VEISHA

Beautiful weather, no homework, concerts, regurgitators, lumberjack shows. . . it was an awesome VEISHA. For those of you who don't know, VEISHA is a celebration of Iowa State University. From 1922 to today, it has become one of the biggest student-run events in the country with traditions and a events as diverse as the university itself. Unfortunately, a lot of these events and the food do cost money, but there was a lot of free stuff and my friends and I had fun just walking around campus- something that was a little difficult last year due to snow.

The concerts were pretty sweet. Friday night was battle of the bands and Saturday was Cartel, Jamey Johnson, Straylight Run, and Ludo. They were held out in the molecular biology parking lot, and despite a bunch of warnings about thunderstorms, it only rained for a little bit during the parade- and that was no biggy because my friends and I left after an hour and a half. Parades are nice, but the parade wasn't even half way done, and there are only so many trucks or cars with signs and waving people I don't know that I can take.

We also went to a talent show and saw a comedian, fire pixies, lumberjack show, and regurgiator. Ugh that was kind of gross! He swallowed goldfish, rings, a lightbulb. . . the weirdest thing was smoke which he then puffed into a soap bubble five minutes after he swallowed it. It was kind of cool, but gross at the same time. The lumberjacks had wood chopping contests, pole climbing contests, and all sorts of stuff crazy manly men like to do in plaid and suspenders. My friend Julia and I agreed they probably live in the mountains somewhere and come down during VEISHA each year in the spring to look for women folk to take back with them. very "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" without the ballet scene.

At midnight on Sat., some of us partook in a mad run from the steps of Beardshear to the Four Seasons Fountain. The first five people won t-shirts so the beginning was a little violent with people getting run into and knocked down. I was told there were some naked guys in the back of the pack, but I never saw them. My grandpa always asked if I was running after boys or I was running away from them in xc; I guess, this was one of those times I was running away from them- fast! The fire pixies were these four girls and this guy that kind of looked like a pirate that danced around with fire. It was entrancing for a while- probably because it was after 2:00 in the morning, and then I just got nervous because the crazy pirate guy kept running into the audience waving around his fire chain. Ahh. .. I just did not trust him.

So in conclusion, VEISHA was fun. I didn't get to do everything, but I'll know a little better what to expect for next year. The best part was just being able to hang out with friends and take a break from school. Oh, and I also learned that I do not want to be a traveling entertainer. But if my plans of becoming a biological illustrator don't turn out as expected, I always have the option to marry one of the lumberjack guys.

Last weekend was busy with a FHP leadership retreat, Anders Formal, Global Gala, oh, and a drawing project. For my birthday, I was awoken at midnight from a bunch of friends to a cake and "Happy Birthday," and on Thursday night, Ryan showed up with flowers to surprise me since he has a track meet this weekend. I thought it was Claire so when I turned around I was so surprised that I stood up and hit my head on my lofted bed! I guess Claire and several others had known about it for several days and made sure I didn't go to dinner early or do something else. It was a nice birthday.

Below is the ink drawing I spent so much time on. It wasn't accepted into the Focus art show, but there will be plenty of other shows. For the next project, we are researching artists and then picking one to use their style and context to create something different. I chose Arthur Rackham, the illustrator of the original Peter Pan, second edition of Alice in Wonderland, Midsummer Night's Dream. . . An author described the illustrations as slightly grotesque but beautiful, creating a captivating visual for children and adults. I also found out that he influenced the characters from Pan's Labyrinth.

Spring Break

The pictures below are from Kalidaquiz- a 26 hour radio contest that is a BIG deal for Anders. A new question is given every six minutes (an example would be, "What was the sign outside of the hotel after Penelope escaped"), and there are various challenges (like crocheting a cat sweater in two hours), scavenger hunts (like finding a wedding dress and wearing it to the radio station), traveling scavenger hunts (this time it was to Chicago), and various other activities that brought our house closer together and realize sleep is for people that don't want to win. An example of this would be getting up at 4:30 in the morning to help put together a choreographed dance that we had to perform in front of the radio station judges. Ours turned out pretty sweet. I definitely incorporated some show choir stuff!

Whoo. . . it is spring break. Yay! And, no, I am not sitting on a warm, sandy beach right now, nor am I doing something really charitable like building houses with Habitat for Humanity. I am in Guthrie Center, and despite the fact that it is not one of the more exotic places to go during this time of year, it is nonetheless where I want to be. After half a semester of classes, tests, and art projects, I am ready for a break- even if this break includes studying for three exams and a Spanish presentation when I return to school. Oh, well. I just won't think about that right now as I enjoy this moment of being able to sit on a couch. A couch- not a desk chair, not a fold-up lawn chair- but a real couch. I have missed comfortable couches that don't smell like college boys. I've also missed beds that don't require a ladder and don't have a ceiling so close to my head that I have to hunch over when I wake up in the morning. There have been tons of little things I've missed from home. However, by the end of the break, I know there will be lots of little things from my life in Ames I will start to miss, and I will be ready to return, carrying with me with clean sheets and new socks.

Since I don't have a job to worry about this week, I've been helping out my parents, seeing some high school friends, and planning a birthday for someone turning 50 (don't worry, Mom; you don't look over 40.) This week, I also plan on going to some track practices to get ready for the Dam to Dam 20K in Des Moines this summer, and on Wednesday, I will be talking to the Spanish 3 class at GCHS about taking Spanish courses in college and give my presentation about Spanish cinema in preparation for when I go back to school.

Spring is in the air! I hope you can go out sometime and enjoy it.

Wow, this month has flown by. I'm trying to think about all that has happened since my last blog, but it is kind of a blur. It seems like most of my time for the past several weeks has been consumed by a huge art project. The drawing is a scanned image of one of my scarves, a purple lantern, and some beaded jewelry from Africa from a South American country. We needed to have a theme, and I just grabbed some stuff from my room and headed down to copy works to create a black and white image on a scanner. Turned out to be all from other countries that had been given to me by Sarah or the Blessman family! I'm using ink with a bottle and nib and the technique of informal cross hatching for the first time. The drawing looks really cool because there is so much detail (I even used tiny dashes to show the weaving of the scarf's fabric,) but it was stressful and very time consuming.

Now that we have finished that project, we get to start a new one. Sigh, no breaks, I guess. Besides drawing, I've had a lot of tests, but they have been going well.

I received one of the 75 FHP leadership positions for next year, and this past week I received confirmation that I will be a Destination Iowa State leader for next fall's freshman. I also attended a lecture with some people about evolution and religion. It was pretty sweet because there were a bunch of posters on display to look at afterward, showing evolutionary research done by various professors at ISU. There were several posters with my mentor program professor's research, and it had my logo on it! There was also one about clams from the research my bio. prof. has been working on with river clams found here in Iowa.

This past week I scheduled a hair appointment with the Salon Professional Academy here in Ames for Wednesday evening. I haven't used the bus system much this year, but I was able to catch a bus out to city hall and get onto a new line to take me close to the facility. I made it there on time, didn't have any troubles with the bus, had a nice haircut that was super cheap. However, getting back was kind of an adventure! The hair cut took longer than I had expected because the students there don't want to make any mistakes (which is good), and I realized there was only one other bus coming out for the evening and I wasn't really sure where the bus stop was since the bus driver had let me off at the drive for S.P.A. instead of the bus stop. So there I was- cold, hungry, carrying my little backpack, frantically cutting through the parking lot of Lowe's under the dingy street lights (but with a very nice hair) when suddenly I saw the bus parked at the stop. And then I saw it head out onto the highway! I did not want to walk 7 miles all the way back to campus! I started running towards the bus, hoping he would stop. The door creaked open, and I jumped very gracefully on board. Fortunately, it was the same bus driver who had dropped me off and said he would take me back to my dorm even though he was finished with his route.

This weekend I am going up to Wartburg to see Ryan run in the conference indoor track meet, and then it is just two more weeks until spring break! Woot woot! Have a great weekend!

Oh, and by the way, my roommate and I have two pet rats, Cookie and Sheba. They provide a lot of entertainment!

Protists, Apples, and Football

The ice is melting and the people are rejoicing- no joke. The past two weeks have been going really well. I'm still really busy with homework and studying, but it seems better than last semester because I can anticipate the work load better and stay ahead of it. I have already had two tests and an art project due, and this week I will have a biology exam.

My art project was a still-life in graphite pencils of some lilies, leaves, and porcelain pot. With the hours in and out of class, I spent around 17 hours on the drawing. It wasn't like I was being pokey! In fact, I was one of the first ones done with the project. Our teacher is just very particular. When I decided what I wanted to draw off of the display our teacher had placed in the middle of the room, I thought organic shapes would give me some leniency, that I wouldn't have to have every little curve of the petal correct or the distance between two stems exact. I was wrong. It amazed me how I could spend an hour drawing a leaf, believing I had drawn it accurately before my teacher came by and within two seconds could point out a flaw. I shouldn't be complaining, though. This is going to make me a more critical drawer and able to create better pieces for my portfolio.

I was quite surprised this week when I found myself fascinated by prokaryotes and protists! My regular biology professor has been on a trip to Venezuela so his wife has actually been subbing in, and she is hilarious and awesome! She relates everything to real life either through an a weird belly button analogy of horizontal gene transfer or a quick look at how something like oomycetes caused the Irish potato famine which brought over a lot of immigrants which ended up changing the social/ethnic fabric of our nation. And it was all because of a protist. Crazy crazy. . .

Ahh, so besides school- I made some pretty sweet apple pies for an apple party (apple pie and the game apples to apples) last Saturday for the Anders house. It was a lot of fun, and people liked the pies. Sorry, Kelsey. I stole your idea. :p Instead of buying a sack of apples, I designated people from the house to collect them from the dining center over a week span. I had so many apples sitting on my desk with their sweet aroma tempting me while I worked at my computer.

This Sunday was the house Superbowl party. I borrowed a projector from the communications building so we could project the game on the wall in our kitchen/den, and everyone chipped in to bring some food for an array of classic American food- chips, chili, cookies, and pie. Don't worry, I brought some carrots and broccoli to expand the venue. haha

Have a happy Monday, and enjoy the Superbowl commercials!