On a less literary note, college seems to be a great experience. I am learning a lot. Not just the Law of Uniformitarianism or abstract theories on art but also about people. I have met many different layered people. The girls on my hallway seem approachable. I do not have a definitive posse yet. But do I even want one? It seems strange because in high school I always craved a permanent group of people to hang out with, but here I guess I realize the opportunity to make friends with people from all over is immense, so I make a special effort to seek them without feeling like I'm giving my original set of friends priority. Plus, I've reconnected with a few familiar faces. Kaera Raeburn from Girls State and I went for tea at this really chic tea bar called Teavana. Tyler Pittman, Andrew Stesincko, and Jordan Shealy invited me over. Alex and I went shopping at Fifty Two Point Five, a Papa Jazz type record, independent film, poster, pins, graphic design, spoof joke store on Wentworth St. French conversation with Professor Abdellatif Attafi is amazing. Finally I am in a class where the first weeks were NOT spend reviewing the verb avoir. He is from Morrocco, very well traveled, likes discussing stories from other cultures. I love the exposure to new cultures, something I never got in high school French class. We read a story that takes place in Martinique about a boy whose mother works in the hot, humid sugar cane marsh to pay for a book so her son can participate in school. They go to market but the book costs more than she has. She is humiliated in front of her son and everybody in the store. She continues to dream. She tells herself the book or my son will work in the sugar fields like me when he is only seven years old. So, after reading the story, our class discussed the cycle that exists between poverty and being both religious and illiterate. Did I mention this class is amazing? Geology is a lot of work, especially outside of class. I have gotten into the habit of taking my books directly to the library after my 3:15 Politics and Theater class and studying until 8 be it Geology, French, et cetera. I hope the payoff will be good grades. My objective is to keep a 3.5 on a 4.0 scale and stll be an honors kid when I graduate. Politics and Theater with Professors Sam Kattwinkel and David Hinton is a riot. This week we are studying the Futurist movement in Italy and its impact on audience engagement, the political culture of Italy... Highly specialized topics that relate to the overall general questions Is this play political? What is this play intending to cause? If anything at all? What makes a play political? I'm fulfilling a social science credit which are rarely offered in the Honors Prgm. They wanted to break away from the passé. One play opens up- a teacher about 30 reading "Dante was a great poet.." CURTAIN, the same teacher about 40 "Dante was a great poet" CURTAIN, the same teacher about 60 "Dante was a great poet"... Student asks "Why?" Teacher responds "Because it is written here. Sit down!" CURTAIN.... French conversation with Irene Critikos is unlike any other French course I've taken. We use contemporary film in class. First she turns off the sound, we use only observation such as "Ah, she's wearing a fur coat, therefore she must be rich" and from there form hypotheses about the character and her relation to the title "Le Feuite du Monsieur Monde" (The Intended Departure of Mister World) We learn vocabulary along the way. A funny instance cropped up yesterday. I asked how to say fur and she wrote fourure on the board. I had difficulty prononuncing the two distinct parts... Fou as in somebody who is crazy and rure like the word voiture. Slowly all of my classmates and I were blindly imitating the professors pronunciation in broken syllables of fou and rure. Drawing with Professor Sharon Lacey meets once a week on Wednesdays from 6:00 pm to 9:45 pm. I felt like a true artist carrying my drawing board to class. Even moreso when I set up my easel and drawing pad. I delicately touched each of the charcoal pieces, placing them on the lip of the easel. As I drew I stood listening to Yann Tiersen, which I mimicked. Professor Lacey came by and remarked I had incredible energy. I'm influenced by the accordion music, Professor. I made 3 concentrated drawings. Oh did I mention? I'm a nude model.