Um susto daqueles!

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Today I woke up to a text from my RA (Resident Assistant) and friend demanding that I come down to the basement as there is a tornado warning. I was confused first of all, not really knowing the difference between a watch and a warning, then I just didn't know what to do: should I bring something with me?, and what would that be?, should I take out my fan and close my window?, what do I do?, should I get off of my pjs and put real clothes on?  I was an emotional wreck. This was a new thing for me!  So I go get my dear boyfriend from his bed and demand that he come with me, because I'm scared, confused, and it's supposed to be safer there.  We brought water, granola bars, and a blanket, only to realize that that last one was completely unnecessary - our basement is way too hot!  Anyways, so he just keeps telling me it'll be okay, that we are on a hill and tornadoes don't get here. But the weather kept getting weirder and weirder... Never ending rain, lots of wind, the sky was sooo dark! It just scared me soooo much! We were there for about half an hour, the time they had told us to stay. Came back up and we were soon told to hide back down and not leave until we were told it was safe out there.  I can tell you this was one of the scariest moments of my life, if not the most. So we go back down, this time with a laptop.  I emailed my parents saying everything was okay and that I was safe.  Didn't really know if everything would be okay, but didn't want them to be scared when they saw on the news the Alabama disaster and went to check the weather for Westminster, MD.  Of course I didn't tell them that at that precise time I was hiding down in the basement of McDaniel Hall, on the verge of tears.

My boyfriend is in my morning class (Critical Thinking), so he decided to call the professor's office to tell him that no student was allowed to leave the buildings they were in.  The professor said that class would happen as long as the building was still standing.  that didn't make me feel any better.  I wanted to hit him for saying that - there are things that you just don't joke about.  Anyways, I was told by many people that I was a big baby, but I didn't care.  My boyfriend just wanted to leave and go back to sleep, but we hadn't been cleared yet, so I didn't let him leave. He was upset about that, but new I was in great distress, so he stayed!

At about 9:45am an email came saying that if classes would resume as soon as the alert had been lifted, which would not happen until 10am.  So we waited there until the head RA came to tell us that Campus Safety had cleared us to go.

It was the most stressful and scary morning of my life!! I felt it was so disorganized (only about 1/4 of the people in my building were down in the basement), the sirens did nothing for me (yes, the sirens that were supposed to have woken me up at some point between 7 and 7:15am just didn't do it - I slept right through them!), and information wasn't very quick.  We all sign up for this service that the school has where are informed of any life-threatening situation on campus. However, even though Campus Safety was out and about with sirens telling us to take cover at 7am, the message from the service didn't reach the students until 8:07am.  That was weird, but anyways, than they were good and texted, called, and emailed us every half hour when the warning was extended, and again when we were free to leave.  The sirens just sound like an ambulance really.  This is a common sound in Westminster. I wouldn't be surprised if I had actually heard it and been to asleep to realize what it was, and probably just decided to go back to sleep.

Anyways, once they let us go, I changed quickly, put some milk and cereal into a Tupperware container and went to class.  Brought with me all the stuff I needed for the rest of the day (have a test tomorrow, and I have to say I just wasn't able to study, because I was so scared).  After class, my boyfriend was working and I went to that same building - there was no way I was gonna be ducking in a basement without him if they told us to again.  The rest of the day went without problems, the rain and wind stopped, the sky cleared, and the sun came out - you know just an average spring day.  As soon as the National Weather Service canceled the watch (the not so serious state in which everybody goes about their day - which was on until 3pm), I called home to my parents to explain what had happened.  Not sure what they thought, but we'll see.  Maybe tomorrow they'll have had more time to think about it and will have something to say.



Even though here it wasn't bad, tornadoes did hit other states and caused a lot of damage.  My heart goes out to all those affected and the families and friends of the victims.

Here is a link to a map from The New York Times that shows the tornadoes that have hit the US  for the last week:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/04/28/us/map-of-the-tornadoes-across-the-south.html

There have been over 300 deaths related to tornadoes in the last week.  (I'm gonna be honest and say that I didn't read the whole article - it's too depressing.)

So here you go, that was my morning!

Good night, everyone!

PS:  I promise I'll come back to blog about something more positive soon.  This was just uncensored therapy for me.

PPS:  I can't wait to go back home!! Leave in 16 days and will be back home in 17 days!!!

PPPS: I have the best boyfriend in the world!  He did everything I asked him to and made me feel much better just by being there.

Good night, everyone!

Registration

I'm kind of nervous for registration tonight... It doesn't make sense to be, because I can't do anything to change what might happen. You know, other than assuring I have a fast internet connection and that I register right at 7pm. I hope one of those 4 spots will have my name on it tonight.


Now, the question became should I take Gospel Choir next semester. We need 4 credits of creative expression, and this 1-and-half-hours class takes care of 1 credit. Since we have to take all 4 credits on the same medium, I'd have to take it another 3 semesters after that. There are other classes that would give me the 4 credits right away in one semester with only 3 hours a week. The thing is they tend to overlap with the times of all the labs I have to do for my major. There will be a pottery class in the fall next year, that I might try to take, but I'm scared, because I don't know how good I'll be at it... It just seems so hard, and I feel like I am not creative enough to do this...

Think I might just sign up for it, go see how it is, and if I don't like it, I'll drop it later.

Now, off to lunch! :)

It's been way too long!

It's been way too long since I last posted! I've been thinking why and I think it might have been the fact that I was trying to post stuff all the way back from when I first got to the States, rather than more recent and interesting stuff.


I've spent the last couple days just thinking about blogs and I actually went back to Google Reader and read the 700+ blog posts that I hadn't read since school started... Google Reader has been my escape from the school world... Things have been a little rough the last couple weeks.

I've had no motivation whatsoever to do things, I've been sad and cranky, and I've been a downer for people around me, especially my boyfriend. He's been great about it, trying to make me feel better and a little more at home. But sometimes, you just need that hug from mom and dad...

I don't even really know what I've been so cranky about, but my guesses are:

• Stress
• Lots of work
• Homesickness (a little bit)
• Lack of motivation in general (it's been a vicious cycle)
• Not going to the gym
• Starting to get as messy as my roommate (that's bad, really bad)
• Not having as much time for myself as I wish I would (now, I'm making that time at the expense of homework time - not a smart move at all, but I'm hoping it will calm me down and allow me to focus on anything for longer than 5 minutes again)
• Being indecisive about my majors/minors (I don't even know anymore... - I started out as a Biology major, and just a couple weeks ago I added a Biochemistry major, and then it all fell apart as I started thinking what that really involved, how much work that will be, so I've been talking to people about it, and they all seem to agree that I should drop the Biochemistry major and do a Chemistry minor instead - that might help to take some of the stress away)
• Being so stressed about grades, not just the amount of work (I hate how GPA is such a big deal, it's like each and every step you take in your college career needs to be thinking about the future and acceptance in grad school, or med school or law school... People have stopped taking classes they like to take classes they think will look good on their transcript. That's not me, I just want to enjoy my college years and learn for the sake of learning, of knowing more, of improving myslef... Spanish class really has got me thinking about it with the Pedagogy of the Opressed of Paolo Freire)
• Stressing over future internships in the summer (they really recommend that we do a few internships before graduating, so we get experience before actually trying to get in the work place and to see if that is really what we want to do in the future, as well as all the networking advantages that come with an internship)
• Planning out my schedule for the Spring (I register tomorrow evening and there are only 4 spots left in the Genetics class I have to take to be in good shape to fulfill all the requirements for my major(s), as genetics is a prerequisite for most classes from now on)

I feel like there's just way too much going on right now... I've been going to Career Services presentations/webinars/information sessions on how to find internships, the importance of these... I've been complaining about not going to the gym, or how I haven't done my dishes, or how my room is mess... But I feel like I haven't been doing anything to change that. I feel like I haven't put enough effort into getting things done, which then makes me more depressed. So, this has just been a cycle for two weeks, in which I've started to feel less beautiful, in which I've been mad at myself for not getting things done, for feeling a little depressed and for just sitting in front of work thinking about things that don't make sense.

So, what I want to do is to start being better, getting things done when they need to be done, being productive, being nice to everyone, smiling more, and hopefully, start writing on my blog again. It's interesting how getting all this down just helped me calm down and realize there is a way out of this mess. Blogging always makes me feel better, I really don't know why I don't do it more often.





Thanks for reading to the end, and I'm sorry this was a lengthy post, but I had to get it off my chest, get it on "paper," I mean screen, and feel better about myself.

Vamos la ao que interessa! :)

O objectivo do blog era partilhar as aventuras por terras estrangeiras, portanto vamos a isso. Ja vem com um ano de atraso, mas nao deixam de ser fotografias que tirei nos primeiros meses que estive nos 'States'.

Apresento-vos o Whiteford Hall, o edificio onde vivi este primeiro ano!


Tambem tirei fotografias do quartinho que dividi com uma menina de Rhode Island.


O que tinha e o que esta a vista, uma secretaria, uma prateleira na parede (considerada um luxo, dado que penso que so existem nos quartos dos alunos do primeiro ano. Talvez a partir dai nao sejam precisos os livros, mas um sitio para por a impressora continuava a dar jeito), uma cama, uma pequena comoda, um roupeiro, uma cadeira, e um mini frigorifico e microondas. E nao, com muita pena minha, os pais e o mano nao faziam parte da mobilia.

E estas foram as primeiras impressoes que tive da universidade. O McDaniel College acabou por ser uma boa escolha, talvez ate excelente. Acabei por me sentir em casa neste quartinho pequenino.

Estou convencida de que havia uma fotografia de como o quarto estava no final do ano, mas nao a consigo encontrar. Se algum dia aparecer por obra e graca do Espirito Santo terei o cuidado de a postar no blog.

Mas posso confessar que me recusei a por coisas na parede do quarto ate ao segundo semestre. A minha colega de quarto passava a vida a perguntar porque. Penso que era porque em casa as paredes do meu quarto nao tinham posters ou fotos, ou qualquer outros adornos que so ganham po. Tambem estou a ser mazinha, nao e bem assim, mas era assim que eu encarava a situacao no principio. Eu e a minha colega de quarto, a Kaitlyn, acabamos por comecar com a piada de que la para Maio a minha parede havia de estar decorada. Eu la brincava que talvez em Agosto (quando comeca de novo o ano lectivo).

Enfim, nenhuma de nos acertou, acabou por ser em Fevereiro (com apenas algumas fotografias) e a coisa compos-se em Marco quando eu decidi por na parede todas as fotografias que levei comigo e todos os postais que me foram mandando. Desde o Castelo de Ourem, passando pelo Santuario, um ursinho com uma flor da mae, uma foto antiga de bacalhaus que a tia Lucena mandou pela altura do Natal e as fotografias da graduacao e do jantar de finalistas do Lincoln, a parede compos-se.

Mais historias hao-de vir!