Hello again. I’ve been pretty sick the last couple of days,
so I don’t have a lot of exciting news to report. Yesterday, I had to skip my
classes, my work in the scene shop, and my weekly trip to kindergarten to
volunteer because I had a fever. I was pretty bummed about that, but I knew
that the best thing for my own health as well as the health of the people
around me was to stay in my bed and sleep. I’m just trying to stay on top of my
work at this point. The good news is that all my professors have been very
understanding. There are resources on campus to help you when you get
sick. First, the RAs in my hall have a “sick box” with everything from
Band-Aids to herbal tea to Nyquil in it. You can get a friend to pick up a plate for you at the dining hall if you're too sick to go. Also, there is an on-campus health
center if you feel like you’re sick enough to need care from a professional. We all get sick sometimes – that’s just the reality of college life!
On a happier note, I had a really good weekend. I went out
to sushi with my friend Rose. It was a little place I had never been to before.
Honestly, I didn’t think the quality of the fish was particularly amazing, but the
setting was really cool because it was one of those places where the sushi goes
by on a little conveyor belt. If you see something you want to try, you just
grab it off and eat it!
Rose checks her phone in between plates.
Roe, salmon, and unlimited ginger.
I discovered the miracle that is takoyaki, or octopus dumplings.
When I wasn’t eating sushi, I was working on my paper for
Literature of the English Renaissance. It was about a poem called “A Valediction:
Forbidding Mourning” by John Donne. I focused on the way his language compares others’
purely physical love to Earth while locating his own more “metaphysical,”
spiritual, intellectual love in parts of the universe thought to be closer to heaven.
Here’s the diagram of the universe I was working with.
The Ptolemaic geocentric universe. It's awesome that I get to combine my interests in both astronomy and literature! Gotta love the liberal arts.
My work station.
It turned out to be a really interesting paper. Hopefully my
professor will think so as well.
Another thing I did this weekend was go walking in Tryon
Creek State Park around sunset. Tryon is a short walk from campus and I go
running there all the time.
Beautiful, isn't it?
Well, back to my studies for now. Time to drink tea and
listen to the rain while reading Virginia Woolf.
If you have any questions, email me at jessicakostka@lclark.edu.
Jess