Lets Go to the Mall.. Today.

Friday Morning began bright and early for me, early enough in fact that I was able to sneak in a quick shower and some time in the common area before breakfast.

Friday's breakfast was special because I was able to spend it with Dr. Koch and some other students from my class chatting about debate at Vanderbilt, and debate in general. We learned about the inner workings of the Vandy team, and even left with some awesome stickers.

Class started quickly afterward, and Friday's class was quite the doozy. We worked all day on our final speeches, and I learned how easy it is to get into a black hole of research. With such a broad and hot topic as the refugee crisis (the partial subject of my speech), it seems that there is endless information, and it is hard to decide what to absorb and add to the speech, and what must be left behind due to the nine-minute time constraint. By the end of class, I was so exhausted by the 6 hours of relatively unbroken focus, that even standing in the scorching heat was a welcomed break.

The deserted row of seats at the end of class

Following class, it came time for our last day of ACE. The last day meant that we would use all we had learned about stage combat and the ways that trained fighters can trick the human eye and test our ability to decern the good from the bad and the real from the fake. We did this by watching fight scenes, a lot of fight scenes, and while I am not usually a huge fan of violence on screen or off, it was definitely interesting to look at the choreographed routines with a whole new perspective.

After ACE dinner and free time, which all passed relatively uneventfully, it was time for the major event of the day, the Tri-Wizard Tournament. This quasi Harry Potter themed showdown between V House (the best house), S House, and A House had many elements, by far the most popular two were field games and the talent show. My friends Julie, Ana, and I were all able to partake in a bit of both, but most of our time was spent watching the talent show.

Learning the rules of the game

Act after act of VSAers all talented in their own ways, sang, danced, told jokes, read poetry, and did much much more, showcasing their bravery and winning points for their house.

We returned to bed wearily, looking forward to what Saturday would hold.

Saturday began a bit later as it always does, and despite all my intentions of waking up early once again, I failed to set an alarm, and thusly failed also to wake up before 8, leaving me very little free time.

As soon as breakfast had concluded, we headed to our short 3 hour morning class and spent it in great contrast to the day before by engaging in fun mini-debates about nonsensical topics, (movies at home are better than movies in the theater, etc.)

After lunch, we had time with our TA, Marie, and she was able to arrange a quick ice-cream gathering before returning back to our classroom to recline in the cushy lecture hall seats and watch The Office to unwind.

We next had our Saturday afternoon SOFT time, and I decide to spend mine (shocker) with Anna, both of us working side by side on various projects.

Before I knew it dinner had passed and it was time for our evening activity of the VSA wide movie, complete with a big screen, popcorn, and all kinds of other free food and drink.

We traveled on foot to a nearby theater that is part of Vanderbilt and watched the endearing movie, "Sand Lot", which I would highly recommend to anyone who likes dogs, baseball, or just sweet feel-good movies.

A lit of building on the way back from the movie

Unlike a normal theater environment where most of your fellow moviegoers are strangers, we all knew each other, so plenty of people laugh cheered and commented out loud throughout the film. I actually found that this added to the experience, making it feel like one big happy gathering, fitting since the film was a throwback and not an anticipated new release.

Soon it was Sunday morning, today!

Mine began at around seven, and I did my best to be productive with the free time I had until twelve, answering some emails, drifting down to get some breakfast, working on my speech, and of course, chatting with friends.

Lunch brought me a chance to catch up with some people I hadn't seen in what was probably about 24 hours but felt like ages.

After lunch all of VSA was off to the mall, Opry Mills Mall to be specific. Along with my friends Julie, Caroline, and occasionally Anna, we drifted around the giant mall, shopping for clothes and even a plush corgi for Caroline. Julie and I did one of my favorite things to do while shopping which is to pick out the most ridiculous over the top outfits for each other and try them on, both of us ended up winners in my book.

Julie and I in our outfits

We returned to Vanderbilt to have dinner and then attend Ted Talk style lectures from all kinds of Vanderbilt students and staff who are experts in their fields. Hawi and I both chose once called New Problems in Law, in which we heard talks on the science of recognizing faces, the way that the burden of proof effects our justice system, and the intersection of philosophy and law. All three were very interesting and had us talking about them all the way back to the dorms.

We rounded out our evening with Proctor Group Meeting, including a fun game of Avalon, a group strategy and mystery game that had us all accusing each other of being evil.