3 Weeks Left!

Biology experiment is done, second to last tutorial paper is written, half way through our last reading in German, and our last chapter test in Calculus has been taken, these past two weeks have been a little crazy!  Professors are wrapping things up for the semester and now that Thanksgiving break is almost over, I have two more weeks of classes until the end of my first semester of college and I get to go home!!! 

Working in a biology lab for the past four weeks on an experiment that my group and I created was a fantastic experience.  I know that not many big schools allow first years into the lab, and if they do, it is mostly prescribed experiments.  We are lucky enough to have the facilities and the program to allow first years into the lab investigating something they are really interested in!  My group was researching the effect of UV-C light on three types of bacteria as well as the length of exposure to UV-C light.  It was a bit complicated and I was in the lab everyday Monday-Friday and once in a while on Saturday as well.  Non-sciency people may balk at this idea, but I was certainly happy about it!  I really enjoyed working with other people who were interested in getting the project done and willing to put out the effort! 

This past Monday was my birthday.  I am very close to my family so not being at home for my birthday was really hard.  I wanted more than anything to be at home, but I had some pretty great people go the extra mile to make me feel special.

-        The Salsa dance group surprised me and made me a giant cookie and sang me happy birthday

-        My mom sent me presents from everyone in my family and had flowers delivered to me, as well as cupcakes in a Jar (from Wicked Good Cupcakes – VERY GOOD!)

-        Another one of my friends bought me a (really yummy) muffin and wrote me an incredibly sweet card

-        I had lunch with an awesome friend of mine

-        The salsa people had dinner with me and we all studied together after

Despite not being at home, I had an absolutely wonderful birthday.  After all of that, then Thanksgiving came.  In my family Thanksgiving is a big family holiday.  We did do “Thanksgiving in October” over fall break but Thursday was still Thanksgiving for the rest of the country.  The campus is really empty and I felt like everyone I had talked to earlier this week had said they were going to be out of town for Thanksgiving…..I did have a bit of a panic moment when I thought I wouldn’t know anyone here!  Regardless, I went to the massive buffet lunch the Dining hall put on by myself.  They had salads, turkey, dressing/stuffing, potatoes, gravy, something with apples and sweet potatoes that were glazed and had lots of delicious spices, roasted root vegetables, and of course apple, pumpkin, fruits of the forest, and berry pie.  It was an absolutely fantastic lunch!  I ended up sitting with a bunch of people I knew and we had lots of fun, even though we all wished we were at home.  If that wasn’t enough, I had been invited to a thanksgiving dinner hosted by someone in salsa and sponsored by Questbridge and Posse.  People cooked all day and made a very large amount of food.  Chicken, turkey, ham, potatoes, gravy, mac and cheese, fried rice, corn, green beans, and the best apple pie I have ever eaten.  I was so full after two meals.  At this dinner there happened to be about 6 salsa dancers there.  Near the end when many people had left, the DJ (a salsa person) started playing some salsa music and we were all up in a flash dancing and teaching the remaining people how to dance!  We really did take over, but it was a lot of fun!

On Wednesday we had a relatively big snow storm and we got maybe 4 inches of snow.  I really liked Grinnell in the summer and fall, but the campus is absolutely spectacular in the snow.  I wandered around for a while and took pictures, I will post a few! 

Here are just a few other things that stood out over the past few weeks:

Last week The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was release.  Grinnell arranged to have an early showing of the movie at The Strand in town and bought out the entire theater (all 131 seats) for Grinnell College students to see the movie a full day before its release!  I managed to get tickets by getting in line a full 30 minutes before they started handing out tickets.  The line stretched out the Grille and down the hallway for I don’t know how long.  I was the 12^th person in line!  It was so much fun! 

A few weeks ago was the Latin American Festival.  Salseros de Grinnell (the salsa dance group) performed two pieces that we had been working on for a couple of weeks.  I chose not to perform but instead helped everyone out and got to see some amazing performances!  I think I will perform at the next performance!