Homecoming Saturday!

Hello!

It's Homecoming Saturday and the campus is excited!  The football game starts at 1 PM versus Simpson so let's hope for a Kohawk victory!  I just gave a tour to a prospective football player which was super fun and went well.  The plans for the day are as follows:

- Football Game
- Dinner with Haley, Alison P., Anna H., Nicki
- Homecoming dance

Should be lots of fun!  Expect a post soon on all my adventures!

Happy Saturday!

Firoozeh Dumas Comes to Campus

Okay, so if you remember back to my summer posts, I had a post about Firoozeh Dumas -- she is and was the first speaker in the Marquis Series this year.  I got the opportunity to talk to her several times while she was on campus and her being here was definitely a great way to start off the week!  (Picture from Firoozeh's website.) 


Monday:

She came to campus and spoke to the freshman in the morning.  Her presentation to them was on the history of Iran which she tied into Persepolis (the first-year common book).  I met her for the first time shortly after she spoke to the first-years.  Professor Eichhorn, my FYS professor from last year, called me and informed me Kayla, my Writing Fellow from last year, and some first-years were talking Firoozeh to the PUB for lunch and I should join them.  I did and we had a grand old time.  This only pumped me up for her presentation (the formal Marquis Series' presentation) I was going to later that night.  

Her presentation was fantastic that night.  Firoozeh is very funny and this speech was more about how she ended up publishing two books: Funny in Farsi and Laughing Without an Accent.  (Side note: She's currently working on a third tween fiction book!)  Both books are memoirs about her life adventures.  Funny in Farsi deals with her and her family moving to America from Iran and the various things they run into, such as the language barrier.  This book is also filled with anecdotes about her family members.  The message I really got out of her speech was to never give up.  She started writing her stories down when she was in her 30s and it took many years and a few rejections before she found a literary agent who wanted to help her publish her books.  As someone who hopes to be published someday, that was inspiring and encouraging to hear.  

I of course bought her book after her presentation and had her sign it for me.  We briefly discussed my name and the abundance of "l"s.  

Tuesday:

I woke up early, as usual, and went to Topics in Composition (the Writing Center development/staff training class) which I'm not actually enrolled in this semester but Firoozeh was going to be there so I wasn't going to miss it.  This was an open question and answer session where we hit on a lot of different topics.  Firoozeh was extremely personable and friendly; we learned a lot about her and I'm sure she learned a lot about us.  I think my favorite moment during this session was when Firoozeh was talking about her love of libraries (I'm sure some of my readers are saying, "Of course Hailley loves this section."  You know me too well).  She was telling us about this one book she read about a girl who dives with horses (part of a circus like show) and then the girl became blind but she still continued this stunt.  This true story takes place during the Great Depression.  As Firoozeh was telling us this, I remembered I had seen the movie version of this story which is called Wild Hearts Can't be Broken.  I raised my hand and said, "You know that's a movie, right?"  Firoozeh didn't know a movie (made in 1991) existed and was quite excited to see it.

 I went to class, worked in Admissions, and then went to the Writing Center to have tea with Firoozeh.  There were about 10 girls, Dr. Bob, and Firoozeh.  This time we went around, introduced ourselves and talked about our life dreams and goals.  It was a casual yet exciting conversation.  We laughed a lot and shared a lot of stories.  It was decided that I'm the unofficial mayor of Coe because apparently I know a lot of things on campus.  Which is good because then I can let you know on this blog and keep my friends on campus in the loop.  An hour went by and unfortunately, tea was over and Nicki (freshman Writing Center consultant and also my 6th floor neighbor) had to take Firoozeh back to her hotel.  We said our goodbyes (I even got a hug!). 

In my opinion, Firoozeh is so inspirational.  As a writer and as a person, I felt rejuvenated Tuesday afternoon as I walked back to Murray; I was ready for anything (which to me last night meant a lot of reading for my classes).  I think my favorite part of the whole experience was just getting to know her in a short span of 24 hours.  She called me by name Tuesday morning and gave me a hug when she was leaving.  She was just so great and personable, I’ve come to admire her a lot. 

      

   

Senator Reelected!

Good news!  Yesterday was the campus wide voting for Senate seats for the 2011-2012 school year.  Each year you have to be reelected if you'd like to continue to participate in Senate.  This year I ran for a spot in Murray (if you remember, last year when I joined I came in as an At Large Senator).  An email hit everyone's inboxes last night and I'm one of the four Murray Senators!  Our first meeting is tomorrow and I can't wait to see what Justin and Kelly (the President and VP) have in store for this upcoming school year.

Side note: There has been a lot of exciting things happening on campus so look for some more posts soon.

A Good Friday

I can't believe another week has flown by!  Today was an especially good day.  Here's what happened.

Had class.  Psychology in the morning, then Barcelona and Cultural Studies in the afternoon.  The crazy thing about all my classes this semester is that they either overlap with other classes I'm taking or ones I have taken at Coe.  For instance today in Cultural Studies we read the poem, Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelly.  I've included the poem below, thanks to Poem Hunter:

I met a traveller from an antique landWho said: `Two vast and trunkless legs of stoneStand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,Tell that its sculptor well those passions readWhich yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.And on the pedestal these words appear --"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"Nothing beside remains. Round the decayOf that colossal wreck, boundless and bareThe lone and level sands stretch far away.'  After we read the poem, Dr. Bob promised a dollar to anyone who could name the form of the poem.  We were all silent for a moment until Dr. Bob prompted us by saying, "How many lines does it have?"  Fourteen.  Which means it's a sonnet.  Which I had learned about in my British Renaissance Poetry class last spring.  I shouted out the answer and therefore, I'm one dollar richer today.   So it's things like that, where my classes are overlapping that makes learning so much fun.  When I can tie everything today, well, that's a pretty incredible feeling.  And I think it makes remembering everything for that next test or paper that much easier.  Because it's relatable and relevant to my real life.   In between Psychology and Barcelona, I went to le Table Francaise, the French speaking group that meets Fridays.  There was a great turnout and it was nice to tune up my French.   And, in between Table Francaise and Barcelona, I met a girl on the third floor of Hickok named Delaney who had read my blog.  We were just sitting in the hall waiting for our classrooms to be open when she said, "Don't you write a blog?  Because I think I've read yours."  And I was like, "OH MY GOSH I DO WRITE A BLOG AND YOU'VE READ IT!"  I had a minor freakout in the hallway I was so excited.  That's probably the biggest reason I love writing my blog -- I love love love meeting people who have read it.  It makes me feel really good that people are reading it and it's having some impact.  Woot! After classes were over, I still had my clarinet seminar in the late afternoon.  I'm really enjoying the new clarinet teacher I have this semester, Stephanie Nuss.  Dr. Carson is on a sabbatical so Stephanie is filling in for him.  She's super enthusiastic and knowledgeable about clarinet and I'm learning tons from her.   Dinner in the caf and then it was back to Murray to do some miscellaneous homework before heading over to Dows for the first Blindspot of the year.  I got some footage of some of the best acts and I'll post a montage soon. Blindspot had a huge crowd, Dows was packed!  What a way to start the Blindspot season!

The PUB is Open for Business!

On Tuesday the PUB officially opened its gates for business!  Alison, Haley, and I proudly used the PUB on Tuesday night to have our grilled cheese.  Boy, did I miss grilled cheese this summer.  My goal this semester for the PUB is to use my Coe Cash over the entire semester and not the first two weeks which I did last spring.  Whoops!  We'll have to see how my goal plays out. 

Alison and I then spent the rest of the night in the PUB, establishing our PUB nights once again.  There was some excitement in the PUB because there were Kohawk Live! auditions (a few students will get the chance to perform an act of their choosing one Wednesday night in the PUB.  It's sponsored by SAC).  But after the auditions, the PUB quieted it down as it should and Alison and I were able to get some work done!