Themes

I've noticed that my semesters appear to have themes. Last semester's theme was colonization/imperialism and race. This semester's theme is behaviour (of all sorts). This is completely unintentional. My classes just work out this way and fit together nicely.

It's Snowing!

Big fluffy flakes. It's freezing, but very lovely.

Anthropology

In class we're learning about how anthropologists do their work and their field methods. It's making me realize that basically I've been an anthropologist since birth. We read articles explaining how to 'read' the people you're studying and respond to social clues and such. I've always done that to figure out what to say to a person and how to respond. I guess I lack the natural comfort that most people feel in their own culture. I use the same methods and considerations that anthropologists use to broach controversial topics in their culture of study to talk about every day things with people I know. At first when reading, I was like duh, of course you'd start out with general questions and not interrogate them and try to establish comradery. But then I realized that maybe this never occurs to some people. These are the skills I use when meeting new people of my own or another culture, and even when interacting with my friends that I've known for a while. I guess I've always been an ethnographer. It makes me wonder if I've ever felt like I've belonged in a traditional, circumscribed culture. I'm sure I have at many points, but perhaps it is not with such regularity as others.

I Survived The First Week!

My first week of classes is over! I think I'm really going to like my classes this semester. We've read some good essays in Writing so it's been pretty interesting. We're starting with personal essays, which are my favorite. Anthro is shaping up to be pretty awesome. There's A LOT of reading for it though. I think this class might give me a lot of insight into what I want to do with my life. We will talk a lot about the applications of anthro. Psych is interesting as always. My computer died this week and I've shipped it to the company for repair. Who knows when it will return. I'm trying really hard to stay on top of reading and everything else. Fingers crossed I will keep doing well.
I wish you could be here.
xoxo
Kat

Animal Behaviour

On Wednesday nights I have my animal behaviour class. It's from 7 to 9:30 but we will probably end around 9 most nights. It's a small class, only around ten people. The professor is actually the director of research at the St. Louis Zoo, which is really cool. She's a good speaker and very friendly and clear. I think the class will be easy because I am familiar with the concepts but I am looking forward to hearing about more examples. It's hard to stay alert because that's getting rather close to my bedtime. We talked about monogamous voles and male songbirds in our first class. The teacher will be absent a few classes because she'll be collecting semen from wolves in the southwest. I think I'll like this class.

Second Semester Begins!

I had my first day of classes today. I woke up at 7am, which was a little miserable. But I managed to get up and get to my 8am writing class. This class is a general writing class required of all WashU freshmen. I chose a section at 8 because it's the same teacher who taught our Rodriguez class last semester. His name is Nick, and he's a lot of fun and very helpful. So I chose to get up early for him. That class is small, only 11 people. I think it's going to be an okay class.
After writing I go straight to Intro to Cultural Anthro. I met the teacher at the beginning of last semester at an anthropology department open house. She studies the change from traditional clothing to knock-off brand names in Guatemala. I think it's going to be an awesome class. She's energetic and funny and seems like a very good professor, much like the one I had for Human Evolution last semester. I got really excited at the beginning of class when she was saying that anthro is the study of diversity. That's very much what I want to study. I just loved what she said and it made me a bit emotional. She was talking about how culture is learned and is different among groups of people and whatnot and it reminded me of ELL and how things that are common sense to me are bizarre to them and the opposite, and how I love it. So I hope this will be a good class.
After anthro I go straight to Intro to Psychology. I have a friend in that class, Addy, who lives across the hall. She's an international student from China and is quite funny in some respects. We sat together. We have 2 professors for psych, were are supposed to have 3 but one had to take leave. The first two units are taught by a lady who's a bit of an old timer. She has a very classic teaching style, which isn't bad, but isn't quite as invigorating as the anthro teachers. The third unit is taught by a man and is about personality and disorders and all that cool stuff. So I have to be patient until March. I don't think it's going to be an awesome class, but I think it will be good nonetheless. She showed us a video from 60 Minutes about memory in a rape case. It was really interesting but the 60 Minutes reporter was AWFUL.
So anyway, I'm going to eat lunch with friends at 12 every day so I make sure I'm on a regular schedule and such. I have a lot of reading to do already for Wednesday, so I'll try to work on that this afternoon. Maybe I'll go to the gym as well. We also have a floor meeting tonight. I don't have classes tomorrow so I'll have time for homework then too. Last night I was quite sad and pretty hopeless about making it through this semester, but today helped a lot and I'm re-energized and motivated. As long as I love my classes I can make it through anything, just like last semester. I only have one more new class to go to and that's not until Wednesday night.
Mopp, I think you'd like my classes a lot, except maybe writing.
Love,
Kat

Washington, D.C 2013

I'm really glad mom and I decided to tag along with dad to DC. It was awesome.
We arrived Thursday afternoon, quite successfully. That night mom and I went to Chinatown and ate dinner with my friend Jessica, from high school. It was really nice to see her again and catch up. That was a lot of fun.
Friday morning mom and I set off for the zoo. It was cold and wet and rather miserable. To be honest, we were underwhelmed with it. 

I'm riding a Sloth Bear!

The bird house was outdated, but they did have this beautiful Macaw and a Kiwi too!

One of the special things about the National Zoo is that they have a pair of pandas! The first pair was given to Pat Nixon after Nixon's trip to China. They had just cut fresh bamboo for them when we arrived and we watched them rip off a chunk of stem, peel the green outer part and eat the inside. They also ate the leaves. There was this really nice elderly docent there that reminded me of you! She was answering the many questions asked by a cute little girl. She also showed us dry panda poop!

There's always someone in this chair observing everything the pandas do and taking notes.

Mom and her favorite, the Giant Anteater

These platforms and ropes are for the Orangutans to climb from one home to another. So I think once a day they let them choose to cross on the ropes. 

There was also a really nice marine life exhibit where we saw a beautiful Giant Octopus, a tank full of Nautilus, some Jellyfish and other things. It was in a pretty old basement though.
I was a little bummed by the time we left the zoo, but once we got to the Smithsonian everything was okay again. We spent the rest of the day in the Museum of Natural History, of course. We saw the Giant Squid in the Hall of Oceans, along with other cool stuff. They had a model of a Right Whale, they're so funny looking! The exhibit was really well done and the signs were fabulous and so was the next exhibit we went to, human evolution. It was really fun seeing all my friends from class last semester (my human ancestor friends). I got to see replicas of all the fossils and bones and finds that I learned about! It was a lot of fun.

The famous rotunda.

My favorite hominid: Australopithecus boisei, of the Robust Australopithecines, a dead end branch of human evolution.

Friday night we ate dinner with dad at the hotel and it was lovely. Dad's meeting was over so Saturday morning we took him back to the museum with us! The second time around we made it through the hall of bones, a forensic anthropology exhibit and the insect exhibit. We saw the dinosaurs, the prehistoric mammals, etc.

Diatryma! The gigantic flightless predatory bird that terrorized South America. We watched a show about it with Uncle Tom and Aunt Janet, remember? Soooooo cool!

Giant Ground Sloths! They're one of my favorites.

The insect exhibit was nifty as well. I'm recently quite fascinated by prehistoric mammals and I bought a book about it so I'm quite excited. It's too bad no one ever teaches a class about it.
DC was a lot of fun and we were surprisingly successful navigating the Metro system.
Miss you! Love you!
Kat

Sunday, January 13th

It's my first full day back at school. I have a lot to do today to get ready for class tomorrow. I have to do laundry and change my sheets and household chores like that. I was really sad and lonely last night, but in a few days it'll be okay. I was really spoiled seeing you and the parents and Sami every day, so now I miss you all so much. I'm pretty lazy now, it's hard to get moving and get stuff done. But I can get my life together and get down to business! I miss you all so much and I wish I could see you again.
Love, Kat

Monday, December 17th

I got an A- in South Asian Civilization! Yay! I finished my last final and now I'm waiting for that grade to come in. I am free!!!!!!!!
xoxo
Kat

Saturday, December 15th

Hey Mopp:) I'm working on my last final now. It's about Apartheid South Africa. I've gotten final grades in 2 of my 4 classes. And they're As! Yay!
Love, Kat

The Rodriguez Scholarship freshmen and our class teacher.

Sami and me at the football game! (Nov. 17th)

Tuesday, December 11th

I think I like it better here during finals week. There's a greater sense of comradery. There are people on our floor who like to bake to relax so frequently there are treats that they share with us. Last night we took a study break to play a board game. I finished one of my final papers yesterday and today I am working on another, a creative writing assignment. We've decorated for the holidays a little bit, so everything is festive. Tonight the school is serving us free breakfast at 10pm. I have to take a nap today so I can be awake to eat! It is positively freezing outside but luckily I don't have classes to walk to. I miss you!
Love, Kat

Saturday, December 8

Hey Mopp!
Yesterday I took my last test in Human Evolution. We don't have a final, just a last test. I think it went okay. I have a paper for South Asian Civilization due Monday night so I'll be working on that all weekend. I'm really trying to be time efficient.

Love,
Kat

Monday, December 3

Happy Real Birthday!!!!!!

Happy birthday Mopp! Now you're actually 93. That's incredible. I wanted to make you a birthday video but I realized I didn't have much to say. Today I didn't have classes and my day was taken up by travelling to a doctor's appointment across town. So it wasn't very exciting. Things are gearing up for finals here and everyone is starting to get stressed. I'm not stressed yet though, I'm trying not to think about it too much. Tomorrow I have many classes.
I love you Mopp!

Me, with two of my three suitemates, Saya and Amy, and my roommate, Kyra.

The people I live with

October 31, 2012

This is me and some of my floor mates on Halloween. We dressed up as characters from an animated TV show. Our sophomore advisers (the two on the left) took us trick-or-treating. It was really nice to go out on Halloween again, lots of fun.

Sunday, November 25

hi Mopp, im back at school now. i guess its nice to be back because at home all i thought about was running out of time before i went back. but im sad to be alone again. it's bittersweet. I hope you are feeling good. I cant wait to come home again.
love, Kat

Happy Birthday!

Happy birthday Mopp!!! I can't tell you how happy I am to have you here for another year. You impress me every day. I really wish I could take you to college with me. I miss you so much when I'm there, and I know you'd love it a lot. Thank you for sticking around:)
Love, Kat

My Dorm Room

Wednesday, November 14