Spring Break, Day 1 in Oxford, Ohio

Friday afternoon started my spring break. After e-mailing my paper, going to class, cleaning the mansion, re-emailing my paper (I'd sent the WRONG one!), and finishing packing, Lily and I were ready to go!

We hit both afternoon rush hour and an accident scene, but we did finally make it to Madison by 6PM. We picked up Matt and headed down to Dodgeville. We bought fish dinners at Culvers and took them to Mom's house for an hour with the pets and a sad good-bye to Lily. Then Matt and I went back up to Madison for the night.

This morning Matt dropped me off at the Madison airport for my trip to Ohio. He was up and ready to go by 4:30AM...and so was the massive amounts of cheese that Mom had bought for me to take to Becky. We parked my car Charlie easily, despite the fact that Matt had to back it out afterward, and checked-in quickly. I had to guzzle a bottle of water before I headed into security, which amazed the guard who watched me down it in about a minute. My stuff went through easily and all I had to do was wait. I spent my non-security check time reading and trying to not fall asleep. Matt and I had played Wii MarioKart until after 11PM, so we were rather tired. The first plane ride was only a few minutes, from Madison to Milwaukee. Even though it was the same flight, carrier, times, everything, it was cheaper to start at Madison rather than Milwaukee....go figure. We all got off the plane and to our respective connecting flights. I only waiting in that terminal for a few minutes before boarding my next plane, the same small size. At least it wasn't the puny plane next to ours, which I would think would barely lift off of the ground!

I made it through the drink service before I completely passed out. I didn't feel the turbulence that I know rocked the plane throughout the ride. I woke up shortly before landing, safely over the VERY FLAT Ohio countryside. The Dayton airport is nice and big and efficient. My bag was waiting for me at the carousel. Most people had brought carry-on luggage that had to be specially-stowed, but it didn't cost them the extra to have a formally "checked" bag. At least I didn't have to keep lugging the thing through the airport like they did! Becky was waiting for me as I walked out and we headed for the car.

It's just like old times. We giggle and talk about everything and nothing. Turns out that she borrowed a CD from a local library by a Milwaukee-based bank whose concert I worked on Friday (they cover/alter Beatles songs in Metallica style...hence their name, Beatallica). Really nice guys! We headed through the Ohio countryside to Oxford, OH, home to Miami University. We visited the cats and opened the cooler of delicious cheeses before heading out to lunch and Jungle Jim's.

Lunch was at a Bob Evans restaurant, a cross between Perkins and Dennys and IHOP. I got them to make me a breakfast burrito with only chicken and turkey (instead of bacon, ham, and pork sausage, which I gave up for Lent) and it was DELICIOUS. Then we headed toward Cincinnati for Jim's Jungle Jim's is this HUGE, 6 acre grocery store that imports from around the U.S. (esp. beer and wine) and the world (teas, cookies, rice, everything). In it there are also themes, like a General Mills three-piece animatronic band and a Sherwood Forest exhibit near the England foods. We picked up teas, Burt's Bees, Bubble-tea making kits, chocolate from multiple countries, and fizzy beverages too. We passed through Hamilton, a town between Oxford and Cincinnati where people go to escape both. The following picture is the statue of Alexander Hamilton on the main route through town. It is known as the City of Sculpture. We spent some time back at Becky's with the kitties before heading to a co-worker of Becky's place for games and fun.

I had a great time meeting some of Becky's colleagues. They are all about our age, working in the various libraries throughout the campus. Sadly the library has had to cut many of its positions, affecting all sitting in the room. They all needed a fun night and I know I had a great time. We played Apples to Apples and 1990s Trivial Pursuit, where I did not do as well as I had hoped. We came back to Becky's, where I hopped online and she went to bed. The kitties will have her up in no time for breakfast anyway. Hopefully my being awake will keep them active a little longer so she can sleep in a little more in the morning.

well, good night. Love you!!
Christi :)

We drove through Hamilton, OH and saw the most amazing sculpture in what is known as the City of Sculpture. Check it out!!! “The American Cape” Sculpture of Alexander Hamilton, the City of Hamilton’s namesake, was commissioned by Hamilton, Ohio, City of Sculpture, Inc. as a collaborative project with Historic Hamilton, Inc. The artist of this 13-foot high bronze is Kristen Visbal of Lewis Delaware. The sculpture was installed in the High Street Median at Journal Square and dedicated on October 23, 2004. Educational plaques placed at Journal Square describe the contributions that Alexander Hamilton made to the formation of the U.S. government. Fundraising for this community project raised the $200,000 needed to bring Alexander to downtown Hamilton!
http://www.cityofsculpture.org/sculpture.html

Greetings from Marquette University!

I finished my readings for class a few minutes earlier today so I thought I'd hop online and say hello.

Michelle called me frantically looking for sources on an awesome topic (the Americanization of German children through the public school system in the early 20th century). I understand her dilemma. When I was an undergrad at UW, unless I had a professor in a class, I didn't really contact them to bounce ideas off. Some of the professors, great people with top-notch knowledge, tended to be busy enough without having an outsider bugging them for ideas/info/etc. So I e-mailed my profs here at Marquette. I know it sounds weird, e-mailing them for possible source materials for a friend, but I wasn't nervous.

That's what I like about Marquette. It is big enough to hear lots of different opinions but small enough that I don't feel weird being another student asking profs questions. I'm ok with an "I don't know" or "Sorry I can't help you" answer. At least I know at Marquette I'm much more likely to get some sort of acknowledgement. Some profs at Madison would've blown me off. Instead, I often get a starting point which leads to more information and a really great wealth of knowledge.

Although it can be a problem. As an undergrad in a class of up to 100, if I couldn't get all of the readings done it wasn't a problem. At Marquette, where the max size of a grad class is around 6, I not only have to complete all readings, but understand them. This often means that I have to do some outside searching for an explanation to some of the concepts that the book doesn't always fully explain. Since I finished all the readings for class today (yay!), I get to write to you. And work on the next project - my paper due Friday.

I can't wait until next Wednesday, when I won't be running around Milwaukee getting cheesecake and meds, frantically writing/typing notes into a paper, working for Per Mar, or trying to get to points A, B, C, and D in the same day. Maybe I'll finally get to last semester's paper upgrades while I'm at it too :)

P.S. Yes, Mom, I'm still going to Ohio!