridge into a pan and stir them around and it's a meal. You also usually have leftovers. Conclusion: stir fry and omelets are the ultimate food of college students.

In other news, I have to start my seminar paper on Surrealism and film. Although the paper seems difficult, I'm glad we got to choose our own topic. When my teacher first introduced the paper, it sounded like the five-page paper from hell: writing five pages about art was not going to happen for me. But I finally found a topic I'm interested in and now I'm excited to write about it! Maybe if I actually get off my butt and stop watching Glee, Elementary, and Sherlock I could focus and get past an outline!

Finally: my friend and I were going to try to get tickets to the sold out Ed Sheeran concert at Terminal 5 on Friday, but it was pretty much impossible. That's what happens when you sell $28 tickets at a great venue for a perfect artist. Nonetheless, I downloaded his whole album and have been listening to it for two weeks. Personal favorites include: "The City", "You Need Me, I Don't Need You", "Grade 8", "Wake Me Up", and "Drunk". Oh, and "The A Team", of course. He's attractive and a good singer and British. That's just a good combo right there.

Erica

How do you fit the Chrysler Building into your dorm room?

Hey guys! Since we've had yesterday and today off for Yom Kipper, I thought I would have a lot of time to spend exploring the city a little more... Well, that didn't happen, but I did manage to get started on my big craft project for this semester that I've been meaning to start. For my Macaulay Seminar I have an 8 week photo journal project, and I decided that my theme would be the paint chip mural that I wanted to make on my wall. The plan for the mural is to make a faux-New York city skyline with the buildings that I like, so the first one was the Chrysler building and I managed to do it late last night. I'm quite proud of it, even though it definitely can be mistaken for the Empire State building; so, even though I didn't go out and explore, I was able to bring a little bit of the outside NYC into the dorms anyway.

Adam, the Environment, and Musings

We've had two weeks in a row where we've had an additional two days off. How incredibly awesome is that?

- This past Friday, my Seminar 3 professor divided the class into different groups. Each group will work on a specific project dealing with the effectiveness of conservation efforts by different non-profits and government agencies. I'm excited for this project because it's going to expose me to a field that I have always wanted to learn more about. The class itself is really interesting. Our focus is on environmental philosophy, and our discussions are always thought-provoking. 

- Kinda random: I loved my outfit on Monday. Summer dress + black tights + black boots Win. haha Fall fashion is awesome.
- You know who's cool? Adam Levine. Ahhh. I watch The Voice just so I can stare at his fabulous face. haha. (and also because the contestants are actually pretty good). Anyway, back to Adam. haha. His voice is just so distinctly him, you know? You hear it, and you know it's Adam and another awesome Maroon 5 song. I was just listening to "Wipe Your Eyes". Great song.
- I started watching the fourth season of Mad Men on Monday. Don is his usual complicated awesome self. I was slightly pissed that Jon Hamm did not win an Emmy Sunday night. He's been playing this character for 5 years now. He deserves some recognition!!
- Some thoughts on life (inspired by a conversation):
It's like the older we get, the more confusing things become. We're only in college and it feels like everything has to be decided now and there's a lot of pressure to be and do everything at once. It's overwhelming at times. I think it's really important to sometimes just take a step back from your life and look at the bigger picture. The world is bigger than just you and your problems. Open your eyes and you'll be surprised by how much you see around you. The world is a hard and unfair place. But you can't give up on it all. It's worth it to push through, and if you're unhappy, do something to change your circumstances. Don't wait for something to fall out of the sky and change everything for you. Be the hero of your own life. (cliche as that sounds).

Quote of the week:

Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start. 
~ Nido Qubein 

S.

socially awkward penguin

Things my advisor has encouraged me to do before October 3rd:

• Contact whomever's in charge of tango (haha, me and my awkward dancing everywhere, yeah right)
• Contact whomever's in charge of Quidditch, although she told that I should wait for an e-mail instead?
• Go to a Dumbledore's Army meeting (side note: my advisor spelled it as "Dumble doors" and I laughed for a good two minutes)
• Talk to my peer mentor about a charades tournament thing
• Invite someone from my ~commuter group~ for coffee or something

Things I have actually done:

• ...
• yeah, nothing.

Ah, the plight of a commuter Macaulay student :(

Someone tell me I'm not the only commuter who basically turns into SOCIALLY AWKWARD PENGUIN when around other Macaulay people.

Me.

» emjay

Noise-cancelling headphones: the only cure to Philo 101 and imaginary-character-feelings

Hey guys!

My name is Erica. I have the most unpronounceable, Polish last name you've ever seen. My friends make fun of me for it all the time. I'm a freshman at Hunter hoping to major in English and minor in Philosophy. I've lived on Long Island for my entire life with New York as my backyard. My dad was an editor and is now an English teacher, so I pretty much knew what I was going to fall in love with throughout high school and college. Literature is my one true love; I'm a writer, a debater, and an avid reader. That's not to say it's my only interest; I've been designing and sewing clothes for 8 years, was Vice President of my school's Fashion Club, and wanted to major in fashion design at one point; I've been recreationally horseback riding for 6 years and I used to be a gymnast from the age of 6-12. I grew up in Huntington and Commack, going to private school for most of my life until I went to Commack High School where I took the IB Diploma Program. Safe to say, I was always in a culture of smart and studious people like me. Coming to Macaulay is like going to school with 500 people exactly like you; I honestly have conversations with my friends where we end up completing each other's sentences and screaming about our mutual interests, having only known each other for about a month. Everyone works hard, but on our free days we love to go out and explore the city. I have such a thriving social life due to living in the dorm that I never had at home. I love living in close proximity to everyone, yet having my own personal space at the same time.

This semester I'm taking four classes: English 220, Macaulay Arts Seminar, Philosophy 101, and Psychology 100. Really heavy on the reading and writing! Luckily, I'm getting through it all with some good highlighters, noise-cancelling headphones and the Classical music station on Pandora (check that out, because it's been so helpful for when I study. Also think about investing in noise-cancelling headphones for when your friends just don't understand and you really just want to get in the zone of a fascinating reading on...formal vs. informal philosophy! OK, maybe not so interesting). For an English major though, there are never enough books. I just recently got my hands on the newest John Green novel "The Fault in our Stars". Hold onto your tissues and Haagen-Dazs here guys, it's a real sob-fest. I took some time out of schoolwork one day and read the whole book in one go. Completely heart-wrenching.

Those noise-cancelling headphones were fantastic for my Suits marathon recently. I watched both seasons in a week. Unfortunately noise-cancelling means you can't hear anyone, not that they can't hear you......sobbing and laughing at Harvey Specter's mommy issues and smug smiles. TV addict problems. I've started in on Teen Wolf and now nothing can stop me.

Going to leave you with a great drink place my friends and I found recently on the way back from the Colum McCann talk at Hunter. (His book was amazing, by the way, and that's not just the English major talking. Read it because its all about this amazing city. The characters are so interesting, especially Corrigan. He's my favorite. Ciaran is a close second.) Anyway, I had the Passionfruit and Mango smoothie for a snack/lunch on the way back from Philosophy class today and it was delicious (and not too expensive, may I add). This place is on 24th and Lexington which is so convenient, right off the 6 train or M23 bus on the way to class or back to the dorms. Check it out!

Coco Tea

Erica

Doctor Stuff! + Life problems

For future pre-med kids -

Life gets better after your first chem quiz. It may seem hard taking bio and chem the first year (because it is...) but if you manage your time effectively and study a lot on your own, you will do fine! I was never a super hardcore studier so coming to college really opened my eyes to the fact that you can't just blindly hope your professor will cover everything you need to know. Idealistically, that should be the case, but realistically...nah. So crack open those lovely books, take in the fresh book smell paired with coffee (lol don't drink it but whatever) and highlighter and go crazy!

In other news... I took the express bus from Staten Island (spent the night at home post-birthday to hang out with family, usual stuff) and then took the 6 up to Hunter. The silly thing about buses is that like everyone kind of gets a transportation partner because all the seats are in two. I try to look mean so I can get a seat to myself but it never works. The funny part; I fell asleep on the way in and when I woke up the woman next to me was on my shoulder, out cold. Life problem: How does one wake up a completely random stranger? 

I did some weird shoulder maneuver and successfully avoided an awkward conversation! She kinda just woke up and I stared out the window. 

Second life problem: The train was delayed but I was taking it one stop and really, I was in the city like 45 minutes early so I was kinda just sitting around and taking up space. I was reading the ticker and on it the MTA people used the wrong "there" and it bugged me so much. I'm not a stickler for grammar but it said "their are delays" and it just bothered me.

Enough ramblings for the day! In short, study but take time for little things (like improper tickers in the train stations!)

:)Lauren

你好！

Hi guys! This is kind of late, but I'm Maya! It's pronounced May-uh, like the month with an extra a on the end (even though my own mother pronounced it wrong the other day...). I'm a freshman at Macaulay Hunter, I'm in the Chinese Flagship program and am majoring in Political Science (so basically double majoring in Chinese and Poli-Sci). I've been studying Chinese for six years already, and knew when I was applying for college that I wanted to major in Chinese. I'm British-Chinese, and adopted. I was born in Hong Kong, and since I was five years old I lived in a small town in Westchester County, New York called Larchmont. I went to Mamaroneck High School which is a public high school and has approximately 1600 students so Hunter is kind of gigantic in comparison. I LOVE living in New York City, and it's great getting a dorm because otherwise I would have to commute which would not be fun. This semester I'm taking four classes: the Macaulay Seminar, Chinese 301, Econ 100, and English 220. I'm really enjoying everything so far, but definitely need to buckle down and focus a bit more.

This week was great because we had two days off, so my friends and I (the ones that didn't go home at least) spent it chilling. My friend's birthday was yesterday, so Tuesday we celebrated since we didn't have school. So, for today, I'll just leave you with a picture of his cake and cookie-frosting statue thing that we made him:

Long weekends, weird weather, and study skills

Hello everyone!!!!

- Welcome back from the long weekend. I hope you all spent it with a nice balance of homework/studying and having fun. I got some stuff done for school and I also got to relax a bit. I've gotten in the habit of taking long walks in the afternoon. It's great exercise and perfect for taking some time for yourself.
- The weather has been sort of weird lately. Some days have been really sunny, breezy, and beautiful. Other days, like yesterday, have been rainy and yucky. haha. I'm just trying to enjoy the last bits of sunshine while it lasts.
- This semester, I'm really trying to improve on my study skills and be more organized. I've been trying to review my lecture notes on a regular basis and not do homework at the last minute. I think it's important to improve on yourself every semester.
- I've started watching Mad Men, which I think is one of the coolest shows ever. I am absolutely in love with Don Draper even though he is incredibly complicated. I admire him for his intelligence, his creativity, and his loyalty. He also always looks really dapper. That helps too.
The women on the show are just as awesome as Don. Joan, Betty, and Peggie all represent different facets of the 1960's woman. The clothes are cool too. Beautiful dresses in gorgeous colors and shapes.
I'm just in love with the show. It raises a lot of interesting questions about both the characters's lives and your own life. I highly recommend it.

Anyway, enough about Don and everyone else. (Scratch that, I could never get enough of them.)

Enjoy the rest of the week. =)

Quote of the week:

The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart. 

~Helen Keller 

S.

Hey guys!

Hey guys,

My name is Genevieve, I'm a sophomore at Hunter, and I'm currently a Music and Psychology double major.  It's been so difficult to decide on a major--I find so many subjects interesting!  I'm learning German, which is a really fun language, and hope to even minor in that as well.

One of my college goals is to Study Abroad in either Germany or Italy! But for now, I'm just trying to get through Fall 2012.  I have some pretty interesting classes--Medieval History (which is something I NEVER thought I'd say is interesting!), Tribal Religions, Music Theory, and the 3rd Macaulay seminar--which, I also have plentyyyy of work for! But this obviously takes priority.  Just like catching up on TV shows did yesterday (just kiddingg!).

Hmmm…so some of my other goals for the year are to eat healthier, to read more books, to become a more involved student, and to stay on top of my work so that I'll have time to relax. I've realized that one of the reasons we (well, I know at least I do) often give up on our goals is because we hold ourselves to such a high standard, and then give up quickly when that doesn't happen.  It's a difficult habit to break! I'm trying not to expect myself to make a sudden change, but I will instead hope to gradually improve.  And maybe I'll post some healthy recipes or good books along the way! =D

And on that note, I have to read some Oceanic Creation Myths.  Enjoy this rainy Tuesday, and I'll be back soon!

G.

Late Intro

Well, forgot to do introductions until I saw the other posts. Silly me... 

My name is Cara Chow. I'm a freshmen at Hunter and I'm going pre-med like most of the others at Hunter. I'm thinking of majoring in Economics and minoring in Music but may change at any moment because I just decided on it. I love playing piano even though I play the same songs over and over. I love to play all sports as long as it gets me pumping but I especially like ice skating, volleyball, and handball. I also love to wander the city at anytime of the day, whether it's 3AM or 10PM.

So far, everything's going smoothly. Classes are a killer, but new friends make everything all good! Let's hope it only gets better :)

Hey everyone! I'm Jana, a freshman from Queens who's pre-med but is still really trying to figure out exactly what I want. Hmm, I'm not really sure what else to say about myself, except that I take pictures of almost everything (especially my food)! So yesterday, that is, Monday the 17th, I woke up at 9AM for a bike ride to Central Park. Getting there was easy, except maybe for the annoyed drivers here and there. I forgot how tough those uphills were, so after almost giving up and walking, I finished one loop and decided to head back to Brookdale. Once again, an easy ride back, but I almost got squished between a service car and an Access-A-Ride van but no biggie! 

An afternoon of lonely solace in my room was followed by an evening full of walking, engaging conversations, and culinary adventure-ing. My friend and I decided to walk to Hunter from Brookdale to drop off our Chemistry workshop sheets and our 40 something blocks of walking turned out to be another great bonding session. From there, we walked to 53rd and 6th where I finally tried the famous Halal Guys food truck!

Maybe my Halal radar isn't well tuned, but I didn't find this dish much different from the one I had near my old high school (Townsend Harris). Nonetheless, it was tasty and satisfying, and of course, too much for me to finish.

Now for my favorite part of the day, KUNG FU TEA! Half-sweetened kung fu bubble tea with red beans... I need no further explanation. Let's just say that I will be going down to 10th and 1st quite often for this cold treat. 

Until my next set of culinary photographs, farewell! 

hello, world...?

.............sooooo I was just going to start with "I had my first ever cancelled class last Thursday! WOO!", and then I saw this big onslaught of introductions. Guess I'm supposed to introduce myself, then :o

Hey y'all, I'm MJ :D I'm the one with the asymmetrical eyebrows in the middle (this was taken three weeks ago at orientation; they're not so asymmetrical now, hahaha). No, I'm not from the South, I just got to saying "y'all" thanks to my seventh grade Latin teacher and I've since never stopped... long story. I'm originally from the Philippines, and I moved to New York City when I was 8. I actually just read an opinion piece today about how people who weren't actually born in New York shouldn't call themselves New Yorkers... but pft, dude, I've been living here for ten years (ten on the 21st of September, to be exact), I think I deserve to call myself a New Yorker at this point! I think tourists are hilarious, but I get as annoyed as anyone else when the person in front of me isn't walking fast enough. This is New York, dangit, get with it!

Anyway, yeah. My morning class was cancelled on Thursday! Actually, my whole class was waiting in our classroom thinking our professor was being fashionably late, when someone bothered to check Blackboard and discovered that the professor had actually cancelled class because he wasn't feeling well. At least someone checked Blackboard early enough. Wonder what would have happened had we sat there the whole class... though I figure most people would have gotten up and left anyway after half an hour, haha. 

I went up to the 6th floor lounge-place-thing (seriously, what are they called? magnets, HOW DO THEY WORK) in the West building after that to do calc homework. And then an old friend of mine from high school said hi!!! I was legitimately starting to worry that I'd never see him again considering how many people tend to be in Hunter at one time. Except he doesn't have Facebook and I don't have his number so I don't know how I'm supposed to see him again after this... um D: what is efficient socialization??

(No, I'm really normally not this hyper/strange/weird. I've just been blogging for far too much of my life to ever take myself seriously and post like a normal person on the Internet. I like memes, okay.)

Hah, yikes, I have calc homework due in less than half an hour and I'm not done! There's my cue to leave. And maybe turn down the Gangnam Style in the background... 

Dress classy, dance cheesy.

aaaayyyyyy, sexy laydayyyy~ 

» emjay

New beginnings

What's up, MacBloggers? I suck at introductions, but here 'goes. I'm Josh-- a freshman and new blogger here at Macaulay Hunter. I'm from a pretty suburban area in New Jersey called West Orange, which is actually where Thomas Edison lived, but I have always been a PATH or NJ transit ride away from NYC. Living here in New York, though, is brand new to me, but I'm loving every second of it so far. I'm on the pre-med track (for now..), with plans of becoming a physical therapist or perhaps even a doctor if I can handle the impending workload. I'm really into sports like soccer, track, and volleyball, but I play almost anything. I also eat almost anything.

Anyway, it's been a full month since the other dormers and I have lived in Brookdale, so here's a toast to many more fun-filled, stress-saturated months. 

Ayo MacBloggers,

I'm Lauren! I've always been terrible at writing intros for myself and should have made a template by now (especially after all the intros we've done at Macaulay these past few weeks). I'm a freshman at Hunter, I live on the 10th floor in the dorms, and I'm studying to be a neurologist and medical journalist! We'll see how that goes... haha.

Onslaught of random facts time!
I've always enjoyed creative writing and I love to shop. It always takes me two times to cook something right and the first time it is absolutely inedible. My favorite color is pink, typical generic girl stuff. I'm fascinated with Biggie Smalls and I found a mixtape between him and Lana Del Rey so that can be heard outside my room a lot. When I wake up in the morning I immediately turn on my music to pump up for early morning Chemistry (WHOOO PRE-MED) and in my room I have this carpet that pretty much everyone that comes in trips over, but its too good to get rid of.

I'm from Staten Island and it has always been my dream to live in the city. It's a great time, living with your friends and getting a quality education! That's really it for now. Talk to you soon, MacBloggers!

:)Lauren

Hey everybody, I'm Indiana Kuffer one of the freshman at Hunter. I don't really have blog experience but that doesn't mean I'm excited to start! I'm planning on majoring in urban studies and studio art because of Hunter's lack of an architecture program, so that's...... hopefully going to go well. I bike to Hunter as often as possible, but we'll see where that goes in the winter. I'm also very. very. very. interested in parkour. I've done martial arts for a vast majority of my life and started doing parkour not so long ago. And last but definitely not least I recently made the Macaulay Marauders quidditch team! So expect to hear a lot about that! Our first tournament of the year is next Sunday the 23rd, swing by Baruch Field and watch us play!

Howdy, Macblog-readers!

Hello all!

I'm Amirah, a sophomore at MHC! I like the color green, I've been told I have a creepy giggle, and I generally enjoy eating figs and persimmons a lot. If I could, I would spend most of my time reading teen fiction (the high quality books, okay, not the vampire ones, though there *is* one vampire series I do like. But just one!) but, the readings associated with being a pre-Nursing major keep me from fulfilling this dream. This year I'd like to explore more of NYC since I live in the city for free, stop procrastinating, sleep earlier, and eat more Thai food. (Oh, and be a better student and stuff blah blah). Since this is an introduction post I don't feel entirely too obligated to talk about relevant things, like school or whatever, so I'm going to fill up this space with more random statements. I like to watch trailers (almost obsessively), and my biggest accomplishment thus far into the fall semester is that my notebooks match with my bedspread (it's a lovely teal/aqua color!! My curtains, garbage can, laptop and phone case also match...it might be going a bit too far, but last year I had the weirdest color scheme going on in my room and clearly, this summer I had nothing better to do than eagerly plot out the colors for my dorm room. Okay. I'm going to stop discussing this, because I sound weird. I just like to match! Who doesn't want a matching dorm room!)
 I like meeting new Macaulay people and desperately wish we had our own Macaulay campus! Macaulay people are all generally incredible cool to get to know, so it's a pity we can only really be tight with our campus-Macaulay people! Ah, one day there will be one campus! I hope! Right now I'm writing this because I'm avoiding my sociology paper. Alicia Keys is singing on my itunes (before that, Celine Dion!) and apparently she doesn't care about diamond rings and wanting it all like other people. I also was looking up the most watched videos on youtube before, (that charlie video, which I am extremely late on, is SO cute! And I'm kind of in shock that J.Biebs "Baby" video is the most watched. Really? It's catchy, tween girls think he's cute, even I like some of his songs, but he has some LAME dance moves. (And his video for "Boyfriend" is just painful to watch. Not that I have watched it a lot or have sung along to the chorus so much last spring that my close friends hate anything to do with that song now. Not at all. Also, yes, I did just use double parenthesis. I like parenthesis. And rambling, it appears.)) but alas, I must end this post and tackle some good ol' gender socialization.
Here's hoping whoever was lucky enough to read this high-quality literature of mine comes out feeling at least mildly amused!

-Amirah!

Hurro!

I have no idea why I didn't get in on this earlier!

Hi fellow Macaulay peoples, I'm Ann. Oftentimes, I'm referred to as "Mackley" when I do something silly or say something grammatically incorrect among my friends (yeah, i still do that hahaha). And this term was coined by Richard Lee, who graduated from Hunter Macaulay last Spring (thanks Rich!). Anyways, I'm a senior on the verge of applying to Graduate School and who is taking her GRE this Saturday! hahaha (nervous laugh...) I just completed a practice test and I am very delirious at the moment!

Any who... I'm not a blogger, and this will be my first attempt at doing so! Let's see how this goes~

Welcome freshmen, welcome back sophomores, juniors, and seniors! The Fall semester is upon us! LEGGO!

Ann

Natural History Museum, Beginnings, and the Sciences

Hello everyone!!!

Welcome back to college and for the freshmen, welcome to college!! =)
It's the third week of school and so far, the semester has been going well. The workload is not too heavy yet, and it's good to see all of my friends.
I'll give you all a brief recap of my summer:
- I took a summer class entitled German fairytales and I really enjoyed. I learned a lot about how fairytales first emerged and all of the different types of stories that have been told for hundreds of years. My professor, Anne-Katrin Titze, was also an incredibly interesting woman. She was interested in fashion, fairytales, and the environment. Just a very cool person and a very cool class.
- I also did some volunteering at a hospital, which was definitely an enriching experience. I learned a lot about people, in general, and about the medical field.
- In mid-August, I went to the Natural History museum with my mom. The last time I was there, I was really young, and it was cool to go back and see everything from a different perspective.

- Every semester is a chance to start over and be better. I'm excited to learn new things and just challenge myself on every level. College is about thinking in an analytical and deep way. In my second year, I'm further developing the skills to do that.
- It's also been great to see my friends. It's fun to get lunch with them and have all kinds of awesome conservations.
- This semester I'm taking organic chemistry with Dr. Phillips, who is supposed to be a great professor. So far, she has been great and I've learned a lot. It's definitely going to be a challenging class, but I think it'll be a rewarding experience.
- I declared biology as my major last semester, and this semester, I'm delving further into the wonderful world of biology with my cell biology class. Dr. Braziil is a fantastic professor. Very clear and concise. Microbes are pretty cool too. haha

I wish you all a fantastic semester!! =)

Quote of the week:

Life is not so much about beginnings and endings as it is about going on and on and on. It is about muddling through the middle.

~Anna Quindlen

S.

Food Baby

Food has never been so precious to me. Ever since I moved into the dorms, my meals have been the most extravagant and diverse food ever:

Breakfast-Nature Valley bar

Lunch-Nature Valley Bar

Dinner-Nature Valley Bar and ice cream

As you can see, my college life is already off to an excellent start. No more worries about the Freshmen 15.

Today,I have committed one of the deadliest sins. Never have I ever given in to such temptations as this

And for dessert...