Fall, I love you.

I don’t know how I would prove this hypothesis but I’m pretty sure Fall is the best season.

The weather has been lovely (except for that horrible Monday rain. What’s up, Denver?!.) The papers I’ve handed in have come back to me with good marks and I got an internship (yay!) albeit an unpaid one (oh well). It’s in the Consulate of Mexico here in Denver and since some day I plan on entering the Foreign Service and I’ve already interned at an embassy it’s right up my alley. I’ll let you know more about that when it actually starts.

Some of the other Korbel bloggers have already done posts about the great community we’re part of so I’m just going to add that this Friday I had the chance of experiencing that once again. I think 90% of the girls in our cohort were at a friend’s house for a “girl’s night”. We discovered that we are amazing bakers, cooks or drink-makers and we talked and danced for a bit to shake off the stress from the midterms. I haven’t met one single person at Korbel that isn’t super smart, interesting and multifaceted.

As if the goodness couldn’t keep itself away from me, I got back my Stats midterm and let’s just say that it was an A. I haven’t received an A in any subject that involves numbers since 11th grade! Woot.

After Stats class, fun is always needed. I mean, it doesn’t matter how many As I get, Stats at 8:00 am on Saturdays is just too traumatizing to go back to studying right away.So, I went with some friends to a huge corn maze. Needless to say, this was my first corn maze EVER. At home, we eat our corn. We don’t do funny shapes with it! There was a pumpkin patch too and after having completed 2/3ds of the maze, we rewarded ourselves with some apple cider while we watched people shoot pumpkins out of a canyon (Yup. We don’t do that at home either.)

I LOVE FALL.

Hope this was informative/entertaining/not-a-complete-waste-of-your-time. Thanks for reading

The Autumn-crazed Me

Tip 1: Get Up Early

This post will probably make me the most unpopular blogger of all Korbel bloggers.

If you want to get things done, or most things done at least, set that alarm clock to 7 am, at the latest.

I know, it sounds like a horrible idea. You want to come to Grad School partly because most jobs require you to wake up at ungodly hours, right? Confession: I’ve always been a late riser. I’m lazy. I like sleeping in. I find it unnatural to wake up before the sun is out. And yet, here I am, recommending you to wake up early. Have aliens taken hold of my brain? Nope. Or at least, not to the best of my knowledge.

Here’s a simple fact: If you wake up early, you get more time to do more things. I know, sounds stupid, but it’s true. You might think that it’s the same thing to go to bed at 3 am and wake up at 10 am, than to go to bed at 11 pm and wake up at 7 am I used to think that too. Turns out it isn’t. Your body gets more rest out of the sleep that you have before midnight. So if you go to bed earlier and wake up earlier you actually feel more energized and alert than if you do both things late. Leave the late nights for the days when you’re out partying.

As we say in Spanish: Al que madruga, Dios lo ayuda. (God helps the early riser. The Catholic answer to the secular English proverb the early bird catches the worm).

And now, off to have a (hopefully) very productive day!

The Middle

I haven’t been too good at writing twice a week and for that I apologize *slaps own hand*. Somehow, I’m not entirely sure how, it’s already week 5. Since Korbel’s on a quarter schedule that means this is the middle of the Autumn Quarter. How did that happen?!

In between essays, research outlines, classes, weekly readings, the return of my favorite TV shows ( which I watch because of the clever insights they have on the world, obviously *ahem*) and trying to have a life, half a quarter has already flown past me.

Grad School is all about time management. Or so I keep hearing. I’m not too good at it but I’m doing my best. So far I have only skipped one chapter out of all my reading workload! Sometimes, it comes down to prioritizing. As some other Korbelites (Korbelites/ Korbelians??) and I were saying the other day, there are times when you just can’t do everything. Some days, you just have to skip Yoga even if your mental sanity is compromised for a few hours. Other days, you might choose not to read that 5th paper for X class because you know the professor will discuss it at length during class anyways. Some other days, you give up a party and all the fun that implies in exchange for a quiet night in with your books. And it’s ok.

Somehow, I’ve managed to make it to Week 5 and if I can do it, anyone can. Really.