Wednesday, October 11, 2006

This is your brain. THIS is your brain on college.

Any questions? *grins*

...sorry. I couldn't help myself.

Everyone at Covenant is feeling the weight of the anticipation for Fall Break. As Friday draws closer, it only means more tests and papers to frantically finish (because, evidentally, the students are more eager to have a break than the teachers) with binge studying and all-night fervent typing that would make any amateur's fingers bleed. I would not be the least bit surprised if I walked into the Gallery commons one morning to find three or four of my hallmates lying askew on the couches and curled up in the chairs, their books still open, their fingers still clasped around pencils that have stopped writing intelligble words and have lapsed into straight lines of non-text; around them are the carcasses of Vault bottles and Red Bull cans lying in pools of their own caffeinated blood, with one lone survivor, a Coke can, balanced precariously on the arm of the chair and within two inches of an elbow-enduced death and its two-feet plummet to the floor.

Okay, I had way too much fun with that.

I do not think I could stress enough how much of a marathon week this has been for everyone I know. Taking test after test, writing and rewriting each essay or midterm paper until it is beyond mortal satisfaction and sufficient to be placed on the Altar of the Grading Gods*, and staying up 'til two in the morning every night trying to keep your head above the ocean of pages of homework, required reading, and thrown-out drafts of essays. And, to top it all off, it seems that every teacher on campus gets the bright little idea in his or her head that, "Oh, the students will have plenty of time to do THIS unrealistically huge homework assignment over Fall Break!" until there are so many assignments handed out that, in all honesty, I'm beginning to think that Fall Break is only truly a break from the Great Hall food.

(If you have not yet heard my spill on the Great Hall food, don't worry. I have no doubt that I'll tangent into it in another entry.)

Wednesday I decided to sit back and watch everyone in all my classes (which was hard in Old Testament, since we were all taking a test) to see how the average student was going about their week. What I saw, of course, did not surprise me. It was not unlike watching a group of travelers slogging through knee-deep mud that had no path around or over it; even a select few who were smiling during the morning, when I saw them later in the afternoon, looked tired from the extra energy they were spending to slog alongside everyone else and look cheerful doing it. I am reminded of my favorite definition of trudging as given by Paul Bettany's character in A Knight's Tale: "To trudge: the slow, weary, depressing yet determined walk of a man who has nothing left in life except the impulse to simply soldier on." In light of that, it seemed to me yesterday that everyone has, in fact, succumbed to their fate of trudging their way through the rest of the week.

I am now debating the idea of a banner: "Fall Break: loathe it or leave it."

But now it is Thursday afternoon, and classes are almost finished for the day. For most, tomorrow will be the day that we all must survive (trans: "must stay awake during class"). For some, tonight will be the last of the horrifying dinners from the Great Hall until next Wednesday. For a few, it will be the start of a long journey to someone else's home for more experiments in learning to get along with new people.

For me, it will be a three-hour car ride home to my family, my cat, and the lingering hope of at least one guilt-free Big Mac or trip to Outback.
____________
*No, Covenant does not condone the belief of bizarre deities. Students are, however, allowed to hold candle-less sayonces, and offer not-very-burned sacrifices to the Snow Gods (burnt offering = melting ice cubes with a hair dryer) as long as there are absolutely no candles involved whatsoever because of the fire regulations.

17 comments:

Annie said...

Ok so I didn't just read that whole post, but I just wanted to tell you THAT MY FAVORITE BOOK IS THE HERO AND THE CROWN TOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! How do you feel about The Blue Sword? Beauty? Spindle's End?

E-mil said...

*hugs Annie* There you are! Yay!

Hero and the Crown is definitely my favorite out of all of Robin McKinley's books, but I liked The Blue Sword as well. I picked up Spindle's End and never got very far... I think I just put it down and forgot to pick it up again (same thing happened with Frankenstein and King Solomon's Minds, though).

I have SO got to get someone at Covenant into Terry Pratchett -- he's another fantasy author, but his books are hilarious. He's major-league satirical about anything and everything ^^ He's awesome.

Caroline said...

See, I started a trend! I, your twin, from however many miles away, have brought in half my regular blog traffic to put down roots in yours. Bow before me.

E-mil said...

Dude! I've never really had non-spamming blog traffic before. ^^ Shiny.

Just curious, which of us is older? o_O

Caroline said...

You're older. By 2-3 years, depending on your birthday.

Annie said...

Girls, you need to meet. It will be very exciting. Which means, Caroline, that you need to come up and visit us! Heck yes. Ok, back to fall break!

Caroline said...

Arrange the visitation, O thou Planner of Many Social Events. You are responsible for my gas money and/or airfare.

Josiah Lewis said...

Gas money!!! We will all be on student loans for the next several ages of mankind!! Maybe I can just lend you my bycicle. It'll be sooo much fun going back down the mountain!

E-mil said...

Mental image: person on a bicycle with the Wicked Witch music playing in the background.

*shudders* Wow. No more Mystery Science Theater for me.

The price of gas is actually coming down a little -- today in my hometown it's 1.99/gallon. Of course, I think Alabama has some of the lowest gas prices in the country, which really doesn't make sense... why not Texas, were some of the oil actually comes from?

I got it -- we'll hold a fund raiser for gas money! But I don't know how popular car washing would be this time of year...

Caroline said...

Wow. Gas is about 2.02 here. 1.99 is nice.

Josiah Lewis said...

In 1967 (I think that's the year), gasoline was going at 33 cents to a gallon. We should calculate how much money we would save by spending a few million on a time machine and buying a lifetime supply.

E-mil said...

It may not take a few million. If we get an old Delorean (or an 80's Volvo, which works just as well) and get you to do all the painstaking math, I'll find someone to wire a Mr. Fusion to the car's gas line... we could run it on double espresso and used gym socks (radioactive caffeine ^^).

Josiah Lewis said...

I think some of us would drink the fuel before it got into the car...I can see it now.
"Hey, help me siphon this double expresso out, I need a shot of caffeine before I can drive any farther."

Caroline said...

I think some of us is me. <__<

Josiah Lewis said...

Mmmm, it applies to Annie as well, and it used to apply to Hope, but she apparently is doing better.
But yeah, I meant you. *grins*

E-mil said...

Okay, we'll make sure to have a couple IVs to pump caffeine into whoever needs it (or wants it). ...or we'll just hit the Starbucks drive-thru before we go.

Now we just have to find a place that has a long enough stretch of road where we can safely get the car up to 88 MPH... hmm...

Josiah Lewis said...

IVs?! That's far too sophisticated. Good old mug to mouth resusitation is the way...if you're going to be addicted to caffeine, that is.
A Mr. Fusion requires 88mph to activate? No problem. Oh, wait, SAFEly. That could pose some reasons to pause.