ASC Cares Day 2011

Today was one of the campus-wide community service days. The biology club, Tri Beta, Signed up to participate and there were 5 of us total, myself included, who were sent to an Ashram in Crestone to help Susan (I can't remember her Hindu name - it begins with an R, but that's all I remember) with some things in preparation for a festival that begins on Tuesday, 9/27. Two of the four girls, Loraine and Summer, made crowns for the day during the festival in which children are honored and dressed up like little kings and queens. The other three of us, Keiko, Bryce, and me, priced items from a shipment Susan had just received. It took us about 2.5 hours to complete our projects. We were then treated to some Chai latte and peach crisp as a snack while Susan explained how the Ashram operates. It's an extremely eco-friendly place - all the buildings except one are made from straw bales covered with either stucco or painted mud (I couldn't tell which). The "exception" building is made of tires filled with dirt and covered with the same stucco or painted mud as the other buildings.

After the snack, we went back inside and cleaned up our work areas. Susan then requested we wash our hands before we went to the temple (we did) and then suggested we try on some saris. None of us had any idea what she had in mind. Don't worry, nothing bad happened. In fact, we were all a little shocked and surprised when, after three of us girls put on cholis and all four of us girls had wrapped saris and Bryce had tried on a shirt (the name escapes my memory - I think it starts with a "k" sound), Susan said she was giving these to us. As a thank you gift, I guess. We were definitely not expecting to leave with anything except a feeling of satisfaction that we had greatly helped someone. Below is a picture of the group, after our tour of the temple, in the temple standing in front of one of the goddesses (this is the one the festival next week is honoring - I can't remember her name) in our Indian garb.

From left to right: Bryce, Loraine, Keiko, Summer, me, Susan

We were invited to stay for lunch, but we declined because we all have some degree of studying to do. Overall, it was a fun day. It was a little strange because it was different from what I'm used to. When I say "it", I mean the way they live. It's a very simple way of life with only what is absolutely essential to get by. I'm sure they have to buy things from Alamosa, but it's pretty much self sufficient up there.

Ready... Set... Go!

Junior year is off to a good start. My classes are:

Plant Ecology: MWF 11-11:50

Ichthyology (study of fishes): WF 2-2:50

Fisheries Management: WF 3-3:50

Development of Civilization: TR 9:30-10:45

Intro to Sociology: TR 11-12:15

My work schedule (I'm at the bookstore again this year):

M: 12-2

W: 10-11 and 1-2

R: 1-2

F: 12-2

I'm still going to Zumba on T and R from 5:30 - 6:30. I joined the outdoor adventure program again this year - I joined freshman year but not last year. I'm in the same room in the same apartment building I was in last year. My roommates are Sarah and Kyla from last year and Laura, who is the 4th roommate. I'm so glad Jackie isn't rooming with us this year otherwise I would have moved off campus by now. I'll probably end up living off campus next year - I'm tired of dealing with people in housing who give me the run around or don't give me a straight answer.

On another note, my classes are really small. At least my bio classes are. There are 7 people in my plant ecology and ichthyology classes and 8 people in my fisheries management class. My other two classes are gen eds, so they're of course larger. I'm not sure how many people are in each class exactly, but I think there are 40 people in my dev. of civ. class and probably close to the same amount of people in my soc. class.

That's it for now. I have a lot of reading for classes to do this weekend. Hopefully I'll get a little bit ahead.

Life

I hate my life right now. Nothing is going right. Everything is terrible. I can't finish a stupid math test within the 50 minute class period so I have to go in tomorrow and finish. I'll probably fail this test and that would be just great. I'm so done with this semester and all the stupid stuff that's happened. There's been so much unnecessary stress courtesy of the professors. I'm seriously considering not coming back next semester and just finding a job somewhere. I don't know how much more I can take. I'm going to snap soon and it's not going to be pretty. I'm done with school.

Crunch Time

This weekend was good. This was the first time in months I didn't have to study for a test. I did work on my lab reports a little bit but didn't get them completely finished because I don't understand how to make a couple of the graphs and edit some of the axes on a few of the graphs. I emailed my professor and asked if there is a time I could come in and talk to her about editing them so they are correct. Hopefully she'll get my email before class tomorrow morning.

Today was a good day. Dad came down and we went out to lunch at Chili's. I had a hamburger with fries for the first time since Lent started. After lunch we cam eback to the apartment and hung out for a while and then he headed home. After he left, I ate a Cadbury Egg and some jelly beans. They were good, but not as good as I thought. Maybe I've gotten used to not eating sugar and I pumped myself up and expected more than what it really was. Oh well.

Two more weeks of classes and then a week of finals. Crunch time. Great. I hope I can sleep and survive these next weeks.

Too Much

Ever since spring break ended, I have been going non-stop. And it's taken a toll on me, mentally, physically, and emotionally. You know that normally I am an emotionally strong person and small stuff doesn't really phase me and I usually shrug it off. Not lately. I am so exhausted and stressed and stuff that doesn't usually bug and upset me has started to. A lot. I have cried more in the past month than I have in a long time. Over little stuff that really is not that big a deal. I have no energy during the day because I can't sleep at night. I've tried everythign I can think of - music, a hot shower right before I go to bed, caffine free tea, and hot milk. Nothing has worked. This week has been especially bad. Monday morning I fell asleep at 2:30 a.m. and got up at 6:45 to go to class and take an ecology test. I made coffee so I could stay realtively awake during the day. Tuesday morning I fell asleep at 1:45 a.m.,woke up at 6:30, and laid in bed till 8 then got up and went to take a Spanish test. I went to Zumba Tuesday night even though my energy level was about a -100%. I went to bed at 10:30 Tuesday night but didn't fall asleep till 11:30. Then I woke up at midnight and couldn't go back to sleep for another 30 - 45 minutes, and woke up at 6:30. I had a test on Wednesday in my stats class. Even though I went to bed at 11:30 or so last night, I didn't fall asleep until after midnight, woke up at 6:30 to turn off my alarm, and lightly dozed off and on until 8:30, then got up and went to class. I had one cup of coffee this morning with my breakfast. I've had to work all week and don't want to take a nap because I know that is not going to help my situation at all. My energy level right now is a -100% again. Does anyone have any suggstions that might help me sleep? I have no motivation to do anything. Zero. Nada. I don't even want to go to Zumba but I'll probably end up going. Hopefully I'll wear myself out to the point where I can actually fall asleep before midnight. I talked with my mom Tuesday and she said from what I've told her and the facts that I can't sleep and always have zero energy, it sounds like I'm depressed. The more that I think about it, I do think I'm probably a little depressed and exercise is not helping because I have no energy. I don't know what to do. I want to be done with classes and done with school right now. I'm so sick of professors not knowing what they're talking about during class and accomplishing absolutely nothing during class. I'm so over going to school and getting up early to go to class and get frusterated because of professors who have no idea what's going on and no idea how to teach a class they've never taught before. I'm done.

Sleepless in Alamosa

For some reason, I haven't been able to fall asleep when I know I need to get to sleep. It's been driving me crazy and I don't know what to do. Usually I can take a hot shower, listen to music for a while, or read for one of my science classes and I'll get sleepy and be able to fall asleep before midnight. Lately that hasn't been the case. I think part of it might be that my brain doesn't want to stop thinking about stuff I have to do for classes and when I need to start studying for my upcoming tests and the other stuff I have to do. Grrrrr...

It's been pretty cold down here this past week. We got a little snow about a week ago and it stayed until Thursday afternoon when the sun came out and started to melt it. Now it's mostly gone and there's a lot of ice left where the sun can't get to it during the afternoon. The warmest temperature this past week has been in the mid 30's and the coldest temperature was -33 or so.

Classes are going pretty well. Nothing too hard or controversial at the moment, so that's a relief.

Another Week Gone

This has been a really long week. I think it's because I'm still getting back into the swing of things. My new job at the bookstore is going a lot better than the last job (micro bio prep). I'm still getting the hang of doing merchandise exchanges and refuunding the difference on textbooks. When students special order books, we have to charge them the price of a new book, even if they want a used book, just in case a new book comes in. This has been the case for some of the books, but the rest of the time we have to refund the difference when they pick up their books. It's still confusing, but I'm getting the hang of it. I have several duties: cashier, checking to make sure we have planty on the shelves, getting the bills ready to be paid, and one other thing that I can't remember right now. I work MWF 1-3 p.m. and R 2-4 p.m. (8 hours a week, every week).

Classes are going pretty well. I'm discovering that my evolution class may be harder than I initially thought. My mindset at this point is that I'm going to do what I need to and say what I need to on tests to pass the class. Then I can decide what to do with what I learned in this class: incorporate some of the information into my life or not. Ecology is my favorite class this semester. There is a lot of information, both old and new, but this might (MIGHT) be the easiest class I have this semester. My Stats class is definately not as bad as I thought it was going to be when I first looked at the book. At this point, the stuff we're doing in class is fairly easy, although all of the terminology can get a little confusing and I sometimes get similar terms confused. My Spanish class is more difficult than last semester - I only go to class T and R because of a conflict with my evolution class. I have enquired about a tutor as instructed to by my prof, but haven't heard anything yet. Hopefully I'll hear something next week so I won't be stressed come the middle of the semester.

I saw Ted and Company last night down here at Carson Auditorium (on campus). I thought it was a good show. It was more serious than some of the other stuff they've done, but nonetheless it was a very well done performance. Afterwards, I went to a S'mores party for the Rex apartments. Each of the R.A.'s has to do a certain number of hall functions per semester so my R.A. put on this function and Monday we're going to make Puppy Chow! My R.A. this year, Brenda, is also from Colorado Springs and went to high school at Wasson. She's really, really cool and ahs offered to help me with my spanish if I ever need it.

I had better get back to homework so I can go to the basketball games tomorrow night, if I decide to go with a couple friends. I'll try to post every week, but I'm not making any promises.

Back to the craziness

It's back to the craziness of college life for this kid. I head back down tomorrow (1/17) and classes start up again on Tuesday. It shouldn't be too bad as I only have one class (Spanish) and it's at 9:00! I'm glad to be going back but it's been really nice being home and not having to do homework and read stuff that's not for a class. On the other hand, I'm ready to go back and get this semester in the books. I have a less chaotic schedule this semester:

MWF 8-8:50 Ecology
MWF 9-9:50 Evolution
MWF 10-10:50 Intro to Statistical Methods
M-T 9-9:50 Spanish

Yes, there is a conflict with my Evolution class and my Spanish class. MWF at 9, I go to Evolution. TR at 9 I go to Spanish and do the work I miss for class M and W as independent study with a tutor (at the professors' request). I'm only taking 14 credit hours this semester, so I should be able to have a little bit more of a social life. I also got a job working in the bookstore this semester MWF 1-3 p.m. I'm really happy to have found something different so I don't have the frustrations and such like last semester. Because I got this position last week, I emailed my supervisor from last semester and told her I am willing to help make media a few hours a week for the first 2-3 weeks of the semester. I may not have to help that long, either; it all depends on how long it takes her to find a replacement for the microbiology prep position.

Updates from the valley to come soon!