Week Two

Hmmm...I'm pretty resolved to post something every weekend when I finally get to take a breather from class...but because all I've done is study, I'm not sure what to write about. For one thing, my allergies are better. I think I had a sinus infection on top of allergies. I won't go into the details of THAT.

My five year-ish reunion is coming up. I created a Facebook group for it and then handed it over to the people who are actually going to be in Columbus. It's funny, because when I was in high school I remember knowing that lots of people were really lame, but it just seems so much more obvious now. Happily, most of my friends are doing really well. Brock works for Christie's in New York, which he doesn't really love but which he shouldn't complain about TOO much. Beth is doing really well in L.A. She was in a play in Pasadena that I thought was really interesting, and she's starting a P.A. job on an ABC show in a few weeks, which means she gets to quit her job at Starbucks!

Ross is development director for FairVote. You can look him up on their website, which I think is really cute. Yay non-profits! Ted is teaching hip-hop to street kids in Uruguay and sent me an amazing email about what it's been like there. He wants to come back to the U.S. this fall and work on getting some articles and essays published.

The last week has been very challenging. I wake up at 7:45, get ready for class and study a little. Have class all morning and then lab in the afternoon until 4. Then I come back to my tiny but comfortable room, sit at my desk and try very hard to study without watching any TV on the internet (Damn you, Lost!). And I take a break for dinner at about 8:30 or 9 and end up working until about 1:30. And this is me! I'm not going over and over the same material like a workaholic...Janet just assigns us about two chapters...plus problems...plus a paper or a lab write-up...every night, so it's impossible to get ahead! So I'm actually working and stressed out a little all day long. Then on Friday afternoon we have a "quiz". For the quiz, she gives us twelve problems, asks us to do ten of them, and then leaves. One problem EASILY takes more than a half hour. I think one of mine yesterday took me an hour, because I wanted to check my work. So I'm there all afternoon until I can't stand it anymore and have to hand it in or lose mind. Then I walk home, re-hashing the test, and I realize that I've actually done really well on it, I can't think of any that I have really messed up, and my written explanations were fine, logical, reasonable. So WHY, WHY do I stress out so much when I prepare for the quiz, and why do I feel so little confidence while I'm in the middle of it? And the real question: what the hell is it going to be like to take the MCAT?

I've compiled a sort of short-list for schools I'm going to apply to next year. Some of them I have no chance of getting into (ahem. state schools in California.) because they only accept a few out of state people every year, and let's face it. I'm not one of them.

Ohio State
Cincinatti
St. Louis University (humanists!)
Pittsburg
McGill
University of New Mexico
USC
UCLA
UC Davis
UCSF
Rosalind Franklin-Chicago

So, that's eleven...and I'll have to apply to more than that, because the acceptance rates for these schools hover around 2-3% for out-of-staters. Ohio State's in-state rate is more like 10%

On that happy note, I'm going to enjoy an entire day of not worrying about any of this. I'm going with the girls to the Farmer's Market, and tonight we'll probably get a little drunk and watch Steel Magnolias or equivalent girlie movie that our boyfriends never want to watch with us.

Bennington: First Week

So...I actually, really, truly haven't had time to post. I saw a lot of you guys on my drive across the country (sorry Jennie, I'll see you soon!) which was really nice. I'm so glad that you got to know Ben better. Then I got to Bennington. My first impression was of rolling meadows full of wild flowers, stands of trees, and lots of really cool architecture. A security guard (the security guards are really quite the characters here) insisted on driving in front of me to show me where Longmeadow was...so I followed behind him for about a half a mile, then turned down a driveway to a little cedar shingle house where I have a very tiny, cozy room. I live here with five girls and one guy. Four of the girls and the guy are post-baccs with me. One of the girls is a fifth year Bennington student getting her masters in early childhood education. The house has a big kitchen with two fridges, our very own FREE washer and dryer (hallelujah!) and a nice big living room that is too dark for us to want to use in the middle of summer.

There are only seven post-baccs this year, so the five of us girls living here are the main group...there is one other girl living off campus in a barn with her basset hound. She's a Navy pilot and has a masters in strategic intelligence. The rest of us are your run of the mill Oberlinx2/Colorado College/University of New Hampshire/St. John's liberal arts girls.


Jeanne, who's front and center in this photo, is Steven Shalwitz's cousin. Weird, huh? I really love living with these girls. I think that having them around is going to help me stay motivated, and also provide me with a little bit of community so that I don't feel like I'm drowning in a sea of chemical equations, which, by the way, I already am. Anyway, I started classes last Thursday and since then have developed absolutely the worst allergies I've ever had. Terrible. I thought I was going to stop breathing the other night and made Carin promise me that if I ran in motioning that I was choking, that she should call 9-1-1 right away. I have been on a cocktail of Benadryl, Sudafed, Tylenol, and this nose spray the doctor gave me all week, and it almost makes enough of a difference, but on Monday and Tuesday I really was just about completely useless...not the best way to start out this program academically. Even today, when I had a test that lasted three hours, I had a splitting headache and the sniffles all the way through.

In summary, this last week I have learned a LOT of chemistry, I'm living in a house that I really like with a group of nice, laid-back girls I really like, and I really miss Ben. That's it! Oh, and I'm soooooo tired.