Saturday, June 12, 2010

Last English for Some Time

So this summer I'm at Middlebury doing the old Russian thing and I'm not allowed to speak English, so I'm gonna put down a few final thoughts.
First, Middlebury is beautiful. I never really considered it while doing the college search but it is in an absolutely pristine part of the country. We're surrounded by small, forested mountains, the campus is all white stone architecture, and the buildings are all very interesting.
Second, I have awesome roommates here. A quick note about the room. My room is a quad and is quite honestly way worse than any Carleton quad. The first thing that struck me about the room was the apparently useless wall that divides the entryway from the kitchen. This wall is not only useful in and of itself, but it also has a window in it. It doesn't have a common room to speak of, just the entryway, small kitchen, bathroom, 2 singles and a double. I'm living in the double with a guy who's studying Russian and IR at George Washington and is very social and outgoing. The two singles are occupied by older men. One is a foreign service officer being sent to Moscow (OMG) who just got married, he graduated from Bates and majored in Econ, I'd guess he's around 28. The other roommate may be the coolest person I've met at Middlebury so far. He's Ecuadorian, but was born in the US, and is around 40. He lived in Kansas for a time about a year and a half, but is currently in San Juan. He lived in Kazakhstan in 1990 studying Russian but his group was targeted by anti-American factions after the Gulf War broke out, so he's here fulfilling his goal of learning Russian. He worked for Microsoft on the XBox team. In short, I couldn't ask for a better set up.
There are several FBI guys learning Russian, us college students have been gossiping about them the whole time.
Third, we watched an excellent Russian film tonight called "White Sun of the Desert." It's an Eastern, or the Russian version of a Western. It's got great dialogue, it's funny, and although the action is fairly amateurish it is effective. The interesting thing about the film is that according to tradition, every cosmonaut has to watch the film before going into space. This applies to everyone who intends to go to space in a Russian vehicle. Therefore, every single astronaut for the next few years has to watch this film before going into space. It was also banned initially, but Brezhnev loved it and debanned it.
Fourth, so I took this stage combat class and our teacher filmed our final fight scene. BUT he hasn't e-mailed it to us yet, so as soon as I get it, it's going up on the blog.
So yeah, I'm surrounded by kids who basically want to do what I want to do, and it's awesome. I've been having nerdy conversations about Russian lit and history all day, and I couldn't be happier. Oh, I also live across the hall from a UPenn distance swimmer, so we're gonna go to the Natatorium and train this summer. So you better be ready for the alumni meet!

SPRING? SUMMER? GRADUATION!

So today marks the official end of the 2009-2010 academic year at Carleton. Lil Alfie graduates today. Wish I could be there, but I'm once again in the woods for the summer, delaying the end of childhood a little while longer. But, Congrats Alfreddy. Now get the hell off my campus.

This past year was wild. I looked back at the post that I wrote prior to the start of the year and I realized just how different it was than what I thought it was going to be.

First off it was the hardest year i've ever had academically. The history mini-comps DOES. NOT. MAKE. SENSE. We get 6 weeks to research and write an 30 page research paper. Next year for our 40 page comps, we get 20+ weeks. WTF?!?!?!!? It was hell and I was working on it literally until 5:01pm on the last day of finals. Whatever though, I'll never take a full course load again. I got 3 credits of comps in the fall and 9 in the winter.

Then there was Dow House. I hated living in Dow. I really liked my roommates, just not as roommates. It was a giant shitshow. It one point it was nicknamed Anarchy house, but then again it was also nicknamed Dog House, Motorcycle House, Poop House and Keg House (I'm sure the names allude to why). Food was never safe for anyone and respect was missing from the general atmosphere. Certain roommates did not clean their dishes for WEEKS. I felt like Nonberg at how angry I got at them, but it was out of hand. In the fall it led to fruitflies, in the spring it led to mold. I often did not use the kitchen after 5th week when it got crazy. It was an experience and a learning moment, and overall it wasn't that bad. But it taught me that the people you live with and the environment you live in is very important.

Other highlights/thoughts about junior year:
  • Well there was my Birthday: Disaster
  • I got to wine and dine with Former Prez Oden
  • We kareoke-ed almost every thursday night of spring term
  • I decided against the teacher licensure program at carleton
  • There was all the swimming related events/issues/awesome times
  • And shit... With the end of my junior year, its also the end of Sjoberg, Zutz, Sassy, ALAN, and everyone else... Damn.
It's crazy to think that the class of 09 only left one year ago. It seems like forever ago. The current freshman hear about how cool stadium was, so the idolization is still there. Mark = Nostalgic.

This post is starting to ramble. I'll move on from the past:

Right now I'm back at Camp. They keep promoting me. I'm the Teen Director/ Asst. Program Director. I'm quite excited. Did I ever tell you guys that the Executive Director of the camp shares a lot of the same qualities that Andy has?

I don't think I explained my living situation for next year yet. Well I'm living off-campus!
It's Louise, Pete, Heydinger, Brenner and I in a house at 519 College. Its a bit of a walk, but we got bikes and cars. It's two short blocks away from Econo and Northfield Liquor. It's a big house with a huge family room. I'll post pics in the fall. Brenner, Mering and some subletters are there over the summer though because they are working at Carleton. It'll be blast. I'm super pumped.

Ok. I thinks that's all I got in me now. I'm gonna do some paperwork because Staff Orientation starts tomorrow and I am helping train the noobs.

In conclusion:
-This year's two main kareoke songs were Your Love by the Outfield and Total Elipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler
-I love summer.
-Toto needs to talk about Scuba Girl and his trip to IRELAND!!!!
-Elliot: It was good to see you at Basils and that weekend!
-Alfredo: Write about your soulless job that you will do wonderfully.
-We made bowling club t-shits and they are awesome...
-I'd love to talk to you sometime over the summer and catch up. I have terrible reception but leave me a message and I'll call back when I go into town.
-AND... My boss heard about First Mate Charlie and when a bunch of us and her shared a beer on the last night before the summer season started, she said she was going to call me that when I got a little crazy.


MOLSON OUT.