The first week of classes has been a breeze--so much smoother than last semester, in which I spent four weeks trying to get into my Intro to Computer Science class. It's a popular course, and a small liberal arts college just doesn't have the resources for the amount of interest this growing field garners. Thankfully, this semester I've gotten into all the classes I was lotteried for, so I'll be taking Intro to Data Structures, Discrete Math, Intro to Semantics, and Phonetics/Phonology. I'm so excited to be completely focused on my double major with these two computer science classes and two linguistics classes. Although I must say, I've been assigned a surprising amount of reading...
On MLK Day, Grace, Georgina, Victoria, and I got Independence Passes (day passes) and made our way through Chinatown (of course), Reading Terminal Market, Wynnewood, and Ardmore (Trader Joe's, Urban Outfitters, Paper Source). It was so great to be back with the girls after being apart for all of winter break, and we really made use of our Independence Passes hopping between all those towns! Usually we just go to Chinatown and back. A trip to Chinatown always includes Kungfu Tea and KC's Pastries. This time I had the foresight to buy breakfast for the rest of the working week (three custard buns and one pineapple bun). Asian bakeries always make me feel right at home!
I've been using my green Gatorade water bottle that all college athletes get. Its squeezability and dimensions are handy. I brought it with me over winter break but saw that the cap was starting to mold, so I threw out my beloved bottle and survived the rest of winter break reusing plastic water bottles. Now that I'm back on campus, I'm reunited with my college Nalgene. Nalgenes and Champion mesh shorts branded with your college name are college essentials.
Brecon (my dorm) got its own water bottle filler/dispenser!!! Usually I go all the way down to the gym to fill my bottle or I fill it up while I'm at the dining halls, which means I need to pace my drinking and plan how long I need to make my water last. But now I can fill it from right down the hall, and I never need to worry about drinking too much water overnight again! Also, I just love these water bottle filler/dispensers. They're so great.
I see many familiar faces in my current classes from Intro to Computer Science, which I took last semester, and surprisingly, also from Intro to Linguistics, which I took two semesters ago. One of the few things I miss from high school is actually being able to recognize people in my classes, and maybe even be friends with them too. In college, everyone is taking so many different classes and there are so many people in each class; it's hard to keep track of it all. It's possible to take a class for a whole semester and recognize only maybe one person (me in my Intro to International Politics class last semester ugh). So recognizing people in my classes this semester is a big deal for me. I even finally befriended someone that I had been wanting to befriend last semester but never really properly interacted with until now. So yay! Hopefully this semester will give us a chance at friendship.
Out of my four classes, I only need to buy one textbook, and maybe not even! I'm planning to checkout that last textbook from the library, but I don't know how sustainable that will be, because as soon as anyone else requests the book, *poof* it'll be gone from me. I mean, I could always request it back. If it means saving money on textbooks, it's a war I'm willing to wage. I've managed to acquire free copies of the other three textbooks I need. It's ridiculous how much college students need to spend on textbooks. As if tuition weren't enough...
I am not a fan of doing laundry. I usually only get around to doing it when I'm down to my last pair of underwear. When I was finally forced to do it this week, I discovered that doing laundry on cold days actually feels so good. Taking my fresh, toasty clothes out of the dryer, I just wanted to wear them all, all at once. Of course, I didn't do that because I need to make my clean batch of clothes last as long as possible so that I can delay my next laundry run, but I do have an idea: lay out my clothes for the next day on the radiator, so that they're warm and toasty when I pull them on the next morning.
I got super pumped about Winter Storm Jonas. We were getting emails about unplugging our computers and printers in case there were power surges, about leaving our fridges closed in case there was power loss so that our food would keep, about cancelled transportation, etc. I hoarded a bunch of food from the dining halls so that I wouldn't have to leave my room all weekend. On Friday night, Bomi, Delaney, and I headed back to the dorm early and played a game of poker, which I dominated. Delaney had to run outside and stand in the snow for 20 seconds, which I planned to video record on my phone, but I'm inadequate and forgot to hit the record button but managed to get a bad blurry photo that screams #candid. Thank you to the people who were out salting and shoveling snow past midnight, keeping the campus safe.
I want to make an effort to remember the little joys in life, so my 52 week challenge for 2016 is to write weekly Happy Lists.
