It's Here!

HAPPY FIRST DAY OF CLASSES!

Almost There...

Happy Start of Move-In Day!!

Because Sometimes I'm A Tool And Forget Things...

Shoutouts to: MaryKate, Dana, Pete, Priyanka, Steve, Kristin, Ken, and Alexa-- all of whom I bumped into in the Admissions Office when I was visiting last week.

And Happy Belated 21sts to Simon and Amanda~hope your days were awesome!

11 days til Senior year and 9 til I move back!!

"I Feel It In The Air, The Summer's Out of Reach"

So today is September 4th which means that in just a few short weeks, classes will be starting up again. I'm excited for it...it's my SENIOR year! That's so bizarre to me. My roommate and I have had this thing going since freshman year where whenever we thought time was passing by so quickly one of us would say "we're graduating!"And now we're actually on the cusp of that. Surreal.

I'm actually in Philly right now as I spent half of my Labor Day weekend here. I'm glad that there's only a little less than 3 weeks left before I come back because I REALLY miss everyone here.

So that said, enjoy the rest of your uber long summer vacation and get amped for a new year at Drexel!

Until next time...

Nice Work...

... by David Lodge is the name of the book I just started reading. I haven't really gotten into it though so who knows if I'll finish.

Greetings from the Windy City! We arrived here on Saturday morning and no joke, took THREE hours to travel THREE miles on I-94. Not fun at all. Indiana bills itself as being the crossroads of America but there's less traffic in Times Square and that's the freaking crossroads of the WORLD. Bah.

Anyway, on Saturday we went and did the touristy stuff- drove down Lakeshore Drive and then went up to the SkyDeck of the Sears Tower. Saw some Amish folk at the Sears Tower; made me miss Philly a bit. Sunday we went to Devon Street which is basically the Indian part of Chicago. Poked around there for a bit, had lunch and came back.
My aunt is an OB-GYN with her own practice here so I've been spending most of the week shadowing her. I got to listen to fetal heartbeats and see ultrasounds...pretty awesome and totally surreal at that. All the people out in Indiana are super nice. I mean I definitely wouldn't want a total stranger observing me if I was at my OB-GYN's office but all of her patients were totally cool with me coming into the room and watching. I'm crossing my fingers in the hopes that I'll actually get to see a Delivery but it's not looking too good since I'm leaving on Saturday morning. But there's always a chance that someone will go into labor in the next 48 hours so I'll just wait and see!

I'm sooo massively excited for this weekend and next week. I fly home to NY on Saturday night and then I'm leaving as early as humanely possible on Sunday morning to spend the rest of Labor Day weekend in Philly. My roommate, Jess, is studying abroad in London for the fall so I wanted to see her before she peaced out. I come back to NY on Tuesday evening, spend two days at home hanging out with my best friend who finally managed to come home from Stanford for a week, and then I leave on Friday morning for D.C. Wahoo!! Good times are to be had. :)

Windy City

Leaving for Chicago tomorrow!
Apparently the weather's been sucking there lately though. The hurricanes kinda walloped it. So here's to hoping that our flight doesn't get canceled/delayed/drowned/etc.

Don't miss me too much!

Senior Year in 30 days, 15 hours, and 13 minutes! Wahooooooooooooo.

Until next time...

Senior Year...

...is only 34 days away!

As much as I enjoy not having to worry about school work during the summer (I'm a 4 year/no-op, a rare breed at Drexel), there comes a point where I tend to go a little stir crazy sitting at home. I reached that point roughly a month ago so I'm really looking forward to re-joining the madness in Philly. I don't necessarily miss the work but I miss the people like crazy, especially my roommates and my Brothers and the Betas.

I signed up for classes on Monday. I've got a full load (20 credits) this quarter which is kinda intense but after this quarter, things will get immensely easier. On my plate for the fall is: Gross Anatomy (we get to go on a field trip to see cadavers at Jefferson!), Biodiversity & Conservation, Embryology (with the best professor ever!), Applied Physics (blech), Ethnographic Methods, and Senior Seminar. The best part though, is that in spite of all my classes, I actually get Fridays off! That's almost unheard of for a Bio major because we usually have a combination of Mon-Weds-Fri classes and Tues-Thurs ones. I reckon I might just sleep all day Friday for the first few weeks and enjoy it. :)

Until next time...

Where Are You Living??

I'm a day late with this but Housing Assignments have officially gone up!
Get excited!

To see where your home away from home for the next nine months will be:

1. Log into Drexel One with your User ID and Password
2. Click on the MyHousing link

From there you'll also be able to see who your roommate and/or suitemates (if you're living in Race Street/Van R) is/are. Find 'em on Facebook or get to e-mailing them so you can get to know each other and also figure out who's bring what to the residence halls come September.

I'm gonna take a quick sec to reminisce.

Back during my Freshman year (Sept 04), I was in a 6 person suite in East Hall. I got my Housing assignment by snail mail and I reckon it was kinda intimidating seeing all these strangers I was going to live with. Back then Facebook was non-existent at Drexel so all of us had to either call or e-mail each other. My roommate Casey called me and I was nervous at first but we ended up having an hour long conversation! We didn't actually end up living together in the end (she had decided she wanted to switch to a more traditional dorm and got switched to Towers) but we still ended up being great friends. She transferred to Vassar after freshman year but we still keep in touch. My replacement roomie actually turned out to be fairly awesome so I wasn't too crushed. I still have all the e-mails the six of us first exchanged trying to get to know each other..we sent each other pictures of ourselves (again, no Facebook) and then had a grand ol' time trying to figure out who was bringing what. I laugh at those e-mails now but back then they were pretty much my biggest source of excitement after all my friends up and left for school in August.

So moral of the story? Talk to your roomies and get pumped for your first year of college!
Only 38 days left til Fall term starts!

Until next time...

Yay Southwest!

So I just booked my ticket to Chicago. I'm flying out on the 25th, shadowing in my aunt's clinic for a week or so and then coming back to New York on Saturday the 1st. THEN, on Sunday morning I'm going to wake up as early as humanely possible to leave for Philly and spend the rest of Labor Day weekend with some of my favorite people. It'll also be the last time all of three of us roommates are gonna be together before Jess heads off for study abroad in London. That part's kinda sad but I'll get over it. We already have dinner plans at Rembrandt's (awesome restaurant near the Art Museum and Eastern State Penitentiary) for Sunday night because we scored a $50 gift certificate to the place that only ended up costing us $20. I love all the crazy deals you can find in Philly.

The week after Labor Day my best friend Jess (yes, another one), is FINALLY coming home from her summer spent at Stanford, so I'll get to see her for the first time in nine months or something equally ridiculous. And then I'm going to D.C. to visit two of my other friends who go to GWU and Georgetown.

So let's just hope I don't die of boredom before then!

Until next time...

Degausser...

...by Brand New. One of my favorite songs of the moment. You should listen to it.

Been slacking with the blog as of late, my apologies. I thought I had written more recently but apparently not.

My parents threw their Housewarming Party last Saturday and it went off pretty successfully. Thankfully Mother Nature decided to be nice and gave us a gorgeous, sunny day to have it in our backyard. Michelle and Sarah drove up from Philly to come which was exciting. They slept over too which was great because sleepovers are always fun.

This week has been pretty mundane. I managed to go and get myself a sinus infection (or at least what I'm assuming is a sinus infection-my doctor is out of town) so I'm recovering from that. Yesterday one of my buddies from high school had her annual summer BBQ so we had a mini-high school reunion. It's crazy to see how everyone's grown up and changed. We've all known each other for seven years and now we're a year away from graduating college. Unreal!

In more interesting news, I'm not going to be at home for the next four weekends which makes me incredibly excited. My schedule is as follows-

Aug 17-19: Buffalo
Aug 25-31: Chicago
Aug 31?-Sept 4: Philly
Sep 7- Sept 9: DC

Then I've got one last weekend at home, and the Friday after that I go back to Philly for school. Can't wait!

Until next time...

Done!

Finished Harry Potter today!
I did all my reading over the course of the week at Target, Barnes & Nobles and Costco.
My mom had to do a lot of shopping for the Housewarming shindig we're throwing tomorrow and so everytime we went into any one of those stores, I picked up a copy and started reading.
So yeah, I read all 700 something pages standing up! That's true Pottah devotion right there.

Anyway, wow it's over.
I can't believe it. But it was such a good book! Even if it drag for a bit in the beginning. I won't say anything about it in case someone who's reading this hasn't read it yet. But I can't wait for the movie to come out! Three years. Ughhhh.

Until next time...

More Than You Know

So I'm up to the twenty-seventh chapter in Deathly Hallows and the beauty of it all is that I don't even own the book. I do, however, have the uncanny ability to read and shop all at the same time/ SO while my mother spent what seemed like 8356379231 years in Target/Costco over the past four days, I've walked around the store with the book in my hands. It makes for shopping with her much more bearable. ;)

I'm excited for this weekend. My parents are throwing a super-belated Housewarming Party (we moved in October) for a whole bunch of people and I got to invite a couple of my friends too! Having them around might make my life a bit less stressful as it's always fun to have someone to roll your eyes at when other party-goers are acting ridiculous.

In other news, I'm going to Chicago for a bit at the end of August to visit my Aunt. She actually lives in Indiana and she's a OB-GYN so I'm going to get to shadow and help her out with her clinic which I'm super-excited for. I've done a lot of Pediatrics shadowing but never in a OB-GYN's office; I'm curious to see how different it's going to be. After that I might be flying straight to Philadelphia to spend Labor Day weekend there but nothing's definite yet. My friend, Emily, is turning 21 the week before so she might have some belated birthday plans in the work.

All in all, I can't wait to get back to Philly. This time it's likely to be kinda bittersweet because it will be for my final year, but still! I miss being around my friends 24/7 and doing all the other stuff that constantly kept me busy...classes, PSP, Admissions, the Triangle. Don't get me wrong, vacation is nice, but after awhile not doing anything gets supremely boring. It's going to be a kind of weird fall quarter because one of my roommates, Jess, is going to be studying abroad in London. So it'll just be Michelle and I in the apartment for the next 3 months; not that I'm foreseeing any problems but I'm definitely going to miss having Jess around.

Until next time...

!!!

The Honors college has FREE tickets for Honors students to go see Wicked at the Academy of Music on August 7th!!!!!!!!!!

But I won't be able to go!! Booooo for being stuck in New York but two thumbs up to Honors for scoring tickets to such an awesome play. I mean even the worst seats to see it on Broadway would've cost like ~$75/ticket. But now some very lucky Drexel kids get go for free. WoW.

Did I mention that I adore being a part of the Honors College? Because I definitely do.

Shake Ya Groove Thing

I've officially deemed this past Wednesday and Thursday as the best days of my summer so far. Why? Mainly because I spent them in PHILLY with some of the best kids in the world.

But let's start from the beginning-
My roommate/best friend, Michelle's, 21st birthday was yesterday. Originally I would've had to have missed her birthday because of family obligations. Which saddened me a great deal..I mean would you want to miss your best friend's 21st?? However, I can be devious when I need to and managed to plan this 2 day trip nearly a month in advance.

In any event, I didn't tell Michelle I was coming down. In fact for the past two weeks, everytime I talked to her, I was bemoaning the fact that I would have to miss her 21st and that I was feeling super guilty for being such a horrible friend. In actuality, I was pulling together a midnight surprise party for her. So I got to Philly on Wednesday morning, met with my 2 advisors about school stuff, and then pretty much spent the rest of the day hiding out at friends' houses and praying that I wouldn't run into her.

Anyway, long story short, she had gone over to watch a movie at our friends' house and they walked her back to our place at around midnight where about 12 of us were squished into her room waiting to surprise her. The look on her face was priceless, and even more so when she saw me because I hid behind everyone else until the last minute. Man, SUCH a good night!! There was cake to be had...I devised a fabulous recipe for a three layer cake that consisted of brownie, frosting, chocolate chip cookies, frosting, more brownie and then frosting all around. She loves Swedish fish so my friend Regina drew ocean waves on top of the cake and we made an aquatic looking cake. Needless to say, Michelle was pretty ecstatic. Gifts were opened and then a couple of us went to Cav's so that she'd get to have her first drink as a 21 year old.

Thursday I mainly spent the day hanging out with her but I also got to pay a visit to Admissions and see a couple of the DWCs that I sorely miss. At night we went out with a couple of PSP brothers to Riverdeck which is an open-air bar/club down by the waterfront. Another awesome night! We danced into the wee hours of the morning and our night ended perfectly as the last song played by the DJ was "Don't Stop Believing" by Journey. That's pretty much become our unofficial theme song I think. We fell into bed around 3:30 a.m. and I had to wake up at 6:30 so that I could catch my 8 a.m. train back to NY.

I'm pretty exhausted (6 hours of sleep between 2 days), but this trip was SO worth it, no matter how short it was. I got to celebrate my best friend's 21st with her and I got to see all the wonderful people that have made my college life as awesome as it's been. Nothing but love for Philly...I reckon ya'll made a great choice when you decided to come to Drexel.

Until next time...

Dining Days!

Okay so yes I live a stone's throw from NYC (which I still wholeheartedly believe is the greatest city in the world), but I'm uber bummed about the fact that I'm missing out on University City Dining Days! =[

For those of you who don't know about UCDD, about twice a year around 20 normally pricey restaurants within University City offer amazing prix fixe deals at their restaurants. Depending on the restaurant you pay anywhere between $20-$30 a person and you get a full meal--appetizer, entree, and dessert. (Drinks and gratuity are extra). Plus there are a whole variety of restaurants to choose from- Thai, Mexican, Italian, Contemporary American, etc. It's a great and convenient way to eat at a place that your average broke college student wouldn't normally be able to afford.

The last Dining Days were held back in January, and a bunch of us went to Zocalo's, for my friend Trish's 21st. It's this cute little Mexican place that's pretty close to where I live and their margaritas are flipping awesome! So was their chocolate croissant-ice creamish dessert that I had. And we got all three courses for a mere $25/person. Pretty awesome!

SO, if anyone is going to be in the Philly area within the next week or so, you should definitely check it out! Dining Days are running from July 26- August 2. You can go to University City Dining Days to read up on some reviews or you can just check out the List of Restaurants. A lot of them require reservations since they tend to be pretty busy during Dining Days, so call them up and head on out for some awesome food!

Until next time...

Potter!

So my days are drastically different now that I'm not studying anymore. I've basically been going to the gym and lounging around the house these past few days and not writing my personal statement which I really, really, really need to get on. I bring new meaning to the phrase "Procrastinators Unite!...Tomorrow." I like the time off though. I went full speed at school for 9 months and hit the books again as soon as I got home so this is my first real break from all of that. Feels nice.

Today I'm going into the Village with my friend Danielle to do some shopping and then we're heading to the Barnes & Noble in Union Square for the huge Harry Potter Book Release Celebration that they're doing. It promises to be super intense. We're not staying until the actual midnight release but we figured it'd be fun to go and meet up with some of our other friends from high school. It's always fun seeing how everyone has changed over the course of the past three years and swap stories about who's doing what.

It's crazy to think I'm graduating Drexel next year...I even set up a countdown for it already--330 days left!

I still remember graduating high school though.. June 21, 2004- close to 700 of us kids plus parents, faculty, and speakers all in a swelteringly hot Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center in New York City. I remember feeling a whole lot of different things...excited at the prospect of starting at new place in the fall and anxious for the same reason, sad about leaving all these awesome friends to go our separate ways but determined to not lose touch with any of them. Three years later, on the verge of my senior year in college, I can see that I was a bit naive as a high school senior. I've lost in touch with a lot of friends, though not for lack of trying on my part. You go to college and you really do become another person..you change whether you want to or not and that takes its toll on relationships. It's sad to a certain extent but you need to chalk it up to the fact that life goes on and even the closest of friends can grow apart from each other.

Then again, on the flipside, there are some people that will always stick with you no matter how far apart you are and no matter how long you go without speaking to each other. Those are the kinds of friends you hang onto for life.

Until next time...

Dunzo!

So I get to my MCAT test center this morning an hour before the test starts. I am always early to life (I defy Indian Standard Time) and today was clearly no exception to that rule. I go downstairs to find the place but all I see is a bunch of card board boxes. "Weird" I think to myself and then I decide to go explore the building. Can't find the place. I'm a tad bit panicky.

I go into one of the office's and I ask them where Thomson Prometric is.

"Oh, they're not here anymore. They actually moved out a while ago."

EX-cuse me?

"But I have my MCAT in an hour, where did they move to?!"

The secretary is already turning around to photocopy for me a copy of their new address. Meanwhile I'm hitting speed dial on my phone trying to catch my dad before he gets too far. Mercifully he picks up (he usually doesn't while driving) and I quickly tell him to come back. The lady hands me the new address and I call the Customer Service number and they tell me that I need to go to this new place to take my test. At this point I'm in freaking tears because HELLO, it's an hour before my MCAT and you just told me my test center doesn't exist. I go outside and sit on the steps and try to calm myself down but of course that doesn't work because my heart just went from 80 bpm to like 2000. At that point I call my best friend, Michelle, and miracle of all miracles she manages to get me to chill out somewhat (relatively speaking). My dad comes back and we peel away to other test center which thankfully is only a fifteen minute drive.

I get there and huzzahhh the test center actually exists at this place! I asked the guy at the front desk how long ago they moved and he was like "about four months ago." Come again?!?! You would think the AAMC or someone would have the sense to notify its test-takers that their test site doesn't exist and give them the new address. I signed up in March. They had FOUR months to let me know and they didn't. I so DID NOT need that freakout an hour before my MCAT.
And I wasn't the only one either. Kids came in after me and they were all like "I went to the wrong test center." Ugh. So I managed to get myself to fully calm down once I was signed in and fingerprinted and everything. And then I took the test. It was hard, but it's the MCATs. If it was easy, everyone would be a doctor.

And I'm done now which makes me ecstatic. Now I just wait for the next 6 weeks.

::Gulp::

So my MCATs are tomorrow.

Yeah.

Leashes For Bunnies?

Apparently they exist! Who would've thunken it eh? My roommate, Jess, got one for her bunny Gromit. I wonder if we can take her for walks now? I'm gonna attempt to when I go back to Philly to visit.

SKYpe

The Honors College has free tickets to High School Musical! Boo for not being able to go =[

I'm not a tech-kid in the least bit but I highly recommend that everyone go download Skype .It lets you make calls FOR FREE across the Internet to anyone who has a Skype account, an Internet connection and a microphone handy. So AWESOME. I told my mom about it and she's on the phone with India right now telling them about it. We have this sweet roof on our apartment in Philly and back in June my roommates and some of our mutual friends decided that they were gonna have rooftop nights, complete with coffee and citronella candles. They've got a Skype hookup and wireless Internet and now that I've got Skype I can totally partake in the rooftop happenings. Excitement! But they better call me soon or else I'm gonna fall asleep.

Until next time...

51!

So the MCATs are in exactly a week. In fact, by this time next week I'll be celebrating my freedom. Well at least until my scores show up. I'm kinda petrified, but then again I wouldn't be human if I wasn't. I'm gonna give them my best shot and that's all I can really do. Hopefully things turn out decently. Or else I'll be uber sad.

The beautiful part is that I'm going to get done before all the Harry Pottahhh (it sounds more British when you say it that way) mania starts. I'm not hardcore obsessed like others but I am a fan of the books and I'm eager to see how she decides to end the saga. I don't have Deathly Hallows preordered or anything but I figure people will read it so fast that it'll only be a few days before I can bum it off a dear friend. The movie comes out the day of my MCATs so chances are I'm going to see it soon afterwards. I got to see "Goblet of Fire" at it's midnight showing at the IMAX theater at the Franklin Institute. Twas definitely an experience because the screen is basically a gigantic sphere and the movie stretched out over it. You had to move your eyes back and forth to make sure you didn't miss anything. I left at 2:30 in the morning with a ginormous headache but it was still a good movie!

The Franklin Institute in general is one of my favorite Philly places--there's always so much to see and do. Last year the Honors College had free tickets to go see Body Worlds and being the Biology nerd I am, I spent over two hours in that one exhibit alone. It was pretty fascinating. And of course you have to walk through the Giant Heart every time you visit. Right now there's a huge exhibit about King Tut and Egypt on display (Honors had free tix for that too!). Definitely a great place to spend part of your day. The fact that it's walking distance from Drexel doesn't hurt either. (You can take the trolley too if you're lazy).

Until next time...

RWB

As much as I hate that I won't be in Philly to watch the Independence Day fireworks at the Art Museum, I'll still get to see some around here. Every year there's a big show out on Jones Beach and cars just line up and park for miles on and people lie on their hoods and stare at the sky. I haven't been there in some time now but my parents want to take my relatives out so I think I'm going to tag along. It sounds a bit loser-ish, a 21 year old college kid hanging out with her parents on the 4th of July but going all the way into the city to watch the Macy's fireworks is out of the question for the moment. Don't feel like having to deal with drunken folks on the subway ride home. I was in Times Square for New Year's Eve 2006 and getting out of there was INSANE. The entire ride home my only wish was that no one would puke on me. It was fun, but definitely a little crazy. New Yorkers know how to party, what can I say? =)

Until next time...

YuM

Everyone needs to go to the Cheesecake Factory at some point in their lives and indulge in their desserts. I went to the one out on Long Island with some of my friends on Wednesday and I ended up in sugar heaven. Their entrees are nothing to write home about but they have a million different kinds of cheesecake and even more desserts on top of that. I really wanted to get the Godiva Chocolate Brownie Sundae but since I was in the Cheesecake Factory, I opted for the brownie sundae cheesecake, which, as its name implies, is half-brownie, half-cheesecake and a whole lot of hot fudge and whipped cream. DELICIOUS!

The closest one to Drexel is around the King of Prussia mall--what better way to end a day of shopping??

In other news, I'd like to wish a very
HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY to a fellow DWC, Brian!!! =)

Until next time...

How Lucky Am I To Have Someone Who Makes Saying Goodbye So Hard

Greetings from home! Life around here has been pretty low-key. Transitioning back home for the summer is always weird. You're at school for 9 months, living a pretty independent life in between going to classes and hanging out with your friends and doing "other" collegiate things. (Feel free to take the "other" as you wish). But then you come home back to your parents' rules and regulations. It's kinda hard to swallow, especially now that I'm 21. But I'm chugging along, mainly just studying for the MCATs. My great-aunt and uncle are here for the summer from India so I have to keep them entertained while the parentals are at work.

I'm missing Philly an insane amount, moreso than I predicted. Yesterday a handful of PSP Brothers went down the Shore to Ocean City and a bunch of them conference called me which made me the happiest person alive. It was great hearing their voices again although it made me miss them about a 1000x more than I already did. Like I said before college is all about what you make of it--the people you meet, the classes you take, the things you get involved in. I guess I'm really just missing how busy my life used to be in Philly. As sleep-deprived as I may have been, I wouldn't have done a second of it differently.

Until next time...

Monotony

So I'm back home in Long Island and I swear I started missing Philly as I was still walking to 30th Street Station to catch my train. It's silly but this was definitely my best/most favorite year at Drexel and so it kinda makes sense that I didn't want to leave. I got to know my PSP Brothers so much better, my roommates are awesome, the Betas are crazy, and there's a lot to be said for the Drexel "Wrecking" Crew. ;) The amount of beach trips and summer shenanigans that I'm missing is far too depressing for my taste. In fact I made everyone promise to call me and put me on speaker phone if they ever got together as a gigantic group. I'm such a sap.

Of course a lot of my friends from high school are back home but it's harder to see them now since they're in the city and I've moved out to the suburbs and have no car. I'm feverishly working on the car thing though so hopefully within a few weeks one will materialize. Or else the only human interaction I'll have will be with my parents...not the greatest thing ever.

I just got through 10 chapters of MCAT Studying (Gen Chem + O-Chem, GROSS) so I'm about to take a break to go shower and grab some lunch. As much as I hate it, the lack of social distractions here is probably good for my studying habits. The test is in about 3 weeks so it's crunch-time.

Until next time...

Awesome Weekend Recap

Saturday- PSP's Second Annual Scavenger Hunt
We split into three teams and combed the city from 12-5 p.m. for everything that was on our two page list. My Team was called "Team D" because when the four of us are in a car together the only thing we will listen to is Tenacious D. It seemed fitting, I thought. So that was an adventure. We walked from Penn's Landing all the way back to 20th Street in our attempt to find things and at the end of the day we were thoroughly exhausted. It took us 3 tries to find a Philly police officer who would let us wear his hat. We also had to find an Ontario license plate and after we unfortunately lost our first one in traffic we stumbled upon one out of nowhere on 19th Street. Emily and I were so excited that we ran across the street without paying attention to traffic. Oops. Good thing the light was red? In any event, we ended up coming in second place but that's only because Team Green Monster managed to find and take a picture with a homeless married couple which was worth a whopping 600 points. But it was still so much fun and at the end of the day no one even cared that they had lost. We cooled off with a celebratory run through the Fountain in the Quad. Excellent decision! That night some of the scavenger hunters hung out for a little bit. A very chill evening overall because none of us could stand on our feet at this point.

Sunday-
Went down to South Street with Michelle for some roomie bonding time. We got delicious Falafel at Mama's (between 6th and 7th on South) and after that we paid a visit to all the usual stops. It was a gorgeous day to be outside. On our way back to the train the grass at Independence Hall looked so inviting that we plopped ourselves down for a bit. Then we went to lay down on benches and ended up falling asleep for a good half hour. I woke up to find myself staring at a canopy of tree leaves. It was a very serene moment. A perfect one actually. I remember thinking that I did not want to move. We came back to watch the Da Vinci Code and then proceeded to make dinner at midnight.

Today-
My penultimate day here...I shadowed a D.O. (Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine) at CHoP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) so I got to sit in on his clinic hours. It made me want to be a doctor all the more which probably means that I should get going with my med school applications. Tonight Michelle, Jess, Sarah, Regina and I are going down to New Deck for Happy Hour/Dinner and then tomorrow I head home.

Until next time...

Yay!

I am officially DONE with Finals and DONE with my JUNIOR year...which means that I am now a SENIOR. Which is exactly as ridiculous as it seems because I swear it was just yesterday that I walked into my suite in East Hall to begin my freshman year. College flies, is all I have to say. I'm super sad to be going home for the summer because I'm leaving behind wayyyy too many awesome people. But hopefully home will be cool..it's going to be my first prolonged stay in our new house so maybe I'll finally get used to this whole notion of living in suburbia. I wonder what people do for fun there?

In any event, I just wanted to extend my CONGRATULATIONS to the Class of 2007! Woo-hoo--you made it and now you've got a super long summer ahead of you to relax and hang out before you dive into life at Drexel University. Live it up, make some new memories, and get pumped for college while you're at it. While I won't physically be at Drexel this summer I'm still around to answer all your questions, comments, concerns. On a related note, another fabulous New Yorker, Dipin, is going to be joining the NYC DWC team so make sure to check out his blog and talk to him too.

Until next time...

So I Was Trolling My High School's Website...

And I found this, which made me snarf my Tastycakes... :-)

Procrastination?

"We Really Should've Practiced Mountain Climbing"

...says the answer to the brainteaser on my Mensa Puzzle calendar.
It was a cryptogram of sorts relating to the infamous Jack and Jill. I'm pretty horrendous at Cryptograms so I skipped straight to the answer.

ANYway, the reason I'm up at such an ungodly an hour on a day when I have no class is because it is officially FINALS Week...woo-hooooooooooooooooooooo.

Or not.

In the spirit of studying and getting an early start, I told Michelle (my roommate) I'd walk to the library with her in about an hour. (Sidebar- the Library is open 24 hours during Finals Week; if I was still living on campus, I'd probably be sleeping there). Lucky her, she's going there to actually work whereas I'm going to hole up with my Nutrition textbooks. Even luckier of her, she only has one final and it's on Friday. Arghhhh. I love her to death but I usually tend to get the "why me" complex around Finals time because she never seems to have to stress about hers while I practically give myself ulcers everytime around. My other roommate (Jess) is on co-op so she's just been chillin' the entire term. Lucky girls. In any event, I'm shooting to make Dean's List again this quarter so hopefully that pans out for me. It'd be a marvelous way to end a rather non-tumultuous year.

In any event, Friday is my light at the end of the tunnel. My final ends at 10 a.m. and there will be an awesome fountain dunking to be had, after which the Betas are going to lunch (I think). Then I'm heading down to South Street with Michelle to do some early birthday present shopping for her and at night we're going to a show at World Cafe Live. That's Philly for you...always something to do if you know where to look. =)

Until next time...

Grand Slam

Today, after braving an ungodly amount of traffic on 76, a bunch of us went over to my friend Priya's house for an end of the year barbecue. Mind you we were jumping the gun a little bit because our Finals (we're all Bio majors with the same classes) aren't done until Friday, but whatever! My stomach is full of awesome food...most notably the super charred hot dogs. I'm not sure why they tasted so good--they were completely black. We went over to the local middle school and played tennis for a couple of hours which we've been saying we were gonna do since last year some time. Anyway, that was a blast..I hadn't played tennis since last summer but I picked up a racquet and it all came back to me. Made me realize how much I missed it. Hopefully I'll get to play some when I go back home.

Speaking of which, I reallllllyyyy do not wanna go back home for the summer. That makes me sound like a horrible person but I feel so settled in Philly and I adore all of my friends here...the Betas, the kids in Admissions, my Frat brothers...all of them. Plus my roommate just happens to be my best friend so my living situation cannot get any better. Which is why I'm kinda hating the prospect of leaving all of them for three months.

College really is all about the people you meet while you're there...the best advice I can give to anyone who's starting college in the fall is to go out there and meet new people and make friends; it's the only way you'll feel like you fit in somewhere. Be a part of something. I know shy people don't exactly relish the thought of walking up to perfect strangers (and trust me, I would know) but it's all worth it in the end. After all, the best way to have a friend is to be a friend. And mine are freaking awesome. :-D

Until next time...

Le Fin

Done! There goes my third year at Drexel. Today was the last day of classes and because two of my classes got cancelled, I was actually finished with my day at 1 p.m. Pretty sweet I'd like to think.

Best class of the day was Foods Lab. Our final consisted of telling him every principle that we learned in class that applied to making a pizza, and then we got to make an actual pizza! Excitement. Ours was supreme--loaded down with pepperoni, salami, peppers, onions, and mushrooms. Pretty bangin' if I do say so myself. We got out of lab early and because we had some time to kill before Metabolism we hung out in the Quad. A pseudo-waterfight ensued and we attempted to push one of my friends into the new Fountain but that didn't pan out as well as we had hoped. We're going to get him next week though, after our last final is over.

Tonight is Upsilon class' Induction into PSP!! This is super exciting, basically because it's the end of a long road for both the Initiates as well as the Initiate Advisors. After tonight I get to breathe easy...until Fall quarter when a whole new Initiate class comes in. But we can handle it. Kate and I = Team Awesome. So tonight eleven new individuals will be inducted into the Brotherhood. It should be good times.

Until next time...

"A" meaning from and "Capella" meaning the facehole

Last night was 8 to the Bar's Spring Show that I attended with three Ambassadors (Mary Kate, Andrea, Vanessa). For those of you who don't know, 8ttb is Drexel's only male acapella singing group. They're pretty awesome actually and last night was no exception. It was their tenth anniversary concert so it seemed like they were especially good. Their music is pretty varied...in one night I heard Guster, the Beatles, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, and Coldplay just to name a few. I think my favorite is their rendition of "Fix You" by Coldplay. The guy on lead vocals sounds so much like Chris Martin that it's kinda creepy. Also in attendance were Remixed, which is a group of acapella singing alumni and the Treblemakers which is Drexel's only female acapella group. My friend Trish sings for them so I had to make sure to scream extra loud for her. One of their newer songs is "Buttons" by the Pussycat Dolls and the best part is when one of the girls ties a bandanna to her head and gets up to the mic to rap as Snoop. Pretty hilarious actually.

Anyway, it was a fun night...you can never complain about being subjected to 2.5 hours of Acapella sung by cute guys. Alas, today, reality has struck and I'm going to go lock myself in the Honors Lounge in a little bit and bang out three papers. They're all in various stages of completion so it shouldn't be so bad.

Until next time...

Laughter

I just had to get in a quick entry about how awesome today was. Classes were routine but all the stuff that happened in between was awesome. For lunch, Michelle and I paid a visit to the Caf because we were getting nostalgic for our younger years at Drexel. We convinced Mary Kate (another one of the DWCs) to accompany us so that was a pleasant surprise. There's an actual ice cream machine in there now so I topped off my meal perfectly with a cone full of Edy's Chocolate Chip. DE-LICIOUS! After that I had some group project work to take care of for my Genetically Modified Foods class and then I hustled home. Tony (one of the Frat brothers) made Michelle and I dinner (steak and mashed potatoes) which was freaking AH-MAZING! And then a bunch of us went down to Franklin Fountain which is right by Penn's Landing down in Olde City. Franklin Fountain is basically a vintage ice cream place which has amazing confections. Three of us split the Mt. Vesuvius sundae which was chocolate ice cream, fudge brownie pieces, hot fudge and malt powder all combined in a gigantic fast food carton. SO good.

After that sugar-rush we all hopped a train back to campus to see the Drexel Football Team's last improv comedy show of the year. Drexel doesn't actually have a football team so the name is a play on our history. It was my first time seeing them but they were hysterical! Stein Auditorium was packed to the point where people were sitting in the aisles and standing in the back. Anyway, that was awesome and after it was over a whole army (okay, like 6 of us) walked back home on a balmy summer night.

Can't ask for a better day than that!

Until next time...

"There's Libraries In The Computers!"

The title of this post was a gem uttered by my friend Molly this morning. She meant to say that there are computers in the libraries but I suppose insane amounts of time spent on our presentation for Biochem fried her brain. ;) About half the Honors Lounge burst out laughing when she uttered that this morning.

Speaking of which, the Honors Lounge just got renovated and it looks super-spiffy in here! It's amazing what a new coat of paint and some new furniture will do for a room. The place actually looks bigger and everything seems spacier and brighter. Next week the Lounge is getting a new printer which is blessed news for all Honors students because the old one is wheezing it's way to a slow death. For those of you who don't know, if you are a member of the Honors College you get free printing in the Honors lounge...it comes in handy especially when you need to print out lecture notes, papers, or other stuff for class. I tend to live in the Lounge these days since going home in between classes is rather pointless for me since I live off campus. It's a happy place (most of the time at least) and when you've been around as long as I have, chances are you'll always bump into someone you know when you walk into it. When it was closed for renovations we were all kinda at a loss for where we should go. Plus you're guaranteed to hear the most random conversations in here. Right now I'm accidentally-on-purpose eavesdropping on a conversation between two guys who are criticizing Postmodernist thinkers. Go figure.

Today I'm doing a phone interview with a professor at Drexel's College of Medicine (DUCoM) for an article I'm writing for The Triangle. He pioneered this new laprascopic surgical technique in which he goes through the bellybutton to remove the person's gallbladder. It pretty much leaves no scar at all. Pretty nifty I'd like to think, although I'm not entirely sure how one can remove a gallbladder through a belly button. So that's in about a half hour and I have to stop by the office and grab a tape recorder for the conversation. I'm kinda nervous because it's the first time I've done a phone interview but hopefully it'll turn out okay.

Until next time...

Med School?

So today marked the day that I officially began the whole applying to medical school process. Tom Coyne, who is the pre-med advisor held an info session for all the kids who are planning on applying for admission to the Fall 2008 class. It was a bit overwhelming...there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done like filling out the AMCAS application, writing my personal statement, lining up recommendations, volunteering, shadowing physicians, etc. Thankfully we're pretty much told exactly what we need to and when it needs to be done by so it takes a bit of the burden off of us. The Steinbright Career Development Center (SCDC) provides a lot of resources for people who are looking to find jobs after graduation or need guidance in terms of applying to graduate and professional schools. If you're going to be doing a co-op while you're at Drexel, you'll be in close contact with the SCDC as you go through the co-op search and interview process.

Like many schools, Drexel doesn't have an official pre-med major. While it's true that most pre-meds are Bio majors you can pretty much choose to study anything and apply to med school as long as you have the pre-reqs, a year of Bio, a year of Physics, a year of Chem, a year of O-Chem, and a year of Humanities. In fact, there was one kid at the info session tonight who happened to be a Marketing major. You don't usually get a lot of business kids going into medicine, but to each his own I suppose.

In the end, it's crazy to think that this is all actually happening. College FLEW by. Junior year ends in about 3.5 weeks and then I'll have my last summer of "freedom" which is a very relative term before I dive headfirst into my senior year of COLLEGE. And then it's off into the real world and one step closer to what I'll be doing for the rest of my life. I can still remember my senior year of high school...in fact prom was exactly three years ago this Sunday. The juxtaposition is all too bizarre for me.

But stepping away from the growing up bit for a second, I'm going to the Jersey Shore for the first time EVER this weekend! I cannot begin to explain how excited I am about this. A bunch of us (mainly Brothers) are driving down to Wildwood for the day on Sunday morning. I can't wait to get on the Boardwalk and stick my feet in the ocean (even though Weather.com says it's only going to be seventy degrees). It's gonna be awesomeeeee!

Until next time...

Allelu!

The Brother Auction went really well. Even though attendance was sparse we ended up raising somewhere around $600 for the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation. I ended up buying my own roommate which she yelled at me for (I paid $51) but whatever. My grandmother died of breast cancer when I was 10 and so this was the least I could do. We all spend money on ourselves all the time for the most ridiculous things...it doesn't hurt to think about others for once.

Spring Jam was yesterday! I didn't get to go see Jack's Mannequin myself because I had a prior commitment but the Armory was teeming with bands and Drexel kids all day long. You could probably hear the music for a couple of blocks in every direction of the Armory. It almost made me glad that I live a mile off of campus ;)

It's 11 a.m. so I should probably go make my day a productive one. Gonna shower, grab some lunch, and then head down to the Honors Lounge to study and then meet with my group to work on our presentation about hemophilia. And then PSP meetings tonight. It's slightly funny how I spend almost as much time on campus on the weekends as I do during the week. Or maybe that's just sad? Depends on your vantage point I suppose. Oh wellp.

Until next time...

And Another Crazy Week Comes To An End...

Three more weeks left to spring quarter! I'm half excited/half sad about it. But at least it's Friday which is always an awesome occasion. Tonight is the Frat's Brother Auction. Brothers are going to be auctioning off their services (cooking, cleaning, driving, etc.) so that we can raise money for the Linda Creed Breast Cancer Foundation. I haven't actually been very involved in the whole planning behind this since I've had my plate full with Initiate stuff so I'm looking forward to see how it turns out. Hopefully it'll be a good night and a great success.

Monday, is Tri-Beta's first annual GALA! It's a pretty swanky, formal affair that's going to be held in our Grand Hall. We pulled it together in an impressively short amount of time so it should be bangin'. I'm excited for our centerpieces..keeping in mind that we are a Biological Honors Society, it's going to be a glass vase full of water with riverstones and sand at the bottom with a bamboo stick extending upwards and one little BETA fish floating around. How very appropriate right? I'm definitely going to snag one of those to take home. The only thing I'm not fond of is that I have to get dressed up for this shindig...I'm just not good at it! Heels and makeup and contacts..they all drive me batty. Fortunately there should be enough girls around who know what they're doing to save me from my fashion-reject self ;)

Have a good weekend!

Until next time...

Water=Best Stuff on Earth

So the quarter has been progressing at a fairly rapid pace. It certainly seems like my Junior year has flown by which is utterly bizzarre to me. But yes, we're now coming up on the halfway point of Week 7 which means I've got about 3.5 weeks of class left and then a week of Finals and then I head back home to New York for the summer. And then I get to take my MCATs and begin the Med School application process. Fun times. It's funny because Freshman year all I wanted to do was go home for the summer and now I almost wish I was staying in Philly because everyone I know is hanging out here. It'll definitely be fun to come back and visit though.

Some of the PSP Bros have a Jersey Shore trip in the works for Memorial Day weekend and that should pan out assuming that we get enough drivers. I really hope it does since I've never actually been down to the Shore before. When you're from NYC the only shore you need is Jones Beach or Coney Island. But it's great that Philly is in such a central location. Places like Ocean City and Wildwood are like two hours away. And then cities like NY and D.C. are also two hours in either direction. Pretty awesome I'd like to think.

Anyway, I've got 2 midterms to go study for so I'm off to do that. =[

Until next time...

Holiday from Real

Back home in Long Island today. It's a temporary respite from all the stresses and hassles of academia. The express trains were awesome today so it only took me a little over three hours to get back, most of which I spent napping. My pseudo all-nighters seem to be taking over my life. I study until about 2 or 3 a.m., give in to sleep, and then wake up at 5 to start all over again. Whatever does the trick I guess.

Today in Nutrition Lab, we made steak! There were a bunch of different kinds and they were all prepared in different ways and then we got to taste everything. Pretty awesome actually. Ahmed and I had to cook a London Broil and we were looking for differences between a thin piece of L.B. and a thick piece of L.B. So basically we took a gigantic rolling pin and smashed a piece of L.B. until it was quite thin. Awesome stress reliever! Kidding. I really do love that class though...it's definitely unlike any other Bio lab I've had at Drexel. After all, we couldn't exactly eat the glowing Vibrio fischeri bacterial clones that we made in Molecular Bio lab. ;)

Until next time...

Sharpies Are Awesome

Wow, this week has been crazy, just like the five weeks before it. But like I've mentioned before, I don't mind being busy. I do, however, not mind sleeping. That part is not cool at all.

So yesterday, Michelle informed me that CAB is doing a trip to New York to see Chicago! I got completely amped for it before I realized that it was the same as the CPR/First Aid Certification event that the Frat is doing. And as much as I want to see Chicago on Broadway, I've been wanting to get certified for an even longer time (it's a valuable skill to have) so something's gotta go. But in any event the Broadway trips are awesome. For $25 (at max $30), you get to see the show and you get a free roundtrip to NYC. The buses leave campus around 10 in the morning, and get to New York in time for the show. Once the show's over you can do whatever you want for the rest of the day until the buses head back to Philly around 6 or 7. You can't beat that deal at all! My sophomore year I think they sponsored a trip to go see The Producers. I didn't go on that one but I did go on the trip to Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum. Let's just say that we took a RIDICULOUS amount of pictures there.

In other news, it's positively BALMY in Philly. I think I might've got a tan just by walking home in the sun. I love this kind of weather though..you can sleep with your windows open and without covers on. Summer = the greatest season EVER. And Grey's is on tonight! Thursday could not get any better.

Until next time...

Gone Missing

Wow. Four days. That may be my longest absence from Blogger yet. Craziness!

In my defense, the last few days have been kinda hectic and my biggest concern has been finding the time to SLEEP. Sleep is definitely on my list of my top four favorite things to do. The others being eating, hugging, and showering (in no particular order).

But I digress. Friday night was the Frat's Ethnic Dinner, which was actually quite awesome and ridiculously filling. There was a TON of food and I ate until I couldn't move. Which is no small feat for someone my size. Saturday I did a bunch of school work and MCAT studying and met one of my old roommates for lunch. I sadly, did not celebrate Cinco de Mayo. My "academic conscience" got in the way. I suppose I should thank it in the long-run. Sunday was another Frat event, basically one large field day, after which point about 20 of us went down to New Deck Tavern for lunch. New Deck has the BEST cheese fries ever and it's a really short walk from campus so I highly recommend that everyone go. Plus, during Happy Hour, all appetizers are 50% off. So even if you don't drink, you can still go to get good food.

In other news, JACK'S MANNEQUIN is playing at this year's Spring Jam!!! I'm not entirely sure if I'm going to get to see them but the fact that they're coming is super-exciting to me. I've been in love with Something Corporate since high school so I'm all for Andrew's side project.

That said, I've got MCAT class tonight which I'm not really looking forward to and then an Anthropology exam to study for. So the daily grind continues but the silver lining is that I'll be done with my Junior year in roughly five weeks!

I Need To Resume My Normal Sleep Cycle

Seriously..for the past four days I've gotten in to the habit of going to bed at 3 and waking up at 6, all to study. And I've been crazy power-napping in between. Unfortunately some of those naps have inadvertently taken place during class WHICH IS NOT COOL AT ALL! So if anything, I need to resume my normal sleep cycle so that I can actually go to class to learn and not catch up on lost sleep. Because that's what the weekends are for.

I discovered an Indian grocery store in University City today! PSP is having an Ethnic Dinner tomorrow evening and we basically have to prepare a dish from our ethnicity/culture. Being Indian, I was in no shortage of food ideas but I had absolutely ZILCH supplies. Fortunately someone tipped me off to this little place on 42nd and Walnut and so that's where I headed to after my midterm was over. Well actually, before that I got sidetracked at Penn's bookstore. I initially went in there intending to pick up a copy of Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut because I get up to 10 points extra credit in my Evolution class if I read it and write a 3-5 page paper. Score! Anyway I found the Vonnegut book easily enough and then I got completely stopped in my tracks by their new fiction display. Ugh. Books, and especially new books, are one of my hugest weaknesses. Last year, whenever I had the time I'd go to our bookstore in between classes and just plop down and read whatever I could get my hands on. This year I haven't had the free time do that and so now when I do get chance to step into a bookstore, I lose track of time. It's insane! So what I thought would be a 15 minute browsing session turned into two hours of reading a book called Girl Most Likely To by Poonam Sharma. It was definitely what could be termed "chick lit" but I always find it super amusing to read about the Indian-American diaspora. It's both rare and refreshing that you find Indian writers expounding on it with minimal restraint.

So two hours delayed, I made my way over to the store. It was an absolutely GORGEOUS day and everyone was out in full force in their flip flops and shades. There were a lot of wiffle bats out. A couple of frisbees, some footballs. Kids working on their tan. The entire scene just screamed college at me. Made me glad to be where I was. Anyway, yeah the store was awesome..I stepped in and I swear it smelled like the stores back home. I definitely breathed in a sigh of relief because I was back around food that I had grown up with. I realize that sounds utterly stupid but I'm in Indian food withdrawal. I just hope that this dish turns out well. We'll have to see how it goes!

Until next time...

In-Flight Radio

I pulled my second all-nighter in three days last night/this morning. Not enjoyable. As much as I make myself stay on top of my readings and my classwork, I have a bit of tendency to panic come midterm time so I stay up and I read everything over and over again until it stops making sense. Kinda counterproductive? Most people chalk it up to me being a nerd..which I guess is partially true.

I graduated from the Bronx High School of Science in '04 which just happened to be one of the most insanely competitive and top ranked high schools in New York City. You LEARNED to be nerdy there or else the competition would floor you. I took more honors classes than I can remember and 6 AP Classes but I know for a fact that there were people that did more. I remember how I used to get upset over 88s and 92s on my tests. Our senior year they couldn't even rank us because too many Seniors all had around the same G.P.A. So basically whatever work ethic I had in high school I carried over to college. It's helped to a certain extent but clearly I've had to become a lot more intense about my study habits in order to do well.

That said, I have an Evolution Midterm tomorrow that I ought to go study for. Shooting for that 4.0 this term but it's not gonna happen without putting my nose to the grindstone. (What does that saying mean anyway???)

D-Day!

It's May 1st kids!
Get those matriculation forms postmarked today!!
Hopefully your form is headed towards Drexel!

And now I have to rush off to the most boring class in the world-Evolution. I'm firmly convinced that not even the most interesting person in the world could make Evolution interesting to me. It's just tooo BLAH for my liking. Oh well. College wouldn't be college if there wasn't at least one class that didn't hold your fancy. Fortunately for me I've enjoyed the rest of the Bio classes I've taken so we'll just chalk this one up to experience and move on.

Until next time...

I Can't Think Of One

I'm such a good/crazy roommate that I stayed up with Michelle and kept her company as she pulled her all-nighter. Well, I did some work too but I certainly didn't have enough to the point where I needed to pull an all-nighter. I did fall asleep on her floor sometime around 4 a.m. so I guess it wasn't a full-fledged all-nighter on my part.

C.A.B. is sponsoring a whole boatload of events in the next few weeks and I would SO be at all of them if my responsible student conscience wasn't getting in the way of me having fun. There's a paintball trip this Saturday, laser tag sometime next week, and then a Phillies game, a Riverdance performance, and SPRING JAM! And those are only the few that I can remember. I actually already know who's playing at Spring Jam (one of the perks of working for the Triangle) but I can't divulge it yet for fear that I might get tarred and feathered. ;)

Okay, off to PSP. Enjoy what's left of this gorgeous day!

Until next time...

Please Write My Folks And Throw Away My Keys..

Yesterday, Jess' mom took the three of us roomies out to lunch at Rembrandt's as a pre-emptive celebration of Jess' 21st. Rembrandt's is up in the Fairmount district by the art museum but I had never been there since I don't usually venture into Northern Philadelphia.

The restaurant was quite literally a half a block down the road from the Eastern State Penetentiary. For all of you non-Phillyites, ESP, is one of America's oldest historic prisons and a historical landmark in Philadelphia. Al Capone was once incarcerated there too. It hasn't been in use since the 1970s but rumor has it that it's haunted by the ghosts of past inmates apparently it's been around for awhile. Don't know how true the ghost thing is but a couple of years ago, MTV's FEAR filmed an episode there. And apparently Ghost Hunters come out to visit a lot. Every Halloween, ESP has this huge "Terror Behind The Walls" haunted house experience where you go on a tour of the place and then get the bejeezus scared out of you. PSP went last year but I had an exam or something the next day and opted out of it. Hopefully we make another trip this year. And if you're really into ghosts, there's a company down in Olde City that does Philadelphia Ghost Tours around Halloween as well. THAT was a fun-night (also another Frat event).

Anyway, back to Rembrandt's--great place! The top floors of the place overlook the Philly skyline. I didn't get to see because we opted to sit outside and enjoy the weather. I got this chicken sandwich thing whose name I can't remember, let alone pronounce, and it was pretty delicious. They've got a whole bunch of salads, appetizers, and entrees on their lunch/tavern menu that are pretty affordable. Jess and Michelle opted to split one of their wood-oven pizzas and this crazy looking spinach crepe. Good times were had by all--hopefully we get to go back someday.

And now I've got a ton of work to finish before I head off to, count 'em, THREE, different PSP Meetings. I'm clearly head-over-heels in love with my Frat. What other reason could I possiby have for giving up my Sunday evening?

Until next time...

Le Fin

And thus a long week finally draws to a close. After handing my Metabolism midterm in, I officially lost all ability to concentrate on any of my classes. I suppose three hours of sleep will do that to you? Dev Psych and Anth passed by in a blur and then I trekked home to meet Jess to go grocery shopping. I accidentally discovered an Indian grocery store on my way to the market so I may stop by there sometime next week because PSP is having an Ethnic dinner and I'm going to need a ton of spices if I'm making anything Indian.

I just got back from going out with a whole bunch of my friends. We surprised Jess with Dinner at The Melting Pot for her 21st Birthday. If you've never heard of TMP, it's a classy little fondue restaurant. There's one down in Center City but we couldn't get reservations until 9 p.m. there so we drove to the one in Chestnut Hill which is about 20 minutes away. We got two gigantic vats of cheese and a whole ton of bread, apples, and vegetables to eat with them. Once that was done, salad showed up which was pretty good, even if the dressing was a tad bit on the sweet size. The best part was dessert--CHOCOLATE fondue. We had two different kinds, one was milk chocolate mixed with Bailey's and the other was a Turtley mixture (milk chocolate with caramel and walnuts). SO GOOD. They gave us strawberries, bananas, pineapples, pound cake, brownies, and marshmallows as dippers. In the words of Rachael Ray, "yum-O." So I'm utterly full. And satisfied. Chestnut Hill is a cute little town, I kinda want to go back to go exploring someday. We passed this place called the TrolleyCar Diner on the way to TMP so we've decided to go back there some day. I <3 mini-adventures.

And now I've got to change and head back out. I'm celebrating the end of a loooong week with some of my favorite girls!! Good times are to be had.

Glycolysis

EDIT 3:13 a.m. I'm kinda tired from all that studying. Fortunately, Michelle stayed up too because she was working on her own paper. All-nighters are always easier when you've got someone to keep you company. Roommates= awesome.

That's what I SHOULD be studying right now because I have a Metabolism (Biochem) midterm tomorrow. Thankfully I've already reviewed my notes so I'm not freaking out too much. I just need to make my study sheet that we're allowed to bring with us and I should be good to go. I hope.

I just finished eating Chinese food with Michelle while we watched the first half of Sweet Home Alabama. We ordered off of Campusfood.com which is probably one of my most favorite websites ever because you can order food from a million different restaurants on it. So basically if one person's in the mood for Chinese and the other wants wings you can both order from separate restaurants and the food will show up at your door. No cash = no problem because they take credit cards too!! It's pretty flippin convenient. Now that all of us opted out of getting a meal plan, we order out like once every other week or something. It's a nice break from cooking dinner.

I'm going to be SO relieved after this midterm is over tomorrow. I've got a Tri-Beta meeting and then a bunch of us are going out to dinner, and after that my friend is having a party so I reckon we'll head over there. Saturday I'm taking a Full-Length MCAT (I can hardly contain myself), going to lunch for Jess' birthday, and then in the evening going to Lock-In. Sunday I'm probably spending all day studying and then it's just a whole bunch of PSP from 630-whenever.

Back to the books!

Until next time...

Drops of Jupiter

::really huge grin::

scott-stein@comcast.net (Scott Stein)

Congratulations! -- WoW Writing Contest Results

---

Dear Students:

I am writing to congratulate you on the results of the 2007 WoW Writing Contest. Please read below for details, as all of you are invited to read at WoW.

The results are:

POETRY CATEGORY:

First Place: "Ode To My Liver" by Sravanthi Dama -- $100 prize

Did I mention that I'm an absolutely WRETCHED poet?? YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

My Room Has Great Acoustics...

...but that is not the point of this entry.

::sings:: I've got so much work to do. Doo-dah, Doo-dah. I've got so much work to do all the doo-dah day!

I'll be the first to admit that I am totally used to the quarter system and it's fast pace by now. However, as my classes get harder, being used to the quarter system doesn't do much to soothe my concerns about getting good grades. I've got two quizzes and two midterms this week followed by one next week, another the week after, and two midterms the week after that. Whooo welcome to the quarter system! 10 weeks does not give you much time to slack off but at the same time I enjoy it because you get to experience more in the same amount of time as other kids who go to semester schools. For example, I get to have 3 new sets of classes every year while most students only have 2. It keeps life interesting. Instead of being stuck in the same classes for 15 weeks, I'm done in 10 and then I can move on. Plus, since our spring break comes after the end of winter quarter, it is an ACTUAL break. Most students at other schools come back from spring break and have to take midterms the following week. (I heard plenty of complaining from the Penn kids in my MCAT class about this subject). And generally, the quarters seem to fly by. My junior year is actually quite a blur to me right now..it doesn't seem like I even lived through winter quarter. I'm already a senior by credits and if I really, really wanted to, I could graduate a quarter early. (But I'm not going to because I'm in no hurry to leave Philly). High school seems so ridiculously far away, although I still remember it well. But now I'm closer to my college graduation than I am my high school graduation. BIZARRE.

So yes. The quarter system. Learn to love it and manage your time accordingly and you'll be a-okay.

Until next time...

I Traced A Way To Fall

The weather is absolutely amazing today. So much so that I think I'm currently in love with Mother Nature and Father Earth. According to Weather.com, it's 81 degrees outside right now. Delicious! I wish I was out there myself but I've got a Tri-Beta meeting in roughly 20 minutes and I'm pretty sure that once I go out I'm not going to want to come back in. They turned the fountain on in the Quad this morning so I sat and watched it for a bit because I got to campus early for my 10 a.m. class. I really want to see it at night when the lights change colors..perhaps some other time.

I've got two midterms this week which is a bit of a drag because they're on Thursday and Friday. Way to prolong the agony ya know? I guess it's good in the sense that I have more time to study for them, which I'm definitely going to need. I'm not too concerned about my Foods one but Biochem is likely to give me an ulcer before the week is up. Figuratively speaking of course. My stomach's mucosal lining does a pretty good job of protecting me against chyme.

::end geeky Bio major moment::

Last night was Upsilon's class Pinning ceremony for PSP. 25 Initiates got pinned in what turned out to be a shorter than normal ceremony and then everyone chowed down on an ungodly amount of food because it was a potluck dinner. It went off without any hitches which made me glad. Now we just have to get through the next seven weeks and arrive safely at Induction. ::fingers crossed::

Until next time...

Land of the Maries

So the Frat just returned from Maryland where we were down for the Alpha Beta Volleyball tournament. Alpha Beta is the chapter of Phi Sigma Pi at UMD and this is there 15th year holding this tourney. It was my first time there but apparently it's quite popular--Brothers drove up from Florida and North Carolina State to be there.

We left on Friday evening..it's supposed to be a 2 hour ride but we took a ridiculously long, albeit highly entertaining Wendy's break so we didn't get to the hotel until much later. There was supposed to be a "Greek Gods and Goddesses" Toga party that night but all of us were so tired that we stayed at the hotel and watched HBO. The beauty of the night was that there were 11 of us Brothers and only two double hotel rooms which, according to the hotel, could only be occupied by 3 people each. Whoops! So there ended up being 6 people in my room and 5 people in the other. We pushed the beds to the walls and inflated an air mattress on the floor. It was one ginormous slumber party. Pretty freaking awesome.

Saturday we woke up, went to breakfast, and then down to the field to the warm up. We got these sweet new team shirts that Lindsay designed so we were all decked out in Gamma Xi pride. Before the tourney started the President of Alpha Beta said a few words and we had a few moments of silence for Erin Peterson, who would have been inducted as a Brother this weekend into the Alpha Rho chapter at VA Tech and Reema Samaha, sister to an Alpha Rho alum.

Gamma Xi was slated to play in the first round against Beta Delta and while the Brothers put up a valiant effort and pushed it to three sets, we still lost. I didn't play..although I did have a mighty good time cheering my head off and coming up with new cheers for the Brothers. Later we did a park cleanup service event where we basically uprooted a whole bunch of invasive plant species from the park nearby. After the BBQ lunch we basically spent the rest of the day lazing around on the fields. Brothers got pick-up games of ultimate frisbee and football going..it was a very laid-back atmosphere. People were happy to just be hanging out with their Brothers on an awesomely gorgeous day.

GX went to dinner at Bennigan's (good food!) and then to the party that Alpha Beta had organized in a nearby Knights of Columbus hall. Good times were to be had...I was DD so I managed to keep my eye on everyone and we all successfully returned to the hotel in one piece where we played Rummikub until 2 a.m. Four of us left bright and early this morning so that we could get work done in the city. Pinning is this evening and I'm kinda anxious for it, hoping that people remember to do or bring what they said they would. ::fingers crossed::

Until next time...

Ugh

I'd just like to say that I'm not a fan of the 23 hour days. I mean, seriously, not cool!! I was up at 5 a.m. (yesterday) to study, left for school at 8:30, was at a mixture of work/classes until 4 p.m., at the library until 6 p.m., candlelight vigil til 6:30 p.m., Honors lounge til 7:30 p.m. and at the PSP Rush Event/Special Meeting until roughly 1 a.m. And now it's 3:34 a.m. and I've just finished e-mailing the last of the bids out.

And then I get to wake up in roughly four hours and repeat it all over again.
Can't wait!

Note the deep puddle of sarcasm on the floor at my feet.

A Casual Line

I'm currently on a break from studying for my Evolution test tomorrow. It's such a dry topic that doesn't hold my interest at all, which makes studying doubly hard.

Today was an adventure...after sleeping through the alarm that I had set for 5 a.m. I woke up at 6:13 a.m., freaked out for roughly three seconds and then leaped out of bed to study for my two quizzes. I gave the term "cramming" a whole new meaning. And I had some choice words for my alarm clock and my subconscious ability to ignore it but we won't get into that here.

In spite of my frenzied panic, I got to school a whole half before I was supposed to meet my professor (I was a crazy speedwalker today). Yes, I'm crazy like that. Most Indians operate on Indian Standard Time but all of my friends joke that I rebel against my Indian upbringing by being a hour early to everything rather than an hour late. It's true I suppose. If I'm not there early, chances are something's gone awry. Today was my loooong day of classes, five in total, 9-11, and then 12-3. It's doable provided I nourish myself during my breaks. After class I went to work and after work I went to meet my roomies and one of our other friends, Regina, for a quick dinner at Cosi's. They've had these awesome coupons in the Triangle which basically lets you buy 2 sandwiches for the price of 1 so we were all over that! One of the skills you develop as a college kid is the ability to find discounts or free food wherever you go. It's very a very valuable skill to have, trust me. Cosi's was too short for my liking and then I headed off to MCAT class which led to a grand total of 8 hours of class today. I'm a tad bit tired to say the least.

I forgot to mention that YESTERDAY was free cone day at Ben & Jerry's! I've gone every year since I've been at Drexel and I love it. Yesterday was a bit low-key since it was windy and it wasn't exactly ice cream weather but I dragged Michelle out with me and we waited in line for a mere 20 minutes before getting the most awesome flavor of all--Chocolate Fudge Brownie. YUM. So once we had dessert we came home and made a bangin' chicken teriyaki/stir fry dinner. Regina came over too and the three of us just hung out and chilled. It was one of those "I'm happy on the inside" kinda days..I love when those happen.

And now I really do have to get back to studying. Tomorrow is liable to be longer than today. Class 930-11, 1230-2, work 2-4 p, group project at 5, candlelight vigil for VA Tech at 6, Rush Night#2 at 730, Special Meeting at 9. Sometimes I wonder what my house looks like in the afternoons.

Until next time...

Hunger Pains in the Honors Lounge

In the best news ever, I just found out that CAB (Campus Activities Board) is sponsoring a paintball trip!! Twenty bucks for tickets AND you get free transportation there and back. If life doesn't get in the way, the Betas are rounding up and heading out again...should be awesome. Especially since this time we'll have some tiny idea of what we're supposed to be doing.

There's also supposed to be this sweet laser tag event in the Quad tomorrow which CAB is also sponsoring. Apparently they're going to set up a large inflatable dome and teams of 5 are going to go against each other. All in the middle of the flippin Quad!! I won't get to actually partake in it due to a combination of classes, work, group projects and meetings but I definitely want to go take a look at it if I can.

My stomach is GROWLing right now so I think I'm off to the lunch trucks. I <3 Drexel's lunch trucks...there's six million of them. (Okay, I lied, more like 10) But they're pretty cheap and oh-so convenient when you want to grab something quickly between classes.

Until next time...

Take A Moment

Stop what you're doing, and be thankful for your life and remember those who lost theirs in a blink of an eye.

Breather

Wow, clearly some divine Force took pity on me because the start of this week wasn't as horrible as I had anticipated. Since Archaeology got canceled, I took care of some stuff for PSP and then stopped at Wawa for a quickie dinner and headed off to MCAT class. I take Kaplan's MCAT class because there is a Kaplan center on 40th Street which caters to Penn and Drexel students. They offer a whole bunch of prep classes for college kids such as the LSAT, MCAT, DAT, OAT, GRE, etc. The classes are usually held on Penn's campus which is roughly a block southwest of Drexel's southern borders. So in other words, a very short, convenient walk. Drexel students also get to use UPenn's library which is actually quite massively beautiful. I really need to go in there one of these days to explore...

Anyway, I got to Williams Hall where class usually is and as it turns out there was some sort of scheduling error and all of the classrooms we usually meet in were occupied by Penn classes. It took about twenty-five minutes for a building supervisor to come by, but even then we were told that we'd have to wait for one of the classes to leave before we could use the room. At this point the 10 of us were pleading with our TA to cancel class. Apparently it's a crappy week for everyone because while the Penn kids were complaining about having Orgo midterms, Kelly and I were doing the same about our Biochem Quiz, Evolution Test, GMF Quiz, and Nutrition Lab.

Anyway, long story short, she relented and we got to leave. I got home by 7 p.m. which was exciting because it gave me a chance to get ahead on things. It's not that I purposely enjoy missing class...but I was relieved to have the extra time to get other school work done. My claim to fame amongst my circle of friends is that I have never missed a single day of class at Drexel. Yes, you heard right. I absolutely, positively refuse to miss class for any reason whatsoever. Last May, my friends decided to take a Thursday off and take advantage of the weather by heading down to Stone Harbor to go the beach. And as tempting as it was and as much as I did not want to sit in my Statistics class I didn't go with them. Whoo for not succumbing to peer pressure. I could never not go to class..I'd feel too guilty about wasting my time instead of learning which is the whole reason I came to college in the first place. Plus I overall just see it as as a waste of tuition dollars to skip class without a good reason.

So moral of the story? Don't skip class kids! It might become a dangerous habit once you start it.

That said, I'd like to take a moment of silence for the 33 students that were killed at Virginia Tech this morning. It's such a senseless tragedy..my heart goes out to them and their families. There's a chapter of PSP down at VA Tech (Alpha Rho) and unfortunately one of their Initiates is still unaccounted for...I wish I could do something for my Brothers but I guess I'll have to settle for keeping them in my thoughts for now =[

Under The Weather [hah, no pun intended]

Yeah so I picked my most stressful week of the quarter to get sick. Awesome. I think it was a combination of running around in the woods for 7 hours, and then working in the rain yesterday. So anyway, yes I'm not likely to be my cheerful, upbeat self this week and I apologize in advance. I've got six million things to do this week including two exams and two quizzes so the way I see it, I need to conserve as much energy as I can before I keel over. Actually, that sounds a bit dramatic...oh well. I've got to shower, chow down, and head to campus for class.

And you know how they say every cloud has a silver lining? Well, my Archaeology class just got cancelled...and it's the last one of the day. SCORE!

Blue Power!!

Oh man. Paintballing =AWESOME! Poco Loco is basically just this gigantic paintball field in the middle of the woods in Pottstown, PA (roughly 45 miles out of Philly). The 9 of us were on the Blue team with some other folks and we played the Grey team the entire day. The Greys were actually full of really strong, bulky guys and I was kinda afraid we were going to get annihilated but we took them DOWN! At the end of the day one of the refs let us go into the smaller fields where the 9 of us faced off against each other. That's the part when all of us got creamed the most. For most of the day we got pretty good at ducking and hiding and shooting from random places. We got ridiculously dirty though. There was a "swamp" field that was full of muddy paths and had a creek running through it..we definitely got the worst of that.

Anyway, I am SO freaking tired right now. And sore. And I think I may have mildly sprained my wrist when I was running for cover. In the end though, we had a fun, exhausting day...I highly recommend that you guys try out Paintballing. All of us were novices, and sure as heck, we made it out alive, with a couple of scratches and bruises. But after all, what would paintball be without a little bit of pain?

On a side note: I'm working Accepted Students Day on Sunday morning, look for me...I'll be the one in the yellow shirt and khakis looking like she's about to keel over ;)

Sniffly

Oy, my allergies picked a great time to kick back into gear. My eyes were so itchy today that I could barely stand to keep them open...forget about even trying to put contacts in.

The Tri-Beta induction went off rather smoothly this evening. We have now officially been installed as the Omega Sigma chapter of the Beta Beta Beta National Biological Honors Society. Exciting! Dr. Murasko, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences even came out to the ceremony and made a speech which was awesome because she's normally always so busy with her work.

After the ceremony a bunch my good friends and I (I refer to us collectively as the Betas) went back to Crossings to hang out for a little bit. Then the hunger pangs kicked in and we all went to Pizza Rustica where we scarfed down two pies in record time..I even bumped into my friend Andrew who apparently works there. Small world I suppose.
His life is so exciting--he's going to Paris in August (through Drexel) to study and work for there for nine months. Study Abroad is such an exciting opportunity..it wasn't feasible for me to do for a variety of personal reasons but how many opportunities do you really get to immerse yourself in another country for a prolonged period of time?? I know a bunch of kids who have spent a quarter (or more in London). One of my friends that I met this year who is a Digital Media major is actually doing the first half of her co-op for a WebDesign company in Northern Jersey and then going to Dublin, Ireland for the second half of her co-op. I'm quite literally green. No pun intended ;)

Anyway, back to the Betas...it was our first genuine reunion outside of class in quite sometime and it was quite lovely. I <3 those kids a whole lot. They make the whole being a Bio major bit so much more fun because they're usually ridiculous times a 1000. Again, I've had major luck with making the friends that I have made in college. There's really nothing more that I could want than good grades. And guaranteed acceptance to med school of course. Clearly, I'm a dreamer.

I've gotta hit the sack now because I'm going Paintballing with the Betas tomorrow!! There was a vendor that came to Drexel in February who was selling $5 paintball tickets. The field is in Pottstown which is about 45 minutes away from here and all we actually have to do is buy our paintballs. I've never done it before but I'm sure it's going to be super messy, if nothing else. We've been amped for this trip since February so hopefully it's all gonna be worth it. Hopefully I get my energy back by tomorrow...this week has sucked the life out of me. Although seeing the Betas today definitely made it better.

Roommates = Love

I just got back from seeing Oliver, it was FANTABULOUS! If I weren't so tired and faced with the prospect of a long night of homework I'd be singing along to songs right now. It was a wonderful night full of roommate bonding. These days (or at least since spring quarter started) it seems like I leave the apartment at 8 a.m. and don't get home until 10 p.m. which leaves little time to hang out with the girls. Which is a shame because we always have fun together even if we're like all sitting in the living room doing our readings for class.

Roommates are probably one of the biggest parts of college life if you're living on campus. Which I absolutely, definitely recommend! You can't replace the dorm experience at all.

Freshman year I lived in Honors housing in East Hall which was all suite style living.
Side note: next year the brand spankin' new Race Street Residence hall will be reserved for Honors housing and it's suite style too. Anyway, yeah, Honors housing = awesomeness. A suite is basically a mini apartment with a living room, kitchen, and bathrooms. I remember when I first walked in there with my parents they remarked that the place was more luxurious than our digs back home.
This was the view from my room:


















I had five roomies (twas a 6 person suite) on top of all of it! You can room with someone in your major or you can request to live with someone too. My roomie was a Business major and we got along remarkably well..mainly because both of us were pretty carefree people. The only issue the suite had was getting people to keep the place clean. We resorted to creating a chore schedule...it wasn't perfect, but we did what we did. We had some good times there...namely gorging ourselves on Ben & Jerry's while watching Law & Order marathons.

Sophomore year, two of my suitemates from frosh year (Jackie and Michelle) and I opted to live in North Hall, which was the upperclassmen residence hall. I was in a 4-person suite in North. Since there were 3 of us, I got a new roommate all over again. And I could not have asked for a more ideal roommate. Lauren was a Senior Interior Design major and while I was apprehensive about living with someone older we got along fabulously well. She got a job with an Interior design firm in Manhattan about three months out of college so she's off doing the real world thing now. I miss having her around. My favorite part about North, hands down, was that our suite had the craziest holiday decorations.
Case in point:

Check out the bats hanging from the ceiling and our life-sized skeleton. We also had a motion activated doorbell that scared the bejeezus out of anyone that knocked on our door.





















This took forever to do and looking back on it, it seems RIDICULOUSLY cheesy, but it was fun in the moment..











We made this life sized Santa by stuffing my clothes with a whole stack of newspapers and then tacking him to our door. We were nothing if not ingeneous. And we definitely had wayyyy too much time on our hands.

















Michelle and I decided that we wanted to find our own place come Junior year. We were going to get a house with 5 other girls but that didn't pan out. We met Jess in the process though and she became our third apartment-hunter. I found our current place on Craig's List It's about a mile off of campus which means it's an easy 20 minute walk. Even better is that the trolley stops right on the corner so if I'm ever feeling lazy I can take that to campus for a mere $1.30. That's like the cost of a pack of gum. The place is pretty swell. It's got a cozy feel to it... hardwood floors, exposed brick walls and skylights! We all have our own rooms and I've even got my own bathroom too! So off-campus living, definitely not a problem to find if you put in the effort.

So what was the point of my now ridiculously long entry?
Ah yes, I miss my roommates. Tonight was sorely needed. In most cases, your college roommates pretty much become your second family. They're the people you go home to at the end of the day, they're the ones that are there when when you stumble into kitchen in your PJs, bleary-eyed and hungry for breakfast. They're there for your most vulnerable moments and for your proudest. They're the ones that come to you at 3 in the morning when you're pulling an all-nighter and ask if you want to go on a Wawa run. Am I getting cheesy enough? I suppose luck may have something to do in finding the right roommates, but when you do, my advice is to hang on to them for dear life. Hands down I've got one of the best families ever...you'd probably lose if you tried to argue with me. ;)

Until next time...

Busy^2

I'm probably the only person in the world who seems to enjoy being busy. This week has already been crazy and based on my planner (a suprisingly useful tool for time-management--invest in one!), I don't have a free moment until the end of April...and weirdly enough, I don't mind! Being busy keeps my mind occupied which is a good thing because I should be exercising as many of those neurons as possible. Neurons die if you don't use them, as I learned in my Human Physiology class. So you might as well use 'em while you've got them because neurons also have this unique ability of not being able to regenerate. The things you learn as a Bio major.

Rush events for the frat (Phi Sigma Pi) start next week and once we have the Pinning ceremony for our new Initiates, the Rush term kicks into full swing which means Kate and I (as the Initiate Team) get our lives launched into overdrive. We've had a ton of kids come to our Meet Nights, moreso than we expected so I'm psyched to have a large Initiate class and to help shape the future of our Frat. Yes it's going to be a ton of work but I'm confident we can handle it. Plus all of the Brothers are super supportive of us and I know there'll be people to catch us if we do somehow trip up along the way.

Tomorrow (today) is actually a relatively calm day. After work I' m going to a poetry reading on campus that Drexel's Writing Program is sponsoring. Two poets, Sarah Vap and Forrest Gander, are going to be reading their works. I've never read their stuff before and while I certainly couldn't write a poem if my life depended on it, I have a deep appreciation and admiration for those who can. Anyway, the entire shindig is totally free and open to everyone and I psyched about the fact that it's mostly contemporary poetry--it's easier for me to relate to. The other exciting part is that I'm going to the reading with my buddy who just went on co-op this term...it feels like I haven't seen her in forever (okay, like 2 weeks) so it'll be a pseudo-reunion of sorts. We're officially poetry buddies now--this is the third reading we'll be going to. Last quarter we went to a "reading" given by Thylias Moss who is probably one of the most unconventional poets you're liable to meet. The Writing Program is really good about bringing in all sorts of writers and poets that you otherwise probably wouldn't have a chance to meet.

After the reading, the roommates and I (collectively referred to as the Triumvirate) are going to go see a production of Oliver Twist. I've been humming "food, glorious food" underneath my breath for the past week or so because that's how excited I am for this play. My third grade class put on a production of it and as far as I can remember, we put on a pretty awesome show for being 8 years old at the time. Okay, so maybe I'm biased, but whatever. Oliver Twist hasn't been in my life for the past 13 years (crikeys, I'm old) but tomorrow he'll return! I feel sorry for my roommates already--they probably won't be able to shut me up once I start singing after the show is over.