The Orange

5 Things I Learned My First Semester

2012-01-20T13:06:00.000-06:00

My first semester at Mac was quite a busy one: getting used to a new routine, taking classes in new subjects, making new friends and participating in extracurricular activities added up to a lot. Throughout the semester, I've learned new things, both inside and outside the classroom. The following five are just a sample of some of the more memorable lessons of the semester, from those that have come in handy while playing Trivial Pursuit to real life skills.

1. There’s more to Isaac Newton than his three laws of motion

My FYC this semester, "Newton’s Principia and the Scientific Revolution," was a study of the history and philosophy of science and the Principia, which Newton wrote to illustrate the movement of celestial bodies and everyday objects. Studying the Principia, which are a foundation for a lot of the calculus and physics we have today, was not exactly a piece of cake. However, in the process, I learned random but fascinating facts about this famed scientist. For example, in addition to studying mathematics and physics, he had a deep interest in religion; he even alludes to the importance of god in the principia, and he spent most of the latter part of his life studying theology. Even more interestingly, Newton was so weary of criticism of his writing that he had to constantly be pushed to publish. So much so, that as the I. Bernhard Cohen addition of the principia and commentary that we read put it, "Halley deserves much praise for his services as midwife to Newton's brainchild." Go figure.

2. How, when, and why Nikolaustag (St. Nicholas Day) is celebrated

On one of the colder days this semester, my friend asked me to come with her to the German house, where they were celebrating Nikolaustag. While she celebrates the holiday every year with her family, I was completely unfamiliar with it. Although I was at first reluctant to trek to the other side of campus, it was totally worth it. Not only did I get to find out a lot more about her family’s traditions and culture (her family is Swedish and she lived abroad in Sweden for a year, so she had a lot of cool stories), but I got to celebrate something new and experience firsthand some of the diversity we have at Mac.

3. There’s a reason why phone numbers have seven digits

Fun facts like this are my favorite part of classes, since you can apply them to your everyday life and they help you remember concepts you might forget otherwise. I never really thought about the reason behind seven digit phone numbers before, but when you do think about it, why not have 10 or 4 or 12 digits? I learned in Introduction to Psychology this semester that the number seven is not as arbitrary as it seems. 7 digits (give or take 2) is what most people can hold in their working memory, which is what we use for immediate processing and to temporarily organize information. For example, it’s what we use to glance out a white board and copy down a full sentence without looking up again, or to do mental math. As originally pointed out by George Miller, countless psych studies show that for some reason, the capacity of our working memory to hold numbers hovers somewhere around 7. Who knew?

4. Classes have the power to inspire you to read more, rather than less

I’ve always considered myself a reader, but before college, whenever I picked up a book that wasn’t for school, I made sure that it was as far from the subject of my classes as possible. School reading was school reading, and non-school reading was non-school reading. Now that I’m taking the classes that I really want to take, however, that has completely changed. I’ve learned to love reading materials that supplement my classes. I read a book over break recommended by my psych teacher that has become one of my favorite books and even went as far as to recommend it to some of my friends outside of Macalester (who, by the way, are also enjoying it). I’ve started to actually seek out books that relate to the subjects of my classes, and in fact, I’m currently reading something from a friend that relates to a class I’ll be taking this semester.

5. It’s okay to be (a little) antisocial

The first few weeks of school, I found it hard to justify spending time by myself. Though I was longing to skype with my home friends and watch an episode or two of trashy television, I felt guilty sitting in my room when it seemed like everyone else was socializing all the time. What I quickly found out, however, after discussing this with a couple of people, was that nearly everyone in the freshman class was feeling the same way. I discovered that balancing the two was a lot easier than I thought. Contrary to what I seemed to have convinced myself to believe, two hours of skyping was not going to put my social life in jeopardy. Plus, as an added bonus, I actually found other people who had been secretly watching the same trashy television shows I had. Double win.

First semester has been an exciting adventure learning about mad scientists, culture, and community. I’m excited to see what second semester has in store.

- Heather Renetzky '15

Capstone: Not as Scary as I Thought!

2012-01-12T10:08:00.004-06:00

So, every Macalester student is required to complete a capstone of sorts. This could be a project of some sorts, or a thesis-type paper. In Political Science, it's a paper, and it's done the first semester of your senior year. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: I survived!

In July or so I started to think about possible ideas for my paper. I tossed around a few, and met with my professor a couple of times to shape them. After more than a month of shaping my idea, narrowing down a broad topic, and freaking out about whether or not I was making the right choice, I arrived right here:

Yep, Twitter. More specifically, how members of the US House of Representatives were using Twitter to communicate with their constituents. I wanted to see whether or not there was any pattern in who was using Twitter.

I gathered all of the accounts of all of the members of the House into one convenient list (seen above), and then began to do some data crunching. What I found... was completely unexpected! I was expecting to find at least some way of predicting who used Twitter (based on political party, age, gender, geographic location, year elected, etc.)... but there didn't seem to be any predictor!

Naturally, this caused a bit of an existential crisis on my end. What was I supposed to write about now that my entire idea was based on patterns that didn't exist? My fantastic advisor suggested that I take a step back and look at scholarly literature from before the Internet on political communication. Disclosure: I was a little skeptical of this idea at first. I mean, what would a book written in 1974 tell me about Twitter use?

Turns out, a lot. I ended up setting my entire thesis into a framework that's almost 40 years old - something I wouldn't have ever considered without the help of my advisor and the support of the library staff!

I spent one entire semester developing, researching, writing, and presenting my findings. In the end, I'm quite proud of the work that I did. The scholarly literature on Twitter use is still quite sparse, and I may have contributed something that someone else might find useful someday! That in itself is worth all of the long hours I put into it.

-- Natalie Pavlatos '12

P.S. Maybe you're a tweeter too. If so, you should follow @MacAdmis to get the inside scoop on Macalester from a current student's perspective!

4 Things I Learned Last Semester

2012-01-11T16:46:00.001-06:00

In and outside of the classroom at Macalester, you’re always learning all kinds of new information and getting fresh takes on what you’ve learned before. Curious people excel at Macalester for just that reason, because around every corner is another new fact, point of view, or theory. Here’s a list of a four of the things I learned this past semester that stand out to me now, a few weeks in to break.

1. There are approximately 6,000 languages spoken in the world and about 50% are expected to go extinct before the end of the century.

I was shocked when I learned this in "Endangered/Minority Languages," a Linguistics course. First of all, I was amazed to learn about all of the languages and incredible potential for the human mind to create fascinatingly diverse ways to talk about the world around us. However, I was appalled by the news that so many were expected to die without hope and really felt a need to investigate and affect this situation. People are pushed frequently to the major languages on Earth like English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, etc. and cannot maintain their knowledge of indigenous languages. Throughout the course we investigated the validity of this claim and the potential to curb it in the future. At some point I plan to work in the field of endangered and minority languages to help people continue speaking the language of their choice without pressure from an oppressor. (If you're interested in learning more about this, check out my blog post on the class from earlier in the year.)

2. In the long run, the U.S. economy can function with a deficit of 2-3 % of GDP.

All right, so that is a little dry, but it’s sort of a weird empirical fact from my "Adam Smith and Karl Marx" class. This means that a country like the United States can run a deficit for years and still continue to grow sustainably from inflation and investment for the future. It puts the arguments that the United States needs to curb all its deficits into perspective that really the United States needs to reduce the deficit from its current level of 6-7 %, but in the long run it doesn’t need to go to 0. Empiric data has shown debt not to be an issue. However, I am skeptical of what was viewed as “functioning” in this analysis, as well as what was taken into effect for possible clashes. This fact surprised me, made me skeptical of current debates, and then I grew skeptical of the fact itself. I’m sure I’ll learn more facts to counter and complicate this one and, over time, develop a more and more informed point of view on this heated fiscal issue.

3. Write daily, write often, just write for a long term assignment.

This idea wasn’t new, but it finally hit me this semester that this was a great idea. My first year course professor and academic advisor explained this philosophy for getting work done. When assigned an essay just start writing, free write, brainstorm write, and get words on paper. They don’t have to make perfect sense, but get them down early so that you have some idea of what you think. Writing is a process and really it often feels like once you finish your essay you finally know what you really think. That’s great for going back and editing the essay to make sure it matches what you really intended to say, but not if you finish minutes before its due and can’t go back to edit. When you start early, you finish early and then can actually figure out what you meant to say. Sure procrastination seems worth it, while you’re procrastinating, but my professor said to write at least an hour every day for an assignment, and of course more as it approaches and you are not done. The idea here is that you force yourself to get in the mode of thinking for the assignment and get ideas on paper, so that you have a lot to build off of as the deadline approaches. This finally hit me when I had an 18 page term paper due in "Hebrew Bible" and tried to write it in two days. Luckily that was a rough draft, because it did not turn out pretty. After that I started forcing myself to write the day of receiving an assignment, even if my ideas were not even coherent sentences.

4. I learned and was certified in CPR with Macalester First Aid.

Macalester First Aid is a fairly new club at Macalester that offers the service of
Emergency Medical Services for students. In addition to providing EMT training opportunities, there are also opportunities for CPR and First Aid certification. To join the service as a responder, CPR was required, so I signed up for the class and it was really a great thing to learn to do. I became certified in CPR and know that in a situation where someone needed attention I could respond with a useful skill. While the facts and theories and work in the classroom are important for my future, it can often feel inapplicable. Experiences like this give me concrete skills that really feel useful today, at a moment’s notice.

Overall, Macalester is a place full of new and interesting knowledge for the curious and willing learner. Your average classroom is full of students like that eager to learn and teachers who are full of new information. While, not everything is groundbreaking, it’s all relevant to the future and your development and humanity. It’s often said that you learn something new every day. At Macalester, that’s really the case.

- Kyle Coombs '14

Graduating Early (on Facebook)

2012-01-07T12:00:00.004-06:00

My friends and I were accidentally graduated from Macalester on New Year's Eve...on Facebook. It turns out that when you tell Facebook you're in the Class of 2012, it declares you graduated as the clock strikes midnight and 2011 becomes 2012. Needless to say, we were all shook up (although eager to receive some early graduation presents), because we aren't yet ready to leave Macalester.

People have already started talking about graduation. My parents have bought their plane tickets and made their hotel reservations. My mom has asked mom questions like, "Where will you want to eat dinner on May 11th?" to which I have responded, "How could I possibly know that? Stop making me think about graduation."

Seniors are getting excited for next year, applying to grad school, finding summer internships, and networking with alumni. I have emailed Mary from the Career Development Center seven drafts of cover letters since finals ended, and, bless her heart, she has responded to each with useful comments. Each time one of my friends applies to another grad school or is offered a job, there are celebrations and congratulations.

Yet I, for one, will be incredibly sad to leave Mac.

I still live with Lorin, my roommate from freshman year. Our school ID photos look creepily alike, and freshman year we thought it was hilaaarious to be matching. (It wasn't.)

We lived on the 4th floor of Turck Hall. It was one of those cliche college experiences where people from around the country and around the world come together to create an amazing community. My sleep schedule shifted from high school's midnight to 7, to 4am to 10am, with many naps throughout the day, because all my favorite people on my floor would stay up til the wee hours of the morning in the lounge, doing homework and having popcorn fights and the like. I loved returning to my dorm, knowing that at any time of the day or night I would run into someone I loved. Maybe Kerry would be recording another song she wrote, or she and Lillie would be working on another song for our floor's makeshift band, the Turck 4ce. Maybe Will would be trying to surf on pizza boxes down the hallway, and Dustin would be trying to make sure Will didn't break his ankle. Maybe Oleh and Maya would be trying on outfits for our floor's next intramural basketball game.

Turck 4 was an amazing place to live. Not only do I still live with my freshman year roommate, but most of my closest friends are from Turck 4 and still live with other Turck 4 folks. The apartment (which we call The Teat - because it is above the Tea Garden) is like a new version of the Turck 4 lounge. Patricia, Dustin, and Patrick live there, Maya basically lives there, too - there is always someone from Turck 4 there to stop in and say hello to on my way home from campus.

We had a Turck 4 reunion a couple months ago, and it was one of the best nights of the semester. Here are Lorin and I in front of our old room, being nostalgic and such.

It will be weird to move away from St. Paul, strange to have a roommate other than Lorin, and sad not to have three meals a day with friends that I love, but we are all eager to be entering the next stages in our lives and (don't tell my mom!) we are excited for graduation. Mainly I can feel excited instead of devastated about leaving Mac because I know I will stay in touch with many of these people that I have been friends with for four years. Even though Facebook might try to kick us out of school early, it will also help us keep in touch. (It will even allow us to nag each other about coming to college reunions!)

- Emma Cohen '12

100 Things to Do... 73 Things I've Done!

2012-01-05T10:50:00.008-06:00

So the other day I re-discovered what is possibly my favorite feature on the Macalester website: 100 Things to do Before you Graduate. I’m pretty pleased with my progress: after three and a half years, I’ve knocked out 73 of them! Going through it brought back some fantastic memories (and some fantastic pictures). Here are just a few of the things I’ve gotten to do at Mac so far, starting at the very beginning:

1. LISTEN TO A WORLD-CLASS SPEAKER.

Two Vice Presidents of the United States? Check. Hollywood directors? Check. Other fantastic speakers ranging from UN employees to Garrison Keillor to the founder of Partners in Health? Check, check and check.

9. PAINT THE ROCK.

Do I get bonus points for including it as part of a guerilla marketing campaign for my constitutional law class? Or for filming it?

30. BUILD A SNOWMAN ON THE LAWN.

Okay, this I should DEFINITELY get bonus points for because we put it on top of the rock and used it as a substitute rock during the winter! Also, it was wearing a lei.

40. GET YOUR PASSPORT—OR UPDATE IT—AND STUDY ABROAD.

I’ve already blogged about this in more detail but it’s definitely one of the highlights of my Macalester experience! Additionally, I got to make lots of friends from all over the country and all over the world!

75. JOIN A STUDENT ORGANIZATION. Mac has over 100, and I've definitely taken advantage of that number! Some of the best friends I've made on campus are through the organizations I've joined.

All in all, I think I've done pretty well for my first 3.5 years. Can't wait to see what I can cross of the list next semester!

Natalie Pavlatos '12

A Macalester Carol

2011-12-24T12:00:00.001-06:00

Happy Christmas Eve!

Know the story of A Christmas Carol? Our college president Brian Rosenberg (a Charles Dickens scholar, by the way) starred in a tribute released last week by Macalester's Communications department, along with other faculty, staff, and students. Even though we're on our winter break, students have been buzzing about the video on Facebook. Check it out below.

(If you've been on a Mac tour before, you might catch the reference to a certain story involving a cow and Old Main...)

- Diego Ruiz '12

Favorite student organization: Macalester Jewish Organization

2011-12-16T11:00:00.002-06:00

Extracurricular activities are one of my favorite parts of college life. They allow me to take a break from homework and do the things that I love, from writing to acting to going on adventures.

The beauty of student organizations (which everyone refers to as "orgs") at Macalester is twofold:

1. The time commitment is whatever you make of it, since, for the most part, you can choose how often to go to meetings.

2. You can join a bunch of different clubs without being overwhelmed, since most orgs only meet one night a week. (Though there are exceptions such as Mac Players , the acting club on campus, or acapella groups that require rehearsals).

As someone who likes having my schedule pretty full, I’ve joined quite a few orgs on campus, but my favorite one would have to be MJO, or Macalester Jewish Organization.

Throughout high school I was part of a Jewish youth group, so I knew I wanted to join the Jewish org on campus when I came to Macalester. And I couldn’t be happier that I did. For me, one of the things that I miss most about home is spending Shabbat (Sabbath) dinner with my family, and MJO has sort of made up for that homesickness. We have Shabbat dinner and services every other Friday night, during which we get to come together to recognize the end of the week and to eat delicious food cooked by our very own MJO members.

Plus, MJO meets every Tuesday at 9 pm, so I get to spend time with people to both talk about or do activities related to Judaism, and to just hang out. In meetings, we’ll do anything from learn basic Yiddish vocabulary to discuss themes pertaining to an upcoming holiday, and it’s nice to be able to celebrate my faith in a comfortable and casual environment.

Meetings also always consist of “highs and lows,” during which everyone shares a positive and negative thing from their week, and the eating of babka, which is always great. Highs and lows are probably my favorite part of MJO meetings. Even when I’ve had a particularly hard test or stressful afternoon, thinking about highs and lows usually makes me smile at the thought of some of the better things in my week. And of course, hearing everyone else’s highs and lows is always fun, since we usually end up laughing about shared experiences or going on tangents about a class, a weekend, etc.

Being a part of MJO has allowed to me to both relax and to think deeply, to connect with new people and to stay connected to my family back home. Every Tuesday, I am always counting down to 9:00 pm.

- Heather Renetzky '15

Finals and a future abroad

2011-12-15T21:40:00.003-06:00

Finals can seem a scary thing. If midterms are difficult, then surely finals are a step up. And in a way, they can be. Yet there's a silver lining to it all: finals are a culmination of what you've been learning throughout a whole semester. You have work to do, yes, but you also have a lot of knowledge at your disposal. Finals are less about learning a whole bunch of new stuff and more about effectively applying what you already know. You've essentially been preparing for finals all semester, studying by attending class and (supposedly) doing your homework.

At Macalester, students are given roughly one entire week without classes. Aside from a "study day," this week is occupied by segments of time set aside for class finals. Often times students can have two finals in one day, or they may be spread out over three to four days. It's thus the responsibility of the student to work at their own pace and decide what they need to do, and how much time they need to commit, in order to get things done. Take out the time demands of classes and possibly your job, and you may actually find the week of finals to be the most relaxing you've yet had during the semester. The best strategy I've come up with for a rather lax finals week is simply one thing:

Do your essays early.

That's it. Get your final essays done early. Those papers take up so much time to get done (for me), so cranking them out early is a blessing. Sure, you can't have as much free time before finals, but it's worth it. No, really. It's worth it.

Also, unrelated to finals, I'm pleased to announce that I'll soon be traveling to Durban, South Africa for my study abroad experience. I can't really speak yet to what it will be like, but soon I will be - and you can hear for yourself! While I am away in Durban, I will be posting video blogs here about my experiences. You'll get to see what I'm seeing while I explain, perhaps in Blaire Witch style, what it's like as a native Nebraskan and Minnesotan living with a host family in eastern South Africa. Stay tuned!

Dance Concert

2011-12-13T12:06:00.001-06:00

This weekend was the annual Macalester Fall Dance Concert. The Theater and Dance department puts on two dance concerts each year. The spring show is entirely student run so the fall show is special because it gives students a chance to see the choreography that their teachers are working on. As a dance student it’s always an exciting surprise to see faculty choreographic vision. I get used to the way my professors and instructors teach, and the kind of movement they use in class. So it always seems fresh and surprising when a different movement vocabulary appears in their pieces, or when I see familiar phrases from class appear in the context of a production.

This semester the dancers and tech crew had a really strong sense of community. There were a lot of students new to dance and as a member of the tech crew; none of us had previous experience with our roles in the production. While this was hectic at times, it made both us and the dancers more flexible about helping out wherever was necessary. The show was really beautiful and had a wide range of dance styles.

Outside of Class: MacSlams

2011-12-13T10:00:00.022-06:00

One of my favorite things to do outside of class here at Macalester is go to poetry slams, which are hosted by the student org MacSlams. The Mac Poetry Slam was started in 2009, and since then has been hosting monthly slams and open mics. The Macalester Poetry Slam team has gone to several competitions since it began, and last year actually ranked first nationally at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational. So not only are these slams a fun place to gather with friends and fellow students, they are an opportunity to hear some of the best slam poetry in the country!

Macalester alum Neil Hilborn '11 performs "OCD" during the Finals of the 2011 College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.

The slams are held once a month on a Saturday night in the basement of Dupre, one of the dorms on campus. It is extremely exciting to pack into the room with other students eager to hear some awesome spoken word performances. I love that the slams are so well attended; it's great to know that so many students are excited about spending their Saturday night listening to poetry and celebrating the work and talents of students of the Twin Cities.

Each slam begins with an open mic where students can sign up to perform a poem, a piece of prose, or even sing a song. After that, there is a featured poet or poets who perform. These featured poets have ranged from other slam teams from schools in the Twin Cities to published poet Mindy Netifee and three-time National Poetry Slam finalist Rachel Mckibbens. After the feature comes the actual slam. During the slam, audience members volunteer to judge the poems, and after three rounds, those scores are tallied to determine the winner! The audience is always very involved during the slams; snapping when they hear a particularly beautiful or powerful verse, cheering when the judges give a high score, and passionately booing when a judge gives a low score. The vibe is energetic and attentive, and the audience is always encouraging. Even if someone forgets a line or stumbles a bit during a poem, the audience is quick to cheer the speaker on, yell out "You got this!" and alleviate any nervousness.

All in all, it is just a great time, and it is something that I look forward to every month.

- Ashley Mangan '14
Photos courtesy of MacSlams Facebook page

First-year dorm life: "You can’t help but bond with people who you see every morning in that I’m-so-tired-and-it’s-too-early-to-form-coherent-thoughts state of being."

2011-12-09T11:42:00.002-06:00

Last night was a perfect example of why I love living in a dorm so much. After a while working on homework and eventually losing my patience with the book I was reading, a bunch of friends came over to my room and we all ordered pizza and hung out, laughing about nothing, procrastinating, and just having a good time.

By far the best part about living in a dorm is the fact that you’re living with your friends. You don’t have to drive to see anyone, you don’t have to walk very far, and you’ve got your roommate to keep you company.

My FYC also happens to be residential, so one of the perks that I get from dorm life is having live-in study buddies. If I’ve got a question about our homework, I can ask my roommate or knock on my neighbors’ door. If I’m looking for someone to bounce ideas off of for an essay, I can check the lounge. Plus, since my FYC is at the bright and early hour of 8:00, we encourage each other to get out of bed and tend to go to breakfast together as well.

I’ll admit, there are certain things that I miss about having my own room. Sometimes it’s hard to find a time when you can Skype without an audience and it would be nice to have a little more space. But at the same time, community living is definitely one of my favorite parts about college and my floormates are some of my best friends. We even decorated our floor lounge for the holidays, had a girls night in (and a general Turck 3 night in, too), and have spent a few all-nighters in the lounge keeping each other sane while cramming for midterms and finals.

Plus, little things, like bumping into each other in the hallway and having a conversation, or walking by people’s doors and writing crazy messages on their white boards are what make dorm life fun. Because let’s face it—you can’t help but bond with people who you see every morning in that I’m-so-tired-and-it’s-too-early-to-form-coherent-thoughts state of being.

- Heather Renetzky '15

"The Inland Sea"

2011-11-30T14:54:00.004-06:00

This past weekend, Macalester put on its fall semester main-stage production, “The Inland Sea.” It was actually the United States premiere (very exciting) of Naomi Wallace's play about 1760s rural England. The play deals with struggles of class, gender and death -- in Wallace's evocative language, provocative scenes, and vision of complex hope. The play was a component of this year’s theme within the Theater and Dance Department of amplifying the voice of the voiceless – giving voice to displaced persons, the poor, targets of hate crimes, and citizens struggling with trauma – in many instances showing how humor and solidarity are crucial strategies in giving voice, refusing silence – in the words of the department itself. It was a phenomenal play in an extremely unique setting and stage.

The entire theater was restructured in order to foster a more intimate setting, so that that both actor and spectator were one fluid unit with the fly system in the background and the scene dissecting the audience. The majority of the stage was covered in dirt and the scent of dust in the air throughout the performance providing an intense feeling of presence and engagement on the part of the viewer. Evoking oscillating feelings of hilarity, calmness, despair and confusion simultaneously, the student actors performed the piece incredibly well. At the risk of already sounding as if I am writing a review of the play I need to mention the fact that the actors were able to pull off very convincing British accents.

Directed by Macalester professor Beth Cleary, the play was put on by a crew of entirely Mac students – many of whom were friends of mine. Here is a picture of two prominent actors in the play - John Bennett '14 as Asquith Brown and Zoe Michael '13 as Hesp Turner.

I am constantly amazed by the talent of the Macalester student and their ability to put on striking performances at a professional level. I am also impressed by the fact that people have time to allot to extensive (and intensive) rehearsals to put on such a high-caliber performance on top of a full course load. Truly impressive and I commend all of the performers and workers on the show! I look forward to seeing your future work!

If you missed this performance make sure to check out future productions this year: Fall Dance Concert - December 9 and 10

“Stop Kiss” by Diana Son, directed by Cheryl Moore Brinkley
February 17, 18, 19, 23, 24 and 25

“The Laramie Project” by Moises Kauffman and the Tectonic Theatre Project, directed by Harry Waters Jr April 5, 6, 7, 12, 13 and 14

Spring Dance Concert - April 27 and 28

OccupyMN

2011-11-29T16:08:00.003-06:00

In early October the Occupy movement came to Minneapolis, MN in the downtown Government district where the protesters re-christened the People’s Plaza and began an occupation that continues today. The protests have drawn a lot of attention from Mac students, many of whom have trickled down to the plaza at some point to watch a rally, participate in a General Assembly or take up a sign and march. A student group on campus, Occupy Mac buses students down to the Occupy site for some of the movement’s bigger planned events and a few students are really dedicated, donating their time to help administer first aid to the protester, should it become necessary.The following video is a compilation of a few Macalester students' viewpoints of the OccupyMN movement.

An article for the Twin Cities Daily Planet about my impressions of the OccupyMN movement describes some of the activity of the first few days in early-mid October. Currently the protesters are enjoying an uncharacteristically long spell with no snow on the ground, but winter is coming and their biggest challenge now is weatherizing their encampment and appealing to city officials for the right to pitch their tents.

Luck and Puzzles

2011-11-18T10:28:00.002-06:00

Sometimes the oddest phenomena happen at college - and I don't mean the occasional pair of pants in a tree or graffiti on the ceiling. Sometimes, as you pursue your education, things begin to fall into place and connect like puzzle pieces. There is an inverse relationship: the more broadly you explore academia, the narrower your passions become. Your interests may remain broad, but the subjects that you're passionate about become clearer, more refined, the more material you cover and the more you can chisel off.

My first year at Macalester, I was equipped with an intrigue of human rights (and no clue what they were), a vague interest in race (with superficial knowledge on the subject), and a mild interest in psychology. So what did I do? I looked at the courses available, shrugged, and signed up for what looked interesting. This led me to my first-year course, and to the professor that has become a mentor and a dear friend to me. This was one of many important lessons I learned that semester: professors are people that you can get along with, that you may mesh with very well, and who can teach you a lot both inside and outside of class.

Now with some more knowledge in race academia and a new, shiny major in Anthropology, I moved on to second year and finally took an introductory course on human rights. My socks were promptly knocked off when I realized that I had no clue what human rights were and received about the best look into it that I ever could have hoped for. This was another important lesson for me: if you have an interest, even a vague and ignorant interest, then go explore it and see what happens. If you find that you don't like the subject, then what a relief - you won't accidentally go to graduate school for it and end up in (more) debt! If you're interested in it, then great - you have a better idea of where to go next.

I hadn't expected race studies and human rights law to be combined over the course of my time at Macalester, maybe because there was no apparent scholarship or coursework available. The professor from my first year was having none of that business, so she and I worked together on a research project this last summer. Here, I learned a very important third lesson: not only can you get along with professors, but you can share their interests or offer something to them. In my case, my professor wanted to integrate human rights into the study of race, but had no background in human rights law. She approached me because I had talked to her about my interests and remained in contact with her even after the first-year course. Lesson number four: keep talking to professors you like, even if you don't have classes with them!

Now, in the present, I am preparing to study abroad in South Africa. And already I'm seeing the connections between human rights, race scholarship, Anthropology, and post-apartheid South Africa. From this, I've begun devising capstone project that integrates human rights, my summer research, my knowledge of race studies, and the theories/techniques of Anthropology. Go figure!

Did I plan all of this out? Of course not. Could I have planned it out? Definitely not. I'm not saying that you shouldn't try to look ahead and plan things out, nor am I saying that everything depends on luck. The advice I'm trying to give is to pursue your interests while keeping an open mind about what else is out there. In addition, don't think that classes are the only way, or always the best way, to learn something. Research, independent study, conversing with a professor, campus events; there are so many ways to look broadly while simultaneously chiseling things down until you have a refined idea of what you want to learn about and do. And along the way, you may find that things start falling into place.

Nothing will happen automatically. But if you give it some effort, and with a little luck, it will happen.

First Impressions

2011-11-17T12:00:00.004-06:00

After attending Macalester for about two months I have noticed that a large part of my Macalester College experience is centered on the quest to define identity. Backing up a little bit, I graduated from a relatively small high school of about 400 students that provided a very familial environment but also became very repetitive after four years. Although the course load was rigorous I graduated high school with a sense of uncertainty because I really had not identified a lifelong passion. Although there is no single reason I decided to attend Macalester, I was determined to utilize my time here to learn more about myself, learn about the world and perhaps find my true passion or purpose in life.

I arrived at Macalester College a month earlier than most of the other students because I was fortunate enough to make the varsity soccer team. Arriving on campus the first day felt like charting a new world. I essentially was beginning a “new chapter” in my life where I didn’t know the place or people very well. During the one-month of pre-season we trained as a team, ate as a team and partied as a team; and in the meantime I learned bits and pieces about the life experiences of my teammates. Despite having been on campus for only a month, by the end of preseason I knew I had people who I could turn to at any time for support or just to hang out.

Although I established brother-like connections with many of the people on the soccer team, orientation week was when I began to feel the real breadth of the Macalester experience. Some of my more memorable social experiences during orientation week include playing dominoes with people from Australia, England and China, and trying to keep up in a Ping-Pong match against a boy from Lithuania. I also attended a seminar given by a student about ways students could combine various elements of the Café Mac cafeteria food and make eating creative and exciting. (Although the food is already pretty impressive as it is.)

Built into the orientation experience for all first-year students is a program called Into the Streets. The program gave students the opportunity to work with various organizations in the local Minneapolis-St. Paul community as a mode of civic engagement. My orientation group volunteered at an organization that aids in the resettlement of Sudanese in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. Into the Streets, as with many other aspects of Macalester student life, allowed me to not only give back to the community, but also to take the things we would learn in the classroom and actively apply them engaging in the world at large.

As a first year student I was encouraged to take a wide variety of courses. My first year course is “Refugees and Humanitarian Response.” It’s taught by the head of the department of Anthropology. It is a residential first year course, meaning all sixteen students in the class live on the same floor. One of the most pleasant surprises of my first year course was when my professor took our class to the St. Paul farmers market and invited us to her house to cook and eat brunch together with her family. In the classroom we recently focused on the elements that define an ethnic group, and are often challenged by questions such as “what gives a nation-state the right to humanitarian intervention in the ‘emergency’ of another nation?” I think the most important thing I have learned from my classes, and particularly my first year course, is that from an anthropological perspective, people, culture and life in general cannot be viewed through objective lenses, but must be viewed in a larger subjective framework. I have also found that the Mac experience is about finding your voice and taking ownership of your beliefs and thoughts.

Outside of class, I am a member of Mac Attack—the club volleyball team on campus—and a leadership program called Pluralism and Unity. I think an immense part of my Macalester College experience is the connections I have made with a wide variety of interesting people through various organizations.

I feel like the majority of liberal arts colleges have many things to offer students. However the character that I feel distinguishes Macalester College from the rest is that the college challenges students to engage with the world in every aspect of its curriculum and student life. The reason I called my time at Macalester a quest to define identity is that my ways of perception and thought towards many aspects of life have been challenged, reshaped and strengthened. It is a quest, a constantly changing endeavor, for something larger than myself. All in all, as the hearty cheer heard at every Mac sporting event goes, “Macalester is Wonderful!”

- Jonathan Goh '15
(Post written October 8th, 2011)

Favorite Class: Introduction to Sociology

2011-11-15T12:00:00.001-06:00

My favorite class this semester is definitely Introduction to Sociology with professor Khaldoun Samman. He began the very first class by having us play a name game, in which you introduce yourself with your name and a fun little factoid; for example, I'm Rachel and I do yoga. But, before you introduce yourself, you must introduce everyone that has preceded you with their names and facts. I know it sounds deceptively simple, but it was a great way to learn everyone's names and break the ice.

This was especially important because Intro to Sociology is a discussion based class, so it is essential that we are able to address each other and feel comfortable enough to talk about the topics that can sometimes make us uncomfortable. So far in class, we have covered racial, global, and gender inequalities. All of these are very broad topics, and although I'm sure we only managed to scratch the surface of each theme, I have been finding each and every one of them fascinating.

Another reason why I really like this class is that Khaldoun challenges us to really internalize and synthesize the information we are given from our readings and discussions. He accomplishes this with journal entries, oral exams, and formal group presentations. The group presentations take place in the form of a panel, and require that the presenters dress up and and perform the roll of a guest author, commentator, or moderator. All of this takes place in JBD, the big lecture hall in the basement of the campus center. Although this makes it more intimidating, it was also a really great opportunity see what it might be like to give a real presentation at a conference.

And finally, this is my favorite class because Khaldoun is not afraid to have the occasional movie day, complete with delicious pizza from Pizza Luce. So far, we have watched Anchorman, to explore how popular media portrays gender inequalities, as well as documentaries such as "People Like Us", which explore inequalities of social class. All of these factors, combined with Khaldoun's occasional performances on his favorite Middle Eastern drums, have made Introduction to Sociology my favorite class this semester.

- Rachel Quay '14

First Snow!

2011-11-12T09:37:00.004-06:00

So, I make no qualms about the fact that I'm from the North Woods. The above picture gets me nostalgic for home... because that's what I'm used to for much of the year! I'm much more comfortable in the winter than the summer (as all of my housemates heard multiple times this summer), and snow is my favorite weather ever. I have such great memories of sledding as a kid.

The good part about Macalester, for most people, is that you get to miss the coldest part of the year because of J-Term. That doesn't mean you get to miss out on the fun of snow, though! In fact, just the other night, it snowed for the first time. Being in college doesn't mean that you have to act like an adult about it, either...

I was just about ready to fall asleep after several hours of working on a paper, and I was exhausted. I decided to check Facebook before going to bed, and my news feed was FULL of people freaking out because it was snowing. I peeked out my window, and sure enough: big, fluffy flakes were falling gently outside. It was the perfect kind of snow, too. I jumped out of bed (mind you, I'm definitely in my pajamas at this point) and ran downstairs into my kitchen. Two of my housemates were there doing homework and both looked at me as if I was crazy.

"FIRST SNOW!" I declared, probably much more excitedly than I should have.

They stared at me for a few seconds, making me feel properly embarrassed about my level of excitement over something that I - and they, being from similarly northern locales - have seen literally every year since we were born for several months of the year. Then their faces broke into huge grins, and they jumped up (one of them knocked over his chair) and we all ran to the door and ran outside. We stood on the sidewalk looking up into the swirling snow and laughing for a few minutes before heading back inside.

Moral of the story: Just because you're in college doesn't mean you can't get excited about snow and take time to enjoy the little things.

(I also have some great stories about the time when I was a First-Year, made makeshift sleds out of garbage bags and went sledding outside of Dupre Hall, but that's for another time.)

-- Natalie Pavlatos '12

Favorite Class: Endangered/Minority Languages

2011-11-11T15:17:00.003-06:00

I’ve taken a bunch of classes at Mac so far, but probably my favorite so far is Endangered/Minority Languages, which is taught this semester by Professor Marianne Milligan. The class looks at the causes and costs of language death in modern society and teaches about methods of revitalization and its value. Marianne is undoubtedly an expert in the field, but she brings an on the job knowledge about the subject that you can’t get through a textbook. She did her doctoral thesis and has continued doing post-doctoral work with the Menominee tribe in Wisconsin on recording, preserving, and revitalizing their dying language. Personal experience is pretty important in teaching a sensitive subject like this. She brings perspective to the theories we learn about, the processes of language loss, and the statistics and makes it all understandable on a human level.

Prof. Marianne Milligan (right) conducting fieldwork with Sarah Skubitz, Tillie Zhuckkahosee, Marie Floring, elders from the Menominee tribe, and Margaret Snow, a language learner. Photo courtesy of Marianne Milligan.

I love languages, especially sounds and phonology. They were my favorite part of my Introduction to Linguistics class. A big part of this class is getting a “tour” of the different language families of the world and the ways they work in terms of syntax (order of words), morphology (modifying of words) and phonology. So at least once a week we are touring some part of the world and listening to the different words made in that language from the clicks of the Khoisan languages in Africa to the glottalized ejectives of the Na-Dene or Athabaskan languages of North America. These are sounds you don’t find anywhere in English or other globally dominant languages like Spanish.

But all the academicky stuff aside, class is fun. Every time we hear a new sound we try and make it ourselves. Of course we fail, but it is hilarious and it reinforces an appreciation for other languages. Languages are one of the greatest productions of humans and they set us apart from animals, so why would we want to lose them? It’s sort of a testament to the course, but really for me it is just impressive.

There’s also a broader lack of taboos at Macalester that’s reflected in class - for example, one time in class, I was trying to think of an example of a linguistic concept that was new to many students. I could only think of a curse world. When I blurted it out, rather than responding with quiet stares or shock, my fellow classmates had a good laugh about it. Taboos can hinder learning, but at Mac we really stress not having them and trying to do away with them. I couldn’t say what I said at some schools and still come off as respectful or serious. But at Mac it is understood that learning happens with all words and ideas, even the vulgar and less refined. I don’t know, it resonates with me, and maybe it does with you too.

- Kyle Coombs '14

Majors

2011-11-04T15:57:00.001-05:00

Choosing a major, as decisions in college go, is a pretty big one. Of course throughout college students change majors, add majors, and turn majors into minors and once they graduate many people go on to do something completely different. Nevertheless, a major concentration represents a subject that each student will spend a significant part of their time thinking about and engaging with. That’s what makes the annual majors fair at Macalester such a great event. Every year senior and junior students from every major come to talk to first years and sophomores about what their experience with their major is like. I’ve been involved in the major fair all four years I have been at Macalester. My freshman and sophomore years I went because I had not completely decided what my major was going to be, my junior and senior years I went to represent the departments that I have devoted most of my time at school to.

When I was a first year, I wanted to major in everything. I did not even know what questions to ask about majors. By my sophomore year though, I really understood the value of the majors fair. It was a chance to talk to a real student, ask them about favorite classes or what their future plans are. I’m a history major, and while history is a familiar subject for almost all incoming first years, very few high schools teach history in a way that’s similar to the way it’s taught at Mac. The history major here is about critical thinking, learning how to read a source and to interrogate biases. While some high school programs touch on these skills in the history curriculum, not all do. I was happy to get the chance to speak to some really interested (and interesting) first year students about just how different their experiences in my favorite subject had been before coming to college. I hope the information I could give them about what it is like to be a senior major writing a capstone paper, was just as helpful and enlightening for them.

-Katherine S.
Class of 2012

Acapellooza

2011-10-25T10:25:00.006-05:00

Friday night was Acapellooza, by far one of my favorite events of the year. A capella groups from Carleton and the University of Minnesota join our wonderful Scotch Tape, Off Kilter, Trads, and Sirens in the Alexander G. Hill Ballroom for a night of singing.

My friends and I pride ourselves on getting good seats--front row, baby!--because several of our good friends (including my roommate) are a capella stars. My friends and I called it: there'd be some Lady Gaga, some Beyonce, and some Adele. We were so right. Beyonce's "Best Thing I Never Had," was a special hit, sung by an unsuspecting U of M man with a voice that could make Jay-Z cry. One group did a hilarious Katy Perry mash-up, revealing the similarity of all her songs (At one point they were actually singing "All these songs sound the same."). Scotch Tape (featuring the lovely Maya) did a lovely rendition of "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" full of beautiful belting, harmonious harmony, and delightful dancing, and Off Kilter rocked another classic, "Killing Me Softly."

The "traditional" songs are always fab--each year of Acapellooza the Carleton Nightingales sing a ditty about being fun, awesome women ("More than enough for any Macalester man!") (We forgive them for their heteronormativity--the song is decades old.), and our Trads have a fun song about "Dear Old Macalester."

Perhaps the best part was recognizing Carleton Knights and U of M Gophers from years past, remembering their voices and styles, and feeling as though we had grown up with them over the past 4 years. As seniors, my friends and I have been feeling pretty nostalgic, and it was way fun to say hello to a capella superstars from years past (and sad that some of the best (and hottest) ones had graduated). And of course, the real best part is knowing that our a capella groups are by far the best in Minnesota. (That's right, I went there.) (Mac pride for life.)

--Emma C.
Class of 2012

Life as an Orientation Duckling

2011-10-17T11:07:00.003-05:00

Having been at Mac for five weeks now, (four weeks! Time seriously flies in college…) I can tell you that orientation will probably be some of the most heavily scheduled days of your first few weeks. The days of orientation are jam packed with, well, stuff to get you oriented. There are meetings with your advisor, meetings with your floor, meetings to discuss the summer reading book, meetings to…you get the point. And of course, as with any first experience, getting to know you games/ name games/awkward random games in which you look like a total fool but laugh your butt off, are a must. My floor played a game called “wizards, giants, and elves,” which is kind of a cross between rock paper scissors, live action role playing, and tag. Needless to say there were lots of laughs.

But the most memorable part of my orientation was not one of these crazy games, but rather an impromptu activity that wasn’t even listed on the schedule: a tour of Café Mac, where us first-year students can have up to 19 meals a week.

It happened at the end of orientation. At that point, my orientation group, Clan Elphinstone, was pretty tight knit. At our last meeting as a clan we were all feeling a bit nostalgic, thinking about the fact that we wouldn’t be meeting all-day everyday anymore. So, we decided to prolong our last meeting by eating at Café Mac together. As we sat at dinner, the conversation turned to what each of us had chosen to eat (the topics of where everyone lived and what brought them to Mac had been exhausted earlier in the week). Our orientation leader gave us advice about the best and worst of Café Mac, mentioning the pluses of the frozen yogurt machine and sandwich press. “Wait, there’s a Panini maker?” someone asked. “There’s a frozen yogurt machine?!”

Clearly, despite having learned to navigate the Mac campus, we were all still novices when it came to navigating and discovering the secrets of Café Mac. Our orientation leader realized this and became our very own “mother duck,” taking us on a tour around Café Mac, as we all followed her around like little Elphinstone ducklings. She gave us some great advice (and some that I still use today when trying to get creative during dinner), and as we walked through Café Mac, it was awesome thinking about the fact that my fellow ducklings, who I hadn’t known five weeks earlier, were now people whose names I knew, who I would be hanging out with after classes, who I’d be waving to in the halls, and who I could get to know over the next four years.

- Heather Renetzky '15

A student-produced video on Cafe Mac. (Courtesy of Macalester's Communications and Public Relations Department.)

Study Abroad, Part II: Return and the Nigel

2011-10-13T10:38:00.007-05:00

I spent this past spring semester studying abroad in Northern Ireland, and it was an amazing experience. Perhaps I won't have as many photos of the sun as Tyler did in his study abroad post, but I like to think it's gorgeous in its own way.

Take that, Tyler: with rain and clouds comes rainbows over old monasteries.

I spent the first three weeks taking classes on the North Coast at the University of Ulster in Coleraine, getting immersed in the history of the Northern Ireland conflict and hearing multiple perspectives and first-hand accounts, both from professors who had studied the conflict for years and ordinary citizens who had maybe been in a paramilitary organization or had their brother killed in a bombing. In the evenings, we would take the train to our flat in the nearby town of Portrush, where this was the view out our window:

The next few months were spent working full-time at an internship in Belfast. I interned with an organization that dealt with youth unemployment and self-confidence issues, and was able to shadow programs and meet some of the most inspiring people I have ever met. Most of the people we worked with were right around my age, so I got a chance to talk to them as peers and really gain an understanding of where they were coming from. They never failed to awe and inspire me, whether it was the young man who had recently lost his leg in an accident completing a ropes course and rock climbing, or the two best friends from two extremely different backgrounds, or a group of twelve transitioning a conversation from rugby scores to a debate about the politics of Northern Ireland seamlessly.

I also had the amazing experience of having my entire program run by this guy, Nigel:

That's him teaching me about conflict first-hand (the literal way... with an arm-wrestling contest) during a hike as fellow Mac student Jenna looks on, clearly amused.

A few weeks ago, Nigel was back on campus to interview the new students hoping to go on the program for next year. I got to relive all of my favorite memories from the program with him, and take him out for traditional American college student food with some of my friends: cajun tater tots. While it's not quite fish and chips, I think he enjoyed himself. It also was a really great chance for me to reflect on my experiences last semester in the Macalester environment. While I had an amazing time abroad, it's also great to be back on campus with my friends and my favorite professors, and especially with the new perspectives that I'm bringing with me.

-- Natalie Pavlatos '12

Memories from Orientation

2011-10-08T11:16:00.000-05:00

It's about an eight hour drive from Chicago, without counting bathroom breaks, stopping for lunch, motion sickness, or the fact that all of the people inside the car are really bad at interpreting map-quest driving directions. Considering all of this, my mom was wise to book a hotel in St. Paul so we could arrive the day before Move-In Day. On September 2nd, 2011 I arrived on campus early in the morning, at the corner of Macalester St. and Grand Avenue.

As soon as I stepped out of the car everything has been a frenzy, a bit of subtle chaos with too many things to do and not enough time. The first three days or so were very stressful, during orientation week there were lots of scheduled activities for first-years, and it was a constant struggle to keep up. "Go here, now!" "Hurry, go over there!" "Then come back! Quickly!" "Where are we supposed to go next?" I had to look back at the schedule every ten minutes to remind myself where orientation events were held. The days were choppy, and there was not enough time in between scheduled events to do anything I wanted to do, or get off campus.

I am a bit slow at making friends so Orientation Week was a little rough. For the first few weeks I was very home sick, and I didn't realize so until someone pointed it out. It was strange, I never thought I was going to be homesick, so I wasn't looking out for it, but the semi-permanent sensation of loneliness slowly wore off once classes started and I settled into my weekly routine of classes, after I joined student orgs and I started to get busy with homework load. The best moment during orientation week was when I met Sara, an exchange student from Spain. I was with a couple of people I had already met during my visit in the spring sampler, there was a soccer game and we were sitting by the fence that surrounds the field. There were fifteen or so first-years, all introducing themselves to each other. Lots of names came at me quickly, and just as quickly I forgot them. Sara however, turned out to be in my FYC (first year course), and lives three doors down the hall. She is one of my best friends now, and it's nice to have someone with whom I can speak Spanish. Coming from Mexico, the only people I could talk in spanish was my family, nobody at school spoke any. I speak more spanish here at Mac than I did back home; multiculturalism love!

Another cool moment was when I met Hector. I'm from Mexico, from this not-so-little-anymore town called Veracruz, and since I've lived in this country I've never met anyone from there. I was walking down the stairs, and I heard someone talking in a heavy spanish accent. Cute, I thought. But then he said Veracruz. I intercepted, cut in and interrupted the conversation. With a loud voice and an accelerated heart beat I asked him if he was from Veracruz, Mexico. He said yes, and I hugged him right there on the stairs. By now, we are inseparable and if I don't see him at least once a day I miss him. Who would have thought that after five years of living in the U.S. and not finding a Veracruzano in Chicago, I would find Hector in the stairwell of Turck Hall at Macalester College. A long-time dream come true. I guess that goes to show how special the Mac community is.

I have to be honest: orientation week is rough for everyone, but it is not indicative of the rest of the school year. The first day is the worst, the second is pretty bad, the third day gets a little better, and so on. On the first day I was nervous, and more than a little bit distressed that my mom was gonna embarrass me in front of my future friends. I was a disaster, dropping everything in my hands, tripping, and talking a bit too fast. I cried when I hugged my mom good bye a day sooner than planned. But everyday got a little better. My description may make orientation sound like an awful, traumatic experience, but it really wasn't. Although it was stressful, orientation forced me to transition and branch out, helping me meet most of the close friends I have made so far. I now realize that orientation is worth it.

- Gaby Landeros Fernandez '15

Conversations about Life and Politics from those who know it best.

2011-09-17T11:28:00.008-05:00

Monday was the Opening Convocation for the 2011-2012 School Year (which I capitalize to give it the gravity it deserves as my SENIOR YEAR OF COLLEGE… honestly, where did the time go?), and in my opinion it was the best Convocation since I got to Mac. The subject was “A Conversation about Life and Politics” with Garrison Keillor and former Vice President Walter Mondale, and it was a lively reflection on all sorts of things, from Minnesota guilt to new runways at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to the current political situation in America. I was expecting it to be informative and enlightening, but I was quite surprised as to how funny the entire thing was. I haven’t laughed that hard in a long, long time. The gymnasium was packed with students to the point where there were students standing on the second floor area in addition to the hundreds of seated students on the gym floor.

Also, our esteemed student body president got to see herself larger than life on a projection screen. Behind her? A clearly amused President Brian Rosenberg.

Probably my favorite part of this entire thing was the fact that Garrison Keillor came up with the idea and had already planned out some of it with Vice President Mondale before approaching President Rosenberg about it. What makes Mac really cool, I think, is that things like this end up happening a lot. We’ve always got great speakers and performers coming to campus. Seriously, always. So often that I have problems trying to go to everything I want to go to – it’s just not possible.

But that’s okay. The things I am able to go to, like Convocation, are fantastic. As members of the MCSG (Macalester College Student Government) executive board, we had to look our best for the occasion. Here’s us looking really classy outside of the Leonard Center in the Anderson Portico:

Mo'rockin the Suburbs: Back to Residential Saint Paul

2011-09-08T10:56:00.008-05:00

Two things that intensely drew me to Macalester’s campus were its reputation for academic excellence and the opportunity to study abroad. In my opinion, these two characteristics happen to be indefinitely intertwined forming a truly ‘Macalester’ education. If academic excellence is such a high priority, why limit your student body to one campus? Or one continent for that matter? Study abroad exemplifies Macalester’s mission of inspiring its students to be responsible and informed global citizens in our international community. I had been planning to take advantage of this opportunity since I had turned in my application almost four years ago, and last semester I was able to do what about 65% of all Mac students do – study abroad.

My program was an experiential academic program run through SIT (School for International Training in Brattleboro, VT). My particular program was focused on Multiculturalism and Human Rights and shed light on both the fascinating melting pot of different cultures that call Morocco their home – Amazigh, Arab, Jewish, Muslim, African and European – and the past and current human rights violations that the country’s history exhibits. The program also provided coursework in Modern Standard Arabic. Learning Modern Standard Arabic was useful although language become a juggling act of balancing and striving for proficiency in both the standard dialect (which we learned in school) and regional dialect, Darija, which was spoken on the street and in our host stays. Throwing French into the mix concocted a both frustrating and exhilarating stew of multilingualism.

I was able to travel freely within the country both with the program and on my own. Program-run excursion included hiking in the cedar forests of the Middle Atlas mountains and riding dromedaries and watching the sunrise in the Merzouga Dunes. My personal travels extended from the northernmost region of Morocco – the city of Tangier boasting both Mediterranean and Atlantic coasts – to the southern occupied territory of the Western Sahara. Here are a few highlights of the semester:

1) Peaking mountains in the blue city of Chefchaouen

2) Herding sheep in the shadows of the Atlas mountains

3) Discussing the current state of the Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara, as well as its predicted future, with Sahrawi while in Laayoune

4) Watching the sunrise in the Sahara

5) Discussing exorcisms with a a fqih (Moroccan Arabic: فقيه , an expert in Islamic law, science and arts)

The last occurrence was in relation to my independent study project (ISP) which was a major reason for my attraction to this specific program. Students spend three weeks near the end of the semester working on an ISP, pursing original research on a selected topic of interest to them. The ISP is conducted in Rabat or in another approved location in Morocco appropriate to the project. Given Morocco’s comprehensive background of multiple ethnic, as well as, medical customs being available to the general population, my project’s basis lied in ethnographic research with various medicinal practitioners in two urban centers in Morocco: Fez and Rabat. Field research about the different healing practices available in these areas ranged from interviews with medical practitioners at a pharmacy and clinic, professors of pharmacology and social medicine, a fqih, custodians of healing shrines where saints had been interred, and an attar (Moroccan Arabic: عطار, an herbalist, spice vendor, learned sellers and prescribers of herbal remedies with curative medicinal plants). Most of the ethnographic data presented in my study was drawn from conversations with the fqih. My own research was based predominantly upon participant observation supplemented by formal ethnographic interviews, meetings and consultations with public health workers and professionals, as well as informal conversations with individuals about health, illness and medicine. I did all of this in the hopes of showing how any given individual may navigate through a medically pluralistic society. It was an extremely rewarding experience and most definitely heightened my preexisting interest in different cultures and public health – as expressed by my major in Anthropology and a concentration in Community and Global Health.

The semester abroad was a phenomenal experience and I would highly recommend living and studying abroad to every single person I meet. This was my second experience living in a foreign country for an extended period of time and Macalester has definitely helped to foster my constant desire to travel. This time around, however, I was able to get credit for it.

Summer 2011

2011-05-16T09:23:00.005-05:00

Finals are done, dorms have been cleared, grades are in and the seniors were graduated this past Saturday (Congratulations Class of '11!). In the wake of the wind down to the academic year, I find myself once again plugging away at the college for the Communications Office, a nice full-time gig that will help me pay rent. This is my first year living as a real adult in my own house with four other friends in a perfectly situated spot barely a block from campus (I can see the Campus Center from my living room window).

This year a lot of out-of-Staters have decided to sow some roots in the Twin Cities for the summer. My housemates are from Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire and Oregon-- I represent the only born and bred Minnesotan in the group. Some of the coastals miss the ocean but their aquatic blues can often be cured by a bike ride or a jog down to the river or Minnehaha Falls. I'm looking forward to tornado season, myself. Stormy weather with yellow skies, funnel clouds, lightning flashes and rolling thunder sets off the perfect cozy ambience for an evening inside. We already got a brief preview a few days ago when the weather warmed up enough. About a quarter of the way through watching The King's Speech, Colin Firth was upstaged by a masterful Michelangelo-type storm cloud towering outside our window, shot through with forks of lightning so scraggly, bright and blue that they looked like a Hollywood effect. All of us were turned around and staring out the window for a solid half an hour stalking the storm's progress.

Since then temperatures have taken a turn for the crisp-- leading my housemates to believe that summer simply doesn't exist in a place like Minnesota, but come July they'll learn better, and probably feel a little nostalgia for the spring and fall months.

Once it does warm up, I'm looking forward to planning a few authentically Minnesotan day trips with them. The first voyage on the docket is a trip to Valley Fair, an amusement park in Shakopee. Steel Venom, The Power Tower and The Wild Thing are a few of the park's focal selling points, though I must say the Excalibur is the best. What it lacks in flash, power, torque and upside-down loopy-dee-loops, it makes up for in charm and charisma. The Excalibur is an old wooden roller coaster at the back of the park, painted white, rickety and janky. The tracks creak and sway under the cart, giving the impression that it will collapse beneath you at any moment. Also, the people in charge of the overhead microphone on this ride tend to have an amusing take on their job. The last time I went, the pre-ride announcement sounded a little something like this:

"Welcome to Excalibur. Please be sure to fasten your seatbelts securely. When the cart is in motion keep your arms and legs inside at all times. If you have loose items you will need to place them in the cubbies along the side. Please do not disturb the bear that sleeps under the roller coaster. If the bear should wake, do not touch the bear, jeer at the bear, feed the bear, or look the bear directly in the eyes. If you do look the bear directly in the eyes remember to stop, drop and roll. If you should become mangled by the bear, please call for help and we will attempt to assist you. Enjoy the ride."

Another noteworthy attraction is Apple River, which technically is in Wisconsin (this I must concede to the cheese-heads) but is only a few hours drive northeast of the Twin Cities. At the river you can rent a tube for about $15 or less, tie it together with your friends' tubes and float down the river-- a lazy journey lasting for about an hour and a half. At the end of the river there is nothing but a Dairy Queen and a bus waiting to shuttle you back to the top of the river. You can go through as many rounds as you want and buy as many sundaes as your stomach can handle at the end.

Update 8-8-11: We went to Apple River! A fun time was had by all. My friend Mollie swears she was attacked by a shrimp and became impressively acrobatic on her tube to avoid letting any single part of her body touch the water. We diagnosed her with PTS(shrimp)D. Anyway, here's a picture of happy people:

Shuang@Macalester的青春岁月所有人都会

2011-04-15T00:36:00.003-05:00

"穿过人潮双眼灯火栏栅
没有想过回头
一段又一段走不完的旅程
什么时候能走完
我的梦代表什么
又是什么让我们不安
that's just life
寻找梦里的未来
that's just life
少点现实的无奈
不论风吹的时候
不再傍徨的时候
永远向前
路, 一直都在"

转眼之间，又是一年。我还记得大一的新生刚来到这里的欣喜，活力，稚嫩和现在的成熟，执着和独立。
人都是这样长大的。
慢慢地，我们不再那么好高鹜远，知道脚踏实地完成眼下的任务；
慢慢地，我们不再为了一件小事心烦意乱，知道一切都会有解决的办法；
慢慢地，我们不再走马观花匆匆忙忙，知道停下脚步享受生活的一切。
这才是留学生活留给我们最大的礼物。

Macalester也好，其他任何一所美国高校也好
都有他的利弊，最关键的是你怎么样face it并且take it
在这里，你会遇到的问题太多了
这一学期还有3周的时间就结束了
final要来了
international variety show要来了
summer research/internship要来了
dorm/living off-campus要来了
class registration要来了

每一件事情都拥挤在这短短的几周里
而每一件事情都很关键
但经历过的所有人也都可以对每一件举出无数个问题
父母无法帮助你，朋友无法帮助你，教授也职能给出建议
一切的一切，都看你自己了

所有人都会无奈都会彷徨
但是请一定要坚持
只要你坚持
不要放弃自己
所有人
都走过来了
一切都会过来的

Honors Defense!!

2011-04-13T15:15:00.000-05:00

At Macalester, an honors project not only includes a long paper based on a minimum of a year’s research on a topic, but it also includes a “defense” of your work. This is similar to a doctoral defense when trying to get your PhD (although it is of course much less scary and stressful than that). The idea is that you get the experience of presenting your work and answering questions as you might if you present at a conference or in graduate school.

After a long year of research into methodologies, planning my project, and actually carrying out my research, I turned in my paper to my three committee members (the people who read the paper and ask the questions and ultimately determine whether your work deserves the title “Honors”) about two weeks ago. I then had to wait and prepare the presentation that I would give to my committee (and friends) while they read and critiqued my work. Last Friday (April 8) I got up in front of my readers and some good friends and I told them about my project. After a few questions (that I could confidently answer), they decided that I would graduate with honors!! It was a very exciting moment, so I thought I would share it with you here.

For more specific information regarding my project, check back to an earlier blog where I discussed the baby monkey and its family that I was studying!

Living out the dreams of my 2nd-grade self

2011-04-05T10:08:00.005-05:00

Who remembers 1997? I was a quiet little 2nd grader, who was completely infatuated with all things HANSON. Mmmbop was my jam! I knew every word of that song, and would love to belt it out on the bus ride home with my friends. I recently got to relive those glory days while I spent Spring Break in Austin, Texas!

Every year, during the second week of March, the city of Austin is flooded with indie music junkies for the South by Southwest music festival. People travel from the world around to attend South by, and it is SO worth it! It's 6 straight days of music. Almost 2,000 bands, and nearly 20,000 attendees.

My most difficult decisions the entire week were between which bands to see-- it was a great week! In a few cases, I had to sacrifice seeing one band for another because they happened to be playing at the same time in venues across town from each other. I was fortunate enough to see tons and tons of great performers like Janelle Monae, B.o.B., Wiz, The Strokes, Bright Eyes, Doomtree, The Hood Internet, Snoop, Man Man, Thee Attacks, and sooooo many others!

I spent the last night of the festival catching a showcase by a group of DJs and mixers, when I heard someone in the crowd behind me talking about a show she was planning on going to later that night. Guess who she was talking about.... yes, that's right, HANSON. When I heard that, I kind of flipped out. I had always wanted to see them live, but for one reason or another it had never happened, but now was my chance!! It was easily one of the best shows I've been to. You can tell how much they love their music and want to share it with their fans. Their hooks are incredibly catchy, and shamelessly pop-y, and that's what makes them great in my mind. Well, that and the fact that they're so passionate about many causes! They donate a significant amount of their proceeds from several albums toward research and prevention of AIDS in Africa. They've worked with TOMS Shoes to fight poverty and provide shoes to children who don't have any. While at South by Southwest, Hanson organized a live stream to support those affected by the earthquake and following tsunamis in Japan and surrounding pacific islands. They're not only in touch with themselves, their music and their fans, but also with those they can help!

So, check Hanson out, if you have a chance! You'll see that they've grown quite a bit since 1997. And 2nd grade me would be SO elated that I got to see them in person! Too cool, dude. Too cool.

The Beginning of April

2011-04-01T15:47:00.005-05:00

So today I arrived 3 minutes late to my Biodiversity and Evolution class, I needed to buy a muffin for breakfast first. Our professor, Kristi Curry Rogers, was passing out sheets of paper. She was announcing a pop quiz. Then I heard the worst possible phrase a professor can say come out of her mouth, "If you've done all the reading you'll be fine." Don't get me wrong, I'm a good student, but I was planning on doing the reading this afternoon.

To my dread, the quiz was a cladogram, something only AP biology student might know about, and we had to label evolutionary traits for sponges among other unkonwn organisms. I have no idea how sponges evolved and frankly I'm still surprised they're an animal. Anyway, after staring at it for a few very stressful minutes, Kristi asked how the class was doing. Then she said, "April Fools!"

That was incredibly awful. But one better was at the end of class. Usually we go over an orgamism of the week and their adaptive traits, evolutionary history, etc. Today the organims was a student in our class, his scientific name, Percivius Grifinius (Percy Griffin).

Kristi described his early development, accompanied by a powerpoint slide of a childhood picture of Percy. She went over his varied interests: Sidney Sheldon books and Lil Wayne. Then she went on to argue that he is proof that evolution isn't always an improvement by showing more pictures from his facebook, like the one above. In the end, Percy was entirely embarassed and the class had an awesome April Fool's Day.

The Asian Festival

2011-03-29T23:51:00.003-05:00

It's hard to believe that I've been attending for Macalester for nearly two years.

But what's even more unbelievable is that I'm still discovering events that routinely occur on campus.

Take, for instance, the Asian Festival. An annual celebration, the festival celebrates the cultures of China, Japan, India, Korea, and many more countries. This year was the first I'd heard of it, and subsequently the first time I had participated in it.

Link to photos of the event:

The festivities ranged from dances

to song

language exhibitions

martial arts demonstrations

and donations for earthquake relief in Japan

You needn't hail from any nationality of Asia to come and watch or participate, nor do you need to know anything about Asian cultures. The Asian Festival is as much a place to celebrate as it is to learn. Who knows? You may even be inspired to study something further, and could even find your true calling!

Maybe a little dramatic, but nonetheless it's true that you can find your passions and your interests at the most unexpected times and in the most unexpected of places. However, even the casual observer or a little curiosity is more than enough to warrant checking out the Asian Festival, or really any event that Macalester hosts.

I personally enjoyed being able to bring not just a show of TaeKwonDo techniques to the festival, but also information on its background, philosophies, and various cultural aspects. It was especially a treat to see professors and staff at the event, sharing in the experience with students. Perhaps one thing I take for granted at this school is how very interconnected you can become with everyone - even your teachers and deans - by way of these events, and through an environment so conducive to interaction through its small community.

Learning about your fellow Mac amigos can be as interesting or more interesting than what you learn in class or what lectures you attend. For instance, maybe that professor of yours who's about as book-smart as they come could also tell you about their karate experience gained during graduate school (true story, by the way). You never know just how or when you'll connect with someone, but it stands to reason that the more opportunities you give yourself in this endeavor, the more likely it will become.

S N O W D A Y

2011-03-08T16:30:00.005-06:00

This post is a shout-out to all non-Minnesotans from sunny-sweet, perennially-perfect weather states/countries: it pays to live in the tundra. I'm talking to you Californians, Floridians and Ivory Coastians. Subarctic temperatures, howling winds and grey skies might not sound like your cup of tea, but there is one thing that winter's good for and that's snow. And it is a truth universally acknowledged that there is a positive correlation between exponential snow increase and exponential happiness increase of those in the snowy climate. Not only does the fluffy precipitation precipitate snowball fights, skiing, sledding, snowboarding, snowman-construction, and endless other applications (including cheap advertising for campus events), but also on rare and momentous occasion when the snow gods shine their mercy upon lowly, toilsome mortals, snow = S N O W D A Y

(The Spring Fest line-up: musical groups MNDR, The Dodos and Dan Deacon performing).

And Monday, February 21st, 2011, shall forever be marked in Macalester history as The Snow Day of 2011.

I was enjoying a calm Sunday evening in, finishing up my reading for 19th Century British Novel (Villette by Charlotte Bronte) when there was a sudden loud ruckus in the hall outside. Cheering, hollering, and general raucousness rang out. I ignore it, assumed it had no bearing on my existence and continued to read. But then there was another flare of cheering . . . and another . . . and another after that, all in quick succession.

(Remnants of Snow Fort built outside of the Campus Center)

My boyfriend returns from the bathroom and asks, "Do you know why they're cheering in the hallway?"

"Nope."

"Snow day tomorrow."

My mind did the arithmetic in a whirl:

Snow Day Tomorrow = No Classes Tomorrow = No Homework Today

I chucked Charlotte Bronte aside and frantically logged into my email account to test the fantasy against reality. There it was: the email from Jim Hoppe announcing that school was cancelled on Monday due to the gargantuan influx of snow that had started late that evening, would persist throughout the night and would not be cleared in time for professors to safely commute to campus. Facebook abounded with updates:

"Fasho! Minnesota winter's good for something."

"MY FIRST SNOW DAY!!!" (Kid from Hawaii)

"SCHOOLS CANCELLED!"

"My five year old self's dream has come true: a snow day at last!"

"snowwwwwwww dayyyyyyyyyyy."

Needless to say the student body shared in my excitement.

Now I can't remember which rumor I heard-- whether there hadn't been a snow day since the 70s or if there hadn't been a snow day in 70 years in Macalester history-- regardless, the occasion was a rare one, indeed and one deserving of strict and reverent observance. So how'd I pass my snow day, you might ask? With the possibility of 24 entirely unadulterated free hours, unanticipated, a whole world of opportunities unfurled before me, and what did I do? Well, I did something that a Mac student has very rare occasion to do: a b s o l u t e l y n o t h i n g.

I was lazy, listless and languid for 24 hours. I didn't touch my homework. I slept in, slothed around all day, only emerging for food and smoothies. And it was fantastic.

The moral of the story: winter is good. Winter is very, very good.

Thinking Bigger

2011-02-24T00:19:00.004-06:00

It's been a while since I've last posted, and heavens forbid I fall behind! You may believe (and I may want you to believe) that I've been too busy to do so, but I can't really say I haven't had a good half hour to sit down and crank something out. The problem, however, was figuring out WHAT to write.

I could give out more advice. Goodness knows I've done plenty of that in my previous posts here (check 'em out!). Over the last couple of years, I've come to deep revelations and had to rethink a lot of what I knew, or thought I knew, about myself. College just seems to do that to you.

Today, I was hit by another realization. On my way to my dorm room, after having sent, received, and re-sent hundreds of e-mails, I discovered that what I had been doing outside the classroom these past few days had felt more fulfilling to me than anything I'd done in it. I felt happier, almost, while trekking through the cold, having just chased down Macalester reservations staff, Health and Wellness employees, Athletics personnel, and everyone in-between.

While I had at first looked at organizing both a self-defense seminar and Capoeira classes as a chore, or maybe some twisted character-building, I instead found that I was enjoying the process. I enjoyed opening lines of communication between different departments on campus, working with the college's resources and my own to begin pulling together these two events. I felt a sense of accomplishment, despite the process still being underway, because I had taken initiative and, with the help of our esteemed MMAC president, was bringing a newness, an addition, to this place that would not have been here otherwise (however small they may be).

This isn't to say that what happens in the classroom, or what the professor assigns, can't be rewarding or worthwhile. But I've begun to reflect on my own advice over this past year, and now realize that I can put truth to previously tenuous claims. What as a first-year I thought was the right way I can now, more assuredly, confirm.

Classes are important. But really, truly, it's what you can do outside the classroom that inspires creativity, initiative, and lets you pursue your passions. After all, I can't major in martial arts here (though I do hope someone more ambitious than I can change that), but I can engage in that interest outside of class. I'm working to bring Capoeira to Macalester. Who knows what I could do next year (maybe Kung Fu...)?

When I say: "Pursue your interests here," I don't mean just look for your favorite major. Don't limit yourself to interesting classes, student orgs, choir, etc. There are greater rewards out there than just an 'A', so be bold! Take your passion for magic, sculpting, jazz, parkour, dancing, or whatever, and MAKE something out of it! Something that isn't already here, something that YOU think is missing. Open it up to the whole community; create a project or a class, a major or a school-wide event! Hell, take it city-wide! Think unconventional, think daring.

But most of all...think BIG!

Shuang@Macalester的青春岁月－回归

2011-02-23T23:01:00.000-06:00

经过半年多的时间，又再次回到Orange。

已是大二下半学期，Macalester对我而言，很多人很多事都已非常地熟悉。
回想当时刚来到美国的种种心情，感叹时间过得很快，一切都在改变。
留学生真地是一个非常不稳定的群体。
大四的学长学姐都准备奔向各自的前程，再次见面，也不知何地，更不知何时。
大三的学生决定了自己的专业和走向，他们两年前会不会想到自己的今天。
很多大二的学生都已经决定在大三study abroad。这个学期一结束，就飞向世界各地。
大一的学弟学妹，慢慢了解这里，慢慢给自己找方向。
所有人都忙忙碌碌地在自己的轨道上行走。
都很兴奋，却也都有一种飘浮不定的忐忑。
这应该就是成长，Macalester把一群拥有共同梦想的中国人带到了同一片土地上。
让他们在这个新的起点上，选择一条自己的路，启程。

上个学期对于我而言，很忙碌很充实。收获了很多，懂得了很多。
很多事情经历过之后才会有切身体会。大二的上班学期让我知道，balance really means a lot.
大一的学生都非常地ambitious，刚来的时候，大家聚在一起讨论自己的计划。
从他们身上看到当时的自己，什么都想去尝试，因为真地不那么确定，什么才真地合适自己。
迈开第一步，需要很大的勇气。而坚持，更需要。
有梦想有追求总是好的，只是有时候，别对自己太苛刻。
放慢脚步，去感受美国的生活，去感受学术的快乐，去感受身边的变化，比匆匆前进要有意义地多。
毕竟在这样一个年龄，有太多东西比gpa重要。
很高兴能够重新回到orange。
这一学期，走走停停，一定常来这里记录下自己的心情。

Internship: The Loft Literary Center

2011-02-17T16:13:00.003-06:00

It all started when I glimpsed my roommate's snazzy-looking resume on her desk. She was applying for a job at Shish and had meticulously designed a crisply laid out CV for that purpose, leading me to think it was about time I assembled one myself. So, with no specific object in mind, I made my resume and happened just a little while later to start shopping through the internships that English majors had done in the past. One of these was The Loft-- which I had visited once before with a friend while wandering aimlessly in Minneapolis. I checked their website and discovered that they were looking for marketing interns for J-term-- cue the harps and cherubic choirs: this was perfect.

For the past year and a half I've been on the work-study program, putting in a few hours a week and working full-time over the summer at the college's Publications and Communications Office (essentially a marketing office). It's an experience from which I've gained a lot of practical knowledge and skills in terms of design and software editing-- oh, I can edit just about anything you've got: copy, video, audio, you name it. I'm certain that this experience recommended me highly over the other candidates for the internship and, lo and behold, I bagged it!

My project for the month: to participate in The Loft's Blog, Writer's Block and to help launch a podcast series for author interviews. Blogging for The Orange gave a me a little background in that regard. What's more, it was the premise of Marlon James' assignments from my Creative Writing class that became the subject of my inaugural post. As for the podcast, I learned about the PC component for editing software, as well as how to set up the infrastructure from beginning to end, from RSS feeds, to Audacity, to recording equipment with invaluable help and advice from people in the Publications Office at Mac.

The ultimate goal was to launch The Loft's first-ever AuthorCast, one-on-one interviews with visiting authors. The first interviewee was Patricia Weaver Francisco, a Creative Writing professor in the MFA track at Hamline University. Her affecting memoir, Telling: A Tale of Rape and Recovery was the focus of the interview, and I had the privilege of reading her book and drafting the interview questions. It's a gratifying thing for a reader to be able to directly ask an author a question about their work-- and have it answered!

The AuthorCast was a success and you can check it out here: Patricia Weaver Francisco.

To say that Macalester prepared me for this internship seems redundant at this point. Having said that, Macalester really prepared me for this internship. One of the things for which I'm grateful about my experience at Mac, is that I've had the opportunity to gain highly practical technical skills in addition to my liberal arts education.

More to the point, these practical skills have helped me to wedge my foot in the door of the Twin Cities literary scene by working for an organization dedicated to the edification, support and promotion of locally-grown authors, both aspiring and published. They offer a gamut of creative writing classes for all ages, host author interviews, and network with other institutions to promote books and offer a platform for writers to develop their craft.

Not to mention that the building is incredible-- an absolute architectural gem blending modernity with nostalgia. It came complete with a coffee shop and gallery on the ground level, archaic printing presses in the basement, a Book Arts store, a snazzy book club room, stone walls, wood floors, and rooms made entirely of doors.

English Major Nirvana.

Watching a Revolution at Macalester

2011-02-11T10:22:00.004-06:00

One of the coolest things about being a student at Macalester is watching world events unfold with other students. Right now, I'm sitting at work and, instead of doing work, I'm watching a live stream of the protesters in Tahrir Square in Cairo. I'm sitting here with two other students, each of us engrossed in what is going on halfway around the world. These are the moments that make being a Mac student really fun, interesting, and memorable. We talk a lot about being an 'international' school and we have lots of students from all around the world, but I think what really makes Mac a place committed to internationalism is the careful attention that most students pay to world events. That engagement outside of the US is what truly defines Mac's internationalism.
I should probably actually get back to work- but I have to say that it's fantastically cool to hear the protesters shouting "Egypt is Free! Egypt is Free!"

Winter Carnival

2011-02-07T20:35:00.005-06:00

Hey there blogosphere!

It's the start of the third week of classes; can you believe it?! If I could have one superpower, it would definitely be to slow down/stop time. It's my last semester at Mac, and I already feel like it's flying by! I've made my "Bucket List" of everything I want to do at Mac/in Minnesota before I leave in May, and I'm moving through the list at a pretty good pace. A bunch of my activities have sentimental value, like curling up with Dr. Seuss in the children reading room on the second floor of the library and playing Ultimate Frisbee on Shaw Field, but other entries on my list are simply "Minnesotan." After all, I'm not sure when I'll be back, so I've got to cash in on this now! Since I'm not from here, I feel like I need to soak up every last drop of uniquely Minnesotan stuff before I leave. In addition to cooking and consuming a hot dish (does anyone have a good recipe I could steal?), I've been attending lots of typically Minnesotan events. For example, in August I went to my first Minnesota State Fair. Most recently, I went to the Winter Carnival in downtown St. Paul! It was great! A few friends and I walked around for a little while, admired the ice sculptures, saw a cute little family warming themselves by an open fire and went ice skating! I hadn't been ice skating since I was a little kid, so it was a mildly anxious, but completely wonderful, enjoyable way to spend a Sunday afternoon! We clocked some serious time on the ice, having a great, albeit cold, time. All levels of ice skating ability and talent were out there with us, everyone was just havin' some fun! I only fell once, which I was pretty impressed by! All things considered, the Winter Carnival definitely gets my stamp of approval-- it's not very far from campus, an easy drive or bus ride away, most activities are free or very reduced in price, and they sell a bunch of the delicious snack foods you'd find at the State Fair!! Mmmmmhmmm I really love those mini sugared donuts.

I think the next thing on my list is to attend a professional sporting event in either of the cities, and I'm absolutely looking forward to that! There are so many great things to do on the weekends (or school nights); I'm not sure I'll get to everything on my list, but it's most definitely worth a shot! If my off campus endeavors have taught me anything, though, it's that I'll miss this place! Macalester IS WONDERFUL!

Just one example of the super amazing ice sculptures at the Winter Carnival:

What I did this J-Term :)

2011-02-07T16:02:00.000-06:00

Hello All,

I have been dying to do a post but senior year academics has had me under its leash! (Of course, I have to include a social aspect to the senior life or I would have no sanity) However, I must say my final year at Dear Old Mac has been good so far...and J-Term was no different.

I am an international student from JAMAICA!!! So the holiday started at home with trips to beaches, spending time with family, hanging with friends, devouring amazing food, frequent link-ups with other Jamaican Mac students while home to go to parties, chill, just to name a few...let's just say, bliss! :)

I came back to Minnesota on January 8 for a 2 week commitment leading up to the start of the spring semester. I am in the African Music Ensemble here at Mac. We are a group of about 40 students under the leadership and guidance of ethnomusicologist, professor and drum master, Sowah Mensah. We sing mostly Ghanaian music and play the drums and African flute, as well as do Ghanaian dance.

Every January, we invite schools from all around the Twin Cities area (although one school came from Duluth this year) to come to January concerts that we put on. Each show is concise and kid friendly but also very informative. In the program, we play a lot of the music we have learned but also, play Ghanaian games with the students and invite them to dance. The group performed 2 shows per day from January 11-21 in the Alexander Hill Ballroom in Kagin Commons to hundreds of school children, ranging from the elementary to the high school level.

It is always an amazing time as the Macalester students (like me) enjoy sharing this music that we spend a lot time learning and the kids always have a grand time listening and dancing. (They also ask the funniest questions of Sowah during the Q&A section).

Now that the semester is in the full swing, our next commitment is our Black History Month Concert this Saturday. I expect it to be sold out as all our concerts tend to be, so I guess it's good that our new performance space in Kagin has no limit on the amount of persons who can come, unlike the old concert hall in the music building (now under construction).

We will also be going on our annual Spring Break tour soon. This year we are touring the Northeast states. It's going to be a blast!

I really have enjoyed my almost 4 year tenure in the African Music Ensemble. It's fun and I have learned a lot of stuff, while also sharing with the community- which is a very 'Macalester-y' trait! :P

J-Term Productivity (& even a little laziness)

2011-01-31T15:58:00.003-06:00

Returning to snowy, cold Minnesota and lovely Macalester means, for most of us, returning to a regular schedule and being thrown right back into classes, homework, jobs, internships, extracurriculars, volunteering... and all the dozens of other wonderful things Macalester students involve themselves in. As my fellow bloggers have noted, however, there is actually quite a lot to be done over J-Term- if one is so inclined- which will keep your brain from going on Standby for the whole winter. For the first time, I decided not to bore myself to death over the 5ish weeks of break and to take on a J-Term internship.

In November, I started working as an intern and research assistant with history professor James Stewart, collaborating with him on building a website for his newly founded anti-slavery organization, Historians Against Slavery. As an International Studies and Media & Cultural Studies major with a Human Rights focus, this project appealed to many of my interests. So, it seemed logical to continue my contribution into the January term, when I could dedicate more time and energy to the project (not to mention receive 2 academic credits for it!). Since I already had plans to go home for the winter, I worked from home, doing research for 40 hours a week and compiling data about human trafficking and modern-day slavery into a database which will eventually be incorporated into the Historians Against Slavery website, www.historiansagainstslavery.org. Now, Professor Stewart and I are in the process of founding an anti-slavery organization at Mac, and Historians Against Slavery has been featured in an issue of Inside Higher Education (which can be found here).

The point is, it's very easy not to just be a lazy bum over break, watching the entire list of the Top 50 Most Romantic Movies of all time (which I may or may not have done, too...). Not only is an internship a really valuable experience, but I feel like I learned a ton about an issue which I'm now very passionate about.

Until next time,

Lia

J-term Honors

2011-01-11T14:29:00.002-06:00

It is J-term and instead of relaxing and catching up on tv (which I’ll admit I am making time for) I am working hard on my honors project! I am a Psychology major, and what I am really interested in studying is animal behavior. Because of this, (and because I spent the summer between sophomore and junior year as an intern at the MN Zoo) I designed an honors project at the zoo observing a group of monkeys. The monkeys are a part of a new exhibit that opened summer 2010. My project was in two parts: Part 1 establish the protocols and definitions of the behaviors I would be observing (commonly referred to as an ethogram) and using those protocols to observe the monkeys and figure out how the monkeys were spending their time (these are DeBrazza’s monkeys by the way), and Part 2 to see whether living in an exhibit with 3 other species (Colobus monkeys, Red River hogs, and Rock hyraxes) influenced their behavior.

A month ago, I found out that the female DeBrazza’s monkey had a baby. This changed my project, so now my focus was on the changes in behavior based on the addition of an infant into the group. I am still interested in the effects of living in an enclosure with these other species, but now I am specifically focusing on parenting behaviors.

So now it is J-term and I get to go watch a baby monkey every day. It is very exciting. I am finding all of this research on parenting behaviors, and I am observing it on a regular basis. The mother monkey carries the baby around all day. Last week she began parking the baby, which is when the mother puts the baby down on a branch and leaves it there for a short time while she does other things. At this point Shama (the mother) is only leaving the infant for very short periods of time (less than a minute). She will eventually leave it alone for longer intervals and it will become more and more independent.

I feel so lucky having the opportunity to watch this baby grow and mature, as well as watch how an infant changes the behavior of the rest of the group. The juvenile DeBrazza’s is clearly curious about the baby, and I have seen her approach Shama and the baby and sniff and poke at the infant. The father has gotten more territorial (based on my observations, not on statistically significant data). I am very excited to see where this project goes, and see whether there are significant changes in behavior due to the infant. I also appreciate having this opportunity as a Macalester student!

Holding Down the Fort: J-Term @ Mac

2011-01-10T13:40:00.010-06:00

As a corollary to Natalie's post, I thought I'd paint a picture for everyone of what it's like to spend your J-term at Macalester. Being a native of Minnes(n)o(w)ta, myself, choosing to stay on campus for the break wasn't a drastic decision, with my hometown only half an hour away by highway commute. But with an on-campus job and an internship in Minneapolis it made more sense to me to be in St. Paul where I have the Twin Cities at the tips of my fingers at all times. Not to mention I was also filled with a Harry-Potter-esque Hogwarts-is-my-real-home type of sentiment, and spending the break at Macalester was, for me, a very natural choice.

Natalie touched on it and I'll elaborate: the semesters at Mac are colossal time sucks-- when you're not in class, you're at work, and when you've got down-time it's Homework Time which is inevitably interrupted by Friend Time and Aimless Internet Browsing time. And let's not forget that you've also got to squeeze in Meal Time and (every girl's favorite) Exercise Time. Add to that your Co-curricular Time, Volunteer Time and/or Internship Time and you'll find that very few hours indeed are left over for Sleep Time (see pie chart for reference).

Time Pie Chart

*Other Times include (but are not limited to) Perfunctory Family Phone Call Time, Waiting For The Bus Time, Meal Time, Illicit Nap Time, Exercise Time, Still Waiting For The Bus Time and Errands Time.

The refreshing thing about Winter Break is that it is a break in the truest sense: unlike Spring or Fall breaks, Winter Break falls in between semesters, meaning that it is virtually impossible to have homework for the break [1] which opens up nearly-forgotten avenues of pure, unadulterated Free Time. But with Free Time comes great responsibility. Lesser people lose themselves in the vortex of a no-demands-on-my-time world. Their minds sink into stupor and their brain muscles atrophy. They get caught in day-time TV traps and prowl on Facebook for hours on end taking patchwork quizzes to find out which Twilight character they most resemble, or which car best describes them as a person-- futile attempts to regain a sense of identity in their new life-state.

But there are plenty of things to do over the break, especially around campus and in the Twin Cities, to keep busy, stay engaged, and be productive:

1). Read Books, Listen to Music, Watch Movies

Now's your chance to catch up on literature and media! My reading list was an ambitious one for this break including: The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass by Douglass, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and, to get a head start on what promises to be an avalanche of reading (see footnote) for my 19th Century British Novel class, I've just started sifting through a brick of a book entitled Middlemarch by George Eliot. On the music front, I've been delving into dubstep mixes and screening The Current radio, whose Top 89 of 2010 is a fantastic, versatile smörgåsbord of delights. The countdown even features a song collaborated on by a Mac grad, Amanda Warner (of MNDR fame), who worked with Mark Ronson, and Q-Tip to produce the single "Bang, Bang, Bang" (video below). And films, let's not forget those-- I attempted for perhaps the fourth time to watch The Hangover all the way through to the end, but lost interest about halfway through. I much preferred Tarantino's Inglorious Basterds and got really retro one night with one of Molly Ringwald's classics, Pretty in Pink (80s fashion never ceases to flabbergast me).

2). Intern or Volunteer Somewhere

Opportunities to lend a hand, for credit, money or out of the kindness of your hearts, abound in the cities. Check with the Career Development Center or your chosen Department of study to find J-term internships to keep you busy and put something on your resume. I chanced upon an unpaid stint with The Loft Literary Center and I'm loving it so far. And let's not forget the Good Samaritan clause. Mac has access and works in conjunction with a lot of organizations that are always in need of volunteers, including local public schools in need of tutors, or Habitat for Humanity looking for builders. I like to take a few hours every month to usher or set up shows at the Guthrie Theatre-- where I am happy to report that you can cash in your volunteer hours for tickets to fabulous Guthrie productions!

3). Ride the Light Rail, Explore the Cities

One of the most oft-repeated snippets of advice when you first arrive on campus is to get off campus and soak up the city around you. But once the term gets under way, extricating yourself from class, homework, meetings, events and the like quickly gets tricky. But the advice is valid-- especially for out-of-staters who can sometimes start to feel confined to the Mac island between Summit and St. Clair during the academic year, unfamiliar with the surrounding neighborhoods, theaters, party-spots and parks. The more acquainted you become with the urban geography, the more at home you feel and the more occasions you find to make off-campus weekend excursions. A good place to start your exploration: the light rail. Apart from being some of the most fascinating people-watching around, it also helps you to orient yourself, passing through some of the more popular Twin Cities spots from the Mall of America to the Saturday-Night-Destination, the Warehouse District.

So get out, and get busy! You can sleep when you're dead, right? But until then, CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

[1] Unless you’re taking 19^th Century British Novel, in which case you might want to get a head start on your 4,000+ pages worth of reading.

J-Term Survival Guide

2011-01-05T12:12:00.002-06:00

You know, I always complain about how much I have to do during the semester, and then it gets done and I'm left like this. Grades were posted last week, which is really the last shreds of fall semester done with, and now it's just a few weeks until spring semester starts up!

There are lots of cool things during J-Term going on around campus, like an EMT class and rehearsals for a spring theater production. Of course, I'm not there to experience them. Instead, I've got some tips for surviving a J-Term away from 'home' at Mac:

1. G-Chat. Built right into the Macalester College mail system, you can use it to keep in touch with all your friends in one handy place! Statuses make it easy to tell your friends where you are and what you're up to. Other forms of electronic communication such as Skype, Facebook, and cell phones can also serve this purpose.

2. Reconnect with your old self. Find some of your old friends and meet up to catch up on your lives, or just explore where you're from! It's amazing the sorts of things you forget about when you're gone. I'm a big fan of going back to the museum I used to work at and catching up with the volunteers, and during nicer weather going to the beach and having bonfires. The latter isn't a feasible option in Northern Wisconsin in January, it turns out, but it's great to sort of fall back into your old routine for a while.

(Side note: A friend of mine from Macalester who would be mortified to know that I'm putting this story on here called me in a panic at 1 am a few weeks back because he couldn't remember how to find a certain store in his city. Having never even set foot in that state, I was clearly the best choice for that job. He called back the next day to tell me that his brother gently reminded him that it was next to his old workplace.)

3. Discover something new. Take up a new hobby, or get hooked on a new television show - or re-hooked on an old favorite! In a winter break past, I fell in love with Arrested Development and am currently plowing through The West Wing at an almost embarrassing pace. I've also discovered that I'm very good at absolutely destroying my brother at Mario Kart, and that there's a wooded path not far from my house that is perfect for walking my dog.

4. Brag - or complain - about the weather. This is almost a no-brainer. You go to school in Minnesota, and you'll be getting pretty used to the culture by the time your first winter break rolls around. You also, as a Mac student, will have friends from all over the world. What better way to merge these two facts into one glorious activity than to brag (or complain) about the weather to your friends in different temperate zones? A typical conversation:

Friend: Ha, it's 72 here today.

Me: It's ten below here.

Friend: Well, that's just too bad.

Stress Relief: An Addendum

2010-12-14T12:47:00.007-06:00

We're on Day 2 of Finals Week here at Macalester. More and more the campus begins to resemble a scene from Zombieland as the stress virus spreads from student to student-- eyes drooped with exhaustion, mouths watering for Midnight Breakfast carnage, brains turned to mush by Accounting Equations, Organic Compounds, Moby Dick, and the question on everyone's mind: the legitimacy of Constructivism as an independent Political Relations theory. Luckily the virus is, for the most part, quarantined to a few "Red Zones" on campus, those being:

1) The Library where the undead can be found with glazed eyes glued to computer screens, fingers clacking mechanically on keyboard, or heads buried behind stacks of reference books such as: On Morality: A Guide to Nietzsche and Seneca Falls and the Origin of Women's Rights.

2) The 2nd Floor of the Campus Center is similarly infested with animated cadavers draped in the chairs over tables, noses pressed against notebook pages. Occasionally you may find one with its head tilted to the side, eyes staring vacuously ahead, mouth yawning open.

Fortunately there is an antidote. There are, in fact, several.

Mr. Calvert, clearly an expert on Zombie-Season-Survival, has already provided you with some in his previous post. Allow me to elaborate on these.

Combatting Zombie Syndrome 101:

1) Exercise

Make time to take your aggression out on the treadmill at the Leonard Center. If you go at around 4:30-5:30 you can watch Cash Cab while you jog and calculate what economists call the "opportunity cost" of being on the treadmill rather than in the Cash Cab answering simple trivia questions for 50-100 bucks a pop. Such questions might include: "From the Greek, fear of aliens, this condition describes a person who does not like foreigners." (And no, the answer is not Mars-Phobia as some very misguided New Yorkers seemed to believe).

2) Play in the snow!

That's what it's there for after all. If you can withstand the subarctic temperatures, building a snowman or shoving a fistful of freezing wet white snowflakes down a cherished friend's jacket can be a real stress reliever. (Sorry Micah, but all is fair in love and snowball fights).

3) Watch a movie

It's cozy weather to cuddle up with friends and watch a movie. Recent film viewings in Bigs 370 have included The Life Aquaitc, Coraline, When Harry Met Sally and Wall-E. Don't have time for a full-length feature film? That's fine-- that's what youtube's for! Collin mentioned the Daily Piper features in his post. My personal favorite has to be cats playing patty cake:

4) Read a book for leisure

Preferably something with a bit of snark, something light that doesn't make you think too hard. Might I recommend A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (aka A.H.W.O.S.G.) or (to be thematically relevant) try Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.

5) Treat yourself

You've earned it! Go out to dinner with your friends one night, eat non-Cafe Mac trough fare, get out of the campus bubble and feel like a real, live, honest-to-(insert your choice of deity or non-deity here) person! Italian Pie Shoppe has some pretty good deep dish options, I've heard that the Pad Thai place is delectable and there's nothing, absolutely nothing, that a Shish burger can't cure.

6) Suppress the stress with Yuletide Cheer!

Yes, you have two exams on the same day and three 10-page papers due Thursday and don't forget about the oral exam in Portuguese that you haven't prepared for yet, but let's not lose sight of what's really important here: it's almost Christmas! And Christmas = presents + food and presents + food = happiness. So decorate your room accordingly and throw a Christmas party. Remember. Christmas lights are a college kid's best friend, and you can never have too many friends.

Bigs 370 Panorama View of the Christmas Spirit

7) Take a class with Marlon James

That way, while everyone else is stressing over their last class because they have a presentation, a final project or an exam, you'll be enjoying a well-stocked pizza party catered by Pizza Luce while watching a questionable zombie movie that inspires the theme of your next blog post. There's nothing quite like gratuitous gore and bad dialogue to take the edge off.

Ah, yes my friends, that brings us to the reprise. As it turns out you don't need baseball bats, military-grade rifles, or chainsaws to combat the scourge of Finals Week. Take the pacifist route-- we're all about promoting peaceful relations here on the liberal Mac campus anyway. Follow this easy guide and you'll find yourself slowly coming back to life.

Stress relief

2010-12-10T12:41:00.006-06:00

So, as finals roll on, it's important to know what keeps the stress down. High stress equals low productivity. Of course, if you feel that you're more productive while stressed, then you just need to worry about the depression and the heart disease. Either way, doing something that you love can be a great recharger and prepares you to get back into the grind of studies and papers.

Take, for example, the Martial Arts Club's approach.

Pictured: stress relief.

Other people prefer movies, or an episode from a beloved T.V. show. You could try boardgames, a jog (the 9 degree weather is invigorating, to say the least), or writing. Even when it doesn't feel as if you have the time, an hour break can give you that crucial boost in energy. You may find that you're exponentially more productive, and your work will get done faster than you could have imagined.

Macalester also does its best to provide for its students in this time of stress. Dog Day, for instance, is set for tomorrow. What better therapy is there than a cute, furry animal to pet? There's also a midnight breakfast next Tuesday for the late-night grinds. And throughout these last couple of weeks, The Daily Piper (Macalester's campus news via e-mail) has included a "Put Stress on Pause" series that has provided some funny videos and websites.

A personal favorite:

Cute. Furry. Animals.

There's no sense making finals any more difficult. So take advantage of the little things Macalester provides for you, or find your own thing. Everyone deserves a break, after all.

Seriously, this helps.

How is it almost over already?

2010-12-09T15:28:00.004-06:00

It sounds cliche, but it's really true: the older you get, the faster time goes by. The same can definitely be said about each semester here at Mac. I had a great moment the other day when I was looking for a song in my "Recently Added" playlist in iTunes and was confused when it didn't show up. Turns out I had gotten it from a friend over Fall Break... which was legitimately six weeks ago almost.

Oops.

It's just that this time of year goes by SO fast and there's so much to do! This goes for both work and fun things. For example, this weekend consisted of almost dying trying to drive to the men's hockey game on Friday (you live in Minnesota, you have to be zen with the hockey... and dealing with impromptu snowstorms), my study abroad orientation on Saturday morning, and then shopping for, preparing for, and going to the amazing Winter Ball on Saturday evening, followed by hot chocolate and an old-school sleepover - complete with lots of fuzzy blankets - at the house of some of my friends. We stayed up until 5:30 just talking.

Of course my Sunday was jam-packed with homework, but that's the thing here. Some of the classes... I actually really like what we do. This weekend, I wrote, recorded, and rationalized a radio ad for my Rhetoric of Campaigns and Elections class. I'm currently making a documentary for Spanish, and writing a major research paper on peacebuilding operations that has been the most rewarding paper I've ever worked on.

I leave a week from today. Actually, a week from today by this point and I'll be home. It's crazy to think about how I won't be back for nine months after that, but I know I'm going to have a great time in Northern Ireland. My orientation for my program is on Saturday, and I get to meet all the amazing people that I'll be traveling with! It'll be a nice non-academic activity in this busy, busy time. :)

Winter Ball!

2010-12-07T11:24:00.004-06:00

Macalester students huddled for warmth in their formal wear in front of Epic Nightclub last Saturday night when Mac held it's annual Winter Ball. The event was a popular one with a long line outside the two-story nightclub which had been booked for Mac students exclusively. Once inside the impressive venue things heated up with a bustling dance floor at the center of the club. The music was mostly your standard Top 40 types such as "Party in the USA" and "Dynamite"-- though there was a nice indie cameo from Florence and Machine at the beginning of the dance with "Dog Days Are Over."

Upstairs there was ample seating overlooking the dance floor, a chocolate fountain, a cupcake buffet and a bar with all non-alcoholic drinks sponsored by MCSG (Macalester Student Government). After snagging a Shirley Temple and some chocolate-covered strawberries with my roommate completely gratis, I spent most of the night on the dance floor until closing time at 2 AM. The event was an incredible success, with an amazing venue that had quite a different atmosphere from last year's venue at Mill City Museum.

(To check out the venue look at the virtual tours offered on Epic's website: Main Floor, and Second Story Lounge).

Last year's Winter Ball was hosted by a historic site in Minneapolis, what was once a flour mill (until it blew up, that is) and is now a museum that commemorates the old flour mill, with a large venue area that can be rented out for events. Right next to the Guthrie Theater and overlooking the Mississippi (and St. Anthony Falls). Food accommodations were similarly delectable and if one were so inclined to stray to the basement it was possible to get a quick history lesson on the Mill in the form of a large industrial elevator shaft converted into a movie theater that moved throughout the levels of the building, at each floor playing video that illustrated industrial life in Minneapolis in the early 1900s. (The crumbling facade is where the explosion took out much of the factory).

From Mill City Museum to Epic Nightclub, the Program Board has done a stand-up job of finding excellent venues for one of the college's largest and most-anticipated events.

A weekend of concerts - on and off campus

2010-12-06T15:33:00.005-06:00

This weekend I spent most of my time (which should have been focused on final exam preparation) with multiple music concerts. Friday was the Fall Choir Concert in which all of the choral groups on campus sang - Macalester Concert Choir and Highland Camarata, as well as a select female ensemble. Off-Kilter, an a cappella group I sing in, also performed and we sang a medley of two Beatles classics - "I Will" and "Blackbird." The repertoire for the entire concert ranged from gospel, renaissance, traditional hymns, contemporary selections (just to name a few) and included a world premiere performance of a piece written by our very own Randy Bauer, a Macalester professor! The concert was a huge success and served as a great finale to our beloved Janet Wallace Fine Arts Complex that will undergo a complete renovation starting in a couple weeks!

Although creating choral music is a huge part of my life at Macalester (and what the majority of my blogging has been dedicated to thus far) I also had the chance to get tickets the to infamous concert venue, First Ave, in downtown Minneapolis and see someone else (Mason Jennings) make music for my listening pleasure.

Mason Jennings, a pop-folk singer-songwriter, is perhaps best known for his Bob Dylan's covers on the soundtrack of the movie "I'm Not There" which was released in 2007. However, Mason has been writing and performing music since the late 90's. It was a phenomenal concert and folk is definitively the best genre of music with its calm melodies and fusion of personal narrative with social awareness. Mason was amazing and his opener, Sarah Harmer, was another exemplary embodiment of folk music. I had never heard of her before but I was so impressed by her sound that I actually bought one of her albums on the spot! I usually go through a process of researching an artist and reading reviews and whatnot before I buy an album, but she was just SO GOOD!!

Music events are prevalent on and around the Macalester campus. There are many choirs, orchestras, wind ensembles, a cappella groups, bands and student singer-songwriters at Macalester and the frequency of concerts and performances mirrors that. Access to the phenomenal music scene at Mac and in the Twin Cities is easy and (worst-case scenario) a half-hour bus ride from campus. Overall, I definitely fulfilled my music quota this weekend and can now check procrastinating off my list of things to do and focus my time on upcoming exams, papers, presentations and group projects. Or I could just listen to Sarah Harmer's album again...

A Midsummer Night in December

2010-12-06T14:43:00.003-06:00

Over the weekend (and on Tuesday Night 11/7/10 if you are in the cities) for an hour and a half the climate in the fine arts gallery turned from winter tundra into a warm, magical summer forest. Why? That night, students (and several alums) put on a production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night Dream.

This performance was one of many student run theater productions that go on across campus every semester. These shows are great, because they offer students a chance to pick whatever plays they want to work with, and set their own schedules. Most importantly these productions are a lot of fun. Many of my fellow cast members had never been in a play before, or at least had never done Shakespeare, but theater majors and minors like my self were also well represented.

I find it easy to get caught up in becoming a perfectionist, I can stress myself out about making the perfect sandwich. This show, however, was just pure fun, the direction and the other cast members were warm, and more than a little silly. If any of the Midsummer cast happens to read this post, thanks you guys are awesome! If any current Mac kids read this, come see the show or you'll miss out. For the prospective students thinking about coming to Mac, hopefully I will see you next year trotting the "boards" in an art gallery, or dorm basement, or wherever we perform next!

In Re: Who Is Your Favorite Prof?

2010-11-30T13:37:00.005-06:00

An excellent question that warrants serious deliberation. Mac has a healthy crop of legitimately talented and engaging faculty, which makes it difficult to winnow down the top contenders to a single professor. As such, I've taken the leisurely route of declaring a three-way tie, and thus, in no particular order, I give you my top 3:

1) Professor Marlon James

The man, the myth, the legend. Marlon, who predominantly teaches Creative Writing courses, is easily one of the more popular professors among students. He has a down-to-earth, don't-think-I-won't-call-you-out-on-your-nonsense approach to teaching. He's extremely accessible and has a distinct and easy to relate to sense of humor. He's authored two novels and knows what he's talking about when it comes to writing fiction.

Oh yeah, he has a cool accent too.

(For more on class with Marlon you can check out my post on Intro to Creative Writing).

2) Professor Patrick Schmidt

Schmidt is a ward of the Political Science Department, specializing in US Politics and Legal Studies. Last year he was my professor for a foundations course in US Politics. The class was lecture-based which, with Schmidt at the helm of the podium, is a treat. He's a thoughtful type who gives a great deal of consideration to his teaching style and the efficacy of his methods. As such class was worthwhile, enlightening and usually amusing (did I mention he has a quirky sense of humor? See below for Schmidtisms). Also, assignments were interesting and unique. One required us to get off campus and witness politics-in-action which led my friends and I to the Federal Courthouse in downtown in St. Paul. There we watched a pre-trial proceeding involving a drug operation which led me to realize the tenacity with which the Constitution defends the rights of the accused.

His final advice to our class, I'll never forget. He said (after some prevarication): "My final advice to you is this: Don't vote."

His rationale? Voting, in purely practical terms, is not the most influential political action available to a person. With the rather outstanding exception of the Franken-Coleman senatorial race, one vote doesn't make a difference, but voting is an easy way for the average citizen to feel complacent about their political efficacy. It's easy to cast a ballot and rest on your laurels, thus if you're only going to commit to the political process in one way, find a different avenue than just voting. Force yourself to wield political influence by writing a letter to your legislature, working for a campaign or protesting neo-Nazis outside the YMCA on Lake Street.

And now a brief sampling of Schmidtisms:

"Politics is like silly puddy; you squeeze it and it oozes everywhere."
"Would you like to do an interpretive dance to this manifesto?"

3) Professor Geoffrey Gorham

Don't be fooled by his austere photo in front of the dark-robed brooding philosopher, Gorham is one of the friendliest professors you'll find on campus. He's a Canadian import (also with a slight accent) who just earned tenure. His classes are a forum for discussion and as a facilitator he takes a back seat in order to allow students' thoughts to take center stage. The atmosphere he creates is a relaxed one that makes students feel comfortable to share opinions and dissent with each other. The prompts he gives, both informal devil's advocate suggestions posed in class and the more formal paper topics, are thought-provoking and force you to reconcile competing worldviews.

A class with any of these professors is likely to be one you'll look forward to and find to be ultimately rewarding in terms of what you take away from class.

Political Science Thanksgiving Party

2010-11-24T10:56:00.007-06:00

The Political Science Department at Mac has a fabulous tradition of throwing a Thanksgiving potluck for its students before break every year. It has been going on for the past 17 years. Soon the tradition will be as old as the students at Mac! Students come from pretty much everywhere so some of us don't make it home for Thanksgiving but it is nice to call the Poli Sci department home for an afternoon.

Professors and students bring every kind of Thanksgiving food! Professor Patrick Schmidt brings themed cranberry sauces every year. My sophomore year he brought six different types, all themed for America's citizens. This year he brought four types of sauce themed for the four levels of professorship. The hot new Assistant Professor (with Serrano chilies), the Associate Professor, the Full Professor (I'm pretty sure this one had a lot of vodka in it), and the Professor Emeritus. Each was unique, funny, and definitely poking fun at professors.

Roxy, the department coordinator, brought a delicious turkey, stuffing and green beans! Professor Julie Dolan, brought squash and other professors and students brought wild rice (a Minnesota favorite), mashed potatoes, pumpkin pie, apple pie, pecan pie, and pumpkin bars.

Is your mouth watering yet? I know I'm mostly bragging but this is just one fantastic and quirky thing that happens at Mac. Departments make up excuses and throw potlucks to hang out with their majors and minors. Today the Economics department is serving cider and pumpkin treats (but really Poli Sci takes the cake for being awesome and giving us a full lunch). Yesterday, I ate pumpkin pie, chatted with my friends and professors, and got a free lunch (pretty much a successful afternoon in the eyes on any student).

Life off campus

2010-11-23T11:21:00.003-06:00

One of the things I love most about Macalester (and believe you me, there are a multitude of things that fall under this category) is our location. I like having the option of getting off campus regularly (or not-so-regularly when my work load decides to triple, aka midterms), exploring the Twin Cities and engaging in different cultural activities. Maybe it's the fact that I'm a senior and perhaps won't be in this area next year, but my friends and I have created sort of a "bucket list" of our favorite things to do in the Cities, whether museums, art exhibits, restaurants or concert venues, and recently we've been spending weekends checking some stuff of our list. Here's a brief synopsis of what we've been up to:

Concerts at First Ave - We caught K'naan, The Temper Trap and Pretty Lights. Words just can't describe how much fun we had! First Ave is not only a great venue; they also bring in so many fantastic artists to the area! I can't wait for Girl Talk next semester!! Here's a link to check out other upcoming shows: http://www.first-avenue.com/calendar
Minnesota Wild Hockey Game at the Xcel Center - Coming from a Mid-Atlantic state, I was never exposed to hockey (and the culture of the sport) until I came to Mac. It's such an exciting game to watch, and student nights for the Wild offer great seats at discount prices! It's really a steal! We also got a slice of pizza at one of my favorite spots in Saint Paul, Cosseta's, which is conveniently right across the street from the Xcel Center!
Performance of Spring Awakening by the touring company at the Orpheum - We found discount tickets for a show one Sunday evening and we just couldn't pass up this opportunity! As a German Studies major, I find Spring Awakening endlessly interesting from a critical perspective, and the music is fantastic, too!
Weekend at the Walker - One of my favorite museums in the area is the Walker. They have free admission on Thursday evenings and the first Saturday of every month! What a deal, right?! Checking out their new exhibits (I think my favorite was entitled, "Benches and Binoculars") and hanging out in the Sculpture garden afterward made for a relaxing and joyful Saturday afternoon! It's times like these that I realize just how much I'm going to miss Mac, the Cities and all (the people and places) that I've gotten to know while here.

Your favorite prof

2010-11-19T12:00:00.004-06:00

As a shameless plug for this:

Scots on the Spot: Who's Your Favorite Professor?

and because we (the bloggers) have only had one question posed to us so far, I am going to ask my fellow comrades in blogging:

Who is your favorite professor?

You can pick someone because they're funny, quirky, intelligent, inspirational... It can be because of a certain class they taught, etc. You can even have more than one favorite prof, if you so choose.

As for me, it's gotta be Prof. Karin Aguilar-San Juan.

Bask in her glory.
One of the many things I've learned from her is that professors, by and large, are very approachable. They can be terrifying at first (she used to break people's bones, and perhaps still does), but take a chance to chat with them and you'll find they're a lot of fun. Karin certainly isn't the stuffy, disagreeable professor stereotype; she cares a great deal about her students and will go the extra mile to help them succeed in class.

One thing she does so well is have her students think about and do things in very different ways than the typical essay or exam. One project was for her Problem of Race in U.S. Social Thought and Policy class, in which she had groups of students go out to University Avenue and explore the area. The assignment took us through Hmong shops, cultural organizations, businesses, and even the capital itself. It was up to the students to ask the questions, and interpret what they saw, heard, and felt. At the end of the day I'd learned more about the city, myself, and concepts of race, livelihood, and general day-to-day life than I ever could have by writing a 10-page essay.

And did I mention she can break people's bones? That's despite her Ph.D.

Artist's rendition.

So fellow bloggers...who is your favorite prof?

Makin' Magic at St. Kate's: The Joys of ACTC

2010-11-16T12:16:00.012-06:00

In spirit of the fast-approaching movie premiere of the much anticipated 1st installment of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, I thought I'd reflect on my own academic experience with the bespectacled literary icon.

Macalester, being a small liberal arts college, might have a trickier time competing with larger universities in terms of the breadth of classes offered, but the college has taken advantage of its close proximity with other Twin Cities colleges in order to offer large university course listings while still preserving the small-college feel.

Mac is one of five schools that has formed a consortium known as the Associated Colleges of the Twin Cities (ACTC). Students from these five schools (which also include Hamline University, Augsburg College, St. Thomas College, and St. Catherine's University) are eligible to enlist in classes at any of the other four schools, entirely free of charge, as part of a reciprocity system. A small shuttle bus (an inspired little toaster on wheels held together with a handful of bolts and navigated by a congenial guy named Harold) chugs around the campuses delivering students to and from their classes.

Last semester I took advantage of this system to take an interesting, brand new, student-initiated English class offered at St. Kate's. My class was called "Introduction to the Novel: The 6 Degrees of Harry Potter."

Yeah, you heard me.

On the first day of class I took my seat at the center of the classroom (later dubbed "The Room of Requirement"), had a pointed witch's hat placed on my head and was Sorted into Ravenclaw House ("Wit beyond measure is man's greatest treasure"). My House was my focus group: our theme in analyzing the novels was the application of literary theory to the study of the seven-part saga. Hufflepuffs studied spirituality and religion, Gryffindors evaluated mythological references and the "hero cycle", and Slytherins researched the physics of the impossible. My group and I gave presentations on feminist tropes from Goblet of Fire, a Marxist critique of Chamber of Secrets, and for our creative presentation we drafted the class into four teams and held our own Quidditch Cup Tournament (note the Chudley Cannons poster in the background of the picture):

(Ravenclaws: Me, Jenny-- a Hamline grad student, Treza and Sarah)

Apart from being enthralled by the actual class, and in constant admiration of my professor, Cecilia Konchar-Farr (aka McGonagall, author of Reading Oprah: How Oprah's Book Club Changed the Way America Reads) I really enjoyed meeting people outside of the Macalester community. I made great friends with my Ravenclaw cohorts and together we formed a Trivia brigade, putting out considerable collective brainpower to good use, christening ourselves "The Ken Jennings Experiment". The Tuesday Night Trivia Ritual had us racing down to the Green Mill restaurant on Grand where Trivia Man (aka Kip) patrols the restaurant shouting out trivia questions. Winners get gift cards and existential validation.

Cecilia even joined us a few times in order to discuss the dubiousness of Dumbledore's morality and debate whether or not Barthes had it right

when he said the author is dead. One night the Ken Jennings Experiment rose victorious and claimed first place after a nail-biting tie- breaker (John Paul Stevens' name is worth 30 points in a game of Scrabble, in case anyone was curious).

Harry Potter class ended, unfortunately, but Tuesday Trivia with the St. Kate's crew lives on, and I'm grateful for having had the chance to meet people and make friends outside of the Mac bubble.

MinneSNOWta

2010-11-14T16:02:00.007-06:00

As you may or may not have heard, the last few days have graced the St. Paul-Minneapolis area with a lovely blanket of snow, leading the city to even declare a 'snow emergency'. The snow started late Friday night, around 1 am, and was greeted by dozens of enthusiastic Mac students standing on the Dupre lawn in only their t-shirts (crazy!) cheering and yelling.... As students began to wake on Saturday morning-or afternoon, depending on what they'd been doing Friday night :)- the snow continued to fall heavily and did so pretty much all day Saturday.

The first snow is exciting for most students, depressing for others, but this particular Saturday seemed cheerful and carefree as students took advantage of the 6 inches that eventually culminated across campus. Perhaps one of the best parts for me, though, was seeing the snow creations of my fellow students across campus. Snowmen, anyone? Winter is here!

Welcome to Cabaret!

2010-11-12T10:52:00.002-06:00

Macalester has a nasty habit of hosting more events than a person can go to. It doesn't help that they're all interesting... Luckily here are some things that hold a higher plane of "must-see"-ness than others. One such event is Cabaret, a theater production directed by Professor Harry Waters, Jr.

Working together with the Music department, Macalester has been able to host this incredible show. Here's just a sample of what to expect.

The music is stellar. The acting is incredible. The four-hour and seven-hour rehearsals seem to have paid off, as even "minor" roles are so involved and fun to watch. In Cabaret you might expect there to be a focal point of action (and there is), but there's also a huge amount of action on the fringes. Everyone has a skill for acting that's certainly made me more inclined to take an acting and performance class.

Comedy, singing, dancing, drama and Nazis; this show has it all. These are the kinds of events you'll find most Macalester students, even the lethargic ones, going to. It's the kind of break you need, and the kind of fun you've earned.

Español

2010-11-11T10:15:00.007-06:00

¡Feliz Jueves!

So after three years of high school Spanish and a year of Intermediate-level Spanish in college, I am now enrolled in an actual Spanish course-- as in a course that is taught in Spanish. The class is a prerequisite for any major or minor in Hispanic Studies and is called "Visions of the Hispanic World: Oral and Written Expression." It's a conversation-based class with regular readings from a textbook that presents Hispanic literature, artwork, and political treatises from such infamous personages as Gabriel García Márquez (author of Love in the Time of Cholera and 100 Years of Solitude), Subcomandante Marcos (enigmatic leader of the Zapatistas-- pictured left), and Frida Kahlo (innovative Mexican painter).

The class is perhaps the most immersive language course I've ever taken (and I've taken many a language course) and has improved my fluidity in spoken Spanish markedly, not to mention my knowledge of Latin American politics and culture. Assignments usually take the form of 3-6 page papers on subjects such as personal narratives, informative pieces, reviews, or interviews (with Spanish speakers, of course). There is, however, latitude for more creative projects. In the spirit of Día de los Muertos our professor had us craft papier-mâché Calaveras (decorative skulls) to be sold in a silent auction with the proceeds going to Centro-- an organization that assists Latino families in the Twin Cities, where our class took a field trip.

Check out my Calavera:
Written on the side is a verse from a poem by Cesar Vallejo entitled "Los Heraldos Negros" from a book of his poems I found at the annual Mac rummage sale. This verse reads:

"Hay golpes en la vida, tan fuertes. . . Yo no sé.
Golpes como del odio de Dios; como si ante ellos,
la resaca de todo lo sufrido
se empozara en el alma. . . Yo no sé."

The class itself is perhaps my most enjoyable course. Teresa (la profe) is an animated and enthusiastic professor with a healthy sense of humor and an effervescent laugh. You can locate her classroom by following the sounds of Juanes, Shakira and Bebe playing in the Humanities building's halls. The other students in the class, at this level, are typically very engaged and intent upon learning and improving their Spanish language skills which makes class discussions ripe and entertaining.

Words of Advice from an Old Hat

2010-11-09T12:54:00.002-06:00

Registration season is fast-approaching and now, nearly half way through my sophomore year, I find myself glancing wistfully back at my haphazardly designed freshman schedule and wishing fervently that I hadn't wasted those precious class slots with courses I wasn't crazy about. I'm not the only person with an acute case of course-remorse. Now that I'm more Major-minded and looking to the gritty details of how to fulfill my requirements I've been longing for Do-Over button (or a Time-Turner). So I've decided to offer a bit of advice to prospective students and freshman alike and steer them away from the path of aimless class selection.

When I started college, I wanted to explore. My thoughts were that I had the later part of my college career to buckle down and focus on my Majors, Minors, Concentrations and all that jazz. I dabbled in Philosophy, picked up a course in journalism and subjected myself to Econ, thinking it was necessary to fulfill a requirement which I later realized I could have satisfied concurrently while meeting other requirements.

Although there's something to be said for investigating the departments here (for many people find themselves wanting to major in a field that they hadn't planned on pursuing, simply because they fall in love with a class), I think it's probably wise to leave off the speculative portion of course selection until a little later. It's wiser, especially for that first semester of freshman year, when you don't yet have your bearings, to try and meet some of your distribution requirements. For example, if you're not a science/math person (thus a kindred spirit of mine) think about getting your Natural Science requirement out of the way that first semester.

Also, if you're a person who is pretty confident in your intended major when coming into college don't be afraid to load up on classes from that department You'll likely have to rack up plenty of credits from that field if you do eventually major in that area so the more you can get under your belt out of the gate, the better.

Being cognizant of these things will help to loosen up your schedule later so that you might have an opportunity to add a second major, or easily switch tracks if you decide you want to do something else, or juggle a couple of minors.

Also, holding off on exploring other departments will give you the opportunity to get some purchase in what those other departments have to offer. You might initially think that Religious Studies is an interesting tangent, but come to find that perhaps you're actually more interested in Philosophy and before you know it you've discovered your minor-- or maybe even your new major!

Ballroom Dancing!

2010-11-08T16:27:00.005-06:00

Yes another dancing post (because we in Admissions love to dance, and there are so many opportunities to dance in the Cities).

At the end of my sophomore year I took a class called Behavioral Neuroscience. It was a really interesting class, even though I am not a neuroscience major! Although I do not remember most of what I learned in that class, taking that class changed my life (wow, that is a really corny sentence…oh well…)

The week we were learning about movement, we had a very special lab. My professor took all of us over to Cinema Ballroom (located less than a block off of campus, on the corner of Snelling and St Clair Avenues). We all took a tango class that was supposed to illustrate to us exactly how challenging it is when your brain “knows” what how your body is supposed to move, but your body does not want to cooperate. I have been a dancer all of my life, so while this experience taught me a lot, I didn’t learn much about neuroscience that day. What I learned was that my new goal in life was to become a professional ballroom dancer!

I have continued working towards this goal ever since (even finding a place to dance in St Louis (where I spent my summer doing neuroscience research on movement control). I love going in to take group classes and seeing people from Macalester also there enjoying the wonderful world of partner dancing. I also take private lessons at Cinema, and have had opportunities to be coached by champions.

Not everyone at Cinema competes. In fact, many students at Cinema are just there to learn to social dance. Last Wednesday (the first Wednesday of the month) was free guest night. Every month I invite all my friends to join me and learn the basics of a couple of dances. My friends who don’t have night class and aren’t starring in the musical Cabaret joined me. We had a lot of fun learning Viennese Waltz and Samba!

Right now I am working on perfecting my routines before my first competition this January. I will compete with my instructor Shane, and we will do Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Cha Cha, Rhumba, and Triple Swing! I am very excited, but a little apprehensive about the fake tan, fake eyelashes, and pounds of makeup that will be required…

Study abroad (the acceptance!)

2010-11-07T19:26:00.002-06:00

So in response to Collin's post, and because it's Sunday night and there's definitely no homework that I could be doing instead (lies), I'm going to talk a bit about study abroad from my perspective, which is a lot more sunshine and roses these days.

Yesterday, I got SPOed (mailed, in non-Macalester speak) my official study abroad acceptance from the International Center here at Mac. I've been accepted by my program for about a month already, so this was essentially the final piece of the puzzle I needed to be able to go.

When I started looking for study abroad programs, I was focusing on ones in Spain because I'm a Hispanic Studies minor. I got discouraged because nothing was jumping out to me like I thought it should. They were good programs, but I just couldn't see myself on any of them. However, because there are SO MANY programs on the International Center's website, it just seemed like a waste not to peruse the Political Science programs, just in case I saw one that would make it worth studying somewhere other than Spain.

And what do you know? I DID! I filled out the applications, got all the signatures and recommendations, figured out what I needed, freaked out multiple times, but I've been accepted and now it's a done deal! Study abroad, here I come!

My plane ticket is booked now. I'm leaving Minneapolis-St. Paul on February 2nd of next year, stopping over a few times in Chicago and Newark, and arriving early the next morning in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The program, through HECUA, is called "Democracy and Social Change", and I get the chance to study conflict relief and sustainable democratization first-hand. There are few places in the entire world that study like this would be possible, so to have this program available is awesome. Macalester also is a member school of HECUA, so I had a cheaper application fee and a smoother process. They even were able to bring in the program director from Northern Ireland to meet with me! He was really funny, and I can't wait to take classes from him.

Like Collin was saying, study abroad can do so much more for you than just travel can. For the first part of my program, I'm taking classes at the University of Ulster in Coleraine and listening to seminars given by people immersed in the Northern Ireland conflict. For the second half, we do an independent study project and a full-time internship out in Belfast or Derry. This gives me the opportunity to not just learn about conflict passively, but to work hands-on with what I'm interested in and tailor the program to my own interests.

Words can't even describe how excited I am to go. I'll make sure to put my study abroad blog up here so I can show you all the awesome pictures I already can't wait to take!

Study Abroad (the search)

2010-11-05T11:20:00.003-05:00

Study abroad is to college as that trip you took to Washington D.C. is to high school. If you're an international student, maybe there's a better analogy, but the idea is that study abroad is something that you REALLY don't want to skimp out on.

...or at least, I assume so. Right now I'm beginning the wonderfully wonderful process of applying to study abroad programs and hoping for Macalester's approval of my choice. It's already been many an hour of me reading over document after document after page after page of rules, regulations, and requirements.

Nonetheless, it's an exciting prospect. For some majors, like Anthropology or International Studies, studying abroad for one semester is required. But even for people who don't need to study abroad to graduate, it seems a waste of a good opportunity to not go.

What does study abroad give you that travel on your own can not? For one thing, a little structure. To some that may not sound appealing, but some structure (not complete and total authoritarian structure) can help you to get things done and have some experiences that few others can (like homestays, visits to sites, visits to different organizations, and specialized classes). Often times you'll do service learning, or conduct an independent study project. And all of this is facilitated by the program that accepts you, meaning you can focus more on seeing the sights.

You also get a chance to reflect on an almost daily basis with your peers from the U.S., something a trip conducted alone does not provide for. This seems like it would be especially important in places so drastically different from home, like (for me) areas in Africa or Latin America. If anything, you can look at studying abroad as guided touring, but less stringent in your overall path. You can explore a whole new world with some tips and pointers, but in essence it's your experience to have.

Be prepared sophomore year to think about where you want to go. This doesn't mean you have to have a city map charted out; you can settle for deciding on a country. From there you can peruse different organization websites (SIT, ACM, CIEE...) and see what program you like best. It makes narrowing things down a lot easier...

...but no less stressful.

Dancing in the Streets (sort of)

2010-11-03T13:59:00.002-05:00

Hello all,

This my first ever post so I'm pretty excited. I wanted to post about the amazing dance events going on in the cities this semester that the Dance department has been able to work with. Before I came to Mac I hardly had any dance background. I had taken a few classes in middle school, but they had been mostly social experiences. My sophomore year I decided to take Modern Dance 1 because I thought it would finally force me to get some exercise. I liked it enough to take Modern II and I liked that enough to declare a Dance minor. The dance department is wonderful, and were so welcoming, even with my late start to dance.

This semester has been a great one throughout the twin cities for dance and the Macalester Dance program has been really involved.

Early in the semester Ralph Lemon, a renowned dance/theater artist, performed his first new piece in years at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. I got to go, along with several other Mac theater and dance students, to see his rehearsal, the performance and even to take a master class with him.

Later in the semester Bridgman/Packer a really innovative partnering couple from New York performed at the Ordway in St Paul and I went to a class taught by them in addition to their performance. Bridgman/Packer even visited one of my Cultures of Dance class here at Macalester, and showed some pictures of how they had created their piece.

Getting a chance to meet and work with amazing choreographers is one of the great things about Mac's location. All of our professors have such deep roots in the community even beyond the school and don't hesitate to offer students all the advantages of their experiences. I'm so happy I got the chance to discover nearly half way through my college career my love of dance, and I'm even happier to be part of such and exciting and inclusive dance community.

Português

2010-10-26T14:22:00.003-05:00

This semester I have the good fortune of a schedule that caters to my interests: literature and language. Adding Portuguese to the repertoire has offered a lot of insight into my knowledge of the other languages I've studied which are close relatives, French and Spanish. Portuguese is frequently characterized as a fusion of these two languages, with a pronunciation reminiscent of the more pungent Russian. The language is beautiful and the class enjoyable-- made so by a laid back professor and a smaller crop of students (Portuguese is not the mainstream language track).

Last week, after test day, our class convened in Coffee News, a café down the street from campus. Rather than flipping through our textbooks in the classroom, our professor wanted us to get out into an environment that was more natural and conducive to conversation. For our class hour we chatted in broken Portuguese about out summer vacations while sipping on chai tea lattes and smoothies.

Our language labs are also relaxed, being more geared toward exploring Luso-Brazilian culture in the form of cartoons and music videos, while reinforcing vocabulary through charades and drawing games.

But perhaps most eye-opening, has been the video that our professor assigned us to watch for class, the Brazilian documentary, Ônibus #174. Te film chronicles the true story of a man raised on the streets (favelas) of Rio de Janeiro driven to desperation. He held a bus hostage in 2000 and, after a 4-hour standoff, was arrested and summarily killed by the police. The documentary provided incisive commentary that not only looked at the individual story of Sandro do Nascimento but also exposed the social issues that plague Brazil-- undertrained police force, inhumane prison systems, and serious lack of social net for homeless children. It was a surprising discovery for me, but one I was glad of. It reminded me of how learning a language really opens doors into other cultures and brings you into greater awareness and connectivity with places and people in distant hemispheres.

¡Más música!

2010-10-22T12:57:00.005-05:00

OK, so I'll finally cave and talk about my favorite music.

I can never decide what "kind" I like. There's always at least one song from every genre that I'll like, but I will say that I did not know I could enjoy rap until I came here.

For the most part, though, I've always enjoyed listening to metal and hard rock. Apocalytpica is great, as are Avenged Sevenfold and Kamelot. I've also been listening to Kansas a lot; for this past month the song I've listened to the most is Carry on Wayward Son. This may or may not be because I'm such a ridiculously huge Supernatural fan. From Kamelot, I've listened to The Elysium.

For the most part, I can thank our very own Macalester radio program for my new infatuation with Apocalyptica. WMCN 91.7fm features student-run radio programs everyday at nearly every hour. "Metal and Mystery" is the creation of two very good friends of mine, the "Metal Madams", who run the show from 8:00p.m. - 10:00p.m. every Tuesday.

Tune in to see what I mean!

Music? I thought you'd never ask . . .

2010-10-18T22:03:00.005-05:00

In college music abounds.

I thought I was well-versed before I came to Mac, but I quickly learned that I was but a guppy treading water in the shallow end of the vast Musical Pool. There are many aspects of college that one anticipates to be overwhelming- homework, social engagements, extracurricular obligations. Add to that list the outpouring of new music that you'll encounter from roommates, neighbors, friends and the new local scene. My first year of college opened floodgates of new music. I pillaged iTunes libraries, voyaged to concerts for unheard of bands, and scoured the Electric Fetus.

The resulting accumulation is an eccentric collection of which the following is a sampling rendered in anticipation-building countdown style!

5). The funky throw-back stylings of the jazzy Swedish rap group Movits!
This European import is for the aspiring polyglot with a fine taste for retro swing tunes coupled with energetic beats and rapid Swedish lyricizing (a large demographic, to be sure).

4). The sensual electronica of the ethereal-sounding Goldfrapp
Techno beats meet alluring female vocals with songs that alternate between insto-club hits to slower, heartfelt ballads. Good stuff, good stuff.

3). The gritty rap therapy of Twin Cities natives Atmosphere
Representin the 612 alongside the likes of Brother Ali, this Minneapolis group features a unique brand of rap- urban, at times acoustic and constantly expounding on grievances with society. It's a heady dose of music as commentary.

2). The indie-folk-blues fusion of Ray LaMontagne
Now paired with the Pariah Dogs, Ray LaMontagne seduces with a smoky voice and bluesy elements. His latest album with the Pariah Dogs explores a more twangy folk field and was featured by MPR as the CD of the Week.

1). The sheer awesomeness of The Black Keys (okay so a I've run out of inventive things to say)
Nothing quite like some good, old fashioned rock music with drums that slap and electric guitars that squeal all under an umbrella of albums with divergent styles and sounds. The Black Keys keep things interesting and have a marvelous sense of humor-- just peruse their music videos for a sampling.

music

2010-10-12T15:43:00.006-05:00

Good afternoon,

It's been a while since I've blogged, so you'll have to let that slide; I'm trying to get into a rhythm of blogging more frequently :) I'm writing in response to the question that the omniscient Orange posted for us: about our current favourite music or music that we've gotten into since we've been at Macalester. I can't really say that my musical tastes have been affected too much by being at Mac, but this is what I'm really into now:

Current favourite song: When In Rome by Nickel Creek. Actually, anything by Nickel Creek. They're a really amazing bluegrass band that sadly is not together any more, but their harmonies and musicality are simply beautiful. If you like the link I posted (which is to the YouTube video), check out some of the related videos, too... you won't regret it.

Secondly, K'naan. You might be familiar with this Somali rapper because of his catchy duet with David Bisbal which became one of the official songs of the 2010 World Cup held in South Africa this past July. But while I'm one of the first to rave about this song, you should also listen to the original version of Wavin' Flag here. Also listen to Take a Minute and In the Beginning.

The Twin Cities are actually a really great location for music and concerts- with so many theatres and venues in town it's not hard to see why. Just this weekend alone, K'naan and ATB are going to be in Minneapolis! It's always worth your while to get off campus for a bit and catch a show with some friends.

Happy Autumn!

Choir Retreat Fall 2010

2010-10-08T16:10:00.014-05:00

It's been a while since I last blogged and what do you know - last time is was also about choir!

Every fall, the members of Macalester's Concert Choir travel up to Deerwood, Minnesota for a weekend of bonding, time outdoors and (of course) rehearsals at the Presbyterian Clearwater Forest. It is a beautiful wooded area with a lodge and cabins near a lake. Even though the weather was a bit chilly - since it was autumn in northern Minnesota - we were able to make the best and enjoy some outdoor activities nonetheless.
It was great the have the opportunity to travel with a musical ensemble in order to get to know the new members, and fostering a community of people who are passionate about music and singing.

Here are some pictures taken by a choir member Honza Červenka (bass) of the lodge and the lake. The leaves were just starting to change and it is always amazing to see how the Fall comes so much earlier in northern Minnesota.

Here is a picture of the lake in the forest! I was even able to go for a chilly polar dip one morning with some fellow choir members (as you can see in the picture below.) A good substitute for a shower, right? Right..?

Anyway, choir retreat is a great (but way to brief) off campus outing tradition that consistently proves to be one of the collective highlights of the academic year! The bus ride up, the nightly bonfires, the talent show and the tradition of upperclassmen braving multiple nights in freezing cabins in the forest are only a few quintessential parts of the Macalester College Concert Choir Fall Retreat. All in all, retreat is a productive synthesis of nitty-gritty rehearsal time and finding the blend and voice of the choir while also enjoying the great Minnesotan wilderness and getting to hang out with and meet some of the best people I know at Macalester!

Biden comes to Macalester!

2010-10-08T11:05:00.018-05:00

All right, so I know that the Orange has posted a question for us, but I'm going to be a rebel and talk about something else - something really cool. I'm not usually one to skip class. In fact, this week was the first time I ever have, but I've got to say it was worth it. Why? Because this last Tuesday, Mac was the site of a democratic political rally featuring such celebrities as Al Franken and our very own Vice President, Joe Biden.

Yep. Joe Biden.

This guy.

Shockingly enough, I've never been to a political rally before. The event was held to support Mark Dayton, who is running to become Minnesota's governor. Even more shockingly is that I wasn't aware of this; I'd just heard that Biden would be speaking and, well, how could I miss out?

Now, aside from the way-too-expected slogan of "Republicans are this, that, and this while we, the Democrats, are so much better" (which is not unique only to the Democratic Party), Biden presented his views on the economy - particularly how the poor state of affairs would be affecting college students like us. He spoke at length about his own experiences of putting his children through college, of the heavy costs involved. This, by far, was my favorite part of his speech. While the political promise was nice, I found his stories on being a father to be the most sincere.

He'd said how the longest walk a parent could ever take was up a stairway and to their child's bedroom, to tell them that they would not be going to college anymore because of the tuition was too high or their debt was too large. Politically motivated or not, it's stories like that, garnered from life experience, that really ring true for me.

Oh, and there are some more photos I took:

They sang.

Potential Minnesota governor, Mark Dayton.

Big sign.

Minnesota state senator, Al Franken.

The man himself.

The man's face.

Music and other such pleasures

2010-10-07T18:00:00.002-05:00

So, it's INCREDIBLY nice out today. I got out of my work-study job and immediately just collapsed on Old Main lawn in that stereotypical college pose, sprawled out with my Empirical Research Methods textbook. And then, just to make it more stereotypical, my Rhetoric of Campaigns and Elections professor stopped by to say hello. The trees are ablaze in color, and I'm just loving this day.

I'm also now thinking about the change in my musical tastes since I came to Macalester and all the discoveries I've made... I feel like I can't just pick one band or musical group that is a favorite, because it seems like each semester I pick up a new obsession.

For example, the first semester of my freshman year, I was in love with the album "Perfect Symmetry" by Keane. I remember listening to that song studying for Astronomy while watching it snow. Great times. The semester after that was definitely my Phoenix semester. Sophomore year was defined by The xx and The Temper Trap (who are GREAT in concert).

I'm sort of between phases right now, but I know I'll probably get hooked on someone new really soon. Whether it's Passion Pit or Solid Gold, I'm always getting introduced to something new... which I love.

Orange you glad I didn't ask about bananas?

2010-10-07T13:38:00.004-05:00

About once every other week, The Orange will post a question for our various bloggers to respond to. Sometimes it'll be a serious question, other times something quite silly. If readers have suggestions for a question they would like to have answered by the blogger, please email it to theorgange@macalester.edu!

Alright, first up. Blogger, what's your favorite musical group that you've been introduced to since you came to Macalester and how did you hear about them? Feel free to post a link to a YouTube video of the group if there's a song you particularly like.

And in case you were wondering- The Orange's favorite band is Tangerine Dream- check them out here.

Intro to Creative Writing

2010-10-07T10:51:00.002-05:00

At this point I'm pretty well decided on diving into what is easily the most superfluous of majors: English with a Creative Writing concentration. I'm baking on somewhat more practical minors (Hispanic Studies and Political Science) to keep me in funds and out of cardboard boxes in the street. I was partially inspired by a grad student at Hamline, Evan Kingston, who got his B.A. in Creative Writing from none other than Macalester College. A few weeks ago he finished writing his first novel for a homework assignment. That was when I knew I'd found my major.

Naturally, the prerequisite for any Creative Writing major is to take the Into to Creative Writing course, which I'm currently taking with Marlon James (author of John Crow's Devil and The Book Of Night Women-- which just recently came out: http://www.macalester.edu/whatshappening/special/james/). Marlon is excellent and the assignments jog the mind into story-crafting in ways I hadn't explored before. Our first assignment, "garbageology," consisted of confiscating 4-5 pieces of trash from someone's waste bin and then using the disposed items to construct a character.

Each day brings a new "banned word" -- a list that (so far) includes:

1. pulsate and/or undulate (rationale: "No one uses those words in real conversation.")
2. typical (rationale: "Nothing is typical.")
3. thud esp. a dull thud (rationale: "There is no such thing as a sharp thud.")
4. indescribable (rationale: "You're the writer, dummy-- you of all people should be able to describe it.")

Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of the class has been taking leaves out of the books of established authors. There's Chekhov's rule: "If a gun appears in Act I it must go off in Act III"; and Hemingway's minimalistic iceberg analogy: reveal only the surface level of the conflict and leave the reader to infer the rest. It's also been refreshing to be able to write fiction for homework assignments. Typically I'm too busy with class work to indulge in fantastical side tangents, but now the class work and the tangents have been consolidated into the same project. The class has definitely been a promising introduction to Mac's English Department and I'm looking forward to meeting more of the faculty in the future.

An Average Day

2010-10-01T11:58:00.003-05:00

You know, I've been wracking my brain for a topic, and it finally came to me that, as a prospective student, you know very little about the day-to-day schedule of a college student. So I've decided to give you all a snapshot of some typical days for me.

I can't say that I'm the "average Macalester student", whatever that is. But hopefully this can give you an idea of what to expect when you begin college for the first time.

Monday's are my busiest day. I have an 8:30a.m.-9:30a.m. Spanish class, followed by Social Psychology from 9:40a.m.-10:40a.m. From 10:50a.m.-11:50a.m. I come to work here, at the Communications and PR Department, before grabbing some lunch. From 1:00p.m.-5:00p.m. I'm going through metro transit and conducting an ethnographic interview with my informant. Once I return I get some dinner, then begin to do my homework (usually transcribing notes from my interviews) until 7:00. From 7 to 9 I go to Capoeira class. Afterwards I continue transcribing until either midnight or (if need be) I'm too tired to continue.

Tuesdays are much more low-key. I have Ethnographic Interviewing from 9:40a.m.-11:10a.m., then work from 11:20a.m.-12:20p.m. After lunch, I go to my Human Rights class from 1:20p.m.-2:50p.m. Once that's finished I usually end up doing homework until around 11 at night.

Wednesdays are very busy for me. I have Spanish and Social Psych again, work and lunch, then work again until 2:00p.m. From 2:20p.m.-3:20p.m. I have my spanish conversation lab. I grab dinner at 5, then head to Weapons class at 5:45. At 7 I have a 2 credit class that goes until 9.

Thursdays are exactly like Tuesdays, but with Amnesty International club thrown in from 9:00p.m.-10:00p.m.

Fridays I have my Spanish and Psych classes, work until 3:00, and then Brazilian Jiu-jitsu class from 4:30-6:00.

The weekend is always different. Consistently I'll teach my TaeKwonDo class on Saturday and try to get to the sparring class on Sunday. And of course there's homework.

So that's a typical week for me, excluding any events I might go to, any breaks I may take (and studying I may put off), and any friends I might go visit. Even with all this scheduling, every week ends up being so different that no two seem to be the same. This is mostly because of all the different events that Macalester has to offer and that I frequently attend.

Again, I don't know if I'm a typical Macalester student. Some people may have a job, some people may be involved in many or few clubs. Finding out your schedule, what you're comfortable with and what you can manage, is part of the whole college process. Take heart that others will be experimenting, scrambling, and trying to figure things out along with you, even if they don't show it. =)

Very Creative Homework!

2010-09-30T14:34:00.005-05:00

I'm back! It truly has been too long since I have written on this blog! The semester has started quickly and suddenly we are all showing the signs of having been in school for a month, students are slightly tired and anxious, they can be seen sleeping in random places all over campus, the many Macalester squirrels are beginning to fatten up, and the leaves are changing.

It is wonderful to start up new classes though because many of them have fun things that you are 'required' to do for them. For example, I am taking an Introduction to Creative Writing class and we are 'required' to see two different authors or poets speak in the Twin Cities during the semester. Last Monday night my entire class saw Per Petterson, author of Out Stealing Horses and I Curse the River of Time, talk about his work and read some of his work at the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis. There were over 700 people in the theater and Per Petterson was an engaging, funny, and charming author. Oh and did I mention that was our homework?

Then the next night, (I promise I'm usually not this on top of getting my work done) I saw Gary Shteyngart, author of Absurdistan and Super Sad True Love Story, speak at a locally owned book store in Uptown Minneapolis. Gary was self-deprecating, funny, and pronounced all the Russian words in his novel correctly, unlike I ever could.

So last week, I got a lot of homework done by seeing two fabulous authors read and talk about their work. The academics at Mac may be rigorous but they are balanced out by amazing activities that we can do in the Twin Cities and talk about in class the next day.

A moveable home

2010-09-26T20:29:00.007-05:00

Hello, all-- Seeing as this is my first post of the year, I'll fill everyone in on what I've been up to so far. I'll stick to bullets. Here we go:

1) Move-in. Flight, unpacking, and setting up all went well. It's only sinking in now that I have a moveable home at Macalester (Turck to Bigelow). Everything is a little different this year, but it still feels like I'm home.

2) Classes. All are fantastic. I'm in French 3, Cultural Anthro, Medical Anthro, and Empirical Research Methods. I'm a poli sci major, anthro minor.

3)Weekend away. I went to Nashville for a weekend to visit my girlfriend at Vanderbilt (Macalester is way better!). It was HOT. St. Paul is absolutely beautiful in September. There is a very direct relationship between amazing weather and the amount of freshmen attempting to improve their frisbee skills on Kagin lawn.

4) MCSG retreat. This afternoon I returned from our MCSG (Macalester College Student Government) retreat. This year, we went with the cultural org leaders and the Program Board. It was a good dynamic of campus leaders and I think Camp Friendship (yes, that's the name of the campground) served us all well. Get involved, it's fun!

I'll be posting periodically. This was just the basics of my Macalester happening so far. Fantastic quips await! Well... I'll try.

Keep reading,
Michael

A Thank You to Kao Kalia Yang

2010-09-24T11:13:00.020-05:00

College is a time of opportunities; or so say all the brochures, magazines, books, and faculty of and about the world of higher education. But what are these things - "opportunities?" Will we know them when we see them? What do they look like and what can they do for us?

Truthfully, I had never really even considered what a college "opportunity" was. My assumption was that I was getting something special simply by living away from home, learning what I wanted to learn, and being promised better job opportunities after graduation. Essentially, college is putting me on the "right" track to a productive life. Exactly what a B.A. is supposed to do, right?

Not until yesterday, really, had I begun to re-think this idea of "opportunities." Because not until yesterday was I given an opportunity that I never would have imagined possible, nor an experience that I will ever forget. The chance to sit down with Kao Kalia Yang, author of The Latehomecomer, and to interview her will remain not just a highlight of my college years, but of my life.

Some of you may know that The Latehomecomer was the class of 2014's reading for this year's Common Read. Her book is a memoir of her life and the lives of her family members as Hmong refugees fleeing Laos and Thailand, trying to make a life in America. After reading this book, I expected to meet a woman eight feet tall and desensitized after a life of hardship.

So expect my surprise to meet someone shorter than I, speaking in a voice that sounded on the cusp of tears (at first I thought of sorrow, but now I believe they would be tears of joy). Yes, this is an opportunity that Macalester gave me: to meet someone who I'd met through the pages of her book. To meet someone I've looked up to and admired ever since I read her story. Are these not the kinds of opportunities that college gives you?

No, they're not. You don't meet famous or amazing people only in college. Those aren't the opportunities that I see college as giving its students. So what are they, then?

I would have had a completely different answer twenty-four hours ago. Before meeting Kalia, I doubt I would have really stopped to even wonder. She asked me the questions that I should have been asking myself. The interview may have been about her, but I'm the one that walked away a changed person. She has done exactly what she said: "I want to make memories with others. I want to write on the fabric of their being."

Put simply, college offers you the chance (and in some ways, forces you) to be vulnerable.

Throughout my life I've constantly been exposed to the idea that we are individuals, friends and family to others, but ultimately alone. We are born alone and we die alone, so the best way to live life is to protect yourself. To protect your heart. To save yourself from pain.

And then I spoke to Kalia, and she told me more about herself than any stranger ever would. She told me how she cherishes her vulnerability, how she opens her heart up to people, and let me see the world through her eyes and her words. And I asked myself: why would anyone cherish their vulnerability? Was was the point of opening yourself up and risking your well-being?

The answer, simply, is to grow. Kalia opens her heart to everyone she meets. She said to me that she wants more people to be able to share their hearts with one another, and asks how she can expect such a thing without doing likewise. She is genuine in her feelings. The story of her family's hardships have brought tears to her eyes, yet she continues to speak to others about these things, these traumatic and emotional events. And from meeting her, from speaking with her, I feel that I've changed, that I finally know what the opportunity is that college, that Macalester, presents us. It allows us to open our heart, to risk ourselves, in order to grow.

I feel that I've changed for the better because of how difficult of a change college has been, and still is, for me. I can no longer see my family every day, nor any of my friends back in Nebraska. I'm confronted with the questions of whether or not I'll have a job after I graduate, if I'll be able to get into Grad School, if I'm truly going to be able to meet my goals in life. When you take a risk, there's always the chance of failure. But I know (in the words of Professor Marlon James) that I would rather "aim high and miss" than "aim low and hit."

Now I'm learning to cherish my vulnerability. I cherish being able to meet so many new people here and risk rejection or disappointment. I cherish the classes that make me work harder than I ever have before. I cherish doing things that scare me, that I fear. Vulnerability is how I will grow. Opening my heart is how I will, in turn, connect with the hearts of others. Even if it causes me great pain, I don't want to miss out on all that is life and the people who constitute it.

So what are the "opportunities" of college? What can you do here that you can't do anywhere else?

You can do everything. You can meet everyone. You can overload yourself with work, with activities. You can go with friends to a concert or movie at 3:00 a.m. on a Monday. You can go without sleep, share stories that no one else knows, date someone who's way out of your league. You can open your heart to so many new things because they're all here, on one campus, in the places and the people. You can cherish your vulnerability, the fear and the risks of the unknown, and embrace every experience - good or bad - to grow.

So maybe you feel homesick. Maybe you had a bad break up. Or maybe you're stressing out over your future. Take heart that these are the kinds of things you should feel, because you're taking a risk that many others can't, or don't want, to make. They're the risks that make us all better, make us stronger, and make us wiser. The risks that Kalia has taken.

While interviewing her, she said that the softness of her voice does not reflect the profundity of her words. And in her soft, almost musical voice, she asked me two questions that gave me more insight into myself than anyone has ever been able to.

I encourage everyone to ask themselves what Kalia asked me, and to answer honestly. Though they're two questions, they are actually two parts of one whole.

Do you know what you want to do professionally?

Do you know what your life work is?

Paul Farmer is my homeboy

2010-09-20T21:41:00.004-05:00

A story to start things off: The first course I took at Macalester was titled Cellular Biology and Genetics I: Human Disease. I remember flipping through the pages of that huge binder that holds the course catalog (and information on practically every single class offered at Mac), and thinking, "huh. I wonder what that means, exactly.... Sounds pretty cool. Might as well sign up." I entered my first year at Mac expecting to follow the Pre-Med track. I was "good" at Biology in high school, enjoyed my chemistry class, and thought, "well, why not?" So, I sat in on Prof. Chatterjea's class and absolutely fell in love. Now, I don't mean to sound trite, but I seriously loved that class. It was a riveting topic (come on, infectious diseases are pretty darn cool, man!), and we approached the class in a completely foreign way to me. We talked about the biology, geography, sociology and anthropology of human diseases. The interdisciplinary nature of medicine had never been seriously brought to my attention, and upon being exposed to it, I couldn't stop thinking about it. I wanted to take every Medical Anthropology class available. Prof. Chatterjea brought the topic of global health to my attention, and it has stayed with me ever since. As a senior Biology (and German Studies double) major, I'm considering a career in public health.

So, as you can imagine, when I heard that Paul Farmer, the physical, human proof of the pairing of medicine and medical anthropology, would be speaking at Macalester's Opening Convocation, I was super excited!!! What really struck me during Dr. Farmer's talk was his humanity. Dr. Farmer had incredible stories to share from his most recent trips to Haiti, which really put faces to the statistics most often recited when speaking of the January earthquake. He is a charismatic, humble and personable individual. He blended the powerful message of global health, and our responsibility as members of the international community with some light-hearted jokes about Minnesota being the Siberia of the US. I felt very lucky to hear him speak, and I'm so glad Macalester was able to sponsor such a wonderful speaker for Convocation!

In a side note: Hearing the bagpipes during Convocation really tugged at my heart! I totally forgot how much I missed hearing them while I was abroad! I couldn't help thinking, "man, it feels good to be home!!" Cheesy, I know, but it's my last year, shouldn't I be this sentimental? Or is it too early to be feeling nostalgic? I guess it is only September... whoops! Whatever.

But, seriously, what a wonderful way to start my senior year at Mac! A terrific speaker for Convocation, a celebrity sighting of President Rosenberg outside the Campus Center, and a fantastic first full week of classes-- what more could a girl ask for? (Maybe some warm-ish weather until at least the middle of October? Or is that taking it too far? Haha.)

The Nooks and Crannies

2010-09-17T11:35:00.003-05:00

After a long summer and two weeks of classes, I'm back to blogging! Yes indeed, for another year I'll be giving you all the advice and fun facts I can about Macalester and what it has to offer you.

Now, usually I would write some grave advice about majors or grades or studying, but I figure I should start out with some helpful advice that's a little more upbeat. So here are the fun little nooks and crannies that I've found around campus, perfect for your work and play needs.

1. Library - Fourth Floor
This is a place for STUDYING. And I don't mean just studying. I mean STUDYING. It's the top floor of the library and is a void of absolute silence. No food, no drinks, and cellphones must be off. For anyone who's dead serious about getting a paper done or finishing some readings, it's nothing short of a windowed vault. But it's not as grim as it sounds either. The quiet can be very nice, not to mention it usually has few people there (and you probably won't notice them anyway). Also, check out the giant face up there.

Yeah. Giant face.

2. Campus Center Cafe - basement
Tucked away next to the Highlander store in the Campus Center basement is something of a cafe. It's equipped with a large T.V., pool tables, a Foosball table, a popcorn maker, and comfy couches. This is a fun place to grab a drink or a bite, relax and have fun, or just sit down and talk. Plus there are occasionally some open mic events down there. Decidedly not the best place to study, but wonderful for everything else.

3. Janet-Wallace Fine Arts Center - Gallery Room
O.K., I'm not sure if that's the official name of the room, but it's pretty easy to spot. Just walk in the front entrance (between the Humanities Building and the Art Building) and you'll see a room with white walls, a statue or two, some plants, and paintings all around. This is a beautiful place that I wish I'd known about sooner. There's a couch in the gallery, so it works wonders as an almost zen-like place to do homework. Just don't fall asleep! (like I've done)

4. Old Main - Fourth Floor
At the top of the Old Main building is something of a lounge, very large and equipped with a butt-load of couches, chairs, and tables. Another good studying place, or somewhere to just escape the general chaos outside. Also, you're near to the Link, which is the bridge connecting Old Main and the library. The Link is open 24 hours and is equipped with tables, lamps, chairs, and vending machines. Very popular for late-night studying sessions or last-minute essays. The only thing it's missing is a bathroom...

5. The Women's and Gender Resource Center and the Info Shop
I'll admit right off the bat that I haven't yet been to either of these two places, so there isn't as much that I can say about them. Located at Kirk, down a set of stairs before you enter the courtyard, you'll find these two places. The Info Shop, I believe, is dedicated to socialist and Marxist literature, and the Women's and Gender Resource Center is aimed more towards subjects pertaining to Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Yet again, a great place to escape and get some reading done. But also check out some of the literature they have; couldn't hurt to increase your socialism repertoire, no?

You'll find your own favorite spots as you explore campus, which I wholeheartedly support. Go out and find any nooks and crannies you can! My friends give me crap for having a bad sense of direction, but there's nothing quite like getting lost somewhere that will let you discover new and wonderful places.

'til next time!