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Monday, February 28, 2011

:-) <----This Is My Creepy Smile

I never exactly enjoy walking home by myself. I mean, I was okay with it back in my suburban town, only because the walk was like seven minutes long, everyone was white, and I was usually with one or two other people. Sometimes three.

But here? In New York City? When it's all icky from the rain?

Not fun.

It was a pretty bad start of my day. I woke up all ready for sunny weather (because the past weekend has been amazingly sunny enough to leave the house with a light sweater. Which is what I did), but instead, I looked out my window and saw milky skies, dreary clouds, and puddles everywhere.

Joy.

What was worse was that I didn't get time for breakfast. And you know me when I don't get breakfast. Not a pretty sight.

I don't know what happened. I've been so disorganized lately. I need to start focusing. I had like, mountains of homework waiting for me the day the college program was over. I didn't even finish all of them, and ended up copying them from someone today. Something that I HATE doing.

On the bright side of things, we had that Science Test-Prep thing after school today for the first time. School officially ends at 2:30. The Science Test-Prep starts at 3:10. So basically, we all had forty minutes to kill. Which was fine by me.

First, a big group of us people roamed the halls, trying to find teachers to annoy.

Second, my friend Zaynab (mentioned before on THIS post) was on a crazy search to find food. Apparently there was another program in our cafeteria that was going on at the moment that provided food. She wanted to go and grab something. So, we all stumbled downstairs to the cafeteria.

And guess what kind of program it was?

It was a program from that college I went to! I saw a lot of my favorite college students there. It was really cool seeing them again. They kept wanting us Honors people to join, but this program wasn't “Honors-worthy” like the other one was, so I think most of us will skip it.

But they still gave us food. Cause we're awesome like that. It was a bag with sunchips and an orange juice carton. I HATE orange juice like I hate Miley Cyrus, so I was pretty annoyed that I had to drink it since I was so thirsty.

Eventually Science Test-Prep started. It wasn't that bad, actually. It's like class, except looser and with more freedom. Also, since there wasn't that many people (Half the people were absent. Not sure why), we callled out. Which I love doing.

Also, I found out that every single thing we're going to be doing this year, I already did last year in my suburban town. New York City is behind by a year. Damn. That sucks for me.

After Science Test-Prep was over, I walked home. Not alone, thank GOD. I hate walking home alone in the cold/rain in New York City at 4:30-5:30. Not a good place to be, mind you.

It was quite the opposite, actually. We walked in a big group. But it was still icky and wet, so bleh.

I'm sorry. Am I being whiny? I don't like being whiny. It shows how pathetic you are. And how ungrateful. Sorry about that everyone. This was a really suck-ish post, wasn't it?

Before I leave, I want you all to observe/read/pay attention to the next few paragraphs. I want a straight answer!

Why are boys so afraid of crying? Do they think it makes them seem less manly or something? That's the only answer I've gotten before. Well, excuse me: That's the freaking stupidest answer I've ever heard. What's wrong with crying? There's nothing wrong with it. If you're a boy, who defined this for you? Who told you that crying is unmanly, and that you may no longer cry if you want your dignity intact? Tell this person FUP YOU.

Yup. FUP YOU.

To me (and 99.99% of the female population), crying is a sign of compassion. You could see a tough jock walking down the hall with this I've-got-swagger kind of attitude and think to yourself, “He's just another one of those dumba$$es who want to get in someone's pants.” And then you could see this same guy crying. Your opinion would instantly change. Suddenly, dumba$$ jock doesn't seem so dumba$$ anymore. In fact, he seems awesome. And caring. And he has a certain organ in his chest that was thought to not be there before. Something capable of having feelings and love. This would be the liver. Just kidding. I'm talking about the heart.

So keep this in mind: 99.99% girls love it when guys cry. They think it's sweet.

So guy readers. Please comment on:
  1. If you feel crying is manly
  2. Why or why not
  3. What's your favorite brand of jeans (if you have one)?

And my girl readers. Please comment on:
  1. If you agree with me that crying is sweet :)
  2. Why or why not
  3. What's your favorite brand of jeans (if you have one)?


Why am I suddenly obsessed with jeans?!?!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

The College Experience-Part III/IV

*If you haven't already done so (and a lot of you have done so, so don't worry about it, Christopher), read this post before you read the following one.

Gosh that linking is getting really annoying...

Hello there! Some of you may or may not have noticed that this post is about my last two days of the college program. I combined them, because we didn't really do much on Thursday.

But before we go on with Thursday, here's the FULL list of people from that “killing” assignment in Human Relations on Tuesday:

-Gay Physician
-Black minister
-Woman basketball player
-Uneducated, poor, pregnant white woman
-Latino engineer
-Lesbian farmer
-Chinese psychologist
-Unskilled male laborer
-Quadriplegic child
-Scientist/Researcher
-Male teacher
-Mentally disabled adult

The ones in red are the ones who were “killed.” Once again, I didn't think there was really a “right” answer. But apparently these are the right ones.

The uneducated, poor, pregnant white woman was “killed” for obvious reasons. She's pregnant! Having a baby is another mouth to feed, and they don't have enough resources for that. Personally, I had chosen for her to live. But nooo. What Professor Williams says, goes.

The Chinese psychologist is out. Some may argue, “Wouldn't the psychologist help people adjust to each other, stop fights, and calm people down?” Yes, but the minister should be able to do the same thing. Also, he gives them hope that things will improve from religion.

*Sniff, sniff* I felt really bad, but the quadriplegic child is out. He wouldn't be able to do anything. The best we can hope is that the kid wanted to die. :(

Killing” off the mentally disabled adult kind of touched on my heartstrings as well, but what can you do? You're trying to build a society, and they're not going to be a big help. :(

And the woman basketball player. The only reason we “killed” her off was because we needed the others. She wasn't one of the main priorities. While she would be a great help, she wasn't necessary.

So. There you have it. The first five that would get kicked out of our little society. A cruel, realistic little assignment.

Now on to Thursday!

Thursday-2/24/11

You know what it is (Black and yellow). First we had Toxicology. We took a test. A TEST. I began freaking out, but then I realized we were allowed to use our notes. And I had practically taken notes religiously, so I was good.

As a treat, we received a bag from the NYC Poison Control Center. It had pamphlets upon brochures upon pamphlets on poison safety. Also, we got a Poison Control Center magnet, and a Poison Control Center pen.

Yay...?

It was in Toxicology that we noticed...the guy.

Yes. The guy.

Actually, it was a bunch of guys. These guys were clad in dark black suits, some wearing sunglasses, some with oily, slicked back hair. Each of these guys had something in common.

They were carrying cameras.

Not little cameras. Professional, big-a$$, black cameras. And who were they videoing/taking pictures of?

US.

It was annoying, actually. Since this was the first time they had done this program at that college, I guess they hired a band of cameramen to record every single freaking thing we did.

In toxicology, they kept snapping pictures, over and over again. We hadn't noticed this the past few days because we had been in different, auditorium-like rooms. They had been in the back, where no one could see them. But on Thursday, we were in a classroom.

And they were everywhere.

You'd think we were famous or something, the way they zeroed in on you if you raised your hand or sneezed or laughed.

For example, when my friend was called on to answer a question, the team of cameramen ran over to her saying, “Come on! Roll it!” and they started snapping pictures like crazy, the flash lighting up my friend's face every two seconds.

Uh...”

That's why I did not raise my hand for that entire period. The professor asked us if we knew the difference between passive and active transport. Well, duh, that's easy. But everyone had forgotten the answer. I was the single person who knew, and I kept my hand down in fear that the cameramen would come rushing and videoing/taking pictures of me.

I guess the professor must think we're dumb teenagers, but oh well.

Then came Sports Management. Boring, as usual.

Lunch was hilarious. Hi-larious. The cafeteria we went to was buffet-style. Meaning we paid $5 at the front, and then we could take whatever we wanted, whenever we wanted, however much we wanted.

Naturally, we went crazy.

Especially since we had an entire hour of lunch. We went absolutely insane! There was no stopping us! We went back and forth from our tables to the food, over and over and over and over again. It was like a big party.

And then we found the frozen yogurt machine.


We became animals. We weren't even teenagers anymore. We were beasts!

There was such a big mob in front of the frozen yogurt machine, and such a big mess, that they sent a crabby old hairnet-clad buffet worker to watch over us. Her arms were folded the entire time, her mouth set in a straight line.

At one point, I was at the frozen yogurt machine with two of my snobby friends (Ha). We were all talking, and then this young guy in a hairnet comes over looking really angry.

“Why are you guys wasting frozen yogurt?!”

We looked at each other. “What?”

He pointed to the frozen yogurt machine. Perched on top of it were two perfectly-made, abandoned frozen yogurts. No one could eat them now, since no one knew if they had been touched/licked.

We raised our eyebrows.

“That's not mine,” my snobby friend MH ) said, turning her back on him.

“Yes it is. I've been watching you. All three of you. I saw you guys make it. Why are you wasting frozen yogurt?!”

I was kind of stunned that this random dude who worked there would just go crazy on us out of nowhere. But MH, a snobby girl like she is, is always prepared.

“Well, that's not mine, so...whatever...” And on that cue, the three of us continued making our ice creams and frozen yogurts. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the dude staring at us, opening his mouth as if he wanted to curse at us, and then walk away, shaking his head.

Well. It wasn't ours.

We were beastly enough before, but now we had found out that we could bring frozen yogurts to class. And if you though we were animals before, then now we were...some other type of carnivorous organisms now.

The mob in front of the frozen yogurt grew (as did the number of hairnet ladies watching us), and there was a swarm of people busying themselves in sprinkles and cookie chunks and mixing two flavors, and etc. It was a bad, bad place to be.

Lucky for me, I had found out about taking food to class earlier, so I was perched on my seat, licking my frozen yogurt in a perky fashion, watching the insanity unfold of teenagers combined with unlimited frozen treats.

Yeah, baby!

Human Relations was next. It was a relaxing class. We watched Good Times (One of the episodes with the cutie pie Gary Coleman), South of Nowhere, Family Guy, and Everybody Hates Chris. We watched a single episode of these four shows, and then we discussed. We talked about how the older shows relate to our modern lives, how the modern shows relate to our modern lives, how the older shows relate to the modern shows, and everything in between.

Fun class, as usual.

And all the while, we were quietly snacking on our frozen yogurts.

Go figure.

After that we had our “Physical Education” class. For once, we actually went outside in below-freezing weather and did physical education-related stuff. It was optional though.

They were playing dodgeball. There was no way in hell that I was going to play dodgeball with these kids.

You see, the three Honors classes are constantly battling with each other to see who's the smartest. It's really, really stupid. I don't even know how it started. But that's what we do. We get into street fights after school, sabotage each other's work, and the atmosphere is extremely competitive.

Throw in a few rubber balls and let us loose on a soccer field? Yeah, you're screwed.

A lot of people sat out. I wonder why.

So, for the hour we were sitting on the bleachers, I entertained myself by continuing to “brighten people's days” by waving and yelling, “I LOVE THAT SCARF!” at the top of my lungs to random people below me in the parking lot.

Fun.

I switched it up a bit sometimes. This guy was walking to his car with a really cool blue jacket, so I screamed, “HI, I LIKE YOUR JACKET!”

It was so funny. He was blushing like hell. He smiled and said, “Thanks.” My friend thought it was really cute how he was embarrassed. I thought it was pathetic. I mean, a short 5'3'' girl who doesn't even go to college likes your jacket. Wow. Big deal. Not that exciting. Don't hurt yourself now!

What was weird about this whole physical education hour was that there was a guy taking pictures of everyone from UNDER THE BLEACHERS.

I mean. God. That's just weird.

So. That was my Thursday.

Friday-2/25/11

Our last day! :(

We were all pretty restless.

Toxicology-Boring, as usual. I got 100% on that quiz we took. Whoo-hoo!

Sports Management-Boring, as usual.

Lunch-They just don't learn, do they? We were taken back to the buffet place. The ice cream thing happened again. Surprise, surprise.

Two of my friends actually brought Tupperware to package some of the food. I started cracking up. My friend began whining, “It's not that weird!” And then I told them I wasn't laughing about that. They asked me why I was laughing. I simply reached into my bag and revealed my giant Ziploc bag.

HUMAN RELATIONS! - We had a multicultural lunch thing. The food was pretty good. Unfortunately, everyone was absolutely stuffed from lunch, so the food was hardly touched.

But before we ate lunch, we were asked to present a project we had done on love, peace, hate, and violence. The best one out of all of the projects was definitely Fleur's. Like, no doubt about it. She's Muslim (Like me! Yup. I'm Muslim. Get over it). But unlike me, she wears a hijab around her head (Yeah, I don't wear a hijab. Shut up, don't make me feel bad!) (And no, I'm not Arabic! Or Turkish! Or Indian!)

What was I talking about? Oh yeah! Fleur! Her project was actually a rap she had made and performed herself (It's New York City. What did you expect? A haiku?). It was all about how everyone has Muslims wrong. They're not murderers, and they're not out to kill you, and how Islam is actually a religion which is all about peace (You didn't know that, did you.) Anyway, there was one particular line which really hit home for me:

The world is a terrible place/All wrapped up and tied in lace”

I couldn't even believe how true this was. And this was coming from my very own friend Fleur, a girl who's in Honors class, but is dangerously close to getting kicked out because she's failing every subject. I didn't know she could be this deep.

I definitely underestimated her.

After Human Relations, we had a mini-party/ceremony thing to celebrate our completion of twenty hours of college (That's what it said on the certificate). We all sat down in a room, were forced to complete a survey on how we felt about this program (We were basically an experiment for them), and then we watched a short play performed by the Shakespeare class-group. It was...pretty bad, but oh well.

Then, our certificates were distributed, and finally, they revealed a looooooong table in the back filled with food.

I think my stomach began crying.

We were just so Goddamn full that the sight of edible products just made us want to hurl. Fortunately, we were smart enough to package the food on plates they provided us and brought most of the stash home.

Overall, it was a great experience. I'm going to miss all my professors (Well. That's a lie. Definitely not the Sports Management one), especially Professor Williams of Human Relations. She really meant a lot.

She gave me her email address! Now I can stalk her! (Just kidding)

They told us that they would be doing the same program next year, all over again. We grew excited. But it wasn't likely that they'd choose the same group of kids again. They would choose different ones.

Anyhoo, this college program was way more fun than I thought it would be. If there's ever anything like it offered at your school, don't think twice! Just do it. DO IT.


Thursday, February 24, 2011

The College Experience-Part II

Note: Before reading this post, I suggest reading this post first, if you haven't already done so. Just sayin'.

Wednesday-2/23/11

Yet again, the college experience has proved itself to be rather fascinating.

Again, we had Toxicology. Nothing changed. And by “nothing changed,” I mean it didn't get more interesting, it didn't get more boring, it didn't get harder, it didn't get easier, we didn't take more notes, we didn't take less notes – it remained the absolute same. The only thing different was that we had the class in a different room.

Toxicology went by pretty quickly. I was just waiting for Human Relations.

Then we had Sports Management, my favorite class (Heavy sarcasm on “favorite”) I didn't think Sports Management could be any more boring, but whaddya know. Expect the unexpected. It was extremely boring. Again.

Then we had lunch. As Natalie said in the comments of The College Experience-Part I, it was awesomely unhealthy. I bought a personal pizza (which was way too overpriced) and shared it with a friend.

And then...

HUMAN RELATIONS!

*Eeshie skips around the room happily with “Walking on Sunshine” in the background*

We were in a different room this time. It was in a different building, but it was still a conference room like last time. On this day, the topic was acts of kindness. We were talking about Rachel Scott and how she stated, “I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion then it will start a chain reaction of the same.”

Professor Williams decided to 'apply this theory to each and every one of our lives.'

Huh? The class asked.

She explained. “Since Rachel Scott was determined to start a chain reaction, we're going to be a part of it! Go out and brighten someone's day!”

We stared at her. Like...brighten someone's day for homework or something?

Nope. Professor Williams had something else in mind.

Go on now! Go!” She was directing us towards the door.

Wait, what?!”
Go brighten someone's day! Go on now! Anyone! It can be as simple as saying hello! Go and spread your kindness!”

Like, to the college students?”

Yes, yes! Go!”

B-but we don't even know them!”

You don't have to know someone to share kindness with them! Go out and put a smile on their faces!”

I heard a kid saying, “My mom told me not to talk to strangers...”

I could'nt believe we were actually doing this. Brightening the days of complete and utter strangers. So we walked out of the classroom and found ourselves right at the center of the major building where most of the college students hung out.

Yay.

All the girls of the class kind of traveled in a pack, wildly looking around to see whose day they could brighten. Then we kind of broke off into sub-groups. I was with Fleur. We were discussing something one minute, and then the next –

Her jaw dropped. “THE PIZZA MAN!”

She took off 80 m/h towards the guy delivering pizza, ready to hold open a door or something.

And now I was alone.

I could've joined one of my other friends, but I kind of liked the idea of turning someone's day around just because I said hi. I was determined to make this happen.

I walked among a large, casually-decorated room with couches and tried to find someone who looked...approachable. I was looking for someone who was not on a cell phone, did not have headphones on, and was not sitting next to someone.

That's right. I was looking for the loner.

And there he was, glowing in angelic light, sitting near the north corner on a couch all by himself, head bent over a book.

Mine.

I started marching towards him determinedly , saw some people look up because of my loud footsteps, slowed myself to a casual walk, and when I was five feet from him, I began tip-toeing.

I was nervous.

For about five seconds straight (Count that in your head to see how long it really is), I was just standing five feet from him, staring. I could see he was Asian, he was wearing all black, and his book was thick. I took a deep breath, pasting an I'm-a-friendly-person-and-I'm-not-trying-to-flirt-with-you-or-anything-I'm-just-trying-to-brighten-your-day smile on my face and spoke.

H-hi.”

He looked up, surprised. I could practically imagine the thought process in his head at the moment. What is this weird, unfamiliar, short 5'3'' girl doing in front of me saying, “Hi?”

A smile teased at his lips. “Hi.”

Nothing. Then –

How was your day?” KILL ME RIGHT NOW OH GOD THIS IS TOO EMBARASSING WHY AM I SO AWKWARD?

Raised eyebrows, smile. “Good...did you need anything from me?”

No, I was just saying hi,” I said. I was almost going to say “I was just brightening your day.” Thank GOD I didn't. And then for some reason, I said, “Thank you!” and walked away. Why did I say “Thank you?” I don't know! I'm still figuring it out...

As I was walking away, I was thinking to myself.

WHOA.

That was actually pretty fun.

So, I went around giving compliments and saying hi to everyone. I said hi to about two people, complimented one girl on her shirt, and another on her boots. Around this time, the teacher was calling us back to the classroom. I started heading back, when I felt someone grab my hand.

Who...?

It was Fleur.

Fleur, come on, we're going to get in trouble!” I'm always the worrywart.

I wanna hug someone!”

I just stare at her. “Er, okay. Go hug someone and let's go!”

We found someone friendly-looking that she could ask for a hug. She was Asian, and she was on her computer, and she looked really nice.

Fleur decided to get the butterflies, because she purposefully passed by her about five times, too shy each time to say anything. The sixth time, I pushed her forward and she stood right in front of the student. No backin' out now.

Fleur happens to have a really sweet voice and she's really pretty, so she kinnnnda resembles an angelic form. Not literally, but she's the type of person you'd call “America's Angel.”

So she says: “It's Free-Hug Day! Can I have a hug?”

Now understand this: This college student is some complete stranger who has never met my American Angel friend Fleur in her life before, and now Fleur asks for a hug. What would you do?

The college student surprises us all. She stares for about two seconds, then explodes in joyous laughter. Not a mean one. A really, really nice laughter. And you can tell instantly that she likes Fleur or thinks she's cute (Which she is. Just sayin'). She says, “Sure!” And they hug.

And I'm like, “AWWW!”

Look at that. World peace right there. Goes to show what a simple act of kindness can do, huh?

The rest of the day was pretty much a free period, but that Human Relations class was definitely the highlight of my day. I've never had a teacher like that, and I'm really excited to go back there.

And guys. Fleur is single. *Waggles eyebrows* Oh, wait hold up. Never mind. She's not single. I forgot. Sorry! She's taken. Shame, shame. Know what else is a shame? My science textbook has a stupid typo in it. Look at it!



Tsk, tsk.












Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The College Experience-Part I

*Before you read this post, you should probably read this post first.


Yesterday was my first day of that college program! I actually had a good time. Who knew?


Tuesday-2/22/11


Naturally, I arrived to college late the first day. Surprise, surprise. My dad was dropping both my friend Fleur and me down at one of the gates of the college. We knew we had to report to a building called "Brent Hall". I remember the conversation my dad and I were having as we stepped out of the car into the snow.


"So, you know where you're going, right?" he asked me.


"Yes, dad. I know where we're going."


"Where?" he challenged.


I gave him a look. "Brent Hall."


"And you know how to get there?"


I gave him this tired look. "Yes, dad. I know how to get there."


He finally left. Fleur looked at me surprised. "You know where it is?"


I looked at her worriedly. "NO!"


We scampered around the campus, going back and forth from where we came from, and we were completely, totally, utterly lost.


Later, one of my other late-coming classmates, Alex, decided to join us. "Where do we go?" he kept asking us.


"Okay, if we knew, we'd be inside, Alex!" Dumba$$...


Eventually, Fleur and I had figured out where to go. And apparently, so did Alex.


"Alex! Come on! We found Brent Hall!" we shouted, looking at the copy of the map of the university we had been given a week earlier.


Alex looked where we were pointing and shook his head. "It's this way!"


And you know what happened next.


"No, it's this way!"


"Uh-uh! It's this way!"


"No, it's not! It's this way!"


Instantaneously, we turned into arguing five-year-olds with the blink of an eye. And where did we choose to become five-year-olds? On college grounds. Oh, the irony.


It was two against one, so we ended up going the way Fleur and I had found. Ahem. The right way.


The second we walked in, a college student rushed up to us. "You guys part of that college program?"


We nodded. "Yeah."


"Go right in there," he said, pointing to a door.


We went in and saw pretty much all the kids sitting down in a mini-auditorium, the professor in charge of the program explaining something at the front. Just as we walked in, the teacher called my name.


"Here!" I said. But it came out really weird and squeal-y.


She handed me and Fleur a copy of our schedule for the rest of the week.


Fleur and I took our seats in the mini-auditorium, and everyone paid close attention as we were split up into groups that we'd be traveling with for most of the week.


There were four different groups, and these groups determined the classes you'd be taking. They were:


      -Human Relations
      -Shakespeare
      -Medieval Studies
      -Computer Science


The class I was put into was Human Relations, which was fine by me, because the description of the course sounded really interesting. It sounded like a mixture of philosophy and psychology, and something else, I guess. But I really wanted it.


So I was put into that class.


After everyone was put into their class-group, we had our first real class. It was somewhat of a lecture, as we were seated in the auditorium. The class was Toxicology. Which is actually pretty interesting, to my surprise. Toxicology ran for an hour. We took major notes in that class.


Second class we had was Sports Management. I swear, it was the most pointless, stupid, dumb class I've ever taken. Like, it was retarded. I don't even know how to explain it. So, here's the Wikipedia definition!


Sport management is a field of education and vocation concerning the business aspect of sport. Some examples of sport managers include the front office system in professional sports, college sports managers, recreational sport managers, sports marketing, event management, facility management, sports economics, sport finance, and sports information. Many colleges offer this in many degrees.


So. There ya go. Dumbest class I've ever been a part of.


Sports Management ended at 11:00, and then we had lunch. While we had all been together for the two previous classes, we were now split up into our class-group. I was with all the Human Relations students.


Since there's more than one cafeteria to a university campus, they decided to split all of us into different cafeterias so that we'd see more of the college. The plan was to let us see as much as we could before Friday.


Our cafeteria was really, really cool. Actually, it was pretty amazing. The walls were made out of glass, letting us all view the midday sunny weather (even though there was snow on the grass, but whatever). And the places to buy food was like how food stores are set up in the mall. There was a little Burger King, a Taco Bell, a Pizza and Pasta Place, and a lot more. I wanted to buy food, but my mother made packed me a lunch.


So whilst everyone around me was eating Whoppers and burritos, I was stuck with my handy dandy sandwich. Yee-haw.


The day improved greatly after lunch. We had two hours of Human Relations. When we walked into the room, we "oohed" and "ahhed" on how professional the room looked. There was a carpet floor, a GIANT flat screen television screen mounted on the wall (and I mean GIANT. Like, three feet by two feet. Or maybe even more!). And, most importantly, there was a lonnnnnnnng conference desk in the center of the room.


And spinny chairs. Lots and lots of spinny chairs.


So the teacher walked in and introduced herself as Professor Williams. She distributed the real syllabus that she gives out to her college students. We felt special. Special indeed.


It was a small class -- ten people in all. So Professor Williams wanted us all to go around in a circle, stand up, and say three things about yourselves to the class, and also say what you want do when you grow up.


Oh, $hit.


Professor Williams got to my friend Fleur. Fleur, being the outgoing person that she is, hopped up and faced the class.


"Well. I'm a relatively happy person, my favorite color is purple, I want to be an architect, and...I'm going to marry Justin Beiber when I grow up!"


My other friend MH, another avid Justin Beiber fan, was also in the room. And she does not like Fleur (You might remember MH from this post) . So she goes, "Um, whoa. Whoa. Uh-uh. No." She held up her hand, which had a small, cloth ring on it (You know the kind. The little neon-colored ones with stripes that look like a small piece of rope? They look like they're from Chucke Cheese's? Yeah, those). "This is our engagement ring."


Fleur angrily rolls herself over to MH on her chair. "Well, our wedding date is already set!"


MH goes, "I have sixteen posters of him up in my room! And when he turns seventeen, I'm going to add one more!"


Oh, God...


Professor Williams laughed, as if this was funny.


"This isn't funny, Professor Williams!" Fleur and MH said.


Eventually, I got the two of them to SHUT UP, and we continued the circle of sharing things about ourselves. I was up next.


"Well, I like writing...and I'm probably going to end up doing something sciency/nerdy when I'm older...and I want to go to Princeton."


I guess Professor Williams over here thought me wanting to go to Princeton was either:


    a) a joke
    b) really funny
    c) utterly impossible
    d) Mitochondria


It was one of those, because she started cracking up. CRACKING. UP. And I'm serious when I say I want to go to Princeton. I just stared at her, still standing, as she laughed herself to death. Then, when she saw my straight face and found out I was serious, she quieted down.


"Yeah, I'm ambitious," I said before sitting down.


Professor Williams is actually a really nice person. Her class was really cool. One of the topics we talked about was prejudice and racism. She gave us a list of twelve people. It went a little something like this:


      -Gay Physician
      -Black minister
      -Woman basketball player
      -Uneducated, poor, pregnant white woman
      -Latino engineer
      -Lesbian farmer
      -Chinese Psychologist
      -Unskilled male laborer
      -Quadriplegic child
      -Scientist/Researcher
      -Male teacher
     
And the list went on. We were given a crisis, such as, "An atomic bomb has destroyed everything. Twelve people remain sheltered underground. They have enough food and water to save seven people. Your job is to "kill" five of these people, and after the destruction is over, the seven remaining people will go out from underground and create a new society.


The activity was actually very interesting. At first, no one wanted to "kill" anyone. I mean, come on, that's cruel. But we got into it and saw that sacrifices had to be made. It was cruel, but it was life.


:(


After Human Relations, we had "Physical Education." It wasn't physical education. We took a tour of as much as the campus as we could in an hour, and then we basically went home.


I actually found it very easy. Probably cause they're going easy on us, but who knows?