Tuesday night I united two of my best friends here with a best friend from abroad, and while maybe I just felt awkward at first, they all liked each other in the end. I drove us all to dinner (!!! sometimes I can drive!) at The Only, where Old Hippie Guy missed us and gave us some delicious food. We then exercised some of the privileges of being old people at a liquor store, and headed back to hang out for the night. Then Wednesday saw the annual Target trip for things we forgot or want in a suite, where I mostly just bought food. I went to the Hypnotist performance that night and he was as entertaining as I remembered from Freshman year. I almost got trampled at the end by the guy who was convinced he'd left his kid somewhere the second he set foot out of the auditorium. Afterwards I went to a Hogwarts at Hamilton e-board meeting (we are too excited and want to kick things off early) in the brand shiny new Kirkland loft. There is so much space. I actually don't even know what I would do with all that space, with just two people living there. But it's pretty nice. I stopped by in Kirkland to say hello to some other people first and had a nice time continuing the reunions.
Today classes began. I started with a bright and early 9 AM The Rise of Print Culture starring my second favorite professor, Margie Thickstun. I am mostly excited for this class because we get to use a printing press and learn to MAKE BOOKS. I mean, that is what Creative Writing majors get excited about. We looked at medieval books from the rare books collection, which I did in a class last year but they still amaze me. I have a bunch of friends in that class so it should be good anyway.
I went to scary Modern German Literature after that, with Prof. Edith Toegel who has not lost any of her ability to intimidate. It is me and five other people, all of whom I am still convinced are better at German than me, but all of whom I also (mostly) like a lot. It turns out we have to write TWO 8-PAGE PAPERS for this class, and I am not even a German major so I am trying to justify to myself that this class is worth it. It better be. I don't really feel like dropping it, and I do feel like speaking German this semester, but I think my brain might explode with umlauts and the DDR and plusquamperfekt before December. Toegel is having me come talk to her at 8:30 tomorrow morning (why do Austrians have to be functional so early?) so she can convince me I can do it and also help me figure out getting a minor. I think I'm just going to throw out a lot of, "Wien ist die schoenste Stadt in der ganze Welt!"
Speaking of speaking German, I saw my number one favorite Professor this morning, Chris Hill, and spoke to him in German briefly of my crazy wild absolutely insane and cultural semester abroad. (Or, I told him where I was and that it was nice we agreed neither of us could understand Schwaebisch). I'm in his Witches and Witch-hunting class tomorrow at 10 and I'm very excited.
And now I'm excited to watch Obama's speech with friends and possibly drink anytime anyone says the words "hope" or "change"? We also thought anytime the Clintons looked falsely happy, but apparently they aren't there.
Okay, several hours later, the convention was very impressive. And Al Gore alone certainly fulfilled our expectations for overuse of those words. But look at the Obama family! How could you not elect this family? Mrs. Biden looks disturbingly like Mr. Biden, was the other main conclusion drawn from this. And how did they get Stevie Wonder? Anyway, we're planning a completely over-the-top RNC party next.
We have plans to make a team for trivia night and to join the wine club since we're finally eligible. I have plans to go to the fellowship meeting tomorrow and try to figure out my life.
In conclusion (wow, two words that should never be in a paper), coming back to Hamilton felt almost completely natural and my room is back to feeling like my own little world. Being a senior is disturbing but also fun in ways I didn't think about, and even though I really, really miss people, it's not messing up my time here.
