Dear Home,
Ack! It's now T-minus 29 hours before I leave for Germany. Where, oh where, has my time gone? Not only am I utterly exhausted from this past week in San Diego but over the weekend, I was with my family Emden, IL for a family reunion. Apparently, the theme for this summer is "No Sleep."
So we left off with an update of moving out of Geiger. Alas, I must say that I do miss the square, no-personality room, my residents, and yes, I even miss the Geiger "funk." But on the plus side, next year I am on the North End of campus and even better, I get to move-in at the end of July. Yes, that's right: EMILY HAS A JOB! *trumpet fanfare* I didn't think it was possible with the market being what it is AND the fact that I'm really only available for three weeks, but as it turns out NCC's Summer Language Institute only lasts that long, well, at least my part does.
So for all my Naperville friends, I will be Home sooner than I thought, which, for you, means more "Emily-time." Lol. (Feel free to perform a happy dance.)
Continuing on, the rest of my week at home was spent in blissful relaxation. Although, I have to admit that I HATE having nothing to do, so, of course, I found something to do. RICHTER NUMERO DOS! (I don't know why I do this to myself.) Anyway, the general gist of the project, and keep in mind this will be expanded upon to make my Senior Thesis, surrounds Religion and Culture as they define society, specifically the Catholic Church. I am by no means Catholic or really any other religion, as you may know, but I have always been fascinated with the influence that the Church holds upon, well, the World. Politically, economically, and socially it is a defining factor of European history, at the very least. My hope is to propose a project that would study Catholic architecture (Churches and cathedrals mostly) throughout central Europe. My base cities would be in Munich (Southern Catholic Germany), Paris, Florence/Venice, Rome/Vatican City, and Istanbul. Some may raise eyebrows at the last name but Istanbul, or Constantinople in a previous life, is considered to be a former Christian capital of the world, making it of extreme interest for this project. I would observe the cultural context of the Church, or rather the idea of the Church, within these cities, how the people view or respond to it, and what that could mean for Catholicism in Europe.
As some of you may know, the rates of Atheism in Europe are climbing and while I am a huge proponent for Freedom of Religion, or lack there-of, I have to wonder what an absence of Belief might do to society, positive AND negative consequences.
Anyway, I digress. After spending a thankfully uneventful week at home, the NCC delegation for NACURH 2010 left Naperville for San Diego! For those who don't know, NACURH stands for National Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls. It was gorgeous and fun and we met so many people and made so many inside jokes. RA Training is going to be hilarious. Our advisor (M), the three delegates (SE, SB, and MH) and I got there two days early. We spent the first day at the beach, and walking along the hippie shops which smelled "wonderful." We ate at a hole-in-the-wall diner which was fantastic and had a blast just hanging out. The next day we went to the Zoo which I can honestly say is the best Zoo I have ever been to. My favorite was seeing the golden retriever in the same cage as the cheetah (don't ask). We were very confused by this as you can imagine. My favorite animals were the giraffe and the sloth. They are SO cute.
On Monday, we packed up and headed over to UCSan Diego to check-in. It was great! We saw our good friend MR and the conference went off without a hitch. That night there was some entertainment, and I, involuntarily, took part in it. The hypnotist, Jim Wand, was there and even though I didn't volunteer, I was hypnotized in the audience and told to jump up, scream "watsup" and find another seat in the audience whenever I heard the word NACURH.
An interesting rest of the night followed...
The rest of the conference was filled with fun and games and new friends and old friends.
And we had an early flight out on Thursday morning which not only left us with about 2 hours of sleep in a 36 hour period but also extreme jet lag.
Friday I slept as much as I could, I think around 15 hours, which did not completely cure my exhaustion but it helped for sure. Saturday we left for the family reunion and had a bunch of fun with my Aunt and Uncle and cousin that night. Sunday is the day that I was in a room with 40 people all of whom I'm related to but I don't necessarily know how. Lol. That makes for a good time.
Today as I write this, I am also making a list and checking it twice of all the things I need to pack or buy before I leave tomorrow. I might be just the slightest bit nervous but I am so much more excited to even notice.
I will keep you updated as much as possible.
Miss you all,
Wa chuntay oh gna kay,
Emily
No comments:
Post a Comment