Weekly Beginnings

As with many other weeks, Monday's are the dreaded days. Now that our short-lived weekend is over, it was about time that classes would creep back up on us. This week is the second week here at VSA. Now that the first one is over, I have some more experience as what to expect throughout the week. For example, I know that you have to be more than punctual for laundry on the weekends (and that it is possible much better to do weekdays, if you even have the chance to), that free time is ephemeral, lunches get better on Preview Days for prospective students, and classes are quite long-lived to mention some.

Today my alarm woke me up at 7:00 AM. I'm starting to think it would be better to actually let it wake me up slightly later though, since I manage to get ready with some spare time left on the clock anyway. For that sake, I'll get up at 7:20 tomorrow. Twenty minutes can be crucial, let alone five on their own. Anyway, I had breakfast with the cohort this slow, Monday morning and made it to class in three (Katherine, Hummd, and I). Due to Preview Day, we had to go the slightly longer way, which we will eventually take anyway once we begin the wheelchair activity. Given that it might be tomorrow, Wednesday, it's good prep just to be extra sure of which route to take. Nevertheless, I'm not sure how it will feel using my arms for a great deal of occasions throughout the course of 24 hours. I'll learn to manage... and I'll get a decent arm workout while I'm at it.

Today in class was mostly gearing up towards a debate. For the beginning of the class, we read. We took a break, and continued. After a while, Monte decided we'd have a debate today, so she had divided us into groups at the end of our reading period. Unfortunately, I had no spoiler alert from mostly all the rest of the people who had already finished reading the book and prematurely acquired information from the later parts of the book. As bad as it is to hear endings of books from others, it didn't affect the debate. The topic was looking at treatment from the Hmong vs. the Western/Medical perspective. I was on the Medical side of the debate, along with Katherine and the other half of the class. It wasn't too crazy initially, but opinions grew as the debate continued. Personally, I tend to listen and see both sides of the arguments, so it was hard for me to truly speak out on the opposing team, though I did have my opinions as well. For sure, I will be able to speak up a lot more when it comes to things regarding systems of oppression or other issues that I can relate more to. Before I digress on more in depth topics regarding the class, I'll just let it go and save it 'till then.

Preview Day lunch!

Since it was Preview Day, I had some great salmon, a huge salad, and some of the best mashed potatoes I've tried. It was a very chill lunch, since I spent most of the time listening to music and texting some loved ones from home. Lunch soon passed up and we were back in class where we watched a video about the book we had read, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, by Anne Fadiman. After reading quite extensively about this group of people's story, it was nice to finally familiarize names with faces, It was pretty sad, though. It further explained the issues that were brought up in the book.

After class, we had a new arete class. I had Henna this time. Coincidentally, Katherine is also in this class. Seeing so many people with Henna this week, it made me wonder how they did them so well and so artistically. There was a woman who was there to introduce us to Henna and how it is a plant that is crushed and mixed with liquid in order to create a cooling stain for people. She also demonstrated how to make various designs for it. One thing literally led to another. After merely trying to practice her techniques, I gave it a shot with the actual cone/tube with the Henna paste. As with the demonstration, one thing led to another and eventually I made something out. Not bad for my first time using Henna either. By the time I had finished up my design, it was time for some free time and then dinner, which was like the usual. The only exception is that today, interestingly, we somehow got to give our nicknames. I think it came from the fact that one of the proctors always gets caught up with memorizing our names, so we gave her something else to work with: designer names. Apparently we constitute all these different brands...: Beyonce, Kate Spade, Michael Kors, Calvin Klein, Chanel, and some others... Anyway, back to the blog.

Free time followed dinner. Again I had some me time. Now that I finally know I can expect a good chunk of free time, I know that I will use it to actually nap!!! I tend to want to nap at the wrong times, so with one week gone by, it’s just about time to put what I know to use and get some time in for rest when needed and time for hanging out also. By 9 PM, we had our nightly proctor meeting and chose on where we would go out to eat tomorrow night as a group. We're going for Thai food. Now, I am here in my desk. It's just about to be 10 PM, and I am MORE than looking forward to brushing my teeth and getting to bed ASAP! With my alarm now to be set at about 7:20 AM, I am ecstatic about sleeping now in order to get some major, great, relaxing, rejuvenating, sleep in!!!!