Prog Formal. And a Dead Rabbit.

*SQUEAL*

The horrible week-back-from-spring-break is finally over! And as soon as it ended, the weekend-of-ridiculousness began! It consisted of Prog Formal, which I will soon talk about.

Thursday, right after the Physio exam, I ran 3 miles. Then, we celebrated Malinda's birthday at The Corner Room, one of the restaurants on College Ave. We sauntered down College Ave, looking into stores for prog formal accessories. Later, we went to watch Milk which was playing at the HUB. Sean Penn totally deserved this year's Oscar for playing Harvey Milk.

On Friday, I woke up very rested, didn't go to class, and finished writing my paper for my Ethnomusicology. At about 4 PM, Ramya P, Ramya V, Shruthi, Moksha and I took a bus to the mall in order to prepare ourselves for the the events of the weekend. I didn't buy much, since I was mainly looking for a dress that could possibly surpass the one I already owned. I didn't find one. However, I did buy a top that would be wearing at the stop-light party that night. A stop-light is a party where people come dressed up in different colors: green means you are single, red means you are taken, and yellow means that "it's complicated". You could also wear pink, which means that you just feel like hooking up. Shruthi and I decided to wear pink, partly because we couldn't find any nice green clothes and partly because we thought it would be hilarious (all the DSI guys were going to wear pink, apparently).

After a very lengthy shopping trip, we hopped on the bus back to campus and went to the stop light party. It got really crowded after a while, so some of us went back to Stephens and chilled until we passed out.

The next morning, I got back to my own room and started the arduous process of straightening my hair. Because I have a lot of curly hair and because I like to do it thoroughly, it took about 2 hours. I headed over to Stephens to finish getting ready with Moksha, Arthi, Swetha, and Mausam who had all decided on much more complicated hairstyles. At about 5, I decided I couldn't wait any longer and got a ride to Ramada with Sharon and Peter, where all of the 2nd years had already arrived. The place was looking pretty snazzy with all of the decorations and people in nice clothes (for a change). We had dinner, followed by TIRAMISU and CANNOLI (!!!). Perhaps my favorite part of Prog Formal. The theme for our formal was Casino Royale.

Then, we all had one enormous photo session until everyone's faces started hurting from smiling too much. After that, we watched a funny video made by the second years.



Soon, it was time to either hit the dance floor or hit the tables. I was forced to hit the tables since I was dealing Texas Hold'em for a bunch of second year, high-rolling gamblers. By the time I was done with my shift, Jay and A-Bro had amassed large fortunes.


The rest of the night continued with poker, blackjack, and dancing. My legs were aching like CRAZY by the end of the night, especially from having to stand up and deal in heels. At 10:00, We cleaned up the place and went back to campus, where I quickly changed before the afterparty in Calder.

Needless to say, we were pooped by the end of everything. I surprised myself by waking up the next morning and going to Puja. On the way to Puja, I was almost attacked by a crow! Not really, but it was flying very close to me. Then, we saw where it was coming from: a disgusting mass of flesh on the road next to the parking deck. It wasn't roadkill because there were no tire marks on it, but it was clearly attacked and killed by something. At first, we thought it was a cat but then saw that there was green stuff (leaves, grass) spewing out of the intestines. Then, we saw its ears and determined that it used to be a rabbit. By the time we came back from Puja, the crows had devoured most of it, though I still got a picture. I know you don't really want to see it, but here:


By the way, if you enjoyed the Twinkle Twinkle Desi Style video from YouTube, you will certainly enjoy this:

Spring forward!

I updated my india blog with dance details! http://sowmyastriptoindia.blogspot.com

The rest of the week turned out much better as I spent Wednesday with at the mall with Katherine and Soreen. We hardly bought anything, but it was like old times again when we used to ditch school during x-block half days and go to the mall. Back then, we would actually buy things because we were spending our parents money. On thursday, Soreen and I watched Slumdog Millionaire again. And on Friday, I hung out with some Goondas (Sanjana, Praneetha, Harsha, Priyanka, Pranita, Sahitya, Sindhu, Prithvi) in Boston for Sindhu's birthday. These are photos I will NOT be untagging :) Courtesy of Sindhu/Sanjana


It was totally awesome seeing all my telugu chums again especially since I hadn't seen most of them since my arangetram at the end of last summer. We traipsed around Newbury street, stepped into expensive clothing stores, stepped out of most of them empty-handed, and complained about the cold. I really wanted to buy this one t shirt from FCUK (french connection) but of course, they didn't have my size.

When it got too dark and too cold, we went into the Prudential Mall. The last time I went there was with Nipunn, Marissa, Jeff, and Katherine one summer day on one of our epic biking trips. We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner at 9 and finally got our food at 10. We are also joined by Mounica and Neetu. It was so cool seeing everyone! We finally got out of P.F. Changs around 11:00 and hung out by some heater at the Prudential Mall for another half hour. I really don't know why. I believe we were waiting for something...I'm not sure...

Being nutty inside the Pru.

While we waited for our seats in P.F. Changs.

Waiting for Mo, Neetu, and our food.

And finally we headed back in Sahitya's van. Praneetha slept over and the next morning, we made ariselu. By make, I mean that while my mom did most of the work and deep fried the dough, I pressed oil out of them and Praneetha arranged them on a plate. We were so very tired after such tiring work and lounged in the basement, where it was actually warmer than the rest of the house due to the windows being kept wide open. Praneetha did some dance practice (she has her arangetram this summer!) while I watched. I decided to go to the Town Hall to see Jothi Aunty, since I hadn't seen her since the day after my arangetram. We ended up hanging out there for three hours and watched her choreograph for the Nrityanjali summer production. By the time we got back home, it was PARTY TIME!

My mom invited the usual potluck group over to our house that day and I got to see even more people! It was fantastic. We played a game of fictionary with proverbs (rather, we tried to play) and cut a cake for Priyanka. I was so shot by the end of the day and fell asleep at the relatively early time of 2:00 AM.

This morning was horrible as I forced myself out of bed at 8:30 and onto my Fullington bus back to Penn State at 9:40. However, the trip was nice since for the first time, there was no rain, no hail, no fog, no snow, and no blizzard while I was traveling. We got here relatively quickly and I am now sitting in my room, blogging with the window open since it is so warm and beautiful outside.

As you can tell, the second part of my break was much less productive and much more fun. Therefore, I must ignore Ramya who is lounging out in the HUB lawn and get some Ochem studying done. I already miss everyone terribly and I will see all you wonderful Boston friends in another 2 months! Wheeeeee.

Breaktime

Last week on March 2nd was my unofficial birthday. It's my real birthday, but it's unofficial because it is not the date printed on my birth certificate. That's May 2nd. You can blame the buttheads in that darned hospital in Tirupati. So anyway, I usually don't celebrate my March 2nd birthday mainly because I like May 2nd better and it's the day I would officially get my permit, driver's license, etc. So I was pretty nonchalant when I went to dinner at Pollock with my friends on Monday. I treated myself to an ice cream sundae but didn't really make a big deal out of it. We went downstairs and Ramya and Malinda had to go to the bathroom. Shivam suggested we wait in The Mix, which is a convenience store in Pollock Commons. Then he suggested that we go outside, even though it was freezing. He was acting funny-ish, but it was Shivam, so I didn't care. "The moon is pretty," he said.

We proceeded to have a stupid and pointless conversation about Astronomy. Ramya and Malinda finally came out and we started walking forward. Then, in a really fake voice, Ramya goes, "Hey Sowmya!" and I look over. Then, something soft and wet hits my face. It was dark outside, so it took my some time to realize that it was a "pie" (more like, a plate with two inches of cool whip on it). Then, Ramya realizes that she didn't hit my face sort of on the side, so she pies me again so as to properly cover my face in cool whip.

As if that wasn't embarassing enough (that was done outside), they forced me to march through Redifer Commons with cool whip on my face while hundreds of people stared at me. I'm pretty sure one girl dropped her textbook. I made it a point not to make eye contact with anyone. So we finally made it over to 101 Stephens where there was a photoshoot with the pied me. I was then permitted to wash my face and we played several rounds of Fictionary (no, we did not gamble that night).

And no, I am NOT putting up a picture of me pied in the face, however I will share a picture of the pie with my face impression on it:

Ramya claims that I once said I wanted to be pied in the face for my birthday. I don't know how long they had been planning this out.

ANYWAY

Sorry it took me so long to post after the incident, but I had been desperately trying to study for my Fluids and Thermo (Physics 213) final during the past week. Thankfully, it's done and I celebrated by running 14 laps on the Rec Hall track. And then I ate a calzone. Spring break time!

It was an 8 hour long bus ride home (I am SO flying next time) and I arrived at 11:30 PM. Some vacation THIS is going to be: I have to study for the three exams have as soon as I get back: Physiology, Organic Chem, and Ballroom Dance. Stop laughing. By the way, my schedule for next semester is pretty much planned out, except that I might take Advanced Ballroom Dance as well:
http://lionschedules.com/oigaow

Thanks to the stupid college spring break schedules, not everyone is off during the same week. Even my brother is at school. And now, I'm sitting at home, with neither a car nor insurance, studying Aldehydes and Ketones, waiting for someone to drive by and whisk me away...