This past Friday, I met up with my collegiate church group known as CSF (Christian Student Fellowship) at 2pm. I was very excited, we were going away for the weekend to Vermont for an event called Fusion where other collegiate church groups were meeting for the weekend.
I arrive and two of my friends/group members approach me and ask if I can drive a car with a clutch and if I was comfortable doing so. I replied yes and was handed a set of car keys. Apparently, we had an extra car but no one was able to drive it because it was a clutch.
The drive up to Vermont was so beautiful with all the fall leaves on the trees, God's handiwork is so amazing. It was not too terribly long of a drive, about 4 1/2 hours or so.
The conference was happening in Burlington,Vermont which is practically on the border of Vermont and New York. We had 4 church sessions which were pretty amazing. We stayed in the Fairfield Inn which was a nice hotel that suprised us all when they provided us with an extra room for free (you just can't expect 4 guys to be willing to share a room with 2 beds).
There were the pastor, his wife, and their 2 kids, then their were 4 guys and 6 girls. Out of the whole group, there were only 2 freshman and me and the other freshman got along really well and I see a bright future friendship with her.
Some activities that we did:
First Night:
Bonfire after church with smores. The bonfire was so hot that we practically burned our eyebrows off trying to roast the marshmellows.
Saturday Afternoon:
Exploring downtown Burlington which happened to be called Church Street. Church Street is a mixture of 4 city blocks filled with shops and then also a 2 floor indoor mall with anchor store such as Macy's.
The drive home was amusing for me because I started to understand east coast driving and all its craziness. For instance, I was going about 20-25mph over the speed limit and I blew past several cops, at least one of them that I know of were clocking, I was shocked when the cops did not pull me over. I was following some other group from church and I was keeping up with traffic and yes I was being blown off the roads at times as well for when I dropped my speed way down.
Then to top off the weekend, 4 of us got together and had Sunday dinner together. Such a great ending!
This weekend was absolutely amazing and I thought that it was a really great way to start the week out!
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Sunday, October 28, 2007
The BIG Update!
Here comes the big update!!!!!!!
What do you guys want to know? Everything?! Yeah! Thought so!
I'll start with when my parents came. Their flights got delayed so they did not arrive to my school until 1:30am on Friday morning, they were supposed to arrive around 10pm on Thursday night. This was amusing for me because from 1:00am to 2:00am in Gaebe Commons (the nice, large greenspace that is rectangular shaped and has Snowden Dormitory & Dining Hall on 1 side, McNulty Dormitory on another side, and the library/admissions building on the other side), from 1am to 2am in Gaebe Commons, is "sober hour" where everyone arrives back from the bars and clubbing and is drunk running around. There is a 7-11 Conveience Store across the street from Gaebe Commons and it so happened that right as my parent pulled up, a verbal fight was breaking out. My parents were so distracted by it that they almost didn't see me coming to them.
We were happy to see each other and piled back into the car and we drove to the cottage we rented which was an hour away. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my parents, even though we did not do a whole lot at times, it was enjoyable just sitting and talking to them and showing them all the parts of my life out here.
I thought I'd tell you guys what a normal day is like for me, maybe now you could put your "college" shoes back on ;)
Mondays/Wednesdays:
I awake between 5:45am and 6:10am. Once I awake, I call my friend Nicolette or she calls me, that way we can make sure that we are both up and kicking so we can get to class on time. I get ready to go then at 6:45am I go downstairs and wait for my friend Erika to come out, she's pretty punctual so usually I don't have to wait at all. This in turn helps me be on time so I strive to never be late.
Erika and I walk down the hall and we usually wait until we get outside before we say anything. I think this is because it gives us another minute to wake up and we also want to be quiet for the other people sleeping on the first floor.
Once we get outside, we see the trash from late night partiers and also these gigantic seagulls running through the grass searching for breakfast before all the pigeons come.
We walk together to the Marketplace Dining Hall, we each grab breakfast, which for me is usually eggs, ham or sausage or bacon, and some form of potato along with some sliced peaches.
At 7:05am or so, I head upstairs as the Marketplace Dining Hall is in the basement of one of the buildings that holds 1/2 of my classes for this term. On these days, I have English Communication Skills for my 1st period class.
I get to class, sit down usually in the same spot everyday which happens to be practically the exact middle of the classroom, I did not plan that, thats just how it worked out. The teacher passes out a attendence book that we have to sign then she tells us what we are going to be doing for the day. We usually take notes for about 15min to an hour or so depending on what we are doing then spend the rest of the class time working on our projects. Since this is a communication class, we do speeches and the class is made of 3 huge speeches.
When I do my speeches, we are allowed to have a partner so I have one and I've had the same one from the start. It's a guy named Dave who is a junior and is 25 years old. We work pretty well together most of the time and get things done. Right now, we just got done making a proposal on something to change at the school. We did a proposal on how we need a building for students to hang out in like a student union building.
After this class, I usually walk back towards my dorm and if I run into any of my friends, I'll walk with them to their classes. After all this is said and done, I head back to my room. I work on my homework or I clean up my room or I take a nap.
Then I grab lunch at some point before my next class and lunch usually consists of pizza, salad, some fruit, some hot bar entree or a hamburger. I've been eating lunch more often with my friend Nicolette and also my friend John who is a little person. We usually have so much fun eating lunch together that it usually lasts an hour if the three of us are together.
I leave my dorm around 1:25pm to 1:30pm to walk to my next class. On these two days (we're still on Monday/Wednesday haha), I have Intro to Literary Genres in room 321. Yes I usually take a hike up all those stairs because who wants to ride in a tiny old school jam packed elevator?
In this class, I sit towards one side with my friend Megan in the very front and over one row and another friend, Josh, who sits one row over from Megan in the front as well then I have my other two friends, Katie who sits behind me and Stephanie who sits in the next row by Katie. The teacher, Dr. Davis, a woman, usually lectures/talks for a majority of the period and if she isn't we are usually doing a group project. I generally work with Josh and Megan and group projects usually involve answering questions and drawing a visual that will be presented and discussed with the class.
After class, I head back to my dorm to do homework or laundry or anything else that needs to be done. I usually eat dinner at 6pm but I think we are moving it to 5:30pm with a group of girls, its generally the same girls every night and can range from 4 to 8 of us. It's usually a mix of these people: Betsy, Courtney, Taco (Sarah), Me, Amanda, Jackie, Rachel, & Lindsey.
After dinner, I usually work on more homework either at the library with a group of us or in my room. If I'm not doing homework or "chores" then there are several of us girls running the dorm checking on other friends and just hanging out together.
There! That's 2 normal days of a week for me! I'm also including in this really long blog a recap of the highlights from this past weekend ;)
On Friday night, a group of us from the 2nd floor decided to have fun and "camp out" in the hallway. We all grabbed our pillows and blankets and sat in the hallway. We blocked a small part of the hallway and we had a lot of fun just hanging out. It's a great way to meet new people and to get to know other people better. We did that from like 2am to 5:20am and then we all went to bed and crashed.
Sunday night, right after the Red Sox won the world series, 4 of my friends got this brilliant idea to go to Boston at 1am in the morning! 1 of them had a car so off they went. I stayed back since I had a huge test today that I did not want to screw up. I just thought it was really funny. What's even more funny, they never found Fenway park, because none of them got the bright idea to get directions.
I'll be sure to post another blog later this week!
What do you guys want to know? Everything?! Yeah! Thought so!
I'll start with when my parents came. Their flights got delayed so they did not arrive to my school until 1:30am on Friday morning, they were supposed to arrive around 10pm on Thursday night. This was amusing for me because from 1:00am to 2:00am in Gaebe Commons (the nice, large greenspace that is rectangular shaped and has Snowden Dormitory & Dining Hall on 1 side, McNulty Dormitory on another side, and the library/admissions building on the other side), from 1am to 2am in Gaebe Commons, is "sober hour" where everyone arrives back from the bars and clubbing and is drunk running around. There is a 7-11 Conveience Store across the street from Gaebe Commons and it so happened that right as my parent pulled up, a verbal fight was breaking out. My parents were so distracted by it that they almost didn't see me coming to them.
We were happy to see each other and piled back into the car and we drove to the cottage we rented which was an hour away. I had a lot of fun hanging out with my parents, even though we did not do a whole lot at times, it was enjoyable just sitting and talking to them and showing them all the parts of my life out here.
I thought I'd tell you guys what a normal day is like for me, maybe now you could put your "college" shoes back on ;)
Mondays/Wednesdays:
I awake between 5:45am and 6:10am. Once I awake, I call my friend Nicolette or she calls me, that way we can make sure that we are both up and kicking so we can get to class on time. I get ready to go then at 6:45am I go downstairs and wait for my friend Erika to come out, she's pretty punctual so usually I don't have to wait at all. This in turn helps me be on time so I strive to never be late.
Erika and I walk down the hall and we usually wait until we get outside before we say anything. I think this is because it gives us another minute to wake up and we also want to be quiet for the other people sleeping on the first floor.
Once we get outside, we see the trash from late night partiers and also these gigantic seagulls running through the grass searching for breakfast before all the pigeons come.
We walk together to the Marketplace Dining Hall, we each grab breakfast, which for me is usually eggs, ham or sausage or bacon, and some form of potato along with some sliced peaches.
At 7:05am or so, I head upstairs as the Marketplace Dining Hall is in the basement of one of the buildings that holds 1/2 of my classes for this term. On these days, I have English Communication Skills for my 1st period class.
I get to class, sit down usually in the same spot everyday which happens to be practically the exact middle of the classroom, I did not plan that, thats just how it worked out. The teacher passes out a attendence book that we have to sign then she tells us what we are going to be doing for the day. We usually take notes for about 15min to an hour or so depending on what we are doing then spend the rest of the class time working on our projects. Since this is a communication class, we do speeches and the class is made of 3 huge speeches.
When I do my speeches, we are allowed to have a partner so I have one and I've had the same one from the start. It's a guy named Dave who is a junior and is 25 years old. We work pretty well together most of the time and get things done. Right now, we just got done making a proposal on something to change at the school. We did a proposal on how we need a building for students to hang out in like a student union building.
After this class, I usually walk back towards my dorm and if I run into any of my friends, I'll walk with them to their classes. After all this is said and done, I head back to my room. I work on my homework or I clean up my room or I take a nap.
Then I grab lunch at some point before my next class and lunch usually consists of pizza, salad, some fruit, some hot bar entree or a hamburger. I've been eating lunch more often with my friend Nicolette and also my friend John who is a little person. We usually have so much fun eating lunch together that it usually lasts an hour if the three of us are together.
I leave my dorm around 1:25pm to 1:30pm to walk to my next class. On these two days (we're still on Monday/Wednesday haha), I have Intro to Literary Genres in room 321. Yes I usually take a hike up all those stairs because who wants to ride in a tiny old school jam packed elevator?
In this class, I sit towards one side with my friend Megan in the very front and over one row and another friend, Josh, who sits one row over from Megan in the front as well then I have my other two friends, Katie who sits behind me and Stephanie who sits in the next row by Katie. The teacher, Dr. Davis, a woman, usually lectures/talks for a majority of the period and if she isn't we are usually doing a group project. I generally work with Josh and Megan and group projects usually involve answering questions and drawing a visual that will be presented and discussed with the class.
After class, I head back to my dorm to do homework or laundry or anything else that needs to be done. I usually eat dinner at 6pm but I think we are moving it to 5:30pm with a group of girls, its generally the same girls every night and can range from 4 to 8 of us. It's usually a mix of these people: Betsy, Courtney, Taco (Sarah), Me, Amanda, Jackie, Rachel, & Lindsey.
After dinner, I usually work on more homework either at the library with a group of us or in my room. If I'm not doing homework or "chores" then there are several of us girls running the dorm checking on other friends and just hanging out together.
There! That's 2 normal days of a week for me! I'm also including in this really long blog a recap of the highlights from this past weekend ;)
On Friday night, a group of us from the 2nd floor decided to have fun and "camp out" in the hallway. We all grabbed our pillows and blankets and sat in the hallway. We blocked a small part of the hallway and we had a lot of fun just hanging out. It's a great way to meet new people and to get to know other people better. We did that from like 2am to 5:20am and then we all went to bed and crashed.
Sunday night, right after the Red Sox won the world series, 4 of my friends got this brilliant idea to go to Boston at 1am in the morning! 1 of them had a car so off they went. I stayed back since I had a huge test today that I did not want to screw up. I just thought it was really funny. What's even more funny, they never found Fenway park, because none of them got the bright idea to get directions.
I'll be sure to post another blog later this week!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Update!
Wow! It's been forever since I have updated my blog! So much has been happening, I've been running around like crazy since there are only like 3 weeks left in this term and I have all those term papers and mid terms and finals all to get ready for.
I had a great time with my parents showing them the area. My dad doesn't like driving around here, he says its worse then driving in Mexico.
I signed up for my classes next term and this weekend, I'll post what classes I'll be taking for the next term which starts right after Thanksgiving.
Sorry for this being so short! I'll make a nice long one this weekend!
I had a great time with my parents showing them the area. My dad doesn't like driving around here, he says its worse then driving in Mexico.
I signed up for my classes next term and this weekend, I'll post what classes I'll be taking for the next term which starts right after Thanksgiving.
Sorry for this being so short! I'll make a nice long one this weekend!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
What an Amazing Weekend!!!!!
Wow! This weekend was the best one yet in Rhode Island!
This weekend was wonderful! Plus I did not have school on Monday so that made it all the better! Friday, I got picked up by a girl from church named Melissa along with a few other girls and we all headed to Melissa's apartment. We made dinner (Yeah! It was like 11 bucks for dinner fixings for 7 people and leftovers!) and watched a couple of movies and hung out. It was a lot of fun. Half of us sleptover at Melissa's apartment, including me.
I did not get home until mid afternoon on Saturday and the whole thing was a blast. Then on Saturday night around 7pm about 10 of us got together from church and went to Waterfire (waterfire.org for more info). This Saturday was a special one for breast cancer awareness so there were a lot of other events going on and the capital building was changed to pink lights so it was pink instead of the usual light which was cool. It was hard to keep us all together with all those people but we managed and we had a lot of fun just hanging out.
On Sunday, I went to church (Grace Harbor Community Church) and the message was good. Afterwards, around 10 of us got together and carpooled to Woonsocket, Rhode Island to go to this Autumnfest which was basically like a little town fair. After that, we went to Melissa's apartment and watched a couple of movies.
I love my new church friends. They are so nice to be around and its comforting to be around some girls that have the love of God just pouring out of them and they are so supportive of me.
Then on Monday, I did not have school. I ate breakfast with my friend Nicolette from Boston who is fun to be with. Then I walked to the train station to greet Courtney, my friend from New Jersey. After I got home with Courtney, I worked on a couple of things and then went and met Betsy, my friend from New Jersey. Once Betsy got settled in, we, meaning Courtney, Betsy, and me all hung out in Courtney's room. We had "snack time" then "nap time" Nap time was hilarious, all three of us crammed into a twin bed and took a nap. While we were napping, Courtney's roommate and some friends came walking in and stared at us. We all popped out of the covers one by one and by the time I popped out, they were like oh my gosh there's another one!
Yes, my weekend was great and I cannot wait for the next one since my parents are coming!
This weekend was wonderful! Plus I did not have school on Monday so that made it all the better! Friday, I got picked up by a girl from church named Melissa along with a few other girls and we all headed to Melissa's apartment. We made dinner (Yeah! It was like 11 bucks for dinner fixings for 7 people and leftovers!) and watched a couple of movies and hung out. It was a lot of fun. Half of us sleptover at Melissa's apartment, including me.
I did not get home until mid afternoon on Saturday and the whole thing was a blast. Then on Saturday night around 7pm about 10 of us got together from church and went to Waterfire (waterfire.org for more info). This Saturday was a special one for breast cancer awareness so there were a lot of other events going on and the capital building was changed to pink lights so it was pink instead of the usual light which was cool. It was hard to keep us all together with all those people but we managed and we had a lot of fun just hanging out.
On Sunday, I went to church (Grace Harbor Community Church) and the message was good. Afterwards, around 10 of us got together and carpooled to Woonsocket, Rhode Island to go to this Autumnfest which was basically like a little town fair. After that, we went to Melissa's apartment and watched a couple of movies.
I love my new church friends. They are so nice to be around and its comforting to be around some girls that have the love of God just pouring out of them and they are so supportive of me.
Then on Monday, I did not have school. I ate breakfast with my friend Nicolette from Boston who is fun to be with. Then I walked to the train station to greet Courtney, my friend from New Jersey. After I got home with Courtney, I worked on a couple of things and then went and met Betsy, my friend from New Jersey. Once Betsy got settled in, we, meaning Courtney, Betsy, and me all hung out in Courtney's room. We had "snack time" then "nap time" Nap time was hilarious, all three of us crammed into a twin bed and took a nap. While we were napping, Courtney's roommate and some friends came walking in and stared at us. We all popped out of the covers one by one and by the time I popped out, they were like oh my gosh there's another one!
Yes, my weekend was great and I cannot wait for the next one since my parents are coming!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Two Weeks of My Life in A Nutshell!!!!!!!
Watch out this one is really long!!!
I'll start with yesterday and start rewinding my life from there!
Thursday, October 4, 2007:
I had my midterm in Foods One class and I think I did okay on it. Classes went well for the day. All my friends went home for the weekend so now I'm the loner for sure! I went to Stop & Shop after classes, just to get out a little bit. I choose Stop & Shop because the bus is the easiest and I did not want to hassle anything (Yep laziness at its finest!). Stop & Shop has a redbox which is a vending machine that vends DVDs so I rented a movie then went shopping. Stop & Shop is the typical grocery store by the way just in case of you were wondering what it is. I was so excited, I bought myself a Swifter! Now I can clean my floor better!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007:
My friend Erika and I both have early morning classes, so we have been starting to meet at 6:45am and then we walk to one of our dining halls together then we eat breakfast then go to classes. To me, this is a great way to start my day because Erika is going to be a great friend and I appreciate starting my day with someone. Classes went fine, I had speech and literature. In my literature class, we are going over poetry now and we had to go over this really wacky poem about an Aztec goddess. After classes, I worked on some homework then ate dinner with my friends. After dinner, I had a Best Buddies officier meeting with my friend Lindsey. (What's Best Buddies?? Keep reading and you'll see!) After that, I helped my other friend, Courtney, who just moved to my floor, tighten her bed. Then I went up to Betsy's room and we studied for our Foods I midterm and did our Foods I homework. Betsy and I are getting along great and I think we are going to be great friends, especially since we are the only two that stay home and do our homework!
Monday/Tuesday, October 1/2, 2007:
So with the problems of my living situation, I went to the resident director to request a new room. He got back to me on Tuesday with a list of 4 rooms. I was so excited about this. I went to the rooms and was dismayed to meet the people that lived in them. I finally realized that I would be better off in my living situation then moving in with one of them. So, I changed my attitude about my living situation and went for it.
My Living Situation:
I have a roommate, she has her half, I have my half. She has her shelf in the fridge, I have my shelf in the fridge, she has her shelf in the bathroom, I have mine. She doesn't talk to me and I don't talk to her. Why? Might you ask?
It's because my roommate hates me for whatever reason and one of her friends told her that I was talking trash about her. I'm willing and open to start talking with her again and have her tell me the things that I am doing that cause her to feel this way.
So now, I'm flipping gears and starting with Monday of last week!
Monday, September 24, 2007:
I had a meeting with my freshman advisor who was going to help me map out my next courses for the next term. I had written down all the classes I had wanted to take on a notecard much to my advisor's pleasure. My advisor was puzzled however that I was a SHARP student. For those that do not remember what that is, its that special program that you apply to be in to be able to take up to 25 credits for no charge. Apparently, freshman are not technically allowed to be SHARP students until their spring term. Somehow I snuck in.
I attended/checked out another club called Club Manager's Association of America (CMAA). CMAA covers clubs from golf, country, yacht, art, etc. and gives us club members an opportunity to get networked with clubs and possibilities of working with these clubs. Sounds like a great club to be in, I'm thinking about keeping it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007:
My speech partner from my English Communication class, Dave, and I met up at the library to finish our informative speech then we went to stop n shop to pick up some of the Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce ~ this sauce has a special meaning to it. There was this guy called Buddy Cianci who helped change Providence from a trash hole to a nice little city. He uncovered the rivers and hid the rail road tracks and developed the city to be up in the times along with helping to preserve historic buildings worth saving. Buddy created and bottles his own marinara sauce (he's Italian if you couldn't tell) and part of the profit of it go to help Providence school children. Dave and I gave the informative speech about Buddy and it went pretty smoothly I think. I however missed my Tuesday Night Truth (TNT) meeting because of other homework I had to finish. I have high hopes and rearrangement of plans to make sure I go next Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007:
I attended an hour long morning workshop for test taking strategies which was good since it showed me some key words to look out for when taking true/false type of tests and multiple choice.
I also went to a club meeting, however, I have the problem where there are 4 clubs that I want to be in, however they all meet on Wednesday night. For this particular Wednesday, I chose to attend the Best Buddies Club. Best Buddies is basically like Big Brother/Big Sister however working with mentally handicapped people that are most likely also going to be college aged. This is exciting for me because we get assigned a buddy and we get to hang out with our buddy at least twice a month. Three of my other friends joined this club and together we are going to have a lot of Best Buddy moments, I am sure of it!
Thursday, September 27th, 2007:
Thursday, what a relief, as we never have school on Fridays unless you beg for it. I was going to attend another event which was church related, however, my cousin Leena flew in from Los Angeles, I would choose her over any event hands down since I love her so! Leena, my friends, and I all hung out together and checked out Thayer Street and Brown University and went out to dinner together. We all had a great time!
When we got back, one of my friends that stayed back on campus had smashed her hand somehow so a bunch of us headed over to the Harborside campus after Leena had gone to go to the nurse. That friend went to the hospital, they did not have room for anyone else so she had to go alone.
When the rest of us friends (4 of us) got back to Down City campus (JWU has 2 campuses in Providence/Cranston, RI, one mainly for culinary and one for everything else), Betsy and I went to our own rooms to make some calls and the other two, my roommate and the girl next door, went out.
When they came back, my roommate said not one word to me and started packing all her stuff up to me. She refused to talk to me and I told her that I was sorry for whatever I did. She packed everything up by the end of that night and was clearly given me the silent treatment. She mentioned for a moment that I was talking trash about her behind her back and she found out about it. I was not talking trash about her behind her back, I was only saying that I was thinking about moving soon since I could not take all the problems my roommate has.
Friday, September 28th, 2007:
My roommate & I continued this silent treatment thing throughout the day on Friday. I took her to the Resident Assistant to get the ball rolling on one of us moving out. We'll see how this goes.
After that, I realized that my church friends had gone out for dinner so I went out to try to find them as I did not have any of their phone numbers. I found them and they invited me to go see a movie together. I was happy to be with them for a couple of hours as they are such great people to know and be friends with.
Saturday, September 29th, 2007:
On Saturday, I had an open house program to attend/help out with from the Collegiate Ambassador Team which comprised of ushering incoming/prospective students to their seats for a presentation then shadowing someone giving a tour of the campus. My tour guide was a newbie too so we did some parts of the tour together. I met this girl named Erika that lives right below me on the 1st floor.
Sunday, September 30th, 2007:
I had a nice mellow day for the most part. I went to church and this one guy from my dorms that is somewhat creepy wanted to go with so I let him. That turned out fine after all and nothing too exciting happened on Sunday.
I'll start with yesterday and start rewinding my life from there!
Thursday, October 4, 2007:
I had my midterm in Foods One class and I think I did okay on it. Classes went well for the day. All my friends went home for the weekend so now I'm the loner for sure! I went to Stop & Shop after classes, just to get out a little bit. I choose Stop & Shop because the bus is the easiest and I did not want to hassle anything (Yep laziness at its finest!). Stop & Shop has a redbox which is a vending machine that vends DVDs so I rented a movie then went shopping. Stop & Shop is the typical grocery store by the way just in case of you were wondering what it is. I was so excited, I bought myself a Swifter! Now I can clean my floor better!
Wednesday, October 3, 2007:
My friend Erika and I both have early morning classes, so we have been starting to meet at 6:45am and then we walk to one of our dining halls together then we eat breakfast then go to classes. To me, this is a great way to start my day because Erika is going to be a great friend and I appreciate starting my day with someone. Classes went fine, I had speech and literature. In my literature class, we are going over poetry now and we had to go over this really wacky poem about an Aztec goddess. After classes, I worked on some homework then ate dinner with my friends. After dinner, I had a Best Buddies officier meeting with my friend Lindsey. (What's Best Buddies?? Keep reading and you'll see!) After that, I helped my other friend, Courtney, who just moved to my floor, tighten her bed. Then I went up to Betsy's room and we studied for our Foods I midterm and did our Foods I homework. Betsy and I are getting along great and I think we are going to be great friends, especially since we are the only two that stay home and do our homework!
Monday/Tuesday, October 1/2, 2007:
So with the problems of my living situation, I went to the resident director to request a new room. He got back to me on Tuesday with a list of 4 rooms. I was so excited about this. I went to the rooms and was dismayed to meet the people that lived in them. I finally realized that I would be better off in my living situation then moving in with one of them. So, I changed my attitude about my living situation and went for it.
My Living Situation:
I have a roommate, she has her half, I have my half. She has her shelf in the fridge, I have my shelf in the fridge, she has her shelf in the bathroom, I have mine. She doesn't talk to me and I don't talk to her. Why? Might you ask?
It's because my roommate hates me for whatever reason and one of her friends told her that I was talking trash about her. I'm willing and open to start talking with her again and have her tell me the things that I am doing that cause her to feel this way.
So now, I'm flipping gears and starting with Monday of last week!
Monday, September 24, 2007:
I had a meeting with my freshman advisor who was going to help me map out my next courses for the next term. I had written down all the classes I had wanted to take on a notecard much to my advisor's pleasure. My advisor was puzzled however that I was a SHARP student. For those that do not remember what that is, its that special program that you apply to be in to be able to take up to 25 credits for no charge. Apparently, freshman are not technically allowed to be SHARP students until their spring term. Somehow I snuck in.
I attended/checked out another club called Club Manager's Association of America (CMAA). CMAA covers clubs from golf, country, yacht, art, etc. and gives us club members an opportunity to get networked with clubs and possibilities of working with these clubs. Sounds like a great club to be in, I'm thinking about keeping it.
Tuesday, September 25, 2007:
My speech partner from my English Communication class, Dave, and I met up at the library to finish our informative speech then we went to stop n shop to pick up some of the Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce ~ this sauce has a special meaning to it. There was this guy called Buddy Cianci who helped change Providence from a trash hole to a nice little city. He uncovered the rivers and hid the rail road tracks and developed the city to be up in the times along with helping to preserve historic buildings worth saving. Buddy created and bottles his own marinara sauce (he's Italian if you couldn't tell) and part of the profit of it go to help Providence school children. Dave and I gave the informative speech about Buddy and it went pretty smoothly I think. I however missed my Tuesday Night Truth (TNT) meeting because of other homework I had to finish. I have high hopes and rearrangement of plans to make sure I go next Tuesday.
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007:
I attended an hour long morning workshop for test taking strategies which was good since it showed me some key words to look out for when taking true/false type of tests and multiple choice.
I also went to a club meeting, however, I have the problem where there are 4 clubs that I want to be in, however they all meet on Wednesday night. For this particular Wednesday, I chose to attend the Best Buddies Club. Best Buddies is basically like Big Brother/Big Sister however working with mentally handicapped people that are most likely also going to be college aged. This is exciting for me because we get assigned a buddy and we get to hang out with our buddy at least twice a month. Three of my other friends joined this club and together we are going to have a lot of Best Buddy moments, I am sure of it!
Thursday, September 27th, 2007:
Thursday, what a relief, as we never have school on Fridays unless you beg for it. I was going to attend another event which was church related, however, my cousin Leena flew in from Los Angeles, I would choose her over any event hands down since I love her so! Leena, my friends, and I all hung out together and checked out Thayer Street and Brown University and went out to dinner together. We all had a great time!
When we got back, one of my friends that stayed back on campus had smashed her hand somehow so a bunch of us headed over to the Harborside campus after Leena had gone to go to the nurse. That friend went to the hospital, they did not have room for anyone else so she had to go alone.
When the rest of us friends (4 of us) got back to Down City campus (JWU has 2 campuses in Providence/Cranston, RI, one mainly for culinary and one for everything else), Betsy and I went to our own rooms to make some calls and the other two, my roommate and the girl next door, went out.
When they came back, my roommate said not one word to me and started packing all her stuff up to me. She refused to talk to me and I told her that I was sorry for whatever I did. She packed everything up by the end of that night and was clearly given me the silent treatment. She mentioned for a moment that I was talking trash about her behind her back and she found out about it. I was not talking trash about her behind her back, I was only saying that I was thinking about moving soon since I could not take all the problems my roommate has.
Friday, September 28th, 2007:
My roommate & I continued this silent treatment thing throughout the day on Friday. I took her to the Resident Assistant to get the ball rolling on one of us moving out. We'll see how this goes.
After that, I realized that my church friends had gone out for dinner so I went out to try to find them as I did not have any of their phone numbers. I found them and they invited me to go see a movie together. I was happy to be with them for a couple of hours as they are such great people to know and be friends with.
Saturday, September 29th, 2007:
On Saturday, I had an open house program to attend/help out with from the Collegiate Ambassador Team which comprised of ushering incoming/prospective students to their seats for a presentation then shadowing someone giving a tour of the campus. My tour guide was a newbie too so we did some parts of the tour together. I met this girl named Erika that lives right below me on the 1st floor.
Sunday, September 30th, 2007:
I had a nice mellow day for the most part. I went to church and this one guy from my dorms that is somewhat creepy wanted to go with so I let him. That turned out fine after all and nothing too exciting happened on Sunday.
My Dorm Pics!
Hey Everyone! Sorry I have not written much, there is a lot of turmoil going on in my life right now with my whole living situation and what not. So I am working hard to break through it and once I do, I will be sure to catch everyone up!
Sunday, September 23, 2007
My Weekend, Church, & Friends
This weekend by far has probably been the most dramatic, interesting weekend of my life. I am not going to go into detail too much on it but there were some extreme moments going on.
I found a great new friend named Betsy, she means a lot to me and I've only known her for a week. She is going to bring a lot of excitement to my life with her great sense of humor. We've practically hung out everyday except for the one day I was gone at the Patriots game. She is from New Jersey and is studying Hotel Management as well. We help each other out in all sorts and ways and she lives on the 3rd floor which isn't too far away.
I also made some church friends. On Friday night, I went out with my church group, Tuesday Night Truth aka TNT, and we went out to dinner and just socialized together and got to know each other. Through that, I got to know some TNT people better and one of them showed me where church was on the way home from dinner.
Since my usual Sunday workings at the Patriots game was cancelled due to lack of drivers, I went to church. It was wonderful although very small and you could definetely feel a sense of unity in this church family. After church, a huge part of the church went to lunch at the mall. I got to eat lunch with the Pastor and his family and got to know them better. I think I can finally say that they will always be there for me and will be a great support system for me!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
I found a great new friend named Betsy, she means a lot to me and I've only known her for a week. She is going to bring a lot of excitement to my life with her great sense of humor. We've practically hung out everyday except for the one day I was gone at the Patriots game. She is from New Jersey and is studying Hotel Management as well. We help each other out in all sorts and ways and she lives on the 3rd floor which isn't too far away.
I also made some church friends. On Friday night, I went out with my church group, Tuesday Night Truth aka TNT, and we went out to dinner and just socialized together and got to know each other. Through that, I got to know some TNT people better and one of them showed me where church was on the way home from dinner.
Since my usual Sunday workings at the Patriots game was cancelled due to lack of drivers, I went to church. It was wonderful although very small and you could definetely feel a sense of unity in this church family. After church, a huge part of the church went to lunch at the mall. I got to eat lunch with the Pastor and his family and got to know them better. I think I can finally say that they will always be there for me and will be a great support system for me!
I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Somewhere to Belong
I was checking my facebook (Facebook ~ like myspace with a little different format and allows networks of people to group up, for instance we have the network JWU Providence '11 that bundles up all the freshman), and I received an email from a guy named Andy talking about Christian Student Fellowship that happens on campus. He is the Pastor of it and had decided to search people out on the JWU facebook network to find new people for it. I decided to go as it was at a on campus location.
I went and everyone made me feel so welcomed, it practically made me feel like I was at home. These were the people I had been searching for. I was so happy to find them. I asked several of them where do they go to church and luckily for me, it's nearby me!
I went and everyone made me feel so welcomed, it practically made me feel like I was at home. These were the people I had been searching for. I was so happy to find them. I asked several of them where do they go to church and luckily for me, it's nearby me!
Monday, September 17, 2007
Sunday's Big Game!
I volunteered to work at the Patriots verses the Chargers game with a group called something along the lines of Society for Advancement of Management, aka SAM. All SAM members were supposed to meet at the TACO (pronounced Tay Co not TACO :D) building.
I get there at the assigned time and no one was there. Two guys finally show up that I recognized from the SAM meeting and they said something about getting emails to meet at another lot. I hop in with them and we drive to the other lot where sure enough, one of our advisors were waiting. The others finally arrive and we pile 2 more people (guys meaning now I'm in a car full of guys, score!) into the car that I was in and we headed off. The guys of course were hungry so we thankfully stopped somewhere for brunch as it was nearing 2pm and thank goodness we did stop because we didn't end up eating until 9pm that night.
Our group has to get to the event 3-5 hours in advance just so the coordinators have a semi clue as to what is going on. My group was supposed to do ushering but we got stuck with ticket taking. The ticket lines were separated by male and female so we could see the gender ratio. I, of course, got the male express line (meaning no bags). I just love drunk guys! Hey baby! or Hey Darling or Hey Love etc. from them, but that was just the beginning.
After we chowed down we got re deployed out to work. This time we were separated. My new job was red line duty. What that means is that the stadium sells up to 5,000 standing room only tickets for about 50 bucks a pop. What a way to make money! So, there was certain areas they could not go, such as down the walkways and some walkways were created so seat ticket holders would have a place to walk. My job was to check those seat ticket holders' tickets and make sure nobody was on the wrong side of the line. That's when I got to experience drunk guys at a football game. Thankfully, I had a supervisor Mike with me pretty much the whole time so nothing too bad could happen.
Since the Patriots were so far ahead, people started pouring out during the 4th quarter and one of the guys from my group came to me. I do not know how to spell his name but this is how it sounds, Surall, and he is from Connecticut. Surall and I go down the huge ramps to where we had eaten to try to find our group. We of course were not supposed to go that way and we had to go back up the ramps to get to our final destination. However, everyone in the stadium were using these ramps to get out and we were like 2 fish going upstream. Surall leads the way and starts shouting, excuse me coming through (he most likely came from a big city because I do not think I would have thought to say that). We finally make it to where we need to be and find our group.
It was a great night and great learning experience, however, I didn't get to watch too much of the game, but I'm pretty sure we are are going to the game next week, I do not know if I am going to go since I didn't come home until 1:15am (someone dropped me off) and I had classes at 7:10am. We'll see how this goes!
I get there at the assigned time and no one was there. Two guys finally show up that I recognized from the SAM meeting and they said something about getting emails to meet at another lot. I hop in with them and we drive to the other lot where sure enough, one of our advisors were waiting. The others finally arrive and we pile 2 more people (guys meaning now I'm in a car full of guys, score!) into the car that I was in and we headed off. The guys of course were hungry so we thankfully stopped somewhere for brunch as it was nearing 2pm and thank goodness we did stop because we didn't end up eating until 9pm that night.
Our group has to get to the event 3-5 hours in advance just so the coordinators have a semi clue as to what is going on. My group was supposed to do ushering but we got stuck with ticket taking. The ticket lines were separated by male and female so we could see the gender ratio. I, of course, got the male express line (meaning no bags). I just love drunk guys! Hey baby! or Hey Darling or Hey Love etc. from them, but that was just the beginning.
After we chowed down we got re deployed out to work. This time we were separated. My new job was red line duty. What that means is that the stadium sells up to 5,000 standing room only tickets for about 50 bucks a pop. What a way to make money! So, there was certain areas they could not go, such as down the walkways and some walkways were created so seat ticket holders would have a place to walk. My job was to check those seat ticket holders' tickets and make sure nobody was on the wrong side of the line. That's when I got to experience drunk guys at a football game. Thankfully, I had a supervisor Mike with me pretty much the whole time so nothing too bad could happen.
Since the Patriots were so far ahead, people started pouring out during the 4th quarter and one of the guys from my group came to me. I do not know how to spell his name but this is how it sounds, Surall, and he is from Connecticut. Surall and I go down the huge ramps to where we had eaten to try to find our group. We of course were not supposed to go that way and we had to go back up the ramps to get to our final destination. However, everyone in the stadium were using these ramps to get out and we were like 2 fish going upstream. Surall leads the way and starts shouting, excuse me coming through (he most likely came from a big city because I do not think I would have thought to say that). We finally make it to where we need to be and find our group.
It was a great night and great learning experience, however, I didn't get to watch too much of the game, but I'm pretty sure we are are going to the game next week, I do not know if I am going to go since I didn't come home until 1:15am (someone dropped me off) and I had classes at 7:10am. We'll see how this goes!
Saturday Adventures!
I awoke on Saturday morning expecting to head off to Target with Jackie when Jackie called to say that she wasn't feeling well. So, I hung back and made some other plans however I bumped into Dartainia (Dart) again so we were hanging out and decided that we would go to Target.
Dart & I find the right bus and we manage to get on even though the bus driver was a real class A JERK! But I won't go there. Dart and I had lots of fun shopping around and got back later that night where we hooked up with Sarah.
The three of us headed down for dinner then onwards to Waterfire. Providence has a river that runs through the downtown of it and Waterfire has these baskets that were made to have bonfires right on the water down the middle of it so boats go out there to stock the wood and there are gondola rides and dinner boats and music playing making it oh so romantic.
The three of us find a nice ledge to chill on and Dart wants to use her legs so she stands up and there are these 3 guys next to us. Dart, being ever so sociable, starts talking to one of them. They are attending the University of RI and had decided to come check out the Waterfire. We all exchange numbers and depart with hugs (yeah we really fast forward from strangers to friends there).
After that, we met up with my roommate, Amanda and the four of us walk around for a while before heading back to the dorm to watch a movie together. Afterwards, I was wheeling Dart back to her room which is on my floor also and I bump into a girl named Betsy from one of my classes. She grabs her friends and I grab mine and we all hung out for a while. It was a great night!
Dart & I find the right bus and we manage to get on even though the bus driver was a real class A JERK! But I won't go there. Dart and I had lots of fun shopping around and got back later that night where we hooked up with Sarah.
The three of us headed down for dinner then onwards to Waterfire. Providence has a river that runs through the downtown of it and Waterfire has these baskets that were made to have bonfires right on the water down the middle of it so boats go out there to stock the wood and there are gondola rides and dinner boats and music playing making it oh so romantic.
The three of us find a nice ledge to chill on and Dart wants to use her legs so she stands up and there are these 3 guys next to us. Dart, being ever so sociable, starts talking to one of them. They are attending the University of RI and had decided to come check out the Waterfire. We all exchange numbers and depart with hugs (yeah we really fast forward from strangers to friends there).
After that, we met up with my roommate, Amanda and the four of us walk around for a while before heading back to the dorm to watch a movie together. Afterwards, I was wheeling Dart back to her room which is on my floor also and I bump into a girl named Betsy from one of my classes. She grabs her friends and I grab mine and we all hung out for a while. It was a great night!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
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!
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!
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, September 10, 2007
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!
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!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
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.
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.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
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!
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!
Friday, September 7, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
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!
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!
Monday, September 3, 2007
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!
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.
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.
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