Lull

            Well, midterms are pretty much over. I have one more essay to edit and turn in, and then I’ll be done. The tests went better than I expected, so I’m hoping that trend will keep up. It would seem, though, that things are only going to get busier. November is full of events for ROTC, a cappella, and various classes, and things haven’t stopped popping up.

At the moment, though, I’m in the lull before the storm. I do the readings for my classes over the weekend, and so all my work for Tuesday and Thursday is already done. Plus, since we have an essay due at the end of this week for Hebrew, we have hardly any other work. Math is going along as usual, but I understand it at the moment, so it doesn’t take much time. Overall, things are calm – at the moment.

I may take a moment to mention my Hebrew essay, because I’m really happy about it. I’ve been studying Hebrew for less than six months, and yet I can write a semi-academic essay. This is good. I am good enough at Hebrew to write six pages without repeating myself more than necessary, and bad enough that I don’t notice all the egregious errors I made when I go back through to check. Later this week I’ll get people to help me check it, but for now ignorance is bliss.

The fall influx of tourists is still here; it seems like twice as many as usual. Or maybe they’re just getting more confident? Today after ROTC (we swam some laps and then played sharks and minnows – I liked it) the NROTC freshmen were walking past the John Harvard statue in our Navy sweats and had to go through a section of tourists. And for a few seconds, we were press darlings. They will step in front of you and snap pictures a few inches from your face. And they kee stopping us and asking to have their pictures taken with the foliage.

It is definitely fall here. The leaves are turning (since all the tourists have pictures, I thought ya’ll deserved a few as well) and the wind is blowing. This morning coming out of swim PT in the cold I wouldn’t have been surprised if my still-wet ponytail had iced over. You can’t go anywhere without seeing North Face logos. I did go shopping on Saturday – 150 dollars for a coat, but it should last me a while. Luckily, I have discovered how to control my AC, so my room is toasty warm and welcoming. (They very cleverly disguised the controls under a panel and hid it under the landline phone that no one ever uses.)

Our a cappella concert is coming up on November 1^st! If anyone happens to be in Cambridge… The songs are separated by a short skit, which I wrote. It seemed really short until I actually had to memorize my lines. And there are people with a lot more than me… oh well, we’ll survive. It’ll be great, even if it’s coming up a lot faster than I’m comfortable with!

So yes, overall life is going well. I’m not too overloaded with work, I have friends from my extra-curriculars, and just today I had some really good serious conversation with a couple of people from my classes. Things are looking up. Which is why it was so strange that yesterday, after learning about another short-notice assignment, I suddenly broke down crying at my desk.

 

I wasn’t depressed or homesick, just frustrated. Suddenly, after a lovely weekend, I felt overwhelmed. And yes, a little angry. I tried to do a little work, but I couldn’t bring myself to. So I decided to go to dinner in order to get out of my room. Chocolate is my comfort food, and they had sundaes, like every Sunday, that I had forgotten about. And I immediately decided that God was good after all. So in the space of about thirty minutes, with some ice cream and Oreo crumbs and a talk with a girl from my Life group, everything was fine. A couple messages to my dad, who took time from his busy Sunday evening to send me a page-long pep talk in reply, also helped.

Why did I start crying in the first place? Well, for one thing, I’m a human female, and sometimes we cry for no reason whatsoever. Nothing to worry about. And for another thing, I think, sometimes you just realize that responsibilities never stop – they’re like an arcade game, or for that matter washing dishes. As you’re finishing the last round, the next one is already starting. It’s something we all live with, just something I have a hard time accepting sometimes.

But please, don’t think that life here is bad. I love it. Only at an Ivy League does your morning school paper announce that General Petraeus is coming to teach at the university; where but in the MIT battalion do you get invited to watch a submarine be commissioned? Besides the brush-with-fame perks, it’s just a good place to be. Tonight in section, since our second philosophy paper was due, our TF brought us food – and not just a few cookies, no. A feast: chips and salsa and cookies and fruit cups and strawberries and more chips and water and wafers. I probably had the equivalent of another meal. And our discussion is always interesting; we never cover what we’re supposed to because we spend so long talking back and forth. It always leaves me energized.

But energized or not, I need to go to bed. I got up at five-fifteen this morning, and the week is young. So I’ll talk to all you beautiful people next week – don’t forget to leave comments if you have something to say! (If the commenting works – I don’t know how to fix it. If it doesn’t work, there’s always facebook.)

PS - Notice the lovely drawings surrounded by calculus symbols on the board- we were studying 3D extrema, and I couldn't resist a picture. :)