Jessica Moes
More by Jessica Moes
 Nick Hoverstad '144/19/2013 |
Name: Nick Hoverstad Year: 2014 Major: English, with a concentration in biomedical studies [He's pre-med, ladies!] Relationship Status: Single
Favorite place to study: I'm a ref-roomer [the reference room in the library]. I like the aesthetics of the ref room, and there is definitely a collective feeling of intellectualness. People are getting stuff done. That's motivating! Favorite food: I really like tomyum soup, from Thailand. It’s shrimp and lemon grass and veggies and water and it's all mixed in a really spicey soup into this sort of broth thing. It's great. [Nick spent last semester abroad on St. Olaf's Term in Asia, and spent a month in Thailand.] Favorite movie(s): This is going to be so emasculating. Let's see. I loved "Lincoln." That was a phenomenal film. I also really liked "Inception," that’s a really cool movie, blew my mind. Oh! And the Batman franchise. That's not so emasculating, is it? Except, well, okay, I’ll admit it. "Titantic" gets me going. I love that movie. Romantic. Hobbies: I like to play the piano, and I'm in Ole Band [Nick plays the euphonium]. In the summer, when it's warm, I like to go jogging. And I love water sports, especially jetskiing. My cousin has a jetski! Describe yourself in one word: Unique. Is that pretentious? |
 Meet Katie Barnes '13!4/12/2013 |
Katie Barnes ’13 is distinguished. That’s what St. Olaf College thinks. Katie was awarded the “Distinguished Senior in Student Leadership” award from the college last Wednesday in recognition of the amazing things she’s accomplished as a coordinator for the student organization GLOW! (Gay, Lesbian Or Whatever!), among other achievements. “I’m honored,” she says as I sit down to chat with her before Gender Bent on Thursday night. The show, hosted by GLOW!, highlighted men and women of various sexual and gender orientations performing in non-traditional musical roles (for example, a large chorus of men performed a rousing rendition of “Big Spender” from the musical Sweet Charity). It is just one of countless outstanding events that GLOW! has been responsible for in the past few years, including Drag Ball, Pride Week and numerous panels and speakers. A large number of these events have been successful because of the many hours Katie has devoted to the organization (for the majority of her experience at Olaf, she’s survived on minimal hours of sleep, waking up anytime between 4 and 6 a.m.). Still, Katie remains down-to-earth, humbled by the larger community that she works with. “It’s impossible for me to win an award without honoring that a) I’m gay and that b) I’ve had unbelievable connections and conversations with the LGBTQ community both here and throughout the state,” she says. “I hope I can sincerely convey that the community shares these awards with me.” |
 The Beauty of Bedtime Stories3/22/2013 |
Tonight was my first night of spring break (I went home early - lucky me!) and I spent it sprawled in my mother’s bed - much like I did when I was ten years younger - listening to her read me a bedtime story. In my hurried college life, I had forgotten how poignantly beautiful literature could be when it wasn’t being forced upon by an academic institution. As I curled up and read Kevin Hankes over my mother’s shoulder, I was reminded of a simpler time and the stressless life that came with it. I should preface this article by clarifying that I am, of course, an English major. And, in case you are afraid that this is a push for a return to reading, let me be clear that, indeed, it is. But this is so much more than that. This is a call for a return to simplicity, a call to take back time to focus on you. And what better time to approach this idea than at spring break?
For me, the need for internal focus comes at the end of the day. My days tend to be filled with crazy amounts of homework, classes, various jobs and extra-curriculars. At the end of the night, I’m absolutely exhausted. The idea of adding one more thing to that schedule almost seems overwhelming.
But tonight, when my mom closed the book, I felt undeniably calm. The stress of midterms had driven me over the edge, but all of a sudden, that stress was gone, done-zo, kapoof. Just fifteen minutes of time away from the stress of studies left me refreshed and happy. It’s the perfect way to fall asleep, clean and ready for sleep.
Books are my personal escape. For other people, an escape may come in the form of journaling, yoga, knitting or drawing. But taking a break to focus on you - and you alone - is important. This doesn’t mean the process has to be lonely. Sometimes my bedtime relief comes in the form of deep conversation with my roommate. Tonight, i happened to share it with my mother.
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 The Ten Best Study Spots on Campus3/7/2013 |
Midterms are coming up, and a collegiette needs to study! Here are some of the best places around St. Olaf to hit the books: 1) The Library |
 Ole Abroad (Jessica): What’s Your Name?12/13/2012 |
On the streets of Zamalek, at the base of the pyramids, wandering Al Azhar park, we are celebrities. Our blonde hair, our blue eyes and our armed guard (mandatory by Egyptian tourist law) make us the subject of numerous stares and whispers. The bravest of these admirers are undoubtedly the fearless children who, with absolutely no sense of what we would consider decorum, run up to us and tug on our shirts and proudly ask us the single English question they know how to ask: “What’s your name?” |
 Ole Abroad (Jessica): Up Above the Nile So High12/7/2012 |
A point of perspective can vastly change how one views certain aspects of the world. I often get emails from home in concerned caps. “I SAW THE NEWS,” “ISN’T EGYPT DANGEROUS?” and, my favorite, “ARE YOU ALIVE?!?!” I have to note that while I will always appreciate the passionate concern from my friends and family back home, I sometimes cannot help but chuckle at what feels like, to me, overly dramatic reactions to sensationalized media crises on the nightly news. |
 Ole Abroad (Jessica): A weekend in Oualidia11/9/2012 |
The beauty of Term in the Middle East is how absolutely calculated and exquisitely planned it is. Sure, traveling is always an adventure, and we have, as a group, run into our fair share of minor bumps in the past few months, but, as a whole, we’ve been inherently fortunate to have the excellent team at the St. Olaf International and Off-Campus Studies office plan out our logistics – where we’ll lay our heads at night, the professors we’ll be conversing with, our means of travel from place to place. And yet I came on this program to also gain confidence in my own ability as a traveler to survive and thrive in cultures that are extremely different from anything I’d ever before encountered. Unlike a program, say, in Western Europe, I wanted an experience that would push my comfort levels and prove to me that I have the stamina to seek out and enjoy all of the fascinating different ways of life the world has to offer, despite barriers of language, race, gender or even temperature (this is not to belittle abroad programs in Western Europe, for I firmly believe that they too are extremely important for the advancement of education, but to simply get across that my reasons for choosing TIME were not solely academic but were also quite personal). This confidence in my ability to travel in a foreign culture, among a foreign tongue, was tested this past weekend as I faced fall break, a weekend that, were I home, would probably have consisted of lounging on a couch in my basement watching black and white romantic dramas. But I wasn’t at home, I was in Morocco, a location that demanded a bit more adventure from the wayward traveler within me. |
 Oles Abroad (Jessica): How much is that Camel Head in the Window? Food Ethics in Morocco10/25/2012 |
“Cule, cule. Lauren. Jessica. Cule!” I do not know Colloquial Moroccan Arabic, but in the limited time since my arrival in Fez, I have learned the word cul, or eat. My host mother, Helema, a warm, round babushka of a woman who is easily in her seventies, likewise knows nothing of English, which makes for many a confusing conversation, often including ridiculous pantomimes. Three times a day, however, we speak in the international language of food – and let me tell you…the Moroccan dialect of this particular language is especially delicious. Lauren and I sit down to traditional home-cooked meals every day, a welcome change from ordering out every night in Turkey. For breakfast we are presented with warm khubz (round bread, bought fresh on every street corner each morning) and oil, butter, hazelnut spread and cheese to put on it. On some mornings, we’ll eat dates, potato soup or more bread (perhaps of the baguette variety). And we always drink traditional mint tea, a sweet blend of green tea and natural mint springs that is much sweeter and fresher than the black variety we so often received in Istanbul. |
 Ole Abroad (Jessica): Welcome to Morocco10/18/2012 |
It’s been a week since our arrival in Morocco, and the transition has been rough. The wheel on my suitcase broke two minutes before I was expected to roll it to my homestay, deep within the twisted alleys of the old Fez medina (walled city). The language is foreign and difficult, deep and throaty, with sounds I’m not used to making and a grammar structure I can’t wrap my head around. My original homestay lacked privacy or a hygienic kitchen (a chicken lived under the sink) and included a father who smoked questionable substances in the living room. I had to deal with a move, down more dark alleys, hopelessly lost, echoes of a screaming Moroccan host mother behind me, and then I had to adjust to another new house, with a stout old babushka of a host mother who didn’t speak a lick of English. Teenage boys call after me on the street, their broken English coming across as creepy and invasive, and one even tried to follow us home. More than a few tears have been shed. |
 Ole Abroad (Jessica): Ladies of Luxury10/4/2012 |
In Turkey, we are women of intrigue. Many of the ladies on Term in the Middle East carry the traditional St. Olaf visual set-up: Blond hair, blue eyes, pale skin. Here we are an anomaly amongst the waves of ethnic Turkish women. It doesn’t seem to matter that our hair is greasy from days of travel, our clothing modest, bland and sweaty. Compared to the beautifully dressed and impeccably groomed women of Istanbul, we feel almost insignificant. But we are different, and that still seems to work to our advantage. |
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