Snowed Under

I am snowed under with both school and real snow here in Athens right now. On Friday around noon it started to snow heavily, and now the town is covered in lots of snow. When I was taking a walk to the town center on Saturday morning, I could barely make my way through all the snow. There were not a whole lot of people around but those who were, seemed mostly genuinely happy, and excited. They were making snow angels and were throwing snowballs at each other. I love snow, so I had an exceptionally good time as well.        

My classes are keeping me productively busy, and I truly enjoy all of them. One class is a Recreation class called “Inclusive Recreation.” I had put it on my list of classes that I wanted to take but never expected to really take it. The truth is that I only decided to check it out after the instructor sent a very enthusiastic email saying that she was looking forward to my participation. As it turns out it is a great class that ties right into my interests of service and therapy dogs. I am very glad to be taking it. The same holds true for my classes on “Communicating with People with Disabilities” and “Strategic Communication Writing.” Of course, there is also the GLC class. I think the most important fact to mention is that we will be going to Chicago for our final presentations. I was so excited to hear about this, as I have heard that it is a great city. Now I will get a chance to see for myself if this is so.       

I have also decided to audit a class called “What is Evil?” from the World Religions Department. I had originally planned to take this class for credit but when the “Inclusive Recreation” class came along, I had to re-schedule. As the topic was simply too appealing to me to just not attend the class, I chose to audit. This gives me a chance to do the readings and participate in class discussions while not having to do the many reading responses and essays that this class requires. So far I am happy with my decision, as the class discussions are truly interesting.

Even after classes are over, there is so much going on here on and off campus that it is impossible to be bored. I have made a whole list of things that I want to do, and I already know that I won't be able to do all of them as some dates overlap. One thing that I enjoyed participating in so far, was a 3-day campaign to get as many people as possible on campus to register as bone marrow donors. This is done with a simple mouth swab. In the unlikely event that a person is a perfect match for somebody with e. g. leukemia, they can help save their lives. I had a great time approaching people and convincing them to “Get Swabbed.” As I know somebody back in Germany who had leukemia and only survived because she got a bone marrow donation, this was an extra incentive to get as many people as possible to sign up to be bone marrow donors.