Sunday

Today is my sabbath. I haven't always been good at keeping a day of rest in my schedule, but I've decided it's something worth taking the time out for. And since Sunday is apparently the only day of the week without school commitments, it will be my day of rest, my day to put aside the stress of grad school and the busy distractions of the academic life. My self-imposed rule is that on Sundays I won't work on anything with a due date, i.e. homework of any sort. I'm the type of person who can get so caught up in the things I am required to do that I lose perspective on why I'm doing them. Perspective is something I don't want to lose. If I lose myself in the busywork and forget the ultimate goal of this degree I'm working on, I'm more likely to get frustrated and even doubt my choice in coming here. And of course, there will be much more life coming after I finish this two-year jaunt in academia--I can't forget that either.

This morning's sermon was about fasting. For some reason it didn't connect with me at all during the service (it took until I had a nap and a cup of tea), but now I've got something to take away from it. I don't know that I agree with everything that was said this morning, but the important part was that it's not about going through the motions. God didn't want the Israelites fasting merely "out of habit", but out of a genuine focus on him and the object of their grief--in the instance mentioned in Zechariah 7, the destroyed temple. I'm going to expand that idea and say that in all areas of our life, just going through the motions is not a good idea. Whatever we do, we should know why. And, for us Christians, the why is always connected back to God and how we are called to serve him in this world. So taking one day out of the week to step back and remind ourselves of that truth can only be beneficial for doing his will cheerfully through the rest of the week. (Hey, that's probably why he told us to do it)

At any rate, no work will be done today on my part. Blogging, however, is not work, though I seem to have run out of time for catching you up on the adventures of the weekend. Tomorrow I must get up early to meet with the supervisor of my archives internship at the Congregational Library.

-Kim

Employment! And Sharks! And Bears! Oh my!

This morning I got the call from the coordinator of the Simmons Writing Center. It's official--I will be a tutor this fall. I get to work on campus, and the pay rate is actually very good. So even though it will only be about eight hours a week (the schedule is still in process), I will be making a decent amount of spending money. So, thanks to everyone who was praying for something to come through. Of all the possibilities, the writing center job was going to be the best for scheduling purposes, so I'm glad it worked out. It's not library work, but since I'm also dong an unpaid internship at an archive, I figure it's fine to earn a paycheck in something outside my field for now. Just having something is such a blessing and a relief.

To celebrate the job, I went for a swim. Actually, I did that yesterday, too. On the residence campus we have a great fitness center with an amazing pool. Well, for lap swimming anyway. We don't have slides or anything like that. But we have an 8-lane, 25m pool that is available for students to use for free during much of the day. At other times, the swim team uses it (the only sport we have for which the mascot of "Sharks" is really appropriate), or they rent it out to local daycare/swim lesson groups. I had intended to make use of the pool for my exercise (since the rest of my life, being academic, is largely sedentary), but hadn't gotten around to it until this week. Being in the water feels so good, I can almost forget I'm exercising. You know, the one thing the Stewart Center was really lacking was a pool. USF should do something about that.

Last night was college night at the Museum of Science, which meant that anyone with a college ID got in for free. Well, I like free stuff, and I would probably never pay to go to the science museum, so we decided to check it out. Chris and I met Tetima at the campus library when she got off work, and the three of us treked across town together. Thankfully, this trip didn't involve switching trains, because we were traveling at rush hour. And most of the crowd was students, all getting off at the same stop.

Upon arriving at the museum we were pleasantly surprised to discover that not only could we look at the exhibits for free, we could get free tickets to the various shows playing. So we took in a 3-D movie and a laser show as long as we were there. The 3-D movie was entitled Fly Me To The Moon, but we didn't realize just how literally they meant it. It actually involved flies going to the moon. Three animated fly children, in fact. So weird. But rather entertaining. There were far too many exhibits to take in, but we did spend some time looking at the math section, "backyard physics" and an interactive display on models. Actually, all the displays were interactive. We also wandered through a room with stuffed animals behind glass. The one animal out in the open was a black bear, which I couldn't keep myself away from. Picture to follow. On the level above that was a room with displays about human physiology. That was fun too.

The last thing we did at the museum was see a laser show in the planetarium. It was all set to music by Queen. Yes, we chose this over the other options. It was actually quite fun, although during one song they had a near-constant giant spiral that made me woozy. They played most of the classics, starting with "We will Rock You" and "Bicycle" and ending with "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "We Are the Champions." The show was 40 min long, so the music just kept coming. Some of it I had never heard before or hadn't realized was Queen, including something about Flash Gordon and what Chris insists was the "Highlander" theme song. It probably was, since the recurring image was a giant sword. Although, the images during "Bohemian Rhapsody" really didn't seem to fit. It was birds. Just random birds sitting in trees or fluttering about. Every other part of the show made sense, but the birds puzzled me. And I was disappointed they didn't play "Don't Stop Me Now", because that would have been awesome with lasers. Of course, half the fun of the show was the random associations I have with Queen songs that not very many people understand. As soon as the show started, I felt the urge to watch "A Knight's Tale", which, by the way, is still the most amazing anachronistic action comedy I've ever seen. And, any mention of Queen makes me think of "Good Omens" and giggle to myself. If you haven't read it but appreciate British humor and the apocalypse, you need to make time to read it. Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman writing together--what could be better?

But I digress. The museum trip was definitely worth the trip across town and loss of an evening that would only have been spent doing homework that got done in time anyway. After we got back I was approached by the RA, Peter, to be conscripted onto the North Hall Council. Apparently we don't get money for activities unless we have an actual council with officers. So now I'm treasurer of a group that will only probably have funds, and limited funds at that. It shouldn't be too bad--I would have ended up helping with activities anyway, and now I have a cool title to put on my resume: Treasurer and Staple Queen. The second one probably won't appear in print again, but it was a condition of my acceptance of the position. We've been making more bulletin boards, and my stapling skills have been in much demand. At least as treasurer I only have to keep track of the money--apparently my neighbors have already decided I'm trustworthy. And meticulous enough to do a good job and probably drive them buggy, but they'll learn that soon enough.

Why are these posts always so long? I don't mean for them to be, but so many interesting things keep happening at the same time. Here are a couple of pictures from our time at the museum. I didn't think to bring my camera, so these are courtesy of my new friend Chris.




Here I am with Tetima, waiting for the 3-D movie.



And I made a new furry friend as well.

-Kim

Cafe Polonia

On Friday night my neighbors and I made a pilgrimage to the only Polish restaurant in all of the greater Boston area, Cafe Polonia. It's actually a very small establishment, and the seven of us took up about a fourth of the space. From campus, we took two trains (the Green Line to Park Street, then changed to the Red Line to Andrews Station) and then had a short walk to the restaurant. It was lightly sprinkling at this point, and only three members of the group had thought to bring umbrellas. When we got to Cafe Polonia we were surprised to see a sign on the door announcing a private function that night at 7:30. However, since we arrived at 6, we figured there was just enough time for us to have a good meal and get out of their way. So we enjoyed solid Polish goodness. I had a plate of pierogi, but next time I'll be brave and try something with more variety of flavor. Pierogi is good, but an entire plate of what is essentially ravioli stuffed with potato and cheese is a little bland after a while.

Upon leaving Cafe Polonia, we continued our trek to another fabled destination: Target. We were in the suburb of Dorchester at this point, so all the big box stores are available, arranged in a square around a giant parking area. We had to walk over the freeway to get there from the restaurant, but the walk was short and would have posed no problem had it not still been raining. Once inside Target, we all dispersed, eager to locate whatever sundry items were needed. Almost anything is cheaper at Target than at the stores we can walk to around campus, it's just a matter of whether the cost outweighs the bother of traveling so far. Once we finally all found each other again, we decided to take the bus back instead of the train, since there was a bus stop just outside Target. But the bus never came. Plenty of other buses came through, but not the number 8. In the end (after waiting more than half an hour under the roof of the bus stop--which doesn't actually keep off the rain unless it's falling straight down) we got on the shuttle bus that would take us back to Andrews Station so we could take the train back. The trains showed up promptly, and we were back at Fenway Station (which I am getting to know very well now) pretty quickly after that. Of course, the bottom six inches of my pants were wet by the time we walked from Fenway back to the dorm, but that's not such a big deal.

I also got a package from Dianna on Friday afternoon. It really made my day. New music, cute Edward Monkton paraphernalia, and crackers shaped like the state of Texas--if that doesn't say love and friendship, I don't know what does.

On Saturday I got another package. This time it was the books and movies I had asked my parents to ship out to me. This bare-bones version of my personal library is pathetic in size--taking up only half of the small bookshelf provided in my room--but it makes this place feel more like home. Now if I need a break, I can grab a book or a great movie off the shelf instead of mindlessly searching the internet for amusement. I think this option is better. Plus, now I can share my tastes with my neighbors when we want to do a movie night. Good times.

I also had class on Saturday. I'm still not happy about that, but I only have 12 weeks of it left. At least it was better this time--we got to do an autopsy on a dead computer. So now I know what the inside of a 6-year-old Dell looks like. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday, though I could think of better things to do. In the evening I considered breaking in the movie collection, but opted for watching a football game I had no interest in so that I could socialize with a couple of my neighbors, Chris and Erin. We had a good time. Also, I now have dibs on some of Erin's furniture when she graduates and moves out at the end of this semester. Very nice.

In other news, I should have a webcam soon. Trying to find one that was compatible with Mac and not insanely expensive was proving to be quite difficult. In the end, Sherwin stepped up and did it for me. I still have to pay him for it, but he did the dirty work of finding an iSight on ebay and bidding on it for me. Isn't he wonderful? Now that's what I call an anniversary present (we've been dating for five months as of last Friday, for anyone who's confused--hard to believe time goes by so quickly). At least now we'll be able to talk face-to-face on skype. The internet is great for making long-distance relationships more bearable.

Wow, this post is getting really long. I'll tell you about my archives internship later this week when I know what it is. Today I marked my top three choices online, and we'll see what happens. Also, I still don't have a job, but I'm trying not to dwell on that. It's been rainy all weekend, which is making me sleepy and not very productive. I'll have to find a way to motivate myself and change that.

-Kim

fire

Apparently there is another thing ubiquitous among dorms, be they graduate or otherwise: fire alarms. We had a scheduled fire drill on Tuesday night (which I got to miss because I was in class), and then it went off again tonight, just after 7:00. Let me tell you, that alarm is loud! Everyone was pretty confused, since the scheduled one had been only two days ago. But, we all made our way out to the quad as instructed, and waited around for a while. It was at this point that we realized that only our building was affected, making it more likely that something was really going on. Our RD shortly confirmed this. Apparently a "piece of wood" caught fire, making a lot of smoke in the basement. Huh? Do we have stacks of firewood down there or something? She wouldn't say anything more specific, but it may have been related to construction going on in the computer lab. (The wall has leaked all summer, and they're finally repairing it.) There were fire trucks and everything--the whole nine yards. We went to check it out when they let us back in, but there are no signs of damage anywhere in the basement. I was all excited, too, to have finally experienced a fire alarm caused by something bigger than burnt popcorn.

While we were waiting to get back in, we wandered over to Quadside, a hang out spot in one of the other dorms. They were showing "Kung-Fu Panda." I never was very interested in that one, but I watched it for a bit anyway. Now I suppose I should return to my reading, which the fire alarm so rudely interrupted. But now I can rest easy, having informed you all of the most exciting thing to happen thus far at Simmons College and North Hall.

Tomorrow should be even better--look forward to that post!

-Kim

Dorm Life

North Hall is definitely not Sullivan. For one thing, North has five floors and no elevator. I'm glad I'm not any higher than the third floor. Even that's bad enough some days. Also, the hallway is air conditioned, but our rooms are not. It isn't so bad, since I can just leave my door open in the afternoon and catch the cool air that way, but it's weird. One improvement is that I have my own room, which is amazing. No offense to Dianna, who was a great roommate, but I love having my own space now. And the single rooms don't even force us into hermitude (I know that's not actually a word, but I like it). We still have plenty of socializing on my floor, even if the other hallways are more reclusive.

The biggest change I've had to get used to is living on a co-ed floor. Now, I'm used to having guys in my building, and even in my hallway, but this is my first experience with having them in my bathroom. That's right--there is one large communal bathroom at the end of the hall that I share with about then other girls and five guys, one of whom is the RA. As a girl whose last experience with a communal bathroom was in a dorm nicknamed "The Nunnery", I wasn't sure how to react when I ended up brushing my teeth one night standing next to a guy who had just finished his shower and was wearing only a towel. That particular experience only happened once. Usually I don't encounter anyone in the bathroom, male or female. Other than the presence of men, the bathroom is pretty standard. Only one shower has good pressure, and it's drain seems to be clogged because when you use it you end up standing in two or three inches of water by the time you're done, which kind of defeats the purpose of wearing flip-flops in the shower.

In other ways, this dorm is much like any other. There are a few people who rarely come out of their rooms, and a bunch of us who go eat in the cafeteria together all the time. Also, very random things happen on the weekend. On Friday we went down to the basement lounge to play games and ended up watching the Disney channel instead. The Incredibles was on, can you blame us? On Saturday we stayed in again, because hurricane Hanna was making it rain pretty hard all evening. Again, we hung out in the basement lounge, but this time we really did play Uno for about two hours. The card playing was punctuated by an adventure involving the snack machine. One of the items in the machine is a bag o f popped, white cheddar flavor popcorn. Well, a bag of this had been purchased earlier in the night and then abandoned, as it was stuck in the machine, right above the door flap, effectively out of reach. And another bag was stuck on top of it. Somehow it became our collective mission to free the popcorn from the machine. (My mission was just to watch, and then eat the popcorn. It seemed to work out.) Chris managed to shake the machine enough to get the top bag to fall down and out of the way, but the first one was still wedged pretty bad. So Jana got the brilliant idea of buying one of the heavier candy bars above that space to see if it would fall and knock the popcorn loose. Instead, the Hershey bar bounced off the bag and flew across the inside of the machine to smack against the far wall before falling down into the retrieval zone. We were rather tired at this point, so it was pretty much hilarious. Our next plan was to get a stick and poke at the popcorn, but nobody felt like going upstairs in search of a pen. So Kristen bought Cheetos, and they, too, got stuck on top of the popcorn. Her solution was to bang the flap/door on the machine until the Cheetos fell down. This also worked for the popcorn in the end. So we were victorious and shared the bounty of white cheddar flavored popcorn. And there was much rejoicing.

Yesterday I found my way back to Park Street for a morning service. I really enjoyed it. If I continue to go to Park Street, I will more than likely make a habit of attending the morning service instead of the evening. It was refreshing to use a hymnal again, and hear a real church choir. But more importantly, the pastor impressed me. They had been working through the OT book of Zechariah, and he spent time explaining the form the visions were presented in, noting how the first and last vision mirror each other and so on in order to emphasize the central vision, which is about Christ. We were on the final vision, so I've missed most of the series, but I didn't feel at all lost listening to the sermon. In fact, his style reminded me of a couple of our USF profs. Even though I can't take any more theology courses out here, at least I can listen to a preacher who really knows his stuff and presents it well. We also took communion at this service. It was a good reminder that even though I'm far from home and the people I know, I am still surrounded by the body of Christ and a vital part of it.

After church I felt the need for a nap, so I slept until it was time to attend our hall meeting. This was when our RD and RA explained the rules for our dorm and encouraged us to get to know each other. Afterward I ended up at dinner with a bunch of my floor buddies and then found myself recruited to help design and put together bulletin boards in the dorm. I worked with Tetima, Jana and our RA Peter to choose themes for the duty boards and other displays. We had a stack of old materials to choose from, but only one idea in the pile was worth using, and we claimed it for our floor. So our bulletin board is a tribute to pick up lines--the good, the bad, and the downright awful. It even includes pirate pick up lines. We also put out sticky notes and a pen and encouraged our hallmates to come up with better lines. We'll see how that goes. I ended up doing all of the stapling of the background paper and all the other pieces. My time spent helping mom at school seems to have made me useful here, which may or may not be a good thing. I seem to be in danger of being recruited onto the hall council, a group that plans and carries out events for the North Hall residents. Of course, the current council members are all people I hang out with anyway, so maybe it wouldn't be too bad. We'll see how that works out. I'll leave you with a few pictures to give you a better feel for the things I'm talking about.



Here's one view of my room. It's not a bad size for just one person. This view doesn't even show my good-sized closet and bookshelf.




Here's another view, showing the other side of the room.




And this is the bulletin board we put together. We have to do several more, but we only got one put together for now. The rest will come later, after we've printed materials to go with our ideas.

-Kim