The Before Pics of My Dorm!

Newport, RI!

Today was a beautiful, bright, sunny, breezy day! My friend Sarah and I ate breakfast together then walked to the bus station to catch a bus. We took a bus to Newport, Rhode Island, which is about a little over an hour by bus. When we got to Newport, we walked around on the Wharfs as it is right on the ocean and the International Boat Show was happening. We did not go to the show as Sarah is on the sailing team and is going to go to it on Sunday. After that, we walked to the Cliff Walks and we went exploring on the coast line then we walked back into the main part of town and went shopping. Newport is really pretty and has a ton of history!

We caught the 4:30 bus back to Providence which was soon to be crowded with lots of college students from the colleges in Newport Area that were heading to Providence to catch trains to head home.

When I got back to the dorms, Sarah went to go grab dinner while I met up with a girl named Jackie that is from Ohio. We were walking back to my dorm when we bumped into a new friend! Jackie and I were heading down the hall when we saw Dartainia (who is in a wheelchair) trying to get out of the laundry room. I took her laundry and we headed off to her room where we proceeded to hang out and have lots of fun!

Tuesday's Crazy Adventure to Wal-Mart

Tuesday, it rained and rained and rained, I had to wear 4-5 different outfits. I'm so getting a rain coat! And it only rained when I was going from class to class. How convenient!

By the night time, the rain had calmed and my roommate and I heard rumor that cars were broken into on the freshman parking lot. So we took the bus to the Harborside campus (we live on the Downcity Campus). Her car was safe and sound and we decided we would go to Wal-Mart fast to print some pictures. She and her friend who helped her move in, had went to Wal-Mart around here. She started driving and after a while, couldn't remember or really recognize where we were (no we weren't bright enough to print out a mapquest). We stop at a gas station where there were 2 cop cars (I don't know if anything was going down or not but one cop for sure was "chilling" inside). The cop mentioned 4 or 5 Wal-marts around and finally directed us to one. Of course, with our luck, the photo printing machine was broken! But we had decided to get some cleaning supplies and other life essentials for our dorm room. We bought a new shower curtain and a few rugs to spruce our blah dorm room. After our fun shopping at Wal-Mart, we headed out. Once again we got lost. My roommate calls her friend up who remembers practically everything even though he was only here for 3 days. He gets us close but we are still lost and a huge problem is that there are not any street signs and if there is, it is faded and unreadable. I get a hold of one of my friends back in Idaho to mapquest me home, and he finally figures out where we are and gives me directions. Well we missed the street and ended up in another city, so I call my friend again and he goes through the directions and follows a map street by street. Thanks for helping us by the way! We were getting so frustrated!

By the time we got home, it was really late and we had started our little adventure at 7pm. So both of us thought that was pretty funny especially with the fact that we could have just walked to the mall to print the pictures out and instead we drove all the way to Wal-Mart.

Plymouth, Massachusetts & Monday's Events!

Sunday, my roommate and I headed out to Plymouth, Massachusetts. To do this, we had to catch a bus to the other JWU campus then find her car parked on Lot E. We did this quite smoothly and I had mapquest directions printed out for our destination. My roommate had needed to go to Sam's Club to get some new glasses/contacts. Plymouth is about an hour away from Providence but is a really pretty drive. We didn't see any of the big cities, but with the pleasant drive, it didn't matter much. So that whole trip made Sunday afternoon a nice day.

Monday, I had my classes~English Communication (Speech), Food Safety & Sanitation, & Literature. My speech class, I think anyhow, is going to be fun. Today we got into groups and I met some new people. Then there was Bingo going on over at the other campus so I hopped onto a JWU bus and went. It was free to get in and a large possibility of winning some decent prizes. Sure enough, I won the first bingo and the prize was a case of water and some crystal light juice powder packs to go. I was happy about that! Now I have a paper I have to finish up then I'm off to hit the hay!

OH MY! WHAT A NIGHT!

Yesterday evening was interesting. Roommate & I meet these people at dinner that my roommate knew from summer orientation. These people say that they are going to the mall and going to buy a board game and go back to the dorm to play it. Sounds like good innocent fun? Yeah right! One person in the group had alcohol and they were making plans to drink in the dorms, which is not a good idea because who knows how some people act while drinking and if they are found drinking, they could be in serious trouble especially if they have alcohol with them. So once I realized this, I made a plan B to meet with some other friends. I scampered off to go meet my other friends at Starbucks.

We met up and walked to the waterfire which happens on various weekends throughout the summertime and early fall. There is a river that runs through Providence and they make bonfires on the river and have gondola rides. Oh so romantic and peaceful with lovely music. Afterwards, we walk around and hang out having a good time.

Later on, we say goodnight and part our separate ways towards our dorms. I get into my hallway and there is my roommate sprawled out on the floor drunk as can be. I watch her and 2 drunk friends for a few minutes before I confess to a drunk guy that she is my roommate, he was relieved and left. My roommate had no keys, she didn't know what she did with them. She was very much so homesick and called her family and friends. But she wanted to smoke so bad that I had to wait until her drunk look in her eyes disappeared so that when we went past security they wouldn't know she was drunk. We walked around the city (I think God had a safe city block set up for me since I had prayed to Him for help) more specifically we walked around this city block about 10-15 times. After a couple hours we finally head back to do the ultimate test~~to get back through security. I get her to open her eyes better (she was ready to fall asleep while standing) and get her to have her ID card ready and I have mine ready for security to buzz us in. I tell her to shush and we go. The security guard on duty seemed a little uptight and had his hands full with two drunk guys that wanted to pick a fight. He stared at us then at the clock then at us then at the two drunk guys. It was 3:11am by the way. He finally buzzes us through and we go in. Mind you, the next time my roommate comes home drunk, I'm not doing one thing to help her out, she had her one chance.

She woke up today not remembering a single thing. It was an interesting night to say the least.

Save the Bay!

Today I went to do community service with Save the Bay. The event was International Coast Cleanup where people all over the world are cleaning up their bays/beaches. This however is a little more tedious because we had to tally how much we found of everything. Like my group found 185 candy/food wrappers, 27 cigarette butts, 24 straws, 85 pieces of glass, etc. They do this worldwide because they want to find what the main factor of pollution is. For example, they collected 1700 cigarette butts in the state of Rhode Island last year. Now they are banning smoking on the beaches. Things like that to help the environment because marine wildlife see the trash and thinks it is food and eat it and it hurts them.

I had that from about 9:30 to 12:30 and I met a cool girl there that lives not too far from Newport. So this morning was pretty good and exciting and now I'm off to hit the books!

Clubs, Friends, & Campus Life

Hey All!!

How is everyone doing!? I miss everyone so much and am trying so hard to get plugged into life here. I have no school on Fridays, Saturdays, or Sundays. So, Friday is going to be "chore" day which is going to involve studying, laundry, ironing, taking out the trash, and cleaning up.

There are so many clubs and activities going on here at JWU (Johnson & Wales). I signed up to be in the University Involvement Board (UIB) which plans student activities. Currently, we are planning for Freak Week which is going to land at the end of October and is going to have events geared towards Halloween. I also signed up to be a CAT which is the Collegiate Ambassador Team. JWU's mascot is a wildcat, hence the abbreviation to be a CAT. The CAT club are people that are tour guides to school visitors along with other programs such as the Shadow Program where visitors and a CAT member can work one on one and the visitor follows their CAT to all their classes for a day and basically experiences a day in the life of a college student at JWU. Those are the 2 clubs that I have involvement with so far, but I know there will be a lot more coming along.

Food is decent here. We have 6-9 different facilities to use. City Burger & Starbucks will be added to our meal plan here very soon. The main hall that I use is the Snowden which is ran mostly by students so of course the food gets better each day.

I am starting to make some friends, each day if I am alone and eating, I try hard to eat with someone different every day. Yesterday, for dinner, I sat down with a girl on the cell phone. I wasn't feeling the most sociable and there weren't any open tables so I thought this would be perfect. The girl ended her call and started talking to me. We hit it off almost immediately and made plans to hang out later that night as I had UIB (University Involvement Board) stuff to do. She seems like a keeper for me so far. My roommate and I are getting along great and I started to show her a glimpse of the crazy me (I hope I didn't scare her too bad). I made some other friends in my Foods I class, and a few others just dispersed here and there so now I'm getting to the point where if I wanted to, I could probably find someone to hang out with. It is so nice to have friends ;)

As for dorm living, someone got busted for coming home drunk and with alcohol in tow, so now all bags have to be searched for today at least. Also, there is a crazy guy on the first floor that runs around the halls and walks into people's room and starts using their computers, tvs, bathrooms, etc. My roommate bumped into him this morning and didn't know who he was until he asked her what room she was in, so now we keep our doors locked at all hours whereas if someone was in the room, it'd generally be unlocked. I still feel very safe but you just can't be too cautious or careful.

Day 1 of Classes/I Kissed Sleeping In Goodbye

Today was a good day, I bought a majority of my books which sure do add up quickly in price. I had my Foods I class (I just got signed up for English Composition so I skipped it today by accident) and Foods I is claimed to be the horror class for all Hotel Management kids because they hate the restaurant aspect of the field but we all should know that us Hotel Management kids to know both sides and that is why companies keep coming back to us for Hotel Managers/Hotel Jobs is because they know that JWU teaches both sides. JWU by the way is ranked 6th in the country for hospitality studies. My other class was great too, it was the Intro to the Hospitality field and I have a feeling that is going to be a fun class!

Here's the scoop, because of my 3.55 GPA and all my activity in National Honor Society and possible Key Club during my high school years, I've been accepted into basically the Dean's list except we call it SHARP here. I get to take up to 25 credit hours every term. So with regular tuition, I was enrolled for 15.5 credit hours and with my SHARPness, I get to take 9.5 more credit hours! So I totally took advantaged of this free schooling.

So I picked on my general classes and added 2 more English classes to my pile of classes. Now, I have 3 English classes making it a total of 6 classes.

My 6 Classes:

Communication Skills
English Composition
Food Safety & Sanitation Management
Intro To Literary Genres
Foods I
Intro to the Hospitality Field

My New Schedule:
Monday:
7:10am to 9:05am ~ Communication Skills
11:30am to 1:25pm ~ Food Safety & Sanitation Management
1:40pm to 3:35pm ~ Intro To Literary Genres

Tuesday:
7:10am to 9:05am ~ English Composition
9:20am to 11:15am ~ Foods I
1:40pm to 3:35pm ~ Intro to the Hospitality Field

Wednesday:
7:10am to 9:05am ~ Communication Skills
1:40pm to 3:35pm ~ Intro To Literary Genres


Thursday:
7:10am to 9:05am ~ English Composition
9:20am to 11:15am ~ Foods I
1:40pm to 3:35pm ~ Intro to the Hospitality Field

Since my butt is getting sore from sitting on the hallway floor, I think I'll go for my midday day meal, then I think I might go to Target or Staples/Whole Foods (to get an internet cable so I can sit in my comfy new chair), just depends all on the bus schedules and locations. Lets hope I don't get lost or miss my bus!

My Starbucks Adventure with Big Mike

God works in mysterious ways!

So, I'm at Starbucks and this is my second new blog. Feel free to read them in any order. But don't forget to read the other one titled "My New Life"

I get to Starbucks, order a coffee so I could be a good paying patron while using their internet. I set up my laptop and this big black guy comes over. By the way, I feel like a minority at times since the east coast has a way more diversed crowd of people. This black guy, who we will name Big Mike, was saying something that I could hardly hear. I was like speak up what do you want (I was nice about it!). He said he just returned from Europe, couldn't figure out his laptop and didn't want to hassle it. I said what do you need to access, he said his verizon account. I took a chance and since Starbucks was packed enough it seemed safe.

Big Mike logs into his account and doesn't know a whole lot about computers and is amazed at my skills. He has a pre paid verizon on the go cell account which is amazing and I almost feel like changing to it. If you really want to know all the goods about it let me know and I'll tell you about it, I don't want to put any more people to sleep tonight ;)

But this pre paid on the go thing is amazing and is great for people that are going to be international and so forth. So in that way, God was presenting an answer to me on something that I was worried about and that was how am I supposed to communicate with family while I'm overseas without spending a ton of money.

But we get done with that and Big Mike introduces himself and he says, my name is Big Mike but they all call me Tiny Bear. Then he shows me his arms and on one arm he has Big Mike tatooed into it in a nice writing. On his other arm, he has Tiny Bear tatooed onto it. Big Mike goes on to the say that he is running around downtown a lot so if I ever see him, I should feel free to say hi. To me, it almost gives me a sense of security to know someone that runs around the city because one day I might run into trouble and Big Mike might be there to help me. Who knows, God works in mysterious ways!

My New Life!!!

Hey Everyone!!!

I was having some internet difficulties so I took a trip to starbucks and got onto to the internet so that way I could update ya'll!!! (Yeah my roommate is from Tennessee).

So flights/trip out on Friday was pretty uneventful, just long and tiring day. Do have to say that I wouldn't particulary want to fly into Newark, New Jersey again. However, my flight from Newark to Providence was the best for a few reasons. It was funny in the way I spent an hour on the runway and it only took us 30 minutes to fly to Providence. The flight was the best because of all the crazy people around me. That was a ton of fun! I arrived in Providence with a personal driver to greet me. He took me to my hotel, helped me get my stuff inside and waited to make sure I had reservations.

Now my hotel was pretty sweet. I'll be posting pics here of it soon. It was probably one of the nicest hotels I've ever stayed in. I was lucky to find it since it is so close to my dorms, I only had to walk 2 blocks to move my stuff in.

Saturday morning, I moved my stuff into my dorm. My roommate was scheduled to arrive on Sunday so I delayed in unpacking my stuff so that way if she wanted to move things around it wouldn't be a hassle. I had orientation all day on Saturday and I met a girl from India. If I happen to find her again somewhere on campus, I think we will be good friends. She is also studying hotel management. I made a few other friends throughout the course of the day as well. I went to a hypnotist show which was extremely funny.

Sunday, I ran into 2 friends from my April visit to the school and we went running around for awhile. Then I helped 2 people move in but they were so cranky and had so much stuff I let them be after a while. My roommate arrived at lunchtime and I went and met her. Have to say she is a really quiet person but I think we will work out fine. I had 2 more hours of orientation left so I made plans to meet up with my roommate later. We met back up and spent a couple hours rearranging the room until it was just right. Later that night, I went to a comedy show with two of my friends, David & Dom (short for Dominique) and after the show, there was a huge celebration celebrating the start of the school's new year.

Monday, I had a hospitality welcome meeting and then there was the convocation ceremony which was interesting yet a little drawn out in my opinion. Afterwards, I went shopping to Wal-Mart. I was suprised to see a Wal-Mart made of brick and was slightly dismayed with the store and mass quantities of people and the really empty shelves from all the back to schoolers. I bought some must haves and decided to wait on the others. Good thing I did because I had just the perfect amount of stuff to carry and messed up the bus system and it took me almost 2 hours to find a bus to take me home. I could have walked home in that amount of time but uncertainity of the safety of neighborhoods held me back. Although, the bus stop I did end up choosing was a little iffy since it was this huge high rise building with low rent housing and no AC so everyone was out on the front lawn in chairs just sitting there, so that was kind of awkard to see so many people just sitting there and doing nothing. After a quick dinner, I went to check out some of the clubs that JWU has to offer. All the clubs and greek life set up booths out on the court yard between my dorm hall, the school library, and another dorm all. This court yard is called the Gaebe commons and is a huge place for partying ;)

After checking out the clubs, I went shopping at the Providence Place Mall, more particulary, I wanted to go the Bed Bath & Beyond to get a new comfy dorm chair with a gift card that someone gave me (thanks by the way!). I ended up buying the chair, a mini ironing board, a surge protector power strip, and 24 hangers which was a mistake because I had a mile to walk. Well it doesn't help either when you walk the wrong way and get lost in a unfamiliar city and you have all this stuff to carry and its getting darker and darker by the minute and all these security cars are coming out of the woodwork. After several moments of wandering I finally walked in JWU territory where all the light poles have JWU signs and JWU buses were running around. Much relieved I hiked on home.

At home, in my concrete box, I was having internet issues so I took the journey to Starbucks which leads me into my next blog. I somehow find adventure everywhere I go.

Recent Weekend Adventures!

Hey All!

This weekend was wonderful and it blows into the final week! It is now the final countdown for sure!

On Friday evening, my family and I did a father-daughter catering dinner at Calvary Chapel Boise. The catering went splendidly!

My family and I awoke at 6am to create 63 box lunches for another catering. After being busy bees, Dad and I went off to do some last minute shopping for my goodbye party. The party started at 2pm and was wonderful. Many family and friends showed up and thanks to everyone that did! I will miss all of you guys!!! To keep the festivities going, some of my friends and I headed off to the movies to catch one last movie together! We saw Rush Hour 3 which was funny.

On Sunday, my family and I went to the movies to see the Nanny Diaries, it was not so much a comedy but rather an insight into the lives of uppity people back east. Afterwards, we headed off for a lunch/dinner (Lunnar) at Texas Roadhouse. I would have to say that I do not recomend getting a caesar salad but the ribs were good! My caesar salad had some sand in it and made me chip my tooth :( I didn't let that bring down my day and my family headed off for a nice afternoon stroll at Kathryn Albertsons park. We then drove around town and looked at some of the old houses that we have lived in throughout my life, and guess what, my original house was for sell again! I guess I must have jinxed that house ;)

I'm happy that I get to spend time with my parents before I head off to Rhode Island. I'm going to be spending my final week getting packed up and saying goodbye to everyone! So if you want to hang out or see me, let me know and email me at blumenla@gmail.com. Sorry this blog was so long, I'll try to make them shorter ;)

What a Great Success!

So the Deli George! 10th Anniversary Celebration was a great success! So many people brought in so much stuff and we got to see a lot of new faces come in for the first time! The Idaho Foodbank Lady came in and was shocked at all the food and donations that people brought. Thanks everyone for your generosity in supporting our community!

Check out my Slide Show!

These are some pics from my cruise that my family took at the end of June to Alaska!

Deli George's 10th!!

August 19th is Deli George's 10th Anniversary!!! To celebrate, this Thursday we are exchanging food for items to donate for the Idaho Foodbank & Rescue Mission. The IdahoStatesman wrote an article for us on the front page and 4th page of the Life Section for Wednesday, August 15th, 2007. You can find it at http://idahostatesman.com/life/story/133241.html. I am so proud of my parents for creating Deli George and I am proud to have grown up there as I have learned so many things from them and from the deli. I am luckier than most kids, I got to grow up with my parents both at home and in their workplace, that means I am extremely close to them and my brother and we are a unified family unit. I do not know what I would do without these people in my life. They mean everything to me! Thanks mom and dad for being such great parents through thick & thin our family can do anything especially with God at our side!!!

Class Schedule & More Grants!!

I just found my class schedule on handy dandy uconnect which tells me all that I need to know from finances, to classes, to schedules, and so much more! I also discovered that I was awarded another grant of $750!!!!

So far, I'll be taking 4 classes:

FSM1070 FOODS I
This course is designed to introduce the students to
standard operating procedures used in the food service
industry. Emphasis is placed on food preparation
techniques, basic purchasing procedures, kitchen
equipment and products. Corequisite: FSM1060.
Quarter Credit Hours 4.5


FSM1060 FOOD SAFETY AND SANITATION
MANAGEMENT
Students will explore the fundamentals of food safety
and environmental sanitation. This course looks at the
origins of foodborne illness and the implementation of
HACCP. Students must pass a national sanitation exam
that is recognized by the Conference for Food Protection
to fulfill the graduation requirement. (HO)
Quarter Credit Hours 2.0


HOSP1001 THE HOSPITALITY FIELD
This course is an introduction to the various segments
within the hospitality industry (lodging; food service;
travel & tourism; and sports, entertainment & event
management). The course is intended to prepare the
student to apply sound management principles to the
challenges encountered within the industry. (CS)
Quarter Credit Hours 4.5

and my fourth class is "Intro to Literary Genres"

So here is my schedule
Monday:
11:30-1:25: Food Safety & Sanitation Management
1:40-3:35: Intro to Literary Genres

Tuesday:
9:20-11:15: Foods I
1:40-3:35: The Hospitality Field

Wednesday:
1:40-3:35: Intro to Literary Genres

Thursday:
9:20-11:15:Foods I
1:40-3:35: The Hospitality Field

PARTY!!!!!

Hello Everyone!

I will be having a goodbye party on August 25th, 2007. If you are interested in going please email me at blumenla@gmail.com for info on the time & location.

My First Post!

Hey Everyone!

I'm working on setting up my blog as my blog address was placed in my thank you notes! Be prepared to have regular blogs coming out towards the end of August! I'm just working on tying lose ends up here and if anyone wants to hang out or anything, just give me a comment or email me at blumenla@gmail.com and I will get back to ya to arrange a time for us! By the way, I'll be leaving bright and early at 8am on Friday, August 31st, to head off to Providence!