Oh, Hello Monday...

Well, it's Monday and once again, the weekend, which was awesome, is over. My boyfriend, Andrew, made the 7 hour drive from his school in NY and stayed until yesterday morning. I realized that all the friends I have now were made at the end of the year, long after his last visit here in the spring semester. Basically I was introducing him to people the whole time. Like I tweeted as he left yesterday, long distance is worth it for these weekends, but it's no fun when they end.

Now I'm back to the usual class, eat, hw, class, eat, hw schedule I'm on. It's even worse on Mondays because they're the off days from XC so I feel like I should get even more done to make the rest of the week a little easier.

My schedule for today:

(Future times predicted, but likely to be accurate...especially Ben & Jerry's)

8:15 - Prob/Stats

9:30 - Breakfast

10:00 - Power nap

10:30 - Work on my lesson plan (SIDE NOTE: it's a little difficult to come up with a math lesson plan when it has to be based on a historical fiction novel. Good darn thing I'm creative. I'm pretty happy with what I've come up with - rate/speed/distance based on the train route the characters took when they were sent out of their country to be integrated into a unit on proportions. Solid. At least I hope my professor thinks so...)

1:00 - Abstract Algebra

2:15 - Grab a sandwich from Alliot

2:30 - Procrastination in the form of a blog post

3:00 - Prob/Stats hw & Abstract hw with Coligny in the Math Corner

6:00 - Alliot for dinner

6:45 - Cumbies run for Ben & Jerry's and/or Chill Zone

7:00 - Prob/Stats, Abstract, Lesson Plan

10:30 - Early bed time for placement in the morning

Yikes. Quite a day. I better get going. 3:00 is sneaking up on me and I better keep to the schedule! Perhaps I'll write a more productive/not as whiny blog post later in the week.

XC LOVE

The Founder's Society Meeting gave me the kick in the butt I needed to write another blog post. It's been incredibly busy this week. Like painfully busy. I won't bore you with any nitty gritty details. A lot of math. Like a lot. I also started my placement in a 7/8th grade math class at Williston Central School for my education class on Tuesday, but I'll save that for another blog post. But I do absolutely love it and it's been the highlight of my week so far. For now let's focus on the past weekend. I don't want to think about schoolwork right now...

Before our race this weekend we had a team dinner at Julie's house who lives in Burlington. It was absolutely gorgeous. We felt like we were on vacation.

XC LOVE

Us lovely juniors (Brookie, me, Erin, Andrea, Mili, Elyse)

The meet this weekend was at Middlebury. I didn't get to run this race last year because I was sick, so it was my first real time on the course. I was really happy with my race. Instead of taking off in the first mile and trying to hold on (and failing) I ran smart and felt good. I worked hard up the hills and put in some surges on the flats. Even with the biggest blister known to man on my heel I was jumping all over at the finish. I was so excited to not feel like complete garbage the entire race. My time was still pretty slow, but I feel like I'll get there.

Erin and I chatting it up as usual.

Away we go...take note of the mountains. Ah, Vermont

We all ran in packs which was really helpful.

I could not be looking forward to the weekend more, but with the hardest part of my week behind me I'll just be coasting through the rest of it.

Interactive Tour of SMC!

SMC is getting supah fancy. This is so cool!

Catmount

First of all, please excuse my post name. I was trying to come up with something more creative, but I'm cutting into my nap time and that's just not ok. Now that we're two weeks into school it feels like we've been here forever. It's no longer syllabus week and I actually have a full workload. I've been working every night since Wednesday on an excessively long Prob/Stats homework assignment. Thus the desperate need for a nap. Tonight will be no exception now that he's extended the due date to Wednesday (THANK YOU!!!). It's going to be a busy week.

As usual, the weekend flew by. I wish it wouldn't do that. It was pretty relaxed, though, since our race was on Sunday. Friday and Saturday nights were all about watching movies and eating Ben & Jerry's. (A Knights Tale and Hercules, Neapolitan Dynamite and S'Mores...in case you were wondering) Saturday was an absolutely GORGEOUS day and I got to spend a good chunk of it on Church Street with my family. It was my dad's birthday and my brother came home for the weekend, so we all went out to lunch at The Three Tomatoes. Always delicious.

A view of Church St. from in front of Borders on Saturday

Sunday was the first race of the XC season. It was at Catamount, which is where we run our intervals on Tuesdays. We were the only Division II school out of the four teams there, so it was kind of more like a team time trial than a real race against the other teams (UVM, Columbia, and a team from Tennessee that I cannot for the life of me remember the name of). I'm not at all a fan of the course, which for the first two miles is mostly in a field loop that we repeated after running smaller bits and pieces of other sections. The best part of the whole thing is the third mile, which is mostly uphill for the first half and all down for the second. But at least it did something other than looping around that field.

I felt good at first, running a good first mile split, but somewhere between being excited because thought I felt great and could hold the pace and the end of the race where I felt slightly like death, I slowed down. A lot. In the end I wasn't all too excited about my race, but I have to keep reminding myself that I've only been running for two weeks. But still. Yuck. Hopefully Middlebury on Saturday will be better.

I have a bunch of pictures from yesterday since a couple of the girls weren't able to race and one of them borrowed my camera. Check out the slide show for some SMC XC action!

Back in Action

The first week of school has come and gone. It actually kind of flew by. It was nice for the weekend to come so fast. I wasn't around last weekend and it was really nice to be able to hang out with everyone I missed over the summer.

XC girls - Andrea, me, Erin, Kate

Erika, Maria, and I

This semester I'm completely working on my major, which makes all of my classes super enjoyable. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I have two math classes. I head to Prob/Stats bright and early at 8:15. I'm not completely in love with the class since I'm not really a fan of stats, but as it's a requirement for the major and the professor seems to be pretty good I'm not really complaining. At 1 i have Abstract Algebra. This class is interesting for me because I am one of four students in the class. It's an upper level math class only taken by majors, so, as most people find the idea of being a math major to be the absolute grossest, not many people sign up. It makes the class really relaxed. I really enjoy the itty bitty class size.

Tuesday and Thursday I have the Secondary Ed Block. I have one class a day from 12-2:15. They are separate from each other, though the professors work together to mesh the two. We only have one syllabus, for example. Starting in a week or two we'll be getting placements in local high schools where we'll be observing, helping, and teaching from 8-11 Tuesday and Thursday mornings until just before Thanksgiving. These classes seem like they'd be super long, but they go by quickly.

All in all, I'm pretty much in love with my schedule. While I do like LSRs and think it's good to have the Liberal Arts education it's nice to be focused on the two things I'm really interested in. Plus, I'm done by 2:30 every day, which leaves plenty of time for a nap before XC practice at 4:15. YES.

Speaking of XC, I'm bouncing back from my ridiculously long illness fairly quickly. We did a tempo run Friday than nearly killed me, but if that won't get me back into shape I don't know what will. I love being with the girls and getting to know all of the first years. With a team of 24 we've been having a good time.

SMC XC girls on a hike during pre-season (I'm MIA)

Another reason I'm enjoying XC season so much right now is that I've talked with my coach, Molly, about focusing on skiing. This means that she's really flexible with my schedule and I'm able to be more ski-specific. On Wednesday when we do strength I do my own strength afterward. On Saturday I went home with Juli, who's also on the ski team, and we did a long double pole rollerski with my dad. Sunday I was able to substitute a hike with Juli and my crazy athletic parents for the long run the rest of the girls were doing. It's so nice to know that I'm getting a head start on skiing compared to last year when I did almost nothing. I'm crossing my fingers for some better results. There's really nowhere to go but up at this point.

Juli and I on our cold, rainy hike

Juli and my dad heading back down