I'm Back!

I just got my practice and game schedule for softball (practices start after this week).  I think I may not come home alive, folks.  Among the practice times are 10pm-12am on a Wednesday night and 7:30am-9:30am on a Saturday morning.  Some are 3 hours long and none are shorter than an hour and a half.  I have practice every day in the month of February except for 2.  I knew this was going to be a challenge but this is crazy!
On that note, it feels great to be back at Dickinson.  I missed my friends here!  I also miss everyone from home already; the weird thing about college is that no matter where you go you're reuniting with some people and saying goodbye to others.  I'll be sure make plenty of updates here this semester, especially about softball.  Come visit me and watch games!

Days until softball begins: 8
Days until my social life ends: 8

The Spotlight Effect

    

      Here's another lesson on why learning about psychology can help you.  I've been wasting a lot of time reading on the Internet and I came across an article talking about research that has been done recently on "The Spotlight Effect", a social phenomenon where people perceive themselves as being judged much more critically than they actually are.
     We are, in reality, our own harshest critics.  Whenever I do something clumsy, say something irrational or have an "awkward" moment, I fixate on it.  Sometimes for days if it's bad.  We all do this because we think other people notice and then judge us based on our actions.  However, research done by several psychologists at institutions like Cornell and Wake Forest, have shown that no one really notices, or cares, about our social gaffes.
     One experiment done at Cornell showed that students participating in a group discussion greatly overestimated how much their statements, both clever and not, were noticed by others.  In another study students at Ithaca were told to wear a Barry Manilow tee-shirt into a crowded room of their peers.  After just moments of being in the room, they met with researchers and reported believing that at least half of their peers had noticed the shirt and judged them for wearing it.  Researcher found that on average less than a quarter of the students paid any attention at all.
    There are exceptions to the spotlight effect.  For example, someone in a position of power, perhaps a CEO or a sports coach, is subject to more scrutiny than the average person, but only in certain situations. If a person trips while walking down a busy street people might think they're clumsy for a few seconds, but they will quickly forget it ever happened.
     The moral of the story is this: don't be so hard on yourselves.  Yes, it is good to be aware of your actions and to be a little hard on yourself, but don't generate unnecessary stress by obsessing over your last embarrassing moment.  The only person that remembers it is you.
 

So I've Been Doing Some Stuff (this is a long one)

Well hey there!

I wasn't originally planning on doing any updates here until I went back to school but I realized I've been super busy and actually have some fun stories to share, so here I am!

Let me begin by wishing you all a late merry Christmas and happy New Years!  This past week has been incredibly hectic and I'm exhausted but it was all very worth it.  I saw most of you on Christmas, which was lots of fun.  I always love being around my family and being reminded of where I come from.   I was very successful this holiday season.  Some highlights from Christmas were the Santa Claus drawing contest (which I rightfully won) AND the sane list (on which I was rightfully placed at the top).

The Sane List

Christmas always reminds me of how much I love you all.  I appreciate your love and support more than I can say.  I wish Christmas came around more often.

Moving on to post-Christmas/before new years:

We left for Orlando the day after Christmas and had a somewhat stressful first night there (I won't go into that in detail).  The next day we went to Epcot and the Magic Kingdom in Disney.  The crowds were absolutely insane, all the popular rides had wait times of over an hour, the park was packed.  Nevertheless, we made the most of the Disney experience.  We first went to Epcot and rode a few rides and walked through about 10 different countries (Disney is magical like that).  Then we went to the Magic Kingdom, which was in the middle of a parade when we entered.  I have to say, walking into the park with cheerful music blasting from speakers all over the place and seeing all the characters parading around was exhilarating.  I couldn't wipe the smile off my face!

 Epcot

You can kind of get an idea of how bad the crowds were from this picture - people everywhere! 

The next day in Orlando was a bit of a flop.  We tried to go to Universal, but it just happened to have a record high number of people in the park that day, and we couldn't go in.  A bit dejected, we returned to the hotel, where my mom and I got manicures and pedicures and my dad and brother went to play a little golf.  

Now here comes the best part.  As a result of our rejection the day before, we resolved to go to Universal at 8 in the morning when it opened the next day and head straight for The World of Harry Potter.  I was VERY excited for this, to say the least.  I've been reading HP since the second grade (my parents didn't believe I was actually reading, they thought I was just flipping the pages) so HP was a huge part of my childhood and teenagehood.  Going to The World of HP was a huge deal.  Again, it was packed, but I loved it.  I was giddy the whole time. 

We left Florida the same day and got back at round 10pm that night.  I proceeded to somewhat frantically unpack/pack to leave for New York the next day at 7:30 am.  My friend Mohan goes to NYU and was allowed to let guests stay there over the break so, he and some of my other friends decided to go up for New Years.  We did a lot of walking and saw a lot of things.  The first day we were there we went to the Museum of Modern Art and then went to dinner at a Thai restaurant.  On new years eve we went thrift shopping/walked around, and then at around 6 we decided to see how close we could get to Times Square, just for the heck of it, we had no intention of staying there until midnight.  There were a ton of barriers and blockades but we took a few shortcuts and managed to get pretty close! After that we got dinner at a nice Italian place and then watched the ball drop in Mohan's dorm room.  We then celebrated the new year by going to a karaoke bar.

The little green light in the top middle is the ball! 

Alright, I THINK that's enough for now.  I'd like to give props to my phone; I took all these pictures with it and they turned out pretty decent.  Click on a picture if you want to see it bigger.

PS. my friend showed me a video of the most ADORABLE little french girl telling a funny story, it is guaranteed to brighten your day.



Once upon a time... from Capucha on Vimeo.


PPS. Welcome to 2011!

Snow and Pictures!

Hi!
        It's snowing!  Not very much, but it's better than the insubstantial flurries we've been getting lately.  Here are some pictures I took with my phone of campus.  My friends Gill and Bryan are the featured frolickers.

Gill and Bryan on Morgan Field.  You can just barely see my building, Adams in the far left background.

View from the 3rd floor

        I hope everyone is starting to get into the Christmas spirit!  I know Dickinson has.  My neighbors made everyone in my hallway stockings and taped them to the hallway outside of our rooms and Ali, my roommate, and I put up lights in our room.

My masterpiece! 

My room!  A little messy, I know, but it's finals week, things get crazy.

Anyways, I hope you are all well, I really can NOT wait to go home and have a nice long break!  I'll see you in 5 days! 

Second Semester Schedule

After a significant amount of stress I've finalized my schedule for next semester.  In the true spirit of a liberal arts college, it covers a broad range of topics, and I will admit not all of them were my first choice but I think they will be interesting.

Classes:
Hinduism
French 116
Middle Eastern American Communities (MEAC)
Southern Women Writers (SWW)


                      Monday        Tuesday        Wednesday       Thursday        Friday
8:30-9:20      Hinduism                            Hinduism                              Hindusim

9:30-10:20

10:30-11:20  French           French           French             French           French

11:30-12:20

12:30-1:20    MEAC                                    MEAC                                    MEAC

1:20-2:45      SWW                                                               SWW

STRESS and Ugly Sweaters

These next two weeks are going to be extremely demanding for me.  I'm going to be productive and update you guys at the same time by making my to-do list here.

Week 1
- Finish French homework by Monday night
- finish psych homework by class on tuesday
- bio reading by wednesday
- bio lab write up and seminar final paper due friday
- gym at least 3 times 
- catching on tuesday
- participate in psych study on wednesday
weekend:
- ugly sweater party #1
- watch swim meet

Week 2
- bio project due Monday  
- psych final exam tuesday
- studystudystudy
- gym 3 times
weekend:
- ugly sweater party #2

Dec 13 - French Final
Dec 15 - Bio Final

Dec 17 - HOME

In conclusion:
I will be sleeping for approximately 2 days straight when I get home.

It was great seeing everyone this past week! I had a lot of fun being home, the only downside was that it came and went so quickly.  The only thing getting me through these next two weeks is the knowledge that I get over a month of school off in the near future.

PS.  For those of you who don't know - an ugly sweater party is a holiday themed party where people wear intentionally ugly or gaudy sweaters.  It's what all the cool college kids are doing nowadays  ;)

The Night of the Fire Alarm.

12:04 - first fire alarm

12:25 - second fire alarm

1:20 - third fire alarm


this makes 11.