Catching up

So what did I do for Halloween?
I spent Halloween at Taylor's handing out candy to the little kids that came (only 2 groups, sadly), we carved pumpkins (Taylor has pictures but keeps forgetting to send them to me, hopefully I'll be able to post them eventually), I baked a pumpkin pie from scratch, which was so much fun. It turned out pretty well except that I mistakenly used a grahm cracker pie crust instead of a dough crust. Whoops! So we just ate out the middle. We also watched the Shining, which I hadn't seen before, but recognized as Timberline Lodge immediately!

Since then I've been to a couple Halloween dinners. At one I hosted a costume contest dressed as Carmen Sandiego. This isn't the best picture, but that is me behind the podium on the right.

The day after Halloween there was another candlelight dinner put on by Alumnae Relations who invited Scripps Alums to come back and socialize with us. That was a lot of fun, and as Scrippsies we love opportunities to get dressed up.

In the bottom one my knee is poking out rather awkwardly....

This last weekend I went to SCAMfest, the Southern California A Capella Music Festival. Every year this is such a great event. It's held in the largest auditorium on campus because soooo many people come out for it. The Claremont colleges have 8 a capella groups, all with different personalities. USC and UCLA both send groups to SCAMfest as well. Here are some videos of my favorite pieces from this year.

This is a group called the After School Specials doing a Backstreet Boys mash-up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U18trMdi6YY

This is Men's Blue & White doing a new popular song called, Down:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GhEddzhRq08
I especially like their dance moves that start about a minute and a half in.

This is a group called Midnight Echo doing their own version of Baby Got Back, which I thought was really creative and the crowd loved it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeyfsVRvcC0

By the way, my major is now officially Creative Writing: Fiction. I haven't heard back about Study Abroad yet.

Halloween already?

This year is going by very quickly by virtue of perpetual motion. I am always doing something, and there is usually a list of things to do whenever I'm finished.

Fall break was last weekend. We had Monday and Tuesday off, but I mostly stayed on campus. I watched Return of the King with friends, did a lot of knitting and reading, caught up on my favorite tv shows. That Monday night, though, I went into LA with 3 friends to attend a book signing. The book, Heat Wave by Richard Castle, is a promotional thing for the tv show Castle, so the entire male part of the cast was there, including Nathan Fillion who is one of my favorite actors. Here is a picture of me and a few of my friends waiting in line at the book signing.

This weekend Taylor and I went to a concert in LA. Ben Gibbard (the front man for Deathcab for Cutie) was performing a soundtrack to a new documentary about Jack Kerouac. I haven't read any Kerouac, but the music was good, and I really enjoyed the concert.

This weekend was also Preview Day, when a bunch of prospective students come to look at the college. I've been volunteering with the admissions office, and hosted 3 girls for about 5 hours. We all went to dinner and then took a walk along the campuses. I love being able to answer questions and just talk to people about Scripps. I host another prospective student tomorrow night, and she will spend the night in the room. I'm really looking forward to it.

I don't have a Halloween costume yet. It's problematic. I'm supposed to host a Halloween contest on Thursday and I don't want to look lame. :(

October! Finally!

I'm not sure why I'm so happy that October is here, but it finally feels like the semester is progressing somewhat.

I am working really hard to 1) finally have a major, and 2) petition to study abroad for a full year. The second really relies on the first. I want to be a Creative Writing major, but since that isn't a major that the college offers, I have to go through a process of petitioning to get it approved. Between the five colleges we definitely have enough classes for a writing major, but writing a petition for it (statement of purpose, explanation, how it will help my future goals) is tedious and difficult.
I want to study abroad for a full year, because I'll never have an opportunity to live in Europe as cheaply as I will with the college paying for it. That is of course among many reasons. I want to do Fall in Rome where I can use all the Italian I've tried so hard to learn, and I want to spend the Spring in Copenhagen, which would give me an opportunity to learn Danish and to learn about a new country and culture.

This weekend has been such a good one for me! I got my first paycheck from my job, which is a relief. And I finally have all my banking figured out down here. I've given up on Chase, and changed to Wells Fargo. I've had nothing but problems with the former... I also made some money on Friday by selling some of my knit things at the craft fair! It's very exciting as it's the first time I've sold anything that I've made. And an alumna from CMC came over to talk to me about possibly knitting some things for a handmade clothing store that she's starting.

Saturday, Taylor and I went to San Diego to go see the zoo. It was amazing! They had pandas and kangaroos and hyenas and gorillas and just so many other animals. The Oregon Zoo is amazing, but the scale of the San Diego Zoo is just so large. We didn't make it around to see everything, despite being there for 5 or 6 hours. It also has a Scripps Aviary. And a Hummingbird Aviary, which was fantastic! It was a really good trip, and I'm glad Taylor and I finally got to do it.

Wake me up when September ends?

Hey guys,

School officially started... forever ago? I guess I've been here almost a month already, and I miss everyone! But it doesn't feel like it's been a month. Time is flying by so quickly, and I've been really busy. So I will catch you up on my semester so far...

I'm taking 5 classes, which is one more than the typical course load. I am taking-
Women in the Italian Renaissance (it could be worse, it could be better)
Italian (despite all my efforts I can barely speak. I might actually be regressing. d'oh)
Introduction to Psych (I was thinking I might minor in Psych, but who knows)
Contemporary American Fiction (AMAZING class, probably my favorite)
Creative Writing as Creative Thought (we're working mostly with short stories, this class is exactly how it sounds, if you catch my drift)

Aside from that I've been very busy with my job on campus, which is an internship in event planning. There is so much to do all the time, I'm surprised things ever get put together. This last Wednesday, we had Elizabeth Gilbert (she wrote Eat, Pray, Love) on campus. I had lunch with her and introduced her (to a theater full of 600 people) before her presentation in the evening. That has been my highlight thus far. She was such a nice person, and although I was very nervous, I spoke pretty well. Tonight I am introducing The Lovell Sisters, a bluegrass band that is playing a concert here on campus.

In my spare time? I've been knitting for a craft fair on Oct. 2. I went to the beach, which is so amazing down here. I had totally forgotten how much I love it. I'm going back this weekend, to escape the intense triple-digit heat of Claremont. I saw Blink-182 (and Fall Out Boy, but only because they opened for Blink) in concert. That was pretty good. I'm not a big fan of huge amphitheaters, but the show itself was pretty good. Unfortunately, we had tickets on the lawn, which is where a bunch of intoxicated, shirtless men started a bonfire. Hot dry grass + fire = Me, slightly alarmed. But for the most part it was under control. What concerns me most is that security would have seen it from their vantage point on the roof, but did nothing. Isn't that a job of theirs?

I should go and get ready for tonight's concert, and then tonight's dance party in the courtyard of the Humanities building. What a fabulous, strange location. I have no doubt that people will be dancing in the fountains or hanging off the olive trees. It should be a sight to behold.

Ariel