Hello from New York!

I'm staying in New York with my friend Alex for a day before we head off to Kenya in just a few hours!!!

I haven't ever spent much time in New York, and it is quite an incredible city. I got a tour of the city going from the airport, and we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art today. Simply spectacular. We saw impressionist art, as well as life-sized Egyptian buildings. We had lunch at the museum cafe, and Alex's family is really nice! We even visited his grandpa in his apartment looking out over central park. (Picture #1)

However, I've got to say, the snow was probably my favorite! They had just had a blizzard, and there was over a foot left. I have never seen so much snow except for in the mountains. Just walking around was difficult, and sledding was amazing!! (Picture #2)

See you guys in London on our layover to Africa!

Goodbye!

I'm off to New York tomorrow and from there off to Kenya! It's going to be a great adventure. Today I packed and said goodbye to my family, and to the dog :(

I love my family, but I'm super excited for Kenya, so I've decided to teach you all a Swahili word. The word of the day is Hujambo (Pronounced who- jahm-bow). It is a greeting literally meaning "no problems" to which the correct answer is "sijambo" meaning "no problems.

Hujambo?

Sijambo!

Isn't Swahili great?

I'll try to keep this blog updated with exciting pictures from the orphanage, but with less internet, posts will probably be less frequent.

Bye for now, and a happy new year! I'll be flying as the year changes over, so I thought I better wish you all a happy new year now :)

And now for only $19.99...

This was a wonderful Christmas. I got a Kindle from my brother, and it is really cool! The screen is amazing, and you can highlight sections and even take notes in it, which automatically upload to the internet for easy viewing and use. Plus, there are tons of books you can get for free! All the old out of print books like Little Women or Robin hood are free for instant download, and they do promotions where new books are free too. It even has a translator where I can read spanish and I can scroll to a word I don't know and it will translate it for me. I can't wait to use it in class. And, if you buy one now for only 5 payments of $19.99, we will throw in a free Rubber Knife, now even duller. Ever been cut on a knife? Well, with the Rubber Knife, no more!

Anywho, before I sound too much like an advertisement, let me tell you about my other favorite present.I got a camera, a really nice digital one, so I photographed some birds to show off my awesome zoom!

Happy Holidays!

Happy holidays!

I arrived home to a wonderful family and a big white fluffy dog named Misha. My parents are fostering her until she can find a home, but it is pretty funny because my dog growing up was named Meshka, and she was also a samoyed, so the resemblence is pretty amazing. I love dogs, and I definitely miss pets in dorm life.

I keep this blog mostly for my Mom and Dad to keep in touch, and my Mom keeps one too! (Pretty cool, huh). So, it has been fun to have my family give me suggestions of what I shoud have in my blog while I'm here, like a picture of Misha. We also took a family picture. Here it is! Note Matthew's sweater vest! (He has taken to wearing a pocket protector too).

A Photoshopped Christmas

It is snowing, and the whole world seems to be in the Christmas mood. I even saw one of Santa's little helpers walking through campus (Picture 3). Yet I am definitely ready to come home. Here's a little poem for you.

The snow softly falling on the cold Cambridge ground

Yet Harvard is quiet with hardly a sound

Most everyone has already flown home

And the remaining students study alone

Out the frosty window we stare

And shiver as we reach for our old teddy bear

Wishing we were home with Mom and Dad

And we can't help but feel just a little sad...

Cause the Christmas season seems a bit repressed

When instead of baking Christmas cookies

You instead have to take a test :(

Adventures in holiday pictures

My roommates and I have an incredible tradition of taking silly Christmas pictures next to an object that is not a Christmas tree but which resembles a Christmas tree.

For example, last year we decorated a floor lamp with lights and ornaments, and this year we decorated our plant, who is named Harriette (Yes, with that spelling).

So, HERE THEY ARE! We have the nice ones for the grandparents and relatives and then our silly one.

Merry Christmas to all!

Ivet's Birthday

Ivet was my roommate freshman year, and even though we don't live together anymore :( we are still really good friends, and TODAY WAS HER 18th BIRTHDAY! (Yes, that does mean she was 16!!! when she started college. So, we all went out to eat to celebrate.

Freedom:)

It's finals week at Harvard. Students have stopped eating. They have stopped showering. They have begun living in the library (actually).

However, one Laura D'Asaro is well-fed, clean, and getting a good 9 hours of sleep a night. The way my exam schedule worked out, I have alreay taken most of my finals, and I only have one more on the 21st, Thus, I have a whole week left to just enjoy myself, and try not to bother all my studying friends. So, she has been doing things like painting her face with the Kirkland shield, making gingerbread men that look like her roommates, and decorating the common room.

:)

My life in a Closet

As you recall, I live in a closet. It was the only way my roommate Miriam and I could de-bunk, and it has actually turned out to be quite handy. It's cozy inside, and since we have very different schedules, she can have the light on in the main room while it can be dark enough for me to sleep in my cute little nook. And, I can have the light on at 7:30 in the morning and study there without waking up Miriam.

But anyway, this last week, I found a new use for my closet! If I fold the mattress up, I can close the door to the closet and have a tiny room of my own to hull myself up in and study. I had a huge paper due today for my African studies class about how food aid can act like any other natural resource and can be stolen and used to feed violence and war. So, I brought my laptop and all my books inside, taped all my ideas all around me, and just didn't come out of my closet until I was done with my rough draft.

I'm procrastinating at the moment, but come 5:00 PM tonight, I will be officially done with all my classes except for one final in statistics!

Now a week of freedom lies in front of me! What ever shall I do?

I heart you, closet :)

Secret Santa Part 3

Here is the final book in amazing saga of magic and wonder that is Secret Santa Week!!!!

First, we made my roommate Miriam into the Skittles girl by making a rainbow in the basement, and then blindfolded her, kidnapped her, and dragged her away from studying, and thew Skittles at her to let her taste the rainbow!!!! (Picture 1)

The same day, I returned to find my room (closet) full of balloons! (Picture 2).

There were so many, and I am scared of popping balloons, so I just slept with all the balloons the last 2 nights.

My roommates even made a skit for me, where they dressed in African clothes and read off the "7 best things about Laura" in Swahili using Google Translator (It was terrible Swahili but I love them anyway)!!!

Last night was the dinner and dance for Kirkland, with beautifully decorated tables, wine, and speeches. It was very fancy, and I love this picture of my roommates and I all dressed up! (Picture 3)

Then after dinner we got to find out our Santas!!! Here is a picture of me and my Santee!

(Picture 4)

Kirkland house has a tradition called "Incestfest" where everyone goes to a big suite in Kirkland, where the only decoration is mistletoe, and well... there is a lot of people holding mistletoe above people's heads and kissing... AND every year they come up with the top ten people to kiss, and I was #2! I had already decided I wasn't going to kiss anyone, so I was a little scared... But I kissed a lot of people on the cheek and my guy friends protected me :)

What a crazy amazing week!

I have one 10-12 page paper for Africa Studies, one Spanish essay, one final for Swahili, one paper and one final for Statistics, and then I'll be done!

Secret Santa Week Continued

This week is so amazing. SO stressful, and just like nothing else I have ever seen. Imagine highly motivated and capable students putting all their energy into creating skits, making movies, filling rooms with balloons, creating crime scenes and puzzles and scavenger hunt and so much more! At every dinner this week, there have been almost constant skits, which consist of theater or dance or music etc. for a person! So much fun.

Today we had a surprise glow stick party for Rose, where her santa bought hundreds of glow sticks, and we even had a strobe light!

Then, I walked into the bathroom, and this is what I found!! One of my fantasies has always been to swim in jello or slime, and I walked in to find the tub full of slime!!!!

I'm going to take a bath in it tomorrow. I'll post more then.

:) :) Plus, I'm ALMOST DONE WITH MY FIRST SEMESTER! I took two finals this week, and I only have 3 classes left :)

Secret Santa Week

There is this week called Secret Santa week in my house, (Kirkland House!) where everyone spends the week trying to make someone else's dreams come true. I have been doing some pretty cool things, but since it's a secret, I can't post what I've been doing yet for fear of being infiltrated...

HOWEVER, MY SECRET SANTA IS AWESOME!! One of my wishes was to fly, and so yesterday I got a certificate to a place where the floor and walls are trampolines! Plus a giant bag of candy :)

Today I was abducted from my room, carried down three flights of stairs backwards in a blanket, and thrown into a giant pile of leaves in the courtyard that my santa made!!!!

Then, I just finished with a whipped cream and chocolate syrup fight in the courtyard!

And, it's only Tuesday.

Best. Week. Ever.

Thanksgiving

Spent Thanksgiving with Omi (Grandmother in German) and Opa (Grandfather in German), who live in New Jersey :)

We had delightful walks and bike rides and yummy food and lots of nutrition and exercise tips from Omi, who is a nutritionist and the healthiest grandma you will ever meet!

Matthew and I had epic adventures trying to capture and spray paint a raccoon. They have raccoon problems, and we wanted to see if the same raccoons returned after being trapped and released, but unfortunately, we didn't catch one in our trap :(

Here's the pic!

The end of a long weekend

Sitting in my room with my roommates

Christmas music is playing.

We are laughing.

We are uploading pictures.

At midnight we will find out who we will get for Secret Santa week (i.e. the best week of the whole year)

Looking back on our amazing weekend, not doing homework.

Look at all the fun!

And, for a bonus, the last picture is of the masquerade ball we went to weeks ago, and I finally got the pictures from my roommate Jenny!

Tomorrow it's back to work, but for now... FUN FUN FUN!!!

MY BIRTHDAY!!! (& Harvard-Yale)

So, here at Harvard, there is one biggest day of the year- my birthday of course! Well, kind of... At least my birthday falls on the biggest day of the year- the Harvard-Yale football game! Every other year the game is at Harvard, and all the Yale students come and stay in our dorms and it is basically one giant all-weekend party! It is also a time to make fun of Yale. For example, take a look at these making-fun-of-Yale videos.

http://www.onharvardtime.com/index.php?option=com_jomtube&view=video&id=47

http://www.onharvardtime.com/index.php?option=com_jomtube&view=video&id=109&Itemid=174

We also make t-shirts to make fun of Yale. Check out some of the pictures of shirts from this year :)

Front: No one ever says "I want to go to Yale when I grow up"

Back: Harvard: My Anti-Yale

Harvard has won 8 years in a row! And with this year's win (GO CRIMSON!!!!) that makes 9!

The excitement!!!

Then, my roommates even surprised me with a cake!

I'm 20!!!!!!!!!

Quidditch world cup

One of the best weekends of my life.

The Quidditch World Cup was in New York, so we took a 4 hour bus ride to get there.

We walk into hostile, up the stairs to our floor and... the plumming has burst and water is gushing from the bathroom, covering the hallway, and dripping from the celing on the floor below! And, on the door next to our room is cardboard sign taped to a door saying "Do not disturb. I will call the police!"

We sloshed through the water into our rooms, and fell asleep looking out

onto our barbed wire view of Manhattan.

The next morning we showed up at the field along with 47 other teams from around the USA and Canada. Everyone had flags and banners and we had a parade before the games began and gathered together in a circle getting pumped for the game (Picture #1)

We were told we had to win two games to move on to the next day, and having not won any games last year, we were all nervous.

The first game was against University of Richmond, and we won!!! Our seeker caught the snitch and we went crazy! We boosted him onto our shoulders and ran around screaming! (Picture #2) The press all got pictures, and in fact, it was the most publicized picture of the entire Quidditch World Cup 2010!

Second game was against Vassar, and within 1 minute, Vassar caught the snitch, and we thought we had lost, but they called the grab invalid and the game restarted. Within 1 minute, our seeker caught the snitch and we won!! But it was a rough victory as the game was so short and contested, and we ended up all getting into a circle and singing Kumbaya in the middle of the field.

We had made it to the semi-finals!

In between all our games, we had tons of press interviews, and I even got in CBS!
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7052587n

Finally, we played University of Vermont, and we were winning! We were so excited, because hardly any teams had won all three games! But then, out of nowhere, Vermont caught the Snitch, and we lost :(

We left, being told they would text us about when we were playing the next day, and we went out to Olive Garden to celebrate.

However, the next day, we got a text saying we didn't make it to the next day. We were pretty bummed! But, we went to Central Park and to a big breakfast, and showed up late to the second day just to watch, but as soon as we walked in everyone started shouting at us "Where were you guys?" and "You just got disqualified!"

Turns out, they sent us the wrong text, and we had qualified! Then, they told us we had 5 minutes to get ready and play.

We threw on cleats and uniforms, and played McGuill University. Unfortunately, we lost, but it was fun, and we were so surprised to have made it to the semi-finals. Out of the 48 teams, we were ranked 18th. Pretty good for a team that lost all their games just last year.

One of the best weekends of my life.

Also, if you need a refresher on Quidditch rules, check out my previous post http://lauras365days.blogspot.com/2010/10/quiddich.html

Pictures From Kenya

I studied abroad in Mombasa, Kenya over the summer and ended up meeting with all the directors of Wema orphanage from Bungoma, Kenya. The story of the orphanage is that it started as a school, but western Kenya has the highest AIDS death rates in all of Kenya, so the school began taking in orphans and children who could not afford to pay, but as the ratio of paying students to orphans increased, it left them in financial trouble. They have a tree farm, and do some gardening/farming to reduce food costs, but they have problems with safe drinking water and lack of dormitories for the students, as well as they need a new engine for their school bus. They will have to close down unless they can figure out how to become more sustainable.

Hence, I have been dong some fundraising and I am hoping to work with them over J-term to try some projects to help with sustainability. We have discussed getting chickens, increasing profits for their adult education programs on trades such as brick-laying and sewing, or doing such things as using their computer lab as a cyber-cafe. They also would like help making a website to help get international donations to help with some base costs such as the clean water and a new engine for their bus.

Anyway, as for the picture of the day, I sent Wema a few hundred childrens books, and my uncle Ron and aunt Elizabeth Moller donated the money to send them (Thank you so much to the whole Moller family!)

Just today they sent me pictures of children with the books and it completely made my day. I am so excited to go stay in the orphanage with the children with another Harvard friend.

Living with 300 kids. Me. One month. It is going to be crazy and AMAZING!

Actual Halloween is here

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!

Unfortunately real Halloween was far less exciting than yesterday. I woke up late, went to some meetings, and am now in Lamont library doing the homework I should have done earlier this weekend...

However, as you can see, it was a gorgeous fall day, unlike the rainy Halloweens of Seattle.

Also, check out this costume! It has been in the Kirkland Courtyard all day because apparently it won't fit through the doors. It's Annenberg (the freshman dining hall). Pretty cool, huh?