Life as a Senior

Attempting to maybe get back into writing on this a bit more. Going to *copy/paste* two documents on here. One is the update I sent out to my family a week or so ago telling them about all the new news I have had during the beginning of the year. the other one is my submission to a writing competition called "Last 72 Contest." It involves writing about what you would do with your last 72 hours on earth and why. The top 13 get to be on a TV show, and the top 3 get cash prizes. I figure one is a good update on life and the other is the super personal side of things that I occasionally feel like sharing with anybody that cares to read. :)

p.s. if you are reading this and have your own blog (Andrew K) post and let me know what it is so I can start reading it!!!


Merhaba Family!

Now that I have gotten settled in with life and my last year of school I thought it might be high time to let you all know what is going on in life, because I know how all of you wait with baited breath for these e-mails. :)

I successfully moved into the Phoenix Student Cooperative about two weeks ago and, for the most part have been enjoying the lifestyle. If ever there was a place to pretend like you are living in the 1960's this would be it. I came to the house to find a full color portrait of Bob Dylan painted on my door, which is part of a hallway that has a giant, trippy mural floor to ceiling. For those of you unfamiliar with the CoOp system, my house holds 29 people (including myself) in both single and double rooms. Each person in the house has weekly chores they must complete on pain of fining, and that is how the house is kept clean, and functioning. Each week I get 3 dinners provided by a team of student cooks that live in the house (students can sign up for a cook position as part of their duties to the house) and I also have access to the "House Pantry" which comes stocked with general food items: peanut butter, jelly, milk, cereal, pasta, sandwich meats, cheese, fruit, veggies and condiments. When I sign over my rent check it isn't to some crazy landlord or a reality company but to a group of students that run the system. I get all of these wonderful things for about $1,500 cheaper per year than I did last year, and would HIGHLY suggest to any college goers that you look into your local CoOp systems, it is a wonderful way to live, and you meet so many fabulous new and different people.

Classes are far and away the most enjoyable ones I have had throughout my college career, it pays to be senior that is for sure. None of them start before 12pm (go ahead and call me lazy, I'm still waking up at 5:45am every day for rowing) and I have no Friday classes. My Senior Seminar is my most interesting course currently. A Senior Seminar is a James Madison capstone class that requires you to come up with original paper topic ideas with the semi-hope you might get published. I was originally signed up for a Sem about Cuba and Haiti but decided that, as wonderful as those two countries are, I have little to no interest in them. I asked my former Jews and Anti-Semitism Professor if there was anyway he would let me into his class and then tweak it a bit to fit my major (his Senior Seminar is for Social Relations and Policy people) and he agreed. I got the appropriate overrides and I'm now studying Social Relations within Nazi Concentration Camps. As bleak as it sounds, I find this topic terribly interesting and think it will serve me well if I am ever doing work with Humanitarian Aid or Genocide prevention groups. I also love my Professor and he has agreed to help me get published at the end of the year if I put a lot of work into it.

My next most interesting class would be Turkish. Thats right folks, I took my insane love of Turkey one step farther and am now learning the language (in case you hadn't picked it up with the greeting this email starts out with.) At this point I know the alphabet, numbers 1-40, days of the week, months of the year, and a super basic greeting conversation. My graduate student teacher is from Istanbul and can be a little hard to understand at times but since the class is only 6 people large I don't have a problem getting questions answered. :)

Next most important class would be my Islamic Empires class which is within the History Department and is teaching me the basis of Islam and the reigning empire from the 14th century through the 19th century. With my luck and some sort of divine providence my Professor is Turkish and would love nothing better than to hook me up with scholarships, and conversation groups in Turkish. She is a wonderful lady and I am looking forward to having a much better understanding of Islam at the end of the class. It is helpful that I am also reading the Qu'ran alongside the required course material. Fear not Grandma, I have no intention of converting anytime soon, but find that people are most scared of what they do not know, and I don't plan on being a cowardly person if I can help it.

I am also taking a voice class on the side for fun, but probably wont write much about it since it is super basic and not really worth noting. Might mean some classic performances for people around New Year's and Christmas. :)

The year is certainly starting off with a bang and I would have it no other way. I'm dealing with Graduate school applications as well as looking for a summer internship in a Human Rights group, or with the State Department (if anyone has any connections and wants to help me out, please let me know!) All in all the motto of the year is: productivity or die. Its going to be a good time :)

Hoşçakal! (H-oh-sh-ch-ah-kal)

Love, Claire