I'm baaaaack

Christmas Break was great, though it went by way too fast.

I think it was harder to come to Western again after this than to go in the first place.

I miss my family more than I realize when I'm here. I'm so busy that I don't have time to think about it, which is good and bad for obvious reasons.

Anyhow...

This semester seems like it will be a number of things:

1. Challenging

2. Time-consuming

3. Fun

4. Rewarding

because

1. I'm taking 17 credits, with relatively difficult classes

2. the homework takes forever to finish

3. My Psychology class/lab seems really great (see more below)

4. I'm prepared to do all it takes to do the very best and when I get awesome grades I'm gunna super happy.

So, about my Psych class/lab.

My professor seems really cool and she's definitely passionate, which has always helped me learn better.

While the work is the most time-consuming of all, it seems like it will get interesting (once I pass through the Biology portion of it).

The class is 19 people, so I'm hoping to make a new friend.

Plus, we have this things called Optional Activity Points, which we can get from writing out vocab, doing the in-text questions, and working extra labs--things like that. These points can exempt from quizzes, help us get points if we missed a day of class...but the best thing is that if you get at least 500 OAPs and you don't use them (get get an A in the class) you automatically get an A in Psych 3960, without ever taking an actual class for it. Of course, we still have to pay for the credit, but that looks awesome for my GPA and it will good that I took them. AND I can get a Super A (which means instead of getting the normal 3 credits for the class, I get 4) if I do really, really well on quizzes and such.

For the lab, I get a cute little rat--he was born November 15th. I get to watch him learn behaviors by using a Skinner Box to experiment. The experiments aren't cruel in any way. We teach them how to move to a certain place when they hear the dipper click, how to press a lever, when to pull on a chain, etc. Eventually, I get to make my own experiment. :D

I think the class I will dislike the most is Biology, just because I dislike science in general and Bio sounds horrendous. I know my Math class will be difficult as well, because it's not really math--it's teaching number concepts to kids. "Why is a number odd? What is odd? How do you add? If so and so wants to go 153 miles and has already gone 68, how much further does he have to go? Draw a diagram." Yeah.

Anyway,

History is boring, but Linds and Emily (not my roommate, a friend of ours who lives down the hall from us) say the tests are easy because they're based on vocabulary. I can do vocab. :)

My Communication Disorders class is scary AND exciting. It's my first Speech Path class, so I'm happy and I really want to do well, but I know there is lots of information and I want to be good at it. :/

I'll be fine. I am determined to do well. Very well.

So, the only tip I have for now is...

Tip #13: No matter how stressed/freaked out you are or think you will be, don't shut down! Just work hard and don't worry that your social life is limited for the time being. Everything will work out once you get used to the workload or challenge.

One last thing, I'm still all alone in my room. It's no big, I like being by myself a little--well, Lindsey is always in here, but I like that too. :)

So I've taken over and my stuff is everywhere. Haha. Not really. I just spread my clothes out in the closet, L'd the desks for more work space, and brought the second bed down so I don't have to climb up in order to go to sleep. :D

End of the Semester

Well, a whole semester has come and gone and I keep trying to look over my shoulder and figure out where it went.

Around here, especially in my dorm, there are advertisements everywhere for study sessions and tutorials on how to ace your finals. This is all well and good, except that the posters are designed to scare you (not cool).

"Come to the study session to learn how to annihilate your exams without liquefying your brain!!!! College finals are not equal to high school finals."

"You think your finals will be just like your high school finals?"

So I studied really hard. I made hundreds of flash cards. I practiced and practiced my short answers for Gender and Communication. I had two hours for each exam to do my very best.

My studying may have helped me, but I wouldn't say that it helped THAT much. I already knew almost all the terms as I was making the notecards. I just figured: better safe than sorry.

Anyhow, Monday morning came around and....

Gender and Communication: 12 multiple choice, 12 short answer; 30 minutes to finish (I feel I aced it)

Anthropology: 103 multiple choice; 20 minutes to finish (Also feel confident)

Writing and Literature: poetry game (aced--we did it together!)

French: "Easier than Chapter 5 test" <--words of the professor; 30 minutes (ACED!)

The only one I had difficulty with was Precalc. Of course, math has never been easy and THIS math was on the verge of being beyond me and after mid Chapter 5 it WAS beyond me (There are only six chapters). I should be alright, though. There were plenty of things on the test I understood. Except the guy next to me kept making stupid noises and burping and it smelled terrible and he smelled terrible and I was just glad to get out of there!

I'm very confused about how those were more difficult than my high school finals. In actuality, I believe they were easier (with the exception of precalculus, of course--although my math finals in high school weren't easy peasy either).

Still,

Tip # 11: Study hard. There's always the possibility that finals will beat you up. But, relax. There's no need to freak out and get overwhelmed. That will only make it more difficult to retain what you're trying to study.

--

On a brighter note:Christmas!

Brandy, Rachel, and I had an ugly sweater dinner and exchanged gifts in Brandy's dorm after we played a few rousing games of Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader, Disney Edition." haha.

Last weekend, Emily came down. Linds and I made a fireplace out of paper and bought a tree. It looked so cute. We all got stockings and filled each other's up.

It was a really great time. We opened presents, watched Bridesmaids, went to the Rave Cinema to see New Year's Eve, and then hung out with Lindsey's friend Jeff (a Chip :P) and went to his cousin's apartment (she goes here) for an ugly sweater party! :D

Even after all that fun...I can't wait to go home.

So, last thing until next semester

Tip # 12: Find time to spend with friends and have a good time. Especially during the week before finals (and maybe even the week of), because, I repeat, you need to relax a little bit in between studying.

More fun

Saturday, November 12: I volunteered at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum. There were kids everywhere! There isn't much to say about it except that I had fun helping the kids and talking to parents. Everyone was really nice. To me at least...a couple kids got yelled at. What can you do? My station was a MESS after it was over. The kids had thrown streamers and scissors and glue and paper and boxes all over the floor! I was very tired after that.

Sunday and Monday, November 13 and 14: Emily came and visited! It was so awesome to see her! I can't wait until she's back for good in January! We basically just sat around and watched movies. Sunday night we went to go see Footloose (the third time for Lindsey and I), because Em hadn't seen it yet. She liked it and we danced all the way out to the car. :) The only downfall of her visit was that I got next to no sleep for a couple days, but it was so worth it!

Thursday November 17: Lindsey, Brandy, Rachel, and I all went to go see Breaking Dawn at midnight! Brandy and Rachel wanted to get there at 10:30 to wait, but Linds and I were like 'no way' and went at 7:30 to save spots. We were the second people in line and the first for our theater. By 8:45, the line was all the way to the door and Lindsey and I got to say "told you so" (we didn't really, of course). But we got the best seats in the theater, even though Lindsey was so excited when they seated us (at 10:10, ahem Brandy and Rach) that she ran right past the door to our theater. Ahahaha. But anyway, it was a much better movie than I thought it would be and Lindsey and I were super pumped all the way home. Brandy didn't like it very much, but she never said why. I agree there were some things that should have been done differently, but hey-I would probably make mistakes if I was remaking a book into a movie too, you know? Poor Rachel got a migraine a little over half way through the movie, but she didn't want to leave, so she just kind of sat there with her eyes closed. She said she would have to go back to see how it ended. I felt bad that she had just sat there, but she seemed to be okay with it.

I know this is really short, but that's all the exciting stuff that has happened since last blog. So, yeah.

I have a test on Tuesday in Precalc...not excited. I can't wait for this semester to be over so that I can be done with that class. I'll miss French a little (mostly Philip and Mary) and I wish my Writing and Literature class wasn't ending! Other than that, I'm ready for a new semester.

Oh! Something cool: I'm taking Psychology next semester and, as an honors student in the class, I have the opportunity to take a lab where we teach behaviors to rats and research the results. Even though it will not be anything breakthrough, I get to go into the fancy research building that students aren't allowed in unless they're doing research (:D), and it will be really helpful for applying what I learn in class. Plus, how many people can say they've done research with rats?

At first I was like "not mandatory? It's at 11 in the morning, when I don't have any classes until 4? Rats? No, thanks." But then I thought about it and I decided it would be a really neat thing to have done.

So, THAT's it.

Love you guys!

A Break from Work

Recently, I've had time to stop working non-stop and spend time with my friends.

For one, the last weekend of October I went to Kalahari with Shawn for our anniversary.

It was nice to get away from Western for a bit and not think about working hard. I couldn't even look at homework because I didn't bring any with me. I left my laptop behind too, so I could completely enjoy my time away and the time I had with Shawn.

We spend quite a while at the waterpark on Saturday. It was a good time. We rode the waterslides, some of which are not for the fainthearted! We also got pictures with a little tiger cub named Jada. She was only ten weeks old and so cute! I have to scan the picture in. We made pottery and spent nearly all night in the arcade. It was great and I needed it.

Yesterday was Brandy's birthday! I spent most of the day with her, except for when we were in class. Her parents invited me and our friend Jenni (Rachel too, but she had class) to dinner with them at Red Robin and then they wouldn't even let us pay for our own meals! It was very kind of them. They invited us again to dinner tonight with Brandy's grandparents at Texas Roadhouse, but I declined, thinking that Brandy should have some strictly family time for her birthday weekend.

After that, we came back to my dorm and picked up Lindsey and Celeste and went over to Burnham hall, where we made Sugar Scrub. It's an organic exfoliant. Brown sugar, honey, olive oil. I haven't used it yet, but I'll let you know.

Then, we went back to Brandy's dorm because she wanted to watch Vampire Diaries and I was going to get ready over there, because we were going to Wild Bull. Wild Bull is a saloon, more or less, which becomes a club at night. Since Brandy was turning 18 and could never get into clubs before, Jenni and I agreed that she should go for her birthday. Jenni's friend Jessica came too. Again, Rachel was supposed to come, but she said something came up so she ended up not coming with us. As far as clubs go, this one was pretty mellow. Thursdays are college night, so it was mostly people our age there. Still, I wouldn't have gone with anyone else I know here at college. They played loud music- the Top 40 hits, pretty much. It's funny because it's pretty country in the saloon and restaurant area. It is near Western after all. Oh well. Either way we had a good time just dancing together and getting some time to enjoy life outside of school.

Brandy told me it was her best birthday to date. I could tell she had a really good time.

I'm so glad I was part of her birthday and such an important one too.

I really hope she and I are friends forever. She's great.

So, Tip # 9-Get away for a little while, so you don't go crazy.

Also, Tip #10-Don't go do things, especially clubbing, without people you trust.

Even if nothing happens, you have that support, because if something WERE to happen that made you uncomfortable, you want someone who can help you escape the situation.

That doesn't just go for the club. No matter where you go, scary things can happen.

I don't even walk to The Den Party Store for a Den Pop after it gets dark unless someone else is with me.

That's all for now. I've got one last midterm paper to write.

Oh yeah, my midterm for Gender and Communication is 5 papers! 4 of which are 2-3 page papers analyzing articles Dr. Wong gave us. The 5th is a reflection on how the class and the papers I wrote have changed the way I view and react to gender. Sound fun?

Not really, but I have been careful to not procrastinate. That's why I only have one left.

I can't say the same for some of my classmates. The midterm is due Tuesday and everyone was saying yesterday in class that they haven't even started writing any of their papers.

It's a wonder to me how people can truly wait until the last minute. Do you want to write 5 papers in a day or two? I finished my first paper on October 25th. I promise you I'm not as stressed as the other people in my class. :)

The Sweet Sound of Friendship

Alas, my roommate has left me until January. With a variety of sicknesses, she fell too far behind to catch up before mid-terms and dropped the semester. For now, I'm alone in my little 12x12. Of course, I have been for awhile now.

Lindsey hardly ever goes to lunch with me on Mondays and Wednesdays, and for awhile she wasn't coming with me to dinner either. That left me to eat with myself.

So,

Tip #7-It's okay to eat alone.

People do it all the time. I see random people sitting all by their lonesome, listening to their iPod, working on homework, reading...it's fine.

However, I don't have that problem anymore, usually, because I have a routine now!

Brandy, the girl I roomed with at Orientation and who is in my Writing and Literature, and I have become good friends. Every Monday and Wednesday I have dinner with her and a bunch of other people. Same place. Same time.

On Mondays, it's usually just Brandy, Maribel (another girl in our class), Rachel (a friend of Brandy's), and myself. However, just yesterday Reegan (another girl in our class! :D) joined us. It was great. After that we went to Sweetwater to get doughnuts and we had a really great time.

Wednesdays, it's Brandy, myself, my friend Aaron (from the Amtrak!), Rachel, and whoever we know who shows up! It's great. We spend HOURS in the caf!

Either way, it's great to have fallen into a routine other than class and homework.

--

So, I've signed up for a Bronco Buddies program, where I am a pen pal/mentor to a 4th grader in Illinois. Her name is Kayla, but her friends call her KK, and she's great so far.

I'm super excited to hear back from her, as I just sent her my first letter after receiving hers.

In the Spring, the other Bronco Buddies and I are all taking a trip to Illinois to meet our pen pals! It'll be great. :)

--

Today was the opening of priority registration (for the Honors Students) and I was very excited to have nearly first pick of classes for the semester.

Then a problem occurred: "You are not permitted to register at this time."

WHAT!?

So, I went to the Lee Honors College and very politely, but slightly frantically, told them my problem. They got me in with an adviser right away. Except, he didn't know why I couldn't register either. No holds on my account...nothing.

Finally, he starts asking around. Well, after about 20 minutes, the head lady at the office, overhears our dilemma and comes up to me and says "do you need Momma's help?"

Apparently, that's what people call her around there.

So, I go into her office and she opens up my info and says "ah ha! Here's your problem. Your Honors Code isn't here." -_-

No one thought to check that?

Turns out, they were all looking at my FALL info, not my SPRING info.

I guess when I went to go see my Major adviser, she somehow erased my code from the system.

"Momma" helped me out in two seconds.

So,

Tip #8-Don't freak out if something isn't how it's supposed to be. It will get fixed. No one wants you to suffer.

That's all for now!

Love.

Smarter Than The Average Freshman

Lately I've been thinking about how much harder my classes are than the people I talk to.

I'm in Pre-Calculus, while a sophomore I know is in Algebra and nearly everyone else took Stats.

I have a Comm class full of juniors and seniors, as I have mentioned before.

My FYE class is Honors, so we're doing a ton of work there, while the general FYE class does next to nothing.

All in all, I began to worry a little that I took on too much too quickly. What if I couldn't get through all the homework? What if I can't keep up and I'm forced to keep failing because I'm dragging behind and no one is stopping to wait for me to get up?

Yesterday, that changed.

I realized that the whole reason I ended up in these classes is because I'm capable of doing the work. No one here wants me to fail and if I have a question, they don't hesitate to answer it. I am prepared for long hours of homework, because that means I'm getting something out of my expensive education.

Here's why I came to this revelation:

Not only did I score 100% on my first essay in Gender and Communication (I'm the only freshman there!), I was complimented, in a humorous way (at least, I thought it was funny).

We had to get into groups to discuss a theory and come up with a skit to show an aspect of it. There were supposed to be 6 to a group.

Sean Stemas, who is a nice guy and says hi to me when he sees me outside of class, counts us and says "Well, we only have five," he thinks for a short moment and then points at me, "that's okay, you can pick up the slack." I must have looked surprised or confused, I certainly felt that way, because he added, "well, you always have to best ideas."

:D

Weekend at Karlie's

I just a great, rather relaxing with Karlie and Brittany, and for a little bit Kallyn.

We sat around and did homework, watched baseball and football, and ate a lot. :)

We also did some shopping, which was good and bad-it got us out of the townhouse, but we bought food! Haha.

It was nice to hang out with people outside of my dorm. As much as I enjoy Em and Lind's company, it was nice to see someone else. Plus, they weren't home this weekend.

I will definitely be over there a lot more often now that I know how awesome it is.

I bought some Bronco Pride and a Den shirt. :)

I was a sale spender though. Everything I bought was on sale, except the stuff at the dollar store, but let's be real-everything is a dollar. That's like being on sale. :P

--

I cleaned the fish tank when I got back tonight. That was...fun. Not really. It was really dirty and the whole bathroom smelled like fish. I had to use a huge spoon to scoop them into cups so I could pour the water out of their tank. I couldn't catch them, so Lindsay's sister had to do it. But I cleaned it and poured them back in.

I listened to some music while I unpacked all my new stuff. Now it's off to bed.

Classes start early tomorrow. I'm going to an art exhibit too, for a cultural event. I went to the play "References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot" at the University theatre. It was really good, though not what I expected.

It was a very small room with chairs lining the walls and the play was in the middle of the room. It was actually a really cool experience and I'm glad I went.

I met up with Philip, from French class, there and we both agreed that it was 'sensational.'

I don't doubt that this week will be boring, but with any luck it will be like last week-little homework. If that's the case, then if Shawn doesn't come out next weekend, I'm going back to Karlie's. It's likely that will happen-Shawn's been taking a lot of time off work lately. Hopefully I won't spend as much money next weekend. Haha.