Juliet Schor

I am an intern at the Center For Vocational Reflection on campus. This was something that I really did not know anything about coming into it. I have been pleasantly surprised by how much I have enjoyed it so far.

First of all, I have a key to the office. In that office is a computer, printer, comfy couch for reading, raido that I can play music on... It is the PERFECT study spot. Especially since I have none of those things at the apartment I live in. I call it my lair because I am there every night studying until the security guards kick me out at 1:00am.

Secondly, our team meetings are held every thursday at the Gustavus buffet! I really value this meal since many times it is the best one I get all week.

Thirdly and most importantly, I am able to get to know Chris and Amy as well as my fellow intern Amara better and do cool things like be Juliet Schor's personal homing device as she navigates her way around the Gustavus campus visiting classes, speaking in chapel, eating with various faculty and students, and giving a keynote address.

Juliet Schor according to wikipedia is...

is a Professor of sociology at Boston College. She studies trends in working time and leisure, consumerism, the relationship between work and family, women's issues and economic justice. She received her undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and her Ph.D in economics from the University of Massachusetts. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard University for 17 years, in the Department of Economics and the Committee on Degrees in Women's Studies. In 2006 she was awarded the Leontief Prize by the Global Development and Environment Institute. She has two children who currently reside in Newton with her, Krishna and Sulakshana. She authored:

• Born to Buy: The Commercialized Child
• The New Consumer Culture
• The Overworked American: The Unexpected Decline of Leisure
• The Overspent American: Upscaling, Downshifting and the New Consumer
• Do Americans Shop too Much?

It has been a crazy day. I had a delicious and complimentary (thanks cvr!) breakfast with Juliet, Chris, and Amy, then I went to chapel to hear her speak. After chapel I took her to her first class that she was scheduled to visit. In the meantime, we figured out that she had a double booking. This caused us to reschedule lunch so that she could get to the second class that she was to visit. All of this got arranged while I ran off to tai chi the class I skipped the day before to study and HAD to go to today.

After that I had to go study for an abnormal psychology test the rest of the afternoon, take the test (I feel pretty good about it) and then rush back to the campus center to show up late for the formal dinner with faculty select students and Juliet. Whew! I made it in time for a delicous meal and great conversation about sustainabillity and projecting what the world will look like in the future. Green revolution babay!
10 to 7:00 I realized I had better figure out what I was going to say to introduce Juliet as our speaker of the night... So I quick made some additions to the wikipedia post I had printed about her and whala! I introduced our key note speaker and felt quite special because of it. One minor mistake, she has a daughter and a son. I said she had two sons. With an additional 5 min prep, maybe I could have avoided that.

the talk was fabulous. It really charges me to thing about sustainabillity sort of issues. I can really see myself getting more active in this area. It is becoming more and more of an evolved "passion" in my life. Yay! maybe I am gaining some clarity as to what I want to do someday!

Tomorrow I will take her back to the airport and then spend the night at home.

Meeting Coach Carlson

Last Sunday I went swimming. After I was finished laps in the sun touched waters of the Gustavus pool, I returned the goggles that I used from the lost and found, and headed to the sauna.

I perch myself on the top bench, fill my lungs with hot, dry, woody air and began to shut my eyses, when a friendly voice interuppts my thoughts.
"Was that you out there doing the butterfly?"
Startled but not enough to show it, I pleasantly reply,
"Yeah that was me TRYING to do the butterfly out there."
Turns out this older man seated to my left who would make an excellent double for Einstein is a calc professor.
I promptly introduce myself as a math-a-phibic.
As the conversation continues, another man enters the heat.
He is tall. He looks very fit.
"You must play basketball huh?" I ask him.
His head slowly turns back and his eyes make contact with mine as he says.
"I'm the mens basketball coach...you haven't been to many games have you."

I swallow then smile. "I've been to a few."

Wow. The mens basketball coach, a calc professor and me, sitting and sweating in the sauna.

What a life here on the hill.