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!

Crazy Weather

Well over the last two days we have had some of the strangest weather I have ever experienced. Wisconsin already experiences major extemes in temperatures from the summer to winter but this week we have experienced both extremes.

On Monday morning I walked outside with my usual huge down coat on only to find that rather then an icy breeze hitting my face and snow all over there were big puddles of melted snow and it as about 45 degree temperatures. Today it was even warmer in the morning and almost all of the 3 inches of snow on the ground had melted and it was in the high 40's. However, as I am writing this blog the winds are at about 20mph and its about -5 degrees. So even in the middle of winter at Beloit you can get some warm days(even though they may end it cold)!

The Dictator Party

Well once again we have reached the end of another lovely weekend here at Beloit College and the temperature actually got into the double digits too! It has been freezing cold here for the past week or so and last weekend the high was only 4 degrees so there was not much traffic on College street Friday or Saturday night(Usually you get a lot of people walking from party to party out there and it is a great spot to recognize friends and head to a party with them).

One of the social highlights of the weekend would probably have to have been the Dictator Party that was thrown at the Russian House. It was hosted by the model U.N club as well as the Russian house and it was pretty packed. It is a sweet spot to throw a party in the summer cause they have a very nice porch where people can hang out when its warm out. It was a big dance party this time and lots of people dressed up as dictators, I wore my Mao shirt and my communist hat and saw every one from Kim jong Il there to Saddam to Tiberius there. My friends and I started the night after dinner with watching a movie then went over to the French House and chilled there for about an hour with some more friends before heading over to the Russian House, it was a fun night.

Another amazing thing that happened over the weekend that I hope most you know and appreciate was the release of Rambo part 7 or something. As those of you who are regular readers know I went to this cinematic master piece with my frat brothers on Friday night. We had a great time and it was real cool experience going out with my frat brothers as I just joined last semester and have not had much time to chill with them yet.

RAMBO!!!!

For any of you out there that love terrible but amazing action movies I know you will join in celebrating the release of JOHN RAMBO!!!! comes out tomorrow and my frat is taking all the brothers there to a showing! I am so excited! I saw the youtube trailer(not the weak one they showed in theaters) and I cannot believe the movie is not NC-17. I will report back on Sunday as to how it goes.