lucky charms

So as I mentioned in my last post in January, I was invited to participate in the Interview Conference weekend at the Bush School at the end of February. I was pretty nervous for it, but everyone else was as well so at least I wasn't alone. They ended up inviting 75 to participate in the weekend, and there were another 30 international students they would be interviewing by phone. Besides the obligatory showing us around A&M and College Station, we had a writing evaluation, two interviews with faculty, and meals with current students, staff and faculty.

The writing pretty much scared the crap out of me. All I knew was that on Friday we'd get the article we had to write about on Saturday (at 9am for my group). I don't really keep up with current events- I haven't really got much time for anything outside of reading and writing for my classes right now. So Friday night I read that article to death, highlighting, underlining, taking notes, looking stuff up online (they told us we could!) and anything else I thought might be helpful, or at least keep me from winding up at the bottom of the pile. I've been told I'm a good writer, but that was the opinion of teachers I don't consider to be that rigorous, especially compared to a graduate course. So I prepared as well as I thought I could, then went and wrote bright and early the next day. There were three parts to the paper: a 150-word abstract of the 20 page article; a 1 page (no more) paper of the authors' arguments for and against the subject; and my reaction to the article. The first two parts were alright I thought, I've never had to make an abstract, but as an assignment it makes more sense I think than like a 5 page summary or something. It shows that I really understood it and can distill the main points. It also tests my vocab- because there are words I could use that had the same meaning as like four words...so that was helpful. My reaction paper was a little more difficult- I definitely spent the majority of my time on that (we had 2 hours total). I struggled through it and figured I was about average, at least not below-average.

After the writing, I had my interviews. The first one was fantastic. I wore my Eiffel tower necklace, and so right off we started talking about France...which he loves. We had a bunch of other random junk in common too , so we would up joking around and stuff, with occasional relevant information thrown in. But he seemed to like me and joked that he'd hire me as a TA to work on some translations for him. That sounded to me like he was on my side. The second interview was a little rough. The prof was a specialist in Military History...which just happens to be my concentration. So there was no way I could wing it. I had looked him up the night before, and found that he was about to publish a new book, so I made sure to ask about that. He seemed to know what I was doing, so that sucked. He asked for my life story, and how and why I wound up at the Bush School, and questioned my applying to only one place. I think it shows dedication and commitment, but he argued otherwise, saying if I was really passionate about this path, I would have applied other places too. So that made me look stupid. Next, he asked me if he could play devil's advocate. It's not like I can say no, and he asked me something about the biggest threat facing the US, and because I don't pay attention to current stuff, I decided to wing it (bad idea) and said something like the country needs to take care of its internal stuff before it can impose stuff elsewhere. It makes a lot of sense in retrospect, cause if a man cant build his own house correctly, he has no business telling his neighbor what he's doing wrong-- the whole plank and splinter analogy--but this prof didn't like that. He jumped all over me, saying that I wanted to study international affairs but I thought the biggest threat was internal?? I felt stupid again, and was like 'yeah I can see what you're saying' and them mumbled some more, I don't really remember what I said, but it likely wasn't intelligent.

So I walked out of that feeling like I had blown the whole thing. I told myself that I needed to excel at every part of the weekend to make myself stand out or be at least average. But tanking the second interview, I thought, completely negated everything else I had done. The next couple hours I was kinda depressed- we had a couple presentations by faculty and staff, telling us more about the program and financial stuff. Then we met with some of the current students, and one of them asked how my interviews went. I laughed and told them and they said that particular prof always plays the devil's advocate, and not to worry about it, it wasn't a bad answer. So I felt a little better, but not great. That night we had our last event of the weekend- a catered dinner at a restaurant here in College Station. Before I left to go home from the restaurant, I wanted to meet one of the prof's I hadn't met yet- Jim Olson. He used to be Director of CI at the CIA during the fall of the Soviet Union, and also happens to be the chair of the admissions committee this year. So I thought introducing myself wouldn't be a bad idea. There was a line to meet him- I guess I wasn't the only one with that idea. When it was finally my turn, I held out my hand and said "Hi Dr Olson, I didn't get a chance to meet you this weekend, so I wanted to introduce myself before I left." And without hesitation, or looking at my name tag, he said "yes, Audrey, I'd been wanting to meet you. I was very impressed by your file. You're local right? (I don't know how he remembered that) Why don't you come meet with me this week and we'll chat before the committee meets to make its decision."

I was totally stunned. He knew who I was, and that I was local. That's freakin awesome. So first thing the next day I emailed him to set up a time to 'chat' in his office. When I got there, he had all of my scores and credentials laid out in front of him, and told me how well I did on the writing evaluation (which surprised me as well) and he said flatly that he wanted me to come to the Bush School. Unlike the other prof, he liked that I only applied to one place, it DID show commitment. We talked about my options once I was accepted, and I asked him about some specifics that I hadn't gotten answered during the interview weekend. It was really good, and he gave me a list of books to read as well, so that was pretty sweet. He also admired my Eiffel tower necklace, and pointed to his shelf of books about just France- it was where he and his wife had lived right after they got married.

So then the committee met a couple days later, and I half expected to get an email or call that day, but nothing. The next evening, while I was at Target shopping with my mom and my friend for our mission trip to mexico the next day, I got the email offering me a admission on my phone and, because I was in the check out line paying, I couldn't very well jump up and down and scream. So I waited til I got to the parking lot. I'm in! I called my dad, but he was on a plane, so I sent a text message instead, and forwarded the email to him, haha. I think I called everyone in my family, and couldn't stop smiling the whole night. You'd think I got engaged or something. But it's school that I'm excited about, how lame is that.

Then when I got back to my apartment today, I got my official letter offering admission, along with a scholarship- which they give to every student. It's pretty awesome, definitely the least expensive program for IA in the US, and it has a killer rep too. So because of the scholarship, I think my dad is nearly as excited as I am. Even though I don't have a job, I could probably afford tuition on my own now, it's so cheap.

Anyway, I'm psyched, if it wasn't completely obvious. This was a really long entry, but I wanted to be thorough, for posterity's sake.

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Whoop!

A lot has happened in just a few short days (or long days, depending on how you look at it). I was a leader at my first D'Now- out in east Houston. I lead the 10th grade girls, and they were amazing. We had a blast doing our service projects- which involved pooper-scoopering, raking with our hands, and washing some cars. Those girls had their hearts in the right place, even when things didn't go as planned.

We were walking through Walgreens to purchase a couple necessities for our projects, and I attempted to be all quick and sly and pull out a Styrofoam sword from a display and wow them with my fencing skills. Unfortunately no one told the display of this plan, and instead of pulling a single sword out, I managed to lift the whole display up by one sword handle. Needless to say they were not wowed, but rather laughed pretty hysterically at me. But there's always a silver lining to humiliation (I like to think so anyway) and later that night they had gotten me one of the swords and written hilarious little notes to me on it. Is that not amazing? It doesn't matter that my name is spelled wrong, I know it's a hard one.

So the weekend was feroc' ("ferocious" a la Christian on Project Runway, for those of you who don't know) and to top it off, I got a fantastic email yesterday from the Bush School, inviting me to take part in their Interview Conference Weekend (Feb 29)...to which they only invite the most competitive applicants, to see how well we interact with the current students and faculty. Suh-weet!!

Now I just have to work on my interview skills and figure out how to wow them. This task might be considerably harder than wowing 16 year-old girls, and I didn't so so hot at that. So it appears that I have my work cut out for me.

Wish me luck!

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New

Reading the new issue of Relevant, in which Cameron talks about the magazine's goals for the new year, really got me thinking about my goals for this year. With it being the year I graduate (fingers crossed), I've got a lot of life ahead of me, and it's about time for the plans I've made for myself to come to fruition. Even though I've applied for the same internship for the past 2 summers, I don't feel too crushed about not getting them. Hopefully in the next month I will be hearing about getting accepted into grad school, and then I can rest easy. Then I'll have 2 more years until life catches up with me. If I'm not accepted (which would break my heart btw), I've got to come up with some kind of job starting in the summer or fall. It is this task which has me worried. Without a masters, and any real work experience outside of the church or JCrew, I don't feel like I have much to offer. I mean I'll graduate with honors, and Arabic definitely won't hurt me...but what can I really do with a History degree? I don't want to do something unrelated. Ideally I'll work or intern in DC for a while then move to the Denver area or Houston.
I guess the bottom line is that I'll take it as it comes. I have this sense of duty to work for the government as my form of service to the country, and I also have an interest in the Middle East and Islam. I've heard that God lays these things on your heart and gives you passions and desires for a reason. I just hope that these passions that I have are from him, and not some concoction of my own mind.
So, here's to the new year, and whatever comes along with it. Bring it on '08.

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Scavenger Hunt

So I was in class the other day, and my professor announced that he had a little 'hunt' for us for the end of the semester. He showed us some wands that were special for some reason, and said they would have a half hour head start on us, then we were to track the wands down (with some kind of reward for the winner). So when it was in time for us to head out, we all go separate directions, hoping to find some sort of clue to the hiding place of the wands. I walked down around the building our class was in, hoping to come accross something helpful. I didn't see much-- mid-afternoon theres not much going on, especially while class is in session. There are a few cars- kids loading up their stuff from the dorms, getting ready to move out; dropping off friends for class.

I saw a woman driving by herself and I did a double take. She looked slightly familiar. And then I placed it- she's my professor's wife- I saw her in a picture that came up on his screensaver once when he hadn't been at his computer for a couple minutes. I remember because I really liked her hair. But now she was wearing a baseball cap- it didn't seem to fit with her cute casual clothes.

Lacking other ideas, I decided to follow her until I thought of something else. She drove really safely through campus- complete stops, slow through crosswalks and all that. Odd. Then she pulled into the school storage facility- a gated entrance type thing; I'm not really sure what they keep in there, maybe expensive engineering equipment or something.

I watched her go in and I snuck in while the gate was open, slipping in behind a delivery van. She parked, and I waited a couple minutes before coming around the side of her van. When I got closer, and looked in the window of the van, I saw a familiar shipping crate- identical to the one the professor had pulled the wands from.

I looked up to the front of the van to see if the prof's wife is still there. But now she was in the passenger seat. I tried to quietly open the sliding door of the van, but I guess she heard and tried to pull it shut. I made some excuse like I was wondering if she could tell me what time it was, but as I was saying it, I saw a man in the driver's seat. I didn't see him before; the head-rest must've blocked him from my view. He was talking to the woman, but stopped when he saw me. In his hands were a knife and a garden spade. The spade looked dirty, with something dripping off it.

Before I knew what was happening I was running from the van back through the closing security gate. Somewhere in my mind I knew it was blood that had been dripping, but I wasn't able to process that until I was a hundred yards away. I darted in and out of buildings, hoping that the man wouldn't be able to follow me.

As I came to the end of a long hallway, I literally ran into Floyd, who tried to calm me down and ask what was going on. I didn't want to say anything, so I just got on a bike (I don't know whose) and started riding. Floyd got another bike and caught up with me, trying to get me to tell him what was the matter. So as we rode around campus, I quietly explained what I had seen, hoping that it was all part of the professor's plan, and it wasn't real. But I was still afraid. Floyd said I should go to my professor and ask him; maybe he would be impressed that I'd found the wands that fast. I agreed that that was the best thing to do, but I wanted to calm down first- I didn't want to seem like a feeble little girl who couldn't handle a little excitement. We must've ridden around campus for half an hour before I felt ready to visit the professor.

Floyd said he would go with me to the prof's office, but then he had to leave to go to class. When we got to the office, he wished me luck and left, and steadied myself to knock on the professor's door. The first time, he didn't answer, so I knocked a little harder. The door must not have been latched all the way because it opened a little. I peeked in and saw the professor facing away from me, at his desk looking over some papers.

As I went through the door, I knocked on it again and announced myself, but he was concentrating hard I guess. I walked across his office and around to the front of his desk, saying, "Professor, I'm sorry to bother you but I was wondering if your wife and that man were part of the scavenger hunt". He still hadn't looked up at me, so I tapped him on the shoulder- maybe he had nodded off? He slumped over, moving the shadow that had been cast on the papers I thought he was looking at, which turned out to not be a shadow after all.

The puddle of blood was seeping through the paper, slowly growing from the dripping wound in his head. Over his shoulder, a coat on his coat rack moved, and his office door slammed shut. The man with the bloody spade and newly bloodied knife walked slowly towards me.
And then I woke up.

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Wonder. Stevie Wonder.

To answer another of the editorial question of the week, regarding my favorite song....
Stevie Wonder's "I just called to say I love you". He was a guest star on an episode of the Cosby Show, and, long story short, he invited the Huxtables into his studio, and sang that song with Clair. It was amazing. My favorite episode. Although the anniversary one where they dance and Rudy goes 'BABY!' is a close second. Anyone else?

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Nick-at-Nite

Recently I've been watching a lot of Nick at Nite, particularly the Cosby Show and Growing Pains. They're such wholesome sitcoms. I love Bill Cosby, he's so ridiculously hilarious. In this one episode I just watched, Cliff (Huxtable) was interrogating one of Vanessa's suitors about his behavior around Vanessa, and he was sitting there at the kitchen table, holding a bread knife, tapping the table gently. He never said anything about the knife, but it was always there, freaking the boy out. I love it.
And Growing Pains- after a few weeks of watching it, I finally figured out why I like it so much. It's my family. Sure my dad isn't a psychiatrist and my mom isn't a journalist; it's all about the kids. Mike is the oldest, always looking for new ways to break the rules and get women; Ben does whatever Mike does and is a bit goofy; and Carol is me. Granted she goes on more dates (matthew perry, hello) but she hardly gets into trouble, is the perfect student, and her brothers tease her all the time.
Thoughts? Opinions?

So I've been thinking about stealing the Relevant Editorial question-of-the-week. Maybe not blatantly plaigarizing pre se, but just borrowing some of the ideas. The first I'd like to respond to is what kind of genetically engineered hybrid animal I would create:it would be a night ape and a turkey. A night ape (http://www.getawayafrica.com/assets/images/Primates_10.jpg ) is nocturnal and arboreal and it eats insects and fruit, while the turkey...well, it's a turkey. So their powers combined, the nighkey (pronounced nike) is the terror of the rainforest. It has the colorful head, gobble, and wings of the turkey and the delightful fluffy nimbleness of the night ape. It can't fly but it climbs up the trees and gobbles at creatures down below, urging them to join it in its merry treetop life. The major benefit of being a nighkey is that pilgrims don't come around looking for a good meal every year. The fatal flaw of the nighkey is that it's wings are gorgeous, so it has a huge ego and whenever the girl nighkeys (who are less colorful) don't acquiesce to its advances, it loses faith in itself and dives from the upper canopy to show its courage, sometimes leading to its untimely death.

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