Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Winding Down

No, today was not my last day of classes.  But it was pretty darn close.  Friday will officially be the last day of the semester, and all I have between now and then is some homework, that I should probably be doing right now instead of writing this.  On second thought, the only reason I am writing this is because I am waiting up until 10:00 to have a skype date with one of my best friends from high school.  That's right, I would be asleep right now if it weren't for that.

What a change right?  Not too long ago I had one night where I was up until four in the morning, working on a presentation for Spanish, that I ended up not even presenting the next day.  Luckily all of my classes for next semester start at eight in the morning.  Which means that I have no reason to be up late at night.

Anyway, that is not what I had planned to talk about.  What I meant to talk about is how the year is coming to a close.  I have two more days of class and three exams left.  All of the decor is off of my walls, and I am slowly packing my things to send the first load home this weekend.  My goal is to only have here what I will need for a week.. even though I will be here a little longer than that.  I think going to boarding school for two years of my high school career has influenced my ideas of dorm-room decoration, but I just don't understand how people can live in a room for a whole year without covering up the bare, white walls.

I have finally started connecting with a group of friends outside of class and Bible Study (not that I don't love my Bible study, I just don't get to see them as often as I would like), but we have like a week and a half left to spend together.  This is all so very bitter sweet.  I am so ready for summer, but at the same time, I wish I had more time to get to know all of these people, because I don't know how much of them I will get to see of them next year.  Especially since they are all design majors and I am in engineering and humanities.

The only thing I know to do is to be thankful that my year has been good, that I have been able to make some new friends, bond with my roommate, and have almost an entire two months at home with my family before I start working this summer.  I haven't been home for that long in three years, and I think it is time for a break.


Mo

Friday, April 6, 2012

The Hunger Games

Now, I don't know how others who have read the books feel about the Hunger Games movie. Admittedly, it was a good movie. But I must admit that I was slightly disappointed.

Recently I have really become a stickler when it comes to movies based on books actually following the book, and leaving the same impression in me as the book did.

In this case, the movie did, for the most part, an excellent job at following the plot line of the book. I just have one main issue. There were of course some details from the book that were missing, but most of those were minor. What I had an issue with was the way the movie came off as being mostly about the kids killing each other. Yes, that is a large, important part of the story, but I saw a larger picture in the book that was not conveyed through the movie.

The book showed a bigger picture, one of the struggle of an oppressed people, just beginning to realize as a whole that they can stand up for themselves. All of the character interactions that show this at the beginning of the book, such as Katniss selling to the Peacekeepers and the power that the Capital has over the rest of the districts is left for the viewer put together themselves. They show an uprising in District 11 as a result of the way Rue was treated when she died, but it doesn't clearly tie to the overall rebellion growing among the people. All of the story that makes the Hunger Games what it is was left until the end of the movie, like when Haymitch tried to explain to Katniss that she had upset the Capital, so it didn't have the full effect that it has in the book.

While I did enjoy the movie, the book was infinitely better. But, one must keep in mind that I am a bit of a bookworm.

Thanks for reading,

Mo