Top Ten Carl10

For the sake of remembering, I thought I'd record my top ten memories from my 5-year reunion.  But first I'm going to list the bottom four:

1. Three people who were a huge part of my Carleton experience were not there to share in the fun.
2. Goodhue bathrooms- I do not miss the communal bathroom situation in the dorms.
3. The beer provided was awful.
4. The worst 5k I've ever run, which may have had to do with too much of #3...

But really, no part of the weekend was actually bad.  Overall I'd say it was amazing and exhausting; just one emotional high after another.  So here's my top 10 favorite moments/activities from last weekend in no particular order:

1. Sharing the beer Kevin and I brewed with our class.  My favorite part of brewing (and cooking for that matter) is sharing what I made with friends having them (hopefully) enjoy it.
2. Constantly seeing and spending time awesome people I hadn't seen (at least very often) in 5 years (so many hugs!).
3. Being reminded just how beautiful Carleton is. The Chapel, the buildings, the sign, the Arb, the Turbines... Plus the weather was gorgeous, the clouds were huge, and everything was so green.
4. Tubing down the Cannon River (how did I never do that when I was living there? So relaxing and so much fun!  And my tube had cup holders for beer, and what could be better than that?).
5. Hanging out with chemists at the Cow out on the deck with some good beer and free sunglasses.  Getting golf cart rides there and back from the cool student workers wasn't half bad either.
6. Touring the new wind turbine (we got to go inside!).
7. Re-visiting Wang's Corner with a few of my Geo-in-the-Field classmates and finding out current students had read my Comps, which is either exciting or embarrassing (TBD once I dig it up and re-read it).
8. Frisbee! (because this is Carleton, after all).
9. The Ten Talks which I almost didn't even go to and was glad I did because my classmates are amazing and interesting and inspiring.
10. Dancing and partying and general merriment every night!

Walking Walls, or how you can help a journey for peace!

My friend (and former awesome roommate), Kate, is raising funds to walk along physical, political walls to document the real, human divisions in the communities affected.  I'll let her explain:

Click here to help out, either monetarily or just to spread the word!

Fun fact: it was with Kate when I first started to blog.  We started a blog, for reasons I can't remember, while living together my Junior year at Carleton (http://shesrealfinemy409.blogspot.com/ if you're so inclined to read some ramblings of ours from 2009).

Maybe I Could Live in Minnesota Afterall (until Winter comes, of course)

Anyone who knows me, knows that while I loved Carleton, I was not as thrilled about it being in Minnesota. There are two main reasons: winter and distance from the ocean. I just spent two weeks in Minneapolis, and while I'm not about to move back, I was greatly persuaded. Here are three reasons why:

1. Minneapolis is easy to get around, and flat. I had to go downtown many days during my visit, and while there are busses, I opted to walk or bike since the weather couldn't have been nicer and I could enjoy the beautiful autumn air. Uptown (where Amy lives) is an easy distance of a beautiful cemetery, a number of lovely lakes, multiple fun bars/restaurants/cafes, and young people. Which brings me to #2.

2. Uptown is basically a grown up version of Carleton dorms. I swear half of all recent Carleton grads live in Minneapolis and most of them live in Uptown. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but my point is that there is a very active Carleton community, and to be honest, I love hanging out with fellow Carls.

3. There are a lot people who want me there. This may seem like a silly reason, but so many people tried to persuade me to move there during my visit. One friend even threatened to break my legs so I couldn't leave.

Bonus Reason: The Summit Brewery is in St. Paul. And I love Summit Beer. Both times I visited and toured the brewery I had a great time, especially sitting in the sun with their free samples and friends enjoying it with me. You can't get Summit beer in California, a fact that makes me very sad.

The chapel is always photogenic.

Sometimes I miss Minnesota...

...but then I have a February afternoon that looks like this:

Acappella post 2.0: video edition

My Hellacappella 2011 favs:

Dil Se- Grenade/Kya Se Kya

UC Men's Octet- Bohemian Rhapsody

Also, the Carleton Singing Knights!

Rich Girl (I love this almost more than the original)

Harder Better Faster Stronger feat. Daft Hands (poor quality, but still, it's Austin!)

Cupcake (so good)

Oxford Comma (fun fact: I can play this on my ukulele!)

Pop! Goes my Heart (the bridge at 1:46 is great)

really, I could just link to billions of their videos, because let's face it, acappella is pretty great and so is Carleton.

Adventures in the frigid north

Things that happened in Minnesota:

• little kids MAJORLY freaking out because "there are two miss Amys!!!!" it's like they'd never seen twins below. My presence was mindblowing to them.
• Carleton hasn't changed. I thought I'd feel weird, but I didn't. And seeing everyone (especially my Australia ladies) was awesome. I'm not sure if awesome really sums that up.
• Visiting the very pregnant Annie. soon to have 4 children, 4 dogs, and a parrot- I don't know how she does it!
• I actually understood most of Chris's physics comps talk.
• Amy and friends! Cheers to the governor, taboo, Archer, Glee, good times. oh, and Pippa came down from St. Cloud!
• skyping with Lauren with Colin!

While I'm not about to move to Minneapolis, it was nice to be so conveniently located near so many people I love.