J-term has been full of new experiences, some good and some bad. Over the weekend Brandt (my dorm) unfortunately experienced something that I was not fond of:
Fire Alarms in the middle of the night, 2 nights in a row!!!!
In Brandt we've had at least 6 false fire alarms this school year. On Friday night around 2:30 the alarm went off with the voice coming over the loud speaker repeatedly saying "An emergency situation has been detected in your building. Exit Immediately" while lights in the hallways flashed on and off. So everyone reluctantly got out of bed (if they were asleep at that time, which I happened to be), put on some extra layers if they were smart because the temperature was below zero outside, and stood outside in the cold for 5-10 minutes while the RA's checked the building. Not too surprising, but no fire was found. Apparently there was a fight up on 4th floor and somehow the alarm got set off. To make matters worse, the people in the fight trailed blood down one of the stairwells on their way out, which really freaked some of my friends out, because no one knew what the blood was from.
Then on Saturday night, a little after midnight, the alarm sounded again. Not only was this very agitating because we had just had one the previous night, but this time we had to stand outside for 15 minutes in the cold weather because most of the Brandt RA's were not available to search and secure the building because they were helping out with Open Mic Night at Marty's. It was not fun.
We never did get official reports of what happened during those two nights, or why the alarms went off. Typically when the alarm gets pulled and no one confesses to it, the whole building gets fined. I just don't understand why people even pull the alarm. It's not funny and now we are so used to the alarms being false, that if some situation does occur where everyone needs to get out quickly, very few people will take it seriously. I know that I definitely took my time both nights to put on layers of clothes because I didn't want to freeze while I was standing outside. It's unfortunate and I can only hope that nothing serious ever does happen in the dorms.
On the bright side, there's only 1 week left of J-term! That means only four more nights to get through without alarms going off!
As always, your questions and comments are welcome. If there's anything you'd like to know, I'd love to be of assistance!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Cool Runnings
My nose is cold, my hands are stiff, my cheeks are freezing, and my legs are red. That is exactly how I felt when I finished my long run for track yesterday. Welcome to winter running in Decorah! With the high around 9 degrees and the wind chill below zero, it was not an ideal day to be running 12 miles. But we distance runners accepted our fate, bundled up in many layers and headed out in packs. It was kind of funny seeing just a couple of eyes poking out of face masks, hats, and other winter apparel. Once I got going the only bad part was facing the wind. It seemed like no matter how many layers I had on, I could still feel that wind chill. When I got back after the run, I don't know if I've ever been happier to thaw out and warm up. 
While the weather outside is pretty brisk, the indoor track season is just heating up. We've had practice for about a week and a half, and thus far it's going well. Some of the team is not here during January though, as they are taking the opportunity to travel abroad or do an internship. On Tuesdays and Fridays the WHOLE track and field team meets for warm up drills before each group, sprinters, throwers, and distance, split up to do their workouts. By meeting together as a whole group I've met a lot of people who weren't involved in cross country. I've also been introduced to hurdle mobility drills and steeple mobility drills. I'm excited to try running the steeplechase during the track season. It's a 3000 meter race (a little less than 2 miles) with 4 barriers (stee
ples) and 1 barrier with a water pit on the other side on each lap. I've always loved obstacle courses and I am definitely pumped to give this a try, despite never jumping over a hurdle, much less a huge steeple.
It is clear that all of the coaches are really excited for the season and willing to give their time to help the team continue to improve. Already a sense of unity is developing among the team. When I run a couple of strides on the indoor track while the other groups are finishing up their practices, I'll always hear a "Good Job" or "Way to Go". It's great encouragement and helps me feel more like a part of the team.
I haven't run track since my freshman year in high school and I can't wait to see what this season will bring. For now I'm going to keep warm and keep running through these chilly days in Decorah...where there's always Cool Runnings.
While the weather outside is pretty brisk, the indoor track season is just heating up. We've had practice for about a week and a half, and thus far it's going well. Some of the team is not here during January though, as they are taking the opportunity to travel abroad or do an internship. On Tuesdays and Fridays the WHOLE track and field team meets for warm up drills before each group, sprinters, throwers, and distance, split up to do their workouts. By meeting together as a whole group I've met a lot of people who weren't involved in cross country. I've also been introduced to hurdle mobility drills and steeple mobility drills. I'm excited to try running the steeplechase during the track season. It's a 3000 meter race (a little less than 2 miles) with 4 barriers (steeples) and 1 barrier with a water pit on the other side on each lap. I've always loved obstacle courses and I am definitely pumped to give this a try, despite never jumping over a hurdle, much less a huge steeple.It is clear that all of the coaches are really excited for the season and willing to give their time to help the team continue to improve. Already a sense of unity is developing among the team. When I run a couple of strides on the indoor track while the other groups are finishing up their practices, I'll always hear a "Good Job" or "Way to Go". It's great encouragement and helps me feel more like a part of the team.
I haven't run track since my freshman year in high school and I can't wait to see what this season will bring. For now I'm going to keep warm and keep running through these chilly days in Decorah...where there's always Cool Runnings.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Other Side of the Desk
Since the beginning of J-term last Thursday, I've been anticipating my first day in the classroom as a teacher's observer. My J-term class is an education class where four days a week we observe and help out in an area school classroom. I was placed in a Decorah High School science class since I am interested in possibly teaching biology at that level.
This morning was full of excitement and anticipation, especially after we found out that there was a 2-hour delay due to weather. I received a call from my car pool driver at 6:10 AM telling me about the delay, and I was a little relieved. (I stayed up a little too late to watch the national BCS title game last night, and it wasn't even that close!) So after sleeping a bit more I was refreshed and ready to go. I felt so professional as I donned my black dress pants, heels, and nice top before heading out; not my usual type of attire.
Other Luther students are also placed at Decorah H.S. in other classrooms, so we all had a meeting this morning with the principal before school started. Then in we went, to meet our teacher and the students with whom we'll be working for the month. As I walked into the classroom I could tell it would be a great fit for me. The teacher is super enthusiastic and the kids were all participating and talking, and not just talking to their friends, but actually talking about the current classroom topic. This teacher really encourages discussions, interactions, and activities that help apply lessons from the book to real life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what all goes in to being a great teacher-the lesson plans, the relations with the students, relations with the other faculty, etc. It will be a great experience to see if teaching is what I'm really interested in, and it gives me an opportunity to step away from my role as a student, and try out being a teacher. It also gives me something to do during the days while all of my friends are taking their 2 hour classes and then doing homework. Last Thursday and Friday I was getting a little bored because we don't have much work to do outside of our observation.
Speaking of down time and boredom, during J-term not too much is going on at Luther other than movies on the weekends, varsity basketball, wrestling, and swimming, and INTRAMURALS! Intramurals are huge during J-term. Dodgeball, card games, basketball, indoor soccer, and much more are all offered to students. I'm playing in a 5-on-5 basketball league on a team made up of all cross country girls (we all played basketball in high school, though). Last night was our first game and it was awesome! We played a team of guys and we rocked. Despite the fact that we only had 1 substitute and non of us had shot a ball in quite some time, we did really well and won by 7. The 3's were dropping and I was amazed at how physical we were. It was so fun to play again and to see this 'baller' aspect of my teammates that wasn't apparent during XC. We have a total of 11 games in the next 3 weeks, so our conditioning will pay off.
So after a slow start, J-term is shaping up to be a fun month full of new opportunities. Not a bad way to start off a new year.
This morning was full of excitement and anticipation, especially after we found out that there was a 2-hour delay due to weather. I received a call from my car pool driver at 6:10 AM telling me about the delay, and I was a little relieved. (I stayed up a little too late to watch the national BCS title game last night, and it wasn't even that close!) So after sleeping a bit more I was refreshed and ready to go. I felt so professional as I donned my black dress pants, heels, and nice top before heading out; not my usual type of attire.
Other Luther students are also placed at Decorah H.S. in other classrooms, so we all had a meeting this morning with the principal before school started. Then in we went, to meet our teacher and the students with whom we'll be working for the month. As I walked into the classroom I could tell it would be a great fit for me. The teacher is super enthusiastic and the kids were all participating and talking, and not just talking to their friends, but actually talking about the current classroom topic. This teacher really encourages discussions, interactions, and activities that help apply lessons from the book to real life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what all goes in to being a great teacher-the lesson plans, the relations with the students, relations with the other faculty, etc. It will be a great experience to see if teaching is what I'm really interested in, and it gives me an opportunity to step away from my role as a student, and try out being a teacher. It also gives me something to do during the days while all of my friends are taking their 2 hour classes and then doing homework. Last Thursday and Friday I was getting a little bored because we don't have much work to do outside of our observation.
Speaking of down time and boredom, during J-term not too much is going on at Luther other than movies on the weekends, varsity basketball, wrestling, and swimming, and INTRAMURALS! Intramurals are huge during J-term. Dodgeball, card games, basketball, indoor soccer, and much more are all offered to students. I'm playing in a 5-on-5 basketball league on a team made up of all cross country girls (we all played basketball in high school, though). Last night was our first game and it was awesome! We played a team of guys and we rocked. Despite the fact that we only had 1 substitute and non of us had shot a ball in quite some time, we did really well and won by 7. The 3's were dropping and I was amazed at how physical we were. It was so fun to play again and to see this 'baller' aspect of my teammates that wasn't apparent during XC. We have a total of 11 games in the next 3 weeks, so our conditioning will pay off.
So after a slow start, J-term is shaping up to be a fun month full of new opportunities. Not a bad way to start off a new year.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
New Year, New Opportunities
Welcome to the new year of 2008! I don't know how the days, months, and years just whiz by, but it seems like not too long ago everyone was in a frenzy over what would happen at the turn of the millennium. Now I'm back from Christmas break, finished with one semester of college and one collegiate season of cross country, and I'm ready to take on the new opportunities that come my way.
Looking back, my first semester at Luther was extraordinary. I can't pinpoint many things that I would want to change if I could do it over. Even finals weren't that bad, granted, I had a pretty decent finals schedule. I had 5 finals originally scheduled for that week: Spanish and Religion back-to-back Monday morning, and then my other classes had exams scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at 10:15. Luckily for me I got to take my Spanish exam the Thursday before finals started because it was an oral exam with a partner and only half the class would be able to finish in the allotted 2 hour period on finals day. So that helped ease a bit of stress, and then my last final, Honors Conversation, was a take-home final which my professor allowed us to turn in early. So I ended up with only 3 mornings where I took one test and most did not take me the full 2 hours to complete.
Going home for 3 weeks was very nice. I got to relax and do some pleasure reading while keeping busy seeing family and friends. We got a lot of snow over break, making it a little tricky to get a lot of running in, but I managed to make my way around the roads and at times I just felt like a little kid having fun in the snow.
When I arrived back to Luther today I felt like I hadn't been here in such a long time, almost as if I were moving in for the first time all over again. But, differing from when I moved in this past August, now I had friends that I couldn't wait to see and a much better idea of what college really is. As I settled in and unpacked, I realized how much of a home Luther has become for me. Yes, I still love going home to my family, but here at Luther it seems like I have another family, another routine, and it feels great to be back. I can already hear the excited commotion in the hall as roommates trickle in...
Looking back, my first semester at Luther was extraordinary. I can't pinpoint many things that I would want to change if I could do it over. Even finals weren't that bad, granted, I had a pretty decent finals schedule. I had 5 finals originally scheduled for that week: Spanish and Religion back-to-back Monday morning, and then my other classes had exams scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at 10:15. Luckily for me I got to take my Spanish exam the Thursday before finals started because it was an oral exam with a partner and only half the class would be able to finish in the allotted 2 hour period on finals day. So that helped ease a bit of stress, and then my last final, Honors Conversation, was a take-home final which my professor allowed us to turn in early. So I ended up with only 3 mornings where I took one test and most did not take me the full 2 hours to complete.
Going home for 3 weeks was very nice. I got to relax and do some pleasure reading while keeping busy seeing family and friends. We got a lot of snow over break, making it a little tricky to get a lot of running in, but I managed to make my way around the roads and at times I just felt like a little kid having fun in the snow.
When I arrived back to Luther today I felt like I hadn't been here in such a long time, almost as if I were moving in for the first time all over again. But, differing from when I moved in this past August, now I had friends that I couldn't wait to see and a much better idea of what college really is. As I settled in and unpacked, I realized how much of a home Luther has become for me. Yes, I still love going home to my family, but here at Luther it seems like I have another family, another routine, and it feels great to be back. I can already hear the excited commotion in the hall as roommates trickle in...
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