The Other Side

I am officially done with finals!  This, for me, marks the proper beginning of Christmas-y things and job and whatnot.  So tomorrow, I'll start my gift guide (I did one last year, too, if you recall...) and then be on my way home, and I promise that regular posting will start up again!  Four hour finals and crazy musical lunches and a small campus that's entirely burning up with stress make it a bit difficult, I'm sorry...
Have a lovely Wednesday!

One exam down, one to go!

I'll be back on Wednesday, everyone - until then, pardon the interruption!

Parisiennes...

Do you read Garance?  Have you read this article?
I don't live in New York, but it sounds true to me....

Well then

Hello, hello, day 2 of reading week!  "Well, then" is something one of my high-school English teachers used to say all the time, if he felt that we weren't on the right track for some reason or if other things were going on...
This morning I opened my shades and the grass was glistening scratchily with hoarfrost and the sky was bluer-than-blue and all the deciduous trees (there aren't that many around here) were just stark branches reaching up to the sky around Bragdon.  From my window at night there are these three old-fashioned lampposts that are glowingly lit up so at night it almost feels that I'm in Victorian England or Narnia with its single lamppost or something.  In the daytime, in the bright morning, I am transported back with the help of the hoarfrost on the grass and the bright sun coming green through the pine trees and shining into my face.
Good morning, blog readers!

photo from Apartment Therapy

Bon Iver

Hello, readers!  We are now a full day into reading week.
Do you know the artist Bon Iver?   I don't have any of his albums (something I should fix at some point - I really like "For Emma, Forever Ago"), but his songs on Pandora are lovely and remind me of New England winters, the long and early twilights darkening across snowy forests.  It reminds me of bleak Maine evenings curled up in large leather armchairs and watching the shadows of the branches on the snow outside, of lapsang souchong.
I don't know why, but they evoke stark Scottish Christmases and electrically blue winter light, icy seas and old boats and the laciness of French ironwork against the sky.
Anyways, I like his stuff.

The Week In Which I Make An Effort

Hi guys, sorry I haven't been around!
Today is the microbiology midterm (have I mentioned how unfair it is to have a midterm and then an exam?  Because that's how my schedule is set up) and tomorrow is the French final!  After that I only have six short days until the biology and humanities final exams (three and four hours long, respectively) and going home and the like.
Anyways, since today is a three-day week, I am going to make an effort.  My friend Willamae jokes (or at least, I hope she's joking) that I dress like an old person, and I'm pretty sure that this is a result of brutally cold East Coast winters - trust me, layering is your friend!  So I'm trying to wear nice things this week.
My mother told me before I left for Reed not to lose the fashion sense I'd picked up in Paris, and I'm trying not to.  So today I am doing what many Parisian ladies do and wearing my "special occasion" clothes on a normal day.  These are the dresses that back here, I'd wear for fancy parties or dates, but I would just wear to class or grocery shopping in the 14th and the 3rd.
Making An Effort also applies to schoolwork.  I'm working hard for my upcoming exams and the ends of classes, and I'm almost there!
To everyone else in the midst of exams and college applications and December madness, good luck!  Hang in there!
(lovely fireplace from Apartment Therapy)

Happy Advent

Guys!  It's December - almost Christmas!
Last night I didn't have my family around for Advent for the first time ever, so I dragged my boyfriend back to my room after a cappella and made him open my advent calendar with me and sing Christmas carols.  I enjoyed myself, at least.
Did I mention that his mother made me a pencil case and some hairbands that she sent in a care package?  It was super sweet, especially given that I've never met her.  Thank you, Dave's mum!
Today is Spring/Fall at Reed, a miniature Renn Fayre and thesis parade for the Spring/Fall seniors (those who took a semester off or didn't finish their PE credits in time) and while it sounds really cool, I'm not sure I'll go.  I have a humanities paper due at five tomorrow, you see.  And while that is enough time for me to finish it tomorrow, and while I have something that looks like a thesis, I really like to be prepared for humanities.  Every paper I write for this class, my professor takes about an hour out of her day to talk to me about it - what I was thinking, how I wrote it, what was good and what could be done better.  That kind of attention is rare for freshmen at other universities, and I want to show the respect that I feel for this class and my professor.  I love humanities - I love the Agamemnon and Cassandra - I love that I go to a school where this is what I spend my time doing.
The other reason I might not go to Spring/Fall is kind of superficial.  It is a mini Renn Fayre - the real thing is a whole weekend and I'm excited for that, but hanging outside for a long time for a parade and glitter (I really don't like glitter getting in my hair/clothes/things, as it never EVER comes out) in the chilly Portland evening doesn't sound like my kind of thing.  So I might go for a little while, but not the whole thing.  Thesis parade starts in an hour - perhaps I'll be there for the beginning and then come back to write on the allegory of Cassandra's sacrifice.
Happy Advent, everyone!