Caitlin’s Blog

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Hi folks! I know it’s been an embarassingly long time since my last post…what can I say, Cornell has been keeping me busy. This semester especially has been tough, though thats mostly because of my Middle Eastern Politics class, which is seriously hard. We’ve had two prelims so far plus a thesis paper, and about a million more pages of readings than anyone could possibly do…it’s a little overwhelming. No, it’s actually a lot overwhelming. Arabic continues to be one of my favorite classes, which is great because I’ve basically decided both to be a Near Eastern Studies major and to do the Intensive Arabic Program next year. This would basically entail 16 credits worth of Arabic classes in the fall semester (Intermediate I and II plus Advanced I and II) and traveling to and studying in Jordan in the spring semester. I think it’s supposed to be a pretty small group, but that’s self-selection more than anything else.

I also had to deal with housing pretty recently. I got lucky, drawing a pretty early timeslot, but even by the time I was able to log in, most of the housing on West Campus seemed to be gone. I was originally planning to get a suite with some of my friends, but we weren’t able to find any open suites in any of the dorms. I ended up in Hans Bethe house, which is exciting because it’s one of the nice new ones, but the friends I planned to block with are in Lyon. Lyon is one of the most beautiful buildings on campus from the outside, as on of several which are known as The Gothics, for their gothic arches, square towers and beautiful stonework, but on the inside its substantially more dreary. The night we all signed up for houses, we went to have dinner on West and explore our new homes, and my friends weren’t altogether thrilled. Having lived in one of the really old buildings on North campus, I understand; there’s spiders in the summer and drafty windows in the winter, and when you turn the heat up, sometimes the radiators make a horrible screaming sound. I’ve just been trying to convince them that they can come visit me in my lovely single in Bethe any time they want!

I finished my work a little early tonight (which is why I had time for a post!) so I think I’ll get to sleep at a reasonable hour tonight so I can avoid sleeping through any of my classes tomorrow.

There are times when one can feel the winds shift; days when you wake up and know the world will never be the same; sweeping moments when you feel the palpable, concerted willpower of mankind. Our future begins today. As President Obama (it feels so good to finally say that!) spoke to the masses at the Capitol this afternoon, the mood was almost somber. He began by outlining the challenges facing his administration and our country, letting us know in no uncertain terms that he was not underestimating the difficulty of the next few years. As he continued to speak though, his tone became more and more optimistic. His speech, overall, was realistic but optimistic, saying that although we have a long and difficult road ahead of us, and although we may have made mistakes in the past, we are more than capable of making the necessary changes to not only right our past wrongs, but also to move forward, be better, do more, work harder, and lead more wisely than ever before.

More than any other time in my life, I think this moment in history will define my generation. For nearly all us college students across the nation, this was our first chance to vote in a presidential election, and indeed this marks the first administration under which many of us will begin careers and start lives of our own. For the first time we were able, as a demographic, to speak our minds and be heard, to clamor for change and be heeded, and to become fully responsible active citizens. For this reason, I think Obama’s speach was especially meaningful to my generation. We are the ones with the power to continue on this wave of change; we are hopeful, energetic, change-hungry youth on the shoulders of which this new era rises. We will forever be the ones who grew up under Bush, found our voices, and elected the first African American man to be President of the United States. These next four years, hard though they may be, will define us forever.

Yikes, it’s been a long time since my last post. My apologies; blame it on Cornell. I’ve been working my butt off lately, mostly for my Freshman Writing Seminar, which I don’t even enjoy that much. I really shouldn’t complain about it since it was my second choice, which is better than most people got, but it’s not quite what I was expecting. The focus of the class is on maps and cartography, and how they shape peoples’ ideas of geography and the world, which I thought sounded pretty cool. However, it turns out to be much less scientific than I thought, and much more analytical. We don’t really get to work with actual maps very often, which is disappointing (I love poring over maps and atlases), but instead spend our time reading about what other people think of cartography. I know all of this has value, but discussing the ways maps can be used as propaganda, or the how borders are both conceptually and physically powerful…it’s just not my cup of tea.

Anyways, that’s just one class, though it seems to make up the majority of my workload. Western Civ is going well, though we have a final coming up that I’m not too excited about. Psych is still awesome (though there’s a final soon for that too) and Arabic is going really well. In fact, I think I may have decided on a major: Near Eastern Studies. I’m set up next semester to take Elementary Arabic II (which finishes the language component of the major, though I plan to continue Arabic next year) and Politics in the Middle East, which I’m really excited about.

I’m also enrolled in French, which I took in high school and sort of miss, as well as a writing seminar (I don’t know which one yet) and a physics class to fill distribution requirements. That comes to a total of 18 credits, which is kind of a lot, but I’m willing to drop French if I have to, so it should be fine.

When I was little, my mother would take me with her when she went to vote. Inside the blue voting booth, she would lift me up so I could press the tabs she told me to, and then we would pull the lever to open the curtain together. For me, the last four years have been a double countdown- not only to the end of Bush’s second term, but to my first chance to vote in a presidential election.

The actual time spent in the voting booth wasn’t too exciting, but it felt good to pull that lever on my own and know it was my vote being registered, not my mom’s (and of course I got my first long-coveted ‘I Voted’ sticker).

Afterwords, my mom and I went out for breakfast because my only class of the day had been canceled to encourage us all to go vote.

The evening was spent in the A. D. White room of Uris Library, working on a paper for my writing seminar and refreshing the webpages of several news outlets tracking the election. Shortly after word was out that Obama had officially won, I got up to stretch my legs and discovered that everyone outside the silent bubble of the library was talking animatedly into cell phones about the election. Not long after, I began to hear chants of “GO BARACK!” in Ho Plaza beneath the windows of the library, which went on for quite some time as ecstatic students marched through campus. It was one hell of an exciting evening here on campus.

Well, I had a great break, which involved going home and eating good food, playing with my cat, seeing lots of my family, and spending time with old friends from out of town. This last week has been pretty crazy though. It was only three days, but it seemed like the usual amount of stress I have in a five day week was all crammed into those three days. Wednesday I became violently sick, with what must have been food poisoning, so that took up most of my evening, and Thursday was consumed by studying for the West Civ midterm I had on Friday. I think the test went ok- right now I’m avoiding writing the take-home essay part. Anyways, I didn’t get much work done last week, so I’m a little behind in some of my classes. I need to catch up on my Psych reading, write a critical response to some readings for my writing seminar, and write this take-home essay on Beowulf and Grendel…

At least I have Apple Cranberry Cake for breakfast. My mom went on a baking spree, and brought cake, brownies, and of course fresh veggies over on Friday. This is one of the perks of going to college in your hometown, along with going home for dinner on Sundays and already knowing your way around town.

Alright, enough procrastinating. Time to get to work.

I’m finally done with prelims, which is a big relief. I did decently on both Arabic and Psych, and I got an A on my Western Civ paper on Lysistrata, which I’m very pleased with. Fall Break is just around the corner, so we all get a much needed rest and a chance to catch up on lost sleep. A few of my friends from out of town will be visiting, which is great because I haven’t seen them in what feels like forever, and I should also get to spend a lot of time at the barn with my horse, who I’ve been neglecting recently. Even my family will be in town, including my sister who goes to NYU and my dad who is on sabbatical in Pasadena, so there should be plenty to keep me busy over the weekend, even with Cornell emptying out.

Bed calls. And I miss sleeping.

It’s prelim season, and my life is getting hectic. I had my first Arabic test recently, which was scary, and I have my psych 101 prelim on monday, so I’ve pretty much been holed up in my room studying. My freshman writing seminar is also giving a lot of work these days, so I haven’t had much free time to post. Sorry! I will hopefully get a chance to post again this weekend, depending on how the psych studying goes.

Cornell is hard!

Monday night may be football night in most of the dorms on North campus, but here in Balch, it’s Gossip Girl night. In the final moments before 8:00, the unit four lounge begins to fill as girls take their places on the chairs and couches. Around 7:57 someone turns the TV on, muting it so we don’t have to listen to the end of Dr. Phil. As soon as the show starts everyone gets quiet, and we settle in for an hour of girly fun. Each commercial break is greeted by an outburst of chatter as we discuss the latest developments; of course anyone who talks during the show is immediately shushed by everyone else. We all have a lot of work, and with prelim season just beginning, stress levels are generally pretty high, but every monday for an hour we leave our work in our rooms (well, some of us bring it with us, but it never gets done) and we take a much needed break.

I was bored between classes the other day, so I decided to do some exploration of Willard Straight Hall. The building looks pretty big from the outside, and I had only ever visited Cornell Cinema, Oakenshields, and the Ivy Room, so the rest of the building was a mystery to me. I started by going downstairs, but all I really found there were locked doors and places I had already been. Upstairs, however, remained a mystery, so up I went.

The first fun new room I found (and it’s also my favorite) was the Fifth Floor Lounge. It’s half dance studio (complete with a barre, polished wood floor and mirrored wall) and half study/lounge, with comfy chairs, ottomans (ottomen?), desks and thick rugs. One of the walls is all windows looking out over Ho Plaza, the walls are lined with sconces, and chandeliers hang from the ceiling. I think that’s my new favorite study room.

There are also a couple rooms the next floor up, called lofts, that I really liked. My favorite feels a bit like an attic, with a slanted ceiling, old leather chairs, a long table and a chalkboard. The lights are over-sized bare bulbs hanging from the beams of the ceiling, giving the whole room a warm, lofty feel. The other two lofts don’t have quite as much personality, though they’re perfectly nice.

There were a couple mystery rooms with enticing names, like the “Guest Suite” and the “Shower Room” but their doors were locked, so I couldn’t go in. Eventually my exploration was cut short by a need to get to class, but now I know where I’ll be doing a lot of my studying this year.