Joyeux Halloween!

As a proud member of the French Club RooBoo team, I can officially say that it was a success.  About twenty different clubs and Greeks set up tables with tons of fun games and all that stuff, and with the Halloween music turned up loud we danced to Thriller at least four times and played lots and lots and lots and lots of ring toss...with a zombie...and Belle...

I unfortunately didn't get any photos of myself but I went as a painter.  I dug out an old pair of ratty jeans, and old shirt, and a ton of paints and sort of went to town smearing paint everywhere.  With paintbrushes stuck in my hair like chopsticks and a fairly accurate cardboard artist's palette in hand, I actually looked the part.  Now if only washing paint out of my hair was that easy!  I have officially ingested way too much sugar for the day, but I guess that is part of the fun.  I love yall much and hope you have a great evening.

Bon soir

-Kate

Homecoming Football

Hey All,
Yet another fun day of homecoming and there is still more to come!  Robert and I met up with our professor friends Jane and John White to watch the golf cart parade around lunch and then it was off the football game.  We played against Depauw and tragically lost 17-21.  Within the first 30 seconds of the game we had caught an interception and turned it into a touchdown, but it kind of went downhill from there.  However, we did not let one play go by without much clapping, yelling, waving of pompoms, and stomping of feet.  Now, my voice is a bit hoarse and I feel like I just left gym class, but it was totally worth it.

It was a bit chilly towards the end when the sun went behind the sky box, but stomping your feet does a lot to warm you up!  Now it is homework time until 7:30 when the choral and orchestra groups will be performing in the chapel.  I hope yall are enjoying this beautiful day and GO ROOS!!!

-Kate

Homecoming!

All week the staff has been preparing for homecoming this weekend and this evening we kicked off the weekend festivities with an uber-fun carnival hosted by all of the clubs and Greeks.  Robert, Elise, Brittnay, and I all ran around for two hours eating caramel apples, competing in a 3-legged race (Elise and Brittnay won), smashing a car with a sledgehammer, standing in line for free t-shirts, shooting rubber tipped arrows at a guy with an apple duck taped to his head, playing guess-whats-in-the-box (I got all but the one that ended up being a peeled tomato), getting face paint (rockin' the whiskers), eating a root-beer cupcake I won in the cakewalk, getting beaten up by giant rubber cannonballs while trying to balance on an inflatable cube in the bouncy house, and having our names written in Arabic complements of the Muslim Students Association.  What fun!  

Hillary, Viana, Me, and Robert

Viana and Hillary joined us at the end for the Pep Rally that followed which was fun as well.  All of the dance teams did their thing, homecoming court was announced, the sports captains were acknowledged, and Zeta Chi Zeta did a surprisingly good skit about the Kangaroos beating up all of our conference opponents in a dance off.  You would have had to have been there.  And now, I am exhausted from all of the excitement and probably on a bit of a sugar crash.  However, the studying must continue seeing as how I have not done any homework for the past 5 hours!!!  That truly is a bit of a record.  

I hope yall have a great evening and weekend, and stay warm!

-Kate

Birth Announcement!

Congratulations are in order as I am now the proud Mama of a brand new baby scud.  He was discovered this evening at 9:38pm, is approximately .5cm long, and sports a lovely white translucent color much like the scud below.  Named Garbanzo after the late 19th century boom in legume production in Sonora, I affectionately call him any variation of Banzee, BonBon, and Garbanzillyboop.  He enjoys scurrying from one dark hiding place to the next and has already made friends with the snails.  I think Ticker is a bit jealous of all the attention Garbanzo has been receiving, but I'm sure the sibling rivalry will wear off soon enough.

Wish me luck as I have never parented a newborn scud before!

Bon nuit!

-Proud Mama Kate

My New Motto

I have gotten into the habit of writing it on my hand every morning, and as crazy as it sounds, it works.  Sometimes, the wandering mind only needs a little reminder to not off into LaLa Land, and this seems to do the trick.  Speaking of trick...or treat, we are gearing up here for the Roo Boo where we fill the gym with decorations and booths for the local kids to come on Halloween for a "safe alternative to trick or treating".  The French Club is hosting a Ring-Around-the-Eiffel-Tower ring toss thing with an actual miniature Eiffel Tower and so I will be manning the booth for a while next Monday.  I haven't quite decided on a costume, but I have a few ideas.  In other news, we had an ice cream sundae bar at the cafeteria today at dinner.  That was yummy.  And, while double checking the syllabus for Art History, I realized that my research paper is due three weeks after I originally thought which is a great relief.  

Anywho, I love yall bunches!

-Kate

The Big Day

String together a list of roughly 7-8 cuss words followed by "art history mid-term" and you have about what is going through my head right now.  I have been studying non-stop for this thing since last Wednesday and can officially say that I have not done even one minute of homework for any of my other classes since then.  I have mastered standing in line at the cafeteria, eating, and putting my tray away in less than 15min.  Truly a new art form.  Having already been up for five hours and basically made to sprint and jump rope for 45min. in P.E., I feel like it is almost time for bed; alas, two more classes, a big bleep, bleep, bleeping, bleeper, bleep, bleep, bleeping art history mid-term, mandatory meeting with mentor, and an in-class essay in French await.  Oh the joys of being a college student.  Remind me why I am doing this again? [note: I actually do remember, but I still ask myself this about 43 times a day.]

Wish I was home and miss yall bunches!

-Kate

p.s. Don't for a second think that I still look like that philosophical, under control, showered student in the photo in the previous post.  Yeah, that went pretty fast.

Kate Says Hi

Today it is officially cold so out came the hot cocoa, hoodie, and thick socks.  I have had quite a productive morning working on my research paper and being completely lost throughout my entire statistics class (nothing unusual).  I am finally making progress on this paper and am finding that the organization part is more difficult than the research, bibliography, and reading combined.  However, I get to read old books and sit by my window looking out at the bright sun so I really don't have much to complain about.  

I hope yall are well and I was glad to hear that there was water once more at the creek property.

Much love,
-Kate

Ticker the Minnow

Ticker stuffing himself with bran flakes

Hello All,
After the tear-jerking and heartbreaking death/disappearance of mon petit poisson Zaz, I decided that it would be a good idea to document the life of Ticker, my precious remaining minnow.  In his Starbucks Grande square foot home, he enjoys the company of roughly a dozen snail, three varieties of water plants, and a rock.  Since the loss of our warm summer sun, he has been enjoying the sweet life parked under my trusty study lamp and is thriving in the glow of the 40 watt.  Ticker likes spending his time hiding from his mother, nibbling on bits of bran cereal, visiting with his snail friends, staring at his reflection, and meditating under the penny wart leaves.  While he does like the snails, they tend to multiply rapidly and thus some have had to be relocated to the terrace (aka the dying flowerbed outside Clyce Hall).  When he grows up Ticker would like to be an alligator gar and hopes of one day meeting Nemo and the Pepperidge Farm Goldfish.

 Poppy reclining on the penny wart

Hoover (top) taking a nap

Ticker in a moment of thoughtful repose

Scallion exploring the edges of his territory

Well, good night all!

xoxoxo

-Kate and Ticker

Note: I know their water looks a bit yellowish, but I swear in real life it is much clearer :)

Quoi?

I just spent the past three hours helping two girls from Guinea learn English and I can officially say that it is a lot harder than it looks.  They already speak six African tribal languages plus French, but I don't speak any tribal languages and not very much French.  Needless to say, it was interesting.  Now I feel the need to use basic words and tenses, speak very very slowly, and come up with synonyms for everything that I say.  Well, back to homework, love yall :)

-Kate 

Miss Yall!

Hola Folks,

Sorry my communication skills have not been the best since I got back from fall break, but things have gotten exponentially busier than before somehow.  However, I finally have things to write about so I figured I would take my afternoon break time and update the blog.  I have been managing to keep a somewhat A-ish average in my classes which is good, not great, but good.  

Yesterday I had a meeting set up with my mentor to go over my major and minor declaration, and so I show up and knock on the door then waited in the hallway for twenty minutes for him to show up and then gave up and went back to my dorm room.  About twenty minutes later, I decided to go back with my homework and wait just in case he thought that our meeting was at noon instead of eleven.  When I came up the stairs the first thing I saw was my mentor being wheeled away by the paramedics.  Apparently he's a diabetic, went low in his office, tripped, hit his head, and thus was unconscious the entire time I was sitting outside his office and it was only when one of his colleagues got worried during the time that I was gone that they found him.  Craziness! Don't worry he is fine and will be back on Monday, but today I have been running around trying to find someone to approve my JanTerm so that I can finish registering.  More craziness! 

Also, yesterday I learned two new cuss words in French.  The French are known for their foul language and cuss like sailors all the time in just about every situation.  We watched a movie for French club last night in which they cussed every other word, and now I can say whore and shit quite fluently; although, those words don't have the same impact in French as they do in English.  Anyway, who says its all about conjugations and asking directions?

Well, my afternoon break is over.  Love yall!

-Kate

Birthday Bash Dorm Style

Hello All,
Today is Viana's 22nd birthday and so I planned a little party...dorm style!

On our door

Viana and I were craving donuts one day, and we decided that for her birthday, we would have a donut cake because it is a true feat of bravery to try and cook in the dorm oven.  I wasn't quite sure how I was going to pull it off, but after some scheming I was finally able to settle on a design and it actually turned out to be the easiest cake ever!  I would highly suggest it as it is easy to assemble and any points it lacks in traditional beauty it makes up for by simple being made of possibly the yummiest food ever created.

 The candles had to be upside down because technically we aren't allowed to have them 

in the dorm, so I figured we wouldn't get into too much trouble this way :)

Viana's (boy)friend JT was able to come up today so he, Robert, Hillary, Viana, and I all gathered in our kitchen to sing, eat "cake" , and open gifts.  Robert and his parents were so kind and gave Viana a little goody bag of a mug, travel cup, hot cocoa, and other what-nots.  I gave Viana a container of Fage yogurt and a little bar of dark chocolate both decorated with markers and construction paper.  All in all we had a great time, and even though none of us had much time to celebrate because of homework, it was a nice break from the steady hum of interrogative pronouns, conditional probability, the colonization of Brazil, Fra Angelico's Descent from the Cross, and things like that that keep repeating themselves in my head.

Also, it is looking as though I will be able to come home this next weekend because of fall break.  I hope to leave here Thursday afternoon, stay the weekend, and then drive back Sunday afternoon.  Yahoooo!!!
Well, back to the steady hummmm..........

-Kate