NUDIE RUNS!!!
This week Whitley was divided over the issue of streakers. On Wednesday night at 2am there were two derelicts who ran naked around the corridors screaming "CELLULITE CELLULITE!" This woke many people up (including yours truly), and as you can imagine, there was an uproar the next day on our web forum. Jacko was so upset that he and Boosh went outside to wrestle (imagine a very skinny 5'9 or so guy tackling a more solid 6'3 guy). I must say it was very amusing, especially since Jacko was so angry that he managed to almost lift Boosh off the ground by one leg. A bunch of us stayed up rather late discussing the whole thing. The thought that kept crossing my mind was, "YAY for once I'm not considered weird or crazy for thinking that nudity and loudness at rediculously late hours (or at any hour, really) is inappropriate and should be punished!" I think it amazed me that there are other kids my age that think like me. Can we transport them all to Williams please? That place needs an injection of morality and decency.
Yesterday I got my social work paper started. I read a book called
Tell Me I'm Here by Anne Deveson. It's the story of her son's battle with schizophrenia, which ultimately ended in his suicide. It's the most frustrating book I've ever read. She describes how she'd go from police to hospital to social workers and back through the cycle over and over again, trying to get someone to help her son, but no one wanted to deal with it. They all told her to call someone else, or that he'd have to be in a psychotic episode to be admitted (which he would pull himself together enough to not appear psychotic in front of authorities), and whenever the police would finally arrive several hours after she called, Jonathan would have already wandered off into the night. It's a very good book, and I highly recommend reading it. Anyway, I think I'm going to focus my paper on the inefficiency of the mental health system, and how her story is too common when dealing with schizophrenic relatives. I'll be working on it today before going to the aquarium and then afterwards, and hopefully I'll get a good portion of it done by the time I go to bed tonight. I'm excited to go to the aquarium! I've been wanting to go since before I got here. Anyway, it's lunchtime now so I'm off!
On the Art of Bruise-Making (And Other Random News)
As anyone who has lived with me can tell you, I am an expert at bruising myself. Usually it's my bum or hips that seem to protrude a bit too far and bump nice sharp corners of various furniture, occasionally my legs or arms begin to feel left out until they meet the edge of a desk or table. Earlier this semester my forehead wanted in on the action, and promptly met its doom on Steve's doorframe. This week though, has been a record of clumsiness.
Monday morning Mel and I were walking down the stairs at 8:30--the first day we managed to get ready in time to get to class promptly. It was a beautiful morning, and it went without a hitch. That is, until the last half-flight of concrete steps. Can't have a Monday morning without some sort of mishap. My left flip flop went just an inch too far on the concrete, and slid down the rest of the four stairs. This caused my right leg to bend at the knee underneath me, and my bum slid down those stairs on top of my shin and ankle. Luckily I was holding on to the railing, because it eventually stopped my slide. I sat there on the step thinking to myself, "OH MY GOODNESS THAT HURT LIKE NOTHING ELSE" and managed to squeak out "ouch!" as my eyes filled with tears. However, I showed my true dedication to my social work class when, three minutes later, I limped to catch the tram. It ran away from us though, and we were forced to wait for the next one. We did end up getting to class a whole minute early, which was good. What's not good is the swollen ankle I had all day, and the bruise that covers half my shin and my ankle. I quickly decided that being careful on the stairs would be in order for the future.
Apparently that didn't last long. This morning I was coming back from breakfast, holding my lunch in a brown paper bag, and thinking how wonderful it was that I was a whole thirty minutes early. I got all the way up to the first (American second) floor....and tripped up the stairs. My bag's bottom tore out, and the sandwich, apple juice, and chocolate bar went everywhere. My pears went through the cracks and managed to find their way into the garden in the middle of the donut, so I just picked up the sandwich, juice, and chocolate and huffed up the remaining stairs with a scraped hand and bruised ego.
Note to self: the common factor in both incidents was being early. (I suppose that another common factor would be my propensity for being a clutz, but we'll ignore that one). Tomorrow I won't have that issue, because I have nowhere to be early for: Wednesdays are a glorious day off from class.
In other news, Fiji is really happening!! I officially changed my airfare, and booked the hostel and cruise. The only thing that changed a bit is the timing: I leave Melbourne November 28th at midnight, so I get to Fiji rediculously early in the morning on the 29th, and then I leave there on the 3rd, and get home at 5AM on the 4th. I'm really excited about it.
I've been searching for summer jobs recently. (Can you tell that it's the end of school?) So far I have two decent options: Camp Wediko or Cross-Cultural Solutions. Camp Wediko is a summer camp in New Hampshire for children with mental disorders and behavioral problems. I've been told that it would look excellent on a resume, and gives valuable hands-on experience with populations I want to work with eventually (once I'm old and grey and finally have all the necessary degrees!). The only downside (other than it being in NH) is that it doesn't pay much: they offer "compensation" (whatever that means) and a $1250 scholarship to be used within seven years. I have a feeling that since they give the scholarship, their "compensation" isn't much to brag about. The other option, Cross-Cultural Solutions, is an internship/volunteer program that's basically all over the world, doing many different things. I would most likely either go to Costa Rica or Peru, and work for three weeks caring for infants and children that are at-risk. The downside to this one is that not only would I not get paid, I'd have to pay $3000 to go! And that's not including airfare. I don't know what I would do with the rest of my summer if I did that, but I don't really want to work at the bookstore again. I have registered with Sittercity.com as a baby/pet/house sitter, so I'll give that a trial-run in December and January when I'm home and see how much I make and decide whether I can do that in the summer along with the South America internship. Both things would look good on a resume, but the camp would be more suited in the long-run. Any thoughts?
I'm turning into Mom again. I have a huge corkboard on the wall next to my desk--it's about four feet high and three feet wide. It's covered in papelitos. Even if I took off the Bible verses and pictures I've got on it, it's still covered, and they've encroached onto the frame around it too. I've got little foot-shaped papelitos with Arbonne orders, doctor's appointments that need to be made (ugh more shots again-- I've had more shots this year (5!) than ever!), summer opportunities, gift lists so I don't forget and buy 10 things for one person and nothing for others, one with Aunt Lily's sister's information on it...and then I've got the only two pieces of mail I've received while I've been here up there (a graduation announcement from Robyn and a card from Carynne), two phone cards, maps, grade conversion tables, a form I was supposed to mail back to Williams after I registered for classes (oops), emergency contact information....
At least my desk is clean!
Figaro Figaro Figaro!!!
On Friday, Mel and I went downtown to do some "retail therapy," but unfortunately the shops there just didn't want my money for some reason. We went into Myer's (a big department store kind of like Bloomingdale's) and I tried on some Lacoste stuff since they were 25% off, and the original prices were better here than in the States, but nothing looked fabulous so I decided it wasn't worth spending money for something blah. We poked into various other stores, mainly in search of a jean skirt, 3/4 pants, tank tops, and ::gasp:: some decent summer pajamas for me. Alas, everything cute, comfy, and made entirely of cotton was in hiding, because I came home empty-handed and thick-walleted. Mel found some cute things, though. At 6:25 we rushed to catch a tram home, after realizing that it was Friday and therefore dinner closed at 6:45. Of course, we got there at 6:50, and ran straight into the kitchen just as they were handing out seconds. It was fish and chips, but the chips had run out long ago, and the fish was battered instead of crumbed, and therefore filled with artery-clogging oil. There was a joyous amount of salad there though, so I grabbed a huge plateful and ran upstairs to get my oil and vinegar, and ate a lovely salad for dinner. After dinner there was the WARTS meeting, where we saw the Guys and Dolls DVD for the first time. It was pretty good! There were a few glitches in the acting/singing and with the videographer, but overall it wasn't too bad. You could actually hear the violin in some parts, and considering this was the night that the string popped and I was rescued by a very kind soul who hesitantly let me borrow her very expensive violin which I had not previously played on and took quite a bit of getting used to, I liked the sound of it. Wow that was a complex sentence. Anyway, I'm going to download the DVD from the network, so you can watch it when I get home. After the video, Jen and I came up to my room to hang out and chat, and we ended up being joined by Chloe and Caz. We were originally waiting for a big group of people to hang out in someone's room, but it ended up getting kind of late so around 11 or so we decided to go to bed.
Yesterday (Saturday), I went down to breakfast as usual at 8. I like going in my pajamas as soon as it opens because no one's usually there, so I can sit and eat my cereal and toast in peace and read the paper and not be bothered by anyone's incessant idle chatter. And be the grump you all know I am in the morning. Yesterday morning promised to be one of those days, because I was the only one in the dining hall for a while, and then I was joined by Talita, who is very much like me in the morning, so we just sat at the same table with our own papers and enjoyed the silence. As soon as I was finishing, Kate came in and sat across from me, which was good since I hadn't spoken to her in a long time. (No worries--I was kind enough to fold the paper back up and be social.) Jen joined us shortly, and the three of us decided on a spontaneous morning shopping trip (which was much more successful for me--I got a turquoise tanktop for $6 and really cute, comfy hot pink sandals for $10). Jen had been looking for things to do for that night, and she found that the opera Barber of Seville was playing. The three of us decided it would be a wonderful idea to get all dressed up and go see an opera, so Kate dragged Steve along, and Liz and Jacko came along too. The opera was so funny! It was in English, which was good, and they inserted a few little modern-day jokes here and there (such as poking fun at Rossini's operas and a very hilarious reference to Lord of the Rings-- "my precious!"). It was a really good night, and I think it was good to hang out with people that I don't normally hang out with much.
Unfortunately, all this fun all weekend means that I've gotten no work done yet. This morning I went to church, and now it's after brunch, so I'm going to get started on my social work readings and paper. At four Lara and I are going to visit our "mutual boyfriend", Max Brenner. We really just love him for his chocolate. (In case you are unfamiliar with the yummy goodness that is Max Brenner, it's a chocolate bar here in Melbourne. There's one in NYC too, which I most definitely plan on visiting at some point when I'm home). They make the most excellent waffles with strawberries, melted drizzled chocolate, and vanilla ice cream. Oh, my mouth is watering just thinking of it. After Max it'll soon be time for dinner, which means Meerkat Manor (Mel's and my new favorite thing to watch on Sunday night), and then around 8 Lara'll be coming to join us for a movie/pajama party complete with face masks and toe-nail painting. Yup, exams are right around the corner. Maybe next weekend I'll do the whole Lord of the Rings 12 hour marathon. You know how I just love doing my work!
