Spring Break (Twenty Eleven)

It's spring break! Thus far spring break has been pretty good, minus the craptastic weather. But tonight I got some deep dish pizza. Authentic deep dish, none of the Pizzeria Uno stuff. Nope, we got Georgio's Mama Primavera. It's so good. All I need now is a Chicago style hot dog and I'm set. Just feed me yummy food and you're good to go!

Today I went to Woodfield to do a little shopping with Nan. We hit the basic stores H&M, Forever 21, Gap, etc., but I noticed that a lot of stores are really trying to push the jumpsuit look (H&M's website is VERY hard to navigate, FYI). It's very big in Europe. Ever since I've seen this style being pushed I've been a little hesitant. I mean, not just anyone can pull this look off. Going through each store I finally decided to try on a jumpsuit, and, well, I bought it. I still don't know how I feel about this purchase, but I guess I will be bringing the jumpsuit to Crystal Lake this summer.

I would NEVER wear those shoes with it

Alright, so I just wrote a whole paragraph about one of my most questionable fashion purchases ever. Don't judge.

ANYWHO, I've been able to catch up with some PR kids over break and it's been fun seeing everyone. I went into the good ol' Prairie Ridge on Monday to meet with Mr. Riemer (who was wearing a Wisconsin bball shirt. Ugh.) and Andreas, and boy, was that a fun meeting. Poor Riemer having to deal with both me and Andreas in the same room. I don't think we got quite what we wanted accomplished, but it was still great to see him. I also ran into Frau Nagel along the way. Boy do I miss her. I'm very nervous to take a German class without her teaching in the spring, but it must me done!

Being home also means I can acquire new music, which is a long time coming. By the time the quarter is over I have over 20 bands that I want to get. So I go to Starbucks the other day to meet Phill for coffee/tea and I decided to buy the Adele CD (yes, I still buy CDs). When I get home and I put the CD in my computer, the CD wouldn't read. I look at the disk and it's already scratched. I was (and still am) very upset. Now I have to go try and return a CD to Starbucks. This will be fun. So I've gotten some new music and here are my top jams at the moment:

Ali Kueller's Top Songs (in no particular order):

1. My Body - Young the Giant
2. Whirring - The Joy Formidable
3. Take It In - Hot Chip
4. Get Some - Lykke Li
5. Beat The Devil's Tattoo - Black Rebel Motorcycle Club
6. Echoes - Klaxons
7. Bigger Than Us - White Lies
8. Under Cover Of Darkness - The Strokes
9. This Is Why We Fight - The Decemberists
10. Young Blood - The Naked and Famous
11. Stay Too Long - Plan B
12. Pumped Up Kicks - Foster The People
13. Rolling In The Deep - Adele 
14. Mr. November - The National

I suggest to whoever might be reading this too look up those songs. I mean, I would link them but I'm too lazy. Okay, so if I had to suggest ONE song, I really, really enjoy number 12. Do it.

To the right of this post there is a section called "Random Links", and towards the bottom there is a link for The Jay DeMerit Story (different from this link). For all of you guys who don't know who Jay DeMerit is, just read the article I linked you to; his story is incredible. And if you don't follow Jay on twitter, you really should because he's one of the funniest members of the USMNT.

I still reside in last place in the Kueller Bracket Challenge, but not for long. All of those who had Pitt going far will be feeling it soon. I will give a full updated version of the standings next time.

Now go listen to some new music!

The Madness!

So my bracket's busted. Already. Day 3. I started off hot, 2-0, but the St. John's happened. I had them in my final four, but I guess they had other plans. Oh well. My final game is still a go: Kansas against OSU, with Kansas taking the prize.

Kueller Family Standings (up to Round 1):

1.) Mason, 26 pts

1.) Richard, 26 pts

3.) Andreas, 23 pts

3.) Nan, 23 pts

5.) Me, 22 pts

This is depressing. I'm the back-to-back defending champion. I need to step up my game.

Finals are done with and it's spring break! I have yet to check my grades, but I mean it's only day 2 for me. I don't want to potentially ruin my break, do I? I'm pretty sure math kicked my butt, but hopefully all went well and I will be done with math! YAY! The end of this quarter marks the end of my short, wonderful engineering career. I will say I went out with a bang, getting second place in the class for my group's nano chip design. No big, just got a $15 gift card to Barnes & Noble (spent on an OSU shirt). With that, I bid farewell to engineering.

Well, I'm back in the good ol CL. After a nice, long overnight bus ride and trip on the Metra, I arrive back home. I forgot the Nyquil for the Megabus, but I surprisingly slept. Oh, and the bus was packed. I was very surprised. And people got on at the Indianapolis stop. At 4 am. I mean, come on, they could have caught a later bus, but 4 am? Is it really worth it?

Today I ended up going to my old high school's girls soccer game with some of my own teammates, and I forgot how much I missed playing with everyone. It was great seeing all the girls on the team as well! Well, we lost 3-0 and it was a tough loss. Poor Mr. O. He just looked frustrated. I will give credit to the parents: those metal bleachers are rough on your butt! Credit where credit is due.

The seniors last year :)

 

The rest of my spring break includes a lot of basketball watching and spending money I don't have on food. WHY CAN'T BUCKID BE ACCEPTED EVERYWHERE?! Oh the life of a college kid.

Let's jump on the Adele bandwagon.

PS - With Borders going out of business in the CL, I raked up on some CDs. #winning

Finals Week

I'm going to make this short and sweet. I'll update when I'm on my 8 hour overnight bus ride from Cbus to Chicago. Fun times lay ahead:

It's finals week and it sucks. All my hard finals (chemistry, calculus, and engineering) are within 24 hours of each other starting tomorrow at 3:30. Then I have one more final on Thursday, which happens to be history. That one shouldn't be TOO bad. But hey, I already have my paper for history done, which is due tomorrow as well. It only took me an hour and a half. I'm actually quite impressed with myself.

So I'm at the Thompson, semi-studying with Disha (I was going to link her blog but she's being a butt and not letting me). So I'll give you a picture of her instead. Fair, no?

So much blogging studying

I could really use a giant cup of coffee right now, but no. I decided to give that, ice cream, and swearing up for lent. Right before finals. Why am I so dumb. But seriously, why? I guess I will have to stick to giant cups of tea.

Swear Count: 13.

(Okay, so it seems like a lot considering lent has been going for not even a week. But if you hear me speak, I'm a sailor. So I call this very good for me!)

Here's some Hot Chip.

P.S. Mackenzi switched my Facebook password so I will not be on that black hole of a website until my last final. I don't know if I can do it.

The Fast Paced Lifestyle

Where have the weeks gone? As the 9th week of a 10 week quarter is wrapping up, I cannot seem to grasp where the time has gone. I feel like I just got back to Columbus and I should be preparing for my first set of midterms. But in reality, I took my last midterm the past Friday and now I have finals to study for. Eek! But I can say that I am, for the most part, looking forward to a week with no official plans. No lab reports to write. No textbooks to read. Just... empty time. I will say that is one nice thing about the quarter system; there is no work over spring break. Now granted I do not know exactly how the semester system fully works, but I can only assume that people on the semester system have homework over spring break? Correct me if I am wrong, please. Time flies when you're on quarters.

Speaking of semesters, I got one the regular e-mails from the people involved with the quarter to semester conversion. As I read the e-mail, it dawned on my that I actually like the quarter system, and I am kind of dreading the switch to semesters. Yes, I have funky breaks that do not line up with anyone and yes, what people learn in 15 weeks gets crammed into 10, but I think that the good out-weighs the bad. For instance, if you don't like your class, you will be out of there in no time; you wont have to sit though 15 weeks of drudgery. Instead you're in, you're out, and you're done. Also, the quarter system allows you to take an extra set of classes. If you were on the semester system, you might not have time for one extra fun class because you're trying to fit all the classes you need into your year. But with quarters, that extra set of classes can allow you to space out your year and just have some change in the spring! Plus is makes graduating if four years a little more plausible if you're an engineer. Just saying.

Ah, engineering. You have given me quite the two quarters worth of work. You have given me endless work and allowed me to spend ample time in the library. You have even been so nice to let me have class every day of the week, all day I may add. Oh, and you have also made me dislike math, which I used to love. How can I ever repay you? I have an idea, how about switching majors? I think that's a great idea, and that is exactly what I am doing. As of right now (since it's not technically official), I plan on switching my major from environmental engineering to German and international business (which means I can put my AP Stats credit to use!). Big switch, no? Tomorrow I have a meeting with a business academic adviser (that's if I ever get a confirmation e-mail. Fisher, we are not starting off on the right foot, are we now?) and hopefully I will be on the path to switching majors. I wont switch to German until I have taken a few German classes in the spring, just to make sure I like the German program at Ohio State. But I'm excited! Also, I will not be envious of all the less work the business kids on my floor do. (Thanks for putting the ENR Scholar on the Business Scholar floor, Blackburn!)

While I have been very busy these past few weeks with midterms, labs, and papers, I have somehow managed to find time for myself. Shocking, I know. But the past weekend I participated what is know around here as BuckeyeThon. BuckeyeThon is OSU's 17 hour dance marathon benefiting Nationwide Children's Hospital. This year was BT's 10th anniversary, upping the hours from 14 to 17. And during those 17 hours (from 5pm on Saturday to 10am on Sunday), you could not sit down. Standing for 17 hours is quite the task. I mean, I bitch and moan for having to stand for 6 hours at Regal while getting a 35 minute break somewhere in the time I work. But I had a blast with my team (Teenage Dream/Blue team!)

Teenage Dream plus a random person just chilling

While our group started off large, in the end only Disha, Brittnee, Asumi, Aaron, Will, Andy, and I remained, but it was so worth it. The kids came back in the morning and it was much fun. It turned out that we raised over $222,000 (up from the $100,000 last year)! I don't know if it was a combination of being tired or just how moving the whole event was, but we all burst out in tears. Thank goodness I did not have a lot of homework that weekend because I slept the rest of Sunday (except for when I played soccer... which I amazed that I could actually function has a human). To anyone who goes to Ohio State, definitely do BuckeyeThon at least once before you graduate. You wont regret it.

Other happenings in my life, around OSU, or in Columbus:

• My CoRec intramural soccer team is in quarterfinals and we have a game tonight! I really want to get that free t-shirt when you win...
• The final home basketball game is this Sunday. I cannot wait.
• In the past week I have gone from 20 to 21 down to 16 credit hours for next quarter. Let's see how long that lasts.
• Crazy stuff is happening in Wisconsin, but it's also happening in Ohio as well.
• The Ohio Union now has a cupcake bar!!!!

 So. Good.

• I hate MATLAB. Just saying...
• I am on a electro/house music kick. All week the Deadmau5 mix on YouTube has been playing.
• So Interpol came to town not too long ago. A little disappointing, but still a good show.
• Tuesday was my last chemistry lab!!!! (Insert happy dance here)
• I'll be a first year sophomore next quarter!

Since the last time I have posted I have had approximately 2.5  death weeks, so I apologize for the lack of posts. Hopefully I wont go a month or however long it has been!

Time to go read a chemistry textbook! But first, The National.

Halfway

This week marks the fifth week of the quarter, which means we are halfway through winter quarter which means I am halfway through my first year of college! I feel like just got to Ohio State, but clearly I have been since September. Time flies when you're having fun!

On Tuesday, our awesome basketball team played Purdue. I don't know if you caught that game (whether it be in person or on TV), but it was INSANE! This was one of the most fun games I have been to all year. The Schott was rocking. No words can describe how fun it was. Purdue even had a small rag tag group of fans and eventually they fell silent. I eventually lost my voice but it was so worth it. We played like there was no tomorrow! The Nuthouse was where it was at! May I suggest following the Buckeye Nuthouse on twitter? Yes? Next game is on Thursday against M!ch!g@n.

Luckily for me, I had no midterms this week. Why? I was sick. Very sick. So sick that I wouldn't even roll out of bed for food. Yeah, you know it's serious when I wont even get up for food. This cold hit me on Wednesday as I was writing my paper (more on that later) and I only woke up to take a quiz and turn in that paper. After my two (easy) classes I went back to bed. Thank goodness I was sick on Thursday because my classes go from 10:30-12:18. So I'm still alive, no worries! This ginger will be around for some time to come.

So, yes, this past week I had to write my first paper as a college student, and looking back, I think I wrote a summary of the book instead of actually trying to prove something. I had to write about Harriet Jacobs and her book, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. You see, the past quarter and a half I've been writing lab reports and lab memos for both engineering and chemistry, and the point of lab write ups are to summarize and not necessarily try to prove a point I may have. So, yeah. I should probably work on that for the next paper (or for my midterm next week!). But hey, I already have 5 points of extra credit and I actually happen to really enjoy my history class. Words cannot express how nice of a change it is to go from classes where you only take notes and there is only one right answer, to a class where you can have discussions and formulate your own thoughts! Thank god I have to take GECs or else I would be buried in physics, chemistry, calculus, and engineering!

This past Sunday I went to the Two Door Cinema Club/Tokyo Police Club (Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin opened for the two) concert with Andy. Let me tell you, Two Door Cinema Club puts on a fantastic live show. Maybe even better than their album, and their album is good. Best part of TDCC? The ginger lead singer. Yep, ginger power. BUT! But, the best part of the show was the encore: both of the bands came on stage and did a cover of The Strokes's Last Night. Oh my god, what an epic collaboration. I went nuts, partially because I freaking love The Strokes (which they are coming out with a new album, btdubs) and also because their version was awesome! Good show all around. I personally perferred Two Door Cinema Club, but hey, I just like them better in general.

#epiccollaberation

It has come to my attention that I have completely neglected to mention one of the highlights of the quarter: SNOWBOARDING ON THE OVAL. Yes, you read that right, snowboard ON The Oval. And yes, for all you people who don't know much about The Oval, it is flat. As flat as the earth was in people's minds in the 1400's. As it turns out, a few people on BK2 and BK3 brought their skis and boards with them to OSU and we decided to celebrate the ending of the first week of winter quarter (and the first snow fall since coming back to school) by having a little fun on a Thursday night.

Sarah pulling me

 O-H-I-O

 Everyone!

 Mirror Lake and stuff

I hope you enjoyed the plethora of pictures from that night. It was oodles of fun, even though half of us had 8:30 classes the next morning :)

Finally, potential spring quarter schedule. Thoughts?

Click on it to make it larger

Math 153 - Calculus 3. Not fun. Required.

Physics 131 - Intro to physics. Essentially AP Physics. Required.

German 367 - My second writing course. Going towards my potential German minor. GEC.

German 299 - A study in the "culture of the Weimar Republic and Nazi Germany in literature, film, the other arts; the roots of fascism and its echoes in postwar Germany." GEC. (I'm PUMPED for this class. Words cannot describe.)

Alrighty, that's all for now. I'm barely alive after that near upset Northwestern just gave us. Too close for my liking.

How about some Swedish indie rock?

Enjoy the last of your January.