August 1, 1969
Dear Mother, Dad, Roberta, Serena, John, and Mary,Hi! Yes, this is a letter. From me. I should be studying for an English exam which I have today but I am tired of studying for it. It is over two of Melville's short novels, Benito Cereno and Bartleby, and Native Son by Richard Wright. It will probably be really doozy questions like discuss the significance of such and such a character who appears for three lines in the book. Ugh!
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I hardly know where to start this letter because I can't remember writing you before. Maybe I should start by giving you my schedule. I don't have any trouble keeping occupied during the day. [See above for the schedule -- too difficult to transcribe.]
I usually get up and go for my bike ride in the morning because if I wait until I get through all the classes I'm too tired. I'm going to go this afternoon because I'll need to forget the English test. If it is really bad I may just keep right on riding and never come back to this place.
Our room is really nice. It is a corner room so we have two windows and there is usually a breeze. We are in a suite with a bathroom and another room which is unoccupied. Therefore, we have the bathroom all to ourselves and we can also spread all our junk in two rooms. I usually study in one and sleep in the other. Gerti has a car here so she generally goes home two or three nights of the week. About two weeks ago she got really fed up with school and decided to quit. The dean finally convinced her that she could manage to stay only she has dropped one of her courses. She isn't going to go on Foreign Study. In the fall she will be working at a camp in New Hampshire, a career-service job, and then winter will be off on vacation or something. It's kind of depressing having her for a roommate as she never has over two hours of class a day and generally just one, she also doesn't have to worry about language since she isn't going abroad.
I keep thinking that my grades should be really good this quarter since I'm not really involved in many other activities and I have plenty of time to study. Having the time, and using it for studying are two entirely different things, and I will probably end up with C's again.
I'm still checking books out of the Public Library on my card which expired last October. Every time I go I just hope they won't note the date and make me get a new one as I can't see paying $3 for the next year when I'm going to be gone 6 months of it. So when I go I take lots of books so that in case they don't notice it this time I'll have enough to read if they notice it next time. I'm also taking full advantage of the college library facilities.
The other night I went to hear the Ramsey Lewis Trio at Western. He's a jazz pianist who has made lots of albums. I enjoyed Ramsey Lewis but the date was rather unexceptional.
I gave a pint of blood to the Red Cross yesterday. Dad, I hope you don't mind my signing your name to a permission slip. I only have two more pints to go and I will have given a gallon. There was a big hassle among the nurses about whether I should give yesterday since I just got a smallpox booster last week but the Dr. finally gave me the OK and they accepted me.
Thanks for the Upper Room [in German]. I was surprised how much of it I could get without having to use the dictionary.
Got to go.
Love,
Catherine
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