soon.

Finals finished: 1.5 / 3
Pages written: 21
Pages total left: 16
Pages in Spanish left: 10
Days until my birthday: 2.5

This morning I woke up with a sore throat, and last night I found my first gray hair.

aslkdfjalkkksdlfjaksfjlaaaaaaaaaaaa

143 milligrams of caffeine

One out of three finals finished and I am hopped up on caffeine. Or should I say... AMP-ED UP. That's right, I'm practically mainlining Amp energy drinks.
For some reason there's a warning on the can which reads:

This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.

Good to know.

incidentally, the number 9 in binary is 1001.

Trivia and margaritas were a winning combination last night. Though our team (Henry, Sam, Andrew, Kate and me) didn't place, we did do pretty well. My proudest moment: correctly guessing that the lacrimal gland is in the eye, purely based on knowing the word "lachrymose". YEAH.

Our team name was "The Golden Monkeys", what we thought was a throwback to the best show of all time, LEGENDS OF THE HIDDEN TEMPLE. Unfortunately, after wikipediaing it today, turns out that the Monkeys were green, and there were no Golden anythings. At least we didn't go with the Purple Parrots. Those guys always lost.

Teams assembled in the 'Sco.

"Think! None of the rest of us know binary!"

A very weird blurry picture of Kate.

Sam and Kate.

Henry... dancing?

Margarita night at Agave.

Fooood.

We play Apples to Apples a lot.

Because it's hilarious.

And sometimes confusing.

Moon.

Somehow Henry always ends up back at our house.


[ADDENDUM]
Just found this on youtube (I do work sometimes too, I swear!). I totally forgot how that guy would always come down from the ceiling and stuff. That must have gotten old for him real fast.

BASSOONERY

Nothing relieves finals stress and simultaneously boosts Christmas cheer like Bassoon Christmas. Bassoon Christmas is the best (the only?) Oberlin holiday tradition — every year about a dozen bassoon majors put on a little wacky concert in the lounge of the Con, and about a hundred people pack into the space to hear them perform all kinds of silly carols, sometimes with the aid of kazoos. Today there was free pizza and cookies to accompany the lovely music, so I was totally there. When the bassoonists take requests, there are often Connie jokes that I don't understand. There is usually some singing along. And there is always O Berlino.

Yes, that's right. Oberlin has its own Christmas carol, and it is sung to the tune of O Tannenbaum. Everyone knows this (or learns this) and everyone sings along and it's very heartwarming. The words go like this:

O berlino O berlino
Berlin o ber lin oberlin
Oberlino berlin o ber
Lin oberlin oberlino
O berlino O berlino
Berlin o ber lin oberlin

Creative, I know.

I've been trying to do at least one fun thing every day, to break up the monotony of finals. The other night it was Andrew's concert:
They are... completely insane.

Tonight it's probably going to be TRIVIA NIGHT, if we can get a team together. "Cash prizes" was really the draw for this one. And of course, margarita night.

Oh man, that's potentially three fun things for today, if I'm counting Bassoon Christmas, which I am. I better get to work!

This is me procratinating.

And this is me in a womb chair in the library. Even though there is still one more week of classes left before reading period and finals, everything about life at Oberlin has become a little bit more tense and a little bit less happy. The campus reeks of procrastination, denial, and stress cigarettes. Just now, I heard the girl in the womb chair next to me crying. She calmed down after a little while, only to get worked up again while frantically flipping pages. Yep, that's finals for you. I haven't devolved into tears (yet), but I have resorted to carrying fruit around with me and giving in to occasional 20-minute power naps, since I've stopped eating and sleeping regularly.

Right now my biggest problem is that I haven't really been working on honors, and I have a meeting with my advisor in... 1.5 hours... and I have not a whole lot to show him. BUT, after honors is placed on the back burner after this week, I can focus my three 12-page final papers. Next week I need to write an average of 4 pages a day, and then finals week just 2 pages a day, and then I will be a-okay... I hope. Who needs a drink.

ELECTION DAY 2008

Well, I can't think of a better place to be for the election than Oberlin. Here are some highlights:


Watching the returns at the boys' house. This was right when they were about to announce Ohio...


... and this was right after they announced Ohio!


Pandemonium ensues!


We celebrated Ohio going to Obama with a bottle of champagne.


On a quest for extended cable, we went to Wilder to watch Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. From this TV lounge upstairs, at 11 pm we heard the roar of the crowd already gathered in the 'Sco downstairs...


... and we went down to find a giant Motown dance party.


Relief and happiness.


Allypants.


The huge crowd gathered at the gazebo at the impromptu party in Tappan Square. Possibly the biggest party Oberlin has ever seen.

TRAGEDY STRIKES

So last week I was in a semi-tragic bike accident. By "semi" I mean that nothing (including the other guy and both our bikes) was seriously injured... except my face. A word to the wise: never break a fall with your face/head region. Use your hands, that's what they're for. So I got x-rays and cat-scan and everything was fine. But I did look a hot mess.

Anyway, this is what I looked like after it happened:

This is what I looked like yesterday:

And this is what I look like today:
TERRORIST SARAH. No, I've been using a different scarf to protect my wounds from the sun. But I still look like I'm in purdah.

Fortunately for me, my face got torn up before Halloween, so I was able to hand out candy while looking like the Phantom without his mask on. Many many youngsters came trick or treating at our house, which was very nice and fun. I think most were drawn to us because of our amazing decorations:

Before the accident, Kate and I got a little overzealous with photobooth, and these things happened:

And for good measure, photobooth also takes videos, and here is one of them:

I need someone to be Boots.

Apparently Blogger thinks this is a spam blog. Secretly I am a spambot. Boopbeepboopboopbeep.

Yesterday I gave blood for the first time in a while. Despite some serious entire-arm pain afterwards, I was fine. Abby, on the other hand, completely passed out. Luckily I was there to catch her and nurse her back to health (with the help of about 5 phlebotomists). Unfortunately, it seems that that lost pint of blood pushed me over the edge into the sickness that I've been avoiding for weeks.

At least we have tomorrow off for Yom Kippur.

I have decided to go as Dora the Explorer for Halloween.
The more I study her clothing, the more I realize how clash-y it is.

It turns out first graders can sort of read. Who knew? Today we learned five whole professions, and matched them with assorted objects we made (a pipe-cleaner stethoscope, a wallet with a paper policeman's badge, etc) -- the professions were written below each person, and the kids really tried to sound them out. For some reason, our one grumpy kid got into the singing and dancing today, which was great. Also, one little girl had broken her arm between Monday's lesson and today, and she asked us to sign her cast, which was really cute.

For good measure, here are some assorted pictures from my camera and facebook:
Our impromptu party on Saturday night.



Melissa took this one night when she was over for dinner.


She also took this one of me in Azariah's, the coffeshop/study area in the library where I spend approximately 20% of every day.


... aaand I don't know why this happened.

edificios en nuestra comunidad

The Oberlin public schools recently instituted the IB program, which means that SITES is trying to integrate a little more with what students are being taught in their other subject areas. First grade is currently learning about communities — community buildings, jobs, etc. So this weekend I rode around on my bike taking pictures of various buildings to bring to class:
EL CINE. The one-screen movie theater that is possibly in the process of being bought out by Oberlin College.


LA BIBLIOTECA. The public library (where I definitely need to obtain a library card).


LA ESCUELA. Good old Eastwood Elementary.

Now I need to stop procrastinating and read a book.

WELCOME ABOARD THE S.S. 213

Last night I went to Boy Band Night at the 'Sco, and it. was. AWESOME. It was probably the most fun event I have ever attended at Oberlin. I never thought in a million years that I would ever see so many guys my age totally rocking out to Hanson (and 'NSync, and the Backstreet Boys, and LFO, and Boyz II Men...). There were so many people there and everyone was screaming the lyrics to every song, and every song was better than the last.

I spent most of today (as every other day) in the library. And I took some pictures of my scholar study with my computer:
This is the glazed look I get after about 5 straight hours of work on my honors project.


My tiny dominion.


But I have a beautiful view.

Today I had a Hispanic Studies majors/minors dinner -- with food from CASA FIESTAAAA. And tomorrow we are having an honors colloquium dinner at someone's house, for more touchy-feely bonding. I love it.

Now it's off to watch the debate!

One month down...

Someone recently suggested to me that I might want to keep a journal to track my progress on my honors project, to help me make sense of how my ideas are evolving. So I figured I might as well set up another blog so I can bore other people with this crap too. And I can also write all about the living-in-a-house adventures of senior year.

Also! I can post pictures of my house here, since my poor-quality internet does not support video chatting.

Our porch -- it was a typical October today, rainy and cold and gray.


Our living room, as seen from the front door.


More of our living room, complete with makeshift curtains.


Our Christmas-themed dining room.


Our dining room as seen from the kitchen (notice the too-heavy-to-hang mirror we found in a closet when we moved in -- now it's a Christmas decoration).


Our tiny kitchen.


Our tinier pantry.


The upstairs hallway. The open door on the left is the bathroom...


...which, like everything else in this house, is small.


The hallway ends in the lounge...


...where Kate has her desk set up. We were using boxes as bookshelves until I found that wooden thing amongst our neighbor's garbage.


Through the lounge to the left is Kate's room, with its weird midget closet.


And going back into the hallway and to the left, here's my room!


I even sort of made my bed.


And this is the view from the window next to my bed. Lovely day.

Since I'm on photos, and since these views of Oberlin are so sad-looking, I might as well post some pictures I took at TGIF a couple weeks ago. TGIF is held every Friday (weather permitting, so about 4 or 5 Fridays per semester...) in Wilder Bowl -- they have beer and a DJ or a live band for music. A wonderful Oberlin tradition.