First Year Blog

Welcome back everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful winter break and, for you
seniors, that you’ll all enjoy one last semester of high school!

Over here, classes started today. My schedule for this semester is AWESOME. This is mainly because it does not involve getting up at 8 a.m. every morning (except Tuesday) and getting out in the late afternoon/early evening. My first class today was a 10 a.m. and it was organic chemistry. As sad as it may sound, I’m actually really excited for it. Even though there are horror stories told about that class and my grades last semester weren’t quite as pretty as I’d like them to be, I want the challenge. We were in the new science building, Smith Labs, and it was a nice place. Admittedly, the classroom looked a lot smaller than the lecture room in Haberlin, but the architecture of the building is nice. For one thing, the outer wall of the atrium is all glass, so it’s very light. Also, Smith Labs (I do rather wish they had named the labs something else, because I’m afraid of confusing the new building with Smith, the building connected to O’Kane and Fenwick) connects the original science complex with Beaven, which means that I never have to walk outside to get from class to class

Not freezing my face off to get to class is just plain lovely.

Speaking of the new building (I’ll skip talking about botany, because nothing of real interest happened in it today), I went exploring the new five building complex on Monday, with the intent of finding my CRAW poetry class in Beaven. As my poetry classroom is actually right next to the entrance to Beaven, I found that adventure boring, so I went to look around the upper levels of Beaven. I was walking in the second floor corridor when I passed a professor pacing in his office. He looked up, saw me peeking in, and said hello. Obviously I said hello back, and somehow we ended up having a nice little chat in his doorway for a good half an hour or so. He’s not one of my professors, nor will I be likely to have him as a professor, but I walked away from that conversation feeling pretty cool that I could pull off a random conversation with random people.

As I’ve now hit the four hundred word mark with this incredibly long blog entry, I’ll leave you all here. Until next time, bye!

Salvete, everyone!

I am a very sore but happy camper today — I finally got to go sledding! Beth and I went with a couple of her friends from crew and it was an absolute blast. It was still snowing when we went out, and the whole campus was covered in a perfect layer of powder with awesome ice underneath — the perfect conditions to go flying down Healy’s (an upperclassmen residence hall) hill, or the always intimidating Quad hill leading from Fenwick down to Kimball, or best (and scariest) of all, Freshman Field. I used my handy-dandy Kimball tray and was effectively five years old for the night. It was a glorious end to a very hectic day — I decided to pull a double shift at Kimball since I had the time (we have no classes today), which meant that I spent 8 hours there in one day. If you can’t tell, that is a long time to be at Kimball.

Classes went very well this week! I’m in love with my schedule, have incredibly intelligent professors, and have successfully made my way through the science complex without getting lost for a second. Professor Garvey, my astronomy professor, is exceedingly eccentric and never fails to capture my attention. I think he looks and acts rather like Mark Twain, for he has a big mustache and is very witty and intelligent. I feel so lucky to have gotten professors who are sincerely in love with what they do and are completely set on helping us see why their subject matter is pertinent and important, all while connecting with their students so well. For example, Doctor Bender (my Archaeology professor whom I’ve known for a while) gave out a sheet of all kinds of questions just to get his know his students, their study habits, their likes and dislikes, and strengths and weaknesses in the classroom. Things like this make Holy Cross truly unique.
Well, I’ve been to the gym every day now (except yesterday, but I think I worked out more than all the other days combined in that one day), so I suppose I should get there before another 2  feet of snow is dumped on this mountain. I think getting to Hart will be a workout in itself! Valete!

Salvete, omnes!

I’m so happy to be back at Holy Cross! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season — I know it went by so very quickly for me. I saw a ton of people, hung out with my family, went out to eat far too many times, and even did a Winter Ambassador meeting at my high school for the Admissions dept. (during which I found out there is a potential Classics major in this year’s senior class!). I got back to campus on Sunday night, which was quite the experience. The campus was dead and not a single one of my friends was here! I just took the time to completely re-organize my room, clean, and relax before all of my girls returned on Tuesday. We watched movies the entire day, helped each other unpack (well, I helped other people unpack…), and soaked up each others’ company for the first time in a long, long month!
Today was the first day of classes, and what a busy day it was for me. I had my two usuals, Greek at 11 and Montserrat at 12:30, both with the ever-entertaining Professor Joseph. Then came the really exciting part — my first Astronomy class! How I ever managed to find my way to the classroom in the labyrinth-like science complex, I don’t think I’ll ever quite know. After about 10 minutes of wandering and only 10 minutes until class, I informed a random professor in the hall that I was a Classics major , had no clue how to get to O’Neil (never having had to step foot in this place before), and he pointed me in the right direction without another word. I took astronomy in senior year for a semester, but I can already see that this is going to be a new experience. Professor Garvey is extremely knowledgeable and very funny, and also recognizes that most of us are taking his class because we need to fill a science requirement. Such understanding is right up my alley!

Tomorrow is my first day of work, and my friend Colleen, a sophomore Kimball captain (and blogger!), will be on my shift again, so it shouldn’t be too painful. I also have a class I’m greatly looking forward to — Classical Archaeology with Dr. Bender, the visiting professor whose trip to Italy I went on before my senior year. It will be really neat to study some of the places in Rome where he took us in the classroom setting. The sad part about tomorrow is that the weather is supposed to be absolutely, positively, viciously cold. It was quite a shock when my parents and I pulled onto campus to find piles of snow and a bitter wind that was markedly absent in Philadelphia. Ah, well, the joys of living on a mountain in New England! I’ll be sporting a record number of clothing layers tomorrow, I think.

I’m so happy to be back at Cross, and look forward to entailing the next couple of months of my first year here for you! Valete!