| | It's hard to believe that the last time I blogged was around Thanksgiving! It seems like November was just around the corner yet so much has happened. After a wonderful Thanksgiving at my Aunt's house, one of the cool things that happened in December was that I got to present research at a meeting in San Francisco for an Internship I did over the summer. This was awesome because I've never been to the west coast! Break was awesome (and much needed!) I spent most of the time with my family back home in New Hampshire, worked in a college bookstore for a few weeks, and voted (for the first time!) in the NH primary in early January. Yesterday was "Super Tuesday" and, being in Massachusetts, we saw lots of political signs, etc. around town. Voting is definitely something Smith really encourages if possible (I think there were buses to different primary locations in Northampton).
As far as classes go, I'm just starting to get back into the groove of knowing my schedule and where I'm supposed to be throughout the day. I think this semester will be better timewise than last semester because it's a little more balanced in terms of science and humanities courses (I'd definitely recommend taking classes in a variety of subjects). So far, I've enjoyed my classes a lot. My geology class has 10-ish people in it, my Physics professor spent the first day lecturing us on the importance of sleep (a good sign, I think!), and I'm immensely enjoying taking Portuguese and Spanish. Taking two somewhat similar yet very different languages has been awesome, but definitely a challenge. Today, for instance, I went to "a mesa do portugues" (Portuguese lunch table) and then ran straight to my Spanish class. I saw my Spanish professor in the hall and totally forgot what language I was supposed to be speaking (I'm not actually sure what ended up coming out of my mouth!)
Another thing that is going on this spring is the Smith orchestra's preparation for our trip to Sicily in May! We are having this huge fundraising concert on March 29 with Bob McGrath (the guy, I'm told, who wore the sweaters on Sesame Street). So last night at practice we started working on a bunch of Sesame Street songs that were so adorable! One of them, which I guess involves a "monkey dancer", entails us picking up our instruments and acting like monkeys. This is awesome because it is completely the opposite of how orchestras are normally perceived. We are also playing "Peter and the Wolf", which I haven't heard since I was in third grade! So...it will be great! Other orchestra events to be held are a salsa party and pasta dinner...so stay tuned for more shameless advertising of these events.... |
