Life · in · the · Lodges

I just moved out of Swat. As my roommates both separately stated, "The end of an era." And thus disperses the lodge. It's been a wonderful year, and the best and most consistent thing was the lodge. I loved my room; it was cozy, organized, just the right size. It held everything I owned and put it in just the right place. My roommates were my best friends, and were my social life. All friends and social acquaintances came to the lodge. We were the center of attention. The few parties I attended this year were held in my house.

But time goes on. It was just a college dorm. Which means, time to move out and do it again next year, somehow.

-Kim

I just have one final and one final paper. Then I'm done with this semester. I just opened my last show of the season in Philly tonight (a dance piece by Movement Research and Meg Foley, called Slip). I have 6 more surveys to code, then my research is concluded. Everything's wrapping up.

I have to find an apartment for next year, but that'll fall into place. I also have to buy a car and sell my horse, but that's not school related. I'm finally coming out of my busy, busy semester, and breathing deep and seeing the flowers. It's warm, it's beautiful out, and I have finals.

-Kim

Spring is here, the weather is beautiful. Students are celebrating the arrival of reading week, which will shortly be followed by finals. Already? Crap.

I'm looking forward to the summer. I have a job in Chicago at this awesome theater program, I'll probably collaborate on a piece for the Philly Fringe Festival, and I'll visit a friend in NYC, then go traveling in Israel.

I'm excited. I just have to get through exams.

-Kim

So the end of the semester is getting a little bit crazy. Luckily for me, all this stops about half way through reading week. So when finals rolls around, I'll be nice and relaxed and leisurely. Until then, thought, I'm premiering a show in Philly, producing a one act play festival, assistant designing/master electrician-ing a show for the theater department, going to seminar dinner with my seminar, riding (and trying to sell) my horse, and getting next year and my summer all planned. It's a lot, but it'll be fun. It's just starting to fall apart a little bit.

But life no fun if it's all safe and smooth. The bumps in the road are what brings a twinkle to your eye.

-Kim

I've decided to live off campus next year. It's not something that many people do. I think something like 98% of all students live on campus for all 4 years. And housing is guaranteed all 4 years, too. And it's nice housing, with lots of variety (such as, our LODGE!!). But if you live in college housing, you have to be on the meal plan. Which, for all people's complaining, I actually agree with. But I feel that I want an off-campus, fend-for-yourself experience. Although I have enjoyed the meal plan for 5 solid semesters (let me tell you that going abroad and buying and preparing your own food in a foreign country gives you appreciation for a dining hall!), I think that as a senior I will be better served by bridging the gap into the 'great beyond' by practicing making my own meals. I realize this might be a good step since I spend all day, every day on the move, on the run. And I swipe my card, grab a bite, and dash off. That won't be possible after school, so I want to avoid the 'culture shock' and acclimation period that would come with adapting from meal plan to real-world.

So I'm going to talk to the housing coordinator, see what she recommends. I'll be living about 100 feet from where I'm living now, so it's not an extreme move. The college has plenty of resource board for finding housing, and I don't believe it's too competitive, so I should be fine. Another exciting Swarthmorean adventure! Yay college.

-Kim

So this blog is aimed at providing an insiders perspective at prospective students (specs). Great.

So when people with other insider perspectives (everyone's is slightly different) read my attempts at being interesting to non-Swarthmore students, naturally they find it amusing.

Which is what happened today as me and a group of friends were hanging out in the Parrish Parlours. Someone on their laptop starts laughing hysterically and asks, "Really, Kim?". She had found this blog. Initially I was a little flustered and felt somewhat embarrassed, but then I realized that what I had to say was perhaps not interesting or entertaining (for the right reasons) or useful to her, but I darn well bet it's interesting to someone.

Or maybe I'm fooling myself. But aren't all blogs self-indulgent?

Ride the Tide is in a few days!

-Kim

How I love being busy. I have a lot to do. It makes me feel important. Ever since I became official co-coordinator of Drama Board, I feel a lot more mature, with a lot more responsibility and power. How I act is now important. I must behave in certain ways. I must negotiate many delicate situations. I must be tactful. I must make policy decisions. I must also go to class, do homework, make money and care for my horse, and will not be allowed to do those any less than before. Cool, another thing on the list. Intense!

-Kim

Something weird is going on with the moon, or some magnetic force, or something. Maybe us lodgemates have lived together for too long (never!! I love my roomies!!).

But there were 5, then 4, then 3, then 2, aaaaand, now 1. What gives? Screw new spring romances!

To make this post valid and worthwhile, not just petty updates on our personal lives, I'll talk about... housing!

We're all gearing up to find housing for next year, which is always a fun game. Sarcasm. It's not too terrible, but it's a little bit a paradox of choice, with so many appealing options (or, if you're like me, a room is a room is a room). It's also a lot of "where do you want to eat" symptom, as I call it. No one's decisive enough to have a preference, no one wants to say who they really want to live with or really don't want to live with. Everyone's kinda fine with "where ever you want to eat", but that's a total lie. But luckily, it gets figured out (we've been bringing it up since the fall, but no solutions have been found). So now we're thinking of blocking (trying to get a large number of rooms before the housing lottery, where it's every man for himself) for Wharton, which is known as one of the nicest dorms on campus, although frankly its personality never really appealed to me.

I don't know if choosing dorms is like choosing a college, but each place has their pros and cons, their work environment, their social life, the physical environment and commute, the dorm-mates... It's a little bit of a microcosm of the college search. But fortunately, you're supposed to pick based on where your friends are going. So get a group together, do groupthink, and you eventually pick a place. Without any admission essays. But you still have to get in.

-Kim

So this is a little peek into some other aspects of our lives at Swat. Not too enlightening about admissions or academics, but one must note that life happens while at college. And relationships are a part of life. Swat has its politics and stereotypes and idiosyncrasies, but I have no experience at any other colleges, so cannot speak about the norm or our departure from it. What I can say is that the lodge is 5 for 5. It all happened within a week, when the final three members of our lodge quickly followed the second into relationships. Wow. Must be something in the air.

So the flowers are blooming, the weather is changing, the robins are all out hunting worms, the sun sets later (so much later with daylight savings time), and spring is the air.

-Kim

So I'm sitting in the weirdest hallway on campus, on a fourth floor of a building that can only be described as "very confused." I'm running research subjects, again (I just saw another Swat blogger!). With plenty of free time. But, I had my laptop and it got very spotty internet from the wireless. It's hard to find, since our whole campus is a hotspot. So I finally just pulled an ethernet cable out of a neighboring computer.

But it made me think about how much time we spend on computers other than on the internet. I suppose there's some software that you use on computers, but it seems like they're internet and word processing. I guess there's technical things, like mathematical modeling, CAD drafting, photo editing and the like that require computers, and people who use those programs extensively would probably not have a problem being stuck in a weird little room without access to the WWW.

-Kim

I'm sitting in the psycholinguistics lab, running experiments for a psychology experiment. Any Swatties that read this blog are encouraged to sign up for a study. But I'm really doing research for this professor. Here are the subjects to prove it.

It's actually not that life-changing, just tell the people what you're supposed to tell them, act with authority and waste time. And get paid. Fun.

I'm off to the barn today to 1) try to sell my horse and 2) organize an equestrian club. That's right, folks, Swarthmore might (probably!) be getting a club that lets people RIDE!! I'm excited. Then I have a meeting with the daily newspaper to tell everyone about it.

Up, up and away!

-Kim

The administration is starting to make preparations for Ride the Tide (well, I assume they started a while ago, but we're just now seeing sign-up sheets, etc). That's admitted students weekend. It's awesome. I went to my Ride the Tide, even though I was ED and didn't have to decide which school to go to. But I made some really good friends, oddly enough, and we still know each other after all these years.

I wonder if they'll keep the name "Ride the Tide" as they transition to our new mascot, the Phoenix. We're the Garnet Tide, so riding the tide makes sense. What about when we're the Phoenixes? Lame. No one wants a mascot... Rassa-sassa-frassa...

See you at RTT!
-Kim

So I think that very few young people appreciate good health. I'm probably one of the ones who don't, but I think I'm moving more toward the phase where I know that I don't appreciate good health, but recognize that I have it, and there exists the possibility that I can not have it. By good health, I'm talking about the ability to actually be healthy between bouts of illnesses, the ability to walk to the dining hall even with a cold, the freedom to go up and down stairs without considering how much it will hurt, or if the pain is worth it. Even little things, like if I bang into the corner of the desk, I'll be able to walk tomorrow. No question.

All of this is prompted by a hiking accident today. It's not so bad, but I was roughing it along the shore of an island off Puerto Rico (Vieques), on volanic rock pitted with erosion, carrying my snorkel stuff in one hand. As I was climbing across the face of a rock ledge one-handed (not the smartest thing), my handhold came free and I fell onto the sharp rocks below. I guess it was major, but I picked up and completed the rest of the mile+ trek across rugged terrain. I was a little worried, since I got a deep puncture on my knee, and when I looked in it, I saw white amid the gushing blood. But I walked it off and got to my destination. In damage assessment, I got scraped up all over my body, sprained my right wrist, maybe did something to my finger, bruised my left knee and have a deep puncture there. All in all, not too bad for falling off a cliff. But here on an island, salt water will not make my cuts feel good (I'm not worried about the minor stuff, but I'm definitely going to have to seal the puncture from the water, that would kill). And right now I just feel like taking a rest.

Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow, since this is a vacation from the stationary life of Swarthmore. Here's to activity.

Here's to health.

-Kim

Does anyone know difficult sentences? I've lost my sense of the English language.

I'm writing stimuli for a psychology study for the professor that I'm doing research with, and it's not going so well. Actually, it's going fine, but right now I have writer's block. I have to come up with 20 difficult sentences, which shouldn't be hard.

Except I already came up with 36 heavily qualified items, then 10 similar fillers, then 108 survey items. I've thought of 10 already, and just need 10 more. Then I have to tense adjust them and change their response questions to balance the number of yes responses to the number of no responses. Oh yeah, I have to make questions for each sentence.

So that's an update on what I'm doing RIGHT NOW. Well, I'm taking a slight break, then I'll be doing that RIGHT THEN.

Spring break is in a week. Cool.

-Kim

Dear U.S. Dollar,

Why are you so WEAK? You're like Colin, from "The Secret Garden", sitting in a closed room, all pale and sad, afraid to open the windows because of the spores. All the other currencies make fun of you behind your back. The Euro says you smell, and the British Pound says you can't sit with it at lunch anymore. Remember when you used to stick your nose up at the Canadian Dollar? How badly does it burn that pretty soon on the back of paperback novels, the higher price is gonna be YOU? Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Well, enjoy your steady and inevitable road to middle.

Love always,
Ethel

So I feel like most of my posts are about how awesome Swarthmore is. That's legitimate, since I honestly feel that it's awesome, but I feel like I should gripe and complain to try to give you guys a real sense of the place. I think I do a little complaining in this blog, but mostly about work and life in general. I actually don't have much to complain about. I really like being a junior, and I feel like I'm at a cusp in my life, clearly looking back on the recent past of my college experience, and the more distant past of my late childhood, but now I have a vantage point into the future. All through the last few years I've been getting glimpses of life ahead, but now I think it's in perspective and the fog is lifting. College will end, and that's just starting to be ok.

I consider college to be the American right of passage. It's our society's transition to adulthood. It's a long ceremony, but extremely informative, helpful and cathartic. Having never gone to another college, I don't know how much of a role Swarthmore has played in my right of passage. I think you get an education and a transition to adulthood everywhere, no matter where you go.

But some special things about Swarthmore that I think makes the journey special (factors which may or may not be right for everyone, they were right for me):
1. The people (they're all interesting and intelligent people, like you find most places, but most importantly, they're passionate and engaged)
2. The environment (an arboretum with the Crum woods in the backyard, with huge lawns and clear views of stars)
3. The geographic placement (perched on the shoulder of Philadelphia, which is not an insignificant city)

I'm sure there are other factors, but those are the ones that jump to mind. There's highlights and lowlights like anywhere else, like food, partying, etc. But like Sam said before, those are terrible reasons to choose a college. Look at career services, the student body's relation to campus police, the places where you see people studying (the places where you see yourself studying, is it only the library, or is it 'cool' to study in the middle of the dining hall), etc.

This is probably a little late, since everyone's already applied, but decisions are rolling around soon, and then it's your turn to accept or reject colleges.

That feels like a preachy blog post... Sorry.

-Kim

Usually our lodge bathroom in a non-issue, especially in the morning. We all get up at such different times that four people sharing one bathroom/shower is no problem. But today I hit snooze three times (ok, I really shouldn't have, I wasn't THAT tired), and ran into a snag. I've been waiting for the bathroom for nearly half an hour, which is fine, since I did my usual e-mail checking and web surfing for the morning. And it gave me time to update the blog.

Life in the lodge is great, though, and living with four awesome people (three now) is great. This past summer I lived with 8 guys in an amazing loft in Chicago, and this entire year is reminding me of that wonderful experience, which makes me excited for living options in the real world. Roommates can be so cool, and thank you college for showing me that. I think I'll always need amazing people around me, preferably in quantity. Note that amazingness has nothing to do with intellectual ability. Be interesting and talented, and people will want to live with you.

-Kim

So I've decided that I want to design a show this semester. My assistantship in Philly is great, but there's little chance for creative input. I'm pretty busy, and I do many different modes of work (although the academics gets one-dimensional, it's all reading, rather than problem sets or objective homework assignments--I'm starting to welcome the papers). I do psychology research (generate stimuli, which is a lot of thinking up and grooming sentences), I work at the theater and do overhire work around town (manual labor), I read journal articles (for class), I read textbooks (for class) and I read plays and novels (for class), I do aikido (keeps me active), and I organize stuff for drama board (gotta promote the theater community!). But I don't design. These little 'vacations' from having projects really show me that I'm a designer at heart.

It's a combination of the art, the organization, the involvement in theater, the people and the process that makes theater design irresistible to me. And I'm starting to realize that I like lights better than set. Well, I don't know if it's 'better than', but it's definitely at the point of 'as much as'.

Well, these are good things to figure out, and nothing to worry about, since my life will probably be full of designs. Hopefully.

-Kim

In a lodge-wide declared study break, I will update the blog to give myself something to do, which is not work.

Work at this moment consists of reading an archaic French teenage thriller novel of adventure, love affairs and duels. Uhh, sure. It's about 900 pages long. Not cool. That's on top of the other play, the essay and the four chapters of theory that I have to read for the class. And I have other reading for my seminar and for my class. And I have ground plans for my assistantship due soon. So it's a lot. But not too bad. It's an unusual work week, with one seminar canceled in exchange of a residency by a visiting artist, and another postponed due to the opening of a show that a few classmates are in. And this extra reading, which only I am doing, and which requires a 4000 word paper.

I'm not complaining, just reporting. Never before, in any of my years as an underclassman, have I ever had this much work. But it's not bad when it finally comes around, since it's only for upper level classes, which one is presumably extremely interested in. Admittedly, I quite enjoy it.

-Kim

Every semester a massive wave of sickness strikes campus. I suspect it's the same at every college, but having gone to only one school, I can't rightfully generalize. Here we call it the Garnet Death (our sports name is the Garnet Tide, I think our school color is garnet, which is apparently a maroon color). It's going through campus right now. I think it's the flu this time, and there are rumors of whooping cough.

I caught the plague last week, with a very high fever and other such horrible symptoms. I got over it quickly, then it was Callie's turn. But she's better now and didn't have it as bad. The guys seem pretty immune. So we settle back to normal.

-Kim