Christmas Coal (Regulations)

We did it! Amazingly, my experience interning with Greenpeace this past summer actually materialized into national news...sort of. A few months ago, they had me urging citizens to sign their names in support of then-upcoming Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations on mercury pollution. The rule was in "public comment" period, which, as I would later learn in class, is a mandated 90-day opportunity for the public to examine and react to proposed EPA rule. Greenpeace sought to deliver many thousands of supportive comments to administrator Lisa Jackson to help demonstrate a public willing to embrace new emissions standards. But by the time I made it back to Boston, however, the fate of our endeavor seemed bleak.

I Made It Out of C++

Today is the first day of Hanukkah, the Jewish "festival of lights." The eight-day winter holiday celebrates historic miracles and includes the lighting of a nine-candeled hanukkiah (or menorah, as it is often and erroneously now called). This is one of my holidays, albeit a relatively minor one in my religion. But then, should it have surprised me when one of my international residents asked me if Jews celebrated Christmas?

My favorite dreidel and quintessential Israeli memento, this tiny top bears not a shin, but a pey, reading "A great miracle happened here."

Bennotations

Yes, it's true: I'm stuck on campus until the twenty-third. But that's not just because I'm an RA (um, yes it is?); I also have my final final exam the day prior. So which awful scheduling decision from eight months ago is keeping me here long enough to experience Boston Logan the night before the-night-before-Christmas?

Jumbo Justice

We went to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and brought back first and second places. We defended our title as champions at Tufts. And when we headed out to Yale to wrap up the season, we came back with the first place trophy. We are Tufts Mock Trial (TMT) and this is what we've been up to ever since the Class of 2015 stepped onto campus three months ago.

Weekend Update

Crosswords and camcorders? Just another action-packed weekend at Tufts. After my floor decorated the hall for the holidays, I couldn't resit a bit of decorating of my own. I threw up some Christmas lights in the part of the hall nearest my room, and added a few other touches. A review of a creative few days:

Photo Credit: Will Clarkson, 2011

'Twas the Night Before Thursday

It was around two-something in the morning when I finally put down the laptop, grabbed my toothbrush and ID card, and headed down the hall toward one of Tilton's bathrooms. But I hadn't even gotten past my door before I saw it. There it was, being constructed right in front of me. Like elves, residents were busy working late into the night, untangling, taping, and getting ready for the holidays. Here is what they produced:

This was left on my door; so shiny!