Concert!

Hi guys -
It is one of those weeks for me!  French test, two biology labs, a paper for humanities...
Luckily, I have fun things going on, too.  Tonight my darling boy and I are going to a concert in downtown Portland to hear Jonathan Coulton and They Might Be Giants.  I don't know either of them that well, so I'm super-excited - and it's also nice to just get off campus and do things sometimes, no?
Have a lovely Thursday!
(I just think this is really pretty.  From here)

Getting Sick

Hi guys,
Sorry I wasn't around yesterday.  An attack of something and a grueling biology lab set me back a little, I have to admit.  I'm not entirely better yet, so I'm wondering: what do you do when you're sick?  Do you sleep it off?  Do you persevere?  Do you crawl into bed and watch silly movies?  Let me know!
Love,
Bronwyn

All honour and glory

The Doyle Owl is an integral part of Reed culture (you can read about it here).  Before Saturday night it had last been seen two years ago, but it appeared once again on the fifth of November, and an Owl Fight ensued.  A campus of approximately 1200 people all going after an owl, trying at first to just touch it, then trying to steal it (timé, or honour, goes to the group who possesses the owl) is hectic and scary and represents the best and worst of Reed.
My dorm, Chittick, now possesses the owl.  Others will tell you that it belongs to an alliance of off-campus houses and the frisbee team, but I will see it as a Chittick victory.  Every so often I think about it - we are a small dorm, and we have the owl - and I smile, ridiculous stupid smiles plastered all over my face.
On the other hand, people got hurt.  Seriously hurt.  I wasn't involved in the acquisition of the owl, but I have friends with cuts and bruises and concussions.  People get hurt in this situation, but they shouldn't have, to the extent they did.
So, while we have the owl (and timé), real timé is when you don't hurt your friends.  Real timé is reserved for the people who pulled me out of the massive throng when I fell down and screamed, the people who kept me from being trampled, and the people who sat off to the side with band-aids and water.  
I am glad that I have seen and experienced the owl.  I'm just not sure that I'm ready to again anytime soon.

Beautiful Thursdays

I should really be writing my final paper on "L'Étranger" for French, but that is interrupted because of the mist rising off of Reed Lake in the canyon.
I was told (or thought) that fall here would be miserable.  I like the rain - I love the rain - but the thought of no beautiful New England autumn full of bright blue skies and trees so red that you want to cry seemed awful.  I was picturing basically no colour change, no blue sky days, just the drop from perfect late summer to a brown and grey semi-winter (semi because there is no snow) in between biology tests and walking to class and lunch in Commons with my boyfriend.
That isn't true.
In the North Parking Lot sapling trees are redder than anything and in the canyon there are perfect maple branches leaning out over the water, and in the morning, when Emily and I walk to breakfast together, the mist curls off the lake and makes everything just a bit more otherworldly, just a bit more incredible.  And yes, it rains and mists and there are few bluer-than-blue days but almost every day we get a little sun and the clouds part and it's ever so beautiful.
It's beautiful in the rain, too, and sitting in my bedroom I can see the grey descending into the campus and hear the drops above my desk and try to concentrate a little more on my French.
The sun just came out, and now I can see across the canyon and the light shining green-golden through the trees.
Have an incredible day, everyone.

The Fault In Our Stars

I am a card-carrying nerdfighter (that's not true - I don't have a card) after an ex introduced me to their videos and I was hooked.  Dave is also a nerdfighter, which is nice, but I'm not going to talk about relationships or videos.
One of the brothers behind the videos is John Green, the author.  And he posted a video a little while ago of himself, reading the first chapter of his next book, "The Fault In Our Stars."  Go listen to it.  It's beautiful.
Also, happy Wednesday.

Something That Makes Me Smile

My twin-friend's letters on the wall.
I miss you, Alexandra!
(Also included are a Nantucket Nectars bottle cap, a fortune-cookie fortune, and a Paris Métro ticket)

Happy November and Mumford & Sons

Happy November, everyone!
This is one of my favourite months (up there with October) as it's properly fall now (except on the poor East Coast, where it's now winter) and all other sorts of things.  Like NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month).  Are you participating?  In thirty days, you write a 50000 word novel - I'm trying it for the first time this year - and my "winning" or completing my novel is entirely contingent on how much work I have.  Speaking of, I have a bio midterm in less than three hours...
In other news!   Do you know the group Mumford & Sons?  My darling cousin Bryan, who also likes the Punch Brothers (whom we've discussed here and here) recommended their music to me - as I recall, "like the Punch Brothers but English and without the mandolin."  Perhaps not exactly like that, but still super good - I highly recommend checking them out!

(frosty leaves, for those of you in snowy climes.  From here)