Finals start

Today is "dead day" - the day when 24 hour quiet hours are instated and enforced pretty much campus wide and most people seem to be staying in their rooms studying anyway. We get today off, then finals start tomorrow. I have a paper to turn in tomorrow, then both math and chem finals on Monday, two days of glorious nothing, then my engineering final on Thursday, then I'm coming home! I've almost made it through my first semester of college. Crazy.
Finals week here is an event - there was a "Kickoff party" yesterday with a zip line, bounce houses, food, and swag. Tonight, the cafeteria is offering a free pancake dinner at 10. Pretty much every coffee shop on campus is offering free coffee. Almost every night this week, the library will have snacks, board games, and everyone's favorite, therapy dogs. On Wednesday next week, there's even free yoga in the bookstore! I don't know if all this stuff is a good thing, because the university cares about our well being, or a bad thing, like they can't have too many people doing crazy things because they are stressed. I think it's the former, but I'm not sure.
This past week, I went to see the a capella groups' fall concert. All four groups were amazing. The best performance by far was Amplified A Capella's rendition of "Royal" by Lorde. Notoriety, the oldest and biggest group, was also pretty good and is apparently going to National competition.
I also got the chance to see the both improv groups at the U of A - the Charles Darwin Experience and Comedy Corner. They both do a lot of the same stuff and are both really good. However, although the Comedy Corner people cuss more during their show, the Darwins are undeniably dirtier. Other than that, Darwin is pretty much Comedy Corner with more marketing and funding and music.
Update on the Doctor Who Musical - I'm in! Even better, I have a named part who was actually in the TV show. I am Sarah Jane Smith, a recurring companion to  the Doctor who first appeared with the Third Doctor then appeared sporadically throughout the rest of the series. I'm really excited about this!
I also have finalized my schedule for next semester. I'm taking Intermediate Spanish Conversation, Calculus 2, Solid State Chemistry, Introductory Mechanics (Physics), Intro to CAD (computer aided design), and doing the Honors Freshman research project for a total of 18 units. I am planning on being busy. Those classes seem like they are going to be a lot of fun, and I am looking forward to them.
I am also really looking forward to seeing a lot of you when I come home for Christmas!

Winter - almost

I've reached over 1500 views!
You can tell it's winter not by the weather or the lights, but by the paper snowflakes scattered around the dorm, everyone's antsyness about finals, and the not-Starbucks coffee shop is selling hot chocolate "complete with candy cane and gender-neutral snow-being shaped marshmallows." I should be studying right now, but I need a bit of a brain break, and hey, I'm practicing my "composition" for Honors Frosh Comp!
Against my better judgement, I auditioned for "Not a Doctor Who Musical!!!" (yes, with three exclamation points). The people running the audition seemed very impressed with my over-dramatic rendition of "Jabberwocky," by Lewis Carroll, and somewhat pleased with my song. I think I have a good chance of landing Donna or Amy. If nothing else, I' be a pretty good Weeping Angel. I promised myself that I'd get back into musicals/acting when I got into college because I loved doing them so much in middle school, and this was the perfect chance. I'll see if anything comes out of it.
I am done with Chemistry labs... FOREVER! (I'm taking a material science course next semester instead). I think I did pretty well on my lab final, which involved analyzing samples of "blood" for their iron and copper levels. Much easier than it sounds. That was a huge relief.
I only really have finals in three classes, which is nice, although I have a presentation tomorrow in English on my research project from earlier in the year, which shouldn't be too difficult. I'm most worried about my engineering final, though, because unlike most classes, that class seems to be made up of a bunch of unrelated topics that were kind of just thrown at us. I'm not too worried about math or the chem lecture finals.
Apparently Kim Kardashian was on campus this week. Apparently, she went here. Apparently, there was a "crowd" following her, but it was "not as big as was expected." Apparently, not enough people care. I don't.
Mark Zuckerberg visited Stanford this week. Social media exploded. He should have come here. I'm not jealous at all. No, really, I'm not.
I can't wait for winter break when I get to see my family and not worry about schools so much. Still working on getting a ride, but I'll make it out to SoCal somehow. It will be a ton of fun to see all my old friends again and chill.
Happy birthday to my dad! Hope it was a good one.