I finally finished my FYS paper! It took me long enough! It was actually pretty interesting though. Basically, I found out that stereotypes in movies and television for Latin Americans haven't really changed much in the past sixty years. That's kind of sad since all you hear about anymore is the growing diversity in America and how we should be more accepting of people from different cultures. I can't help but laugh now because every time I see someone from an ethnic group portrayed a certain way on television, especially Latinos, I can't help but identify the stereotype and all the characteristics that go with it. See how research papers scar you! I'll never be able to look at movies the same way again. Actually, I talked with my FYS professor about it, and she seems to think that the media shapes our culture rather than our culture shaping the media, and after finishing my paper, I see that she has a point. If television continuously portrays something in a certain way, then eventually we are bound to believe it is true because we see it so frequently and assume that everyone else is the same way. That sounds a little too much like my bizarre AP English teacher with the "Kill your TV!" stickers all over her classroom. Almost, but not quite; my FYS professor isn't that strange...she still watches television.

Anyway, today was the last day of classes, so I suppose I should have been either happy or sad, but I think the word that best describes the way I was feeling is "indifferent". I honestly didn't care either way. I walked out of calculus thinking "that's it?". I don't know what I was expecting, I guess I just thought it would've been a bigger relief or something. I suppose that won't come until finals are over. I was really out of it this morning though. I woke up late and walked around in a daze until I took a nap at 1:30. Perhaps that is why I didn't really care if my classes were over or not...I just wanted to sleep. Tomorrow (or actually today) promises to be one of the most stressful days of my life. I have SO much math to study, along with editing my entire paper and most likely rewriting the introduction and conclusion, which are both pretty awful right now. Oddly enough, I'm not feeling very stressed which is a very good thing! Even more surprisingly, I'm indifferent about school ending. I'm not particularly excited about summer, but I'm not begging to stay here either. Summers are usually just times for me to get incredibly lazy and semi-reclusive. Every summer, I make a list of goals for myself and inevitably, hardly any of them get accomplished. I seem to be more goal-oriented this year though, so maybe I will actually accomplish something constructive.

Random Thoughts
If I could, I would learn how to speak Italian. No particular reason. Well, maybe because it sounds so bouncy. It would be fun to go around saying MA-ma MI-a and accentuate syllables in different places.

It's funny how many people you can know without realizing it. You can sit down at a table with a friend and someone your friend knows and later another one of your friends comes and sits down. It turns out that that friend knows the other two people. Then another group of people that you know comes over and sits down, and they know all the other people at the table. Then before you know it, you're sitting at big table with a whole bunch of people that you've met separately who all just happen to know each other and suddenly you're a big group of people who all know each other. Interesting.

The weather today was very nice. It was sunny, but not too warm, not more than 50-55 degrees I think. I'm not looking forward to next week when it's supposed to be in the 80s. I hate hot weather. But I shouldn't get too upset, it'll be even warmer than that at home.

Why does it take them so long to make veggie burgers in the cafeteria?

Why are there ants in my dorm room? I've killed three today. I live on the third floor! Those are some ambitious ants!

I have something floating around in my mind. I'm not entirely sure what you would call it. A thought, idea, dream, or wish? It's like the one white cloud in a sky of pure blue. Not a storm cloud, just a lone white, fluffy cloud. The kind you look at and wonder where it came from, how it got there, and what makes it stay when everything around is so clear and blue. I really don't mind this "thing", it's just slightly distracting at times. But then again, it's always been those lone clouds that have intrigued me the most.