Sunday, December 15, 2013

Singing the wrong words: Grammar in today's lyrics



Grammar seems to be one of the last things today’s popular musical artists think of when creating songs. Turning on my radio, I hear pop song after pop song featuring lyrics like “I got the eye of the tiger,” or “I be in the club,” and although I don’t consider myself a “grammar Nazi,” I still cringe.

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article this summer about a new style guide with “aims to establish basic rules” for the music world in terms of capitalization, punctuation and other grammar issues.

Personally, I can see this new style guide helping, but I also wonder if artists will chose to use it. Because music is truly a form of art, I can see how artists can be creative with it from time to time. Simple grammatical errors in music lyrics have been around since the rock n roll ages, with song titles like “Lay Down Sally,” by Eric Clapton, and of course, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction” by the Rolling Stones.

These three selections use the words “lay” and “no”incorrectly, respectively. In Clapton’s song, he writes the main chorus lyrics and the title using the word “lay,” in “lay down Sally.” This is an issue of “lie” vs “lay."First of all, this sentence is written in the present tense. Therefore, the use of “lay” is incorrect because “lay” requires a direct object along with a subject, whereas “lie” doesn’t require a direct object. (For example, you can “lay” a potato on the couch, and you can “lie” down on the floor.)

As for the Rolling Stones, they are guilty of using a double negative in “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction.” Double negatives are often frowned upon because they simply don’t make no sense. If you think about it, if you say “they do not make no sense,” you’re saying that it does make sense, which isn’t what you’re initally trying to say. What you may mean is that “they don’t make ANY sense.” So it should be “I Can’t Get Any Satisfaction.”

 

Another grammatical error that comes up in song lyrics is use of the passive voice. In the Beatles “All you Need is Love,” the passive voice is everywhere. Lyrics switch from “All you need is love” to “love is all you need” throughout the entire song, and ultimately switch from active to passive voice. The subject of “All you need is love,” is “you,” the main verb is “is,” and the direct object is “love.” In the active voice, these slots are all in the correct place, but in the passive voice, they are inverted, putting the direct object before the subject and connecting them with the verb.

In addition, there are times when artists make up words in order to get the rhyme. Gwen Stefani is guilty of this in “Bubble Pop Electric,” with lyrics “I’m restless, can’t you see I try my bestest.” Justin Timberlake also falls victim to making up a word in “What Goes Around,” featuring lyrics “When you cheated girl, my heart bleeded girl.”

For sake of rhyming, I can definitely see why artists would go to certain lengths to make up words and violate grammar rules. Like I said earlier, music is indeed a form of art, and isn’t meant to follow the rules in the first place. Especially in the Beatles’ song, “All you need is Love,” they alternate from active to passive voice perhaps to put emphasis on the word “love,” because that is the main theme of the song. But when looking outside the classic rock era and instead at modern day pop and hip-hop songs, grammatical issues are growing to a whole new level.

 

I personally find it hard to believe that people like Miley Cyrus and Pitbull are true “artists,” rather than famous people simply reciting lyrics that contain multiple grammatically incorrect phrases. Timbaland’s “The Way I Are,” is a prime example. Sure, for rap and hip-hop songs the syllables of words need to match up with the beat, so it’s often understandable for artists to alter words and sentence structures. But for example in Kanye West’s “Jesus Walks,” he raps “Yo, we at war/We at war with terrorism, racisim, and most of all we at war with ourselves...” instead of “We’re at war,” etc. Same number of syllables, so why doesn’t he follow the grammar rules to make himself seem at least a tad smarter?

Then I wonder if these grammatically incorrect phrases are actually a reflection of our pop culture and our society today instead of a sore attempt to be creative. I’ve for sure been guilty of sending texts or speaking in grammatically incorrect sentences, including the occasional “I be in the library,” or “where you be, dude?” I do it to be funny or add some personality to the conversation.

So in the end, bad grammar in today’s pop music seems to be more of a question of our society, and what is making us talk like uneducated goons when most of us are in fact capable of using grammar correctly. This is a whole different topic, and is one that I may dive deeper into in the future, but for now, I have to make it through the next few weeks of finals and such. Off to make a playlist for studying that most likely consists of upbeat songs with horrid grammar. 

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

January 6th, comin' in hot

Once again, I've been swept up in a rush of college life and haven't found time to post on here for another month and a half....oops. Now here we are in December, and Houghton is getting its first snow dump. Been snowing all day, and expected to continue for....well, only Lake Superior knows.

I admit, I should be focusing more on studying for finals here in the library, but I just took a quick e-mail break to find a new message from Kohler. I've been waiting! After skimming it, then reading it a few more times in greater detail out of excitement, it told me that I would be starting a little over a month, on January 6th. WHOA, hold up.

That's in what, a month??! I have a week and a half left of school, and a week of finals between me and Christmas. Then I start....work? My first "big girl" job, too.....I'm so excited but yet so nervous. Sure gonna miss these folks in Houghton, but I'm sure I'll be making plenty ski trips on the weekends.

In order to send me off and to kick off 2014 the right way, I just purchased tickets to the Trampled by Turtles concert in Milwaukee for New Year's Eve! Mitch, my cousin, is back from his adventures in New Zealand and we agreed that it'd be fun if we could get a crew together for one last bluegrass concert of the year. So as of now, me, Mitch, Hayden, Mike and Mitch's friends from NZ are all gonna be there for NYE. Words can't describe how excited I am! I LOVED their concert in Duluth this past summer and since then I've been so anxious to see them again.

So that's that. Life just keeps happening. Gotta get back to studying now...gah.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Waste no time.

It's been awhile since I've been on here! It's been a hectic month, lots of ups and downs. But here we are, in the middle of October already! I just read my last post and couldn't believe I posted the night before the first day of school, like where did that time go???

Between then and now, I've been on numerous adventures with friends and family. From afternoons spent fishing with my closest guy friends to nights dancing on the floor of the Orpheum to rocking bluegrass music (courtesy of Greensky Bluegrass - great music, greater time), looking back on the past month or so is both fun and bittersweet for me. Can't wait to see what the second half of the semester has to bring, and I don't wanna waste a single moment to spend with my loves in this beautiful town.

My fam came up last weekend, what a blast. We kayaked in Copper Harbor with Hayden and Mike, my two good friends and all the dogs and family. We then hosted a huge cookout for everyone at our house later, and had one heck of a time.

Oh! And how could I forget. Next semester brings more change! Mitch will be back in a month, but I landed a co-op position at Kohler in Wisconsin that starts in January and ends in August. I am more than excited and anxious to see what this experience will bring. I'll definitely miss my friends and Mitch here in Houghton, but quite honestly, I'm eager to get out for a semester. The small town of Houghton is starting to get, well, small town.

So yeah. That's a quick update of life for me.


Monday, September 2, 2013

Changing seasons, changing times

With the end of summer comes change. Not only the change of schedules and daily life, but the changing of seasons, and for me and my dad's family, other changes. I won't go into detail, but it's been a bumpy ride this week for our family. To make things more challenging, we are all in different places in the country, and the world.

One major thing that I've learned over the past week is that no matter how separated our family is, we are still a family, and together we are stronger than any of us could ever be alone. I'm beyond grateful for them, and there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think of them and miss them. Stay strong, Kirby's, stay strong.

Anywho, long story short, we have to move on, and embrace one of my favorite seasons, autumn. School starts tomorrow, and everyone is finally back in Houghton. Well, almost everyone. Still missing cousin Mitch, it will for sure be a weird semester without him, but lucky for us we have Skype, Facebook, and all our friends here in Houghton. He's having one helluva time down under, and I'm really happy for him. And jealous.

Anyways, it finally got chilly today, and I'm loving every bit of it. Soon the leaves will start changing, the jeans and boots will be broken into to again, and the winter winds will start blowing.



Welllll, off to organize my life again. Got 9:30 Economics tomorrow, yeeeeeehaw. Less go, Junior year.


Monday, July 22, 2013

Weekend madness

The 14 hours in the car, countless bug bites, scrapes, bruises, aches and pains were all completely and totally worth it this weekend. We spent the night on Mt. Houghton Saturday, and it was nothing short of spectacular.

hiking in

campsite view

me and Camille! this was her last weekend here, and I think she really enjoyed herself while on da Yoop. 

great camp crew


my 'mock spot

me and Cam on a sandy beach celebrating Lake Superior Day on our way home



Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Yeah, so I'd rather live in a tent in the middle of the woods without an iPhone?

Looking back on that post from the other night, I thought I'd be regretting posting it by now just because it was so "heat of the moment." But I'm not yet, it just has me thinking more.

I remember something from Estonia that actually had a larger impact on me than I initially thought. When we met with Dr. Andres Arrak to discuss the Estonian economic model, he quoted himself in his presentation that got my wheels turning, so to say.

It went something like this:

"This is not a housing crisis. This is not a financial crisis. This is not an economic crisis. This is a crisis of values."

I completely agree with this. Nowadays, everyone's got to have the BEST thing, the newest thing. That's why you see smartphones in everyone's hands, and why you see huge houses being built for people who can hardly afford it.

Sure, I'm one of the very few college aged students who still lacks a smartphone and doesn't see a need for it. I would also personally rather live in a tent in the middle of the wilderness than in a nice house in the 'burbs of Minneapolis half the time. I still own my first generation iPod touch from like, 5 or 6 years ago. It works, why would I need a new one? Because of these personal thoughts and views, I've probably saved myself a good amount of money over the years, unlike a lot of my peers.

So I may be a bit biased when I say this, just because of my personal views, but what has caused our society to suddenly need the "best" of everything? Is it a status issue? I don't really know, but it's just something I've been thinking a lot about.

It also ties in with my post the other day. Because we all want the best, that means we need more and more money. So, naturally, college students are feeling more and more pressure to focus on school and internships, etc, so they can get that killer job right after graduating and start paying off those student loans so they can be wealthy in the future and eventually afford all the best things. (the student loan issue is another thing in itself...)

In the end, it seems to me, out of pure observation, that our society thinks it's all about the money. I'm currently trying to live my life in a different way. Granted, I've grown up in a fortunate enough position where I personally don't have to struggle to pay my way through school or work out my own budget or finances. And this factor may set me back, since I really don't HAVE to worry about my money as much as other kids my age. In fact, it also acts as an incentive for me to work harder at school and work so I don't upset or disappoint my parents. Then again, if I were paying for my entire education, I may be working even harder, but also may find more opportunities to "live." It's all something for me to think about more I guess.

Still. I'd like to see everyone take a step back and ask themselves if they're doing it for the money, or for themselves and their own lives. Personally, I'm going to try to create a balance of being financially stable and yet still doing what I want with my 20 year old life while I still can. I mean, YOLO, right?

So chew on that. Happy Hump Day, folks.

Monday, July 8, 2013

Breaking the mold, forming new perspectives


Being home for a month in the summertime sans summer job can be a boring thing. After waking up early to beat the heat for a long run in the woods, I usually find myself sitting at home, doing chores for my mom or on my computer. It’s day 6 of being home during the month of July, in between studying abroad and moving back into my house at school, and I’m already going crazy.

With every click on this computer, I wonder “there’s gotta be something far more exciting and meaningful than what I’m doing right now.” And I know there is. Every day that passes is a missed opportunity for great adventures, as I see it. Welp, there goes another one I guess.

It’s got me thinking. After just returning from a study abroad program in Estonia, I’ve been reflecting on it, and what exactly I got out of it. Sure, I saw a part of the world (including Estonia, Finland, and Russia) that hardly anyone ever gets to see in his or her lifetime. But I mean, what did I do over there that was really “life changing?”

The answer? I gained valuable experience in my area of study. Just another thing to put on my resume, perhaps. Yes, I’m very happy I went, and beyond grateful for the experience, don’t get me wrong. But did I change any lives? Did I really leave an impact? Did it really change my life all that much?

And the dreaded answer to this? Not really.

More thinking. So, this life that we (as 20 something year olds) are all living - the one where we attend school until age 18, then select a college or university to attend and pursue a 4 -year degree in our preferred area of study, only to find ourselves often struggling to find a career then eventually settling down and marrying, having kids and so on - is it really all we can do? Or is there more to this picture?

As much as I want to prepare myself for the “real world” during my time in college so I can get a good job and make my parents and myself happy, I still wonder if it’s truly right. All this career prepping makes students like me so susceptible to tunnel vision, and we often seem to lose sight of what this life is really about.

I want to make a difference. I want to do something in my life that is bigger than I can imagine. I want to have adventures. Adventures that I can tell my kids and grandkids about.

Right now, as a 20 year old student, I’ve got some big dreams. Biking across the country. Backpacking the entire Superior Hiking Trail. Backpacking (or biking) across Europe. Volunteering in an undeveloped country. This is only the start of my list, but it’s already piling up. In addition, I realize that each one of these things will take a tremendous amount of work and perhaps money to accomplish, which quite honestly, scares me.

(I may be starting to seem like the typical, naive, 20 something year old who is getting way ahead of herself here, but stay with me.)

Regardless, I want to work hard at getting these things crossed off, or at least planned. As much as I enjoy traveling recreationally as a tourist similar to the trip I just had in Eastern Europe, I feel as though my time and money can be spent in a better way when traveling at my age, especially since I enjoy seeing new places and experiencing new things so much. I’ve always had the traveling itch, so why not make the absolute most out of it while I can.

So instead of focusing so hard on building that resume so I can stand out to potential employers, why not go ahead and do some more adventuring and gain real life experience? Whether it’s getting lost in a new land or meeting some truly unforgettable people in this world, I’m craving it more than anything right now.

Sure, I’ve been watching YouTube videos, reading blogs and listening to inspiring music tonight, which is probably part of why all these things are suddenly occurring to me. It's happened before though, and I can’t let this feeling slip away from me again. I’ve really got to act on it, so here I am, typing away, so I can read this later and be reminded that I want this for my life.

One thing I’ve learned over the past 6 months is that it’s not all about the grades or the summer jobs or the internships. It’s about how you can relate to people, what kinds of experiences you’ve had, and how these experiences have shaped you as a person.

So that’s my goal. Slowing down, and not rushing into the 9 to 5 scheme while I still can. And yet being reasonable and somewhat practical about it, of course.

To end this random blurb about life, here’s some lyrics from the recent Ellie Goulding song, “Burn,” that left me with chills the first time I listened –we all have the fire, it’s whether or not we chose to really let it  burn:

When the lights turned down, they don't know what they heard
Strike the match, play it loud, giving love to the world
We'll be raising our hands, shining up to the sky
‘Cause we got the fire, fire, fire
And we gonna let it burn.



Monday, July 1, 2013

Home

After an amazing month in Europe, a hellish travel day, and a magical weekend in Duluth, I'm home.

And as TBT says, "there's no place like home."


Thursday, May 9, 2013

Summer 2013

I haven't been posting recently due to the storm of finals and moving and such as the "spring" semester came to a close. I say "spring" because I've been without snow for 6 days now...it's May 9th. Anyways, now I'm at home in MN, making dinner and crossing things off my to-do list, and one of them was this blogging business.

With the start of summer 2013, I'm anticipating one heck of a summer. To start, I'm about to move into our new house in Hancock this weekend with some lovely ladies, including 2 of my roomies from last year. Then summer classes start Monday, which is when my study abroad program will officially start. 3 weeks from yesterday is when our flight leaves Hancock for Chicago, then Frankfurt and eventually on to Tallinn, Estonia. I will then spend all of June in Eastern Europe, Russia and Finland.

Upon my arrival back to the states, I will meet my friend, Camille, who is coming to Minneapolis from France for a summer job, and we will venture off to Duluth together that very night to meet some of my good friends from school for a concert. Yes, the jet lag could be bad, but I am already way excited.

All of July will be spent getting things together, spending time with my friend and getting some relaxing time finally. After this time flies by, I am needed back in Houghton in August to be an Orientation Team Leader once again.

Because all these activities will keep me busier than ever, I'm deciding to start a separate blog just for my adventures in Houghton, Europe and such. I will try to post as much as possible, and perhaps include photos for every week or so.

Oh, speaking of photos, I just treated myself to a new Nikon DSLR -  hopefully that will motivate me to take and post more pictures of the happenings. I'm already obsessed.

I shall post a link to the new blog once I get on that, but now, off to eat some dinner!

Thursday, March 7, 2013

Making plans for the midnight sun

As I said in my post earlier this week, I will be traveling with a few other students and a faculty member this coming June to the country of Estonia. This morning, me and my friend Katelyn (who is also going to Estonia) were discussing passports and plane tickets and all the nitty gritty stuff that needs to be done before we depart.

Then we began discussing our post- program plans, or what the heck we were gonna do after the official program was done on June 19th. Well, my parents will be coming over to travel with me at some point, but we discussed maybe adventuring up to Finland for the weekend.

Sooooo that leads me to the main part of this post. I was just on Facebook, and noticed a video on another one of Katelyn and I's friends walls about Finland, where she is originally from. Can't say how stoked I am that we will be (hopefully...) in Helsinki for the summer solstice, or the midnight sun. Here it is: Land of the Midnight Sun


PS HAPPY SPRING BREAK FINALLY

Friday, March 1, 2013

Crunch time

I keep forgetting it's Friday today. Usually that never happens. I guess this has been what I'd call a "busy" week. After getting back on Sunday from the Birkie, I took Monday morning to sleep in and slowly acclimate back into the college life routine. Once Tuesday hit, however, everything changed with huge deadlines looming on the horizon of another perfect storm that is hitting right before I head off to California for Spring Break.

I have a web page due tonight. A paper due Sunday. An exam on Monday. Another exam on Tuesday. A graphic design project due Tuesday. A homework assignment due Tuesday. And finally, a huge paper due on Wednesday. Whew. Right now, I'm just focusing on making it out alive, but I'm already ahead of the game with finishing that blasted web page this afternoon. After a good 15ish hours of hard work and problem solving, here it is! I am very proud of it and actually had some fun putting it together.

Also, I'm stoked to add that the study abroad program to Estonia has been approved, so I will be spending roughly 6 weeks this summer in a faculty-led program that will get me and 8 or so other students client project experience as well as a unique experience in eastern Europe. I am so excited.

Most people ask me where the heck Estonia is. Right there, just a short ferry ride from Finland and short train ride to St. Petersburg.


Well, happy Friday, and happy end to the longest week ever for most Tech students. Keep plugging away, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel and it's coming from Truckee, CA. Lake Tahoe awaits.


Monday, February 25, 2013

The Birkie fever has passed. Until next year.

Well, the post-Birkie blues have set in. It's Monday and I'm back in Houghton, after a weekend full of friends, family, skiing, food and relaxation. I would have done anything to get one more day at the cabin with everyone, but this is real life and unfortunately, I'm already back to reality.

Me and my friend Adam took off from Houghton to drive to my parent's cabin on Friday afternoon after class. It took us about 5 hours, after the time change and after picking up our bibs in Hayward. We both get really cranky when we're hungry, so once dinner time rolled around, I turned up the music and we both went silent for a good hour or so, until we arrived to a warm cabin filled with friends, family, dogs and of course, carbs.

After wiping the last of the alfredo from my plate with my 7th piece of bread, I cleared my place and headed into the "wax cave" with Adam and my dad and his friend to get to low down on the ski wax situation.

Both me and Adam classic skied the Birkie, since we're young and attend school in the frozen  tundra of the UP which provides us with more than enough snow to train, whereas my dad and his friend both skied the Korteloppet, which is half of the Birkie, because MN was very snow-deprived this season (again). In addition, my good friend Lewis skated his first Birkie, and his dad did the Korte as well. Even my own mom skied her first race in a while! She classiced the Prince Hauken, a 12k race on part of the Birkie trail. Go mom!

So once we had everything ironed in, brushed off and corked in, I hit the hay for the 4:30 wake up call the next morning. As always, 4:30 comes way too fast, but I was so excited to ski my 2nd Birkie that I popped right outta bed and immediately got ready for the big day.

We ate our oatmeal, bananas and bagels, then took off around 5:30 for Cable. Once there, we got a ll situated and me and Adam got to the start in time for his wave one start and my wave two start.

Me and dad at the start

Our whole family (minus the pups) raced this year!

Sooner or later, around 8:25, I was off into the woods of Northwestern Wisconsin with 12,000 others.  For the first 15 or 20 km, I won't lie, but I wasn't sure I was going to make it. But once I hit 00 (the halfway point), I felt much better, and kept trucking all the way to mainstreet Hayward for the grand finale finish.

So many skiers in one area...


I forgot how many people are lined up along Hayward's main street. I also forgot how long 54km really is, and how good bananas taste when your body is put to the test. What a fun day. I completed the race in just under 5 hours, about 10 minutes slower than last year. So I was happy. Everyone else finished without any medical problems, and my mom finished too! Everyone was exhausted, but happy, as always.

A glimpse of the finish down main street. So amazing.


All the racers!

The rest of Saturday consisted of nursing the sore muscles (my hip flexors felt like they were going to rip apart, and still do), sleeping, eating, and more sleeping. I couldn't have asked for a better weekend! And with that, counting down the days until Birkie 2014. 363 more to go...



Friday, February 22, 2013

More aftermath!

I thought it may be good to post some more pictures of the recent snow storm we've had up here. They've been floating around Facebook of course, so I chose a few to share here.

It's a little small and blurry, but that is a car on M-28 that has discovered a drift mid-highway.
The highway actually closed down on Wednesday I believe. For good reasons too.

This picture was taken in South Range. Just a guy out snowblowing his driveway I guess.


Anyways, Happy Friday, I made it through the hectic week. Well, almost. The American Birkebeiner in Hayward, Wisconsin is tomorrow and this is a national holiday in the Kirby family. I will be leaving this afternoon (100% chance of snow at noon might I add....) with my friend Adam to meet some 10 or 12 of our friends at my parent's cabin for the big race. I cannot wait to eat half my weight in my mom's pasta to carb up for the 54 kilometer race ahead. And see my dogs. And my family and friends. Pictures will follow I'm sure!



Wednesday, February 20, 2013

Uhh, is this week over yet?

Well, it's safe to say that we've sure had a change of pace here at Michigan Tech this past week. And yes, it's only Wednesday, ok but it literally feels like Saturday to me. Sure, blame it on the fact that I haven't had class for almost 2 days due to the worst snow storm the western UP has seen in 17 years (as the weatherman told me last night) that dumped close to 3 feet of snow on us in 48 hours. But seriously. Where do I begin.

Well, Monday was normal to say the least. Just another Monday in my book, it consisted of rolling outta bed around 10, bumming around until the worst class ever at noon, then giving a tour to 2 very lovely but sorta awkward families until 4. Then came the homework, dinner, meetings, yeah yeah yeah. Oh, and the rumors started flying about this "huge storm" that was gonna hit, but I just assumed it would be another week long lake effect snow event.

Tuesday was a different story. My 8 AM was cancelled because our professor told us to attend the Career Fair on campus later that day, so that was a good start. Slept in a bit, climbed out of bed to check my e-mail, seeing that my web design class got cancelled due to the weather. I then looked out the window to see if this was really necessary and what I saw made me discouraged to go to my 9:30 programming class. 40+ mph winds, blowing snow, falling snow, bent trees and close to zero visibility is what I saw. Awesome. Grabbed my scarf (thanks mama, I know you're probs the only one reading this!), hat, mittens, iPod, jacket, mukluks and whatnot and headed out into the storm after a hearty breakfast consisting of Honey Nut Cheerios and OJ.

The walk to class was one of the worst. I couldn't see a thing because the wind was whipping my face so hard, and there was a moment when I literally couldn't see 2 feet in front of my face so I had to stop walking until it calmed down. Cars were stuck, students were unrecognizable in their parkas and ski goggles/masks, and snow was everywhere. EVERYWHERE. But I did make it safely to programming. Yipee.

After programming is when the week took a new turn. I received a text saying "Michigan Tech is closed due to severe weather today. Classes are cancelled after noon today. Career Fair is still on." This is a rare occurrence here in Houghton as I've been told, so naturally everyone was stoked about it. I went on with my day, hit the Career Fair, got some work done and so on. Went to bed expecting to sleep in until my class at noon the next day.

I woke up at 6 AM this morning to my phone buzzing under my pillow. I rolled over in my cocoon of blankets to open the text message and squint through the dark at the blinding screen to barely make out the blurry words "Michigan Tech is closed due to severe weather today. Classes are cancelled." I rolled back over and fist pumped the air. This meant I had a whole day to myself and one assignment and possibly 2 hours of work. The Huskies of MTU finally scored a snow day.

So the day went on as a typical weekend-type day. Slept in, got up, ate breakfast while watching Kelly and Michael in DisneyWorld (jealous) then did laundry, cleaned my room, shoveled out my car (see below...) and got ready for my 2 o clock tour. The weather was slightly better surprisingly, still cold and windy though. After my tour, me and 2 of my roommates regressed into 10 year olds and went to go jump in the snowdrifts. More pics of that...

That's the front of my car...ooh wait...

I managed to fall through that hole on the right into an abyss 

gigglin'

notice the lightpost...

Oh, and here's a picture from last Sunday! Apt 305 adventured into the Keweenaw





ANYWAYS.


After enjoying some hot chocolate in the dining hall, we all went back to the apartment for a bit to hang out. That didn't last long. Soon enough, we were jolted back into our boots and jackets by the screeching fire alarm, and we trudged outside once again, assuming it was another annoying drill.

10 minutes later, 2 firetrucks and 5 police cars later, we were still out there, teeth chattering and minds wandering. Turns out, a pipe froze in the workout room, and burst everywhere, flooding the ground and the first floors. So, we were homeless for 2 hours, but everything worked out in the end and now I'm happily enjoying some homemade tomato soup and wondering what the rest of the week will bring..........

Monday, February 11, 2013

Taking a breath

And Winter Carnival 2013 comes to an end. The friends and families leave, the activities die down, and reality starts back up again. I can't help but feel a little sad knowing that this fun and relaxing week has ended and I have to wake up for class once again tomorrow.

Winter Carnival 2013 is one heck of a unique experience here in Houghton, MI. The all-nighter on Wednesday was like nothing I've ever experienced, with most of the school's population all on campus together, watching the snow fall on the dance floor as we all dance and laugh the night away. It's hard to find another university that puts on a 4 day long weekend for its students just to celebrate winter, friendships and snow. Here's a glimpse of campus that night - that's me, my roomie Chelsea and her boyfriend Sean.


Speaking of snow, there's an annual theme to the snow sculptures that are built all around campus that different student orgs work on. This year it was super heros and villans. Here's a few pics:





Anyways, after all the chaos and fun of the past 4 nights died down and I rolled out of bed around noon or so today, I didn't think twice to get suited up and go for a ski to calm myself down and get back to reality before I began my homework and such. I literally skied for 90 minutes, and then stopped in the middle of the woods, and took a deep breath of the warm 30 degree air. I realized how awesome this week was, and how excited I am for next year already.

After spending the long weekend with my closest friends up here and making new friends, I look back on it and truly feel grateful and happy for my decision to attend school up here. I've met so many amazing people and truly hope that they will stay in my life forever. I heart da Yoop.

And yes, with a busy week ahead and a busier year ahead, I'm already counting down the hours till Friday and the days till Winter Carnival 2014. Best week ever.

Monday, February 4, 2013

Happy Winter Carnival week

Well, here goes another post on winter activities! What a surprise, I know. This past week I have had quite a lot of adventures, good and not so good.

To start, I skied my first race of the season last Saturday on the 26th of January in Marquette. The Noque takes skiers from Ishpeming to Marquette on a beautiful and narrow trail through the woods and across lakes. The recent snow fall made the woods absolutely gorgeous, and at times I forgot I was racing a challenging 50km race with a bunch of Midwestern geezers.

Me and my friend Adam drove down from Houghton to Marquette, where we parked then shuttled to Ishpeming. Then we proceeded to ski 50km to Marquette where we found our mutual friend from high school, Lewis. Here's a picture of our exhausted and accomplished selves post-race, hats and all:


Next event of the week, Tech finally decided to plow the parking lot where my little Toyota Avalon hangs out when I'm not using it. I mean, they could have taken action about 2 or 3 weeks earlier BEFORE the week-long blizzards and random rain storms hit, but that's cool. Long story short, everyone had to move their cars to a different lot, which is difficult when they're all sitting on a layer of sheer ice under all that snow.

I already knew I'd need help before I even started digging my car out. This was only confirmed when I found this lovely scene waiting for me in Lot 17:



 So I suddenly became a helpless female and decided to take advantage of the 75% male population here at MTU to get some car help. In the end, my two very generous and helpful friends hooked me up to a truck and pulled me off of the ice rink. I owe them.

Next, me and my two buds up here woke up this past Saturday morning to find fresh powder and a rare glimpse of sun. So we decided to go for a little adventure in the woods of the Tech Trails! Here's what we found:





Anyways, today marks the start of Winter Carnival week! The snow statues are going up and the broomball continues. Our team is still undefeated and hopes to go all the way. I am excited to post more   next week! Until then, happy Monday and Happy Winter Carnival!

Monday, January 21, 2013

Caught up in winter

Well, the start of the 2013 "spring" semester has arrived, and so has winter. I've been anxiously awaiting both for quite some time, since the beginning of a new semester means a fresh start in new courses and of course, because waiting for snow is one of my least favorite things.

But so are negative 30 degree windchills. Yesterday, today and tomorrow are full of negative digits and blasting wind and snow. Not my favorite, but at least the flakes are still piling up on the trails and all over campus.

My family came up for some skiing this weekend in these lovely woods:


Anyways, the bottom line is that it's the start of a new semester, which means a different class load, which means no more digital media. So no more required blog posts on my blog. Therefore, there's a high possibility I won't be posting as frequently on here, but I will try to keep it up as often as I can. Just a fair warning, expect a lot of writing about snow, skiing and more snow.