Christmas break has broken…

My Christmas vacation began on Thursday night, as soon as I finished my last geography “report”, which was really just a longer homework assignment. Before that, I had three exams, one each on Mon, Tues, and Wed… and then fiction portfolio was due on Thursday! My two final drafts (for this semester) for that portfolio were so crisp and clean and beautiful. And then it was over!I only just realized that my last post on here was before Fall Break. So sorry about that, I haven’t been swamped, but I do manage to stay busy. At the end, I didn’t have any big papers due for any history or literature classes, but I did have to finish my stories and read one last book for history. That kept me busy during some of my Thanksgiving break, which I spent in Florida. Even though we were in my brother’s place, I still manage to find time to work on a few school things, which was good.Let’s see, what has happened since I posted last? Aside from probably achieving all A’s in my classes again, I mean. We’re taking care of my brother’s dog while he’s away, so Bullet’s getting used to living with us and having four people to be entertained by.

We’ve decorated for Christmas, so all the trees are up and looking cheerful. Oh, at school, they’ve finally gone up “above the fence” while they’re rebuilding Freeman Hall, so I’m sure it’ll look almost complete when we get back from our break. No, we haven’t started any Christmas baking yet.I feel like there’s probably something else I’ve forgotten, but oh well. I’m going to go empty my school notebooks so that they’re ready for next semester and so they’ll stop cluttering the furniture in my office area. I’m assuming that I’ll be back on here before then, but if I get busy, I hope you and your families will have a splendidly wonderful Christmas!

a break for autumn…

Fall Break begins tomorrow. But it feels like it’s already started, because my Thursdays almost always feel like Fridays. Tomorrow is just another day to be gotten through, not too much happening, and likely, most of my classes will be empty. So many people leave early, whether their classes are finished or not. But I have to have a really good reason to skip class, so I’m one of the goody-goods that shows up.

I only had one piece of homework tonight, a map to color and label. Talk about major projects, right? But honestly, I’ve had a busy week, getting through several pieces of writing for one class and beating my way through the most boring history book I’ve ever had the misfortune to read. Thankfully, it was only a little over 100 pages. I read the words, but my brain didn’t comprehend most of it, because I think the writer forgot he was human instead of a live dictionary. And you know, I happen to like words!

While many students go home, my home is here, so I really don’t have any plans. Except for sleeping in and doing homework. Or studying. So, that means I really need to find something else new and different to do. Maybe I should go to the Botanical Gardens, with my camera, and actually take some pictures, for once. You know, with my real camera. Most pictures you see on here, if you weren’t aware, are from my phone. Not that it’s a bad thing, it’s just… if I want to take a more detailed photo, my phone camera doesn’t cooperate with me. No closeups of flower buds, you know. Just can’t do it.

What else? I feel like something’s probably slipping my memory. It happens when you’re trying to keep up with all your school stuff. Can’t think of anything else. Whether you’re on Fall Break or not, I hope you have a wonderful week!

yes, school did begin…

Wow, I obviously haven’t blogged in a long time, since a bunch of the layout of WordPress has changed since I posted last. While I pause and take it in, I was also amused to see the words “beep beep boop” appear, while it was loading something. I like it. However, if I had time to write a longer post, maybe I would find things I don’t like, who knows? Later is soon enough for that. I’ve been dawdling too long before starting my homework, since I only got home a little after five o’clock. As you may have guessed, school has started, and while it MIGHT be a slightly easier semester, that doesn’t mean I’m not busy. On the contrary, when a class decides to make things easier for me by not assigning homework or not having exams (believe me, I’m not complaining), I make sure I’m not slacking. I will read the required chapters in the textbooks, even if my classmates never do…Clemson campus is a bit chaotic in spots, because construction seems to be going on everywhere. Well, they ripped down the front of Freeman and are rebuilding it, and they’re building a HUGE new building behind the library that will play “bookends” with the Academic Success Center. In the meantime, it’s a mudhole surrounded by blue walls, and the amphitheatre in front of (or is it out back?) Strom Thurmond might be gone forever. I’m not sure.I will try to be less remiss with my writing, in future… but school comes first. And I have plenty of writing to do for a few of my classes, as I’m sure you understand. Have a great semester, and I’ll try to get on here a LITTLE more often.P.S. Please notice that while construction seems to be everywhere, there are still plenty of lovely views all over campus. It’s good to not ignore them, amidst the chaos.

ahoy, pollen season…

I did it, finally! Yes, that unheard of thing called… downloading my phone pics to my computer. Time to catch up, at last. Some of you may remember that I went north for Spring Break, to Pennsylvania and Maryland. And it snowed. Yes, while I didn’t have a glove or scarf to my name, 3-4 inches of snow fell that night, and I had a time of it, clearing and reloading my car. Anyway, it’s been a few weeks (I think), and the first bursts of spring have already arrived in the form of pear blossoms and cherry blossoms, and even the pink tulip trees are just about past. How did I know that? Well, aside from the trees beginning to turn green instead of pink or white, my car is simultaneously turning yellow. You guessed it, as difficult as it may be. That wonderful time of year, pollen season, has arrived. And as always, I am grateful to not have allergies. However, I’m not grateful for the layer of yellow dust that gets on everything, and with a stiff breeze makes me feel like I had a cloud of dirt thrown in my eyes. Wait, maybe I did. They were putting fresh mulch out, the other day, near the stadium. That was a thrilling walk back to my car, even if it was 80 degrees out. The breeze would have been awesome, except it wafted the smell of fresh mulch in my face, as well as a layer of dirt and pollen that always managed to get behind my glasses. I should be grateful I wasn’t wearing my contacts, I suppose, because then I’d never be able to close my eyes again over the dirt layer.  Meanwhile, I have discovered that Clemson doesn’t seem to have an automatic car wash, anymore, and I still need one with an undercarriage wash to get the rest of the salt off my car. Yep, my car has a layer of salt AND pollen on it right now, it’s quite lovely. But when I realized I needed to drive all the way to Anderson (I know, a whopping 20 minutes!) just to get my car washed, I became quite stubborn. Need to come up with something else to do when I get there, before I talk myself into it. If I’m lucky, it’ll even be something interesting.But for now, I hope you enjoy the contrasting pics belonging to both winter and spring, all with two weeks and multiple states. I hope your spring arrives soon, if it hasn’t done so yet!

 

long time, no see…

Yes, school has been keeping me busy. And it will continue to do so, at least until the semester ends in April. Hopefully I’ll have found a part-time job by then, to continue to keep me busy. But for the most part, I don’t have the brain-space left for writing anything thoughtful on here, because I’m juggling classwork, studying, and writing/researching papers. And since I’m taking two history courses and a British Lit course, this semester, a lot of my classwork involves reading, reading, reading.

Related to that thought, you’ll be thrilled to know that I got a smartphone. Why, yes, those two actually are related. I won’t go into the details that caused me to upgrade to a phone that allows me to keep track of phone calls AND Facebook messages, but it definitely happened. This allowed me to join the world of Instagram, because now I have a phone number to sign up with. I had tried before, in order to follow some of my friends’ accounts, but it would never let me without that phone number. Sigh.

And with the sudden ability to upload randomly interesting photos to Instagram, I’ve found myself sharing pictures of the books I’m reading for school. It makes me look studious.  : )  But it also gives me practice at taking a different type of photo, those snapshots that you can only take with your phone. And plenty of opportunity to yell at my phone for not focusing when I “tell it to”.

While most of my reading for British Literature is fun and interesting, because we’re concentrating on sea monsters, mermaids, and sailors, it’s not all joy. Somehow, the water theme was related to Helen Oyeyemi’s Opposite House. For those of you who have never heard of it, it was written in the genre of magical realism, and if you heard me complain last semester, I abhor magical realism. Google it, I won’t take the time to explain. While the author writes beautifully in spots, it just mostly doesn’t make sense. Sure, you read into it and analyze, but whatever happened to just writing a good straight-up story? Thankfully, we finished with it today, and will be moving on to some more normal BritLit.

On the other hand, The Eternal Paddy was quite interesting reading for Irish History, though it was a heavier read and took much longer. The author did a thorough study of Britain’s views on Ireland, as viewed from the newspapers, in the period of 1798 (right before Union) and 1882 (right before the Home Rule bills began). Seeing how Ireland was depicted in cartoons, as well as what the journalists wrote… it was rather fascinating. But now, we’ll be on to reading The Burning of Bridget Cleary over spring break, and while it’s a true story, I have no idea whether it will be easy reading or not.

But the main thing on my plate right now is a history project for HIST 299 (History Methodology), and I spend my spare time reading more studies on immigration in the South and newspapers on my hometown. That will continue to occupy my spare time, when I’m not studying for something else, until partway into April.

For the moment, I’m counting down the hours until I hit the road to go north… to see cousins in MD and friends in PA. Time to meet newborns and month old babies! Yes, and see my cousins and my best friends and anyone else I can fit in, during 6-7 days. I’m just about ready for a road trip… and don’t worry, I’m bring my real camera with me, along with my new phone.  : )  As much fun as my smartphone is, I fully acknowledge how much more awesome my Nikon is. I even took a bunch of photos of flowers, outside in a near windstorm this afternoon. Maybe I’ll get around to posting them after I get to PA.

I hope you have a marvelous week, just as I intend to!

care for some snow?

Yes, we really did get snow… despite this being South Carolina. Real snow! Alright, not as deep as I’ve seen in Pennsylvania, or even when I was little, living in New York. But that’s the great thing about living in the South, everyone gets excited about the snow, whether it’s happy excitement or frustrated excitement (you know, if you work in a store, and have to deal with people that fight over bread).

With the advent of real snow, I got my Tuesday classes off… for the splendid reason that my professor’s child’s daycare closed. So, while Clemson University held out until the bitter end, my Frisbee class also cancelled, and I started my snow week early. Because when the university finally DID cancelled, it ended up shutting down for two more days. Of course, on Tuesday, the snow continued all day, but it wasn’t quite cold enough to stick much, so the roads were fine.

Credit: Amit Bendigeri

But on Wednesday! By the time I woke up, the roads were covered in slush, and though driving wasn’t too difficult, you still had to be cautious. Other areas were not so lucky, since they had ice thrown into the mix. Before too long, I checked to see if any of my friends wanted to go sledding, and we hit Kite Hill during the late afternoon. The four of us had never seen Kite Hill when all the college students and local families were out in force, before. Every contraption known to man that could possibly be used for sliding, was on the hill. Boxes, cookie trays, laundry baskets, surfboards, kayaks, and then a variety of actual sleds. Even when it began to sleet, and it really stung our faces, we managed to have fun.

On Thursday, I realized that I needed to build a snowman before the snow melted completely, so I headed into the backyard to make use of a shady spot. The weather was already headed into the 50’s, so I built my snowfellow as quickly as possible. The snow was much icier, so I had to pack him together carefully, but I had my carrot nose ready, and I found some acorns for his eyes. It’s been many long years since I built a snowman, but I’ve never put a face like that onto one. I rounded out that sunny, snow-melting day by watching a movie with a good friend, which was great. : )

And then, school began once more, and we had to get back to reality. Just like I will tomorrow, opening upon a full week of school, needing to study for tests and quizzes, and figuring out what primary sources I need for an upcoming project. I hope you’ve stayed warm and safe, no matter what kind of winter weather has been thrown at you recently!

snow day…

Yes, we did get snow during the last week, but to anyone who’s lived up north, I understand completely that it’s barely worth mentioning. : ) But despite being born in New York state and spending 5 years of my life in Pennsylvania, in my twenties, I still haven’t gotten over the excitement of seeing snow. Come to think of it, I don’t think my parents have, either… but at least they can take joy in knowing that while we live in the South, they never have to shovel it again.

Now that I’m attending Clemson University, I really can’t escape the excitement, or rather, lunacy that occurs when there’s even a prediction of the white stuff. When snow flakes actually began to fall, I was in the parking lot, and there were barely any visible. But I called my mom to alert her that the craziness was about to begin. By the time I got home, where I was safe from all the Southerners that don’t know how to drive in “winter” weather, I could tell that the insanity had already begun.

But what more proof do you need that it WILL begin, than the subject of conversation in your first two classes? Everyone had their phones (or Kindle, in my case) out, checking their weather apps, and debating over who had the most accurate weather report. And there was a universal sense of unfairness at the fact that not only was USC already experiencing snow, but school had been cancelled in advance of the snow day… basically on the prediction. 

Not sure what USC’s policy is on that, but Clemson never closes on a prediction. All other schools can close, but they wait until either the governor orders it, or there’s actually snow/sleet/ice on the ground. I’ve lived here most of my life, I assure you, I know how it works. So, my friends in Iowa wail with frustration that we get out of school, my professors pray for the cancellation so they can get out of their afternoon lecture, and the accident reports begin on the news. 

Because it doesn’t matter how LITTLE snow is out there, Southerners don’t know how to drive in it, and the number of accidents escalates. And that doesn’t even count the fender-benders that probably occur in the university parking lots. I am so thankful I escaped before that began. For when the school did close early, everyone hurried to get out of there, and you can imagine what probably followed. And then we got the following day off school, too, so it was a win all around! (Except for my German class getting behind)

And while I made no snowmen, nor went sledding (Who was there to go with? Playing in the snow by yourself is NOT fun.), I heard of plenty of others who did, and enjoyed their time in the cold stuff. If you haven’t heard it before, then make a note of it… Southerners have more fun in the snow, because we don’t have to shovel it, and it’s SO much more exciting. If you live up north, I hope you experience a Southern “snow”, someday, in order to see the proof.

an arctic assault…

As one friend of mine suggested, it really does sound like our local TV weatherman is getting his lines from Cobra Commander. I suppose that after the week of the “polar vortex”, you’ve got to come up with some lingo that sounds even more exciting? Now, if we actually do get snow or ice, and if that turns into an ice storm that brings down all the neighborhood trees, and leaves us stuck in our houses for another week… then perhaps I’ll reconsider whether you used the right words or not.

Until then, another friend has suggested that the weatherman come out to Iowa for a visit, in order to see what real cold weather is like, while I heard a rumor that the buildings at Clemson University are being heated like we’re in Finland, instead of South Carolina. Considering I just played Ultimate Frisbee in 50 degree weather in a t-shirt and exercise pants, the idea that we could have really cold weather coming in is pretty hard to believe. The wind is picking up, however, so I guess it really will get cold tonight. The question is whether we’ll really get any type of precipitation.

If we actually get snow or ice and it sticks until tomorrow, school will get canceled, which is every student’s dream… as long as they have food and heat, wherever they live. And, of course, that will require a run on the grocery stores, in order to stock up on all the ingredients to make French toast. Even in Pennsylvania, this seemed to happen if there was snow in the forecast… everyone went to Walmart to buy eggs, bread, and milk. Go figure.

But for those of you who really aren’t interested in the weather, my second semester at Clemson started almost two weeks ago, and I’m settling in to my new classes. No math or science, but German, Irish History, Historian’s Craft (history methodology), and British Lit are going to keep me busy reading, writing, and researching. To liven things up, I’m taking “Frisbee Sports”, which is the fancy name for my Ultimate Frisbee “class”.

For any bookworms out there, I do have an upcoming post about books for children, probably ages 10-13, or thereabouts, but it may take me a week or three to finish, because school does keep me occupied. I am still trying to fit in a new post, now and then, and as soon as spring arrives, I should be able to get the floral photos going again! Have a great week!

two down, two to go…

Survived the lengthy essays on my Western Civ exam, and managed to get through the Chemistry exam. Not so cheerful about that one, but the grade should be alright. Just glad I have another whole day to study for my last two exams. But here are a few brightly colored pictures from before the leaves finished falling. These photos were taken by the Clemson Union Starbucks, where the two Japanese maples were red and orange, while the sugar maple displayed its golden colors against the blue sky. Aren’t the leaves beautiful? Enjoy, while I continue to prepare for my German and Military History exams.         

blooms now faded…

Actually, these photos were only taken a week or two ago, but between the rain and the ever-changing weather, I’m assuming the blooms don’t look this nice anymore. I haven’t even had time to see which kind continues to bloom into November and December, but feel free to tell me, if you know. The leaves, of course, are long gone. I think they fell within two days of my taking these picture.