I'm Back! With Good News!

From the News Blackout and my apparent hiatus from blogging. But good news from the Island:

IT'S RAINING.

I've never been so happy to see and feel rain in my entire life. Me and the roomie ventured to the outside. To her it feels like home. To me it feels like anti-heat, which is pretty much as close to home as this place may get. Rumor has it, the Island has a spazz when there is an inch of snow. Let's see what my snow dance brings, as my rain dance was fruitful. 

This week has taught me a lot. In the sports realm it has been like this:

Rugby: It's awesome, all around. The girls are nice and tough, the game is fun, the coaches are tough, but helpful and nice. Also, it may break me. Until I get in proper shape, my legs will move like Frankenstein's monster. And my body will be sore in every possible way.

Equestrian Team: Maybe worth it, maybe not. The girls do not seem as helpful as the rugby girls and I have to do everything myself even though I literally have no clue about anything and know no one. But I'm feeling my love for riding creating an ache in me. So I may have to bite the bullet in order to pursue an activity I love.

Other lessons that have been featured this week are:

• Never use the second door of the transit bus to enter. Your groceries will get stuck and you will look like a monkey gripping a banana in a jar. Whilst others will simply stare at you, not helping in anyway, such as agreeing to hold your stuff or agreeing to tell the bus driver about your situation even when you ask. Others outside the buss will offer helpful, sane advice, which you will ignore due to your anger at the people inside. All together: It's a bad idea.
• Always read the fine print. Otherwise you and your roommate will sit there waiting for a bus that will not show on Sundays and missing the two others that would take you to the mall.
• Don't venture to the creepy basement with out a buddy. The laundry room lights will not work and you will have to drag all your stuff back up to the third floor. 
• Do stick it to the man by sneaking trailmix into the football game, but don't put it back in your purse open. It will be an awkward thing for you to dump out of your purse in public when you realize days later that it spilled everywhere. 

There was more, I'm sure, but those are the highlights. Have a good day, hopefully you can be less awkward and klutzy than me!

Double Post!

         This image and quote I see floating all over Facebook has always bothered me. I was about to comment on the persons post, but decided through better judgement I should rather voice my opinion through my own blog and not offend her/him with any of my own ideas. It's easier this way. Still I feel like this image needs to be addressed. I wholeheartedly disagree with this. No amount of persuasion will lead me to agree. If you were spanked as a child and have respect, which does not stem or is based in fear, than I believe this more likely a correlation, which is not causation.

         There are many reasons spanking is dying out in parenting methods. My parents, whom were spanked as children, did not spank me nor did they my siblings. Spanking may command respect, but often out of fear and or hatred. Simply as one would not hit another student on a playground who has cheated at kickball, a parent should not hit their child for misbehavior. After many spankings, it can become an insignificant discipline.
          I feel that this campaign, if you would like to call it that, is based in ignorance. I would hope that the people reposting this are not privy to cases in which spanking has been so severe it has emotionally impacted the individual or that they are not aware of other effective parenting methods. I think this campaign is based in the assumption that our youth population is not disciplined enough or are disrespectful. However, effective discipline should come from a place of love and caring and respect is not an enforced rule, but a result of knowledge and learning.
           I agree that this is my opinion and everyone is entitled to their own. If you would like to share yours, whether it is different or similar to my own, please do, but I ask that you do so in a respectful manner and demonstrate that their is value and reason in others opinion.

     

An Alaskan in Hot Weather

       It's hot here. I mean, it gets hot in Squarebanks, but there isn't humidity and I feel like it's just different. 80 in Alaska, is hot, but I can live with it. 80 on the Island? Nope. My drawers are a mess due to the fact that every time I go to get dressed, everything is too hot and I fling it off myself and into the drawer in a frustrated tantrum. To make it worse, there is no air conditioning in my dorm. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem, but considering the third floor is equivalent to a stuffy old closet on the fourth level of hell, my little fan is not enough to make this room feel the least bit normal.
        This should be a disability-- I'm not equipped to handle this heat. The only things I can wear are shorts and light tops. I have limited shorts and my tops all feel too hot. Plus, I'm sweating all the time, so that makes it difficult to feel comfortable in clothes. SBU: Can we please be a nudist colony campus? It may make the heat tolerable.
            I looked at the monthly forecast- it stays this hot all the way through September!!! I thought all months that end in -ber were supposed to be cold! When is fall? I really can't wait for that to come. Either I'm going to spend a lot washing and rewashing my only suitable clothes or I'm going to need to invest in a few more summer pieces. And I mean SUMMER, New York. Not these long pants and jackets I see many wearing. It's far too hot for pants.
Till this Alaskan becomes acclimated to the hot Long Island whatever this extremely long season is called, it's no pants.
Love the sunburned, sweating Alaskan on the Island.

Turbulence...

      But hopefully clear skies ahead. It's hard adapting to life on the island. On one hand many things are the same; of course, there are mean people and unhappy people everywhere. But I can't decide if dorm life is better at UAF or SBU. Except dining. SBU, you are the clear winner on that ( Sorry, Tilley). But I went down to the kitchen today to heat water (because I can't use my electric kettle in my room- or have a microwave) and it put a damper on my morning. It's in the creepy, dank basement. The colors are all pale. There is no fridge. It's a run-down ghost town, not the jovial place a kitchen is supposed to be. I can't eat in a depressing place- food is too precious. I suppose this means UAF Moore Hall has a pretty swanky kitchen, so snaps for that.
           I'm trying to get to know people in my department, but it's hard. I walked into the Newsroom because it said School of Journalism and I had not been there for a tour in June, wasn't exactly a helpful bunch. Then I wandered up to no man's land- aka the fourth floor, aka the Journalism department, but they had mostly gone home for the day. As I walked back down...and down...and down the long empty hallways, I couldn't help but feel alone. Mainly because I literally was, but partly because I don't have many people here I know.
I have my roommate, who is awesome. Also, two girls who live on the floor below us, whom are extremely sweet. But I don't have any classes with them during the day. I kind of feel lost not knowing anyone or recognizing anyone. It's weird to come from a place where if I don't know you, I know someone that does. Or I recognize you from that one time at that one place. You know, for the thing? Then I'm stranded on the island where if I don't know you, it seems likely to stay that way.
           I sat in silence today for about twenty minutes waiting for my linguistics professor. The whole time wondering why I wasn't speaking. Or why no one else was. It killed my to sit there; everyone on there phones. Has it always been like this? Before cellphones did people actually fill silences with talking? Have phones made us scared to actually speak or are we just naturally cowards?
I'm not sure, perhaps I'll find the answers soon.
This is a bit cynical due to my lack of inspiration and my loneliness during the school hours, so take my ranting with a grain of salt.

Laughing is lovely. Or Not.

         A little fun was had today amidst all the welcoming and talking that was my scheduled day. The pep band was enjoyable (and different, it's a little cold for them in AK. Also, no football. And hockey is on ice). The game show built into the informative section was very fun as well as the interesting skits about pressure, violence, and substance abuse. The least enjoyable was not the long-winded talks nor was it the numerous videos we watched as the hours ticked past, but it was in fact a certain lack of maturity I found in some of my transfer peers that made me (most likely literally) shake my head.
            I admit, I too was taken aback by the bewildering appearance of the lady whom appeared on the video. Did I think she looked comical? YES. I mean, woah. But did I laugh? No. And did I laugh louder and continuously throughout the video? No. A little laughter could have been forgiven, but the amount was simply ridiculous. She was obviously employed at SBU, what if she was there? That's really all I could think. How horrible she would feel if she heard these students laughing at her. Or how horrible someone who knew her would feel. It's not that I didn't find it funny, but these things we must keep to ourselves. No matter how someone looks or acts, they don't deserve the hurt and embarrassment. Sometimes we may think things are funny that are not good things to laugh at. As respectable people, we have to learn to suppress the laughter and, furthermore, we should try to forget the humor we find in it.

For today this is all. Although there were more adventures, they might take away from this reflective experience. So, for now, Goodnight.

It Is Official...

I'm in Stony Brook. Even as I traveled, it seemed that with every plane I took, going further East, things became more bizarre. Simply meaning it wasn't like home.
 I started traveling with my dad at 1:30 AM Alaska Time from Squarebanks and arrived in LaGuardia, NY around 8:45 PM Eastern, then arrived at our hotel in Stony Brook around 10 PM. It was 16.5 hours of traveling time, but at least I had something familiar, my dad.
The culture on Long Island is pretty different from Alaska. There are good people and nice people and bad people and mean people everywhere. Also I genuinely believe most humans are driven by the same emotions and needs, so in this respect it's not so different. But rather it is in the way things are accepted, perceived, dealt with, and organized.
The size of Stony Brook University doesn't phase me. UAF was of comparable size and built on two hills. But here I am not being able to have a microwave or an electric kettle in my room. Having to get a work order to debunk the beds (because I'm pretty sure we don't have a third roommate). When the hotel driver brought us to the completely wrong place and there were no sidewalks to walk on (in fact is was a loading bay in which he disposed of us), the building we walked into we were shooed out. I insisted to the woman that I knew this was not the right building, however there are no sidewalks, I just needed somewhere to walk through with my big luggage. Finally, we settled that.
But at UAF, we were allowed microwaves and an electric kettle. We bunked and debunked out own beds, not without recruiting some taller people. If I walked into a building with luggage, I would be directed and helped, not shooed out (although, I think this was perhaps a fluke. Most people would have helped at SBU).
Today was long and tiring and if I had my choice now I'd click my heels and scream "There's no place like home!" But I know it will get better. I will learn my way around; the Island and the culture. I'll have fun, meet people, maybe even make friends. Sometimes you have to force feed yourself the words: This is what you want. This will be good.
And sometimes you choke.