Fall Break and Midterms

(Yet another photo of Paris, because I miss it.  By me.)

We are coming up on Fall Break at Reed, now.  I am so excited.  I love my friends here dearly, and I will miss the family I have created at Chittick, where A bakes bread constantly and M rants about philosophy. I love humanities conference, and sitting with my friends at lecture, and walking with W from conference to French every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  I love French conversation -  I may even love bio lab. I love a cappella for sure, though, and runs in the canyon (though it's getting quite chilly) and weekday breakfasts with E.
But I miss my family.  I miss my darling sister coming home from school, I miss setting five places at our kitchen table, I miss drawing my knees up in front of the woodstove.  I have made a list of the things that I want so badly to do at home - to go for a bike ride down Memorial Drive, to go apple picking out in Harvard, to stand on the rocks at Halibut Point with the wind whipping through my hair.  I want to picnic at Great Meadows and drink pumpkin-spice chai at tealuxe with the lovely Alexandra and have lunch over at MIT with Mike and see all my friends again.  So I love the people here at Reed dearly, but I do so want to go home.
On another note, because it is the week before fall break, everyone has assigned midterms.  I, thankfully, only have one - for French - but my boyfriend has something like four, as do most of my friends.  So, good luck, Reedies with midterms!  You'll do excellently!
And happy Monday, everyone.

Formal Fridays

Hello, lovely blog readers, happy weekend!

Here at Reed, we have something called "Formal Fridays."  Not everyone does it, but without fail, on my way to Humanities lecture (today we talked about Sappho) someone will be wearing elbow-length gloves or a blazer or an evening gown.  Today my friend Lisa dressed up with a ruffly Victorian shirt and top hat, and Ted wears a sports coat every week.

At my high school, a friend of mine started something called "Ironic Fridays," when he would give a theme out Thursday nights and people would dress up accordingly.  Once it was "Miami Vice," I think.

I at least love dressing up on Fridays.  Finding a pretty dress, celebrating the end of the week before basically a full weekend of studying, acting like a lady through my French classes... it's pretty incredible.

Do you have formal Fridays at your school or work?

(photo of a formal dress from here)

Steve Jobs...

... is probably one of the most famous Reedies, even though he wasn't here for that long.
Anyways.
When I was in high school, and embarking on the Long And Scary College Process, they made us read this.
Read it.  It most definitely made me think.

Chilly Portland

Tonight is RKSK initiation at Reed College.  I've heard from my friend A that I will regret it for the rest of my life if I miss it, but it's going on at the same time as a cappella (hey RKSK gods, can I get there half an hour late?) and from what I've heard, it's a lot of running around naked.  Today on the phone my sister described me as "delicate," which is to say that I have a constitution that lends itself to things like strep throat and fevers and influenza.  Running around the campus at ten at night, cold and wet, isn't exactly good for me, especially with the Reed Plague going around (tons of people are sick).
But I might regret it for the rest of my life if I don't go, and I don't have to take off all my clothes.  Perhaps I'll just show up and watch/semi-participate.
I love this school.  I love that people go out of their way to make events like RKSK initiation incredible for freshmen, so that people like A can remember it forever as something that if he hadn't done it, he would regret it for the rest of his life.  This is an incredible place.

Birthday Cupcakes

Today is my friend M's birthday.  She's lovely and sweet and in a cappella with me, and today she is twenty!  So Claire (who made brownies with me for this incredible artist) and I decided to make birthday cupcakes for her.
I am not a serious baker, and especially not of cakes.  I can make bread pudding, and scones, and cookies, and that's about it.  But my friend Willamae of Flour Child Baking offered this incredible recipe - that she calls "Everyone's New Favorite" but will always be "M's Birthday Cupcakes" to me.  I highly suggest trying it.
Happy birthday, M!

Tuesdays are the best days...

... because of French conversation.  They used to be the worst day of the week.  Honestly - I had bio lecture at nine, and then bio lab from one until five - a little too much bio for me to handle.  It doesn't help that bio is the only class I have in the afternoon (on purpose - I like mornings) and I'm kind of taking biology to get my science requirement out of the way.  Reed has really strict distribution requirements - more on that later.
But now I have French conversation with the lovely French Scholars, in which we talk about slang and babble at each other and watch the news.  Coming out of the bio building (where we have French conversation - don't ask) at noon makes me want to skip through the drizzly Portland day, speaking French all through lunch and biology.  That class makes me miss Paris so much it's not even funny.
On the other hand, maybe Tuesday isn't the best day, as I have humanities on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  It's hard to choose when you like all your classes (yes, even bio).

(the photo is of the autumn-ey Jardin du Luxembourg in the rain.  Oooh, Paris, I miss you... from here)

Happy October! And other things

Hello, blog readers, how was your weekend?
Dave and I went on a very Portland date on Saturday, and on Sunday my girlfriends and I had "Ladies Brunch" at Toast, which may now be my very favourite place in Portland (not counting Powells, of course).
It was also the first weekend of October!  I love October; I love Halloween (more on that later, promise) and I love bright blue New England autumn and even chilly drizzly Pacific Northwest autumn thus far.  And I love, love, love the fact that I go home in two weeks to see my darling family for fall break.  "I'll see you in October," my sister told me last week.  "Don't pine."  I love it here - I love my work and my friends and my life - but I also miss my family like crazy.
So, family and home friends, I will see you in two weeks!
Enjoy your Monday, everyone...
(photo from here)