News Story Update

So... the letter I sent to the news company? I got a response, and now I'm going to be interviewed later this month! I want to make it clear to anyone reading this, or seeing the news story, that there have been many helpful individuals at my school, but that there have been some unavoidable problems:

1. Unlike at Binghamton University, there is no "gluten free section" of the cafeteria or kitchen. Anything can be, and probably is, contaminated.
2. Although gluten free foods are often marked, there is not always something gluten free at every meal.
3. To get special gluten free food, I was required to call ahead, then wait at the cafeteria for someone to make me food (despite calling ahead, they never started cooking until I arrived). Also, if they ran out of some kind of gluten free food, they did not always restock it.
4. I still usually eat off of the salad bar, since most meat is breaded, served with questionable sauce, or served in something with wheat.
5. They changed the cafe this year, and the gluten free menu items I was used to using as a backup for when the cafeteria was too difficult disappeared. They were not replaced by anything.

All of these things happened, not because people weren't willing to help me, but because I am at a small school where only a tiny fraction of people do not eat gluten. Thus, it was not cost effective to implement special measures to accommodate me. For any situation where I might not be able to eat, I have to call beforehand, because otherwise there will not be food for me. On the other hand, if I do call ahead I am usually fine. I just do not think this is reasonable on an everyday basis. As a student, I really don't want to have to think about calling every time I have to eat.

So, really, I just want people to be aware that at smaller schools they might have to fend for themselves more often. They really need to be aware of the kitchen staff and any gluten free options. Learning that the french fries at the cafeteria (but not the cafe) were gluten free went a long way towards my being able to eat well at school. However, as I said before, it may be necessary to go to a larger school to get better options.

Stress, stress, and more stress...

I'm trying incredibly hard to stay on track this week, which is why the blogging is ebbing from the first three days. The last month or so in a nutshell:

1. Visit UC Davis for 4 days. Take the last 4 of my flights and then go home, not much worse for wear, but certainly a few days behind.
2. Catch up on homework that got put off because I was traveling.
   
3. Work on a group project. Group projects are almost always extremely stressful for me.
4. Decide where to go to school (UC Davis... yay!).
5. Finish writing my honors thesis... stay up until 5AM the night before it is due (haha that was fun!).
6. Have two exams within a week of the thesis being due...
7. Go to the Math/CS department dinner. Win awards.
8. Catch up on all of the homework that built up while I was writing my thesis.
9. Run into a bunch of very professional fundamentalist christians (I didn't capitalize christian for a reason: most Christians are nice people, although I disagree with them on most things. These people were not nice.) trying to tell students not to have sex, not to be gay, not to be a woman having a real job or wearing pants, and not to believe in anything science tells you. I found this to be particularly infuriating, although I kept my head.
10. Get so stressed out that I can't be around people... go to a councilor to work out how to communicate the fact that I need to be alone more effectively.
11. You don't even want to know how much homework I had last week.
    
12. Do my honors oral exam. Get honors! Realize that now I have to revise my honors thesis.
13. Work up a stats presentation at the last minute with my partner (no... this was a different group project, and my partner totally rocks!)
14. Go to an awards ceremony. Get awards I already knew about. Yay!
15. Finish writeup of stats presentation.

I'm currently on number 16, which is write a 50 minute presentation of my honors project to show to everyone!

Now don't get me wrong, I'm really happy with everything I did and I'm really proud of myself. But I'm at the end of my rope. Luckily, after tomorrow I have very little left to do until exams start (Friday). It's just that I know I haven't been able to keep up with everything else very well. I pretty much gave up on a problem for one of my classes because I just couldn't work any more.

One other problem: while I'm working my butt off to try to get everything done in a reasonable period of time, everyone around me (ie my neighbors, not my friends, who either almost or exactly as swamped as I am) are partying. Late at night. So I don't even get much sleep on top of it.

As for right now, my boyfriend is bringing me a glass of wine. Aww... how sweet! I guess I will sleep tonight.

The next blog post will be more fun. I swear!