2011
Reading Day
Dec. 9, 2011—As several of my fellow bloggers have mentioned, yesterday, Thursday, was the last day of classes for the fall semester. Final examinations officially begin on Saturday, running until Saturday next, and leaving a single day in between known as the Reading Day. According to Wikipedia, “Some universities refer to a week of reading days as...
Christmastime is here!
Dec. 9, 2011—I love the holiday season–despite the fact it means finals are here, it also means that lots of fun things are happening around the Vanderbilt campus and everything is decorated and cheery! Here are a few of my favorite things about Christmastime at Vanderbilt:
The Sound of Silence
Dec. 9, 2011—“The Sound of Silence” is a classic folk song of the 60s written by Paul Simon of Simon & Garfunkel as a response to the 1963 assassination of John F. Kennedy about the lack of real communication. While its original connotation is a serious one, I have found in my academic overload-related stupor that one...
Favorites of Fall 2011
Dec. 8, 2011—To shake things up a bit, I wanted to give other non-blogging Vanderbilt students the chance to get a few words in. As we finish the Fall 2011 semester, we are excited for the coming of Winter Break, the ability to sleep in, watch TV, and hang out more than is possible while school is...
The Quick Approach of Finals
Dec. 8, 2011—I have learned one thing: no matter where you are in the world, the approach of finals will always induce stress, regardless of how little actual exams you have.
DONE (with classes at least)
Dec. 8, 2011—It feels nice to be officially done with classes, especially considering I thought I would be in class for two more hours than I actually was today.
The end is near.
Dec. 8, 2011—Today is officially my last day of classes. Do you know what that means? Finals are literally right around the corner. AHHHHHH!
Rand’s Holiday Feast
Dec. 8, 2011—Instead of the usual Quiznos for dinner, last night I feasted on lamb, oysters, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. No, I’m not an amazing cook all of sudden, but rather Rand hosted its annual Holiday Celebration from 5-8pm.
Writing a Parody of a Classic
Dec. 8, 2011—For my FREN 261: The Age of Louis XIV course, I chose to do a creative assignment for my final essay. The assignment? — Write a fairy tale in the style of Charles Perrault, the Brothers Grimm, or Hans Christian Andersen. I chose to write a parody of the childhood classic, “Sleeping Beauty,” originally written...
French Bread & Cheese
Dec. 8, 2011—One of my French classes, FREN 240: From Carnival to “Carnivalesque,” which I talked about a bit in a previous post, concluded the semester with a dinner get together. The students carpooled over to our professor’s house in East Nashville where he had prepared an array of French and Italian breads for us. Two students...
Microspheres and DTI: What Am I Doing Here?
Dec. 7, 2011—This afternoon, I got a chance to see two presentations by Master’s candidates in the Biomedical Engineering department. Surrounded by rabidly hungry grad students (it was actually really funny to see them race for the free pizza), I was first treated to an intellectually stimulating presentation on smart microspheres developed to release drugs in a...