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Below are the 11 most recent journal entries recorded in
erfinoch's LiveJournal:
| Sunday, July 21st, 2002 | |
| 12:25 pm | I didn't know Vikki had a livejournal. :) I am adding you to my friends list. I'm leaving in less than three weeks! I'm still not sure where to. I'm going to New York and then Canada, but have an urge to do something alone in between; I suspect I won't have time to wander alone for awhile. Vikki, when are you coming back from the Davis thing? I called your home. Sophia: Hi. This is Sophia. Vikki's not back yet, right? Victor: Uh no. Sophia: Oh. Well, do you know when she'll be back. Victor: Uh no. Sophia: Is your mom or dad there? Does someone kn- Victor: No. Sophia: Um. Do you know how I can find out when she'll be back? Victor: She said she's gone for a month. Sophia: She's at Davis, right? Victor: Yeah. Sophia: For science or something? Victor: Uh..I think so. Sophia: Oh. Well, okay. Thank you. Bye. Victor: Bye. Because I leave on August 9 I thought it'd be nice to watch a movie and do other stuff before we part. I want to see the SF Mime Troupe (they perform political satire), they're in SF this Sunday but I don't know if you'll be back by then. I'm kind of afraid to bring some other friends who might be a little more conservative. I don't want to insult them! |
| Monday, July 15th, 2002 | |
| 4:08 pm | oops A check bounced. I certainly didn't write a check for $7000+ I am personally poor. |
| Wednesday, July 10th, 2002 | |
| 5:27 pm | So tonight is Teresa's birthday and she is singing and this is probably my last chance to watch her sing, but I don't want to go, because honestly, it's kind of a big bore. On a personal scale, relationships with people, communities, environments, etc are the most important things in life. Yet, I don't feel that by missing this performance, I'm being a jerk. We hang out a lot and I'm constantly dragging her to dull places with me. :) I've been thinking lately about this subject, and I think community is vital. By getting swept up into various movements and thoughts (e.g. feminism, vegetarianism, Francophilia, daoism, yoga, etc) I was probably trying to fit into a community. That's not to say I didn't enjoy or believe in them. I like fish, Daoism fell away and I'm not so nuts about French culture anymore. But, you know. PS Hi Vikki, hope you're having a good time at Davis. |
| 5:21 pm | Today is Teresa's birthday. I haven't been home for her birthday in I think 6 years. I actually went out and bought presents and such and I baked a cake. But I cut the recipe in half to make it smaller. And then I didn't have a small enough pan. In fact, I only had a big pan. So it's more like a birthday wafer with bits of carrot and pineapple and raisins and apple sauce (a gross recipe for low calorie carrot cake). Honestly, it's pretty ugly. I tried to spell out "Happy Birthday!" with raisins -- she does not want frosting -- but I got tired after "H" so instead, the cake says "Hi." This is my most relaxing summer to date. |
| Wednesday, June 26th, 2002 | |
| 9:09 pm | Hi Vikki: I'm sorry about the insurance thing. Logistics suck. Insurance also sucks to think about, I suppose. I mean, you're paying someone to pay for you when you fall into unexpected illness. That's not fun or hopeful or anything very good. (but it IS necessary) Don't worry too much about moving to MA. You are quite personable -- CONTRARY to your neuroses about being inadequate or hiding something from others -- and you will definitely make good friends. Also, we can hang out. :) Just think of it this way: if you get along very well with one out of every 500 people, then you'll only have, what, 4 people in high school? But, in theory, two or three of those four will attend X School, where you'll be. People research and specifically seek out certain schools because they think they'll be comfortable there. So in the best circumstances, you'll be surrounded by like-minded people. In the worst and unlikely circumstance that the population is random, as in high school, you'll still have at least 4 good friends. :P I suck at math but I thought you'd appreciate my efforts. -Sophia |
| Sunday, May 12th, 2002 | |
| 11:19 pm | AP testing finished - English lit, Calculus AB, French language AP testing tomorrow - Macroeconomics. And I am NOT going to take Micro, I don't think. Most people found the AP tests easy. I don't know. They weren't crazy hard but I didn't feel the easy, "Wow, that went well..." that I did last year. I'm glad I took the French, I hadn't planned on it. I'm sorry, however, that I signed up for the economics exam because I've just found out that I need a 4 or a 5 on BOTH macro and micro (separate exams) to get any sort of credit for college. And the credit is immediately invalidated if I take an intro to econ course, which I might do. For the record, I only take exams in which I'm totally uninterested in the subject because a) I might get credit and b) the teacher is very nice and persuasive. :) I had a nice weekend. I've been practicing a lot more Bikram yoga lately and I think this is something I want to really work on. Hopefully I can work part-time at a Bikram studio next year. I took my parents (on separate occasions) and was very proud of how hard they worked. I LOVE taking people to yoga. Call me if you want to go sometime. What else..I cut my hair and got glasses (much-needed). I asked the woman to "chop it [the hair] all off" but she didn't think it was a good idea, so I let her do whatever she wanted as long as it was shorter at the end of the day. Mother's Day is a good idea; I like this "holiday." Did you know that Barbara Bush hates this day? Weird. |
| Sunday, April 28th, 2002 | |
| 1:08 pm | A Trip I haven't been to school in a week. I returned from a short trip to Chicago with my mom. The Art Institute of Chicago has a much more extensive and interesting collection than I thought; we spent our free afternoon there. Well, I'm going to Pomona. Visiting UChicago was ultimately very good and I'm glad I went; I was already pretty sure before arriving that I wouldn't attend the school, but the visit provoked a reassessment of what I want out of education. |
| Tuesday, April 16th, 2002 | |
| 2:44 pm | Pomona I visited Pomona College in Claremont on Sunday, Monday, and returned this afternoon (Tuesday). I liked it much more than I thought I would -- I'd previously struck it as a possiblity because of its location; I don't like LA -- and might go there after all. The students were friendly and loose, very California-y. I liked seeing everyone in flip flops, tee shirts and shorts and was delighted to see all of the skateboards. The two classes I visited were relatively small; the larger one was probably 40 people but it was still surpisingly intimate. I met other prospies. It seems a lot were considering Carleton, a few Dartmouth. I see the Pomona-Carleton thing, but not Darmouth. I met one very awkward guy who's choosing between Mudd and Pomona. Wow, he was tense. He said that his mom wants him to go to Pomona so that he can learn how to "socialize." I'm not necessarily disputing that need, but no one needs high school all over again. So now I've missed a million hours of school. That sucks. I was already behind when I left for Pomona. |
| Thursday, April 11th, 2002 | |
| 10:08 pm | Hi. Long update I'm anxious for things to "work out." Lately: 1. School is okay. It doesn't seem like I've been at this one for a long time. I feel kind of stupid for signing up for more exams than necessary. It's very difficult to sustain interest in math. Sound of my brain: Whir..whir..click..click..cl..cl..thud 2. The dust is settled re. college stuff. Sort of. I'm visiting schools this month. I don't think the choice of school is really important, honestly. For one, I won't even be in class half of the time I'm in college; secondly, I've applied to schools that have adequately diverse kids; thirdly (most practical), I can always transfer. The apprehension stems more from this being the first decision I make that seems to carry a lot of heft -- money, time, etc. It's also shown me the different things people value, which sounds very obvious, but is still interesting. Anyway, I've been very happy and proud to hear about everyone succeeding in their own right. Everyone gets gold stars, stamps. etc., okay? 3. Family life = Good ever since certain bans have been placed 4. I'm tired. And happy. Not really thoughtful about it, just kind of floating in this fatigue and good humor. I'm going to have a series of mini-vacations pretty soon; one of the best feelings comes from moving around very quietly with strangers. 5. Oh, something terrible and strange: tonight, someone I tutor began a disturbing, uninformed rant against Sharon (the boy is in 7th grade). He was typing something very slowly for an assignment; I realized it was, "Sharon's task is to exterminate all Palestinians." ?!?!?! "Uh, I don't think I've ever read that --" "No, Sharon just wants to exterminate them. They're like these annoying bees...and it's like...you want to take a baseball bat and just crush the hive..." etc etc with motions suggesting violence with a baseball bat. So. ?!?!?! 6. I'm doing Americorps next year. I have two goals that I am DETERMINED to execute. Really, I'm very determined about this. *Read at least one book a week (I assume I would be doing something like this in college anyway, so this is the least I can do to continue my "book learning") *Support the US Postal Service by sending out mail at least once a week. I strongly encourage all of you to follow suit with the second one. USPS needs support, man! Don't tell me you don't like opening envelopes. 7. Yoga = Cool :) :) :) IN CONCLUSION, I am happy, sleepy, uninterested in math, playing with college stuff, working with Americorps next year, and ASK EVERYONE TO SEND MAIL. Very sincerely yours and unnaturally perky at this moment, Sophia Current Mood:  sleepy |
| Saturday, March 23rd, 2002 | |
| 3:05 pm | College stuff I've visited Pomona and Bryn Mawr now, and tried to visit UCB with an objective slate. Bryn Mawr - There is no way I'm going to this school. God, this just affirmed how important campus visits are. I probably would have sent in a "yes, please" had I not visited. The first contact with other prospies came in the form of two girls' three-hour discussion on the politics of planning prom and school dress codes (e.g. "I didn't look like a whore or anything!"). THe weather also made me more miserable than I'd anticipated. The classes weren't great either and people generally made stupid comments. I stared (hard) at the ground when one prospie raised her hand in the Intro to English Poetry class and said, "We read this in my class and my teacher said that it's about prostitution." Sigh. On the other hand, I met and travelled with two cool girls. And I practiced the all-important ability of reading maps. Berkeley -- The school has a 42% four-year graduation rate. And it's about 30 minutes from my home. And other stuff. Pomona -- I can't believe I'm going to enroll at a school I'd gone so far to dismiss as a possiblity that I was okay when notified that my application wasn't going to be reviewed. So much can happen between the intention and the action. Last night, standing wearily with my dad at a gas station pump at 1:45am, an anger dawned on me. In some ways, I feel duped. I've held public school as an imperfect but best (only?) way to foster a love of learning. With the exception of my excellent history and civics classes, the past two years have virtually sucked away all of my passion for learning. I'm not happy with academia. I was told that it's necessary to do silly things in order to get into a good college (a kind of vague holy grail). I think I covered all of the bases, but instead of feeling like I've achieved anything, I'm simply depleted. I'm barely hanging onto the end of the year, yet I'm acutely grateful for family, friends, options, and mobility. I found out that TEach for America was based on an undergrad's thesis. THat gives me hope for effecting change. |
| Saturday, December 29th, 2001 | |
| 5:39 pm | Just checking if this works. |