Hello Again!

A fabulous thing happened tonight.

I got de-tripled!


Imagine, if you will, our dorm room- a small room with one loft bed, one bunk bed, three desks, three dressers, two closets, clothes, junk, shoes, books, lamps, a fan, and general chaos.

Then subtract the loft bed, one of the desks, one of the dressers, and a lot of the chaos. Take apart the bunk bed.

This is the reality of the last couple hours for Alice and I. Sara has moved to another room in our suite so that we don't get a ninth girl to share one shower with.
It is glorious. The whole room feels less sardine-like, more homey. Alice has been 50/50 with climbing into her bed and leaping on it, just to leap.
The whole atmosphere of our room has changed. There is just more space. A thousand things are easier now. There is less filth because we cleaned as we went. It is actually feasable to sit on our beds and read because it is actually feasable to sit upright on them. It just feels like there's room! It is the difference between a towncar and a stretch limousine. Air to breathe. It allows for people to hang out in our room. It leaves wall space for posters. It leaves less crap in the upper half of our rooms so the whole thing just looks brighter.

Oh, it is wonderful! I wish every freshman got to live like this.
Alice says "We could do aerobics!" And she is a fabulous roommate.

In other news, I went to my first protest today!! It was organizerd by a group called NORML, which is pretty much known as the druggie club because their main goal is legalizing marijuana. But they've teamed up with the public interest group on campus for a student whose rights were violated in what they consider an unlawful search and seizure. So we assembled! With clever signs like "Stop weeding out your students" [har, har] and "Hottest small state school throwing out its biggest class". A New Paltz alum gave a speech that really got me. I have never been motivated to get involved in the push to legalize marijuana, I don't smoke it and never will, but this young man stood in front of us and told us that if we are ever confronted on our beliefs, all that needs to be said is [indicaing towards his head/body] "This is mine." That's all. And it became that simple. Most of the kids there were all about the fact that marijuana was involved, but it's beyond that. It's an issue about human rights. We are losing our liberties little by little. My friend Marc was saying that if a man is wearing a diabetic ID bracelet and you see him with crumbs around his mouth, you don't push him around and search him for cookies. It's his right, whether it's responsible or not, to do what he chooses with his body. So when they see people wearing a dancing bear tie-dye t-shirt and immediately suspect they're smoking pot and bully them into signing warrants for no real reason, it's really not their call.

Like I said, I've never been a big player in the legalization scene, but today got me fired up. I want to stand up for my rights. I feel like it's my duty as a citizen, and maybe that's extreme, but it's like that saying about how first they take this minority, then they take this group, and no one says a word, then they take the gays, then the jews, and no one stands up for them, and there's no one left to notice when they come for us. I think that's from the bible? What I mean is, I am making a karmic investment by standing up for underrepresented people, so there will be someone shouting and holding signs when it's my turn to be prosecuted.



Exhausting day. Also rode my bike up the hill without stopping for the first time since I got here- I had a doctor's appointment for a vaccination. Ouch :(

That's all for tonight. I'll update again soon! TTYL!

Today was very much a New Me kind of day.

I say that for a few reasons... mainly, though, because it shows how much I've changed in the last year or so. I went for a long walk and loved it, a healthy choice I would have dreaded just a couple years ago. I went to a meeting for the comittee that runs Latino Week- I had to represent the M&Ms, the honorary latinas-maybe it doesn't look like chocolatey goodness on the outside, but it's what's inside that counts! Back at my dorm, I listened to a lot of reggaeton and talked to some friends from Ecuador. I am missing it a lot today. It's sometimes hard to believe I was really there.
And for that, I think it's important to say, for my benefit and for anyone reading, that this blog serves an evolving purpose; it was, for a long time, my Ecuador blog. But this is my blog, first and foremost, and it will be my college blog wholly and truly after just a few entries. And in light of that, there is no longer a difference between the life I led in Ecuador and the way I think today. It was the last year of my life. It is hat I do, it is what I know. This blog carries over just as much of the past as I do!

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College is going the same, more or less, as it was last week. I've been trying to call home and/or call around in general more often, especially when I have built-in 10 minute walks across campus with which to make these calls. We've been invited to twenty frat parties but haven't been to one. A song written specifically about New Paltz says it best: "You'll never see the smart girls rollin' with the frat guys"; that is to say, if you're smart about frat parties, you won't attend them. And so we don't; we join a whole other flock of people, listening to acoustic musicians at 60 Main, watching movies in one of our residence halls, washing laundry, singing on the lawn, staying up until bizarre hours talking about anything that comes across our minds, tiring ourselves of dining hall food, cleaning, napping, and studying, of course- all of which I have done in the last 3 or 4 days.

I was sick for Monday and Tuesday of last week, but I'm better now. I was lucky enough to see three different doctors, not one of which ever came to any conclusion. The two most likely theories are 1) a burst cyst on my ovary being reabsorbed into my system, or 2) a nasty reaction to the dining hall. Either way, I was in wincing, bent-over discomfort that came and went in waves for about 48 hours. I feel better now, but, come ON!- three doctors? no results? What is this world coming to?

An excellent addition to my college life in the last week would have to be the family portraits I finally framed and propped up on my desk! Smiling faces that I miss all the time- a real gift. Thanks, Dad and Kim!

My music choice of the week is a woman named Tender Forever- if you're into hippie-esque music by middle-age lesbian folk singers, TF will be right up your alley. Her music is sweet and sexless and romantic and above all, fun!

(Oh, and note to self; be wary, if you're ever trying to get a taxi again on a Saturday in the pouring rain. You'll probably be late for work!)