It’s that time of year…

Hello everyone! It’s that time of year: finals. It always seems to roll around just when you think you can’t stand another day sitting in class but also when you least expect it and it seems impossible that the school year is already over. I haven’t posted in a while because I’ve been SO busy, just like everyone else here, but I wanted to take a minute to update on the last couple months of school (and take a minute to NOT be working on my econ paper… :P).

Spring break was just what I needed to rejuvenate me, but it had the small side effect of making me unwilling to concentrate on any schoolwork when I got back. For some reason I got tired out sooner this year than last– my mom said it’s the sophomore slump, and remember what my sophomore year of high school was like, I’m inclined to believe her! In any case, the rest March dragged its heels but passed without remark, except that my computer broke down and I had to buy a new laptop– NOT something I was planning on!

April flew by, despite an unseasonal lack of warm weather. My best friend from home came to visit and check out Puget Sound since she’s a senior in high school, and it was really great to have her here. It’s always fun to be able to show friends your life at school. We had a run-out Chorale concert in Seattle, which was really fun and exciting because it’s been years and years since Chorale has gotten to do any off-campus concerts. We performed at a church in a beautiful area of the city near a lake, and afterwards we all went out to dinner at a delicious Italian place (Tutta Bella for anyone who lives in/near Seattle. We did the party deal and got three slices of pizza, salad, unlimited drinks and GELATO for only $15 each– it was AWESOME. Especially when all you’ve had to eat for the last month and a half is cafeteria food).

The rest of April was sucked up (in a good way) by RDG. Tech week was fun, as usual. We did something new this semester that was really exciting– on the Wednesday before the show we held a flash mob in the SUB (our student center) to promote the show! It was SO fun to plan and perform. For those of you who haven’t heard of a flash mob, it’s like a surprise public dance performance. We (the officers) choreographed it and taught it to any members who wanted to learn in secret. We even got security services and student affairs in on it, and they rearranged some tables in the dining hall for us and hooked up our music to the sound system. Then one day during the noon lunch period, we all went to the SUB and started eating lunch as usual– until the music turned on! As students looked around in confusion, a few members started dancing, and more and more joined in until there were a bunch of us doing our routine in the middle of the sub. It was pretty awesome. Here’s the link to the video we took. The dancing doesn’t start until about 3:30 so you might want to fast forward to there. I come in at 3:50 and start dancing around 4:00. 🙂 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5mpPgkXHIhM&feature=related. That weekend we had our shows, which also went amazingly and we got great feedback, so it was a satisfying end to a semester of hard work!

Since then, everything kind of rolled downhill until it was the end of the semester! I’m currently mired in econ, international relations and french studying (thank goodness I performed my theater final scene two weeks ago!). My room is filled with boxes, but is otherwise depressingly stark, as I’ve started packing and took everything off my walls. My bed and the spare bed are both covered with my papers, notes and readings. Yep, it definitely looks like finals.

Finals start Monday, but mine are on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I’m leaving Saturday afternoon– after the ordeal I went through last year, having booked my flight for two hours after my last final and waking up the morning of and realizing I had a bigger job ahead of me finishing up my packing and cleaning than I’d thought and totally freaking out, I wanted to be sure to give myself enough time to get everything in order and attempt to move out calmly and simply. I can’t wait to go home to California, sunshine and my family and friends, but I’m going to miss everyone here so much, and I’m really going to miss living in the French house. It worked out so well and I’ve absolutely loved this semester. I don’t know if I’ll have time to post again before the end of school (how is it only a week away?!) so if not, I hope you’ve enjoyed my posts and they’ve given some insight into life at Puget Sound. Have an amazing summer and– at least some of you, I hope– see you next year!

Posted in Justine McDaniel '12 | Comments Off on It’s that time of year…

spring in february?

The weather has been blissfully sunny for the last few days and is supposed to continue like this for the next ten days. That doesn’t mean it’s not freezing, but the warm sun is wonderful!

I have so much to do tonight so this post will be a short one. Last weekend, three of my best friends from home came to visit me and Amber. One of them didn’t tell us she was coming, so it was a great surprise and we had a wonderful four days together! It was really fun. It hardly seems like it’s already almost Friday; this week went by super quickly. I have my first French paper due tomorrow so I have to edit it and fill out a worksheet for it and I have to do a bunch of vocab and my online econ homework, and I have a meeting for the literary magazine editorial board tonight, which I recently joined and am excited about.

Otherwise, everything is pretty normal around here. RDG is underway, which is nice, and classes are starting to really get into the thick of things. Everyone I know had first tests and papers due this week. And only three weeks until spring break!

Posted in Justine McDaniel '12 | Comments Off on spring in february?

Puget Sound fun

So This semester is going to be awesome.  With RDG, luau, working at the cellar ( shout out to my cellar friends!), senior thesis and trying to find out what to do after graduation, I am going to be so busy! My sorority (Alpha Phi) just got done with recruitment and we got 32 awesome new pledges!! All the sororities did great and so did the fraternities.  It is really great to see the Greek system strong and thriving on campus.  This semester I am focusing on finishing some of those things on my Puget Sound Bucket list! I will keep you all updated on how it goes!!

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Back in the Swing of Things

Hello all! I have a few minutes before I have to meet my friends for breakfast (10:30 is a luxuriously late time for breakfast, I know… the perks of not having class until 11 every day!) so I thought I would update on all my doings since before finals week!

The end of the semester was stressful, as usual, but we all got through it. I decided to move out of my dorm into the French house, which is one of the university-owned theme houses, so I was kept extra busy hauling all my belongings across campus. Now that I’m all moved in, though, I’m really glad I made the decision to live here. I ended up with a single because no one else applied to fill the spots of the two girls who went abroad and it is very, very nice. I’m friends with the three girls in the house, so it’s lots of fun to be able to walk into each other’s rooms and chat or do homework together, but it is some sort of novelty to me that I can also go into my room, shut the door and work in solitary peace. So as much as I miss living with my other three friends, I think I made the right decision– and I still visit my old room all the time.

Winter break was amazing. We had a little over four weeks, and it was SO nice to be able to be home for that long and just relax. I still have a really close group of friends from high school, so we’re always so, so happy to be together again, and it was great to hang out with my parents. My friend Michelle from Puget Sound came to visit me and Amber, so that was also very awesome and she got to really see California for the first time.

And then, suddenly, everything was packed into my two well-worn suitcases and Amber and I were back on flight 2474 to Seattle, as usual. Moving into my room was fun, and I’m still in the process of decorating the walls, although at least now it looks like someone actually lives here. It was so great to see everyone again, and there are still people I am running into who I haven’t had a chance to hang out with yet. It always feels so good to be back, and it’s always better than I expect. When I’m home, I get really sad about leaving again, mainly because I’m so close with those high school friends, but whenever I come back I am reminded of how much I love it here, and that makes me so grateful.

Classes started on Tuesday, so as of right now, I have had one session of each class. I’m taking International Econ, French, International Relations, Fundamentals of Acting and Chorale– and they all seem really great! I’m excited and optimistic about this semester. I feel like now we are truly upperclassmen– we’ve gotten all our requirements out of the way and we can take all classes that pertain to our majors, and it makes it that much more enjoyable. Another indicator of this is that we all have way more work than we had before, but since it’s only the third day of school, I’m still in my super gung-ho academic mode and the idea of sitting down with books and essays sounds nice.

Aside from classes, I’m just waiting for other activities to start up again. I have my first tour on Friday, which will be nice, and RDG auditions are next weekend, I believe. Tonight is the choreographer interest meeting and afterwards we’ll do the officer transition so I will learn all about how to be secretary! I’m really excited for this semester of RDG. I’ve choreographed about a minute of a contemporary piece, which is something different for me, so I hope it goes well. Last night my friend Kayla and I went to the dance room and showed each other our choreography, so we both got/gave good feedback and were able to make improvements. It  felt so good to be dancing again!

And I think that’s it. Yesterday I finally got to go to Office Depot/Target/Safeway so now I actually have binders and notebooks so I can be organized and food in my refrigerator. It also hasn’t started raining yet, so that has been nice, although I’m sure it won’t last for long! All in all, it’s been a smooth and fun transition back into school and I’m looking forward to this semester!

Posted in Justine McDaniel '12 | Comments Off on Back in the Swing of Things

Last Winter Break????

Wow, back to school for truly the last time. Well until grad school I guess! It was nice to be home but I am truly excited about this semester. I am taking three classes in my majors and I am really excited about all of them. I am also looking forward to RDG, Luau, and spending time participating in my sorority. College has gone by quickly but I am going to really take in this last semester. Good luck to everyone with classes!!

Posted in Maureen Wolsborn '10 | Comments Off on Last Winter Break????

The End is in Sight!

The end is in sight! Only 3 days of exams, and then the holidays are here. I love my school, don’t get me wrong, but I’m pretty sure the idea of finals puts most people in bad moods. I have 2 exams, one for Western Art History, which requires an essay and memorization of about 100 slides, and one for Japanese 201. My other two classes, Cultural Anthropology and Social and Cultural Change have essays instead of exams. I have two 6-8 page research papers due before Wednesday. I haven’t started!

Oh well, instead of continuing to complain about my academic life, I am going to highlight the best things to do in Tacoma, as promised, some of which have to do with the holidays. All of these things are accessible by bus or by foot, and they are all within 7 miles of campus.

10. Listen to some live music at the Mandolin Cafe, while sipping coffee and pretending finals are not next week!
9. Watch polar bears and reindeer at the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It is AZA-certified (meaning their animals are especially well cared for and they work to rebuild endangered populations), and during the holidays they have thousands of Christmas lights shining at night throughout the zoo.
8. Enjoy two dollar Tuesdays at Chalet Bowl, only a five to ten minute walk away from campus.
7. Try a World Famous (or, at least, campus-wide famous) milkshake from Frisko Freeze.
6. Take a walk down N. 30th, through Old Town, down along the Puget Sound. The water is pretty to look at but not to swim in! It is freezing, trust me.
5. Go watch the Tacoma Rainiers, the AAA-affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, play ball just a few minutes from campus.
4. Head downtown to the Museum of Glass, started by the actually world-famous glass artist and former Puget Sound student, Dale Chihuly. Sunday admission is free for students, and they continuously have glass blowing demonstrations throughout the day.
3. While you are in the downtown area, grab a seasonal pumpkin cupcake with caramel icing at Hello Cupcake!. It may make you fall into a sugar coma, but it is so worth it.
2. Stroll through the neighborhoods surrounding campus, looking at the beautiful, Victorian-style homes, and pick berries along the way.
1. Last, but not least, visit my personal all-time favorite restaurant in Tacoma, Sushi Tama, and order a Spicy Tuna Roll, or if you don’t like raw fish, try the Nabeyaki Udon.

So, I just realized that at least half of the list above has to do with food… I guess I’m hungry. Or the coffee/food in the Northwest is just wonderfully delicious. Seriously though, the coffee, as well as the Asian food, in this area is definitely top notch.
That’s it for now, I believe. I need to start studying sometime!

Posted in Christina Miller '11 | Comments Off on The End is in Sight!

Navigating my living situation

Things are not always as easy as they first seem, I’ve learned in these past six months.

You see, when I first moved into an off-campus house with a few friends about six months ago, I thought it would smooth sailing and, in all honesty, a lot of good and great times. Let me be absolutely clear before I move on, though: There have been a lot of good and great times living where and with whom I currently do. That fact, however, doesn’t always make it easy to live with housemates and their flaws or them with my own flaws.

This all came to a head in the first few months of living together – months that were fraught with petty fights and the occasional shouting match between housemates. Arguments and shouting that eventually resulted in a physical altercation between two housemates over the summer.

And despite this, somehow, since that night things at the house have been better. Or have, at least, seemed better Some might say civil and relaxed, even. Dare I say it? Things around the house have even been fun.

Perhaps what baffles me most about this newly found civility and jovialness (if that’s even a word), is that (in the face of my most passive aggressive techniques) there was never an apology between the two of them. Ever. I suppose it’s hard for me to understand that because this sort of thing has never really happened to me.

Now, I’ve certainly found myself in situations where I would have liked (and maybe would have found it appropriate) to hit someone else. But those individuals are generally people who I don’t know well, and in those situations I normally dissuade myself from becoming violent if only because I don’t know the person and am probably being rash and jumping to conclusions before getting clarification on what ever it might be that I was frustrated or angry with. Violence, as a whole, is something that I (like many other people) have issues with, also.

But what makes the situation between my housemates different is that they were (and, in fact, still are) one of the other’s best friends. And they are both two of my best friends (I chose to live with them for a reason). And it’s still hard to believe that they have made what seems like a full recovery in their friendship. And I suppose if they are able to mend the ties in their friendship, I have a responsibility as a friend and as a housemate to accept that – and I think I’m beginning to do that.

Here’s hoping this post doesn’t jinx it all.

Posted in Matt Anderson '12 | Comments Off on Navigating my living situation

Long time…NO POST!!!

Hello all,

Sorry I have not posted since the beginning of the year! This final year has been crazy and I have been working really hard at school and all my activities.  I enjoy all of my classes and have really been participating in my majors this year.  So if you get a chance take a Politics and Government and/or a Comparative Sociology class.  All the professors are great and the classes are very interesting….or just become a major in either!!!

I am involved in RDG and it has been tons of fun.  The performances are next week so everyone should come and see all the amazing dances.  Things like RDG and Alpha Phi are things which truly keep me going when things get really crazy during the school year. 

So..still working on the bucket list and will add more things as the year goes on.  I hope everyone is having a fabulous fall and enjoying their classes!!!

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fall days

Hello, everyone!

I haven’t updated this in a while, but that probably reveals as much about college life than anything I could write! Busy busy busy.

It’s starting to turn quite cold and the ground is covered with golden leaves. I try, despite all my hurrying back and forth all over campus, to stop and appreciate the beauty of fall.  The season surrounds us in a completely different way here than where I’m from in California, and although I detest the cold (I walked out of class yesterday at 3:30 and could see my breath!) I am always somewhat in awe of the way the season’s change is manifested in the trees.

So my life for the last few weeks has mainly been RDG, classes, RDG, tours, RDG and my friends. And maybe some more RDG. The show is exactly two weeks from today, which is a scary though, but everything always comes together and I have confidence in my dancers. 🙂 I’m really pleased with how my dance is coming so far, and of course the other dances I’m in are really fun and going well. Classes are still going well, as before, and my friends and I have spent plenty of evenings pretending to study in the SUB while laughing like crazy. So everything has been normal, but next week marks the start of the most hectic two weeks I’ve had here yet! I have two exams, and then on Friday, my best friend from home, Haley, is coming to visit! I don’t know if I’ve really gone over this, but one of my best friends from high school came to Puget Sound also, so it is even better since she is here as well and we are all part of the same group of friends at home. So Amber and I are eagerly awaiting Haley’s arrival. We’ll show her around Puget Sound and she can get to know our friends here. On Sunday, it’s one of our friend’s 20th birthday, and my 19th birthday is on that Thursday, so we’re going to go out to dinner on Sunday. Monday is the beginning of tech week for RDG, but I’m missing it to go to see A Fine Frenzy in concert in Seattle with Haley and Amber. I feel bad about missing, but we already had the tickets, and A Fine Frenzy will be amazing! Then the rest of the week is hectic tech week business and getting ready for the show, and hopefully I’ll find time to do something for my birthday on Thursday. Haley will leave on Wednesday, and the show is Friday and Saturday! Saturday morning my mom is flying in and she’ll stay until Monday, which i am SO excited about– she called me a couple weeks ago and surprised me with the news that she’d be able to come see the show!

So, as usual, my life is jam-packed, but in a very good way! As I was discussing with one of my lunch tours yesterday, college is what you make of it, and unless you get involved with things you’re passionate about, it won’t be anywhere near as enjoyable as it should be.

And so now I’m going to go do some Spanish homework….

Posted in Justine McDaniel '12 | Comments Off on fall days

I’m sick…again

So instead of attempting to start the mounds of homework that are piling up, I thought I would write a little post, because then I can write about anything I want, instead of the depressing subject of unemployment and overpopulation in Cairo. Besides, I’m sick, yet again, so reading Elyachar’s opinion on the Egyptian economy  makes my head hurt. You would think being sick in college would be nice, since you can just skip class instead of having to force your mom call in sick for you. However, it’s kind of the opposite. Missing class is not fun, because then you have to make up homework for the night before class, then get notes from class, and then still do the homework for the next class on time. Professors can be pretty understanding, though. Last time I was sick, one of my Comparative Sociology professors helped me revise an essay that I had tried to write while I had the flu. I can assure you, it was a terrible essay. Nevertheless, she met with me to discuss it and allowed me to make some changes and turn it in the next day, and I, surprisingly, ended up doing pretty well on the paper. Also, the people CHWS (Center for Health and Wellness Services) are really great to go to if you get sick. They have free cough drops, Advil, etc., and they can let you know what exactly you have so you know how long it will be until you get better. You can also get flu shots there, as well.

Even though it can be a bit depressing to be sick without your mom (or dad) around to make you soup and take you to the doctor, I have had so many people ask me if they can get me anything. People seem to genuinely care here. I know I am probably being pretty cheesy, but I am really appreciative of the friends who get me chicken noodle soup and who ask me how I am feeling each time they see me. Anyway, all I am saying is, though missing class does suck, I wouldn’t be too worried about getting the flu miles away from home, because friends (and CHWS, I guess) can also make being sick a little better than you would think.

Posted in Christina Miller '11 | Comments Off on I’m sick…again