« September 2007 |
Main
| November 2007 »
So yesterday I was pretty bummed because, due to poor planning on my part and a case of procrastination, I was forced to miss out on the Monster Bash in '64 Hall so I could write a paper for Political Science class.
That's not the only thing going on around campus, however.
Tomorrow night, McPhail's is hosting Celtic Fest. As the S.A.I.L. Digest (which keeps the entire campus up-to-date on cool activities) said, "Decorate a pot, plant a shamrock, design a charm bracelet, win prizes, and watch PC’s very own Irish step dancers!"
So I think I might swing by there and check that out--especially since I didn't even know PC had Irish Step Dancers.
Speaking of dance, I heard through the grapevine that the dance club is going to be practicing ballroom dancing this Sunday, so if that turns out to be true, I'll definitely be stopping there, too!
There's lots more going on, too (there always is) but those are the things that have caught my eye this week!
Hey, all!
There's not too much going on today. I have a lot of little things to take care of--assignments here and there, laundry, etc...-- so I'm busy but I'm not swamped.
Also, I recently saw my academic advisor so I could talk to him about what classes I should take next semester. He answered some of my questions about double majoring and things like that, too.
All the students here are going to be registering, pretty soon, for those classes, so I need to figure out what my backups are. Of course, seniors get to choose first, followed by juniors, then sophomores, and freshmen at the end. As luck would have it, I am also in the final group among the freshmen, so I need to make sure I keep my options open. It's still early enough in my college career that I won't stress if I end up having to fulfill one of my philosophy requirements instead of my math requirement.
This really isn't all until the end of November, but it'll be here before we know it, so I'll be sure to let you know how things turned out!
What I want to know is how they decide what people's e-mail addresses are. Not just at PC, either; I'm talking about colleges everywhere because some of my friends at other schools have whacky screenames, too.
I'm going to put my faith in the system and hope that a machine just takes the person's name and information, puts them together in the most hideous way possible, and spits it out. I mean, could any human being seriously give Sam Melly the e-mail address "smelly@providence.edu"?
If you have a longer last name, you won't realize just how important those final letters are, either, until their gone. All the time that I've been leader of the band (ha ha), I never knew how very important the "ra" at the end of my name was. Now they're gone and I've been reduced to some backup drummer. Was it really so hard to leave the "ra" in peace? It never hurt anyone.
But alas, for the rest of my college career, I'll be doomed to people thinking that a caveman gave me my surname because it just sounds so absurd when you say it.
McNama.
Ew.
Speaking of e-mail, it's one of the biggest reasons that I like to write on this blog. Not only do prospective students get to read an accurate portrayal of freshman life at PC, but all my friends and family have a way of keeping up with what I'm doing.
When you get to college, you'll find that you'll get whims to write letters or e-mails to your relatives and friends, and there you'll be, hours later, barely through with grandma's, and you still have a few more to go.
It takes forever to e-mail everyone personally!
So just make sure, before you leave for school, that you don't promise to write all the time because, realistically, it just doesn't work.
Alright, going to see Wicked was wicked awesome!
It was SO great to go out and get to do something different. I absolutely love going to the theater, and I've actually never been to one in Boston before. The Opera House was totally beautiful, the people I was with were so much fun, I was thrilled to death to have an excuse to wear my new shoes, and, of course, the show was fantastic!
I wish I could pay to go see a show almost every week!
My whole weekend was pretty great. I didn't have a ton of homework (I even geeked out enough that I read ahead on some things), so I spent a lot of my time at work or relaxing. I even watched Grey's Anatomy for the first time (yes. The first time. And all I want to know now is, why on EARTH would anyone want to be pre-med? I mean, it's a good thing someone does, because we need doctors, but I'll tell you what: I can say with one hundred percent certainty that I'll never do it).
I also realized that I really love Sunday brunches. Yes, it's the same as breakfast every other day of the week, but you can still have it even after you've woken up at noon!
What could be better?
Wow, Thursday already!
Honestly, where does the time go?
Tomorrow's a big day for me: a PT test with ROTC first thing in the morning (God help me), followed almost immediately by my Politics class, followed, ten minutes later, by my Spanish midterm (God help me), and then Western Civ, around lunch, where I also have a midterm (Really. God help me).
After 1:20, though, when Civ gets out, I'll be home free for the weekend! Of course I'll have homework, but it shouldn't be anything too strenuous.
For better or for worse, once midterms are over, I can turn my attention to tomorrow night:
Wicked!
I'm so sick of studying/worried/excited!
So a few weeks ago I had a "whoa...this is not high school" moment.
I was taking a test in one of my classes, and there was about five minutes left. I was already finished with the exam, so I was just sitting there with it turned over.
I was waiting for the last few minutes to pass.
Yeah.
I was a dumb freshman because it never occurred to me that since I was finished, I could leave. It wasn't like there was a bell that was going to ring, or anything.
Looking around to make sure that no one saw me just sitting there (they didn't), I quickly turned my test in, gathered my things, and left.
While it's nice not to have to hang around, I know that, from now on, I'm going to have to suppress the urge to just rush through the test and get out of there.
Speaking of exams, my semester midterms are this Friday.
Um.
Yikes?
On another note, Friday night marked the beginning of the basketball season.
As you may or may not know, basketball (rivaled only by hockey) is the sport here at PC--which is fantastic for me because, I'm sorry to any football players out there, I am just NOT into football. At least in basketball, the whistle doesn't blow every time the ball moves.
So the school celebrated Midnight Madness on Friday, and I went. It was pretty cool. There was a big dance competition between the Board of Programmers (BOP), the Dance Company (not to be confused with the team, apparently), and the Board of Multicultural Student Affairs. BMSA won (though I have to say that my vote was for BOP), and there were a few other little events and competitions before the basketball teams finally presented themselves.
It was also pretty cool that a local radio station, WEEI FM, was there. They're a sports radio talk show, and they've recently added PC basketball to their list of teams they cover. So I guess that just goes to show how great the season is going to be!
Hey, all!
This morning, PC's Board of Programmers (BOP) started selling tickets to go see Wicked at the Boston Opera House.
Pretty cool, huh?
A lot of people apparently thought so because there were quite a few of us camped out in lower Slavin very early this morning (the tickets went on sale at 7 AM). I won't admit to my own geekiness and tell you exactly what time I got up, but I will tell you that I do have a ticket and I'm very excited!
What could be better than getting all dressed up on a Friday night to go see a broadway show?
Not much!
I knew, going into it, that ROTC is something not everyone understands, and I can see how it would be that way. For a lot of people, all that they know about the military is what they see in movies or read, but it's no secret that Hollywood stretches things.
Still, I was shocked, last week, to hear what one person had to say about ROTC.
I'm not sure if this person was joking or not (let's hope) because if they were fooling, the jest went on for a long time.
Anonymous actually said that they knew ROTC members got initiation tattoos (and that ROTC members would deny that because they have to).
Ummm...
...no.
If you become a part of ROTC, you are not required to mark your body in any way, not even in some strange, underground, hush-hush ritual. Period.
Maybe that's a let down for people looking for an interesting bit of gossip, but I promise you I'm telling the truth. Trust me, there's no way someone like me (someone petrified of shots and needles) could ever be a cadet if that or anything like it were the case.
Now, sometimes after a few years together, a few of the cadets who have become especially close (ROTC members become your family) may choose to get a tattoo together, or something, before they take the next step in their military career (which sometimes entails moving away). They'd do so, informally, to comemorate their relationship . Yes, of course that happens.
But being forced to ink your skin after putting ink to a military contract?
No.
So I was out shopping the other day and I was looking through a rack of clothes. A lot of skirts were on sale (summer being over), and my friend pulled out a plaid, pleated skirt she thought was cute. I thought it was too "Catholic schoolgirl-ish" for everyday wear, but that was when it hit me:
I'm a Catholic schoolgirl.
I have never been able to say that about myself before because I've never attended anything but public school (until now).
I realized that a lot of prospective students, especially ones like me, who've never been in a private school, are probably wondering what it's like to like to attend a Catholic school.
Well, here's my opinion:
it's exactly what you make of it.
If you want to go to church everyday and become very, very involved in your religion, you can.
If you want to go to church once a week and on holidays (or just holidays), you can.
If you never want to go to church, you don't have to.
No one here is forcing religion down anyone's throat. No one gets on your case if you don't go to church.
In fact, you don't have to be Catholic to attend PC--even one of my professors is Jewish.
Still, there's certainly more opportunity here than most schools to explore your faith. Naturally, some members of our faculty are Dominican priests (like our president), so there are plenty of people to talk to.
There's a cross in every classroom and there are clubs, like Campus Ministry, that you can join.
Our chapel is absolutely beautiful--my neighbor from North Providence even had her wedding there!
Really, the only other difference I can think of between this and my public high school is that here, you can say "God" in a classroom and no one shivers in apprehension of the repercussions.
And thank the Lord for that.
So!
Time to post again, huh?
You know, it's crazy; yesterday, I had something I was so interested in telling you guys about that I was going to post an extra entry but I ran out of time in the day.
Naturally, I have long since forgotten what that thing was.
Ah well.
I suppose this will just have to be a random compilation about a few different things that have been bouncing around in my head for a while.
I saw a tour group walking around campus a few days ago and it made me think of when I went to go tour schools. I can remember that my biggest pet peeve was, by far, that every school, everywhere (obviously), only shows you their greatest features.
I can remember being supremely irritated by getting a tour of the school's new building of suites, but not even hearing the name of a freshmen dorm. Why on Earth would I want to see some rooms that I couldn't live in for a few years?
Sorry. No.
So while it's nice to get a feel for different schools, if you're seriously considering one over another, I strongly recommend booking a visit. Eat in the cafeteria. Go to a class.
It makes a huge difference!
PC not only offers the campus experience for prospective students, they also have this really cool virtual tour (which I "went on" last year as a high school senior!).
Also, if you know a current student here, then you should absolutely ask them to host you for a night or two!
It's crucial to see the "real" side of a college. If the walls in classrooms are cracking or something, you're going to want to know about it (and, no, I haven't seen any here; it's just a random example).
I'll tell you one thing about the "real" side of college that is driving me crazy, though:
the showers!
Not only do the curtains blow with every little breeze ("O, good morning, everyone!"), I can never get the temperature just right. The first two weeks, it was completely fine. Yet within the last few days, there's been some kind of gremlin or something sabotaging my showers. I kid you not when I say that on Monday, I had the dial set all the way to the left, the coldest setting, and the only temperature variations that I could get were hot, scalding, and third-degree-burns-worthy.
Yesterday, I thought I might leave the bathroom with frostbite.
I'll be honest and reveal my craziness to you. I kept grabbing my towel and "shower-hopping" in hopes that one of the six stalls would function correctly. None of them did, though, and I just looked like I was playing some weird game of hide-and-seek by myself.
Perhaps it's just timing, though, as all was normal in the bathroom this morning.
Beats me.
Other than that, things here are going very well!
I have a Spanish quiz tomorrow, but after that I am free for a three day weekend!
I can't wait!
Hey!
Just to warn you right now, this is going to be a long entry because a lot happened this weekend. So proceed with caution :)
So, as usual, I worried too much. Shock, I know, but it's true.
I was much more nervous about the FTX with ROTC this weekend than I needed to be.
I had to be at Alumni Hall for 2:00 on Friday afternoon, so after I got out of Civ at 1:20, I grabbed a quick lunch from Slavin, tossed on my uniform, did a final check to make sure I had everything, and headed over. I wasn't sure that I had my alice pack (which is, basically, a really big backpack) put together correctly, but it turns out that it's something that goes mostly according to personal preference. If it's easier for you to quickly get your poncho out of one pocket than out of another, than put it in that one.
When everyone had arrived, we were issued our M16's and MRE's for the weekend. Yes, the M16's were real, but they were only loaded with blanks (explosive charges without the actual bullets) and we had a ten meter firing restriction. For the entire weekend, we were totally responsible for the complete care and constant surveillance of our weapon. The only instance that the rifles left our sides was when they were collected for the time it took us to complete the land navigation courses (though afterwards, they were immediately reissued to us). The weapons always had to be within eyesight and arm's reach (even during the night, so we all slept with the rifles in our sleeping bags).
"MRE" stands for "Meal Ready to Eat", and it's the standard food issue for soldiers in the field. They come in different varieties; there are all sorts of chicken, beef, and pork dishes, and there's also pasta, omelets, etc...
MRE's come with the main meal (which can be heated through a bag that chemically reacts to create heat when it contacts water), a side dish (potatoes, rice, etc...), a cookie, crackers, or another type of snack, and usually a candy. They also come with different sauces for the meal, and every single MRE has a small packet of salt, pepper, Tabasco sauce, gum, a napkin, and other small things I never used.
MRE's run pretty darn high on the calorie count (in the thousands for one meal), so it's not recommended that you eat a lot, especially in a short amount of time. I ended up breaking mine down into the different sections, throwing away the boxes so I wouldn't have the extra weight (however miniscule, it all adds up), and eating different pieces here and there.
Eventually, it was time to load up onto the bus and make the hour or so drive to Fort Devens. About fifteen minutes away, we "camoed up." Yes, we applied the infamous camo paint to our faces. Like every aspect of the field, some people hate it and some love it. I wasn't really bothered by it, especially since I forgot, after a while, that I had it on.
When the bus dropped us off at Fort Devens, we pulled our alice packs on over our LBE's (which are belts and suspenders with two ammo pouches, two canteens, a compass, a flashlight, and a field dressing, which is basically a little pouch of first aid supplies) and we started the two mile march to the point where we'd establish our patrol base, or makeshift headquarters.
I spent most of Friday night conducting three hundred sixty degree security (you and the other people you're with form a circle, facing outwards, with the leaders at your back in the middle, and you keep eyes and ears out for anything suspicious). Each person lies in the "prone" position--on the ground on their stomachs with their rifle at the ready. During this time, my superiors made schedules of who would eat when, what time everyone could go to bed, and who had security at what time.
So while I ate my MRE, my battle buddy was next to me, in the prone position, keeping watch; when I finished, we switched. We set up our sleeping bags shortly thereafter and went to sleep--for a while. I was woken up at two in the morning because it was my turn to conduct security. So I pulled my boots back on, strapped on my helmet, grabbed my rifle, and patrolled our circle for an hour, until it was time to wake the next person.
Everyone got up at 5:30 on Saturday morning and we had until 6:00 to pack up our sleeping bags, organize our alice packs, and take care of hygiene. As you can probably guess, there are no showers set up in the middle of the woods, so if you wanted to wash up, you better have brought some baby wipes.
For the next few hours, we conducted squad sticks lanes--where our juniors were given a mission to carry out. One of the missions they received, for example, was to conduct an ambush of the enemy (our seniors).
These missions were pretty cool to see firsthand, but I was also very confused. I didn't understand half the terminology that was being thrown around, and I think it was hard for the 3's (the juniors) to have to stop and explain things step-by-step to the freshmen even when they had a time limit and were being evaluated.
Now, one word that you hear over and over and over in ROTC is "camp." The summer before their senior year, all of the 3's in the nation go to Fort Louis, Washington, where everything they've learned in ROTC is tested. They have to pass a PT test, a written land navigation exam, a day land nav course, a night land course, etc... Camp is extremely important because all the cadets who've signed a scholarship contract with the Army can't commission (become an official officer in the military) until they pass camp.
Obviously, after all the time you've put into ROTC, you want to be able to commission--and most cadets are more excited about their commissioning ceremony than about graduation.
The better you do at camp, the more likely it is that you'll be able to branch where you want in the Army. For example, if you're dying to be in the infantry, a very competitive branch, then you better have a good spot on the OML (Order of Merit List)--which you get through good camp scores and a good GPA (which is worth forty percent of your overall "grade"). Cadets who make it into the top ten percent of the OML are guaranteed whatever branch they want, so things get pretty competitive.
That's why you can't escape the word "camp" in ROTC. The juniors are constantly tested and evaluated at FTXs and such in order to prepare them for camp.
In any case, we had a short lunch after we carried out some missions, and then we had a practice land navigation course.
The people organizing the course have set up points in different spots in the area and each cadet has to find as many points as they can. You have a compass and a protractor, and you're given a map, the coordinates of the starting point and of each point you have to find. It's up to you to plot those points on the map, figure out the distance between them, figure out the path you're going to take, and shoot an azimuth on your compass (which means that you have to figure out the direction to head in by degrees. If your protractor tells you thirty degrees, hold the compass in front of you, wait for it to stop spinning, and if thirty degrees is to the right, go right).
I'm happy to report that, during the day, I found five of the five points! Some of them were in crazy areas with wickedly overgrown vegetation, but I managed to beat my way through the shrubbery, find the point (a sign, in this case), and write down the sign's number.
Night land nav was a different story, however. I totally lucked out during the day because none of the points I had took me through the swamp behind the start point--most of them were off the main road. As fate would have it, though, my night course was very different, and after getting a little muddy and very frustrated, my partner and I decided to abandon the point in the swampy area. So, equipped with just our red-lens flashlights (which are way too dim for my tastes), our maps, protractors, and compasses, we decided to try to find any of the other four points assigned to us. It was so dark, I couldn't see my hand in front of my face, and I spent most of my time with the flashlight pointed at my feet so I could see where I was walking. During the day, when you know you're in the general area, you can just look around for the sign. At night, though, you have to practically walk into it, dead-on.
We only managed to find two points of five, but I thought that in itself was pretty impressive for two people who had never done land nav at night, before.
After land nav, the squads reestablished their patrol bases, and that night I was lucky enough to have the second shift of security. I had just gotten my sleeping bag all set up, and everything organized, when the person before me came over to tell me I was on in five. So I patrolled for a half hour that night (12-12:30), woke up the next person, and slept until six.
On Sunday, we did a platoon mission--the same as the squad ones, only bigger because then, more than one squad had to coordinate with the other.
When we encountered the enemy, I somehow ended up as a guard to one of the prisoners, and it was interesting to see how an EPW search is conducted.
After every mission, we conduct an AAR (After Action Review), where everyone discusses what was right and what was wrong. Since it was the last event of the FTX, a few freshmen were asked to state some of the things they'd learned.
Well, I learned that I have a LOT more to learn. Is four years going to be enough!?
On the bus ride back to PC, everyone fell completely and totally asleep.
At school, we had to disassemble our rifles, clean every single inch of them, and put them back together. Mine passed inspection on the first try, and then I just had to wait for everyone else to finish.
We were dismissed around 4:00 Sunday afternoon, and I headed straight for my dorm room. There, I shook out my clothes and equipment, tidied them up, put them away, and jumped in the shower. Afterwards, I headed out for dinner, came back, did some homework, and then started writing for this random blog that I have to post on every Monday and Thursday...
Maybe you've heard of it...
|
