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About Me:

My name is Olivia and I am a senior at Butler University. I spend most of my time in Lilly Hall as a BFA Dance Performance major. When not in rehearsal or ballet class, I write papers for my English Literature second major. In my super-abundant, never-lacking, this-is-highly-sarcastic spare time, I attempt to cook in my apartment kitchen, watch Youtube videos of ballet, knit sweaters that never seem to come to an end, and read books both silly and serious. If I could take any class at Butler just for kicks, I'd go for DiffyQ.

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Archive: September 2011

Rainy Days, Wet Bikes

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Olivia

My parents gave me a bike for my birthday when I was a sophomore, and I love it! Living in the Apartment Village (and University Terrace this summer) meant a slightly longer walk, so a bike helps me get to class on time in the mornings. (Note that Butler’s campus is pretty small, so my “longer walk” suffers in comparison to, say, my cousin’s 20 min commute at a different school.)

Last night I had a leadership team meeting for the Butler Catholic Community, then a call-out meeting for Bulldogs Against Breast Cancer. It has been drizzling all afternoon, and the skies started up again once I unlocked my bike. Riding back in the rain is not the most pleasant experience. I have to squint like mad to keep the water out of my eyes. Also, I whacked my head on the underside of a bed frame on Monday — trying to get something from under there — and I have a nice bruise that makes squinting uncomfortable.

Battle wound. I'm slowly getting a lovely black eye.

Anyway, all this rain/bike reminiscing reminded me of the video I made when I was a sophomore. I posted this on my old blog, but since that’s now tragically lost I suppose I can show you again. I watched it again and winced from the goofiness of it. Oh well. Enjoy! Or not, I guess that’s your call.

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Tips for College Living: Schoolwork

Posted on September 7, 2011 by Olivia

Though Butler’s fall semester started only three weeks ago on August 25, we have already received a lovely vacation. Thank you, Labor Day. I labored a bit, appropriately, reading a book for my Financial Fictions English class called The Incorporation of American — so learning about laborers. The homework load still is not too bad early in the year.

What was true in high school becomes even more so in college: There are periods of madness and stretches of relative calm. The beginning of year is especially strangely peaceful to the dance major, because rehearsals have not begun for The Nutcracker. The underclassmen had their auditions today, and the cast list should be up soon enough. Then rehearsals begin in earnest. Add the month-in English paper deadline, and soon I’ll be busy.

Another high school-translates-to-college fact: Procrastination. It gets worse, not better, so try to stay on track your senior year! Because I have some down time, I blog more infrequently. When I get a bit busier, the blog posts will pick up (unless it’s production week, when we push aside even productive procrastination in favor of pancaking shoes and spacing ballets).

Unlike high school, a college schedule affords you the time to complete schoolwork during the day. No longer do you work for six straight hours, break, then do homework. Instead, you might have an hour or two free in the morning (unless you are a freshman or sophomore dance major — then you are busybusy). The common tale? Go to the campus Starbucks to work on that paper… and talk the entire time with friends.

This freedom is both refreshing and challenging. As a new college student, find what works for you, of course. I would recommend, however, you luxuriate in the calm moments, avoid procrastinating in the truly hectic moments, and at least try to get some schoolwork done before 9 pm.

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One Week (and a half) In: English Department

Posted on September 2, 2011 by Olivia

Friday morning, it is, and about a week and a half of classes gone past. Last post, I gave you the news from the dance department — now we shall examine the world of my English literature classes.

  • I’m only taking two English classes this semester, one of which meets only once a week, so this list might not be too long.
  • Shakespeare — EN 363 — meets three days a week. My one complaint? The textbook is HUGE. I’m a dancer/English major. I’m not used to lugging around the real textbooks like the science majors. Even my physics textbook was not this large, and I did not have to bring it every day.
  • We are doing A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Shakespeare class. I can still quote large tracts of this play, thanks to a brief but obsessive period in high school. I have seen or danced in three different productions of the ballet, as well as trying to choreograph my own version with my friend in middle school. (Laughable — we spent four hours in my basement and produced two minutes of movement.) I have the suspicion that the class will become much more difficult when we switch to plays not so familiar. YouTube Preview Image YouTube Preview Image
  • The other class is Financial Fictions in the Gilded Age. We read books about financiers in the post-Civil War period. I’m intrigued because the last American literature class I took from the professor turned out to be great fun. We usually get to read some shoddily written books from circa 1850.
  • I’m also doing an independent study on British stream-of-consciousness novels. (Sorry, Dr. Garver. I’m working on my paper as soon as I finish this blog post, I promise!) I’m trying to claim that, while being the underdog in a colonizer/colonized relationship stinks no matter how you parse it, being recognized as such by the colonizer grants the colonized some measure of power. I use the examples of East African colonies (recognized as colonies by the British Empire) and Wales (not recognized as acting the part of the colonized and denied a voice granted to East African subjects).

And that’s the news from the English department, one week into the semester. Shakespeare is about to get harder, Financial Fictions is going to get funnier, and my independent study paper will be written. Let’s work on this paper.

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