Tuesday, January 3, 2012

Happy (Very Late) New Year!


Hello everyone! I hope that you enjoyed all the festivities and holidays in the last month! I know that I sure did! I wrote this post last week and completely forgot to post it! I apologize for the lack of personal pictures in this long post! I don't own any of these pictures this time!

The Aderhold building is on the right!
I'm writing to you all from the balcony of one of my classroom buildings while I wait for Kim Joon to get out of class. The weather is nice and mild with a little breeze and there is so much traffic below me! I didn't take that picture by the way! I thought that I would seize this perfect moment to write a post! The last post that I made was in November! I was really hoping to make a post in December but between working and doing everything that needed to be done during my break, I just wasn't able to find the time. I'm planning on changing that in the new year! I've decided that I'll probably only be able to post once a month from now on. Hopefully I'll be able to keep that up and bring some exciting content to my blog. Last year was really just a test run for me! 

Since it is a new year, I've decided to make a few simple resolutions for my blog and for my personal life. I'll share some with all of you!
Resolutions for my blog:
  1. Post at least once a month
  2. Hold a give away sometime this year
  3. Find more followers 
  4. Start investigating subcultures as I originally promised. 
I'll probably end up adding more to this list later. I decided to do something different with my personal resolutions this year. I usually make the  usual "lose weight" resolution but I never keep it! I needed to do something different this year!
Personal Resolutions:
  1. Take my vitamins! -I always forget to do this and then I wonder why I get sick all the time!
  2. Stretch twice a day- I've been having problems with a pain in the back of my knee lately but I found that stretching really helps it! Stretching over all is good for you!
  3. Drink more water and less soda- I've been on a soda kick lately for some reason. My mom never gave me soda as a kid and I didn't drink it until this year. That needs to stop!
  4. Give myself a break in school- I have trouble with this. I always want to try to get ahead but that's starting to take a toll on me. I'm only taking 4 classes this semester (5 with my lab class) so that I can slow down and graduate in 2014. This will probably give me more time to study and be less stressed.
  5. Do outside research for anthropology!- I'm really sad that I wasn't able to fit an anthro class in my schedule this semester. I need to do some outside research to start getting some more career ideas together and to just learn more concepts in general.
  6. Get my GPA up- I really want to do an honors thesis in the fall or next spring and there is no way that I can do that with my current GPA. That needs to change!
That's about all the resolutions that I have for this year! I would love to hear some of yours!

I mentioned in my last post that I wanted to start a project and that it dealt with furries! There has been an influx of furry hatred in the lolita community in the past few weeks which prompted me to figure out a way to maybe impart some knowledge about the furry community from an outside perspective.
I also wanted to do this for a few other communities that people may not know very much about. I'm a very open and accepting person so I would love to learn more about others. I would also love to get some input from my followers. What is a community/fandom/subculture that you have always wanted to learn about but were too scared or even grossed out to research?

I've already gotten a request to research about this new love for My Little Pony phenomenon that is sweeping the nation. I also wanted to add Homestuck, bandoms, gyaru, fairy kei, Otaku subcultures (such as Hetalia and Yaoi) and a few others to the list. I know of these communities but only general knowledge. If you or a friend belong to an interesting community, let me know! I would love to interview you! I'm going to need your help and input as a reader to keep this project up. I want to try to profile a subculture every month if possible starting with February!


Back to school time on my campus!
Moving on! I hope that school is going well for everyone that is in it right now! I mentioned before that I'm taking fewer credits this semester. I only have two classes on Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday and three on Tuesday. I managed not to take Friday classes again this semester! I don't know what I would do if I was forced to take Friday classes! I enjoy sleeping in and three day weekends too much! I'll tell you guys about my first week back so far.
 My classes are pretty interesting this semester. I'm taking:
 Monday and Wednesday:
  • French 1
  • Advanced Spanish Conversation and Reading
Tuesday and Thursday:
  •  Languages of the World
  • Biology II
  • Bio Lab (tuesdays)
I'm really happy with all of my classes! Monday is my language day and I'm already starting to have problems keeping Spanish and French separate in my brain. I have to go to Spanish immediately after French so I try to think in Spanish during my walk to class. Kim Joon is taking French with me and he seems to be doing well! I took it in high school during my senior year for fun so this is a nice review! 
My LoW class is really big for such a small room. We have 35 registered people but more people than that showed up on Tuesday. We were all crammed into a tiny classroom which forced us to get to know each other a bit more. There are tons of Anthropology majors in the class so I'm hoping to make a few friends soon. Greg is also in my class! It was very kind and shared coffee with me to help me stay awake. I'm not used to 11 AM classes (yes, I'm lazy) so I was very sleepy that first day! Greg said that our professor looks like a werewolf. He is REALLY REALLY tall and has a bright orange scruffly beard and just looks awesome. He is really funny and seems genuinely interested in the subject that he teaches.  I think we're going to really enjoy his class! Greg and I have a nice lunch break after LoW so we decided to meet up with Kim Joon and our friend Nick who is the husband of Dawn Allen who runs this lolita etsy shop (CHECK OUT HER STUFF!) before Biology. We ate at a really cute restaurant called Metro City Grill. The woman who owns it is Korean and likes to talk to us while we wait for our food. Nick shocked her by speaking fluent and perfect Korean to her when she handed him his food!

Kim Joon and I were a bit nervous when we first got to Bio. It was in the same classroom as last semester and almost all the seats were taken when we got there. Last semester's professor was...horrible. That's really an understatement. It was her first year teaching and she was just a bit confused. That made learning very difficult so we were praying that she wasn't going to be teaching us again.
Our awesome new science building
We got so lucky! Our new professor is really laid back and very outgoing. I like the way that she teaches and how engaging she is even with a class of 200 students. Our lab TA was pretty cool too. He was a bit strict but also had a pretty laid back personality!

Overall, I think this will be a great year! I have so many plans and projects that I want to complete this year. I also want to hear from you guys more! I have a few questions that I would love answered if you have a moment!
  • Do you have any interesting resolutions for this year? Why?
  • What kinds of subcultures do you want to see featured? 
  • Do you or your friends want to help?
  • (If you're in school) What classes are you taking this semester? Which one is your favorite?
I want to get to know my readers more! Also, if you have a blog or know of any interesting ones, feel free to leave me a link in a comment. I'm looking for new blogs to follow of all sorts! I hope to hear from you all soon!

<3 Have a great January! <3