Friday October 16, 2015 {The Martian}

I've been pretty bad at posting regularly since school started, so I'm going to try to get back into writing journal posts as much as possible. Because there so many gaps of time where I haven't posted, there will probably be some context missing for what I'm up to. I'll try to add what I feel are apprpriate explainations when possible, but sometimes I'll just let it slide.

1. Mom wasn't carpooling this morning, so we didn't have to leave as early as usual. I got up and ready, and then she dropped me off at the bus. I rode in to school, and arrived at about 8:15.

2. Math was fine. We're in a unit on functions that is honestly kind of boring. It also includes a lot of graphing (or at least, it soon will), which I'm not fond of. On the whole though, I'm actually kind of like this math class. I like my teacher a lot, at least.

3. I hung out in Syre for a while with Lydia while eating some breakfast, then headed to Philosophy.

4. In Philosophy, we watched a ted talk by Helen Fisher called "The Brain in Love," which led to some interesting discussion. I can't decide how I feel about this class. I both enjoy how informal and just generally strange it is, but those same things can be a bit infuriating at times.

5. Immediately after that class was over, I had German. That class is super strange in that people regularly sit in different places. Probably half the class (including me) always sit in the same spot, but the other people are all over the place. The spot next to me is oddly in demand. I've had a number of different people sit there. There is one guy who sits there most of the time, and who I usually pair up with for partner exercises, but if he gets there late, someone else always takes that spot.

6. I hung out for a while on campus after class, and while I was sitting in Syre, Ben, my German instructor, walked by and started quizzing me, and wouldn't leave until I had properly told him that yes, the sun was shining, and yes, the sky was blue.

7. I took the bus back to Barkley, where Gloria picked me up and brought me home.

8. We had dinner (and a guy was there fixing my bedroom wall), and when all that was done, we went to watch The Martian.

9. I've read the book, and I think the movie was as good as the book. I wouldn't say it was better for all sorts of reasons that I'll write a blog post about if I have time, but it was pretty great.

10. Read Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs, then went to bed.

Tuesday 9/22 and Wednesday 9/23 {Beginning of School!!}

It happened! School started! I wasn't really looking forward to it at first (for totally legit reasons), but I've actually really enjoyed it so far. Some friends of mine just started this year, so expect to see some new people in here often. :P My general policy is to use initials for those under 18, and names for those over, unless they've asked me to do otherwise. I'm using 1st and last initials for most people, except for C, who I've been calling that long enough that it would be confusing to switch now.

Tuesday!

1. I got up at 6am (ugh), took a shower, and got dressed and ready. I grabbed a granola bar to eat later (I get nausous when I try to eat that early in the morning.), and caught the bus to WCC. I was there early, so I got some tea from the Kulshan coffee cart, and then waited until I could go to my math class.

2. Math went well. It was mostly just the syllabus day. Almost the entire 50 minutes was spent talking about the schedule, grading, books, etc.

3. I had an hour off, during which I met up with JC (it was his first day at WCC), and helped him find his classroom. I then hung out for a while before heading to philisophy.

4. My Intro to Religions class was also good. I think our teacher is sorta crazy, but I like him. He seems tough, but I think overall it'll be an easy class. The grade is based off of take-home reading quizes and a few (3 or 4?) essays, two of which are more like outlines.

5. I headed to meet up with people in Syre. We hung out in the Interculteral Center for a while before moving to a bench down the hall where C and I spent a ton of time last spring. JC and HW were there, plus C and I.

6. JC and C both headed to classes, then HW and I wandered around for a while. We checked out the new gym (which is super fancy), and then I took the bus to Barkely.

7. My mom picked me up and took me to an appointment I had. After that, we headed for my dad's, where we had steak for dinner.

8. I came home, watched Lost, took a shower, read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed, totally exhausted.

Wednesday!

1. Got up a little later (showering at night gives me that ability), around 6:20, then got ready and took the bus to school. I got to school even earlier (I took the 7:20 bus today, while I took the 7:35 yesterday), and sat around tiredly for a while.

2. Went to Math class. After that, I ran into Ken at the bookstore while I was buying pens. I then got tea at the cafeteria, and hung out with Lydia for an hour before Philosophy.

3. Philosphy consisted of watching a movie about this guy named Thomas Berry who believed that the age of humans is ending, and the age of ecological reconstruction must neccessarily begin, and that this is in part because of the Judeo-Christian tradition. It's complicated. You can google him if you want to actually know more about it.

4. Directly after that I had my first German class. It was a little weird, since I've never taken a foreign language class before, but it was fun. I think I'll like that class.

5. After class, I met up with C and JC and talked for a while til C had to go to class. I hung out with JC for a while and downloaded Hearthstone (which took 35 minutes to download on the school wifi).

6. JC left for parkday, and I read my philosphy textbook for a while til C's math class ended. At that point, I briefly saw him (I yelled at him down the hallway) and then Jake, who I've known since last year, and who is also in C's math class, came over to where I was sitting and hung out with me for a few hours. We chatted about our parent's divorces, dating, friends, our futures, etc. Normal stuff.

7. At four, I went to a WWU personal statement writing workshop. It was aimed mostly at transfer students, so a lot of it wasn't applicable to me, but there was some useful stuff.

8. Mom and Isabelle picked me up and we went home and ate tacos. I took a shower and did some math reading, then watched Lost, read The Time Traveler's Wife, and went to bed.

At the time of writing, not all of those things have happened yet, but it seems unlikely that they will not. If things changed, you will be duly notified. :P

Wednesday May 20, 2015 {Geology Midterm}

1. Got up at 6am, got ready to go, and took the bus to school.

2. From 8am to 10am, we had an exam in Geology. Half of it was an 80 question multiple choice test based on lecture material, and the other half was a lab test, in which we had to identify 10 rocks. The two combined are worth 190 points out of the 540 possible this entire quarter! This exam is worth twice as much as the final.

3. Once that was done, C. and I hung out for a while. L. joined us for a bit, and we discussed the nature of our lives.

4. C. had to leave to make some changes to his fall schedule, and L. and I hung out for a little while, then walked to class.

5. In English, we did peer review work on the drafts of the background sections of our research papers that we had just turned in.

6. After English, I went to find C. at our usual spot, but through some bad luck we managed to again miss each other.

7. I went to the Co-op to eat lunch, and then my dad and Isabelle met me there and we drove to park day.

8. Park day was beautiful! The weather is so awesome right now. I lay in the sun for a while waiting for people to get there. When C. got there, we talked for a while and then started walking in laps around the park. We estimate we probably walked multiple miles over the afternoon.

9. We came home, ate dinner, and then I wrote the post for yesterday and started in on this one. I wrote this post for my other blog, and then did some math.

10. Watched Doctor Who, read Jane Eyre, and went to bed. I actually feel asleep around 10:30, which is the earliest that's happened in ages. I was really tired.

Tuesday, May 12, 2015 {My 17th Birthday}

1. I got up, and got ready, then ate a cinnamon role and some strawberries.

2. My morning was largely uneventful. I did some homework, read a little, did boring stuff.

3. I ate some lunch, did a little more school work, and really, that was basically all I did until about 3pm.

4. I also read all the Facebook messages I got from people. Thank you so much everybody, you are all so awesome! :)

5. At about 3, Julie picked us up and we went to her house where Isabelle did Julie's physics class, and I worked with some clay for a project I'm working on.

6. After that, Mom came to pick us up, and Connie surprised me by bringing cupcakes, and there was a mini impromptu celebration, which was fun.

7. We left Julie's and went to Busara (an awesome Thai restaurant in town) for dinner, skipping ballet. We came home, I opened some presents, and then we had cake from Pure Bliss, a bakery in town.

8. We watched Doctor Who, and then Mom and I spent an hour talking about what classes I should register for Fall quarter (because I need to register tomorrow morning).

9. Wrote this, read Jane Eyre, and went to bed.