STEP

I'm a STEP coordinator! Pretty much, our job is to be sustainable and get everyone else in JE to be sustainable too.


Matt (my co-coordinator) and I recycling! This is our JE STEP profile picture.

A 3rd Grade Reunion

Lately, everything has been good, even bad things. I went to the hospital for the first time yesterday (don't worry! just a routine check up) and then again for a student physical (for my study abroad program). Interestingly, I have to go back again tomorrow because I have high blood pressure and they are going to perform some tests to evaluate my kidneys. So far, I've already had my blood drawn, my pee bottled, and a EKG (i think).

On the awesome side, everything still feels fantastic! I'm in a good mood pretty much all the time, and my work doesn't stress me out. Lol. Today, when I was walking back to my dormitory, I bumped into Murphy Temple, my friend from 3rd grade Mississippi. We decided to do a reshoot of our 3rd grade newspaper coverstory and send the new photograph to our 3rd grade teacher! I hear that she's the school librarian nowadays, and I hope that she will be pleasantly surprised!


Then


Now

And then, as I was walking back from Sterling Library, where we did our photoshoot, I bumped into some Freshmen who were exhausted from carrying their sofa and resting on it in the middle of Old Campus. I offered to take their picture and send it to them because they were so cute!

Eating Animals

On Friday, I attended a talk by Jonathan Safran Foer who came to speak about his latest book "Eating Animals". During the past few years, it seems like vegetarianism has become more main stream. In high school, Nari and her family were the only vegetarians I knew. Once I arrived at Yale, I met a few more vegetarians, including my suite mate Emily, who is just vegetarian by a matter of food preferences and allergies. One vegetarian soon became many vegetarians, and this summer, my Yalie group in Istanbul was half vegetarian (3 out of 6). And when Erika came to visit me in Istanbul, I learned that some times during high school, she too had also become vegetarian. After attending Foer's talk, I have consciously avoided meat for the past three days to see how vegetarianism can fit into my life. Perhaps I won't become a "vegetarian" in the absolute sense, but I think I will definitely become more limiting of my meat-intake. As Foer pointed out, by knowing what we know about the meat industry, the health hazards, and the abuse of animals for the sake of profit, a decision to not react at all is an action in of itself.

The Yale Daily News is running some kind of article on it tomorrow, and I volunteered to do the illustration. I finally get why Julia was so obsessed with pigs--they are so cute! Also, I'm 2 illustrations away from making staff on the oldest college daily newspaper in the US! Pretty cool, eh?

My Sustainable Life

Lately, I've been following Didem's blog, "My Sustainable Life Blog", which she amazingly updates every day. Her first September goal is to not buy any fashion-related things (clothes, accessories, etc), and I've told her that I would join her. So, once again, no shopping for me! Given that I'm stuck on campus, it shouldn't be too hard.
Adding on to her idea, my challenge to myself is that in addition to No- fashion-purchase-September, I must also wear something that is "reused" every day. Since September 1st, I've already done it everyday without even thinking about it! Between my scavenged goods from Spring Salvage, my finds from mom's wardrobe, and the random things I've collected from friends over the years, it should be fun! So next time you see me, ask me what my reusable clothing item is!
Also, Didem is embarking on an ambitious project to name 100 things that she needs in her life and to rid herself of many of the extra things that doesn't make it onto her list. Here's me saluting Didem for her dedication!

That is why they call today the present

This morning, the university hosted the Fall Festival, an international food festival on Old Campus. I was very happy to see that they had taken TOTB's suggestions from last spring to heart and worked over the summer to create a simple water filter/cooling apparatus that can provide tap water instead of bottled water. Boy, was I in a good mood!


In the afternoon, two of my suite mates and I went to the gym to play badminton! Boy, were my arms tired after that!

Later on in the night, one of my suite mates took the entire suite to a very privileged spot in Yale that she has asked me to not reveal on my blog. Let me just stay, I was sooooo ecstatic to be here!

After climbing the spiral stairs, the top had a latch that opened up to a beautiful 360 view rooftop

More shananigans

Party! note the Dubra, something rum, and Hennessey on our shelf! Also, our mini fridge only holds beers, chocolates from Germany, and milk. I love my suite!

A great first week of school!

Dear happy solar explorations blog readers, I am glad to report that I'm currently having a fantabulous week! The first week back is always fun because I get to enjoy Yale without all the homework, but this first week has been especially awesome--partially because of my awesome suite mates and my living environment.
While I've had, for the most part, pretty cool suite mates for the past two years, the suites has never been completely cohesive. People formed cliques within the suite, and some times I saw some suite mates so infrequently that we were even strangers. This year though, our suite is actually a suite! We eat meals together, hang out in the common room together (just yesterday, we had a spontaneous nail painting make over party in the common room, and today, we ended up having a small work out party in the gym).
It's been really great getting to know my suite mates--Molly, Vera, Emily, Nicole, and Dana. I'm sure that as the year progresses, they will make many appearances in my blog. :)
Lots of my other good friends in JE also live in the same entry way, right down stairs from our suite. It's like a big friendly party all the time!

Molly's Record Player

Continuation of how classy my new suite is. Yes it is a real record player, and we got lots of oldies music! And you KNOW how much I love oldies!

First Suite Party!

Emily drinking my Kiwi wine from Turkey in her classy JE champagne glass--yes we are that classy.