Back to Boston

Ugh, so today has been absolutely horrible. I had a terrible headache when I woke up this morning, probably from being upset the night before (for reasons that shall remain unnamed). Then I ran into one of my old coworkers (who was also returning to BU), which I suppose would have been a good thing had we not ended up sitting all the way in the back of the bus.

And the bus ride in particular was not pleasant. Aside from the usual discomfort, the air was stuffy and humid. The rain followed us from New York to Boston, and there was horrible traffic the entire way. The bus left New York at 10 and I didn't get back to my dorm until 5, by which point I still hadn't eaten lunch (or anything for that matter) and was absolutely starving.

I felt so gross from the trip too that I also decided to shower before going down to the dining hall. I ate with my roommate, which was nice, but naturally, the food felt insufficient compared to the food I had been eating the past few days. At least it's given me material for my cartoon though, which they need tomorrow.

I was going to get work done, but the FreeP called me since the current editor isn't supposed to come back until tomorrow and they wanted me to help fill in. Whatever, I just hope I don't have to stay there for long.

But then again, I need time to take my mind off something anyway.

A Real Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the best holiday ever. Friends, family, food--what more can I ask for?

Carved turkey.

More food.

If heaven could be served on a paper plate...

No joke, looking at these pictures makes me hungry again. My only regret was that I was actually full after seconds.

Oh, but it was a fabulous dinner nonetheless! And my cousins are awesome... Good times, good times.

Thanksgiving Eve

So I'm finally home and this year, instead of eating out, we decided to save some cash and cook our own Thanksgiving Eve dinner.

The menu: Chicken Parmesan with Pasta and Garlic Bread, Chocolate Pudding Pie for dessert.

The cooking process.

Ready to be baked.

Done!

Sure, it took three hours to cook, but it was pretty good and we got some good laughs out of it.

Ah, friends... what a wonderful feeling.

I Hate Public Transportation

So I didn't have physics homework due today since it was due Wednesday this week instead. In that case, you'd think I'd have an absolutely fabulous Friday, but no, if physics doesn't ruin it then something else must.

I had to teach again today, this time at a different high school. Firstly, getting there was already a pain. I got to the bus stop at 9:40, hoping to catch the 9:45 bus to the station which would allow me to get to the school around 10:15. This would give me a half-hour safety buffer since my workshop was supposed to begin at 10:46. Or at least that was the plan.

So yes, I get to the bus stop at 9:40, give or take a minute or two. I wait. The time comes, passes. Maybe it's late. Maybe I missed it. But I have time. I don't have a problem waiting for the next one.

Ten o'clock comes, passes. I'm standing there freezing in the 30 degree weather. Maybe it's late. I wait and wait. But there's no way I could have missed this one. I look around, and a young woman approaches me. She asks me if I'm waiting for the #8, and I reply yes, but tell her that it hasn't come. She concurs and explains how she's been waiting for that bus for the past half-hour! Alarmed, we approach a transit worker. He refuses to listen to the woman, telling her that she had not been waiting for the past half-hour, and that he was aware the bus was 20 minutes late.

Twenty minutes! Two buses should have came in that time! I was infuriated, but mostly worried. I looked at my watch. It was 10:15. If the bus didn't come in the next four minutes, I was taking a taxi to the school. Later I realized I should have taken it anyway.

It finally came in the next minute and I hopped on board. I got to the station, but then I had to walk to the school. Much to my dismay, the directions weren't clear and I reached an intersection where the road I was on traveling along curved right. I was supposed to turn left on a specific street, but as I saw no sign or indication, I followed the street to be safe. When I finally made sense of the directions, I realized that I should have turned left at that intersection, meaning I was going the complete opposite direction. I turned around and started running the other way.

By the time I got to the school I was late. I approached the front desk to sign-in, but one of my "superiors" was standing there and interrupted, asking if I was an educator. I replied yes, and she looked at her watch and said, "Oh, class started six or seven minutes ago." It wasn't in a malicious tone, but we both knew it was a problem. I tried to explain as she helped me find the classroom, but she clearly wasn't interested. I was so embarrassed, especially since I was late the last time I saw her too.

It didn't make me feel any better to teach the class. The kids I dealt with at the last school I taught at were absolutely wonderful. They participated and listened, and even those that weren't listening were still quiet. In other words, they showed us respect. But this school was the complete opposite. The kids completely ignored us, talked over us, and simply wouldn't settle down. My partner kept repeating how we were taking time out of our schedules to be there, how we were there because we wanted to help them, but they didn't care at all. And in the end, being the empathetic person I am, I was deeply depressed.

But that wasn't even the end of it. I received permission to take a taxi back since the workshop ended at 11:40 and I had class at 12. But I never did get that taxi. We tried hailing one from the streets, but all of them refused to take us. This angered me as only one of the five we saw actually had a passenger inside. We tried calling a company to send one, but they said that they didn't cover the area we were in. We gave up when it was past 12. I was late to class, and I resigned to take the bus back to campus.

I got back at 12:35, so I ended up skipping class completely. It's not such an important class in terms of grades and such, but I felt bad about missing it and I would have liked to participate in the discussion that went on today.

So I went straight to writing class and then afterward I ate lunch with Izzy, which was perhaps the one good thing that happened to me today. Then I took a nap to relieve my stress before waking up to have dinner with Caca.

Ugh, but I still can't get over what happened today. The bottom line: Boston public transportation sucks, and taxis do too.

Seriously, in New York, it's illegal to not pick up a person if you have an empty cab. But I know, I know; I'm not in New York now, am I?

Project Implicit

Okay, okay, okay.

I know it's 1:30 AM and I should have totally started my homework already, but I was actually trying to get ideas for my paper (don't worry, it's not due anytime soon) and I came across this article and blog, which brought me to this thing called Project Implicit.

You don't have to read the article or blog unless you want some background, but I strongly recommend you take a look at the Project Implicit site. Basically, it's this study conducted by Harvard that reveals people's subconscious thoughts. There's a bunch of different tests you can take, and it really has the potential of revealing things you might not have realized before.

It's pretty sick.

I took the Race, 2008 Presidential Election, and Gender-Science IATs.

Apparently I:

a) Show a strong preference for European-Americans over African-Americans (Race--don't judge, I'm sorry it's subconscious!!)

b) Show a moderate preference for European-Americans to African-Americans and a slight preference for Obama over McCain (2008 PresElec--yeah, I don't know how my "race preference" changed.) and

c) Show moderate association with Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts as opposed to vice versa (Gender-Science--yeah, I was the odd-one-out on this one.)

Anyway, I decided to stop before it ends up being 4 AM again. It's funny though because I think [as does my roommate] that it really just depends on the society in which one was raised. (I, for example, lived in a community that was 96% white and spent most of my secondary school career delved in the sciences.)

But I thought it was kind of cool that I came to the same conclusion back in junior year when I conducted a survey about the factors that influence the career aspirations of kids and young adults. I don't remember what I found exactly, but I think I did establish that there did exist a societal bias towards certain jobs, and that influenced what kids wanted to be when they grew up.

Wow, ISR does come in use... sometimes. But yeah, definitely check out the site.

New Beginnings

So today was an exciting day. I registered for classes this morning and I received some fantastic news a few hours ago...

So I basically got every class I wanted, which was Human Evolution (anthropology), Seminar in Literature - The English Country House (not my first choice topic but perfectly acceptable), and Applied Math (which wouldn't be on anyone's favorites list anyway). I'm also 99.999% sure that I got into my honors class too (I was fourth in line last Monday for this special registration), and it's a history class called Catastrophe in Cultural Memory, so I'm really looking forward to that.

(Nope, there's no science in that schedule [unless you count anthropology]. This major turnover is legit.)

Anyway, my schedule borders on the extremes (my free time is essentially 11-3 on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays). But I only have one class on Monday and Friday from 10-11, which is just superb.

But you know what else is superb? I'm the new Associate Editor of the Editorial Page for the Daily Free Press!

And I thought I completely botched the interview yesterday! No, I definitely did. But I still can't believe they gave me this opportunity! (Unless it was by default--I don't really know how it works... haha.)

Ah, but I'm so happy. It's effective beginning next semester, even though I start training this week.

But next semester is going to be so amazing. I just can't wait!

Heightened Ego

Sorry for being MIA the past week. I just had so much work to do last week and some of it carried into the beginning of this one.

But anyway... I could tell you about how I didn't go to class on Friday or how I completely bombed my Physics quiz yesterday... but alas! I actually have something better to talk about.

So I had dinner with a couple friends tonight. I really only planned to eat with Caca but I ran into another girl I knew and her friend in the dining hall, so we all just decided to sit with each other.

The four of us introduced ourselves to whomever the unknown party was and started to have a conversation. Class registration is coming up, so we were talking about that for a bit. Caca asked my other friend what she was majoring in and she said English. Caca, in excitement, points to me with her fork and says between bites, "Oh! You two are doing the same thing!" I smile because my other friend and I have already established this previously. My friend, however, gives only a half-smile and quietly mentions, "Yeah, but I did it first. You were a physics major."

I force a laugh. Then to console her, I tell her not to worry and that instead of double majoring in journalism (as she plans to), I was hoping to do so in film. She forces a chuckle and the conversation moves on.

This wouldn't have bothered me as much if it wasn't the second time that happened. The first time occurred about a month ago or so when we were eating lunch together. At the time, I was ecstatic. I had just straightened out the mess I had gotten into and figured out what I might be doing with my life. I told her excitedly that I was thinking of majoring in English.

"Oh! That's what I'm doing..."

Then I told her about how I might BUCOP (double major in a different school) with the School of Communication and how I was happy because my future was open to me again, meaning I could study abroad, relearn french...

Then she says with that half-smile, "Hey... you're becoming me..."

I think I chuckled at this even though I was slightly offended--I'd like to think I'm above imitation--but I'm certain that she was feeling defensive. After all, I can understand where she's coming from. Valedictorian of her class, a Trustee Scholar at BU (meaning she's here on a full ride), she's smart, competitive, and--like me--probably enjoys being the first and best in everything.

Except I'd like to think I'm better at hiding that unattractive trait.

Still, it's funny to see how people act. And of course, I'm still going to go on doing my own thing, regardless of what anyone else says.

OBAMA

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have our next president!

Last Minute Reminders

Vote! Vote! Vote!

The fate of America will be decided within the next 24 hours!

How exhilarating.

Yet at the same time, horribly horribly terrifying.

It's in your hands!