Random Update (10.29.11)

Hello everyone. I've been really busy with midterms during the past two weeks. Hopefully y'all enjoyed the pictures.


Last week was probably the most stressful so far. Monday is always really long. I start out with five (5) hours of classes, from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM. Then I have three (3) hours to crash and pretend to do work, because at 5:15 PM I grab the T to go to Jackson Mann elementary school and tutor English with a service group called 4Boston. That takes ~4 hours. Then I have a group reflection immediately after from 9:30 PM to 10:30PM. Needless to say, Mondays give me headaches.


Tuesday's, however, are very relaxing. I wake up around 9:00 AM and do laundry, while completing any reading for honors seminar which I have at 1:00 PM. Class was interesting, but I couldn't help but look out the window every once in a while. I swear, the leaves changed from green to dark red in two hours. But sleep deprivation might have contributed to that analysis. In any case, I was inspired to go running, and what a nice run it was. Running clears my mind of stress and allows me to focus on doing a number of other tasks. Such as building salt shaker towers, reading physics textbooks, and analyzing the book of Samuel and Ruth.


Wednesday was very normal. Three classes, nothing in the evening or afternoon. I had a nice siesta.


Thursday: Calculus test, which I thought was really easy. At night, I had my last CERT class
(Community Emergency Response Team). I've been taking these on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7:00 PM to 9:30 PM throughout October. Thank goodness that's overover. IT SNOWED! But it had been raining, so nothing stuck to the ground.


Friday: Spanish test was ok, then I played 2v2 soccer with Jose for an hour or so. It was cold and fun. A group of folks embarked to Boston to purchase costumes around 4:00. Alex, the Brazilian who dislikes direct photos, and I got separated from the other seven (7) people and found a good and pretty cheap costume store. He is Charlie Chaplin. I am a priest. With a beard. And a whistle. It is my sin whistle, and I blow it when I see sin.


Today I got up and worked out. I'm getting into a nice groove. Every other day I go running and lift some form of weights. The running consists of a 20 minute or so warm up running around town, followed by 5 minutes of glory on the treadmill. After the run, I cool down, stretch, and pretend to bench and do curls. Later tonight I'm going to see Paranormal Activity 3.


Good niiiiiiiight ding ding ding ding ding

Random Update (10.25.11)

Every salt and pepper shaker from McElroy. This took a while. You can ask Matt or Ted.

Doodling.

Better doodling, in my opinion. I worked on this for a while. No, make that two whiles (you can ask Maria)

Wonderland!

 We went to Wonderland! It's the last stop on the T (blue line) and the beach is a short walk away. That's Jeff on the left, my partner is crime. Oh, and we're roommates.

The whole group! From left to right, it's Pat, Briana, Luiza, Kelley, Jeff, and myself. Good group of folks. Alex, who turns his back quite literally at the thought of being in photos, captured this lovely one. So, I guess it's not actually the whole group.

Beach recon. Deciding what spot to claim was a big group decision. We did well.

Beach! It's a bay-type thing here, so no waves. But, beach! 

Here is (from left to right again) Jeff, Alex the aforementioned back-turner, Kelley, and me. Lovely crane and apartments in the background. I guess it woulda made sense to take this facing the other direction... 

Got some soft-serve and milkshakes. 

The exodus ~4:30 PM 

Copyright Jake Hamel, All Rights Reserved. Alyssa over on the right there is priceless.  

My twin, Matt. We have our moments.

Gang sign and/or plea of innocence.


A big huge enormous thank you to Luiza for bringing a camera. Now I can prove my existence to persons of familiar relations!

Random Update (10.16.11)

Hey people who read this blog! It's come to my attention that I haven't randomly updated this for a week or so. Such is the nature of random updates. Forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Last week was only four (4) days long, and my day of death (Monday) was eliminated. Monday's I have class from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM without lunch break. So nice to not have that for once. Speaking of the word "once," I stared at a sign for a while that said "hit the button once... yada yada yada" and it took me about two (2) minutes to realize that it was the English word "once" and not the Spanish word for "eleven." Also, I've been in the habit of translating English conversation into Spanish in my head. This gets rather annoying. It must stop. Also my dreams are being infiltrated. Ayayay! But the good thing is that I got an "A-" on my first Spanish paper. I am really proud of that. It was a four (4) page essay in Spanish. I haven't done that before. Other school news includes having a Physics exam tomorrow, spending two (2) hours writing a lab with my lab partner, Brooks, today in McElroy dining hall, as well as deciding that I like the Honors Seminar class a lot more than before.

Non-school news. This week I spent playing a lot of soccer outside. Except Friday. Friday was rainy and disgusting. Actually Friday was the best day of the week, but I'll get to that later. I have started the CERT classes on Tuesday and Thursday nights. CERT stands for Community Emergency Response Team. Basically you learn some basic techniques for situations when emergency professionals are unavailable. This includes disaster psychology, fire extinguisher skillz, and very basic triage/search and rescue. Thankfully it's only during the month of October, because having class twice a week for two and a half (2 and 1/2) hours is cutting into precious homework time, and thus sleep time. But forcing myself to schedule time is good. This weekend has been tiring. Friday classes ended, and then I had lunch with Kavi and other random people as they dropped by. We were in Stuart from 12:30 PM until 6:30 PM. Mostly because it was freakin pouring outside (or as some say, dumping outside) and walking home looked extremely un-fun. Anyways we were having such a good time it didn't seem like six (6) hours. After that, Jeff, Andrea, Kavi, Katie, Joann and I all went to the Hockey game. We are apparently ranked #1 in the nation. The atmosphere is unbeatable. Football games look so lame now. I'm not even a hockey fan, but I love going to hockey games. Even when we lose 2-3 to Denver (#3 in the nation), it's a blast.

Now I have an intramural soccer game. I say good day. 

Random Update (10.9.11)

This weekend is the breath of fresh air that I need after the first few weeks of school. The campus is much less crowded, because many locals have gone home for the long weekend. The weather has been absolutely beautiful. The people who are still here are more relaxed, it seems.

On Friday I finished classes around noon, had lunch with Kavi, explored the Study Abroad office, took a nap, woke up, ate, went to the BC soccer game (2-0 win vs. Wake), and finally almost went to a Ladytron concert. But ticketmaster was being silly, and we were being tired. I went to bed at 11:30 PM. 

On Saturday I woke up at 8:00 AM, ran a 5K Charity race with some guys, came in 2nd place with a (PR) 18:39 time. After the 5K, we returned to Newton, ate breakfast, kicked a ball around on the official soccer field, played in small sided game on the field hockey field. It was the kind of weather where you don't feel anything. Nothing cool, nothing warm. You just float along like you just took off your shoes and an invisible layer of clothing. I cannot say enough about how spectacular it was. Following soccer, Alex, Lorena, Andrea, Jeff, Jessica, and I walked to get ice cream. Afterwards all of us joined Luiza and Alyssa for Sushi. After Sushi we went back to Newton and watched "Shaun of the Dead." I ended up going to bed around 2:00 AM.


Today I woke up at 8:00 AM again. Pat and I rallied some troops. We left on the subway in swimsuits and backpacks (editor's note: we were not in backpacks; just wearing them) around 10:30 AM. Pat, Alex, Luiza, Kelley, Briana, Jeff, and I spent 11:30 to 4:30 at the beach. Props to Pat for the idea. Pat and Alex are freaking hilarious. They love Monty Python and Mr. Bean. We got pizza, threw a frisbee around, played beach soccer, slept, went in the water, got milkshakes/ice cream, and pretty much just had an amazingly relaxing day. Tomorrow cannot possibly be as awesome, but it can try.


Now I plan to either A) Write the draft for a paper B) Watch a meteor shower C) Watch star wars or D) sleep.


Thanks for the soccer ball,  DVDs, and snacks, Mom!


Stand by for photos from the beach!


Will

Random Update (10.6.11)

Today's Accomplishments:

1) Ask Jeff like a druggie, "What time issssit?"

2) Sleep for two (2) more hours. It's only 7:30.

3) Go to Calculus, Honors Seminar, and Physics.

4) Create Facebook page for Physics teacher (he knows not what we do)

5) Accept friend request.

6) Go to library with Maria, read Spanish.

7) Go back to Newton with Maria and Chris.

8) Fake nap for 30 minutes.

9) Email Kei (Boston? What a coincidence.)

10) Dinner in Stuart with Kavi. Talk for heap-big time.

11) Run one 5:14 mile.

12) Eat one loaf banana bread.

13) Shower one shower.

Today's about-to-be-accomplishments

1) Prepare for Spanish language lab session

2) Do problem set 11 for Calc

We have decided that the smiley face on the dining hall cups is actually mocking us.

Munchy can be seen at the top of the letter "G" in the end-zone.

Presenting...

Miss you Jane!

There's Spongebob. The same Spongebob can be half-seen on the poster on the left.

How sweet.

Matt (my other half, Matt Bread Matt, Mustache Matt) took this one. It epitomizes the students' feelings about the buses on Newton.

Random Update (10.2.11)

What a nice weekend. It was awesome to see Mom and Jane! They got me a Spongebob beanie baby, which goes well with my Spongebob poster. Highlights include going to the football game, showing them my dorm, and being exhausted. Speaking of the football game, the game stopped because a squirrel got onto the field somehow. I shall name him Munchy, in memory of the rodent from the Ice Age movies. The refs blew their whistles and waved their arms in an important fashion as we waited for Munchy to make his move. Munchy ran alarmingly parallel to the sidelines, and crossed the end-zone to the enormous roar of the entire stadium. We are desperate here at BC. We cheer on squirrels. Munchy, I mean. Anyways, Munchy made a second-half impact by scoring yet again, bringing final score to Wake 27 - BC 19 - Munchy 14. Munchy scored more touchdowns than we did. Rebuilding year much? The rest of the evening drifted along in the grass playing soccer and taking pictures. Eventually we ate at the dining hall on Newton campus called Stuart. Just a reminder, but Newton is freshman-only dorms which are a short bus ride from Main campus. I'm sure you know that, but reminders always help.

Now to answer a few questions from emails. Generally one takes five (5) classes per semester. The honors program counts as two (2) classes, and therefore I am only technically in four (4) classes. These are Introductory Physics, Multivariable Calculus, Naturalmente, and Western Cultural Tradition. The last one is the official name of the honors seminar series. I am beginning to understand/like Mr. Duket. We had a nice chat on Friday and I got a much better perspective on the class. It sure will require the work of two (2) classes, but I think ultimately it will be worth it. Unlike other semester-long classes, I will have Mr. Duket for the whole year. Now I shall explain how I got tickets to the Red Sox - Orioles game. A guy on our floor named Jack works at Fenway, and since he couldn't go to the game and had tickets, he raffles them off to our floor. I won, and Jeff and I went and had a good time. Lastly, I wish to say that the food here is delicious. Mostly I just love how the fruit is always very good. There are three (3) dining halls: one on Lower campus, one on Upper campus, and one on Newton campus. Lower and Upper campus are how Main campus as a whole is split up. Basically, the college is on a huge hill. I'll let common sense explain the names.

So, after Mom and Jane left, I went back to the room (~7:30), asked Jeff what he was doing, told Jeff I was taking a power nap until 8:21 precisely, and preceded to carry out my plan. I woke up slightly startled at 8:21. I had passed into deep sleep and my internal clock did not have enough internal memory to process the fact that I had just woken up to darkness when it was not in fact not the morning. So from here, Alyssa (the southern belle), Meredith (the photographer), Lev (the Russian who is actually Ukranian), and I took the T (the subway in Boston) to find a place to pierce Alyssa's ear. Apparently her ear piercings aren't symmetric and he needs another to be balanced. So down we walked. The store closed at 10:00 PM. We arrived at 9:30 PM. The diligent attendant of the piercing store regretted to inform us that although they were open another half-hour, they had stopped piercing for the day. The diligent attendant proceeded to inform us that they open up at 9:00 AM on Sunday, however the piercing specialist probably won't arrive until noon. I guess I never expected too too much from the piercing industry in the first place. So we walked around and found a cool store. Alyssa got a poster and the rest of us conserved out moneys. Off we went to dinner at a Thai place. I had never had Thai before. Oh boy do I wish that last sentence were false earlier in my life. 'Twas most delicious. Afterwards we took the T back to BC and took a bus to Newton. We hung out there for an hour or so and then went back to Upper campus to watch a scary movie. A halftime substitution was made. Alex (the Brazilian and Monty Python enthusiast) replaced Lev (the Russian who's actually Ukranian). We watched Dawn of the Dead. It really wasn't that scared. Actually we laughed more than freaked out. Around 4:00 AM, Alex and I walked back to Newton. I crashed on my bed around 4:30 and woke up at 12:00 noon. I did a physics lab from ~12:12 to ~1:34, when I took the bus to Upper with Matt (the other physics major, my other half, the carbivore) to go to the Card Game Club meeting. We played "Bang!" which involves a 52 card deck, cowboys, and Italian phrases with English translations. Around 3:30 PM I met up with my lab partner Brooks and finished the lab. Around 4:40 PM I took the bus to Newton with other guys on my intramural soccer team. All the girls on the team live on Newton, actually. The game was really close, and I scored the greatest goal of my soccer career. 25 yards out, knuckle-ball slightly left of the top right corner. I'm still excited about that goal. Seriously. Soccer is my drug. Gahhhhhhhhh

That catches you up to now, pretty much. I'm in the lounge of my dorm, having just finished Spanish and Calculus homework. I realize this is quite a long update. Oops. Remember, email me with questions and I may or may not answer them at some point or another! Now, to upload some pictures...