Half-Marathon. This got real.

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

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!

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

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

I'm returning to Charlottesville in 5 days!