Friday, January 25, 2008

the three-day weekend last week wasn't as good as i wanted it to be, but still it was good enough. the main spoiler was my Comp Sci assignment that was due Friday afternoon, and that i didn't find out about until Friday night since i joined the class late. the instructor wouldn't give me an extension, so i had to use two out of my three "free late days" for the quarter to get it done. i probably spent about ten hours just catching up on the content and completing the assignment. so that was a bummer, and it took away my Friday night and Saturday. i am exceedingly grateful, however, for two of my dorm mates who gave me so much help in the assignment. they weren't even taking the class, but they still spent a lot of time solving the problems with me. who would've thought that there are actually people in their right minds who are willing to spend their weekends solving algorithms for my sake?

Martin Luther King Day on Monday was spent catching up on homework that i didn't do on Sunday, since i was preoccupied with The Sandman. But i did manage to fit in some baking on Monday, and made white choc and macadamia nut blondies. the egg curdled the mixture really badly - i didn't have enough bowls to beat the eggs before adding them to the butter and sugar mixture, so i cracked the eggs directly into the butter. but luckily the end result was edible. spent a good half hour after dinner making my dorm mates happy by going around the dorm, offering them blondies. it's surprising how all of them have never heard of the term, and i kept having to explain that blondies refer to white choc brownies.

yesterday evening was spent on Crossing the Line, which is a cool activity to get to know your dorm mates better. there's a white masking tape line on the floor, and the facilitator reads out a list of statements. if they apply to you, you cross the line and turn to face your dorm mates. we started simple, like "If you were born outside the US, cross the line." and got more intimate, like "if you were tested for an STD or HIV, cross the line" and "if you feel uncomfortable speaking out about race/gender/religion in this house, cross the line". i felt that people were really honest for the most part. and comforted that i wasn't alone in admitting to some of the statements. also surprised that most people aren't holding up as well as they seem to be. almost half the people present crossed the line at "i have cried recently," and more crossed at "i have felt the need to cry recently, but i couldn't." the activity assured me that i wasn't alone in thinking and feeling a certain way about certain things. all in all a very pensive 2.5 hours that were well spent.