Do you ever have those moments when you feel sad for no reason? There seem to be more of them this week. They come and go. I write myself little notes throughout the week to remind me of all the happy things and what I’ve been up to so that I can write these weekly recap posts. I know I have everything to be happy about. It was a pretty good week. Maybe I just need to get more sleep.
I’ve been on the hunt for live music ever since my first live concert experience last summer, but as much as I enjoy live music, I’m also a very practical person. I’m not about to follow my favourite band around on their world tour or anything, but I have been keeping an eye out for artists in Philly.
When I heard the line-up for the Bryn Mawr Concert Series (BMCS) Fall 2015 Concert, I was so excited that I recognized 2/3 of the acts. Our resources are limited as a small liberal arts college, but when we do get someone, it is because of our small size that the experience is so intimate.
In fact, the second floor balcony of the Campus Center (the concert venue) was blocked off so that everyone would be standing close to each other and create a dense buzz of energy. Which is all well and good unless you’re short like me and this kind of thing only leads to a dense canopy of tall people.
At times like these, I like to exploit my reputation as a photographer. With my handy dandy fancy schmancy camera in hand, I ask my BMCS connections if I can go up to the balcony, surreptitiously bouncing the camera in my hand all the while, hinting that I’d be taking pictures, giving them the idea that they could possibly use my pictures (more like planting the idea (inception)), but without explicitly committing to it. Everyone loves having pictures, so of course they say yes 😉
Happy Chinese New Year! Over the weekend I saw so many Asian parents on campus, and it warmed my heart to see that they came all the way to visit their kid for this special occasion. I’m not big on celebrations myself, but it still touches me to see the happiness it brings other people.
In eighth grade math, our teacher was teaching us the difference between mean, median, mode, and range. To provide an example data set, he did a quick survey of the class. After we as a class determined that Maroon 5 is a popularly liked band, he asked us how much we were willing to pay for Maroon 5 concert tickets. As the price of the tickets increased, less people in the class were willing to buy the concert tickets. Now, I’m pretty stingy with my money, and I’ve never been to a live concert before, so I didn’t get the point and dropped out of the bid pretty early. I probably didn’t go over 50RMB, or even 40RMB. I mean yes, live music is nice, but 1) money, and 2) crowds. Wouldn’t I much rather listen to music from the comfort of my room? And what was I gonna do once I met them anyway? Be friends? Nah, I’d just be a fangirl of many. Which I don’t have a problem with, but I wouldn’t pay for it.
Then I went to my first live concert and everything changed.
The week started with the ultimate high (see #1 below). How could the rest of it compare? How can you expect me to go back to living my ordinary life after an experience like that?? It was so hard to find the motivation to do what I needed to get done, so productivity plateaued and that only led to stress, which made for a rough week. To think that we’re only two weeks into the spring semester! During times like these, I need a Happy List more than ever to remind myself of all the things I have going for me.
The first week of classes has been a breeze–so much smoother than last semester, in which I spent four weeks trying to get into my Intro to Computer Science class. It’s a popular course, and a small liberal arts college just doesn’t have the resources for the amount of interest this growing field garners. Thankfully, this semester I’ve gotten into all the classes I was lotteried for, so I’ll be taking Intro to Data Structures, Discrete Math, Intro to Semantics, and Phonetics/Phonology. I’m so excited to be completely focused on my double major with these two computer science classes and two linguistics classes. Although I must say, I’ve been assigned a surprising amount of reading…