LIN, NEU, BIO.

So whenever I'm feeling overwhelmed about something, my favorite thing to do is sit down and map it all out. The map could consist of a schedule for the rest of the day, for the week, or for what I just did right now - four years.

I know that college is about discovering something that you love. It's about trying new things and, ultimately, deciding what you might want to do for the rest of  your life. But the rest of my life seems like an awfully long time when I'm 18 years old and in my first semester of college.

But still. This is what I feel like sometimes - my mind is like an avalanche. I start thinking of one thing, and then before you know it, things just snowball into an impossible mess. How can I possibly accomplish everything that I want to do in this short time? How! How can anybody do it?

This is where the mapped out schedule comes in.

So right now my current dilemma is that I want to be a doctor. I'm 96% positive that it's what I want to do with my life. Unfortunately, I obviously didn't come in as a pre-med student and so I didn't take any science classes my first semester. And no Intro Bio/Chem/Organic Chem/Physics classes are offered in the Spring. So I have to wait until next year to start.

And then I get to thinking. How will I possibly be able to finish it all. The good news is that I planned out my remaining seven semesters here, and I have one whole semester left over! Which means I will still get to go abroad, be a doctor, and accomplish everything that I want to do.

So my life plan, as it stands right now, is this - major in Linguistics, with an Interdisciplinary Major in Neuroscience (because you can't major in neuroscience alone. There aren't even classes offered.) Take all of the pre-med requisites and work my to a degree, graduating summa cum laude. As it happens, I would else end up graduating with a minor in Bio, because of the way I scheduled and picked my classes. Personally, I think this makes me a very attractive candidate for medical school.

Anyways. After undergrad, you'll be able to find me at the Columbia University for Surgeons and Physicians, living in NYC. Well on the way to the rest of my life.

See? I feel better already.

I'm sure that by the time the semester is done, I will have multiple versions of these plans. One for being a journalist too, because I just don' know. But how does anybody know? People who have already graduated don't even know still.

I think I'll be okay. Don't worry about me (mom, Sara, Grandma, Aunt Sue, Aunt Sandi). I've got it all under control!

Sleet.

We all knew that the time would come eventually. Yes, the first few weeks of school were characterized by tank tops and shorts weather, but now, in the middle of October, the fabled Syracuse weather has finally arrived.

It has been getting progressively colder over the last few weeks. People have started to don their North Faces and their Uggs. There has been less activity on the Quad as everyone scurries to get indoors. I'm sure that Starbucks has doubled it's profits in the past month from the amount of hot beverages they have been selling.

But today. We all woke up to 34 degree weather and rain. Except for when you stepped outside, you noticed that it wasn't actually rain at all but nice, cold sleet. It is now only a matter of time before the snow comes. And stays. For practically forever.

Everyone walking around campus today has what I will now refer to as the trademark Syracuse weather expression. Everyone is bundled up with their arms tight to their sides, fists clenched, a look of sheer determination on their face as they battle through Mother Nature to get to Physics 101 on time.

Never has the student body looked so similar. You can't tell who is who when everyone has their scarves up to their eyes and their hoods pulled down low.

It is now time to break out the legit winter gear. There will be no more walking around in hoodies! That will no longer suffice.

My poor friend from California is just at a loss. When she saw the sleet she was like "Wow, snow!" Oh no my friend. That is not snow. That, that is yet to come.

I'm Published!

Everyone. Put down whatever it is you're doing right now and give your full attention to this blog. I have some very exciting news and I don't want you to miss it by just skimming over this blog entry.

On November 14th, I'm going to be a published journalist! Legitimately! I know that you all enjoy reading these blogs, but now you will have the opportunity to read something else that I've written.

On said date, go to the LiveU website through syr.com. If you type LiveU SU into Google, it should come up. Then under Work It Out, there will be an article written by yours truly called "Tanning Bed Truths."

I'm very excited about this. At least fifty submissions are put in for every article, and mine got chosen! This is a big moment in anyone's career. Yay!

On another note, yesterday I received ten separate letters in the mail! It was really great, because as you all know, I love getting mail. The letters were from the girls in the Junior Miss program. They were all asking me advice and telling me how excited they were to see my when I come home for the show. It made me feel good. Like a role model.

So basically. The past twenty four hours have been pretty awesome for me. I'm glad that I get to share these excitements with you, my faithful blogosphere followers!

Oops.

I honestly don't know where the time goes. I could of sworn that I posted more in the past five days. But here you have it...only one post from last week. I'm very sorry about that.

But I did have a good reason for not posting as promptly as I should have. My family was here this weekend! It was Family Weekend 2011 at SU this past Saturday and Sunday. As the weekend went on, I noticed some interesting things.

One. The dining hall serves way better food when the parents are in town! It also opens at an earlier, reasonable hour. Parents - did you know the dining hall normally doesn't open until eleven on weekends for breakfast?? Probably not, since it opened at eight while  you were here. But normally, all the kids in the dorm are sleeping in.

Which brings me to my next observation.

Two. There was significantly less, almost non-existent, partying this weekend. I mean, on my floor alone, usually 90% of the people go out on both Saturday AND Friday night. But the promise of parental units arriving early the next day was enough to keep everyone in doors and sober.

It was actually kind of weird to see so many parents here! I've gotten used to being on my own and just being surrounded by people my own age (since you know. Professors aren't really people. Just kidding!)

But I'm happy that my mom, my brother, and Sara and Brecht were able to come and witness first hand how much I love SU. I enjoyed showing them around the campus and taking them to Armory Square. When they left, I had a very empty feeling inside. While incredibly depressing, it passed eventually. I just miss everyone so much. But I know that I'll see you soon, and everything will be fine.

Whenever I think about missing someone, I just try and remember how much I love SU. And what would I really be missing if I was at home? Probably nothing except watching movies with mom and Matthew. Oh. And Pumpkin. I am missing Pumpkin. That's probably one of the saddest things!

A Linguistics Lesson For You.

This is really funny. I came across this image while I was on Facebook last night, and there was a whole list of comments underneath it about people freaking out because they couldn't find the mistake. 

Can you find it? Here is a hint: Read each individual word aloud. Go slowly. Do not skip through any part of the sentence. 

...For those of you who found it, good job! "The" is repeated twice in the phrase, "Can you find the mistake?" 

Now, for the interesting part! I bet you didn't know that the reason most people skip over the second "the" has to do with an applied theory of Linguistics! In linguistics, there are content words and function words that make up everyone's vocabulary. Content words are like verbs, adjectives, adverbs. All the words that have meaning. Function words are like pronouns, prepositions, and articles. They don't have an exact lexical meaning, but they sort of hold the sentence together. 

Function words and content words are represented differently in the brain, because the brain has submodules. While your brain recognizes when a content word is repeated in a sentence, it does not recognize it when function words are. Weird, right? More evidence of submodularity is that when you jumble up a sentence or make a speech error - like if you say, "My sore is throat" instead of the correct "My throat is sore," you are mixing up the content words, but never, ever, EVER the function words. 

I just find all of this really fascinating. I bet none of you thought that you would be receiving a crash course in Linguistics today, huh? :) 

Credit for Going to Australia??

Someone from a non-profit organization came to speak with my Political Theory class today. I'm not sure why he came to the Political Theory class, because the organization has nothing to do with it. But either we, the meeting was about becoming an International Student Volunteer.

What is an International Student Volunteer you ask? It's someone that takes four weeks out of their summer vacation and goes to a different country. While there, said student spends two weeks volunteering (teaching kids English, building things, elephant protection services, and baby turtle rehabilitation) and then spends the next weeks exploring the country (glacier climbing, SCUBA diving, wildlife safaris.)

And you get credit for it! I don't know, but I think that this sounds like a most excellent opportunity. I'm going to the meeting on Thursday...and I'm thinking Australia or New Zealand for my trip.

I always planned on studying abroad while I was in college, in either my second semester of my sophomore year or my first semester of my junior year. But unfortunately, I'm thinking if I switch to pre-med (which is honestly, likely. But that's a topic for another blog.) I don't know how I'll fit in study abroad because I'll have to be playing catch up for the year I was a declared Journalism major.

So, International Student Volunteers sounds perfect to me! And with my newfound Habitat for Humanity housebuilding skills, I should be all set. And the Great Barrier Reef and SCUBA diving?? Who wouldn't sign up for that???

A lesson.

So I had to take two days to write again because I had to get over the initial disappointment of not making the DanceWorks company. Yes, it's very sad. And I was very upset about it.

But now, less than twenty four hours later. I'm feeling relatively okay. To be perfectly honest. Rejection is not something that I'm well practiced in. I'm used to working hard and then reaping the benefits. But sometimes, that is just not enough.

Even writing this blog is making me feel better about not making it! It helps knowing that all of you out there are supporting me via the ethereal word of the blogosphere.

Part of me thinks that it's a freshmen/seniority thing, because I know that I was better than some of those girls in there that did make it. But alas. You'll have politics everywhere. I can now just focus the time that I would of been spent dancing on my schoolwork.

...For now anyways. I mean. It's not like I'm going to give up. I"m Katelyn Edel. And that is certainly saying something. :)

Nothing Better than the Smell of Auditions in the AM!

Tomorrow morning, all of you should send happy thoughts my way! At eight AM I will be dancing my heart out at the DanceWorks auditions. Yay, yay yay! There are few things that I love more than a nice long day of rehearsals.

Tonight it was the Choreographer's Showcase. Which basically means all of the choreographers show thirty seconds of their routine so we can decide which ones we'd like to be in. So many good dances! And as a freshman, I can only choose three. I was sitting there tonight saying to myself, "How does anyone only choose three???"

While some of the dances were better than others, from what I saw tonight it promises to be a great show.

At the Showcase tonight, I kid you not. There were probably two hundred potential dancers in the room. And every dance I want to try out for...they are taking nine dancers. Nine. I better be on my A game tomorrow.

So tonight, I'm spending my evening with hot chocolate and gossip girl, and then to bed! Straight to bed! Nobody likes a tired dancer.

Auditions though, will be good. I'm sure of it. I'm number thirty six, which 3 + 6 adds up to nine, my lucky number. It's practically in the stars that things will go well. But all the same. Wish me luck!

Free A's for Everyone!

Yesterday in my Political Theory class, where there must be at least 175 students, the Professor announced that we had all received one hundreds on our first two quizzes. Wait what? We didn't even have quizzes!

This teacher (the only one that doesn't follow the syllabus, I might add) announced on the very first day of class that we would have four quizzes throughout the semester and a final at the end. Pretty standard, I would say. He also told us that we would have the luxury of choosing what days we wanted our quizzes to be on, so he didn't schedule them when we had a million other midterms to worry about.

So we all decided on a day - October 7th - for our first quiz on the ideologies of John Stuart Mill. Well, October 7th came and went, with no quiz surfacing. I personally thought that maybe the professor had forgotten to make up the quiz, and that's why we didn't have it.

But then our date for the second quiz passed as well. I was beginning to freak out. How could he possibly grade us adequately at the end of the semester if he had no quiz scores to go by?? No essays? No tests! What?? It's just not how my brain works. I like it when teachers measure my progress through tests and quizzes. It reassures me that I'm doing a great job.

And at yesterday's class, the Professor said that since we all "posed intellectually stimulating questions" routinely during the class lecture, he decided to award us all with A's.

And while an A is great, and two A's are even better. I'm still a little bit concerned about this particular professor's grading policy. What happens when finals roll around and none of us are really sure what we are being tested on? It's a scary though, right? It's presenting a problem for me in my little homework driven bubble world.

I don't think I'll ever take a class from this professor again, even if he does hand out free A's. I need a teacher that will supply me with what I want - weekly quizzes and and some tests! Is that really so much to ask?

Homework on the Quad.

October tenth, and according to my Dashboard, it is 77 degrees outside! This practically unheard of, unseasonably warm weather can only be taken advantage of in one way.

Homework outside on the Quad!

My dorm room overlooks this very picturesque field of green. With trees and benches and volleyball nets and such. And today Jess and I walked outside, sat down with our homework, and proceeded to look very collegiate.

You can't see in the picture, because we (obviously) posed for the photo op. But we had our textbooks surrounding us and our laptops and our pens and pencils and notebooks. Just diligent, hard working college students hitting the books on the college green! I love it.

There were other students out there too, enjoying what might be the last day of nice weather that we will see in Syracuse for at least eight months (oh because it will be snowing soon, and these days will be a figment of my imagination.) There were people playing volleyball and then another group of dodgy looking students that I'm pretty sure were using the great outdoors not because of the nice weather, but because there are no smoke alarms outside...

Anyways, I've accompanied this blog with a picture, because I just realized that I could do that! Look at how happily collegiate Jess and I look!

Homecoming.

So I've just looked through all of the Homecoming pictures of my little brother and my younger cousin Stef and their respective dates! They just look so handsome/pretty and all grown up.

Looking at all of the pretty dresses, and the hair do's, and the high heels. It makes me miss high school! Well no. Actually it doesn't make me miss high school really. Just the one night of Homecoming. I had a sad feeling of nostalgia all day today!

This morning I missed playing in the Powderpuff game. In the afternoon I was sad to not be at the football game. I missed not going to Katie's house to take a million pictures, and I missed arriving at the dance with all of my friends.

I will have to be contented to just live vicariously through my brother's Homecoming experience. It actually even makes me feel a little bit old! My little brother! A freshman in high school! He's so grown up and such a wonderful young man.

I am being filled with overwhelming sentimental feelings for my little brother right now. I have no idea what has come over me!

"I don't understand...that."

I have a lot of pet peeves, some rational and some completely nonsensical, but I have recently discovered another one of mine.

Months ago, after my very first Calculus class, I posted a blog about how sad it was that my TA was so nervous - since he was actually a good teacher and had no reason to be. Anyways, in the month and a half since then, I'm happy to report that the aforementioned TA has chilled out and now at least seems comfortable in front of the room.

I think he does a really great job of explaining the many facets of Calculus to a bunch of kids who obviously don't understand math as well as he does. He shows every problem at least three different ways just in case you don't understand the traditional method. He always goes over the homework. He tells you what's going to be on the exam.

So ladies and gentlemen, perhaps you have concluded that my pet peeve isn't with the TA, but with my fellow peers. I swear, at least five times every class some student (who usually sits in the back...enough said) raises their hand and points ambiguously to the board and says, very vaguely, "I don't understand...that. Like how did you go from there to there. What are you doing?"

Anyone who has ever taken a higher level math class knows - there are problems all over the chalkboard! Every problem has multiple steps and conversions, and other complicated things so it certainly doesn't help if you simply are describing something as "that."

And then, said student gets very frustrated and annoyed with the poor TA when he doesn't explain the problem asked by the student. The point is. Everyone would learn and understand a lot better if you asked a specific question like, "I don't see how you took the derivative of the cotangent of x to arrive at this function of y." That is so much clearer than "I don't get that part."

If people could just put in that small amount of effort. I, and I'm sure the TA, would appreciate it.

Junior Miss!

I can't believe that at this time last year, I was one month away from my own Junior Miss Program. I'm extremely jealous of the current contestants who will get to experience all of that excitement in the coming weeks.

Thankfully though, all is not lost as I still do get to take part in some small piece of Junior Miss.

I remember last year looking at Brynne (the winner before me) and thinking "Wow. That is so cool! She gets to come back from college and see all of the new contestants and have fun with the chaperones and give a speech. I want to do that!" And now, here I am! Getting ready to come back from college and see all of the new contestants and have fun with the chaperones and give a speech.

I'm sure none of you are surprised that I have had my speech done with for an absurd amount of time. I would say probably since the beginning of August. But what's great about getting it done so early is that when I went back and reread it, I had a fresh outlook and could then make adjustments accordingly. I can't wait to give my speech. I think I'm becoming addicted to public speaking. It's just the greatest feeling.

I also am in the process of choreographing/learning another dance to perform the night of the show. While learning dances is nothing new to me, it is extremely difficult to choreograph in the small box that is my dorm room. While for all other intents and purposes it's a good size, for making up a dance. It's a problem. I've run into my desk a number of times. But it's all worth it because I'd do anything for Junior Miss!

I just want to note that I'm typing this particular blog entry from the comfort of the Honors Lounge. And you know what happened here today? They gave us free lunch! And not dining hall lunch, but real, yummy spinach wraps! With fruit salad and drinks and what not. Hanna Richardson, the advisor, just poked her head in and said, "There's sandwiches and wraps for you kids on the counter. Help yourself!"

It is instances like these that remind me every day of how happy I am to being attending Syracuse University. It's truly the best. I don't know much about the student life at other colleges, but I can practically guarantee it's not as fabulous as it  is here. I've definitely caught the orange fever. I don't think I'll ever want to leave.

You Should All Be Proud of Me!

So this morning, after I had gone to Spin Class and had my customary three hour lapse before my first class, I was even more focused and ready to do homework than usual. Seriously, I got so much done I surprised even myself.

And I think the secret to this super duper laser-like focus was that...get ready...brace yourself...

I took the weekend off!

Instead of doing my usual homework packed Fridays and Saturdays, I mostly just had fun this weekend. And let me tell you. It was actually a nice change of pace.

Friday night all of the girls on my floor went out to real dinner (i.e. non-dorm food.) We went out to Pastabilities and then walked around downtown. Took a trip to Urban Outfitters. Then we went back to the dorm and watched an absurd amount of chick flick movies.

Saturday morning, I built a house. That was a lot of work, so by the time I got back to the dorm at four, I was in no mood to sit down and tackle a bunch of homework problems. So instead I watched Gossip Girl, 90210, and Glee. That's about three hours of time I usually would of spent doing homework! Then I had a Bananagrams tournament with people on my floor.

Sunday was probably the day I did the most work, but even then it was limited. I went to the store, got some bubble tea. For once, homework was not my top priority.

But all that being said...I don't want you to think that I'm slacking off or anything. I'm still the Katelyn you all know and love! Part of the reason I could take the weekend off was because I've worked so hard. Lots of wise people have told me that it's important to give yourself a break, and that is definitely the truth. It's nice to be able to see that all of your hard work paid off and its actually okay to not be doing anything for a consecutive 48 hours.

I think this morning I was suffering from withdrawal. There is something very comforting in the sight of a cracked open Linguistics textbook and pages of carefully laid out notes. And withdrawal, it makes you work harder! I'm sure that there is some psychological term for this, but I'll have to tell you all next semester after I take the class. :)

What? 2nd Semester Already?

So today is...October 2nd. I've been in college for a little bit over a month (!), I've taken three exams, written long papers. And now, even though we haven't even had midterms yet, I have to start thinking about next semesters classes!

This is actually an exciting prospect, because who doesn't like to plan for their next set of intellectually stimulating classes, but it's also crazy. I mean, already!? It's only October 2nd!

I guess since it's such a big school SU does have to get the ball rolling fairly quickly, but when my advisor told me I had to start thinking about my enrollment for next semester, I think I had a small heart palpitation.

For one thing, I don't really know where to begin. So today one of my tasks is to get out the 500+ page manual they gave to every freshman so I can start reading about all the classes I can take.

I'm definitely signing up for neuroscience. I need to see if I love it as much as I think I will. Who knows. This class could make the difference in my careers! For the rest of my life!

On a less dramatic note, it's pretty cool because Honors kids get to pick their classes first. Highest GPA's = first in line! Oh, the perks. They truly seem to be endless.

Another added stress about picking classes is that I want to go abroad, so I kind of have to map my schedule around that, even though it's over a year away. I want to get all of the not-so-fun math classes out of the way so I can enjoy my time in Europe rather than stressing over Calc II.

Also. Foreign language? Anyone have an opinion on that (that statement was meant to be a joke...you guys have an opinion about everything!)  I'm thinking French. Even though I haven't taken it since (yikes) sophomore year, it might all come back to me. And everyone wants an employee who can speak a 2nd language. It's a competitive world out there! I need to be equipped!