Ugh. . . Computer Problems. . .

I know I promised an explanation about missing the first week of school, but my computer is completely freaking out.  I'll have to update you when I'm on campus with a reliable computer.  In the meantime, if anyone knows of good hard drive deals for HP laptops. . .  let me know.  : P

The Beginnings of My Final Semester. . .

This is the first of many posts from my final semester!!!! I missed the first week of classes (I'll explain why in my next post), so this week was my first week of this semester.  Here are some of my initial thoughts:

1.  I have senioritis SOOOOO bad. Remember, I'm in a five year program, so I've been a senior for two years! It's just about killing me at this point.  I'm ready to see what's next.

2.  My schedule pretty much rocks.  I'm taking only 15 credit hours (I've always taken 17-18 in the past), so I have more free time than normal.  Tuesdays in particular are exciting:  I have only one class from 9:30-12:15, then I'm FREE!  I'm hoping to use my extra time to volunteer more this semester.  More on Student Voluntary Services later.

3.  Planning for my future is a little nerve-wracking.  Any seniors in high school out there can relate, I'm sure.  Fortunately, we live in a day and age where we can pretty much do whatever we want.  Unfortunately, that means we have significantly more options to sift through when making decisions.  Currently I'm wrestling with the seemingly huge dilemma of what to do next year:  grad school? travel? work?   Yeah. . .  I have no idea.

4.  Spring semesters are so much better than fall semesters.  I *love* spring semesters.  Granted, they start off snowy and icy and really cold, BUT it goes only uphill from there!  Days are getting longer, soon it will get warmer, and before you know it, you're playing Frisbee outside without a care in the world!  For some reason it's much, MUCH easier for me to be motivated and focused in the spring as opposed to the fall semester.

5.  Building off of my love for spring semester, I also love spring break.  Sure, we don't get any breaks between Martin Luther King Jr. Day and the second week of March, but it's so worth it! We get a whole week off of school!  In the fall we get only a day or two here and there, and most of those coincide with holidays, so your "free" time is usually pre-planned with lots of family stuff.  Spring break is the real student vacation time.  There are so many more opportunities for your break when you have an entire week without classes or obligations.  For example, this year I'm hoping to travel to Jordan.  Yeah, try doing that over a three day weekend.  That's right.  You can't.

6.  Working on a thesis makes my education seem worthwhile.  I'm finally learning exactly what I want to be learning.  It's so liberating to plan, direct, and complete your own project.  The cherries on top are the people I get to work with.  I have a thesis adviser and three studio professors.  My adviser is the chair of my department, and I respect her immensely.  Every time we talk I leave the conversation completely inspired and elated about whatever we'd been talking about. My professors are equally inspiring.  I've had two of them before, and I've loved the classes I've had with them.  I've been good friends with one of them ever since I went to Mexico-- we've worked on several of the same international projects, and he's helped me a lot with my global networking efforts.  The final professor is new from Istanbul.  I've spoken with her only once so far, but she's very impressive.  She's also offering a valuable perspective on my thesis, which is titled "Rebuilding After Conflict:  An Examination of Refugee Camp Design in Jordan."

Those are my initial thoughts.  I'll be sure to keep everyone updated on what my tenth semester looks like!!  Happy New Year everyone!

Holiday Cheer

Happy New Year!!!!!!

I don't know about you, but this has been by far one of the best holiday breaks of my life.  Let me tell you why.  : )

The end of my semester was predictably hectic.  I had many, many pages to write for all of my classes

Winter Wonderland[scape] Formal

You know what's awesome about being in college?  You get to do whatever you want.  For example: a few months ago people in my studio were talking about how much fun it would be to have a formal for the landscape architecture department, so one of us went ahead and planned it.  Last weekend I went to a formal that a classmate completely organized and coordinated.

First off, HUGE props to her for all the work she put in.  We had music, food, and a venue (Muncie Cornerstone Center for the Arts).  I have no idea how she pulled this off, but we're all very grateful for her.  We had a TON of fun that evening, as the photographic evidence suggests:



My date and me before the dance.



A common theme from the dance: studio love.



More love.



Even more love.



Maybe too much love?



Probably my favorite photograph from the evening: do you see the stalker?

*****

Fun fact: I live with five other people and at no point in history have all six of us been in the same room.  In an effort to remedy that, I offered to make my Muncie family a holiday meal Sunday evening.  The meal was great-- my roommates latched onto the idea and everyone pitched in to make a delicious meal.  All but one roommate.  *sigh*  We still haven't all been in the same room together!



Neither of these gentlemen is my roommate, but they were welcome nonetheless.



Setting the table.  We've never eaten at the table before.  Never.



We even busted out some napkins.  And a center piece.  That's how fancy this dinner was.



After dinner we pulled each other around the neighborhood on a lunch tray behind a truck. (Again: college = do whatever you want!)  Which was doubly awesome because you ended up looking like Frosty the Snowman by the end of it.  His pip was completely packed with snow.



They were really proud of themselves.

Finals Week

It's finals week!  Well, at least it's finals week for people in the College of Architecture and Planning.  Because it takes professors a long time to grade all of our projects, they end up being due this week instead of actual finals week (which is next week).  It's a little tough to finish up projects, but it ends up being great because we tend to not have any finals during finals week.

I lucked out this year.  I have no final tests, just final papers.  It's a little unfortunate that I have to write so much, but I like the way my classes are challenging me to think critically about what we've been doing all semester.  Along that vein of thought, I had a presentation in my Research Methods class today, and I think it went well.  At least, a professor who tends to be hard to please said she likes my project, and the chair of my department has been supportive.  That's something I like about my college: all the professors are involved in your education the entire five years you're here.  I like that nearly all the professors in my department know me by name, and those that don't at least recognize me.  It's nice to have that kind of community.  Even though I'm excited about graduating, it'll be sad to leave the people who have been so supportive over the years.

First They Came. . .

I've been thinking a lot recently, especially about why I want to do what I want to do, which is to work with refugee communities.  As I was pondering my motivations, I remembered this poem by Holocaust survivor Pastor Martin Niemöller:

When the Nazis came for the communists,
I remained silent;
I was not a communist.

When they locked up the social democrats,
I remained silent;
I was not a social democrat.

When they came for the trade unionists,
I did not speak out;
I was not a trade unionist.

When they came for the Jews,
I remained silent;
I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,
there was no one left to speak out.

I started thinking about what Niemöller was communicating: we're all in this together, and we need to support and stick-up for each other, even when we otherwise might not be directly involved.  At the very least, we should do this because we will encounter times in our lives when we'll need someone to support us.  At the most we should do it because compassion is the one redeeming quality of humanity.

So maybe I'm interested in working with refugees because I hope that my actions will in some way help to offset the horrible things that sometimes happen in our world.  Maybe I'm doing it because I'm selfish, and I think my actions will somehow offer me security if I ever experience disaster.  Maybe I hope to join the group of voices speaking out against injustice.  Maybe it's all of the above.  Maybe it's none of the above.

Anyway, I've just been thinking a lot recently.

Islam Awareness Week

Last week was a fun time for after-school events.  For starters, the Muslim Student Association sponsored Islam Awareness week.  Unfortunately, I didn't hear about that until about halfway through the week, so I was able to go to only two events, a panel discussion on Islamophobia and a panel discussion on the hijab.  Both were interesting and kept me thinking long after they had ended.

Two points of observation/possible places for improvement: it would have been nice to have a woman on the Islamophobia panel and it would have been nice to have a man on the hijab panel.  In respect to the former, some women in the audience had a unique perspective on Islamophobia much different than that of the men.  While the men on the panel discussed media portrayal of Muslims, women in the audience talked about discrimination against the hijab in the workplace.  One woman shared a horrifying story of how a boy had pulled off her daughter's hijab in school and had used derogatory names against her.  Having a woman on the panel would have given clearer voice to Muslim women's concerns about Islamophobia.

As for the second point, there is a bit more of a background story.  First, the three women on the panel were fantastic.  Really, truly, an inspiration to listen to.  The biggest fault on the panel was a lack of diversity.  All three women wear the hijab (one also wears the niqab), all three agreed that the Quran says Muslim women should wear the hijab, and all three were women.  Again, some men in the audience did enter the discussion and added their perspective to the mix, but it would have been nice to hear from a man on the panel.  Also, I've heard some heated arguments amongst Muslim women and men about what the Quran says and doesn't say about the hijab.  I'll also add that the arguments were among native speakers of Arabic, so the idea of "bad translations" doesn't really carry the discussion (which was the perspective mentioned on the panel, ie: that the translation from Arabic into English was partly responsible for any confusion).  Not being Muslim, I don't have an opinion on the matter-- everyone is free to worship as he or she chooses; however, I thought it was dishonest to not give voice to both sides of an important issue on the panel.  Most sad about the lack of diversity was the fact that the "discussion" did get preachy towards the end.  I ended up not remembering the question I had wanted to ask until after the discussion was over.  I'll ask it now in hopes someone can answer me:

Regardless of what the Quran says or doesn't say about the hijab, it seems that everyone agrees it does tell Muslims-- men and women-- to dress modestly.  I applaud and respect the Muslim women on campus and in the Muncie community who choose to wear the hijab or niqab despite the discrimination they may face because of it.  I also applaud and respect Muslim women who dress modestly without the hijab or niqab-- in the Muslim-majority countries I've lived in, that usually means keeping arms and shoulders covered and wearing long skirts or loose-fitting pants.  Which brings me to my point: in the Muslim-majority countries I've lived in, men also wear a distinct type of modest clothing, characterized by loose pants and a longer shirt, like this for example.  While I see Muslim women in Muncie dressing modestly, I can't say I've seen the same of the men.  And that irritates me.  Why not?  Even the Muslim men who spoke up at the panel in support of the hijab weren't dressed particularly modestly-- they wore tight jeans and short-sleeved shirts.  Again, I do think everyone has the freedom to dress as he or she sees fit, but it seems, well, hypocritical, to be a strong advocate of the hijab while not maintaining similar standards for yourself.  Maybe it's just me, but its been on my mind since the panel discussion.