beyond the green

If you’re dedicated to reading Bethel’s “Beyond the Green” then you might have noticed you haven’t heard from me in a while. It’s been over two months since I arrived “home,” that is, to the United States, from five months studying, playing and living in Quito, Ecuador.

Now I need to sit in a classroom in order to speak Spanish.

I must admit that it is somewhat intimidating to blog now, without stories of exotic locations and language bloopers–without the excitement that of discovery that you expect to find while living in another country.

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WARNING: this blog contains slightly squeamish descriptions of a biology lab. Not for the faint of stomach, or the overly-vivid of imaginations.

I don’t know if this has come up in previous blogs, but for those of you who don’t know, I’m a psychology and communication double major. Additionally, because I have a great difficulty making exclusive decisions, I’m working on an English minor and a Neuroscience certificate. The latter of those smaller designations is a complement to the psychology degree I will earn. Neuroscience essentially adds a biological component to the standard psychology curricula.

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There’s a lot about a small campus that’s great.

Bethel is smaller than my high school, so I feel like I have a good shot at knowing everyone at the school. I’ve gotten very close to my roommates and modmates in a short period of time, because not only do we room together, we sometimes have classes together, and we often see each other at meals.

The largest class I’ve been in was my gen. ed. history class: History of Civilization 2. I think there weren’t quite thirty people in the class. I was in a philosophy class sophomore year that only had four people. Talk about one-on-one attention. It made sure that each of us were on top of our reading. The discussions were so manageable, and we were even assigned our own book to focus on for original papers. Most people don’t get attention like that until graduate school.

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Interterm is a Bethel institution of some uniqueness.

Before it starts, Interterm is what makes me scowl at my non-Bethel collegiate friends because it makes my winter break dramatically shorter than theirs. The new year has barely begun and mere days later, I’m back at school. It’s such a quick turnaround that I still mess up the year in the dateline of my assignments.

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I’m realizing that I will sleep substantially more during winter break (which is short this year–only about 17 days) than I did during the end of semester between Thanksgiving and the end of finals.

I haven’t counted the hours or anything, and a lot of the disparity is my fault. I sometimes stay up needlessly at school, not because of homework or anything, but just because that’s when everyone else is doing things. It has honestly become difficult for me to go to sleep before midnight anymore, and towards the end of semester, that stretched to 1:00 a.m. Once again, it’s not that I’m not tired; it’s just that’s when other people are doing things. Sometimes it feels like the campus gets going after midnight. It’s also hard to sleep when other people are talking about how much homework they have to get done; it makes me anxious that I’m forgetting something too. But that’s one of my own little neuroses.

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