Aaaaaand, we're back.

I meant to write this blog post at the end of last week, but I've only gotten around to it now. I had an uneventful winter break, consisting mostly of chilling at home with my computer and some TV. This was the first break I've had from school since last winter, and I took advantage of sleeping until noon every day and watching entire seasons of Scrubs in less than a week. Unfortunately, I was sick for nearly half of my break. My body has somehow programmed itself to avoid getting sick during school, so I usually end up sick on every break, especially during the winter. Definitely not fun.

I woke up this morning to a snowstorm. The first thing I do when it's snowing is check my email, in the hope that a snowdrift sealed my professor's front door shut and they couldn't make it to class. But yet it was in vain, as not one of my professors had the mercy to cancel class today *shakes fist at the sky*. So, I stomped my way to school, secretly praying all day that one of my professors would change their mind (hint: they didn't). Throughout the day I angrily looked out the window at the snow that swirled about, at one point falling in torrents, like rain. Days like today make me glad I own Bean Boots.

Getting back into the swing of this semester has been kind of rough for me. I'm at the point in my English major where I've taken all of my electives, so I'm now taking required classes. It should be the other way around. You're supposed to take the requirements first as both informants to the elective classes and as introductions to the various subjects you could focus on in your major. I have two problems with this approach to the major: 1) I've never really been one to follow prescribed routes, and 2) I already knew what type of literature I wanted to study. High school had exposed me to enough British literature to convince me I didn't want to read Beowulf and Shakespeare for the rest of my life (god forbid). I have a secret third problem with this method: if you are an undecided English major, taking a survey of early works (as all surveys are) will not give you insight into the full spectrum of literature in a given field. For example: Survey of American Literature from Origins to Civil War has got to be one of the dullest classes I've ever taken (despite my teacher's admirable excitement about the subject). I already knew I wanted to study modern American literature when I got to college, but if this class had been my first encounter with American literature, I would never have done so. While the survey courses are well-intentioned, they can be misleading. I found that by taking electives I thought looked interesting, I quickly discovered my focus. Of course, it always helps if you've done a bit of reading on your own beforehand (as you should if you want to be an English major). I found that English 220 was a huge help in figuring out what genres and authors were my cup of tea: Hemingway, postmodernism, and modern fiction. As always, don't be afraid to just experiment with classes and teachers.

Which brings me to my next point. I am an infamous class dropper. I have friends who will take a class with any professor, as long as it fits in their schedule. I am of the mindset that if I don't love a teacher, I will never love the class. They can make or break your experience and your performance. You can come to class well-prepared, interested, and attentive, and a bad teacher can ruin all of that. On the other hand, a good teacher can work wonders on a boring subject. But you have to find out what a good teacher is for you. I cannot recommend enough that you do your research about a professor. I am infamous for swapping classes a week into the semester, merely because I don't like the professor's teaching style. Don't get me wrong: it isn't about how knowledgable a professor is, it's all about if you're on the same wavelength. Different teaching styles work for different people and its super important that you figure out what works for you as soon as possible. There is really nothing better than being excited to go to class, merely because you and a teacher just vibe so well. This is a rare occurrence, but it is so valuable. Picking your professor-mentor can be sort of like finding a relationship. And when you find a professor you like, stick with it. Take another course with them. Ask them for advice, recommendations. Get to know them. Make an ally in your major, someone you feel comfortable being yourself around. There are so many niches in academia, it's nice to find a friend who will help you shape your voice and find your calling.

I think part of the reason this semester has been rough thus far is that I don't really love any of my classes. Most of the classes are requirements for my major or GERs that I felt I had to get over with. I've sort of come to terms with the fact that I won't always be taking classes I love or things I'm 100% interested in. My boyfriend has convinced me (amid my groaning about Puritan works of literature) that I should try to find something to enjoy in every class, no matter how much I dislike it or how boring I find it. And this is some advice I'll pass on to you. College isn't always going to be what you want it to be. There are requirements, and boring intro classes, and surveys of things you couldn't care less about but have to know to be a Formidable Human Being in the World. Don't let it get you down. Make the best of it. Mediate it with classes you enjoy. Reward yourself for reading another passage by a man named Wigglesworth who you're supposed to take seriously (despite his name). Just get what you can out of it and move on.

OK, another rant complete. I'll try to be a little less lecture-y next time.

Erica

An Intro (Unfortunately)

Hey, everyone. My name is Sam, I'm a freshman, and this is my introduction to the Macaulay blogging community. Before I get into what I actually want to talk about, I'll just say that I want to major in English, but I'm thinking about tacking pre-med onto that and doing a 5th year.

Okay. I don't mean to start this off so negatively, but I have to say it: I hate New York City snow. I hate it so much. It's ugly, inconvenient, and miserable. Maybe I'd think differently if I lived closer to a subway station, but living at Brookdale makes snow the bane of my existence. I dread the 15-20 minute walk to and from the subway every day, but when adding three inches of slush and snow blasting your face from every possible angle, I can say with complete honesty I've considered hailing a cab for the few short avenues.

It's a real shame, actually, because I truly love snow. I'm from Long Island, and out there the snow is gorgeous. It can be a minor hassle at times, but the positives outweigh the negatives when I take closed schools, the scenery, and comfort of adjustable heating into account. Hunter, of course, is not closed in this storm. What more could I expect, though? The city barely acknowledges snow, as far as I can tell.

I don't mean to give off a whiny first impression, but this is the first relevant topic that I had a lot to talk about, so I figured I might as well go for it. I'll be writing more soon, but for now, this is the Sam that you can see.

Things I'm Loving: January

Hello there, it's been a while hasn't it? Well, I decided to take a little break from blogging during the winter break after I finished Picmas because I was taking a winter course. But I'm back! Since it's the beginning of February, and it's been a while since I last posted, I thought I'd do a little round up of my current favourites. Things that I'm enjoying doing, things that I'm enjoying using, etc. Basically just things I've been loving recently.

So, first up in the way of life things is this website called HabitRPG. Basically, it's like a super cool way of creating to-do lists. There's a section for habits, dailies, one time to-dos, and rewards. You enter everything in yourself and basically you win coins for any of the dailies or to-dos you complete, but lose health for things that you don't complete or bad habits that you do. The coins that you win go towards the rewards that you purchase. It's totally self-regulation, but gives you a little incentive to actually do the things. Also, you have this totally cute little avatar, which you can purchase more cool things for with your coins. This isn't something that is going to work for everyone, obviously, and I've only just recently started using it, but so far I'm liking it. If it turns out that I can't keep it up, or it's just not really helping me, then that's fine, but it's nice to even just have a place to list out what I need to do. And you can make the tasks as small as possible, that way for every little thing that you accomplish you still get coins. Like I put in wash dishes as well as put dishes away, so I get coins for both tasks. And in my habits, I've got use the stairs because I know that's not something I'm going to do daily perhaps (since I do live on the 9th floor) but when I go to school and I'm just going between classes, I do actually tend to use the stairs... And I'm counting when the escalators are broken.

Next is a beauty/skin sort of thing, but it's more in the general category. It's a lip balm from Lush, which I bought last month and am loving. It's called Honey Trap, and it's in a little pot so you do have to use your fingers, which I'm not a huge fan of, but I'll brave it. It seems to be working really really well, which is great because who wants chapped lips? It says "for vanilla honey kisses" and I think that's an accurate way to describe the taste/smell. It's really nice, not overpowering at all, and smoothes in really well. Lush is amazing! I can't use a lot of the stuff because of my skin, but I've been buying things for people as presents and they make good gifts. Obviously in the dorms the bath bombs aren't very helpful, but they make shampoo and conditioner bars that you could totally use here. They've got a decently new store located at 1293 Broadway, and another one located on 14th Street, if you want to go check out their products. I've been going to the one on Broadway, and it's small and the people are nice and helpful.

As far as clothes go, I've been really loving this Union Jack beanie that my parents got me for Christmas. For those of you who don't know, the Union Jack is the British flag. It's got a little pom pom on top, and it's been really helpful for these cold past few weeks. In addition, I got a belated Christmas present, which I asked for from my aunt when I visited England at Thanksgiving, of a really warm and soft hooded dressing gown or bathrobe. It's got little bear ears on it, and it's super cute and I really love it. I've been wearing it all around the dorms, because it's been so cold, but also just cause it's really adorable and I like being a bear...

And just, one last thing I thought I'd share is that I've been getting back into cooking lately. Last semester I kind of got into a bit of a funk as far as cooking goes. I don't know, I just didn't have a lot of motivation to cook for myself and was eating out or getting delivery a lot. That really hurt my bank account, but also when I order food I have a tendency to eat less healthily. I am still sticking strong with my no-McDonald's since getting back from Asia, but I definitely wasn't eating as much veggies as I should have been. But, I went grocery shopping with my friend and bought a whole bunch of stuff, and have been cooking a lot the past couple of weeks. I've been documenting my most interesting meals on instagram, so if you're interested I'd love to direct you over there.

I also thought that I'd include a little New Year's/New Semester resolutions bit, just so that I have it written down and I can hold myself to it. But essentially, I want to start exercising a bit (even if it's really a little amount, which it probably will be) and I want to start eating more healthily, which I have been. And I really really want to start reading some more and so on my HabitRPG I've actually got 10 minutes of reading as a daily task. I will increase that as I go on, but I thought that with the semester starting, that 10 minutes was a good sort of jump off point since I haven't done much for-pleasure reading since the summer. And of course, I want to keep up on here and I've got a bunch of ideas for posts that I want to write as well as a bunch of sequel posts that were meant to go up last semester, but didn't. So, yeah, I really want to finish as many of those as possible and just keep writing. The thing I love about having a blog being an option for "community service" hours, is that I love writing and this is a way that I have to always be writing. Even if it's just about the boring stuff in my life.