A week and a half in, and I'm just starting to settle comfortably into Carleton life.

I'm a sophomore! Stuff about that fact, plus my intensely historical summer, inside.

Between the time of the last posting and the time of this posting I have evolved into... a Sophomore.

NBC KARE-11 featured Carleton College and its generous financial aid program during the July 1st 10 o'clock news broadcast as part of its weekly segment, "Take KARE of your money." The piece featured Carleton students Kai Knutson '11 (Bloomington, Minn.), Beserat Kelati '12 (Houston, Texas) and Steve Merry '10 (Dellwood, Minn.), along with Jennifer Hantho, senior associate dean of admissions.

"The state university that I was planning to go to didn't give me any financial aid," Kelati said in the segment. "A lot of the private liberal arts colleges provided me with the best financial aid. I decided to come to Carleton because it was one of the best that I had received."

At one point during President Oden's speech at graduation last weekend he said, "You are Carleton students no longer."  I've known this day was coming for the past year, but it was still a shocking realization.  I'm done with college.  I'll repeat it, to accentuate its importance.  I'm done with college.  And since I have no immediate plans for grad school, that means my life is going to be seriously lacking the structure of academia.  And, just as frightening, it means I have to grow up and be an adult...MORE

This is it!

I wrote this post earlier today. It was all ready to go. Then I deleted it by accident. Unfortunately, I don't have a time machine so that I can go back and prevent myself from deleting the earlier version of this post.

However, I do have a Chelsea 11:17 play about a time machine, in case you're interested.

Also, adding to the intrigue surrounding this post is that it describes what I did during the last week of school. Oh man! This is going to be good.

My mom came up to visit and wrote a few thoughts for me!  Other things: Classes are blessedly done (I've been catching up on my sleep and my tv shows), I cut my hair nice and short (so far loving it), I have been working up a storm at the library, and I even managed to turn in both my papers on time.  One of my roommates left last night, which is a bit sad, but inevitable.  I think I have 19 hours for this pay period when normally I have 15-16, and I had to get subs for 3.5 of my normal hours, too.

Additionally, I am super excited to start my internship at Democracy for America, and sad to see all my senior friends leaving.  Hopefully I'll get to see a couple of them over the summer while I'm up here in the Northeast.

Right now it's 3:30 AM and I'm working on a big research paper (it's finally starting to come together, I think).  Anyway - don't be too afraid - I didn't manage my time well, so now I'm making up for it.  I will post soon about classes ending, my mom visiting, and possibly about the effects of religious identity on ethnic conflict/civil wars or the evolution of the LGBTA movement in France over the past century - just to give you an idea of my research right now.

For now, enjoy the videos my Ethnic Conflict prof played in class yesterday:

2009's winner, the entry from Norway: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiH4BFTELME

2006's winner, the Finnish entry: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5ZfQMOHB5k&feature=fvw

A Best of Reel: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEXyR1KM8v0

This is not a post. This is an apology for the absence of a post. The real post is coming.

So, I'm going to link to a college review I wrote about Carleton over at a friend's website, www.admissionsadvice.com.  I spent a long time writing the review, so definitely check it out if you're a prospective student!  Carolyn Lawrence, the writer of the blog, is a friend of my mother's and a very nice lady - I actually met her and her son when they visited Carleton (although apparently I was not convincing and he went to Reed) - so read her blog if you're trying to make sense of the whole process.

And some more stuff ...