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"