Month: March 2009

Kimball has been trayless for the past two weeks now. At first, I was adverse to the idea simply because I thought that it would be a huge inconvenience for everyone at Kimball. All of the Kimball Captains thought that everything would just be a mess, and a majority of the students thought that it’d be impossible to balance a plate of food, a cup, and silverware. I can honestly say that these past two weeks have been running extremely smoothly. All of the Kimball workers and captains have seamlessly adapted to breaking differently, and barely any of us can tell that there’s a difference in protocol. Also, I’ve been able to see exactly how much less food is being wasted. The figures are really astounding. And, now that the students wasting less food, Kimball can afford to buy a variety of new foods. So, even though I was skeptical in the beginning, trayless has really been a huge success. Even though I might have to make a couple of trips to get all the food that I want, I realize that I’m now taking only what I know that I can eat. I’m really excited that all of the students here have been so accepting and willing to try something new that will, in the end, benefit us all.

You can tell a class is excellent when you’re upset when it’s canceled. My Ideological Destruction of Art seminar was canceled yesterday, although everyone in the class was somewhat okay with this. We took our midterm on Tuesday, so our brains are still recuperating. My Mathematics and Art class was canceled today, though, and I was quite sad about this. The class’ second paper was due today, and I was really excited to turn it in. The assignment was to go to a museum and compare a work painted before 1420 to one painted after 1420 to see how linear perspective affected the impact of the paintings. Brendan, a friend who is also taking the class, and I went to the Worcester Art Museum yesterday (huzzah! I was able to explore more of Worcester!). We both could only spend an hour there due to our schedules, but the two of us loved it. I know that I personally want to go back and spend an entire day there. The collections are exquisite. For instance, there’s a room in the medieval display that was part of a chapel that was built in France in 1137. It’s the same floors, the same walls, the same windows, the same arches, the same fireplace…nothing is a replica. It was so cool to stand on the same floor as another person did nearly one thousand years ago! The WAM also has one of the only untouched portraits of Caligula, which we discussed in my Ideological Destruction of Art seminar. Way to kill a lot of birds with one stone! Of course, that’s not to say that I like these two classes better than Early Christian Literature and Tolkien, which Fr. Vodoklys and Prof. Mulrooney, respectively, will never cancel!

In other news, happy Spring! I know that I shouldn’t say that because, knowing my luck, it will start snowing tomorrow.

Last Sunday, I couldn’t tell if I was in Georgia or if I was back in Worcester. Believe it or not, it actually snowed in Georgia. By “snow,” I mean that 2-3 inches blanketed Atlanta. However, people reacted like it was a blizzard. Very few people were on the roads; those who were driving were probably headed to a grocery store to stock up on milk and bread. AirTran and Delta cancelled a number of flights, and school was cancelled on Monday. My parents and I just laughed at the spectacle. Oddly enough, it was 60 degrees and sunny on Saturday, the day that I left. Welcome to Georgia weather!

I spent my spring break relaxing, test driving cars, and filling out forms. The car that my sister and I used to drive was pretty decrepit, so my parents invested in a used (but practically new) car for us. I had some fun driving around in my new Jeep Liberty! My mom also finally traded in her ’98 Ford Expedition that had over 188,000 miles on it. Can you tell that my family likes to run cars into the ground? Also, all of my Study Abroad files were filed out by various doctors and the like. That’s one less thing to worry about! Oh, yes, as for the relaxing…well, let’s say that I established some new records on the Wii.

Frighteningly enough, I have exactly two months left in the semester. I’m quite torn. I want the next two months to go by quickly because of the amount of work that I have to do (even though I do enjoy my class work, eight straight weeks of work is not exactly ideal!). However, I don’t want the next two months to go by quickly because this is my last semester here until Senior year. Can I just have a week at school with all of my friends and no work? Hah! Dare to dream…