Faust

I just finished my first Faust reading, and it is crazy. The prologue in Heaven is like the beginning of Job. Mephistopheles is a poodle who follows Faust home one night. Every once in a while a chorus of spirits (Good spirits? Bad spirits? Who knows!) is heard offstage singing songs giving Faust advice and reflecting on the state of Earth. It's incredibly strange. Oh well. Anyway, here is a picture of the guy who the character of Faust was based on:



Today in math the following problem was posed to me:
If Stan is on the shore watching a boat go by to the right at the speed of light, c, and Wendy is running at 1/2c on the boat aksi to the right (relative to Stan), and she is carrying a flashlight which she switches on- what happens? Does she outrun the light from her flashlight?

Jaime let people know that I was posting again and then wrote: "Like I care", or some other such phrase underneath it. Puzzling, Jaime, because I know you do care. Also, I want to apologize for spelling coeur incorrectly before. My bad.

SENIOR!!!

I was talking to Grandma Callahan this weekend, and she seemed shocked that I am already a senior, so I thought I would just make an announcement. I am a senior. I will (insha'Allah) graduate on May 19th, 2007 in sunny Santa Fe. As I am discovering, there are factors that serve to complicate my enjoyment of senior year. They are as follows:

1. St. John's is so small that, despite being a Febbie and transfering to Santa Fe, now that I've been here four years I know some people really well...and know that I don't want to have classes with them. But I do have classes with them.
2. I have to find an advisor and write a senior essay by February 10th. This is a big deal. Have I made any progress even remotely in the realm of senior essay? Ummm...No.
3. When I graduate, I have to do something else.

All this aside, the first three days of class have been very exciting. In language, we are reading Flaubert's Un Couer Simple and talking about language, something I am always up for. In science we are finishing up our Faraday stuff with an experiment about the electrical properties of molecules and are then moving on to Thomson's experiments with the deflection of cathode rays (now I understand how tvs work). In seminar we just finished with War and Peace and are starting Goethe's Faust tomorrow.

The only class I'm not sure about is math. My math class is headed up by my tutor, Mr. Franks. He's a talker, and has (in our one meeting, granted) totally dominated the discussion. Some students really like this kind of tutor, but I need to work through the math (which this year is Einstein) step by step in an active way. Math tutorial needs to include a way to work through my questions, because I never come to class understanding an argument all the way through.

French sentence of the day: Elle avait eu, comme une autre, son histoire d'amour.

Parakeets (Part Two)

Seven or so months later... Birdie is completely neurotic, but in perfect health. I want to get him a friend who will fulfill his flock instincts, but I am hesitant to risk increasing the noise level in this apartment. Ben and I live in constant fear of becoming bird neglectors... have we crossed the line? Do we give Birdie enough attention? On the other hand, is it our fault he doesn't seem to like any sort of food or treat other than birdseed? How are we supposed to trick him into becoming tame if he won't even give us a chance? If you have any insights into these questions, or live in Santa Fe and feel you would do a better job with this bird, let me know.

Breakthrough 8th Graders

My Summer Vacation

I am back in Santa Fe after visiting Dad, Mandy and Tim in Maine and Ben's family in Ojai. Ben revealed an adorably perfectionistic side to me while we were in Maine. Dad put the four of us (Mandy, Tim, Ben, and I) to work in the new house closing in the walls and ceilings for winter, and Ben and I took on the task of insulating the ceiling with three layers of insulation the way Dad wanted. Not a nice job, but Ben had an impressively good attitude (much better than mine, needless to say) and we finished the job in four or five days.
After this really nice visit in Maine, Ben and I went to California to see his family. Sadly, neither of us had finished our first seminar reading, War and Peace, so we spent all but one day of our time in Ojai pinned to the couches, reading. Oh! Mandy taught me to knit, and I received further instruction from a close friend of Ben's family...so am now a pro. Send Christmas present requests my way. Probably wisest to request a scarf.