Challenge Accepted by Team Swarles Barkley

Today we finished all of the major topics of our Macoreconomics course, and I'm looking forward to a fun final week of class, especially our Monday class in the computer lab of the science library, where we will run all sorts of economic simulations. We wrapped up the new material we would be learning (the last week will be review for the test) with sections on foreign exchange rates, and monetary policies the Federal Reserve can use to adjust those exchange rates. We reviewed the previous homework for an hour with our TA Desi after the class teased her about Rafael Nadal's early exit from Wimbledon (at our teacher's request) and I was pleasantly surprised to say that yet again I understood a considerable portion of the homework. 

I headed off to the gym for a couple of hours, so I only received my mom's text at 3:00 telling me that they had sent me a package that I could pick up today. I assumed I would have at least a couple of hours to figure out where the package was and then go back and pick it up, so I nonchalantly wandered around campus for around a half hour before running into a friend that had picked up a package a few days earlier, and who was willing to lead me to the right building. After going to the original office where my package supposedly was, I was sent upstairs, then across a hall, until at 3:58, I was told by the third person I had been sent to that I was supposed to head over to a building fifteen minutes away, and which closed in two. After I explained that I had perishable food (cake pops (or balls of cake covered in chocolate and placed on a stick) baked by a little sister whose sole goal in life was for me to get those cake pops (I may have exaggerated the truth a little bit here, I think that ranks about third on her all-time goals list), they gave me the phone number of the mail service, and told me that if I ran (in sandals) I might be able to make it. Unfortunately, I had no idea where that building was, but luckily I convinced a friend to help navigate for me while I begged the man at the mail services center to stay open for a few more minutes (don't worry, I switched navigators so I wouldn't have to go to three wrong places before I even found out where I was supposed to go). Thanks to the most intense power-walking sandals have ever seen before, I was able to make it to the mail services at 4:02, and found my box fairly quickly. I rushed back to the dorm, eager to open the package, because while I did know that the box would contain cake pops, I was curious as to how my sister would incorporate Brown into them, which she said she did. The box of 30 brown, bear-shaped cake pops shown below looked amazing, and tasted even better. I looked at my clock and saw that I would have to rush to make it to our meeting with Mrs. Kaplan

We met with Mrs. Kaplan to discuss how our classes and experiences have been and headed over to Rick's Roadhouse, home of the "wings from hell." We had met there once before, and after each having one of those wings, Tayler, Ying-An, and I each thought we could handle the six wings required to earn a place on the wall of fame. Naturally, we decided that if we ever had the chance, we would head down to Rick's Roadhouse with the sole intent of attempting the wings from hell challenge. When we learned that Mrs. Kaplan wanted to meet with us today, we decided now was as good a day as any to kill off at least half of our taste buds. 

While I'd rather not recount what it felt like during and for an hour after taking on this wings challenge, as my temperature goes up around ten degrees just thinking about it, I would like to share that Tayler, Ying-An, and I all were able to finish the wings, with help from our support groups. Each of us happened to sit next to one of the three ILCers smart enough not to attempt the challenge, and Emily and I made up the self-named Team Swarley. After our accomplishment, we took a group photo to be placed up on the wall of fame in the future, the side-angle of which is shown below. 

Today was a very successful day overall, and I am ecstatic to head over to Boston with Summer@Brown tomorrow!