Web Wall Journal #6

Song of the Month: "Economy of Mercy" by Switchfoot
Last Week's Song of the Day (since I conveniently forgot): "Redemption Day" by Sheryl Crow
Song of the Day: "Good Enough" by Evanescence

My wonderful Aunt Lizzy told me she likes to take the songs recommended in these updates and play them in the background while she reads about my week so that she can get a full atmosphere going while reading them. So, to make it easier, I chose to start placing them at the beginning of the updates. That way anyone else who decides to make playlist.com part of their Web Wall Journal routine can do so without having to scroll ALL THE WAY to the bottom of the update, then scroll ALL THE WAY back up to begin reading. (You know you live in America when the toughest chore of the day is scrolling up and down a page.)

So, at my mom's prompting, I trotted down to health services on Tuesday morning to see if they could give me flu shot. They told me there is a shortage of flu shots nation wide, so they probably won't be getting them for a month or more. Looks like they're counting on no university students getting sick until then. I'll just keep drinking tea and taking vitamins.

On the topic of plagues, all week we have been l iving in a swarm of aphids. Last weekend when Matthew and I walked to the mall I wore my sunglasses and by the end wished I had windshield wipers. A five minute walk across campus will have you brushing dead pests off of your clothes when you enter a building. I initially thought it was a consequence of all the trees, but even when I went downtown, they were everywhere. Asking upperclassmen, this has never happened here before. Enough people did some wikipedia research and apparently, because last winter was so cold it killed all the ladybugs (which eat aphids) and the weather this month has been ideal breeding conditions for the pesky breed of insect rejects. Supposedly, this is affecting the entire midwest. (Anybody wish to confirm or deny this?) We've had a few days of rain, so hopefully they will die. I actually did an interview for Titan TV about this phenomenon. Hoping people here aren't too politically correct, because I theorized perhaps we were enslaving Jews in Saga and God sent his wrath in the form of aphids. It was funny at the time.

In all honesty, this update is not going to be as exciting as the last. I've definitely been busy this week, but not as spontaneous. Sunday night went by fine, I suppose, except for dinner. The problem with Sunday dinner is that it follows Sunday brunch. Brunch is, without argument, the best meal of the week. Therefore, Sunday dinner is the worst meal of the week. 20Generally it isn't awful, it's pizza or pasta, but last Sunday was unusually awful. Basically, there was lettuce, and there were noodles (minus the marinara). I was haunted all night by Mom's letters and Grandma's emails of all the great food they're making without me. It doesn't matter when I read the emails and letters, they always make me hungry. What I really need right now is a good batch of Ghirardelli brownies. Then I might stop complaining about Sunday dinner. (Psst: anyone thinking of sending me a care package, BIG HINT.)

Updates on my classes:

In chemistry we've begun molecular geometry, which I'm finding very fun. Tuesday's lab entirely consisted of building models of molecules and isomers. Aside from not wearing goggles, I've begun doing research for the term paper. Still don't need a topic for a month, but I have a list of books I will assuredly be using for sources. I want to cover the radium craze, global warming, London smog in the 1870's, and the PG&E class-action lawsuits. Unfortunately, the latter has significantly less literature on it in our library, so I might have to ditch that idea. Though ironically, I did read in Newsweek that PG&E made their list of green companies. Anybody who has seen Erin Brockovich will find that slightly humorous.

I've decided to back off in philosophy. People are now more concerned with expressing their emotional opinions on the death penalty than engaging in rele vant debate. I did express some extended thoughts on Tuesday, but since have chosen to let the topic exist without me. At one point during these thoughts expressed, I went on a summary of ideas on the perspective of victim in rights vs. privilege and as I was speaking, I could tell by my classmates' faces that they had no idea what I was talking about, though my professor understood at least. When I finished and she began writing on the board, there was an awkward silence. Then one of my classmates muttered, "You had me at hello." The timing and delivery was very funny. Otherwise, though, there are a few too many people who are thinking in terms of vengeance in that class and aren't really paying attention to the arguments we are analyzing. A bit frustrating. So, until the end of this unit, I will withdraw my opinion. The next two units are the ones I'm excited for: drug legalization and pornography. Since I don't exactly know how I feel about either issue, it will be good to get an idea of what the arguments are and see where I stand.

For poetry, we had an essay assigned this week—a summarize and opinion essay. Every moment I spent working on it was reluctant, it is so dry. On Thursday as I was working on it, there was a knock on the door. I was greeted by six familiar faces, whom subsequently spilled into my room out of boredom. So, Sarah and I entertained six of our guy buddies with yet another YouTube party. Cramming eight people into a dorm around my computer is much more fun that writing an essay on a dry topic.

German class has been interesting. I will come back to that later

Salsa is still a fun work out. I like dancing with Chris as my partner, because we're both percussionists, so we both have the same feel for rhythm. The instructor is teaching us both salsa and merengue, the latter of which is supposedly easier. Chris and I are finding salsa easier, because in merengue, you loosely follow a count and in salsa you strictly follow steps and a count. It's hard to get out of the counting mind-set when that has been your job as a musician for eight years. Regardless, we're getting the hang of both, and it is a fantastic way to start out my week.

Tuesday girl's small group was awesome. Can't exactly pin point why, but everyone had something to say about the passage we were discussing and people were just feeling the motivation. Despite a long day, I felt awesome going to bed afterward.

Also, on Tuesday night, I had a revelation. (Kind of.) While reading "on Time" from The Prophet, it occurred to me how much we as individuals invest in a single moment. Right now, as I type, I am investing my memories of the week, my anxieties and excitement of said memories, my anticipation for how people will receive this update, my fears of somebody taking what I say the wrong way, my current tangle of emotions, and other thoughts that cling to what I am doing in this instant. It occurred to me Tuesday night how much even the most mundane moments in our lives have so much of ourselves invested in them. That thought can be daunting, because when we put so much into that moment, there is always the chance that the moment will not transpire the way we hope. But, in some ways, it's fascinating that even when we're not conscious of it, we are putting value into everything we do. I think realizing this will help me appreciate everything I do, even the prosaic, just a little bit more.

Let's take this idea a step further: if we as individuals put so much into a single mundane moment, how much does God invest into every moment? We invest dominantly for ourselves, but the moment was created by God for us. We are limited on what we can simultaneously process in that moment, but God exists outside of the parameters of time or capacity. It's incomprehensible.

So, yes, my spiritual relationship has been a major factor in my life lately. Since I've arrived here, it has definitely strengthened beyond what I had before. Another major player in my life has been my German class. Unlike most of my classes which meet twice a week, I'm in German four days a week. A lot of language exposure. Actually, now that the language is becoming more natural, I'm remembering vocabulary from highschool that we haven't gone over in class. I think my memory is just unlocking a lot of stored information.

The other day, my professor brought up the movie Das Boot. He asked if any of us had seen it and, though I know the reference very well because of Mom's endearing nickname for the cat, ("das Boots" pronounced the American way) I have never seen it. (Taking notes, Dad? There are plenty of movies you've been meaning to show me.) Nobody had, unfortunately, but Michael, who sits behind me in class mentioned he'd seen a movie by the same people called Stalingrad. So, as the rest of the class moved on to other topics, I asked him about the movie and he said he owned a copy still wrapped in plastic because nobody would watch it with him. Naturally, I volunteered to watch it with him. I wasn't going to pass up on a movie about the battle of Stalingrad. So, we scheduled Saturday to hang out.

This wasn't completely unprecedented. I actually talk to him in German relatively frequently. Since I miss lunch three days a week to work (no, I don't starve, I just get a meal exchange at the Dugout) he likes to tell me what I miss at Saga on the days I have to wait until 2:30 to eat. Actually, up until this weekend, most of our interactions were based on food. (Why not?) Watching the movie, though, I actually got to get to know him better than just snatches of comments during German class. We ended up hanging out after the movie because he wanted to=2 0show me some music (listening to an AFI CD he loaned me right now, actually) amongst other things. For those of you who have received some of my latest mixes, he was able to hook me up with a 3 Days Grace album, so I was very, very pleased. I didn't end up going to see Dead Poet's Society because I was still hanging out with him by the time it started. It was nice to hear him talk outside of German class, because learning a language kind of gets in the way of learning about someone personally.

He showed me pictures of the various resorts in Costa Rica he's stayed at, because he has parents who like to travel. He's been to a nice handful of country's, of which I'm slightly envious. Though on the subject of abroad, I did make it to the international office (finally) and scheduled an appointment to meet with someone about options for study abroad. That will happen in October sometime, so I will let people know what my thoughts are for that. An idea that Michael and I discussed was maybe doing a May term trip instead of a full semester abroad. He mentioned a possible trip to Russia. I think that would be exciting. We'll see what the future holds.

In the meantime, I hope you all are doing well. I would really, really like to speak with Emily and Randel over the phone sometime this week. (Though I suspect she won't be checking her email to read this.) Either way, I love all of you and hopefully th is update isn't too dry. (It's just hard to follow up last week's.)
Until next week!

Janna