Winter Break

Christmas is over, and New Year's is almost here! I'll be in Alaska until Monday, when I will return to Bozeman a week before school starts.

It's been an interesting break, but now that I've been here about a week and a half I am getting used to my Alaska life again. Actually, it's not too different from my Bozeman life in that I try to go snowboarding as much as possible (I live in Anchorage, about a 45 minute drive away from Alyeska Resort). I have found that the longer I am away at college, the weirder it is to come back to my Alaskan life, but after a while I am used to it again and it's as fun as it used to be. And now I know who my real friends are, while some people I don't see much anymore. Also, I find myself spending a lot more time with my family than usual because I don't get to see them much, either.

I've been up to Alyeska five times so far and hope to get a few more days in before I leave. New Year's is tomorrow and I'm planning on celebrating at a friend's house, so I'm excited about that. I've also been walking my dogs almost daily, which is fun (my mom bought a dog when my older sister left for college, and recently bought another one to replace me. empty nest syndrome?).

A random side note: I noticed someone commented my blog a couple weeks ago and said they had visited MSU recently and were thinking about going into nursing. I have no way of replying to that person's page so hopefully they read this. We have a really good nursing program of about 800 students (making it the seventh largest program in the nation), and the students spend their first two years of school at the MSU campus in Bozeman and then are transferred to one of our satellite schools in Kalispell, Missoula, Great Falls, or Billings. A few people do get to stay in Bozeman, but only about 16 because our hospital isn't very big!

Anyway, I hope everybody is having a good holiday season; happy new year!

Recreational Reading

I'm back in Alaska for a couple of weeks, and it's nice to finally be able to relax! All of the free time is a novelty. My sister gave me a book to read over the break called "A Life at Work" by Thomas Moore. As an English major (and a college student in general), I usually only have time to read what is required of me, if I even manage that. This book is actually really good, and applicable to any aspiring college student, college student, or person in any stage of life. It's about how to "discover what you were born to do."

There are inspirational quotes at the beginning of each chapter. At the beginning of Chapter 4, I read this:

"Leonardo advised aspiring artists to discover the pictures to be found in cracks in walls; Chinese sages were conceived as their mothers stepped into the footprints of unicorns; all of us make up our lives out of the cracks in the walls of our past memories and the unicorn footprints of our future."

Lynda Sexson

I gasped when I read this. I have mentioned before that my favorite professor this semester was Dr. Michael Sexson. For one of our class periods, he did not come to class at all but instead had a guest speaker run the class. The guest speaker was, in fact, his wife, Lynda Sexson. And it was the same Lynda Sexson quoted above, in this renowned book I am reading. Crazy!

Some Google-ing has revealed that the quote is from a book called "Ordinarily Sacred" by Sexson. And it is indeed the same Sexson. She is a history/humanities professor at MSU, and is as wise as or wiser than her husband. My classmates and I always wondered how their dinner conversations went. Probably, they would be over our heads.

The longer I am in college, the more I find connections between my life and the world around me. It's great.

And I would recommend "A Life at Work," if you're looking for something to read and/or are lost in life.

I might check out "Ordinarily Sacred," too.

The End of Another Semester

Finals are over, and another semester has come to an end. This semester I was (un)lucky enough to have a final on Friday at 2:00, so I got to stick around for the entire week. My only other final during finals week was on Tuesday at 8:00 am, so I was almost out of school mode until Friday morning, when I last-minute studied for my last exam.

The end of a semester is an interesting time, because people finally start to connect after getting to know each other in classes throughout the semester, and then it's over. But it's always exciting to look forward to the next semester, when we can do it all over again—more awkward class periods await, until the same cycle repeats itself.

I had a great semester and managed to pull all A's. Not to toot my own horn, but I'm happy about it. It's a relief to be free for a few weeks so I can forget everything I learned.

But hopefully not.

Random picture: a rainbow over Miller Dining Hall. I took it last spring from my dorm room in Roskie.

The Junior One Acts

Last night I went to The Junior One Acts at the Black Box Theatre in the Visual Communications Building (VCB) on campus.

The Junior One Acts consisted of six short one-act plays (about 20 minutes each) that were all written, directed, produced, and performed by students. All of the sets were also hand-made by students. Basically, it was an entirely student-run production and it was pretty cool. The Black Box Theatre is basically a room with seating on three sides and a curtain on the other. The stage is in the middle of the room, creating an interactive experience for the audience and actors/actresses. The theatre is all black, so there is no limitations on how the set can look.

I had never been to a production in the Black Box Theatre, but I was impressed. All of the students involved were in the MTA 374 class, nicknamed "Studio 374." The plays were all funny and entertaining, the props and the sets were excellent, and the acting was good. My favorites were the play called "Helter Skelter," about two serial killers who live together and their domestic arguments over keeping a clean house, and the play called "Rusty Pipes" about Mario and Luigi of the Mario Brothers, 30 years after their fame has faded away. The body parts in "Helter Skelter" were amusingly life-like and the Mario pipe (the signature green pipe used to transport places) was life-sized and looked like the real thing—and it actually worked!

Overall I was impressed, and I look forward to checking out more events at the Black Box Theatre in the future.

Last day of classes!

Today was my last day of classes for the semester. Now all I have to look forward to is a take-home final due Tuesday and two finals next week, one on Tuesday and one on Friday. I was lucky enough to configure my schedule so I don't have any classes on Fridays, which has been really nice this semester. I took 17 credits this semester; I wouldn't recommend taking any more than that. I had four classes that were only on Tuesday and Thursday, and one class (Spanish) that was Monday through Thursday. This made for very hectic Tuesdays and Thursdays, especially because I also worked those nights, so although it was nice having more free time on the other days, I don't think I would do it again.

My two favorite classes this semester were Biblical Foundations of Literature and Spanish 101. I went into Biblical Foundations of Literature not knowing what to expect, but the professor, Dr. Michael Sexson, was one of the best teachers I have ever had. He taught us not only how to think about the Bible from a critical, literary perspective (and by critical, I mean objectively), but also how to think in general and many useful life lessons. One of my favorite things about his class was that everyone was required to keep a blog related to the class. This sounds a little strange, and I thought it was at first, but it allowed for everyone to get to know each other through writing and comment on whatever they found interesting. Dr. Sexson would read some of the blogs in class and we discussed them, so it was overall a great forum of ideas and communication. If you're interested, my blog address is http://karenwilsonak.blogspot.com/. Our last day of class today was almost sad, because we have finally come together as a class. We spent the last few weeks doing presentations, first group presentations we had about half of the semester to work on, and then individual term paper presentations. Our group presentations related to certain books of the Bible, and our term papers could basically be about whatever we wanted related to the class.

Spanish 101 was a really fun class, and I also really liked the professor, Sally Sanchez. She made it really fun and was encouraging and positive. I have never taken Spanish before, but now I think I'm going to double major in both English and Spanish Teaching. If I actually do this, I have a lot of college ahead of me!

Overall, it was a fun semester and I continued to meet new people and expand my knowledge. I'm glad I'll have a break soon, but I'm still looking forward to next semester.

First day at Big Sky

Today I went snowboarding at Big Sky for the first time this year. It was $20 pass day for everyone, but I actually have a season pass so I picked that up and it was free for me (not really, I have a long way to go until I pay it off).

This is a picture of Big Sky - the big peak is Lone Peak. I didn't take this picture, I found it online (apparently it's from somebody's vacation home, I want to live there) because the Bluetooth on my phone won't send the pictures I took today.

Anyway, I had a lot of fun today. They have only opened about a third of their terrain so far, but it's plenty of room to have fun and it wasn't that crowded, either. That's one of the things I like about Big Sky - it's never that crowded, even on the weekends. Especially riding the singles line, there is barely a wait to get on the most highly trafficked lift, and at most other lifts there is no line at all.

My least favorite thing about Big Sky is how rocky it is. Considering that the mountain is entirely rock with not too much vegetation, this makes sense. However, it is never enjoyable to ride over what looks like nice white snow and suddenly crunch over several jagged rocks. Since it is still early in the season, this definitely happened to me several times today, and I felt bad for the base of my snowboard. But, when more snow accumulates this won't be a problem.

Like I said, today was a lot of fun and tomorrow I'm hoping to go to Bridger. I'm really glad the snowboarding season is here - I need something to keep me outside.

Back in Bozeman

So, it's back to reality and I'm back in good old Bozeman. I returned Monday from a long Thanksgiving break and I have to say I have never been so happy to be back. In my last blog, I listed the perks of being home—mostly having to do with monetary mooching.

Now that I'm back, Bozeman feels more home-y than ever. I love the lifestyle here; Anchorage is a pretty big city, which means lots of driving around and less spur-of-the-moment activities. Let me list the reasons I love Bozeman:

•I can walk from my house to class in 15 minutes.

•I can walk from my house to work in 10 minutes (the joys of working on campus, ha ha).

•I only have to drive when I'm feeling lazy or going on a fun venture.

•I have my own house, so I don't have to worry about bothering my mom or adhering to her rules.

•Rent for said house is absurdly cheap (compared to Anchorage, at least).

•There are always many social opportunities to choose from.

•All of my friends live within a 1.5-mile radius (only because I'm on the edge of the circle, otherwise they'd all be much closer).

•I feel like I am doing something with my life.

To elaborate on the last point, in Bozeman I have a purpose—school. It keeps me busy and motivated, it's social, it's NOT required (so I'm doing this because I want to? what a novel idea!), and it opens up many opportunities, in both the short and long term. Maybe I'm weird, but I like being busy and when I'm in school that's never a problem. And, it makes my free time that much more fun!

Basically, I love Bozeman. Who doesn't?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year I have been fortunate enough to return to my homeland of Alaska for the Thanksgiving holiday. I have definitely enjoyed being back. The perks include:

•Free food

•Free transportation (I'm not filling up that gas tank!)

•Getting to see old friends

•Getting to see my family (Mom, sister, and dogs)

•Having some free time to think without being in a time crunch

•Free shopping trips (Let's go shopping!)

•Enjoying Alaska's great outdoors

It's nice to come home and not have to completely support myself. However, I'm looking forward to going back to Bozeman. I have realized that as time goes on, I feel more connected with Bozeman than Alaska. I have been warned of this phenomenon by my older sister, but I thought since last year I came back and everything felt the same as when I left that would continue to happen. This is not so. I'm okay with it, though. I love Bozeman and I think since I am committed to going to school for a few more years it would be good to settle in Bozeman even when there's not school.

Either way, I can't deny I like all the perks of visiting home. For instance: I just had a great, free, family Thanksgiving dinner.

I'm thankful.

'Tis the season

...of group projects.

In the past two weeks I have have two group projects due, and a third one is due after Thanksgiving, so at one point I was juggling three group projects at once. I've definitely been feeling the pressure of the semester coming to a close, which means that we're all supposed to have learned enough in our classes to complete large and arduous assignments. I have never had so many group projects at once, and one of them involved five people and another involved six, which made it almost impossible to figure out a time everyone could meet. However, I'm pretty much done with those now, which is a huge relief. For the project due after Thanksgiving, we made a movie, which is about 20 minutes long and tells the story of the Book of Acts (from the Bible; it's for my Biblical Foundations of Literature class). I'm pretty excited about that; it's definitely the longest movie I've ever made. I helped one of my partners put it all together last Wednesday, and it's still in the final editing process. Hopefully, when it's all done we can upload it onto YouTube or something and I can post it on here.

Another group assignment I had was to design "the ideal school for teens." It was for my Lifespan of Human Development class and was supposed to be a partner assignment, but I ended up in a group of three. We decided to make a little booklet describing our school, and I thought the cover was the most entertaining, so here it is:

This is a picture of how it looks on my computer, because I didn't end up with the hard copy after it got graded. But, I can assure you the booklet was very legit and we got a high score.

While I am relieved to be pretty much done with group projects, there is still a lot to do before the semester ends...mainly writing a term paper for my Biblical class and studying for finals. It's nice to have Thanksgiving break coming up, but I plan to spend a lot of it studying. (Key words: plan to.)

Miller Dining Hall

...from an employee's perspective.

Last year I lived in Roskie, so I ate in the Miller Dining Hall 99.9% of the time. I never ventured to Harrison, although I was fond of Hannon if I was on campus or felt like making the trek. The point is, Miller was a favorite hangout of mine. After about the first month of school, it became impossible to go there without inadvertently seeing somebody I knew, which was nice because it meant I rarely ate alone.

Now, I don't live in the dorms. However, my job hunt at the beginning of the year did not go well, so in desperation, I applied to Miller — they have tons of employees and a high turnover rate, so I figured my chances were good. They actually didn't have any openings when I first applied, but they took down my name and phone number and said they'd call me. There was no actual application involved. It was a very informal process, but they actually did call me about a week and a half later. I accepted, having no idea what I was getting into, and the next day I was dishwashing.

Being a dishwasher in the Miller Dining Hall isn't actually that bad, especially because I don't live in the dorms any more. I still see people I know there every day, and I get to eat there when I work, which is actually an awesome perk when you're paying for your own groceries. Most importantly, I get a paycheck, which is more than a lot of people can say. It's a pretty laid-back job, although dinner shifts can get crazy - Miller is the biggest of the dining halls and therefore highly trafficked.

Another thing I like about my job is the hours. I only work 12-15 hours a week; since many of the employees are students, the shifts are short and you can choose your schedule. And, it's close to my house, because my house is close to campus, and that makes my life way easier because I can walk to work. Overall, I would recommend working on campus (even if dishwashing isn't your cup of tea) because there are a lot of jobs available and it's convenient.

Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, Mr. Lif, and Lyrics Born in Bozeman

As I mentioned at the end of my last blog, last Saturday there was a concert at the Fairgrounds in Bozeman featuring the above hip-hop artists (Chali 2na of Jurassic 5, Gift of Gab from Blackalicious, Mr. Lif, and Lyrics Born) . I was really excited for the concert, and doors were supposed to open at 6:30. My roommates and I went to our friend's apartment on Main Street around 5:30, and we were planning on walking from there. At 6:30, we got a call from our friend who was currently at the concert, and he said doors weren't opening until 8; apparently it was a bit unorganized. So, we waited at my friend's apartment until about 8 and then walked to the concert. We got there in good time to see Mr. Lif and Gift of Gab, who played first.

I love concerts and my main goal is always to be as close to the front as possible. I made my way to the front of the stage by the speakers, where I stayed for the remainder of the concert, which was amazing. Chali 2na (of Jurassic 5) is one of my favorite rappers and seeing him live was awesome. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures, but...

This is Gift of Gab freestyling. I just watched a documentary on the art of freestyling last night, so I find it to be very impressive. I don't know how he raps so quickly.

The fairgrounds is probably Bozeman's best concert venue, because it's big and the concerts are all-ages. Last year, Girl Talk and Atmosphere played there, to drop some names. I'm hoping more artists decide to play there in the near future.

Pray 4 Snow and MSU Hockey

On Friday night, I had two new experiences at the Gallatin County Fairgrounds (which are in Bozeman). One was the Pray 4 Snow festival and the other was my first MSU hockey game.

Pray 4 Snow is an annual event in which snow enthusiasts of all types get together and, supposedly, "pray for snow." I had never been, but heard it was fun. It started at 6 and went until 11, so I showed up with some friends around 7:30. When we got there, a band was playing inside the barn, but not many people were there—my friends who had gone last year said there had been a lot more people when they went. We decided we were probably early. By 9:00, there were more people, but still not a huge crowd. We walked outside, to where a large wooden dog (about 15 feet tall) was set up with a bunch of firewood below it, waiting to be burned. Apparently, we got there at the right time—some people had just lit it on fire. We watched as the fire grew until it overtook the dog and created an immense amount of heat. I puzzled over the question of how burning a massive amount of wood and releasing more heat into the atmosphere would help encourage snow to fall, but apparently these rituals are beyond my comprehension.

The burning dog, in all its majesty.

After the dog burned, we decided it was time to move on. As luck would have it, some of our other friends were attending the MSU hockey game, which started at 10:00 at the ice rink next door to where Pray 4 Snow was taking place. I didn't even know MSU had a hockey team until I heard about this, so I figured it was worth checking out. Hockey is a huge deal in Alaska, but I hadn't heard much about it in Montana. The rink at the Fairgrounds didn't have much bleacher space, but soon it was packed with people. Apparently the people that do go to hockey games are really into it. I decided to leave about a third of the way through, but it was a good game. From a little research I just did, I learned the MSU Hellcats hockey team is a Division II team. They are a registered club at the university, but don't get any funding from it; it's completely student run. You can check out their webpage here.

All in all it was an interesting night. The fairgrounds is a happening place; I'm looking forward to seeing Chali 2na, Gift of Gab, Lyrics Born, and Mr. Lif in concert there next Saturday...stay tuned.

Greg Mortenson

If you haven't heard of Greg Mortenson, he's a world-famous local of Bozeman. He's been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize twice for his work establishing schools in Afghanistan, and has founded 131 so far. I got the chance to see him speak at the Brick Breeden Fieldhouse on campus this past Wednesday, and it was pretty interesting. The talk was free to the public, which I thought was pretty cool. I took somewhat extensive notes, because I was somewhat delirious from not getting enough sleep for about a month and from the busy day I'd had already. I decided to take pictures of my notes and post them, because I think they are my best account of what happened. Mortenson told a lot of stories about his work, and invited two other people to come up on stage and tell their stories.

Mortenson's book "Three Cups of Tea" is internationally recognized and today is required reading for all military officers, after General Petraeus read it and found it to be profoundly helpful in his outlook on the "conflict" in Afghanistan. He told Mortenson the three most important lessons he learned from the book were to listen, to respect, and to build relationships.

Something I found most intriguing about Mortenson's work is that when he started his efforts, he was completely broke. He got the opportunity to talk at an elementary school, and the kids took interest in his cause and one told him he'd donate the contents of his piggy bank. From there, Mortenson started the "Pennies for Peace" program, which has exploded into schools internationally and raised millions of dollars.

Yes, Greg Mortenson said it; Bozeman is awesome!

Halloween in Denver

One of my favorite things about living in Bozeman is how easy it is to drive virtually anywhere in the continental U.S. (as you can imagine, living in Alaska does not make road trips to anywhere but other places in Alaska easy). I am fortunate enough to have a car, and this past weekend three of my friends and I road tripped to Denver to see Bassnectar in concert at the Fillmore.

To put it simply, it was amazing. Here's a video from Bassnectar's set (the sound quality isn't great, but you'll get the idea).

Heavyweight Dub Champion and RJD2 opened, but due to poor planning we didn't get there until halfway through RJD2's set. However, it all worked out because there was an afterparty at Casselman's Bar & Venue, and it was 18+ which is convenient for me because I am 19 and it irritates me when my age prevents me from going to shows. So, right after the concert we took a taxi to the afterparty, where we saw Heavyweight Dub Champion, then Bassnectar again, then a sweet DJ named Wolfe. I had tons of fun and danced until the very end at approximately 4 am. Here's a video of Wolfe (he wore a clown mask the entire time—impressive).

Although I didn't do the traditional Halloween activities, I had an awesome Halloween. This was my second time traveling to Denver for a concert and it was definitely worth it—big cities are a different scene. Roadtrips are a lot of fun, and for me they're definitely a perk of going to college outside of Alaska.

Nicholas Kristof

A few weeks ago, MSU hosted humanitarian and New York Times journalist Nicholas Kristof as a guest speaker—you can see him on the right with members of the MSU Leadership Institute. He spoke to a large crowd in the SUB (Strand Union Building) Ballrooms - the room was packed with probably 1000+ people. I attended because in one of my classes (Lifespan of Human Development) it was an extra credit opportunity and in another class (Multicultural Education) it was a "Cultural Plunge" opportunity, which is a required assignment.

Despite my reasons for attending, I found the lecture very interesting. Kristof has been touring to promote his book, "Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide." However, Kristof's lecture did not promote his book as much as it called for support of the cause. He told many stories of his own experiences and those of people he had met, and at the end of the lecture held a Q & A session for anybody who wished to ask a question about anything.

I learned some things I had never known before about women and medical practices from Kristof's lecture. Some of the things I found most interesting about Kristof’s lecture related to brothels and female genital cutting. Women’s use in brothels is a form of slavery and over 800,000 women per year are transported between countries for this purpose—they are actually bought and sold as property. I did not realize such practices were so widespread, or even practiced at all. Another thing I learned which American women would never consider or worry about is female genital cutting, an apparently widespread practice which I had also never heard of involving the removal of some or all of the clitoris and labia. This sounds horrible and I can’t imagine why anybody would ever think it’s a good idea, especially when these women are expected to be mothers someday.

Listening to Kristof's lecture was a good experience; he is just one example of many well-known figures MSU hosts for the betterment of its students' cultural knowledge.

For a news article about Kristof's lecture and MSU experience, click here.

Dorm Life

I do not live in the dorms this semester, but I did last year and it's a big part of college life. Almost every freshman at MSU is required to live in the dorms, so I think it's something worth talking about. Also, I work in the Miller Dining Hall right now, so I have dorm interaction on an almost daily basis.

My freshman year, I lived in Roskie on the 4th floor. It was the Outdoor Pursuits floor, so in theory all the girls on my floor were ourdoorsy. In fact, this was true for some girls more than others. When I was initially filling out my residence life application, I was apprehensive about checking the Outdoor Pursuits option in the first place, but it turned out to be a very good decision. Living on the Outdoor Pursuits floor doesn't come with any obligations—you can participate as much or as little as you want (this goes for any living option - so try it!). We had two camping trips, one each semester, and various group outings, but most people made friends on the floor and did things with them, not as a formal part of living on the floor but as friends.

One of my favorite parts of dorm life was RHA meetings, which are held weekly. I'm not talking about the meetings themselves (although they were interesting), but the floor vs. floor competitions that took place after the meetings. There was chocolate syrup Twister, pie your RA, duct tape your RA, and my favorite, tug-o-war (and many more). My floor became very close by the end of the year, and we liked to dress up in themes for these events.

Some people from my floor and my RA:

pre-tug-o-war.

Action shot during tug-o-war. As you can see, we had already lost, but some of us were too stubborn to let go and thus got pulled over and dragged across the ground. It was awesome.

Another perk of that RHA meeting was I bought Roskie's old ping-pong table for $40; it goes to show what being in the right place at the right time can do for you.

I could go on for hours about the dorms, why I love Roskie, and how much fun I had last year, but I'd hate to bore anybody. Suffice it to say that living in the dorms is a good experience everybody should have - embrace it!

Nice to meet you.

Hello friends and strangers!

If you are reading this blog, thank you. It will be sure to be entertaining, at least by my standards. I'm going to start by talking about myself, because it's fun and easy and a good way to begin a blog of any type. My life this year has gotten busier than ever and I'm loving it. As my site reads, I am a sophomore at MSU this year. Several changes have occurred in my Montana life since I gained sophomore status. First of all, I now live in a house (technically a condo), which is quite a different living environment than the dorms. Second, I now have a job; I never worked during school last year because I was "adjusting" and I had money saved up. Now, ironically I work at the Miller Dining Hall (located between North and South Hedges) as a dishwasher. Third, I am an AdvoCat on campus, meaning I give a campus tour every Friday at 9 a.m. and do other various admissions-related activities, as well as some community service with other AdvoCats (so far we've helped re-paint the "M," check out Christy's blog). On top of this I am taking 16 credits—it makes for a busy schedule.

My favorite class this year is probably my Biblical Foundations of Literature class, taught by Michael Sexson. He actually requires us to have a blog for the class, which apparently will count for a substantial portion of our grade. You can check out mine here. It's the first time I've had to blog for a class, but Dr. Sexson insists everyone will be doing it in 10 years—we'll see. I like it because there's no specific requirements for what you write, as long as it relates to the class or something you're reading for it or any related ideas.

Now that I've established myself, I'll keep you posted on exciting developments in my life at MSU.