2008 October Archive at Amani, ‘12

Archive for October, 2008

Midterm Madness

Well, Prospectives, we’re mid-semester…and that means exams.

thumbs up
Okay, so I wasn’t this happy about exams, lol

Fortunately for me, I only had one midterm exam, and that was in CORE. Although I was happy that I had all week to study for the exam, since it was on Friday, I was a little discontent with the fact that it was on Friday, my last (and late) class on the last day before fall break. So many others would be en route or already home while I would be pulling my hair out trying to remember writing elements used by Nietzsche, Darwin, Plato, and Mahfouz.

Actually, the pulling my hair out part was a bit of an exaggeration because the test wasn’t really that bad. It consisted of one quote from a work by each author, and we were tasked with explicating those passages. Only able to prepare by reviewing the highlighting and annotations in my books, I hoped that I was sufficiently equipping myself while studying. When I actually got to class and was handed the exam, I must admit that I was a little discouraged by the quotes that my professor had selected; they required much in-depth explanation, and I had to fully expound on four of them in a matter of 50 minutes.

Bubbles
When I read over the exam, I felt how he looks, haha

While I was completely thrown off by the first quote, I felt more confident in my explications of the following three quotes. I wrote until I couldn’t write anymore, and although I revisited my first essay response, I couldn’t think of anything that could be added to it that was relevant (I actually didn’t find the quote to be relevant to the book as a whole at all, but that was just my opinion). I walked out of the classroom feeling relieved only because I knew I was headed home for fall break; I was anxious about my actual exam, and I had already reduced my possible grade to a 75 since I felt that I completely bombed the first essay. But hey, I guess you live and you learn…

Smile
Keep reading…I’ll explain later

I was so happy when I arrived home after my two hour drive through rush hour traffic. I immediately went to my room, dropped my bags, sat on my bed and just relished the feeling of having no roommate, my own bathroom (and not having to wear shower shoes!), and no pressing academic obligations. It was wonderful!!!

I stayed home pretty much all day on Saturday and was dominated by my little brother (“Mani can you watch TV with me? Mani can you watch me do a trick? Mani I want you to fix me something to eat. Maybe we can go outside and play because it’s not good to throw the ball in the house…”)—little kids sure have a lot of wants, lol. I love him, though.

Kiss
Oh no! Little people germs! lol

Finally, that night, Sarah rescued me from the madness of Wow! Wow! Wubbzy! marathons on Noggin, and I went to her house to hang out and watch movies. That’s one of the wonderful things about college—you will meet friends whose houses you can go to, whose food you can eat, and whose moms will love you as their own children :-D. I have to say that I love Sarah’s family—they’re really great! (Not to mention that her mom is like SuperMom, lol. She’s the best!)

On Sunday, I went to church with my family, and later ate lunch at Red Robin Gourmet Burgers, which has the best selection of fruit-filled and flavorful lemonades in my opinion. I enjoyed the time of family bonding as we shared laughs about the past and hopes for the future. That night, I humored my little brother by taking pictures on my laptop’s webcam, which, as you can see, I found very amusing and have displayed throughout this entry. We laughed and laughed and laughed as we snapped the shots, some of which were distorted or otherwise enhanced by features of the webcam. That’s why I like children—they find amusement in the simplest things.

Swirl
Small heads
Blue inversion
Double
Can you tell we were having fun?

The next day, I enjoyed lunch with my godmommy and another one of my friends, and then ran a few errands before picking up my little brother from school (yes, it’s more than daycare because they really do learn a lot of things). I decided to return to UR that night because I had work to do for a CORE paper that had to be turned in on Wednesday, so I said my goodbyes to my brothers (not without having to assure my little brother that I’d return soon so that he’d stop standing in front of the garage door, arms spread across it). I took with me some more of my winter wear because I realized that I had left many things on my previous trip home. And of course, I spent that night and the next day doing work, as usual.

Circle

However, I did have a great day on Wednesday. When my teacher walked in for CORE, she had our graded exams in hand (yeah, she’s like super-efficient lol). Turns out that I didn’t do as bad as I thought I did—in fact, I did really well. I was surprised to even receive points for my first answer (because that’s how outlandish I thought it was, haha), but maybe my teacher had sympathy for me and so she gave me a C- for that particular one. Yeah, that’s kinda bad, but when it averaged with my other three answers, on which I received an A, A+, and A-, I ended up with a 90 for my exam grade! And that’s very important because that by itself is worth 14% of our total grade! So, I’m happy!

College work is definitely doable, but you will never know unless you try…

Keep on keepin’ on, Prospectives

Amani

Smile again

By the way…it’s my roommate’s birthday today! I got her a small cake (which would have been more fun with candles), a card, and a tiara that lights up, lol. Happy birthday Aayla!!!!

Aayla
Aayla again

Published by Amani on October 17, 2008 in Exams and Breaks. 2 Comments

I ♥ NY

Sorry that it’s been so long, Prospectives, but life has been really busy lately. However, I do believe I owe you all an account of my New York trip with the Oliver Hill Scholars…

NY Times

Well, our train was scheduled to depart at 6 a.m. on Friday, but just to be sure that everything went smoothly, Dr. Cade wanted us all to meet in front of the Commons at 4:30 a.m. This meant waking up at 4, which is really not fun at all when you stay up packing until 2 a.m. Surprisingly, everyone did arrive on schedule, and we piled into two cars and a van and headed to the Amtrak station.

We had a six hour train ride, so most people slept the whole way. I only got a couple hours of sleep on the train, not because it was uncomfortable, but because my body was aching from Ngoma practice the night before and working out the night before that. Once we arrived, we hailed taxis to our hotel on 46th Street, dropped our bags in our rooms, and caught the subway to Microsoft Corporation. An alumnus of University of Richmond, John Harvey, enabled our group to find out what Microsoft is all about, beyond its well-known technical innovations (i.e. Microsoft Office). Mr. Harvey works as a global manager in the corporation, and he is the first person of color to do so. We learned a lot about Microsoft and were able to ask questions of him and a panel.

Microsoft

John Harvey and I

From there, we were on our own for a couple of hours—we could shop, sleep, eat or whatever we wanted to do until it was time to get ready for the Lion King on Broadway. I decided to venture around Times Square with some of the other girls just to find out where there were places to eat and shop, because Saturday we would have much more free time.

After wondering around for a while, we all prepared to go to the play. Unfortunately, no one was allowed to take pictures inside of the theater, so I can’t share any of the wonderful colors, sounds, or ensembles with you guys. But believe me when I tell you that it was amazing!!!! I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s a must see, really. And we all definitely had a nostalgic episode as we sang along with all of the songs from the original movie. “Oh I justtt can’t waittt to be kinggg!!!” Gotta love Disney movies.

lion lion king review

escalator pic
On the escalator going to the theater

The next day, our group went to see the Bodies Exhibit. Now if you’ve never heard of it, the Bodies Exhibit is a walk-through exhibit with real human cadavers on display; the bodies went through a process called silicone preservation. It was really cool because we could see all of the parts of the body, including how certain diseases or conditions affected different parts. By the same token, I was a little weirded out. I mean, those people were once living and breathing like me. They had some bodies displayed that were literally sliced into layers to show different parts, and there was even the body of a pregnant woman on display, womb and all exposed. The thought was enough to make me cringe. The whole idea of the exhibit is pretty innovative and really shows how far we are advancing in science and medicine, but I can say that one visit was enough for me. Oh yeah, we weren’t allowed to take pictures there either, out of respect.

Bodies Exhibit

After that, we were free to shop until dinner, so a lot of us took the subway to Canal Street. I never knew how much fun I could have while street shopping. Negotiating prices with people proved to be very amusing—I saved myself at least $50 by talking down prices. I’m already planning a trip back to New York for the sole purpose of shopping on Canal Street.

Canal St

Dinner at Langan’s Restaurant with the group was alright; the setup was nice and we had fun, but the food and service did not measure up to our expectations. Following dinner, some people suggested that we all do karaoke, but when we went to the place they had seen, we found out that it was being renovated. So much for that. However, Farren, Omari, and I decided to still enjoy our night, so we wandered around Times Square, seeing the sights, hearing the sounds, and smelling the smells of New York City. We had so much fun!

Farren was the only one whose caricature turned out okay

The next morning, Sunday, we had all of our things packed and ready to go and took cabs back to the train station. The ride home was a bit longer because of a few delays at the stations, but we made it back to Richmond safely and satisfied. Our trip to New York was a wonderful break from college life and helped our group of scholars to bond.

Train
Studying on the train home

Now it’s back to school again, and this week we have midterms…oh joy. At some point when I’m not buried underneath books, I’ll tell you all how exams go.

Until next time, Prospectives…

Amani

First years
All of the first year students before the Lion King
Farren and I

Published by Amani on October 7, 2008 in Oliver Hill/Richmond Scholars. 0 Comments

When It’s Cold Outside…

As much as I didn’t want to go home again (I don’t want to seem like I’m always home instead of enjoying college), I decided that it was best that I did over the weekend. It’s been getting a lot cooler a lot faster than I expected, and I’m going to New York this weekend, where I’m sure it will be colder, so I needed some coats and winter stuff. But before I get into the details of my trip, I’ll fill you in on my weekend and my week thus far…

Well, Friday I really wanted to skip Core since it’s so late (2:40-3:30 p.m.), but I figured that I’d be a good student and go to class. So, after I got out, I went to talk to Sarah for a bit (who was also going home and lives about 20 minutes from me), then I packed my things and headed home. Of course, I had to pack homework—my wonderful, wonderful Calculus and my Core reading, On the Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Nietzsche (yes, and the book is torture…you will learn to appreciate our other simpler readings, like Darwin and Plato).

The drive home was nice…not much traffic at all. However, when I did get close to home, I felt really awkward because I was wearing a long-sleeved shirt with a sweater over it—it had been so cold and rainy that day on campus—and it was definitely warm and humid outside. When I stopped to get gas about 30 minutes away from home, people must have been looking at me crazy because they were all driving with windows down and wearing short-sleeved shirts; some even had on shorts. So you can imagine that the first thing I did when I got home was change clothes, haha.

Filling up my tank…*sigh*
Rainbow I saw while pumping gas

That night, my mom, brothers, and I all went out to eat, to my aunt’s house, then to the movies. While we were eating, I showed my youngest brother (he’s three and a half) a picture in my digital camera of a rainbow I had seen while pumping gas. Well, let me tell you—that was the wrong thing to do. After that, he just wanted to take pictures of everything. I was hesitant at first, but I did let him take a couple pictures, after which I cleverly told him that the camera needed a break; it had to rest just like he had to sleep at night. I know, I know…that wasn’t really true, but I’d rather give the camera a break than have him break my camera; I mean come on…he’s three, lol. I must say, though, that he did take some good pictures for a three-year-old—he didn’t cut off our heads at all, he counted to three and told us to say “cheese,” and even held the button until the camera flashed. Yep, that’s MY lil’ bro.
Me, taken by my little brother (pretty good for a 3-year-old, right?)
My big brother (he’s 3 years younger but way taller than me, lol) taken by my youngest brother
My youngest brother (doesn’t he have the cutest smile?)

The next day was a pretty average day at home—I was held captive for hours by my little brother so that I could watch Noggin with him; so there I sat watching reruns of Dora the Explorer, Diego, The Backyardigans, Sesame Street, and whatever else he loves to watch. I have to admit, I have learned to love them, too, hehe. After that and some homework, I packed up what I wanted to take back with me (and some of my sister’s things to take to her on my way), and I left for home (campus, that is ). It was dark and wet outside, and I realized that I had left my glasses in my dorm room, but I knew my way and I made it back safely. No worries…I will never do that again. I’ll start tying my glasses around my neck like cool grandmas do, hehe. So anyway, fast-forwarding…

Tuesday morning I had my first Calc test, which I had stressed and stressed about and studied for, but it turned out that it wasn’t so bad at all. I think I did okay on it. And with that stress over, I had to focus on another big thing going on that night—Ngoma tryouts. Ngoma is an African dance company on campus; a professional African dancer comes to campus twice a week and teaches choreography that will be used in future performances. Yes, it’s legit. We had been learning a few dances over the course of two weeks, and Tuesday was the night we had to show what we had learned to a panel of African dancers. It was a little intimidating, but once we relaxed, we all did fine. I believe everyone who tried out made it; they weren’t interested in cutting people so much as they were in seeing how well we picked up the dances and how interested we were in committing to the dance company. So, with all that over, I have been pretty laid back.

There was some excitement this morning, though. I was in the bathroom brushing my teeth when I hear the fire alarm start to sound. The first thing I wondered was why we were having a drill so early, but without making further inquiry, I grabbed my toothbrush and toothpaste and headed for the back entrance of Lora Robins (my dorm). It was about fifty degrees outside and everyone had on their pajamas–some people didn’t have on shoes, and some other unfortunate girls had been forced to jump out of the shower and come in their robes and shower caps. Let’s just say we weren’t a very happy crowd. We soon learned that it wasn’t a drill at all, and after waiting for about twenty minutes, we walked to the front of the building where the rest of the residents and firefighters were, and we found out the all of the ruckus was because someone burned English muffins in her microwave. I say we ban English muffins from LoRo, haha. At any rate, we were finally let back inside to proceed with our day. That was enough excitement for me.

Beyond that, I don’t really have anything due in any classes, except, of course, Core reading, but we are only discussing, so that’s no big deal. Today I have to pack for New York because we are supposed to meet in front of the Commons at 4:30 tomorrow morning to head to the train station. Yeah, that’s super early, and it’s a 6 hour train ride, but at least I can sleep then. We’re going to see Lion King on Broadway and the Bodies Exhibit. I’ll be sure to tell you guys all about it (and show all of my pictures) in my next post, so make sure you’re looking out for it.

Until then…have a Coke and a smile

Amani
He said he wished for a nice motorcycle, lol

Mom and little brother at fountain outside of the movie theater