A Few Things

There's a few things I don't understand about life.

1. My coffee maker.

Don't get me wrong, I love it to bits. But it does this strange thing where it gives me half a pot of coffee, then let's the other half sit in the filter basket... I can press on the dripper(?) thing that drips coffee and make it give me the other half, but it's a bit strange. I don't understand, but I don't care really either. I have coffee. That is enough :)

2. Laundry you have to pay for.

I understand laundromats and stuff, but let's be honest. We (as college students) pay enough money to go to school as it is. Laundry should be free.

Also, I'm running out of *clean* underwear -.-

3. MATLAB. 'Nuff said.

4. Life. I don't understand life. Or why food costs so much, which is kind of the same thing.

Love,

College Girl

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's day to my dad, my grandfather, and all other father's today.
I hope you have a wonderful, wonderful day :)

Love,

College Girl

Mammoths and Change

This week has been a mammoth week.

Wait. I'm pretty sure every week here is a mammoth week :P

I've been keeping pretty this week with math, though I did finish my book and work on my long forgotten embroidery. I've also been enjoying long walks through the campus, which has not only been relaxing but has also helped with the getting lost thing :P

I'm in desperate need of some real coffee though, instant is just not cutting it!

Though I am making sure to enjoy it the proper way, which is through an orange straw. (Sorry Dad, your only coffee drinking child likes to use a straw. I know you're disappointed :P )

Also, I miss my kitchen. (By my kitchen, I mean my parents' kitchen, naturally.)

It sounds funny, but I'm finally starting to enjoy it here. Of course, I've enjoyed the last few weeks of math and people, but Indiana in general? Not so much.

Anyone who knows me really well knows that I hate change. I like to think I enjoy it, but it always throws me for a loop. I like routine and tradition. Of course, I almost always end up enjoying change, it just takes me a bit to get used to it.

I finally got used to it. Of course, Indiana is not home, or Mary Baldwin (which has really become my second home) but it is not as much of a foreign place anymore.

I think that creating a routine for here helped. I shower ever morning, then sit down and read my favorite blogs as I eat breakfast. I do my work, and take a walk in the evening. It's not an hour-by-hour schedule, but it lets me know what to expect each day, which is something I love.

Another thing that has helped is taking long walks around campus. Places tend to feel more comfortable when you're not getting lost constantly :P

Sometimes, I feel bad for not liking change. Shouldn't I be completely and totally flexible? Shouldn't I be ready to pick up and move every few days? Shouldn't I like a good adventure?

But I'm starting to discover that no, I don't have to like change. I have to learn to deal with it because it's inevitable, but it's okay to like routine. It's okay to like schedules and a plans and lists. It doesn't make you a bad person, it just makes you reliable.

The important thing is to know you don't like change. To know you need a routine. Then, you can handle life with grace. 

The second night I was here and I just wanted to cry and hop on the first plane home, I asked myself "Why?" Then I realized I was too tired and way to stressed out by the change. All of the sudden, I was okay in Indiana. I wasn't in love with it, but I knew it would get better, because I knew exactly what was wrong. 

(I was right by the way, there's no way I'd hop on a plane today, I have mammoth stuff to do.)

There's one other important thing I've learned. Never apologize for who you are. If everyone hated change, our world would never develop. But if everyone was always seeking adventure, there would be no consistency in life. I guess that's the beauty of people, isn't it? Everyone is different.

I guess I'm really just saying that liking change is good and hating change is good and life is good. Amen.

I've got to go now and do math about mammoths :D

Love,

College Girl

So... Sundays

Life is pretty slow around here on Sundays. By slow, I mean skim 12 mammoth articles, go to church, read a book, surf Pinterest and Tumblr and still have nothing to do kind of slow.

It's funny, because during the week or on Saturday, I'd do anything to just lie in bed for a couple of hours. But come Sunday?

GET ME OUT OF THIS BORING DORM ROOM BEFORE I DIE.

But then comes the contradiction. I want to do something! But I'm also lazy. Really lazy. Thus, I just kind of lie in bed and complain about how boring my life is :P

Luckily, I have a book to read, some embroidery to do, laundry to fold *sigh*, a bed to make, and I just bought some nail polish, so I should do my nails too.

What have I been up to this weekend? Yesterday we went to the Dunes for the day. It was fun, but tiring. Between the fact that it was too cold to swim and I had a killer headache, we ended up heading back to the dorm after a few hours.

While we were there though, I *tried* to build a sandcastle. Welcome to College Girl's sand ruins! The best hidden ruins in the world.

I also went exploring in the Dunes. It was super gorgeous and relaxing :)

I was sooo tired afterwards, I really should have stayed at the dorm. Instead, I went out to dinner with everyone else. Whoops! Next time I'll save everyone my grumpiness, and just stay back for some College Girl time :P

Well, lesson learned. I can't wait to go to the Dunes when it's warmer out so I can swim!

Love,

College Girl

Biscoff and aFONDa The Creep and Vanilla Thunder

Guys, can we have a serious talk?

I just want to know how the people in my life allowed me to go 16.5 years without trying Biscoff spread.

source

I'm serious here. It's better then Nutella, better then peanut butter, better than any other spreadable thing I have ever eaten.

It's Jesus you guys. Jesus in spreadable form.

Sorry to sing the praises of this food, but our food choices here are... limited. Unless VERUM provides food (a.k.a Friday lunch) my food day goes like this:

Breakfast: yogurt and apple or orange

Lunch: Peanut butter and jelly and apple or orange 

Dinner: salad and some other processed food item and apple or orange

snack: apple or orange

Thus, spreadable Jesus is much appreciated. Also, the only thing that is keeping us going through our initial research presentations is the promise of free Chipotle tomorrow for lunch :)

On a completely random note, I'm really enjoying meeting people here. Everyone is like me. a.k.a. no one can speak and everyone likes math. 

My roommate here, aFONDa The Creep, is great. 

She says things like, "Are they saying food words? I don't care what they're saying if it's normal words." and "Did you just list food words? From your mouth?" She's also very fond of the word "fond" and we have now made up the sayings "Sturdy, bro." for good things and "Wobbly, bro." for bad things. 

aFONDa The Creep also likes to spend her spare time creeping on Vanilla Thunder. She says things like "Words are hard" which makes her a wonderful person because she so eloquently describes my difficulty with English-ing. She also pokes me on Facebook. 

Vanilla Thunder's roommate is very quiet, but I've decided that I'll creep on her because she's cool :) She's also in my research group, so it's somewhat completely not acceptable :P

I guess that's a quick rundown of some people here at VERUM. We also have two other girls and three guys here, and they are all really nice :)

So, I have to sleep now. Goodnight!

Love,

College Girl

Chicago

This last saturday, we took a day trip to Chicago.

Our first stop was Millennium Park to look at some sculptures there. 

To be honest, none of us were very impressed. Apparently math people don't comprehend art very well. Honestly, I'm glad it's not just me :P

Next, we went to Navy Pier.

It was a loooong walk there, but we got to see the city!

We grabbed lunch, then wandered a bit. We ended up stopping at a stained glass museum, which was quite interesting, for about 5 minutes. 

Again, math seemed to clash with the ability to appreciate fine arts right here. Ironically, while all us girls almost ran through the museum, the guys stopped and read every. single. sign.

Next, we decided to ride the ferris wheel.

 Everyone (but me!) was slightly terrified, and I doubt they will ever step foot on another one.

We did get some great sights of the city though!

After the ferris wheel, we took a water taxi ride to Museum Campus.

Little did we know that the Field Museum and the Science and Industry Museum (our two top picks) closed at 5pm. After decided we didn't want to spend $20 getting in for only two hours, we decided we needed a return trip to Chicago.

Our last stop before the train home was this fountain. I forget the name, but it's gorgeous, isn't it?

Before heading back to campus for the evening, we decided to take a quick stop at the dunes. I honestly never realized how big Lake Michigan is!

We got to see this lovely halo of light from the top of a dune. Looks a bit like the heavens opened up, doesn't it?

After getting back to the dorm, we were starving, so we walked to Pizza Hut for dinner. It was already dark, and looked like it was about to rain. As we were eating, it started to pour. Like, buckets and buckets and buckets of water! Luckily, it was letting up as one group left to go back to the dorm. My roommate, another girl and I headed over to Target for some food (all I had in the room was apples).

Yay food!

We finally headed to bed after that. It had been a loooong but fun day :)

Love,

College Girl

I'm Here!

I'm in Indiana :)

I have been for two days, but after unpacking and going to dinner then Walmart and Wednesday, I fell into bed and slept.

Then yesterday I had orientation then lectures on graph theory, probability and LaTeX from 9am-3:30pm, then a chicken dinner with all the research students on campus in the evening, plus homework from both my lectures. Needless to say, I was asleep pretty quickly last night too :P

I really am enjoying it here. If you know me in real life, you'll know I'm not that fond of change. I can love where I'm going and what I'm doing, but the actual process of disrupting my schedule meeting new people completely stresses me out. Luckily, the program is completely worth it :)

It's really cool to meet other people who love math just as much as I do, and to learn about all new types of math. While I've taken discrete math and statistics, both basic courses that lead to graph theory and probability, I'm definitely learning new things, and it's great.

Today I have a homework session for graph theory, a lecture by my project advisor, Dr. C, another homework session for probability and a library orientation. Wew!

Tomorrow we're taking a trip to the dunes, which my uncle (who went to Valparaiso) says are awesome.

I'm super excited!

Love,

College Girl