'15 ILC at Vanderbilt: I Have 3 Moms?

This morning I woke up at 7 AM again, but this time I felt sleepier and did not want to get up at all. I had to force myself to walk down the hall into the bathroom and take a shower, and it helped me feel better when I finished. I spent the rest of my remaining time until breakfast on getting ready slowly and then walked over to the commons with my proctor group (without my proctor). Lizzie, the proctor, had breakfast duty so another proctor on the same floor gave us the permission to walk to breakfast instead.

When I grabbed all of the food I needed and checked them out with my meal card, I saw Gwennie and Hummd at a table, so I came over to their table. We could not find the other people that were eating with us from last night but we decided to make a plan to find a table ahead of time so that all of us can eat together again, inviting as many people that would like to eat with us.

We finished breakfast around 8:30 AM and got our water bottles filled up for the day and followed our TA's that walked out from inside of the commons building to outside on the patio. Zach, our TA, took role again for the whole class then led us to the classroom. He needed assistance with carrying some packs of paper and was offering house points if someone helped him with it, and without any hesitation, of both the reasons that I wanted our house to win this summer and the fact that I like helping others, I told him that I wanted to volunteer and help him! Once we arrived, the professor reviewed the terms from yesterday and had all of the students participate in rewording their definitions. Then, she went straight into a lecture on what all systems have, which are theories of disease causation, models for diagnosis, a relevant treatment procedure, doctor/ healer, and social system for passing on knowledge. Lunch time came near and we were scheduled to take our class picture just before lunch, and once we finished, everyone headed to the cafeteria right away. I sat with Gwennie, Arnold, Hummd, and a few other friends, talking about how our classes went and planning out what we were going to do during SOFT (Sign Out Free Time) night. Arnold was going to get a haircut, the cohort was going to get ice cream, and the others wanted to visit the CVS pharmacy store.

The lunch break passed by really quickly, so Hummd, Arnold, and I wanted to get to class a little earlier than usual to be on time. Our professor actually walked in after we did, but once she had settled into her desk, the class continued on. She went farther in depth for medicalization, when a condition becomes accepted as a disease and no longer necessarily the fault of the person, then onto syndromes. I learned more about them, like how they are not fully understood yet, and about another syndrome called the Tourette Syndrome. Her son personally had it, and it is a tick disorder that can be physical, verbal, or both. We had more time to read on the "Illness Narratives" (will most likely finish up on it tomorrow), and then the professor analyzed the book, going into details like Cartesian thinking, and the author's goal of his book. Then, a packet was passed out and we were divided into several groups to give a lesson on our concept of the social body the next morning from the packet, which was about the mindful body. After working in groups, the class ended, and the study hall session started immediately. I was already trying to finish the book while sitting around in the lobby from the extra time after finishing our group project, so I continued to read for the rest of the hour. Until the sunlight that was shining through the windows in front of me turned dark within seconds, I was unaware that it was going to rain (I had to look up from my book to make sure). Though, I had an umbrella in my backpack just in case, however it was pouring outside for a while. I knew Gwennie was probably loving it since she loves the rainy weather and thunderstorms (as well as lightning). When my TA came to get me, I had no idea that I was reading for an hour straight already. The book was getting really good and I almost finished up the chapter (only one more to go)!

The lovely window that was in
front of the space that I was
sitting in.

This cool and comfortable space in the wall that I discovered from walking
around the lobby.

I joined everyone in walking back to Hank Ingram hall to drop off our stuff in the dorms and getting ready for our Arete classes! I was super excited to go down to the basement for fencing because we would get sword action today, but unfortunately there were not enough equipment to go around, so I will be one of the first to go tomorrow. The instructor showed us videos on what a real match looks like in the categories of the foil, epee, and sabre weapons. I noticed that in the foil competition, every hit was fast and more targeted. In epee, since any hit is a point, the strategy was to hit the opponent as many times, even when they tag you. The sabre round was probably the most strategic one out of all because the movements were very slow and small, to be more exact. He also taught us how to be a referee for one of the games, starting out with the getting ready position (when you have arms out and palms down), en garde (turn palms upwards), and if both players are ready, then bring your two hands together with a few inches in between them for space to signal them to start.

Free time had started and I walked down to the commons shortly before dinner to meet with the same group that I had lunch with to go on a second (but smaller) scavenger hunt for a pink lamp, to gain points for the houses. One of the hints given was a pine tree, and amazingly, Gwennie spotted the lamp in a pile of grass right near the entrance of Hank Ingram!

Dinner came, and I had met another new person in line taking a fantasy writing course at VSA. I do not remember his name, but I do remember his face. He is also an upcoming junior, so he might be here for another year. I have officially made it a goal to finish one of my meals any time during the day without wasting any food because the food portions here are huge (for me at least). Hummd has found her way to mother me to remind me of my goal and watch over me. Then, I think another person mentioned that they wanted to take care of me like I was their own child too (it was funny because both Hummd and the person are the same age as me), but I can not remember who the second person was. So, Mom, when you are reading this right now, it might seem confusing, but two other people basically have adopted me into their ways of being a friend.

The time to sign out and have free time to leave off of the campus came quickly too (overall I think I was just very occupied doing things the whole day that I did not notice time as much), so once I did that, Hummd, Gwennie, Arnold, and I went down the straight to SuperCuts for Arnold's haircut. I brought an interesting tool that would help with taking pictures on my phone called the selfie stick, so I brought that along and we took so many pictures from the moment that we were walking down the cement on campus to the very appreciated sunset that we saw when we walked back from Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream (where we when right after Arnold's new fabulous haircut). Our curfew was to be back on Hank Ingram at 9 PM and have signed out, then there was a proctor meeting right at 9, and I found out that tomorrow night will be like an admissions night with the officers who are graciously taking the time out of their evening to answer any of the questions that we might have for them.