What was I thinking when...?

1. What was I thinking when I signed up for a class that is scheduled for three blocks of time? My art class seems to drag on for such a long time. Luckily it was broken up by a trip to the Fitzwilliam Museum. It was absolutely incredible inside the museum with literally, (or litrally—think of this in a British accent!) thousands of paintings. We learned about standing far away from a painting so that we can see the whole thing in our sight instead of going up close to the painting and losing our entire perspective.

2. What was I thinking when I volunteered to schedule the group trips? I pored over my travel plan papers and avidly surfed the web scouring websites for the best flight deals. Finally I came up with what I thought were a series of good trips, but then was crushed when the boys shot down my ideas. Luckily Meg stuck up for me and pushed my plan through and we officially booked our trips to Dublin and Berlin!

3. What was I thinking when I thought “Intercollegiate Trivia Night” was going to be a fun and friendly environment? Well, I’ll pin this blunder on the program directors as well. What do get when you pair competitive teenagers from great academic universities with a battle of intelligence, especially when the reputation of their schools is at stake? I’ll just say that it got a little heated and some friendships may have suffered as a result. We were the “Mighty Ducks” and our main competition was “Team Jacob,” (a Twilight reference—something that annoyed me because it was a rather clever name coming from a group of not so funny guys!) from Penn. Some serious trash-talking had been going on before the trivia night commenced. At the beginning of the trivia contest, it seriously felt like I was on one of those game shows that hosts the college week with the very nerdy looking students that makes the observers question the coolness of all the students at the respective schools. That feeling soon faded as we got into the competition and when all was said and done, I was very proud of our team. Sadly we came up one point too short and were defeated in the epic battle by our formidable opponents at Penn. I will admit that I mostly offered support for our team in the form of cheering and moral support, but I will also proudly take credit for knowing the answer to the question: “What is the longest word that can be typed on the top row of the keyboard?” The answer is, ironically enough, “typewriter.” As a reward for our great display of knowledge, we got a box of chocolates.

The Mighty Ducks with our prize!

4. What was I thinking when I ate so many of those dumb chocolates that we won? We took the box to King’s College and ate away our misery at getting second place in the competition. It was a nice relaxing evening again at our favorite table in the bar as we had some fun conversations and started preparing for the next competition.

July 7