Travel Watch

Well folks, it’s time for another winter break for Gigantor the Unfortunate. It’s also time for another unfortunate travel story. Why world? Why? Liz has called me a bad travel omen.

It all started with a snowstorm in the Washington DC area. What’s that you say? ‘That’s preposterous? DC hasn’t had a good snow storm in years!’ Well you’re wrong. Snow returned to DC…on the day I needed to fly home.

What’s that sound? That vengeful, vengeful sound. That would be irony. I couldn’t fly home on Saturday, not because it was snowing or foggy (stupid fog) in Iowa. I couldn’t come home because DC was getting two feet of snow.

I’m going to try to make this story as brief and winy-less as possible. Ha, good luck! By some miracle on Saturday morning my flight hadn’t been cancelled yet. I knew that it would be soon, but I took the shuttle to Des Moines Airport anyway. Don’t ask me what I was thinking. When I got to the airport my flight from O’Hare still wasn’t cancelled for some ridiculous reason. But because I erred on the side of caution and rebooked my flight for the next day. The person who helped at the counter went into a little song and dance about how I should have left yesterday to avoid the snow. Ya think?

My friend Jessica, from Grinnell, picked me up from the Des Moines airport b/c she had an appointment with a genius…for her Mac…in the DM area anyway. We got lost on our way to Jordan Creek Mall, partly because of my awful direction asking. While her computer got examined I looked for Christmas presents and ended up only buying a belt and ear muffs…for myself. I was really glad to spend more time with Jessica. She’s really cool and I only loosely got to know her during the semester. Plus she told me the dirt from the group’s early history.

At the DM airport, my mom had contacted Mama Sholten (the bro’s GF’s mom) to see if I could stay with their family until Sunday. Jessica and I got semi-lost on our way there too, but we made it and I spent the rest of the day with the Sholten parents. They were so nice and accommodating, especially to someone they had only vaguely heard about previously through the bro. I mos def got to work on my small talk skills (they ain’t that great yet). At one point, I watched TV with them for a little bit and I got to see a news story about people who were stranded because they couldn’t fly into DC. Ha!

Earlier that morning the shuttle had waited for a train to pass in Grinnell. As I frosted cookies with the parents that night in Des Moines I watched a train go by outside of their condo. Sometimes it’s unexpected where life will take you.

The next day all my flights were on time and I got home in a matter of hours. Just kidding. My flight from Des Moines was delayed by 10 minutes. It was terrible! She said sarcastically. I got to O’Hare on time and leisurely walked to my gate. Waiting for my flight, I ran into Harry, a classmate from HB who was on the same flight. I boarded and settled into my plane seat, so happy that everything was on time and I would be home soon. I think you see where this is going. Then, on the loud speaker, the pilot said “There’s a big backlog of flights into Reagan trying to find a gate, so we have two choices. We can go to the airport and sit in the plane for four hours, or stay in O’Hare for four hours. I’ve chosen the latter.” Just to clarify: my flight got pushed from 6pm to 10pm. Harry and I went to a bar recommended to him by a friend, then ate dinner and went to board our plane. As we sat in the waiting area I worked on this blog and heard a women complaining on her phone that her flight had been pushed to 11pm. I looked at the screen and what do you know? She was talking about my flight.

Then a crazy old man came and bombarded me with questions about my computer. Then he saw a poster of Tiger Woods and said he couldn’t be called Tiger anymore. He would have to be called Cheetah. Like a cheater. Get it? Yes crazy old man, I got it.

Then my flight was pushed to 11:58pm. Then it was pushed to 12:30am. Meanwhile crazy old man harassed/terrorized various people in the waiting area. Then it got interesting. Another flight into Las Vegas was also having trouble…and had been having trouble all day. Let’s just say that the natives were getting restless. The airline people started making angry announcements telling people to back the frak off. I wasn’t entirely certain a fight wouldn’t break out. I hate angry travelers. Cause getting angry with people trying to do their jobs really helps make things go faster. My favorite part of the night was watching a show about sharks because one of the people in the show was…Anderson Cooper. Naturally he would be swimming with sharks. Wait till the girls at Grinnell hear about this. Oh how they’ll swoon.

I boarded my flight at 12:15am with cautious optimism and…thank god it took off. The baggage claim at Reagan was crazy. Apparently my luggage got there before I did. There were just hundreds of bags in lines. Harry and I shared a cab to Arlington. A sketchy dude tried to take us to Arlington for 40$...yeah he was not a taxi.

As I was driven home I looked at the snow that had put a wrench in my travel plans. It looked a lot the snow in Grinnell. Except the snow in Arlington is fresher and in Iowa they actually know how to plow their roads.

I fell asleep in my bed at 4:30am. Maybe I should rename

Hell Week

Why do they call the week before finals hell week? Finals week is hell week.

Ok, last week was a little hellish. I had a presentation, which always goes oh so well. Seriously it was pretty bad, but then it was over. Following, I had to rewrite the paper that I presented on. I only mention it because it inspired a miracle. While finishing my paper I...I didn't....I didn't procrastinate! The paper was like a pit in my stomach that tortured my soul and I wanted it gone as soon as possible. Unfortunately, as soon as possible meant like 10 hours later. I don't think I've ever put so much effort into a paper ever.

I did have an academic feel-good moment during “hell week”. As anyone who reads my Facebook statuses knows—I hate methods with a deep fiery passion. So, I was really not looking forward to rewriting my methods proposal (I had already rewritten the stupid thing once). Fortunately, I didn't have to! I went into his office and basically he said ‘you already made all the changes I suggested, this is an A paper, I’m willing to let you not rewrite it’. !!! I said I was willing not to rewrite it. What followed was more amazing. I had a completely nonawkward conversation with him afterwards for like 10 minutes. Guess who's going to be one of my recommendations when I try to get an internship this summer.

I had hoped to ride the wave of nonprocrastination from my seminar papers into finals week, but it's faded a little.

Sunday was quite busy. I went straight from bed to the dining hall to the library to the dining hall to watching Battlestar Galactica with friends to a pancake study break. At the study break, held in the infamous Harris Center, I discovered a game straight from the devil, pictured above, and accurately named Hot Hoops. I must say, if you judge by this game, my basketball skills have greatly improved since middle school. I swear I could play Hot Hoops all day...it's so weirdly addictive. It kind of goes like this: Oh no! I didn't make a basket! I have to try again! Oh yay! I made a basket! I have to try again! etc etc etc

Monday=Meh. It was very productive, if you consider digging your car out of the snow productive.

The rest of finals week wasn't deadly exciting or noteworthy. I turned in my 18 page seminar paper, my flawless methods proposal, a sit down resource and environmental econ test (don't ask me how I did cause I don't know), and wrote two 5 page essays for Politics of Russia. And then when I was done with everything on Friday—yay!—I was rewarded by dinner at the new Grinnell Mexican restaurant with friends, saw Avatar (A movie which lead me to ask: why the heck would a robot have a switch blade?) and my friend who also lives in the DC area told me that all flights into DC were cancelled the next day. The day I needed to travel. Merde! Turns out he wasn’t completely right, but right enough. But, you’ll have to wait for the next post to hear about that. Duh Duh Duhnnnn!

My First Waltz

Hey there. It's been a while. Mostly, I have been in school. However, a week ago I got to go home for Thanksgiving break. As I don't feel like explaining my whole break (you can blame Perri for that one-I only write about things once...unless I'm in Methods and I have to write something three &**@*$# times), so I'll give you the cliff notes version.

I flew home, ate a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, read about Putin, witnessed a 21 year old British guy down a whole pot of coffee and 5+ classes of red wine, picked up Liz at Dulles with mom, got caught up on How I Met Your Mother, ate at Five Guys, had 'coffee' with Liz and Harry from my high school days (oh so long ago), rediscovered how bad I am at bowling, read about Putin some more, got introduced to Dead Like Me, made Liz watch episodes of Cowboy BeBop, woke up really early, started flying back to Grinnell, got to O'Hare thirty minutes early, sat on plane for 50 minutes waiting for the lighting to let up, ran to my connecting flight and just made it, got to Des Moines, discovered my luggage wasn't so lucky, drove back to Grinnell, prepared for my Politics of Russia debate, went to work, walked to security to get my bag that the airport drove to campus, found out United people broke my bag handle, lugged heavy luggage across campus, went to bed.

And now I'm back at school. Twwwooooooo Moooooooooorrrrreee Weeeeeeks!!!!!!!!

Tonight I went to waltz with the gang. We all had dinner at the Depot (old train station, now restaurant). Our waiter was very nice, but a terrrrible waiter. It took him 30 minutes just to take our orders and it was an hour before we got our food. He told us it was because he had two tables tonight and had never done that before (really?). The food was good when it arrived, despite my steak being mostly fat. I almost would have been able to forgive our waiter, but another couple came in about an hour after we got there and he waited on them too. They had their appetizers in 10 minutes and got there entrees about the same time we did. But enough complaining...for now. Ominous right?

After dinner, we hit up the Gates pre-waltz party where I drank punch and ate chocolate. Then, we went to the JRC pre-waltz party that had a buffet line of about 20 different kinds of desserts (no, I did not try all twenty). Then was the waltz itself. Harris looked so much nicer than I've ever seen it before, it helped that we got there a little early b/c no one was really drunk yet. I had never been to a Grinnell Waltz before so I had no idea what to expect. There was a live band for half the time. They played mostly jazz, swing, quiet jazz, an orchestral version of a Fiddler on the Roof song (naturally) and Hava Nagila (a surprisingly dangerous song-people feel down, I got kicked in the back of the leg-fun!). By the end of the night I was feeling pretty tired because they kept playing really slow and quiet jazz lullabies. I mostly danced with my friends, however I did dance with one boy who seemed to enjoy making me twirl into other people. Most of us got really tired and then I left.

Wow, that story was kind of dull wasn't it? Sorry, I'm tired. Not doing any of the homework you should be doing and dancing is very exhausting. Anyway this blog is only to keep you updated on what I'm doing...not for your amusement or to entertain you. Ok that's kind of a lie. Oh well. Good night y'all.

They Say a Picture's Worth a Thousand...Boo!

Sometimes words just can't convey how a week goes and you have to rely on pictures. So for my post I will provide pictures of my emotions over a very busy week of work. But because I cannot avoid blabbing on about myself (It's hard to snark without words) I will provide an explanation of my Halloween night-which you WANT to here about. But, first: How I felt this week.












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Don't worry about the last two pictures. I haven't turned into a murderer or an awesome transformer robot. As you know, this past weekend was Halloween! What did I do on Halloween? What everyone should do, REGARDLESS OF AGE. I trick-or-treated with my friends. Hey, it gets you free candy. The four other people who went had on white sheets and stormtrooper masks and I had a blue sheet and an Optimus Prime mask (Just call me the black sheep!). What were we? Storm-trooper ghosts and a robot ghost. One kid actually recognized the others as stormtrooper ghosts which made them very proud. While the kids either cowered in fear or liked their costumes, my costume caused the kids to attack my very soul. That night I met the most horrible snotty bratty little kid ever. This boy (probably 9 or 10) who was also wearing an Optimus Prime mask called me a copycat, and then after I told him I didn't copy him, he told his friend "He copied my costume!" He. After I talked to him. Just call me Manly McMannerson. Throughout the night this little boy called me a traitor, copycat and told me to get out of his way. If he had provoked me one more time, that boy would have had to fear for his life: He was also generally rude to the people he trick-or-treated from, so it wasn't just that he teased me! I should mention that it was very hard to see and breathe in the masks we were wearing: this led me to say, after being provoked several times (and laughing it off of course), "It's hard to breathe when the children make me cry".

We got a pretty good haul from our rounds around the community of Grinnell and the adults who saw us were generally nice (though you could tell who was uncomfortable). My costume for the rest of the night was different. I was a gangster type person who shot my friend. Leah, had a shirt with a whole and fake blood on it. We had a little skit where I would shoot her and she would remove the bullet from herself with pliers. We all hung out in Elyse's room and then went to the Harris party-though I wasn't really feeling it (I believe being sober is not conducive to having a good time at Harris).

It was a busy week and a good night.

Fiddling with ink and pencil

I've just started experimenting with shading using ink (as opposed to lots of black and white contrast) in my drawings. I thought I would share my most recent "creation" (so labeled because I used a magazine picture as reference) because I am somewhat proud of how it turned out. I did cheat a little and used pencil for the coat's pattern and his hair. Anyway, enjoy...or don't. Your choice.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

I'll give a few updates about my life before I get to the real meat of this post. Oops-I shouldn't have said meat. I have been made aware that I've been a little bit of a food tease on this blog. Firstly, I resubmitted Dysfuncto and Gigantor to The Sequence and this time I was published! Yay Gigantor! Anyway, I'm on fall break right now-rocking A-town. Last week was midsems (apparently known a midterms to those above the age of 40). I thought my midsems week would be easy. Yeah, I had reading to do, but I only had one Politics of Russia take home final. Until I found out that I had a Methods midsem too. However, I handled myself with grace and managed to survive. I was so dedicated to getting my work done that I didn't even realize I didn't watch one of my usual TV shows that week. CrAZy.

Tuesday of midsems week a guest speaker came to talk to my NGO sociology seminar and answer our questions. Her name is Delphia Shanks and she's a former Grinnell student, who currently works for a community action agency in Louisiana. When someone asked her about the bureaucratic requirements for her NGO (weighing the benefits and disadvantages of bureaucracy has been a big topic in our class), Delphia went into a little bit of a rant on how annoying the requirements from the Recovery Act were. She described her frustration at having to put ugly logos on all of her fliers, although she sees the advantages of letting people know where their tax money goes. Her complaints reminded me of my mother's own problems working with Recovery Act money at the Department of Transportation. She too had to deal with ugly logos, that Obama himself delivered to DOT, and ridiculous reporting requirements. This, in turn, reminded me of the day this past summer I went with my mother to her work. I thought I'd share some of my notes from that day (I literally took notes, though don't expect anything serious-like you would!).

1) What they say (in meetings) sounds like English, but I don't understand a word. They use more letters than words (and they're not even speaking German!); 'Yes we should report the 677D to the FCP, after we get approval from the SCC, or do we use the 538X for the HDD requirements?' (all similarity to actual acronyms is purely coincidental).

2) I started to believe in magic today. Right before my mom and I went down to the cafeteria for lunch, my mom sent an email to a guy. Three to five minutes later, in the cafeteria, the same guy asked mom about some of the details of the email. And I thought I checked my email religiously.

3) (My final thoughts/rant from that day-word for word sans original cussing). The government is insane! My mom spent the whole day working on putting an ugly logo on buses, just so the public can "see" where their tax dollars are going. Well your tax dollars are going to putting ugly logos on buses!

I don't know if the whole experience made me want to work for the government, or run away screaming in the other direction. While I'm mentioning DC I might as well mention I went to eat lunch with my Dad in the district today. I had a delicious, though quite greasy tuna melt. Darn! I did it again, what can I say? Food is my life.

On the metro ride back, I saw a mother with two young boys. One boy, in a stroller, kept standing up and yelling for no reason. The other boy, sitting on one of the handicap/old people seats, well actually he was on his back rolling around on the seat. This poor woman was telling one kid to sit down and the other one to sit up. The boys wouldn't listen until the mother said six words that immediately made them stop- "I am not playing wit you". I really want to know what happens if they don't listen to her after she says those words. Watching this woman I thought to myself, that is the kind of mother I want to be someday. A mother who rules by strength and inspires fear. Who knows, maybe if my kids behave themselves I might even take them to whatever insane job I land in.

Oktoberfest!

This week at Grinnell is parents' weekend. And since my parents aren't here (NO GUILT INTENDED)I got to do something that was lots of fun. Today I went to Oktoberfest in the Amana Colonies with Elyse, Sara, Jessica and Ben.

Last night I didn't know the exact time we were going to leave this morning. I went to bed, having set my alarm for 9am. Then at 12:30 pm WAH WAH WAH WAH! The fire alarm went off-and good thing it did. When I came back inside I found out from Stephanie we were leaving at 8:30 Am-so we could make it to the parade. On the ride there, despite Gigantor's sheer size, I had to sit b/w Sara and Ben.

Before the parade started Elyse and I bought fudge-mm fudge-Hey, Jessica gave us all permission to eat a lot during Oktoberfest and she was the organizer of the trip. We found a prime parade watching spot and once it started Sara pointed out that some of the fire trucks etc. were throwing out candy. Without even thinking I let out a surprisingly desperate "Oh please God." Apparently I really wanted candy (I did manage to literally catch some-a proud moment). Candy also provided my favorite moment of the parade. All the people in vehicles had been throwing candy on the ground for the children. Then one women, who was walking in the parade, walked straight up to some kids (less than a ft away) and threw candy on the ground in front of them. It's like she was saying "Yes, stupid children, bend down to the ground to get your candy! Reach to the ground like the filth you are!"

After the parade we moved on to the other main part of Oktoberfest. There was a tent for food and a barn for beer and polka music. The polka band was surprisingly good considering it was made up of two older men playing tuba and accordion, and a teenager playing drums (who looked like he would rather be anywhere else).

Next up, we watched a keg throwing contest and sawing wood contest. Watching the wood contest (two people using a big saw to cut a sliver of wood) Elyse started getting an itch to cut wood, but was unsure of herself. Sara helpfully pushed her to sign up by announcing loudly they would go next against Elyse's will. Watching them compete, I got my own itch. Jessica offered to saw with me, but warned me she was bad...she did not disappoint. I had lots of fun anyway and got a souvenir.



After that, was the bratwurst eating contest-I don't think any of us really knew what we were getting into when we signed up. It really was a contest in front of a lot of people. Whoever ate one brat first won. Yeah, the brat was about a foot long. None of our group won (Ben did not compete because he was busy finishing a 35 oz beer in a souvenir glass mug in under five minutes). I bought a smaller souvenir mug too, sans beer of course. Throughout the course of the day, I also bought Amana Colonies made bread, one Amana Colonies baked cookie and kettle corn from one of the two rival stands.

The final event of Oktoberfest for us was watching a sort of ironman competition with keg rolling, beer holding (harder than it sounds), and wood sawing. We realized we were freezing and it was drizzly (all day), so we didn't watch the entire competition and left the wonderful land of Oktoberfest.

And tomorrow I will do homework. te he.

If I go to one more birthday party I'm going to need a wheel barrow and a dedicated manservant

The past couple weeks have been filled with great socializing and lots and lots of food. It's been great, but if I keep up at this rate I'm going to weigh 500 lbs before the semester is over.

Last weekend was Sara's birthday. Our group of about 17 people had dinner at Casa Margarita. With such a big group it took a long time to get our food so I, along with the people sitting near me, ate the sinful chips placed, and replaced and thankfully not rereplaced, in front of us. When our main courses arrived we were basically full, but we did our best. We drove back to campus, had cake that Jessica baked and watched Hercules-like mature college students. Everyone sang along and it was great fun. However, the best part had to be the music video we found in the special features for No Importa la Distancia. All I'll say is burning boulders, lightening, and Ricky Martin taking himself way too seriously and I'll let it speak for its self if you dare: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9EhiqPInfI. It was a good night.

This weekend was Janna's birthday. Last night/Friday the gang, about ten of us, went to a steak house in (it was too remote for me to remember the name) Iowa. It was the real deal. We picked our own raw cuts of steak or chicken (except for Leah who picked her own serving of vegetables) and got to grill them ourselves. Personally, I like my steaks medium rare and I managed to grill a perfectly medium rare 12oz rib eye. After all of us were filled to busting Janna and Zach decided to add to our gluttony with a ridiculous dessert. At first it just seemed like sub-par ice cream with Hershey sauce...and then I saw the Brownie. Suddenly I was hungry enough for dessert.

On the way to the steak place we had listened to-I really should not admit this-Miley Cy*shiver*. On the way back, we redeemed ourselves by listening to boybands, Britney Spears, and a little Christina from the 90s. We belted our little hearts out to the sweet sounds of our childhood.



Today/Saturday was part two of Janna's birthday. Jessica and Elyse thought it was a good idea (at the time) to plan a surprise birthday party at a bowling alley (Totem Alley) in Marshall town. The problem-they wanted it to be a kids party. I drove Steph, Ben, and Hannah to the alley Saturday afternoon. Jessica and Elyse got there first and when we saw them they were having serious doubts-they had seen the party room. Eventually Janna's car arrived-she was not driving because she had been blindfolded the entire way. She was quite amused with the reveal. We went into the alley and saw the party room. Um. On the completely white wall, except for color paint splatters, were a couple wrapped empty birthday boxes and on one of the tables was the amazing bowling ball and pin shaped cake Sara had baked. There was also a thrown for the birthday girl. It kind of reminded me of a Dexter kill room.

The first game, I was amazingly not horrible (I am usually an awful bowler). The second game...did not go so well. It's alright though because I was doing it on purpose-you know-to raise the others' self esteem. While bowling, we ate a surprisingly good pizza and signed a souvenir bowling pin Janna got as part of the party. A rivalry b/w Sara and Elyse broke out and actually improved their game. The end of the second game was quite epic. It was the last frame and Sara was a little behind Elyse. All she needed was a spare and then to hit at least one pin. Sara hit no pins the first throw and then a spare. All of us were on the edge of our seats when Sara threw the last ball and got a-strike! It was amazing.

We retired to the birthday room and ate (way too much) cake. We decided we should try to eat real food when we got back to Grinnell. We ate at the dining hall and then went to the campus luau on Mac field. Part of the group played croquette and the rest of us played badminton (to the sounds of The Final Countdown). The luau people reclaimed their sports equipment when it got dark and we retired to Younker second for the best game ever. It was a mix of Pictionary and telephone; It's too hard to explain here, so I'll show some examples in another post. I haven't laughed so hard in a loooong time. We played about eight rounds of that. Then, Elyse Jessica and I reenacted Janna's birth (don't ask) and Janna opened her presents. By that time it was about 11pm and we were all exhausted-what, college students are supposed to like staying up late? I went back to Dibble and fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Next week I will be attending Octoberfest. There was talk of a bratwurst eating contest so maybe I should start putting up fliers:

Man(or woman)servant wanted. Must have own wheelbarrow and be able to push and pull at least 500 lbs.

Uno, S'mores, and Murdered Vegans

Two weekends ago I went camping with my adopted group of friends (meaning the group of seniors I wormed my way into). Each of them are very friendly and funny in their own unique way. After sitting at their table at lunch for a couple of weeks I started becoming involved in their weekend plans (since camping I have gone to 2.5 birthday parties and on October 2nd we'll go to Octoberfest!...in Iowa.) Now, I am not what you would call an experienced camper. My Girl Scout troop was not the rough-it-in-the-woods kind of group (more like rough-it-in-the-air-conditioned-cabin) and, while I appreciate nature, I usually don't feel the need to sleep in it. I knew, however, that camping with this group would be a lot of fun and so I bit the bullet, with an open mind.

Jessica (hilarious extrovert) and Sara (a great baker) went to Rock Creek State Park on Friday afternoon and stayed that night. When I arrived on Saturday afternoon (around 3pm), two more people had arrived: Elyse (was in my Environmental History of Food class with me) and Leah (quiet, but quirky). Jessica, Elyse, Sara and Leah were playing the most intense game of Uno I have ever witnessed. The game had apparently been going on for at least an hour and there was tense competition between Elyse and Leah: Leah kept skipping Elyse's turn and Elyse kept making surprisingly believable death threats at Leah. AND by the time I arrived, an alliance had already been formed and broken between Jessica and Elyse. Finally someone won first place and they started going for second until they realized that they now hated Uno.

A little while later Janna and Zach (girlfriend and boyfriend) and Ben (Stephanie's boyfriend) arrived and the group was complete. We hate hotdogs and many many many s'mores. After it got darkish we sat around the campfire. Jessica and Sara told a ghost story they had made up the previous night. Some short background: the group likes to tease Leah who is sort of small and a vegan. The story was about a group of college students camping at Creek Rock Park. They hear a story, from an old man, about a ghost who only kills vegans because his wife was killed by a vegan. The next day the college students find the smallest member of their group, who is a vegan, murdered with a hot dog stuck in her mouth.

By this point we had eaten and told ghost stories and it was dark. It kind of felt like it was time for bed and so someone asked for the time. It was like 8:20 pm. To fill up more time we discussed Disney movies, princess and princes. We also sang some "campfire" songs; Sara sang songs from her church camp and Elyse and I did a wonderful rendition of 'There's a hole in my bucket dear Liza'.

Eventually the time came to sleep. Zach and Janna slept outside (I cannot begin to imagine how uncomfortable that was-but I'm getting ahead of myself). Ben slept in Jessica's car. Leah and I slept in a tent and the others slept in another tent. When I was packing for the trip I thought we were going to have sleeping bags (we didn't, just blankets) so I didn't pack the amount of layers I really should have because it turned out to be very very cold that night. By the time 8am rolled around I had maybe about three hours of sleep. I packed up my things and was the first to leave the camp because, when I woke up, my goosebumps looked like gooseroadblocks. I was also still recovering from my cold and if I was going to do any of the massive reading I had for that weekend I needed to sleep under the warmth of my comforter.

After making sure to leave before I froze to death, I decided the best ending to the camping trip would be an egg McMuffin. After ordering and paying I went up to the second window to pick up my food. After handing me my fat and calories the woman working there said:

"It's a bit cooler this morning, isn't it?"

Grinnell: Navigating the Social Landscape

So, here I am, first semester of my third year at Grinnell College (no, not Cornell) in Iowa. Yep it's almost the end of my second full week and I am already sick. Not with Swine Flu, which has thus far managed not to enter Grinnell although it's really only a matter of time. Because I'm sick and don't feel like doing homework, and Thursday is one of my only free nights I thought I would take this opportunity to reflect on my experiences thus far. Also because I'm sick, and less than coherent (which I demonstrated quite well in my NGO seminar today) this post will probably have little to no logical order.

Before I get into the real meat of things I'll tell a little story. It's my first class of the semester-Soc Methods @ 10am. We are asked to split into pairs to look at something online. I was at a computer so a girl moved next to me and introduced herself. Her name...Emily. Yep. Emily is also in my sociology seminar.

My classes

Methods is with my intro soc professor. His name is David, well I'm sure that's what I called him my first year. The same day I met socEmily, David introduces himself as David (think Dahveed). Yeah, I'm pretty sure I've pronounced his name wrong basically forever. Oh well.

Environmental and Resource Economics. I think the prof, Montgomery, gets off on being perceived as evil. He made a little intro slide show of criticisms of economics' role in environmental politics, and taking on the voice of the critics, he called himself an evil, heartless fascist. He has repeated this sentiment several times. This class so far has made me rethink some things; I've started taking a more objective view about the environment and what should and should not be done to protect it. I also learned that a human life is worth between 3 and 5 million dollars. Shattering the myth that life is priceless...well: priceless.

Politics of Russia. What can I say, I like Russia. Right now we're learning about the Soviet Union, a lot of which I already covered in my WWII on the Eastern Front class. I still like learning about it (especially Stalin-I love Stalin-not the killing though, that was bad-I just think he was pretty smart-Also Hitler has nothing on Stalin in the evil department) and also my background helps me make comments in class. If only that translated to my other classes.

Sociology Seminar-NGOs: Organizing to do Good. My seminar and I are not on great terms right now. I had to write a reading memo yesterday about a chapter in a book we're reading (Frumkin's On Being Nonprofit). I did not feel so great when I was writing it-my head was a party of congestion, grogginess and general disarray-and so I don't think it was very good. I also didn't absorb the info very well. So today, when I was asked to comment on my writing, I blanked and stuttered my way through a noncoherent and partially incomplete response until another classmate mercifully took the reigns. It's my smallest class and is filled with smart (mostly) seniors who have a lot of insightful things to say. Also, participation is worth 20% of my grade and the prof is my adviser. I swear, on this blog, that I will try really hard and improve myself-once I'm healthy.

Now, to address the title of this post. During my last two semesters at Grinnell I roomed with Perri and we became very close-basically inseparable. While I value our friendship a lot, it might have limited me socially (in the way that I felt so comfortable with Perri that I didn't feel the need to socialize beyond that-not to mention my general shyness and awkwardness). Well, this semester Perri is studying abroad in Denmark, so I knew that I had to make an effort if I didn't want to hang out only with myself. After some work and some luck I've managed to work out a pretty solid-though not perfect-social system.

Last semester I occasionally ate with Perri, our friend Steph (now a senior and my next door neighbor by a great twist of fate) and Steph's group (also seniors). I was really on the utmost periphery of the group. This semester I've managed to break in further. I eat lunch with them basically everyday and I go to their baking Tuesday (one of the girls, Sarah, is really good at baking). For dinner, I usually eat with my friend Seido, Caroline and their group of friends. I also attend anime club Friday nights; Siedo is the leader. The club has addicted my to Samurai Champloo, an anime with sword fighting and hip hop music. I also work Sunday and Wednesday nights (I like and talk to all of my co-custodians) and I have Community Chorus on Monday nights. The only real hole in my social schedule is Saturday nights. The hole will at least be filled this Saturday as I am going camping with Steph's friends. And that will probably be my next post, so bye for now.

My Forefather

Well, I finally watched the first episode of the 1960's anime: Gigantor! I thought, since it is basically the title of my blog, I should share my thoughts on the episode. Though, nothing I say could really do it justice.

1) I could listen to the Gigantor theme song all day. "Bigger than big, Taller than tall, Quicker than quick, Stronger than Strong. Ready to fight for right against wrong! Gigantor! Gigantor! Gigantor!"

2) I giggle every single time anyone mentions the name Gigantor. It's like they're speaking right to me!

3) The villain's name for the first episode...Dr. Katzmeow. His evil deed of the episode...Dr. Katzmeow has taken over Antarctica! (whales, icebergs, and all)

4) When Jimmy controls Gigantor with his control stick. (you'd just have to see for yourself)

5) All of the good guys' Antarctica outfits.

6) Penguins with guns built into them.

7) The randomness of it all-both the plot and dialogue. "The air down here is so cold it even turns tea to ice cubes!"

8) One of the bad guys, who clearly has a Russian accent, says- "I am from Europe." Yeah, sure, that's specific. Also, all of the other bad guys seem to speak with a German accent. And the good guys who aren't American... French accents.

9) Unlike Batman, Gigantor doesn't seem to have any problems killing a lot of people...a lot.

10) My only real complaint is that Gigantor doesn't speak. I'm thinking something along the lines of the Hulk would be good.

Gigantor- "Gigantor needs get new agent. This show ridiculous"

Colored Collages

When I was in San Antonio I went to a brunch in a small cafe/specialty pancake restaurant. There were works of customer made art around the walls. Someone had done a series of collages that formed a rainbow. I thought it was a cool idea, but instead of paying 80 or so dollars, I decided I could do it myself. So I did. I'd say some are more successful than others, but I had fun and it should make good dorm room art.

Super Duper Montana Continued

Day Seven (Thursday)

Emily went to work at noon (til 10pm yeesh) and I drove Sarah to the Bozeman Airport. More surprisingly, I didn't get lost on the way back. I then did a little shopping at the Old Navy Emily works at (sans Emily) and then I went to the mall and shopped at...JC Penny's! Yes the same JC Penny's that has gone out of business in Arlington! Ok maybe I'm trying to make this sound a little bit more exciting than it actually was. I did buy some awesome comic book shirts though.

At five I third wheeled with Mary and Tony. We went to a most excellent pizza place-Old Chicago. Then we headed over to music on Main-a live music event held during the summer. Right over the stage were intense rain clouds (everything around the concert's location was blue and bright). At about 6:35 it started raining buckets and we all had to run for cover. Fortunately, the rain stopped right at 7:00, the concert's start time. Wasn't a huge fan of the music-too country-and it was cold and I was tired (complain!), so Mary and Tony drove me home; they also had plans after the concert which would have been awkward for me to be a part of.

While waiting for the rain to stop and the concert to begin I saw this poor soul. This recession has hit everyone really hard-Even Santa.

At about 11pm, Em returned home. Trevor called saying he was hungry, so the three of us embarked on what would turn out to be one of the most bizarre car rides of my life. First, I heard a whole argument between Em and Trev which seemed to be contained in twenty minutes. They said things that made the other mad, they sincerely apologized, all the while switching between laughing and shouting. It was not the kind of passive aggressive fights I'm used to. After Trev scared the person working at one Wendy's we had to go to another. We chilled out in the parking lot eating and listening to Legally Blond, which Trevor sang enthusiastically to. Finally, we stopped in a pretty abandoned parking lot and had a dance party in the headlights of Trev's car. Good night.

Day Eight (Friday)

Em made breakfast for me and Lois. Em and I watched an amazing spoof music video on YouTube which I'll put a plug in for right now- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGRfDv7wLUc. I wrote on this here blog while the annoying plop sound of Em's Facebook chatting radiated from next to me; we both showed off our maturity by chatting online (quite annoyingly) even though we were less than a foot away.

Em left for work and I tried to watch a soap, but Obama was in Bozeman on Friday and his speech interrupted regular programing. I hate it when insignificant things like the president get in the way of my television watching! I went upstairs and watched a massive hail storm from the guest bedroom window. I had never been in such a big hail storm before. It sounded like gum balls were descending on the earth, but the hail was only about the size of those circular, almost metallic, sprinkles I used to put on ice cream. Then, I almost had a heart attack when I saw a spider the size of a big grasshoppers climb on the outside of the window. I guess it didn't like being pelted.

When Emily returned from work we decided to borrow a movie from Trevor. He actually had a date with Mary (Em's sister) planned for that night. Yes, Trev is Emily's friend, but when he came for dinner on Wednesday Mary saw something that she liked. The whole situation seemed pretty awkward to me and Em and I had a lot of fun talking about it. Anyway, Trev's roommate was getting ready to throw a party, so Em and I hung out a little bit at Trev's, listening to music. I also tried hookah for the first time-something my high school friends wanted me to try for a long time. After hanging, I recommended "Goodwill Hunting" to Em. We went to the mall briefly, so I could try my luck at Victoria's Secret (Surprise! No luck). Then, we went home, ordered pizza and watched Goodwill Hunting with Em's mom. It was even better than I remembered it-good movie-good night-good visit. Wait what?

Day Nine (Saturday) The final day :(

So, it was time for me to leave the wonderful land of Montana and Emily's wonderful company. She drove me to Billings Airport while I played 'The Full Monty' for her-one of my favorite musicals. Em was especially a fan of 'Big Ass Rock'; Emily has good taste.

We said our heartfelt goodbyes at the airport and I reluctantly parted from Emily. My flights were uneventful and I was actually able to sleep on most of my flight from O'Hare to DC-a rarity for me.

So in summary, the whole trip was amazing, though I really wish I had more time between returning to A-Town and going to Grinnell. This trip also was great preparation for this next semester. With my closest friend and roommate studying abroad this semester, I'm going to need to make new friends. I was thrown into plenty of social situations and met a lot of new people and had a lot of fun doing so. I can think of nothing better for a shy person like me, than learning that talking to new people can be not scary and even fun. Let's see if I can carry this lesson with me to Grinnell.

Montana the beautiful

After my summer job fell through I needed to find a way to occupy my summer (this was before I found out about my San Antonio road trip), so I decided to see my most excellent ex roommate Emily Jane in her town of Bozeman Montana. Thought I would include the highlights since it would be impossible for me to describe all the amazingness.

Day One (Friday evening)

Friday was the amazing day of flying wet and making Emily waiting too long. On the car ride (back) to Bozeman, with Emily and her comic book fan/friend Kenny (who lent me Final Crisis), Emily talked about her friend Alex (a boy) who would come to stay for a couple days. When we arrived at her house and I saw this friend Alex, I turned to Emily and said "You could have told me that I know Alex." Alex is in my class at Grinnell.

Day Two (Saturday)

Emily had to work in the morning so Alex and I went to Main St. and watched a parade-well it was more like walking next to a parade. We took in all the amazing floats which were affiliated with various local businesses/groups. The only float we couldn't place was a giant duck float which kind of looked paper mached. Whenever its beak opened someone on a loud speaker said 'duck'!

We met Emily for lunch at an excellent burger place. Fox news was on a TV screen in the restaurant. They were covering the crash of an airplane and a helicopter nonstop (the accident had happened four hours earlier and they were still calling it breaking news). We made fun of the news coverage because they were really reaching for details at that point-a child was killed (Oh no! That's awful.) and the plane was filled with Italian tourists (Oh, that's OK then).

The parade was part of the bigger Bozeman Sweet Pea Festival (a music and arts festival). Emily, Alex and I went to the festival later that evening (after a hike up a mountain and a visit to Emily's church) to hear Afro-Cuban music. We danced for about five seven minute songs (I think I've found the one type of music I can almost successfully dance to). After dancing I met my first batch of Emily's friends. At one point all the leaders of the conversation went upstairs and the shy people down stairs (yes, that included me) joked about how socially awkward we are.

Day Three (Sunday)

Emily and I had to say goodbye to Alex around noon and, almost immediately after, Emily left for work (she has three jobs). I took a walk around two lakes with Em's mother and her sister Mary. Little did I know that I would return to the lakes much later that day for more fun.

In the evening Emily and I picked up two of her friends (Beth and Victor!) who were stranded in a parking lot. We were headed to a barbecue (at Beth's house) with more of Em's friends (this was my second batch of greetings, but it included two people from the previous night (Marilee and Trevor). On the way to Beth's apartment we experienced the greatest cosmic setup ever; we all saw...a chicken crossing a very busy road. Obviously the chicken crossed the road to avoid becoming roadside dinner.

The B-B-cue was fun and involved me playing Mario Party on Wii pretty poorly. Kenny showed up late and we discussed how Final Crisis makes no sense-stupid Grant Morrison you think you're so cool and trippy, but really you're just the jerk who killed Batman. The party broke up when a neighbor complained about the noise, but Em, Trevor, Merilee and I went to hang out on a grassy hill smack dab in the middle of the two lakes I walked around earlier.

Day Four (Monday)

Em's sis, Mary, had a friend (onagainoffagainonagainoffagain boyfriend) Tony visiting. While Em was at work in the morning (once again) I tagged along on a hike with Mary and Tony at a place called Hyalite. Let me just say that Montana is absolutely gorgeous. No matter where you are you are surrounded by mountains. The waterfalls at Hyalite were especially pretty.

In early evening I satisfied a Dairy Queen craving and Em and I went to a park. By this day I had been on two/three hikes. Em suggested we take a walk in the park. About ten minutes later I slowly realized 'wait a second, this is not a walk. This is a hike-you tricked me!'. We had a deep conversation about societal expectations and religion.

Em, Trevor, and I had a relaxing night watching The Queen at Trev's house. Trev ended up being the friend of Em I saw the most. He is quite a character, really nice and generally awesome.

Day Five (Tuesday)

Mmm, chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. Em's friend Victor came for a chat on the porch. He likes fishing and hunting and goes to a strict catholic school in Florida. Then, Em went to work, but Victor hung around and I talked with him, Tony and yet another one of Em's friends-Sarah. Sarah is a fellow sociology major (Anthropology double major). She's very religious, nice and has the distinction in her social group of never wanting children. Em and I had talked at the park about the basic expectation in Montana for a woman to get married, quit her job and have kids. Many of Sarah's friends insist she will change her mind, but I think Sarah is an example of a woman who is not afraid to admit what she wants, even if it goes against peer pressure and society expectations.

Tuesday night Em and I (Emigail) watched 'Step Up' with Lois (the baby of the family). She kept on getting angry at Emigail for making sarcastic comments at cliched scenes. Come on! How could I possibly watch 'Step Up' without snarking?

Day Six (Wednesday)

This was Em's only complete day off. We picked up Kenny (who has comic books, but no car) and went to a bagel place that really loves to slather on cream cheese. We decided to have a picnic at a place with water and went to Safeway to grab supplies. At one point we saw a watermelon and Emily asked if we wanted to get it. My question was; "Where would we get a knife to cut it". This put Kenny and Em over the edge and they basically laughed at me. Why? Because I had betrayed just what an East coaster I am. In Montana everyone carries a knife and has a gun in their car.

Trevor joined us for the picnic (and insisted on driving even though Em is by no means a bad driver). It was fun, except there was no sun to be seen anywhere. Em, Trev and Kenny all swam in the freezing cold water-I didn't have a bathing suit so I carried their clothes and was eaten alive by mosquitos (my bug bites itch at this very moment). When thunder and lighting appeared we returned to Em's house. Emily made two different types of cookies because the first batch wasn't perfect enough. Kenny and I took turns at the piano (Kenny is a music major and Trev has been playing piano for thirteen years, but I was the only one in the room who could actually read music). After I butchered some Phantom of the Opera on piano we decided to watch the actual movie, until we decided to play Super Smash Brothers (with Tony, Mary and Lois-Em's littlest sister)-I think Kenny had a lot of fun beating me (I was being a little annoyingly competitive). We (Kenny, me, Em, Trev, Mary, Lois) played Scattergories. My favorite part was when one of the items on the list was 'a four letter word' and we had rolled an F for that round. I got the point because I was the only one who really went there. We all had dinner, Kenny Em and I watched some YouTube (Tapiocaaaa!), then we called it a night.

...To be continued

Clap if you believe in fairies...

...now I certainly do-evil Fairies. Because I swear there is a sadistic sometimes ironic travel fairy following me around trying to see how much it can heap on me that I can laugh off.

I got my first real taste from this fairy (evil sprite more like it) Christmas of my freshman year at Grinnell. I'm sitting in the airport waiting for my flight and all the flights around me are getting canceled, not because it is snowing, but because-it is foggy. Too foggy for planes to take off, really?! I know I'm doomed, but it gets to the point that every single flight has been cancelled except mine. Hah! Yeah, not so much. My flight was just the last to get cancelled. I don't panic though, not even when the airport makes an announcment that there will be no flights out of the Des Moines airport that day-maybe not even in the next two days. While everyone else around me is cursing at the poor airport workers, I am laughing quietly to myself. After all getting angry at people just doing their jobs is NOT helpful. It's finally my turn to rebook my flight. They arrange it so that I can fly out of the Omaha airport, but first I have to take a shuttle at five o'clock in the morning. I decide there is no way that I will take a nap because I do not want to risk missing the shuttle. So, I stay up till 5 in the morning (it was around 8pm when I rebooked my flight) and take the shuttle to Omaha. At the Omaha airport I have to wait eight hours for my flight and eventually I am on a direct flight to Washington DC, completely exhausted, but still laughing the whole experience off (hey, at least it makes a good story). Want to know how long it all took? Let me put it this way: I left Grinnell almost the exact same time my sister left Tanzania-and she got to DC first!

I encountered the fairy a couple of times on my roadtrip from San Antonio too (already detailed on this blog). Then, about a week later, when it was time for me to fly to Montana to see Emily Jane, we met again. My flight from DC to Chicago went fine, but at O'Hare I had to go outside in order to get onto my airplane for Billings. This surprised me because I really thought O’Hare could afford those boarding things that lead straight to the plane-I guess this recession has hit everyone hard. Being outside wouldn’t have been a problem, if it had not been raining. Better yet, there was some kind of hold up on the boarding ramp, so I got to stand outside for ten minutes before I could board. As I stood outside absolutely miserable and wet, I couldn’t stop smiling because it was all so ridiculous and oddly not surprising that this would happen to me. I finally got onto the plane, very moist, but amused by how much the airport staff apologized. I thought the fun was over, but the fairy had other plans. There were storms over Billings and the airplane did not have enough gas to wait out the storms. Therefore we got to divert to Bozeman-an example of the fairy’s ironic sense of humor. Emily Jane had told me that she preferred to pick me up at Bozeman airport, but the flights were cheaper at Billings. If only I had just flown to Bozeman. In other words, my flight had to divert to Bozeman, refuel and then fly to Billings. Then, after finally meeting Emily (after making her wait extra long), we had to drive to Bozeman.

Ha ha, isn’t that funny. It’s ok you can laugh, I certainly did. Do you hear that evil ironic travel fairy? You haven’t beaten me down yet. Bring…it…on.

Is Kate the new Emily?

You may have noticed in Gigantor's very first post, I referred to David's girlfriend as DGF Emily. Why would I have to give her a nickname? Maybe because one fifth of everyone I meet seems to be named Emily. Since I will probably be talking about them in the future I will come up with more and more nicknames.

Obviously the most important Emily in my life is my sister. In the realm of family I also have an aunt Emily. Then, I've known other Emilys in my orbit including an elementary school classmate, a slightly older Emily from my high school (my bro's ex), two Emilys in my current college class, of course DGF Emily, and various others. (Emily has been one of the most popular baby names for years and years). Also, in my first year of college I was in a triple with a Chinese student named Lupeng and girl named, you guessed it Emily (I had to laugh at the time, as I often do when I meet another Emily). We really hit off (after a few akward shy days) and I was very sad to find out she was going to transfer out after the first semester. I still regularly talk to her and I'm actually in Montana visiting her right now, so I will call her Emily Jane. So, in short, lots of Emilys and more all the time.

But, is there a new name sneaking up on the horizon? Maybe. My roomate from last year (Dysfuncto/Perri) and I are still good friends, but she is studying abroad this fall semester, so I had to find a new roommate. After not getting a single (my roomdraw number was awful for the second year in a row and they ran out literally two people ahead of me grr), I submitted a roommate request form. After months of waiting I found a girl who wanted a triple and I told her I was in. Her name: Kate. Then a second girl responded to Kate's request: Katie. I feel bad my name isn't Kathyrn. So, then I started thinking. I've known a lot of Kate/Katies too. There was my elementary school and basketball friend Katie. My sister had a friend named Kate, there's several other Kates at Grinnell, and Kate's from summer camps etc.

So the name Emily needs to suit up if she wants to beat this new competitor. Soon, me knowing 5+ Emilys may not be enough. Soon, the day may come when someone says "Hi, my name is Kate" and I laugh the same way I did when I found out my roommates name. And that, my friends, will be a sad day for all the Emilys I know.

The Adventures of Gigantor and Dysfuncto

Since The Sequence (the Grinnell College's comic publication) did not see fit to publish this comic that Perri and I worked on, I thought I would include it here; along with the origin story of Gigantor (me) and Dysfuncto (my roommate Perri).

Gigantor was born out of sibling teasing. I am the tallest sibling of the family...actually the tallest person of my family. Consequently, I usually help out with the reaching high places and just being a general source of amusment: being so tall I can't help but fumble often and bang my body parts (usually my head) into things. So Gigantor is pretty simple: freakishly tall girl=Gigantor. Also, I didn't realize until recently that Gigantor was actually a 60's anime show which I now own. As a result of this anime I also have a catch phrase: Bigger than big, taller than tall! (No copyright infringment intended).

Dysfuncto is equally simple. My roommate and I have a healthy relationship of playful teasing-she teases me too! it's not just my sarcastic self attacking her, honest! So, one night working with her at Grinnell's dining hall as custodians I noticed that she can be slightly dysfunctional. I immediately thought of turning this feature into a super hero (because I am a geek) and Perri helped me think of Dsyfuncto.

Perri suggested we turn these two heroes into a comic and I heartily agreed. Perri wrote the story (I made a few edits based on what I could actually accomplish in a two page comic) and I drew it and submitted it to The Sequence. I'll just say that Perri and I were less than thrilled to find out it was not accepted, so I'm glad to be able to use this blog to share it with at least a couple people. So, without further ado, I give you Gigantor and Dysfuncto.

Yay San Antonio!

A little over a week ago I was charged with the task of retrieving a family car (the Corolla I learned how to drive in) from my brother David in San Antonio. A mere few days later, David was picking me up at San Antonio airport, looking very much like the teacher he will soon officially be. What followed was a wonderful trip spent hanging out with David, Emily (Henceforth known as DGF Emily) and their Ultimate Frisbee friends, while seeing the SA sights and eating at least one meal of TexMex a day. Mmmm. My last day, right before hitting the highway to get back to A-town, I finally tried the San Antonio staple my brother had recommended my whole stay: the breakfast taco. Basically it’s a soft taco filled with breakfast foods—all I can say is that I will be leading the crusade to bring these beautiful things to Virginia, Iowa…and then the world!

Also during my stay, David recommended I start my own blog. I told him I really didn’t have anything to say and kind of brushed the suggestion off—as the universe rubbed its hands together and snickered evilly. After finishing my first real highway driving experience I decided I had to write about it, to perserve my own sanity. What follows in my next post is the story of a journey fueled by gas, human error and it’s-always-funny-when-it-happens-to-someone-else bad luck…