Rain, teaching and summa cum laude

I like days like this. Waking up not too late, staying in bed for a bit, having a nice breakfast and then starting to work. I rediscovered nutella toasties - we used to eat them at AC. One of those amazing things that you can only have with moderation. I also rediscovered green tea. I used to drink loads during my first semester, especially to stay awake during exam period, but also because I liked it.

I'm sorry I've been quite bad with my e-mails. Sanne dropped by today asking what happened because I don't answer e-mails and this is like the end of the world. I'm fine, really.

Tomorrow I'm going to teach. I'll get Rosemary's class for 2 days to train them to program their experiments. They don't know anything about DirectRT, so it's all from scratch. I spent 2 hours today with trying to figure out how to get the program recognize the input files on the computers which are not in the psych lab and preparing the files for tomorrow's session. I'm looking forward to tomorrow! I've done this a couple of times, but never without any supervision. Getting a class completely (ok, a small class, but a small class is a class too) is really nice, well, at least I feel that the quality of my work is really appreciated. So, guys, everyone, better do well tomorrow and Monday and not let me down... Those experiments are going to work well.

Do you ever have those days when you think that the rain really adds to your day? I've been waiting for the sunshine the whole past week, especially because whenever there was sunshine, I was still working. And today was another one of those grey, rainy, Dutch days. But somehow it felt like the right weather today. Voltaire, DirectRT, Excel, Notepad, a huge mug of green tea, the soundtrack of Dirty Dancing, the rain outside: it was the perfect setting for work.

I got all my grades today. Haha, I was completely right about creative writing. Whatever, I still have my summa cum laude.

Having learnt from UC

Being done now (yes, yes, I'm done!!!) I find myself reflecting a lot about what I learnt at this place. It's quite clear with academics... I hardly had any idea about what I wanted to do when I came here. I think I mentioned law, languages and journalism in my application letter. I realized that law is not for me in the first semester, I only took Dutch and I have never even completed it to the 200 level, and I never got to take journalism. Instead, I found Psychology, Neuroscience and Linguistics, and I'm really happy I did. I think I complained a lot about not being challanged enough and not having learnt enough here, but comparing what I know now to what I knew when I came here, the change is pretty big. Actually, maybe I shouldn't say "what I know"; it should be something like "what I am aware of". The further you get in your education, the more you realize how many things there are that you don't know. In any case, I certainly learnt academic stuff here.

It's a bit harder to pinpoint what you learn on a social level. Also, because for me this wasn't the first time I lived away from home, in an international community, with other students. So, it all kind of blurs together with the experience I had at AC, in Wales. I'm afraid I already have learnt most of the stuff at AC. But it's not very easy to pinpoint these things. You change all along. Caro said she heard someone saying that I changed a lot since last year. That I used to be very sweet and now I'm much more reserved and distrustful. It's hard to see that from my position, but I guess it's true and it wouldn't be surprising at all.

So, yes, I did learn a couple of lessons. Some of them I would have preferred never to encounter, but they were obviously useful. I learnt a lot from the Bar, especially about power structures. I learnt a lot from not being admitted, about brick walls and why they are there (I think I'll get back to this later) and about people's attitudes toward other people in more vulnerable positions. I learnt from ASIC, about glass ceilings. I learnt to eat more and then to eat less :)

It annoys me though that I cannot separate the more general things, especially in my attitudes, that I gained from UC and AC. I guess it's the anniversary of leaving AC and being done here that make me want to reflect and figure out what I got from where. Probably it's not that important; I have it now and that's what matters. Still, I find it intriguing where it came from.

Last night I was surfing on YouTube and I found a beautiful video. It's the "last lecture" of Randy Pausch, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, in which he talked about how to achieve childhood dreams. Really, he talked more about how to live a meaningful life. I was amazed by his energy. There is this guy, terminally ill, quite young, the doctors tell him that he has half a year maximum, and he has twice as much energy and optimism than any healthy person I know. Truly remarkable. He was talking about his life and the lessons he learnt. He was the one who mentioned brick walls and that there is a reason for why they are there. Brick walls will show us and will enable us to show how badly we want things. So true. If you ever have a free 75 minutes, I suggest you watch it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo.

Those Voltaire days...

And once again, I'm sitting in Voltaire, working on my paper. I'm more than halfway through according to the wordcount, and less than halfway through based on what I want to say. And a bit surprisingly, Voltaire is not empty. A bunch of third years are still working on their essays and research projects. We are hardcore. Luckily, the sun is not around.

Sunshine, paper, champagne with orange juice

So, I decided that since my cross-cultural psych paper is due in 2 days, I might as well start writing it. I read a lot of literature and I have a lot of notes; now I only have to put it all together and figure out whether emotional experience and emotional expression is universal or culture specific. Both, of course. Duh. Anyway, it's going to be a nice paper, especially if I stop being distracted.

But it's nice to be distracted on such a beautiful day. Ok, the sun is not shining anymore, but it was shining just about an hour ago. I had to go back to my unit to pick up my pincard and I bumped into Jinon and Eliav in front of the building. They were chilling on the wooden thingy in front of G, and so I joined them for some time. I thought I would stay for 10 minutes, but I think we were talking for an hour about things like graduation, not wearing caps and gowns, the origins of Hungarian language and why Israelis are not allowed in Syria. Just sitting there in the sun, drinking champagne with orange juice, enjoying not having to rush anywhere.

I should start thinking about what to eat tonight, but maybe I could just eat pasta again. Yesterday I made a really nice pasta dish with sundried and fresh tomatoes and black olives. Oh yeah, baby. I could also make a huge salad. I even have an avocado. I do like Dining Hall, but I have to admit I like being able to eat what I feel like at the given moment. I decided I am going to treat myself with nice food during the summer term, which is not to be equated with a lot of food, but delicious, quality food. And I'm going to treat myself with a lot of dancing. My Friday and Sunday evenings are certainly going to revolve around salsa.

Oh, btw, this is my 150th post, and there have been more than 4000 visits to the site in 15 months, so I guess this should be time for reflection, but instead, let's just say that I'm happy I found this output domain and that I hope that sometimes interesting comes up for you, guys, too :)

x

Almost done

I was quite right in my last post: this has been a very hectic one and a half weeks. I made a new to do list every day to keep track of what is to be done still, and even though it was very reassuring that the list got shorter and shorter, I was completely exhausted by the end of the week. I spent every night in Voltaire, usually until 2, when security kicked us out, then I got up in the morning and continued studying/writing papers/writing my creative writing portfolio. I already saw myself pulling an allnighter for the portfolio, so I worked a bit on it every day/night, so that I could hand it in without having to stay up all night. I handed in 22,000 words in total on Thursday and had 2 exams on Friday. It wasn't nice. But it's over. Almost. I still have a deadline for a paper this weekend, and then I'm completely done with UC.

The days since the end of the week just went by somehow. I only realized Friday evening that I scheduled myself for the early shift (how could I do that to myself?), which was right after the after-formal-dinner shift, which was after the formal dinner, which was right after my last exam, which was right after my one but last exam etc. so it really wasn't the best day to chief. Thomas Hart sticked around in the bar till 2.30-ish, when his wife called that he should maybe go home, but Floris stayed until 3.30, which was basically when I decided to go home and take a shower before starting the BarCo initiation. So, we left the bar together and got a lovely "children, be good; remember what we taught you at sex ed" comment from Quirijn and co, after which I just made a note on that they should be laid and then they would stop being so sexually frustrated. BarCo met at 4 for the initiation and it probably took about an hour to get everybody from new BarCo. As we were supposed to, we made them do stupid stuff and then we made them breakfast as a compensation. Poor guys...

And then an amazing Beach Party on Monday in the Stadium. Luckily most pictures were taken at the beginning of the evening, when I wasn't yet too drunk (well, maybe the picture of me grabbing Sanne's tits would testify otherwise)... I was so hungover the next day. I think I was still drunk when I woke up, and the headache came only an hour or so afterwards and it lasted till around 8 pm. It was almost as bad as after BarCo installation.

No more Dining Hall; I should decide what to cook tonight :)

Exam period #6

The last one. Wow. I'm graduating in less than a month. Which means that I should be studying now. This week is probably going to be the busiest of all during my UC career... I should replenish my stocks of green tea and Red Bull and try to avoid chocolate :)

No more complaints about the weather... It's summer!

Ok, now I'll really get down to studying.

Mini-break

It's a mini-break till Monday! I'm so glad I didn't go home.... I probably wouldn't have been able to get any work done. But now I have 3,5 more days to catch up with my work. Not that I got anything done yet, but there's still time. The moment I got back from Amsterdam from Queen's Night/Day, I passed out on my bed for 3 hours. I'm still so exhausted. Salsa, staying up late, Queen's Night, having Caroline over and staying up late... I should really start to get into a healthy rhythm of sleeping.

Anyway, I made a to do list yesterday and basically got everything not so important done. I.e. I wrote to People Team, I sent a facebook message to Sam, I e-mailed Rony, I e-mailed a prof at Brown and I made the two photo collages that I was planning on making for the Bar.

Still to do:
- test 4 more people
- short story for creative writing
- blog of recovering anorexic girl for creative writing
- start cross-cultural psych paper
- check the bartenders' spam list
- do the dishes
- answer the cross-cultural psych summary e-mail
- dance/workout (did it yesterday but that's not enough)
- answer Anke-Marit's e-mail about the presentation
- e-mail cog sci guest presenter
- wash bedsheets

Why is the sun not shining? It's supposedly spring.