BAM!

This Quarter started off with a BAM!! I have the theory that the Winter Quarter does not have the grace period that accompanied the Fall Quarter. Since one cannot officially start at Korbel during the Winter Quarter, I suppose professor’s assume we’ve all done this whole thing at least once before. They can quit tiptoeing around us. We’re grown up grad students now (Mostly grown up, anyways). I won’t lie, I miss the cuddly blanket of Week 1 and 2 in the Fall Quarter.

So far, I have had presentations and papers due already. Despite this, I can’t seem to make a dent on my Winter Quarter To-Do list.

It is the start of Week 4 and I have already broken the omnipresent “I will exercise more” item of my New Year’s resolution. Among others. (Namely, “I will only eat one bar of chocolate a week”, “I will adhere to the 50% veggies, 30% proteins 20% carbs plate distribution” and “I will read one non-school related book every two weeks”). Oh boy. (I totally blame the increased calorie intake on the Winter, by the way. So, that’s something you might want to consider when moving to Denver. You WILL eat more when it’s cold).

So, yeah, this is a whining post. But that’s just so you all know that Grad school isn’t all rainbows and flowers, unicorns and puppies and cookies. Sometimes, you really need to kick yourself to do stuff. Despite how cozy your duvet looks. Getting up to go to my internship when it’s cold and windy has proven to be tough. Tearing myself away from the TV and into the gym or the library when it is super chilly outside is, let’s face it, a sacrifice. These are all the joys of becoming an adult, I guess.

Someone on Facebook posted about a website that helps you conquer your goals. Basically, you state what your goal is, set a monetary penalty in case you fail to achieve your goal and then submit proofs of your progress. You get emails reminding you of your goals and I think the money earned goes partly to charity. I believe this was created by some German people. Which would make total sense. There’s no other culture in the world that has the iron will of ze Germans. I might have to look into that website some more. See if the idea of paying money for my own procastination makes procastinating any less appealing.

I shall go and get some reading done now. I apologize if this was a useless post. I really do. Next one will be more interesting, I promise.

You know it’s the end of the Quarter when… Pt. 2

…You suddenly get a pressing urge to:

- Clean your room
- Do your laundry
- Bake a triple chocolate cake or cook up a three course dinner
- Call your Mom
- Call your Dad
- Write your Christmas cards
- Reorganize your closet
- Talk to your parrot/ walk-the-dog/ wish-you-had-a-pet-to-use-as-an-excuse
- Get on with some much overdue filing of past papers and handouts
- Go to the gym
- Create a playlist on your iTunes with the aspirational title “Study Music”
- Blog.

Whatever it takes not to have to deal with the mountains of readings and papers that you’re trying to push to the back of your mind under the fallacy of “productivity”.

Now off to do some cleaning

Shh, my nagging conscience. I’m working here.

You know it’s the end of the Quarter when…

Your Stats professor, who is usually a lovely and very polite lady tells the class: “Guys, I gotta tell you, today you’re looking kind of haggard.”

Oh man…

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.