I went skiing for real

On Tuesday my ski class took a trip to Swain Ski Area, about 40 minutes from Houghton, so that we could experience an actual ski resort. It was my first time ever going to a real ski place. The hills were so tall. It was a rainy day, so the top was hidden in fog. At first we took the shorter ski lift, which only went halfway up, so we could do some easy hills. I was surprised at how high off the ground the lift was, so although it was fun it was also a little scary. Getting off and on took a little getting used to.

The actual skiing felt really different from skiing at Houghton, because even the short hills were way longer. After a few times the TA had us get on the long ski lift, going all the way up to the top. Everyone was saying how ominous it felt, riding up slowly into the fog. The TA took us down the mile sweep, which was still an easy one, but it didn't feel like a mile because I was going so fast. Every time I went down any slope it pretty much felt like I lost all control, and it was only through luck that I didn't fall. I actually did fall once, when I tried a blue square hill. The whole time I was so scared of falling, and then at the very end it suddenly got really steep and I wiped out. My hat flew off, one ski came off, and I lost my poles too. Fortunately I didn't get hurt at all.

So yeah, skiing was interesting; a very unique experience. By the end I was really wet and cold. I liked it, but I'm really not that good at it, so I don't know if/when I'll go again. But I'm glad I got to try it.

Right now I'm home on break. It's really nice to be away from school and be with my family and be lazy. I always feel so different when I'm at home from how I feel when I'm at school; at Houghton I have to be organized and responsible and get to places on time, while here I can do what I want when I want and don't really have to worry about anything. It's weird living at such extremes. Houghton feels unreal now.

I went skiing

So, today I had my skiing class, so I skied, and I fell down a lot, and it was really discouraging. But I kept trying, and I actually started to do better. Next week we're going to a real ski place, Holiday Valley. I don't really feel ready for that, but it will be nice to ski on real slopes and to actually have a chairlift; here they just have a tow rope, which is really uncomfortable and hurts your arms after a while. Speaking of hurt, one of the time when I fell I did something to my knee. I didn't really notice it until I was done skiing and was walking around. It hurt and it swelled a little, so now I have ice on it. That's my story for today. :P

I've been watching a lot of the Olympics; figure skating, my favorite event, was really good last night. The Chinese were pretty awesome.

An away-from-Houghton adventure

Yesterday Adam, Steve, and I borrowed Alexa's car and drove to Rochester to see Avatar in 3D. I drove, and no, we did not get lost. There was a lot of traffic as we got close to the city, and there were pretty strong winds, but everything went fine. We got to the theater and watched the movie, which was almost 3 hours long. The story was really cliché, but the effects and the 3D were really cool, so it was worth seeing.

Afterward we went to Adam's house for dinner. His mom made us calzones, which were amazing, and we had real salad, so much fresher than Houghton's, and brownies and ice cream for dessert. It was a delicious meal.

Then it was time to drive back, which was when it really became an adventure. Steve drove, since I'd driven the whole way there. It was snowing a little, and it was dark since it was about 9:30 by the time we left. We made it onto the highway and back off fine and continued to follow the directions I'd gotten from Mapquest. But the directions must have been wrong, because we'd been going for a while and hadn't seen the road we were supposed to turn onto.

Then I suddenly recognized where we were--the tiny town of Short Tract, which was really ironic because Eri and I and some other people had been lost there on the way back from church a few weeks ago. We'd called Dan and he had looked up directions and told us how to get back, so I was pretty sure I remembered. But we'd driven past the road we needed to take, so we had to turn around, and the inside of the car was getting really fogged up and the defrost wasn't working very well, so Steve pulled over so we could clear it up. But he'd pulled onto a side road with a good amount of snow on it, and it turned out to be deeper than it looked. We opened a window and wiped the fog off the windshield, and then Steve tried to pull back onto the road. But we couldn't get out--we were stuck in a ditch.

I definitely had a moment of panic, wondering what we were going to do. Adam and I got out of the car and Steve drove forward, able to move in that direction but still not able to get back on the road. It really looked like we were stuck there. Then Steve tried backing up, and as Adam and I watched the back end of the car pulled up and out of the ditch, and the front end followed. After jumping up and down in celebration, Adam and I got back in the car. Steve turned it around, very careful not to go back in the ditch, and we drove back the way we'd come. We had to turn around several more times because I was confused about whether the road we needed was on the left or right, but we found it, and it was the right one.

It was about 15 or 20 minutes back to Houghton from there. The only other problem we had was that Steve's window wouldn't close--Alexa's car is pretty old and beat up, and the driver's side window gets stuck. There's a special way you have to close it, but I didn't remember what that was, so we had to drive the rest of the way with the cold wind blowing right into the car. I felt really bad for poor Steve!

But we did make it back, finally; it was almost midnight and I'd expected to get back around 11. It was definitely an adventure, with its scary moments, but it ended well and makes a good story. It was great to get away from Houghton for 9 hours and see a movie in a theater and eat a real meal in a house with a family.

***

Right now I'm half-watching the Olympics. The biathlon is on, which is a weird sport. Before that was ski jumping, which was pretty cool. Hopefully I'll be able to catch some of the figure skating tonight.

10 million fireflies

So, now that I don't have Facebook I'm going to try to start blogging more regularly, provided people are actually reading this. So leave me a comment once in a while if you are, so that I know this isn't a waste of time. :)

I started another blog last month, mostly for myself, where I post pictures, poems, and songs/song lyrics that I really like. I wanted to have a place to "collect" all these things, so that I can find them quickly and easily. In case you're interested, it's http://alyshkalia.blogspot.com/. There are a lot of poems on there already, so if you just want to read the ones I like best, go to the right side where it says "labels" and click on "favorites." A lot of them are ones I read in my poetry class this semester.

I mostly mentioned that because I don't have much else to say right now. Today was an okay day; I went to class, cleaned in Gillette, watched half an episode of the sci-fi series Firefly (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firefly_(TV_series)), worked as salad runner during dinner, and not much else. So yeah, pretty boring. Tonight Jaela, Alexa and I are going to watch the 4th Harry Potter movie, which is probably my favorite one (not sure though, because I've only seen it once).

So yeah, I guess that's it. Enjoy the weekend!

I quit

This week I quit one of my jobs, sweeping and mopping floors in the dining hall once a week. I really didn't enjoy it, because it was supposed to take only an hour to an hour and a half, but it always took me at least two hours. And it was a pain, because it's such a big area and it's always really dirty. And it was boring, because I wasn't allowed to listen to my iPod while I worked. So on Monday I told my boss I quit, but I had to work today because he hadn't found anyone to take over. It was utter misery, and I'm really not exaggerating. It took me two hours and twenty minutes, the longest it's ever taken. I was really hot and tired and in a bad mood by the end, but now I'm done forever, and it's such a relief.

I also deactivated my Facebook a few days ago, which probably anyone reading this already knows. Not only did I spend too much time on it, I also was frustrated with the surface-level connection it provides. Status updates simply state what someone is doing, or, if they do talk about anything more serious, it has to be masked by quoted song lyrics. I don't think everyone should be completely honest on Facebook; that wouldn't be appropriate. But that's the point--Facebook isn't meant for deep connection with people. So if I'm not truly connecting with anyone, why bother?

I have other issues with Facebook as well, which I won't get into now. Suffice it to say, I'm very happy it's gone. I actually enjoy getting on my computer and realizing there's no Facebook to check. So that was definitely a good decision. Maybe in the future I'll be back, but for now I'm staying away.

Blah

From an email:

My first week went pretty well, and this week is going okay too, but it feels like time is going by really slowly. I'm tired of school and ready to be done already! I don't have a lot of homework or anything, just reading so far, but I'm not enjoying my classes this semester as much as I did last semester. None of them are bad classes, but it seems like none of them make very good use of class time--for Principles of Sociology we just go over what was in the reading, so it feels like a waste of time because I already learned the stuff, and one of my poetry classes is mostly discussion, so people get to talking/arguing and we don't really get anywhere, and for Physical Geology the professor gives us the powerpoint slides beforehand, and then the lecture is pretty much exactly what's on the slides. So going to all of those classes kind of feels like a waste of time or is boring.

I am enjoying skiing. We just had our second class yesterday, and it was icy because the snow melted some, so it was a little harder to ski on, but it was still fun. I got to ski down the smaller hill backwards, which I thought would be really hard but actually wasn't too bad. It reminded me of backwards roller skating a little.

So, everything's going okay . . . it just seems like this is going to be a really long semester.

A new semester

Email to Mom, January 11 (first day of classes):

I'm a little nervous for my classes--Principles of Sociology has a lot of assignments, Modern and Contemporary American Poetry is just going to be hard because it's analyzing poetry, and for the poetry writing class we have to write a poem a week. We'll also be doing a lot of peer editing, and the professor was emphasizing the importance of reading poetry out loud, so it sounds like we're going to have to read our poems out loud to each other, which of course I don't want to do. But it still sounds like a good class. And the other classes seem good too. We're starting with Robert Frost for the other poetry one, and I'm really enjoying reading him.

Other random things (not from an email):

I had my first skiing class on Tuesday, which was hard and tiring but also lots of fun. I think I'm really going to enjoy it. I'm also working for the first time this semester, cleaning one of the stairwells in my dorm as well as cleaning floors one afternoon a week in the dining hall and being "salad runner" one night a week in the dining hall. The only one I've done so far is the stairwell, and it's really not bad. The whole time I think, "I'm making money, I'm making money," and I feel happy. ;)

From an e-mail 10/25

Last night i went to bed at 2:30 and didn't get up today till 4; I woke up some on and off and read for like an hour at one point, and then went back to sleep and woke up at 4 and finally got up. i didn't eat till then either. it's weird because i'm not sick, but somehow i just was able to sleep a lot. a lot of people here are sick, though. i hope i don't get it. (Yesterday, the 26, I started to get sick, but today I'm feeling better; I just have a cough.)

i'm going to try to get a job here because i might travel with nora in europe after her east meets west program. i e-mailed someone about a cleaning job in gillette, but i haven't heard back yet.

yesterday i went to the zoo for conservation biology. our prof. assigned us a few questions to think about/things to look out for, but that was the only school-like thing we had to do, so basically it was just a fun trip to the zoo.

jaela's parents were visiting over the weekend and staying at a cottage nearby, and on friday night jaela, alexa and i went there for dinner, and on saturday night us and a bunch of other girls went there to play games. it was really fun. we played one game where you have to stand on one leg and bend down and try to pick up a paper bag in your mouth, and every round you cut off the top of the bag, so it keeps getting shorter. once i got the hang of it it wasn't too hard, but when it got really short i couldn't do it. today my leg is sore!

soon we have to do course selection for next semester; it's weird to be thinking about next year already. it's also weird that thanksgiving break is in a month. i'm so excited to actually go home and to go to boston and see everyone!

For Uncle Mark ;)

This weekend I went to the homecoming dance. At first I didn't like it because I felt silly all dressed up and I was bored, but then I danced with Dan and Steve, and that was fun. On Saturday there was a London reunion on at one of the girl's flats; the TAs were there, back to visit for homecoming. That evening there was Spot, the big talent show, which was really good. I saw the Kahlers before that and ate dinner with them. Yesterday Liz, Jaela, Alexa, Liz's roommate Alissa and I went to Letchworth for a few hours. We went up on the railroad bridge, but we weren't supposed to (although there were lots of other people up there) and a security guy came up and kicked everyone off. It was cool, though. We also walked in the woods and sat and read while Liz played her guitar.

Studying for tests . . . When the prof. gives a review sheet then I know what to study, but when they give no guidelines I just read my notes and hope I'll remember what's on the test. Cons. Bio was this morning; some stuff I remembered, some I didn't. On Friday I have a test for Intro to Christ, but we have a review sheet for that one.

Basically, life here is going well. I am definitely looking forward to October break in two weekends, though.

Another e-mail excerpt

I have my first long paper due on the 2nd; it's for Literary Nonfiction and is to be on a writer or piece of writing and basically your interactions with them/it. I have to know what I'm going to write about by tomorrow, and I still have no idea . . .

We got our group project for that class back (the end result was a several-page document) and we did kind of badly. It hadn't been proofread very well and some people had had bad grammar and used sentence fragments, and he said it wasn't put together well. That made me more annoyed about it because if I had done it myself I wouldn't have had any of those problems.

This past weekend Jaela and I went to the Civil War weekend in Angelica, which was fun. It was kind of like heritage days with lots of tents set up and people at them showing/selling different things. It was nice to get off campus. Also this weekend I watched a movie with a bunch of people outside at night; the movie was Signs, and there's a creepy cornfield in it, so we watched it right next to a cornfield. It was scary and fun, and freezing cold.

The writing festival was last week; they had writing festival chapels which I went to, and I went to one of the other events. The one I wanted to go to was the readings, but I couldn't because I had class. The thing is it's so dependent on what writers they have and what genres they write, and I wasn't super interested in any of them, so although it was good it wasn't that relevant to me personally. For Literary Nonfiction we were assigned to go to some of the events, so I would have gone to the readings if I could, because out of all the events that was the one I was most interested in; my professor for that class was reading (he writes poetry).

I got one of my papers back today (from the fantasy class), just a short one-page one, and I got an A. I didn't think it was that good, so I was happy.

We're reading John Muir for bio; I remember learning about him in homeschooling a long time ago. I like his writing; it's usually pretty interesting, although sometimes his descriptions of trees and plants get a little long.

On Friday there's the first Lanthorn meeting. The current editor is a senior, so next year I might apply to be editor. I think it would be really fun.

Adam wrote an article for the school paper on the new 4-credit system and quoted me in it. It's going to come out on Friday. It's not that big a deal, but I think it's cool.

Today was rock climbing class again. I've definitely retained some of my skills, because I can still figure things out and do most of the routes fairly easily.

This is really random and snippety. I'm curious--does anyone actually read this anymore besides my immediate family? Let me know if you do, please, so I know that it's worth it to post!