Of Haircuts and Housemates

Hello family, here's a quick update on what I've been up to.

First off, I'm back in Hutchinson for Thanksgiving. I'm currently sitting in one of our recliners observing a terrified Mandalay...things haven't changed much. Although I haven't seen any cats just yet, which is a big difference from the normal.

At school, I've completed my first four grad school apps (to UNC Chapel Hill, UNC Charlotte, Arizona, and Colorado) and am currently considering what schools to follow those up with. I have at least a few with later application dates marked so I can use them as fall backs.

I successfully presented one of the papers I linked last time at the Columbia College Undergraduate Philosophy Conference. It was a good experience and really helped me to refine the paper so that it was more accessible. Of course, I stayed up all night doing this (yay, Prozac and coffee)...

...then stayed up the next night to build a TARDIS (from the television show Doctor Who) for the homecoming parade. The WC Independents (whom we were building it for) won, and rightly so.

Looking ahead to next semester, I only have 6 hours of classes, two upper level philosophy courses on "The Meaning of Life" and "Philosophy of Mind," so my classroom experiences should be really enjoyable to close out my Westminster career. When I'm not doing that, I'll spend about 20hrs a week working in Jefferson City as a part of the "Capitol Internship Program." While I don't know my placement yet, it'll probably be with State Senator Maria Chappelle-Nadal, a Democrat who will give me the opportunity to explore my interest in healthcare and public policy.

And just to head off any possible questions on Thanksgiving, yes, I am missing my sideburns. I gave myself a haircut for the first time, and while doing so, accidentally removed one of them. At that point I was forced to decide if I would look stranger with just the one or with none at all. I chose none and now just wait for them to return. So that concludes the first half of my title! On to the second!

EcoHouse this year has five residents, plus a few frequent visitors. These are my second family:

Mulu is from Addis-Abba, Ethiopia, although she went to high school in BC, Canada. She studies Chemistry and Environmental Science, cooks traditional Ethiopian food (which means enough onions to make your eyes water no matter where you are in the house, jalepenos, and paprika--the hotter food is, the better), dances a fair amount, and speaks English and Amharic. She's taught me to count to five, say goodnight, and thank you. Spelled phonetically, that's "UNd, WHO-let, SO-st, AH-raht, and AH-mist" (1-5) although since her birthday was yesterday, I also know "AI-ya UNd" is twenty one. Goodnight is "DARE-na, ah-DARE-he," and thank you is "ah-muh-SAY GA-nello." We also know her for her sense of humor, which we've termed "pulling a Mulu"--at different times she's easily convinced me that she was 22, spoke French, was leaving EcoHouse at the semester, and was crying out of happiness. She pulls it off every time. I've also agreed to go to a Greek Orthodox service with her sometime, since she needs a ride there.

Mulu chops jalepenos and tomatoes for our Thanksgiving

Marina is from a part of Sao Paola, Brazil, but has previously lived in the US in Maryland during part of high school. She is studying math and pre-engineering, is one of the few I-students at the school not a part of the University World College program, and speaks Portuguese and English. She's taught me how to say her first name (I still can't get her last one down), goodnight, and thank you. Respectively, those are "mah-dRI-na" (the "r" sound isn't one we have in English), "bo-A NOI-ch," and "oh-bri-GAH-(d)oh" (the "d" is nearly silent). We know her for spending the most time around Andrew and I and thus having picked up a fair amount of our sarcasm. She's a worrier and tends to run around a lot. 

Marina prepares a traditional Brazilian birthday treat

Kareem is from Palestine, but attended high school in Albuquerque.  He's currently studying economics, although that's not his first choice, he has to graduate in 4 years because of his scholarships so he can't switch again. He speaks English, teaches Arabic, and is learning Spanish. Kareem has just started cooking the house, which really means we see Rima cooking for the both of them a lot (more on her in a bit). He holds a Jordanian passport because Palestine's contentious status means they don't issue any (or don't issue ones that are accepted). He's afraid of dogs because the Israeli police use them to control protests and will often have strays follow him at night when he walks home. He's tried to teach me goodnight, but I couldn't even approximate one of the sounds. I'll have it by the end of the semester hopefully.

Kareem takes a break to take some pictures

Andrew, of course, lived with me last year. This is his third year in the house, and he's majoring in Philosophy and the Science of Information, and minoring in Math. Next year, he'll probably try and make the What if...? Conference, which he started last year, into a job. His fall back plans include graduate school for either design or philosophy. We tend to refer to each other as "brother," both as an inside reference to the TV show LOST and as an honorific for the way our thinking complements each other. He knows about as much American Sign Language as I do French (so he can put together sentences) and about as much French as I know ASL (we tend to exchange pieces of information). He's taught me remember, forget, now, pretty, beautiful, I, son, and daughter. 

Andrew and I add the second of three tables we needed

Our most frequent visitors include Michael, Andrew's girlfriend, who is Pre-Law and Poli Sci. She's also a junior this year, one of the motivating factors for Andrew's decision to not go to grad school immediately. She's currently in ASL classes and often teaches us new signs (I can count up to twenty). Rima takes second place, who is Kareem's kind-of-sort-of girlfriend, a Palestinian refugee living in Lebanon. She hasn't taught us any Italian, but is a really fun person to have around the house. She and Kareem occasionally argue about dancing (she's all for it, but he's opposed).

Michael and Andrew as we leave our picnic at the Arch

Kareem says he does it, but if you ask Rima, she says she does all the cooking

Lastly, because of our own population of I-Students and because I have some international mentees, we had a massive Thanksgiving of our own last night. Below are just a few photos, but our end result was about 20 guests (plus some surprise guests for Mulu's birthday who showed up later).

Our dessert table

The rest of the potluck

A few of the guests, including (from L-R) Kareem, Kristen (my comentor), Joseph (from the Congo), Sean (from South Africa), Rosemary (from Missouri), Rima, Marina, and in the front Mulu on the left and Mihi on the right--both from Ethiopia