The Two V's(Vortex and the Vagina Monologues)

When it rains it pours when it comes to school sponsored events on the weekends.
And it was a flood on Saturday Night.

My frats retreat was this weekend and unfortunately because of the amount of studying and homework that I had to do for midterms I was unable to go.
This is as lame as it sounds but I figure that at some point in my life I will have to start prioritizing. So anyway most of the weekend was spent catching up on reading in my room or studying in the library but on Saturday night I decided to go out as there was a Vagina Monologues show as well as the second biggest school sponsored concert of the year, Vortex.

I had never seen the Vagina Monologues before so I was really not sure what to expect.
I was pleasantly surprised in some respects as it was not the stereotyped shrill feminist production that some has told me it would be.
However I did find it a bit graphic and intense to really say that I enjoyed it, but it was interesting and I thought all of the girls preforming the monologues did a good job.

After the VM's I went to a reunion party for my old dorm and had a great time chatting with some of of the people I used to live with in the 840 basement.
Following that we all headed out to Pearsons(our student union) to see Vortex. Vortex is big rock show with about 5 bands that play for around that many hours.
I missed the first few bands and a rock marching band that was supposed to be amazing but I did get to see the last band that preformed and they were fantastic.
They had two guitarists and two drummers and a great singer(though the levels were wrong so you couldn't really hear what he said) and their original song were pretty good.

All in all a good weekend.

I GOT TO SEE CHELSEY AND BARACK!!!!

It was so exciting! Yesterday we had both Barack Obama and Chelsey Clinton come to our little Wisconsin campus and I got to see both of them!

Chelsey came to DKs, our campus grill and sandwitch place, and did about an hour and half of just fielding questions from anyone who wanted to ask. Though she was half an hour late I thought she did a good job of answering every question that was asked. It was also great to see the number of people that turned out to hear what she had to say; I was expecting maybe fifty or so people from the campus and the communitity but instead DKs was packed and unless you got there about an hour early it was standing room only(lets just say I ended up sitting on the condiment bar). This was also one of the few times I have felt starstruck, I kept wondering what it would be like to her and have lived in the White House and be a face that most of the country would recognize. I concluded that it must feel pretty lonely, just like being really rich you never know if people are genuinly interested in you or they just want to be around someone powerful. Sorry for that digression, Chelsey answered questions about everything from economic reform to the what her mom would do to end the war in Iraq to questions about whether or not Chelsey thought she would ever be president, I felt that she did a very thorough job of answering all of these things.

Later that same day after waiting in the sports center's field house for 5 hours I got to see Barack Obama on a podium in our very own Flood Arena! It was definitly a long wait but well worth it to see the man who might be the next president of these United States. I had the fantastic oppurtunity of traveling to central Illinois to see him declare his canidacy for president about a year ago with the school so it was especially neat for me to see how far he had come in that time. His approach was certainly different from Chelsey's in that he did not answer questions(its a little bit harder with 3,000 people) but instead gave a rousing speech on how America needs change and how he will go about bringing us that change. I was struck by the security he had(metal dectors and a very large secret sevice exscort) while I did not see any kind of security for Chelsey.

All in all an amazing day and I so glad that we got to have speakers of this magnitude come to our quite campus!

Obama and Clinton come to Beloit!!!

Yes thats right right here at Beloit College we are having one and a half presidential canidates come to visit us tomorrow! I say one and a half because will Barak Obama is coming to campus Hilary Clinton is not BUT her daughter Chelsey is. Barak will be speaking in the flood arean(our big arean at the sports center were the basketball and volley ball teams have their games)after dinner and Chelsey will be giving an "informal presentation" with some question answering at the end. This is hugly exciting for everyone of campus(pretty much everyone is very into this presidential race)and i know I for one will be getting there early to make sure I can get into see them both.

The Sickness

Usually winter is when people get sick, you know sore throat, stuffy nose, maybe you skip your early morning class to get some extra sleep so you feel better, usual winter stuff. Not this winter. We have so far had two outbreaks of veracious viruses here at Beloit College just this semester!

The first wave broke about a week after we had all gotten back from winter break, bringing with us all microbes from every corner of the country which combined and mutated making super virus #1, knocking out about half of the campus. Everywhere you went were people with stuff noses and coughs infecting those around them. This passed after a week or so with no known casualties.

Next came the super bug #2 which hit late last week. This virus had a far smaller infected population(mostly just phi psi's) but was even more deadly(a figurative term as no way has died...yet...). A guy I know in that house was catatonic for about 3 days before just giving up and going home to be with his blanky and is bed to heal in good time. Meanwhile in his absence several of his frat brothers have gotten sick and this author believes it is possible that one of those phi psi's has infected me!

Now you may say that just because I am taking Marion Fass's Infectious Disease class that I have become paranoid(and you would probably be right) but when I was over at phi psi today and heard about this new super virus my throat almost immediately began to feel sore and I began to feel fatigued(coincidence? I think not). Now I have learned that there are some virus's that can kill you in less then 24 hours; you feel fine in the morning and by night- BAM! your dead. Now I can only wait and use your micro lab to help me search for a cure. God be with us...

French House, TKE and Gay/Straight Alliance House paries all in the same night AND its -50 degrees?!!!

Saturday night was the night for parties here at Beloit. We had three all campus parties and who knows how many smaller ones. And all this following of the heels of a huge party at the Spanish House on Friday night!

The Spanish House party was good fun, I got there around 12:30 after hanging out and chatting with for a few hours with some friends in my dorm room. All campus parties usually are from about 11pm-2 or 3am and most people do not really get there until about mid-night. When we got there it was packed with people dancing to Shakira and other Spanish artists. Danced there for about an hour two before I decided to call it a night so I would not be too tired to do some home work the next day.

Saturday night started out the same as Friday; hanging out with some people in the room until about 12:30. After that we all went out to the parties at TKE and the French House. We went pretty quickly between them as by this time it was about -20 degrees without the wind chill. During the night it got down to -50 with wind chill and even in the buildings it started getting cold(I have never had that happen before).

Sunday has been my productive day. Working out at on our brand new weight equipment(they finally got new stuff!) and getting some home work done for the coming week.

Study Abroad

Beloits emphasis on the International perspective is one of big reason that people choose Beloit, I know it was a big draw for me. Most of the people that come to Beloit(about 55% I think) end up studying abroad for at least one semester during their time here.

Last Friday was the deadline for the applications for any one who wants to study abroad next year and since I want to study abroad in China in the fall and Turkey in the spring I had to make sure that I had both my applications done and all the letters of recommendation in by that date. Now this may sound pretty easy but the application takes some serious time. It is about 10 questions and each needs about a 2 paragraph well thought out answer. Since I got those in on time (barely, only about an hour before the deadline!) now all I have is the interview which happens on Thursday, so wish me luck.

Presidential Weekend

This was a very busy weekend! It was the presidential scholarship weekend which meant that a ton of you prospective students made your way to old Beloit and go to stay and experience it first hand, and they definitely treated you guys well! We had a magician preform on Friday at Eaton Chapel, Chelonia(our yearly dance performance), and Voodoo Barbie(our student improv. group) all happening on Friday night!

But thats not all..

This weekend was also the date of me and my roommates room warming party(lesser known but non-the-less just as important a date as the presidential weekend) and it was amazing! Never mind the fact that we have been living in the room for a semester and change already or that we came up with the idea for a party on Thursday when the party was going to be on Friday. This kind of thing is what I love about going to college at Beloit; that everyone lives so close together and you see people often enough that you can just decide to throw a party out of the blue and still have it be a packed house. We had to more our wonderful new couch and create an old school dance playlist but other then that it was just leave the door open.

Saturday was spent recovering from Friday, just hanging out and watching a movie. Saturday night was fairly low key as well until we decide that it would be a good idea to shave my head.

All in all a good weekend at Beloit College!