We Made It!!

Finals are over and everyone is now enjoying their winter break.

I finished my last final at 10 am on Wednesday. I spent the rest of the day finishing things I had been putting off since the beginning of finals. I finished my Christmas shopping, met with my adviser to talk about my senior thesis proposal, and things like that. I also brought lunch to my boyfriend in the library while he finished studying for his finals. We had Chinese food and watched an episode of the Office in a study room, lol.

As soon as he finished his final on Thursday we went snowboarding!! This was my first Iowa snowboarding experience. It was nothing compared to the Rocky Mountains, but it was definitely fun! More fun followed that night with a big group of friends in Iowa City.

Friday I finished my duties as an RA, packed up, and hit the road. I made it do Des Monies and stayed with a friend. The next day I drove the rest of the way to meet my family. Now I'm home, just hanging out. I've been doing a lot of sleeping--I call it catching up!

The Week of Doom

a.k.a finals week!

My first final is at 8 am tomorrow--it's Advertising. I'm getting ready to meet with Anya to go through our notes. We do it before every exam and it really helps!

I'm also preparing for my Research Methods exam on Tuesday and my Rhetorical Theory exam on Wednesday. My 5 page Spanish paper is due Tuesday afternoon. So basically I've been studying a lot.

Tonight is the late-night breakfast. It is always the Sunday before finals from 10pm-12am. Faculty and staff get together to make and serve breakfast to students as they are up late cramming before exams begin. So I'm looking forward to pancakes tonight!!

That's my quick update. Back to studying...

Oh no!

I became behind on posts again! :S

Well a few quick updates:


1.
I went to my first Iowa game!! The University of Iowa is just 30 minutes from here. Lots of Hawkeye fans here who are always talking about the games. Well, my boyfriend found some tickets and took me! It was freezing cold, but so much fun! We tailgated before the game eating brats, Scottish eggs, cookies, the works! We had great seats in the stadium--23rd row, 50ish yard line. At half time we watched the band and drank hot chocolate. AND the Hawkeyes beat Purdue!

The stadium!

Enjoyin the game! (Even if it was freezing)

2.
Thanksgiving!! I made my first trip home for the year! Ah! It was great. I took the Amtrak train (11ish hours). I spent my time at home helping my dad on the farm, spending time with my family, and trying not to get too far behind with my homework. The break was short, but I was able to see a lot of people and spend quality time at home!


3.
It's back to work now. This is our last week of classes before finals week. Scary! This week I have 2 final presentations, 1 project, and the state dance team competition. Next week I have three 8 a.m. finals and 1 final paper. Today has already been crazy, but I predict it will only get worse before it gets better. Wish me luck!

It's Late-ish & I'm Sick-ish

I am ready for bed, but wanted to post since it has been awhile. I am hoping a full nights sleep will help me get over my head cold.

I acquired this cold during a very long trip back to Coe. I was in North Carolina the past few days at the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education Conference (AASHE) with a fellow member of the Environmental Club, Johanna. We went to look at what other colleges around the nation are doing to be more sustainable. In case you are unaware, Merriam Webster defines sustainability as: relating to a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged.

The conference was great!! Johanna and I would sit up late every night in our hotel room typing up ideas we came across throughout the day. We are hoping to start some big changes here at Coe. We would particularly like to move along the progress of the American Colleges and Universities Presidential Climate Commitment. President Phifer signed this commitment a year and a half ago meaning that Coe has to come up with a plan to become carbon neutral by next year.

Anyways, I am sick because we were up at 6 am to go to the last day of the conference, left at 5 pm and returned to Coe at 1:00 am. I woke up at 7 the next morning to study for a test I had at 9 and then prepared a presentation for my 2 o'clock Spanish class. It was intense! I spent tonight relaxing in my room. I finished a few projects and made snowflakes with some of the women on my floor. We decided we only have a few weeks left of class before Winter Break, so we started winter decorations today. Our floor will slowly accumulate snowflakes up to Winter Break--it should be fun!

Looking ahead, I have much work to do. Like I said, only a few more weeks left of the semester. This leaves me with 2 advertising projects, a Spanish paper and presentation, a rhetorical theory paper, a research methods project, and 4 finals in the next few weeks. Oh the joy, lol. We are also working hard on dance team to prepare for the State Competition on December 5---come cheer us on!

Halloween :)

It has been an entire week of Halloween celebrations!

Last weekend we had Haunted Hallways on campus. This is a tradition where a number of floors in the residence halls decorate and haunt their hallways as other members of campus walk through. My floor rocked!! We covered the ceiling and walls with black trash bags, had "bloody" sheets hanging from the ceiling, and spider webs everywhere! Our theme was originally IT but we ended up playing up the Coe story of Helen the ghost, too.

Way, way back in the day Voorhees (the all women's residence hall) was also home to the infirmary. Helen was the only Coe student to die in the infirmary and supposedly haunts Voorhees. She does things like clicking the heater or printer, or other random electronics on and off. There are also stories about how she does not like boys---this one boy was badmouthing Helen while he was in his girlfriends room. She walked him down to his car and came back to find all of the pictures of him on the ground. Spooky...

So in our hallway we had Helen in the bathroom and down at the end of the hall. It was pretty scary. We tied for first in the contest. We ended up leaving our decorations up all week.

Katie being scary!

Vanessa as Helen

A look down our hallway...

For Halloween I decided to be a pumpkin! I found this sweet costume at Good Will. I didn't do too much as far as celebrating Halloween. Last night I was the designated driver for some of my (21-year-old) friends who went to the bars in Iowa City. I had a lot of fun getting dressed up. Tonight I am on duty which means I'm stuck in the building all night...but as a pumpkin!

Mid-Week Report

So I just finished a floor meeting. Only a few of my residents showed up but we came up with great ideas for Haunted Hallways this Sunday. It is going really great! I'll have to post pictures. Our floor also received a pumpkin from the cafeteria--they are sponsoring a campus wide carving contest. The rest of my evening will be spent on homework and an NRHH meeting. Homework hasn't been as bad this week--no exams!! I do have an advertising exam coming up next Thursday along with 2 big projects in the class. Umm...that's all I can think of for now!

Fall Break: It was Wicked!

It is the last day of fall break--there have been no classes since Friday. I planned on spending the majority of my break recuperating from my round of mid-terms last week and preparing for my other mid-terms this coming week. Instead, I had quite the adventure!

Friday night I drove some friends to Iowa City where they went to the bars and I visited a friend from the summer. We caught up and watched Grey's Anatomy. Saturday morning I received a call from my friend Anya--we were going to Chicago!! We had both really wanted to go see Wicked on Broadway, so it was decided that we were just going to do it. By 1 pm we had the car loaded, our tickets bought, and were on the road. We arrived in Chicago just in time to get ready, pick up our tickets, and arrive at the show. It was AMAZING!!!!! Amazing. Really.

The day after the show: Me and a Wicked globe :)

Anya's turn!

After the show we grabbed some McDonalds and got on the train. We were staying with a friend who gradated from Coe last year. She had given us the keys to her apartment since she was not planning on returning before us. We thought we found the right building when the keys worked on the gate and the apartment building. We couldn't get them to open the apartment, so decided to wait in the stairwell for our friends return. An hour later our friend called to report that we were NOT on her stairwell!! Apparently her building was the identical building two doors down. Pretty embarrassing. We all laughed about it early into the morning while we ate Swedish Fish and Sour Patch Kids (only the two best kinds of candy ever!) Even though we were up late we woke up early. We spent the morning cruising around Chicago...we saw the bean and had delicious Chicago-style pizza. Anya and I then raced back to Cedar Rapids since I was on duty (as part of my job as a Resident Assistant) at 7.


Here we are having some fun with the bean!

My friends & the bean! (Note the sweet Chicago skyline)

I have spent the last to days of my break feebly attempting to do homework, watching movies with friends, and napping at least twice a day. It has been such a great time. Oh! I also did some intense recycling by emptying out the recycling closet on my floor. I am so not ready for class to begin again tomorrow--it is now time for me to seriously get things done. Even though this will be a short week, it is going to be rough. Friday I have a huge Spanish mid-term along with an exam in Research Methods in Psychology. This week in dance team we are going to start learning our state routine--aka long, intense practices from now on. I am also continuing my work with Environmental Club and NRHH. *Sigh* There's always something to be done. :)