barriers

Isn't it weird to think that I can say to someone, "See you tomorrow", when I am all the way across the country? I just find it weird. Well, I guess more amazing than weird. And that I could really just fly out to some place we've all only seen in movies and documentaries if I wanted to, in 24 hours or less. That the Taj Mahal, the holy city of Mecca, the Amazon rainforest, the Siberian tundra, Philadelphia, Eugene, OR - all just a few flights and a day away.

Just started snowing here.

Finals!

Oh man! Tomorrow is my first of four finals. I've been studying a lot over the past few days (which is what you're supposed to do). And then I'll be home on the 17th. Home! Home. It's kind of a big thing because, well, the furthest I've traveled in the past three months is to Washington D.C. Meanwhile, all three of my roommates have been home twice..

Which reminds me, I went to my friend's house for Thanksgiving, which was chill. He lives 30 minutes (by train) away in the suburbs, and I stayed there for three nights. I went to mass with his family on Thursday morning, which was sorta weird, but I'm over it. Turns out his dad is super-Catholic, but none of his children are really religious. I told my friend and his two little bros that I hail from the least-religious area of the country (I think it is, right?), and they all mentioned something about living there sometime..

And I think I am 99% set on a major - Biology with a concentration in neuroscience. So I'll be taking a lot of classes having to do with brain and behavior, which is all really interesting. And I'm going to minor in Hispanic Studies (fancypants way of just saying 'Spanish'). I haven't officially declared this yet, but I will in the coming months.

.. yeah, so I gotta get back to studying..

new day

Wow. The last week has been something different, something awesome, something INSANE.

Last Wednesday, the Philadelphia Phillies brought home a championship, the first pro sports championship for the city in 25 years (multiplied by 4 pro sports teams = 100 seasons). The last champion in this city was... Rocky. And he wasn't real. After the last out was recorded at about 10:10 PM EST, I went outside to see if anything was happening.

There were people were pouring out of bars, dorms, other public buildings! Almost every car on the road was honking incessantly, and people high-fived anyone in sight. 5.5 million people instantly became friends with anyone and everyone in sight. A massive crowd formed to celebrate the occasion on Broad Street (a major thoroughfare that passes City Hall and center city).

Simon, Edward, and I rode our bikes down 25 blocks to witness the madness, at about 11:30. There were massive (drunken) crowds, burning dumpsters, a few brawls, riot police, and thousands upon thousands of red-clad fanatics. Also no enforcement of the open-container law. It was something that you could never imagine happening in Eugene, let alone the entire West Coast. Imagine the celebration if the Oregon Ducks won the National Championship - now multiply it by 100! It was as if a city of millions released a breath it had been holding for too long, and also as if the entire city caught an epidemic all at once. People who didn't even follow baseball went downtown to celebrate! Seeing an entire metropolis celebrating is just an unbelievable sight.

You might think I'm overreacting with this World Series schnooz, but it's hard not to get excited when something completely rocks the city for days.

I also went to the Phillies victory parade on Friday (skipping three classes!), which was more subdued, but still pretty sweet.

Then there was last night! I'm sure you all know what went down. As soon as the news came out, Penn students started celebrating in the middle of campus, and I went down to celebrate with! And then... the crowd moved east. 25 blocks east. Yep, all the way down to City Hall, in a light drizzle. Combining with Drexel students partway through. Blocking off avenues, high-fiving bus drivers, security guards, hobos.. Almost marching expectantly towards City Hall as if something would happen as soon as we did. As if future President Barack Obama would miraculously drop down on the corner of Broad and Market and fill us with comforting, powerful, hopeful words. Too bad I didn't move to Chicago right after the World Series. The march was like a Phillies celebration hangover, as if people now just expected a mass mosh pit in the center of the city. Chants of O-ba-ma, U-S-A, Yes-we-can, Yes-we-did. Even mass-singing of the national anthem?!!

Anyways, it was all pretty awesome. Living in a big city definitely has its advantages. You all should visit sometime.

fall break

Already a third done with this semester. Next weekend is fall break, from Saturday to Tuesday.. and I have no plans whatsoever. Each of my three roommates are going home, since they live in NJ, DC, and TN respectively. I can't really go home, but I can't really chill with old high school friends because NONE of them came to the east coast. (I'm pretty sure I'm the only one at Penn with this problem.) So unless someone flies out here or something, I suppose I'll just be sitting, sleeping, sitting, sleeping for


four days

place

The first one is on the plane near Chicago. Otherwise pictures of my place. Still kinda raw, I am getting a few more posters..

in honor

Yesterday I went to a memorial service on campus for a former teammate, who passed away on August 25 in a car accident. Michael Sheahan of Madison, WI - on the team we called him 'Wheeler'.

I guess I couldn't believe it when I first heard the news from another teammate. More that I didn't believe than I couldn't. He was an awesome kid, a great teammate, and good friend. I didn't hang out with him too much outside of Ultimate, but when I did hang out with him (Ultimate or not), it was always a good time. And it was only a few days before I would have seen him too..

I'm in grief that Wheeler has passed, because of all the good times we have spent together. But I'm saddened, I think, just as much because of what could have been. Perhaps it's just speculation, but I really believe he would have come over to our room to hang out all the time, since Edward and Simon, two of my roommates who play Ultimate, were also close with him. He was someone who could have been a great friend of mine.. Great potential, shattered in a moment..

Rest in peace, Wheeler. I'll miss you man.

penn.

I´m in Costa Rica.

That´s all.

I'm through.

I give up. I have some more stuff I really need to study in depth for my final, but after several days of non-stop pounding info back into your head, there's a point where you just say, 'I just don't fucking care anymore, let's get this over with'. Hopefully I'll remember the stuff that I need to study right now, if they come up tomorrow on the final. But my fear of failing might force me to study some more.

TV-watching and video games for me! ^_^

Semi-calm before the storm.

Today I have been biology biology biology. Some of it very interesting (e.g. variation from expected Mendelian segregation ratios; meiotic recombination within inversion loops, which results in inviable gametes), some of it very bullshitty (e.g. the pivotal role in bicoid protein localization in D. melanogaster embryos in determining anteroposterior development??? ...). I went to a Q & A review session today and spent 4 more hours poring over slides. Anyhow. I can't believe I kept up with the reading. But I have much more stuff to review. 1/3 of the slides to go, practice tests to look at, practice genetics problems to try. But there's also so much more sleep to be had! And leisure! And packing! What to do...................... Yep, it's true. The study of life kills.

So yeah, my first two final exams were actually on the 5th and 6th. I've basically been stuck here for an extra week because of this damn bio final. And to think, I could have been in Independence, MO. My first final, statistics, was really easy - basically plugging numbers into equations. The problem is, it must have been easy for everyone else as well, so we'll see if I shattered the curve. Also, history was pretty easy, with a map quiz and two essays, but I don't know if I'll get such a hot grade in it.

Two of my roommates moved out today. The room feels really hollow. I couldn't concentrate with all this sense of 'done-ness', so I herded myself into the library. The campus, which is one mile west of Center City Philadelphia, felt deserted. I dared think that everyone else at Penn actually opted to somehow bribe their professors into moving their finals to before the weekend. Joke's on me, right?

Also, I think something that scares me even more than my bio final at this point is the arduous task of moving out. Obviously, I won't be able to lug stuff home (except in two suitcases), so I had to order a service that stores 6 boxes over the summer, filled with your belongings. I'm afraid it won't fit some of my stuff, so that stuff will have to be stored at the Ultimate house. Meh, whatever. In less than 92 hours I'll be boarding a flight for San Francisco. And then Eugene.

Post-Regionals

Hi all. Regionals has come and gone.

It was disappointing. I won't divulge on too many details, but just know that it was a letdown. We won our first two games against Queens-Kingston and Carleton University, but both of them were close calls (we were actually down to Carleton U 5-10 at one point). I think we wasted too much energy, and since they were close games, we relied too much on our core of 'reliable' players - which, unfortunately, we don't have too many of. Then they were exhausted for our semi-final game against Maryland, and we broke down. Poor handler play did us in as well. We ended up dropping our first and only game on Sunday to Edinboro.

What I think needs to be done for this team to thrive is great development of basic skills!!! Our team was very much a 'system' team - one that was solid on fundamental strategies, which helped catapult us to some big wins over the course of the season. Solid no-dump defense and poachy under-defense were the trademarks of our success. But too many of our team consisted of role-players, people who, on other top-tier teams, would not get a sniff for an A-team spot. Granted, they didn't play much for our team anyways, but they were missing some vital element: throws, athleticism, coordination, or any combination thereof. They were missing some of the fundamentals. And that's why I was so pessimistic in the fall, because I didn't see much potential with this team. Strategy was the major harbinger to our success, not layout D's, not incredible hucks, not sick skys.

Since I'm pretty positive I'm set for captaincy in my senior year, I will get to work making sure any new recruits are solid in the fundamentals... I'm going to try and build a team capable of making nationals.

34 Hours.

Only 34 hours until one of the biggest tournaments in my Ultimate career so far. So pumped. So pumped. Ready to rip some faces off. Getting the kind of determination, focus, adrenaline rush that only really hits me at about this time of the season, when it really matters. Envisioning myself get that layout grab deep for the double-game-point in the game-to-go. Just watched footage of our win over Pitt, and I think there's good reason to believe that we will trash the shit out of Maryland and Pitt.


It's official, we've beaten two teams that are #1 in their regions (Michigan and Pittsburgh), and another team that has a good shot at being #1 in their region (Harvard). I'm going to watch some Ultimate highlights.

Near close of semester

Wrapped up my sixth-to-last day of classes today, and it was an uneventful one. Learned about cancers in my molecular biology/genetics class. Learned about ...??? in statistics. I have a five-page history paper due tomorrow, which I am half-done with, and intend to start at past midnight because I really don't care. Took my bio lab practical yesterday, it kinda sucked, but hey, whatever. I'm done with that sad part of my life now.

Fast times in the Illadelph. [For reference, 'Illadelph' is a badass way of referring to Philadelphia. So logic holds that I refer to the city in said manner.] Colbert hosted his 'Colbert Report' for much of last week in Penn's Annenberg Center. On Friday, Obama spoke to his largest crowd ever, ~35,000 at Independence Mall. (I didn't go.) Last night the Clintons dropped by the Palestra, Penn's basketball arena. Pro-Hillary people shouted, chanted, even marveled at their own frivolity as they scared the shit out of people crossing the intersection of 34th and Walnut. Trucks with loudspeakers kept crossing the intersection, blaring artificial crowd-noises that kept chanting, 'Obama'. And almost anti-climatically, today was/still is the primary election day. Most important of all, there are only five more days of school before dead week and finals.

I'm pretty sure half of our team is Jewish. This week happens to be part of Passover, so they can't eat leavened bread, beer, and other stuff. I can't tell who on our team is not Jewish. I can't even tell if I'm not Jewish. But at least I don't play on BYU's Ultimate team. Also, for anyone out there who knows: if your cleats are tight so that the your toes bend at the end, does that have an effect on your leg muscles? Because my cleats are really tight, and all of this season my legs (especially quads) seem to have gotten tired prematurely.

Man. Who cares about school anymore??? Seriously.

The Series.

Note: This post will be almost entirely devoted to College Ultimate. Sorry Ginny.

It's almost 2 AM. What am I doing up? I was going to do a mini-workout, actually. And I can't seem to concentrate on any sort of work (surprise?). So I must pour out my Ultimate-related thoughts...

First off. NW Regionals. Good show by Collin, David, and Greg to make regionals. Not an easy task (at least for WA/BC sectionals). David's GURU proving that they were underrated. Collin's Sweets challenging for the section crown before falling in two close defeats (what if...? A possible 1 or 2 seed could have been?). Greg's Beavers (?) going 6-1 on the weekend. Nice. I can't believe Western played so poorly this weekend.

My guess for NW Regionals seeding:

1 UBC
2 UCSC
3 Stanford
4 LPC
5 Oregon
6 Cal
7 Washington
8 Whitman
9 WWU
10 Victoria
11 OSU
12 UC Davis
13 Humboldt St
14 Lewis & Clark
15 BYU
16 Gonzaga

My guess is that UBC and Stanford make it out, and UCSC doesn't hold up to its seed. Whitman will be the upset specialist.

Also, I'm going to talk about the Great Lakes Regionals for a little bit as well, because I always think of Luke. And because we've faced 3 of the region's four top teams (Michigan, Ohio St., Notre Dame). We've beaten Michigan, lost to Notre Dame once, and lost THREE TIMES to Ohio St. (though each time they were close games, and we practically gave away our third game against them). I think Michigan and Illinois will make it out, but look for Notre Dame to make some serious noise.

Anyways, on to the region everyone loves most!

My guess for ME Regionals seeding:

1 Pitt
2 Maryland
3 Penn
4 Delaware
5 Edinboro
6 George Washington
7 Carleton Univ.
8 Cornell
9 Princeton
10 Penn St.
11 Bucknell
12 Lehigh
13 RPI
14 Queens-Kingston
15 Hofstra
16 Vassar

I see Pitt beating us in the finals, and then us beating Maryland soundly in the game-to-go. Our previous loss to Maryland was coming off of a deflating loss to Ohio St., with one of our best players (a 6-3 grad student who would demolish Stout from Ego) out. We didn't play with energy (we didn't have any left), and I think we would come out fired up in a rematch. Also, Cornell and Edinboro are underrated.

Here are some very good Ultimate blogs...

http://matchdiesel.blogspot.com/

http://tnilan.blogspot.com/

And I'm sure you all read RSD? MSSUI? Woo.

Spring and motivation.

Spring is here. That means many things, I know. One, it's getting close to my birthday! Two, the weather's getting better. Three, the college Ultimate season really heats up. Four, school is winding down.

That last one seems to have hit me hard. I just lack any sort of motivation these days. When the weather starts to get better, I just can't help but daydreaming about late summer afternoons, shirt, shorts, birkenstocks, aviators, hat, watching Ultimate. And perhaps some beach volleyball, because that sounds like the shit. I also can't help but think about the fact that I have just over three more weeks of classes left, and how that will be gone in no time. So I am lazy. My thought process on homework as of recent:

1) I should probably do that bio reading
2) But it won't hurt if I do it later. Let's watch that basketball game
3) I should probably do that reading before I go to bed so that I understand lecture tomorrow morning
4) Fuck it, let's go to bed
5) I didn't understand the lecture at all. Maybe I should read the book
6) How about not, I'll just read up before midterm/final. At least I went to lecture
7) I have a huge midterm tomorrow, I should really read that stuff in the book I swore to read many times over
8) Meh, it's probably not going to be on the exam

7 and 8 haven't actually happened yet, because I haven't had a midterm in a few weeks. I hope it won't happen. When I do subject myself to reading, I skim at least half the time. But my thinking is, at least I go to lecture! I was talking to my friend Edward the other day (he is also a premed, and plays Ultimate, and is awesome). He said he had skipped his last three classes, which gave me great comfort. Later that day I talked to another friend who mentioned that he knows some people at Penn with 4.0s, who took more courses than I did fall semester. And he also mentioned another friend at MIT who thought his classes there were easier than those at his high school. I got really freaked out by that.

But these days I am slacking off!!!!! I probably do an average of one hour of work per day. Last semester I probably averaged about 2.5 or 3. I don't know why/how. I don't know if it's because my classes are easier, or what. But I think that might be the general attitude here, because my stats professor cancelled two future quizzes because of Passover on one Friday and a big Spring Fling concert on another, with Ludacris, Gym Class Heroes, and OK Go (he then proceeded to tell his that the reason for that was that he had had a dream recently about Ludacris and diet coke). Yeah, sweet, I know.

And I'm also just bumbling along in life in general. Tomorrow I'm going to have to buy a new printer, I recently took a tumble while wiping off dust on my shelves (which are up high), and I must have landed on my printer/scanner. When I couldn't print anything, I looked at the scanner thing and the glass was all shattered. And before that I had accidentally sent a letter without a stamp (unless I just forgot and had actually put a stamp on it). I have to rewrite that... ...

But it'll all be over soon, just one and a half more months...

Roll Call, D.C.

Void of UPenn took a short three-hour drive down to Poolsville, MD (near Washington, DC) this weekend for a 40-team tournament.

We were placed in a power pool (there were 2 power pools) as the 5th seed, meaning we were seeded 9th overall. Luke's North Park, being 1 seed of the second non-power pool, were then 11th overall coming in.

Our first game on Saturday was against Wesleyan, seeded fourth in our pool and a huge question mark. We had no clue what they were about. As it was, Void overcame some sloppy end zone offense and spotty defense to pull out a victory, 12-9. Wesleyan ended up 0-8 for the weekend. During our second-round bye, I went over to watch North Park face Northwestern in a cross-town battle. Incidentally, one of our best players is a grad student who played at Northwestern, so he was on the opposing sideline watching as well. Anyways, Luke is a tool. Just kidding. He played pretty well.

Our second game of the day pitted Void against MetroEast powerhouse and nationals contender, Pittsburgh. Pitt was coming off a successful weekend at Centex where they had taken down the great Wisconsin Hodags. In their first game of the day they had beaten Maryland in a close encounter, and their second game against Void would prove to be no different. Void took an early 3-1 lead with flow-offense and a strong dump-defense, but Pitt went on a 4-0 run using poor spirit, bullshit calls, and deep looks. While on the sideline I distinctly remember a Pitt player mentioning, "we're not losing to some nerd school". Pitt would take half 7-6 and would stretch the lead to 10-6, leading to a Void timeout.

Void would regroup and come out strong, cutting the Pitt lead to 10-7, then 10-8, 10-9, and eventually 10-10, an unlikely combination of two break points and two downwind points in which Void capitalized on Pitt turnovers. Pitt and Penn would trade points, eventually reaching 12-11 Pitt, game point. Void would score downwind, setting up double-game point, and med student Tim Gaulton's upwind forehand huck to a wide-open Birdo (not me - our captain actually has that nickname) in the end-zone. A mosh-pit would ensue. It would be Pitt's only loss of the weekend.

The next game would have Void facing Leadbelly of Ohio St. A letdown was inevitable, and Tim re-aggravated his hamstring while Void took a 13-10 loss. In the following round, an exhausted Void couldn't keep up with regional contender Maryland in a 12-8 loss. This would see Penn end up as fourth in their pool, setting up a pre-quarters matchup with another regional opponent, Cornell.

Sunday - Came out flat early on and traded points (breaks) with a good Cornell team, until Void took half 8-6 on a break. Void would eventually take the game 11-8, setting up another inter-Ivy-League matchup with Red Line with Harvard.

Harvard had thrashed Western Washington on Saturday as the 1 seed in the other power pool, and was seen by most as the top team in the Northeast region. A disappointing performance at Centex had been forgotten with a 4-0 record on Saturday, and a thorough pounding of George Washington in pre-quarters. Now they faced a pumped-up Void that aimed for yet another upset...

A few things about that game. Harvard had a med student playing, and he was really good... he wore glasses, scrubs, and a strip of cloth like some football wide receivers like to do, but he was good nonetheless. He was intimidating. Also, George Stubbs was roaming the sidelines, but I didn't know it was him until like, just now.

All I can say is, Red Line was impressive, but they were mostly unable to stop Void's flow offense, which relied on very solid handler play. Soft cap sounded with Void and Red Line tied at 8, and Void would score deep. Game to 11. After Void set up 10-9 game point, Harvard would come back and score, setting up universe. And yet another upwind huck to Birdo, from Grant, would propel Penn to semis, with another quality win.

Semis saw Void face Ohio St. for the third time of the season, and Void controlled much of the game until 11-8, when Leadbelly went on a run. They would eventually take a tight game, 15-13, and promptly get trashed by Pitt in the finals.

All in all, Void would have an impressive weekend, positioning them for a 2 or 3 seed at regionals, and a great shot at making nationals. Penn Void has now notched wins against Michigan, Pittsburgh, and Harvard - three teams widely regarded as the cream of the crop of their respective regions. As an added bonus, Michigan and Pittsburgh both have beaten the Hodags.

Another thing. It seems like teams like Harvard and Pitt are really good when I watch them play other teams, but when they play us it seems like they suck. I can't figure out why.

Boulder is not as far away as I thought.

Phone

My phone is freaking out, so I'm sending it in for repairs. If you want to reach me, just do it by email or facebook.

jaybrd526@yahoo.com

Going to North Carolina

In eastern Virginia, on our way to North Carolina again for our second tourney...

Sayre High School

So, I feel like I should fill you in on something that I feel great about.

One of the courses I'm taking this semester is URBS-178, Urban-University Community Relations. I originally signed up for it to fulfill a requirement for the Benjamin Franklin Scholars program, which I am in. It's an academic-based community service (ABCS) course, which means we tie in our studies with community service (as the term implies!). Mostly, we are studying Penn's relationship with the West Philly community...

We volunteer in three shifts at Sayre High School, an urban high school located in a very dangerous neighborhood, with poor funding, with half of its teachers apathetic to the students' performance in class, and a school environment that is also not conducive to performing well in school (or going to college for that matter). In other words, it's your typical public urban school (but it's better than some others in the area).

My mentoring group of four goes from 3-4:30 on Tuesdays, with a program coordinator. Our goal is to get kids ready for college, to tutor them, to offer them guidance. And they really need it. But there is a wide variance in socioeconomic status and academic performance as well... for example, one junior the other day didn't know how to type, whereas a freshman had a computer at home. Many of them see college as a distant idea - not a reality.

And whereas the Monday and Thursday groups get kids who WANT to be there at the College Readiness Program, we get the kids who are forced to be there by their football/cheerleading/dancing coaches. They don't want to be there. So the kids, when we introduced ourselves and did stuff as a large group, were very uncooperative. When asked to go around in a circle and introduce themselves, many would mumble their replies, talk amongst themselves instead, etc. Difficult.

But today we (the mentors) were grouped with 5-6 students, of all grade levels. My group consisted of five girls - Shanae, Channell, Kenya, Ashley, and Jessica - two freshmen, two sophomores, and a senior. We basically talked for the 25 minutes we had left, asking where they were from, what they wanted to do after high school, what subjects they needed help with, etc. On a personal level, they are so much more cooperative! The time went by really quickly, but I definitely left feeling awesome. Kids who hadn't shown ANY interest as a large group finally spoke up about what they wanted. It was really amazing.

That being said, I was left reminded of the fact that there are more important things than just doing work and being concerned with your own well-being... I'm already planning out what my group will do next week. Maybe I'll show them the Penn campus?

Anyhow, I've got a dinner with my dorm in five minutes... we have a guest speaker by the name of Kalpen Suresh Modi. He's a guest professor this semester in Asian-American studies. Here's a picture (he's on the left):



For those of you who don't know (apparently 100% of you), his colloquial name is Kal Penn. He's appeared on House (as shown), 24, and Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, among others. Cool. Dinner and a celebrity-professor beckon.

Queen City Tune-Up

Here's a really dry recap:

21 people on Penn Void this weekend took the 11-hour drive down to Charlotte for the Queen City Tune-Up tournament, aptly named because Charlotte is known as the Queen City (I don't think I would want to live there). We went in as the 16th seed overall, which I found absurd...

We were in a pool with Georgia, Ohio State, and William & Mary. Georgia and Ohio State had made Nationals last year, so this tourney was a sort of measuring stick for us.

Saturday: To start, winds were about 20 mph, making everything difficult. We played zone defense most of the day, and we faced zone defense most of the day as well. In our first game against Ohio St., there were numerous drops and errant throws, but we were neck-and-neck the whole way with a nationals-caliber team. In the end, they capitalized on our end-zone turnovers and took the game 13-10. Georgia was next, and we came out very flat. Making more bad throws and numerous drops in the wind, we got hammered, 13-3. Against William & Mary, we shored up our offensive woes (at least as much as we could with the winds) and took a gritty match 8-6 on hard cap. Technically we had broken seed...

In our crossover game, we faced Virginia. The winds had died down, and we rode our momentum to a 7-4 halftime advantage. We came out flat the second half and eventually lost on universe point 11-10, setting up a morning match with Michigan Magnum...

Sunday: Winds had picked up to about 30-40 mph, making Ultimate really crappy. We had a tough match against Michigan, who had played well on Saturday, with a 3-1 record (losing to North Carolina, a nationals team, by 1). Play by sides was sloppy, and Michigan held a 6-4 advantage at one point, threatening to pull away. But we regathered and took half 7-6, and eventually took the game 11-7, a huge win - also a turnaround and a wave of momentum we hoped to carry to our quarters-match against Pitt.

We played poorly against Pitt, a Nationals team in our region. We went down 3-0 early and never really recovered, losing 12-7. But we did show that we could play with them - the 3 point lead never really grew until the very end.

Though we didn't play particularly well, we finished tied for 5th, a great showing considering we went in as the 16th seed. I would give us a 50-50 chance of making Nationals. Delaware and Pitt made it last year, but Delaware looks awful so far. It's going to be between Penn and Cornell for the second spot to Nationals...

Also, on the drive back from North Carolina, we almost hit a wildfire... we had to take a detour that set us back an hour. Just thought you should know.

First few days back!

Ugh. Awful. The weather outside is, of course. It's snowing! (Add that to my long list of moronic sayings) But it's stupid snow, the stuff that makes everything really wet but never sticks. Boo. I saw a weather report on TV the other day and it said Phila has only gotten 1.8 inches of snow so far this winter, which is definitely less than I saw at my house in Eugene. Apparently Boston has gotten 34.7 inches at the same time, which is wack.

But anyways, onto more important stuff! My first few days have been aight. Classes so far have been drab... my history class, biology class, and community-service-based seminar have been boring like no other. My statistics class was okay, mostly because my professor was a goof. He was probably in his early 30s or something, which is counter to my stereotypes of Penn/Ivy League professors - old and/or stoic. His appearance... hahaha. So you know in many depictions of Jesus He is shown to have long brown hair and an extensive beard? My stat teacher looked exactly like that, plus additional facial surface area/volume and glasses.

But my community-service seminar should be really rewarding. We are going to be volunteering at a local West Phila high school - academic and career support stuff. I'm super super excited.

Rush started yesterday, so a few of my friends and I went out to the various frats. Pretty much I ate a bunch of buffalo wings and sandwiches with no real intent to join the frats... meh.

I'm taking off, so...

Peace.