Spring!

Spring is kind of magical here in Boston. One week ago, it was still 45 degree sweater weather, and now it feels like summer. You blink, and suddenly everything is blooming. The grass, which had died over the winter is suddenly green and lush, and the world is more beautiful than I ever imagined. I studied outside all day, and I even got a little sunburned... Crazy!

We had our first crew race yesterday. We have been practicing hard, and we have come a long ways as a team. It was a time trial, so we weren't racing against other boats, but we thought it went well. We had a good tail wind, and we all were rowing together, going faster than we ever have before. Then, we got the results... Turns out we were a whole minute slower than the fastest team, which is pretty bad, considering they took less than 4 minutes. We came in last place by a pretty big margin. We are all laughing about it, and it has been a good season. I'll definitely do it again next year.

The 25th Annual Putnum County Spelling Bee

I was in the Kirkland Musical this year, one of the funniest musicals I have ever seen. The actual show was a couple of weeks ago now, but the pictures are just coming out. I had a small role, but a fun one, playing the sister of one of the characters, a boy who got into the spelling bee after the two winners from his local level couldn't go. He isn't the smartest crayon in the box, and his family is quite eccentric to say the least. I play his sister, a wacky but pretty girl, with whom another contestant, Chip falls in love. After a sexy daydream about me, he loses the spelling bee due to unfortunate circumstances... Hopefully the video will come out soon :)

The picture is of the contestant's family members, including two gay dads, a mom who is away on a spiritual journey in India, and an Asian mom with two red-headed kids.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! Miss you all. I couldn't pick any flowers for you, Mom, so I took some pictures of some pretty ones :) I went Easter Egg Hunting this morning, and it is beautiful day here, the nicest one we've had all year. Hope your day is going great!

LOVE, Laura

When is the last time you hugged a lamp?

When is the last time you hugged a lamp? Because, I hugged one this morning. They need a lot of love you know :)

And we that non-sequetor... a hodge-podge of life updates..

I did interviews for my video on Wema, and all my classes are coming to a close. I had my last class ever for my sophomore tutorial for African Studies, and with a few exams and a paper, I will be done with my sophomore year and half way done with Harvard. SCARY TO THE EXTREME!!! I actually have to start thinking about what I want to do with my life.

Yesterday I decided Stanford business school would be nice... but when I read that they want you to take lots of math and economics classes as an undergraduate, I had second thoughts. Also, there are only 35% girls there! How strange (maybe good for me, though...)

In other news, it looks like we are finally getting a way to collect donations for Wema! We submitted a proposal to the Dean's office to use Harvard's NGO status for up to $5,000 collected. Hopefully, in a few weeks, we will be able to collect donations. We eventually will need to apply as a separate entity to achieve NGO status, but this will work for at least a year or two until we have been approved.

Bye for now!

Go hug a lamp!

Dairy Farm

I spent my day at a dairy farm in Massachusetts through the Food Literacy Project here at Harvard.

They are the only farm in Massachusetts that uses a robotic milking machines, and these machines were thoroughly impressive. You see the cow walk in, the door closes behind the cow, and then the robotic and come out with the suction cups. The machine starts blinking with red lasers, reading the cow's teats like a barcode at the supermarket. Its robotic arm brings the suction cup towards the utter, but the cow gets antsy and kicks the machine. However, Robert, as I will now call the robot, knows what to do. It immediately knows the cows has kicked it, and that the suction cup may now be contaminated. It cleans itself and tries again until all 4 teats have suction cups attached. It then records exactly how much milk comes from each teat, and using salinity test, it tests for mastitis. On the end, the cow gave over 12 pounds of milk, and cows are milked 3 times a day.

Calfs are so cute! We met one that was 3 weeks old and when I stuck my hand in its pen, it put my entire hand in its mouth and started to suck on it like a bottle. So cute, but super slimy!

A few facts about cows:

Cows weigh about 1500 lbs and a bull 2,000.

Each cow releases over 100 pounds of manure everyday.

A calf weighs abot 75 pouds at birth

Cows only live 10-15 years

Cows have no upper front teeth

It takes 10 pounds of milk to make one pound of cheese

A cow doesn't bite the grass that feeds her, she curls her tongue around it

Here's a video I took of the milking machine in action.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVcqyDrHmFM

SHOWDOWN!!!

Hello Kirkland,

Good news! In the midst of the zombie invasion, the government helicopter is coming to rescue us! 4:00 pm, Tuesday, the final mission will begin in the Kirkland courtyard. The remaining humans will need to hold off the zombies for 15 minutes, before making their way to the helicopter. Here are the rules

1. Any human that is not in the Kirkland courtyard at all times from 4:20 pm to 4:40 pm will be immediately killed.

2. At 4:20 pm, the zombies will be permitted to enter the courtyard to attack the humans.Anybody that has ever been a zombie, even if they have been eliminated from the game, will be permitted to enter as a zombie. Zombies must identify themselves with a red headband.

3. Any human that is tagged with two hands by an unstunned zombie will be declared eaten and dead.

4. At 4:40 pm, the helicopter will arrive in the center of the courtyard. Any human that successfully makes his or her way to the center of the courtyard by 4:50 pm will be deemed survivors and will be rescued.

Our last radio broadcast. Our numbers have been running low but the tension has been running high. We brought out all our water guns, I brought out my sprinkler helmet, and it was go time! We had to hold off the zombies for 20 minutes, and there was no way my battery on the sprinkler helmet would last that long, so we went old fashioned. Squeezed together in a corner we all took our places, and then they came. The zombies ran at us, squirting us back with the very water guns they had stolen from us to distract us. 15 minutes in, a freshman looks the other way for one second too long as was grabbed. here were epic dives, sneak attacks, and zombies hiding in the bushes. Yet, after 20 minutes, we had only lost one man! I turned on my sprinkler helmet, and the other humans encircled me, each facing a different direction, squirting as we went, until we reached the center of the courtyard and were rescued by the helicopters!!

Check out the videos! (They are short and worth watching)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg2CnLo7oxU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjBIU1VMueM

Speed Dating for Ideas

I am helping my friend Serena start a new group on campus to support people with ideas to actually make their idea happen. So, our first event is a speed dating for ideas event, where you go and either listen to people tell you about their idea,or share your own, and if you like the other person's idea and want to work with them, you write that down on the paper. Then at the end, we let people know if there are any matches. It is going to be a good event, and here is the poster I designed for it!

Video!

I am in the process of making a video for Wema Children's Centre, and for my Film for Social Change final project, which brings me to REALLY EXCITING NEWS!!!

WEMA IS GETTING NEW WELL!!

My friend Sara Hollis, who goes to University of Texas, and who came on the trip to Kenya works with an organization at her school. They just got a big grant, and looking at Wema's website, and with Sara's encouragement, it looks like Wema will be a recipient! This is especially exciting because we have been getting emails saying that that their well has been dry some days and has been leaving them without water.

Here are a few pics of my interview about Wema, which will be part of the video. Stay tuned for the whole video to be posted!

A World Free From Zombies is a Wonderful World Indeed

Today was the perfect day. I woke up and the sky was a brilliant blue. We rowed all 8 people in crew without rocking all over the place for the first time, and everyone just seemed to be in a great mood. We had our housing lottery for living next year, and we got our first choice! We have two big common rooms and two bathrooms, and it is going to be great. One of my future roommates is an amazing artist, so we are going to put up paper and she is going to paint all over our walls. THEN, I was walking to class, and JUST RANDOMLY the student government decided to surprise everyone with cotton candy and bouncy houses, two of my favorite things in the whole world. AND THEN, I was walking back, and it just happened that two ice-cream companies were giving away free ice-cream and we had to vote on which was better, so I ate ice-cream in the sunshine and ran around in the grass with my friends, and best of all, there are no zombies. A world free from zombies is a wonderful world indeed.

Drama

I just finished

I WON!!!

Click to enlarge!

Epicness!

The game ends tomorrow! If I can last until 7:30 PM tomorrow, I get to use the sprinkler helmet and I dominate!! However, the zombies are everywhere.

Kirkland is bad- really bad. I think there are 3 of us left, maybe 4, but we aren't sure who is a double-agent. I am writing this from the floor of a bathroom, and I spent two hours in a bathroom earlier today. They literally stalk me everywhere I go.

I knew the zombies were planning to eat me after crew practice this morning, but I couldn't skip because there are 8 people in a boat, and if one doesn't show, then you can't go out. I was terrified, so I looked up the floor plans for the Weld Boat house last night, but there was only one exit, so I came up with a plan.

I pretended I forgot something down at the dock, but OFCOURSE when I returned they had stolen all my water guns for the third time (Grr...!!!!!!!) It was no longer a safe zone because practice was over, so I looked around desperately. I quickly took off my socks and grasped them in my hands (as hitting a zombie with socks also stuns them). Frantically, looking over my shoulder, I ran into the girls bathroom, into a stall, and shut the door, but I knew they would come looking for me there, so I had to do something. I got a piece of notebook paper out of my backpack and wrote "Out of Service. Sorry for any inconvenience," and I taped it on the door. I put my feet up on the seat and sat quietly. A zombie came in looking for me, opening up all the stall doors, but when she got to mine, she stopped, looked under the door, didn't see me, and left. I hid there for two hours until I thought the coast was clear, but I still didn't have anything but two wet socks for weapons. So, I dug through the trash, and at the very bottom I found a Shout bottle. I also had a water gun that the zombies had broken in half, so I washed out the Shout bottle, and I found some athletic tape and taped the water gun well-enough together so that it would hold 2 squirts of water and then I just ran, the water gun leaking and all, and I made it out safely.

Anyways, pretty much it was epic.

Also, on the way to the boat house before practice, I saw someone hiding behind a blanket, and I squirted him without thinking, but when I saw the blanket and realized what I had done I felt terrible! I realized I had squirted a homeless person. I sputtered a apology, only to see my zombie friend Juan and his red headband emerge.

Lol. Anyway.

Just a few more hours!

No time for pictures today! This is serious business!

Darkening of days

The situation has gotten worse- much worse.

*Cracking radio*

Hello Kirkland,

I know it seems unusual that such a beautiful day could occur during the Zombie Apocalypse, but hey, I guess it's global warming, right? In any case, here are the counts as of midnight last night:

37 Humans.

119 Zombies.

I have no supply cards left, and these are only attainable through supply drops at various locations around Harvard. If I don't turn one in each day, I will become one of them.

Thus, I and other humans made the mission across campus, late at night after the sun had set. As I had the biggest gun, I took up the rear, shooting zombies as I went with a powerful blast of water I hope they will not soon forget. Yet, even when stunned, the zombies followed us, texting the other still live zombies of our location.

I, but at last we reached the science center and I received my supply card, but I knew the zombies were outside and our trek back would be much harder than the one here.

I couldn't handle it. I was terrified. I have worked too hard to lose now, so I abandoned the group and ran to the nearest safe zone I knew of.

Thus, here I am, sitting on the bathroom floor a quarter mile away from my soft safe bed, waiting, and I know the zombies are waiting for me too, but I will wait longer.

I will not lose.

Over and out.

Surrounded By Zombies...

I have heard no crackling of the radio for three days now. All communication from the outside has stopped, and I can trust nobody. I returned to my dorm yesterday to find 4 zombies lying flat in my stairwell, waiting for me. With a lot of screaming and squirting, I managed to stun them all, but it was quite frightening. I know the number of zombies waiting to eat my brains will only grow as the days go on.

This Friday, a helicopter will come and rescue the remaining humans, who will win both monetary prizes and great fame in the world, that is if there are any humans left... However, in this final showdown, the humans must run across the courtyard to the helicopter while 150 zombies try and attack them!

I knew if I were going to survive, I had to get help, and so I went to MIT to the technical experts of the world for advice (I.E. my amazing brother). I am camping out here for now, away from the zombies. I can't say too much, but if I make it to Friday alive, I will give you a hint of what we have in store for those zombies...

Take a look.

The Zombie Situation

*the radio crackles*

"Hi Kirkland,

I hope that there are still some of you out there to listen to this. This infestation is threatening to tear our House apart from within (you know what they say about a House divided...), but I know that we can pull through. Work together, but be cautious. Constant vigilance!

The first day, there was 1 zombie. The second, 7. The third, 24. Today, there are 81 active zombies ready to kill, so watch out! To the 76 remaining humans: good luck!

Over and out."

--The Kirkland Survival Network Emergency Broadcast Channel

As you can tell, the situation has gotten much more dire since I last blogged. The zombies are closing in. I have barred all windows and doors, but their dead hands and constant moans are constantly penetrating the walls of my sanity... I was attacked in the boat house after crew practice, but luckily I am still alive to tell the story. I carry two spray bottles and a super-soaker with me at all times, but no corner, no doorway, no garbage can is safe, for within each a zombie may be lurking...

However, I am ready for attack. The following three pictures outline proper zombie attacking technique.

Over and out-

Your still human friend/daughter,

Laura

A Hodgepodge of Fun

All sorts of excitement is afloat in the life of Laura D'Asaro. We had our first crew practice on the water (Haha, get it, afloat???). It was pretty windy and actually rowing in a boat is kind of scary. Everyone kept catching crabs, and I'm not used to all the crew terms they use yet, and it was altogether a bit of a struggle, just balancing the boat, and getting even a few people rowing at the same time. However, we did get better, and there were moments when we were in sync that felt great!

My Swahili class also preformed at African theater night, and we told a story about a genie who is tricked by a little girl. The play was in Swahili, but here is a summary in English. The girl is from a poor family and finds a bottle on the ground. She picks it up and hears a strange voice.

Narrator 2: As soon as the girl opened the bottle, the little creature started to grow, and grow, and grow, until it became a huge giant.

Spirit: Prepare yourself! I`m going to eat you! I have been here for a long time, and I am very hungry!

Girl: Wait, wait… before you do, I have to be sure that it was you who was inside the bottle…then you can eat me.

Spirit: But it was me! You saw me!

Girl: Prove it!

Spirit: How?

Girl: Get smaller again!

Spirit: Very well… then I will eat you!

Narrator 1: Then the giant got smaller, and smaller, and smaller, and the girl closed the bottle again quickly.

Spirit: Let me out! If you do, I will do whatever you want me to do! Let me out! I will make you rich! I`m telling you the truth! Let me out of here!

Girl: You have to promise that you will not eat me!

Spirit: I promise.

Narrator 2: The girl opened the bottle, and the little creature started to grow, until it became a huge giant once again.

Spirit: Thank you!

Girl: How can you help me?

Spirit: Take this handkerchief. When you cover a metal object with it, the metal will turn into silver.

Girl: Go now… you are free!

In the end, the girl becomes rich and lives happily ever after :)

We literally memorized our lines today, so I'd say it went pretty well.

We are also in the midst of playing human's versus zombies, so today along with my hair all in braids and an African outfit, as well as my broom, turned into axe prop, I was carrying a water guns and looking around constantly, completely paranoid as I walked to class. Those poor Cambridge citizens must have thought I was pretty weird :)

Pillow Fight!!

It is spring for the first time since October, and it makes everyone so happy. However, this was after a little setback yesterday, where we woke up to 2 inches of snow. I would complain, but when we got back from Christmas break, I bet everyone that there would still be snow on the ground in April, so I definitely won!

My roommates and I ate lunch outside today, (btw, isn't Jenny's camera great...? She took the picture in the courtyard.) and it was a little cold, but shivering outside was totally worth the sun rays we felt shining through it all.

Then, I participated in the largest pillow fight of the year in Cambridge Commons. There is something really satisfying about everyone hitting each other with soft things- kind of like non-violent war.