Gettin outta here...

So I've officially decided that I need to get out of Lincoln, Nebraska.

There's nothing wrong with it, except I've lived here for eight years and I'm going to school here and I need to be somewhere else. I'm just tired of it.

I'm not gonna go transfer schools or anything, I love UNL and all the people here, I'm just kind of stuck in a rut. (Ah cliche. We learned not to use cliches today in English class, but I think it works).

So I'm going to France this summer.

Hopefully.

I think I can swing it so I can go and take classes and live in France for like a month and get an automatic minor, so it's educational, right?

That just means I need to get a job like...now. And I really don't want to.

:Sigh:

If France doesn't work out, I'm going to go do biology for a few weeks this summer up at Cedar Point in Western Nebraska. Not quite as cool as Arles, France, but still, somethin' different.

Tip of the Day: Do something different every day. Shake things up a bit.

Homecoming!

Husker football is kind of a big deal here.

Understatement of the century.

Tonight, at 6 PM marks the 300th consecutive sellout at Nebraska football games. This streak goes all the way back to 1962, meaning there hasn't been an unsold ticket in 47 years.

It's also homecoming week. Crazy!

And it is crazy.

Like last night, we spent a good thirty minutes watching a lot of people in convertibles and a lot of people dressed up like Mario Kart characters. (It was the homecoming parade, and each dorm got to make a float. Three of the four of them did Mario Kart. Our theme was "Game On," by the way.) Sadly, it rained on our parade (Ha Ha). Not like torrential downpour rain, but it was legit rain. Not just a light drizzle or some sprinkles. But we stuck it out. We are dedicated. We also had umbrellas.

There was also a blood drive. I have never given blood before and I am unnaturally afraid of needles, but I wanted to be a good person and not be a pansy. So I did. I came out with a collapsed vein, massive bruises on each of my arms (the first one didn't work-collapsed vein-so they had to do the other arm) and I passed out afterwards and was really light headed and sick for about a day. But I got a free t-shirt, and dammit I feel like a good person.

It was a good experience.

Tip of the Day: If you ride your bike one-handed, don't try to break really hard and try to swerve at the same time (while still riding one-handed). I pretty much flipped off my bike. I do have some awesome bruises and battle scars, though. But still, not a lot of fun.

Oh gravity!

I had my first near-mental-breakdown of the school year last night.

I had to make two graphs for my biology lab. Easy. I had to do them on my computer. Should be even easier.

False.

I've decided the Mac version of Excel is so not user-friendly. I got my graphs made, but I swear, there is no way to label the axes. It took three of us about 45 minutes trying everything before giving up. We're all honors kids on full ride academic scholarships with an average ACT score of about 33. We couldn't do it. I really don't think it's possible.

I'm one of those people who gets really stressed out and frustrated over things like this. I literally almost cried, and I couldn't even think straight or comprehend anything that was going on. I think if there hadn't been reasonable people in the room I would've lost it. Thanks Kevin.

And then it took all of about two minutes to figure it out on my friend's PC. Thanks again, Kevin.

So for the first time in my life, I'm forced to admit that a PC can do something better than a Mac.

By the way, if anybody knows how to label the axes on graphs on Mac Excel, let me know.

Calvin.

I got a betta fish.

I named him Calvin. (My friend got one named Hobbes...get it?)

So I am actually responsible for the well-being of a living thing. He mostly just chills in his bowl, but I have to feed him and stuff. It was a $27 investment.

Totally worth it.

I could literally sit here and watch him swim around for hours. It's kind of a problem, since it's way more interesting than most of my homework.

I've found out I'm really good at putting things off until the last minute. It's just that there's so many better things to do, like watching my fish and blogging and hanging out with friends, ya know?

That's really bad actually. Because now I have insane amounts of stuff to get done, and I don't even want to start. Ugh...

College is nuts because I have all these long term projects and gigantic assignments, but I have weeks to do them. Except instead of starting on them early and having time to do them like a responsible person would, I start them the night before.

I wouldn't suggest doing that.

Life.

I've been kinda lame about updating this lately. I just really haven't felt like writing anything.

Today I've decided that life is crazy. Everybody needs something to keep them grounded, keep them sane. Something enjoyable that gets them through the day.

For me, that's running. It's just therapeutic. I can't really explain it, unless you're a runner. Then you know exactly what I mean.

That's the one part of the day that I can just have for me. I don't have to think. I don't have to deal with anything. I can just go and tune out the world for a few miles.

It's amazing.

The only bad thing is that afterwards, I have to come back to the world and do homework.

Tip of the Day: Don't wear flip flops if it's rainy. They have absolutely no traction. I definitely slipped on mine and fell in a puddle this morning right in front of a ton of people. And then I had to go to class with my leg and the sleeve of my sweatshirt completely soaked and muddy. It was great.

Update #2:

The fire wasn't actually a real fire.

Somebody was playing soccer or something in the halls, and I guess it hit a fire alarm.

So now we have signs all over the building that say "No sports allowed in the hallways!"

Tip of the Day: Don't play sports in hallways.

Update:

I dominated my biology test.

Just to let you all know.

:Sigh:

Relationships are tough, even in the best situations. College is crazy. So how do they work together?

Apparently, they don't.

It seems like you can do everything to try to make it work, but it's still impossible. Personally, I've lost faith in the idea that two people can work out there differences and be happy together.

Call me negative if you want, but I'm also a bit relieved and confused and happy and upset all at the same time, and as of yesterday, single.

Or maybe just in the idea that I can do it, cuz I honestly don't think I can. And deep down, I know it's possible, because I see people everyday who make it work.

I'm not sure how I feel about this yet.

But I'll be ok.

Tip of the Day: Don't forget to smile.

Test?!?

I have a biology test in approximately three hours.

I should be studying for it.

But I'm not.

I was one of those people who never actually studied for things in high school, but managed to do well enough on everything anyways, and I have a bad feeling that's not how it's gonna work in college....

I'm gonna go study.

FIRE!

We had our first real fire today.

Possibly.

The alarms all went off, saying "A fire has been detected in the building!!" So we all head outside, thinking it's a drill, and then like three fire trucks pull up and they're all in full gear and head inside.

And come back out within 10 minutes. We have no idea what happened.

Also, I brought my macbook with and found out I don't get wireless internet 10 feet outside the building. What???

Everything you need to know...

So last night, one of my friends who's still in high school was texting me and asking me all this random stuff about college. And I figure this stuff would be good to know, ya know?

So here it is.

College is crazy. There is always something to do. Usually, there's something fun, but if there's nothing fun, there's always homework. And by something fun, it can be anything. A bunch of us chilled in a friend's dorm room just talking and stuff until like 2 the other night and it was great.

There's no such thing as too late at night. 10 PM on a Thursday? Heck yes, let's go watch Ferris Bueller outside on the projector screen. Chem homework due by midnight? No big deal, we'll hang out afterwards.

Live in the dorms. 99% of the people I hang out with are people from my dorm. You just don't really get to know people from class.

Keep your door open. Some guys who live on the floor above me just randomly walked in my room and stayed there for three hours. We hang out like all the time now.

Homework usually isn't required, but do it anyways. It's helpful, trust me, and it's good to get in the habit for classes that do grade homework.

Same with book reading. Nobody's gonna check to see if you read it, but it's entirely likely stuff from the reading will show up on a quiz/test/in-class write. You never know. And it makes the lectures make a lot more sense. So read the books.

Take notes in class. Most teachers have their powerpoint presentations up online, but a lot of times they say things that aren't in the notes. I print out the powerpoints, and then add notes during class for most of my classes. Other classes, I just write everything because it helps me to remember it better.

Overall, college is way different than high school, but it's like good different. I love it.

Wednesdays.

I officially hate Wednesdays.  Not only are they the middle of the week, but my Wednesdays are my biology days...meaning I'm in class until 5:30.  Not so much fun.

My normal M-W-F schedule is:

French at 9:30

English at 12:30

Biology at 1:30

Not so bad, right?

Wednesdays, I get Biology Lab at 2:30...which lasts until...5:30.  Ugh.

I think I've expressed my feelings about biology lab. (I don't like it)  

Today we squished termites.  Yep, termites.  We squished them.  Our lab procedure honestly said "....and this will result in a termite squish!"  (Yep, with the exclamation point, like it's some really cool, exciting thing)

I really don't like squishing things, and they crunched!  Did you know termites are crunchy?  I definitely didn't, and I definitely would've been just fine not knowing that.  

We actually had to pick out a live termite, put it on a microscope slide, drip some salt water on it, and then put another slide on top of it, and squish it!!  And it crunched!!  (Sorry, I still can't get over that)

It was awful.

Tip of the Day: Make sure you know exactly what you're getting from the dining hall before you eat it.  (This is not related to the termite story, they just get a little...uh...creative with their cooking sometimes)

Weekends are wonderful

Enough said.

But seriously, they're great.  Football games, hanging with random people on the floor above 'til 2 am, cramming into someone's dorm to watch movies on their laptop, sleeping in, eating breakfast at noon....

Fantastic.

Oh, and on another note, I am now majoring in International Studies and minoring in Human Rights and Diversity.  Why?  I have no clue.  I'll probably change it.  I've officially changed my major 3 times already since applying here, and I've only been going here a grand total of 2 weeks.  But you know what?  I'm ok with that.

I just don't know...

There's about a thousand things I want to say, but I'm not going to, simply because this is not the place for it.

I will say that honestly, I didn't really anticipate college being all that different.  Well of course it's different, that's not what I meant, but I didn't think it would take much to get adjusted to it.  And really, it hasn't, but there's something about being put into a brand new situation like this that makes you feel...I don't know...almost vulnerable.

It's like being dropped into a (25 gallon) tank with thousands of other (non-dangerous) fish, that all live completely underwater, of course.  Everyone's swimming every which way, and you can't tell which way is up or what.

I'm not saying I don't like college, cuz I totally do.  I love it, absolutely love it.  It's just different.  People are different, life is different, and that's just gonna take some getting used to.  

It's also really hard for me not knowing what's gonna happen.  I don't plan my life out past the next weekend, and having no clue what's gonna happen in a year from now or 5 years or whenever, farther down the road honestly scares the shit out of me.  I need to find a way of dealing with that.  

Tip of the Day: #1- Sometimes, people need to be reassured that someone in fact does care about them, so tell them that.

#2- Always make sure you understand directions that are given in a foreign language.  ALWAYS.

Happy three day weekend!

A sad, sad story...

"Timothy, don't you want a brownie?"

"No...my brother gained 45 pounds when he went to college, so I'm trying to avoid that."

Now that's depressing, folks.

This is why we love college...

So it's Tuesday night, around 11.  Most people are probably doin some last minute homework, hangin out,  maybe getting ready for bed.  

But not the wonderful people of Piper.

We were about to go to bed when these girls came running down the hallway, knocking on everybody's doors, yelling "Dance party in the basement!"

What???

My roommate and I were literally in bed, almost asleep, when some of our friends knocked on our door and convinced us to go.  So we went to a pajama rave in the basement of our dorm.  It was kinda lame actually, there was only like 20 people there, but they did play "On a Boat" ("I got my swim trunks, and my flippy floppies!")  Epic.

That's not the awesome part.

The awesome part is as we were leaving, we met Brodie and Chris.  Brodie was hilarious, mostly because his voice is like 8 octaves deeper than the average person's, ala Eric Mooring for those of you that know him, but more animated.  Picture Yogi Bear as a tall, redheaded, 20 year old.  Chris...I'm like 90% sure he was high, his eyes were super red and he tried to get me to waltz with him in the hallway.

They then tried to explain to us that dances sucked because girls apparently only want to dance with other girls, complete with illustrations on some random person's markerboard.  (All the rooms in the dorms have markerboards on the outside of the door). 

It was probably one of those "You had to be there" moments, but it was the funniest thing ever. 

We also found out that one of them lives right above us, and that his roommate sleeps with a clock radio that keeps falling off the bed.  The mystery of the mysterious thumps every night is solved!

Quote of the Day: "Your rug looks like you killed a Dr. Seuss character.  Or a heffalump."

Adventures!

So today, my roomie and I came back from lunch and...our door wouldn't open.  We have the key card things like in hotels, and neither of our keys worked.  Apparently our battery had died.  What???  They're supposed to flash red before they die, but for reasons unknown, ours didn't.  So we had to sit out in the hallways for like forever and wait for Elmer to come fix it for us. 

Elmer is awesome by the way, he's our building maintenance guy.

The really funny this is that there was a guy interviewing the girls across the hall from us for journalism class, and he was asking them if they had had any strange, unexpected things happen to them this week.  As we were trying unsuccessfully to get into our room.

Luckily, neither of us had class right away in the near future, I just didn't get my homework done.

Now I'm off to the bus stop to trek to East Campus!  Because for more reasons unknown, UNL decided to have two campuses, and the one is like 20 blocks away.  So we have to bus, which is ok, more adventures!  Hopefully this time we make it to the bus stop in time though, cuz last week we literally had to sprint after the bus until it stopped at a red light.  It was classic. 

Tip of the Day: Be on time!