Busy, Busy, Busy…

Posted on October 21, 2009 by mlanderson

I’ve been realizing lately that it hasn’t seemed liked I’ve been back at school at all this year.

That is until today. At the moment, I’m sitting in the SUB working on two essays, both due tomorrow (of course), and remembering exactly what it is to be back at school — especially the work that goes along with that.

I predict it being a long night, tonight (like many last year were). But for now, I think I’ll just let Elton John and Facebook help me forget about the daunting amount of work I have due tomorrow.

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Oh Fall Break always goes by too fast…

Posted on October 19, 2009 by christina miller

 

n1367853314_30118856_8805So this weekend is fall break, and though I am having a great time, the days just seem so much shorter on breaks. I feel like I haven’t gotten to do near the amount of homework I was planning on doing, nor have I caught up on my sleep. Professors always love to give you extra work on breaks, too, which I can never seem to understand. Some students go home and most others go somewhere fun, so it is not like we have all this extra time to do work. Oh well, I did make 40 bucks today in the tour guide office, and I did made it up to Pike’s place and Uwajimaya (an amazing Asian market) in Seattle, so I shouldn’t be complaining. I had a great time with one of my suitemates here. We got some of the famous flowers at Pike’s place and got some wonderful Ramen at Samurai noodle. I took a few pictures that you can look at of the Seattle area. As you can see, the weather isn’t always cloudy and rainy.

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Also, there is so much to do in Seattle. If I ever get bored here on campus, there’s always the Tacoma area. And, if you ever get bored in Tacoma, there’s always the Seattle area. If I get bored in Seattle (which probably won’t happen, but just in case), Portland, OR and Vancouver, B.C. are always excellent choices. Eastern Washington is home to the Cascade Mountain range, so skiing in the winter is also a fun thing to do. The popular ski resorts are about 45 minutes away.  Seattle’s about 35 minutes from campus, and Portland and Vancouver are both about 2 and a half hours away. I thought I would make a list of my favorite things to do on campus for this blog, and then start exploring some new things in Tacoma, then Seattle, then Vancouver/Portland/Eastern Washington for future posts. 

The Top Ten Things to Do on the Puget Sound Campus:

10. Grab a “Buffalo Chicken (or soy chicken, for vegetarians) 12″ Pizza” at the Cellar and see if you can eat the whole thing. It’s so good that you may be able to. 

9. Explore the Science on Display exhibits in Harned Hall, including Foucault’s Pendulum, a perfect acoustic circle, and Willie, an adolescent gray whale skeleton. I don’t even like studying Science very much, and I think this stuff is cool..

8. Go to a Jazz Band performance in Schneebeck Concert Hall. They take you back to the 1920’s…

7. Visit one of your professor’s during their office hours. When they don’t have other students, most professors really like to talk, not just about your class, but about their research and their fields of study. Most professors have Ph. D.’s so they are all extremely intelligent and they want to help you. 

6. Take a walk around campus in the spring, when the Cherry Blossom trees, dedicated to the former students of Japanese descent that were sent to Internment Camps during WWII, are in bloom. Depressing subject, but the blossoms are beautiful. 

5. Watch a Ubiquitous They show on a Friday night. They are our Improv Comedy group on campus, and are pretty hilarious. 

4. Join RDG, Repertory Dance Group, which is our largest club on campus. Anyone can participate in one of the many hip hop, jazz, tap, lyrical, ballet, and ballroom dances even if you have never danced before. It was a really great way for me to make friends at the beginning of Freshman year. 

3.  Curl up with a cup of coffee (all fair trade and organic) on one of the couches in Diversions Cafe on a rainy day, watch the rain pour down, and be thankful that you’re warm and dry. 

2. Though I am biased because I am an Art minor, take a spin through Kittredge Gallery. It’s one of my favorite places on campus. The curator for the gallery is the same curator as the Tacoma Art Museum, and they have a variety of student and professional exhibits. 

1.  And, last but not least, enjoy the few sunny, warm days in the Pacific Northwest by picnicking and playing frisbee on Todd field with some friends. It’s definitely a stress reliever.

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The Beginnings

Posted on October 16, 2009 by christina miller

To Seattle and Beyond!This is my first post, so I guess I’ll begin with introductions…My name is Christina Miller, and I am a sophomore here at Puget Sound. I am from Chattanooga, TN, so I have come quite a long way from home. Though I do love my hometown, my freshman year and the first part of my sophomore year here in the Northwest have been wonderful. Surprisingly, I have even managed to survive the rain, which was a really big change for me, since I grew up in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. If you are at all worried about the rain and the cloudy skies, I’m just here to tell you it’s really not that bad. I actually enjoy playing in the rain now, and though it does get a bit dark in the winter, everyone really learns to appreciate the first sunny days of spring. The reason I brought this up, though, is because it just started raining for the first time this semester last week, so I just got out the rain boots and I’m pretty excited to wear them again!
Anyway, back to my intro…I’m a Comparative Sociology major which is an interdisciplinary major combining Anthropology and Sociology. Honestly, last year at this time, I had absolutely no idea what I was going to study-and it’s nice because you don’t have to decide your major until 2nd semester of sophomore year. So I took some classes that counted as Core requirements (just the requirements you have to take from each field of “thinking” to fulfill a Liberal Arts education), and realized that I was primarily interested in International Relations, but I enjoy studying people’s social relationships as well as politics and economics. I am also minoring in Japanese and Studio Art (just for fun!). Hopefully, next year for my full junior year I will be studying abroad in Japan at Waseda University (早稲田大学). I can’t wait for that, but I will talk about it more when I know more details.

Like most other Puget Sound students, I am involved in lots of clubs and activities. I don’t know any student that is not a member of some organization or club that they really enjoy. I dance with Repertory Dance Group (RDG). I’m actually in Justine’s lyrical dance (Justine is another blogger on this site). I am also doing a beginning tap dance. Other than dance, I am an International Student Mentor, and I am mentoring a student from Vietnam. Uyen is so great-we are going out to a Vietnamese dinner tonight and I am so excited! Being from Tennessee, I have never had Vietnamese food before.

I have 2 jobs, one on campus and one off. I’m a tour guide, so if any of you come to campus for a visit and I am your guide, let me know you have read this! It is not a work-study job, but I have had 2 other work-study jobs during my freshman year, and they have lots of options (recycling crew, printmaking lab assistant). Also, I work at a church’s nursery about a mile from campus. It is really nice to get off campus sometimes and make friends with people that are from this area.

So now you know all about me and what I do around here, so feel free to comment or ask questions! It’s fall break this weekend so I’ll be headed to Seattle during the day tomorrow and I’ll be picking up a few extra hours at the tour guide office. I’ll try to post again with pictures of Seattle!

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Microsoft and Ref. 71

Posted on October 6, 2009 by mlanderson

Now, before I say anything, let me be clear: I am an Apple person. Despite this, I was very impressed with Apple’s chief competitor, software giant Microsoft, yesterday. You see, the Redmond-based corporation donated $100,000 to the Approve Referendum 71 campaign.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the referendum, a little background: Earlier this year, the Washington state legislature passed a bill giving domestic partners (who can either be LGBT couples or heterosexual couples over the age of 62) all the rights and privileges – at the state level, at least – of their married, heterosexual counterparts. Shortly after the bill was passed, two religious groups joined together in an effort to gather enough signatures to place the new law on the ballot. Unfortunately, the religious groups succeeded in gathering enough signatures to put the law to a public vote. Since then, both sides have been trying to gather donations to pay for their respective campaigns.

Being as we live on a fairly liberal campus as well as the fact that we have a large LGBT community for a University of our size, I felt this an appropriate topic to write a bit about. I suppose what’s most most awesome about what Microsoft has done for the LGBT community is knowing how much courage it took on the company’s part. Because, even now and even in a state like Washington, taking a clear stand on an issue as divisive as gay marriage can be unpopular with many of the company’s customers. Yet, I hope other large companies in the area (cough… Weyerhauser… cough…. Amazon.com….cough…. Starbucks) will follow Microsoft’s lead.

This is an important issue that affects us all. Whether you are gay, straight or questioning, the thought of your civil rights being rescinded by a public vote is disconcerting at the very least. Please join Microsoft, myself, and countless others in supporting this important cause.

To donate money to the Approve Referendum 71 campaign, visit www.upwardstech.net/approvereferendum71.

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a long week

Posted on October 1, 2009 by gconcepcion

It’s only eight o’clock and I feel like it’s ten. Today was my only day this week I didn’t have an activity or meeting after classes are out, and let me tell you, that break was greatly needed. This week seems to be hard for everybody. I’m so tired and trying to fight off a cold. My first econ exam is tomorrow so I’m at my best friend’s house stuyding right now but it doesn’t really seem like there’s much left for me to study, so I’m feeling pretty goo about it. Hopefully I can make it an early night and be well-rested for the test tomorrow. This week is going by so slowly! I want it to be over. I’m so tired, i’m getting impatient. I’ve been researching study abroad a lot and have pretty definitely decided that I’m going to University College London first semester next year through direct enrollment in the university which is, obviously, in London, and second semester I’m going to Dijon, France through Puget Sound’s program. I just want to go now!

Going along those lines, I suppose the other biggest thing that has happened in my life lately (I haven’t written in a couple weeks because I’ve been SO busy with everything– LITERALLY not a spare moment) is that I’m probably going to change my major from Foreign Language and International Affairs with Spanish as my language to having French as my language, and minoring in Spanish instead of French. I’m meeting with my French teacher soon to talk about it but hopefully it will all work out.

My grandparents will be visiting next weekend and I’m really excited! They’ve never been here before, and it will be nice to show them around. Tomorrow is my mom and grandma’s birthdays (yep, my grandma had my mom on her own birthday) and my grandparents will be visiting my parents before heading up here. I still find it weird when my family and friends have birthdays when I’m away– I wish I could be there!

I’m going to go finish up my studying now and head back to my room for a shower and perhaps some coloring– one of my best friends from home sent me a hilarious Harry Potter coloring book, and I’m finding it quite relaxing to spend part of my evening bringing life to outlines of Harry, Ron and Hermione. 😉 Good night!

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Introductions

Posted on September 17, 2009 by mlanderson

Following the trend, this being my first post, I suppose I should say a bit about myself and what I do at Puget Sound.

First things first, My name is Matt Anderson. I am a sophomore English/Creative Writing major. After earning my B.A., I would like to go into journalism and work for a major daily newspaper (or whatever medium is left at that point). Currently, I’m one of two Managing Editors for the campus newspaper, The Trail — last year I was the News Editor. I’m also from Tacoma and have written for The News Tribune as well as The Herald, located in Puyallup.

At this point in the school year, I think everyone is getting used to either being back at Puget Sound or arriving for the first time. In either case, I hope everyone has been doing really, really well in the first few weeks of classes — I know I’ve hit some snags (particularly in my major author study on John Milton), but such things are to be expected. So for now, all I really have to say is this: Welcome, or Welcome back! And, be assured, more is to come.

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BACK TO SCHOOL…FOR THE LAST TIME!!!

Posted on September 14, 2009 by maureen wolsborn

Hello,
This is my first post and I am really excited! So I will tell you all a little about myself.
My name is Maureen and I am from the grand state of Oregon! I went to private schools up until high school, and I played water polo, ski raced and swam. My father is a Puget Sound alumni and so is my older cousin. So I am happy to carry on the tradition. I am a politics and government, comparative sociology double major and looking to go to law school soon after graduation. I am also a member of Alpha Phi sorority and RDG.
I love coming back to school and seeing wide eyed freshman embarking on a journey I took three years ago, as much as I love the idea of graduating this year I miss the feeling of new experiences everyday and living in the dorm. Well maybe I don’t miss that too much.
This semester is going to be insane, with 2 thesis classes, working, sorority and club commitments. But I love staying busy and enjoy that Puget Sound offers so many ways to get involved.
So I have made a list of things I need to do before I graduate so here they are, it will expand as the year goes on and I will update to let you all know what I have accomplished
1) Go to Presidents house dinner
2) Hike near/around Mt. Rainer
3) Kayak in the Sound
4) Go up the space needle again
5) eat a hamburger and fries in the sub….yes I have NEVER eaten a burger and fries there!
6) Go the the Puyallup fair
7) meet people in my year I don’t know
8) Go skiing in Washington. more than once
SO hopefully some of these things will be accomplished and I can feel like I left Puget Sound really doing all the things on my list. Its a Puget Sound bucket list, if you will.
So best of luck to everyone on classes, study hard!

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week two

Posted on September 12, 2009 by gconcepcion

Hello everyone! It is the end of the second week at school, but it feels like it’s been an eternity. It will be four weeks tomorrow since I got here but I came early for orientation– and it still feels like longer than that!

Last night I finished all my homework that’s due all the way up until Tuesday and I’m feeling QUITE accomlished and proud! Today I’m auditioning to choreograph for RDG, and if we make it, I’ll have to do dancer auditions and then place dancers and it will take literally all day Sunday. So I figured I’d better get things done. I was tired all week (and it was only a four-day week!) and I don’t want to be dying in class on Monday.

Every day this weekend was a mix of happiness and stress, satisfaction and angst. I gave a fake tour to practice for tour guiding, and that was fun. I’ll give my first tour Monday! Some of my fellow Perspectives leaders and I always get lunch on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so that’s been fun. I had a bit of frustration with my Spanish assignments this week, and I was stressing about finishing all my homework because of RDG this weekend. I didn’t end up applying for the Trail, which I’m kind of sad about, but I have too much going on to handle the time commitment. Hopefully I can just start up again next semester. On Wednesday, Colleen (one of my roommates this year and my roommate last year) took me to a local ballet studio and I checked it out and talked to the lady and got a schedule, and it looks great! I’m going to my first class this Wednesday. There was a beginning pointe class warming up when we were there and so we watched, and I just wanted to run onto that lovely marley floor and jump in and do the exercise with them! And my theater class is continuing to be amazing. On Thursday we did a free write for ten minutes about a favorite place, and it was so nice. I’ve loved to write since I was young, and I have countless notebooks filled with my writing, but since I got back to school I haven’t had much time to do it. Those were the best ten minutes of my week. So that was nice, and we’re going to write our own monologues soon and I’m excited about that!

One of my best friends just called me upset abou something. It’s times like these when it’s hardest to be away. I want to be at her house so badly! My friends from home and I have a really uniquely strong bond. It’s hard to describe. And we all want to be there for her now, but we’re spread out everywhere. 🙁 Usually I don’t miss home that badly, but sometimes I just feel like I need to be there. Also… well I should back up for this story. There are eight of us in my group of best friends at home and one of them, Amber, came to Puget Sound too. So we’re each other’s constant; we never have to miss each other. And when we do, it’s weird. Haha. Anyway, Amber’s mom is here to visit right now and I saw them in the SUB this morning and it was very strange. I didn’t know they were going to be in there and suddenly there was a piece of Santa Rosa in the SUB!

On a happier note, it is ridiculously warm outside today! Actually, the last time I checked it was sixty-six, but it feels ridiculously warm. It’s weird how I can acclimate to Tacoma weather so quickly. I’ve been here for four weeks and the high sixties feels boiling! Our room is especially warm because it’s on the fourth floor.

Well, I’m going down to the sub with Amber and Michelle now. And then auditions… crossing my fingers!

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beginnings

Posted on September 3, 2009 by gconcepcion

Hi! This is my first post (obviously) so I’m not really sure how to get started but I’m sure I’ll figure it out. I guess I’ll tell a bit about myself and then I’ll just start talking about my student life!

So I’m a sophomore here and I’m so excited to be starting the new school year. I had a great summer back home in Santa Rosa, California (it’s in the Bay Area, in Sonoma County, about forty minutes to an hour north of San Francisco depending on traffic). I was a camp counselor at the same camp I worked at the summer before, which was so fun and rewarding, and I got to spend all my time with my family and my best friends, which was great. I was a Perspectives orientation leader here so I’ve been back since August 15. We had five days of training followed by ten days of orientation for the first-year students. It was so fun and such an amazing experience. I met so many new people– I have a Perspectives family now! It was so great to help all the freshmen, and all we leaders agreed we really grew from the experience. But it was basically non-stop for two weeks so I haven’t had very much time to talk to my friends at home or hang out with my friends who were already here. Then before I could get a break, school started! And today and tomorrow I had/have tour guide training at 6:45 in the morning, so I’m pretty much doomed to be tired until this weekend. At least everything I’m doing is enjoyable. This semester, I’m taking Spanish Contemporary, Intermediate French, Econ and Theater. I’ve only had one class of each but so far I’m really excited about everything.

Aside from classes, there are a bunch of activities I plan on being involved with. I’m only slightly worried about how I’m going to fit everything in. I managed just fine last year with my many obligations, but I’m putting a little more on my plate this semester so we’ll see how that goes. Right now I’m worrying about RDG (Repertory Dance Group). I’ve done ballet for eleven years and so of course I joined RDG when I got here as a freshman, and now I’m trying to choreograph a dance for this semester! It’s basically done but I have my doubts about it and the choreographer meeting is on Saturday, which kind of scares me.

Right now I’m in my room studying with friends, but I’ve miraculously finished everything already so I can just shower and review a few French conjugations before bed. I live in a quad on the fourth floor. It’s not a whole floor so it’s called the tower, and we have a huge room. I really enjoy being in here and there’s lots of space so people can come over. We have a rocking couch that my roommate Michelle found at an antique store and it’s in this little nook with a TV and near the fridge and microwave. It’s quite comfortable and our friends usually come up in the evenings to study with us.

Well, today is Thursday. I wrote the preceding stuff yesterday. The week is almost over and I’m glad. I’ve basically been sleep-deprived for the last three weeks, thanks to Perspectives and then tour guide training early in the morning two days this week. Labor Day weekend couldn’t come at a more opportune time. We definitely need an extra break after the first week of school. There’s always a lot of class-switching and stuff– yesterday and today I tried to get into a new class and drop another, tried to get into another class and then changed my mind after rather a lot of folderol, added and then (probably) scrapped a second minor and talked to my advisor (who was very helpful, as usual)– and it’s just stressful. But now, having had a productive and successful day, I am in quite a good mood. My french and econ homework only took me like twenty minutes and I don’t have anything else due until next Tuesday. Everything is starting to fall into place, and I’m excited. Next week I’m going to check out an off-campus ballet studio, so I’m really hoping that works out. I miss ballet a lot, as great as RDG is. Applications for the newspaper, The Trail, are due and RDG auditions are that weekend. Also, I’m starting to work out everything for study abroad, which I plan on doing spring semester junior year.

Well, I think I’ll work on some study abroad stuff, or wash my hair. More next week!

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