Super Bowl Sunday

... means very little to me. I don't care for football. I didn't watch the game. Not even the commercials.

I like it for the food (yummy junk food! And appetizers!), and the time it provided me to watch Buffy.

Whoo.

(Not much to say today, kind of used up all my firepower yesterday :P)
-Aly

Pretzel Roll

HELLO!

Today was long run, homeworkhomeworkhomework, Rock the Block, and some time to talk to Frenchies.

What do you think of the slightly-altered blog design? Hopefully it isn't as hard to read now... I'm hoping that at some point I'll be able to get a more customized design, but I'm still controlling how it looks, so this is as good as it's getting! I can alter it again or do something different, but I am LAZY and it may take a while for me to get around to that.

It feels like fall. Though I just got new shorts and tank tops from Margaret (stolen from her Goodwill pile). Good timing?

I don't dress transitionally. I wear the clothes for the weather that I want to have, which is currently shorts and flip-flops, despite the discomfort from the cross-country blisters. The blisters are a result of the snazzy new socks we got to race in, but wearing them for seven miles ended up torturing my poor feet. I was doing so well, too!

Every day at practice, I realize how naked I feel without my running watch. I'm generally so obsessive over time that not having a watch annoys me to no end. Especially on days like today when there's a bit of a workout going on. A new watch is on my list again, but then again, my list of stuff I want (*feels so greedy*) is too long and I'm too broke.

As the weather gets cooler, I keep thinking about indoor and outdoor track and whether or not I want to participate in either. I'm not really a track person but I love spending time with my team (especially my best friends that are runners, because I won't see them otherwise and their presence in my life is very important to me). I'll be so busy! D: Thus, I'm putting off decision-making until it is absolutely necessary. Help? :/

Tomorrow is going to be fun-- Lunch with Alex, Colin, and Molly, and then we'll be going to see the Tempest. I love Shakespeare class, and this week we'll be starting the Taming of the Shrew; I have a feeling that I'll adore it. Unfortunately I have lots of work to do other than that. On the bright side, I don't have Business Law on Monday morning! :D

Now, more homework. Sociology. Whoops.

A demain!
-Aly

Failed Crepes

HELLO!

I don't know what it is about cooking French cuisine that always has me stumped. It's crepes more than anything, but the inability to make crepes seems to only occur in the States. I am determined though, and one of these days I'll be successful. >.<

Today was less mind-numbing as yesterday, though once again I have too much to do. I'm working on various tasks at once, if that counts for anything. I'm surrounded by a field of paper, if textbooks, notebooks, binders, books, and my French pencil case all count as paper, the field being the dining room table or my bedroom floor. (Two very different places, however both seem to be disaster zones of Important Things.)

Tomorrow we're supposed to find out about that one scholarship. And then there's a cross-country race that afternoon, at a course that I'm not overly fond of. I'll survive, though I make no promises about my mental health after that point.

There are some topics I have yet to blog about that I want to tackle, but they don't really fit into the details of my life. I don't have time right now to sit down and organize my thoughts on the matter. Some of those are France-related, and others aren't.

I've got to go now; the field of paper is pushing back into my mind.

OH!
The person I appreciate the most today is Caroline. She's one of my freshman buddies, and is completely awesome. She had this great quote today as we were running after the French Club meeting (she and Molly are joining all the language clubs, and since today was a French Club meeting that lasted quite a while and involved food, we were quite stuffed when we got to practice 30 minutes late...), she said "I'm feelin' the craps! ... Crepes!". I died laughing :)

A demain!
-Aly

Cookies & Cream

Bonjour!

Sometimes, all I need is a day where I'm not stressed out over something-or-other (probably insignificant), where I am too busy to stop and think, too happy to worry about what this week or this season or this year holds for me. Today was one of those days, and I am exhausted now, but in a great mood (despite the fact that I realize that I have homework to finish that I forgot about in the rush of everything else). It doesn't bother me that I didn't accomplish much today, because it my eyes, not accomplishing much other than selfish pleasure and FUN is acceptable. It IS the weekend, after all.

I woke up relatively early today, though I refused to get out of bed, choosing instead to lie there with the blinds open a bit to enjoy the light and the cool temperature of my room, where it is perpetually too much of an extreme. After grocery shopping, I ate lunch with my family-- not that we're really that great at "family time" anyway, since we tend to disperse to seperate rooms, often with lights off, each glued to our respective computers, pretending for that moment that interaction with our family is not needed. I didn't mind today, but sat at the bare table alone, reading Paper Towns and thinking about wanderlust again.

Shortly after, I left once again to head to Molly's, where we made a great card for Tori's birthday (which was yesterday) and wrapped (me: complicated weaving covering the Christmas wrapping paper, Molly: scraps of wrapping paper that didn't cover the box of Animal Crackers) part ONE of her gifts, and then delivered them. A quick jaunt to Colin's, then a stop at Juice Shop (out of the way, but delicious) to get Grant a smoothie, then to Grant's. Of course we got distracted by filling random things in to Grant's calendar, before deciding to stop by our freshman (of the year, we generally choose a few freshmen to be "ours", which means we adopt them and do our best to include them) Caroline's house-- her family's reactions were hysterical, and we'll definitely be going back, especially since she wasn't there! Then back to Colin's, before dinner at Molly's (hot dogs!), and out to a new ice-cream parlor (Cookies and Cream). Delicious and Fattie Club, best way to end any day.

And now I'm doing homework, knowing that I'll have to be up early again tomorrow for school. First FULL week of school, but I feel more mentally prepared now. Today makes this weekend a success in my book.

See you again tomorrow!
-Aly

Scones!

Salut!

Alors, aujourd’hui, je vais ecrire en français un petit peu :) J’espere que ça te derange pas trop! (Inquietez pas, je vais ecrire apres en anglais pour ceux qui savez pas le français.)

J’ai lavé ma voiture aujourd’hui! Ca prends beaucoup de temps, malheursement, alors je n’ai pas beaucoup fait à partir de ça. En fin, j’ai rien accompli aujourd’hui sauf faire le menage. Apres diner, j’ai fait la cuisine—j’ai fait les scones de myrtille avec un glaçage de citron. Ca m’a fait beaucoup de plaisir, parce que je vais les manger pour petit dejeuner demain matin! Ils sont très bons—mon frère m’a dit ça et il dit jamais les choses gentils au sujet de la cuisine que je fais! xD Mon premier cours de l’ecole à l’universite est demain matin, à 8h. Je ne suis pas pret!

En fin, j’ai dit au revoir à Via et maintenant, je vais au lit! :D

*****

Okay, In ENGLISH now! :D I just wanted to practice my French, since the only time I write in French is when I talk to my French friends… unfortunately, that’s never frequently enough, due to my busy schedule and the 6 hour time difference. Anway, I hope that didn’t annoy you too much, and any of you that speak French, feel free to correct me ;)

Today, I ended up washing my car, though I didn’t originally plan to. That took up most of the day, so I really didn’t do much else! I didn’t end up accomplishing anything today except a few chores. After dinner, I baked—I made blueberry scones with lemon icing, which are DELICIOUS, and a smoothie with leftover blueberries, some raspberries, strawberries, and cranberry juice. The scones will DEFINITELY be my breakfast tomorrow, and even my brother (who never compliments my cooking!) said they were good! xD

My first class at the community college is tomorrow morning at 8, so I have to get up reallyyyy early :( Luckily, I’ll have scones to look forward to as breakfast, instead of cereal! I’m not ready for this at all, so I really hope I’ll survive—I guess I’ll talk about it tomorrow?

After all that, I went over to Via’s to say goodbye, but didn’t cry. I’m still trying not to think about the fact that so many of my friends are so far away. GAHH MY LIFE IS BORING!

I’m going to bed now :)

BONSOIR/GOODNIGHT!

-Aly

P.S. What would you say if I make EVERY blog post from this month a food-title? I think I’ll make it my Thing.

Popsicles and Ice Cream

Hello again!

See what I said about blogging every day? I’m making this happen.

So, today was BUSY. Not that every day isn’t, but today was borderline hectic.

We had a long run this morning. My run was strangely satisfying. I wore my NEW SHOES which are the same as Molly’s shoes, which was of course, completely unintentional. It was sunny again, thus really humid, after all the rain we’ve had lately. My shoes are ALREADY dirty, but hopefully they won’t smell as bad as my spikes do anytime soon.

(For you non-cross-country-runners, spikes are the racing shoes we wear… and they have a very pungent odor. I refuse to take mine out of the box, and they stay in a corner of the basement where the stench can’t hurt the quality of life…)

Our coach brought Popsicles for us for after the run (YAY! TREATS!), and since there were so many of them, Molly and I got three each. We were laughing, being like “oh, Fattie Club is BACK IN SESSION!” and “I wonder if we can make this a thing?”, so Coach Cromwell took us off to the side for a Lecture. It wasn’t so much of a Lecture as it was an Expression of Worry About Our Mental Health, which made it rather humorous. But, in a way, it was complimentary and I think both Molly and I realized how awkward and difficult it must be for him to confront “girly” problems (even if they are perceived as problems, but aren’t).

Though it is funny to note his reaction to us senior girls with our water-guns at yesterday’s practice and then what he said to Molly and I today. We’re just enigmas. :)

Other than that, I spent today shopping for books with my mother, which ended in me getting a couple books from the Free Shelf (ONE IS A PLAY IN FRENCH!) and lots of Shakespeare. She finally showed me the houses she likes, one of which we will hopefully buy… as soon as our house sells.

After all that, I went to Via’s house (with Molly) to help her pack for college. That was fun, but the reasoning is sad. It SUCKS to say goodbye, and she’s not ready to leave. For that matter, I’m not ready for any of my “ex-senior” friends to be gone. I know I’ll keep in touch somehow and this won’t be goodbye forever (at least, I SINCERELY hope not!), but still, the whole people-leaving thing is just not fun as leaving yourself.

During all that, we stopped by Cold Stone. Hence, ice cream. Delicious, FattieClub worthy, ice cream. YAYYY SUMMER! (I’m holding on to Summertime for dear life, though I could do with some nice fall-like temperatures…)

A demain! ;)

-Aly

American Foods

Hello, everybody!

I was just thinking about this today, though I admit I am often reminded of all the foods that I desperately want to eat. So, this is my list of American foods that I will be consuming in great quantities upon my return to the US.

1. Macaroni and Cheese. -- Really, there need be no explanation. Mac & cheese is one of my favorite foods ever, and I haven't eaten it since ... uhm... FAR TOO LONG.
2. American-style breakfast. -- I eat tartines every day. Give me some PANCAKES and scrambled eggs, some bacon, bagels, or any breakfast excursion to Chik-fil-A. Shame on me for many of these, but yeah. OH, and SUGARY CEREAL! Where are my Lucky Charms?! :D
3. PB&J-- Yeahhh. Peanut butter doesn't exist here.
4. COOKIES! Brownies, cake-with-legit-frosting. -- I could make these but it's not the same. Give me some cookie cake or anything with frosting...
5. Phish Food flavor of Ben & Jerry's. ... This one is pretty self-explanatory. Abundance of ice cream, not much Ben & Jerry's, besides the fact that it's 5 euros, which is like $7. OH, AND Breyer's Mint Chocolate Chip!
   
6. Mexican food. (wait, that's not American, but uhm, who's being technical? Mexico is in North America. Thus American...?)
7. PASTA with non-meat-sauce or pasta with not-ketchup-and-Gruyere.
8. Barbeque. -- Again, I'm a bit ashamed of this one, but let's be honest... that stuff is good.
9. Pop-tarts!-- should have included this with breakfast, but it's rare that I eat pop-tarts as breakfast.
10. Hershey's Chocolate. -- Okay, so this one is unfair. There's loads of chocolate here, really good chocolate like Lindt and such. But, some cheap chocolate that you can eat in one sitting? Yes. Yes. Yes.

Okay, I just proved my co-presidency of the Fattie Club. Happy May!
-Aly

P.S. It was blog about food, blog about my recent spaz-dom about colleges, or blog about the fact that I now realize I'm Bilingual. I'd like to pretend this is the best of the three. But that may just be because I'm eating fail pasta...

Day Ten: Fire Dancers

Jan. 1, 2010

Hello!

I still owe you, my dedicated readers (=P), the rest of the posts leading up to this week.

I’ll start where I left off from the last post; refresh your memory if you need to.

This evening (except it was still 2009 at that point), Dad and I headed over to the Roqui’s for dinner. We have been corresponding with the Roquis since sometime last January. I was supposed to live with them originally, but that didn’t work out as planned. At any rate, they have been tremendously helpful with getting me here to France, particularly with paperwork for both my enrollment in the lycée and to get me the visa to come here.

Dinner was moules (mussels) frites, and appetizers! Jean-Pierre, my friend Angela’s father, said it’s a tradition, though I don’t know if he meant a FRENCH tradition or a family tradition. The frites are eaten dipped in mustard (which in this case was mayonnaise and mustard? Uhh. It came like that in the jar.), which I tried and enjoyed. (I swear it’s better than it sounds…)

Dessert was buche de noël in ice cream form, which I have to say is a completely acceptable way to eat a Yule Log. I had three slices :D

George and Therese(I probably spelled their names wrong) were there, too (my dad’s friend Pierre’s parents; Angela’s mother, Elise, is Pierre’s sister. Got all that? It’s not really that important other than to explain how we know them.); it was nice to see them again. They remember us (or at least my dad) from when we met them during their stay in North Carolina a few years ago. (Though that may have been quite a while ago, like my sixth grade year.)

Dinner was an interesting affair—I think Angela, Alaina (her younger sister), and I were all being awkward and not talking, but our parents were talking. There was a constant mix of English and French, which is always interesting.

After we finished eating, we started watching the French review-of-the-year show (that’s what I think it was), which seemed to consists of things that a group of people sitting around the table thought were funny, if not particularly important. This shows seem quite popular, though, because I swear the Chassons were watching the same type of show the night before.

Finally, after a few pictures with George and Therese, Dad and I headed down to Saint Raphaël-plage to see the annual fireworks spectacle (show). We went expecting something like Fourth of July fireworks… loud, colorful explosions, and not much else.

It was a bit wet and chilly, if my memory serves me correctly, which made waiting a bit uncomfortable, but when the show began and we had a pretty good view, I definitely wasn’t complaining.

I’ll let you see what you can from the pictures, because it was just really awesome and different.

This was the beginning; dude crouched on a rail looking out over the dark water.

Anyway, those aren’t very clear pictures. I’m trying to decide the best way to put more pictures up at least so that you can see pictures I DON’T include on the blog. Not sure how to go about this in a safe way. Let me know what you think (about the idea and any ideas!).

Dad and I decided that was definitely a satisfactory way to bring in the New Year, though technically it ended before the New Year began. Everybody was yelling “BONNE ANNÉE! DEUX MILLE DIX!” (“HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010!”)… there wasn’t a BIG GRAND FINALE (unlike American fireworks where there must ALWAYS be a Grand Finale). It was cool though. That was much more interesting than watching the ball drop on television. xD

The next morning we slept in until noon, skipped breakfast, and began our quest for Pizza, which ended up taking quite a bit of time as nothing was open. Hence, after we didn’t actually have pizza (we had very large salads. yum.), we immediately had to go to the Bruzzone’s for tea at 2:00 (14h).

I haven’t mentioned the Bruzzones on here before, except in brief passing as the OTHER Nathalie (Rick-with-the-blog’s friends in Fréjus). Nathalie B. works for “Vous Accueil”, which is an organization that welcomes newcomers to the town and provides information. [If I understood that correctly.] She is the one that received Rick’s email and did a lot to help find me another solution of someplace to live before I came here. She doesn’t actually know Nathalie Chasson, but it is partially thanks to Nathalie Bruzzone that we found me a place to stay here.

They invited us for tea so that we could actually meet them: Nathalie, her husband Laurent, and their daughters Fanny (14) and Laure (17; she’s 13 days older than me), and Aurlien, Laure’s boyfriend and Jerome, Laurent’s friend, joined us. Tea actually meant tea for my dad, but I just had fruit juice. With tea, we ate Galette des Rois, which is what you might know as King Cake. It isn’t the same though; king cake to me meant what we eat every year in French class, but this is quite different. (The ones we have in NC are the “Louisiana Style” King Cakes, which are cinnamon rolls with frosting and sugar.)

(click through to source of picture, since I didn’t actually have a picture; there's a recipe, too, except it's in metric measurements.)

At a later date, I'll post a recipe for Galette des Rois in American measurements; I've asked Nathalie (Chasson) for it, and I'll translate & convert it for you :)

Apparently there’s two types of King Cake, one for Northern France, and another in Southern France. The kind pictured above is typical in Northern France, and it’s particularly delicious served warm. As is typical for king cakes, there is a small baby Jesus inside; when you find it, you get to wear a fake King crown (and be “King” for a day! WHOO!).

The nice thing about my dad’s networking while trying to find me a place to stay is that I now have met more French people that are incredibly kind and welcoming, and want me to have a really great experience here.

(Dinner was that elusive Pizza from this really great Pizza place that was decorated with Pirate-y-ness in Saint Raphaël. I consider that a great success in Pizza-Questing.)

-Aly

Day Five: M’O

27 Dec. 2009

Bonjour!

This was after we got out of the Musée; as always, it was windy.

Sorry for the delay in posting! I think I’ve figured out a more efficient way to do this and add pictures (Windows Live Writer)! (Granted, it was my mom’s suggestion via Skype. And it does work, because my last post was written on Live Writer. It was much easier than putting in pictures and dragging them up and down the post on Blogger. IT EVEN LETS ME ADD ACCENTS! xD

[Sorry, I’m a bit overly enthusiastic about it. It’s making my life easier, so hopefully posts won’t take me hours to write anymore…]

Medusa!

Anyway, dad and I finally made it INSIDE Musée D’Orsay (vraiment this time!) [Vraiment = truly but I think they use it for “really”, too.] The line was already long, despite the fact that when we arrived it was only 10:30 (it opens at 9:30). To waste time (and since we hadn’t eaten yet), we had “brunch”" yet again. [More crepes and FINALLY some hot chocolate with WHIPPED CREAM. Except it’s more expensive that way, and it’s called something different. Chocolat vinneois, I think; I forgot to write down what it was.)

By the time we were finished with brunch, the lines had passed the boundaries and people were squished together as the line wrapped around lampposts and past people selling more hot chestnuts. (They’re everywhere! As are the people selling miniature Eiffel Towers.) We waited in line for thirty minutes (maybe more), but at last, we made it INSIDE the Musée!

We wandered through all the open exhibits—many are closed or moved because they’re renovating. We saw the Impressionists, Post-impressionists, and a few other styles that I couldn’t name but Dad probably could. HA, NEVERMIND. He just handed me the map/guide.

*Ahem* (I’m about to quote the map.)

“From November 2009 to Marche 2011, the museum will be carrying out major renovation work on its museographic areas, leading to the closure of level 5.
During this period, your visit will begin on level 0, where you will view the large realist paintings of Courbet and the first works of Manet, Monet, and Cézanne together with impressionists and postimpressionists, sculpture collections (Carpeaux, Daumier…), as well as paintings from the 180s and 60s (Ingres, Delacroix, Degas…).
This continues on to level 2 with the masterpieces of French and Belgian Art Nouveau, foreign schools of painting, symbolism (Homer, Burne-Jones…), and naturalism (Gervex, Lhermitte…).
Lastly, there are two temporary exhibitions showing: ‘James Ensor’ and ‘Art Nouveau Revival’. To keep informed of what’s happening in the museum during the renovation work, go to www.musee-orsay.fr.”

(*whew*. Good thing that was in English.)

I’m glad we gave ourselves time to look through everything! We were there from 11:30ish to 2:45. I discovered an artist I had never heard of but I liked—Armand Guillaumin.

Those are two of Guillaumin’s pieces behind me. Pretty, right?!

The Van Gogh, Monet, and Degas exhibits seemed to be the most popular (you should recognize those names. Well, maybe not Degas, but the first two… If you don’t recognize the first two, then we have a bit of a problem!). The temporary exhibit about James Ensor was quite popular—he was a Belgian painter, and he was really quite egotistical! He painted 112 self-portraits, if that gives you any idea… in one of them, he was Jesus! xD (oh, artists…)

The painting behind me is Van Gogh’s Portrait de l’artiste.

We don’t remember what this painting is called (Le Bal?), or the artist that painted it. But it was REALLY detailed.

Dad actually knows some of the famous paintings that I didn’t recognize, but he took pictures of me in front of them anyway.

Notice how awkward I look.

We thought this was cool. Don’t remember the artist or title, of course.

One of the statues. Some of the statues were really funny… naked boys frolicking. *is slightly immature* xD

I thought this statue was cool (artist: Degas); the skirt she’s wearing and the ribbon on her ponytail are real fabric.

I had to take a break after seeing everything on the ground floor; I was inspired and exhausted, so I sat down in the statue gallery to relax. I really liked the Impressionist/postimpressionism; I like the softness of the paintings. Some of the more “fantastic” pieces were particularly interesting (like the Medusa painting near the beginning of this post; the artist that painted that had these great colorful pieces!) I wrote some and people-watched, which I feel is a fine way to spend time in an art gallery.

(I also attempted to take a picture of the really awesome clock.)

I failed, but Dad succeeded. So that’s the awesome clock! :D

I think we both started getting really exhausted towards the end; we breezed through the 2nd level. We did stop to take a good look at a couple things.

Like this; it made us laugh. Actually, I still find it rather funny.

I’ll let you interpret this one for yourself. There are twelve naked men in this picture. (This was right next to the painting pictured above. )

The Art Nouveau Revival and Naturalism exhibits weren’t that exciting, but I did learn that Art Nouveau Revival has some elements of eroticism… which was not so subtle in some pieces like a table that hade a not-very-clothed mannequin as the base. [Note for the confused: Art Nouveau Revival is the style associated with the 1960s—the often psychedelic patterns and colors, I guess. The cover of the Beatles’ album Revolver is an example of the style.](You just learned something, didn’t you?)

This was in the Naturalism exhibition. That is, indeed, a toilet. Shaped like a fly. Gotta love art… xD

Having seen everything we wanted to see and glanced through the exhibits we weren’t so interested in, we finally left Musée d’Orsay and headed over to Père Lachaise Cemetary (of course getting there was far too complicated). Late lunch was from a Vietnamese/Chinese restaurant because we like Vietnamese food and Dad is on a perpetual search for the PERFECT spring rolls. (No, really; we had these great spring rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant in San Jose with family friends back when I was a sixth grader and he still hasn’t found spring rolls that are just right.) [And it was delicious, but the porc (pork) spring rolls > crevette (shrimp) spring rolls> poulet (chicken) spring rolls.]

The Père Lachaise Cemetary is the most-visted cemetary in Paris; Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Pissarro, Oscar Wilde, and lots of other famous people are buried there. The tombs are really intricate and pretty; it’s hilly there, so you see all these moss-covered tombs, some with flowers, but many looking forgotten, with cobblestone lanes surrounded by bare trees… it’s really beautiful.

We had just entered; I’m not very good at looking solemn.

This captures the atmosphere of it quite well. Isn’t it beautiful, though?

Dad in front of Jim Morrison’s grave, looking properly sad.

Oscar Wilde’s tomb. It’s covered in kisses. Lipstick apparently stains stone…

Chopin’s tomb is also quite popular to see.

Edith Piaf’s tomb; I’m not very good at looking sad so I’ll not put that picture of me trying-and-failing to look sad. So yeah. Happy at a tomb…

QUICK! Distraction!

We think this is Pissarro’s tomb; it’s so very gaudy, and Pissarro’s tomb was supposed to be around here but we forgot whose tomb we were looking for. xD

Okay, so that’s enough about the cemetery. That’s all we did then; dinner was McDonalds (fail, I know) because that was the ONLY THING open on our street that looked edible (surprisingly) and was cheap. On the bright side, we didn’t get food poisoning! :)

That is all. Hope you had an equally marvelous day!

-Aly

P.S. Today’s Day Six. Again with the late posting. But we haven’t done much today, since we’re currently on the train to Saint Raphaël.

(ACTUALLY, since I couldn’t get on the internet to post this last night, today is DAY SEVEN. We’re currently in Fréjus and we met my host family last night :D)

Apple Juice

Hello!

It's obviously not Tuesday anymore, but today was uninteresting (again), except for watching Astérix (sp?) in French class. It's not actually in French, but it's a French cartoon and is based on an actual character from French history. But yeah; it's good. :)

So, because of THAT and the fact that I wrote this when I had nothing to do in math yesterday, I'll just type it up and you'll have to pretend that it is still Tuesday.

It's Tuesday, which means Molly and I had "Fattie Club" this morning (you can join! Molly and I are co-presidents; she's the founder. xD). We went to Chick-Fil-A and bought a wonderfully greasy and unhealthy breakfast, including apple juice boxes. xD No strange and slightly embarrassing '90s music, for once!

Although by normal standards, today has been unexciting, I'm quite pleased to say that it has been infinitely better than yesterday. [note: Monday was a terrible day, even by Monday-standards, and it only got wayyyy better after I won NaNo.]

We've started sicussing gender inequality in Sociology; my class seems to be largely conservative, making the conversation feel like beating my head against a brick wall for hours. I don't understand how they can hold such double standards, especially after the last unit (race inequality). They say somehing, and then contradict themselves in the next statement.

What they don't seem to grasp is that people are STILL people, no matter what race or gender or sexual orientation. Your discomfort with their differences should not force people to repress themselves for fear of judgement, discrimination, or harassment.

With any luck, as we progress through this unit, my classmates will find themselves considering their opinions more thoroughly and opening their minds.

Also, YAY MOLLY for posting on MAlly Chat on Monday! I didn't notice until today (back to present tense). Go check it out! MAlly Chat has a lot more than this blog; it's a lot more randomness and fun.

Hope you're having a good week!
-Aly