The Girl with the Glass

... and I'm one of them!

The weather's finally warming up! (Let's hope I don't curse it...) But honestly, I can just feel spring in the air with the sun spending its better hours with us and the ice slowly finding it being chased away. And as a devout lover of the warm, I will it to stay as long as it can! After all, it's really about time we did away with the depressing layers of coats and boots and faces that feel like lumps of frozen meat. Not a pretty picture, eh? :)

The past week--and the next couple that are to come, have been the usual: work, work, and room for play if you can juggle it! I've had a test, and I have a couple on Monday and Tuesday each. The Tuesday after that, I have my first screenplay due! I have to admit--after slacking off on writing it, I'm really looking forward to getting down and holding my pen again. It's been a long time since I wrote, and I can't wait to shape this idea. That's what I love about writing classes: they keep the couch potato of a lazy writer in me active and unable to become lethargic!

We had the Annual Job Fair a few weeks ago, and I have to say it proved to be an engaging, promising event. I met a LOT of potential employers offering internships, jobs, and something I consider the most important--mere information, for I deem it the most significant when you're looking to see what you want out of your life. You don't want to get trapped in a situation that you're not fond of. I've been really lucky to be at DePauw, honestly--to be at a great school in a setting that's just right for me--one that's not too fast so that I get completely lost in a new culture, and one that's small enough that it's welcoming and it's easy to make a warm place for yourself here. I really, really think DePauw is the ideal college environment--where you can mix everything into a brew and have it build a stronger, more resistant, smarter you! (Now I'm rhyming. Do forgive me).

That aside, NEXT WEEK JASON REITMAN ARRIVES!!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN HARDLY HOLD MY EXCITEMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And Jack's Mannequin is this weekend--although I'll have to miss it. Nevertheless, WHERE do you have TWO such celebrities visiting in the span of a fortnight, I ask you? WHERE? I really do pity those study abroad folks this semester--they're missing out! (Although of course, DePauw's giving THEM its share in a whole new--and one rather inspiring--direction!)

I can't remember if I stated that I am incorporating a Film Studies minor into my plan for my stay here. My readers will know how much I love movies (this past fortnight, I watched more than FIFTEEN!) I may attend graduate school in film. Though it seems like I do a lot, the truth is, I can't get enough learning, and since I'm only here four years, I want to make those four years the most rewarding and enriching ones of all my years. DePauw's doing as much as it can to make that happen. It's only my turn, then, isn't it?

We had a Physics club lunch for interest majors, and I helped out, as always! It was really exciting to see so many new interested faces. Here's a picture of me with my friend, Michelle:
Other than that, we also had Alexander Hemon read to us. He's a Bosnian writer that got stranded in the US as war hit home for him, and he's been writing here ever since. I really enjoyed listening to his work and asking him questions--I do, after all, hope to be a woman of the pen someday. We're going to have another writer here soon, and I'm stoked! I'll keep you updated!

Meanwhile, I MAY have some exciting news that I'll keep hushed for now! Expect a post in a week that tells--or not! :)

Enjoy the spring in your step--and let's hope the sun likes our company as much as we like its own.

P.S. A VERY Happy Belated Birthday to the person that makes this blog happen and run the way it does. To Mr Satyajit Dattagupta, I raise my glass (of water, I know--I'm pathetic)--may you have had a wonderful day lighting up a wonderful year--and several more to come! You are supportive, kind and understanding in every which way, and let's hope your day was as special to you as it should've been! Pip pip!

... yes, I am! It's the future because it's love--you know what I'm talking about. I've loved movies since I was a kid, and the past few weeks I was sort of in a rut with regards to movies. Thankfully, my Screenwriting class has me back in that whirlwind. Other than that, having an 8 10 class this semester is proving really helpful: I get my work done earlier in the day, so that I can spend my evenings with some quality entertainment!

That being said, the highlights of this week were:



Can I just say WHAT a great movie this was?!

Other than that, there was:



... which I LOVED EVERY SINGLE BIT OF, and...



which was cute, too. Other than that, I saw Jennifer's Body-- a huge waste of time, in my opinion, because it tried really hard to combine comedy with horror and ended up failing at both.  I also saw Thelma and Louise and Chinatown, along with Happy-Go-Lucky and a re-watch of Gigantic. On the plate for tomorrow: ShopGirl, Funny Ha Ha and Happy Endings. Let's hope mine is, too!

I have to admit, my Soc class is helping me get back into the groove, too--it's one class like no other, and I'm enjoying every single moment of it. Can you see more reasons I wouldn't want to leave DePauw?! I wish the fifth-year intern programme was back and running--I wouldn't mind spending a good few years (or ALL) of my life simply learning! Ah, if that were a job, I'd be rich! :)

I'm really thinking of doing a film minor, because I really find my heart aching for it--I love, love, LOVE movies. I just wish there was enough room to study all that you want to: four years isn't even close to enough!

And now for the biggest highlight of the week:

JASON REITMAN IS COMING TO DEPAUW!!!

Yes, folks, the director of Juno and Thank you for smoking is coming HERE! It's bad enough that Jack's Mannequin (!!!!!!!!!!!! I CAN'T EXPRESS MY LOVE FOR THEM ENOUGH!) is coming here and I can't go because I have three exams that week. But with Reitman in through the door, I may just burst into happy, happy tears.

I have to admit--I love this school. 'Nuff said.

So the return to DePauw has been action-packed thus far. I have to admit that getting back to Physics after a whole semester away from it wasn't the easiest, but now that I've had a week to ease into it, I'm trying to transition so that I fall in love with it all over again. This semester, my classes are as follows:

Physics 3
Physics 390: Gravitation and Cosmology
Screenwriting
Sociology of Madness
and SRF!

Week 1 has been packed with work (it is, after all, worship), but I have to admit, I'm loving it thus far. There's nothing like a day packed with things to do only to come back at night and settle down with your favourite snack (for me, it has to be Blueberry cereal with Vanilla soymilk) and a bunch of materials from ILL (Inter-library loan!) And the best feeling in the world is that of having earned it after a day's full of hard work.

The transition back-and-forth between India and America always takes some getting used to, what with jet lag and having got accustomed to living a certain way and being around a select group of people. DePauw helps every which way it can in such a situation, however--there's so much to do that there isn't a single moment to worry or be morose about the move. Take, for instance, my first week. I arrived Saturday, classes began Monday, and with the whole bunch of things to do and events to see on campus, I've hardly had time to think of much at all! It's a good break from your own mind to be able to invest your energies in learning, and thereby in such a positive direction.

Rush has been going on this past week, but since I honestly don't know very much about it, I'll try and engage you with the (slightly less exciting) highlights of MY week. I had my Sociology of Madness class twice last week, and I have to admit, it is one class I am more than psyched for. The professor has a very different approach to teaching, and his final project (nope, I won't tell you yet; I intend to post it to this blog!) has me far more excited than I've been for an assignment in a long time. I hope tomorrow's class is as eventful as the past two have been--the discussions are great, the readings appear great, and I'm just terribly enthusiastic about this class!

I also read the screenplay Chinatown for my screenwriting class, which I enjoyed every bit of. What can I say? I just can't get enough of school! Let's hope that the fifth-year intern program gets back into running--I'm really hoping I can get more classes out of my college education!

Other than that, it's just been work, study, and enjoy those last few hours before jet lag forces its bedtime upon me. Saturday brought about a (much needed) trip to Bloomington with a professor of mine, and I LOVED the place. It does help that they had HUGE libraries!

I'll keep you updated about the rest of this week! I'm hoping it's as fun as the last--I do, however, have a feeling that it will be! :)

One of the things I love best about DePauw is the fact that I get an opportunity to spend a month just the way I want to, engaging in just the kind of growth and development I need to make myself an even more well-rounded human being. Here, then, is how I spent my Winter Term--doing an Independent Study in India where I wrote forty five pages of a novel, read three novels and five screenplays, and visited a myriad cities to better engage myself with the culture so as to use it as raw material for my novel.

Jan 3: Read first 130 pages of Satanic Verses. Loving it so far. Language--has to be read aloud; so dreamy, easy to get lost into. Concept, allegory, satire--hard to grasp; a little more attention than perhaps I'm giving it required?

Jan 11th: Am 5 not-so-good pages into first story, that I don't know if I'll title 'Fountain Stirred'. Here's an attempt for a writing exercise:

If I were a month, I’d be November
If I were a day of the week, I’d be Friday
If I were a time of day, I’d be 3 am
If I were a planet, I’d be Neptune
If I were a sea animal, I’d be a seahorse
If I were a direction, I’d be lost
If I were a piece of furniture, I'd be a bookshelf that smelled of dust and chalk
If I were a liquid, I'd be molten lead
If I were a gemstone, I'd be an amethyst
If I were a tree, I'd be a wand-home
If I were a tool, I’d rather not
If I were a flower, I'd be a ghost orchid to have Susan Orlean write about me and Charlie Kaufman ache over me
If I were a weather, I'd be dingy and grey and cloudy so that you hated yourself
If I were a musical instrument, I'd be a violin charm on a bracelet
If I were a color, I'd be plum
If I were an emotion, I’d be frenzy
If I were a fruit, I’d be a grape
If I were a sound, I’d be breaking glass
If I were an element, I’d be water
If I were a car, I’d be yellow
If I were a food, I’d be a toffee ice cream cheesecake (if there were such a thing)
If I were a place, I’d be an empty Riyadh
If I were a material, I’d be sandpaper
If I were a taste, I’d be bitter
If I were a scent, I’d be apples
If I were an object, I’d be a notebook
If I were a body part, I’d be the brain
If I were a facial expression, I’d be expressionless
If I were a song, I’d be too many
If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be yellow pointed-toe shoes

 

Overview Jan 4 – 10: Finished Satanic Verses and loved it, got first 10 pages of story written but am seriously unsure about its quality. Struck with big block due to emotional stress (no, these aren’t mere excuses!) Curled up with TONS of Wes Anderson for inspiration and solace. Read The Life Aquatic, Bottle Rocket, Darjeeling Limited and The Royal Tenenbaums. Missing Rushmore.

 

We spent a few days in Haridwar at Rishikesh where the immersion happened. I don’t know what I expected—some kind of spirit watching over me? Some kind of reconnection? Nothing happened, but for another jar that I saw being immersed. I can’t say it was any kind of rewarding experience. More like heart-ripping—it just reminded me of how much I’d lost.

 

Spent the next few days at Dehradun, which is just a basic small town set in the lower Himalayas. Got to see a good deal of terrace farming. Also got to go down to the river Yamuna every so often, which was quite a different way to spend Winter.

 

Paonta Sahib was by far the best part of my trip. I stayed with my grandmother’s youngest sister, and we spent hours of days just looking at pictures and building up memories from scratch. Visited Paonta Sahib’s most famous Gurudwara, which is a temple for Sikhs. I loved every bit of it—washing my feet in holy water, eating the sacred Prasad, looking down at the river from some rather high points in the Himalayas. We also climbed up an inordinate amount—what felt like 200 kilometers, but I’m awful with such minute details—to a mosque which is also the tomb of some priest called Bhure Shah, and where you’re supposed to get your wish granted if you make one after having climbed up the steep mountains barefoot. If your wish is granted, you have to come back to the temple. You also get to tie a holy scarf around a tree marked by thousands of such scarves, signifying your bond with the place. It was quite a steep climb, but I enjoyed every bit of it—and the scenery added to the tranquility.

 

Overview Jan 11-Jan 17: Spent most of this week finishing up to page 22 of my first story. Was pretty unhappy with it, so I started writing up the prologue and decided that after the first, I'm delving straight into the second. The book is not coming out the way I want it AT ALL. I really only have myself to blame—I’ve been adding emotional stress to mental and pushing myself to pull out a certain set pages a day, no matter how they read—and I don’t know how smart that is.

 

I also finished the Interpreter of Maladies this week. My opinions are really mixed—I don’t know if there’s much about Lahiri’s style that screams out to me, forcing me to read more of her. The stories deal with those major pangs of identity crisis by and large applicable to Indian Americans and really brought India to life for me, and perhaps the most remarkable facet common to these stories is their simplicity in the way they’re told and how clear the emotions and feelings of the characters rise on the page. Sukumar and Shoba struggle with words but their silences are enough to communicate so very much to the reader. Dimple and Sandeep struggle with having jumped into a marriage—both unsure whether it has really been too soon—and something so peculiar as signs and symbols from their house’s previous tenants become symbolic to stitch holes into their relationship. I think another one of my favourites was When Mr Pirzada Came to Dine, for I loved the innocence Lahiri instilled in Lilia’s character—it is, after all, so difficult to write with children protagonist, and she pulled it off beautifully.

 

We also visited Jaipur, the ‘pink city’, and at first that was the place Aurinel was supposed to convince Stephane to visit to find her, but then I realized that her roots (and my own) were stronger in my native Delhi. We visited tons of forts and palaces and indulged in some DELICIOUS Rajasthani cuisine. There was the Hawa Mahal, the Palace of Winds, which bore close to a thousand windows in five stories overlooking the entire city to form a breathtaking picture. The whole structure is made of pink sandstone. Beautiful.

 

Other than that, Jantar Mantar was perhaps my favourite spot—it’s an ancient observatory built by a Maharaja several hundreds of years ago, and it has these ancient astronomical instruments made of stone. I wish I had the names down, but they’re mostly in Rajasthani and my spelling would be dreadful. There was a huge sundial carved beautifully, however, and that’s something I can spell.

 

Others—Amber Fort—tons of cool bits of Mughal architecture with stones and mirror carvings. The pillars were lined with really beautiful carvings and prints of expressive painting scenes.

Birla Mandir—Built entirely out of marble and a temple devoted to the Hindu gods, Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi. Has three very massive domes. Beautiful.

City Palace—I loved this place! The Mubarak Mahal has a museum where they have royal costumes on display (how I’d have loved to create some ethnic vintage put-togethers with those costumes!) Then there’s the Diwan-i-aam, with rare manuscripts and scriptures.

 

Jan 18-24: Spent most of this time writing, with the exception of the last few days of the week, which I spent in Virginia Woolf’s company. As usual, she had me hooked and torn and marveling. To the Lighthouse was beautiful, rich, sad—there’s a whole other report I’ll write on it someday, or a paper, or something, to describe Lily and Mr Ramsay’s and James’s ties and how I felt about each one of them.

 

Then visited Amritsar. GOLDEN TEMPLE! Boy, was it beautiful. Gold glistening on a beautiful water tank, and with the sun beating down on the gold, it truly made for an alchemist-y/artist-y moment. Lovely.

Then we visited Jallianwala Bagh—where General Dyer pulled fire on Baisakhi and hundreds were either shot or drowned by jumping into a well. It was supposed to be a peaceful congregation, but the British pulled fire on the Indians, marking it as a terrible event to remember. We weren’t allowed into the Bagh; we could just see it from the outside. Moving.

 

Jan 25-29: Spent most of this week finishing up on my writing, even though it’s far from complete.

Spent this week reading some more screenplays. (500) Days of Summer was adorable, as was Outsourced—the latter being very Indian/American culture-shock based.

All in all, this was one Winter Term where I spent a month engaging in such spiritual, educational, and overall personal development that I wouldn't exchange it for anything. And where else would you get such an opportunity but DePauw?
 

 

 

I'm really enjoying being home--just the simple ability to talk to family whenever I feel like it, to eat foods I've sorely and surely missed since being back at school, and to venture out into the city that's been home to me so long to watch it thrive and drive is one that I've longed for. I've spent the past few weeks catching up with family and friends and basically being at home, and I have to admit that what with my packed schedule at DePauw--which I absolutely love, for it never gives me a dull moment--I've really been savouring every moment in Delhi before I return to school for classes. Another factor about DePauw that I appreciate wholeheartedly is the concept of Winter Term, which is basically a month in January spent catering to a side of you that you haven't yet had a chance to explore. You can do whatever you want in Winter Term--travel to a place you've longed to visit and finally can with a well-guided school trip, study at another school, intern at a workplace you've ached to test out, take a fun and unconventional class on campus while using your free time to invest it in varied energies, and finally, design a project with your own spin--the last of which I am doing myself. I am currently doing an Independent Study whereby I begin composing a novel-in-stories under the very mined eye of my Writing advisor. Honestly, I could NOT ask for a project that fits me better--this way, I get the chance to read some books I've been longing to read for a while, to visit a few cities in India to provide me with the inspiration I need to embark on my novel, and finally--and above all--to write, write, write! And seeing as there is naught in the world I like better to do, I must concede that DePauw has provided me with an enriching, inspiring, rewarding month!

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I am SO, SO, SO MAD AT MYSELF! I just wrote an extended post I was extremely proud of and accidentally deleted it by hitting a tab shut!

 

Gah!

 

Ah, well. Here’s take 2. So I haven’t updated in a while, and I’m very sorry for it! I’ve been working a lot and finally Thanksgiving break is here, and so a much needed resolution as to why work is worship has finally made itself available!

 

Lately, I’ve been absolutely obsessed with ideas relating to food, and have avidly been following food blogs. This past year has been very, very eventful for me, and my outlook on life has changed radically. In terms of diet, I must admit that I gave in to the freshman 15—or the freshman 50, actually, and with losing my grandmother I’ve realized just how important life really is, and so am doing my best to ensure I live a long, healthy life. In an effort for the same, I’ve switched to a vegetarian lifestyle, and lately I’ve been enjoying reading, writing, and learning about food—it is, after all, an art!

 

I’m at a friend’s for Thanksgiving and am grateful to be able to bring my Indianness to the place! J We spent most of Tuesday getting here, Wednesday relaxing and preparing for Turkey day, and today finally arrived in its grateful glory. I’ll share some of the exciting bits with you.

 

We started the evening off with some delicious appetizers. There was barbecue chicken dip, cinnamon rolls, a traditional Thanksgiving Cheeseball, banana bread with filling and shrimps with a dip. I helped myself to crackers with cheese, a few pieces of banana bread and diet coke:

 

The entire feast was so, so fancy! My friend’s family is extremely affluent, and they have the BEST house (they even have a huge pond with a fountain!) I wish I had taken pictures. Meanwhile, I’ll use Google images to the closest to display our filling feast.

 

There was turkey and ham, but I chose not to eat any. Instead, I attacked the DELICIOUS sweet potato casserole topped with pecans:




 

 

And some lovely cornbread pudding to go with it:

 

Altogether with some warm mashed potatoes and a bite of green bean casserole:



 

 

Not to forget the soft rolls with honey butter:


 

 

There was also stuffing and gravy, macaroni and cheese topped with breadcrumbs and parmesan, and two more casseroles, but I didn’t try them.

 

I must convince I was absolutely stuffed, but I had to save some room for dessert! (Dessert is my most favourite part of the meal, for I have a crazy, crazy sweet tooth. As is evident, most of my main course meals really centered around dessert!)

 

There were 2 pumpkin pies, a pecan pie, a chocolate pudding pie, an apple cobbler and whipped cream. I helped myself to some of the chocolate pie, the apple cobbler and a bite of the pecan pie. Deliciousness.






 

 

All in all, I have to admit I’m more grateful today than I’ve been in a long time (and the meal does have tons to do with it!)

 

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

 

 

So I've been going to a ton of readings lately, because I do have a lot of English classes this semester and it's always rewarding to listen to writers speak--after all, reading them write isn't an uncommon experience; it's hearing them feel their writing that proves to be chilling, gratifying.

I went to another reading at Peeler tonight and I have to admit it was one of the very best I've heard. It basically comprised of Micah Ling, a DePauw graduate and published author, and Jeffrey Bean, my advisor Barbara Bean's son, and a wonderful poet. :)

Micah Ling certainly writes in an intriguing fashion, adopting a real life character and making her fictional. Her Amelia Earhart poems captivated me particularly—I’ve always been fascinated by Amelia’s story, and Micah helped give her a different voice, taunting our imaginations by making her a real figure on a lost island, the ‘black widow’ to her ‘corpse of a plane’. Amelia’s plane often becomes her child, and Micah depicts her possible solitude, unkemptness and overall madness on the island beautifully. ‘Not Crazy’ is a beautiful indication in this regard; its final line eerily pretty: ‘Talking to no one is better than quiet.’

 

Jeffrey Bean may become the best poet I’ve ever heard read—not only did he do a stellar job keeping the audience ‘on their ears’, his poems had that quality Joe Heithaus so rightly called innocent: these poems are comical but realistic, beautiful but true. His ‘Encyclopaedia of the Wheat’ made wheat into a person with emotions, feelings, lies. ‘Bread is the afterlife,’ says Bean. And ‘human eyes are not still enough to see the eyes of the wheat.’ Bean’s wheat has bones and skin—it is a person with embarrassment, haunting, movement. Its ‘name for you is secret’.

 

The other poems I really enjoyed were ‘Why I failed at Baseball’, with its ‘balls fresh from packages’; ‘In August’ for the way it spoke of fat wind, ‘Dreamboat’, simply for its hilarious, imaginative concept (Bean really could give Wes Anderson a run for his money—I now see why he isn’t a die-hard fan!) and ‘The Bread’ from the poisoned sonnets. He was a true delight to listen to, for he made writing real—the person standing on that stage was somebody you could reach out and touch, laugh with or pat on the back. He was a true writer—one that felt and breathed and made jokes, just like the rest of us.

So, I've been meaning to take a quick diversion from studying for a big Philosophy exam, and my mind wandered to some of the highlights of this week: one of which was a Phil club meeting on Tuesday. I'm one of the Executive Board members, and we primarily spent the hour discussing Consumer Ethics. For instance, a couple of females sued McDonald's in the past year for allegedly 'making them fat'. In such a scenario, who do you decide to launch the attacks at--the corporation, for making such forceful advertisements as 'our food is perfect for Breakfast, lunch AND dinner!' or the consumers, for buying into that marketing madness and not adjudicating what's right themselves?

The group came up with some rather quirky insights, and all in all, the discussion flowed smoothly, being one that had you thinking about the questions long after the proclaimed hour had ended. I'm going to be leading a discussion on Cosmology sometime soon, and I'm hoping to incorporate a notch of Physics into my Philosophies--after all, what else is DePauw best for? Intermingling your varied interests into a holistic liberal arts education--that's what the 'uncommon success' is all about, in my book.

Phil club is a great way to kick back, relax, and spend some thoughtful time away from class and work indulging in issues you find provocative. That apart, it's a great opportunity to meet people who share similar or opposing ideas as you. And if that weren't enough, free food is always a good reason to attend meetings! It's alternate Tuesdays from 6-7 at Reese Lobby--I COMMAND you to attend in the future!

Other than that, this week has been pretty exhausting and flooded with work--just the way I like it. A friend of mine got me some Milk Cakes the other day (Indian dessert that's much to die for), and I shared it with some of my professors--and much to my relief, they absolutely loved it. I have my birthday in a couple of days, and at this point, I can't quite tell if I'm excited or not. It is the aphoristic TWO DECADES, after all.

More news to follow!

I had a temptation to sign off as Gossip Girl, but wasn't sure if I'm brave enough to do it. Let's see, now...

You know you love me,
Akanksha

(So I managed it! I guess now it just means I need to provide my readers a few more reasons to do so). :)

So we had the Diwali Festival at Columbus, Indiana today. It was sponsored by Cummins, which bears quite the tie both with India and DePauw, and so a bunch of us DePauw students had the opportunity to go and enjoy a myriad performances--dancing, singing, fashion shows and the works. The performers included every possible age group, and some of the kids were particularly adorable in that they went through an enormous amount of practice to put the show together. I feel like the biggest highlight, however, was certainly the food! (Lord knows I did my best at over-indulging, and how!) We had Malai Koftas, which are basically a kind of vegetable cutlet submerged in a cream gravy; chicken curry, and Saag--a sort of spinach in curry. We had Raita, too, which I've sorely missed--it's vegetables mixed with plain yogurt and spices. And as a grand finale, we had delightful Gulab Jamuns! (I'm not quite going to attempt at explaining what they are, because I doubt I could do them justice). All in all, it was certainly a fun event... and pictures are soon to come!

Other than that, this week's been really exhausting. It was Fall Break week, but me being me, I ended up burying myself knee deep in work interspersed with movie/One Tree Hill marathons. I can't say that it hasn't been deeply enjoyable, though--I've got a lot of work done, a lot of fantastic books read, a ton of intriguing movies watched, and a lot of hours with fun faculty spent!

I'll update this place soon with the Diwali pictures--be sure to keep a watch out!

One of the reasons I chose to come all the way to the United States was for an education that was so holistic and all-encompassing in its entirety that it actually proved rewarding. I know that this may sound repetitive and redundant, but I honestly feel like I should specifically begin to address some of the opportunities I have been able to avail of at DePauw that I wouldn't have been able to as a student in perhaps any other country (or at any larger school).

Take writing workshops at DePauw, for instance. Whilst the English department at DePauw is probably one of the largest departments here at all, the beauty of workshops--small in number and close-knit in feeling--continues to hold tight, even with the large incoming class. At workshops, we basically are given assignments to inspire our creativities, and this is perhaps the best homework imaginable: to actually be able to do something so leisurable and have it graded, have it critiqued, have it commented upon. Your professor comes up with an assignment, you go home and mull over it and come up with a creative piece, you come to class and turn it in, the other students take it home, read it and adjudicate all the pros and the cons to it, they come back to class and the entire class has a discussion on your very writing and offers you (for the most part) helpful, insightful critiques! Can there be homework any more fun and any more helpful to you in the long run than to have your very abilities discussed and put up in the room for marking? I think not. And the best part is that this helps you grow so much as a writer and buys so much room for arguments--a facet a liberal arts student would just snatch up greedily.

All in all, I think the workshops at DePauw are certainly helping mostly everyone that partakes in them in not only their writing but also to build strength, argumentative abilities and surety in their very own selves. I do think that a lot of people will say that they're the rather 'easy' classes and hard to get into because everyone desires to be in them, but to do the jobs loyally--the writing, the reading, and most importantly, the critiquing--is a task in itself. And for this, I applaud DePauw--writing workshops are, after all, a very American concept, and even within America, relegated to a very chosen, select few institutions--and I am so very pleased to be able to avail of them.

So here are some of the highlights this week:

 

1.     Movie-wise: My copy of Gigantic finally came through! Thank you, Putnam County Library! Now I finally have something to look forward to.

2.     Dr Sununu’s midterm: Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t the studying that was a highlight—it was finally being done with the exam! If you’re a DePauw student, there’s little chance you haven’t heard of Professor Andrea Sununu (I’ve made her a fanclub on Facebook—go join if you’ve had her and absolutely adore the woman that she is!) You don’t get a more challenging professor, but you also don’t get an experience that can ever be as enriching. The midterm was supposed to take an hour, but it ended up taking 3.5, and there were still four people in the room when I left! I have to admit it, though—this is one class I’m going to remember long after I have graduated from DePauw.

3.     Saturday evening—I had dinner with one of my favourite professors’ families, and we ended up watching I love you, man. Dinner was absolutely delightful, the company was fantastic, and the movie was eminently watchable. Weekends have never looked better (at least to me!)

4.     Inter-library loan and how it saved my life: I’m pretty certain I’ve mentioned this before, but this week Inter library loan did the undoable and got me a book from CANADA! It was about my favourite moment of the week.

5.     My sister’s birthday: And she’s now fifteen! Unfortunately, I couldn’t be in India for it… but that keeps the spirit bound right in!

6.     My last month as a teenager… that’s right! I’ll be the scary ‘two-decades’ old soon. And I don’t even have a briefcase yet! I have to admit it’s rather overwhelming.

7.     Fall break is in about a fortnight!

 

And so that’s been my week. Longer update after class, because that’s one thing you don’t quite want to be late for (even at a school as forgiving as DePauw!)

So here's a list of good things I've availed of this past week:

1. The Inter-Library Loan: This is one of the greatest boons at DePauw of all time. If they don't have a book or a movie you've been longing for, simply request it from another library, and they'll borrow it for you! Is this great or is this great? Really makes my weekends far more worthwhile than they've ever looked!

2. The Duck: What I like about this place is that it's still on my meal plan. The chicken paninis are ABSOLUTELY AWESOME, and what's great is that you don't run out of laundry money if you want to eat someplace fancy!

3. Philosophy: I'm certainly LOVING this subject, and if I could stay at DePauw for ten years just to do all the majors I want to do, Philosophy would be my next choice--right after what I'm already doing.

4. The Food Lab: Yesterday, I ate the best stir-fry I've ever eaten at DePauw. Last monday, I ate the best panini ever. The Food Lab just gets better and better!

5. And, of course, one of my favourite zones in all of Greencastle...

the Putnam County Library.

I'll always share a special bond with this place, because it's offered me so much in my times of need.

So there's a list of some of my favourite places and things at DePauw! Not to mention all the Physics and English, of course!

The grief of the episode has still not sunk in, and I doubt it will until I have finally made my way home. I do think, however, that this has proven to be the most difficult period I have endured at DePauw, and that were it not for the faculty at this liberal arts school that helped me get back on my own two feet, I would not be able to be where I am today: fully functioning and whole. Due to circumstances I was unable to go home, but the Physics family here has only provided me all the support I need to get through this rough period. For this, and so much more, I will always owe DePauw wholeheartedly. The first week the only people I would talk to at all were the faculty members, for they seemed to feel my pain and were willing to go out of their ways to do as much as they could for me: talk to me, help me physically, help me with my coursework and getting back to class, along with just doing simple things like checking up on me every day and writing to me as much as they could. I was able to take the advice of one of my professors to do something in the US that would allow me to say a fuller goodbye, and so I composed a short story for myself whereby I used one of my most favourite professors and his wife as inspirations for characters. Where else do you feel like you have your family around you? Where else do you want to spend all your time with your faculty, for they have helped you stand and helped you walk when you only need crutches? I'll tell you: DePauw. And the truth is, I'm not even exaggerating. There is no way for me to thank them enough, and I think the only way that comes close is to try and verbalize just how much they, and every single person at DePauw who has helped me through this difficult time, mean to me. There is no truth in the world but love, and it is the only one we can ever hold on to us, right to the end when we ourselves cross over that tunnel to the other side.

It is most hard for me to even formulate the words, because that would make them true. My grandmother, who I was extremely close to and loved dearly, left us all on Friday. Please spend a moment in silence for her sake. This poem has been the one thing that's getting me by. I hereby share it with you.

Gone from my Sight

I am standing upon the seashore. A ship

at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze

and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object

of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her

until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud

just where the sea and sky mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, ‘There, she is

Gone.’

‘Gone where?’

‘Gone from my sight. That is all.’

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar

as when she left my side and she is just as able

to bear her load of living freight to her destined

port. Her diminished size is in me,

not in her. And just at that moment when someone says

‘There, she is gone’, there are other eyes

watching her coming, and other voices

ready to take up the glad shout—

‘Here she comes!’

And that is dying.

Henry van Dyke

So summer's nearly over! This is my last week at work and today was the day that all the RAs got back to campus. Not that I've seen anyone yet, but I know it's only a matter of time! I definitely feel nervous/excited for this year to begin, but I think that at this point the feeling's half-and-half. Facebook continuously updates me as to how people are super thrilled to be back at college, but since I've spent my entire summer here, I can only wait in anxiousness for everyone to get back!

The thing I cannot wait for most, however, is classes. This semester I've got an exciting pick, detailed as follows:

ENG	282	British Writers II	1		2:50-3:50 MWF	AH 301	A. Sununu
ENG	301	Fiction Writing Workshop	1		2:20-3:50 TR	AH 303	B. Bean
PHIL	101D	Intro to Philosophy	1		10:30-11:30 MWF	AH 301	M. McKelligan
PHIL	364	Death: Phil. Approaches	0	S	7:00-9:50 PM R	AH 317	M. McKelligan	X
PHYS	270	Mathematical Methods	1		12:30-1:30 MWF	JSC 245	T. Stiles

and SRF. So that's a total of 5.5 credits, if I count my Audit as a credit!

I'm just so thrilled to jump right in!

Anyway, in other news, the highlights of my week entail...



... has to be one of the best movies I've ever seen!

Then...



I went to watch this play in the Putnam County Playhouse. One of my professors acted in it!

And finally...



I get to move into Mason soon!


I'm very thrilled. Aren't you?

So lately I've been at the library downtown a lot, and can I just say that that place has the best collection of books and movies imaginable? I'm just so glad that I've availed of the opportunity to become a member of it! And what better time to do so than the summer? You simply walk up there (and it's very much within walking distance), and you're free to check out up to 50 items! It just doesn't get better. What's even nicer is that they'll request other stuff from other libraries for you, too, and they'll hold things for you if you need them. It's just great!

So if you're on campus for a summer working and your evenings seem relatively empty--you know what to do! Just walk up to the local library and pick up things--there's bound to be several you'll enjoy!

So the summer's drawing to a close, and what's funny is that I feel like it hasn't even begun (I kid you not! I wish I was one of my many friends who happen to be craving the fact that school's so close because they're so bored and have nothing to do. I, alas, have felt that this summer I've done far more than most!)

We had to move out of our duplex and into the International Center last weekend. I'll be here two weeks, and then move into my room for the fall! So basically... that's a lot of moving, as you can imagine, but what I like about it is that it keeps me on my toes, and that I get to live in all kinds of different environments with all kinds of different people.

This weekend I watched a ton of movies and just hit some down time (when you're constantly doing something, sometimes it's effective to just kick back and relax). I watched the following:




(which I ABSOLUTELY LOVED, even though it's made in 1977)...

and




(which, again, I really liked, and...)




which was just a LOT of fun. Watching Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener in anything together, especially with Synecdoche, New York, being my favourite movie of all time--is a delight.

I really really really want to watch:




because it has both Levitt AND Deschenel and I LOVE them! And it's supposed to be adorable.

Well, back to work, I think (two more weeks!) I'll keep you posted on what I watch and what I'm upto!

This week:

Ups:

1. HALF-BLOOD PRINCE. No, I'm not a huge HP movie fan, but in all seriousness, anything HP will do for me. I remain completely committed to the guy, and always will. I grew up reading him, after all, and watching the sixth movie three times in a row prompted me to reread Deathly Hallows for the nth time. Oh, good times!

2. Reading Mrs Dalloway. It's got to be one of the best-written books I've ever read. I kid you not. It's about, well, no prizes for guessing, Mrs Dalloway, and her mental state as she gets prepared to be the perfect hostess to her party.

3. Work! Work is actually going by well, and that, in turn, keeps my mind at ease. I didn't think this would qualify as an up, but it most certainly does.

4. My computer is back! And I can now try to upload pictures here. Let's see.. does this work at all?




And... it does! So that's that for effects. Wait, if this works, maybe I can upload some of my pictures at Arizona! Take two...



And it does! So I guess this qualifies as an up!
Just in case, that is the 10 m Whipple telescope at Tucson, Arizona.




There's my professor, Dr Kertzman, sitting on the T4 crate and looking like she's underwater!



A shot of T1 and T4, with the central trailer, at night...



Dr Kertzman, Dr Glenn and myself... on different pedestals.




The sign!

And, if I can locate more pictures after my recent computer crash, then there's many more to come!


Downs:

1. My roommates, Michelle and Kaitrin, left to complete their research in Nuclear Physics at Los Alamos. It's going to be lonely without them.

2. I met somebody that I'm not a particular fan of, and...

3. One of my best friends (also a staff member, because DePauw is just that cool!) is going through a rough patch in life. Thankfully, I'm around to be by her side, and I do hope I can be of use.

Now does that sounds like a journal entry? I'll tell you the BIGGEST down of all time before I sign out for the day, however, and that is...

WALMART IS OUT OF HARRY POTTER 6 POSTERS!!!!!!!!

I think that made me cry just a bit when I went there and bank 9, which was supposed to have them, was empty.

In any case, I painted a very bad imitation of the Deathly Hallows on my hand and so, in a last attempt to upload a picture...



Oh, long live Harry. And you, if you're a true fan!


Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!

As my title and my evident blogging probably suggests, I'm at good ol' DePauw for this summer... and perhaps for the next one, too. That's right, I made it into the Science Research Fellows program into DePauw! Hmm, that makes me an ITAP, an SRF, an Honor Scholar, and a double major (no, no, I'm not boasting, I'm just trying to think what exactly it was that prompted me to take a little bite of EVERYTHING on my plate!) I don't know if this is the wisest decision just yet, or if I'll be able to juggle even any two of them, let alone all. Nevertheless, I'm not tricking anything by giving up any opportunities! You know what they say about them and doors and such.

I'm doing a research project on Gamma Ray Astronomy this summer. So far, it hasn't necessarily been smooth sailing, and part of that has to do with my feeling more-than-usual homesick (it IS the summer, after all), with my computer crashing and my having lost all the data on it, with my tooth bearing a cavity, with a not-so-pleasant incident involving Facebook, and with cooking accidents, to say the least! My work space, however, has only made it so much easier for me, and some of the people I'm currently living with are really the sole ones making it calmer. That's the thing about DePauw--the people here are about as understanding as you can get. Just think about June and myself, for instance--I flew back home in the middle of the summer, and was able to work everything out both with my professor AND with housing! Oh, and I had another professor offer to even pick me up from the airport! Do you build relationships thick as pizza crust elsewhere on the planet? I think not!

But apart from sounding corny, which I'm trying really hard not to do--this hasn't been the best week for me, for many other reasons that I haven't yet named. I'm about ready to crack, and what's funny is that it's not at all during the school year. One would think that work would be the causality that would prompt me to be pushed over to the edge, but much on the contrary, it's this.. gap that's doing it to me. I know my friends say they miss DePauw like crazy, but is it possible to be AT DePauw and yet miss DePauw? Oh, contradictions... thou art so much the bane...

In any case, I'm really missing the regular school year and the feeling of being... important... to your school work, to your classes, to your professors and to your friends. And that, more so than anything, is what DePauw is truly about... being one, and yet all.

Let's hope my week gets better, although I won't count on it (yes, I do sound absurdly cheery in this post, but it's much easier to write happy than it is to talk happy!) and meanwhile, you'd better consider coming to DePauw. I know I can say so! :)