Cooking, Climbing, and Krakens

The semester is settling in and my assignments have picked up the pace, but a few things to share:

* I have another article published on RoosterGNN for GapBrave! It's called "A Taste of the Florida Gulf Coast" and you can find it online here.

* The Superbowl last weekend as fairly underwhelming. I don't watch nor understand football to begin with, and Seattle's blowout just made everything move along quickly. However, my housemates and I cooked brunch together and loaded nachos later during the game.

* During the winter break, I found a video of Alex Hunold, hailed as one of the world's greatest free climbers. Now, I know I'm not really cut out for extreme sports, but following Instagram feeds like National Geographic and The Northface have my imagination reeling. The earth has so much to offer, and endeavors like climbing allows you to make physical connections with the terrain, but also mental and spiritual. It's incredible what the human body is capable of.

Then it dawned on me that in my four years of attendance (technically three because of two semesters abroad), I still had never climbed on our FREE indoor rock wall! Absurdity and laziness; there's a reason my school costs exorbitant amounts, and I knew that this semester was it to take advantage of that. So after not climbing since senior year of high school, I strapped into my harness, learned several times how to tie a double-back eight knot, and started scaling. I'm not that strong yet and still out of shape from vacation, but I've had a great time! Climbing is such a meditative process for your body and mind. It's really difficult navigating rocks without obvious holes and clutches, but I'm learning! My greatest challenge is simply believing and trusting my body to reach the top. I really like it as cross-training with ultimate frisbee, so as long as I keep up on my work, this will be a routine adventure.

* My friends in the Java theme house that run our free concert venue have started a new collaborative project with student artists during their shows. I volunteered to be one of the interpretive artists and painted on stage during the live show! It was a Java favorite called Hot Day at the Zoo, which combines bluegrass, jam, and a bit of funk. 

I didn't have any particular ideas in mind; I just let the rhythms carry me along, and came out with a mythological Kraken! I unintentionally created a quadtych that was originally supposed to be a triptych of the three mood boards, but the Kraken actually complements nicely. The banjo player was impressed my work and wooed me into giving them away (all of them)-- which was flattering, yes, but I wish I still had them! Canvases aren't that cheap... At any rate, it was a fantastic opportunity to have my talents inspired by their creative force, while entertaining (or distracting?) the Java audience.

Nordic ski tracks leading the way to the golf course right outside our townhouse, and Herring Cole reading room in the twilight. It's under restoration so we haven't been able to use it all year, but I'm glad the school is reviving it for study space.

This coming Monday, the senior class has our traditional 100th Night Celebration, commemorating how long we have left at St. Lawrence. I'm perched between awe and disbelief, as time continues to move quicker than we hope.

Listening: Bombay Bicycle Club's new album "So Long, See You Tomorrow"