Back Up your Work

So it's been a while since my last entry, mainly because my hard drive crashed. I remember it clearly, 4 December, at around 9:20 PM, when my computer betrayed me. I lost all my work I had done on two final papers worth huge chunks of my grade, and nearly 30 pages of notes. Anyway, a few emails and extensions and a professor's new baby (Congratulations again, Professor Murdoch!), I finally finished and handed them it.

Then comes the wonderful time known as finals week, in earnest. A time marked by the awesome Primal Scream, which is when we all go out on the Quad the midnight before finals begin and scream away the stress that accumulated over the past weeks, and maybe even months. It's basically just legitimized insanity, at least for a few minutes. So, after a Chinese exam and one of my Palestine-Israel Conflict class (on my birthday, which shaped up to be an awesome birthday present), the pain and the agony was over.

Anyway, so as I began to write this latest entry, I'm in the city with my cousin down in SoHo, just chilling. I've finished all my preparations to go abroad: I packed all my stuff away into storage on Thursday, dropped off keys, library books, my basil plant, and everything else that needs looking after, and left this morning. It's odd to think that I won't be back at Vassar for another six months, but at the same time it's kind of exciting. I've been away for summer, doing crazy things in crazy places, but I think this will probably trump all of them. Mind you, rediscovering my family roots in rural South China was fairly awesome, and I think that's the only exception.

As I look back on the semester, it's been a great one, full of every kind of emotion there is. Well, I'm no girl (my suitemates would probably hit me at this point, along with every Vassar woman) but I've gotta say it's been tough. Between surviving papers and stress, pulling crazy hours in the library, and running off pure tea, I'm still around, and it feels pretty good.

This entry has been dragged out over a few days since I'm not really in student mode, therefore my word per minute count has dropped severely. I'm back at home in the Bahamas now, chilling in shorts, talking to my friends who are trapped in New England under a few feet of snow. Man, small town island life sucks, but it's better than being in New England this time of year. Oh well.

So, to all of you that are still trapped in the great north, my sympathies. To everyone else, Merry Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa and whatever else may happen to sideline you in terms of holidays. Happy new year to all and to all a good night!

They say he changes when the sun goes down...at 4:30PM (FIRST DAY OF SNOW!)

That's the fun thing about Poughkeepsie. Well, being in New York state in general. Once daylight savings ends, say hello to SAD. Well, maybe. I kinda got it, but thankfully, the library basement is shut off enough from the rest of the world that I can hop down there before the sun goes down, be surrounded by some sweet artificial light and then come up at 5, even though it looks like 10PM by that point, and continue with my day like nothing ever happened.

Even more fun about the weekend, when you wake up mad late, you only get to enjoy the daylight for about 4 hours max. But that's cool. This weekend was particularly enjoyable thanks to Turkey Day (WOOOOOOOO FOOD). I've had a good bunch of interesting Thanksgiving experiences since I got to Vassar. My freshman year, some other international kids and I went with the Director of International Services, Andrew Meade, to his house where he and his wife, kids and friends treated us to a dinner out of this world. I think I was full until noon the next day. It was THAT good.

Last year, some other kids and I who live far away ended up staying in the dorm, Jewett. Thankfully, Jewett has the nicest kitchen out of any of the dorms on campus, and boy did we abuse having it. We got a 25lb. turkey, 4 or 5 cakes, 3 pies, and all the traditional American fixings for a good, nap-inducing Thanksgiving. It was great. There were about 12 of us and we started eating at 6, finished at 8, we were asleep by 9. I woke up and didn't know that it was 1AM. Good times.

This year, I went down to Manhattan with two of my good friends, Guillermo and Arjun. Gui's from Chiapas (in the south of Mexico), but lived a good deal in Mexico City. Arjun is from Bombay, which made the weekend much more meaningful, since Arjun lives across the street from one of the cafes that were attacked by the terrorists these past few days. Every now and again, he'd get a phone call from parents or relatives just letting him know they were alright. I can't imagine what that would be like. When it ended this morning, his folks were all good, although he did lose a few teachers from high school who happened to be in the area when the attacks began. I checked in with my other friends, Janeen (who also happens to be Gui's girlfriend) and Aniruddh, an investment banker who graduated last year, and they were all good.

Aside from that, it was a good break. I met up with a girl who was my partner in the Model United Nations class I took my freshman year who now studies at Fordham Law School, and I went to her apartment for dinner with one of her hallmates. It was excellent. She made a delicious turkey and to end it all, a triple chocolate pumpkin pie. It was absolutely lethal. Although, this year, I didn't pass out. We just ended up watching the Incredibles on TV and looking at failblog.org during the commercial breaks like good students.

We drove back to school yesterday with Gui's dad, since Gui got a new TV for his room, which is ridiculously sweet. To top it all off, we went to Thai Spice, the new Thai joint on Raymond Avenue, for lunch. Then the library for an afternoon of productivity. But I was wrong.

Turns out the library closed at 5, instead of 10PM like it usually does on weekends. Not like I would know that or anything, but I'm just saying. I only got about an hour of work in, and then decided to go erg with Peter, my erging buddy, and Lola, a coxswain for the women's team. It was a good time of sweat and bhangra mashups. It's the best for erging if you need some good music tips.

Now it's back in the library, and I've wasted enough time. I should probably get some work done.

Sweeeeeeeeeet.

Kyle here, nice to meet you!

Hey guys, Kyle here. Wow, so I'm really new to this. I was approached last week by the Vassar College Relations Department asking me to blog for them. I have been a blogger, nor would I ever think that I would be a blogger. Kinda sounds and looks like booger, but that's ok too. Hopefully by reading this, you guys'll get a sweet taste of the Vassar life I live, and all the fun stuff that comes along with it.

So, by now, you know my name is Kyle. This is just like the first day of class, just online. And alone. So anyways, I'm a junior from Nassau, Bahamas (best city in the whole wide, wide world!), a History and Chinese double major, formerly on a pre-med track, and I live with three women in a suite in Jewett, one of whom (props to Reese Wong) helped me come up with the name for this blog. It's a wonderful life, so far. I'm learning how to be a good man, vacuuming on Fridays, washing the dishes, picking up my socks from around the common room, all the essentials.

So about some of my Vassar activities, I've always been into athletics since I arrived, starting with rugby in freshman year, then moving to squash for a short stint and then rowing. Rowing's basically stolen my heart, and I don't think I'll get it back, or want to. It's been a lot of fun bonding with the guys in my boat, as well as the women's team, and it helps make me a better rower. Plus, it keeps you whipped in shape, which is handy when you live in eternal vacation beach land.

Speaking of rowing, these past two days have been crazy. We had our first ergathon of the year to buy new oars, which involves hopping on an ergo machine, the rowing machines that you may or may not have in your local gym, and cranking it out in half hour shifts. I had a shift at 5:30AM to 6 with my good friend, Peter, and then later at 11AM to noon. The noon shift was absolutely insane. I beasted it out, and at the end of it, I had to wring out my shirt cuz it was so wet. Forgive me for that lovely image, but now you know why the blog name is "Funky Fresh." Sometimes I'm funky, like really REALLY funky, but other times I'm fresh and fly.

Just ask my suitemates. They made me get a fashion sense this year because they figured if they're gonna constantly be seen with me in public, I might at well at least coordinate.

And now, the hour of erging, along with a lazy Friday evening at Vassar takes its toll on my stomach. I'm headed off to one of the nearby Vietnamese joints, Miss Saigon, for a big steaming bowl of pho noodles.

So now you know me. Or basically know me. Sports, food, friends and a good time. There's also a bit of schoolwork thrown in the mix as well, but you'll hear about that later. It's the weekend and it's time to relax. It was nice to meet you, and I'll see you later!