Irish Friday Face

Every Friday, I'm going to feature a different well-known person on campus so you can get to know the "who's who" of Notre Dame.

I'm starting off this week with Jess Shaffer. Jess is editor of the Scene section of The Observer, president of Farley Hall, PLS major, and a wonderful friend. Here is what she has to say.

Your full name: Jessica Lindsay Shaffer

Major: Program of Liberal Studies, Spanish

Dorm: Farley Hall

Hometown: Washington, DC

Job description: Drinking coffee in Waddicks when not on the second floor of O'Shag; writing, editing, holding meetings and making layouts at The Observer, where I'm the Scene Editor; working for the Finest girls on campus in more meetings and campus events for my role as Farley Hall President; giving my opinion as a Student Advisory Committee member for Program of Liberal Studies; research assisting for my favorite professor; spending way too much time on my gmail; enjoying good food, good coffee, and good friends in my free time, and much much more....

What is your favorite place on campus? The world room in Hurley.

What is your dream for your life after college? I'm scared to admit that I might actually have a big plan post graduation, but my dream is to be travel writer, preferably working with Rick Steves or for a travel magazine. Eventually I'd like to have my own travel book, with all my own writing, research, and photographs.

Who is your hero? My mom and my grandparents.

Favorite place to travel? Today...the Mediterranean, particularly Italy. It changes constantly though, and I feel a craving for a croissant coming on so Paris may be next...

What do you think is the world's biggest problem? Close-mindedness.

What is something you struggle with? Having enough time in the day is a huge challenge. More importantly, making good use of that time and living every day to the absolute fullest is on my mind a lot.

What makes you laugh? My friends. Sarcasm and irony. Arrested Development.

Favorite and least favorite thing about being a Notre Dame student? The best part of being at Notre Dame is living with and learning from such amazing people, who are truly passionate. The worst thing is that I can only stay four years, and not having enough time to explore all my academic interests.

One word that describes you? Heliocentric. In the Platonic, environmental, spiritual, metaphysical, and intellectual sense of the word. I guess astronomically too.

Thanks Jess!

Close Encounters of the Notre Dame Kind

I love spontaneously running into Notre Dame people at non-ND events, and over fall break last week, I hit a record number:

5 different groups of Domers in Chicago in two days.

It started at Giordano’s, home to Chicago’s most delicious pizza. If you don’t like Chicago-style pizza… you’ve never tasted Giordano’s. My sister and I were meeting some friends there for lunch and as we walked into the restaurant, a group of college students stood in front of us waiting to be seated. Some of them looked suspiciously familiar.

They looked at us. We looked at them. My sister and one of the girls blurted out, “Do you go to Notre Dame?” Of course, we all did.

Notre Dame encounters of the week: 1.

We had lunch with our friends- a different group of students, bringing our count of Notre Dame encounters up to 2.

Later that week, we went to The Art Institute of Chicago. Did you know that the Art Institute is free from 5 to 8 pm every Thursday? And boy, is it the place to meet people. It seemed like half the city of Chicago was there, including practically every college student.

The Notre Dame encounters came thick and fast:

The line to get in to the Art Institute stretched down the block. I was pleasantly surprised when I ran into my friend Katie and her boyfriend in line. Encounter 3.

In the room with all the Degas paintings, I ran into my music professor, whose parents were visiting from Italy and enjoying the art. Encounter 4.

And in the Ancient European Art wing, I saw my friends Kelly and Octavia. Encounter 5.

Why were there so many Notre Dame students in Chicago and especially at the Art Institute? I’ve run into Domers in some pretty ridiculous places. Once I was at the Princeton Junction train station and the girl sitting next to me recognized my Badin sweatshirt. She had just graduated from Notre Dame in ’09.

In April I was in Rome and I spotted Notre Dame students in the middle of St. Peter’s Square and on the Roman train. Finally, I was in line for Holy Thursday Mass with Pope Benedict and I struck up a conversation with the older woman in front of me. It turned out that she was a graduate of St. Mary’s College.

I’ve found the Notre Dame connection literally everywhere I’ve traveled and in the most unlikely places. What crazy Notre Dame encounters have you had?

Heartbreak

This was probably the most suspenseful second of my life so far.

How did you feel at the end of the game?

I was happy we put up such a good fight towards the end there. If only we had played like that the whole game, if only we had made that field goal and just one touchdown more... but mostly I'm just proud of how our team played.

My friends and I were really excited for the game. We painted our faces.

I felt like Braveheart.

The student section was going crazy. It was absolutely packed (no one missed this game!) and we cheered ourselves hoarse until the very end.

Yes, the final second was painful. My friend Becky said, only half-joking, "Don't mind me, I've only just had my heart broken." Despite the heartbreaking finish, it was probably one of the most exciting games I've seen.

It was quite an emotional roller-coaster, but I sure enjoyed watching it.

Where did you watch the game? How did you feel afterwards?

Luck of the Irish

One of the first things I heard about Notre Dame social life is, “Notre Dame’s party scene is lame.” This may be one of the most-repeated mantras.

Compared to a lot of state schools and so-called “party schools,” yes, Notre Dame has a “lame” party scene. We don’t have streets of sticky-floored college bars open to anyone over age 19. We don’t have rows of frat houses serving jungle juice and offering free fake IDs to cute girls.

Here’s what we have instead:

Thursday night, a group of PLS majors cooked dinner together at my friend Adam’s house. We made pumpkin soup; a salad of corn, tomato and avocado on lettuce; pork tenderloin; mashed potatoes with herb butter; and apple pie with vanilla ice cream.

I was so proud of our culinary triumph.

After dinner we watched Casablanca, one of my favorite movies. Then we sat around and talked for hours.

Now don’t think that we always act so grown-up. We are college kids, after all, and this is Notre Dame, home to some fun-loving Irish Catholics. Friday night, for example, I’m going to a dorm-party rave. The theme, fittingly, is “Green Out” and everyone is encouraged to wear green for Irish luck. And I hope that the luck of the Irish is indeed with us against USC Saturday.

In the meantime, who cares if our party scene is comparatively “lame?” It’s still a whole lot of fun. Maybe that’s the real luck of the Irish- we’re not a state school, but we still know how to have a very, very good time.

What did you do for fun as a student? What were parties like when you were a student?

Let's Make Like Odysseus and Destroy Troy

Raise your hand if you’re watching the USC game this weekend. How excited are you?

Campus is in a fervor, in spite of midterms this week. The sidewalks are covered in chalk slogans that say things like “Beat Southern Cal” and “Destroy Troy.” Someone taped dozens of pictures of Pete Carroll on the ground outside South Dining Hall so students can literally “Stomp USC.” Inside O’Shaughnessy Hall, the Classics Department made a giant banner with a picture of a wooden horse and words urging Notre Dame to victory in both English and Greek.

I love it when the Classics Department does stuff like that.

The big theme for this weekend is the Green-Out: all Irish fans are supposed to wear bright Kelly green to the game, creating a “Sea of Green” to intimidate the Trojans and show true Irish pride. As a clever Observer article points out, the Sea of Green will be a welcome change after the ugly sight of The Shirt, which is an odd flesh-like color. Even if you don’t have a Kelly green jacket, wear a green shirt over your coat.

Weather.com predicts 47 degrees and partly cloudy for Saturday. That doesn’t sound too bad for this time of year. Hopefully the chill will be too much for the Southern Cal team and we’ll have an advantage.

I’m not going to say who I think will win, but I will definitely be praying for an Irish Victory.

Are you coming in to town for the game? What is your prediction for the final score?