Off The Clock

It's Wednesday morning on the last day of classes before exams begin. After a week of procrastinating, last night saw some serious progress in packing up my room. Unfortunately, this inspiration hit me at 2am. So, I was running a minute or two late for anthro and there on the corner were the Head RAs, handing out donuts from the Old Fashion Bakery down the road. Angels, these kids!

I'll confess: I didn't take one. Donuts freak me out, but I did appreciate the sentiment. I sat through my first class on an empty stomach in favor of a bagel in the Java Joint (where I am now) and I can't say I regret my decision. I love a good bagel and OJ in the morning.

There was an ice storm in the midwest yesterday and all the sidewalks are nearly impossible to navigate. Still, the trees are beautiful and it's not too cold out. The Java Joint is warm and full and smells like the weak, horrible coffee they serve here. (Clearly, I have no real complaints today.) The fact that there are only a few class periods left seems to have mellowed everyone out, including myself. I am in an stress-free oasis. It's nice here.

This is my last blog of the semester, but also for the year. I'm off to Rennes, France for the spring. Next semester some new SOI will start up a blog of their own and fill it with Beloitian things far more scintillating than the details of the sidewalks and the color of the coffee. Thanks for reading along & good luck with all your college decisions this spring! I think it's time to sign off before I pretend to know anything about giving good advice.

Au revoir!
JuliaBeloit

I Made You Cookies! I Brought You Flowers!

Above: Sean Hershey holding flowers he swiped off the dining room table of the Spanish House at around 12:30 AM. He's clearly swept away in rapture with the spirit of the season. Or maybe just a little tuckered out.


Above: Anacelia Saenz and Ruby Jennings on cookie sheet tectonics. No two cookies may touch.

Last night after the library closed, my friend Danny invited a small crew over to the Spanish House for some much-needed stress relief and a cookie carnival. Admittedly, all cookies were baked from premade dough, but the decoration was all our own skill. My friend Anna has a famous stash of "Hanukkah Cookies" (read: shape of the Star of David, blue frosting, and appropriate sprinkles) she gets annually and shares liberally. There are a lot of cookies to be had on campus. My own family does a great job keeping baked goods flowing my way, especially during stressful times such as these, but sometimes it is necessary to strike out into the culinary world on one's own. Besides, half the fun of holidy cookies is getting frosting on your face.


Above: Anacelia and Ruby showing off their best work. I believe Anacelia has a duck and a star, while Ruby is displaying some perversion of St. Nick and a particularly lovely tree.

Below: Please forgive me for not posting any photos of myself in the wee hours of the morning. Instead, let me present you with my cookies. Yes, those are carrots mixed in with one particularly lovely red reindeer. He's got a little 'tude and a rather confuddling anatomy, but these things happen when you play with cookie cutters past midnight. Some of the shapes we had at our disposal were Easter-themed (hence, the crosses and the carrots and the umbrellas-- not pictured). Whatever the shapes of the cookies and however blue my hands are dyed this morning, it was a great study break to celebrate the passing of Hump Day.



Next week: finals and how Anacelia kicked Calc like a bad habit.

Stop Making Sense

Beloit College students love dance parties. I'm quite partial to them myself. There are some parties clubs hold annually that everyone looks forward to. This weekend, the Outdoor/Environmental Club held their Talking Heads Party. All Talking Heads, all night long.
It's the perfect theme: every song is danceable and it doesn't matter how familiar you are with the jams because the beat is loud and good and steady.

Clearly, I'm a fan.

I could fill this space with stresses or make some quip about the title of the reading assignment I'm currently wading through ("The Dead," James Joyce). I could upload some pictures of the delicious brie and multi-grain loaf I picked up at Cub today-- I promise I don't usually take pictures of my food. The lighting was just particularly lovely on the West side of Porter Hall this afternoon. Anyway, I won't do that. The pictures aren't readily here in Admissions and the stresses are just fine in their place, listed as assignments in my day planner. Besides, if you're reading this with the Common App open on another window of your browser, chances are you have quite a long list of your own to mull over. Good luck with that. I recommend dark chocolate.

Welcome to December! There's not much light, but at least there's good music.

P.S. In breaking out my winter jacket this weekend, I made a startling discovery: it has pockets. It would seem that my brown peacoat is a little too classy for me. The manufacturer tacked the pockets shut, so they seemed to be faux. Just part of the seams on the front. Just another reason my cell phone is always falling out of the back pocket of my jeans. I am in the habit of hooking my thumbs into the small hole that was exposed, but finally broke apart the stitch to claim full function of my coat. It's like a whole new garment.

Thought I would share in the interest of self-exposure. Ho-hum. Dark chocolate, anyone?

P.P.S. Please forgive this obnoxious, crunched format. Blogger is giving me 'tude.

It's Colder

Low and behold! Five-and-a-half hours north of Beloit, Wisconsin, Minneapolis/St. Paul are dusted in snow. I didn't bring my winter coat on my big Thanksgiving adventure because I don't learn from my mistakes (see: contents of my suitcase over Thanksgiving Break last year). It's colder farther north. It's always colder. This is a rule I learned this weekend.

I don't get a lot of chances to get up to the twin cities because rides headed that way are on the scarce side, but one of my dad's sisters does live up in that neck of the woods, so I take the opportunities when they drive down College Street. I spent Turkey Day baking a pumpkin pie with my cousins up in Minnetonka, Minnesota. They were a total blast. I don't spend a lot of time around 6, 4, and 2-year-olds these days, but they were super. I even got to meet new baby Caroline! I must confess that no pictures were taken the whole holiday, so I've got no proof of how cute these kiddos are except my solid gold word: they're adorable and blond and look entirely like the side of their family that I have nothing (genetically speaking) to do with.

I do, however, have evidence of the day I spent with my Beloit friends at the Walker in Minneapolis. We went to see the Frida Kahlo exhibit and came out overwhelmed and thoroughly educated in her life and work. Naturally, this warranted a group picture. We were mere yards from the Sculpture Garden, home of the Cherry-Spoon-Bridge-Landmark Thing (pictured above) that every visitor in the world takes their photo with (see Quinn's latest post, where she unknowingly proves my point). So, we faced the cherry and had someone else's mom take our photo.

Above L to R and mostly very far from home: JuliaBeloit, Danny Zipse (Portland, OR), Anna Noyes (Sorrento, ME), Sean Hershey (St. Paul, MN), and Anacelia Saenz (Austin, TX)

No, Anna's sweater wasn't a planned promo. Yes, we were frozen by the time this photo was taken. In any weather, it was a great diversion and now my nose is pressed flat against the grindstone. I've got three weeks to pass all my classes, pack all my earthly possessions, get a visa for France, and get on a plane to Vermont.

Layer up. The pond in the Sculpture Garden is frozen and so is my nose. A hat might not be a bad idea either...

The Use & Abuse of Caffeine

I'm not actually abusing coffee, but the beverage does seem to aid a bit with the waking hours this gray time of year. I'm getting in some of the best naps of my life, but that's not really what I'm here for. So, I've been search for antidotes to November. Here's what I've got to tide me over until the snow flies:

• My big sister came to visit from Rhode Island. Hanging out and scarfing nachos is better with family.


• Knowing that I'm taking off for another Thanksgiving in the Twin Cities on Wednesday afternoon.


• Those cookies mom sent last week. (No, thank you Glad-Press-&-Seal!)


• Running. Walking. Biking. Breathing cool air outside of my admittedly stuffy dorm room. I love my single in Porter, but I'm already going through lotion like water. Also, dodging the geese down by the Rock River. Those birds are vicious.


• Virginia Woolf. No, just kidding. However, throwing myself into work isn't so bad once I get the pages turning.


• Flight of the Conchords. It's a duo and an HBO show and the best way to understand is to YouTube these seriously funny guys or better yet, click this link to my favorite jam.


• Good company. Whether I'm sneaking off from the library to grab a snack at Taco Bell or walking out Colley Road to gawk around the horse farms, my friends are keeping me out and about and almost entirely off of c-c-caffeine. Except right now, when I am sitting in Admissions sipping on the vanilla frapp I picked up when I took my sister out to the bus stop. Little do they know...

I can't believe next week is Thanksgiving. Start loosening your belts kiddos. There's pie and potatoes and even the vegetarians are planning on overeating this year...

The Woman With All The Answers

(There are no pictures to accompany this post, but it took me a while to articulate my thoughts. Please bear with me, although I acknowledge this is a long one.)

Wednesday was International Symposium Day. I would bother to explain why I got up at 7AM on a day when classes were canceled to attend a bunch of presentations in windowless rooms. But Symposium Days are an important part of Beloit. That may seem overstated as they are just one day out of each semester, but I sat through six consecutive symposiums today that touched upon the role of the AIDs pandemic in various African nations. I went to one talk on shadowing a Peace Corps worker in El Salvador and one on organic farming in Germany. None of these students had an easy time going abroad, but what my friends learned enriches our entire campus. Each of these students comes back with an understanding with depth and color that you can't get from in any classroom. That’s the practical reason we bother with Symposium Days. Plus, sharing is fun.

And now I move on to the inspiration for the hyperbolic title of this post: Carol Bellamy. Carol Bellamy is a big deal. Click the link. Read up. She’s got a mighty impressive résumée. Ms. Bellamy attended several of the symposiumsI sat in on today, spoke with our Model UN club, and gave an open lecture on the need for Global Citizens to round out her visit to campus.

She's the kind of speaker who makes you want to change your course of study. I'm not saying I'm about to hop over to the Registrar's Office and change my major to International Relations. At very least, she made me certain that I will go abroad twice. I've been waffling. I've been reconsidering choosing France (as it is a stable, developed nation)-- and she touched upon this as well. Ms. Bellamy cited statistics about study abroad on the global level. In the US-- less than 1% of students (approx. 200,000 annually) go abroad during their undergraduate experience. I'm proud to say just under half of Beloit students study abroad before they graduate, contributing a couple hundred to that annual stat. Let's face it: the NY Times article I linked above runs along many of the same lines Ms. Bellamy touched upon and states them more artfully than I might. To follow this train of thought, click away.

If all the prospective students could have heard her, you would understand why I live on the border of southern Wisconsin over a thousand miles from my family and friends. It would make sense that I want to double major is French and any field that will land me solid communication skills.

In a way, I came here to leave this place. I am comfortable here. I love my friends and my classes and my Beloit Life (shameless, I know). I could have loved my undergraduate experience at many colleges if I chose to, but I remember reaching a point in my college search where I realized that coming to Beloit would push me and provide the motivation to become the a "global citizen." Studying in France is outside my comfort zone and a sizeable hop over the language barrier. Studying in Senegal would be out of my league entirely. So, I'm going to do it. I'm doing it because Senegal is not a country that has the same level of respect for women and their health as the US. I'm doing it because it's likely that I won’t have many more opportunities to choose to live in this kind of transitional climate again in my life. Getting perspective is what we're here for.

I was leaving Pearson's Hall on my way to Middle College for work last night and John Burris, the president of our college, held the door for me on my way out. It was all I could do not to turn to tell him how glad I was to have heard that speech on my way over to talk to prospective students. Some nights, loving this place makes this job a piece of pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting (alla Commons).

In conclusion, when it’s windy on the quad or your visa application makes you want to turn on some Sufjan Stevens and crawl under the covers for a week, a Beloit student has to keep a wary eye on the Student Activities Board in case some amazing person might be on their way through Beloit who will remind you why you ever left home.

Puts Hair On Your Chest

Oatmeal, that is. And quite effectively (or so I'm told). It's also my breakfast-of-choice for the month of November.

My weekend was productive. I like that in a weekend. There was coffee and letter writing and great running weather. It has also been great eating weather. It's chilly enough that have to bundle up, but you arrive at Commons wanting warm grub. On the way out, you can bask in the warmth of your own digestion all the way down the Chapin steps before you noticethe chill. Across the office, Californian Quinn is oozing joy that we made it through October without any of the white, fluffy stuff as it did last October. Snow-shmoe. I say it's pleasant.

Speaking of pleasant things, I did some serious eating tonight. The Cross Country team is traditionally hosted by Coach Dave's family at their lovely home in Pecatonica, IL each season for a little something we call "The Breakfast of Insanity." Sunday night dinner is always a challenge with the dining hall closed (as you read every week on the blogs), but today my main challenge was leaving enough room to, erm, fully appreciate the meal. I dined on stuffed blueberry french toast, spinach quiche, hash browns, pumpkin bread, and homemade applesauce. Those of us who were more carnivorously inclined polished off the greater part of a pig in bacon. All of us left drowsy. Thank you, Mrs. Eckburg.

With Thanksgiving looming on the horizon, everyone is scrambling to make plans and looking forward to seeing family and friends at home. It's not a bad study plan, but I'm taking a new tact this year: I'm studying my way towards mashed potatoes. Starch is an excellent and seasonally appropriate motivator. Try it out. Add garlic. Add butter. It's delicious.

Oh, Judy! You Shouldn't Have...

Look! A flamingo, an 80's exercise diva, Old Judy, Young Judy, a pirate, Amanda's Aunt Susan (at Christmas), a lion, Athena, and Avril Lavigne (before she loved life):



Halloween at Beloit is well-done holiday. Everyone dresses up. Everyone. Whether you're out at a dance party at one of the special interest houses or sitting up in a single in the '64 Halls watching free episodes of Grey's Anatomy online, you're in costume.

Last year, I had a night class until 11pm (self-inflicted, although not the worst course decision I've ever made) and thus missed Halloween entirely. I recall putting on my skiing uniform from high school-- my back-up plan was to be a ski bum last year-- and hopping right into bed. I was the "Grey's Anatomy Kid" described above and besides, there are worse things to sleep in. The sob story here is how I missed a golden opportunity to cut a rug. This year as repentence, I was a young version of Judy Garland.

In group shot at the top of this post, Sean Hershey '10 is the man in drag portraying an older, strung-out version of Judy Garland. To his left, I go to play a younger, sunnier version of Ms. Garland. When I met Sean last year, we quickly discovered that we had both been deeply moved by the Judy Garland biopic "Me and My Shadows." When Halloween came around this year, it seemed like an obvious costume choice-- and who else on campus would think of it!? It was unanimously agreed upon that Mr. Hershey looked better in his dress than myself. To my own credit, Judy was always more about the music than the demanding expectations the studios required of her physical appearance.

In or out of your own shadows, I hope you all had marvelous Halloween!

The Rest of Illinois

There's an image of Chicago's skyline and vast cornfields on the stateline between Beloit, WI and South Beloit, IL that has always left me a little befuddled. (I found the above on Google Images-- same deal although not from our particular stateline-- although the dapper gentleman posting at the bottom is a nice touch for the blog.) When my friends from the midwest told me that Chicago and corn is all there is to Illinois and that this state-produced rendering was spot on, I was skeptical. They weren't kidding.

On Friday morning, the cross country team took off from Jacksonville, IL for the NCAA Division 3 Conference. Two long days later, I feel like I've been on a second fall break. While we fared fourth in the standings (the men tied for sixth), the trip was a nice break from the weight of the brick wall that fell on me upon my return.The workload around here is really warping up and for those of us who won't be going to Regionals, our brains are back on the library shelves. Focusing on Conference was a nice distraction from the stress of school, but with that past us, there was no dawdling at brunch this morning. On a more exciting front: down in Illinois, Allie Hood '08 took my camera around while cheering on the guys. She got some great shots, but as with most pictures from races, everyone either appears to be in extreme pain (fair enough) or half out of their uniform (again, fair enough). In the name of dignity, I think we're all comfortable sharing these few shots:

Above: Men at the starting line-- they're the guys in blue and white with the poorly dyed hair.

Women's Top 20: In the back row on the far right you can find Shelley Quade '09. Amanda Hammermeister '08 is the fourth in from the left on the bottom row.

Left to Right: Heather "Rocks Well" Rockwell '08, Karen Baumann '10 and JuliaBeloit '10 post-race on Saturday morning.

It has been a great season and I'm leaving it feeling healthy and pale as only those who live this far north of the Mason-Dixon Line can. I'm nervous about fitting running into life abroad, but I'm sure going to miss having 20 other girls elbowing me around the Turtle Creek Flood Plane. I'd better go work on my visa application, or I will get to run with the pack for track season after all!

How I Didn't Get Sick Over Fall Break:

I didn't breathe around my sister. Not once. My week away from Beloit consisted of a couple nights with my older sister at her college in Rhode Island, a lot of running on my old favorite trails, and much pie baking (followed by cribbage & topped off with vanilla ice cream).

Breaks are a nice reminder of who/what you've got where, and why you bother travelling back and forth. It's pretty simple. However, in my most recent assessment of priorities, I find Beloit lacks three essentials for me:

1. Mountains. Every time I take the VanGalder back through the flatlands, I'm reminded that the runway at O'Hare isn't the only open space available for landing a plane. This part of the country is beautiful, but if you're concerned with maintaining your naturally-toned mountain-dweller physique, I recommend frequent trips to the StairMasters in the Athletic Center.

2. My family. My homies. Ben, Jerry, & (former) Governor Howard Dean. My people are important to me, but they don't live anywhere near here. Below, my friend Ruthie is posing by a miniture version of the VT state captiol. She's not in Beloit... yet. But I would bet five pounds of the freshest cheese curds at the Beloit Farmer's Market that she'll visit before I graduate from this popsicle stand.


3. And then there's the creemee issue. There is a hot regional debate you may or may not be aware of and it is based out of New England. Creemees are delicious and only found in my homeland. Ruthie and I are both pictured enjoying maple creemees at my favorite local farm. You can't get creemees in New Hampshire. Those kiddos call it "soft serve." I doubt I will find creemees in France at all. There are no creemees in Beloit and that is my final complaint. We've got a fro yo machine in Commons and a DQ down the road, but Wisconsin (and the rest of the world) will never quite taste like home.

Mitten Weather & The Northeast

I was late for work tonight. I'm admitting it. I cruised into Admissions at 9:04 PM. My punctual reputation was compromised.

The reason? Why, I was looking for socks, of course! It's mitten weather, kiddos. Everyone is walking around in pullovers with scarves snug around their gullets. I pulled my suitcase out from under my bed late and dug for wool socks, sweaters, and long johns. The five mintue trek across campus in clogs was not the same as the walk I made on Monday night, but I can't deny it's nice to feel like Fall has come. There's nothing more terrifying than a trick of the weather to give the illusion that fall semester of your sophomore year will never end. Ever.

Hopefully a week in the Green Mountains will do me some good. I'm one page of literary analysis, two hours of class, and one cross country meet away from Fall Break. I'm flying home to Vermont on Saturday night and spending the week doing New England-y things. This blog is going radio-silent for a bit, but it could probably use a rest. I need more stories to regail you with...

Sharp Cheddar & Apple Pies,
J

It's Like Wetting Your Pants, Only Fun

Yes folks, I'm talking about creek crossings. In the womens 5k, we cross Turtle Creek twice to get to the finish line. The men make the leap three times. In any case, your shorts get wet.

The weather has been ridiculously warm. It was in the high 80's on Saturday and the dip into Turtle Creek felt good after two miles of plugging along. As I so subtly hinted in the title, it also felt a bit like wetting your pants. In public. While spectators cheered and took pictures. The back of the pack of a certain mens team is notorious for making flips and spinning on their way into the first creek crossing, but most runners take the two-feet-at-a-time plunge approach (as demonstrated below by some of my esteemed team mates).

Wearing their blue and gold Beloit Spandex (Above L-R): Dana Crawford '10, Anna Edwards '10, and Allie Hood '08

(Above:) Anna and Dana scrambling up the other side bank.

(Above L-R) Helen Pope '10 and Katie Singleton '10 demonstrate the latest and most popular post-race trend: hobo bathing. While it was funny to watch other teams take pictures in the water, it was even more fun to take our final picture of the day:

Here's the ladies squad after the race with our hardware-- it's hard to beat winning your home meet. And while it was fun to hang out with recent alumni and the athletics barbeque sounded like a great chance to score some free food, I'll confess that I spent the rest of my Saturday with a few segments of Planet Earth, napping off the race. Nothing like some education in the natural sciences and a good showing to give you that collegiate sense of accomplishment.

For now, I guess I'd better get my head back to the week ahead. T-4 Days until Fall Break...

That Warm Falafel-y Feeling

First, I should explain that for most of my first year at Beloit, I was a pretty active member of the Outdoor/Environmental Club (OEC). Between SOI shifts, running, and homework, my participation has dropped off. Entirely.

Second, it is important to remember that Beloit Food Services doesn't serve meals on Sunday nights. There are all sorts of reasons cited (community building, encourage student interaction in clubs, give staff a night off, etc.), but most weekends it is just a challenge to fit in a good meal between hours in the library.

This evening, I called my friend (and former neighbor back in Porter Hall) Sarah Floyd '09 . She mentioned that the OEC was having a potluck with the club advisor, Pablo Toral of the International Relations Department. I've heard marvelous things about Pablo and I've known the OEC-ers to be pretty handy in the kitchen, so I stopped by for the meal. Including my contribution (pears for a fruit plate), we had a spread of couscous, falafel, eggplant, fresh veggies with homemade hummus, baked acorn squash, squash soup, pita, and hot brownies. It was an impressive meal, but not unusual for this crew.

I rounded off my visit with a little scrapbooking, headed over to Admissions, and here you find me. I've got to read the rest of Sarrasine and some Wordsworth before I hit the hay, but I'm entering the week of midterms without too much stress.

Teaser: This weekend was Homecoming at Belwah and our annual Old English Style Cross Country Race at Leeson Park. I'm getting some pictures together of the creek crossings and muddy ankles, but I had to brag that our women's team took first place and the men came in third! Look forward to the report. It's pretty good stuff.

Fishbowl

Anna Noyes '10 and Kate Hermanns '10 got a fish for their room in the Art House. There was much debate over his name last weekend, but at last check, nothing was settled upon. Suggestions ranged from the Biblical to Julep (derrived from paint chip for their wall color). It's important to match your fish to your room. Anyway, I terrorized him with my camera while "Flight of the Conchords" was getting set up on Anna's laptop. Now the fish is in the bowl and in this blog. Welcome to the campus community, Nemo!

A secret about BC Admissions Blogs: if we're posting pictures of our friends new fish, chances are we're a bit overwhelmed. I'm trying to figure out if I want to start planning another semester abroad, if I want to double major in French & Creative Writing (or just choose one!), and how to make an academic plan that incorporates all of this into the next five semesters.

It's not that there isn't a ton of support on campus to help me work this out, it is the number of waking hours in the day and my own indecision. I picked Beloit so I would be in a place where I could get help planning out my education. It's a matter of using my resources. So, I'm setting up appointments to make sure I get into office hours with my advisors. I'm running at next week and midterms stocked up on Vitamen C. I'm just trying to keep up with my laundry.

Spending those few lazy minutes in the sun between classes is doing wonders for my mental health, but that fall feeling is creeping up. Time to break out the fleece jackets, kiddos. Stay warm!

The Parents Day Orphan (Who Wasn't)

Ok. So, maybe this title is inappropriate, but it only means to refer to those Beloit students like myself whose families are too far out of range, or those unable to get a flight thanks to the Chicago Marathon to make Parents Weekend. Thank you, runners of Boston and your want for direct flights.
I was bummed not to show my family Beloit in the fall. I was sad they couldn't go to the Farmer's Market with me. I was devastated I couldn't make use of their rental car for a trip to the Apple Hut. Most of all, I wanted to get some use out of my cribbage board. I guess I'll have to settle for sending them pictures of fall in Wisconsin (or the lawn in front of Middle College, as pictured above). Beloit is scenic in an entirely different way than the Green Mountains, but there is something to be said for 80 degrees on the last day of September.

I actually spent most of my Sunday down at Pleasant Street Coffee House. I had a stack of work to get done, but I also happened to have my digital camera. So, being the be creep that I am, I decided to take pictures of all the people I knew as they walked through with their parents. Wierdly, none of these students are men. We are not by any means an all-female institution. It just so happens that between the hours of 1PM and 4PM only women brought their parents out onto the patio. Go figure. Here's my montage of parents with their students, looking freshly caffeinated and probably a little harrassed:

Above: Megan Armstrong '10 and her mother were waiting for coffee on a bench by the river when I approached with my camera.

Above: Briana Berkowitz '11 and her dad hanging out by the Rock River. I'll shamefully confess that I don't know too many first years, but Briana's twin sister was my prospie last spring when they came to visit so I've formally made her acquaintence. Thank you, Gold Key.

Above: Rachel Berzon '08 and her whole family got in on this shot. They were also kind enough to inform me that Rachel's brother never smiles. That wasn't my fault.

Above: Emma Holt-Sawyer '11 and her mom posed for me. Like I said, I don't know many first year students outside those in my classes or those who stayed with me as prospective students. In any case, I don't know Emma. I got a little help ID-ing her for the blog, but this was the first picture I took. I'll admit that I got a bit excited about my "orphan" idea, so when I recognized the first Beloit student-parent duo on the patio (note the name badge), I asked them to mug.

I'm a monster.

Everyone was a great sport about it and taking pictures seemed like a fine excuse to meet some of my friends' parents. All I can say for myself is that if Krista hadn't done such a great job covering Apple Fest, this sorry post never would have happened. And now, it is done.

As Decided in Commons at Dinner:

I'm declaring my "Veggeversary" (or veg-a-versary, if you will). The jury is still out on when the festival will be, but I'm celebrating eleven meatless years-- more details to come when I choose the arbitrary date.

This inspired holiday has come to my mind at this time of year before. It was in this very season that I first decided to lay off the beasties back in the third grade. My best friend at the time insisted we had to "stop hurting the animals" and quite naturally, I agreed. Sadly for "the animals," my friend gave up her stand when her parents started planning the Thanksgiving dinner. As I got older, I only found more reasons not to eat meat. I've never stopped my boycott. Now, Thanksgiving is gobbling just below the horizon and preparations must be made far in advance. I won't have time to fly home to the Green Mountains, but I just might piggy-back my new feast onto Turkey Day. There is a certain vein of irony to be considered here...

So, this year there will be a Veggeversary and it will be joyous and soy-filled and good. You're all invited.

The Saturday Files

Wierd, but true: I'm a NCAA Division Three athlete. Yup. I get a free t-shirt that says "Beloit College Distance" and everything. The backwash here: my high school was too small to support soccer and field hockey and lacrosse and still have runners left over for cross country or track teams, so while I've always loved running I had never treated it as a sport in its own right. It was just never presented to me that way.

So, now I live in the Midwest. While we've got clubs, there's not a big crowd for field hockey or lacrosse or even cross-country skiing. I had to try something new. I got involved with BC Track last spring and now I'm running in the back of the Cross pack. It gets me outside everyday and assures I will always have someone to eat with in Commons. Aside from the dorky team stuff and the help with any social anxiety, I love getting out of town on Saturdays. I've been around this town for a weekend or two and it's the cheapest way to get off campus!

This weekend, we went a couple hours east to the Forrester Invitational. We tied for second on the womens end of things and our men came in fourth. I know this post feels very jock-y so far, but I swear, Beloit College harriers are not that kind of crew. We just wear short-shorts like all the other teams...

(Above:) Coach Eckburg & Joe Cardillo talk to some of the guys after their race.

(Above:) Meet Shelley Quade. She runs fast. Nutrition is important to her. She will be very pleased that I chose to post this post-race photo. The bananas were particularly good on Saturday. Not too brown or gunky, but ripe. Ah, potassium.

(Above:) This is Ian. He's a First-Year. He's making a surprise guest appearance on my blog because he managed to take a nice dive as he kicked into the chute for the finish. I'm not posting this photo to be mean. This is by no means a mockery of his efforts, but an attempt to let our "Buc Yeah!" intensity shine through. Yeah, it's intense.

(Above:) Oh. This is a personal favorite. Coach Eckburg was rather fond of the posters some unidentified team tacked all throughout the course and I had to take this opportunity to pay hommage to Eck's prescription rec specs. Righteous.

There's my Saturday. For the full wrap, you can check out the official Beloit College scoop on what we've been up to.

Hope you're all enjoying the weather. It's apple picking season. It's crisp. It's fresh. It's fall.

Some Housekeeping

Literally. This is the nitty-gritty stuff. I live in a single in Porter Hall. If you check out the Residential Life bit of the Belwah site, you'll see that this is one of the ever-rustic '64 Halls. I lived in the same room last year and love the community. It's quiet. It's spacious. It's conveniently located between the food and my classes. Here's a picture (below) of a certain Ruby Jennings '10 "studying communism" (read: trying to sneak a nap on my bed) during one of my more studious nights last week. I can't blame her. I spend a lot of time sitting by the window myself. I kept listing toward my REM-cycle right after these SOI shifts. And while I love logging the Z's, it doesn't get the Chaucer read.

Aside from the token "hey, check out my dorm room" shot, I want to get some dork stuff out of the way while this blog is young. I'll really resent this kind of entry later in the semester, so it's all getting out of the way right now. I'm somewhere between a Creative Writing and a French major and four months from starting my studies in Rennes, France. So, what does my course load look like? Well, prospies, it looks a little something like this:

Physics 130: Astronomy in the News

This class combines text book readings, current events, and basic physics with an occasional hour out on the roof of Chamberlin to do star-gazing labs. The way distribution requirements work around here, you have lots of options in maneuvering-- for me, it was a matter of navigating the Natural Sciences. As a lit-loving bookworm, I never have to take a Calculus course here and my friends who are Physics majors don't have to take a lit course to learn how to write well or get their Arts & Humanities covered. This may sound a bit "from the mouth of an Admissions Counselor," but I swear, this is all my own enthusiasm for the system. Last fall, I took the nerve signalling course Shanna mentioned in her blog. The amount of writing done in that course keeps it quite disitinct the other lab sciences I had my pick of in the course catalog.

English 195: British Literary Survey

We hop around the Norton Anthology reading and discussing and analyzing and reading and discussing... frankly, I think the visiting professor teaching this course is great, but I am ecstatic to be done with Middle English!

Anthropology 120: The Human Animal

Three hours of this course are straight lecture. The fourth hour, the class splits in two for lab time. I took an anthro course called "Society and Culture" last semester and loved it. However, the jury is still out on this course. I prefer discussion-based classes, so this isn't my favorite way to learn, but the prof on this one is still a great lecturer in her own right. I can't knock that. It's a solid course in biological anthropology. It meets at 8AM Tuesday. I have a midterm on Wednesday. On second thought, ask me about this course again at the end of next week.

French 240: The Character of French Literature

Scott Lyngaas, one of two French professors at Beloit, is leading our class through classics like "Le Malade Imaginaire" and "Candide" up through modern lit such as Daniel Modiano's "Dora Bruder." Aside from being a big fan of Scott from my French 215 course last fall, this is easily one of my favorite courses this semester.

It's a wierd bag of courses, but that seems to be the norm the semester before a semester spent off-campus. Next semester all my courses will be taught in French and after that, I am going to have to pile on the English if I decide to continue to work towards fulfilling that major. I still want to try out a class in the Sociology Department. I would love to take a Philosophy course with my FYI advisor Matt Tedesco. There are so many classes I'm afraid I won't have time to take that have the reputation of making Beloit what it is. In any case, I promise to avoid this kind of wordy-geek-stuff in the future.

Hope your weekend is swell.
Hope none of my friends find this and read that last sentence.
Hope for ripe bananas in Commons at Breakfast.

This Computer is Set to Type in Hindi

...and it is driving me up the wall! In any language, we're already into the fourth week of the academic year here at Beloit. It seems hard to believe, but today marks the end of the first quarter of the Fall Semester.

Although, at a second glance, things around here do seem to be in full swing:

• After a bit of time away, I'm once again working regular hours here in Admissions.
• Every other day it seems I am writing a "big" paper or studying for some exams that will make or break my GPA.
• Cross Country is whipping into gear-- come to think of it, morning practices have had me up at 6AM for weeks!
• And if that's not enough, today there was enough dirt on my dorm room carpet to inspire a schlep across Porter 3rd to put the communal vaccuum to task. If that's not a sure sign I'm living the Beloit Life, I don't know what is. It's funny, but I realized today that aside from my running shoes and my flip-flops, I'm entering autumn unshod. I have tracked a remarkable amount of dirt up to the third floor for someone who doesn't own shoes. Puzzling.

So, maybe we are a month deep out here after all. And while it has taken the better part of September to get my summer brain back into "school" mode, I think I'm there.

Friday Afternoon

For those of you who checked the Summer SOI Blog, I am the same "Julia" who posted pictures of an empty toilet paper holder. This is my new blog. It's allll mine. Welcome. Please enjoy it. I will try to keep up with the pictures and catch your interest with flashy words, but I'm afraid my life is less exciting than it was in the summer months when I had time for road trips and rafting Turtle Creek.

In any case, I've just finished my classes for the day, I've got a date with friends to meet in Commons for lunch in a half hour, and the weather is going to be perfect for Cross Country practice this afternoon. I'm falling back into the schedule of the academic year and it's comfortable, even if it isn't the most exciting thing to read about.

Although, I am being kind of exciting right now. I'm upstairs in the library tapping this out with half a chocolate chip cookie bar in my mouth. You're not supposed to have food in the library. Yeah. It's pretty serious.

I'm such a rebel. Imagine eating this right before lunch on a Friday (please see the image I ripped off Google to the left). Donna Heney, are you reading your daughter's blog?

Speaking of cookies, I just got the best batch of mail in my box. It's sure to be a wonderful day in Beloit when you find this haul waiting in your box:

2 Mix CDs (one from some runners, another from my former WBCR radio show Co-host-- according to the track list, I now possess the tasteless remix of Avril's "Girlfriend" I've been looking for)
1 Package of the aforementioned cookie bars
1 scrap of jeans that were at one point worn by a close friend of mine (I think)
A refill on my asthma medication from my mother (because I'm THAT kind of cool
THE FINAL PAYCHECK for stuffing all those envelopes in Admissions this summer

My Beloit Life is tapped at the moment, but I've got a meet tomorrow in Kenosha. I promise to give you all the gorey details if I trip and fall. Or I'll make some up.

Hope you're all up and on your feet. It's the way to be.
- Julia