How long has it been...three weeks, a month? It's been enough time for me to realize that I really cannot write to you all the way I said I would, so, this is my brilliant alternative. Well, it isn't really my brilliant alternative, it's Zac's. His year in Finland makes it rather difficult to keep in touch with everyone so he created a blog for himself to keep all interested up to date. It works perfectly for me...except that I'm already struggling with the urge to make it something "composed." It's a bit frightening to put unedited and unpolished and hardly-though-about work up for everyone to see. Frankly, I think some of it abominable; but, if you're ever going to know what in the world is happening in South Hadley, I guess I will just have to put up with it! Remember, I'm doing it for your sake. See, I'm already contradicting myself. Oh dear *sigh*.
Really though, this could be quite exciting. I might actually learn how to use the computer for something other than Microsoft word, email, and facebook. Oh yes, I figured out solitaire too.
But...---> ---> ---> To the Point!
Week 1:
THE most exciting week of my life! I met sooo many girls from sooo many different countries, more than I had in all of my life to date. That week I ate dinner with girls from Ghana, sat next to girls from Japan in orientation, discussed racism in small group with girls from Zimbabwe and the Philippines. There are something like 24 countries represented in our student body of 2,000. By "represented" I mean that there are several students from those countries, not one or two. Ghana sent a minimum of 15 girls, China sent something like 50+.
Within the first few hours of arriving I met a Christian girl from California who stayed with me through the afternoon and cheered me up when my parents and sister drove away. It was most unexpected, but as the van pulled away, a wave of utter abandonment crashed over me. Here my family was leaving me, where I knew no one and no one knew me, in a place totally unfamiliar (campus tours don't count. they only show you the pretty stuff), and without so much of a clue as to what I should do next. Of course I knew those where only feelings of a fleeting moment and that I was in for an incredible year, still, I couldn't help but notice. Meredith, a very sweet and outgoing girl comforted me with hugs and then lots of distractions and before we knew it we were again wrapped up in the flurry of First Day.
I could write to you for hours about the crazy and fascinating things that happened first week. Suffice it to say that when I finally came to the conclusion that I would like Mount Holyoke, I either didn't understand the true meaning of like, or I used the wrong word all together. I don't like Mount Holoke, I absolutely LOVE it!!! Begging pardon to both my parents, but I inadvertently refer to it as home. The group of girls on my end of the floor grew close even after only a few weeks together. We leave our doors open when we are in and pop in to visit, dance, sing, giggle, and have (i kid you not) random fashion shows. When parents sigh with relief that there daughter is attending an all girls' school, satisfied in that their girls won't have distraction, they fail to note one point, that all women are chatterboxes. We did nothing but talk for hours those first weeks. Our talks where serious too. We discussed politics, racism, morality, and our views on a woman's role in society. Surprisingly few here (that I have met) are extreme feminists, or feminists to the point of constant complaint.
Once classes began, things did settle down a little. Teehee! You will all most assuredly role your eyes when you here what I'm taking. To my delight I am now referred to as the "Renaissance Woman." This semester it was a bit difficult to register for classes but I swear that each of these fulfills some sort of a requirement: Spanish 200, Introduction to Microeconomics, Ballet I, West African Dance, Piano Lesson ( I do indeed receive credit for it), and a first year seminar called Making Things. Basically, it's an art class. But we don't just make things; we discuss the philosophy that comes along with art, which some how leads to psychology and sociology at times. It all depends on what we happen to be making. I have discovered a lot about myself through this class. But more on that later.
All in all, I feel as Columbus must have upon his arrival to the new world; 1) because everything is such a thrill, and 2) I can't understand what half the people are saying because of their accents. I really do try to learn the foreign names but a number of Chinese girls in my econ class have given up trying to teach me to pronounce their names and now insist on being called Kate. The whole lot of them!
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