Home and Happy

Hello!

I’m back home in Edina, Minnesota, having a wonderful Christmas break :). I’ve been told I need to condense my writing, so this post should end up shorter and less jumbled than the others, if all goes well!

I shall begin at last Friday, when I decided to pick up my room and do laundry. How is it that everything always takes much longer than I expect it to? I should really plan ahead for these things. Anyway, this time the slow step was the laundry machine, which got stuck twice and then failed to wash my clothes after all the effort. I ended up going to sleep at 2am, which can’t be good for me, but I slept late, so hopefully all is well with my sleep cycle?

Saturday morning, I finished cleaning (my room is actually organized, for the first time ever!), ran into the dining hall 10 minutes before it closed (again, I need to plan ahead ;)), and set about attempted to make it to Logan Airport. This was an adventure I hadn’t yet undertaken, but I did manage it in the end :). Still, I’ll describe it for you, for anyone who needs to know how to get from Wellesley to Logan Airport during Christmastime, which is more difficult than one would initially suppose.

I set out from my dorm 30 minutes before I was to catch the commuter rail. Luckily, I had planned ahead the night before, and printed out directions to the commuter rail, the commuter rail schedule, the Silver Line bus schedule, my plane ticket, and a wonderful schedule that the MBTA website put together for me. The library closed early on Friday, so that was a good call. So I took out my directions, hefted my two bags (one was extra stuff I wanted to bring home, and one was useful traveling material), and walked for twenty minutes until I arrived in “the Ville,” or Wellesley Square. There, I wandered around aimlessly until a Wellesley student named Rachel spotted me, and walked me to the T stop that I had walked right by. I was glad she was there; if she had not been, I was about to ask the old couple that was crossing the street.

The commuter rail was a few minutes late, but it was a comfortable ride. Despite my fear that few students would be leaving at 3 pm on the Saturday after finals were done (the residence halls closed at 5 pm, so we were cutting it rather close), the stop was full of Wellesley students. I ended up sitting with a friend from my chemistry class, Helena, and we chatted until we arrived at South Station. I’m not sure what the title is of the person who collects the money and gives out the tickets, but he was very nice. We arrived only a few minutes late.

At South Station I ran into a few more difficulties. When I arrived, I needed to buy a bus ticket, and luckily one of the booths was open. However, the booth I chose did not accept bills, and I did not have a Charlie Card, which is the easier way to negotiate the subway/bus system. In addition to this confusion, I didn’t know what buttons I was supposed to be clicking, so I ended up holding up the line while a kind man explained what I was supposed to be doing and then searching around for coins, since the machine wouldn’t take my debit card either. While I was doing this, people flooded into the lines for all the machines and by the time I was done fumbling around there were ten people behind me, all anxious to get on their busses/subways/etc on time. I felt bad, and was further flustered by my taking of a wrong turn to get to the Silver Line. Eventually I made it to the right stop, though I had missed the bus I had previously scheduled in. Happily, I had decided to leave Wellesley early just in case such a situation occurred.

My success in the next step in my path—getting off the platform, onto the bus, and to the airport—was pure luck. Since it was holiday time, there were hundreds of people on that platform all waiting for the Silver Line bus, one bus that could hold probably 40 people and that came every 30 minutes, I believe. There was much grumbling that there should be more than one bus, and we ended up leaving many people behind. As it happened, though I was at the back of the crowd, when the bus pulled up it did so directly in front of me. Even so, I was one of the later people to board, and we were squeezed in very close. The other Wellesley girls I had encountered on the platform were also able to make it on the bus, though looking out at all the people we left behind was sorrowing. I felt like since I was about 30 minutes ahead of schedule, I should have stayed behind, but there was no guarantee I could have made the next bus when it arrived.

We stopped at a few stops along the way, mostly refusing the people who tried to board. At one stop, there was little shelter, and a bigger black man and an older lady were huddled up in their coats against the snow and cold. We let the lady on but not the man, with the bus driver telling the man to wait for the next bus. The man settled into to wait. Remembering all the people waiting on the platform, I knew the next bus would undoubtedly be full as well.

We drove on, and made it to Terminal A, which was my stop. I had to struggle out of the bus, as people were shoving to board. In the end, it was a great relief to make it to the airport. I’ve never felt that way before about airports, as they mostly make me tense, but at least I’ve spent a significant of time in airports by myself. Going through security and finding my gate went as planned, made even better by my realization that the gate to Minneapolis was the same gate that I had left from and to during Thanksgiving break. Consistency is a nice thing.

The plane ride was uneventful, and I met another Wellesley girl who was sitting behind me. I thought it amusing when the older man next to me read Harry Potter while I read my book on Indian poverty. I tried to engage him in Harry Potter discussion (I always feel that closeted Harry Potter fans are ubiquitous), though he was engaged in his reading. We arrived on time, my parents picked me up, and then I was home!

Since I’ve been here, I’ve accomplished very little, but it’s been wonderful. Reading has taken up most of my time, and I was happy to finish Tamora Pierce’s Mastiff yesterday. I should be reading “adult” books, I know, but I do so love my young reader fiction.

I’ve also met up with some friends, which has been fun. There was a Nordic (cross-country skiing) party a few days ago that I attended, I had a cookie-making party with my neighbor, and I’ve gathered with some swimming and school friends. The results of the cookie party are plain, as our house is now full of oatmeal chocolate chip, thumbprint, shortbread, and peanut butter blossom cookies (my favorite). I have also been swimming throughout the break; not as much as I should be (my coach wanted doubles, which means swim practice both in the morning and afternoon), but at least once a day, at least an hour a day. No doubt I will regret it when we travel to Hawaii on Jan. 1^st for our training trip, but as of now I’m healthier than I was when I left!

As for the results of my discussions with friends, the swimming one was particularly interesting. Since I met up with younger friends, who are still in high school, they naturally had questions about college. There was the “how is it at an all-girls school” question, of course, which I answered as usual (it’s really not that different.) The one that really got me, though, was the seeming insinuation that I was not having a successful college experience, because I hadn’t gone to any parties (with alcohol).

Unfortunately, the insinuation is present in almost all the questions I’ve been asked, not just from that group, but in general by younger students. “So what’s the best thing about college,” “What’s the craziest thing you’ve done,” “How it is different,” “What’s it like without your parents,” “Are there parties,” “What do you do about the boys,” “Is it easy to get alcohol,” “What do you do with your free time?” Most of these questions, of course, can be answered without reference to parties or alcohol, but sometimes you can see the expectations of the askers. I have always been rather sensitive about these issues, as I don’t drink or go to parties, preferring to occupy myself with schoolwork and swimming, and spend the little free time I have reading or visiting with friends. As such, I’m often not able to express clearly that I feel very fulfilled by college, and feel that way even though my lifestyle has not very much changed from that of high school.

I’m not very good at answering the follow-up question either, about why I enjoy it so much if I’m doing the same things I was in high school, when I lived with my family. I still haven’t completely figured it out yet, though I’d like to say it is the atmosphere. It’s nice to be on my own, to decide what I want to do and when, to be surrounded by peers who have a similar drive to my own, who are incredibly diverse and different from my previous friends, surrounded by caring adults who are successful and devoted to helping each of us achieve success. I don’t want to say that my high school experience was lacking in any of these things; it absolutely wasn’t. I just think that there’s more of that environment in college, and that there’s always a conscious effort being made to make it that way.

That said, this is my own personal experience and covers my own opinions. I like small gatherings with a group of close friends rather than larger gatherings with strangers. I am more focused on academics than some, and varsity athletics consumes much more of my time than most other activities and clubs. However, if you are interested in partying, like many of my high school friends are, Wellesley offers you that as well. It’s a diverse campus, like I mentioned, and many opportunities are available.

For example, though I know very little about college parties (like I mentioned, it’s not my thing and I don’t seek it out, though I do hear some. Nevertheless, I’d highly advise asking another blogger or Wellesley student representative if you would like more information on what Wellesley has to offer in the social scene), I know that they commonly occur in private rooms where students over age 21 are allowed to have quiet parties with alcohol. I also know that Wellesley students commonly visit MIT and Harvard fraternity parties on weekends. There are usually boys on campus during the weekends, for events or more often with their girlfriends. That’s all I know, unfortunately—but I’m just ignorant and I know many people who could give you more details if you ask.

Funnily enough, the issue didn’t come up when I was meeting with some old friends that I’ve had since elementary school. One of them is at Brown right now, the other at F.I.T., and we talked mostly about our classes and our other activities. It all depends on what you are searching for, I guess. Sadly, I am not able to draw a better conclusion from my musings at this time—my mother always tells me that we all have to learn our own lessons at our own pace, though I wish there was some way to make it as faster process for all involved :).

I shall now move on from the high school versus college debate, though I think that has become my mission question for this blog! Still, other things have been going on, such as Christmas preparations :). My sisters and I decorated the tree yesterday, which is “green,” meaning that it is plastic. My father was very pleased that the lights were already attached, so it is easily assemble-able as well ;). Further, today we finally went out for dimsum! Dimsum is a Cantonese tradition, a style of eating whereby one sits down at a table, and servers wander about offering different dishes of the traditional cooking.  When you want a dish, they put it down and check off the size of the dish on the paper they provide you when you arrive. At the end, they tally up all the sizes of dishes you consumed, and that’s the meal. I love the dimsum pastries—egg tarts are my favorites, and we bought an enormous amount of those and pineapple buns, which are also filled with egg custard. It sounds weird, but it’s delicious, and my mother has been promising we’d go since Thanksgiving!

With that last description of food, I think I’ll be off :). I don’t know if this post is any shorter than the others, but I attempted to make it more clear! (Which did not take much, frankly, as my last post was veering toward hysterical.)

I hope you all have a marvelous Christmas, Hanukah, New Year, or holidays! Best wishes, and I hope you’re happy with your families and your home and the weather and break!

I’m open for questions, as always :).

Monica