"He looks kind of like Albert Einstien's younger brother who got into meth."

This post comes from abroad and by abroad, I mean Chicago. It might as well be a different planet though because it is vastly different than Southeast Missouri. This is my very first time here and I have thoroughly enjoyed it.

I am here for a Psychology conference, which has been very interesting in it's own right. I saw an entire presentation about BDSM from the world's most awkward presenter. No joke. Also we watched a 20 minute video of a human birth into a river somewhere in the rain forest. Also, not a joke and completely unrelated to the conference.

One of the most hilarious moments of the entire trip took place last night. To save money, one of the girls in my room is sleeping on an air mattress. We are wrapping up our evening with some girl chat and usual sort of things while she blows up the air mattress. All of a sudden, we hear the same noise that happens when you suck a penny into a vacuum. I jerk my head around and see that my room mate has sucked her hair into the air pump. Screaming. She screams, I scream, my room mates scream. Finally, she turns the pump off and I unplug it from the wall. We remove all of her hair and the burnt remnants. It's one of those awkward moments when you're not sure whether or not you should freak out or laugh.

It's been quite a swell trip though. A lot of fun times with people I really like. Some old friends I know better, some new friends I just met.

TOP TEN MOMENTS:
(1) "my crappy little hand"...and every joke that came along with that

(2) meeting some guy at a social and telling him that I was Chelsey and my friend was Chelsea... he was very impressed by that

(3) when we met two random people and they went to dinner with us.

(4) Joanne Ruthsatz... seriously an amazing presenter and her work with Autistic & Prodigy children blew my mind.

(5) looking for dark chocolate

(6) trying to do the Kylie Jenner lip challenge in our hotel room. unsuccessfully. but nobody's lips exploded, so it was cool.

(7) the space bean and all that magicalness. but not the people who mocked my selfie stick. those clowns.

(8) all. the. food. seriously, just all the food.

(9) "take one button"... takes all 5 buttons because I just have a lot of emotions.

(10) meeting like minded people who are fun to joke around with. seriously, I met so many great people and I wish I had been friends with more of them throughout school. we had a great group go and I had so much fun.

BONUS: the guy who tried to sell us LSD while we were walking to the 7-11... twice.

Group Project.... (the whole class groans).

There is a strange paradigm that is set up by the education system to help students function in "the real world" and that is: The Group Project. I theorize that it is actually some kind of strange form of punishment or retribution set up by teachers because they actually know that your dog didn't eat your homework, you did not have 7 aunts pass away this semester, and you WERE texting even though you didn't think the teacher knew.

In college teachers usually announce these projects at the beginning of the semester allotting enough time for groups to meet, assign research to specific people, work together, and beat out a project that would receive an honorable mention from the Nobel Prize committee. This never happens.

In reality, the group project is more of a problem that you originally just avoid looking at or thinking about until it becomes a problem so severe that it is not only unavoidable, but TLC is calling to set up a special about it.

As is the tradition of the last few weeks of the semester, group project season is in full swing. I currently have two of these little babies hanging in the balance. (Shout out: If you're reading this and you're from my 442 class, I still need your PowerPoint slides.) The real question here is, what makes these projects so awful? Doesn't the idea of splitting up the work seem awesome? Shouldn't it be fun to meet new people?

The answer is: No.

Group projects are just strange. You want to work hard, but you don't want to be a show off. You want to voice your opinion, but you don't want to dominate the opinions of others. You want to get a good grade, but you don't want to be the person who takes over the whole project and has to lead the whole group. You want the project to go well and you want a good grade, but you don't want to do all the work. It is hard to negotiate these ideas and find balance among people that you don't know well.

Maybe your teacher is right... maybe there is some real world application here. Maybe group projects teach you how to deal with real life things. Hopefully in your future job nobody has to assemble the cover of a piece of classic literature from candy (yes, that's real.) or maybe they will, if that's what you're into. At the end of the day though, maybe you can take away some greater meaning from the group project and hopefully not get into a fist fight with your group

Here are some real things you can learn from a group project:

#1) How to deal with people who roll their eyes. You suggest, they roll their eyes. Do they have better suggestions? Nope. Do they suggest anything? Nope. They just roll their eyes and text on their phone during every group meeting. Haters gonna hate, what can you do?

#2) How to take control or sometimes let somebody else. Sometimes you're the boss. Sometimes you aren't. Both are okay. Ultimately, it's your grade and you have to do what you can. If somebody is begging to do the PowerPoint, it wont kill you to let them. If nobody in the group is stepping up for anything, maybe you should.

#3) Don't wait until the night before. Just don't.

#4) The font probably won't effect your grade. If it's a tiny detail, there is no point in arguing. Save your breath for more important things than creative control.

#5) Sometimes you really do meet cool people. If you're lucky, you might end up in a group with somebody who is really awesome. Once in a while you get placed in a group with a stranger and they turn out to be a good friend or maybe you just make a connection. Who can complain about that?