By Liz Scholz

The Mac Weekly: So tell me your names, majors, and where you’re from.Katie Whitmore: Well, I’m Katie Whitmore. I’m an International Studies and Russian Studies major with an Anthro minor. And I’m from just north of Milwaukee, from the cultural hub of southeastern Wisconsin, West Bend. We are also the sculpture capital of Wisconsin, I’ll have you know.

Joanna Clark: And I’m Joanna Clark. I am a Cognitive Linguistics and Japanese double major from Chattanooga, Tennessee. And the only way that anyone from here would know Chattanooga was if they knew the song, Chattanooga Choo-Choo.

KW: But I hear it’s a real cultural hub. So you have that going for you.

JC: Perhaps. But if you wanted more culture you would probably go to Atlanta so you might skip over us.

TMW: You both have on-campus jobs, right? Tell me about that.

KW: Well I’m the Information Desk Student Supervisor. I’ve been recently appointed this position. It’s terribly exciting. Promotions are good. I don’t know, I hang out at the info desk; I schedule a trillion people who have crazy schedules. And that’s about it. Providing information, being generally pleasant.
JC: A smiling face when you walk into the campus center.

KW:?Exactly.

JC: I’m one of three guinea pigs in the admissions office for student interns. So we mostly do interviews for perspective students but we help with other projects in the office and potentially we’ll do info sessions for perspective students too and maybe a couple high school visits. But yeah, we’re the first people to do it ever, so it could be an interesting year.

TMW: When did you guys meet?

JC: The first time I remember was in the first year we lived on Doty 5, the Virgin Isles-
KW: Yeah Doty!!
JC: Apparently we had maybe already been in a wind ensemble rehearsal together but I just remember being in the lounge and listening to soundtrack music and I think we were listening-
KW: I remember Café Mac before that.

JC: Oh was that the Pope?
KW: That was the Pope Event . of ’06.

JC: I guess that happened before that.

TMW: Wait, what’s the Pope Event?

KW: I don’t even remember how we were on the topic of the Pope.

JC: I don’t remember either.

KW: It’s just one of those things.

JC: Somehow we were talking about the Pope and it came into my head that if I was the Pope I would just say “Calm the fuck down, bitches.”
KW: Since then I call her the Pope and she’s saved in my phone as the Pope. Also I posted a picture of the Pope on her door freshman year and someone was very offended and wrote a note on her whiteboard about it. So we had to take it down.

JC: I guess referring to myself in such a manner was-
KW: Blasphemous.

JC: Yeah a little bit.

TMW: So how long have you guys been living together?

JC: This is our second time together. We lived in Wallace sophomore year. And then went abroad different semesters last year and now we’re back at The Bronze.

KW: Yeah!

TMW: Ok so, The Bronze. Tell me about this. What does it mean?

KW: Well The Bronze is our peaceful abode that Joanna found when I was abroad and then we frantically scrambled to get and then we apparently snagged it from a few other people who were looking at it and our awkward landlord gave it to us because we had the money right then. We moved in and it was pretty sad, gave it some TLC and painted it. And it’s called the Bronze-
JC: It’s a reference to Buffy, which I started watching this summer.

KW: First three seasons on Hulu, come on!
JC: But in Buffy, The Bronze is the club that the Scooby gang goes to.

KW: It’s this real sketchy hangout for all these awkward high-schoolers/vampires.

JC: Perhaps because they apparently sell alcohol and have pool tables but these kids hang out there as juniors and seniors in high school.

KW: It’s pretty sketchy, so we named it after that.

JC: But not in a sketchy sense. In a who comes here sense.

TMW: So this was the first week of classes, tell me how you feel about senior year. What are your worries, concerns and anticipations?

KW: We’re mostly concerned about everything. All the time.

JC: That would be a true statement.

KW: I’m concerned about full course-load, doing honors, maintaining our awesomeness despite our heavy course-load, going to work.

JC: And then I’m doing-it’s still a work study job but they’re trying to make the student intern position really intense so I feel like that could maybe be stressful. And then working with Model U.N. for the year. And grad school applications and Fulbright, and JET.

KW: Yeah I’m doing a Peace Corps application, law school applications; I’m taking the LSAT in December. There’s a lot on the plate here.

LS: What are you going to do next year?
KW: I’m applying for the Peace Corps and Teach for America. I would prefer the Peace Corps, at the moment, but I don’t know, they’re being stingy these days. Who knows if they’ll let me in or not.

JC: And I’m applying to grad school for linguistics and the JET program for teaching English in Japan and also a Fulbright in Japan. So what that really means is I’ll probably be a barista next year. I will not be in grad school yet.

TMW: If you had to think of something that you wish you knew freshman year what would it be? Or something you wish you could tell them now?

JC: I wish I could’ve told them before now not to bring all the crap that they did. Because they probably don’t need probably three quarters of it, and they really don’t need a printer. And they’re going to regret having all of it, and they’re going to have to find a place to store it.

KW: And then ResLife charges you because they hate you and then you’ve got that on your student accounts.

JC: True.

KW: That did happen.

JC: Yeah good story.
KW: Thank you ResLife for improving my life. And by improving, I mean destroying. I would say probably the same thing; and also, go out and meet people. The first few weeks they do a really good job at orientation of keeping you in your group, but those aren’t going to be your best friends forever necessarily. I mean, that’s how I met these kids. I sat down at their table for dinner and it was awkward; it was after wind ensemble, I didn’t have anyone to sit with and I vaguely recognized these people who I thought maybe lived on my floor and so I sat with them.

JC: I thought of something else that they really, really need to know. And that’s to stop lining up in the wrong direction at South.

KW: True story.

JC: And also to stop breaking in line at Café Mac.

KW: Because we won’t stand for it.

JC: Like four people broke in front of me in line at South alone. And then one girl pulled out a pudding cup with tongs. She apparently couldn’t grab it with her fingers.

KW: Yeah perhaps a little common sense would do them good for their four years at Macalester.

JC: That is the overarching message that I wish to express. Also you don’t need a thousand dollars on your student ID to do laundry.

TMW: People do that?

KW: People do that. Two thousand sometimes. You can use it to buy books, but two thousand dollars worth of textbooks? That’s unheard of.

JC: That’s one International Studies class.

KW: But two thousand dollars? That’s like 18 years of college worth of textbooks. It’s completely unnecessary.

TMW: What are you looking forward to this year? What’s something that’s really exciting?

KW: I’m really excited about having everyone back. Last year was kind of awkward with study abroad and Joanna was gone in the fall and I was gone in the spring. So we’d been together all summer because we were in Kirk, not together but in Kirk. And then I came back over J-term to see her for a few days. And then I was gone in Russia, until I got back June 1, so it was just kind of a crazy year of not having a group of people I normally hang out with t
ogether at the same time so it’s going to be pretty exciting to have people back.
JC: Actually, despite the fact that I’m probably going to kill myself a couple of times during the semester, I’m actually really excited about applying for stuff because I really like to organize things and applying to college is fun-
KW: She does. Also, office supplies, writing utensils, adhesives.

JC: I mean I’m looking forward to seeing people too, and actually hanging out with them.

KW: I’m currently very excited about classes which might change within, say, the next hour or so when I have to go back to do homework. But you know, the first week of classes, everything is new and glittering and happy.