These are photos from my first year at Smith College, 2003-2004.
People from Smith:
--From Senior Banquet, held near the end of the second semester. This is a row of our house seniors. I can't remember everyone's names at the moment, but they were drunk out of their minds: here.
--Also from Senior Banquet, a group of sophomores posing. Most notable is Katy Gabel's seductive position in the middle: here.
--On Valentine's Day, a bunch of us went to JMG Hall to watch a presentation of the Vagina Monologues. Alyssa was left by herself in the dining room studying and was lonely and bored. So she used little foam numbers and wrote out pi on a table, because she is CRAZY: here.
--Often times in Baldwin, we get distracted from studying and lounge around late night in the living room chatting and wasting time and ordering delivery pizza. This is from one such night, of Brea and Sophia A. (aka Little Sophie aka Celine); their motivation is "first date": here.
--On one nice day, after the snow was gone, my roommate Calley played hookey with fellow housemate Liz and picked flowers and frolicked and such. Here's them in a tree: here.
--Me and the Yeti. A terribly frightening encounter.
--Miranda, Talya, and Mira, during another of those late-night, time-wasting chats.
--Democrat nominee Dennis Kucinich, giving a speech at John M. Green Hall. yeah, it's not a good picture, but he is a weird-looking (and adorable) little dude.
--A pair of hippy performers that came out before Kucinich.
--Lester Little, the now-retiring professor for my early European history class. I got a B. Here he's pointing out the origin and travel of Pocket Coffees.
--Jaci Eisenberg, me, Katy Gabel, and Christine in the back. On the swing bench on Baldwin's front porch during a barbeque lunch. This was my last day at Smith; a few hours later I left for the summer.
--Brea, doing... something weird on the floor. This was from too much stress during finals.
--Sophie (little) in a lovely dress with Elizabeth. This may also be due to finals stress, except... she didn't have many. The bitch.
--Me and Alyssa playing chess during the Emilio Estevez party. It was a wild night. (She beat me.)
--Brea and another girl dancing with Emilio Warrior Princess, also during the party. Both pictures taken by Katy Gabel. PROPS.
--A group of certain people crammed into Amanda's room, after the end of the series finale of "Friends". Megan's expression is inexplicable, and Molly is crying with emotional build-up on Amanda's shoulder.
--First-years, at maybe 3, 4, or 5 AM, about to wake-up seniors for some house tradition. They were all tired and cranky, but I hadn't gone to bed, and was still working on a paper in the living room. They weren't expecting this photo.
--Mary and Sophie (tall), more first-years in the morning.
--Louise, a senior we woke up that morning by banging on pots and pans and singing this song (performed there by Brea, Elyse, and Sahara, with my cheering). She was given a doughnut and juice.
--Pirates: You don't want to know what was going on here.
--More suspicious activity... ("Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!")
--Two Swimming classmates before class, our last day (in which my left boob popped out of my top after jumping from the diving board). Elyse (a different one), and someone's back.
--Kelly and Casey.
--Who is that girl on the right? It's... GASP! Elizabeth Koke, at the pro-life March, from Yahoo News.
Japan:
I went to Kyoto, Japan for two weeks in January 2004 with a class from Smith. It was ass-numbingly cold and I had less than 200 yen left by the time we left, but it was all good.
--Me and this weird mascot. I forgot what it's called ("Usagi"-something), but it's a pink bunny with a beak and it is FREAKY. I think it's the mascot for an English-speaking school.
On our last full day in Japan, my friend Lina and I went to this monkey park on the western side of Kyoto by ourselves. WILD MONKEYS. Those things were scary as shit, I am not kidding. Lina was all like, "Oh no, they're so cute, they're used to people! They won't do anything." That was until she got too close to one and it leaned in fast towards her. She freaked down and ran away, and from that point on, we were looking out for those little beasts.
--The lake outside the park. It was so nice to get out there. The air even felt fresher to breathe.
--Me and a cute monkey sign. I don't know why I had that expression.
--MONKEYS. This was on top of the hill we climbed up to.
--Pure evil, all of them. I couldn't run out screaming at any point because all of the Japanese high schoolers would laugh at me.
--Monkeys at this abadoned park building. There was a swingset next to it.
--Solitary monkey in the woods. Lina and I cooed over it while this guy stood nearby. I'm especially glad that I didn't say anything stupid, because he knew English pretty well.
--Lina and a monkey, before she learned true fear. I was not comfortable walking past that thing.
--"Please don't show them any food." No kidding.
--As we left Kyoto by train, we caught a last glimpse of Lawson, a convenience store that many of us relied on for nutrition. God bless cheap snacks.
Northampton:
Northampton is a very liberal small city in Massachusetts, lesbian capital of the world, as I say. You don't realize how much you take advantage of this factor until you go back out into the rest of the world.
--Grafitti!
--Melora from Rasputina, at the Iron Horse in early May. This is almost frightening.
Summer:
--My dad and grandpa at my cousin Carol's wedding. My dad's doing the stare that he does to annoy people, and my grandpa's just... I don't know, zoned out.
--Melora from Rasputina once again, at the "recital" at Black Cat in DC on June 13. It was a beautiful show, very beautiful. This photo was taken by this lovely youngster.
