Colleen Curran '11

Every morning, breakfast is served at 8:00. I’ve become so used to waking up at that hour that my body has just adjusted to it, I suppose. This morning, I was in the middle of a deep sleep, and I woke up at 7:58 quite unexpectedly. So, huzzah for having an internal alarm clock!

This morning, it was sunny and quite refreshing outside. When I left breakfast, it was overcast and cloudy. When I was walking to the Radcliffe Camera, it began to rain. This weather change occurred within a span of thirty minutes. Welcome to England!

I had reserved a book that I need to read by Monday, and I had it delivered to the Lower Reading Room of the Radcliffe Camera. This is how the Bodleian works. You look up the book that you need; you’re lucky if it’s already on the shelves. If not, you have to request it from the stacks. The librarians find it in the stacks, send it on a cart, and deliver it to whatever reading room you so desire. I haven’t studied in the Camera yet, so I thought it’d be great to do that. I walked over to the Camera this morning, and my heart sunk. The gate was closed. Usually, the Camera is open on Saturdays, but apparently not this one. I was lucky enough to find another copy in the Social Science Library. The only problem was that I have never been in there before, so I had no idea where anything was. I eventually did find my book (it analyzes all the rhetoric and language that Saddam Hussein used to promote his Ba’thist regime. It’s really quite an interesting book; it’s kind of like linguistics meets political science.). I missed lunch at the college, so I went to the Covered Market to find some food. There’s a place (Brown’s Cafe) that has takeaway fish & chips for £4.95. When my meal was ready, the cashier/server/person asked me if I needed ketchup. I told him no, but malt vinegar and salt would be fantastic. He was really confused after that! My accent wasn’t meeting the stereotypical taste buds! My mom’s voice popped into my head, and I decided that I probably should get some fruit. At the local grocery store, apricots were on sale. So, I picked up a box and had a delectable meal of fish & chips and apricots! Afterwards, my roommate, Cathleen, and I went out for high tea again. I love the British – they give you a random and unjustified excuse to have cake in the middle of the day!

After dinner, I guess Mom’s voice wasn’t popping into my head, and I thought it’d be a great idea to go take pictures of Oxford in the rain. I might be soaking wet right now, but at least I have some amazing pictures of Oxford! Because of the rain, there’s not that much to do right now. Cathleen was an English major at Holy Cross, and she’s doing a summer tutorial on Virginia Woolf. We did a book swap – she’s reading The End of the Affair, and I’m reading Mrs. Dalloway right now. It’s really just a nice, relaxing night in this amazing city.

Hey everyone! I can’t believe it, but I’ve been in Oxford for a week now. This city is spectacular. The entire city is a medieval city trapped in modern time. Some of these buildings have been around since the 1400’s. It’s just incredible to take a walk anywhere.

Oh yes, the real reason why I’m here. The class that I’m taking is going well. There are nine of us in the class, so every day, we each have to present an article and voice our agreements and/or disagreements about it. Our seminar is very similar to a debate. Every Thursday, w

e have a “tutorial.” We bring our papers to our tutor, and he basically rips them apart in front of us. We have to debate with him and support our arguments. It’s very similar to office hours, I guess. The entire experience is just amazing, and I think that the entire tutorial process has molded me into a stronger student.

One of the most amazing experiences so far was being inducted into the Bodleian library. The Bodleian is one of the largest libraries in the world, and receives 3,000 to 5,000 books per week. The library collection is so large that one building cannot contain it. Instead, the Bodleian collection is dispersed throughout the campus. Some books are even kept in a salt mine in North Oxford because there simply  is not enough room! Studying in there for me is more of a distraction than anything else, quite honestly! Just looking up and being able to see such a vast wealth of literature is just awe-inspiring, to say the least. Before we were allowed in as “readers,” we had to swear that we would not a) bring in any food or water, b) damage the books in anyway, c) take the books out of the library (the library is reference only), and d) set fire to any of the books or the building itself. There have been threats against the library in years past, and one was nearly carried out. After we all took the oath, we were inducted into the library.

So, Oxford is going really well. I’m going to try to put up daily updates from now on to give you all a better idea of what daily life is like during Study Abroad. Until next time!

 

Colleen

Hey everyone! I’m sorry it’s been so long since my last entry, but this summer has been extremely busy for me. Between working as a waitress, catching up with all of my friends, and preparing for my trip to England, I feel like I have no time whatsoever.

My job as a waitress at a local Irish pub went really well this summer. My sister was also hired there, so it was great to work with her this summer. One of my customers was actually related to the director of Athletics for Holy Cross – rather small world, I guess! 

My friends and I weren’t able to hang out as much as we had anticipated at the beginning of the summer, but we still had fun together. For Fourth of July weekend, my friends and I went up to my friend’s, Tara, lake house. We spent the weekend jet-skiing, white water rafting, and kayaking. We also hung out last night and had a picnic in a local park. It was great to meet up with all of them, and I’m quite lucky to have friends like them.

As for other things that I’ve done this summer, I went to see Flannery O’Connor’s, who is my favorite author, home in Milledgeville, GA. It was great to see the actual place where she wrote her short stories. My family and I have also attended a couple of Braves games. Ted Turner put up a new addition at the ballpark – a Chick-Fil-A cow that does the tomahawk chop whenever a Braves scores a home run. It’s not exactly like watching my beloved Red Sox at Fenway, but the cow certainly adds a whole new level of entertainment! Aside from that, there’s really not that much to do in Georgia during the summertime. It’s honestly too hot to do anything but be indoors.

It’s really weird to think that I won’t be back home until it’s cold. This summer has been brutal down here. The high has usually been anywhere from 90 to 100 degrees. It’s also really weird to think that I won’t see any of my friends until Christmas.

Tonight, I’m flying to London. My class at Oxford begins on Sunday. I can’t believe that it’s finally here! When I returned home in May, July 25th seemed so far away. I’m both nervous and excited for the class that I’m taking – British Empire and the Rise of Terrorism. I’ll probably be updating daily when I adjust to the time difference over there. When I return to the States, I’m spending a day with my family in Boston, and then I’m moving into Wheeler Hall at Holy Cross for Kimball Week.

Well, I have to double check to make sure that I have everything packed up. Until my next post, which will be from Oxford!

Well, I am happy to report that this update was typed on my laptop. I brought my laptop into the Apple Store by my house, and they were able to replace the hard drive. I’ve been transferring my files from my external hard drive to the laptop and restoring all of my applications, but I’m just so relieved to have a functioning computer again.

I’ve been home for a week exactly, and I just can’t seem to grasp the idea that I’ll be here for more than a couple of weeks. It’s weird coming back for such an extended time, but I’m enjoying eating my mother’s cooking and sleeping in my own bed. I’ve hung out with some of my friends, and we’ve exchanged stories about our first year at college. It’s great to have such a variety of stories – just to give you a taste, one of my friends is a Physics major at Cornell, another is a nursing and track star at Creighton, and another is a pre-med student at UVA. We’re planning some outings to Six Flags, one of my friend’s lake house (there’s actually a lake this summer), and a huge Disney Princess story (it’s a long story).

This summer, I’m working with my sister at an Irish pub. We’ve both been Irish step dancing since we were five and six, respectively, so we’ll also have a couple of performances throughout the summer there. I am so excited to work there!

Below are some pictures from the last week or so of college. On Thursday night, which was most of my hall’s last night at college, Carrie decided to explore the upper cabinets in our room. Well, it kind of turned into a weird experiment of sorts to see who we could scare the most. Hopefully the pictures will explain what I can’t.

I hope that you all are having a great summer!

 

As of 4:51 EST, my freshman academic year is over. It really was cathartic when I handed in my FYP exam booklet. Professor Kee was one of the very first professors that I met, and he has been one of my professors for the entire year. He really helped me strengthen my writing skills, and challenged me to always write above my potential. When he shook my hand and told me to have a nice summer, my freshman year was officially over.

With a year’s worth of experience on the hill, I’ve decided to create a “Do’s and Don’ts” list for the incoming first-year students to help you all prepare for and enjoy your freshman year.

Do’s:
• Do join at least one club. Try something new. Get as involved as you can. You’ll meet upperclassmen who have probably taken some of your classes, know their way around Worcester, and understand what it’s like to be a freshman.
• Do take a challenging upper-level course your freshman year if you can. I’m very glad that I took US Intelligence Communities with Professor Bunke. That class pushed me to do my absolute best, and I also had a fantastic professor that I’m probably only would have met my senior year. So, if there’s an upper-level class that interests you, take the initiative, and contact that professor to see if he or she will let you in.
• Do speak up in class. Show your professors that you read the material before class, and that you know what you’re talking about.
• Do utilize your professors’ office hours. Even if you had a question or just wanted to talk about a reading for class, talk to them in their office. When you have a paper due, go and talk to your professors about your topic. Even if you don’t have any questions about your paper, talk to them to see if they have any suggestions (they are brilliant people, so they’re bound to have some) for you. I really cannot stress this enough!
• Speaking of papers, do go to the Writers’ Workshop. It’s always beneficial to have another pair of eyes read over what you’ve written (especially if your paper is worth 25% or more of your grade), and your professors are alerted if you received help from a writing tutor. It’s basically a free tutorial in writing. Why not take advantage of it?
• Do take advantage of Worcester. This is a very vibrant city. Do what my friends and I did one sunny Saturday – take the Woo Bus into town, go explore along Main, Center, and Franklin streets. Find some restaurants that you like. (For future reference, get the eggplant lasagna at Brew City. It is fantastic.) Find some shops. Even though there’s free transportation to Boston and Providence, you don’t have to leave Worcester every weekend to find something entertaining. 
• Do bring an external hard drive or some other form of external back up. I was lucky that I had an external hard drive with me when my computer randomly crashed. If not, all of my files might have been damaged. Save all of your papers, music, photos, and other information to it.
• Do bring a rug, fan, and lamps to college. The bigger the rug, the better. Fans are key during August and September. You will need as many lamps as you can fit in your dorm room.
• Do work at Kimball if you can. You will meet so many other freshmen and also get about fifty dollars each week. That fifty dollars goes a long way in college, trust me. I didn’t want to work at first, but now I’m very glad that I did. Plus, I’ll be a Kimball captain next year, so you should definitely sign up for one of my shifts. Just kidding. Well, sort of.
• My parents are going to kill me for this one, but do use Facebook during the summer to get to know some other freshmen. I met Katie through Facebook, and we’ve been friends ever since. There’s a Holy Cross 2012 group on Facebook, and that’s a great place to go if you have any questions or concerns about absolutely anything regarding your freshman year. However, a word of caution. Do not get addicted to Facebook!
• And, lastly, bring a camera. I only posted maybe a tenth of the pictures that I took on my blog. Even if your friends think you’re weird for carrying a camera around with you everywhere (yes, my friends do), it’s a great way to remember your freshman year. Carrie and I were looking at her photos last night, and we were crying from hysteria over a couple of them.

Don’ts:
• Don’t take a class for just a requirement. Explore the different required areas you have for courses that genuinely interest you. Two of my courses next semester genuinely interest me, but they also fulfill two requirements.
• Don’t bring all the clothes in your closet. Believe me, if you haven’t worn it in the past three weeks, don’t bring it. You will not wear it. You can always go shopping for clothes if you didn’t bring enough, but trying to stuff all your clothes into boxes to go back home is a pain. Believe me, I’m going through this right now.
• If you live close to Holy Cross, do not go home every weekend. There are always events on campus, and you truly miss out on the college experience if you’re always at home. Go home when you need to, and leave it at that.
• Don’t spread yourself too thinly. Time management is so essential in college.
• Most importantly, try not to pull an all-nighter. I have only pulled one all-nighter this entire year, and I think that my body is still trying to recover from it. It’s just not worth it. Whatever you write will not be erudite at all; if you’re lucky, it will be somewhat understandable. Sleep is important.
• Lastly, do not under any circumstances get addicted to Cool Beans. You will spend all of your dining dollars within a few weeks.

And that’s about all of my advice for all the incoming freshmen out there. Your freshman year will be difficult, but if you take advantage of all the opportunities that are available to you here at Holy Cross, then it’ll be much easier.

Ashley left yesterday; Haley, Carrie, and Margaret are leaving tonight; Jess and Katie are leaving tomorrow morning. I feel like I’ve been saying good-bye constantly. At least I won’t have to say good-bye to my blog. I’ll be writing about my experience at Holy Cross until my graduation in May of 2011. That’s in three years. That’s kind of scary.

Earlier today, I successfully transferred all of my dying computer’s files to Haley’s laptop, and then transferred them all to my external hard drive. My photo files were larger than my music files. I had nearly five gigabytes of nothing but pictures. I only started the library on my laptop in August. But at least I was able to do that and it all turned out smoothly.

Right now, I’m in the exam room for my FYP exam, which is my last one. I won’t be leaving until Sunday, however (it’s just how the flights worked out), so I still have some time to pack. This is so sad, and yet I’m quite excited to spend most of my summer at home.

Until tomorrow!

My room is now packed up. Carrie and I didn’t have any exams today, so we decided to pack up the room last night. The rug is rolled up, the posters are down (except for Carrie’s “The Clash” poster), the refrigerator is empty, and all of our stuff is in boxes. It’s quite a depressing site, actually. Our room was always the most decorated in the hall (Carrie and I had a poster-accumulating contest, which kind of turned into something similar to the arms race of the Cold war), and now it’s completely bare. Carrie isn’t leaving until Friday night, and I’m not leaving until Sunday afternoon, but we just needed to get that accomplished. Just a word of advice to incoming freshmen girls – you do not need as many clothes as you think you do. Take my word for it.

In computer news, Haley and I are going to transfer my data to her Mac tonight. Then I get to wait until I go home to get the hard drive/laptop replaced. Although it’s manageable, life without a computer really isn’t all that much fun (there are far less opportunities to procrastinate!).

Right now, two juniors (Tom and Josh) and I are in our Latin room reviewing and comparing translations. There’s still about an hour before our written Latin exam. I’m currently combing through my translations and making sure that all of my verb tenses and noun positions are correct (thank goodness for Whitaker Words!).

After this exam, I have to finish studying for my International Relations exam, which is tomorrow at nine. Only six more days until I go home…Wasn’t it just a year ago that I was studying for the AP exams and preparing for graduation?

P.S. My passport arrived at my house yesterday. So, I am now officially going to Oxford for the summer! Just another motivation for me to get these exams over and done with!

Hey everyone! Quick update for today.

The weather these past two days has felt more like October than May, so it’s still difficult for me to believe that I only have a week left. Life without my own computer hasn’t been too bad. I’ve finished all of my papers in the O’Kane computer lab and Dinand.

Speaking of Dinand, it is absolutely brimming with students right now. Tomorrow is my the written portion of my Latin final, so I’ll be in here until who knows when.

Last night, Katie, Sean, Jeremy, Grant, Ashley, and I all took a break from studying and played imaginIff. Somehow, Sean and I started talking about Lord of the Rings. It was definitely a needed relaxing break!

I have a fun story for you all. Well, it’s not necessarily a fun story. In fact, it’s not fun at all.

Yesterday, I heard this strange clicking noise that was coming from underneath the keyboard of my laptop. I knew it wasn’t the fan, so I started to worry. I restarted my laptop, and then…it wouldn’t restart. It just wouldn’t. I tried everything – resetting the PRAM, the SMU…nothing. So I called Apple to ask what was going on, and they confirmed my worst suspicion. My hard drive is going through a mid-life crisis. It hasn’t crashed yet, but it’s in the degeneration process. Luckily, I finished my Latin paper and already turned it in, and I didn’t start typing out my FYP paper yet. Carrie is being the best roommate anyone could ever have throughout all of this. The technician told me that I can do a data transfer switch, and all I need is a Firewire cable (check!) and a friend who has a Mac (check!). Carrie’s letting me dump all of my documents, pictures, music, etc. on to her computer. After it’s all switched over, then I’ll just transfer it to my external hard drive. We’re not going to do it until tomorrow, when we both have enough free time to make sure everything runs smoothly.

So, I’m getting a chance to see what college life was like before the advent of computers. I’m writing my FYP paper on actual paper and then I’ll type it up in the O’Kane computer lab. It’s not going to be fun, but at least now I don’t have the internet to distract me from my work. Right now, a wise saying from Professor Thomas is ringing in my ears. “You should always save your files to an external back up.” Well, I plan on doing that from now on.

In other news, our FYP banquet was last night. It was extremely bittersweet because it was, in a sense, a graduation. My class is the last FYPpers. The professors shared their favorite quotes from our shared readings, and wished us all well throughout our college careers. In return, the students put on a skit that mimicked our professors’ idiosyncrasies. For instance, Ryan, who was playing Professor Kee,  came onto the stage with a white cotton beard, and continually talked about Plato’s “Good.” One of the best quotes from the script said by Ryan/Professor Kee: “I’m going to write a book. I’ll call it My Thoughts. Chapter One: The Anachronisms in Dante.”  It was absolutely hilarious, and the professors really enjoyed the skit!

All right, I have to get back to my Stone Age version of college. I guess it’s not technically the Stone Age because I do have some (limited) computer access, and I also have my cell phone. So would this be the Bronze Age? The Copper Age? Well, whatever age it may be, this is probably one of the most interesting ways to start out finals week!