What's my age again??

August 27th, 2009

So today is currently my 18th birthday. To tell you the truth, I couldn’t wait for this day for because most people are older than me and completely take for granted what they can do without being questioned whether or not a guardian is present. I get sick of having to call my parents at doctor’s appointments to get permission or have them come and sign something relevant to my care, having to borrow my grandma’s Hastings card to rent a movie or piercing my tragus. These all require you to be 18, which today I am!
The funny thing is that most people would probably bet you money that I either am 18 or older. My mom says they think that I am older than I am because I am more mature and tend to speak and/or act older than I actually am. In fact, my mom and I constantly get asked if we are sisters everywhere we go and when one of us decides to tell the person that we aren’t they usually high five my Mom and tell her she looks great. I guess my Mom looks likes she is 18? Or 20? It confuses me but society confuses me so life goes on.
I had my first day of classes today. Besides the fact that I feel that Central completely didn’t prepare me for college except for maybe Holland and Perret, I started class scared that maybe I would have a hard time trying to compete at the same level as some of the students here that had better preparation. I was pleasantly surprised when I went into my first class, Freshman Seminar Globalization, and we just went over the syllabus and talked about each of our families roots and how each one of us is a part of some sort of globalization ourselves. Cake, right? Yes!!!! I don’t think that my Freshman Seminar should be too hard because it focuses on public speaking and writing, which I both feel fairly comfortable with. We also only have two “text” books which are both soft back reading books. The first is Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History by Sidney W. Mintz and the second is The Travels of a T-shirt in the Global Economy: An Economist Examines the Markets, Power and Politics of World Trade by Pietra Rivoli Ph.D.
The second class that I attended today was quite a whole different experience than anything I have ever seen or been a part of. The class is Introduction to Philosophy which I chose because I thought that it would be a helpful stepping stone for law and maybe could possibly be a minor for me (although I am definitely considering Latin as a minor). There are a few reasons that this class was unlike any class that I have ever been present in, ever. First, before I even went to class and went to the bookstore to pick up my books for the class I discovered that there was seven books for the semester. SEVEN BOOKS?? Granted none of them are huge but I can guess that they are dense works that contain words that make you think and consider situations, etc. The books for this class include Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics, Immanuel Kant’s Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism, Plato’s Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Rene’ Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Friedrich Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil, and finally David Hume’s An Enquiry concerning Human Understanding. That was a quite daunting before I even stepped into class. The second thing that I have never experienced was the class size, the class had close to forty students and therefore was the biggest class that I have been in. The Professor then proceeded to tell us that we can refer to him as David, Professor, or Professor Osipovich but we better not mess up his last name. The weirdest part of this class is that even though there were close to forty kids in the class, he said that before we started anything that he was going to learn each and every one of our names. This took a good thirty minutes but even though I didn’t think that it was going to be possible he did it. After he was done memorizing each and every person’s name in the entire class, he then told us that he taught for nine years but never at Allegheny and that he actually hasn’t taught in six years because he decided to go to law school. He then took the Pennsylvania Bar and has six months before he starts practicing law, so he decided to teach. He also commutes from Pittsburgh to teach here which is about an hour and a half drive or more depending on traffic. He is interesting and eccentric and therefore isn’t afraid to swear or take strong positions on arguments to make his students get involved. He told the class today this class wasn’t going to be easy, which somewhat scares me because usually teachers that are new to schools are hit or miss. This means his class will be (a) really easy in comparison to the other classes or (b) really hard because he hasn’t taught in a while. I will keep you posted.

Top Ten things that made my birthday EXTRA Special

1. My roomate decorated our door and my side of the room with Happy Birthday Danielle signs to remind people to wish me a Happy Birthday. She also made a list of things that I CAN do legally :)
2. Even though this is probably going to make my Mom not very happy at me, I had creamy tomato soup and grilled cheese for lunch. It kinda really hurt the Crumb's Disease but I am about at my wit's end with the Crumb's. It was MUY DELISH!
3. My grandma sent me Banana Bread which is delicious!!!
4. Holy Crap!!! Not only did both my Mom and Dad reach me at Midnight (my time) last night, they also did it at the same time. Mom via text, Dad via telephone. The rest of you have been calling, leaving messages, facebooking, texting, etc. non-stop. Which makes me feel loved and missed by the way :]
5. My tie-dye tapestry came in the mail from Dad and Dero. I am trying to figure out how I am going to hang it. I will.
6. Along with the tapestry, I recieved my pillow from my Dad's house. It smells like Butte and my room which is nice! I love it!!!
7. Dad and Dero sent me some candy as well, which gave me a stomach ache but was freaking delicious!!!!!
8. The weather wasn't very hot today so I was able to wear and sweatshirt and not have to worry about sweating or dying in this humidity (Don't get me wrong I like humidity but compiled with hot weather doesn't make anyone want to look at this hot mess). ha ha
9. Just chillin' with Erin, we get along really well so it was nice that she was able to be here for me on my birthday.
10. My Mom got me two tickets to the Pirate vs. Cubs in Septemeber :] FREAKING EXCITED!!!

*Shout Outs

• I miss you all still!