Hobbits, Germans, Leprechauns & Laundry

All right, frustratingly, the post I wrote yesterday never showed up (and it was a nice, long informative one too). So I’m writing today, and this post will never be able to live up to yesterday’s I’m afraid. Before I begin detailing my adventures, I have received four boxes since yesterday--two from Oma, one from Mom, and one from Soraya. Thanks! I’m always excited to receive stuff in the mail! And just so you know, you may already know, but the best thing to mark on the customs form is either “gift” or “used personal clothing.” They won’t tax you that way. The only thing I’ve been taxed (?) on so far was my bedding.

I am actually working on doing my first two loads of Swiss laundry right now. I got done with classes at 10:30am (which is quite nice by the way), went down to Student Affairs for an interview with Dean Guggiari (more on that in a moment), had lunch up at North Campus, walked over to the reception to pick up my box, and then walked down the hill to do laundry. My room is something of a mess; I know you’re probably thinking, “Ari, your room is always a mess. You don’t keep your room tidy.” But I swear, I have been! I’ve been picking up my room about every other day, it really doesn’t take very long. But since I’ve been inundated with packages, groceries (more on that too), and schoolbooks, my room is, quite frankly, a mess.

So we’ll start with today because that’s more on my mind. German this morning was super; I learned how to introduce myself, although I can’t really remember now. Oma, I might be e-mailing you for homework help at some point in the near future. Oh that reminds me! Very exciting news: my phone card works. On the downside, for some reason my computer hasn’t been able to connect to Skype all day. But also good news: my cellphone is up and working with really no effort on my part to make it function. Soraya called me at like 5:00am this morning, and I awoke to a terrible racquet that turned out to be my phone. I had forgotten what it sounds like and I wasn’t very awake at the moment, so I wasn’t really sure what was happening. But by the time I got to the phone it was all over. So Soraya, I did hear you and I tried to call you back… Sorry about that. So I guess that’s two goods and one bad… Not so bad?

Marketing today was good. I think it’s going to quickly become the class that I look forward to most. It’s really interesting. I did my reading for it last night; the book is awesome, it gives all the vocabulary and definitions in the margins, it’s nice and colorful, and has lots of diagrams. All books should be made by marketing professionals, they would be so much more enjoyable to read.

After my classes I had a 10:45am interview with Dean Guggiari about a job. I was really just going in to find out about the options and whatnot, try to find something to keep me busy. Really there are not enough jobs to go around and a lot of people need them far more than I do in order to cover tuition and books and what-have-you, so I told her that I am not so much in need of the financial side but of the experience, so that I’ll be able to put something a resume if I should ever need to make one. So I’m going to either volunteer as an English tutor in the Writing Center (there are a lot of ESL kids here who could use help, not to mention American kids…) or volunteer in the Development & Advancement Office, or whatever it’s called. That might be sort of cool since they do a lot of marketing and PR stuff in there. So, we’ll see. She’s also going to refer me to the Student Programming Board since I told her about all the Student Council stuff. I think I’m going to try and pick and choose what I actually commit myself too, though, since I’d like to still have time to go into downtown and do laundry (as I am currently doing).

So yesterday I had my three other classes: Western Civilization, Part 1; College Algebra; and English 100. All three of my professors for those classes are doctors. My Western Civ teacher sort of reminds me of a shaggy hobbit, since, although he’s pretty young (probably 30s), he’s got a shaggy mop of blond hair and a full beard, and spectacles. He’s very well-spoken and is obviously fascinated with his topic, which is good. We’re learning about the Sumerians and Mesopotamia and the Egyptians right now. I haven’t really studied that before, so I’m excited for the Neolithic Revolution! Woohoo! My math professor is German, and when he speaks English, it almost sounds like he’s speaking German still. Although he’s obviously awesome at math, he seems to be very understanding of kids who aren’t. I think that’s what happens when you work at Franklin College long enough. I think it’ll be a good class. I like him. Then my English teacher is… well… I don’t even know what to say about him. He’s a leprechaun of a poet; that is he’s from Ireland and has a magnificent accent, and he’s also a poet. I think his vocabulary might be more dense than Dr. Smith’s; or at least he’s a little more flashy about it. I’m not sure anyone can top Dr. Smith… maybe I just haven’t traveled across enough seas yet. He literally speaks in poetry. I don’t even know how to describe it. And he kept on going on these ridiculous tangents. Like about the time he was slapped in the face while he was reading a Hemingway biography while walking down the street; a passing-by bicyclist slapped him and brought him back to reality. I have a feeling we have a lot more stories coming our way… How did I get so lucky as to have an English teacher with an Irish accent?

So those are my teachers. I’m still working on laundry; I just transferred everything from the washing machine to either the dryer or to something of a clothesline that’s been set up in the laundry room. How proud I am to have figured out the European washing machine without assistance! Don’t worry Oma, everything came out the same color as when it went in… Better not get too cocky, as not everything has come out of the dryer yet. There’s supposed to be the Convocation today at 3:30pm, but I really, really don’t want to go. I could just stay here and work on homework and clean my room… How lovely that would be. It’s only sort of mandatory… That would make today another three-trip day, as I’d probably come back down before dinner… I should probably try to make more “up-the-hill” friends, who will let me hang out in their rooms in the weird between times. All right, well the IKEA shuttle is tomorrow; super excited for that. And the Blues to Bop music festival begins tomorrow night in downtown Lugano; it starts Thursday and ends Sunday. There are supposed to be all sorts of cool shows and fireworks and food to choose from, so that should be fun. There’s a whitewater river rafting trip on Saturday, but only 13 people can go unless you can get a ride, and it costs 50 francs. So I think I’m going to wait on that one and then for sure do the Smart Car Rally, which costs 150 francs. I might try to go to the big market at Ponte Tresa this weekend. It just involves figuring out what the “flip train” is and how to use it. All right, more soon! I miss all of you peoples!