Back to school, Back to school...

So we lost the scrimmage. The final score was 2-0.

BUT we had a penalty kick that we missed, and our goalie got injured in the first half and we don't have a back-up. So seeing as that presumably is the best team we'll play, I'm pretty excited. Before the game I felt like peeing my pants but I made a decision that it wasn't going to get the best of me. Watching the first 15 minutes from the bench didn't help either but once I got in it was just another game. Pretty fun stuff and it felt so good to finally put all of our practices to use.

The activities fair was today meaning all of the clubs were spread out on the campus' lawn. The frisbee team was chucking it around, there was a flute player, a kind of martial arts involving drums, boxes of free CDs from the campus radio station, and a lot of coercing. I signed up for entirely too many and I know I won't have nearly the amount of time I wish I had, but still. There are so many cool things to do... ie salsa dancing lessons, the student-run garden, meditation group, progressive Christians, volunteer projects, Sundan radio project, literary magazines, improv comedy (the most persistent of coercers). Needless to say I wish I could do it all :/

Tonight was the traditional showing of The Graduate on the campus lawn the day before class starts. Not the best movie I've ever seen but it was fun to spread out blankets and be initiated in this unique way. 

And, yeah, I said it. Class starts tomorrow. It's so weird...another monumental first-day-of-school complete with a sleepless night, I'm sure. Only mom won't be there to take a picture of me awkwardly holding my backpack in my carefully selected outfit. And me getting pissed about it. I kind of wish she were.

Wish me luck...I'm scared witless.

Love.

Is this actually happening?

Last night my SAM (student academic advisor) and I were up until 2 am trying to figure my schedule of classes out. I had looked through the entire course list and made a list of 30 classes I really thought sounded good, which he made fun of me for, and had to pick 4 of those that also didn't conflict with the others. It was quite the puzzle. We ended up jimmy-ing the registration a bit and miraculously I got lotteried into every single class I put. It's hard to explain but basically, it's amazing. 

So my schedule (for now) and their descriptions are as follows:

Art History- Modern Art: This course surveys European and American art from the late 18th century to the present. It introduces significant artists and art movements in their social, political, and theoretical contexts. Attention will also be given to interpretive strategies that have been used to write the history of this art. Issues to be considered include definitions of modernism and modernity, constructions of gender, the rise of urbanism and leisure, the independent art market, and questions of originality and representation.

First Year Seminar- Technology and Humanity: It sometimes seems as if science and technology tend to replace communal understanding and human relationships. Historical and social scientific investigations suggest this is an illusion however; technology has always been shaped by and embedded in personal connections, group struggles, and cultural understandings. The real danger in fact lies in letting false impressions of technological dominance create unnecessary inequality and oppression. The class will explore this topic using examples such as the development of modern industry, the construction of railroads, the risks of nuclear catastrophe, the digital divide, and the development of online identities.

First Year Seminar- Narcissus and the History of Reflection: We've all used the term "narcissist," perhaps to accuse ourselves as much as others. Narcissism seems at once reprehensible and an unavoidable part of personhood. This course investigates how, for centuries, the story of Narcissus has been reworked to understand creative reflection and how we see ourselves in relation to others. At stake are questions of desire, gender, racial identities, and language. Authors include Ovid, Milton, Wilde, Freud, and Fanon; also visual art and film.

Cultures of the Middle East: Looking at ethnographic texts, films, and literature from different parts of the region, this class examines the complexity and richness of culture and life in the Middle East. The topics we will cover include orientalism, colonization, gender, ethnicity, tribalism, nationalism, migration, nomadism, and religious beliefs. We will also analyze the local, national, and global forces that are reshaping daily practices and cultural identities in various Middle Eastern countries.

But I'm trying to switch one out for a science class so I e-mailed a professor and we'll see what happens.

Today was a good day. I met a few really cool people at dinner and I think I really needed that. In the dining hall many of the trays have different drawings or quotes written in marker on them by students and I collaborated on one for my first tray art. Just a goofy drawing.

Tomorrow we have our rescheduled game against top dog Messiah. It shall be very interesting as far as how the team plays, the caliber of d3 teams in general, my playing time, and so on. Hopefully it doesn't get rained out again. My roommate's not here right now but pictures to come.

Love.

p.s. I can't believe I'm starting classes. My advisor, a professor, told a group of us not to be hesitant to use the psychological services the school provides. Needless to say. I'm scared.

But excited.

Class of 2013

Yesterday was crassszzyy. 

After I passed the swim test with flying colors all of the freshman gathered for a speech by the Dean. He spouted off random facts about our class: the largest in number since 2001, includes the U14 world ping-pong champion (not Asian, to my surprise), Beijing olympic qualifier, someone who discovered a sunken ship, a 16-year old, etc., 56% public schooled, and other things. The group seemed pretty fired up and it was pretty exciting. We then met with our CA (campus advisor) groups and got to know each other. In my group really nice tennis player from Boston, a sail boater-er from Cali (mom-there's my sailing mentor, although he wasn't the friendliest), the cutest girl from Columbia, and a few others. Remembering names is killing me. I had no idea this was a major fault of mine. It's bad. Our CA's taught us a lot of important information: "swooping"- when upperclassmen try to date the freshman during the first week, it's frowned upon; transportation options; etc.  After our evening practice we met with everybody on our floor and discussed rules and such. Pretty boring stuff, but a Dana Bug was doing it's thing near me so that kept me entertained. (Dana Bug: A bug who occupies the Dana dorms, characterized by it's many legs and sporadic speed). After the meeting we had a social with another dorm, and I met a few more people but felt I'd kind of maxed out on the meet 'n greet for the day. There were authentic Philly foods like water ice, soft pretzels, and Tastee Cakes. Ironically all really awkward foods to eat while you're trying to play it cool at a party. 

My roommate and I kept missing each other during the day but finally met up at the floor meeting. She's from Philly and is going to play tennis at Swat and contributed a fridge and a nice carpet to our lovely abode. She seems really cool and we had some fun laughing at the awkwardness of the social last night. We've already worked out that I'm responsible for any mouse run-ins and she deals with bugs. So I think we're going to get along great. 

I forgot if I mentioned my attempt at vegetarianism. I know, I know, I'm sure bets are already being made to how long I last but I'm giving it a shot. One of the freshman on the team is a vegetarian and I was telling her how I admire Becca for it and how I've wanted to try it and that was it. We shook on it and she's been providing moral support. Yesterday there were two boxed lunch options and I was pumped to snag a chicken salad sandwich only to slide it back on the table a few seconds later and taking the alternative option of a brussel sprout burrito. It wasn't bad actually. 

Last night I opened up the course information they gave us and had a minor panic attack. All these crazy classes you can take, and what requirements you need to fill, and what the heckkk am I interested in. I have a feeing the first semester pass/fail is going to save my life. I meet with my advisor Friday to set up my classes so I have some time. I'll let you know when I know what I'm thinking about taking.

Con Amor.

Takin it Easszzy

Day off! Ahh it was so nice not to have practice today. Instead, we went to Ocean City, New Jersey with the team for a day at the beach. I bought a delicious blueberry and whipped cream waffle on the boardwalk for lunch and a water ice. Everybody's crazy about water ice here...it's like a more compact gourmet icee with tons of different flavors. I took full advantage of the day off by playing the beach bum role to the best of my abilities. On the down side my entire backside is burnt as sin. I'm so over sunburns. :/

Tonight's team bonding activity was an interesting one. For the past couple days we've had the challenge of getting the whole team to read a 130 page book and pull a quote or scene that reminds us of a story in our lives. It was pretty cool to learn something new about my teammates this way and it took over 2 hours.

I'm pretty stoked for tomorrow. The freshman are all moving in for the start of freshman orientation so for the next few days there'll be different themed parties, tours to be had, and classes to be picked. I'm kind of starting to freak out about choosing classes and my major. All along I've been really laid back about not really knowing what I want to major in, but panic is edging its way in. On top of that though tomorrow we have our 2 soccer practices and the freshman are taking the swim test. The swim test is something everyone has to pass before they graduation from Swat. You have to swim 4 laps without touching the bottom and tread water for a certain amount of time. I'm going to find the story behind that.

Love.

Rainy Days

Yesterday and today it's been thunder storming on and off all day. It looks beautiful from my dorm window with all the trees but not so good for playing soccer games. Our game scheduled against pre-season ranked #1 Messiah for tonight got cancelled but will hopefully be rescheduled for Saturday. So instead of a game tonight we'll be practicing and after that the team's getting together in a dorm kitchen and baking cookies. I haven't had a cookie in forever so I'm pumped.

We had an early walk-thru this morning and then all went to lunch. I'm told the food will get better because not many people are on campus right now so they're giving us the worst of what they've got. But for now I usually make myself a pb and j, an apple and try some unidentified option which usually turns out to be decent. I just got back from a team meeting where we learned we're supposed to be consuming around  4,300 calories a day during preseason. Definitely not happening. But I'll try and make it up with cookies tonight :]

Here are a few pics of my dorm...you've got the view of the Crum from my window, my bed and desk, and my closet. It's not the Ritz but it's homey. :]

Miss ya'll.

The Beginning

Hello helloo.

So. Just in case you don't have enough going on in your own lives and you find yourself one day thinking, "I wonder whatever happened to that Alexa girl", I'm setting up this blog. Trust me, I would love to chat on the phone with all of you every day but I'm quickly finding the college life doesn't really allow for much of that. And given my previous history with e-mail I doubt that would work out much better. So in an attempt to be wherever you are whenever you are, I present to you The Swat Life. Haha. Oh gosh. 

But basically I miss all of you like crazy after only 3 days and this is my way of staying in your lives while, hopefully, you can respond in comments telling me about the happenings of your life. Is it a real relationship when facial expressions are indicated by punctuation marks and battery power and internet access dictate communication? Mm no, probably not. But I'd like to think sometimes you can hear my voice.

Anywayss. It has been 3 days. And I'm exhausted. I've never been constantly around other people so much in my entire life. Example: After soggy goodbyes with my dad, ma, z and bec I stood in the middle of my dorm room sobbing until a knock on my door 2 minutes later from 5 of the soccer girls, there to say hello. From that point on I sleep alone and that's about it. We were given a schedule of the next week and a half and every day has a strict itinerary from 7 am to 11 pm, to the hour. We've been practicing twice a day for around 2 hours and spend an hour in the classroom and team meetings, bondings and meals the rest of the day. I was so relieved to get the fitness test over, though. I ended up 4th in the 2 mile (time unknown, unimpressive and never to be released to the public), did 42 push-ups before literally collapsing (not even top 10) and got 1st in sit-ups with 93 in 2 minutes. It's good to have it over because I was really freaking out about it. Embarrassingly so.

The team is awesome. It gets hard for me to keep putting forth the effort to get to know all 27 people (yeah, 27) without wishing to God I could be around people that I don't have to explain what my favorite concert was or who's in my family. People that were there and people that are them. I mean, of course it's fun and I love it but it can be a lot of work. Yeah yeah yeah enough complaining though. So there's 9 freshman and we all get along- last night we all got together in a dorm and ordered pizza and played Apples to Apples. I'm getting to be really good friends particularly with 2 of the freshman, one from Virginia and the other from Seattle. The upperclassmen are a different story because they already have each other but they're all still super nice and definitely reach out to us. Coach is big with that. Togetherness and such. Our theme this year is "One."

I'm playing pretty well and the freshman are definitely reppin'. We took all top four spots in the 2-mile and quite a few of us can duke it out with the older girls. I think my dad would say my body language doesn't look like I'm having much fun out there, though. I just get in a zone where I want to just play and compete and there's not much smiling involved. Wait, that's not true. I talk during breaks and stuff I'm just not all goofy like I was in high school soccer. That could be a good thing though. I just need to make that FUN song from Spongebob a mantra of mine...

Tonight for team building we drove to New Jersey to see a minor league baseball game. Before we got to campus we were told we were going to a Phillies game, but yeah. Definitely not. It was still pretty fun though. They set it up so the freshman had to go out on the field during the 7th inning stretch and sing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" for the crowd. Hmm it was lovely.

As far as school. Oh yes, school. That's why I'm going to college. New student orientation starts Tuesday so that's when the rest of the new kids move in (right now on campus it's only the women's soccer team and volleyball team so it's really really quiet). Then we set up our schedules and all that jazz. So not much to talk about there.

Wow. I'm embarrassed about how long this is. But I did have a lot of catching up to do and I promise the rest won't even compare. I miss everybody so much and I have had only one major episode of homesickness yesterday. It just really hit me hard and I felt like I could cry at any given moment but later in the day we had a freshman meeting scheduled with Coach and it made me feel a lot better. However, I still miss you. Hope everyone's well and it's not as humid there as it is here. Sheesh.

Love.