Ring the alarm!

I remember being in grade school and having fire drills. Those were the days when you were almost sad for a drill, because it meant that you had to leave your coloring page, or your book or your science movie. But you obediently walked outside silently in your single-file line and waited while your teacher took the roll and made sure that no one was left in the bathroom. Then, when your teachers said okay, you diligently walked back into the classroom and began your activities again.

High school is a different story. You love fire drills, look forward to them, even. You try to weasel it out of the teachers when the next planned drill will be taking place. Fire drills are the best, especially during an extremely long and tedious lecture on the coefficient of friction during a double AP Physics day. Or even better, during a day with a shortened schedule, so you end up with only 10 minutes of Honors Spanish, but you still have a 35 minute lunch. And these fire drills are no longer silent. You grab a large group of friends, meander down the stairs and out to the sidewalk and have a chat while the teacher tries to take a head count of all the kids in the class. Unfortunately for the teacher, their kids are spread out all over the sidewalk. Then, when the okay comes, you walk S...L...O...W...L...Y... back into class, dragging out this wonderful twist of fate and using it to its fullest potential.

And now, there's college fire drills. These are extremely different, mainly because they happen in your living quarters, not your classroom. We have had alarms during the fall; quite a few, actually, and they have usually been on weekends around midnight or two o'clock. These drills, as far as I know, are not planned and come about from people pulling the fire alarms. So there will unexpectedly be an alarm, and everyone will have to exit the building and wait for the okay from an RA to enter once again. Normally, this isn't that big of a deal. Unless it's the middle of the night, let's say around 4:30 am, in the middle of winter, let's say potentially January 24, with the temperature well below zero, let's say approximately 5 below zero. And you've been woken up from a very deep slumber. You have to try to figure out what the heck that annoying alarm is, jump out of bed, put on enough clothes to keep you from freezing, and get your butt out of the building. The bad thing is, you never know how long you'll be outside for! In high school, you can count on less than 5 minutes each time; but here, any guess is a good guess.Then you have to go back inside and shed off the many layers you hastily assembled into and try to go back to bed, all the while thinking that you have to get up in four hours to work on a research presentation due in two days. Needless to say, fire alarms are not high on the "Things I Can't Live Without" list.

Gotta love J-Term!
Always,
Allison

Same old song and dance...snow!

It is said that the Eskimos have 27 words for snow. And you know what? I can totally understand. I was going for my daily walk today, and of course, it was snowing. But this kind of snow wasn't the blizzard type of snow nor was it the windy blowing freezing type of snow. This snow is by far my favorite type of snow: the soft romantic floating snow. This kind of snow is the kind that drifts lazily from the sky in big flakes, the flakes that linger on your hair and eyelashes. It reminds me of a romantic moonlight walk in the woods, and when you come inside, your cheeks rosy and your hair covered with a fine layer of soft snow, you sit by the fireside sipping hot cider.

Snow is a great way to define the winter, in my opinion. Since there are so many different kinds of snow, it is highly unlikely that you are unable to find a type to fit your situation. The snow that accurately describes my J-Term so far would be somewhere in between the lazy snow that is gracing my view outside my window and the not quite so lazy snow that comes from a mean-looking sky that has a specific purpose of leaving a layer of snow on the ground just thick enough to make you shovel. Basically, my class involves reading and walking, which is why it's a bit lazy. However, the reading we have to do is extremely difficult and involves many days with 100+ pages per night, which is where the difficulty comes in. I thought I would have much more free time during this month, but I've spent quite a bit of time simply reading.

That's about all I have for this entry. I apologize for the compactness, but I've still got some reading to do for tomorrow, along with some research for my presentation next week. I promise I will have something a bit more entertaining than snow next time. Until then, I'm

Always,
Allison

Being Catholic at a Lutheran school

Before I begin, I think a little personal background is necessary. I have grown up in the Catholic church, I attended Catholic school from first grade on through high school. I've had many religion classes, not only in school but also through church. I have had religion crammed into my mind over and over, including many classes that have taught the same thing, like the Bible, and who Jesus was and understanding the mass. But I never realized how much I took my religion for granted until now.

I find it ironic that only now, being surrounded by Lutherans (nothing against them, my best friends here are Lutheran, I'm just seeing the irony in the situation) have I truly come to respect and cherish my faith. I have started going to church on Sundays of my own accord, not because my mom was taking me, but because I truly WANT to be there. I've begun to read devotionals and try to relate them to my life in the here and now. I've also taken to thinking more about what I believe and why I believe it.

I have grown exponentially in my faith in literally the past week. Something has changed in me, and I can't express how grateful I am for it. I feel that even though I have spent my whole life around Catholics, I needed to try to "defend" my faith to others in order to prove to myself that my faith was strong. When I say defend, I mean informing those around me about things like Vatican II and St. Francis of Assisi, which are a very important part of my faith. Granted, these two specifics came about from my J-Term class, but it has opened new doors for discussion. Again, this has made me realize how special my faith is to me.

And that's my food for thought this week. I'm still
Always
Allison

J-Term? What is that?

I think time flying by is a massive understatement. I think it's more like time takes off in it's rocket and leaves me in it's dust as it speeds off, faster than sound, leaving a very confused and bewildered girl behind. That about describes my Christmas vacation.

So here I am, back at Luther, ready for an exciting J-Term. For those of you unfamiliar with this crazy phenomenon, J-Term is the one class you take during the month of January. For many upperclassmen, this means studying abroad or internships. For freshman, it means two hours a day every day of a class of your choosing. The classes range in topic, from the quest for the holy grail to an introduction to excavating archeology to the study of cancer and its causes and treatments. My class is a perfect fit for me. It's called Walking Books, and we read books and go on walks! It's wonderful!

The books we read all have to do with walking. The one right now is about a man who walked the Appalachian Trail. Another is about the history of walking, one is a search for the contemplative life, and one is a Jane Austen novel. All in all, I am really looking forward to the literature for this course. But more importantly are the discussions we have in class. We talk about walking! How cool is that? We talk about where we walk (which is part of our homework, to walk at least 45 minutes a day), what we have seen on our walks, the kind of things we think about while we walk...it's awesome! And of course we discussing the walking that takes place in the books. Never have I been so excited for a class!

So there you have a quick synopsis of what my life will be consisting of for the next month: reading and walking! Maybe I'll bump into some of you on my wanderings!
Always,
Allison

Finals, of course

There is but one thing on the minds of all the students on campus: finals week! Quiet hours are well underway, and I think I'm safe in saying that the entire campus has had its nose stuck in books since 6pm on Friday. Except for my roommates and I, of course...we spent all day at the Mall of America!

We decided that our brains would need a break from the constant pressure of studying, so last week we said Saturday would be our mental health day/Christmas shopping day/roomie road trip day. We rolled off campus at 8am, and ended up at IKEA by 10:30! We ate lunch at Famous Daves, and shopped till we dropped! I don't think I've had this much fun shopping in a long time...we made lots of fun memories while the rest of school was cramming their brains full of knowledge. After a quick stop in Rochester for a Chipotle dinner (num, my favorite!) we arrived back at campus around 8:30. We were pooped, but of course, we really wanted to wrap presents! So we spent another hour doing that before crashing. And now here it is, Sunday before my first college finals week, and my books are staring me in the face. So in light of the difficulty level of my finals, I feel it is in my best interest to oblige my books and begin some mad studying!

Always,
Allison

Emma, Abby and I on our shopping day

My theme song

Christmas time is here, happiness and cheer. Fun for all that children call their favorite time of the year. Yes, it is that time of year when everything reminds you of Christmas, and it's absolutely 100 per cent GLORIOUS!!!! Everyone around campus is cheerful, minus the fact that finals are right around the corner. But finals are overshadowed by the wondrous feeling of Christmas. It is very clear why this is many people's favorite time of year.

Snowflakes in the air, carols everywhere. Olden times and ancient rhymes of love and dreams to share. Snow is on the ground. It is white and it is fluffy and it is here to stay! Christmas songs are now my number one play list on my computer. Everyone is walking around in a dream-like trance. For me, these dreams include Christmas stocking hung by the fire, snowflakes drifting lazily from the sky, new books and old friends.

Sleigh bells in the air. Beauty everywhere. Yuletide by the fireside and joyful memories there. One of my favorite parts of winter sitting by the fire with a warm cup of hot chocolate, or more recently, chai tea or mocha. So I cannot wait to go home, sit by the fire with good friends, and reminisce while looking out the window at the snow covered landscape.

Christmas time is here, we'll be drawing near. Oh, that we could always see such spirit through the year. Christmas is by far my favorite season, simply because everyone I meet is always cheerful. I absolutely adore the joy this scintillating season brings throughout the entire winter.

Always,
Allison

Seconds, anyone?

Analogy: Luther and Thanksgiving dinner. Give me two minutes, and you'll see where I'm going.

Luther is like a Thanksgiving dinner. Before you arrive on campus, all you can do is think about it; the anticipation builds and builds until it almost bubbles over. Same with Thanksgiving: you wait and wait to eat all that delicious wonder in front of you. Your mouth waters, and your eyes glaze over. Finally you get to move into your dorm room, which is the equivalent of taking the first bite of your Thanksgiving meal. Then you feast. You eat and eat until you can eat no more. Same goes for Luther: you are running around like you're head's been cut off, trying to do everything, meet everyone, see all there is to see. But just like the stomach ache that comes from eating too much, overexerting yourself at Luther starts to take a toll. This is what I like the call the "Belt-loosening stage" of the meal. Your belt gets loosened a few notches at the dinner table; similarly, you take a step back from all of your many scheduled activities and just breathe. Along with this breather comes Thanksgiving Break, which, for many of us first year students, could not have come at a better time. Warm clothes need to be transferred from your home closet to your dorm closet, along with blankets, hats, and mittens.

But, of course, your stomach settles down, and you get hungry again. This is about the time you start yearning for the comfort of your dorm room. Seconds at Thanksgiving means more food, but at Luther, it means coming back to the final three weeks of your first semester of college with more force and vigor than ever before.

Analogies are always fun :-)
Always,
Allison