What is this white powder on the ground?

It's Wednesday! Known to many as hump day! Hump in this case is a noun. Calm down. Don't mount your nearest classmate. Well, I mean, you can. But I would advise against it.

So the week before last week was break. And I didn't talk about it because I was too busy being a college student who scheduled things poorly. But do not fret! I will let you in on a little secret. All I did was sleep, consume massive amounts of food, and watch "Doctor Who", "A Very Potter Sequel", "Easy A" and this show called "The Misfits" with my friend Victoria. That's right, Rachael. We watched "Easy A". I thought of you giggling the entire time. 

Anyways, that was my break. Now let us look back upon last Thursday, where I spent the entire day, when not going to classes, working on my reading for Chemistry and meeting with my Lab group to work on our lab (surprise, surprise). I was so busy that I didn't have time for dinner. Yay! My new diet plan: always be working. Alright, that was the boring part of the week. Now onto FRIDAY!

On Friday I hopped into a white van filled with persuasive people to travel to a place I had never been before. No, no. Don't worry guys. They offered candy. Only nice people are allowed to have candy. Right? Anyways, on Friday the debate team and I drove up to Brown for a tournament. The drive up was nice. Ian (the president of the debate team, of course), Kevin, Michelle and I had witty banter for most the car ride. We talked about models and economics, as well as Cosmopolitan and why women are attracted to mean guys (The dark triad!). When you first get to know Ian (the president, remember?), you think he's this shy, non-offensive guy. But YOU WOULD BE WRONG. He is hilariously offensive sometimes and his sense of humor is so subtle that at times it is hard to know if he is joking about things or not. I have a funny story about him and Matt Summers. Remind me to tell you it if I forget to mention it later on in the post. 

So my debate partner, John Goodman, is my favorite type of person. He is nerdy but not difficult to talk to. He shares the same interests as me, like Firefly, Harry Potter, Avatar the last Airbender, etc. and is on the improv team. He acts as well. Also, he is a good debater and knows a lot about Odysseus. Which is an important fact for later on. Anyways, he is the epitome of awesome, and he is like 6 feet 3 inches. Crazy, right? Well, we debated together on Friday (and Saturday). 

In our first round we used the case that I had made about how US stores should only be allowed to sell appliances that meet Energy Star standards. We lost because the case sucks and the points always turn all economic, which John and I do not like (nor understand). But that's okay, because we held our own pretty well and we were going up against a really tough varsity team. So, you know, c'est la vie. 

In our second round we used a case that John made about Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde which was a really awesome case except for the fact that it was Opp Choice and we got the short end of the stick (which means that the other side gets to decide which stance they want to take, and they took the more defensible side). Anyways, we lost that one too. Haha. See a trend here?

Sidenote: throughout the weekend at Brown I kept on commenting "Emma Watson probably walked here. Should I lick the wall? Should I lick this pole? Then I could say I got mono from Emma Watson. I just wouldn't explain further." People thought I was weird. But only a little bit.

So, it's the end of the night. John and I have one more round. The place we must walk to is far away on the campus, but we find it after getting instructions a few times. Then we find the room we're debating in. It's HUGE. We're a little giddy at this point. And so we decide that if we had to run a case it would be 

"This House Believes that we should have a dance party" and then we made a lot of debate jokes about the case and the rebuttals. They were excellent debate jokes. And so we start laughing and dancing around and it's wonderful. Keep in mind that no one else is in the room yet. Finally, three people come into the room and we think "Oh, the two debaters and judge are here. Time to start." But no. There are three judges. THREE. Why? Because Brown overbooked judges. And they were ALL FIRST TIME JUDGES. Finally, the other debate pair shows up and gives us this case

"You are Odysseus. Calypso has offered you immortality to stay on her island with her. However, you have a wife, son, and kingdom waiting for you at home in Ithaca. You either stay or go." 

Needless to say, we thought it was an Opp Choice (we get to choose which side we argue for) and we said "We want to go back to Ithaca". But then they were all "Oh. No. This isn't Opp Choice. We're saying Odysseus should go back to Ithaca." RAGE. So "The Government" (That is the title of the other debaters who bring forward the case) must argue their points without using too much information from the actual story because that would be "specific knowledge" which is frowned upon in debate. However, "Opposition" (Us, the people with no previous knowledge of what the case will be) can use as much specific knowledge as we want. COINCIDENTALLY, John's FYS was all about Greek Mythology and HAD JUST FINISHED READING THE ILIAD. So he saunters up there and brings his mighty wisdom with him. Then he DEMOLISHES the other side with clever points. I mean, the other side was a weak debate team, so it wasn't too difficult to beat them. BUT WE DID! HOORAH! However, the judges were dumb and, even though we won the round, gave John and I low "speaker points" which are points on how well we spoke etc. It was BS. We were better than that. 

So that was the end of the first day of debate . . .  or was it? Hint: it wasn't. The cool (read: nerdy) debaters, instead of partying it up, played Balderdash until 2 am at a friend's house. It was hilarious. I got a pretty good score, and I had a few memorable plays. Then John, Matt, Ashleen, Amit and I ran back to the dorm we were staying at while singing the Rocky Theme and other memorable songs at the top of our lungs.

On Saturday, John and I debated two more rounds, did fairly well, and then had lunch with the other debaters, where we talked about how our rounds went and argued. John and I argued specifically about how we were nerds and what the definition of nerds, geeks, and dorks were. Ian (The president, you guys. God, keep up.) accused me of not being a nerd because I was too talkative and social. Needless to say, I was surprised and offended by the fact that my identity of "nerd" was being taken away. After explaining to him (read: at him) about how he was wrong, I went back to talking about Firefly to John. Haha. Colin and Ian made it to the semi-finals round and they debated about whether Craigslist should have an "adult encounters/whatever" section on the site. They debated way better than the other side, but they lost. IT WAS UTTER BULL FECES. So, being done with the tournament, we all decided to head back to Bates that night even though there were warnings about a snow storm.

"We'll just drive along the coast." Ian said. It will be fine. 

WRONG.

Halfway through driving back home, we got a call from the other van telling us they kept on sliding around on the ice, losing control, and had no heat in their van. Of course, John, Ben, Gillian and I didn't know this call had occurred because we were too busy laughing and playing car games like "Contact", the best game ever. We were being so absurd. It was a brilliant time. So, anyways, we all stopped in New Hampshire and invited ourselves to one of the Debater's homes for the night. We all crammed into the family room, played "would you rather", told stories and drank wine and coronas (I did not drink anything, of course). Then the power went out. It was very classy. But truthfully, it was an excellent bonding experience.  

So we all slept in the house, some on couches, some in beds, some on the floor (me). And the next day we headed out for Bates. 

Behind me with the glasses on is John.
 Also, the sassy-faced boy is Jarron. He was not pleased about spending the night in New Hampshire.
 No, Ian is not in the picture. You know Ian, the president?

When I got back to Bates on Sunday, I worked on ANOTHER lab with my lab group, wrote an essay on carbon emissions and did Chinese homework. I had dinner at six with John and some of his friends. At that point in time I then realized that I hadn't had a meal since 24 hours ago (although, I did have a coffee and a hand full of popcorn). So I ate a bit of food.

On Monday it was Halloween, but everyone at Bates had already celebrated Halloween on Saturday. So there was no festivity. Very sad. I wanted to dress up as a Ravenclaw student (WHICH I AM). I went to debate and Ian (JESUS. COME ON. IAN. REMEMBER? YOU FORGOT WHO IAN WAS AGAIN!? THE PRESIDENT. GOD. HOW ARE YOU PASSING ANY OF YOUR CLASSES!?) talked about how this coming weekend he needed more judges for the Northeastern tournament. So I volunteered. And now I'm going to another tournament this week! But it won't be as stressful, because I don't have to debate! Then, after debate, some of the team and I had dinner together. Hilarity ensued. We played "would you rather for a while" and one of the questions was "would you rather have to tell one of your family members about your sex life in detail every time you had a sexual encounter or tell someone on the debate team, randomly chosen". This lead to us speculating about how certain people on debate would respond to someone walking up to them and telling them about their sex life in great detail. That conversation turned into a bet. A bet for Matt Summers to go up to Ian (you know Ian, right?) and just jump into this story

"So I was making out with this girl in her room and we were really getting it on. Then she asked me to do something really kinky. She wanted me to choke her while we were making out. So I did. And as I choked her I think I must have done it too long, because she passed out. And I had thought she was really into in because she kept on nodding her head. But looking back, I guess she was struggling for air. Anyways, her roommate walked in right when this happened, and I panicked and ran out of the room. What should I do? You're my debate mentor. Give me advice." 

And then Matt was told to pester Ian until he got some real advice. So Matt did this. And we watched Ian's reaction. He got really exasperated and put his head in his hands. Then would smile and laugh every once in a while, but in that "you're really messed up, man" way. And all the while Matt was just talking and gesticulating and smiling (which sort of gave it a way). It was hilarious. Eventually, Matt told him (and Ian surmised) that it was a joke, so Ian gave  him some hilarious advice in such an earnest tone. He said to kill the roommate so she wouldn't squeal on Matt, which would in turn intimidate and turn-on the girl he had choked before. This way, she wouldn't say anything about the whole event and would still be really into him. And that is Ian for you. A beautiful enigma of a man. I may have a friend crush on him too. And Matt. And this girl Taylor. And Colin. And Barbara. And Ashleen. And Gillian. And Ben. And Cat. I really like the people on the debate team, is what I'm saying. 

*cough*

So anyways, after dinner, Taylor, Matt and I went over to this girl Julia's room (I have a crush on her too) and played "Snatch" which is a game played with Bananagrams. We had hot cocoa too. Then we went over to Matt's room and played TABOO while eating candy and cookies. After that, Taylor, Matt and I went to John Goodman's improv performance. Then I went home and went to bed after reading a bit.

On Tuesday I did work, then took a 2 hour nap. Then I did some more work. Then I went to sleep. It was nothing special.

And today, nothing special was done again. But I still have debate and work to do. So the day could still get interesting. Also, tonight is "trick or drink", where people go to off-campus housing and drink gnarly concoctions of alcoholic beverages in costumes. But I'm underage. So I will not be going to that. However, I will probably be hanging out with some of the participants of "trick or drink" later in the night. So that could be fun. Anyways, off to Chinese practice!

Also, there was a lot of snow on the ground when I got back from Brown. I had a snow ball fight. I lost.

Your rambler of a friend,

Nicole

P.S. The length of this post makes up for last week, right? RIGHT!?