Doing a quick post before I get back into completing my preliminary bibliography for my thesis work! This blog is so dead. It appears like my resolutions to update never seem to transpire. The perennial excuse being, that, after all, I always already have too much on my plate. So anyhow, I'll just grab whatever opportunity I have to fill this site with some of my ramblings about how life has been so far. The semester is looking to be an awesome one, albeit busy. 3 POLSCI classes, all honors-level (challenging, no doubt, but I find them to be some of the best courses I've ever taken, with excellent faculty), a biology class and a chemistry course to fulfill my natural science requirements. Biology 118 is perhaps the... well, I won't call it slackest, but you know what I mean. I am entirely disinterested in Chem 105- I can't even remember the name of the course, that's how bad it is- it's something to do with atmospheric and oceanic systems. Lots of equations, lots of flashbacks to physical geog in RJC- I think the 2 years' worth of phygeog never really sunk into my head. But it'll be okay. As long as I get my credit for it in the end.

I rushed (that basically means, in formal terms, apply for a fraternity/ sorority in the Greek society language) Phi Sigma Pi, a co-ed Honors Frat last week and over the weekend. Last Tuesday there was a "Meet-the-Brothers" event, something akin to a speed-dating event where all the (rushees? rushers? I don't know) were paired up and would move from table to table, manned by brothers (all members of the frat are brothers, even if they're girls- I like the sound of that), where they'd be pummelled with questions left right and center. Basically the goal of rush events are for the brothers to decide who they want to invite into the frat, because after all the rush events and interviews are over, they usually have a chapter meeting and vote on who to elect to join the frat. Anyway that was great fun and I don't think I'd ever met so many people in the course of half an hour (we had two minutes at each table, so it was a whirlwind). On Sunday I attended another rush event, which was a Teach for America session where we packed backpacks to send to children in New Orleans, in places which had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina. On this note, I really appreciate how Phi Sigma Pi (the Pi from now on) does so much good work in organising community events and other things that benefit the larger society, on top of being a social organisation where cool and like-minded people can hang out. I guess that's what drove me to rush in the first place. We had interviews on Sunday, which didn't really faze me considering the tons of interviews I've been through in the course of my young life (HAHA)- in fact, I really enjoyed myself and I hope I didn't blabber too much rubbish either.

So anyway I got a bid to join the Pi yesterday night and that was pretty awesome. Out of the 40-odd people who rushed, they accepted 16 new initiates- and we're now the Alpha Delta pledge class! And I finally got to paint the Rock (that's a huge chunk of, well, rock- don't ask me what kind, remember I don't know shit about physical geog- located prominently somewhere just off Central Campus), which is commonly painted by frats/ sororities/ student organisations. Everyone keeps painting it over and over until no one's actually quite certain what the size of the original rock is, seeing that it's layered with a gazillion coats of paint. Bloody cold night, temperature about 20 below freezing, but still pretty awesome! Photos will follow shortly, Blogger is being a nasty little prick by not letting me upload anything right now. Anyway, back to work!

Okay I finally uploaded them (manually, gah.) Presenting... the Rock!


And the Alpha Delta Pledge Class of Phi Sigma Pi!