Today I started a list.... The Adam list... a list of movies, music, books, all the stuff that i need to see/listen to/read... Here's a little taste:
MOVIES I WANT TO SEE
burn after reading
Kabluey
the last mistress
boy a
kicking it
overnight
savage grace
mister foe
reprise
my own private idaho (old)
casablanca
the godfather pt 2
murderball
bigger, stronger, faster
raging bull
startup.com
Books
'This history of love' by nicole krauss
"Rant" by Chuck Palahniuk
music
kate nash
mason jennings
elliot smith - memory lane
a rocket to the moon
brighten
google/watch/read any of that stuff... then thank me later. :)
I also started making a list of concerts that I want to see (Girl Talk, The Academy Is..., JACK'S MANNEQUIN!), but then i realized that i have spent a lot of my money on books and school junk... I definitely went out to eat a few too many times the first week or two of college. I have already decided to cut back on that (but i still have a "free sub" card for Jimmy Johns, my new all time favorite place).
But as far as good news goes, I'm all caught up on homework. which is good.
and I had a meeting for the "Students for Obama" organization (although we're not quite official) tonight, and things went well... On tuesday I clipboarded (which consists of me walking around the christianson lobby asking people if they support obama and then taking their contact info) for about an hour and got about 25 new supporters, which is pretty good. thursday we're planning on doing a door-knocking thing all over campus, which should be fun.
and now, I'm going to go watch a movie... probably Kill Bill Vol. 2.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
"With a little help from my friends"
I just decided that I am going to run for student senate....
It really wasn't that much of a "spur-of-the-moment" kinda thing... I of course had thought about it before I even knew which college I was attending... The only reason I was pretty hesitant was because I didn't know how busy I wanted to be during college... But after a summer of relaxing, I know that I want to get involved again.
So tonight I told my roommate Nate that I was running for a spot on student senate... 10 minutes later he had already created a facebook group for me... it was pretty exciting. I've already appointed him as my campaign manager. He knows A LOT of people on campus and I'm lucky to have him helping me out.
I've still got to go down to the Student Senate office tomorrow; i'm hoping to talk to the current student body president and find out exactly what I'm getting in to... Either way, I'm about 99% positive i'm going to go through with it...
And by the way... in case you haven't noticed... i'm sleep deprived...
And it's totally my fault.
I think (know) that i need to settle down a little bit. Knowing that, I denied a movie night tonight to go up to my room, finish a reading, type this, then go to bed.
I've only gone out Fridays/Saturdays, but almost every other night has been spent chilling in someone's room or watching a movie... And of course I've been getting my homework done... And i've had a lot of homework... and a lot of reading...
But it leaves so little time for sleep.
I've got a routine now that I'm all settled in, and Augsburg is really starting to feel like home. I've gotten to know sooo many people in the last week and I'm surprised how friendly everyone is.. it definitely makes the transition a lot easier.
BUT, it's not bed time :)
It really wasn't that much of a "spur-of-the-moment" kinda thing... I of course had thought about it before I even knew which college I was attending... The only reason I was pretty hesitant was because I didn't know how busy I wanted to be during college... But after a summer of relaxing, I know that I want to get involved again.
So tonight I told my roommate Nate that I was running for a spot on student senate... 10 minutes later he had already created a facebook group for me... it was pretty exciting. I've already appointed him as my campaign manager. He knows A LOT of people on campus and I'm lucky to have him helping me out.
I've still got to go down to the Student Senate office tomorrow; i'm hoping to talk to the current student body president and find out exactly what I'm getting in to... Either way, I'm about 99% positive i'm going to go through with it...
And by the way... in case you haven't noticed... i'm sleep deprived...
And it's totally my fault.
I think (know) that i need to settle down a little bit. Knowing that, I denied a movie night tonight to go up to my room, finish a reading, type this, then go to bed.
I've only gone out Fridays/Saturdays, but almost every other night has been spent chilling in someone's room or watching a movie... And of course I've been getting my homework done... And i've had a lot of homework... and a lot of reading...
But it leaves so little time for sleep.
I've got a routine now that I'm all settled in, and Augsburg is really starting to feel like home. I've gotten to know sooo many people in the last week and I'm surprised how friendly everyone is.. it definitely makes the transition a lot easier.
BUT, it's not bed time :)
Saturday, September 6, 2008
It's not so bad, It's not so bad
Things are going great.
I had my other classes on Thursday: my Augsem, Honors Search for Meaning and Vocation (something like that), and then a film lab. (All my other classes are on Monday, Wednesday, Friday). So thursday was a good day of classes too. For the Vocation class, we have to read A LOT of books, which makes me pretty excited. One of the books is titled "The Year of Living Biblically", and it tells the story of a man who lives a year trying to follow the bible as literally as possible.... I pretty much want to start reading it right now....
For my Augsem (Augsburg Seminar), our teacher just went over a couple of the things we'll be doing in the Minneapolis area, and then he explained how the Minneapolis street system works, which was helpful. We got down a little bit early so I went with a couple of friends to see Howard Dean speak on campus (Chairman of the Democratic National Committee). Now... I like Howard Dean a lot... he's a funny guy, but mostly because of his early disapproval of the War in Iraq. (Oh, and Keith Ellison was there, and he is bomb). However, I am getting slightly sick of all the finger-pointing going on between both parties... sure, it is a (somewhat) cleaner election than past years, but both parties have been saying "All they do (point finger here) is bash us... They don't know what they're doing and they don't talk policy..."
Well I'm still waiting to hear policy.... and that's my rant for the day.
ANYWAY. After listening to Howard Dean, I had to run on over to my film lab. Every thursday for Intro to Cinema we watch a movie and then discuss it. This week's pick was Alfred Hitchcock's "The Rear Window", and excellent choice considering our week's topic was the Voyeur and why people are captivated at watching others (especially through film). I was pretty impressed with myself and all the notes I took. :)
SOOO, the agenda for today: I don't know yet. Possibly organize my room a bit... maybe go to the Mall of America/ Ikea... The possibilities are endless.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
"Back to school"
I think last night was the first night since I've got to Augsburg that I went to bed before midnight... It was so nice to get all that much needed sleep....
I had my first ever college class at 9:10 this morning. I really had no idea what to expect. Half of me was thinking that I might be sitting through a long, excruciating lecture, and the other half had no idea.
My first class was 'The Scholar Citizen', a somewhat general honors class that prepares students for other honors courses and the liberal arts (at least that's what i think it is). My prof (who seems very cool) talked about his life (which seems very interesting) and the course (which might be one of my favorites) for the first few minutes of class... after that, he made us all sit in a circle around the room, introduce ourselves and then tell others in the group about our life...
And that was it.
There was a lot of good discussion, but the thing i found most interesting was the assortment of people that were in that class. So many of the students had lived such interesting lives, far different from my own, and I know that I have something to learn from every single person in that classroom.
And then I had my english class "Intro to Cinema Arts". I have been SOOOO extremely excited for this class.....
Until, a couple minutes after my teacher gave roll call, I realized I was in the completely wrong classroom..... My class had been moved to a different building.
"Welcome to (insert name of hard sounding math class here)" were the first words I heard... and then I got up and left the classroom, somewhat embarrassed. The prof was cool about it though, and pointed me in the right direction...
And then I got to my cinema class 10 minutes late, and luckily my prof understood. This class was also full of mostly discussion.. I found it very intriguing, and I can't wait for my film lab tomorrow afternoon.
And lastly, I had Spanish class, the class I was most worried about... My spanish was a little rusty, but it was harder for me to stay awake than it was for me to remember some of the spanish that I had learned. It was the prof's fault at all, but by 3 o'clock i was extremely exhausted...
And then we watched "Matchstick Men" in my room, went to eat at Davanni's, and then watched Borat tonight... everyone was pretty tired and wanted to just chill...
And now I'm going to bed.
I had my first ever college class at 9:10 this morning. I really had no idea what to expect. Half of me was thinking that I might be sitting through a long, excruciating lecture, and the other half had no idea.
My first class was 'The Scholar Citizen', a somewhat general honors class that prepares students for other honors courses and the liberal arts (at least that's what i think it is). My prof (who seems very cool) talked about his life (which seems very interesting) and the course (which might be one of my favorites) for the first few minutes of class... after that, he made us all sit in a circle around the room, introduce ourselves and then tell others in the group about our life...
And that was it.
There was a lot of good discussion, but the thing i found most interesting was the assortment of people that were in that class. So many of the students had lived such interesting lives, far different from my own, and I know that I have something to learn from every single person in that classroom.
And then I had my english class "Intro to Cinema Arts". I have been SOOOO extremely excited for this class.....
Until, a couple minutes after my teacher gave roll call, I realized I was in the completely wrong classroom..... My class had been moved to a different building.
"Welcome to (insert name of hard sounding math class here)" were the first words I heard... and then I got up and left the classroom, somewhat embarrassed. The prof was cool about it though, and pointed me in the right direction...
And then I got to my cinema class 10 minutes late, and luckily my prof understood. This class was also full of mostly discussion.. I found it very intriguing, and I can't wait for my film lab tomorrow afternoon.
And lastly, I had Spanish class, the class I was most worried about... My spanish was a little rusty, but it was harder for me to stay awake than it was for me to remember some of the spanish that I had learned. It was the prof's fault at all, but by 3 o'clock i was extremely exhausted...
And then we watched "Matchstick Men" in my room, went to eat at Davanni's, and then watched Borat tonight... everyone was pretty tired and wanted to just chill...
And now I'm going to bed.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Augsem Q
Recent Events:
So i promised this story a couple nights ago... It was the second night on campus and a couple of us were looking for something to do. We decided to take the bus down to Dinkytown. First of all, we waited 25 minutes for the bus to arrive... the last one left basically 2 minutes before we got there.... And then finally, we got on the bus and went down to Dinkytown. Right when we got there, I looked at the bus schedule and noticed that the last bus going back to Augsburg was leaving Dinkytown in about 25 minutes... meaning we had only 20 minutes to spend down there... which sucked... because we wasted so much time... and i was exhausted.. and i was sad.... and i learned my lesson, which is good.
BUT, things got better...
Today was definitely the best day so far:
We had an opening ceremony where all the teachers and faculty welcomed us to Augsburg. First of all, the woman singing was amazing. And the speeches were pretty good too.
And then we got together with our Augsem, a group of students (my group is made up of all honors students) and all Augsem groups went to a different location in the city to do community service projects.
My group went to a church in South Minneapolis, The Holy Rosary (Santa Rosario). The church is attended by MANY minority groups, immigrants, and refugees. One of the main goals of the church is to act as a bridge for these people to the community and to help them live a better life here in the cities. Specifically, one of the things that the church does is serve meals to many of the locals in the church basement. Because the state and federal government have very strict regulations regarding sanitation at these kind of events, it was the job of my Augsem to thoroughly clean the chairs and tables.
I never knew chairs could get so dirty, but i don't think any of us minded at all. Between all the introductions and talking, it went by pretty fast. Afterwards we were taken upstairs where one of the Sisters talked to us about the mission of the church. We watched a couple videos and it was very interesting..... Then something very cool happened.
Our group got into a discussion involving immigration....Just as we were about to wrap things up, a girl in my Augsem, who happens to be of Mexican decent, raised her hand and began to talk about all the things that she has had to overcome in her lifetime. She spoke directly from her heart.... Her testemonial was one of the MOST honest, sincere things I have ever heard anyone say.
It was the best experience I've had so far at Augsburg.
It wasn't just some documentary, or some news clip on TV. It was such a personal experience, not something I could have learned in a textbook....
And the weird thing is, I didn't even start my actual classes yet....
My group went to a church in South Minneapolis, The Holy Rosary (Santa Rosario). The church is attended by MANY minority groups, immigrants, and refugees. One of the main goals of the church is to act as a bridge for these people to the community and to help them live a better life here in the cities. Specifically, one of the things that the church does is serve meals to many of the locals in the church basement. Because the state and federal government have very strict regulations regarding sanitation at these kind of events, it was the job of my Augsem to thoroughly clean the chairs and tables.
I never knew chairs could get so dirty, but i don't think any of us minded at all. Between all the introductions and talking, it went by pretty fast. Afterwards we were taken upstairs where one of the Sisters talked to us about the mission of the church. We watched a couple videos and it was very interesting..... Then something very cool happened.
Our group got into a discussion involving immigration....Just as we were about to wrap things up, a girl in my Augsem, who happens to be of Mexican decent, raised her hand and began to talk about all the things that she has had to overcome in her lifetime. She spoke directly from her heart.... Her testemonial was one of the MOST honest, sincere things I have ever heard anyone say.
It was the best experience I've had so far at Augsburg.
It wasn't just some documentary, or some news clip on TV. It was such a personal experience, not something I could have learned in a textbook....
And the weird thing is, I didn't even start my actual classes yet....
Monday, September 1, 2008
I need a power nap
So today was another event-filled day. I woke up and did my run in the weight room... It was so very tempting to just sleep for another hour but you know what they say about the freshman fifteen.....
After my run, I randomly ran into Joe (a kid from my neighborhood group) and we decided to go get breakfast. Unfortunately, it was 10 o clock and thus breakfast time was over... which was sad because i was starving. Joe and i then decided to take an adventure over to the gas station and buy some milk because my mom loves me and packed me an excellent assortment of cereals. Joe and I then proceeded to watch some funny show on comedy central and chilled in my extremely hot room.
After TV time, we went down to eat lunch, which was surprisingly good. I've heard horror stories about the food here at Augsburg, but luckily they just got a new dining service provider. Today the chicken sandwhiches were excellent.
And then we proceeded onto an educational talk about drugs, sex, and sleep. I was dreading this, but it turned out to be a good presentation. It was funny how straightforward the speaker was, and she did a really good job.
Next, we had free time, which has been hard to come by the last couple days. A couple guys and I came up to my room and we watched (slept) the Harold and Kumar White Castle movie (mostly because Cal Pen is coming to Augsburg for a political action type thing and we were excited).
After waking up, I ate lunch, then we all went to a play by the Pilsbury Theater group (i think i got that right). It involved a lot of topics like racism, sexism, drinking, etc... Your typical college stuff, but it was done in a unique play presentation. It was good. It was funny. It was entertaining.
And best of all, I was impressed by the discussion afterwards. When the play was done, one of the women facilitated a discussion between the entire class of 2012, which, initially, i thought would be a bust. I was wrong. People (a lot of people) had really good opinions and input. It was intellectual. I liked it.
And now i'm going to ignore my body's want for sleep and find something to do tonight.
After my run, I randomly ran into Joe (a kid from my neighborhood group) and we decided to go get breakfast. Unfortunately, it was 10 o clock and thus breakfast time was over... which was sad because i was starving. Joe and i then decided to take an adventure over to the gas station and buy some milk because my mom loves me and packed me an excellent assortment of cereals. Joe and I then proceeded to watch some funny show on comedy central and chilled in my extremely hot room.
After TV time, we went down to eat lunch, which was surprisingly good. I've heard horror stories about the food here at Augsburg, but luckily they just got a new dining service provider. Today the chicken sandwhiches were excellent.
And then we proceeded onto an educational talk about drugs, sex, and sleep. I was dreading this, but it turned out to be a good presentation. It was funny how straightforward the speaker was, and she did a really good job.
Next, we had free time, which has been hard to come by the last couple days. A couple guys and I came up to my room and we watched (slept) the Harold and Kumar White Castle movie (mostly because Cal Pen is coming to Augsburg for a political action type thing and we were excited).
After waking up, I ate lunch, then we all went to a play by the Pilsbury Theater group (i think i got that right). It involved a lot of topics like racism, sexism, drinking, etc... Your typical college stuff, but it was done in a unique play presentation. It was good. It was funny. It was entertaining.
And best of all, I was impressed by the discussion afterwards. When the play was done, one of the women facilitated a discussion between the entire class of 2012, which, initially, i thought would be a bust. I was wrong. People (a lot of people) had really good opinions and input. It was intellectual. I liked it.
And now i'm going to ignore my body's want for sleep and find something to do tonight.
So move-in went excellently well.
It was kinda hot, which sucked, but everything went according to plan. My dorm room layout worked out even better than i expected.
After I got everything out of our vehicle and into my room, we (almost) instantly had to go to our neighborhood groups. It was slightly awkward for everyone. There were a lot of new faces and I've never had to force myself to try and be so social. I was exhausted and wanted to nap.
And then we went to the chapel and were entertained by all the extremely excited Orientation Leaders. We had a motivational speaker also, which was alright. Finally, after all the festivities were over, it was time to go meet people once again.
And then..... we tried to find something to do that night for fun... and it was both a terrible and useful experience, and I will tell you about it later because I am late for dinner and my tummy is grumbling. :)
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