Sickkkk

Went to Greenville for the weekend, and had a great time. It was lovely to see Caroline, Harrison, and my grandparents.

I got back last night somewhere around 7:30-ish, and was finally finished getting unloaded around 8:45-ish, or something.

This morning, it was really tough to wake up. Not only because I was waking at 7 for class, but also because my head felt like it was trying to secede from itself. Apparently, my cold had moved one step more, and was now causing my head to be all congested, with no way to free me from it. I dragged myself to the showers, and eventually coaxed myself to get back out once I was in it.

I almost fell asleep in my economics class and my humanities lecture, which is really embarrassing. It's so annoying how, even though I got 8-9 hours of sleep last night, I'm falling asleep in class. I wish I could pause class for a while until I get better, but I gotta go.

Econ was cool today, though, and is getting more complex now, which is good.

Humanities was interesting, and was about the Hebrew Scriptures and the reasons for them and what they were causes of and for. It was neat, but I'm bias, as I really like Dr. Epes.

I went to lunch with Andy and Nathan, and met Spencer, Kseniya, Thomas, and Jacob down there. They're all really neat, and I talked to Jacob about my metaphysics class, which I haven't finished the reading for. (Don't worry, Mom, I know the topics that these chapters are on, I promise!)




Well, I'm going to go and skim the chapters really quickly, but I will catch you later.

Have a phenomenal afternoon!

Ps- I finished LOST yesterday, and am now open to discussion about the show.

First Day of Second Day of Class

Wow, my sleep schedule is going to be so messed up.

Today, I woke up at 10:30A to a phone call and my roommate coming back from class and breakfast. The day was already really bright, and everyone else in the world was awake.

I stumbled out of bed, showered, and found some people to go to lunch with.

Not much of note in the afternoon until my Applied Ethics class. I got in right before the class started (the class starts at 3:05, and I probably slid in at 3:04-ish), so, of course, I was seated in the back. The teacher, Professor Goldstein proceeded to tell about the requirements of the course, and what would happen in it, and all of that good stuff. I noticed all kinds of awesome philosophers--ones I had read, at that!--and started to get really excited.

Right after going through the syllabus, though, the class got interesting really fast. He turned to us and asked us to debate the ethics of abortion--whether or not an abortion was immoral or moral. Nobody spoke for half a minute, so I explained what I felt the debate truly was and how the argument should be approached. Unfortunately enough, I had to take a stance on the issue at that point in time. It would appear that I picked the unpopular stance, too, as four or five students instantly raised their hands when the professor asked for more people to speak. Almost everyone in the class contributed, and a few contributed more than once. I'm so glad that participation at Davidson is such a big deal, and something that comes so easily for so many people. It means that our discussions will actually get somewhere, instead of the discussions just being between three people who agree on the same side of the argument, but don't realize that they do.

After class, I talked to the professor, and told him about Wittgenstein and Sartre and Russell and Mill and all of the other philosophers I read, and he seemed to be really excited, too. It was great to see a teacher who truly loves his subject and loves it when students are interested, too.

I had dinner with Graham, who had a pet furry caterpillar perched on his shoulder for most of the dinner, and had a nice chat with him about his experiences at Davidson, my experiences at Davidson, and his upcoming documentary. He and a friend are borrowing my Flip to record their documentary, and it seems like it would definitely be something interesting to watch/film.

I made a quick run through the Organizations Fair, signed up for the mailing list of the Eco-Reps, Mock Trial, and the Young Dems. Unfortunately, I had to make it to the library for a Davidson101 class, so I didn't have any time to shop around. I'm really excited for the Eco-Reps, and I think I will probably spend time in the Young Dems as opposed to Mock Trial for this year. Again, none of these plans are set in stone, and when it comes to picking extra-curriculars, I'm usually pretty fickle until a week before the commitment comes.

Davidson 101 - Library was alright. I learned how to find books in the library and where to search for scholarly sources within the library database. Davidson's got a pretty good library, though I didn't take that away from my first visits to the campus. I'm glad that Dav101 is able to change my mind like that. My next Davidson101 class is "Realizing Your Risk", and is on Thursday night.





Afterwards, I was able to talk on the phone with Caroline, and enjoyed the conversation thoroughly. Here's a shout-out.

Early night tonight after reading some more Epic of Gilgamesh, Economics, and Metaphysics.

Have a phenomenal preevening.

First Day of Class

Whoops! Forgot to blog yesterday! Mostly, I didn't blog because I was so late getting back in.

Anyway, here's what I did yesterday:

I woke up at an unreasonably early hour (something like 7:30--shush, morning people!) and got out of bed and showered. My first class is at 8:30, and I thought that I would have time to get some breakfast before if I woke an hour early, but, somehow, I found myself without the necessary time. I walked over to the Chambers building, and sat on the steps to call my parents before class started.

I ate my chewy bar and found my class, Econ 101 - Introductory Economics, taught by Professor Hess. I was a little wary of taking an econ class at first, because I wasn't sure how well I would do or how much I would grasp the subject, but after a fantastic class of 50 minutes of pure ecstasy (sort of), I have decided that I definitely like economics. I understood most of what was being said, purely because of the econ class I took my sophomore year in high school, but also learned a little bit, even on the first day. The teacher seems really cool and definitely knows what he is talking about. Unfortunately enough, though, the alarm on my phone went off in the middle of the class, and I was thoroughly embarrassed. Man! The first day?! Already?! Jeez. Oh, well. The professor continued talking as I disabled my alarm.

My next class was directly after at 9:30, and was Humanities 150, in the Hance Auditorium. Hance is basically the big dome on the top of the building, and is pretty neat. The lecturer was Professor Berkey, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Michael Emerson, the actor who played Benjamin Linus in the show LOST. (Compare below.) The lecture was very interesting, and I didn't daze out once, or even feel bored at all, even though I remembered most of the information from a sixth grade social studies class. I'm going to love the Humanities Program, I just know it.






(Michael Emerson as Benjamin Linus first; Professor Berkey as himself second.)





























Then, I had a reeeeeeeeaaaaaally long break for lunch and studying some more of the Epic of Gilgamesh for Wednesday's discussion. Lunch was good--tostadas and stuff.

After the break, I had Metaphysics, which is going to be such a delicious class, I just know it. The teacher, Professor Griffith, is awesome. She seems like she really knows what she is talking about, and I am really excited for her class. Many of the kids in there seem to be pretty proficient with understanding philosophy, and that makes me even more excited. The reading assignments thus far are not that difficult, as most of the class will be discussion and short essay--the way classes SHOULD be.

Dinner was good, and then I hung out watching LOST in my room for a little (after learning "Home" on the mandolin).

Late last night, though, a bunch of people from 4th Cannon came down to my room said hello. I told them that we should all go into the lounge and talk with everyone, and we did. It was really cool. I love my dorm building, and think that Davidson was the right place for me to go, after all.

Have a great evening!

Orientation: Complete.

Our final day of Orientation was today, and I'm so glad that it is over.

It's not that Orientation is necessarily bad, it's just a really looooong process; don't get me wrong--I'm really excited for Davidson--but Orientation is... long.

Today, I didn't have any appointments before the afternoon, so I was able to sleep in this morning, which was wonderful if I may say so myself. I woke at about 9:30 and showered, hung out in my dorm and played some guitar.

I gathered a group of my hallmates for brunch at commons and we went down there for one of the tastiest meals yet. I suppose that yogurt with granola doesn't really constitute much of a menu option, but the meal was so tasty. After lunch, more hanging out took place before a long speech at 2:00 on the topic of the summer reading book of In the Sanctuary of Outcasts, by Davidson dad Neil White. After the speech, we all filed out and towards our reading discussion groups. My group met with Professor Smith, an Economics teacher and baseball coach, on the third floor of Chambers. The discussion was nice, though it did seem that I was the only person in the room with my particular sentiment on the book. I hope that I didn't offend anyone at the discussion, as everyone there is really cool and I get in a serious mode when I'm arguing a point--even if the point is whether or not cologne is a significant part of a book.

After the discussion, another rallying of the troops took place, but this time for an attack on the poster sale in the Union. I found like 17 posters that I loved, but narrowed it down to five to keep costs down. I ended up with LOST, Dexter, Fight Club, Black Swan, and Big Bang Theory posters, of which I am very pleased. I set the posters up and continued reading more of the Humanities reading, The Epic of Gilgamesh.




After a 15 minute respite, we, as a hall, went to Commons for dinner. The dinner was tasty. At the end of dinner, I ended up in a semi-political debate on which Republican nominees even have a chance of getting the nomination this year. Nathan, Dan, Alex, Colin, and others joined in the debate, and it was cool.

We then got dressed up in suits and ties for the signing of the Honor Code. We took a quick picture on the steps of Chambers, and looked really legit. I was wearing my grey suit with a pink tie, and definitely looked pretty sweet, if I may say so myself. We listened to a member of the Honor Council talk about the code for a while, which was a lot of fun, even if I was the one found with everclear, without a bike, cheating on a test, lying about stealing a Snickers bar, and many other transgressions against the Honor Code.

We then went to Duke Performance Hall and listened to Prof. Epes talk about the Honor Code and plagiarism. I really hope I have him next year, as that would be really cool. We then signed our names, and I felt really excited to finally be a part of Davidson for real now. It was very exciting.

I returned to the dorm to finish my reading of The Epic of Gilgamesh, to find that the introduction to the edition is half of the entire book, and has many digressions in the writing. It was very confusing to read, but I ended up getting through it at last.

I'm very excited for classes tomorrow, even though my first class is an 8:30 am class. The fact that it is an economics class makes it okay, as I have decided.

Have a wonderful day!

Hello Worl--err, Davidson!

First blog posts are always awkward, so I think I'll just skip the whole "THISISMYFIRSTBLOGPOSTOMG" mindset (as this is in no way my first blog), and move forward to the "I'm comfortable leaving out many exclamation marks from my posts" phase.

But first, here's the premise of the blog, and a quick introduction, too:

My name is Hampton, and I am a new freshman at Davidson College in North Carolina, USA. At this point, my intended majors include philosophy, political science, economics, psychology, sociology, or fifty other possibilities. No matter what I study, I will probably be making my own major to suit myself for law or government or something interesting like that.

I will be graduating in 2015 from Davidson, and currently plan on attending law school or some sort of graduate school. I hope to be on the mock congress, mock trial, improv, theatre, student government, and eco rep groups while at Davidson, but I know I can't do all of those each year. (I will probably end up doing a couple of them, with congress and eco rep groups definitely thrown in there.)

I'm not particularly athletic, but I am signed up for a weight-lifting course and will participate in the freshman sport of flickerball for an additional PE credit. Currently, I am enrolled in the 2-year Humanities program, Metaphysics, Introductory Economics, and Applied Ethics classes, with some pretty cool teachers that I'm really excited to learn from.

My roommate is named Andy, and he seems really cool. I hope we get along for this year, as I hope to be in Davidson's sustainable living house, the EcoHouse for the final three years of Davidson, if I don't get an apartment or something by the time I graduate.

Alright. First post incoming--


Today was really busy, and I'm definitely ready to finish with Orientation. Today, we did a service walk, which is essentially a tour of the town of Davidson. It was really neat, and I met a lot of cool people, but I was dying of heat and sweated so badly. After that, we had a delicious lunch (sponsored by the always awesome Harris Teeter) of beans and rice with a piece of cornbread.

I went to the Sprinkle Room and bought all of my books after that. I ended up with fifteen books and one class manual, at a grand total of $608. All of my books but 2 were used, too, which makes the price even more ridiculous. I will probably be writing all over the books, so I don't really know how many I will be selling back at the end of the year and how many I will be adding to my extremely small collection of books.

After lugging my books back, I got back to the room, showered, and met with Aric, Ellie, and Hannah for a Harris Teeter run. We enjoyed it thoroughly, and I got some hummus and pita chips. I rode on the kiddie ride at the outside, as did Aric. We made a stop at this natural foods place, and I got some almond milk and Ezekiel bread (which is the best thing ever).

Next, we went back to the Union (Hannah left to see the soccer game) and I bought a lanyard to hold my CatCard, room key, and postbox key. Returned to the dorm, and talked to Caroline on the phone for an hour fifteen.

After the rest, I went down to Vail Commons with Ian, Hannah, Ellie, Nathan, Alex and others to eat some Caribbean marinara-sauced pasta (it was called "rasta pasta" by the food crew) and french fries. (Yes, I decided it was time to french fry it up--don't judge me!) We all finished and Dave, Ben, and I all walked back to the dorm together, stopping to watch another kid named Ben show us some sweet dance moves.

I returned to the dorm, looked up the Chidsey Leadership Fellows application, and attempted to download Microsoft Office Suite from my Davidson thumbdrive. Unfortunately, that has failed to work, and I'll have to get IT to get that done for me sometime this week.

Now, I'm about to read the first part of the Epic of Gilgamesh, as I have to read the first 44 pages for Humanities by Monday at 8:30.

Happy trails!