Don't you find this interesting?

So we finally had a our first weekend on campus, and there are stories to tell. Nothing too crazy. It all started Thursday, because classes were canceled on friday for Middlebury's winter carnival. The point was we got the day off to go and watch the ski races, which we replaced by not going, sleeping in and an afternoon on the town. There were many scheduled activities for CARNIVAL, all for which you had to buy tickets. Lots of friend forgot to buy tickets which made going from event to event as a crowd harder than it could have been. My schedule for the weekend follows: Orange Crush, a 80s cover band Thurs, The Wood Brothers Friday (STORY: the wood brothers are musical artists, named Oliver and Chris Wood. My friend Oliver Wood has a brother named Chris. Just like the musicians, Oliver is older than Chris. Plus, the concert was on Oliver's birthday. I told this story to the Wood brothers themselves, and they found it amusing, but not enough to give me a free CD, as I intended), the Middlebury Carnival Ball Saturday and the Ice Show Sunday. The Ball was a production. Colorful lights lit up Nelson gym, transforming the place I practice frisbee into a crazy-party-winter-techno party. Party Party. I exchanged 13 text messages while dancing, trying to get Margo Cramer to come dance with me, which she didn't do. I danced on stage, a first. The Wood Brothers, coincidence aside, put on a fantastic show. Bianca and I left the ice show after 3 mins, because of the opening act: a troop of 6 year olds in santa outfits and their mothers singing the Polar Express. Orange Crush was also a dance party. They gave out free plastic Rayband-like sunglasses in many colors, which detracted from my originality here at Middlebury; I am colored Raybands kid, but now, so if everyone else. On another note, it started to snow here again and hasn't really stopped since Friday. The ground is covered and my feet are suffering. BUT my sneakers aren't. In fact they are getting a nice polish and each time, upon return for outdoors, I notice cleaner sneakers.

I find myself waking up in the morning and wondering where I am. Maybe I am having dreams about home I don't remember. Today I started the process of becoming a lucid dreamer, by carrying around a piece of paper that asks me "Are you dreaming?" I say, No. But the point is, one of these days, I'll dream about the paper, notice I AM in fact dreaming and control my dreams. First plan of action: dreaming I can fly, dreaming I am a student at Hogwarts...which leads me to my last side note. NO ONE likes wizard people here and I am seriously deprived. "Hideous *&#$^%*!"

Song lyric I am currently hearing, and transcribing: "Like a fool I am willing to take that fall again and don't let me fall too fast. I wanna fall slowly, I want my fall to last, I want my fall to last." --The Wood Brothers.

Bianca speaks:

My words have been pilfered by Carson, mostly. I was hippy dancing to the wood brothers, and enjoyed their lyrics "gonna keep my skillet greasy." not to be unnecessarily vulgar, but the only way to describe the bass solos is orgasmic. they clowned a lot on middlebury students outside carving ice sculptures in the night. couldnt decide if i should go to DC or not next weekend. couldnt decide if i should get bangs or a nose piercing. i had my first sleepover, on the floor in a tshirt next to an open window and maybe got hypothermia.

bianca and carson are taking a really long time getting back from the gym. i was worried, but i just got through to bianca and they are a-ok.

you guys shouldn't worry either. i'm looking after your favorite bloggers.

love,
tess

p.s. the hillel welcoming committee just barged in our room to welcome me to hillel. they said it's cool that i'm only half jewish. also, they were slightly disappointed when i told them my roommates weren't here. they knew carson was my pseudo roommate.
bye

in the dining hall they serve something called "cold yogurt soup." this is a smoothie disguised as soup, with soup bowls next to it to trick you. also, they dont label any of the salad dressings for unknown reasons. i might have my parents send me my label maker, so i can at least just make fake names for dressings. i tried to join a hip hop dance troupe, but was rejected. then i tried to take a swing dancing class, but got too dizzy. recent discovery: the ginger ale flows freely in the dining hall at all hours of the day. also, we were informed our festive valentines day decorations are a fire hazard. we were given quite a scare on our FOO! trip, when our leaders girl friend came to surprise him for valentine's day by laying in the snow face down pretending to be dead. we came out to brush our teeth, saw her, freaked out, poked her (in mountaineer first aid fashion) and then after forever (30 seconds) she popped up and said HAPPY VALENTINES DAY! then she brought a creepy singing troll box and lots of candy!

Recent criticism of the blog make us self-conscious about ourselves, which is a problem, because MIDDLEBURY makes us self conscious about ourselves. I wrote in my journal the other day about how much attention people seem to pay to me. They are good at pinpointing certain attributes of mine, or identifying the reasons behind me actions. My classmates are so perceptive. This translates into the classroom, where I find people talk, talk, talk with interesting things to say. My classmates are confident too. I find myself tired a lot because I stay up late, by my own doing. I spent all of today outside of class hanging out, almost working but NOT doing it. I realize that college is all about space between classes and prioritizing things that need to be done. I am working on balancing. I joined a lot of different clubs at the activities fair the other day. I went to meditation club yesterday and the head yogi-dude-man talked about hole in ourselves that we attempt to fill from the outside in. Yet, we will find the best fillers for our gaping self emptiness within our selves, or something like that. We learned the prayer to shiva and then were invited to go smoke pot in his honor next monday. Maybe I'll do that, but then again maybe I'll won't because my homework is piling up on my like a unstoppable mound of doubling yeast. yeast, I say because it was the first thing that came to mind. I am trusting the process, the creative process, because I just switched into a class--yes the same as a bianca--dedicated to the study of creativity. wonderful. Today we walked around the room with our eyes closed and then had to find a partner. I found my partner and couldn't stop thinking about the Lord of the Rings and how we were like Frodo and Sam, scrambling to find the ring or something. Then we had to face each other and stare into each other's eyes. this was awkward. then we drew each other, and examined each other. Like Carlos Casteneda in the books "tales of don juan," we practiced different types of seeing--basic seeing, landscape visualizing, surreal seeing--all trippy shit. like it is. I now, late, late into the night have to complete my loads of work for tomorrow and the next day and the next day and the next day. Thanks for tuning in.

here is a list of things bianca wanted me to say while I was blogging/what tess and bianca did while I was bloging:
-bianca wanted me to mention her parrot, which hangs precariously over her desk, is attached to the wall by tape and is nameless.
-we went to the ben and jerry's ice cream factory and bought a tye-dye t-shirt; now our vermont dreams are complete.
-tess and bianca played a guessing game of "which brand is this shirt" with tess' clothes.
-tess unplugged everything then plugged it back it.

goodnight to everybody and their mother.

love,
carson and bianca

Quaker's oats

the creative process class im in is chugging along weirdly. we had to do something with a piece of paper, and i made a large, 3-dimensional piece of toast. then i gave it away to someone who is planning on getting a toaster oven. my friend wyatt and i applied to have a radio show called biancwyatt (pronounced beyond quiet). things to do: find a large stick so that i can build a makeshift closet under my bed, a small stick so i can build a perch for my fake parrot, and learn mandolin.

I got 12 hours of sleep last night and I feel spunky. I am relaxed except for the homework assignments looming over my head for monday. I am planning to switch out of studio art, but have to find another class. American Literature? On Wednesday, in studio art, I tried to complete my valentine to Yoko Ono, but my first idea looked to much like a penis and the second attempt came out looking like a regurgitated organ. Not good valentines gifts. The teacher also showed us two videos: one of a guy sexually soliciting the camera and the other a video interpretation of sending and receiving an email. Artistic. I have turned in my first official Middlebury writing assignment. I have two books to read by monday. Frisbee is fun. Team name: the Merry Pranksters. They are having a party tonight called AFAB (Anything for a Buck), which us febs are not invited to because we'll get scared. I am getting over the sickness that consumed me this past week. According to Bianca's spanish personal ad, I am a bad dancer. We're also on the same FOO! trip leaving tomorrow. We're staying in a cabin somewhere in the green mountains. I keep meeting Febs I didn't know existed; like a Quaker we met the other day, who Bianca didn't know was Quaker and said " My friend is in Pennsylvania. He is living in a Quaker community. What the fuck?" He responded "Oh, I'm Quaker."

Tess's mom sent her lots of chocolate, a valentines day gift well received by our sweet tooths.

open minds and firing neurons!

today i went to a really great fiction writing class that had 15 people in it and a 25 person waiting list (not including me). the teacher said we should go around the room and say our writing experience, and the kid next to me was all like, "well, in my first novel..."

carson were put in the same FOO! (outdoor ski trip), because the universe is always conspiring to put us together. i have found someone who brought an equal amount of neckwear to middlebury as me. today in creative process class, someone said "i dislike biting dry towels." its realllllyyyyy opening my mind man

i didnt realize i had spanish everyday, until i went the first day and he was all like, see you tomorrow and i was like, come again?

word glutton speaks:


Middlebury is beginning to scare me. My first year seminar teacher gave my class a writing assignment, 3 reading assignments (all lengthy) and three questions to answer for thurs. In between, I will scurry to finish my other work; french, social anthropology...studio art. OH, studio art. In our first class, my teacher showed us a performance art piece of a pigeon having its breakfast off his face. We are making valentines for friday for a list of people the teacher gave us. Yoko Ono will be the recipient of my valentine. For my so/anthro class, I attended a screening of the film "first contact," about the first contact of white men with Papa New Guineans. The group I watched it with has organized who will bring snacks to every screening, as it right before dinner. My roommate finally arrived, after five day of playing Ultimate frisbee in Las Vegas. I know now to call him Waldo, not Jon. I went with him to my first frisbee practice tonight; it is indoors. As we always do, Bianca and I have each other. 

schmollege

we just got back to our room at 12:45, and as we walked back realized that it was light out. like, dusk. like, i could see every detail in carsons beautiful face. today we got some advice from previous febs "say hi to everyone, even if you dont know them, because then everyone else will think you're popular." i learned to tap dance and salsa dance and im looking into buying tap shoes i can wear everywhere. 

we're sitting in our dorm, watching a video of girl crying about her lost jacket. we just played mario cart for about 15 minutes and the ate gold fish and talked about religion with some fellow febs. Tomorrow, classes start. What a crazy feeling. We ACTUALLY have to work and DO something tomorrow. All the febs are freaking out. I am sad to say goodbye to the feb orientation, and our 'feb' leaders. we're transitioning to actual college life, beyond our 91 person class and into our 58238434, as it seems, class of 'regs' or regulars. 

Update: NOW it is dark. A crazy transition from 4 minutes ago. 

We're in the midst of a INTENSE video chat with Tess's friends. our friend  count is growing nicely, it has reached about 4-7. our list of people we want to be friends with is a lot bigger (8). uhhh so far we have met

the best irish dancer in the country and 9th in the world

a relative of tom woolfe

someone who killed over 7,000 fish at yellowstone

lots of people i want to marry, because statistically that will probably happen

someone who lived in a styrofoam room for 3 months

a guy who might have lied about breaking his rib

a feb named seb

love,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,b&c

They don't say hella here, as we knew before, but it is REAL now. We've lost our familiarity, but we haven't lost each other. Let me explain: Bianca and I are put together whenever possible. We are in the same dorm, same commons, same FOO (February Outdoor Orientation) group, same orientation group, and today we drew the same RANDOM group name for Olympian Olympic Olympus Trivia night. We're in cahoots like we said. 

Things we have problems with: 

-understanding jokes about New Hampshire. 

-the cold and how bitter and piercing it is. 

-having the entire football team living below us. 

Things we like: 

-Tess, Bianca's roommate. 

-The How Down we danced in last night. 

-the class 2012.5. 

Bianca's turn: 

Carson is a word glutton, full of gumption, and I prefer to be concise. But I will say that my advisor/learning about learning teacher (now professor?) told me in the first ten minutes of class I should be a reporter, and he's jovial and looks like Santa. We calculated that 10% of the feb class is from Washington State! So far I have met: someone who has jogged a lap around the track with Bill Clinton, and someone who got a ride home with Tom Woolfe last week. 

"Time flies like an arrow. Poop flies like a banana."

Bianca and Carson made it.

"You have won a trip to Carson Dietz Hartmann in the beautiful country of Bianca Giaever." 

We've putzed around and now we're here. Yippy. 

BUT we DON'T believe it. 

...c and b.