Capture the Brandt Flag!

As I said last week, Ylvi challenged Brandt Hall to a game of Capture the Flag. The two hall council presidents (Justin Marschall and I) got together during the week to set the rules for the game and get things ready. We decided that we would use the whole campus as our battle ground, but encourage play uphill between Brandt and Ylvi. We also revealed to each other on a map, the location of our jails and flags. Separated by the pathway between the Olin building and the Library, both teams met for battle at 2pm on Saturday.

The Ylvi players walked to the pathway, shocked by the number of Brandt players. We were outnumbered by more than 2 to 1. While we were just 12, they were about 38! But, remembering that Ylvi was home to the most athletic of first-year students, we took courage and believed that we could make it. After all, the Persians overwhelmingly outnumbered the Spartans in the battle of Thermopylae, but we all know what happened...

As the game started, Brandt players started flooding our half. They brought the game to our half and at first it seemed like we would be unable to suppress the opposition before our flag was captured. But before long, we started decimating their team, rapidly imprisoning the Brandt players. Very soon, we had close to 20 Brandt players in our prison and not even one of our players in theirs. Then, it happened...

One of the Brandt players seized our flag. He was chased out of sight and we all assumed that he got tagged and things were safe again. So, we continued with game as usual. So far, we were doing pretty well. We now had about 28 Brant players in our prison, still with none of our players in their prison. At this point, we figured we probably had more players than Brandt had, so we were planning on rounding everyone up to go and storm the Brandt area and capture their flag, considering there were too few Brandt players to stop us. Just as we were getting our acts together, the Brandt Hall President walked toward us, holding our flag. This was indeed devastating.

Apparently, what had happened was the guy who seized our flag earlier circumvented the field of play, leaving the Luther campus and going downtown. After close to 20 minutes, he finally appeared at the Brandt side of the field with the flag. This was how Brandt beat us - by cheating! We had agreed that we couldn't take the flag outside the field of play. But like I said earlier, the game was similar to the Sparta-Persia battle. We ended up decimating the Brandt team, even though they finally won the battle.

That's basically what my weekend has been all about - trying to capture the Brandt flag. And even though I failed at it, I am happy we organized one more successful program. It was a really fun game [actually my first time playing Capture the Flag]. So, as the 2008/2009 Ylvisaker Hall Council met for the last time a couple hours ago, it was with a deep sense of fulfillment that we ended. We have organized numerous programs for our hall and even freshmen at large during the course of our freshman year. We have led, built connections, and supported honorable causes. In my opinion, that in and of itself completes the freshman experience....well, apart from the finals next week.

[I apologize for sounding so cheesy]

Have a happy week...

3 Slow Weeks...

With less than three weeks left in the semester, there are final projects and 'adventures' coming up. I currently have a final Paideia paper, Math project, and Religion papers all due within the next couple of weeks. I've decided to start working hard on those assignments now so as to make things a little easier down the road. 

Concerning the Paideia paper, we're to formulate a thesis and write an argumentative paper on at least two of the books we have read so far. The first draft of the paper was supposed to be due in class tomorrow, but my Paideia professor decided that we could just bring an outline of our arguments to class and turn in the draft on Wednesday [that helps a bit]. Nonetheless, the bad part about this paper is, for my section, it is open-ended; we weren't given any specific topic to write on. I literally spent half of my day trying to decide what to write on. But finally, I have the outline done. And that's all that matters...

Last week, we (Ylvi Hall Council) challenged Brandt Hall Council to a game of capture the flag. In order to create some tension, we sent them a really provocative letter [they still feel a little mad about it, but that's okay...] Apparently, it worked; they accepted our challenge and quickly sent delegates to discuss the game with us. What's most exciting is that we are going to be using the whole campus to play this Saturday in the afternoon [we hope the weather behaves]. It seems like it's going to turn out really well if we publicize well enough; each hall council is responsible for spreading the word to its residents.

Ylvi Hall council is also organizing a stress relief titled "CocoLoco" to celebrate the World Chocolate Day [we're really just using this as a stress relief for the hall on reading day before the finals]. We'll have chocolate fountains, make cookies, etc. It's exciting things like this that keep one going for these long, final weeks of the semester...

Take Care!

Free Schedule = Low productivity

As much as I hate being stressed out with school work, I have come to realize that having a completely empty schedule is not the best atmosphere for that paper or project that you want to work on. This seems counter intuitive, I know. But it actually took me months to realize this... 

This weekend has been one of the freest weekends for me. All I had was an RA Spring Retreat, pretty simple Calculus problems, and a book to read for Paideia - Copenhagen. Considering how "free" my weekend was, I decided to do some extra studying on Physics to start preparing for the finals. But in spite of my incredibly light work load [compared to my work load in the past few weeks], I actually just fininshed my Calculus and Paideia assignments this Sunday night. I haven't even opened my Physics text book at all...

This has been a common pattern with days like Tuesdays and Thusdays, where I just have one or two classes. Because I have a "free" day, I initially think I'll be able to make a masterpiece of a paper or lab report that I have, but shockingly I find myself highly unproductive due to numerous distractions. At best, I just manage to start the paper or go halfway when I have actually had the whole day to work on it! So, from my experience so far, to work well on an individual project, I need other competing projects, some stress, deadlines, etc. That's why, when registring for classes, I decided to make my days equally full, so as to keep myself productive. 

Next semester looks like it's going to be interesting. I'll be taking Modern Physics [I'm actually pretty excited to learn about relativity], Linear Algebra, Honors 210: Ancient World [It's a class in Luther's Honors Core; pretty cool, too], and Intro to the Hebrew Bible. It also seems like I'll have a manageable workload.

Yesterday, RA's had a Spring Retreat. We played many interesting games, did some planning for the next semester, and finally got our room assignments. We also found out our co-RA's with whom we will be working. It turns out that not only am I remaining in my current hall next semester, but I am also staying on my current floor....

Have a good week!

Getting Pied in the face...

This weekend was a particularly interesting one for me. Yesterday, the Ylvi Hall Council Relay for Life team, Airforce Fun, organized a fundraiser titled "Pie your RA." Residents would pay a dollar to pie their RA's in the face and the money would go for cancer research. We initially planned to hold it outside Ylvi from 6 -8pm but because it was raining, we had to do it indoors.

So, with our disposable plates, whipped cream [instead of actual pie], and protective polythene bags ready, our RA's were all set to get pied. You'll be surprised how willing residents were to pay to pie their RA's. Some even paid over and over again to take multiple shots and work the whipped cream all over the faces and hair of the RA's! As the pieing was going on, I went around knocking from door to door, informing residents of this golden opportunity that they had.

But you're probably wondering: How did I end up covered in whipped cream as the picture above suggests? Well...I never imagined that it would come to that. Around 7:30pm, when all of the RA's present were covered in whipped cream, one of the Hall Council members, for some reason, said, "You know...I would actually pay two dollars to get Luwa pied." Then, others around thought it was a good idea and also wanted to pie Sally, the Secretary. Although it came unexpected and I was completely unprepared for it, I gave in to the persuasion. It was not until I agreed to do it that I knew that Sally and I were each going to get pied by 3 people at the same time! There was no escaping. Soon, my face and hair were completely covered in whipped cream...

So, that was what lightened my mood this weekend. I was glad that apart from the fact that the event was so much fun and many people participated, we were able to raise some money for cancer research. This was, perhaps, what underplayed the great anxiety that usually surrounds weekends like this when I have a Physics exam the following Monday. That is the good thing about college. Even though you find yourself in a sea of homework and upcoming tests, there will always [or most times] be something to lighten you up, as long as you look hard enough...

Have a swell week!

Back from Easter Break

Happy Easter in arrears! 

I went into the Easter break with a long list of things to do, including plenty of homework and projects. For some reason [probably laziness], I haven't been able to get myself to do even half of those things. Right now, I'm just trying to calm down and not freak out because by tomorrow, some assignments are already due. 

So, having said that, how did the Easter break go? First of all, I didn't really look at it as a "break"per se because it was basically a weekend with Friday and Monday off. Nonetheless, it displayed every characteristic of breaks. Luther was very empty as usual and the Cafeteria was closed on Saturday and Sunday. But this time, we students staying on campus did not have to leave our rooms, and the Cafeteria gave us vouchers to purchase food in restaurants close by [that was really nice...] Maybe it was this break 'feel' that kept me from doing very much...

However, it seems like I am not the only one in my situation. I just got back from the library and, contrary to what you might expect, it is full of people working really hard on homework. I had to leave the place because it was looking too tense. 

There's good news, though. We have just 36 days of classes to go! How do I know? Over the break, our hall director hung a countdown on every door in the hall. I will faithfully follow it, marking out every day until it is finals week, and then summer holiday. I'm really looking forward to that because I get to go home to Nigeria!

Oops...thought it would snow...

Last night, it was predicted that we would get about 6 inches of snow here in Decorah, so Ylvi residents requested that they have a snowball fight with Brandt Residence hall. We sent out facebook invitations to Ylvi and Brandt residents to have as many people show up for the snowball fight at 3pm. When I woke up this morning, it was actually lightly snowing, consistent so far with the weather predictions. But gradually, the snow started changing to rain and before 11am, even the little snow on the ground had disappeared. Disappointingly, the weather predictions we got turned out to be wrong. We probably can't have any snow fights until next year...

As part of our job training next semester, the newly hired Resident Assistants are supposed to take staff classes on Thursdays. The purpose would be to give the required preparation and leadership training for the job. Last Thursday, I had my first RA staff class. I really enjoyed it. We had workshops on what to expect on the job, the responsibilities, and minimum requirements RA's have to meet in the course of their job. Although it was very informative, the class was handled such that it would also be interesting.

To fulfil Luther's general education requirements, students have to take a Fitness and Wellness class. The class is for half a semester and I'm currently taking mine for the second half of this semester. Apart from the fact with this class, I now have 8am classes every day of the week [which really sucks], there are good signs that the class will be fun. On Thursday, we had this cool lab where we determined our VO2 max [kind of like how much your body uses up the oxygen you take in]. We also found out how flexible our shoulders and backs are and did some running. I got back to my room a little sweaty, but doing all that exercise felt really good. I'm actually looking forward to my class on Tuesday; we're also going to have another lab.

Although we just got back from Spring break, on Friday, we'll also go on Easter break. Not that I'm complaining [I mean...I would want as many breaks as possible, of course], but I would just have wished the break came when I was just a little more stressed out, close to how I was before Spring break. That way, I would really appreciate the break. Nonetheless, I'm still looking forward to the break [the CAF will be open and we (those staying on campus) don't have to move to other dorms].

The International Student's Break

Spring break just ended and I just moved my things back from Miller to Ylvi Residence Hall. Like during the Christmas break, most of the Residence Halls at Luther were closed and people who intended to stay on campus (mostly international students) were required to move their things to the Towers (Miller and Dieseth), Baker Village, or College Apartments, to stay during the break. This is usually the case during long breaks when some maintenance work is to be done around campus.

This provides an opportunity for the international students and the few people staying on the almost empty Luther campus to come together, thus making the break seem less lonely. Also, considering the fact that the cafeteria is closed, people are able to cook together and it makes things more manageable. However, it could get slightly inconvenient. Searching for a room and moving your things from hall to hall could be slightly tedious [everyone eventually finds a room, though]. Nonetheless, after my first break, I kind of got used to how things worked and got a feel of what I needed to do.

Contrary to what people might think, it's possible to have lots of fun remaining on campus during the break; I actually did some really fun things this break. On Tuesday, my host parents and I went to see the Mississippi river. We ate lunch at a Restaurant just at the bank of the river. After that, we went eagle-watching. Tuesday was actually the closest I've ever gotten to an eagle. They're really amazing. We also saw other birds like cranes and pelicans. Then we had some ice cream and I returned to Luther.

Also, the break is a good opportunity to get together with your professors. Yesterday, my Paideia professor invited Kyo Suk [in my Paideia class] and me to have dinner at his house. He came to pick us up around 6:00pm and showed us round his house. It was really cool. We met his wife and talked about so many interesting things; time flew by so fast. The food was also really good.

Overall, I would say I had a good break. I had time to hang out with my friends and do things I would not have had time to do when school was in session. As a nice conclusion to the break, my friends and I went over to have breakfast in a Chinese restaurant. Really good food.

Now that the break is over, I have to start doing the new Paideia reading and getting my room back in order...

Take Care!