up close and personal with a UVA student

Half-Marathon. This got real.

2011-11-22T08:41:00.002-05:00

So in February, I wrote about possibly, maybe, kind of, probably running a marathon... I mean half-marathon. Well a year later, I will be. My friend from Cleveland and I will be training for the Charlottesville Ten Miler. I love how as soon as you enter the site, it tells you--- no it commands to you--- that

2012 Race Day is March 31st!

No ifs, buts, or whys. You better have on your calendars because it's going to happen!

While you can't register right away (and therefore you still have time to back out), I ran the 4th Year 5k a couple weeks ago and it made me feel comfortable enough to do this. My 5K time was a lot better than I expected (anything better than 27 minutes is a good sign, is what I told myself), I didn't die in the race, and it made for good stories later (like the point in the race where I had told myself that I could walk this part but then couldn't because there was a photographer and then couldn't because I was being challenged by this older person to a race to the death sprinting up this hill! Aw yea!).

In any case, I will be running a 15K in March!

See the Future

2011-11-18T22:24:00.004-05:00

Fourth year is passing me by. Next week will be Thanksgiving Holiday break and a week after that Finals will start. I think it's time to pass the baton onto another student.

If you're interested in becoming the next UVA blogger, send two entries to yk3m@virginia.edu by Nov 30th.

Hoo-rah-ray, Hoo-rah-ray, ray, ray--U-Va!

2011-09-03T14:41:00.002-04:00

The Good Ole' Song.

It was something that I was supposed to have memorized it in my first year. However wanting to buck authority, I skipped out on a lot of traditions at UVa. Instead, I've made great memories in replace of them and I don't regret not going to the traditional events my first year.

Why? I can argue about the utilitarian exchange of going to the better experience (which is my opinion and very subjective), but I won't. Instead I will say---because now I am a fourth year and I'll be going with first, second, third years, exchange students, transfer students, friends, acquaintances and it'll be a richer experience than if I had gone first year with the few hallmates that I knew.

Speaking from an anthropological view, I am amazed at how much pressure there is to share in a common experience, if you are considered "in the group." For example, traditions at UVA serve to unify a university of 14,297 undergraduate students. These range from participating in sport events to the 112 Things To Do Before You Graduate List to the ritual of passage called convocation. When you do not participate in these traditions, people are surprised, worried, and even alarmed. That is because you are now a "black sheep" and thus people do their best to bring you back in the fold. If you resist, then you will be considered odd and perhaps even ostracized from future events. If you do participate in these events, then you are rewarded socially with friends, future invitations, and affirmation.

So as I sit in my grey silk dress (with no pearls) and the Good Ole Song in front of my desk with the words "Start Memorizing :)" handwritten on it, I have come to terms that I am going to my first UVA American football game. Hoo-rah-ray, Hoo-rah-ray, ray, ray--U-Va!

Hotel Dorms

2011-08-30T11:18:00.002-04:00

The newest dorms, Balz-Dobie and Watson-Webb, are hotel dorms. Seriously.

This is my fourth year at UVA (hello class of 2012), and it took my four years to get air conditioning. Of course when the air conditioning comes with the free room, which is your stipend for having serious responsibilities like crisis control, administrative paperwork, and human management, you realize that things in life aren't free.

Unless you live in Balz-Dobie or Watson-Webb.

Now again, to be fair to the prospective students and parents who are gasping with horror, they aren't the only dorms that have air conditioning. In fact, most of the dorms that have recently been renovated or built have air conditioning. (My building probably got built in the 40's or 50's... or earlier.) However, BD and WW provide so much more. When dorms start to "[offer] modern amenities" and promise to "[foster] intimate, secure, close-knit communities"(Housing), you start thinking about high end hotels, gated communities, and country club residential areas. Furthermore, when it is announced that "Romer said the structures will also exclusively house the Echols and Rodman scholars," because "these scholars, who used to live in Webb and Maupin houses, are placed together for programmatic reasons" (UVA Today), you wonder.

I have personally been in BD and it is a hotel. The toilets flush up and down (up for #1, down for #2), have motion-sensitive lighting, and beautiful lounges. I believe they are LED-certified buildings, and this statement makes me jealous: "The air handler has an energy recovery wheel that captures the heat from exhaust air and recycles it, and the whole precinct is fed by steam from McCormick Road and chilled water from the Aquatic and Fitness Center." It's like the environmentally-friendly version of caviar and Perrier.

So what can you do to get exclusive rights to enter BD and WW? Well you heard the man! Romer said that you can be an Echols or Rodman scholar. For those of us who aren't trying too hard, Housing has a secret sauce that is almost equivalent to that of Google's search. Good luck!

The Return

2011-08-01T21:41:00.000-04:00

I'm returning to Charlottesville in 5 days!

Prices of Rooms onGrounds

2011-05-30T18:22:00.003-04:00

Housing FINALLY posted up the prices of different rooms on Grounds. The 2011-2012 prices reflect an increased price.

Option	# Bedrooms	Occupancy	2010-11 Rate	2011-12 Rate	Comments
Bice House	2	Double	$5100	$5330
Bice House	3	Double	$4980	$5200
Brown Residential College	2	Single	$5430	$5670
Copeley Apartments	2	Double	$5100	$5330
Faulkner Apartments	4	Single	$5570	$5820
Faulkner Apartments	4	Single	$6480	$6770	Large bedroom
Maison Française (French House)	1	Double	$5070	$5300
	1	Double	$5220	$5450	Large bedroom
	1	Single	$5590	$5840
German House	2	Double	$5100	$5330
German House	3	Double	$4980	$5200
Hereford Residential College	1	Double	$4660	$4870
Hereford Residential College	1	Single	$4720	$4930
International Residential College	1	Single	$5240	$5480	Munford and Gwathmey
	1	Single	$5480	$5730	Lewis and Hoxton
	1	Single	$5710	$5970	Lewis and Hoxton (private bath)
	1	Double	$4680	$4890	Munford and Gwathmey
	1	Double	$4830	$5050	Lewis and Hoxton (small)
	1	Double	$5070	$5300	Lewis and Hoxton
Johnson, Malone and Weedon	1	Double	$4660	$4870
Johnson, Malone and Weedon	1	Single	$4720	$4930
Lambeth Field Apartments	2	Double	$5100	$5330
Lambeth Field Apartments	3	Double	$4980	$5200
Lawn	1	Single	$5240	$5480
Lawn	1	Single	$5110	$5340	Small, no fireplace
Russian House	1	Double	$5050	$5280
Russian House	1	Single	$5500	$5750
Shea House	1	Double	$5070	$5300
Shea House	1	Single	$5590	$5840
Casa Bolivar (Spanish House)	1	Double	$5070	$5300
Casa Bolivar (Spanish House)	1	Single	$5590	$5840
University of Virginia Foundation Properties
Off-Grounds Housing

A Hereford single is about 98.21 square feet and costs $4930. This means each square foot costs about $50.20, (vs. IRC Munford single $35.58, Lawn room with fireplace $31.64).

Random Fact: Did you know that UVA owns property? This includes Cavalier Inn, the gas station on the corner of Emmet St and Ivy Road, apartments and more!

Information from UVA Housing website: http://www.virginia.edu/housing/compare.php?type=upperclass.

New layout!

2011-05-17T22:53:00.001-04:00

With the end of classes and the nearing of Graduation (for some!), I thought it would be appropriate to have a new, fresh layout. Let me know if you like it! Leave a comment!

"What I Wish My New Employee Knew" - Repost

2011-05-15T19:35:00.001-04:00

The thing about hiring motivated, smart, creative young people is that motivated, smart, creative young people – while invaluable – can also be hard to manage sometimes.

I wish my new employee knew that we were genuinely psyched that they found us; that we were flattered by their interest and thrilled by their acceptance of our offer. (We tell them that, sure, but I worry it rings hollow sometimes.)

I wish my new employee knew that some clients are a-holes, and some clients are incredibly appreciative, but they must all be treated equally. That means that the level of effort can’t flag for the prickly client. That means that you shouldn’t use your water-cooler time to gossip or kvetch about the tough cases; it’s unhelpful and nothing good comes of it. (Along with this, it helps to know that the nice clients far outweigh the jerks, over time. Never let the turkeys get ya down.)

I wish my new employee knew that Quality Counts. A typo in an email might not seem like a big deal. But it doesn’t take long for the client to wonder if that sloppiness extends to the way the agency is cultivating their image to the outside world.

I wish my new employee knew that we absolutely and gladly fire clients who are truly abusive. We’re vigilant about this, but most new employees assume that the client is always right and stay quiet for too long.

I wish my new employee knew that when I say I’ve got an open-door policy, it means swing by anytime you have a question about anything. I don’t bite. It’s not hard for me to offer two cents: it’s my job. And I love my job.

I wish my new employee knew that the beginning part of a career is usually a slog. It’s not all Social Media fun & games, sorry. To be effective & accountable strategists, we need databases, research, detailed reports. That’s how everybody starts out, even the rockstars.

I wish my new employee knew that “eagerness is everything.” If you’re eager; if you’re leaning forward; motivated, I’ll lie on the train tracks for you. If you’ve got a dark cloud over your head, its shadow casts a pall over the entire office. That includes my office.

I wish my new employee knew that it’s all fun and games til you complain about working til 8 o’clock every night. Barring a huge project or crisis, we don’t want you working that late; it doesn’t impress us, it makes us question your efficiency. Following a string of late nights in our SF office, we began to require written permission from a manager if someone felt the need to work past 6:30pm. People began to leave on time. Productivity soared. So did morale.

I wish my new employee knew that it’s okay to screw-up sometimes. The sooner you tell your manager, the smaller the screw-up will look in retrospect. If you never fall down, how can you learn to pick yourself back up?

I could go on forever.

-Reposted from PR Squared

UVA names Michael Strine new CFO

2011-05-12T14:46:00.001-04:00

What? What does that have to do with undergraduates? Hmm pretty much nothing.

Unless you consider the fact that Strine as the CFO will take responsibility for UVA's $2.4 billion budget. He'll be in charge of the finances of the University, including its schools and divisions like the Library System. This meant big things when Sandridge was CFO but who knows what the position will entail now.

By the way, Teresa Sullivan is looking to usher in a "new era at the University." Strine is part of President Teresa Sullivan's new team-on-the-top, as the Chief Financial Officer search comes to a close and Chief Academic Officer (CAO) position is still underway. Strine says "being on her team is a great honor, and I look forward to the challenges ahead."

We get a hint of his views when he says, "I realized that in the modern era, universities are the important engines of economic development, providing for jobs, research and health care innovations, community building and, of course, education." Why is it that education is the last on that list? And why is economic development the first? What are his priorities?

He continues to say, "Higher education has the ability to affect public policy issues that touch all of our lives." Clearly his eyes are on public... something.

By looking at quotes from his interview, we can see a lot of key terms being thrown around. The largest are "education," "great," and "public." One of these days, I'd like to see the words "preposterous," "zeitgeist," and "irenic" be the top three words used.

Here is full UVA Today's press release. Also, here is UVA's Operating Budget.

Study Distractions

2011-05-10T11:31:00.005-04:00

It is funny how during finals is when I find the best youtube videos and the funniest websites. Last year, I introduced you to sporcle. Well, this year, I bring you Damnyouautocrrect.com and quickmeme.com.

The first one makes me belly-laugh. There aren't that many funny things in the world that make me belly-laugh (sadly). The Greeks had a word for laughter of other people's misfortunes. (I don't remember what it is and I don't think it was sadism.) Anyway, that stuff gets me. It is Quiet Hours and I, being a RA, keep my door open even during finals time. Yet, it's often that I'm snorting in my room because of the hilarious misunderstandings.

The second one uses a part of my brain that isn't fried from all of this essay writing. It's creative, it's hilarious, and it keeps me sane. 'nuff said.

FINALS!

2011-05-04T15:30:00.001-04:00

BRB yo.

Manifesto of an American college student

2011-04-21T11:48:00.004-04:00

I reserve the right to be smarter today than I was yesterday.

I reserve the right to make mistakes.

I reserve the right to change my mind as I learn, grow or get more involved.

I reserve the right to defend my opinion.

I reserve the right to share and spread my opinion.

I reserve the right to choose who represents me.

I reserve the right to love, hate, or ignore any person or thing.

I reserve the right to live with dignity and safety.

I reserve the right to live anywhere.

I reserve the right to gain knowledge in all shapes and forms and from all sources.

I reserve the right to ask questions

I reserve the right to demand honesty and transparency. Most importantly from my government.

I reserve the right to know why certain things are the way they are.

I reserve the right to change and ask for items relating me to change.

I reserve the right to disbelieve what my fathers and ancestors have believed.

I reserve the right to resist.

I reserve the right to protest.

I reserve the right to boycott.

I reserve the right to learn.

I reserve the right to be human--- to be treated, respected, honored and appreciated as a human. Despite all of my flaws and all of the rights that I reserve.

Choosing a college

2011-04-09T17:53:00.004-04:00

UVa is considered one of the most beautiful campuses in the US. Also consider that it is a World UNESCO Heritage site and BAM! you have a beautiful, well-manicured "Lawn" with flower trees everywhere. There are trees, flowers, cute squirrels, homogeneous brick architecture, ponds, and groomed grass. As you can see by these photographs, there is something that invites the tourist to take a massive amount of photographs. UVA is aware of it as well. Just check our Week in Photos if you don't believe me that we are one narcissistic, proud hell "uva" school. Around this time of the year, there will be at least one photograph of flowers or flower trees. So if you visit UVA on a sunny clear day, you will fall in love.

However, if you are on a day like today, where it is cold and misting, then you might be turned off by it. Yes, I am talking to you--- prospective young one who is deciding which school to attend. Like you I visited schools, and the skies help the schools that I visited when it was raining. I was snarky to the guides, ungracious to the current students, and deemed a hazard to any staircase that dared to trip me.

Amherst is one memorable example. With its 1960's concrete buildings, Amherst's architecture is the antithesis of UVa's colonial brick architecture. Unlike its neighboring New England colleges, Amherst does not have the ivy-covered brick buildings, but buildings made of what was then cutting edge material: concrete. While Kirin Makker would argue that the 1960s modernist buildings represent a heroic building practice, aesthetic risks, and a confident embrace of current technologies, what concrete doesn't do on a clear, sunny day it definitely does not do on a rainy, cloudy day. Plus it smells.

In short, I hated Amherst and wanted to get away from that bloody town. I hated how it made me feel like I was a cog in a machine, an unmarked slab of concrete, and a lost high school senior in the midst of college applications. I did not even apply.

On the other hand, UVa shined the minute the sun stepped away from the clouds. After a 7 hour drive from New York, I was ready to stretch my legs and the cloudless skies allowed me to do so to my heart's content. It was beautiful and it felt right. My decision was sealed with a bite of my first Five Guy's Burger.

I never critically thought about why it was so beautiful and why it felt right until now. After reading Kirin Makker's article, I realized that in my senior year, I was looking for a traditional look of a college campus. UVa looked the part of an American college (which is appropriate, considering that Thomas Jefferson was so purposeful in his architecture that he created a new aesthetic for university architecture). I was lost in knowing what I wanted in college, which is fine, but then instead of critically thinking about it, I relied on a stereotype of what college was.

In an essence, there is a powerful myth about college perpetuated by popular media, teachers, and marketing campaigns by the universities themselves. It would be a term paper to dissect this myth and the different ways that it affects college choice. (One quick example would be the powerful myth of what Harvard is and then what it actually is.)

UVa also relies on this myth in your head. Whatever the myth may be to you, be aware of it and really do think critically of why college is the right decision for you and why UVa is the right academic decision for you.

Best of luck!

Babies Talking

2011-03-31T11:23:00.004-04:00

Babies Talking: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_JmA2ClUvUY .

I am sitting in my MDST 3559 class, Dataesthetics, and my professor showed this video. Then he said, "anthropologists from all over are analyzing this video for linguistics."

Aw yea.

Getting Over a Grudge

2011-03-24T12:57:00.002-04:00

Reposted from Alexandra Levit's Water Cooler Wisdom

A reader writes: Dear Alexandra, ten years ago in my first job out of school, a colleague I thought was my friend stole my new product idea and took all the credit. Well, it’s a small industry and now I find myself forced to work closely with this person. I swore I’d never talk to him again. What should I do?

I’m very sorry this happened to you. Sometimes people do things we feel we cannot forgive. But I’m going to encourage you to try. My first reason is that perhaps this was more of a misunderstanding than a betrayal. Even though I don’t know the specifics, I can say with certainty that there are very few truly evil people in the world. Maybe he thought he arrived at the idea himself, or maybe was so insecure about making a contribution that he was grasping at straws.

My second reason is that harboring anger and resentment against this person will only serve to negatively impact you emotionally and professionally. Even if his behavior was indisputably callous, it was ten years ago and he has hopefully matured since then, so look at it as water under the bridge and aim to make a fresh start with him.

Remember that you can forgive, but you don’t have to forget. There is no reason to blindly trust this person again until he has earned it. I’m just saying to get over the grudge and move on so that you can be as effective as possible.

This totally applies to college. If you are involved on Grounds, you will definitely need to collaborate with people, share ideas, and work in groups. This can happen.

Sleeping in class

2011-03-19T12:12:00.005-04:00

I realized why I fall asleep in my Intro to Digital Media class: Nau 101 is dimly lit.

Nau is one of the two new buildings of the South Lawn Project. It looks impressive because of the wall-to-wall glass windows and spiraling staircase. It's brand spankin' new. The toilets flush automatically and you feel posh on the leather couches.

However, Nau 101, one of the large 200 seating classrooms is so dimly lit that I fall asleep. This is why I cannot take a film class and why I hated Art History. Professors dim the lights, you sink back into your plushy chair, and then it's over.

I realized I had a problem when I woke up one class day on the shoulder of the nice girl next to me. She didn't wake me up but gently shoved me off once class ended.

Me: zzz...
Her: *shove*
Me: .... uh.. wut? *looks up* ... oh.
Her: *smile*
Me: *run awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay in embarrassment*

Next time I'm going to sit right in the front where staring directly into the green glow of the projector will keep me awake.

UPDATE: 03.24.11 //

I haven't fallen asleep in the past two classes because I sit right in the front. Also, the first two rows are the only ones that are lit from above. Yay for better learning habits!

DanceDanceDance

2011-02-26T13:54:00.003-05:00

I went out to a club on Thursday night. It was sponsored by Sustained Dialogue and other student CIOs, and you needed to be 18 to enter and 21 to drink. While it was unfortunate that I was sleep-deprived from the previous week and thus was fading at one o'clock, I had a great time getting funky with friends. That's right, funky.

I wish I was one of those talented youngsters that danced like this, or sang like this, or played ukulele like this. That's right-- I'm yours too, kid. However, I was not one of those children made for the entertainment-industry and now the toll shows: I dance kind of funky.

My attempt at the robot is kind of lame and my chest pop consists of everything this guy says a chest pop is not. Unfortunately my chest pop is not BOOM-- an explosion. Instead it's "on par with throwing a frisbee into a category 5 tornado and hoping that your dog will catch it." (theoatmeal.com) In short, it's kind of pathetic.

I hope that I don't turn out to be one of those creepy adults who try to reenact her younger days by going to clubs and then embarrassing herself on the dance floor. While this is actually an ad, this video makes my point.

Instead, I will redeem my cool points by sharing the awesome music that I heard:

Get Shaky - The Ian Project
San Francisco Dreaming - Benny Bennassi vs. Global Deejays
Alors on Danse - Stromae

the weight that no one sees

2011-02-21T00:22:00.005-05:00

Today, I found out that one of my residents drinks celery stew every night to lose weight for spring break.

Living on an all-female hall, I see women who are unhappy with the way they look. One extreme case is a woman who wakes up at 5am every morning to jump rope in the laundry room. A more moderate example is a woman who diets, not in the sense that she deprives herself, but in the sense that she is mindful of what she eats. She explained to me that her mother, who is a nutritionist, told her to be careful of what you eat, how much you eat, but also what time you eat things. Another example is a woman who goes to the gym all the time.

Then there is me. For someone who used to run three hours for five days a week, college was hard on my body. It was hard to find time to run and even if I ran that day, it would be only for an hour and usually for short distances. I am also sitting a lot more, whether it is in class or in my room with a laptop or in the library writing my essay. It makes sense that I lost my toned muscles and lean physique for a body that was softer and had less angles. In fact, when I look at pictures like this, I am grateful for the gentleness of fat. It might be also be the natural change from having the body of a 17 year old to one of a 20 year old.

Yet as much as I try to rationalize it, I am not satisfied with the way I look. Why is this? Women? Men? How many of you can say that you feel the same?

//Edit: 02.21.11

What I found...

Celebrate Every Body Week is back again for 2011 and will be taking place February 21st-25th!

Join the U.Va. Coalition on Eating Disorders and Exercise Concerns for a week of fun and informative events to promote a more body-positive culture on grounds.

Body Groove Class

Tuesday 2/22; 7pm @ AFC.

Free! Bring your IM Rec membership ID and dance to your own unique groove!

Workshop -- Your Body Doesn't Lie: Exploring Intuitive Moments

Wednesday 2/23; 3-4:30pm @ U.Va. Women’s Center, 2^ND Floor

Discuss and explore your own unique intuitive style to help improve insight and self-awareness in all areas of your life. Led by Polly Williams.

RSVP to Charlotte Chapman at cmc5nq@virginia.edu by Monday, February 14 to reserve a space.

Women’s Center Open House

Wednesday 2/23; 4:30-6pm @ U.Va. Women’s Center, 2^ND Floor

Come Celebrate Every Body Week with staff and interns. Enjoy refreshments and learn about our initiative to promote a body positive community at UVA!

Great Jeans Exchange!

Monday-Friday

11-2pm @ Newcomb Hall table

Instead of dieting or exercising compulsively to squeeze into too-tight jeans, donate them in exchange for a cool, FREE T-SHIRT.

For Help

Concerned about your relationship with food, exercise or your body? Free and confidential in-person eating disorders screenings available @ the Women's Center.

Call 434-982-2252 for an appointment. Also, confidential online eating disorders screening available @ http://www.mentalhealthscreening.org/screening/Welcome.aspx .

For more info, contact: UVaEatingDisordersCoalition@virginia.edu or Melanie Brede (mb6ps@virginia.edu) or Amy Chestnutt (aek4k@virginia.edu).

Third Year Council (TYC) Valentines

2011-02-17T08:55:00.002-05:00

TYC unfortunately decided that sending anonymous valentines was a good idea. They set up a google doc so that you could send your unrequited love an anonymous valentine and they would act as cupid and deliver your message.

The way they decided to deliver the message is via books in Alderman. That's right. I'll include the email that I received V-Day morning.

The date is February 14th and someone is thinking of you,
Search around Alderman, here's what to do,
Look for book _______ALD PQ 2193 B7B6______ right away,
The message inside might just make your day!

That's right. It's complete with garish emoticon hearts. (For those of you not at the University, ALD PQ refers to the book number of the Alderman library system. How PQ comes to mean Floor 4 Old Stacks, I do not know.)

So of course being the inquisitive person I am, I take the effort to hunt down this book and find my message.

The message said:

"You're so sexy... perfect for me."

and it was anonymous. FML I have a stalker.

The Light Ahead

2011-02-11T09:08:00.003-05:00

Things are looking up! A common phrase for the sentiment of "WOHOO! The future looks bright!" (Another metaphor, excuse me.) As I sip my Lady Grey tea, I am enthusiastic about things that will happen in the future. I am eager for events in the future to happen. In other words, I am employed!

... for the summer. I will be a digital strategy intern at an advertising company. Does anyone know anything about Winston-Salem, North Carolina? If so, COMMENT.

I am also thinking a lot about marathons. For some reason, marathons seem to be the hottest thing right now. One of my colleagues is training for a marathon, the resident graduate student of our dorm is running a marathon, and my father is running long-distance with marathon runners every Sunday. Last year, one of the RAs I worked with had run a marathon and because he worked out every day, he did it very casually. I found out that one of the bloggers whom I follow diligently runs marathons. She's my age.

Marathon running is about physical and mental endurance. I'm sure the physical aspect of it is apparent to you, but unless you're a long-distance runner, the mental endurance is something that may need explanation. One mile is 5,280 feet. Let's say that is putting your foot in front of you 5,280 times. It sounds like a lot, but in truth you probably walk way over amount in a day. So three miles (5k) is 15,840 times, five miles (8k) is 26,400 times, and ten miles (16.1k) is 52,800 times. A marathon (26 mi, 42.195k) is 138,435 times. You're putting your foot in front of you 138,435 times. Your body is repeating the same motion over and over for 4 or 5 hours. Have you ever done anything 138,435 times? You blink about 20,000 times a day and that's automatic: your body does that for you. For a marathon, that's when mental endurance kicks in. What is driving you after the 5,280 step?

No, I am not running a marathon. However, it's a thought that's in my head and I've never thought about it before. Even when I was running cross country, the most that I've run is 7 miles. Even then, I disliked running races. Perhaps I should think about running a half marathon? Thoughts?

Three. Two. One. Poof!

2011-01-25T09:56:00.004-05:00

So currently I am taking 19 credits. At the College of Liberal Arts and Science (CLAS, Arts & Sciences, or just simply the College), the maximum is 17. To go over, you'd need to course action into classes and perhaps get permission. I haven't quite gotten to that point yet, because I haven't "officially" signed up for my major seminar. I know I'll get into it, so why signing up just yet?

I guess you're next wondering why I am taking 19 credits.

The economic answer might be that I want to maximize the benefit of spending over $10,000 on tuition alone, and because it is a sunk cost, I might as well as max out on credits (and go a little over?).
The psychological answer might have something to do with the incentives of the classes themselves and how they are all so individually interesting.
A fourth year might tell me that it is because I want to have an easy fourth year and take as many classes now as possible.
A third year might tell me that it is because of the realization that there are only three semesters worth of classes that are left and I want to take as many classes that I want to take before leaving college (forever).
A second year might gape at me. Oh, you'll understand soon enough.
A first year might tell me it's leftovers of my overachieving self from high school kicking in for a final spurt.
A baby might cry at me.

They're all right.

Listen people, I'm feeling the time crunch. Why do the years speed up after first year? My fourth year friends are graduating and planning to buy balloons similar to this. The more ridiculous, the better. And I will say from the two graduations I've attended before, that there are some hilarious ones! Think four people holding 2, 0, 1, and 0 balloons. Think a host of sea animal balloons. Think sorority girls getting all the same pink balloons... and the same dress... and the same shoes.. well, you get the idea anyway! When college kids are talking about buying balloons in mass, it's either someone's birthday, a revival of prom, or graduation. One of these days, I am going to buy a balloon just for the heck of it, tie it to my wrist, and wear it to class. Then I'll let it go and look like this.

The way I deal with frustrations is to make a statement against it. (See earlier balloon case one more time.) In any case, taking 19 credits also might be my way of saying I'm not leaving college after three more semesters. See? I'm immersing myself in college-ness. Classes! Learning! Fun!

Driving to Richmond

2011-01-13T08:51:00.003-05:00

I've been in Virginia for three years now and I haven't visited much of it. In fact, I joke around that the international exchange students see more of the US in a semester than I have in a childhood. Chicago? Nope. Las Vegas? Nope. Seattle? Nope. Austin? Nope. Savannah? Nope.

So I say with pride RICHMOND! Here I come!

Given I never saw Albany in my nine years of living in NY and there was a certain disdain with going "upstate" in NY, which to some city residents meant fifteen minutes north. However, I feel like Richmond can offer something more to the average tourist than Albany did. At least it has the distinction of historical significance. First, in 1610 with visitors from the famous Jamestown. Then in 1775 Patrick Henry gave his "Give me Liberty or give me Death!" speech (summed up even more succinctly as LIBERTY! OR DEATH!). Perhaps the apex of its urban career was when Richmond was the capital of the Confederate States of America. Apparently the White House of the Confederacy still in tact for curious visitors.

My friend needs to go to Richmond for his GMAT test and I am driving Zipcar. Do YOU know of any thing to do in Richmond?

The Internship Dilemma: To check that or to not?

2011-01-10T14:37:00.003-05:00

Since January 3rd, I've been interning at Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC). It honestly has been the ideal internship. I am gaining design experience by designing a promotional brochure for CCDC, which will be sent to potential donors, volunteers, and board members. Mandy Burbage, my supervisor, has been heavenly, laid back, and very supportive. CCDC is large, airy, and quite beautiful. I have loads of freedom to design, research, and check facebook (for inspiration, of course!).

As a prime member of the multi-tasking generation of Millenials, I've also been searching for summer internships, updating my resume, coding my personal website, checking my online banking account, replying back to hosts of emails, adding contacts on LinkedIn, experimenting with Photoshop, and teaching myself PHP. Did I mention that I also check facebook at least five times a day? Casually, of course.

Here I am at one of the best (unpaid) internships I could ask for, and yet I am still doing other things. While I feel a little guilty about all of the things mentioned above, as I feel now, I would still feel extremely indignant if facebook was blocked, my computer was monitored, and my screen was public. This amazes me. Where is my work ethic and where am I drawing the line? (A rhetorical, academic question, I assure you.)

If I look at it from a productivity point of view, I am being extremely productive. I am not watching movies online during work, or worse, watching porn. I am doing things that will have tangible benefits later on (preferably money). However, if I look at it from the point of view of traditional work ethics, my behavior could be seen as unethical. Of course, another factor to it is that I am not being paid for my time.

Yet, I also want to point out the accessibility of all of the earlier mentioned things. Checking my HSBC bank account only takes three minutes, and searching for summer internships does not involve a trip to an office but a click away. There are hosts of sites that teach PHP, one of which is PHP 101, and they save me a trip to the library. So while it may seem like I am spending all of my time doing other work, in actuality it might add up to only a couple of hours. This goes back to the point of productivity. I know that designing might take only a couple of days out of the two weeks that I am interning. So if I am doing other things because I can quickly, am I... bored?

Truthfully I do not know the answer to all of these questions, but I do know that other Millenials are facing the same questions and that as a generation, we will have a serious influence on the way the workforce works. Or perhaps we'll quietly assimilate to it. Who knows?

5 Leadership Predictions for 2011

2011-01-09T12:20:00.001-05:00

2010 is quickly coming to a close, and fortunately, so is the recession that left most leaders fearing for the future of their organizations. As you think about strategies for managing your team(s) in 2011, here are some predictions to keep in mind:

Retention over layoffs

For the better part of two years, you had to focus on how to let some employees go, and now it's going to be the other way around. The recessionary workplace has been a difficult one, and many employees will attempt to leave as soon as they feel it's getting better out there. You will need to take extra care to motivate your team members and provide real-time recognition and perks.

Re-emergence of innovation as a priority

While everyone was just trying to keep their heads above water, the emphasis on creating and delivering superior new products and services rather went by the wayside. Expect leaders at the highest echelons of your organization to start "talking the talk" and think about ways to "walk the walk."

Equal opportunity leadership development

Nearly every organization now has four generations in the ranks, and waiting to train an employee until he is in a position to manage others is no longer desirable or practical. The Millennial generation (born 1980-95). especially, requires early and ongoing leadership development training as they prepare to take on retiring Boomers' responsibilities at a younger age.

A brave new world of day-to-day supervision

Managing employees and their projects keeps getting more complex, as global mobility and the number of virtual teams increases. As employees work out of their homes in record numbers, you will have to maintain a balance between micromanagement and neglect.

Social networking as a dominant recruiting strategy

Social networking will shift from being an unfunded add-on to a critical component of the recruiting mix. As a leader, you must ensure that everyone who has hiring responsibilities in your organization understands the best way to find, contact, and communicate with the most desirable candidates using social media.

This post was originally published on Intuit's Quickbase blog.

A Blogger's Resolution

2011-01-03T08:52:00.005-05:00

Before I get on with a blogger's resolution, let me first say:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE!

A blogger really is but empty air blowing in a digital landscape without her subscribers, commentators, and readers! Thank you for a great almost-one year! I really enjoyed reading some of your comments and hope to do some more reader participation in the future. According to Google Analytics, with the exception of December 25th where only ONE dedicated person visited my blog, the year has been a good one. :) THANKS.

So my first resolution? You're reading it! I promise to dedicate more time to you!

My second resolution has been to read the news once a day. I subscribed to nytimes but filtered all of their emails into one folder that hasn't been checked in a while... so I'm going to read the Today's Paper over my Twining's Irish Breakfast tea and cereal every morning. The first headline for today was "G.O.P. Newcombers Set Out to Undo Obama Victories," by Jennifer Steinhauer and Robert Pear. The headline itself was sensational enough, but once they said, "Democrats, who in many cases looked on the law as a rabid beast best avoided in the fall elections, are reversing course," they lost me. Once Democrats are described as seeing laws as rabid beasts, I know that the end is near.

The third is to go running every morning during J-term. For those of you who aren't still at school in the middle of winter break and are instead at home like the sane person you are, it's J-term here. J-term is our snazzy two-syllable phrase for the 5 hour classes that meet daily. Of course those 5 hours don't include the time needed to do the homework and projects after class. The catchphrase on the website is

Intense. Rigorous. Focused. Unique. Engaging.

The font is a lot bigger here, but you get the gist. When you're doing J-term, expect to do nothing else. Happy winterbreak! Luckily I am not taking a J-term class, but merely being a J-term RA. Hence the time to be able to run.

Lastly, I plan on cooking a lot more. Dinner parties was a huge part of my social life last year, so I am going to revive them now. I also just discovered a food blogging site that has a massive following. The first article that I read was an interesting one, called "The Physiology of Foie: Why Foie Gras is Not Unethical." More term-paper-esque than whimsical blogging, this article surprised me with its solid writing, convincing points, and extensive research. The comments after this long article blew me away as well. Larikatz says, "Fascinating. You are right, people have to stop anthropomorphizing animals that we eat and take the time to learn how they work before they jump up and take causes. Thanks again."

Readers, the bar is set high.

Gleek

2010-12-31T00:06:00.001-05:00

I just finished catching up with Glee... Oh high school.

Infinity Ball

2010-11-06T18:04:00.005-04:00

Last night, my friends and I went to Infinity Ball. This is a formal dance for third years. Reminiscent of prom, where women got $30 manicures and squeezed into $100 dresses and then got down on the dance floor, Infinity Ball also brought out the shiniest dresses and killer heels for women.

Or you wore sandals like I did.

Truthfully, I had been wanting to buy a "little, black dress" for a long time, and thought that the Infinity Ball was a good excuse to invest $60 in a good dress. However, Fashion Square Mall was disappointing and even -gasp- depressing after three hours of shopping and finding no formal wear affordable for a college woman. My friend got nice shoes though.

On the way back, we bumped into a friend, KFly, who had sensibly gone grocery shopping. After helping her bring her groceries to her room, I was blessed (or pitied) by some higher being, because KFly had a gorgeous black dress that she could lend me. I felt a little too Cinderella-esque as I rushed back to my room with my dress and transformed into a chic twenty-year old fashionista. However, to spite whoever thought it was nice to set me up in a fairy-tale, I wore white sandals, no jacket, and rode a motorcycle to Alumni Hall. Well, maybe no motorcycle.

It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be. The live band was decently good and sang favorites like Kids (MGMT). Dean Groves emceed and there were canolis. I danced like a manic (think 7-year-olds dancing better than Beyonce). I promise you that I wore something better than they did.

Diversity Career Fair

2010-11-06T08:46:00.000-04:00

The smell of crisply ironed suits and freshly printed brochures was pungent, but not as distinct as the fabulous smiles flashing after a firm handshake.

"Hi. I'm John White. Thanks for waiting in line so patiently," he said after each handshake.

Commence the thinly disguised adulation that poured forth from the poor, nervous soul in a pencil skirt. The line dutifully shifted forward a couple of steps and pretended not to overhear the conversation.

"Do you have a resume?" he inquired, and then upon receiving a sheet that was supposed to encompass the entirety of the person shaking in front of him, he asked, "Tell me about yourself."

Commence the 30-second elevator speech that the soul had practiced in the bathroom mirror the night before. The line restlessly shifted side to side in tune with the pen that he tapped against the resume.

John looked up, interested, when several key words were dropped: "self-taught," "HTML," "co-founded," "website design and development company."

"Digital," he declared, "It sounds like you'd be perfect for digital."

The soul abruptly shut up and timidly nodded her head, even though in the beginning she declared that she was interested in being a creative.

As John rattled off the process of applying for digital, his eyes slid behind and noticed the restlessness of the line snaking out behind and cutting off the poor Social Security woman from the foot traffic. Realizing that this was going to take forever, he looked up and smiled.

"Thank you for your time. Do you have any questions?"

However, John was already dog-earing her resume.

A quick note about this man's system. He either dog-ears your resume--- or doesn't. He either puts it in this pile horizontally--- or this pile vertically. All in front of the people in the line.

He dog-eared the resume and placed it horizontally in the bigger stack. The soul realized her time is up.

"Good luck," he said and gave her a firm handshake.

"Yes." A faint reply. "Good-bye."

Let's Conspire to Ignite [Muse]

2010-10-27T01:29:00.004-04:00

I must be on a roll. For those of you not familiar with the excitement related to these first ringing notes, it's Muse! Muse is coming to Charlottesville this Wednesday at 7:30pm. I bought the tix last year, because I thought this would be my first official concert. What I didn't plan on was B.o.B, Ingrid Michaelson, and all those other summer visiting artists making up a series of my first concert experiences.

Over the summer, I made it one of my goals to experience the Charlottesville culinary scene as much as possible. One equally challenging and pleasurable goals should be to experience the Charlottesville music scene as much as possible. Charlottesville is surprising in that it attracts a lot of talented artists to its multiple music venues. Ingrid Michaelson was at the Jefferson, which is a fantastic, newly renovated music space. The Southern is supposed to be a great venue as well.

For large names though, such as Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, John Paul Jones Arena takes the cake. This is where Muse will be! Muse is an English rock band that has awesome rhythms. I'm such a groupie that I'll be there around five. Or maybe not, because my friend holds my tickets hostage as she has class that ends at 6:30...

Ingrid Michaelson is awesome

2010-10-17T01:51:00.002-04:00

I dedicate this quick entry at 1:52am to Ingrid Michaelson, who is witty, sassy, and a phenomenal singer. This isn't my video, but it could have been. The video doesn't do her justice. This woman has been doing concerts seven nights in a row, and she came to Charlottesville to perform at the newly renovated Jefferson Theatre.

"You see, the trick in a ten page paper is in the outline."

2010-10-16T15:51:00.005-04:00

The reason I have been in Clemons Library (oh, the joy) since 10am today during Homecoming Weekend is because I have a ten page paper. This delightfully even-numbered paper needs to get done. Now.

I dared to breathe unfiltered air and feel unadulterated sunlight when I ventured out to grab lunch with Sophie. We were on our way to Newcomb before it closed its doors for brunch, when I heard my name being called. Turning around, I see a person I hadn't seen in a while since he graduated this past May.

"Hey! What are you doing here?"

Oh, duh. It's Homecoming Weekend. The person out of place is me, coming out of a library on this gorgeous Saturday.

Suave as usual, BJ smiles generously and laughs off my social gaffe. I nervously laugh along. I know he is questioning the reason for my creeping out of Clemons, looking like I was wearing clothes that could pass off for my grandmother's PJs.

"You look cute."

Uh, thanks. I quickly explained that I was writing a ten page paper and was in the process of swiping a meal from Newcomb before retreating back into the fluorescent-striped rooms of Clemons. Then to stall an awkward silence, I turned around and introduced my friend Sophie. Luckily Sophie struck gold when she said she was a political science major, also writing a nine page paper.

"Ah," BJ said sympathetically, shaking hair out of his eyes, "I've done my fair share of long papers. You see I was also a political science major, double majoring with Economics."

"You see, the trick in a ten page paper is in the outline."

Nodding thoughtfully, Sophie looked at me and I realized that I was doomed. I had spent two hours on the abstract. There was no way I was going to have an outline and still finish this paper in time by Monday.

Thanking him and promising to meet up with him later, even though I didn't have his phone number, I walked away with Sophie. She was fascinated by Newcomb because it was her first time there as she didn't have a dining plan. I made sure that I showed her to taste-test everything before heaping piles of it on her plate. Newcomb is notorious for having food that looks decent, and then upon the first bite, laughing at you for believing its empty promise of deliciousness.

Well, I wrote enough now. It's only been 18 minutes and I wrote an entry. So why can't this essay finish?

Pillow Pals equals Anchor Babies?

2010-10-12T18:17:00.005-04:00

I swear each year the exchange students see more of the United States than I did in all of my childhood. This fall break, I have two French exchange students who went to Philadelphia, one Italian exchange student who went to Las Vegas, a Singaporean who went to Boston, and a group who went to New York.

Well I went home.

I should stop saying this, but home still doesn't feel like home. And I'm starting to forget my home in New York.

I also have a confession to make. I have a pillow pal. After seeing Toy Story 3, I should feel less ashamed about having a cuddly stuffed animal in my dorm room, but sadly I am feeling defensive about my cuddly lamb of a pillow pet. If you check out their website [http://www.mypillowpets.com/], you'll see why I'm so defensive. That's right. On the FRONT page of their website is a three-year-old with his pillow pal. And right below that is a link that says "COMBAT PILLOW PAL FRAUD." Don't laugh. It's a big deal, okay? Reading that page, I realized that my fuzzy animal of a pillow was actually... a victim of fraud. It wasn't its fault that it was born an impostor.

Which leads me to the term anchor baby (nice tie-in, I know). For those of you who don't know, anchor babies is a "term to describe a child born in the U.S. to illegal aliens, and is generally used as a derogatory reference to the upposed role of the child, who as a US citizen through the legal principle of jus soli, may facilitate immigration for relatives through family reunification" (Wikipedia.Org). While in truth, "a US citizen child cannot file for a US visa for its parents until the child is 21 years of age, and upon reaching that age the child must also be earning at least 125% of the US poverty threshold to be able to apply."

In late September, LSA publicized an Immigration Panel that it would be having [Youtube video]. There has been debate over the term anchor babies, especially on their youtube page. To quote, "The law, when originally written, obviously didn't factor in the pandemic that would eventually evolve as a result of Mexicans and their disregard for laws, among other things. Mexicans sure have no trouble reproducing offspring and relying on the backs of others to pay the bill." and the response was "So what I'm gathering from your comment is that Mexicans are a pandemic and it's their fault they want to improve their lives." This gives you a sense of how people feel!

FratMusic

2010-10-04T10:48:00.004-04:00

That's right. Fratmusic. I can't get over the title. Yesterday at a waffle-filled, syrup-laden, and ice-cream'd event hosted by the Council of our residential college, there was awesome music. I'm talking about remixes of great songs like "Memories" (David Guetta ft. Kid Cudi), "Stereo Love" (Edward Maya & Vika Jigulina) and "What a Night" (Kontrol & Lil' Jon). Essentially people came for the food and stayed because of the music.

So I checked out this site and woah. Fratmusic.com is FRESH. Then I found out a UVa student who went by DJ Omarish last year before he graduated was working for (maybe even created?) fratmusic.com. Apparently he is making big bucks in San Francisco. From what I remember when I met him, he was a Lawnie who is down to earth. Well, good for him. It's nice to see people in alternative jobs than i-banking in NYC or law school.

Ah, so this essay that I'm supposed to be writing... hahaha, peace out!

Design Marathon

2010-10-03T17:40:00.002-04:00

In spring of 2010, I had wandered into the second floor of the cool building in downtown. I had walked in because it looked modern, classy and had the word "design" hanging in the large, glass windows. No one challenged me as I passed the double glass-door threshold so I tried to look like I fit in this chic, modern space. There were a couple of desks and monitors clustered in the corner, but the majority of the space was open and inviting. I think there was a photography exhibit, but I don't remember exactly. What was this place? Who worked here? What did it do? I wasn't able to find anyone unoccupied to ask my questions, so I just signed up my name on the newsletter email list and left.

Thank goodness I walked in.

I received several emails from Charlottesville Community Design Center (CCDC), one of which was for the Design Marathon. "Calling all Nonprofits and Designers!" it said and I called. For those of you who don't know, the Design Marathon is an annual event where teams of talented designers (architects, landscape architects, planners, and graphic designers) donate 12 hours of professional services to ten competitively selected local non-profit organizations. That happened October 1st.

Hmm, how to describe the intense time-crunch to provide innovative and creative solutions to design problems? Absolutely fun. I want to be a graphic designer.

While I won't post the ideas and works that I came up with, I must say that this event has enormously boosted my ego. Down, girl, down. I barely noticed the time flying by and truthfully it was fantastic. All the designers were coddled with free coffee (apparently necessary), complimentary pizza lunches, access to a high-tech printer, and attentive volunteers who catered to all your needs. It was a designer's heaven.

You can check out the final designs of the Design Marathon at their blog: http://designmarathon.wordpress.com/.

Birthday

2010-09-26T09:56:00.004-04:00

And so begins my second decade on the face of this earth. Let me tell you something about my birthday. My birthday is not auspicious at all, being one of this days that coincides with a large traumatic event shadowing all attempts to be cheery and festive. (Think Pearl Harbor.) Therefore since middle school, I have mentally lessened the importance of my birthday, choosing instead to partake in the mass remembrance of those lost. Now it is the 9th anniversary and for some friends who lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia, Boulder, Colorado, or even Singapore, Singapore, or Mumbasa, Kenya, the tragedy that my friends and their parents witnessed first-hand was not as vivid.

What did that mean for my birthday? A party.

Therefore for those of you who saw me on that day, you must forgive my odd reactions to cards shoved underneath my door, presents behind people's backs, and masses of people entering my small room shouting "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!". (Because you are curious, my reaction was to back into the corner of my room and say "Help! I'm claustrophobic! Let's move to the lounge!" Hehe.)

However you must understand that I am grateful. I truly am. The purpose of the celebration of one's arrival to this world is to make that person feel unique and special. (This actually is a very socialized concept, because in truth, you share a birthday with 18 million people in the world. That would be 3.6 million Chinese, 3 million Indians, 824,456 people who reside in the United States, 90,682 Canadians, 166,052 British, 225,813 Germans, and 349,216 Japanese.) But it worked. I bought into it. The fact that dozens of people wished me a happy birthday and smiled at me that day and the tons of freebies associated with you birthday (Hotcakes gives you a free slice of cake) gave me warm fuzzies. I really enjoyed my birthday.

Which is why I made funny thank you cards! I utilized the motif of a robot, because that may have been what I was before: absolutely indifferent to the day when the last bolt was screwed in my head. However, some robots are obviously female, some have hearts, and some love to listen to music. Robots have souls too!

Clemons Update

2010-09-04T16:45:00.001-04:00

I am sitting in Clemons Library, listening to a teaser of the latest song by 2NE1, a Korean girls group. Nothing new. What is surprising is the fact that I'm doing the preliminary work for an essay that is due in two weeks.

WHAT?

This semester has been all about being on top of my readings. When class participation is 30, 40, 50% of your grade, you better come to class prepared and having done your readings. As of right now, September 4 15:20:32, I am on top of my readings. What now?

That's right. I am writing my essay. I just wanted to report that in writing so that I will believe it three months later. Have a nice Saturday.

5/8 semester

2010-09-02T08:59:00.003-04:00

My schedule is finalized. I've decided that the best way not to get annoyed with SIS is to plan everything far in advance so that you have only minimal contact with the hideous beast that is SIS. (On a side note, I heard a first year called it S.I.S., which technically is its name but no one says the letters S.I.S. Anyway, I thought it was adorable and I beamed a smile at the poor 17-year-old redhead. Yes, I am now a third-year so I can officially creep on the young ones.)

Therefore I am taking all the classes that I desired. Although I had to drop my art-class-of-the-semester, I decided to opt instead for an interdisciplinary class taught by a Darden Professor, Gregory Fairchild. Googling his name reveals a plethora of news articles singing praise, videos about "Gregory Fairchild on Business Ethnics" or "Gregory Fairchild on Entrepreneurial Research," and still shots of this man in action in the classroom. Obviously he is a celebrity, a demigod, a super being descended upon us little undergraduates to bestow his wisdom. Because of the fact that he cold calls, uses cases in class so that I HAVE to do the reading beforehand, and split the class into teams each headed by a MBA candidate in a cold competition of wits and advertising campaigns, I am impressed by his ability to keep me in his class--- AND drop an art class to stay in.

My other classes are also seminars--- loads of reading. Ah wells.

Back to School

2010-08-15T08:38:00.003-04:00

Guess where I am. Yes, I'm in Charlottesville, which shouldn't be much of a surprise to those of you who followed my overwhelming two posts over the summer (gome! sorry in Japanese!). However the excitement factor comes in because I am in my dorm!

RAs and "alternates" (They are people who had the potential to become RAs but couldn't because there were no space-- they are on a waitlist.) come back a week early and participate in grueling training called O-Week to be the great, supportive team for you when you arrive on Grounds. I'm really excited for this year's staff, because we have a fantastic mix of new, inquisitive RAs who bring a lot of energy and experienced, talented returning RAs. We also have great "kisma," which is my combination word of "charisma" (meaning compelling charm that can inspire devotion in others) and "kismet" (meaning fate or destiny). You can guess what it means. ;)

Already we have hilarious inside jokes and quotes. My favorite ones are:

"Hey, so because I'm new in this area, are there any great eating places around here? Y'know, like 7-11?"
"JESSIEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!" *shakes banana in the air like Stephen Colbert talking about his arch nemesis, Rain*
Y: "Wait, so why did you stroke my knee?"; V: "Because it was shiiiiiiny."

If these aren't funny to you, then it's not because I'm not funny. I'm sorry to say, but inside jokes aren't meant to be funny for people who don't know the inside joke.

Along with that quip, I am going to leave you with this clip, which gives you a taste of how I get pumped for O-Week: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qR3rK0kZFkg.

Newsflash: 9 minute hurricane

2010-06-28T13:09:00.007-04:00

Yes Yes, I have been pretty slacker with the entries, and I apologize. Before I do a "catch-up" entry though, I will put up these crazy pictures and talk about our very own natural disaster.

As the title says, we had a nine-minute hurricane in Charlottesville. Apparently this bad-boy stormed across Blacksburg, VA (aka home of Virginia Tech) before rampaging into Charlottesville. Did I mention that this was the first day of the first session of Orientation? For those nervous first years out there (and nervous parents), it was quite a story to tell.

The rain poured down around 5pm, instantly drenching the pavement and all those who were unfortunately outside. This weather wasn't too surprising though, because we've had flash thunderstorms (and flood warnings) a couple weeks before. However, things got noticeably scarier when the wind picked up and the rain started falling horizontally. As seen by the pictures, the wind shook branches and hurled small stones against the window. Finally large trees were brought down with lightning, thunder accentuating each thud.

Then it stopped and it was 5:13pm. The damage? Power lines were out (the building I was in and my house, as well as the entire Corner and Downtown area had no electricity), traffic was in confusion as street lights had ceased to work and fallen trees directed the flow of traffic. Incredulous people pointed and stared at a crushed car on 14th street. It seemed like all roads leading out of Charlottesville were blocked by purposefully spiteful trees and power lines.

After work, I rushed home and went straight to my refrigerator to chug my soymilk. No way was I going to let my oh-so-expensive $2.50/carton soymilk go bad. I had cereal for dinner that night.

summer loving

2010-06-24T10:26:00.006-04:00

I apologize for the lack of updates. Summer tends to do that to you, especially if you are working full-time.

I started a cooking habit, where meals are actually made in my kitchen. By being part of the food industry, I am more aware of how I impact the environment and how the decisions that I make in the supermarket are part of the food industry. The picture on the left is some tomato+mozzarella bruschetta that I made with a friend.

Orientation starts today! A lot of my people that I know are Orientation Leaders (OL) this year and I hope that they won't be too nervous for their first Orientation. Best of luck firsties!

alumni weekend: welcome back to c'ville

2010-06-05T15:14:00.003-04:00

I am sitting at Mudhouse, a coffeehouse downtown, doing some work. Large commotion ensues. The proprietor, a young man in his mid twenties who apparently is broke because he disappeared for two years to travel to Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina (the things you hear about people's personal lives), spied one of his sister's college friends. She, the sister's college friend, was back in Charlottesville for Alumni Weekend. She has been working in DC for the past couple of years and now she came back just for Alumni Weekend, with her boyfriend (point to eye-candy on her arm). The conversation that ensued (pretty much verbatim) was:

Proprietor: "Hey hey! Yeah you look great! You haven't aged a bit."
Alumna: "Yeah? Thank you! Thank you!"
Proprietor: "Yeah~ So do you want to go on a date with me?"
Alumna laughs and lightly punches him. Boyfriend on arm growls.

Apparently graduating college doesn't make you smoother.

But really, college graduates fascinate me. One thing is for sure, I will join their ranks very soon so I am really curious about life after college. Having had many fourth year friends as a first year, I do know a lot of college graduates, but I think they are still too fresh from college (FFC?) to be good specimens of alumni.

If they are working over 40 hours a week, how do alumni make friends? What do they do for fun? What is the dating scene like? What makes their world go round? As a college undergraduate, the word alumni is synonymous with networking, which goes under the heading of "careers." However, surely life after college is more than just work, right?

(belated)graduation

2010-06-01T15:34:00.007-04:00

My belated congratulations to the Class of 2010 and all those who have worn the honor of honors. This was my second time attending graduation and it was my second time saying good bye to many of my friends.

For those of you who do attend graduation, or Final Exercises as they are known at UVA, be prepared for the masses of people (see picture on right). Some good tips:

When trying to get on the Lawn for the morning speeches, get on line on the side of the Rotunda that faces the Hospital, and not the side that faces the Chapel. Everyone and their mother will be trying to squeeze into the Lawn and one side will have a longer line than the other. That side will be the one facing the Chapel.
If you're going to eat out during graduation weekend, reserve your spot. Eat on the Corner for dinner on the day of Final Exercises because most people will want to eat in fancier restaurants Downtown. However if need be, then reserve ahead.
Parking is a premium. Avoid driving.
Bring an umbrella. If it rains, as it has done for the past three graduations, then you have an umbrella. If it is sunny, then you have shade. Umbrellas are win.

This year's main speaker was President Casteen. It was hilarious because he was the main speaker, then he was also featured to introduce the graduates, and then he made the closing remarks. By looking at the itinerary, it would seem like the Casteen Show. If it actually was, I don't know because I left in the middle for lunch.

While this may seem blasphemous to the UVA-fanatics out there, I ask you to consider what graduation actually means. It is time for the graduates. What does this time mean to them? They are bittersweet, joyful, wistful, regretful, relieved and other emotions. Can the four years (or three for some) that they have spent here at this institution be summed up in a two hour ceremony, a diploma, and a handful of pictures? Are all the conversations, lunches, dates, practices, meetings, and promises that you have made be represented by your presence at graduation? I will be blunt. Whether you are there or not is irrelevant, but whether they are there is the world. Remember you are not the one graduating, but they are.

With this spirit in mind, being present at your friends' diploma ceremonies means a lot to them. The picture on the left is for the Commerce School diploma ceremony. While the speech given was absolute propaganda about giving back to the Commerce School and perpetual alumni status, the excitement on the faces of the graduates was palpable. Some were going to New York, some were going to Singapore, some were going to Boston, and some were returning as 5th years in MS Commerce. It was a period of transition for all of them and I wish them the best of luck!

another transition

2010-05-25T15:42:00.004-04:00

I am back in Charlottesville and will be all summer, minus some road trips. Finally all residents moved out of dorms yesterday, and I officially moved out of my room as well. (Only the Senior Resident are in dorms.) I am in the process of moving to my apartment on 14th street. You can tell because I have a huge garbage bag of blankets and a pan behind my desk at my internship.

I will definitely post some graduation pictures and have a post on it, but that will require my unpacking and finding my USB drive. My room is a hot mess. I'll keep you updated!

my day out

2010-05-21T09:49:00.006-04:00

Yesterday was glorious. I met up with a friend, Dee, and she drove us to lunch in her cute, old-school Volvo. That's right VOLVO. If you're thinking about a souped-up 1992 baby that Dee's father drove off a parking lot in Europe, yes you are right. (PS. The picture on the left is not a picture of her car, but just a picture of a 1992 Volvo to demonstrate its antique 90's class.) Volvo means "I roll" from the infinite verb of volvere. We rolled.

Because both Dee and I were bad at directions, it was fail when Google Maps lied, to our chagrin. Nevertheless like good sports, we cursed Larry Page and Sergey Brin for fooling us with their marketing brilliance and popped open the GPS on Dee's phone. What should have been a 10 minute drive ended up being a 20 minute drive around Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. It was all good though, because both of us were just using the trip as an excuse for human conversation and I was getting a great tour of Northern Virginia.

On the side note, Northern Virginia is the worst nightmare for an urban development major. I am not an urban development major, but even I could see that having construction everywhere at the same time is not a smart idea. We saw more orange construction signs than regular green ones, and I swear they were building an overpass directly over a couple of business buildings. The roads are also confusing as heck. One road changed names three times. Why would you do that?

A reoccurring theme in Dee's and my conversation was the fact that we were bored college students at home. Dee is going to travel to South Korea on a Department of State scholarship in June, and I was home for only a week before heading back to Charlottesville. Yet we both found ourselves immeasurably bored at home. We were used to going down the hall and finding six people with whom to talk. At home, I sang along with my Glee show and Dee talked to her cat. Both did not make very scintillating conversation.

Another thing was the realization that I was a college student in a town that wasn't a university town. Two days ago I went for a run in the morning and decided to head to a nearby high school, hoping that the high school had a track. Having arrived at the school's parking lot, I was approached by a security officer. To sum our encounter up, he rudely told me to not trespass while school was in session and then followed me in his car a good 800m into a side road. While I was duly offended by his tone and lack of manners, I also realized that he had a good point in that it was 10:32am and it was probably third period. I forgot that students were still in class. Dee and I relished this truth as we sped down 66.

We ended up going to Jammin Java in Vienna, VA, which has live music every night. Apparently Kina Grannis is going to perform there on June 15th! Kina is one of those guitar goddesses on Youtube, and I stumbled upon her while searching Missy Higgins (Where I Stood). She does collaborations (My Time with You, w David Choi), covers (If I Were a Boy), and her own originals (Valentine). While I was ogling Kina's flyers, we were both munching on some huge sandwiches (Dee got fresh mozzarella and tomato and I got homemade chicken salad) and still talking.

I think we talked for four hours straight. After Jammin Java, we went to Shilla Bakery, which is known for their sweets, breads, and shaved ice treats (called bingsoo), in Annandale, VA. We didn't order a bingsoo (but I'll post a picture of one on right to show the glorious goodness of what we could have had), and had little baked hazelnut treats instead. Both of our voices were sore afterward, because we just kept on talking and laughing! This probably goes back to the human need for conversation..

... now what?

2010-05-18T21:12:00.004-04:00

I spent all day indoors. I am not meant to be inside all day (which is why I would be terrible in an office job in the future). This means I'm seriously bored. It's funny how three days after finals madness ends, I am bored.

In my lack of things to do, I finally watched Atonement (watch the trailer). I don't know much about cinematography and I am by no means a movie connoisseur. However, I do think Atonement was brilliantly done. The plot itself is actually very simple, but the way the plot is presented, with flashbacks and other techniques (I lack the words to describe!), is glorious. I loved the artistry of the scenes. The music is fantastically creepy. Another point to mention is the brilliance of the director in showing the two different perspectives of the same chain of events. I could definitely relate to the innocence, fright, confusion, and then finally conviction of the younger sister as she perceives the budding love affair of her elder sister. At the same time, I am swept away by the romance, struggle, contradictions, and passion of the elder sister as she tries to find a space for her feelings. Are these the same chain of events?

home

2010-05-16T20:13:00.005-04:00

I'm home! The day I came home, my parents decided to buy a new sofa, move bookcases around, and switch my "room" and my brother's room. The house that I moved into 8 months ago is all the more unfamiliar now. It's in a neighborhood where I have no high school friends, I don't know where the post office is, and I could not tell you where the extra dish soap is. My house is not my home.

Nevertheless, I came home and had some hearty food. My father prepared haemultang (해물탕), which is spicy seafood stew (see pic), and there were the familiar side dishes like kimchi (김치), spicy pickled napa cabbage, and rice. My stomach was so happy, because during finals I have been eating cereal and milk for breakfast, lunch, and dinner sometimes. Instead of snacking on Doritos, Ben & Jerry's, and Skittles (all brand name items, I just realized) I have been munching on healthy snacks, like steamed corn, sweet rice cakes, and orange slices. My stomach is home. :)

finals season

2010-05-07T01:21:00.002-04:00

Quick update: The blue books were returned. I don't have to retake that test. The actual tote bag was never returned!

10-pager is due tomorrow at 5pm.

summer housing + stealing

2010-05-04T15:31:00.005-04:00

At this rate, I will be one of the homeless on the corner of 14th St and University Ave. (Contrary to a myth about homeless people, some people are homeless not because they don't have a job but because it's not within their budget. Of course, this isn't a new generalization about homeless people and why they are homeless, but a thought to challenge the myth.) Like those people, I have a job over the summer, albeit now with reduced hours, but cannot match up my budget with an ideal living place. Where to live? Will I be able to afford it? Is internet included in the price? Is it walking location to my internship? Can I hop a bus to Barracks from there? Is there AC? Do you have a bug-problem? These questions are stressing me out at a time when stress is at an all-time high.

Finals: I had my first final test and I submitted my portfolio yesterday (ironically not in a portfolio but sandwiched between a cardboard box. Cheap, I know.). My first ever 10 page paper is due on Friday, and a paper and final on Monday. Then freedom.

However, surprise surprise. According to an email I received earlier this morning from a sad and angry Professor, someone had decided to swipe my Professor's bag of finals. That's right. Someone stole a bag of blue books. Not only were my grades and hard work gone, my Professor's favorite bag is lost forever. Give them back!

This is a honor code violation. The stakes are high, because if this person is found out, then he/she will be expelled from the University. Now that the crime has been committed, it is very unlikely that the person will return the bag. Now I have to retake my final on Monday. Times are sad.

Tuition

2010-05-03T15:22:00.006-04:00

It's what affects us, but we don't think about it on a daily basis. I am spending an average of $38.26 a day just to be in college. Currently, tuition of full time undergraduates (per semester and broken down into Virginia and non-Virginia):

ARCHITECTURE: $4,869.00 / $15,869.00
COLLEGE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES: $4,840.00 / $15,840.00
COMMERCE: $4,878.50 / $15,878.50
EDUCATION: $4,841.00 / $15,841.00
ENGINEERING: $4,846.00 / $15,846.00
NURSING: $4,843.50 / $15,843.50

According to the UVA Today blog, the Board of Visitors just approved hikes in the cost of tuition, meal plans, and housing for next year. The number given for the tuition of an undergraduate (school is unspecified) is $5,314 / $16,787.

Reasons for this hike include unexpected costs and a decrease in state funding. This year there was a total unexpected cost of $11.2 million and a reduction of $14.7 million. Sounds like a lot, right? "Sound financial management calls for the University to look beyond 2010-11 to the following fiscal year," Sandridge said. Ok, way to not mention a large, approved spending.

Does sound financial management approve a $58 million price tag on SIS and yearly several million maintenance fee? According to a friend who graduated as a computer science major, if you put a team of graduate computer science majors together, you could have gotten a more user-friendly and efficient product than SIS... for a lot less. SIS is better than the previous system, ISIS, but I don't think it was worth $58 million.

While having a sound financial management means cutting excess, it also means making good choices in what you do choose to spend.

Stop Micromanaging, Idiot!

2010-05-02T09:25:00.002-04:00

I tend to talk to myself, so yes, the title is directed towards me and not other micromanaging idiots out there. This terrible habit reveals itself in my emails.

(Side note, as I tend to have many of these: College is all about being on top of your emails. If you are going to involved that you are considering reading books on how to manage your time, I say hit up the how-to books about emails. UVA has list-serv emails, which range from having three to hundreds of members, and can encourage using it for the force of good-- i.e. forwarding great opportunities-- as well as the force of evil-- spamming. In one hour, I have seen my inbox go to 36 unread emails. I could write a whole other entry about little things you can do to about this, but my two-liner-of-advice is filters and folders.)

I am a compulsive email-checker. I refresh often, I am constantly on chat, and I will spontaneously send you an email if I think of something. Therefore, when I remembered something before a BBQ that the RAs was hosting, I sent my supervisor a reminder email. "Don't forget to remind the new RAs that the BBQ is happening!" it said cheerfully. The reply was grateful and simply said, "Thanks." This is an example of an okay reminder email.

It becomes micromanaging when I sent my supervisor a reminder email after the BBQ, saying "Don't forget to thank the RAs who came!" He testily replied that yes he did thank them verbally and I sound like his supervisor--- and worse, I thought, like a nagging wife!

You know it's bad when your supervisor is complaining about a switch-a-roo of roles... and you sound like a 50-year-old grouchy woman. I need to let it go.

Yard Sale

2010-05-01T09:48:00.003-04:00

Because I have been waking up at 7:30am to finish writing my essays, I woke up at 7:30am again yesterday and today. On a Saturday morning. 7:30am. Uggggg. On the other hand, it was already sunny and the birds were chirping, so although I knew it was 7:30, it felt like 9am. It was a good way to wake up at 7:30am.

So I pulled on my running shoes and lightly jogged down Emmet St towards Barracks. I hadn't even reached Barracks, when I saw a sign that said "Yard Sales!" Stop running now!

To give a little background information, I am a big fan of yard sales (we could simplify it to being a fan of just sales as well). In New York, I went to high school in a suburban neighborhood bordering NYC. During the summertime, the manicured green lawns and asphalt driveways were often dotted with yard sale pickets and blankets with items. Because I learned how to sew and wield pliers in middle school, these yard sales were my source of unique clothes. A large scarf could become a dress; an interesting but broken brooch could become a necklace; an oversized T-shirt could become a jersey dress; the possibilities were endless!

Going back to the yard sale on Emmet St, even though I had no cash, credit, or debit, I ended my run and just had to look. If I had $10, I could have bought a Coach bag (ew), three pairs of sandals, an entire VCR collection of Disney movies, ten pillows, two five foot lamps, five cases of makeup, or a black ballgown dress. Unfortunately, I didn't have $10 and that imaginary scenario went through my head in a second.

Instead, I booked it to the box that had the "Free Clothes" sign. The woman attending over it held a baby to her hip and looked about late twenties. While I was rummaging through presumably her XS Anthropologie skirts and American Eagle shirts, we struck up a conversation. She is a graduate student, finishing her degree this year. She's looking to go to Boston afterward with her husband and kid. She told me there was a fluorescent stain on the large American Eagle shirt that her husband had gotten in his lab work and refused to wear it since. It sounded sketchy and sci-fi-esque, because she didn't explain what the stain was or why her husband refused to wear it since, so I gently folded it and placed it back in the box.

The conclusion? A tie-back dress with a plunging V-line, a cute black sweater, a button-up linen shirt, and a New York Comapny top. Well done and it's only 9:48am right now.

Orientation Leaders

2010-04-27T08:37:00.004-04:00

For those of you who are coming in the Fall, check out your Orientation Leaders!

http://www.virginia.edu/orientation/summer/orientationleaders.html

Apparently last year's OLs are already facebook stalking this year's new group of OLs. In the words of a wise friend: let it go, guys, let it go.

I was reading these with my friend and I was also just amazed at what a variety of organizations people were involved in. It makes you want to go "Huh, I didn't know we had that... I want to join!"

Anyways, a couple of my friends are being OLs so be nice! :]

10 page paper

2010-04-26T07:42:00.003-04:00

Hello. It is 7:42am and I am writing my first 10 page paper. Truthfully it is a five-page paper disguised as a 10-page, double spaced. In fact, the range is 7-10 pages, so it could actually be a 3.5-page paper. The margins are fixed at 1" all around, and the font is standardized at 12 pt Times New Roman. There isn't much flexibility there.

I have broken it down so I know how many pages each section of my question should take. I gave an oral presentation to my friend on what my paper is about. I solicited four pages of quotes from my reading sources. (Essentially, I retyped the book.) I am writing a blog entry on how I am writing my essay. I created a diagram on the organization of my essay.

But I have not written my essay.

It is a topic that I am passionate about: How the rigidity of ethnic nationalism in Korea affects biracial children. However, thinking about 10 pages is daunting. Perhaps I should think about my fellow RA, who is in his last year at the Batten School and has to write a 50 page thesis by Friday. (He hasn't started, because he was taking his CPA exams. Bless him.) Perhaps, I should write my essay in blog entries. You all know that I enjoy pouring my opinion into four-paragraph chunks online. Perhaps I should opt for a youtube presentation of my essay.

If only it wasn't a 10-page paper, with a bibliography and endnotes.

Update

2010-04-26T00:52:00.001-04:00

I AM singing at Para Coffee's open mic. It is hosted by People United for Music and Arts (PUMA). Wish me luck!

jamming at the french house

2010-04-25T00:17:00.004-04:00

I visited the French House for the first time. The French House is one of the language houses, where *surprise* you live to be immersed in French. The Maison Française literally looks like a French mansion. I went to visit for the Snobby Cheese party. Yeah, that's right. I went to a Snobby Cheese party at the French House. Judge me. Well, I was actually dressed in Red Keds and my latest guilty shopping pleasure, a soft hoodie with cute button details, which contrasted with the little navy dress and heels that my friend wore. I could have gone all out, but I decided to go for comfort because I had to hike back to my dorm.

Anyways, after the cheese party, I visited another friend who is a phenomenal guitarist. A bunch of us were singing along, and then someone busted out a tambourine (yes, judge me again) and shakers. Another guitarist-friend was called over, and soon we had a huge jamming session going on. I loved it. I missed singing with live music, and the company was fantastic. I hope we can have something like this at my dorm.

To take it further, I think I'm going to sing at the open mic at Para Coffee! Wish me luck!

4th Year Studio Art Major Exhibition

2010-04-24T09:41:00.006-04:00

"It's like the equivalent of your thesis," explained D, as she carefully placed sliced strawberries on top of whipped cream and double fudge brownies. I was slicing tomatoes in our friend's kitchen, which another friend placed between two slices of rye bread smothered in red pepper hummus. We were helping out for D's art exhibition yesterday.

Being an art major was something I considered. In fact, art school was a serious consideration for me. RISD, Pratt, FIT, Parsons, Cooper Union... all of those were common buzzwords amongst my friends who were preparing their portfolios. I loved art and I had dedication. Why not?

The why-not came in the form of opportunity cost (see post on April 17th for an explanation about opportunity costs.). I had received a perfect SAT score according to the 1600 scale and was 80 points off from a perfect score on the 2400 scale. The SAT scores of the middle 50% of incoming class of RISD was 1690-2050, and for FIT... you probably didn't even have to take the SATs. If opportunity cost is the cost of not taking the next best choice, for me the opportunity cost of art school was research universities and liberal arts colleges. It was too big of an opportunity cost. In layman's terms, if I went to art school, I would be missing out on too many other opportunities that I could have had at research universities and liberal arts colleges. Essentially, I had to be absolutely sure that art school was right for me, and I wasn't sure.

Now that I am at UVA, an established research university, would it have made sense to major in art? After all my reasoning, the answer is no.

Having said all that, I absolutely envied my friend D as she rushed to prepare her exhibition. Perhaps she should have looked into a career in event planning, because she was making the most of her physical and human capital in getting this event together.

The 4th Year Studio Art major exhibition was fantastic. We explored three floors of art, people, cheese, and drinks in Ruffin Hall, the newly built building for studio art. I fell in love with one of my friend's wood printing pieces (actually the set, but I'm too poor for a set), and so I decided to purchase one. I'll take a picture of it when I make the transaction. (Note to the art connoisseurs out there: never go for the listed pricing. I would start bargaining at half... sometimes less than half. A good example is the one that I will buy: the listing was $220. Due to the fact that we were friends, she said she would sell it to me for less than $100. I know she made the frame, which would normally cost $50, but because she made it it costs about $25.)

I suppose pictures of the art exhibits would convey absolutely more than my words, but sadly I did not think we could take pictures of it and I was too forgetful. I will try my best to describe D's exhibition.

D's exhibition was on the ground floor of Ruffin, the bottom floor was dark with no windows, and spotlights haloed her paintings on silk. She had gone to high school in Japan and learned the Japanese tea ceremony there. The subject of her exhibit were hands, drawn in the brush-style that she had learned in a study abroad program in Hong Kong, pouring tea. The theme was brilliantly conveyed as sequences of these delicate hands pouring tea, outlined in bold black ink. Then in the center, she had at least nine female figures in similar sitting positions. They were clothed in the stiff, ceremonial costume associated with the tea ceremony. At a first glance, it looks like they are all replicas, but after close examination, you realize that they are different moments of the tea ceremony. For example, one drawing showed the woman placing a sweet in her mouth, which D explained to me happens because the tea is so bitter. I really enjoyed her fusion of her passion for tea, the techniques she learned in Hong Kong, and her painting style.

Third Culture Kids

2010-04-21T01:07:00.004-04:00

I attended the first hosted event of TCKs at UVA. Third Culture Kids (TCKs) are defined as:
“a person who has spent a significant part of his or her developmental years outside the parents’ culture" (Pollock and Van Reken). However that doesn't fully capture their identity because some TCKs have traveled between two or three countries and some TCKs have been to nine countries. Some quotes about what a TCK is that I stole from the section describing the TCK identity:

"A global citizen independent of cultural distinctions yet whose identity lies in his/her membership of multiple cultural groups."

"A TCK is someone who spends a lot of his/her time growing up outside of his/her native country. A TCK identifies himself/herself best with other TCKs. It is almost as if it is a nationality in and of itself!"

From what I hear, you are a TCK if any or all of the following apply:

It takes you at least 15 minutes to answer the question “Where are you from?”
You swear in a myriad of languages.
You have a favorite seat in airports and on airplanes.
You've filled out so many customs/immigration papers, you don't even need to know the language to know what they're asking.
You don't know anything about the history or geography of your country of birth but know pretty much everything about any other place in the world.
An earthquake, heavy storm, bomb threat, or anything else doesn't freak you out
You have more than one type of currency weighing down your wallet with typically more of the currency that you don't need.
You plan vacations to different countries just to get things cheaper than they are where you live.
You have multiple vaccination cards because they keep getting filled up.
You have to explain how you learned to speak certain languages, why you can speak some but not read others, and why you still can't speak some even though you lived in the country where they're used.
People constantly tell you you're "interesting" or "different.”
You practically jump someone when you find out they're also a TCK.
The thought of living in one place for longer than a few years and NEVER leaving scares the living day lights out of you.

Truthfully, this is a fascinating phenomena for me. The idea of a global citizen is appealing, and the fact that there are highly mobile family units that travel so much that they "float" in between nationalities is a lot to wrap your head around.

For more coverage, there was a UVA Today article about TCKs and the group on Grounds, TCKs at UVA.

The talk itself was fantastic. Tina Quick was a great presenter. She introduced fairly well the complicated identity of the Third Culture Kid, the benefits and downfalls of being a TCK, and the importance of colleges recognizing TCKs and their different needs from internationals and domestic students. She was engaging, she was humorous, and she was comprehensive. I could feel the weight of her expertise, having been a TCK herself and currently an adult TCK with children. Her book, The Global Nomad's Guide to University Transition, which is about how to ease the transition into college for TCKs will go on sale this summer.

THERE ARE LESS THAN 15 SCHOOL DAYS LEFT AHHHHHHHHH

2010-04-17T08:50:00.000-04:00

Now that the title got your attention, FEEL MY PANIC. It's the breathe before the dive, people. Before deadlines hit. BAM BAM BAM! Before exams start. BAM BAM BAM! Before physical ailments spring up. BAM BAM BAM! Before people graduate. ....uh, I don't have a sound effect for that.

It's the glorious time of the year when the weather lightens up and even at 7am it is light outside. The UVA campus is glorious in its pink-flowered trees and fragrant azalea bushes. Even looking at The Week in Photos, you spy at least two photographs centered on flowers and trees, and a couple others with them peeking in the background. If you visit with Days on the Lawn or a random campus visit around this time, you'll be astounded by the beauty. I know I was when I first came.

Okay, I need to stop being so nostalgic now that I'm going to be a third year. Oh, you prospective students, enjoy life. Before I end my reminiscences, I want to point out that because this time of the year is about transitions, it also brings nostalgia and longing. Exhibit A is an email that one of my best friends sent me. The title was "and we thought they were so cool then...", and her body said "if your feeling anxious about the future, remember, change is good :) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=is6gtilerPk&feature=channel." Oh, Justin...

At 11am, I am going to go to the PURSUIT Conference. An 8-hour day affair, the Conference will take up my valuable time for studying. And I think it's absolutely worth it. On Thursday, a visiting Professor from University of Illinois commented that she was amazed when she realized that the time spent and knowledge learned from Professors is only a small fraction of the knowledge we learn in college. In fact, one could argue that the time in classrooms competes with time that could be spent in conferences, listening to guest speakers, and other ways of "learning." For those of you who have taken economics, think about opportunity cost. For those of you haven't, I recommend taking at least an intro economics class AND I will explain. :) For every activity that you do, there is a next best choice. For example, I am currently typing out this entry for half an hour now. That half an hour could have been spent searching for breakfast. Or it could have been spent starting on my ethnographic research paper. Instead, I choose typing this entry out, because I found more value in doing so than the others. (Or I am procrastinating... you decide.)

I applied for summer Resident Adviser and summer Senior Resident. Hopefully I receive one of the positions, because I will be here all summer long. Perhaps I am mellowing out, because this will be my second summer in Charlottesville.

On a random note, someone told me that people read my blog! Hello hello! Please post a comment!

Transitioning into Power

2010-04-09T09:09:00.001-04:00

It's April, and that means a lot of CIOs on Grounds are changing leadership, recruiting for next year, and looking past the summer haze into the muggy times that is August. I am also transitioning from a position of regular resident to one of the highest positions possible in my residential college. While that may seem like a quick one-step jump, in actuality transitioning is one of the most hardest places to be. (Think about transitioning into a new school, a new home, a new group of friends, college, your first job-- the list goes on.)

In class yesterday, one friend introduced the idea of liminality in her presentation. Coined by Victor Turner, it is an anthropological term that describes the spot in between the structure and another structure. We can call that spot the "anti-structure," because Turner defines it as ambiguous and when rules and hierarchy are turned up on their heads. However, you usually pass from the state of liminality back into a structure, albeit possibly a new one. This diagram might make this very clear:
A great example of liminality is the time when final exams are over, but you haven't "graduated." High school seniors may experience this feeling of liminality, and so do 4th years at UVA. You aren't part of one structure and not tied down to the next one; you are in a state of liminality where you are free from both rules and free to reflect on both structures.

So back to my example, I am in a state of liminality. I have been elected into a position, but I do not have the powers transferred to me yet. I want to take advantage of this liminality to look back and forward and critique what I want to do. As with all organizations, the transitional period is crucial in setting standards for the change of power, the turnover of members, and introduction for new traditions. I hope I can be mindful of this, and will work closely and carefully to maintain a sense of continuity to ease the transition.

Perfect Saturday

2010-04-04T15:59:00.000-04:00

The Farmer's Market opened yesterday. It's a local city-market that now opens 7a.m.-noon every Saturday until December, downtown. In addition to interaction with Charlottesville residents and occasional strollers with cute babies, the Farmer's Market offers crafts, vegetables (some organic and many locally grown), and the occasional bluegrass musician. Past highlights have also included unique cheddar cheese, the Jam Man, orchids, a Bagelini, and a visit to the nearby hole-in-the-wall crepe place. Transportation to the market place is really easy from the University, because there is the free Trolley.

Did I mention that the weather was 23c or 82f? With sunny skies and temperature conducive to lemonade and free samples, I was thoroughly enjoying my Saturday morning. I frequently encountered yummy signs like the one to the right. Who can argue with $4 a bag of "mmm's"?

Coming back to my dorm, I was pleasantly surprised that there was free food, because of Japan Day! The Japan Club was hosting a free food / performance-filled Japan Day. My friend and I got to try out yakisoba, onigiri, bubble tea (actually from Taiwan), and other yummy foods served by the diligent Japan Club.

At 3pm, my friend, JJ Towler, picked me up to go on a ride through Albemarle County. We visited beautiful parks, scenic highways, and old estates. At one of the estates, we saw a peacock! The roads were gorgeous, lined with peach orchards and daffodils. We stopped by at a park, where a bullfrog croaked like a motor. As a student, I rarely saw beyond Grounds, except for Barracks Shopping Center, the Corner, and Downtown. Once in a while, I will be tempted to take the 7 Bus to Fashion Square shopping center, but most students do not even venture there. This drive with JJ showed me that as students, we are missing out on a lot of the public parks, lakes, and historical areas of Charlottesville, Crozet, and beyond.

you know you're pathetic when...

2010-04-02T22:57:00.001-04:00

I am currently held hostage in my room by a cockroach. It's outside my door. Yeah.

Edit://
Someone told me that "using the term 'lame' to describe what you consider to be a pathetic situation is hurtful to those people who are actually physically lame." It is equatable to wrongly using "That's so gay," when you really meant "That's so stupid." Point taken, loyal reader of mine! Sorry about that!

Ah, and PS.

2010-03-31T23:10:00.001-04:00

I got into Global Development Studies! For more information on this interdisciplinary program, I will shoot you to the website that I sent my parents when they said, "Oh... I don't really know what it is, but that's nice and you sound happy!"

Global Development Studies Major

I will now be a third-year, History & Global Development Studies double major next year!

Service in Society

2010-03-30T10:24:00.000-04:00

I went to listen to a speaker yesterday at the Kaleidoscope Room in Newcomb. I believe the ability to listen to a variety of speakers (I listened to John Yoo when he came!) and be exposed to a variety of different perspectives on different subjects is one of the highlights of my student career. The difference between lectures in class and lectures outside of class is that they are usually subjects that are not covered by a typical "discipline" and might even be controversial!

Anyway, back to the lecture--- it was part of the Service in Society series, and the title was "Intellectual Inquiry: A Pathway to Engaged Citizenship." What was covered in the lecture though was not a speech about service in the traditional sense, as I expected, but more of a diatribe about the lack of acknowledgment and support of the service done in the academic field--- particularly her program at the Woodson Institute. However, Deborah E. McDowell, who is director of the Woodson Institute for African American & African studies, made several good points, which I would like to outline here.

1. Service, interpreted now days, means moving outside of the boundaries established by daily life
Deborah McDowell started off her speech talking about how "service" in her day, which meant driving the elderly neighbor to the hospital, building a church together, and cooking three meals for the friend on crutches, was actually called duty or responsibility. Service connotes the helping of people out there, and the recipients of service, they, were disadvantaged. In truth, we should consider what the relationship between those who service and those who are served really is. To do service, do we go to the "disadvantaged area" or can we look into our own environment? McDowell argues that service starts within the boundaries of your daily life. If service seeks to expose injustices and discrepancies-- what forms of inequalities exist within our own institutions? How do you base service on what you like to do, instead of what's "sexy" like ASB? In doing service, how are you engaging those whom you are serving and bringing them aboard the planning and action?

2. Lip-service by the University for Interdisciplinary programs, but a lack of monetary and structural support
This struck me because I am interested in Global Development Studies, a newly created interdisciplinary program, and the statement that the University "talks the talk," but doesn't "walk the walk" from the director of an interdisciplinary program worries me. There are structural and institutional differences inherent between a department and a program, which are most evident in the funding. Programs do not have enough funding to even hire a professor but must "borrow" professors from different departments.

3. The difference between a program and a department
This flows from what I said earlier, but another difference between a program and a department is the lack of acknowledgment by the academic community. The academic community is still skeptic about the validity of knowledge from an interdisciplinary program, even though the knowledge produced is as valid and precious as the knowledge that comes from a department. The freedom to cross and make connections across boundaries is what attracts students to interdisciplinary programs, but to hear that this freedom comes at the cost of validity is unnerving.

UVA is considered a very service-oriented student body, with Madison House boasting over three thousand volunteers. Yet, we tend to look afar when we are performing service. Let's go to "that part of Charlottesville" or "these elderly grandparents" need you to help. McDowell makes the convincing argument that in truth the places that need the most attention and that you have the most impact on are the places close to home. For McDowell, her academic program is home and she sees many aspects of it that need "service."

Blueprint Last Session

2010-03-24T16:25:00.001-04:00

Today is the last session for my Blueprint group, before the Closing Dinner. That meant more than six weeks have gone by since I met my wonderful group of first years, second years, and transfer student-leaders. Although there were a lot of changes made from last year, I think the concept of having over a hundred Blueprint members worked out well. The fact that the majority of the Blueprint leaders knew each other really well helped a lot to solidify the leadership at top. I do not think that members of my group met outside of Blueprint on their own, but who knows? They might have! It's been a short time, but I hope that I've reached out to my "kiddies" (although most of them are the same age as me...) as a resource as well. All I know is that I did the best that I could to provide a fun, comfortable environment to meet new people and talk about leadership issues. I'm starting to get nostalgic about it already. Oh dear...

UCARE

2010-03-19T10:58:00.000-04:00

I am getting more and more involved in groups that are involved with community relations with minority groups. Sustained Dialogue, Charlottesville Dialogue on Race, Women's Center, and now UCARE! UCARE stands for University and Community Action for Racial Equity (clever, isn't it?). It's located in the Institute of Environmental Negotiation, which is right across from Cavalier Inn on Emmet Rd.

It's an interesting organization, not under the umbrella of the University of Virginia, but definitely drawing from its resources. I have only been an intern for less than two weeks, but already I have jumped into a lot. As with most paid internships, they would like to see that we get our work done. Right now, I'm sort out the links page on the website, and writing blurbs for it-- I hope you get to see the improvements!

Meeting at Mellow Mushroom

2010-03-11T17:20:00.000-05:00

I took a long walk outside today, in a white button-up shirt speckled with green flowers and white capris, because I love the sky today. Although it wasn't the sunshiney blue that makes me giddy, it was my introspective greyish-blue that I hum to as I walk on the sidewalks. The temperature wasn't warm, but was tinged with enough of a cold to bite if the wind blew... Okay, so it wasn't ideal weather for a walk in a t-shirt.

I guess I wanted to walk after a $1.70 Mellow Mushroom cheese pizza slice with $1.20 toppings worth of jalapenos and roma tomatoes. (NOM NOM NOM.) I did my best not to introspect too much nor look like a creeper as I entered deserted classrooms and buildings on Grounds. Having been on Grounds during summer, winter break, and spring break, I am used to and even like the feeling of being the only non-international student here. It's nice to reorient oneself without responsibilities expected from other people. I would definitely say that I am introvert in that sense.

I had lunch with an alumna, a recent graduate from the previous decade '09, at Mellow Mushroom. She ordered a small Kosmic Karma pizza that consisted of olive oil, pesto, roma tomatoes, and mozzarella cheese, and was successful in devouring only half of it. Her flyaway hair reminded me of wispy clouds that had graced the sky on Monday, and I missed her owl-esque look that was wise to my young soul. I presented her with a belated graduation gift of a scarf.

We talked about life, school, life after school, classes, majors, friends, our dorm, how indecisive we are, and Blueprint. All this and my pizza needed to be digested hours after our conversation. I think one of the best quotes from today is "Consume experiences, not material things. The truly happy cherish friends, family and new experiences." Woah. Yeah, that's right, woah.

Huzzah for CAPS

2010-03-05T08:24:00.001-05:00

I have to give a shout out to Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) on Grounds. They are located in the same building as Student Health, so on the corner of Jefferson Park Avenue and Brandon Ave. I went twice in the past week, not for myself ironically, but for a friend and a resident. (I was feeling a lot better, because I had talked to some close people on my support network: friends and family.) They are very professional and considerate! While we definitely do rely on friends and family, sometimes they are not nonjudgmental or as supportive as we would hope they would be. Therefore, it's helpful to talk with a professional to sort out your feelings. CAPS is free for University students.

when iTunes tells you the truth...

2010-02-24T16:15:00.000-05:00

I was feeling down. Not depressed, but simply down. I struggled to wake up in the morning. I couldn't say good morning to residents. Laughs sounded forced. The only times when I feel like this is when I'm getting my period or when I'm about to get sick in a major way.

Or at least that's what I told myself and other people. In truth, I was stressed. I had gotten a terrible grade in my Econ test (see earlier stressful post), and I wasn't enjoying life. I was in enough of a mind to ask a good friend to help me. Everyone should have a friend like this. She's less of an enthusiastic cheerleader who will agree with you on everything, and more of a calm reflective pool of water that reveals your face on the surface but also has depth. She asked me to list all my commitments outside of school on one side and academics on the other. She asked what was stressful right now. I pointed straight at Economics.

I had declared an Economics major, because a new requirement was added if you declared after February 1st, 2010. Therefore, I decided declaring first and figuring out if I enjoyed it later was the best path. However, I am realizing that Economics is not a major for me. Therefore, my plan is drop econ as a major. However, who takes Econ 301 if it's not required? Perhaps I will withdraw from this course... I'll keep you updated!

On a random note... have you played the iTunes game? Click next song on random, and see what comes up.

1. I feel? Hurt by Christina Aguilera.

2. Right now I want to? Okay, I'll Believe in Myself by Jun In of G-Fla

3. How do I get ahead in life? Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots pt. 1 by The Flaming Lips

4. How do my friends perceive me? Fly by Epik High.

Wow, thanks iTunes.

stream of consciousness of a college student at 7:35am

2010-02-17T07:35:00.000-05:00

It is 7:35am, I have been up for over an hour, and I am waiting for free breakfast in thirty minutes. It was surprising to be startled into consciousness at 6am on a Wednesday, with the silence shattered by the wailing of your cellphone. Once the infernal alarm is turned off, I dumbly try to find the light switch, the darkness outside of my window urging me to relax back into its folds. Oh wait, it's right here. Light ON.

Blast it! I slept with a shoe on. It's irritating to find the remnants of last night when you wake up in the wee hours of the morning. Dawn. Pre-dawn even. In the light of my fluorescent desk lamp, I struggle to get into warmer clothes, sit at my desk lamp, flip open the hated Economics book, and start to read.

Read Read Read.

I have an Econ 301 test this Thursday, and my professor practically guaranteed the class an average of 50.

Doomed Doomed Doomed.

False. I refuse to fall into the hopeless mentality. Who cares if everyone else gets a 50? I'm going to be the woman with the 75 (har har har. I'm even scared to type 100. Can a girl hope too much?). Trusting in the ridiculous curve, I know that a 75 would boost me into 150% range.

Flip Flip Flip.

If I had any hair left, I would be flipping it instead of these pages. If I had any fingernails left, they'd be gone. Unlike the stereotypical death of fingernails via chewing, my preferred method is to cut them off. Begone little buggers. Reminiscent of bygone days of piano and fingernail-cutting before lessons, my fingernails are round, pearly stubs.

Shoot, it's 7:53am. I'm still on Diminishing MRTS. Ah wells... time for breakfast.

oh em gee.

2010-02-16T19:51:00.000-05:00

I just discovered that the fish at Clemons Library (there's a fish tank full of "exotic fish") have their own video. Check it out. Wow. That was such a time waster. It's almost as bad as this video.

Fish at Clemons FTW.

rotunda dinners

2010-02-16T01:14:00.000-05:00

One of the things that I love is Rotunda dinners! The Rotunda, as well as fulfilling its original function as a library and its modern function as a tourist landmark, serves as a facility for dinners and receptions. Tonight, our residential college hosted a Valentines-themed dinner at the Rotunda. We were almost high schoolers again, giddy with the anticipation of dressing up and going to a nice dinner. I snagged one of my friends on the way to leaving and convinced them to trade their jeans and snow boots for a sleeveless, black dress. It's the Rotunda, for heaven's sake! Although the dress code is "business casual" (such a vague term), why not go all out? These dinners are usually catered and involve salad, bread, a main course, coffee and dessert. It was fabulous. If possible, I definitely recommend attending a Rotunda dinner.

Superbowl Madness

2010-02-07T17:41:00.001-05:00

Ah, I know it's another year when the internationals eagerly await their first experience of the great American tradition: the Superbowl. (Point and case proven from an excerpt of an email sent to a listserv: "Come out and watch this amazing game and cultural event.") This experience can vary from watching the game to watching the commercials to eating the food to all of the above. An exchange student told me from Singapore that more than watching the game, he's going to be "watching Americans watch American football." Although I am not an international, I had my first Superbowl experience as a first year. Ah, good times. Extremely confused by the maneuvers of large 200 lb men clad in skin-tight spandex, I spent a good time chowing on the free grub and cheering on my friend as he chugged a two-liter bottle of coke. I think he left to pee at a crucial moment. Yes, good times.

Our residential college ordered 300 wings and 20 boxes of pizza. Not extremely healthy, but necessary to bring the hordes of people into one room with a flatscreen TV. Who are the Colts and Saints? People, I know my stuff. Thanks to an American football fanatic, I know about the fantastic match-up between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orlean Saints. More importantly, I know that the halftime show is performed by The Whos and that a thirty-second ad costs about $2.6 million. Dang!

I'm sorry... snow-ma-what?

2010-02-06T17:57:00.000-05:00

Snowmageddon. Our President [of the United States of America] said snowmageddon. He obviously does not read this blog. Ha ha ha. It will snow again this Tuesday and the upcoming weekend as well. This will be a winter to tell the first-years next year.

bid day for fraternities

2010-02-06T13:06:00.000-05:00

It's snowpocalypse plus bid day. This means a maximum of seven fraternity boys are walking in the snow to dorms from the IRC to Old dorms to Hereford to welcome their new additions. Poor boys... Well, congratulations to the new bids, and good luck! Tonight will be a busy night...

snowpocalypse in c'ville

2010-02-04T20:26:00.000-05:00

It's official. The snowpocalypse. The snownami. Death by snow. As well as challenging me to spell 'pocalypse correctly, this snow day has officially shut down classes. That's right. In the first time in the history of UVa (pardon my excited exaggeration), there are no classes.

Looking at my facebook homepage and all those excited status updates (mine included), I must say that my favorite line by far is "Because Mother Nature's pretty much decided to take a massive white dump..." How can you argue with the imagery of snow as excrement of an omnipotent, nurturing female being? Bring it, Mother Nature. Virginians have an obsession with snow simply because it has the power to break down barriers for all behaviors ordained socially as okay. For example, when I went to Kroger's yesterday to get my fruit intake for the week, I found the grocery store packed. Not only were there only a couple loaves of bread remaining on the shelves, the check out line started in the front of the store and spiraled into the back. (Being the impatient New Yorker that I am, I divided my friends' and my stuff into 15 items and ran through the 15-items-or-less line four times. Aw yeah.) People were sprinting to get coveted items, such as:

Nutella
Organic chicken
Wheaties

As one friend aptly put it, those three things cover breakfast, dinner, and dessert.

Another place where people were scurrying was Robertson Media Center, aka third floor of Clemons and source of all DVDs. One DVD that I put down for three minutes was snatched by another person, who looked at me and asked if I was going to watch this. While I think that he was also checking me out, I do believe there was genuine frenzy in his eyes as he thought, What movie do I really want to be watching when I am snowed in for days in a snowpocalypse? It's important because Clemons limits your DVDs to two a person. Therefore, if you pick wrong, there is no going back. There will be a lots of cuddling with snuggies this weekend.

While I look forward to cuddling with my Russian history textbook about genocides and massacres of the Reds and Whites, I also look forward to the chili made by the Principal of the IRC every time it snows. Yay, IRC!

Amish Friendship Bread

2010-02-03T17:25:00.001-05:00

I'm curled up on my bed, knowing that in the hall kitchen Amish Friendship bread is baking. It's sitting in the oven, patted with cinnamon and sugar and mixed in with salt and milk. It smells heavenly and so do my vanilla-stained fingers.

After class, I went to Residence Life Office (RLO) to sign Valentines cards. That's right. They're not-so-secret, Valentines cards addressed to entire teams of RAs. It's like falling in love with a band. You don't know whether to confess your admiration for one person or just become a fangirl of the entire group and will Ringo really get upset if you only love Paul? Ah, the dilemma of every secret admirer. I decided to keep true to myself and not get entangled in any love triangles by clearly stating the person to whom I was addressing my feelings and clearly signing my own name. I only wrote in print. For my own team, and yes, you were supposed to write to your own team too, I drew a lovely caricature of everyone. Once we officially "receive" the card on the weekend of Valentines, I will take a picture and post my glorious artwork. It's indicative of the many different personalities on our team and how our SR works hard to work with us. (He's an old, wrinkly Grandpa in the caricature. We're quite a rambunctious group of grandchild-RAs.)

After that, I was supposed to read The Soviet Experiment for my Russian history class, but I decided to bake instead. I'm so excited for how it turns out!

Boss Says

2010-02-03T01:04:00.000-05:00

I just had a talk with my Senior Resident. That's my boss. He's also a friend, a fellow student, and just a fellow. At UVA, because we believe in student governance, this happens a lot. Your boss is a student just like you.

While there are benefits to this method, because hierarchical systems usually require formality and support a culture of supposedly "masculine characteristics" (e.g. your boss should be tough, commanding, and authoritative -"masculine characteristics" vs. your boss being nurturing, listening, and understanding -"feminine characteristics."), students get stress from students. Specifically, I get criticism from a friend, a student, but ultimately my boss.

I cannot deny that the ability to take feedback well is a fantastic characteristic to develop. It is especially crucial if you work in any manner as a team. I want to point out that this isn't being silent as someone gives you flack. Being able to see your mistakes is step one and taking steps to not repeat them is step two, and having someone point these out is feedback. (I believe the politically correct term is "constructive criticism.") In fact, being able to give and take criticism is a sign of a healthy, professional relationship.

However, because the boss-worker relationship is formal and not many college relationships are formal, having your friend be your boss is difficult in any situation. I hope I remember this when I am on the other end.

good morning

2010-02-02T09:19:00.000-05:00

So during winter break and for a week past it, I was running every other morning at 8am. My obnoxiously perky cellphone ring would boost me out of bed, I would tie my running shoes, and bolt. Alas, I don't do it anymore, because I cannot afford to spend two hours of my morning, when I can be doing work. (I'm not doing work right now either, but that's besides the point.) The point is I still wake up at 8am every morning, because of this habit.

I wake up, turn on my computer, proceed to chomp on my Special K breakfast, and start to finish work. Ah, college creates such oxymorons.

Poetry SLAM

2010-01-31T09:58:00.000-05:00

I had loads of fun a couple days ago at the Poetry Slam. Part of the Big Bang! Arts Week, the Poetry Slam involved a poetry slam competition amongst students, an open mic, and a preview of Daniel Beaty's latest piece. For those of you not familiar with poetry slam, an example would be Biracial Hair. It's spoken word.

Watching piece after piece performed with poise, confidence, and passion, I was moved to no ends. Topics ranged from love to a hyperbole of swagger to hometowns to materialistic culture to adequate housing. Each one was truth projected with spitfire, stabbing fingers, and fierce eyes. After Michelle, the winner of the competition, perform her final piece, I had chills. It was awe inspiring.

One of the crowd favorites was Hometown. It was simple and had a message that connected to everyone in the room. Have pride in your hometown, don't be afraid of your accent, why do you have to be from New York City and not just New York? Of course, my ramblings about his masterpiece of a performance does not capture the raw feeling of having someone perform his or her original piece in front of you. In all seriousness, I do encourage you to attend and support a local poetry slam.

cold weather prompts...

2010-01-29T23:53:00.001-05:00

I went for a run this morning. I felt like the negative degrees in Celsius warranted long pants and a warm hoodie. Unfortunately, with my boyish haircut and a baseball cap, this made me look like a prepubescent boy trying out for the middle school cross country team. While I'm sure I got some double-takes because of gender-confusion, I did not get honks by guys in trucks, which I appreciated. I know that I shouldn't take shelter in the fact that I am hijacking social stereotypes to escape my issues with the way society views the female race... but ah, I do.

I was talking with a close friend of mine, and she revealed that she felt like the girls of her pledge class melded into one person. Not talking about humans trying to achieve portmanteau, she was addressing the fact that these women, probably of different personalities and backgrounds, were buying into the social ideal of looking a certain way. They looked like clones.

Of course, this brings up the question about UVA "culture." Does the typical UVA man wear penguin-studded shorts, Northface outerwear, sunglasses holder, and a UVA baseball cap backwards? How come I am attracted to anything that walks in something other than salmon-colored slacks and boat shoes? Will I ever understand why UVA girls seem to reach a consensus that Northface and Uggs are the way to go?

The answers to these questions are up to you, me, and every UVA student here on Grounds. For example, I do not wear Northface and Uggs. I have friends who do not wear Northface and Uggs. In fact, they don't know what Northface and Uggs, and they happen to be from out of the country, where Northface and Uggs are just not known. The fact that UVA also includes these friends and me, as well, answers these question. I am also a UVA woman.

The UVA Men's Basketball Team lost yesterday. Apparently they shot one in in the last seconds of the game, and went into overtime. Unfortunately, that is where they lost. We're still number four in our league! Go, Hoos, go!

back to school musings.

2010-01-26T14:36:00.000-05:00

There are so many deadlines around this time: summer internships, scholarships, and positions for next year. A lot on my to-do list for winter break involved finishing applications, and while I did start everything on my list, I didn't finish it. Oh, well. It's just a pain juggling readings for classes and doing applications so that I don't miss deadlines.

Did anyone make New Year's resolutions? When I talk about these with my friends, a lot of them scoff at the futility of my resolutions. Are you really going to run every week? Are you really going to get eight hours of sleep? Are you really going to be positive all the time? Realistically no, but having these resolutions puts me a step closer to my goal. Perhaps I will run every week, but probably will sleep at least six hours. I want to conserve money. I want to read more. I want to have a 4.0 GPA. My plan don't end with just making the goal, but I need to continue with steps. Wish me luck!

Haiti

2010-01-20T23:45:00.000-05:00

It's on everyone's mind. The death of a UVa student. The news headlines. The disorganized aid. How do I help?

With all the groups around grounds rushing to get students, faculty, and staff involved, I wonder what I can do. Stephanie Strom gives us the answer with her article, "Teaching Americans What Haiti Needs: Money" (Nytimes.Com).

Ways to give aid have become easier and manifest themselves through different tools, revealing the power of social networking and texting. For example, you can text "HAITI" to "90999" to give $10 to the American Red Cross. This has led to $24 million for aid. Washington Post has a list of charities that collect donations. UVa has a website devoted to updates about the relief for Haiti.

Let us not be idle.

T-Minus 20 Hours

2009-12-16T16:22:00.000-05:00

Recently, noise levels have gone up in my hall... As an RA, I need to enforce Quiet Hours. For those of you who don't know or haven't lived on Grounds since first year, during finals, there is a rule called Quiet Hours. Essentially, in dorms everyone needs a quiet atmosphere to study because the libraries are packed. Therefore, conversations in the hall should be a whisper, you cannot blast music in your room, and common areas are limited to quiet conversations. Penalties for violating quiet hours are pretty severe, with the first violation being a conversation with your Area Coordinator and a possible UJC trial. Yes, a UJC trial.

As an RA, I have informed my residents about this rule and I enforce it. It is a serious rule, and most people follow it, because everyone is studying hard for their finals. It makes sense, no? Well, recently my ressies have been very loud. Why? Because they're done.

I. Am. Jealous.

As a student, asking someone to quiet down because other people (including I) are studying and then finding out that the reason they are loud and happy is because they're done is a new low. (That was a long sentence!) Don't get me wrong, as an RA I will do it. As a student though, I am pretty miserably envious.

With my last final in T-minus 20 hours, I am ready to be out of here. I started last Monday with a History final, had two essays, a portfolio due, and will end tomorrow with three finals under my belt. I am ready to bounce!

continued: finals week

2009-12-11T17:40:00.000-05:00

It has snowed (late I know). It has rained (Lighting of the Lawn). It has finally gotten cold, going below freezing until two in the afternoon. People have started sporting peacoats and northfaces, tugging hoods close to their face when the wind hits. Nevertheless, I decided to run in shorts and a long-sleeve shirt, not just because I'm cray cray but because I needed to hand in my essay. That's right! I finished that bad boy.

Because my brain is fried right now, I am going to point out some odd things that I've noticed through finals week.

1. The squirrels: They have gotten so large. They are still furiously searching for nuts, stuffing their faces, or madly burying them. The result is that they have ballooned. I believe that they are an indication of a heavy winter. Although it was cold last year, it was very mild. I believe that this winter will be one of the coldest, longest, and severe winters Virginia has seen in a while. Did I mention that it snowed and the snow stuck?

2. Open appointments at the Writing Center: It's finals week and that means at least three deadlines for papers. Usually the Writing Center is packed, and for good reason. For those of you wondering what the Writing Center is, check out their website. Those fantastic people there will help you begin your essay, touch up your grammar, and strengthen that argument. However, they can probably tell you that better than I can.

3. Students who wear raincoats without hoods and no umbrellas: Yes, your head will get wet. Your knapsack and your books might get soaked too.

proof of my procrastinating!

2009-12-09T13:57:00.000-05:00

The Google Chrome browser for Macs came out! I probably could do a post on the supergiant of a company, Google, and how they're coming out with a Chrome Operating System (Chrome OS) as well as a browser and a new, newer email (see earlier post about Googlewave), and my, don't they look big now?

I need to write an essay that is two days past the deadline. Surprisingly, I am not stressed about that, but I just want it to be done! I am such a big procrastinator. My friend sent me an article called "The Disadvantages of Elite Institutions." It talks about how elite institutions give its students so many second chances, priming them for a world where extended deadlines, a support network, and guidelines are the norm. In contrast, universities such as Cleveland State ready its students for "lives with few second chances, no extensions, little support, narrow opportunity—lives of subordination, supervision, and control, lives of deadlines, not guidelines." (American Scholar) While that sounds like an advantage that elite institutions have, elite institutions give you a false sense of self-worth, ushers you into the upper-class and then "trains you for the life you will lead once you get there." In actuality, Mr. Deresiewicz talks about numerous disadvantages, the first of interestingly is you're "incapable of talking to people who aren’t like you." Just by that, University of Virginia would definitely fall under the category of "elite institutions." It is an interesting article, and if you are not bogged down with mandatory readings for classes, I would definitely recommend taking time to read William Deresiewicz's commentary.

Two Weeks of Stress

2009-12-06T15:42:00.000-05:00

Just to show you that I'm alive...

Unlike the majority of UVa students, I have a test on Monday. Classes officially end Tuesday. I also have a paper due Monday. I have not started the paper. This is why I am not writing entries left and right.

To make this post more useful than my ranting though, I want to point out some awesome studying spots that most people overlook. The typical places, like Club Clemons, reek by the end of finals week. Why? Think about the unwashed masses of bodies who have camped out in Clemons for more than 48 hours. A friend likened it to Dante's Inferno, each with a level of smelliness. (While that is a ridiculous hyperbole, I must concur at some level.)

1. The Rotunda: I've mentioned this before, but the Rotunda is pretty devoid of studying students and instead of tourists. Was this the original purpose of Thomas Jefferson? I believe not. Note the weird hours it is open though.

2. Albert and Small Specials Collections Library: It has some pretty rooms with couches and plants. No one ever ventures in there because it seems off-limits. Lies. 2nd floor is beautiful.

3. Newcomb Hall: Most visited is 2nd floor because that is where the Dining Hall is. Well, obviously don't go there to study. Check out the Student Activities Center (SAC) on the first floor, the quiet places on 4th floor, and all those conference rooms on the 3rd. Third floor also has couches and desks and outlets. Food is accessible downstairs. Bathroom is on every floor. I'm set.

4. Pavilion VIII: Apparently open whenever first floor is not in use. I have not checked this out, but why not pass it along?

5. All those "specialized" libraries: There's a gorgeous Philosophy library in Cocke Hall, Physics Library on 3rd floor, Bio/Psych Library in Gilmer, Chemistry Building, Health Science Library... the list goes on. Who knew each department needed its own library?

6. Corner: Para Coffee is an instant favorite because of its awesome drinks and free wi-fi. Don't be scared to ask for the password. Starbucks is some people's preference, but it tends to get extremely crowded. There's another coffee place on the corner called Fox Park. Bodos gets loud, so it's not conducive to studying but perhaps group meetings.

There are definitely more but I am too frazzled to think of... Oh well. Wish me luck and see you in two weeks!

Prestige. Tradition. UVa?

2009-12-01T01:32:00.001-05:00

So in preparation for the beginning of finals week next week, I have been studying in periods of 3 hours in the Rotunda Dome Room. The Dome Room is open 9am-4:45pm, and contrary to general belief is open to students who are studying. It originally was and still is, to a lesser extent, a library and why can't students study in a library? It's usually empty except for the occasional UGuide group and the independent tourist.

After a while, I can't help but memorize tidbits of the stories that the UGuides give. Did you know that the Rotunda standing today isn't the original, because the original burned down? When it happened, lots of students and professors risked their lives trying to save the books in the library. Out of the 60,000, I believe they managed to salvage at least 12,000. A group of particularly Jeffersonian-dedicated students tried to save the two-ton statue of Thomas Jefferson that used to be in the Dome Room but now stands on the second floor of the Rotunda. When dragging the statue down the stairs, they lost control and it slid down the flights of stairs to the bottom. The scratches on the cape of Jefferson is proof of that wild escapade.

I'm obviously studying very hard, but let me digress a bit. Also to put out a disclaimer, the following information is a very real stigma, definitely controversial, and not true for all Lawnies. It is said, and I have been told this personally, to become a prestigious Lawnie, there are certain organizations that you should join. UGuides is stereotypically considered one of those organizations on Grounds. One of my friends struggle with this stigma and he has plainly said that he hesitates to apply for a Lawn room because of it. To me, this tells me that there is a hierarchy at UVa, and that if you do the right things, join the right organizations, and know the right people you are guaranteed a prestigious Lawn room. This has been both subtly conveyed to me and blatantly articulated.

What is this Lawn room that is so coveted? Honestly, besides the prestige and location, it is a pretty crappy deal. It is the most expensive room you can ask for on Grounds. It has the worst bathrooms on Grounds. If you like your showers, the Lawn rooms would not be my first recommendation. There are no kitchens or AC. You get tourists in your room all the time as if your room was historic Williamsburg and that LCD TV monitor over there was just part of the authentic colonial decor. It's small. You have to pay for the firewood that is stacked by your door. You have to pay for the fluffy bathrobe that has become so synonymous with the Lawnies because they have external bathrooms. In fact, back in the day, the Lawn rooms were actually considered the worst housing deal you could have. It became so unwanted that the administration put an application, told the student population that the application pool was "extremely competitive" (they were lying), and in a year, the Lawn rooms became the most prestigious and competitive housing rooms on Grounds. Typical UVa behavior?

Therefore, the Lawn rooms are now extremely prestigious to the point where students on a "fast track," such as Echols scholars and Jefferson scholars, believe that the Lawn room is the ultimate destination. This sort of mentality has led to cutthroat behavior, such as the aforementioned one of joining organizations just to get into the Lawn. To continue the idea of a hierarchy at UVa, only certain organizations on Grounds have their special Lawn rooms. With the prestige associated with Lawn rooms, what does that say about these organizations? It says if you join these organizations, you can get a Lawn room.

The purpose of the Lawn rooms is to "recognize students for unselfish service to the University and achievement in their respective fields of activity and academics" (Housing website). Are all the Lawnies representative of this? In response to this, a secret society last year sent a letter to the Lawnies. The letter criticized students who "desire[d] to be on executive boards, to participate in community service, to be in CIOs, to live on the Lawn even, only because they [felt] obliged to look better on paper than their peers." Instead, the letter advised "[gaining] tools needed to make the most of the mountainous horizons beyond where the Lawn ends." It is important to remember to take a step back, look beyond UVa, and do things because you enjoy them.

Mentally Stimulating Diversions

2009-11-29T12:30:00.000-05:00

In another one of my infamous dinner parties that involve raucous laughter, fusion food, mismatched plates, and usually youtube escapades, we introduced my friend to a great time-waster. Now as a college student, typing that six page essay, you are guaranteed to be spending at least a third of your time not writing your essay. This time could be unevenly distributed among Facebook (the clear winner), Youtube, New York Times, Apple Store, or in my case, Blogger. However, a site with growing popularity is the Sporcle.Com.

Described as "mentally stimulating diversions," Sporcle is chock full of addictive trivia games. Let's break down the phrase. Is it mentally stimulating? Yes. My personal favorite is "Can you name the Countries of the World?" because that's how I get to know my geography and win raffle prizes at Southeast Asian Festival for labeling all the Southeast Asian countries properly. Yes, I am addicted, but YES I know my geography. There are funky ones like "World Turkey Population," which are a waste of time and I doubt are mentally stimulating. However, there are also throwbacks like "Can you name all the Pokémon Characters (Generation 1)?" and the "Can you complete The Fresh Prince of Bel Air?" that are definitely mentally stimulating. I think. Is it a diversion? Sporcle just sucked three hours of my life last night. You can make the judgment call.

All in all though, it was hilarious to complete these quizzes with friends and those three hours flew. While typing in Bizarro and finding out the spelling of "Liechtenstein," we laughed like no other. The cereal mascot on the left is called "Frankenberry" and I do not know if I would feed my child cereal with such a mascot. There are 7 countries that end with "-stan" and the party includes Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan (with TWO Y's), and Tajikistan.

I invite you to beat our record for the Countries of the World: 133/195.

Turkey Run and Google Wave

2009-11-28T17:15:00.000-05:00

Thanksgiving has come and gone. In anticipation for the event, people have sent me texts with the generic "Happy Thanksgiving :)", an email with numerous pictures like this and a bumper sticker request on facebook. Would you laugh if I said I didn't see a single turkey this Thanksgiving? No, I am not vegetarian and I often had turkey in New York.

It must be something about Virginia and my luck, but in my two years here, I have not eaten turkey here. Last year on Thanksgiving, for some odd reason, our family decided to wake up at 8am to go hiking in Shenandoah Park. Ironically, the trail was called Turkey Run and it involved some serious paths with a huge incline that culminated in a peak and a waterfall. After trekking for four hours with large backpacks on, we were sore, breathless, and hungry. I don't want to say "typical Koreans," but yeah, we had a pot of ramen (instant noodles) on that summit. When we were driving away from the parking lot, we saw a herd (flock?) of turkeys. Irony to the max.

This year, we didn't have a ramen lunch on a mountain, but we did go hiking in another park. Ultimately, there was a dearth of turkeys in my life this year as well. Oh well.

On a totally different note, as an avant-garde blogger and a closet-techie, I want to spread the word about Google Wave. Essentially, email, social networking, documents, and IMs are merged together in this "personal communication and collaboration tool" (Google). Described as "what email would look like if it was invented today," Google Wave is in real-time and really focuses on collaborative features. A wave is a "collection of messages, ...where people can see each other typing live," (Google) and ultimately this will foster collaboration on event-planning, group projects and other cosponsored activities. Did I mention that it has automatic translating as you type? If the person you are collaborating with types in Arabic and you type in English, with the right tool, it will come out on your wave as English. There are a lot more features and they're working on improving the preview version, but I haven't fully explored it.

What does this mean for college kids? I smell potential for group projects, cosponsorship between CIOs, and BBQ events with friends. As one friend put it, Google Wave could encourage laziness in all of us, because it doesn't innovate but simply combines tools that we already have, but another way to think about it is an innovation in the way of approaching these tools. I'm not a fan yet, but I am eagerly waiting for Google's improvements on this preview version.

Want it? At the moment, it's only open by invitation, but you can place yourself on the guest list.

As Future CEO of the Sushi+Cupcakes Company...

2009-11-23T11:21:00.000-05:00

On an entirely new note, I had an RA meeting last night and it was loads of fun. I think this meeting was different from previous ones, because a lot of us were very relaxed. I think everyone has gotten used to each other and different styles of humor. A lot of jokes went around, the pizza was hot, and business was short and sweet.

Yes, RAs are students too and we love to chill. For those of you who don't know, RAs meet once a week as a staff to discuss dorm-wide issues and events. Around this time of year, RAs are usually planning around Thanksgiving break and towards winter. We're very far-sighted people. Overall, we are excited for break to come and not-so-excited for the finals to come afterwards.

Earlier this year, these meetings have been business for the most part, with a little socializing before and after. Yesterday was the first time we decided to incorporate a dinner with our meeting and that definitely eased the mood of the meeting. If there is nothing else college has taught me, it has taught me that food brings people together and the casualness of it facilitates an easiness found only between friends. If I ever become a big time CEO or manager, I will make sure to always have snacks in my office and conduct my meetings with sushi and cupcakes. Welcome to my cubicle.

SIS, oh SIS...

2009-11-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

No, I am not talking about my female sibling or anything like that but our one and only, terribly user-repellent SIS! For those of you not familiar with this bane in my life, it is the new Student Information System, or the site where students

Drop and add classes
Find the name of your advisor
Determine whether you have holds on your enrollment
View financial information
View a list of your classes, an unofficial transcript, an Academic Requirements report, and a list of your transfer of credit
Browse the Schedule of Classes using the Class Search

Do I know a lot of people whose financial aid has been messed up because of SIS? Yes. Is it user-friendly? No. Does it make your life really hard when trying to drop and add classes? Yes.

Financial aid has been extremely backed up, because of transferring files to SIS and that means a lot of financial packages were given late or mishandled. I experienced this over the summer, and some people still experience it today. While I do appreciate the work that the people at Financial Aid do, I do not appreciate the confusing labels of SIS. In my financial aid package, what does it mean to have charges listed under the title of "item"? Why is the money charged for the 2008 fall term paid by "Summer 09 Financial Aid'? What is a "Do Not Place Financial Hold"?

Perhaps the underlying point is that SIS combines so many features that it is slowed down by them and altogether it is a confusing hodgepodge. Dan Heubert of UVa Today blog lauds the fact that "SIS does offer many of the same features as Collab" and then lists eight features that SIS can do, as if this was some baby contest and SIS was coming in second to some gorgeous half Turkish, half Chinese baby. Does faculty really need to view weekly teaching and exam schedules, build a course waitlist, search the course catalog and schedule of classes, create student e-mail lists, AND release advising holds? From what I hear, professors are so baffled by SIS that they barely use a lot of offered features, and the ones that they need to use are being "difficult." Another example of the pointlessness of so many features is the fact that we need to pick out of the three terms ('09 Fall, J-Term, '10 Spring) each time we want to look or edit classes. Therefore, each time I want to add, swap or drop a class, I must select which term I want to look at. Instead of adding, swapping or dropping classes within a term, I must reselect the term every time I click add, swap, or drop. This gets annoying really quickly.

I think the fact that I am on 8 waitlists attests to SIS's inefficiency. What Dan Heubert of UVa Today blog calls "the star of the March rollout [of SIS]" is the course enrollment feature, but that is exactly what I hear most students complain about. It is a pain to enroll, because SIS is so slow in processing requests. Also, because of the way the system is designed, a lot more students are on waitlists, because we do not have paper course action papers anymore. What students need are flexibility and a quick turnover rate. Instead, with SIS, we are all on as many waitlists as possible to hold onto as many classes, because we are uncertain whether or not we're going to get into a class.

On the right column, why are there links under the title of "U.Va." and what is the difference between those and the links under the title of "Other U.Va."? There's another UVA?

Even a physics professor understood this sad situation and felt enough pity to create his own version of SIS. This professor, Lou Bloomfield, says that "the goal of this website is to help student and faculty realize the best educational experience possible," and ends with "I hope that you will find this website useful." Oh yes, Mr. Bloomfield, sir, I do. Extremely user-friendly, it clearly lists all classes in a easy-to-read format. You can check out his version of SIS here: [http://rabi.phys.virginia.edu/mySIS/CS/index.php]. From what I heard, it cost him nothing to make this. Did I mention that we bought SIS for millions of dollars that racked up tuition and we need to shell out a couple hundreds of thousand a year to maintain it? Oh my.

112 words for you.

2009-11-16T10:36:00.000-05:00

Someone once pointed out that my posts are very long... Well, my friends, either I must get to the crux of things, have less to say, or just make the blog layout wider so that it doesn't seem as long. I believe that the latter two are things that I cannot control (at the moment). Therefore, for this post, I'm going to really bring out the meaning of what I'm trying to convey.

Life Advice from Dean Sarah Wilcox Elliott (currently Darden's Assistant Director of Student Affairs):

1. Work smarter, not harder.
2. Negotiate your salary.
3. Feel comfortable to change in matters of the heart.

Concise? Important? Oh, definitely.

Peace out.

sushi, hip-hop, friends, and late-night dancing

2009-11-15T11:32:00.000-05:00

I went to a friend's apartment house party last night and it was awesome. Let me preface it though with a description of my lovely Saturday. Honestly, yesterday was one of the most satisfying days of my life. Yes, I am talking about hedonistic pleasures, which include sushi, hip-hop, friends, and late night dancing.

The morning started off quite disappointingly because I woke up early for two meetings, both of which I never got in touch with the person with whom I was supposed to have a meeting. However, I was thoroughly enjoying the gorgeous weather. For the past four days, Virginia has decided to pour her heart out in the form of biting wind, thundering or misty rain, wet leaves, flooded brick sidewalks, and inside-out umbrellas. Miraculously, on Saturday the sun was out, temperature highs were 19°C or 66°F, and girls were wearing strapless sun dresses (your prime indicator of the weather...). For those of you not familiar with Virginia weather, Virginia is a bipolar, maniac depressive maiden when it comes to matters of weather and love. While in New York, once it hits October, it's chilly and then cold and then freezing until March, in Virginia, it vacillates. Therefore I was pleasantly surprised by the gorgeous weather, and despite being dumped for two meetings I was actually in a great mood.

Oh, and despite the fact that it had been raining nonstop for four days and Professor Wilson says that the day of the week doesn't really affect your mood, I was so happy that it was Saturday. I mean, what Professor Wilson says is true... TGIF in America, or Thank God It's Friday, definitely did not apply in South Korea, where the week school used to continue to Saturday. (They're currently trying to phase it out so that on every alternating week, school ends on Friday.) I'm sure if classes continued to Saturday, Fridays would just become the next Thursday. However, I also might just transfer to another school that doesn't implement such heinous practices.

Fortunately, it was Saturday and at the University of Virginia, it means a day of no classes. I decided to go on a sushi lunch date with friends... Guess where we went? YES SUSHI LOVE [see two posts earlier]. Two of my friends actually never had sushi (or sashimi or rolls), so I was really excited. I won't get into too much details, but essentially we had an awesome lunch of the bento box at a reasonable price, and talked for two and a half hours. There was such a feeling of solidarity that it was remarkable. It really reminded me what the combination of good food and fantastic women can do for one's soul. I believe we talked about everything from an amazing novel called Things Fall Apart to African womanism to UVa Orientation to music. We all agreed that the chic decor and great tasting food added to the mood. Silly pictures ensued.

We got kicked out of the restaurant at 3:36pm. They needed to set up for dinner. Because of the great company, we decided to meet again for Ill-Literacy. Essentially the description was something like this:

[Spoken word and hip-hop favorites iLL-Literacy returns to UVA for a third time just days before the release of their first record, iB4the1.1! Creating an ever-expanding sonic universe piecemealed together by their ever-shrinking attention span, iLL-Literacy has invaded concert halls, off-Broadway stages, and college arenas throughout North America and Europe.]

Awesome? Oh yes. We were blasted with truth in the form of spoken word and beats. Why is the word fuck beeped from shows and movies that have murder scenes, sex scenes, and drug scenes? Why is our first black President talked about as if he is the last chapter in the race dialogue? Who does Glenn Beck think he is in coining the term "post-racial America" because of Obama? Not only were we the row who screamed encouragement the most, I believe we got a kick out of the fact that N.I.C. took a picture with me and my friend. Overall, a very fulfilling night.

not hipster... zipster yo.

2009-11-11T11:10:00.000-05:00

Oh.Em.Gee. I am not a fan of excessive use of this phrase, but sadly that is what is coming to mind. ZIPCAR IS COMING TO UVA.

For those of you who are not familiar with Zipcar, it's a carsharing company that charges hourly rates and covers your gas and insurance. They have one of the largest fleets: over 6,500 vehicles throughout North America and the UK. You reserve a car, pick it up at a reserved spot, do your thing, and then drop it off at the same spot. It's super easy to reserve a car, and you have a choice among Minis, pick up trucks, BMWs, hybrids and more! UVa is going to offer three hybrid Honda Insights and three Honda Civics starting November 17. The hourly weekday rate is $8 and weekend rate is $9, as well as an annual $35 fee to be a member.

Did I mention that Zipcar has its own slang and promotes a "lifestyle"? (Good. Clean. Fun. anyone?) You can also be a

zip•ster (zĭp′ster) n. slang

zipster

: One who uses Zipcar. A gender neutral term for a person (or people: Zipsters) who believe in cost-effective transportation solutions that are good for the planet and easy on the wallet.

That sounds extremely catchy and attractive. Wouldn't you want to be a zipster?

Introducing the big news two days ago, UVa Today Blog lauds Zipcar as a step towards "[decreasing] the number of vehicles on Grounds and help [reducing] parking demand and associated congestion." Well, I'm glad that they noticed the problem! There was ridiculous traffic during the U2 Concert and Saturday football games, where parking is nigh impossible.

I also mentioned that Zipcar promotes a greener lifestyle. They devote an entire page to Green Benefits and how the "idea is bigger than all us." Today, in American politics class, Professor Doneson talked about American moralism and how it is a unique take on virtue. Essentially, he argues that virtue in America was different from virtue in Europe. In Europe, virtue meant suffering, sacrifice and asceticism, while in America, virtue is a form of self-interest: we do well by being good to others. For example, doing community service is great for the community, but it also helps us get into college. In the same way, I was struck by the way Zipcar promoted a greener planet. It's good for the planet, but it's good for you too! By saving money (and the planet), you have an extra $500 a month, which could be "put back into [your] community by buying local and sustainable products" (Zipcar Website). According to Tocqueville (and not just any critical French commentator!), Americans are attracted to the easy and convenient way of doing things. Even on the UVa Today blog, Zipcar is described as a "convenient, economical, and environmentally responsible alternative to owning a car." Those are three adjectives about which no one can argue.

Therefore, I must congratulate Zipcar and UVa on recognizing this American tendency (albeit probably differently than I did in politics class) and encouraging a planet-and-wallet-friendly mode of transportation. I would argue that college students are the epitome of the American need for ease and convenience. Introducing the zipcar to UVA is probably one of the best decisions since [reusable] to-go boxes!

cravings for sushi?

2009-11-09T00:56:00.000-05:00

The other day, I checked out a new restaurant on the Corner. It was near my favorite local coffee shop, so I decided to stop by on a whim. It's called Sushi Love and it's on Elliwood Ave.

Charlottesville's sushi places have trained me to expect high prices for average food and ok service. Sakura on the Corner is very so-so. It's been frequented not for the food, but for pure convenience. Repeated poor service has led me to avoid it if possible. It once took thirty minutes for the menu to be brought out and about fifteen minutes for us to get water after we got the menu. I'll admit that I haven't tried sushi at Flaming Wok Teppan Yaki & Sushi Bar, but in general, sushi in Charlottesville is pretty pricey. So I was on a limb here, entering a sushi place and hoping that it would be decent. I was pleasantly surprised.

I entered Sushi Love. I was greeted by the manager and shown the three different types of seating areas, each of which exuded its own unique atmosphere. Instead of the intimate private seating in the back or the stately wooden chairs in the middle, I opted for the tall chairs, bathed in sunlight. I opened the menu to find to my delight Korean food! The chef must be Korean, because the menu boasted not only bulgoki, which is marinated BBQ beef, but also bibimbab, or mixed rice with vegetables and a spicy pepper paste. Although I had come for sushi, I had already made up my mind to taste Korean food. Nevertheless, I decided to ask the manager, who was also my waiter, what he recommended. Instantly, he pointed to the bento box, which I saw was priced at a ridiculously cheap $8 and something. He casually pointed to my neighbors who were enjoying their food and I saw that these were not small, mean portions. I was really tempted to scrap my bibimbab choice and go with the bento box. However, the fact that the bibimbab was around $6 sort of sealed the deal.

Service? I'd give it a 7.5/10. I know that the manager-waiter was very attentive, because the restaurant is new and I was one of the few customers. I'd like to come back later to see if service is still on par.
Food? I only got one entree... (which calls for several repeats to see if the rest of the food was as authentic as my bibimbab). But it was also pretty high: 8/10.

Of course, although I am giving Sushi Love high marks, excellent food and service doesn't guarantee its success. The managers of Sushi Love need to be business savvy and learn to cater to the college community, because of its close proximity to the University. This requires flyering, getting its name out there with CIOs, and encouraging students to bring friends. Being active in the Charlottesville community in general also doesn't hurt. I know Para Coffee is particularly successful because the couple who owns Para Coffee networked through the local artist community and the Christian community.

I'm not going to lie... restaurants on the Corner usually have a lifespan of two years. The Biltmore recently changed hands, despite years of going strong. Three used to be a different restaurant, Boylan Heights is a new addition, and recently, Rita's Ice Cream turned into Trinity, a snazzy new bar. While there are a couple of names going strong, such as The Virginian and College Inn, the majority of eateries on the Corner come and go within a student's college lifespan. At best, we can wish Sushi Love good luck and see how it thrives.

the pig flu over the moon...

2009-11-05T21:33:00.001-05:00

I really wish I was an atypical UVa student when I say: I came down with the flu. It seems like everyone is getting sick these days, with the weather going down to 0 degrees Celsius (32F) in the night, but rising to 16 or 17 degrees (61~63F) during the day.

I actually knew who I got my bug from, which was lucky because my friend told me exactly what to prepare for and how long the illness took. Once I started getting a fever, I quarantined myself in my room, sent emails to my professors, and slept the entire day. I drank lots of water so that I wouldn't get dehydrated and had rice porridge. Fortunately, the fever broke the next day, but I still wasn't feeling good, so I spent the entire day in my room, watching movies and Korean dramas.

Being sick in college is not a fun experience. No one really looks after you and you need to take care of yourself. Food does not appear at will, schoolwork seems to be hovering over you, and no one dares to come near. I think when I was most feverish, I called my umma (mother in Korean). My umma wistfully said, "College students call their mothers when they're sick," hinting that I do not call enough. She recommended lots of bed rest and tea, which I followed without fail.

I went to Student Health 24 hours after my fever broke (because that's when the flu isn't contagious anymore). After a combined time of twenty five minutes of waiting time and 12 minutes of doctor time, I walked out of the building with a prescription for... AN INHALER. I went in to check that I didn't have swine flu or any other scary nonsense like that, and got diagnosed with asthma. Perhaps it was a practical joke, but I checked how much an inhaler was without medical insurance... and it's $150. I say it's a great business move.

diversity career day

2009-10-28T15:31:00.001-04:00

I went to Diversity Career Day today... well, it is only Day 1.

Anyway, it was a pretty intimidating experience, considering that I was a second year history major. Not only were most companies looking for business-related majors, the fact that I was only a second year and not a third or fourth year ready to be snapped up for work turned off a lot of employers. However, I definitely did not go in there with the mindset of coming out with a job offer or an interview. Instead, as a good friend of mine pointed out, it was about noticing the way students stood when they talked to a prospective employer, or the clothes that an employer wore, or the fact that the employer had a clipboard with a checklist on it. (FYI, the way students stand is body language and can show interest levels and power dynamics, the clothes that employers wear reveals the culture of the company, and the checklist could show an early screening process and suggests lots of competition.)

Despite the fact that I looked snappy and I had 10 resumes printed out in my bag, I was still intimidated. Why is that? I think what bothered me the entire time at Diversity Career Day was the fact that I was shut down because I was a history major. The quick mental short or heuristic that many people take when they hear "history major" is a student with an obscure set of skills. Possibly images of dusty historians come to mind or a terrible experience with an eighth grade history teacher. Yet, I believe that as a history major, I am being taught to think, write, and even speak analytically. I am exposed to trends in history that continue on to this day, and gain a background in events that happen in the world today. Liberal arts degrees should be as recognized as business and engineering degrees. Or perhaps I am talking to the wrong employers, and there should be more employers who are looking for liberal art majors on Diversity Career Day.

I could probably keep on going, but I have to study for a midterm for tomorrow.

musing of a girl with a knapsack

2009-10-27T12:12:00.000-04:00

Coming from my favorite little coffee-tea shop, Para Coffee (shameless plug, I know... it's on Elliewood!!!), I bumped into a friend on the Corner. It's the typical UVa scene. Two college students, a boy with a cup of coffee and a girl with a knapsack, talking in front of the bus stop on the brick-paved streets of the Corner. It happens all the time.

I guess what's different about this scene is that I knew this guy for only a month. I took three summer classes over two months, and we had met through one of them. For those of you unfamiliar with UVa's summer classes, the entire summer is split up into three sessions (session I, session II, session III). The maximum number of classes that you can take per session is two. Yours truly, being the overzealous and overachieving student that I am, took three classes and had a job. Needless to say, there was a negative correlation between the number of classes and jobs that I had and my grade.

My friend and I had met during the second session, where I only had one class and was more relaxed. It was a great class, simply because it was an actual Professor who was teaching, he was amazing, and instead of the usual several hundreds of students that he taught, there was only 25 of us. It was definitely an advantage over taking it in the semester. Because of the small class size, I got to know a good number of my classmates pretty intimately, considering that it was only 6 weeks long. We met often for picnic lunches in the Gardens, trips to Downtown, cooking adventures in my apartment, and study groups that actually worked. I must say, I was really impressed with myself that session. I was being social, I excelled in that class, and I still had lots of sleep despite the fact that the class was 8am every morning.

But summer feels like a dream. It was rainy today, I was feeling miserable from sickness, and I'm sure my friend was busy thinking about the things he had to do today, because he was holding a lot of books. It was such a contrast from memories from the summer season, with balmy sunny days and open schedules. We talked a bit about our lives. I told him about my bout with the cold and he told me he was enjoying his classes. It was short, terse, and almost static. Then he said he needed to go to a meeting. I nodded and waved him off.

There's a point in second year where you realize that you're not a first year anymore. For me, it was when I realized that a lot of my friends from first year (and yes, I was still a first year over the summer...) were busy with their activities in which they were leaders. My friend was an Orientation leader, another friend is deeply involved in Student Entrepreneurs for Economic Development (SEED), and another wants to get involved in drama and work with children. I am not involved in any of these activities nor are they particularly important to me. Yet, with the activities that are important to me, I am deeply involved. As we progress and become third years and fourth years, I'm sure that we will all only increase our commitments to these activities, and be more involved in them. At what point will we be too busy for each other?

These were the thoughts that I was mulling over after my encounter with my friend. Typical encounter on the Corner? Oh yes. Typical College of Arts and Science student? Hell yea.

let it rain...

2009-10-24T17:08:00.000-04:00

I swear Virginia is so mercurial when it comes to its weather. It honestly can not make up its mind. Sunny one day and rainy the next, the weather decides to fluctuate temperature as if it was a bipolar patient. I woke up today pretty early for a Saturday to start on my essay, looked out the window, and felt blah. It was one of those days with dramatic clouds on the skyline, threatening to shiver rain whenever the wind blew at whim. Not wanting to suffer the consequences if Virginia did decide to rain, I closed my window (with difficulty).

While microwaving my breakfast at 8:02, I continued to put on my blah face and not make eye contact with anyone in the kitchen. Of course, the girl next to me remarks on the weather. "It looks so epic..." she announced, pointing out the shivering tree line in the west. "Looks like an adventure!" declaimed her boyfriend as he stirred a pot of hot chocolate. I looked at my plate of freshly microwaved broccoli and cauliflower, while contemplating all the things I had to do today. Essay. How blah.

As I sit in my room, having only my desk light on, I am writing my essay. Oh yes, I am... but I'm also on facebook, checking my mail like it's my job, and eating extraordinary amounts of snacks. At times, my room is suddenly infused with light as the sun emerges from its coat of clouds and I am happily distracted by my window of a landscape outside. Everything gleams in its wetness and beckons. Other times, clouds cast their shadow and my room is pitched into darkness. Shadows lengthen as I am sitting in my room.

Today was the football game against Georgia Tech. I know because despite my shut window, I could hear cries and moans of hundreds of anguished football fans. My guess is that we lost today. After a certain point in the day, the weather decided to accommodate by drizzling on the crowds of orange and blue people slowly walking past. The rain splattered against my window.

It is 3:24pm and I have not finished my essay.

Is Obama leading us astray?

2009-10-23T01:03:00.000-04:00

I hope the title raised a couple of eyebrows. In his New York Times opinion column, Stanley Fish called Obama the "object of unceasing attention," hence the name of his article: The Obama Show. It's true that whether it's criticism or adoration, Obama is the focus in the media. Mr. Fish makes a good point in that although opponents try to tackle Obama, Obama is a man who "takes shot after shot, and not only is he still standing, he’s still smiling." Despite criticisms, President Obama is still looming large.

Therefore, when I saw "Is Obama leading us astray?" in a blur of a flyer as I walked past, I did a double-take and read it again. Students United for Business (SUB), a very new organization on Grounds, was hosting a lecture by economics professor, Lee Coppock. It was about the Obama administration's handling of the economy, complete with a catchy title "Give Nothing a Chance: How to Get the Economy Moving Again." Having had Coppock in a previous class and curious about how he would justify his opinion, I decided to attend the lecture.

I must say... what is excellent about UVA and any respectable University are these types of lectures that engage all listeners to participate and create dialogue. At UVA, I receive emails about lecturers from our own faculty and visiting renowned guests fairly often. Speakers are a crucial component of this system, because excellent speakers invoke questions and opinions in the audience, sparking further dialogue. A good speaker also has a clearly stated thesis, significant evidence to back up the claim, and comfortable public speaking skills.

Professor Coppock certainly is a winner in all three. He is an excellent public speaker, comfortably lecturing to over 1000 students in the spring semester. In the last night's lecture, Professor Coppock cracked in-law jokes, made analogies to athletes and the Commissioner of the Department of Transportation, and made allusions to his "several dozens of children." He also was able to state his claim clearly. He believes that the economic situation was misdiagnosed, and therefore the "solution" of pumping money into the economy through tax rebates (Bush) or a stimulus package (Obama) has no effect, except for increasing our deficit into the highest peacetime deficit of all time (almost $2 TRILLION). Finally, his claim that this economic crisis is just a natural condition exacerbated by poor decisions by the Federal Reserve and the US government is backed with solid graphs, statistics, and examples.

His solution? Instead of increasing the number of dollar bills in the system, which could eventually lead to run away inflation, fixing the bank system to effectively utilize currently available money is a better solution. This elucidated his originally far-fetched solution of "doing nothing."

No stimulus package, true, but no back-breaking taxes either.