The Most Epic Game in the Universe

When? November 21, 2009 12:30pm. Where? Lehigh University’s Goodman Stadium. What? The 145^th Lehigh-Lafayette Game. No matter what stories you are told, I don’t think anyone can fully understand the grandness of Lehigh-Lafayette week until they have experienced it themselves. It all started with the parties leading up to the game. For a full week before the game itself, people were celebrating beating Lafayette college. (This is one of many reasons that this showdown can only occur once a year – even Lehigh’s student body can’t handle being drunk this much for more than one week.) Then came the Thursday before the game (November 19). At 8:00pm, students migrated towards a concert to hear Girl Talk perform. It was a decent show, but the most memorable part of it for me is the walk back. As my group of friends was waiting in line to catch a bus back to campus, we realized we had been waiting for about forty-five minutes, and hadn’t even seen a bus drive by. We promptly found a police officer and asked him what gives. We had been waiting in line forever! Much to our dismay, he informed us that no more buses were running on account of the fact that Lehigh students had kicked windows out of all of the six buses that were commissioned for the event. “Well what are we supposed to do then?” We angrily asked. “I would suggest starting to walk now, since it might take you a while to get back,” replied the police officer. Isn’t that great advice? And so our journey began. An hour later, when we finally returned to Dravo, none of us had the energy to go out, so we sat and watched Slumdog Millionaire; a quality choice in my opinion.

Before I knew it, the Saturday of the game had arrived. Heading out of the dorm with the wave of Lehigh students all clad in brown and white, we made our way to the buses so we could stop by and tailgate before the game. Tailgates was crazy. Everyone had been drinking far too long to be able to function properly. Beer was everywhere and the lines for the bathroom were at least a thirty-minute wait. Finally noon came around. We entered the stadium and all I could see was brown and white. I loved it. The game was fun to watch, but it was the atmosphere of the situation that made it worth the week of waiting. Keeping a pretty even score for the whole game, it was a nail biter to be sure. The most epic part of the week though was when we went into overtime. What an incredible ending! Just when it looked like the missed extra point would come back to kick Lehigh in the butt, we were able to pick off Lafayette’s pass. The game was over. Lehigh had one. 27-21 in overtime – that, folks, is what I call epic.

Camp

Camp is one place where folklore is intentionally made. From the campfire songs to the every day goings-on of the camp, every aspect is all about tradition. I’ve been attending Camp Interlaken JCC since 7^th grade. While every year there are new pieces to everyday life, the traditions, for the most part, remain in place. Each summer, as I board one of the five buses leaving from Milwaukee, I remember how much fun I had and how many memories were made the previous summer, and how all of that is going to be repeated this year. Even after waking up at six o’clock in the morning to get to the bus stop can’t put a damper on my happiness. After a six hour long bus ride of catching up with old friends, singing camp songs, and guessing who your counselors are going to be, it is time to run off the bus.

This moment is possibly one of the most exciting of the summer. Counselors are standing there, holding signs with your grade’s name on them, jumping up and down screaming, and generally being so excited that the campers have finally arrived! This is one of the many aspects of folklore that is portrayed by camp. The biggest aspect of folklore shown at camp though would have to be the opening campfire. It is one tradition that doesn’t change. No matter who the director of camp is, they know that this is one tradition not to be meddled with. Every cabin gets to pick one person to speak at the campfire, and when that person is done speaking, they throw a stick into the fire. After each age group has gone, we sing a few campfire songs, and they are usually the same ones every year; songs that everyone knows and loves, and that have meaning for the camp and for all the people that go there. Of all the folk groups I am part of, camp is the most prevalent one in my life. It has shaped who I am as a person, and who I am going to be. The friends I have made there are ones I will keep for a lifetime. The people that I spend four to eight weeks every summer are the ones that are truly part of me and truly know who I am. These are just some of the many reasons that camp is the biggest folk group in my life.

Christmas Comes Each Time This Year

The Christmas Season is one of my favorite parts of the year. Growing up in a Jewish household, one would think that Christmas-time doesn’t rank high on my favorite part of the year. Well, you would be wrong if you thought that. Although my mom is Jewish and has therefore raised my sister and I as Jews, my dad was a Christian for the majority of my youth, so I grew up celebrating the major Christian holidays as well as the Jewish ones. There is no way I could possibly pick my favorite part of the season, but once December first hits, my Christmas mind is in full gear. From Christmas card writing, to decorating our tree and house, to Christmas music, to the Christmas spirit in general, I am a fan of it all.

It all starts out with decorating our house to portray the spirit of Christmas. Seeing my family bond over putting up our decorations puts a smile on my face. The decorating can’t start, though, until my dad and I have found the perfect tree. Since our house is on the older side, the ceilings are low. We have a specific method for picking out the tree though – you have to find one that is short, fat, and has a good, strong trunk. Once these criteria are met, we strap the tree atop my mom’s mini-van and drive on home. After decorating the tree and the rest of the house, it is time to bake cookies! This is especially one of my favorite Christmas activities, since I am an avid baker. Give me any cookie recipe and I will be more than happy to whip it up. Once Christmas Eve comes around, I know the true spirit of Christmas has landed. Christmas Eve is definitely set in stone in my family – every year it is the same. My dad’s parents arrive around 3:30, right as the brisket my mom is cooking is beginning to send a delicious aroma wafting around our house. We eat some delicious appetizers, chat and listen to lovely Christmas music all the while sitting in front of a roaring fire my dad has perfectly crafted. Because my grandparents are old, they usually leave around eight o’clock (after we have all helped my mom clear the table from dinner). This is when my immediate family’s traditions continue. My sister and I read for an hour in front of the fire, drinking hot chocolate, while my dad watches television and my mom finishes cleaning the kitchen. Then around 9:30 or 10:00 we turn on White Christmas and begin wrapping presents. Once the mound of presents has reached its maximum capacity, usually around one or two in the morning, it’s time to go to bed and wait for St. Nick to arrive. Sadly enough, to this day my sister and I usually wake up around eight in the morning, run to wake up our parents, and then head downstairs. After everyone has exchanged presents, we gather the presents for the rest of our family, put them into the car, and then head over to my aunt’s house where the festivities continue until the end of the day. Driving home after a fulfilling day of family, food, gifts, and good spirit, I am sufficiently content with my Christmas. Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Finals

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. As the clock hands keep turning, I am still sitting at my desk, looking at my computer, trying to decide what project I should start. My final paper for English? My two papers for Comparative Politics? Do I actually start studying for exams? I have so many things to do and so little time to do them all in! I can’t forget about the time I need to spend with my friends here at Lehigh. Our Rock Band tournaments do take up a decent amount of time, after all. The difference between college and high school still astounds me. With only four classes this semester, I am having some difficulty with time management while studying for exams. Is it so wrong that I would rather hang out with my friends than crack open a book in my room by myself? I don’t think that what I’m feeling is unusual for college students, and I think it is a question that must plague many. As much as I’ve gotten used to my current lifestyle, it is still new. New surroundings, new people, new concepts and new ideas. Of course, I am using my studying time to think about these questions.

The clock is still ticking down. It’s 7:30 on a Thursday night. My friends all want to go out, and yet here I am, procrastinating studying by writing another blog. Since one of my teachers was kind enough to give her final exam on Wednesday, December 2, I only have two finals during exam time. Unfortunately those two exams are not as easy as I would prefer (isn’t everyone saying that though?) Statistics will be better than my other one – Challenges in US Foreign Policy. Even just typing the name makes me shudder. That class is the bane of my existence; a dreaded hour and a half every Monday and Wednesday. You know how sometimes students just don’t click with their teachers? Well now I know how those students feel. Sitting in a classroom and having someone talk at me is not my idea of a productive class period. I need discussion and analysis. I need a little something to keep me awake during that class. So now whenever I try and start studying for this exam, all I can think about is how excited I am for this class to be over. The second I hand in my final I am thanking god for being done. I’ve already consented to the fact that I won’t get the grade I want, so I am having trouble motivating myself to study. As probably all the other students on college campuses around the world are saying, “I can’t wait for finals to be over!”

My Top 10 Movie List

Some families have multiple movie connoisseurs in them, and others, like mine, do not. I grew up watching chick-flicks with my mom and gory, action-packed thrillers with my dad. It is unfortunate that my friends had to introduce me to the great movies I know today, but I am glad someone was able to further my movie education. Each year I try and watch at least a few new movies to broaden my horizon. For instance, this summer my friends and I watched several Alfred Hitchcock movies, including Vertigo, The Birds, and Rear Window. I am lucky enough to have friends who had avid movie watching families, so they are much more knowledgeable than I about cinematography. Throughout my years, though, I have watched many movies, and have always held a short list in my head of those that I hold in the most esteem. Here is my top-ten movie list:

1. Casablanca. This movie is an absolute classic, and I have turned many people into fans of this movie, and for good reason too. Set in Morocco in the early years of World War II, you know this movie is going to have a good plot line. With Morocco being center stage for those fleeing Europe, many interesting characters will undoubtedly pass through this small North African country, and there is bound to be trouble. With great songs like “As Time Goes By” and famous lines like, “Here's looking at you, kid,” this movie bleeds “classicness.” The final scene is great as well, with the characters disappearing into the fog with one of the most memorable exit lines in movie history: “Louis, I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

2. Silence of the Lambs. Where do I even start with this movie? An action-packed, suspense-filled thriller; this is undoubtedly a quality movie. Those who have not watched this movie should reassess their movie prowess. There is so much character depth that is set up throughout the movie, and while watching this film, I felt like I actually knew the life stories of each character, which is a difficult task to accomplish for some directors. Jodie Foster does some excellent acting as Clarice Starling, the FBI agent, and helps to move the plot forward. This is one thriller that I could literally watch over and over again.

3. Slumdog Millionaire. Although this movie only came out in 2008, it quickly jumped towards the top of my list the second I stepped out of the movie theater. I am pretty sure my jaw hung open for days after seeing that (which is why I bought this DVD the second Best Buy had one available). What a genius idea for a movie! The plot kept moving the whole time, and the way this director tied everything together was astounding. The children who played the youngest Salim, Jamal and Latika were excellent (and not to mention some of the most adorable children in the world). This is another movie that I love to watch, even though it is long, and I have turned many people in “Slumdog” fans.

4. Hotel Rwanda. Although this is a depressing movie, one must give credit where credit is due. The fact that this movie is based on a true story makes it that much more incredible. The first time I watched this movie was in my African Studies course in high school, and although there were some scenes I wanted to shut my eyes for, it was too well done to turn away. Being so true to the history of the situation made this movie feel real. Seeing how the Hutus and the Tutsis interacted with each other before the genocide started, shows how there really was no reason that the genocide should have began in the first place, since most people were living peacefully anyways. Any movie that can make a movie as realistic as a textbook, and make it interesting to watch, gains points in my book.

5. The Princess Bride. This is one movie that I have been watching since I was a little girl. A smile comes to my face just by looking at the tagline, “Scaling the Cliffs of Insanity, Battling Rodents of Unusual Size, Facing torture in the Pit of Despair. - True love has never been a snap.” This is a movie that has it all – you laugh, you cry, and you wonder what these characters are thinking. My childhood memory is a little scarred from watching Westley wrestle with a giant rat in the forest and seeing Buttercup sink in the swamp, but the fact that there is a happy ending makes everything okay in the end. This is another classic that everyone should watch at least once in their life.

6. No Country for Old Men. While this a movie I’m not sure I could ever watch again, it was a great film and very well done. I was kept on the edge of my seat the whole time, and although when I got out of the movie theater I couldn’t talk for a few minutes, I was thoroughly pleased with the nine dollars I had spent.

7. Requiem for a Dream. If you have a friend who does drugs and you are trying to get them to stop, show them this movie. This is a movie about several people whose lives change dramatically because of their particular addictions. From shooting heroin to dropping speed to diet pills, this move covers it all. I’ve only seen it once, but I’m pretty sure I was on the edge of my seat the whole time. Deciding between closing my eyes or watching Harry shoot up yet again was a constant battle throughout the movie. This movie will definitely make you think twice before ever doing hard drugs, since the final scene closes with each character curling up in a fetal position, Marion on her couch after prostituting herself, Harry in the hospital bed with his arm amputated, Tyrone on a cot in prison, and Sara in a bed in at the mental hospital. As much as you want to see a happy ending come out of this movie, don’t hold your breath, because it won’t.

8. The Dark Knight. So many of these characters were too good to talk about. Since I am particularly a fan of Heath Ledger, I enjoyed this movie even more. But even if Heath Ledger had not been a part of this movie, I still think it would have been epic. I truly enjoyed everything about this movie – from the casting choices to the costumes to the plot, I thought it was all very well done. This is yet another movie that I would recommend to anyone and everyone (everyone over a certain age, that is).

9. Mean Girls. If I took a poll of how many people haven’t seen this movie, I think very few would say, “No, I have never watched Mean Girls.” This movie is famous (or infamous) and I think it could actually go down in history as a great movie. It depicts all the horribleness of high school in a way that can make you laugh at it, but still say, “Yeah, high school is a shitty time and no one should have to go through that.” By putting a positive spin on some negative aspects of life has to make everyone smile by the end of the movie, once they realize how much of joke those four years they spent in their respective schools were.

10. Finding Nemo. Since this is my dad’s favorite movie, I felt a need to include Finding Nemo on my list. And it is a guilty pleasure of mine, to be sure. Who would think that a movie about fish in the ocean could such a crowd pleaser? To this day, my dad and I can sit at home, watch this movie, eat a bowl of popcorn, and cry from laughing so hard. This has to be one of Pixar’s greatest films, and I am a proud owner of this DVD.

Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving is a time when families all across America come together to, well, give thanks! My Thanksgivings are pretty much all the same, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. Since we always have our family over at our house for Thanksgiving, a little preparation is need. After a week of cleaning (although this year I wasn’t home to help with that), the big day is finally here. I wake up at an hour that is earlier than what I’m used to, go for a quick run, and take a shower. Then the real fun begins. My mom and I turn on the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade and get to work. Chatting all the while makes the cooking, cleaning, and setting of the table go faster. I never find it hard to hold a conversation with my mom, but on Thanksgiving it is especially easy. As my mom preps the turkey to make stuffing and get that bird into the oven, I set the table. Once those two items can be checked off the list, my grandma arrives and we all sit down to watch some of the parade, since one of my mom’s favorite parts about Thanksgiving are the balloons in the parade. After I’ve had my share of watching balloons fly on by, I begin to make the guacamole, so once my family arrives at half time of the Packer game, we are ready with snacks. For some reason, the recipe my mom has for guacamole is everyone’s favorite, and my cousins insist it wouldn’t be a Stillman family get-together if Nancy’s guacamole weren’t there. When the rest of my family finally arrives, the real celebration can begin.

You can hear the kids in our backyard from miles away. With soccer, basketball, baseball, Frisbee, and hula hooping all happening at the same time, you know it’s a good time. After all, we need to work up an appetite for our thanksgiving feast! When mealtime has finally arrived, after a week of preparation, we all take a big sigh, and breath in the wonderful smells that engulf our senses. Fall. Turkey. Leaves. Buttery mashed potatoes. Stuffing. Candles. Cranberries. Pumpkin pie. Everything that embodies a deliciously delightful atmosphere can be sensed. It is at this point where my dad takes out his three-page sermon he has prepared – the schoolteacher inside of him has him do this each and every year. Instead of sighs, my sister and I let out groans (jokingly, course), but dad commences anyways. When this ritual is finally complete, we can begin eating. As I look around at my family, I remember why I should thank god every day. It is sad that it takes a holiday to make me remember how fortunate I am to be living my life. I have a wonderful, crazy family who I adore, loving parents who always support me, I love my hometown, and Lehigh University is the only place I want to be during the school year. I guess, then, I should be thankful for Thanksgiving, since it allows me the chance to thank god for giving me all these wonderful pieces of my life.

Helping the World

There are many critics of America out there that claim that America needs to focus more on its global adventures than the problems we face at home, because the problems abroad are worse. I completely disagree. Just look at any number of statistics available, and you will be shocked. Not only is there severe poverty and homelessness in the United States of America, but drug problems and crime as well. Our president needs to take a step back, and realize that while yes, we are a global power and need to be involved in world affairs, we also need to take care of our citizens. I understand the fact that less than one percent of our national budget goes to foreign aid, and that that is a staggeringly low number, but I believe that one needs to be able to help them before they can help others.

Since the end of the Cold War, federal spending has declined for job training, employment programs, and low-income housing. How does this seem fair? One of the best ways to start helping our nation is from the bottom-up. We need to put money into programs that help disadvantaged people, since the spending that is being reduced is things that the president deems “unworthy” of this nation’s money. Another unfortunate statistic is that five juveniles are murdered each day in the United States. I’m going to take make a wild assumption, and say that those juveniles are not normally from rich suburbs, but the slums where they are trying to survive on their own. It doesn’t help peoples’ situations when one-third of the young people who enter high school never graduate. If you have a third of the student population out on the streets, without a high school diploma, you better be sure you are going to have problems. How else are these people supposed to get by other than stealing and getting into more trouble? I’m not saying they are justified in their actions, but they are not completely to blame. The government needs to nip these problems in the bud by putting money into schools so these teenagers are given better opportunities – even things as simple as textbooks and chalk. With forty-five percent of African Americans and other minorities in the US living in poverty, I think I know a good place to start reform. These people in poverty have no one to turn to and that is a huge issue. Since they have no one to turn to or rely on, many males are forced to turn to the streets. Did you know that black males have a greater chance of being killed by violence than the average soldier in Vietnam? That astounds me. In a country that is famed for the “American Dream,” this many people should not face such horrid circumstances. We, the citizens of this great country, should at least try a little harder to help those in need. Even if this means writing a check every once in a while to organizations in need, donating food at times other than Thanksgiving and Christmas, or even just giving a homeless man you see on the street a meal, every little bit helps. As Anne Frank so eloquently stated, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

Family Weekend

Being the youngest in my family, my parents were understandably hesitant to let me venture out to the East Coast for college. They understood my want to get out of the Midwest, but had a harder time wrapping their minds around why I would want to be so far away from my family. To be fair, though, all three of my sisters did stay in the Midwest for college, and were only a few hours drive away from our house. Knowing that my parents were reluctant to let me leave did make me a little more nervous to come to Lehigh University. What if my parents were right? What if I want to come home, but I can’t catch a quick flight, or it’s too expensive? Question upon question were piling up in my head, but by the time August (and therefore freshman orientation) came around, there was no turning back. Obviously when I got to Lehigh I immediately felt comfortable and knew that this place is where I truly did belong. While I would tell my parents this every time I talked to them (often every day of the week), I felt like they didn’t really understand to what extent this was actually true. I see this as the main reason I was so excited for them to come visit me over Family Weekend.

Hailing all the way from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, I don’t know too many family members who live within driving distance of Bethlehem, so having my family attend Parent’s Weekend in November meant a lot to me. Yes, I had been home for Pacing Break so it wasn’t as if I needed to see them, but I found myself getting more and more excited to show them my “new” life. Admittedly, I even started making a list of all the places on and off Lehigh’s campus that I wanted to take them. I wanted to prove to my parents that I was happy with my choice of college and that Lehigh and I were a good match. Showing my parents where I have my classes, where I study, and where I hang out a lot seemed more important to me than participating in one of the many tours or programs planned by the University. Arriving on Friday afternoon, my family was given an ample amount of time to tour how we wanted to, both Friday and Saturday. Proudly telling my parents a little bit about each building we passed, I felt a sense of accomplishment for having actually made it this far. It seems silly, but I think every freshman should take a step back, and realize what they have accomplished. We all made it through high school – what is supposed to be one of the most emotional times in a person’s life – and got into a well-respected college that we can be proud to show off. Apparently, family weekend was more than a time to see my parents, but yet another experience to learn something new about myself at Lehigh.

Top 20 lists of 2009

With the decade quickly rolling to a close, dozens of “Top 10” lists are coming out. Whether authored in a magazine, on a blog, or on facebook, these lists are obviously subjective to who is writing them. I looked at multiple lists from different sources, and found diverse rankings everywhere I went. Yes, some places showed the same songs in different spots on the chart, but often times I would find that certain songs didn’t even show up on the different lists. This made me think – why do we insist on making these rankings? If everyone has a different opinion on music anyways, can we as a population get anything out of these lists? What makes people get a thrill out of seeing songs placed in a particular order? Does it make one feel “cool” if they like a song that shows up on the chart? Honestly, I think part of it is that people like having easy and simple things to read. Instead of reading an intelligent article in a magazine, like “The Economist,” they can opt for less confusing dialect that still gives them something to think and converse about. People are also prone to judge everything they see, so by looking into these rankings, people are able to judge the songs, the author, and the magazine in general in simple ways that don’t require too much brainpower. While this is a negative view of the situation, I do think someone needed to put that out there.

It is fun, though, to look through these charts and wonder what kind of person put them together. As I read them, I always think to myself, “This person loves their rock music,” or, “The person who wrote this article is obviously biased towards heavy metal.” In truth, people like to know things about other people, and a good way to get to know someone is by reading articles that state said person’s opinions! We as humans are naturally inquisitive, and are always interested to know more about others, so this “list-making” gets us one step closer to finding out something about one more person in this large world. After all, when you are first getting to know someone, doesn’t music usually come up? In most of my encounters, it does. Not only does it let us have internal discussions, but also these charts bring people together over their music. By mentioning a “Top 10” list, you instantly started what could be an hour-long conversation, delving into why the author picked the songs they did and why. In essence, these lists bring people together – who doesn’t want that?

The Sun Inn

Family Weekend is the time when a student’s family pays too much money to come visit their child. For my parents, this weekend included spending money on the plane tickets from Wisconsin to the Lehigh Valley International Airport, renting a car, a hotel (which is always more expensive over family weekend), nice dinners, and, of course, a shopping trip to load up on food items. Therefore, it is always nice when we run across things to do that cost no money. While walking around North Bethlehem, my dad had been pestering me to go to the Moravian Museum, but since I had already visited that establishment, I did not feel a need to take another tour of it. Strolling down the streets that weren’t Main Street led us to an interesting building. It particularly struck my eye because of the fact that we had just talked about it in my English I class the past week.

This building is known as the Sun Inn, and gains its popularity through the fact that it is thought to be haunted. A tour of this museum took approximately five minutes, since the tour consisted of basically walking around in a circle on the first floor of the hotel. After reading the paragraph on each of the five stations, and not seeing any mention of ghosts, I meandered over to the front desk to confront the man sitting their about the haunted past of the building I was in. He gladly obliged to give me the low-down on the paranormal activity that had been witnessed where we were standing. According to the man I was talking to, dozens of paranormal groups have come through the Inn, and all have thus far concluded that there are ghosts inhabiting the Sun Inn. One in particular, whose name is William, quite the friendly ghost, and simply sits in the chair he is claimed to have died in a long, long time ago. Actually, all of the ghosts I was told of are relatively friendly, which makes the manager happy to be working there. The story that I liked the best is that the catering companies that work on the upper levels of the hotel for private dinners claim that once they put down silverware or other table-settings and then leave for a minute, when they return, the aforementioned items have been moved! While they have not done studies on this particular topic, it is yet another story that adds to the fun of the Sun Inn.

Halloween at Lehigh

Halloween at Lehigh was a very interesting event. Experiencing this holiday in college is much different than what I encountered back home on the streets of my suburb in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I am so used to handing out candy to the children in their fairy and batman outfits, that I wasn’t even sure what to expect here at Lehigh. Little did I know how much I would miss the youthful innocence of being at home for Halloween. As the movie “Mean Girls” states: “Halloween is the one night a year when girls can dress like a total slut and no other girls can say anything about it.” Lehigh is no exception to this statement – nor do I think any other college is. Since when do girls need to feel pretty by dressing in short skirts and skimpy tops? Why can’t everyday clothes do the trick? Could someone do a psychological analysis about this? I’m sure they could, and I’m sure they already have. It just boggles my mind when I think back on the past three nights. Thursday night was relatively tame compared to Friday and Saturday. Since it wasn’t truly Halloween yet, I assumed people assumed that the “sluttiness factor” should be fairly low, and as it got closer to Halloween, they could move up on the scale. This assumption was one hundred percent correct. I truly came to this realization when sitting in the Hawks Nest – Lehigh’s late-night food source – people watching (one of my favorite past-times). As I surveyed the people walking in and out of this establishment, I was shocked to see the amount of skin showing. It was almost as if there was a contest to see how much of your body one could show without being completely nude. Personally, I’m not a fan of such competitions. There is no doubt that I enjoyed my Halloween despite the array of costumes, because there are always the people who do Halloween right and actually dress up – nerds, Mario and Luigi, superman, buzz lightyear, etc. After my first college Halloween, I am now prepared for how many people in today’s world think. It is entertaining to think about how the times have changed since my parents’ first Halloween in college. I can only imagine. All in all, Halloween at Lehigh was a great experience, and now I am prepared for the mindset of college students on this particular holiday.

The Moravian Museum in North Bethlehem

As we walked down the hill towards North Bethlehem, I was looking out trying to place where this museum could be located. I hadn’t been to North Bethlehem since first looking at Lehigh University junior year of high school, so I didn’t know if I should expect something similar to South Bethlehem – not the cleanest of places with some interesting people to go along with it – or to find a completely different world. I think I found the later.

Walking across the bridge, I noticed the cute, tree-lined street that welcomes you to North Bethlehem, and knew this was going to be a good day. While strolling towards the museum, I took in all of the old, historic buildings throughout the community, and how the air felt so much more like a town, as opposed to South Bethlehem, where everything seems kind of hectic to me.

When we finally got to the Moravian Museum, I couldn’t help but let out a little laugh. It looked like a house in a little town that was turned into a museum – which happens to be exactly what it is. The museum is what was formerly the “Gemeinhaus,” which means community house. For such a little museum, it sure packed in a lot of information. As we paid for our tickets to go in, the clerk mentioned how the credit card machine wasn’t working, and went on to mention how it really is like back in the “old days” when credit cards weren’t used – how quaint!

The Moravian community was organized on June 25, 1742. The oldest buildings are on West Church Street (where the museum is located). Those marked are: Gemeinhaus, Sisters’ House, Bell Brothers’ house, and the Old Chapel. Almost all of the structures in the Moravian community were made from logs – not stone, so it is easier to define them from other cultures. Most of the earliest residents of the Gemeinhaus came from Germany, and had originally tried to settle in Savannah, Georgia in 1735, but eventually the emigrants came to Pennsylvania. The first building they constructed in the 18^th century was the Gemeinhaus. In every Moravian community, the Gemeinhaus is situated on one side of the town square, and had two doors in front – one for men and one for women. The Gemeinhaus was a school, a place of worship, and a space to live and work.

Only members of the Moravian Church were allowed to live and work in Bethlehem before 1845, and until 1762, everything in the community was owned by the church. The residents received goods, clothing, education, childcare, and shelter in exchange for working at jobs that supported the community. For example, from 1742-1762, tradesmen were required to have permission from the church to work at their performed occupation. The social structure for this time is for the Moravian community is known as the choir system. Community members were divided into groups according to age, gender, and marital status. There were eight choirs: little girls, little boys, single sisters, single brothers, married sisters, married brothers, widowed sisters, and widowed brothers. Each choir lived, worked, and worshiped separately from the other choirs. Dress in that day was pretty plain. Many of the women wore a common style of clothing consisting of a plain petticoat or skirt, a bodice, and a Haube or cap, but the ribbons she used to tie her Haube and lace her bodice reflected the choir she belonged to. Little girls wore red ribbons, single sisters wore pink ribbons, married sisters wore blue ribbons, and widowed sisters wore white ribbons. Men’s clothing was pretty much the same as that of men who did not live in Moravian communities, though they usually chose conservative colors.

Since everyone lived together in this community, they all had the same schedule. When walking through the museum, there is one room that imitates the schoolroom, and has the daily schedule form April 28, 1780 posted. The students would rise around 5:30 in the morning, eat breakfast at 6:00am, prepare for class from 6:00-8:00am, have classes with a half-hour of chapel from 8:00-11:45am, have dinner at 11:45, and then resume classes from 1:00-4:00. I grew up in a world much different from the Moravians, so this schedule seems very unpleasant to me. Not only does waking up at five-thirty in the morning every day of the year sound more painful than nails screeching on a chalkboard, but the rest of the day doesn’t sound like too much fun either. Oh, how the times have changed.

After walking around the museum for a while, we decided to check out the local surroundings – see what the rest of North Bethlehem was like. We walked in about a ten-block radius of the museum, and it was nice to see all of the old buildings interspersed with the new shops and restaurants. Apparently we picked the right day to go downtown, because there was a Halloween parade, so the sidewalks were bustling with little children in their costumes, parents chatting, and all-around happiness. A stop inside the Chocolate Lab was the perfect way to end our day in North Bethlehem, getting delicious chocolate for a pretty reasonable price.

This excursion ended up being much more entertaining than I originally thought it would be, because it wasn't just a trip to a museum, it was exploring a place I'd never been before! Even the museum was more interesting than I expected, and it’s nice to know a little bit of the history about the place that I am calling my home for the next four years. I also got to explore North Bethlehem a little bit, which I probably wouldn’t have done had I not gone to the museum in the first place. Knowing that there are good restaurants and a movie theater makes North Bethlehem an enticing place to go for a break from the bubble known as Lehigh University.

Music and Today's Culture

Today’s youth culture is very focused on music. Music provides a source of entertainment and a good way to start a conversation. I can guarantee that any party you attend will have some type of music playing, and the type of music playing will give you a good idea of what type of party it is. For instance, should you hear rap music blasting from a frat house, you can assume a dance party is happening at that moment. If you hear someone playing country music, you can assume it is a more relaxed situation. When thinking of the music categories discussed in the reading, you can easily apply a stereotype to each of them. When I was reading through the passage that started on page 669, I unintentionally pictured someone who I thought would listen to that type of music. I think the stereotypes that people associate with certain types of music actually end up influencing what those musicians actually wear and how they act. After all, isn’t the media all about appealing to their audiences? If an artist notices that their fan base wears skinny jeans and tight v-neck t-shirts, aren’t they more likely to try to appeal to those people by dressing and acting like they do? It is a pretty good marketing trick. Teens are always looking for a group to associate with – a place where they can belong. Since so many bands sound the same, it gives people a lot of “different” things to listen to, while staying in the same genre, and making it seem like they are music connoisseurs.

Sometimes, though, people use music as a refuge from the dramas of everyday life. They can escape to a place where screaming and beating on drums is an okay thing to do. Where sorrowful lyrics are scribbled down while the lyricist is going through a painful time. The listeners hear the agony in the voice of the singer and think that maybe somebody else does know what they are going through. Maybe somebody else does understand them. If someone can feel this type of connection to a certain type of music, of course they are going to back that genre or a certain artist. This is how the ball gets rolling for certain musicians – they acquire a small, dedicated group listening to your music (all of whom are very similar types of people) and the word spreads among that crowd, and voila, you have a fan-base. This, in turn, leads to people buying your music and therefore you have financial backing. Although, yes, it’s easier said then done, it has obviously worked for quite a few people. Today, there are so many bands that started by playing in their garage, and some local kids started hanging around and listening to their stuff, and then all of the sudden they have the idea to get bigger, play real gigs, and they have a chance to hit it off.

This issue of music also deals with how the idea of the “American dream” has changed over the years. Today, people consider the American dream to be making it big, as opposed to the old idea of settling down, getting a successful job, and starting a family. In order to fulfill the American dream in some people’s eyes, you need to be a rock-star; live like the big celebrities, own a fancy car, a huge mansion, and have an episode on MTV Cribs. One of the problems with this, though, is that many people think they can attain this goal, when in reality only a handful will ever make it that far up the social/ economic ladder. This leads today’s youth garage bands to have unrealistic ideas of how far they can go with their talents. You can be an extremely talented guitarist, but you are most likely competing with hundreds of thousands of other people just like you, who have just as much drive and will to make it big. Reality check: good luck making it big if there are more people than you can think of striving for the same thing. So many people put their heart and soul into music, and only end up hurt in the end, because they wasted years of their lives trying to “make it big” until they end up middle-aged with no future.

Music is a huge part of today’s culture, but has it gotten too big? Do people put too much emphasis on their love for music? Have we taken it too far? These are all questions that I do not have the answer to, but that we can all speculate about. Frankly, I think right now we are okay, but the second more kids start trying to make it big in the music industry rather than go to college is the day I take a whole new stance to the music culture. I cannot justify listening to music instead of studying. Since I believe that education is one of the most important things a teenager can do to improve their standing in life, I find it hard to justify people staying in their band instead of going to college because they think they have a chance of making. I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but maybe people need a reality check. Of course I’m not saying don’t listen to music (since I do all the time), it’s just that people have to realize that music isn’t everything, and that life will continue, even when the jam session stops.

Obama's Speech to America's Youth

While reading the transcript of President Obama’s speech to the students of America, I figured it would be an interesting topic to write a blog post on. In this speech, President Obama called for children of all ages to try their best to accomplish their goals, not be afraid to ask for help when they need it, and not let their failures or challenges define them but to teach them. Simply put, this seems like a pretty good message to send out; but it’s in the intricacies of speech that I find some problems. First of all, he talks about “turning around schools that aren’t working.” Well, frankly, the government needs to get a move on this. In my hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Public School system is horrible. The kids have no incentive to stay in school, so they don’t. The dropout rate is incredibly high, and I would like to know what President Obama is going to do about this. I enjoy listening to his messages of hope, but I want to hear what his actions are going to be. Also, while I obviously think this is a good message to be sending to America’s youth, I’m concerned that he doesn’t have enough push behind his points. Why did President Obama choose to bail out the American car companies instead of the colleges who are being forced to cut back programs because of their financial deficit? Yes, the banks and car companies did need to be bailed out, but if Obama is implying that it all starts with the children of our nation, shouldn’t we have started bailing them (and therefore the schools) out first? I do appreciate his effort to motive the students though, and President Obama is no stranger to messages of hope, but I do think he needs to act on these words. The ideas he is putting into our heads are great, but if they are not going to be carried out, what’s the point? If schools don’t have enough money to buy books, computers, and general school supplies that they need in order to teach, how are we supposed to motivate the students? How are we supposed to keep kids in school if there is nothing there besides people? Frankly, that puts a lot of pressure on the teachers. I have a lot of faith in teachers, but that may be asking a bit too much. It may be true though that we need to reach our youth with messages hope to get them to feel invested in and responsible for their/our future. After all, my generation will be taking over soon, so we better be prepared. All in all, if anyone were going to give this speech, I am glad it was Obama. He is a particularly good role model for working your way up through education. He worked very hard throughout his life to get where he is today, so why shouldn’t he try to motivate others? President Obama is easily able to relate his story to others, which helps his position. I am not so sure so many people would listen to what he says if he were not such a charismatic speaker, and so open about his childhood, but that is part of the reason he was elected to the presidency. Now let’s just see if we can get some action out of those pretty words.

Linderman Library

As I was walking to Linderman Library, I realized that a feeling of calm had taken over. I found myself gazing at the tall, green trees and walking slowly down the steps that lead one to the magnificent building Lehigh students are fortunate enough to call their library. When you reach the entrance, two enormous columns welcome you (in an unintimidating manner, of course). After walking through the formal lobbyy, you are hit by the sound of silence. You almost feel bad walking through, hoping you don't disturb anyone's studies. The first thing I noticed about the library was the long tables set up from end to end. I wondered - is this a place to study, or socialize? Considering my thoughts were the loudest sound I could hear, I figured this early in the year, it was the place to study. I noticed the students sitting there; backs bent over their texts, and realized that this was the place to be to get homework done. With gorgeous surroundings and all the resources you could need, what more could one want?

The Rotunda has a different effect then the main library though. Wood is an interesting choice of flooring, considering that with one flip of my sandals, I felt like I was disturbing every person in there. So I could observe the Rotunda, I decided to take a seat. Unfortunately I did not realize that I would be sitting in one of the loudest chairs known to man. One had to sit completely still in order for the quiet atmosphere to remain. As I glanced around the Rotunda, I realized how much work had actually gone into building this magnificent structure. Maybe, some of the thought process involved erecting this place had more to do with its aesthetic appeal than practicality, but it is undoubtedly a great attraction for the university. Letting prospective students know that if you get tired of studying, take a break and just gaze around – Lehigh University is a gorgeous place.

Interview with Ardyn

Eighteen years ago, the fifth member of the Smith* family entered this world. With two older brothers and two older sisters, Ardyn’s family is not small to say the least (she does have twenty-seven first cousins). She enjoys the close-knit ties her family shares in their town of Brecksville, Ohio. Her school life, on the other hand, was not so similar. Graduating with a class of approximately 330 students, Ardyn could have easily gotten lost in the crowd. Luckily she was able to take a spotlight on her soccer team. Lehigh noticed this talent to, as they recruited her to the Varsity girl’s team. While Lehigh University is obviously the only school Ardyn would want to attend, schools like Indiana University, some local schools, and a school in Florida also detected her talents. In addition to playing soccer, Ardyn enjoys normal teenage activities. Hanging out with friends, watching television shows like The Office and Gossip Girl, viewing action/comedy movies, and listening to all kinds of music are some of her interests. This summer, she worked at Bella Toccare, a Day Spa and Hair Salon. After a tough day at work, Ardyn would say there are few things better than a cup of peanut butter ice cream (Moosetracks to be exact). While Ardyn’s home is now Emery in Upper Cents, her new job is playing soccer for Lehigh, and her school boasts about 7,000 people, she can’t imagine it any other way. Nor should she want to.

*name has been changed to protect this person's privacy