May. 14, 2012 by alamb
HELLO DUCKLINGS
TODAY I AM WRITING THIS POST IN ALL-CAPS TO SYMBOLIZE THE FACT THAT IT IS READING WEEK AND MY STRESS IS GETTING VERY LOUD INSIDE MY BRAIN
>:(
ON THE UPSIDE THERE WILL BE PICTURES OF FLUFFY ANIMALS
SO THERE’S THAT
[UNDER THE CUT: ...basically more of the same.]
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May. 11, 2012 by kgilpin
MORE PICTURES
May. 10, 2012 by sbillinkoff
For my first blog post in over a million years, I bring to you a Facebook correspondence I had with an incoming freshman. Her name is Regen and I knew her from Stagedoor Manor. Here is a briefer version of what she wrote me:
Hey Solomon,
I’m coming to Wesleyan in the fall, and I was just wondering if you had any tips/little-known facts/random advice for an incoming freshman? Thanks so much. Hope you’re doing well.
Regen
Expecting to not write that much, I kind of waited a while to respond. When I finally did respond, I came up with 15 things that I thought were pretty helpful. Here they are, so that they can be consumed by the larger public:
1. for housing, if you are at all interested in the arts, you should check off that you want to live on writing hall. writing hall is on the fourth floor of clark hall (one of the nicer dorms, centrally located, all freshmen). i lived there freshman year and it was the best hall i could ever ask for. the group who lived there my year (as well as the years before and after me) ended up being really good friends with each other. writing hall is merely a TITLE for the hall, meaning that you don’t do a ton of writing events, so even if you’re not into writing, you should still apply because it is the guaranteed BEST way to start off your wes career. it attracts a ton of artists and super-interesting-and-friendly folks. if you ask for a single-person room, you will get placed in the butts, which is not the greatest place to live.
2. keep track of your meals and points on your wescard. usdan and summerfields (dining halls) will give you the choice of using meals, points, or cash; weswings and red&black (the fancier places) will only take points and cash. the fancier places have better food and so when you’re out of cash (which is most of the time) you will find it very easy to just hand over your card and have points deducted. this can be a dangerous game, especially for freshmen who are only granted about 500 points a semester (from sophomore year on, you will get the choice of having about 700 points). running out of points before the end of the semester really sucks, so avoid that at all costs. any points you have left at the end of first semester will transfer over to your second semester points. the thing is that at the end of each school year, all your points are deleted, so make sure to spend all your points by the end of each spring semester, because you won’t get them back. meals are deleted each semester and refilled the next.
3. get involved in as many groups as you can. there are a ton of a cappella, dance, and improv groups on campus, and they all hold auditions at the beginning of the semester. i’m a member of a sketch comedy group called lunchbox (we just had a show last night), vocal debauchery (a cappella + sketch comedy and we have a show tomorrow) and also a member of WeSLAM (the slam poetry organization) which holds three poetry slams a semester and sends a team to nationals every year. being too involved can be overwhelming (take it from me), so don’t overextend yourself, but it is better to be involved in a ton of things than nothing at all.
4. if you are still interested in theater, audition for second stage shows. second stage is the completely-student-run theater organization on campus, and they have the ’92 theater (an awesome black-box) as their headquarters. they put up a variety of different shows a semester. there are a lot of popular musicals, weird experimental stuff, world-renowned stuff, and student-written stuff. here is their website, so you can see more:http://www.2ndstage.org/. it’s a way for you to be involved in theater w/o having to major. most shows will hold auditions at the beginning of the semester.
5. take a film class with professor scott higgins. he is teaching a brand-spanking-new course next semester called THE LANGUAGE OF HOLLYWOOD. it is a three-hour lecture currently scheduled to take place at 9:30am on mondays and wednesdays (pain in the butt, i know), but if you’re gonna get up early for ANY PROF, this is the one. i am currently taking his film history class (planning to double-major in film and theater), and he is undoubtedly the best teacher i’ve ever had. the most articulate lecturer w/ a really great sense of humor. the class will take place in the film center and will more likely than not be held in the goldsmith family cinema, the beautiful 412-seat theater where the film series is held wednesdays through saturdays. even if you’re not into movies, i can pretty much guarantee you it will be fascinating. his taste in movies is also fantastic and you will get to watch a lot of cool things you’ve never seen before, and on a big screen, too! it’s a big class, so there should be no problem getting in.
6. check out the film series. it’s every wednesday thru saturday in the goldsmith family cinema. lots of new and popular movies, lots of weird movies, lots of classics. different movie every time. all authentic prints, so really good-quality picture. current lineup listed here: http://www.wesleyan.edu/filmseries/.
7. always, always, always be checking http://wesleying.org/. it is the most popular student-run blog on campus and is constantly being updated throughout the semester with events and other cool goings-on.
8. we have a thing here called late night. it’s in usdan and it goes from 9:30pm-1am every night and you can get really tasty diner food there. they’ve recently added zingle, which is a way for you to text in your order before you get there, so that you don’t have to wait too long for your food. highly recommended as one of the cheaper ways to spend your points (grilled cheese + fries + drink = $3.25). good for both studying on weeknights and partying on the weekends.
9. another good way to save on points (if you’re into soda / iced coffee) is to become a member of the MUG CLUB, a Wesleyan institution that began this year. it’s a mug that you buy for $20 and you can get a whole year’s worth of free drinks at weswings and red&black (the fancier places). the drinks there run $1.85 and more, so after 10 drinks with the mug club, the mug pays for itself.
10. on libraries: unspoken rule is that olin is the quiet place and scili is the place where you can talk. both are across the street from each other. if you do end up living on writing hall, olin will be right next door.
11. on classes: for small classes that you want to get into, email the professor a semester ahead of time to get on the wait list. also, always be checking if the class has any pre-requisites. ask people older than you about the quality of a professor. it’s a small campus, so if the person you’re asking hasn’t had that prof, they probably know someone who has.
12. put a note on your door reminding you to remember your key and wescard, and always lock your door (even if it is only to go use the shower) unless your roommate is in there.
13. if you ever wanna go off-campus, it is very expensive to get transportation from here to new haven train station during the week. cab will cost $60, and the weekend shuttle costs $9. schedule your off-campus sojourns for the weekend and/or befriend someone with a car (though the latter is easier said than done).
14. there is a lot to do during orientation week w/ no academic obligations, so make sure not to be in your room alone for longer than five minutes at a time (unless sleeping). the more you involve yourself, the better time you will have.
15. be patient. i am sorry for overwhelming you with all of this. the truth is that coming to wes for the first time will likely be overwhelming and you might not like it at first, simply because it is a whole new group of people and a whole new course you’re setting out on. make sure to give it time. within a month of coming to wes, you’ll be fairly acclimated to the routine of everything.
i’m gonna stop now, because i’ve written wayyyyyyy more than i thought i was going to. i hope that this didn’t overwhelm you too much and if it did, i sincerely apologize.
regardless, if you do find (any of) the advice valuable, i would re-read it again right before you come to wes, just so that you reinforce it.
i hope this helps! i’m super-psyched for you to come to wes!
solomon.
p.s. i blog on behalf of wesleyan admissions and i was wondering if it would be okay for me to copy your and my messages to a blog post that i’m planning to write about coming to wesleyan. if not, i understand.
May. 9, 2012 by Nicki Softness
So, I’m alive again. The unfortunate part of learning things is that, apparently, you have to have some sort of validation and accumulation of all that learning. Finals. They happen.
Now, I know finals don’t actually happen until next week, but my major likes to be unique, so ours were last week. 8 days = 40 pages = WHAT
COMPS. The First Day.
May. 7, 2012 by Anya Morgan
Hello. If you’re reading this, I consider you one of my fans (although you may hate my writing and just read it for a laugh, or have stumbled upon it by accident, or maybe you weren’t going to read it but then you were like wow this girl is arrogant she thinks she has so many fans wow gross–but whatever, at least you’re here).
I recently discovered that I have a fan or two I didn’t know about, yay! AKA, one fan I didn’t know about. Ze talked about me on hir Twitter, so now I am internet famous, I think. Twitter famous? Wesleyan famous? Not really famous? You may say no, no, no, and yes, but I beg to differ–read on to find out exactly how many people read this glorious blog of mine… (Well, not exactly how many because I don’t know if we have a traffic tracker thing [note to boss: we should get a traffic tracker thing] [note to self: check if there is a traffic tracker thing before you ask your boss to make one] [supplementary note to self: look up how punctuation works when you have multiple parentheses and brackets.].),
May. 7, 2012 by kgilpin
As I experience my last week of final classes for my freshman year, I realize that there will be a big change in my college living situation next year; I will be leaving Clark 4, where I have nested and lived all year, and where I have made some really great friends and been so lucky to have the company of truly unique and vibrant people. So here are some pictures to commemorate what I will miss about my current home.
my nook. it may be messy, but everything is finally in it’s proper place, where I don’t even need to get out of my bed (I’m not lazy, I promise, it’s just hard to do when your bed is this lofted– I constantly have to run and jump)
May. 7, 2012 by alamb
Hello, ducklings. Want to hear something exciting? I realized today that I have a thesis proposal due on Wednesday which I haven’t even started writing, because the email that we received about it a few months ago said “Friday, May 9,” and I looked at the Friday part more than the 9 part, which in hindsight appears to have been the slightly more important aspect.
Well, worst comes to worst, the Anthropology department doesn’t accept my thesis proposal, and then I don’t have to spend the next year going through my own personal hell of attempting to be productive. So, uh. Silver lining? I guess?
(…I’d still kind of like them to accept it, though. Just because.)
Plus, I have to revise my final nonfiction paper for Friday, and then study for an exam and write two moderately intelligent-sounding essays for the week after that. It’s not the worst workload I’ve ever had, but it’s going to be a bit of a bumpy road between now and the end of classes, ducklings.
(I’ve decided that I’m going to call all my readers “ducklings” from now on. It has a nice ring to it.)
Anyway, enough about my future stress. Time to move on to the reason why I have all that stress, aka, the recap of the week where I was not nearly productive enough! I mean, I was sort of productive. I just clearly should have been twice as productive as I already was. And should have, you know, rechecked that email about theses proposals.
[Under the cut: pictures of food, Foodstock, my apparent narcolepsy, and THE AVENGERS.]
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May. 6, 2012 by hmonk
3 weeks, 3 classes, and 1 ten page paper are all that stand between me and graduation right now. Things are really starting to wind down, and as that happens, it becomes harder and harder to focus on work. On one hand, we are clinging to every last moment we have to spend with our friends here, and on the other, we are so excited for the future that awaits us after May 27th.
I know I need to finish my work so that I can graduate, but it isn’t easy to concentrate right now. There are just so many things going on right now. Will I like my apartment for the summer? Will I find a job and what will it be? Will I find an apartment for the fall? Who will I meet in Boston? Will I make friends and become as close to them as I am to the people I’ve gotten to know over the last four years? When we will see each other again? What will they do with their lives? What will I do with mine? With such big life questions, one last ten-page paper seems rather inconsequential. (The fact that I am still obsessed with watching Prison Break on Netflix doesn’t help much either).
Despite my complete inability to do anything productive, I had a fairly busy week. I ran a lot to burn off the nerves, online shopped for hours to find a graduation dress, had a few tea dates with some friends to keep my sanity, and of course withdrew into countless episodes of Prison Break to escape the reality that we’re all leaving.
Apr. 30, 2012 by alamb
How are you, my darling readers? How was has your week been? I hope you haven’t been suffering from allergies, or had too much work to do, or been inconvenienced too much by the random shifts of the weather. We may be separated by cyberspace, actual space, and the fact that I have absolutely no idea who you are, but you know what, I care. You matter, random mysterious person who somehow happened to stumble across this blog.
…I have no segue from there.
Anyway, this is going to be a shorter post than usual (maybe), because I’d like to actually, you know, post this before Monday (goals are the vanguard of a healthy and well-balanced life). Or before 1 am on Monday, at least. (Goals are awesome; deadlines, however, should be flexible.)
So what are you waiting for, dear reader? Come on! Click the little “Continue Reading” button already!
[Beneath the "Continue Reading" Button: A briefer and less ramble-tastic summary of my week.]
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Apr. 29, 2012 by Anya Morgan
Yesterday night, I walked over to Lorise expecting a girls’ night party with Jenga and fancy dresses, but what I got instead was a SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY just for me!!! The best part? It’s not my birthday for a couple more months. They just really wanted to celebrate with me.
![[Wesleyan University]](http://www.wesleyan.edu/common/_internal/files/logo.png "Wesleyan University front door"){kind=logo}
