On The Move…

For the first time in 86 years.  A moment historic enough to warrant ending rehearsal early and a bottle of champagne.  I have an incredible video of the street party that erupted along Massachusetts Avenue and in the Harvard Square pit.  If I have time I’ll put up the picture I have of Ryan and I.

Goodnight.

I love my classes.  I really do, in the way that I’ve always wanted to – without trying, because the Professors are not just brilliant, but also incredible lecturers.  Ok, so maybe I’m just talking about Chem 17. 

That’s right, my incredibly hard organic chemistry intro class.  The one where I’m presently resoundingly at the bottom third (and probably quarter) of the grading curve.  I wish I had more time to read the textbook, do practice problems and think over the concepts, but that’s unlikely to happen, at least not until after the Dins concert (Nov 6th!).  In the meantime though, the class is still awesome.  Professor Jacobsen makes all the material sound so utterly fascinating, so excitingly new and relevant, so completely practical and useful, so systematic and conceptual, so elegant and intuitive.  *swoons* And all the TFs are incredible too – I’m just blown away by mine – I can see him as an amazingly popular and effective (and young!) professor in his own right.

If only I could just do well in this class, rather than pathetically.

—

All right, I’ll gush about my other classes some other time.  Right now I want to go shower and take a nap before rehearsal.

In just two weeks the big fall concer will be here (buy tickets, everyone!), which means almost continuous rehearsals from now till then.  Many classes will be missed, many days will start very early and end very late.

Dins & Pitches: A Singing Show
6 November, Saturday, 8pm
Sanders Theatre

Tickets available from me 🙂

—

Going to the debate tournament at Columbia this weekend was fun, and it was great to spend time with Jolene and Michelle, even if we didn’t break, and I missed the party at Rich’s apartment.  I still love New York City, even if I am no longer astounded by the experience.  Didn’t even take any pictures.  Maybe next time.

The Red Sox just made history by winning four consecutive games and making it into the World Series.  Boston is one big party right now.

—

And I had one of the worst days to date today, marked particularly by receiving my graded Chem 17 midterm just 5 minutes before taking my BS 51 midterm.  At this point I’m not even entirely sure which one was worse.  Probably biology.  Except chemistry was pretty awful too.  Ugh.  The semester is definitely looking to be a tough one.

I have to go read about the Haussmannization of Paris right now.

—

PS: I’ll be in NYC this weekend debating at the Columbia tournament with Jolene (!).  Yay.

Hah!

That was for Ubi Driving Centre (or whatever it’s actually called) for failing me twice (!).  I now have an American driver’s licence that took me half an hour to train for, and literally less than ten minutes to pass.  Ha!  I drove around a block or two, pulled up to a curb (aka “parallel parking”, ha!!) backed up in a straight line for about ten feet (during which the trooper didn’t seem to notice that I can’t do this properly), did a three-point turn and passed.

Finally.

—

And all in time for my first class of the day.  Excuse me while I go do some reading for that.

But some of it is 🙂

I was on a lunch-panel at the Charles Hotel today for the Harvard Alumni Association, during which I spoke for about an hour (with two other students) about the Freshman Seminar program.  I love doing things like that.  Have I mentioned I really love my job as greeter/guide with the Admissions Office?  I get to chatter on about how great every aspect of the University is to prospective students and their parents for about an hour, and get paid for it!  I truly love this job, and almost embarrassingly so.

I also judged two rounds at the Harvard Debate Tournament being held this weekend, chatted with Jol and also caught a glance of Sihong, which is always nice.

And then there was Devery’s birthday party in Adrian’s room, co-organised by Wojtek.  Delicious cupcakes.  Fun 🙂

—

I need to get to bed now – I have a 10am call with the Dins tomorrow – we’re going to sing a one-song gig at Cambridge Commons.

—

Still, I have two midterms next week, for my two hardest classes, on Monday and Tuesday.  Eek.

Tonight I wrote just over two pages worth of French position papers on Baudelaire and Balzac, which took something like four hours (!).

Fall is here.  I’ve broken out my new coat and I’ve been using scarves for a couple of weeks now.

So now I’m at the point where I’m feeling just ever so slightly stretched to somewhere in the vicinity of my new, reduced limit.  I have three jobs, six hours of rehearsals a week (with more on the horizon), five classes (with about 18.5 hours classroom time per week on average) and the rapidly advancing signs of whatever ailment it is that Neil has (Emily thinks it’s a cold, I don’t know what I think) and the big Sander’s concert is on Nov 6th – mark that in your calendars, everyone.  At the same time, it’s all still working out, and I actually have time (or the illusion thereof) to sign up for one-off events like participating in an undergraduate relations panel, or for a networking event with a big UN/ESPP official.

—

I’d greatly appreciate prayers for recovering completely and speedily from whatever it is I have right now.