i didn't have class today, which rules, so i got up this morning and ran for a decent 50 minutes, then lounged until the afternoon. i decided not to go to virginia with the roommates because i had some other plans (though the orioles game fell through, they lost in the 13th anyway) with some people from church i've met.
i think i have three friends here now: one is a roommate who plays disc golf and listens to good music, another is from my department who i hung out with at the concert last night, and the third is a guy from church who listens to the same music, has no problem drinking a beer at night, and likes to read harry potter. i think we're going to play some music this weekend because he can sing and play real well.
being away is so weird, i wish you BG people around just so i could have someone to laugh with. no one knows me here, so i can do whatever i want. for example, i was running the other day, and the following conversation ensued:
guy from the street: 'hey, are you on the lacrosse team?"
me: "uh, what? i've played before i guess."
guy: "i said are you on the lacrosse team."
me: "uh, yeah i am."
guy: "cool!"
i've also been asked for directions about two dozen times (and i give good directions back because i know campus pretty well, though i'm tempted to pull an owen wilson (shanghai noon) and say, "no, i gave you wrong directions"). and for the second time this week, i was actually recognized by another student. both times it was someone i met at church. slowly but surely, maryland is becoming my home.
so i still have a big post i want to write about leaving BG and to follow up on justin's posts for the last few days, but again i'm tired and am gonna go to bed. hopefully tomorrow i'll get around to it while osu is spanking san jose st. and maryland is getting their butt kicked by florida st., and maybe BG is giving purdue a run for their money. though i might check out the national air & space museum in DC with friend #2, also.
music: ben folds
quote: "you know, howie day is really stuck up, no offense." -john at his apt., though he's never seen the live dvd (how can you judge an artist if you've never seen/heard their best work?)
no, sorry, britney didn't kiss any more girls on stage, though she was showing some skin. aerosmith was cool to see though i wonder how much longer they can play shows and only play material from 20 years ago. don't get me wrong, 'dream on' and 'walk this way' are all-time classics, but both you and i know they haven't written a hit since before 'big ones.' pink? come on. mary j. blige was surprisingly awesome and good charlotte, was, well, everything that is pop punk.
justin, your blog has been awesome of late and i want to give you a good response. but now is not the time to do it, as i'm tired from the week and don't have my thoughts together. and andrew, thanks for the props.
classes started today, and boy was it great to get back to learning stuff. we covered material i've been waiting to see for two years now. i'm absolutely stoked to be here in maryland, where things actually happen and people care about their education. sure there are the inevitable bricks but i've met a few random people who are double- and triple-majors, in crazy stuff like neuroscience and vocal music performance. AND, maryland has a diverse student body. coming from the midwest (maybe marr can relate) sometimes we think anyone who is black or asian or whatever, has a completely different culture form the homogeneous life in bowling green. but that is not the case. i don't look like a lot of people here, but its the people that i don't look like that are making me feel at home, and welcome at their house, and welcome at their church, and welcome at their campus. and that rocks.
my first class was at 9:30 where the prof went through roll call, then asked if anyone's name had been missed. i promptly stood up, walked to the front of the classroom and announced to him and the class that i was to be the TA/grader, and it was sweet because i look like i'm not even old enough to be in the class. anyway, my professor was really nice and i have 50 homework sets to grade each week. and for that i get tuition and a stipend. not bad, i think.
plus there's a taco bell express in my building, at decent prices. there's another at the union with some more chain restaurants, i wonder what's at all the other dining halls.
my three 'real' classes were cool because i actually knew what was going on for the most part, and i think if i put in a lot of work, i should be able to get through each of them ok. i mean, i worked really hard in undergrad and i don't imagine this will be much more than that...nights of doing homework problems and computer code i'm used to. i'm optimistic at this point.
and i made two friends, i think we're going to check out aerosmith on the national mall on thursday. its a free concert, so why not? plus britney will be there. that was a joke, kind of.
after classes i rode my bike home in the rain through some thick traffic (i was glad to be on the bike) and went to a kick-off for a churchie group i'm looking into. it was pretty low-key and fun, i met some cool people that i may play basketball with later this week.
i hope you don't think i'm trying to throw this experience in your face. i'm just really happy to be here, for about the first time in the 2 1/2 weeks i've been here. finally i'm not so lonesome and feeling crappy and bored all of the time. though i do want to wish some of the high schoolers read this and try to think out of the bowling green box, becuase there certainly is a lot outside of ohio. but do what you gotta do.
speaking of doing what you gotta do, we come to the inevitable. jenna leaves for haiti tomorrow so we talked a few times today, though we've said goodbye a few times (when i left, etc.) already so i felt like we had said all that we needed too. plus she's leaving way early so i may talk to her in the airport in miami, but really, that's it for four months. what's going to happen? neither of us know, because we'll change some for sure (given the sudden change of circumstances) so we'll keep in touch (because some places in haiti have the internet but no running water) and go from there. i'll miss her for sure, even while she was in dayton we could at least talk on the phone. but you don't want to hear my pine, i just want you to know that i'm human and things aren't always 100% sweet all the time.
so here's to new beginnings. and to endings.
music: return of the rentals
quote: "i love gay people" - ellen watching 'queer eye for the straight guy' (refer to AT rant)
classes start tomorrow...finally, after looking at the university of maryland's graduate program in aerospace engineering over one year ago, my dreams and plans have come to fruition. and i know its God that made it all possible. props to him, not to me.
check out jenna's new blog where hopefully she can get to it from haiti. leaving in three days, that girl is.
i don't have a car so i don't listen to music as much anymore (unlike the edwardses i do not have a sweet ipod) which is actually good right now. you know how you can identify the grade or season or whatever by what music you were listening to at the time. for instance, weezer blue reminds me of freshman cross-country, junior homecoming, and senior homecoming (buddy holly, the world has turned, and only in dreams, respectively). well, these two weeks i've been in maryland have been ok, not good or bad, just different and i really don't want to remember this time period with any music. of course jenna has some ben folds and coldplay memories but that's where the summer stops. as soon as school starts next week i'll for sure start carrying the discman and get some good music going through the university. but for now, no.
i went to the campus church again this morning, and am very impressed with their leadership and desire to glorify God in everything, the little and big things. we played a good hard three hours of ultimate afterwards and i met some guys from the club team who were very excited i have full eligibility left. they seemed cool (though big partiers) and i hope to play a lot with them this semester.
so many decisions, who do i want to be out here?
and i can't remember who sang it, but the dude asked an interesting question: are you dying to breathe or living to breathe?
i told you jenna was gonna come around looking at your blogs, and its a good thing you got them cleaned up in time.
i helped out some guys i met at church last week in fixing up their new house. we painted and weeded and trimmed bushes, etc. it was great for me to be productive, finally, and i met some cool churchie indie-rockers. big points if they know what a moog is. the funny thing is that this church not only has the same parent church as h2o (that being great commission) but the people seem exactly the same: here there was a house full of single post-college guys (like the wooster house in BG), the indie-rockers, the nice people who only listen to bad music, etc. not that there's anything wrong with those things, its just an observation.
which reminded me justin i think i remember you writing on jimmy eat world and it was really interesting and i really wanted to respond but never did. i'll look it up and see.
at least ohio state can still win, maryland looks dumb in comparison. they totally dominated against #17 washington, and it was mainly with the D (which was supposed to be a big question mark). washington's quarterback watches too much of rich gannon because he would only throw 5 or 6 yard passes and leave the rest up to the receiver. c'mon, you've got to air it out some!
next week when the jets open up against the redskins, there's a free concert on the national mall with aerosmith, britney, mary j. blige, etc. some of the roommates were talking about going because it would be sweet to see aerosmith for free, but only if they played some 'walk this way' and not 'don't want to miss a thang.' maybe we'll go. and i think we're gonna catch an orioles game on friday.
i got some sweet pictures back from my days spent walking around DC though i don't have a scanner so you can't see them. plus the registers at CVS were all broken so i looked at them, handed them back, and will try again tomorrow. that's probably the most frustrating thing in the world. "here's your pictures, they're good, but you can't have them. i know they're doubles, but i'm sorry, we need to keep them because our stores sucks. have a nice day."
