Random Update (6.9.13)

Friday (31st): Arrived in Philly with Mitch, and Sam picked us up and took us to a philly cheesesteak place. However, Sam couldn't parallel park, so I had to parallel park for him. The place we went to was a curious one. The owner put a sign on his front window covered in patriotic colors that says "This is America. When you order, speak English." I was informed it made quite a splash in the local media a few years ago. Despite the bad press , it remains to this day. We arrived at Sam's house and dropped off our bags in the basement about an hour later. Sam lives in New Jersey, but his house is only 10-15 minutes outside of Philadelphia. The rest of the day we helped set up for Sam's party. 

Matt and Sam #2 on the right.

Toasting the graduates.

Saturday (1st): Sam had a bunch of family and friends over to his house, including Matt, whose house I'm at now. The party was a blast. Matt and I played cornhole (a game where you toss small beanbags into a hole from a distance) with El and Judy, Sam's grandmother and her friend, respectively. It was a little hot, but it got perfect by evening. That night Matt and Sam's other friend Sam #2 slept with Mitchell and me in the basement. 

Sunday (2nd): Party cleanup and a sleeping bag purchase from Target. Sam, Mitch and I got really bored Sunday night, so we hacked the system. And by hacked the system, I mean Sam and I both got on C-SPAN (he called in, I tweeted at them and it was  put on television). 

Lolz

Monday (3rd): Got up and went to see Sam's high school and a nearby town called Haddonfield. We all got lunch and bummed around, among the highlights being this dinosaur.

Tuesday (4th): Sam's Dad took all of us out to go tubing down the shore (read: go tubing down on the New Jersey shore). We stopped at WaWa, a sort of convenience store, on the way home. Mitchell loves WaWa. 

Wednesday (5th): Sam and I had our CPR/First-Aid class downtown in Philadelphia. Mitchell brought a book for the few hours he waited. Oddly enough, during the class, a building collapsed about a block away from the Red Cross building we were in. We decided never to leave Mitchell alone again, for the safety of the city. That afternoon, we went to visit the Department of Labor (da DOL) where Sam's Dad works. We all went to get pizza for lunch together. After lunch, the three of us went to the Franklin Institute, got some dinner, and then drove to the Philadelphia Union game. It was a great game. The Union won 3-0. 

da DOL

First half kickoff.

Second half kickoff.

Thursday (6th): Travel day. Mitchell flew home, and I was dropped off at the train station to get to North Jersey to stay at Matt's house a few days. I learned the Septa/NJ Transit system a little bit. I did get some reading done on the ride, which was nice (A Thread of Grace). At night, Matt, two of his friends and I went out to watch game 1 of the NBA Finals. 

Friday (7th): Spent the day hanging with Christine. It was really rainy, so we spent it indoors (originally we were going to the beach). I got Matt's family some nice chocolate, and I got me a new pair of sunglasses. At night, Matt, Connor and I went bowling and injured ourselves. Matt bowled a turkey (woo). Connor is a friend from Duchesne (freshman dorm) who went to Matt's high school. 

Saturday (8th): Played some pickup soccer at the 'cage' nearby. The 'cage' is an enclosed but not indoor soccer field. Matt and I played with Connor, Connor's sister, and a handful of other people randomly there. Benjamin was the star. He was only 12 years old, and everyone else was at least a senior in high school. He scored the winning goal. It was hot out. After soccer, I got to see Christine again for a few hours. When I got dropped off at Matt's house later that evening, Sam and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) had arrived. We all sat outside and played a new game called "you take band names and make the opposite of them." For example, Vampire Weekend becomes Werewolf Workday, The Avett Brothers become The Thedocc Sisters, and Neil Young becomes Stand Old. After far too long, we left for the city (read: New York City). We met up with some of Sam's friends, as well as another friend Arjun from our Appalachia trip my freshman year. We ended up going to about 6 or 7 different bars, eventually driving home around 2:30 AM! One bar in particular was amazing. There was a circle of Irish musicians playing folk Irish music. Then they started playing "Hard Sun" by Eddie Vedder. It was really good. I recognized it from the movie Into the Wild which I saw a few weeks ago at home. We invented hypothetical ice-breaker one-liners throughout the night. These included "Are those reusable shoes?" and "Are you a pig wrestler?" (these are inside jokes and not supposed to be understood or enjoyed by the reader). Oh, and I was the designated driver for the evening. Who says driving in NYC is hard? 

Holy crepe.

Sunday (9th, today): Got up and drove with Matt, Sam, and Conor (not to be confused with Connor with two n's) to Randall's Island for the Governor's Ball music festival. It was a mucking good time. 

The lineup. I saw Cherub, Haim, Portugal. The Man, Deerhunter, Beirut, The Lumineers, and The Avett Brothers. 

In Sam's words: "Supervising the young ladies of Governor's Ball"

The mucky mud (not too many people there early).

Muck.

Balloons. 

The Lumineers show. By far the best all day.

Lead singer Wesley Schultz. They did a song out in the crowd, very close to where we were standing. 

Cool shot with the sun shining behind them through the trees. 

So many people (compare with first few pictures).

The Avett Brothers.

Performing "Murder in the City"

So good.

So so good. 

Random Update (5.14.13)

Classes are done, people have left, sophomore year is over, and I still feel like a freshman. I will be in the dorms for a few more days until graduation on the 20th working on campus. Today the group of us helped to distribute gowns and caps to the seniors. Our boss got us pizza for lunch, which was cool. It's a very chill job, I am very thankful my friend Zach told me about it. Yesterday was my first day of summer, with absolutely nothing planned. In the morning/afternoon I helped Christine and her dad/sister move her things out, and later that evening I got some food at lower with Miguel and Phillipe after tailgating at the varsity baseball game for a little while with my friend Andy (he is on exchange from Ireland).  Then I helped Miguel move his suitcases to our friend Sebastian's house, which is off campus, and watched the NBA playoffs with a bunch of Spanish-speaking people. Hanging out with them is always good practice for Barcelona. I left the house after the game to go back to campus, and said bye to Miguel, who flew out this morning back to Texas. All my roommates left yesterday as well, so the 8-man suite is so empty. Thank goodness I have a lot of posters, or else it would be very dreary at boring times like in the afternoon like it is as I write this post. 

Basically, I will be hanging out with the seniors and other folks who are around campus for the next few days when I am not at work. I might bus up to Portland and stay with Pat for a night to see an Iron and Wine concert. That could be fun. The next few days will be a good time, but it still kinda feels like a ghost town at BC, and it is strange knowing that sophomore year is already over.

The view from the top of the parking garage. That grass is so nice... too bad BC still lost.

Random Update (5.8.13)

Exams are here. However, before (and perhaps, more importantly, during exams), it is nice to relax one's mind. Last Thursday BC put on "Modstock," the annual free school concert. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis visited, and it was pretty cool. The following Friday, a whole bunch of fellas and I went downtown to our favorite Brazilian steakhouse for an end of semester lunch. Boy oh boy was it good. After lunch, Alex and I took the T out to Maverick to a tiny little soccer shop called "Brazilian Soccer House" to look at new cleats. It is a small place, but they are fully stocked with every possible variety of jersey and footwear (old and new). It was this Friday that I fell in love. I have been wearing the old-school Adidas Copa Mundials for some time, now. And they are wonderful cleats. However, it was time for a change. So, I got these bad boys, and have been taking a study break every day to break them in.

The Nike's

He sings the chorus in, "Thrift Shop" by Macklemore (artist name is Wanz). If you have seen the music video, you know how much of a baller this guy is. 

The fellas

Now it is Wednesday. I got up a little before 8 AM, got some Dunkin Donuts (I really like dunking donuts in coffee...) and made my way over to Stokes Hall, the new, beautiful building on campus, to start studying for my remaining exams. Here's the schedule:

Tuesday 
Modern Physics: it went well... but definitely my hardest exam. Spent Saturday, Sunday, Monday dedicated to problem sets and textbook reading...

Friday
Navigating the Nation: Cityscapes and Countryside: my Spanish final, in Spanish, despite the class title which is in English. Seeing as it is a paper-heavy class, the final is merely an extended essay that broadly covers each artist and author over the semester. Should require a few hours preparation. Not too worried here.

Principles of Macroeconomics: It is non-cumulative! I am studying this now, actually. 

Monday
Western Cultural Tradition: same format as last semester's final. I also have two papers due in this class... might be a busy weekend!

Microeconomic Theory: Cumulative exam + problem set due at the start of the exam. Again... busy weekend...

Random Update (5.1.13)

It's hard not to talk about the weather. It has been sunny and 65 for the last week. Campus is covered with students in colorful clothing relaxing on the grass in the sun. It would surprise me if the prospective students that periodically walk through campus don't all enroll here on the spot.

Two big meetings happened this week already. The first (Monday evening) was the predeparture meeting for studying abroad in Spain next year. Lots of information was given. I am sooooo excited. The second (Tuesday) was a dinner for students who received fellowships/grants for the upcoming summer or year. I got what is called and "advanced study grant" for an independent project this summer to learn some Catalan and research some Catalan poetry. The dinner was really nice! I was pleasantly surprised by Zach (who I'm working with this summer at camp) on my way to dinner, I forgot he had received a Fulbright Fellowship (to study micro-businesses in the Philippines). We met Anna, Alexa, Deepa and a girl whose name slips my mind at our little table. The food was really good. It was salad, green beans, rice, chicken, pasta, and some yummy rolls and soup. Afterwards there were mini cannolis and tea/coffee. 

The speaker was a recent graduate of BC who received the same kind of grant as I did. He has done a lot of work with international arms control, both in his college years and after. Currently he is at the Harvard Kennedy School for Government (wow!). I actually met him earlier this year at a "career conversation" in the career center, and he basically was the reason I decided to apply for the grant. After his speech I let him know that, too. 

In other news, I got my ticket to see Macklemore, a popular new artist with hits like "Thrift Shop" and "Same Love" and "And We Danced". A bunch of us got up around 7 AM Tuesday morning to get in line. The tickets were free, but there are only 6,000 available to all students. Tickets were handed out at 8 AM, and we got ours around 10 AM. Hopefully that was all worth it!

Random Update (4.29.13)

Last weekend, after the events on Friday, was pretty normal. I think most people were comforted by how well the police dealt with the situation and by the fact that it was only two people in a city of couple million. Here are some photos from the Boston Marathon I forgot to add last week. 

Here they come.

...and there they go.

On Saturday (April 20th) we had the first spring club soccer game against BU. This was also the last. We packed into various cars and drove over to a park Cambridge. On the way, we realized we were driving by the Target that was smack-dab in the middle of what the WAR ZONE MASSACHUSETTS news headlines were talking about. A little eerie, to say the least. We lost 2-1. A late first-half goal off of a poor give-away was disheartening. But we got one back a few minutes into the 2nd half. With 5 minutes to go, a poor refereeing decision allowed a questionable late goal. After getting back to campus and showering, I went to two student shows. One was an acapella concert, the other a sketch-comedy show. Both were really good. On Sunday I played pickup soccer with a bunch of people. 

Last week was quite busy. I got my computer screen fixed. I helped Alex film some more. I had my last physics lab meeting. I had a physical at BC health services for studying abroad. I had a bunch of homework. I was sorting out what I'm doing this summer. Unfortunately, I did not get offered the internship in New York. Alas. Oh, and it was also gorgeous outside, so the temptation to nap was much smaller. Anywho. Friday was a nice end to the week, though. I had my 10 AM Spanish class, where we finished watching the movie "Volver." After class, I went to the library to print, sign, scan, and email a contract to the folks at the summer camp that my friends Sam and Zach, and I will be working at this summer. It's in California, it's outside, and it looks like a really good time. While in the library, I also printed off lots of student visa documents for the Spanish consulate. After all of that, a few guys went to Yamato at 1:30 PM, an all-you-can-eat sushi place off-campus. Alex, Rafa, Jonathan, Miguel, and Vinny were all there. While sushi is not my favorite, it is slowly moving up the list. Friday night I hung out with some people in Voute, then the Mods, and then played some FIFA back in the room with some friends. 

Saturday I slept past noon! I haven't done that all semester. I basically got up, washed up, and went to go play soccer. It was another beautiful day, and we had a big group of people out in Alumni Stadium. Saturday night, Rafa, Alex, Andy and I went to see "Avenue Q," a Sesame Street inspired musical put on by BC students in Robsham theater on campus. It was really well done. That night, Jim, Jose and I watched some M*A*S*H and hung out. Sunday was the most gorgeous of the gorgeous days. Here are some photos from Brighton campus to prove my statement!

Random Update (4.19.13)

Marathon Monday weekend is usually one of the best weekends of the year - there are events all over campus, it's a long weekend, warm spring weather is just arriving... it's so nice. This year was no different, up until Monday afternoon. I was sitting in the dining hall eating a late lunch with Alex, Rafa, Jonathan, Christine, and Anne when we noticed the breaking news on the small television in the corner of the room. In five minutes, nearly everyone was crowded around the small screen trying to understand what was happening. Almost everyone's first thoughts were for their friends who were running the marathon and who had passed by BC's campus not 45 minutes beforehand... anyone familiar with the remaining distance to the finish line and the average pace of marathon runners knew that there was the terrible possibility that someone they knew was nearby. Thankfully no BC students were directly next to the explosion when it happened. Chalk one up for the Jesuit Pope looking out for his universities. I texted multiple friends who I knew ran it (Jeff, my old roommate, for one) making sure they were ok. As it turned out, a few friends were under 0.5 miles away from the finish line when it happened. But they were all ok. Scared, but ok. Many of them had to walk for +1hr back to campus (after running almost 26 miles) because public transportation was shut down temporarily and taxis were in high demand. There were some nice stories of people giving free rides for the poor marathon runners who were stranded downtown. St. Ignatius, the big church on BC's campus, was used as a temporary refuge (water, blankets, etc) for runners still running at the time of the explosions. Having run the marathon last year, I can imagine how terrible it must have felt not to be able to cross the famous finish line after so many months of training. I imagine it was the only thing more heartbreaking that day than heartbreak hill itself.  

Fast forward to Friday. I woke up this morning at 7:00 AM to the following text. An hour or two later, I got another.

We turned on the news immediately to learn that there was some sort of shooting at MIT and a pursuit of two suspects across Boston. One was killed, one still "on the loose." It was an easy decision to stay indoors, despite my stomach wanting an omelette and orange-mango Honest Ade. I took a nap until 12 noon after watching the news for an hour or so. Ironically it was a beautiful day outside... nice temperature, overcast. It did drizzle for a few minutes in the late afternoon, but that was it. Sirens have been going off all day. BCPD have been rolling around campus in their cars and on their motorcycles, which is both reassuring and not at the same time. I think everyone kept telling themselves that it is only one person; nonetheless, this one person was in a neighborhood not a mile away from BC's campus. 

The "shelter in place ban" was lifted around 6:30 PM. The second suspect was reported as being surrounded near a house in Watertown around 7:00 PM by most news stations. About 10 minutes ago, at 8:45 PM, he was reported as being in custody. It is a sigh of relief. Very enthusiastic "U, S, A! U, S, A!" chants can be heard. Obviously the law enforcement people have done a great job, and that deserves recognition. As for the enthusiasm... I think I'll side with the silent majority who are pleased that the emotional roller-coaster in Boston this week may finally be nearing a decisive finish. 

Random Update (4.10.13)

The week following Easter Break held many midterms and papers and problem sets for many people. However, I was not one of those people. On Tuesday we finished up Brothers Karamazov in Western Cult and then later in Modern Physics, we made my only physical homework due that week, a physics problem set, due the following Tuesday, instead of Thursday. What a pleasant surprise. In Spanish, we are reading a novel call Sin noticias de Gurb by Eduardo Mendoza. It's about a pair of aliens who arrive in Barcelona. It's a parody and social commentary/criticism. Very fun book. Although I am a little behind in the reading for this week. We have an essay due a week from today (Wednesday). We have been having consistent club soccer practices, usually Tuesday and Thursday from 5-7 PM. Last week I think I kicked a ball around every day, if only because of the weather. It has been gorgeous! Friday in particular was nice. However, yesterday took the proverbial cake. I'll come back to this day in a moment. 

Last weekend was not too eventful. On Friday, like I said, the weather was outstanding. After Spanish class I had a Skype interview for a really interesting marketing internship this summer. I won't bore anyone with details, but I really hope I get offered the position. An hour or so after that, we (~40 guys) played pickup soccer on Alumni (the football turf field) before being kicked off by women's club rugby practice (what?). We took the bus to Newton Campus and played until dark. After dinner in Stuart (the dining hall I ate at almost every day last year) I showered back in the room and lay down for a little bit before venturing out into the night. Miguel (Texan, avid FIFA 13 player) and I hung out in his room where a few of his roommates were jamming and having a few people over. He lives in down a few floors from me. Then it was off to the Spanish-speaking world of Boston College yet again. This has become my favorite thing to do on weekends. Go out and meet international students who speak Spanish. Jose, my roommate, and Pozo, another friend who plays soccer, both met up with Miguel and me at a friend's house off campus. I left slightly earlier than those guys though because my legs were exhausted from a week of soccer. After a nice snooze, I got up and got lunch with Miguel in lower before heading back to the room to do some homework before going to see the Carolina Chocolate Drops in House of Blues with Sam, Matt, and Zach around 5:30 PM. Show started at 8:00 PM. We took the T downtown and stopped at Panera before the show. The Carolina Chocolate Drops (aka The Drops) have an amazing stage presence. They are much better live than on computer or iPod. The play banjo, fiddle, bones, and guitar. Sometimes at the same time, sometimes not. The main guy, Dom Flemons, is an inspirational character. He looks like he was plucked out of the late 19th century, but he is only 30 years old.

Dom Flemons second from the right with guitar. 

After the show we watched the end of the Michigan basketball game, and then took the T back to campus. Back at the room, Jim and I chatted about life for a little before hitting the hay. Sunday was full of lab reports and more soccer and helping Alex film his short film for 5 hours. 

And now I'm in this week! This week has been even more outstandingly gorgeous outside. I had class outside today, chilled in the new grassy quad with some amigos, kicked a ball around... the tour groups full of prospective students going around today must have been like, "Is this... paradise...?" in their heads because it was amazing although I did not take any pictures so I apologize deeply.