It's the end of the week...

... and all I want to do is sleep in.

But alas, I cannot.

Thursday morning (around 3:30 am) everyone within Hecht was awoken by the fire emergency alarm- it's a loud wailing sound and a (creepy) voice that would make even the most sleep-deprived student crawl out of bed, walk down 5 flights of stairs, and stand in the 40 degree weather for a couple of hours. Fortunately enough for me, the actual fire wasn't on my floor. I walked my way down to the lobby and outside onto the patio, where everyone was ushered backwards to Stanford. I met up with some other half-asleep friends, and it happened to be that it was their floor that had caused the whole misadventure. When they begrudgingly went to exit their room, they found that the decorations on the wall across from them had been set on fire. Luckily no one was hurt, and the fire alarm system was extremely efficient in detecting the very beginning of the fire.

After about 30 minutes of standing out in the cold in whatever we had been sleeping in, we were told to go to the dining hall to warm up. We ran to find seats before it filled up, and sat for another 45 minutes or so. Slowly, floors were allowed to go back into the building, and we ran at the chance of being able to go back into bed.

The floor who had had the fire, however, was not as lucky- everyone was interviewed one by one by local policemen in attempts to figure out what had happened. Right now the only thing going around is rumors, but the important thing is that no one was hurt. When considering the impact even the smallest fire can have in a dorm setting, I feel safe knowing that UM has such an extensive and efficient emergency alarm system.

The only trouble that lay ahead of me was being able to wake up for my 8 am class. Not the easiest thing to do, but somehow I managed my way over to the LC and even stayed awake throughout the day. Maybe the weekend will hold a bit of shut eye for me.


In other news...


Karl Rove came to speak on campus the other day. Although I didn't get the chance to attend (due to a much needed nap), a friend of mine did and was able to get quite a few pictures of him, as well as with him. It's pretty amazing when you realize how many influential people you can meet here at the university.