Monday, September 28, 2009
Bumps and Bruises
I don't have anything particularly interesting to write about at the moment so I'm updating the world to the fact that you get some random weird bruises playing Ultimate. At the moment I have a bruises at the base of my thumb and tips of my fingers as well as a nice bump and bruise where me and another girl were jostling for the disc and she accidentally stepped on my heel. So yep, that's all I've really got at the moment.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Technology
An interesting thing I've noticed about Western is the varying amount of technology per classroom. Nowhere have I seen an ActivBoard which I suppose makes sense because they need bigger screens for a classroom of 100+ to see, but still. In my chemistry class our professor switches between using a nice projector onto a huge screen to a chalk board when he wants to elaborate. Anthropology has the same sort of projector set up, but has upgraded to a white board. While my math class has a white board, but no projector. There is an old overhead that he could probably use but I don't believe he will. A friend of mine though says that her professor uses an overhead. I don't remember a teacher using an overhead since the 7th grade. 8th grade was to beginning of upgrading to ActivBoards.
I suppose Eastlakers have it easy though. Friends in the Seattle school district were proud of the fact their entire school had two ActivBoards while we had one in every classroom.
I suppose Eastlakers have it easy though. Friends in the Seattle school district were proud of the fact their entire school had two ActivBoards while we had one in every classroom.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Classes
Walking into class this morning Professor Cahill says it's his birthday. So, being the chemistry teacher he is he makes himself a birthday candle out oh hydrogen gas and a Pringles can. He keeps talking as the flame burns ever lower with the hydrogen gas running out and all of a sudden the thing blows up. So that woke all of us up to pay attention in class this morning (My chem class is at 8AM for anyone who cares to know). Professor Cahill then moves on to the point of the class today, basic measurements in chemistry and and to convert measurements. With five minutes left of class he decides blowing things up and putting stuff in liquid nitrogen is more fun than significant digits. To demonstrate the funness (that's not a word but bear with me) of liquid nitrogen he goes and pours a bunch of it onto the ground so it spreads across the floor steaming and fizzling. So that was chemistry 121. Mostly review of high school chemistry and blowing stuff up - I think I'll enjoy chemistry considerably more now than i did in high school.
My next class was another interesting one, Beginning Martial Arts As far as I'm aware all of the PE classes take place in Carver Gymnasium. once I arrive there this morning all the doors are locked and there are several other people waiting to get in. A few minutes later there are more. After a little while longer we come to discover that you don't actually go into the gym through the front doors, but through the side doors. It totally makes sense right? Anyway, we get to where we are supposed to be. Our teacher comes in takes roll, hands out the waiver we go over it and sign it; we won't sue, we won't come to class sick, blah blah. With all the paper work over comes the fun stuff. Once all of us were spread out across the gym he enlightened us on the type of martial art we were learning: Kempo. Kempo is an American martial art that has no holds barred, anything that you can do to get out of a situation is okay, any nifty trick from any martial art or style of fighting can be used. What we learned how to do today was to get out of a bear hug type hold or a hold called a Full Nelson. this was way fun because we split into partners and essentially learned how to go from being stuck to lifting our attacker up. If we were actually fighting we would proceed past the lifting up and slam them onto the floor or a wall, however we didn't do that in class. He told us afterward that he's not really supposed to teach anything on the first day but you can do this in just about any clothes so it didn't really matter. and we were still able to leave about 20 minutes early.
Nothing particularly interesting has happened in anthropology yet. I believe that what we learn will be interesting but the class itself will be kind of boring. If that makes any sense...At that moment we are learning about what anthropology actually means and what is involved in participating in it. We are learning about cultural anthropology which apparently is one of four pieces of anthropology as a whole.
Finally, math. this class I think will be pretty easy. Most of it seems to be a review of the past to years which will be good to get back into the math mind set before moving onto completely new material.
So, those are my classes.
My next class was another interesting one, Beginning Martial Arts As far as I'm aware all of the PE classes take place in Carver Gymnasium. once I arrive there this morning all the doors are locked and there are several other people waiting to get in. A few minutes later there are more. After a little while longer we come to discover that you don't actually go into the gym through the front doors, but through the side doors. It totally makes sense right? Anyway, we get to where we are supposed to be. Our teacher comes in takes roll, hands out the waiver we go over it and sign it; we won't sue, we won't come to class sick, blah blah. With all the paper work over comes the fun stuff. Once all of us were spread out across the gym he enlightened us on the type of martial art we were learning: Kempo. Kempo is an American martial art that has no holds barred, anything that you can do to get out of a situation is okay, any nifty trick from any martial art or style of fighting can be used. What we learned how to do today was to get out of a bear hug type hold or a hold called a Full Nelson. this was way fun because we split into partners and essentially learned how to go from being stuck to lifting our attacker up. If we were actually fighting we would proceed past the lifting up and slam them onto the floor or a wall, however we didn't do that in class. He told us afterward that he's not really supposed to teach anything on the first day but you can do this in just about any clothes so it didn't really matter. and we were still able to leave about 20 minutes early.
Nothing particularly interesting has happened in anthropology yet. I believe that what we learn will be interesting but the class itself will be kind of boring. If that makes any sense...At that moment we are learning about what anthropology actually means and what is involved in participating in it. We are learning about cultural anthropology which apparently is one of four pieces of anthropology as a whole.
Finally, math. this class I think will be pretty easy. Most of it seems to be a review of the past to years which will be good to get back into the math mind set before moving onto completely new material.
So, those are my classes.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
Ultimate Frisbee
It may seem hard to believe for someone who hasn't seen it with their own eyes but it is my opinion that everyone at Western Washington University can play Ultimate Frisbee. Nearly everyone has at least one frisbee in their room, there is always at least one group of people out throwing a frisbee around if not playing an actual game. As people walk by they join in. Frisbee is the best social event, it doesn't matter how good you are at sports or whether or not you know the people playing you're always welcome to join the game.
Today Mathes (my dorm) was having an ice cream social in order to get to know everyone in the building. After a while when people were trickling away off to their own rooms someone suggested an ultimate game on the turf field. Tanya and I decided to join the fun. Once we were ready we went out but couldn't find those who suggested the game however (of course) there were several people throwing a frisbee around. Inviting ourselves we joined the fun. Once a few more people came we decided to check out the turf to see what was going on.
There had to be nearly 100 people on the field playing full field ultimate. We jumped in. Before too long we discovered that this was rather official, red v blue, bandannas to help find those on your team and a waiver to make sure you won't sue. Turns out once school starts Fairhaven (another dorm) runs ultimate every Sunday at three. This was a later game because school hadn't started yet. I played from 9 PM until 11 PM when the game was declared over. At that point we were down to about 16 players total.
I'm foreseing Ultimate being my sport of choice for about the next four years :)
Today Mathes (my dorm) was having an ice cream social in order to get to know everyone in the building. After a while when people were trickling away off to their own rooms someone suggested an ultimate game on the turf field. Tanya and I decided to join the fun. Once we were ready we went out but couldn't find those who suggested the game however (of course) there were several people throwing a frisbee around. Inviting ourselves we joined the fun. Once a few more people came we decided to check out the turf to see what was going on.
There had to be nearly 100 people on the field playing full field ultimate. We jumped in. Before too long we discovered that this was rather official, red v blue, bandannas to help find those on your team and a waiver to make sure you won't sue. Turns out once school starts Fairhaven (another dorm) runs ultimate every Sunday at three. This was a later game because school hadn't started yet. I played from 9 PM until 11 PM when the game was declared over. At that point we were down to about 16 players total.
I'm foreseing Ultimate being my sport of choice for about the next four years :)
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Moving In
Ignoring a few knick knacks I am as of now officially moved in to my dorm room. Yay!
My mom and I arrived at Western shortly before 11 this morning. After waiting a few minutes in line I picked up my keys and got directions to the Mathes parking lot. Once there we learned the most time consuming part of moving in is the elevator. People were taking everything out of their car, putting it on the side walk, parking the car in the lot and then load by load taking it up to the room. My mom and I decided that she would unload my gear onto the side walk while I took loads up the stairs (it was faster than the elevator). After running a load or two to my room, the gear was all out of the car and then it was just me running up and down the stairs with my mom guarding. The last few things being a box of books and the fridge filled to maximize space I copped out and we took the elevator.
Our next dorm task was to loft my bed. This means setting the bed up several feet off the ground, thus making more space for stuff under it. That was an adventure. Actually checking out the bed parts was easy it took next to no time at all. Setting up the bed was difficult due to the fact they don't give you instructions you are just supposed to know what to do. After arguing over what is supposed to happen we asked the RA how to do it, she didn't know because she had never lofted her bed so she got the 4th floor RA to come and show me how it works. From there it was smooth sailing. :)
In between those lovely tasks of unloading, then lofting my mom and I met up with my brother to go to lunch. We went to a restaurant called the Old Town cafe. It was very good and I really look forward to going there again.
After lofting my bed my mom left and for the next few hours i was just setting up my space! :) At 8PM all the HELPs in Mathes got together in the lounge to get to know each other (which mostly involved playing games). It was fun but I'm not very good in those situations. Once I'm out doing things it will get easier to know people :)
Bed and desk
My half of the room
Book shelf
My mom and I arrived at Western shortly before 11 this morning. After waiting a few minutes in line I picked up my keys and got directions to the Mathes parking lot. Once there we learned the most time consuming part of moving in is the elevator. People were taking everything out of their car, putting it on the side walk, parking the car in the lot and then load by load taking it up to the room. My mom and I decided that she would unload my gear onto the side walk while I took loads up the stairs (it was faster than the elevator). After running a load or two to my room, the gear was all out of the car and then it was just me running up and down the stairs with my mom guarding. The last few things being a box of books and the fridge filled to maximize space I copped out and we took the elevator.
Our next dorm task was to loft my bed. This means setting the bed up several feet off the ground, thus making more space for stuff under it. That was an adventure. Actually checking out the bed parts was easy it took next to no time at all. Setting up the bed was difficult due to the fact they don't give you instructions you are just supposed to know what to do. After arguing over what is supposed to happen we asked the RA how to do it, she didn't know because she had never lofted her bed so she got the 4th floor RA to come and show me how it works. From there it was smooth sailing. :)
In between those lovely tasks of unloading, then lofting my mom and I met up with my brother to go to lunch. We went to a restaurant called the Old Town cafe. It was very good and I really look forward to going there again.
After lofting my bed my mom left and for the next few hours i was just setting up my space! :) At 8PM all the HELPs in Mathes got together in the lounge to get to know each other (which mostly involved playing games). It was fun but I'm not very good in those situations. Once I'm out doing things it will get easier to know people :)
Bed and desk
My half of the room
Book shelf
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Oops
So I'm still trying to figure out how this whole blog works so to explain what's going on in the post below, the picture is just of all my stuff neatly packed. I'm rather proud of myself for that. I don't know why there is a bullet point...I'll figure that out later, thanks for bearing with me!
Getting Ready
So after a very long hiatus, I am back to the blog. I have wanted to write something over the past few weeks but nothing particularly interesting has happened. Yesterday (I guess I have to say that seeing as it 12:15 AM) I finally officially packed everything. For a while now I have been piling things we've bought and stuff I've been collecting from my room in a corner in our dining room, it is now all in boxes and bags and about as organized as I get. For about the first time ever I feel like I haven't forgotten anything, though I'm pretty sure that's wrong. I'm just boggled due to the amount of stuff I must bring, MUCH more than I ever have in the past. Once I'm unpacking on Thursday I will begin to discover everything I forgot.
My next task is to thoroughly clean and organize my room. My uncle is coming to visit from South Carolina so as I'm sure many families do, we all clean the house. He will sleep in my brother's room, and my brother will sleep in the guest room for one night and then temporarily move to my room until Ken goes home. David is already talking about just permanently sleeping in my room and then converting his room into some technology,/gaming hub thing.....the nerd... Well I suppose I should be thankful he isn't debating taking out the wall between our rooms.
Move in has always felt so far away, now that it is actually here it is a little scary. I won't see many of my friends for a long time, I'll be in a totally new situation than what I'm used to. So it's scary, but change is good, so a good scary if that makes any sense.
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