update time

It's been a while. A month to the day. So, an update:

I was happily enrolled in a ceramics course this semester... was. However, the kind of ceramics projects I like to do aren't the kind of thing the professor likes. He's all about abstract art. And when I say abstract, I mean that our first project was literally to "distill the essence of the sound of our name into five to seven objects on square tiles." I took the class to enjoy it, but this is not the kind of project I love. I enjoy viewing that kind of art, but not necessarily creating it. The second project was more up my alley: coil-build, i.e. my favorite technique, and I got a decent idea he approved and ran with it. (I was going to build my two coil vessels in the shape of very bloated intestines, one larger than the other, with a slip pattern of intestinal cells covering each. I was going to call it "Gluten"... it was kind of a surprise for Tyler, I was really excited about it.) However, the timetable was virtually impossible unless I subordinated every other priority to my ceramics project. I realized that to do well in the course, to create work I was proud of, would require that it be my top priority all semester. I couldn't justify this, considering that my other three courses are upper-level and for my major or minor.
So, after much deliberation (and fighting pangs of [unnecessary, according to my advisor] guilt about dropping my very first class in college), I turned in my withdrawal form.
With this new "free time" I was about to suddenly acquire, I decided it was time to start studying a language on my own for grad school (since it was too late to pick up another course for the semester). I gave it some thought, and ordered Levels 1, 2, and 3 of the Rosetta Stone French CD-ROM.

My package from Rosetta Stone arrived a few days ago; however, I can't use it yet. It's sitting in its shipping box, torturing me from my floor... but my laptop is dying, so I don't want to waste one of my two alloted installations of the program on a computer I won't be using much longer. So I'll have to wait until my *DRUMROLL* neeeew laptop arrives at home by Spring Break. I wanted to make my Dell last at least until the summer, but it's pooping out on me and would require a monetary investment to fix, and I refuse to put another penny into the damn thing. So I'll be getting a jump start on using my new HP dv9700z customized notebook computer over my upcoming break. It took me a total of two hours on the phone with HP to order the thing, but the sales reps were very nice and I'm sure I'll be immeasurably content with my new laptop, especially compared to the level of dissatisfaction my Dell Latitude D610 has elicited since it arrived the summer before my freshman year. In fact, two different sales reps commented on the great customized configuration I'd ordered and asked if I was studying for a technology degree in college. I told them that my boyfriend had helped me "create" it, since pretty much all I know about laptops is that bigger numbers on memory are better, and that shiny screens are pretty. Good thing I have such a smart (and good-looking) helper around to make these technological decisions for me. :)

In other news, former British prime minister Tony Blair delivered the Ubben Lecture at DePauw on March 3. The talk was entitled "Challenges and Opportunities Facing 21st Century Citizens of the World" and was scheduled for 7:30 p.m. in the Lilly Center fieldhouse. I waited outside in the cold drizzle with Liz (whom I dumped water on with my umbrella multiple times) from 3:45 p.m. to approximately 5:02 p.m. (according to Liz), because if you didn't get a spot in the gym you were out of luck since there was no closed-circuit broadcast allowed this time like there was with Gorbachev last year. Once inside (past the metal detectors and the mandatory disposal of my water bottle's plastic cap for god knows what reason) we waited two and half more hours before Blair finally ascended the steps to sit graciously through his introduction by our president, Bob Bottoms. But it was worth the wait (even if I only got four pages of reading done in the meantime due to the distracting noise in the gym). His talk was entertaining (he had a really great sense of humor!) if not always "deep," but oversimplification is the nature of that kind of lecture, so he can't necessarily be faulted.
Besides, I'm pretty confident he does understand the complexity of the issues, he just can't get into them in nitty gritty details in a forty-some-minute lecture. Plus, good ol' Tony was sweet enough to take Tyler and me out to dinner afterwards (see picture above), so standing in the rain and eating only a Snicker bar for "dinner" was worth it. ;)

I applied to a seven-week summer program through Syracuse University called Muslim Cultures: Historical Diversities and Contemporary Realities. It's in London and includes a two-day trip to the Alhambra in Granada (which I saw over this Winter Term) as well as a five-day field trip to Istanbul (and I've always wanted to go to Turkey). I called to confirm that all of my application materials had been received by SU's admissions office, and I was told that I should have the results of my application by the end of next week or the beginning of the following week at the latest. It would be a spectacular opportunity, so my fingers are crossed.

A couple of weeks ago, I was asked by one of my closest friends here at DePauw to be a bridesmaid in her wedding this June. I was really excited! Another of my best friends (who's also a bridesmaid) and I are going to Terre Haute tomorrow with her and, besides hanging out and enjoying ourselves, will be trying on bridesmaid dresses. :)

As a reward to myself for being finished with all of my big pre- Spring Break assignments except for one more midterm exam, I had a cherry berry Cola tonight at the Duck with the two abovementioned girlfriends. Sadly, I did not get to top off my drink and chicken fingers with a piece of chocolate cake, since the Duck is no longer selling it. They're always making menu changes for the worse. But I'm confident that they'll at least always have spinach dip, which is enough to keep me going back.