And now, the things that keep Emily real real busy:

There are a LOT of things to do at Beloit. Here are the ones I am involved with:

Gold Key: This is the club that coordinates overnight, lunch, and evening visits for prospective students. I have a permanent tour spot on tuesdays at one (so look forward to that if you visit then!), but have not been able to host any students yet due to my slightly hectic schedule. Last semester, though, I was fourth overall in hosting prospies (the affectionate term for prospective students)... although, Shanna, another SOI, ran laps around the rest of us. She won a fridge. Touche.

Kappa Delta: I joined Kappa Delta last semester, and I live in the house this year. I never know what to say about being a sorority, because I never thought I would join one. I love the community and being part of something national is so cool. The opportunities for leadership and networking and philantrophy and sisterhood, etc., etc. are amazing. Being a part of something that promotes strong, intelligent women is a really positive thing to have in my life, and though some things have been a challenge, that's what I know is making it worthwhile. Also, I am having a ton of fun! If any KDs out there are reading this- AOT!

Theater for Social Action: This is a club one of my friends, Agnotti, started last year. All last year a group of us worked super, duper hard on figuring out how to get a forum theatre group, based off the work done by Augusto Boal, off the ground. We've done a few performances so far, the first called White People Talking About Race, and a reincarnation of that this year renamed Race in Your Face: A Reahearsal for Action. This semester we're working on a performance for November that is doubling as an assignment for one of our member's classes. I am really excited about this and always look forward to meetings. The people are amazing, and we do some really neat abstract theater-y things while exploring various issues in our society. The goal is to spark dialogue within communities about oppressive situations. It's pretty sweet.

This is a workshop that Augusto Boal ran on Theatre of the Oppressed(Agnotti went to one like this two summers ago). The guy in the back with the glasses and the nametag is Senor Boal himself.

Voodoo Barbie: This is the most recent addition to my repetoire of activites. It's an improv comedy group that's been around for a while. I saw them when I was a prospective student here, and now I'm a part of it! It's pretty crazy. At practice on monday we played a game that's basically an interview backwards, like a person give the answer to a question and then the interviewer has to say the question. Difficult, extrmely so, but pretty entertaining when it went well. This is something I look forward to digging into over the semester!

Oh, Google. I image search voodoo barbie, and this is what I get. Would you say that dog is looking at the camera suggestively?

In other news, I declared my major two days ago. Woohoo! I am now officially a history major. I know, try to contain your excitement. :)

Well, I believe that's all I have.
Cheerio!

Chicago, Land of Shiny Things!

Hello, all! Ok, so this weekend was super busy. I went down to Chicago to visit my friend Regina, who goes to Loyola, and to see my Dad who was there for a conference. After arriving on Friday, Regina, a couple of her friends, and I went to a sketch comedy show called Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind. They do 30 plays in 60 minutes, and the audience chooses the order of the shows. About half of them were funny, while the other half were a little weird and very political. I had a good time, though, it was definitely an experience! Then on Saturday I met my Dad downtown and we had lunch in Millenium park by the giant shiny kidney bean (see above). Afterwards we went to an art gallery in the northern part of downtown that specializes in poster art from Europe. For instance, there was an origianl of this poster on display:

After we traveled by foot to the Newberry Library, a huge and widely respected research library. It was a big nerdy thing to do, and we had fun doing it. Not only did we learn the origin of Hot Crossed Buns, we also looked up a book written about my ancestors on my mom's side, the Lyford family. Steven Lyford came over in the 1600s, so that's pretty neat. Then we got some coffee underneath the Hancock building to kill some time before our dinner reservations at six. We ate at North Pond, this really swanky restaurant in the Lincoln Park area. The food was really, really delicious! I loved being able to spend some time with my Dad, especially since this weekend was family weekend at Beloit and wouldn't have been able to see any of my family otherwise.

Later that night I went to a party at Regina's boyfriend's house. There were a lot of people there I didn't know, but everyone was really nice and interesting. Most of them went to the University of Chicago, so it was a party in celebration of their first week of classes, which was this past week. That was really weird to me because I've been at Beloit since August 15, and tomorrow is October! I hear they get out in the middle of June, which makes since. I like getting out in early May, though. It certainly helps to beat the rush of college students looking for summer jobs!

I traveled back home this morning and had a Theater for Social Action meeting that I ran at four. I know I haven't talked about my club involvement yet, so look forward to that on Tuesday (unless something else exciting happens that I absolutely have to share)!

Have a chipper week!

-Emily