marzo

It's March. Wooooo? March used to be my least favorite month, as we had February and April breaks in high school (and before) and thus March was the long, ugly month without a break. Now, of course, March is the month of one whole week of spring break between winter and spring quarters, so it's not so bad. March weather is also much nicer in Chicago than it ever is in New England, chiefly because Chicago actually has a definitive spring and not just a long, hazy mud season for a few months between winter and summer. It's still pretty cold outside now, but it's sunny and there's no snow on the ground, which is the first sign that spring is making its way towards us.

It's also 9th week, which means that the quarter is sort of almost over; a lot of classes are getting ready to go into review mode starting next week. I'm done with astro labs, finally, and additional Italian practice sessions. Four more Italian and astro classes and two more sosc and art history classes and then it's reading period. There will be studying, sure, but I'm also going to go see a taping of Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me on the 10th, which should be very fun; I had a lot of fun at the taping I went to go see last April.

Everyone is extremely moody, however, which sort of takes a lot of the fun out of March. We've been cooped up together for nine weeks, and the first-years in particular are extremely moody and clique-y, reverting back to semi-high-school ways of not wanting to sit at the dining hall house table 'cause that's uncool and the like. There's also a lot of housecest running wild, between some of the last people you'd ever imagine to have sexual relations, never mind with each other, which amps up the awkwardness quotient quite a bit. One of them is my neighbor, and he and his first-year girlfriend (or whatever they are--they aren't openly in any sort of official relationship yet) have been prone to making quite a bit of obnoxious noise past midnight, whether it's actual sex or just talking loudly. I'm fine with weird relationships of all sorts, but our beds share a wall, and so does my bed and his desk, so when they listen to giggling laughing baby videos on YouTube for 15 minutes at 12:30 in the morning, it sounds like a baby is giggling right on the foot of my bed, even through my ear plugs.

Everyone being moody includes me, I guess. Certain things just start to get on your nerves after nine weeks of cold weather and encountering these same things day after day after day. You just want things to straighten out and open back up again, instead of being cramped together with unpleasant expressions on everyone's face.