OK – I’m going to describe it. Firstly, I was still awake at midnight, and then had a sweet conversation with Sarenna and Stephen in the Kitchen. There are very few people in the world who are as nice, or cool as Sarenna and Stephen, and pretty much all of these rare people also live in North House. I went to bed at two and got up at six. This may not sound that great, until you realise that I felt amazing when I got up (you know that feeling when you’ve hit on just the right combination of food and sleep?) and then I sat down and cranked out a speech which had been bothering me all week.
I presented it to some millionaires on Saturday! Nope, I’m not joking. I went to an EAP fundraising function, and gave this speech. American audiances are very involved with the speaker; I had people clapping and cheering while I was giving it! I think it went well.

Anyway, then Sarenna, who had asked to be woken at 7am, come into the picture. Goodness gracious me, she’s hilarious in the mornings! Firstly I crept into her room trying not to wake Noa (which was a high priority for me, but I needn’t have worried, because Noa apparently can take care of herself) and gave S. a shake. She let out this random high pitched whine, rolled over and tucked up the coverlet. Her cellphone alarm then went off, and without a pause, S rolled over and gave it a practiced smack. I was a bit surprised by all of this kurfufle, and was a bit bemused, when finally her alarm clock went off. Say what you want about S, she knows herself really well, and wasn’t going to let herself stand in the way of... herself I suppose. I mumbled to her ‘It looks like you’re going to get up if you want to or not.’ To which she replied ‘MumblemumbleI’llbedownstairsintenmintuesmumblemumble’ and I left. 20 minutes later a very tired and grumpy looking S wandered into the kitchen and demanded we eat Tuna. Yep – this was pretty random to me also. And then when she got going with the can opener, she couldn’t seem to stop, and she opened two Tuna cans and a can of soup. She mucked around with the soup on auto-pilot for about ten minutes, pouring it into a bowl and adding water and doing all sorts of things before she looked at her hands, got really confused and said to me ‘Why am I holding soup?’ It was so funny, but I didn’t laugh because I would have suffered swift death.
We got going eventually however, and S looked so tired that I almost felt sorry for her. Almost.

Next I went to an Army class, which was pretty boring, but I got to get out early because I was supposed to have a supply meeting. In this class it turned out I knew what I was talking about, and the other guys didn’t, which always makes me happy. Enemy intent is not ‘resist strongly’ like the other cadets suggested – that’s what their morale PRIOR to battle is going to make them want to do. When they realise I’ve attacked their four men with an entire 30 man platoon plus mortars they’re going to want to get the hell away from there. Duh!
I was very good – I didn’t say a thing as the Sergeant explained I was very, very right. Dad, you’d be proud of me.

And the supply appointment? I’d mixed up the dates and it is next Tuesday. This is so gold – I didn’t have to waste an hour and a half of my life and I STILL got out of boring class.

I then applied for a scholarship, for which I have just enough time to apply before the deadline. I’m so pleased I got onto it yesterday because that means I can still apply today! And I wrote a cover letter in an hour and so it’s done, and I’ve sent it off. Wish me luck team!

I got a mid-term back and got another A. I thought I was going to be a bit slow in comparison to all the smart people here, but the serious amount of extra work they make us do really drags up your average. Possibly doing no work in New Zealand was a mistake?

I love medieval history full stop. That’s an awesome class. I’m going to see what else that lecturer teaches because she is awesome. It’s not that she’s a great teacher (except she is) it’s just that she loves her topic so much that you can’t help but love it as well. It’s like positive illness – it’s infectious, and makes you happy.

I also got a public library card, which was so easy as to be silly. I just had to give them my passport and proof of my address, and I walked out of there with four books. I love books.

On Saturday after that speech I also walked from the Bay bridge to the Golden Gate Bridge. For those of you that don’t know, that’s a seriously long walk. It was gold – 7 hours of walking made me feel a little less cooped up. And spending time with some of my favourite American people? Priceless. The pictures of us on the Golden Gate are magic (well not of me obviously – I don’t photo well) and I had lots of interesting experiences. Like cheap and wonderful bread! Like Reeces Cups (peanut butter covered with chocolate... Nope, I’m not kidding – it’s incredibly rich and probably so bad for you as to be stupid. Tastes GREAT!) and ‘In-and-Out’ which is a burger place which sells amazing food. The highlight was the walk though – I travelled the whole length of the San Fran waterfront. Next stop, the interior!

Today I again played soccer with my team. I like them – they’re all really cool. And we’re getting HEAPS better – we’re definitely going to win this time, I can feel it! After that I bought soap, which was interesting. I decided I was going to get something American, and bought soap called ‘Ivory’. Apparently this floats in the bath. Since I don’t have a bath, I’m probably not going to be able to test this theory, but it smells really nice. American soap is a lot more crumbly than New Zealand soap, as an aside.
I also went to a study group thingy, and met some really great people there as well. We studied for ages (I was useful because I had actually studied British history at school, and they were helpful for me because they knew the history of America like the back of their hands. The best type of study.) and got quite a bit done, which was unusual for me. And then we went for dinner, and I had some Mexican do-it-yourself food. The food here is SO good, but I think you got that picture four or five posts ago.

Cheers team, wish you were here

Margie

written by  Crosswood on October 14, 2007 from Berkeley, United States
from the travel blog: New Zealand Student, American University.
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I do that, i set my cellphone alarm to the sound i hate most and put it across the room. I then turn my actual alarm on for one minute earlier. The mornings are a one minute warning to get to the cellphone.

written by  Rebecca Harris on October 17, 2007

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