Contracting

Happy Indigenous Peoples' Day, folks!

I know it's been a while since I've written, but I've been more busy than usual, so I'm going to keep this to one story even though I have several. Later this week, I'll have some wonderful pictures of campus for y'all.


Anyway, this entry is all about how cool Evergreen is. And you won't even believe it. About a week ago, we had a guest visit our Russian language class who had taken a year of Russian before spending three months in Siberia. Our professor invited him to talk with us about her home country, and to explain to us exactly what contracting is. It is, in fact, the coolest thing I've learned about Evergreen's academics so far.

In essence, contracting is a really great way to get credit and money for attempting your own journey or project in life. It's really that open. All you have to do is write up a contract, get it approved by professors you've had, and sign-up for financial aid, and you could, say, spend a few months bumming around Siberia for essentially free. Of course, this dude wasn't just bumming around. He lived an almost entirely nomadic life - hunting and gathering all his food, living in temporary housing in the mountains, traveling by foot and boat across country... He really experienced Siberian life.

And he got credit for it. And it was free.

Nearly.

This is how cool Evergreen is. A student can write up a proposal for anything she wants to do, and as long as it convinces the school that she's actually going to learn something, she has the potential to get extra money for it. And this really includes anything.

I also met a great dude this week from Seattle who spent a year hopping trains and hitchhiking across country. In fact, I've met several people who have traveled in similar fashion. I've decided I'm going to take full advantage of the possibilities here at Evergreen. I'm going to network like crazy, travel all over the place with these folks, and meet as many people as possible.


This is going to be fantastic. I can't even wait for it all to begin.


On a similar note, I'm slightly homesick. I'm sick almost constantly from a poor diet (and the Greenery food is just terrible), and I miss my family. I don't miss Edmonds, though. It's not nearly as cool as this part of Olympia (we live next to a temporary rainforest, and it's stunning.)


Salaam.