Sunshine, Snow, Science & Socrates

Winter is upon us...

2009-10-15T12:34:00.000-07:00

Somehow summer dissapeared when I wasn't looking. Mittens and scarves are being pulled from their boxes, and people are no longer lounging on the grass after class. After last weekend's thanksgiving things have suddenly started to become festive, and punpkin pie is now a permanent fixture in the cafeteria. The snow line is hovering on the mountains just above us, and driving all the skiiers into a frenzy. I expect that soon thier prayers will be answered and campus will be transformed into the winter wonderland everyone is hoping for.

Meanwhile I am enjoying the falling leaves and the mud puddles. Chemistry is slowly intensifying and our last exam was fairly brutal. One more test, one more assignment, and one more presentation to go. 3 more days of class. I think that our teacher Penny will be just as relieved as we all will to be done. This is her first block teaching and she was shocked at how intense it became. Lots of learning in little time.

The autumn leaves outside are brilliant, coloring the sidewalks red and orange. hooray for changing seasons!

Thanksgiving? In October?!

2009-10-06T12:36:00.000-07:00

Who ever heard of thanksgiving in October? November definitly deserves to have a holiday. I mean, October already has Haloween. Does any month really need two holidays?

In any case, people think that Thanksgiving is in October here in Canada, and I suppose that if it means I get to celebrate the holiday twice than I really shouldn't complain. This fake thanksgiving is this weekend, and we have Monday off. I am excited to be going to Kamloops with my friend Michaela to eat dinner with her family, I miss cooking dinners with my mom, and hopefully this will be a good substitute. I have also never been anywhere in BC other than Vancouver, Tofino, and Squamish, so traveling will be good for me.

Class is going well, I passed our first test. No complaints. More later on that....

Fall?

2009-09-29T14:58:00.000-07:00

A new block, a new class, and FINALLY some rain. I was starting to miss wearing my rubber boots and I was happy last night when it began to pour. So much sunshine is unnatural.

Block break was beautiful and relaxing, an included lots of laying on balconies listening to ridiculous pop music from the late 90's. On friday the school ran a shuttle to Vancouver, so we had a girls day out in the city-- complete with shopping, magic shows, long drawn out chai lattes, and a disposable camera. Unfortunatly I got car sick on the ride back and spent the rest of the day in bed, but it was a fantastic day regardless.

The Adventure Club hiked up to Elfin Lakes in Garbaldi Provincial Park over the weekend (its right above campus), and I joined on Saturday for the last night of camping. Me and my lovely roomie Rosalind hiked up late in the afternoon and reached the top just in time to watch the sun set over squamish. The rest of the night was good, but was made slightly less enjoyable because I had forgotten that the change in altitude would cause the temperature to drop considerably. The sweltering heat of Squamish was replaced by frost, and I was left in shorts and a tee shirt.
The blueberries were unbelievable-- more blueberries than I have ever seen in my life. The whole mountain was DRIPPING with beautiful blue blueberries. Needless to say blueberry pie was abundant in residence on Sunday night.

Yesterday I began Energy & Matter, and my brain is now creaking slowly back into chemistry mode-- a place it has not been since sophomore year of high school. Atomical structure... ahhh.
The new Chem teacher is precious, and has the most endearing New Zealand accent.

On the other side of my life, floor repping is going pretty well. I have been trying to find a balance between coddling and neglecting my people on floor 2. They all seem to be adjusting well, and we have a mexican fiesta planned for this weekend.

adios...

Back to the Books..

2009-09-14T12:53:00.000-07:00

So I'm back here at the reception desk, exactly where I was five months ago when I last updated this blog. Looking at the same computer screen, the same post-it notes, sitting in the same chair, it almost seems like I never left... almost. The one-hundred new faces that have been meandering past the desk here are a sure sign that a new school year has begun.

We have just started week three of the first block, and everyone is starting to settle back into a rhythm of school and play. There was an enormous boom of excitement and energy and parties and hugs and screams that began on move in day and lasted through the first few weeks, but that is tapering off. Well, the screams and hugs and parties are (maybe?) but hopefully the wonderful energy lasts through the whole year. New clubs are being formed, old clubs are being expanded and returning students are getting used to sharing their space.

My first class--neuroscience-- scared the daylights out of me all summer. I was terrified to get back to school and get totally slammed with the hardest class ever. I was pleasantly surprised however. It is definitely hard, but its also AWESOME. The brain is sooo crazy. Everyone in my class is so into it we are like a little neuroscience cult that is always turning every situation into something to do with neuroscience. It helps that the new psych teacher Megan is teaching it and she is one of the most excited, personable, charismatic, stylishly spiky-haired teachers ever. Everyone in my class has a secret crush on her... I guess now that I put it on the Internet it wont be so secret...oops.

In any case, things are going well. The sun has been shining (usually) and campus is alive again. It feels good to be back.

Crazy Days

2009-04-17T14:12:00.000-07:00

The crazy days of the last two weeks have begun. Registration, housing applications, final projects, travel arrangements, and the end of year Music Festival are all beginning to take shape... Everyone is stressed and excited and the general mood on campus is very happy.

Whenever I have writer's block I like to revert to lists.

Things I am excited about RIGHT NOW:

1) Being a floor rep next year. The residence council team is going to be sweet, and I can't wait to get to know the new students and begin a new year.

2) The Dancing Bear Music Festival! A bunch of people have worked really hard to get so many great bands up on campus.... The Paperboys, the Fugitives... and I am hoping to run a tye-dye table. I think tye-dye is my calling.

3)Planning my Olympic Break next year ( we can't stay on campus during the Olympics, so its a great excuse to travel). I think I am going to look at living in some eco-village in the southwestern states, I need a cheap, warm, fun, winter excursion.

4) Springtime in Squamish.... is gorgeous.

5) Getting back home to Juneau and getting my cavities filled. I can feel them in my teeth and its terrible.

6) My final project in History of Math. I am reading the Edwin Abbott novella "Flatland" and trying to make a skit or a puppet show that would be rel event to show to my class. I'm a little stuck at the moment, but I've still got time.

MATH!

2009-04-14T13:49:00.000-07:00

I arrived back at school from Tofino last Sunday dirty, tired, happy, and very very smelly. The trip went great and we all got sunburned, which was unexpected because its only ever been rainy when we have been in Tofino before. The meal plan I created was a success- we ate a lot of beans. Beans for breakfast, chili for lunch, burritos for dinner. Needless to say the tents and the cars were very smelly for pretty much the entire trip-- all that gas has to come out sometime.

We all made it back happily in one piece, and fell into bed (after a shower) to rest up for the first day of our last block. For me it was History of Math, with the legendary Glen Van Brummelen. I have been in class for a week now, and can honestly say it has blown me off me feet. I have never been more excited about math. We have been doing Egyptian arithmetic, Babylonian geometry, and learning about the hometown of Pythagoras in Samos, Greece. There have been so many Ah Ha! moments for me so far in this block, I feel like I am getting smarter everyday.

I have also fallen completely in love with Glen Van Brummelen, and would love to listen to his lectures forever. He is the cutest grown-up nerd ever. I feel like my life would be complete if I was as passionate about anything as he is about math. He LOVES math. It melts my heart. On our first day of class we had " math therapy" where we all talked about our relationship with math, and all the math traumas that we had gone through in the past years. Glen was very sympathetic and nodded and smiled and I think everyone felt a little happier about math after that.

Today we are on a field trip to Simon Fraser University in Vancouver. We are here to check books out of the library for our final projects, but I have found that my attention span for that lasted only just till lunch time, and since then I have been looking around the campus. Simon Fraser is HUGE, its like its own city. It has movie stores and hairdresser, Greek food and bubble tea. I am finding it quite unnerving to be honest, there are so many people, like 10,000! It gives me a whole new appreciation for the familiarity of Quest. I like knowing everyone I bump into, and the fact that everyone talks to each other and eats dinner together. It's so cliche, but we are such a big family at Quest. Perhaps I should stop... I'm getting sentimental.

Adventure once again...

2009-04-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Adventure Club Lives! And as we have all been scrambling to finish our final homework assignments, the last surf trip of the year has also been slowly coming together. The weather looks good in Tofino this weekend, and the waves are calling to all our resident adventure junkies. I have been preparing the meal plan, writing up grocery lists, and budgeting our limited funds all afternoon. Grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup on the beach? sounds pretty nice to me.

Sometimes I wish I was a little more cold tolerant, and could actually enjoy bobbing around in the freezing cold waters of Vancouver Island. But I have tried, and failed, to be a passionate surfer. I am instead a passionate chef. I'm okay with that. After all, everyone has to eat.

In addition to planning the Adventure Club trip, I have been mulling over, at great length, my housing plans for next year. Should I run for floor rep? Should I apply to move into the new condos across campus? I would really like to start a dinner co-op next year, and have been talking about it with a few other students. It would save everyone money, and allow us to cook together as a group. On the meal plan, though the cafeteria is really good, I waste a huge amount of money cooking for myself, while still having to spend my whole budget at the Caf.

I have been dreaming of summer....

Things to look forward to:

1. Gardening. My own big huge vegetable garden with carrots and broccoli...and much more.

2. Solitude. I am living in the middle of nowhere. No city, no car, no Internet, no cell phone service... It will be my own Walden.

3.Home. I miss Alaska.

4. Bonfires on the beach catching fish, skipping rocks, and playing in tide pools.

Homesick? Naw.

The Last Long Haul....

2009-03-27T12:59:00.000-07:00

Three more days of Global Perspectives... I am determined to stick to it till the end. I stayed in the Library Building till 2 AM on Wednesday, doing a country report on Jamaica and was very grumpy yesterday morning. It was hard to stay grumpy for too long however, as we all got a day off classes for Community Day. We ran around blindfolded playing games on the field, and talked with the faculty about classes, food, financial aid, residence policies and co-curriculars. The process of creating Quest is still just beginning, and it is on days like yesterday that we really all realize that. Everyones' opinion counts.
After a nap, baking some cookies, and doing the dishes, my grumpies had fully disappeared. Just recently I got my violin sent down from Juneau, and I have been fiddling away as much as I can between homework, so I went over to the Arts Bay to check out Open Mic night. It was a huge success, and at least half the school was sprawled out on the dozens of couches scattered around the huge room. It went on for hours, and people painted and drew and danced and sang along till at least midnight. It was pretty awesome, and at the end of the night I was very happy that I was part of such a sweet student body.

a little gloomy

2009-03-24T14:21:00.000-07:00

I normally love the rain, but today it just isn't doin' it for me. The sloppy weather outside is making me feel dreary and unmotivated. I should go swimming. Swimming at the pool is free in Squamish, if you are a Quest student. It's one of my favorite perks...

On an academic note, I just finished a book report on " Three Cups of Tea" by David Relin and Greg Mortensen. It was a sweet book, an inspirational biography of a man who dedicated his life to helping children in rural Pakistan.. It was an optional read for my Global Perspectives class, and now one of my favorites. I know its a fairly popular book club read these days, but for anyone who has yet to discover it, I would highly recommend it.

Summer is calling to me, and I have been having an increasingly hard time concentrating on work these days. The blocks fly by, but the end of April seems like a long way off still. Ahhhh I can't even look at this computer screen anymore...perhaps later.

Spring?

2009-03-10T12:53:00.000-07:00

People are returning to campus, and things are starting to liven up around here for the first time in weeks. Spring break in the dorms was...slow, to put it nicely. But thank goodness I had my trusty list of things to accomplish.

I put my To-Do list up on my wall on a big sheet of paper with red permanent marker, and spend a lot of time looking at it while I ate my granola in the mornings. I am sad to report some failures, and proud to report some successful ventures during my ten day hiatus from the real world. I did not tye-dye an outfit, nor did I make cheese. My closet remains unspeakably filthy, and I somehow managed to spend the measly amount of money I had still lingering in my bank account.

On the brighter side:

I learned to navigate the Whistler public transit system, and used it to make my way to the only thrift store in Whistler. It was quite good, and I found an awesome flannel plaid shirt and some long underwear.

I baked a lot --not cookies as planned-- but tons of bread. Bread rolls, pizza dough, whole wheat, sourdough, cornbread.... I used up a whole jar of yeast and filled many hungry ski bum's bellies. I think it may be my calling.

I found a coffee shop with free Internet in Whistler and wrote a satisfactory letter to my dear father back in Alaska. The baristas were grumpy and the coffee was bad but It feels good to keep in touch.

I got a job! I am going to be doing odd jobs around the Gustavus Inn, a bed and breakfast in the town where I grew up. It took a little pushing and prodding to achieve, but I am very happy to be able to cross that one off my list.

Probably most importantly of all... I became addicted to watching the TV show House, and have started watching it religiously on my laptop. I also am part way through a Matrix marathon... life is good.

Liberation

2009-02-25T10:17:00.000-08:00

And I am free.

I finished my final essay for Fate and Virtue last night, and it felt SO GOOD to have it done. I think at 1800 words it was the longest essay I've ever written, and also one of my best. We were examining some aspect of our life from an Aristotelian perspective, and though it was challenging, writing about your own life always makes things flow a little smoother.

I am now experiencing the usual post-block shock, and have been wandering aimlessly and surfing the Internet for almost half a day. I need to get myself together. I need to make a list.

TO DO OVER BLOCK BREAK:

Damage control in my closest. It would appear that it has been the sight of the most recent nuclear bomb explosion
Cookies. Make them. Lots of them.
Double check to make sure I have a summer job, and secure it.
Do a pull up.
Learn how to make cheese
Tye dye an outfit
Have at least one adventure that involves buses
Write a letter to my father
Spend no money... oh wait, that should be easy. I have no money to spend.
make sure everyday is a FUN DAY

I love...

2009-02-16T10:06:00.000-08:00

I think Valentines day is a beautiful holiday, no matter your romantic standing. Because when you take away the chocolates and plastic hearts, its all just about love. What better reason for a holiday in the middle of winter? Everyone loves someone, and in my opinion if we really think about it we probably love a lot more people then we think. For instance, I love my family, and I love my friends, but I also love the barista that makes my coffee. And I love the postman. And I love the woman who makes the delicious white chocolate chip cookies for the cafeteria. I love the hitch-hikers I see trying to get up to Whistler. I still love my pre-school teacher, and my high school lit teacher. I love a lot of things.

I bought 30 carnations on Saturday, and gave them to strangers downtown. I definitely got some weird looks, but it made me feel good, and I even got a hug from one sad lady. I think I'll celebrate Valentines Day every month from now on.

Tuesday

2009-02-10T10:17:00.000-08:00

Tuesdays are usually my least favorite day of the week. Perhaps today will be an exception.

Things I can do to save my Tuesday:

Eat cookies for breakfast
Lift weights at the gym so that I will be closer to one of my life dreams of being able to do a pull up.
Discuss Plato's 5 dialogues over lunch, so I know for sure what I'm talking about in class. I hate feeling like halfway through my point, I'm really making no sense.
I will drink an excess of coffee today. There is nothing wrong with that.
Bake a cake for no-one's birthday, and frost it with many colors and many sprinkles. This will be a cake purely to celebrate Tuesday.
Take a long walk up the mountain.
Watch some Gossip Girl (don't judge) on my laptop.
Go to bed early

If I accomplish all these things, it will be a good day. Wish me luck.

Sourdough Pancakes

2009-02-09T10:09:00.000-08:00

There is no better way to start a sunshiney day than with a big batch of sourdough pancakes....topped with maple syrup bananas and whipped cream.

Snowshoeing and Conquering the Iliad

2009-02-04T10:35:00.000-08:00

You would think having grown up in the prime snowshoeing territory of Alaska, I would be a natural. Sadly this is not the case, and after flopping 12 K up a mountain this past weekend, I am very aware of my lack of innate skill. However, I am also very proud, and now that I know what I am capable of, I plan to conquer more mountains in my awkward boat-like shoe contraptions.

The mountains around the Quest campus are gorgeous to look at, but also very accessible. People come from all over the world to ski and adventure in our backyard. Sometimes when I hear the brochures bragging about how "At Quest you can go to class in the morning and ski powder in the afternoon!" it seems like just a catchy line to snag all the intellectual ski bums, but its cool to know its the truth. You see kids jumping into cars all the time after class, zipping off up the logging roads to shred the afternoon away. Cool.

On another note, my next class has begun, and I am now spending 3 hours a day delving into the land of the ancient Greeks to discover the true meaning of fate and virtue. Have you ever really thought about what virtue is? It's harder to define than you would think. Apparently, in reading all 670 pages of the Iliad I shall be enlightened. We will see.

Yee Haw

2009-01-28T12:37:00.000-08:00

Block break has snuck up on me once again and even though its been a whole hour since class come to an end nothing seems to have sunk in. Four days of no commitments and no essays or readings, and I am, not surprisingly, at a loss for what to do. My roommate is hitchhiking and couch surfing around the Sunshine Coast for a few days, and I am definitly a little jealous. Adventure sounds intriguing, but for some reason my motivation is lacking. I am a little excited to stay warm and dry and sort myself out for a few days... write some letters, bake some bread, mend my socks..... the little things.

Campfire

2009-01-26T08:39:00.000-08:00

I smell like campfire. My hair, my skin, and my clothes, are all still emitting an overwhelming aroma, even though I've been back from Tofino for almost a day. I like it though, it reminds me of adventure and of the campfires i grew up with.

The surf trip was great, even though I skipped the surfing part of it, and opted to cook grilled cheese sandwiches and pita pizzas on the beach. It's nice being out there, getting dirty, laughing a lot and just taking a little time to forget microwaves and cell phones. However, for someone who has lived for 18 years in Alaska, my cold tolerance in surprisingly low, and the one thing I would have wished for was some warmer weather. The snow on the beach was a surefire sign I was not going to be getting in the water, and it was hard not to be a little smug as I watched the other surfers shivering in their wetsuits around the campfire.

Vancouver Island is magical, I would love to spend the summer there some day. It feels like home, a really honest, grounded place to live... but then again, I could say the same about Squamish....

But its back to class today, and the 8 page paper that I have had in the back of my mind all weekend needs to be attended to. Not that it should be a chore, I am writing up a proposal for my Democracy and Justice Class for the creation of a community greenhouse, and its super exciting. We have to figure out all the technical things about how it will be governed, budget, etc. and hopefully after the class is over I can start putting the plan into action. I would be so stoked to grow my own vegetables.

Tofino time...

2009-01-22T12:27:00.000-08:00

Well the sun is still pounding, but I am inside covering the reception desk for lunch hour, and can only gaze at it longingly through the windows. One has to make some sacrifices in order to afford shampoo and toothpaste. No, apart from the fact that im inside on a beautiful day, I like being at the front desk. its social, I get to talk to people, sort the mail, and answer the phone in my best receptionist voice.

I am taking a weekend trip to Vancouver Island tomorrow, Tofino to be specific. In the sunshine.... I feel just the slightest bit irresponsible, seeing as I have yet to get on top of my homework situation. But camping sounds like heaven right now, even in the snow. Technically the trip is an Adventure Club surf trip, but I am just going along as the chef. I don't really have the money to rent surf gear, and truthfully my passion is more toward cooking than surfing in the cold anyhow.

Anyways, I will be off the grocery store after work, and need to write out my shopping lists. Groceries are always more fun when I am not spending my own money.

Glorious

2009-01-20T14:06:00.000-08:00

My name is Adrienne Bosworth and I love many, many things. I love cooking, and taking walks in the sunshine. I love tea with cream and sugar, and memorizing facts. I love swimming in lakes and growing my own vegetables. I also, since August 2008, have loved being at Quest University.

I am from Juneau Alaska, and I was born and raised in the rain. I have been a lot of places, and had a lot of different ideas about what I want to do with my life. After wanting to be a writer, a glass-blower, a reader-of-books-on-tape, an actress, and an abnormal psychologist, I have come to the conclusion that I need some time to figure things out. Quest is just that for me, a place and time to figure things out. It is enriching, entertaining, and innovative. Though I am still lost when it comes to potential future careers, in the past five months my brain has exploded with knowledge of the world around me.

The sun is shining today, even though it is the middle of January, and snow is dripping away slowly from the lawns on campus. Today in my Democracy and Justice class we watched President Barak Obama’s Inauguration projected on to the classroom wall. That has added to the gloriousness of the day, and my mood is surprisingly peppy considering I woke up at 8 for class at 9.

The sun, as I said, is shining directly on campus, and I sure do need my vitamin D these days. So now that I have introduced myself I am afraid I must seize the day… and leave my computer. You only live once.