Last Round

Hey Folks,
Only two insane weeks of school left, and I'm trying not to totally freak out or just give up and sleep all day.  In good news though, I am exempt from two of my finals due to my wonderful studiousness so far, so that is an awesome reward.  Unfortunately, my two hardest classes have massive finals that should be made illegal by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to College Students (quick fact: the SPCA was formed years before there were any laws regarding the protection of abused children...little sociology of childhood tidbit).  Right now my only goals are to finish these two big essays that I am working on for Art History and Sociology.  So far a cumulative three pages done out of a required 15...yeah, I know.  Anyways, one is due on Wednesday and the other on Thursday.  The art history one would be so much easier if I knew anything about pointillism or the zillion art movements of the early 1900's, but alas, that just isn't where my knowledge lies.
It feels weird to know that after leaving I won't be back for almost a year and a half.  Thankfully a lot of my friends are going abroad for some time as well, so it's not like I'm the only one that's going to be gone.  Speaking of gone, my mentor finally took a sabbatical.  He had knee surgery in January and really underestimated the length of recovery and the amount of pain it would cause for someone his age.  Honestly he needs to retire as I'm pretty sure he's been teaching at AC longer than you two parents have been alive.  On the good side though, my French professor from last semester that I love so much said "there is nothing [she] would love to do more" when I asked her if she would be my new mentor.  Good times.  We were supposed to go to the opera in Dallas this Sunday to see La Traviata by the awe inspiring Verdi, but both of us had to make the hard call that we just had too much to do to take a whole day off.  I guess that's just the life of an academic.
Well, I'm about due for my second transfusion of caffeine and trip to the library.  I think every student on campus knows that the desk by the corner window is mine, because I have been glued to that seat just about all the time I am not in class.  Yesterday I left my room for class at 8:45am and didn't return until a little after 9pm!  I'm sorry I haven't called in a while, but I will try and touch base either this evening or tomorrow afternoon.
Love yall much :)
DDL

-Kate

Kangapalooza Aftermath

In a virgin pina colada and glow stick induced haze, I woke up this morning smelling of mosh pit with a lovely headache and ringing in my ears.  You guessed it, Kate was actually out partying last night.  You thought the day would never come, but as it turns out, I have a certain affinity for head banging for four hours straight.  Kangapalooza was last night, so a large portion of the campus was crowded in the gym with mind numbingly loud music, crowd surfing, and lots of jumping up and down.  The crowd surfing part was forbidden by the folks in charge, but they were quite unsuccessful at stopping the frat guys from hoisting random people above the crowd.  The music got better and better as the night went on.  
The first artist was a student here who...was very brave...to get up on stage and...rap for us little ditties about having "AC swag".  Moving on, next was Icon For Hire http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iS8sqgBgzG8&ob=av2e(if you dare, turn the volume up as loud as you can and it makes the music about 10x better).  While typically not my style, they were absolutely awesome and surprisingly nice and down to earth people in person, and yes, his mohawk is even bigger and her hair is even pinker now.  When they started playing, dust and bits from the popcorn ceiling of the gym started falling the bass was so strong. It shook the whole place pretty good. The headliner was Hellogoodbye http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55qtgqUd2WA (not the best quality sound or vid but the closest I could find to what they actually sounded like live).  They were pretty good, but after such an energy filled set before them they just couldn't measure up. However, compared to most music events at AC (think Chopin and a barbershop quartet) we had amazing fun.  Good times.  We do have some pictures, but they are all on Robert’s camera.  
In the meantime, I’ve been writing essays non-stop and have a test tomorrow so wish me luck.  Also, I’ve started the process of applying for a student visa so that is of course, very exciting.  
I love yall much always.

xoxo
-Kate

Flight of the Mama

And did we say there were no doors on the small plane?

Long Lost Blogger Returns!

Father,
That was a very sad little post.  I'm sorry for my delinquency at keeping up with the blog, but I never seem to have anything interesting to say, and when I do have something to say, I am too tired to bother writing it down.  So, to further procrastinate studying for my test tomorrow (episodes of Top Gear UK and Myoats.com are also wonderful ways of procrastinating if yall needed any ideas), here is an epic post to make up for it.
        To begin with, twice so far Viana, Jerry from China, Kim from Thailand (could be Cambodia...or Vietnam), Ivy from China, Robert, and I have gotten together to cook some authentic Chinese food with much trial and error ending in savory success.

Here is us during our first dinner. 

From top left: sour tofu with spicy chilies, sauteed bell peppers, Viana's sweet 

potato fries with extra oregano, rice, rice, rice, and boiled lettuce

        Needless to say, each time we ended up absolutely stuffed with buckets of leftovers.  It was an interesting learning experience about how people eat in China and just how picky they are about the type of soy sauce and rice that you use.  We tried about four different types of sauce before Jerry pronounced that one of them was close enough to what he was used to.  All three thought that our "low sodium soy sauce" was an absolute joke seeing as the whole point of the stuff is to make things salty, and similarly, brown rice didn't go over so well either.  It was crazy because it took three of us about ten minutes to describe to Kim and Ivy what fortune cookies were, and once again, they had a good time laughing at Americans' ignorance about Asian cooking and traditions.  

        Also in retrospect, I found some photos of the creek property still on my computer from spring break.

 extra large water droplet

fuzzy new leaves

that odd shaped plant

new leaves on the oak tree 

cheesy-extra-blurry-women's-retreat-brochure-cover-esque photo

evening primrose (credits to Dad)

        It sure was nice to be home for a bit but don't miss me too much, we only have four weeks left and then I'll be back for good.  Until September 12 of course, when this girl is moving to Paris!  I seriously can't wait and have already been making custom Google maps of the area where I will be to find all the little creperies and museums and boulangeries that I want to visit.  I still don't know the words for "fork" or "sorry, I'm a lousy American with a bad accent and no sense of direction", but there is still time to learn.  

        Yesterday I got to go with three professors to see the French play Manon.  Every other week or so the Cinemark here in Sherman receives live streaming from the Metropolitan Opera.  Bernice (French professor from last semester) had invited me to go with the enticement that she would buy my ticket and so off we went at 10:30 and met up with Vicki (Latin American History professor from last semester) and her husband Light.  Light is an absolute fascinating man, and I believe he is the Official Texas State Historian.  He along with my mentor and four other Austin College professors were recently listed on Princeton Review's Best 300 Professors list, which, for a school this size, is an amazing feat.  As it turns out, he enjoys fishing lake LBJ, knows my old orthodontist Michael Dean, and was familiar with the Stanley-Fisher house from his extensive knowledge of Texas history and frequent trips to the gulf to fish.  

         Back to the opera...At first it was a bit on the dull side simply because it was hard to pick up on the storyline and I was still adjusting to the subtitles.  It was sung in French but all of the actors were either Polish, Italian, Russian, or German so their accents were a bit hard to understand.  However, by the second act I was absolutely floored and loving every second.  It finished about 3:30, but I didn't want it to end. Yall absolutely have to see one of these on the big screen, and I checked and theaters in Austin and Bee Caves have live and rerun operas.  Wager's Ring cycle is coming up and from the previews it is going to be amazing, so be sure to look it up if you feel like getting a little culture.  You won't regret it.  I didn't realize how much I loved operas until this as CD's just don't do the music or stories real justice.    

        Well, much to my chagrin I must return to my flashcards, but I hope yall are doing well and enjoying this stormy Easter evening.

Much love,

Kate Alice    

  

Something Other

the sole purpose of this blog entry is

to provide something other than

"world music: cuba" to look at when

i log on each sad day hoping to find a new word

from our dear daughters.