Belly Dancers

You know when you hear people before you see them? Yesterday, I heard the jingles of belly dancing scarves before I saw them. It was three middle-aged (I'm being nice) women walking to the gym, the scarves wrapped around their hips on top of their yoga pants. Needless to say, it looked pretty funny, especially because of the sneakers they paired this already ridiculous outfit with. Why you would walk across campus with a jingling scarf wrapped around your hips - I don't know. They were pretty much asking to be ridiculed. They walked ahead of me for quite a while, so I heard the snickers from West campus to the Hub. When we got to the Hub however, the giggling stopped because there was a girl protesting or announcing something while hula hooping, which naturally caught everyone's attention (and which made her the next item of mockery). 

This walk home made me think of a few things:

1. One thing I will never do to my children is pretend to be a belly dancer when I'm past the age of 45. 

2. We really make fun of other people a lot, and I'm not excluding myself here. It's a little sad considering we're in college and really should have gotten the mocking out of our way in high school.

3. It's kind of cool that Penn State offers belly dancing classes. In fact, PSU offers more than anyone could ever participate in. We have an extensive fitness class schedule, with Zumba, Power Remix, Kickboxing, Pilates, Yoga, Cycling,... the list is endless. Furthermore, there are so many clubs to get involved in, so many charitable organizations to volunteer for, so many student-organized comedy shows and guest speakers and concerts to go to, that many would think it's overwhelming. I, however, can't imagine going to a school any smaller than this. In fact, it doesn't even seem that big anymore. Everyone seems to know each other somehow and walking 20 minutes to get to class does not seem far after two semesters here. I guess the point I'm trying to make is how much I love going to school here. 

Are you aware?

Have you been seeing these all over campus, too? The first one I noticed was in Pollock, then near McElwain and then all along Shortlidge and Pollock Road. Despite the fact that it was a Monday morning and I was therefore very tired, my exhausted brain still pondered what their meaning could be. I came up with the fact that it's probably a suicide awareness action, because I have been reading about them on "Stall Stories" and all over campus. Centre County is having a walk for it, called the "Out Of Darkness" walk and there have been a large amount of Facebook events for it.

Maybe it just seems that way to me because a boy from my high school recently committed suicide, but there appears to be a lot of recent focus on suicide and depression.

I tried thinking about what I am aware of. But how do you even ask yourself that? Do you just list problems in the world you are aware of? You could drive yourself crazy with that. Furthermore, if you're not aware of something, then you wouldn't even know you're not aware of it, because you have no idea it exists. Here at Penn State, we are especially aware of pediatric cancer. We raise money for it, but in doing so we also raise awareness. We are aware of major crises like the one in Japan and there are efforts to creating relief funds to be seen everywhere. I'm sure it was a similar situation with Haiti and Hurricane Katrina when it hit. We are aware that people are treated unjustly because of their race and the university does its best to minimize conflict, and successfully so. As a whole therefore, Penn State is a pretty 'aware' university. But what about me personally? I watch the news daily and occasionally pick up a copy of the New York Times, but that does not make me aware of everything that's going on in the world. And is simply knowing about a problem what constitutes awareness? Because if so, raising awareness is easy. But it also wouldn't help anyone. For example, I know about the impact the tsunami had on Japan. But have I donated any money? No, I haven't. So am I aware? I understand that autism exists, but I have not worked with any autistic kids. Does that mean I am aware of autism?

Do you consider yourself aware?

Squirrels :)

This week, I almost completed my goal of touching a squirrel. I was on my way to class and stopped to watch two squirrels chase each other around a tree. When they slowed down and were just chilling next to the tree, I crouched down and pretended to have food in my hand. The one squirrel slowly zigzagged towards me, thinking I was about to feed it. It was only a few inches away from me, when a girl walked past me and the squirrel got scared and ran back up the tree. You cannot imagine my disappointment. I have dreamed of petting / domesticating a squirrel (or a rabbit) the entire time I've been here. I have chased an unbelievable amount of rabbits around Pollock, have teamed up with three of my friends and tried to corner one, but it never works out. This time, I actually got so close to one of my dreams, but of course it failed yet again.

I have recently developed an obsession for collegeacb.com, although it is not as strong of an obsession as the one I have for squirrels. I recently found a post discussing Penn State wildlife. In case you don't spend any time on this website, pretty much every other post is about fraternity and sorority rankings, which are organized into tiers. This one, however, focused on the tiers of Penn State wildlife. I don't remember the specifics of it, but what I do remember is that both squirrels and rabbits made it in the top 2 tiers, which of course made me very happy. Chipmunks (they're back, by the way!!!!!) ranked lower than I would have thought, but I don't care about them as much anyway.

I hope this post doesn't seem ridiculous. My obsession is pretty legitimate and I think I even mentioned in one of my earlier blogs that I will most likely end up talking about squirrels at one point. Furthermore, some of the things I have found on campus are just as ridiculous as this post, so hopefully this is not too weird for you readers,

Duck in Pollock!

 Penn State's wildlife is crazy. In the beginning of the year, I was mesmerized by the millions of squirrels running up and down trees and eating out of trashcans. In fact, I witnessed a squirrel digging an acorn out of the ground today! I dearly missed the bunnies and chipmunks these last couple of months and I can't wait for them to come back, so that I can finally accomplish my goal of catching a rabbit and domesticating it.

But never in my life did I expect to see a duck strolling around in front of my building. I was on my way to get tea and thought that I must surely be dreaming and not quite awake yet. I stopped and stared at it for a bit, chuckling to myself that this must the weirdest animal to be in front of my building. After all, the duck pond is fifteen minutes away from where I live and the duck would have had to cross a major road to get here. But it somehow made it here safely.

It was really amusing to see it fly across the quad and seeing everyone's reaction. We all started laughing and looking at each other; confused as to why a duck would be here. That's what I love about odd events like this. You all momentarily bond over the fascinating thing you are witnessing and strangers, who might have nothing else in common, are suddenly talking to each other. Of course you don't bond enough to become friends and in many cases you will ignore the person you spoke to the next time you see them, but moments like this keep me giggling for quite a while. I suppose that's a big part of why I love random things - the reactions they elicit from me and others. For example, when I saw that squirrel digging up that acorn, there was no one around me. I still enjoyed seeing it and it made me chuckle, but I would have laughed a lot more had a random person been there to stop and stare at it with me and to laugh about it.

Ohhhh THAT'S what I'm supposed to with on a toilet?!

Do you find this disturbing? An insult to your intelligence? Unnecessary?
Apparently this is necessary. I don't know what kind of incidences the communications building has had but I guess something must have called for the mounting of this sign. The message is clear... sit on the toilet. I don't want to get too personal here (I don't want to know nor care what you with a toilet) but I would not sit on a public toilet either. It's not very sanitary if everyone sits down on it and leaves their germs there. And what's so wrong with hovering above the seat? At the risk of being gross (it's really hard not to be with this kind of topic.. sorry), I know it's disgusting when you find the seat sprinkled with pee but at least I am not getting whatever diseases other people have left there.
Also, do they really think we squat on top of the toilet bowl? This is honestly one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my life - not just around Penn State. (I'm literally laughing right now.)
I love what you find in toilets, whether it's hearts carved in the stall wall or obscenities written in sharpie. I have found some pretty hilarious things in stalls across the world and I wish I had always taken a picture of them. That would have been a fun blog: "Stalls Across the Globe". Since I am already on the topic of various toilets around the world, let me tell you about the world's worst toilet. I was on a road trip in China and we stopped for lunch in a small town.When I asked where the bathroom was, the waitress pointed outside. So I went out the door she had pointed to and landed right in front of a small hut on stilts. With a huge pile of human excrements under it. Needless to say, it was disgusting, but it definitely makes a good story.

THON 2011

This year was my first time experiencing THON. I have never been more overwhelmed in my entire life. There were so many touching moments but everyone doing the line dance left a huge impression on me. Even though Penn State has over 40,000 students, WE ARE... one large family. We come together for events such as football games and of course THON. Everyone put their heart and soul into this past weekend, and what we achieved is incredible. $9.5 million FTK. How many schools can say that about themselves?
I loved the feeling of togetherness that prevailed throughout the weekend. While doing the line dance, we were all physically doing the same thing, but we all did the same thing all weekend. We supported and entertained the four diamond families, we danced, we ruled and regulated (in my case), we OPPerated, we kept everyone's morale up and we financed. A lot.
I realize that THON does not fit my regular blog focus of "something I found on the side of the road" or "this random thing happened to me today". But THON was what left the greatest impression on me this past week and is therefore the focus of my blog. When asked what THON is (which happens to me a lot), I never know what to say. "A 46-hour dance marathon for pediatric cancer" does not seem to suffice in conveying its true meaning. So should I rather say "a huge crowd of Penn State students, laughing, crying and standing together"? That certainly describes it well. It is one of those things you have to be there for.
My favorite experience of the weekend was the one hour I had on the floor. I had previously been working at the family entrance and checking families in, including this girl who had down syndrome and cancer. I did not think she really noticed me, as she didn't speak to me but to my friend. However, when I walked on the floor, she was standing near the entrance and started running towards me upon seeing me. She clung to my leg until I squatted down to hug her. She flung her arms around me and didn't say anything. My entire committee was in awe, taking pictures and wondering why this random girl was hugging me. Eventually she left, still not having said a word. Those 30 seconds made me fall in love with THON.

Is This Love?

Oh, Valentine's Day. It brings equally as much joy as it brings pain. You never see as many roses in one day and you never hear "I'm going to eat chocolate until I burst" quite as much as on February 14th. Girls prance around with roses, cards, teddy bears and chocolate in their arms, arranging everything in their room when they get home. They vow to treasure everything; to dry the roses, to sleep with the teddy bear and to put the cards on their pin boards.
At least I thought that's how it was done - I've never had a legitimate valentine. I've received roses and cards from my friends before but that's about it. Regardless, I never imagined girls would carelessly drop their valentine's rose in a million years.
Whenever I find these things (be it the rose, the random wall paintings or other stuff) I always wonder about the story behind them - especially this one. Maybe the girl did not actually like the guy she got the rose from and she dropped it as soon as she got away from him. Maybe the couple got in a fight and the rose was thrown on the ground in anger. Or maybe the guy was rejected and discarded the rose out of resignation. In any case, this rose reminded me of the day after a party or a concert, when the ground is covered with everyone's trash. It's upsetting to think, however, that a rose could be anyone's trash. Even if you get a dozen roses, every single one matters - doesn't it? Someone sure did pay for every single one of them. But far more importantly, someone paid for these roses because they symbolize affection. Why should you discard that? While it is very well possible that someone simply lost this rose and my judgement is too harsh and granted, people lose things all the time (I know I do), that still signalizes carelessness. And whether this rose landed on the ground on purpose or by accident, it still ended up in the same place - on the ground.