I'm baaaack. Yes it's true. Back by popular demand, The Swat Life has rebooted to serve as your eye into my experiences in Pennsylvania at the charming institution of Swarthmore College. Alllright enough with the cheeseballs and excessive prepositional phrases. Makin me sick.

Nat dropped me off at the airport yesterday after a month back in Nebraska. I can't even believe it was yesterday just as much as I can't believe it's been a month. Travel was murkey. Murkey seems like the perfect word, but I have no idea what it would exactly entail. But finally I arrived, ditched my suitcases in my dorm room, and ran in the rain to join friends in another dorm. Amidst general questions and the even more general responses that come from long separations, it was so good to see the people I've met. It makes me realize the relationships I have already begun to form. Mmcheesy. We proceeded to go to dinner together, bounce from dorm to dorm, and after a few games of Shanghai called it a night.

My class schedule was in interesting shape, but long story short the lineup for the semester is:

Intensive Intermediate Spanish

Political Science: Globalization

Religion and Ecology

The Arts as Social Change

I'm pretty dang excited. Syllabi are as far as most teachers get these first couple days so I'm living it up while I can. After class today I took my sweet time over some peanut noodles, milled around the Bookstore, picked up my new video camera from the mail (soo excited), and went on a run with two of my soccer buddies through town in beautiful 50-or-so degree weather. Glorioussss.

In the evening my good friend Iz and I caught up a little more in depthly, and decided to commemorate the holiday by watching a few of MLK's speeches on youtube. We figured it was the least we could do after the ludicrosity (ludacrisity? ludacrosisity?) of beginning classes today. The nerve. A few of us then decided to check out the meditation club that meets three times a week on campus. The senior that leads it is hilarious and has been practicing meditation for a heck of a long time. Bony Chinese dude with dreadlocks, also head of the Buddhist Club, unaffiliated with the meditation club. They usually sit in a circle on meditation pillows for thirty minutes straight (in meditation, of course) and then closes by eating chocolate or something of the sort. No, but they're actually pretty legit. They didn't have enough pillows so I sat on a chair which turns out to be quite brutal when you have to sit on the edge, maintaining good posture. Because there were quite a few noobs joining today's session, we did two separate intervals of fifteen and ten minutes each. In the opening few seconds I thought I was going to burst out laughing, but I composed myself and really enjoyed the challenge of quieting the mind. All in all, I think I will be frequenting the meditation club.

I'm sorry that when I do post, they're ridiculously long. It just turns out that way. For the remainder of the night I'll be tinkering with my new camera while on the lookout for stinkbugs that have set up shop in our room. It's really not as bad as it sounds. They're friendly fellers that I let go out the window. An exchange that some could say parallel my past boyfriends. Haha wow. Too much?. Yes. Gooodnight.

Love.