Of course, it started last night really. The day, I mean. I was up pretty late again. I swear time passes like 33% faster when you're in the basement. Also, the past two nights I have been down in the McClain/Tingle laundry room other people have come in later than me, not to do laundry, but to sit there and study all night.
Marathon training doesn't really help me get schoolwork done in the am on Wednesdays I have realized. No matter how early I get up (8:30 today) to clock in my 4 miles, by the time I finish and shower and dress it will always be almost time to go to leadership. My strategy for next week is going to be to get up and do schoolwork and then go run, forcing me to stay on schedule.
Today was the day that RA and FA applications were due. I think that spending so much time last term and up until a few weeks ago fully intending not to apply for either, indeed not even thinking about the FA position until last Wednesday, convinced me that it would never happen. And yet, I have turned in both of my applications with fairly good essays, complete references, and signed up for an interview. Its starting to seem real. Now I really want those jobs.
I talked to a 2007 FA today about trying to decide between RA and FA and she suggested I think about being an RA and an non-residential FA. This, as far as I can see it, is both the best possible job scenario and the most ridiculous thing ever. If I did both, not only would I get free room and board, I would also make $2000 cash for being an FA. FA position is theoretically less than 10 hours a week, so I am allowed to do it while being and RA. However, with two jobs, two pretty involved clubs, and two majors, I am hearing major over-commitment warning bells go off in my head. The FA girl that I talked to said she knew some people who did this and they liked it because apparently as a residential FA its hard to get funding for activities but that's no problem for an RA, and also res FA's have a harder time getting the respect of their students because, well, they live in the same res hall and report to the same RA. If this whole paragraph isn't confusing, I don't know what is.
Bottom line:
- I really want free room and board.
- I really am opposed to the idea of wage labor in its traditional form of $/hour and want to avoid getting that type of job.
- I want to work with a faculty member and make awesome connections like that.
- I need to pursue this for next fall because junior year fall term I want to study abroad.
Incidentally, tonight in Freshmen Bible Study we were talking about choices and the idea of choosing to take action in some direction instead of sitting around waiting for some obvious sign from God to show you the definite clear path he wants you to take. I'd like to think that this is what I'm doing by applying for these jobs. I took the initiative and applied, and if I don't get the jobs, then I'm pretty confident something else will present itself. I am deciding to stop worrying about it.....now.
In other news I took my 260 midterm which I probably did okay on. The stuff I didn't know were the names of the different authors of books and quotes and such, which if I had studied at all I probably wouldn't have studied anyway. My instructor was in a bum mood today because apparently Rudy Giuliani dropped out of the election. Yeah, interesting class dynamic. I would not in a million years have guessed he was a Giuliani fan. Interesting. I will never look at him the same way. He was also bummed because Mitt Romney lost yesterday or whenever that was. Y'know, he's made casual comments about Romney when we were talking about capitalists and I thought he was totally joking about being a fan, because he seems pretty negative about capitalism. So now I'm really confused.
The part that really surprised me about the whole thing though was the fact that I hadn't known about it (Giuliani) before class. I knew about John Edwards dropping out, but sometime between when I checked Reuters and when I went to class....I need to start paying more attention to the news I think, which may sound ridiculous because I am a self-proclaimed news beast, but not only was I surprised by something today, I also couldn't answer two of the four questions on the current events quiz yesterday! 50%! Something about a Southeast Asian dictator who died. I still don't know. Also, I haven't read the Daily Emerald since last Thursday or something so I have no idea what's been going on on campus. I shall remedy that tonight. I will also read my People, because its fun, and I need to keep up on my celebs, since its almost Oscar season.
Besides reading the news, the only really pressing thing on my plate for tonight is to get completely caught up with the issues surrounding US-North Korea relations and be coherent enough to discuss them with some really smart author/professor people and their groups of students via teleconference with New York at 9am tomorrow in the Provost's office. Note: taking the Provost of the University's seminar class was just about the smarted thing I could have done.
Bonus is the fact that I genuinely like her and am very interested in the subject matter. Win-win situation. We learned about those in that very same class, actually...
Speaking of that class, International Negotiation, some boy had a stroke of genius today. We have this big paper due next week see, and from the beginning of the course Prof Brady said that she would always be willing to negotiate. Well, the kid said something along the lines of "Since Sunday is the Superbowl, could we push the deadline from Monday to Wednesday?" It totally worked. Dude, you rock! Also, I managed to get the Middle East peace process as my topic for the ginormous project, due to my last name being conveniently located at the top of the class roster. This is great for two reasons. First, this is the one I was most interested in, and I already started researching it (see Ethics crisis post). Second, the entire huge project is due in two weeks, which I see as a good thing because it means that the rest of the semester I wont have to worry about it and can focus on studying for the final and my big project in FHS. By the time things get really crazy in March with travel and visitors and stuff, all I'll have to worry about is one essay and three tests during the latter half of finals week. Ka-ching.
I need to not forget to work on my FHS application. I'm not terribly worried about that though because I think a huge part whether I'll get accepted or not is based on my experience and the interview, not so much the paper application or essay, so there's not a whole lot I can do between then and now to make me a better candidate anyway. Still, I plan to pull it out on Friday sometime and look at it a bit.
Well, I think I'm gonna try to get some serious sleep tonight, so I should probably sign off.
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