Hello from foot rash Friday (don’t worry, it’s healing. I just wish I had thought of that for my last post, lol) and May the fourth be with you! (I love being a nerd).
A few days later than promised I finally got news on my Partners in Caring: Kenya Study Abroad application. Unfortunately I’m on the waiting list, so it’s not very likely I’ll get to go. I’m still hopeful though, mostly just because I really want to go.
Classes are over, so just two finals and a 10 page paper and then I’m done with sophomore year. And speaking of academic stresses, Wednesday was…well…it was something. Amy and I’s Ecology lab group met up to finally put our paper on chickadee behavior together. You know at the beginning of the year, being told you’re going to be doing original research on an ecological issue that has the potential to be publish-worthy sounds pretty awesome. However, spending 12 hours in the library basement is not what is on the forefront of your mind. But it is ultimately what you end up doing. Basically from 12pm to midnight, 11 people wrote 35 pages of material. And if you do the math and think, “oh, a little more than 3 pages per person doesn’t sound too bad,” let me just stop you and give you a very malicious evil eye. Trust me, it’s more work than it sounds. Does 12 HOURS not sound like enough proof? (*coughI’mlookingatyouSaracough*) Anyway, it was stressful. At least Amy and I had one of the easier sections to deal with. Crunching data on tree canopy density and overall environment descriptions doesn’t really have the same pressure as formulating all the hypotheses, but it wasn’t a cake walk either. A few people went loopy near the end, I heard far more curse words used as adjectives in a one-hour time span -aka the last hour before the library closed and kicked us out- than I ever care to hear again (which did lead to a hilarious discussion on whether we should title the paper with this same colorful language), and the TA that was helping revise the paper kinda tore the first draft to shreds (figuratively speaking of course). But we’re done. Finally done. No more chickadees for me. And the whole experience wasn’t a complete nightmare. We ordered pizza and somewhat bonded over shared anxiety. Plenty of jokes were made and there was a fair amount of laughter, though at least a small portion of that was due more to slowly falling into insanity than anything else. And I now have Google Earth on my computer since I needed to plot GPS coordinates to construct a study site map. That’s kinda cool. And I’m actually glad I had the experience of doing this. I feel I’ve somehow gained something from it. Anyway, hopefully this is the last time I’ll talk about Carolina Chickadees.
I can now move on to far more pleasant aspects of the week. Fencing was pretty awesome. We had a one-touch epee tournament on Tuesday. I got fourth out of 6 which isn’t too bad considering. At least I beat Jake and Sara :P And on Thursday Stephen had us fencing with our non-dominant hand (Sorry you missed it Anna Beth, I was thinking of Princess Bride and you the whole time). We fenced 4 point bouts as follows: 1st point with both fencing left-handed, 2nd point with both fencing right-handed, and the last 2 points fencers alternated left and right hand. And oy, fencing left-handed is awkward. I felt like I couldn’t even stand or move correctly, let alone stab or parry. But I had a really good time, and I’m going to miss fencing over the summer. Thursday was the last practice of the semester, but the club’s gonna have a movie night next Tuesday as a last hoorah.
I also got really bored one day so I set up a Pottermore account. I am a proud Gryffindor with a 10 3/4 inch Apple wand with a Phoenix Feather core. Did I mention I enjoy being a nerd?
I feel like that’s really all I have to talk about this week. I can’t wait for you to get back into town, Anna Beth! Former and Future Roomies, Unite! Haha.
Love,
Jill
P.S.
In honor of May 4th, here’s some Star Wars goodness.
-Hilarious Stormtroopers skit-
-Star Wars Video Tag Game-
-Music Video-
-A Capella-
-Star Wars According to a 3-year-old-
-Star Wars Kinect's Intergalactic DANCE OFF news-
-How The Empire Strikes Back Should Have Ended-
A few days later than promised I finally got news on my Partners in Caring: Kenya Study Abroad application. Unfortunately I’m on the waiting list, so it’s not very likely I’ll get to go. I’m still hopeful though, mostly just because I really want to go.
Classes are over, so just two finals and a 10 page paper and then I’m done with sophomore year. And speaking of academic stresses, Wednesday was…well…it was something. Amy and I’s Ecology lab group met up to finally put our paper on chickadee behavior together. You know at the beginning of the year, being told you’re going to be doing original research on an ecological issue that has the potential to be publish-worthy sounds pretty awesome. However, spending 12 hours in the library basement is not what is on the forefront of your mind. But it is ultimately what you end up doing. Basically from 12pm to midnight, 11 people wrote 35 pages of material. And if you do the math and think, “oh, a little more than 3 pages per person doesn’t sound too bad,” let me just stop you and give you a very malicious evil eye. Trust me, it’s more work than it sounds. Does 12 HOURS not sound like enough proof? (*coughI’mlookingatyouSaracough*) Anyway, it was stressful. At least Amy and I had one of the easier sections to deal with. Crunching data on tree canopy density and overall environment descriptions doesn’t really have the same pressure as formulating all the hypotheses, but it wasn’t a cake walk either. A few people went loopy near the end, I heard far more curse words used as adjectives in a one-hour time span -aka the last hour before the library closed and kicked us out- than I ever care to hear again (which did lead to a hilarious discussion on whether we should title the paper with this same colorful language), and the TA that was helping revise the paper kinda tore the first draft to shreds (figuratively speaking of course). But we’re done. Finally done. No more chickadees for me. And the whole experience wasn’t a complete nightmare. We ordered pizza and somewhat bonded over shared anxiety. Plenty of jokes were made and there was a fair amount of laughter, though at least a small portion of that was due more to slowly falling into insanity than anything else. And I now have Google Earth on my computer since I needed to plot GPS coordinates to construct a study site map. That’s kinda cool. And I’m actually glad I had the experience of doing this. I feel I’ve somehow gained something from it. Anyway, hopefully this is the last time I’ll talk about Carolina Chickadees.
I can now move on to far more pleasant aspects of the week. Fencing was pretty awesome. We had a one-touch epee tournament on Tuesday. I got fourth out of 6 which isn’t too bad considering. At least I beat Jake and Sara :P And on Thursday Stephen had us fencing with our non-dominant hand (Sorry you missed it Anna Beth, I was thinking of Princess Bride and you the whole time). We fenced 4 point bouts as follows: 1st point with both fencing left-handed, 2nd point with both fencing right-handed, and the last 2 points fencers alternated left and right hand. And oy, fencing left-handed is awkward. I felt like I couldn’t even stand or move correctly, let alone stab or parry. But I had a really good time, and I’m going to miss fencing over the summer. Thursday was the last practice of the semester, but the club’s gonna have a movie night next Tuesday as a last hoorah.
I also got really bored one day so I set up a Pottermore account. I am a proud Gryffindor with a 10 3/4 inch Apple wand with a Phoenix Feather core. Did I mention I enjoy being a nerd?
I feel like that’s really all I have to talk about this week. I can’t wait for you to get back into town, Anna Beth! Former and Future Roomies, Unite! Haha.
Love,
Jill
P.S.
In honor of May 4th, here’s some Star Wars goodness.
-Hilarious Stormtroopers skit-
-Star Wars Video Tag Game-
-Music Video-
-A Capella-
-Star Wars According to a 3-year-old-
-Star Wars Kinect's Intergalactic DANCE OFF news-
-How The Empire Strikes Back Should Have Ended-
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