Last Blog

I do not really know if I am supposed to be blogging this week or not. I have asked around and no one else is blogging. So I figure this will be my last blog post. As I said in my blog presentation I am glad I had this experience. It was certainly an interesting one. I enjoyed You and You Tube and can say I met some of my close friends through my peer group. However, blogging just isn't my cup of tea....so goodbye blogging.....................

Finals Week

Finals start tomorrow! It is going to be really weird tomorrow when I go to take my YouTube final rather than going to Business in Society. I hope I do well on my presentation. Then I have my microeconomics final at 2. I think that one should be pretty easy. We are allowed to take one 8 by 11 sheet of paper with notes in order to help us through the test. I am trying to see how small I can make the font in order to be able to actually read it tomorrow. I also finally get to turn in my business plan. I am so ready to be finished with that project. I believe it was the most extensive project I have ever done. I also might try to sell back some of my books. Although someone said they only give 10 dollars for each book. I am not really sure thats true though. I have no finals on Tuesday or Wednesday. Then I have my Spanish final on Thursday at 8. Finally I have my business presentation on Friday along with our open book open note final exam. I hope I do well on my tests so I can get a 4.0.

End

My classes are over! It seems like the semester flew by so fast. Now I just have to worry about getting good grades on my finals and I will be good to go for winter break. I am definitely ready to have a a month off. That way I can come back refreshed and ready for another semester. I think the spring semester here will be really fun. I applied for SWEET and had an interview. So hopefully I can join that and participate in some other clubs as well. Spring season for volleyball should be pretty fun as well. I miss volleyball. Normally I would be playing club ball right now but I am too old. I have a lot of work i need to get accomplished today. As well as some fun Christmas things I want to do. Maybe I will get them done today.

Blood Donation

Today, Kristen came into my room at 11:30 and informed me I was donating blood with her. I enjoy donating blood so I said I would go. We fill out all the paperwork and get our vitals checked. Then we go behind the screens to answer personal questions and get an iron test. So I made it through pretty quick since I have donated a couple of times. Then I started to give blood. As I am just finishing giving blood Kristen comes out and announces that she cant give blood. It is ironic that I ended up donating blood and she didn't. I am glad I did it though because as I was chillin in the chair I had a revelation. I decided I wanted to try to become the world record holder for the most blood donated. I think if I start going regularly now than by the time I get really old I will have the record beat. I have always wanted to hold a world record and I figure this is a pretty honorable one. So maybe one day I will be able to say at least for a while that I have donated the most blood in the world. However, I came back to my dorm room and looked it up. The record holder has donated 28 gallons...which is A LOT considering it probably takes 8 or 9 times to get a gallon. Maybe I will accomplish this goal before my life is over.

2 Weeks!

I got back to school today from Thanksgiving break. The next two weeks are going to be a bit strenuous. I think it is going to be difficult to be anticipating Christmas break and working on my projects and finals at the same time. I just can't wait to go home for Christmas for a month :) I love my house so much especially at Christmas time! I need to work on getting my family their presents. I got some for my friends last night before I came back. I also got a little pink Christmas tree for my room. It is adorable. Two more weeks until the end of my freshman semester. It seems like time has flown by so fast! I hope college doesn't go that fast in general. I don't think I am ready to be on my own yet.

Black Friday!!!

Yesterday was one of my favorite days of the year. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving is the biggest shopping day of the year. First at Montgomery Mall or Westfield I was able to get a free watch from New York and Company and a free scarf from the Limited. I love them both. Next we went to Tysons Corner. Despite the economic crisis the mall was as packed or more packed than all the Black Fridays before. All of the stores were offering more promotions than usual to get people out to shop. Stores like American Eagle and Steve Madden offered scratch offs to get a certain percentage off of your entire purchase. My sister got 30% off of her leather boots from Steve Madden. I did pretty good and got most of my clothes for the year. We ate at Red Lobster. I had the salmon, which was pretty good. Then we went to Lakeforrest in Gaithersburg. Lakeforrest has become more and more dilapidated over the years. We got back a little after 10. I didn't get anything for my family or friends so I should probably work on that.

Home for Turkey Day!!!

I got home yesterday for Thanksgiving Break!!! I made it to my house around 3. I just hung out yesterday and then went to the grocery store to get some toiletries for college. Today I got in trouble for sleeping in until 10. Heaven forbid I sleep in late. Then I got ready for Thanksgiving at my grandmothers house. We watched the Macy's Day Parade before we left. Then we made it to my grandmothers by 12 for our Thanksgiving meal. My grandmother is the best cook ever!!! I shared the traditional meal with my mom's side of the family. Then I got to hang out with my little cousins. I think they missed me. One of my cousins, Jason who is five just wanted to sit on my lap the entire day so I let him do that considering he had not seen me in 4 months. We talked until around 4. Then I came home and worked on my family heritage project.

Good Week/ Twilight

This week has been so much fun!!! The snow makes me excited to be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Twilight also came out this week! I went and saw it Thursday at midnight. I tried not to have really high expectations because I knew it could never compare to the book...which is amazing!!! Anyway the movie was okay. They stuck to the book but they cut out too much of it. I felt instead of a 2 hour movie it should have been a 3 hour movie. I am assuming they did not have the budget to do so because I think the fan based would have really liked the movie to be longer. I was not really disappointed with the movie. I am just sad because I waited on this movie to come out for a year and now its over. I think most of the time waiting for something is always superior to actually doing or seeing something. Anyway I still liked the movie I might see it again with my family over break because I love book.

Thanksgiving Dinner/Treelighting ceremony

Tonight was a lot of fun! At 6:15 I went with a group of friends to get our pictures taken before the Thanksgiving dinner. I hope it turns out well. Then at 6:30 we went to our reserved table in the event space for Thanksgiving dinner. The food was actually really good. I enjoyed not having to go up and the get the food myself, it was a nice change of pace. Then I went back to my room to layer my clothing for the Treelighting ceremony. I got hot chocolate when we went to the ceremony. I loved how someone decided to bring back the treelighting. I love traditions and so one of the things I really enjoy about Etown are all the holiday traditions we have. I will definitely cherish the Thanksgiving dinner and the ceremony in years to come. I had a blast singing with my friends and just feeling like part of Etown tonight. It really lifted my spirits.

SNOW

Today as I was sitting in the Marketplace eating lunch I heard someone exclaim "It's snowing." I looked out the window and sure enough the first flurries of this fall were coming down. I got pretty excited and I don't even really like snow. In high school I wanted it to snow so I wouldn't have to go to school. I guess we need to get an intense blizzard in order not to go to classes here. Thats kind of a bummer. I called my mom and she said the ground was covered at my house this morning. I thought that was kind of odd considering that I live 2 hours south but whatever, my brother still had to go to school. Snow now just means were getting closer to Christmas!!! I am so excited. Tomorrow I am going to go to the school store to see if I can get any cute Etown items on sale for my family and friends. I bought myself a pair of sweatpants today. I got them for 10 bucks so I was pretty stoked.

Club Volleyball

Today I helped with a club volleyball tryout in order to earn money for our volleyball trip next year. It was actually pretty fun although it made me very nostalgic. Since I was 13 every November I tried out for Tri-State FCA Volleyball. Club volleyball is soooo much fun. Each year you play around 8 tournaments from January to around May. Each year you usually get one or two big trips where you spend the night and play for at least 2 days in a row. So many of my lifes memories are because of club volleyball. Watching try outs just really made me want to start back over at age 13 and be able to do it all again. I am really going to miss it this year. I met so many wonderful people, went so many cool places, and had the some of the best experiences of my life playing. I hate growing up :(

Group Projects

I would just like to write this blog to say how much I do not like group projects. I find them so difficult. I hate trying to balance not stepping on any one's toes and yet making a final product that I think is the best it can be. This is especially difficult when dealing with creative and extensive projects, which is what I am dealing with. I also think as a freshman, it is difficult to be in a group project because they create some tension amongst the members. I don't want tension with anyone else I am trying to make new friends not turn them off. So I am pretty frustrated that I have so many group projects to deal with right now. I would really just enjoy doing them myself. I want it to be the end of the semester so I can be finished with all these stupid group projects.

Scheduling

Last night, my roommate informed me mid sentence that one of my classes, American Lit was closed. She then found out one of her classes was closed. Two of my good friends had two of their classes closed. This sent us all into a tizzy into trying to decide how we were going to fix our schedules. I eventually decided to take Sex and Gender in Society just for kicks. I want to wait to get into Short Story, American Lit and Geosystems so I had nothing else to take. I thought scheduling was going to be fun and easy here but I was wrong. The entire process has just been one big stress factor in my life. Not knowing what to major in is inconvenient and time consuming, the grade report makes no sense, having certain classes offered in the fall or spring, having to have junior status to get into a class,and having to wait until the second to last day to register are only some of the annoying factors of scheduling. I just hope I can graduate Etown having been able to take all the courses I wanted to, with major I am interested in and with 2 minors.

Free Time

Now that volleyball is over I have so much free time! It is amazing how much time a sport consumes at E-town. I don't really know if it is a good thing or a bad thing to have all this extra time. During volleyball the amount of free time I had made it seem urgent that I do my work during that time. Now it seems like I have all the time in the world to do my work. (This really isn't the case though.) It also means that I have to be motivated enough to go work out at the gym everyday. That is going to be quite difficult especially with it being so cold outside. I hate walking in the nasty, windy cold. Hopefully, I will be able to work out a schedule in which I get my work done, go to the gym and then have a little extra free time for myself. I have A LOT of projects I could be doing. I also could be in a lot better shape. I guess we will see how it pans out.

Christmas is coming :)

Christmas is coming! The Christmas trees are starting to go up everywhere in stores and in the school! I am pretty excited. I have already started writing my Christmas list. I don't really want or need anything that badly this year. I have to figure out what I am going to get my family and friends. I think it will be more difficult this year because I won't be at home to get stuff for them. I also don't really have access to a mall without pestering someone to take me. I don't like asking for favors so that might be difficult. I love Christmas music and movies. I have certain songs I have to hear on the radio each year. Including I want a hippopotamus for Christmas, and the original last Christmas. My family also has certain movies we have to watch each year before Christmas comes. My absolute favorite is How the Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carey. I love that movie and I can quote the entire thing. Well I am going to continue working on my Christmas list.

:)

So this week has been pretty exciting. The volleyball team won our semi final match for the conference on Wednesday night against Widener. It was a pretty intense game. I also hosted an overnight for a recruit named Jessica. She was really cool and I hope she winds up here next year. It wasn't all that exciting while she was here except the game. We went to the Jays nest and got food than later around 10. She had to wake up for classes this morning so I had to get up early too :( bummer. Tonight I went and saw Urinetown with my roommate Cristina it was really good. I haven't seen a play in a long time. The last one I saw was Beauty and The Beast at my mom's old high school. Tomorrow I have a big business test so I should focus on studying that rather than blogging.

Obama Wins

I am not very big on politics; however, I think I should touch on this historical event tonight. I think it is extremely significant that an African American has won the presidential candidacy. I am truly glad that our nation which was once so racist has taken the huge step forward in this election by electing a African American president. My sixth grade history teacher told me to remember what I was wearing, and what I was doing when significant events occur so I can tell my children in the future. I had him the year of September 11th and I remember that I was wearing a neon green pair of shorts and a limited too t-shirt and I was walking out of language arts. So tonight I was cramming for my Microeconomics final wearing blue sweatpants and a volleyball t-shirt when an African American won the presidential election. As I am sitting listening to Obamas speech on the TV I know things are going to change in the future and for that I am thankful.

projects

I would just like to write this blog about my frustrations of having tons of projects due at the end of the semester. In each class I have at least one major project accounts for a large percentage of my grade. I understand this is college and the workload is going to be strenuous; however, I would rather have homework every night. I also am not a fan of basing large percentages of a persons grade on a couple of assignments. Currently I have an A in business but if I do poorly on my final exam and business plan project I could almost fail the class. Honestly, does that seem fair to anyone? For people who are good test takers or simply have a rough day this is bad news. I think I am going to have a really rough time trying to do all these projects at once. I just can't wait until Christmas and all this work is behind me.

Halloween Weekend!

Halloween Weekend was so much fun! The volleyball team had a tournament. Unfortunately, we lost all four but I got to play. My mom also came to see me play which was really nice. On Friday night the team watched Hocus Pocus. I haven't seen that movie in forever so that was fun. Saturday I got to go to Hershey Park in the Dark with Kristen and Huntley. I finally got to ride Storm Runner, normally its broken down. I also got a funnel cake which I paid five dollars for and it was terrible. Then I came back and got dressed in my zebra costume. :) I hung out with some friends and then we all went to the dance, which was definitely better than the last one I went to. Today I got to sleep in and it was awesome. I got my extra hour from daylight savings time. Then I worked on my research paper. In the afternoon, I went to see Pineapple Express with my friend Tiffany. It was pretty funny I didn't expect it to be the type of movie it was though. All in all it was a really fun weekend.

Occupied

I find the busier I get, the less likely I am to sit down and blog. I don't know how people have time to do this so often. When I have significant events to blog about I usually am busy so I don't get the opportunity to blog about them. I have done a lot of fun things lately I just haven't written about them. This week I carved a pumpkin with my roomie Cristina. If anyone saw the Happy Halloween one in the Marketplace that was ours. I also got my costume last night at the Park City Mall. I am going to be a zebra and I am super excited about it. I was going to be a lady bug but the costume was 60 bucks. I find that an outrageous price for a costume. So I found zebra ears for 2.50 and a zebra dress for 20 bucks. I was pretty pleased. The Halloween dinner in the caf was pretty intense tonight. I didn't realize how into it the staff got. Then we lost to Lebanon Valley in four games. We could have won. I have to move on to writing my research paper now. :)

Glow Bowling

Last night my friends and I went to Soul Cafe, the Bird Cage, and then Glow Bowling. I am going to make no comment on the Soul Cafe. However, the Bird Cage was fun. I demonstrated my ping pong skills and then I demonstrated my lack there of Foosball skills. It was fun. Afterwards, we went to Clearview Lanes for Glowbowling. Now you must understand I have gone bowling about 10 times in my entire life so I never expect much. However, my first game I bowled a 148 so I was pretty excited. I even bowled a turkey in there (three strikes in a row). So that was fun. It got progressively worse after that but it was still awesome. When I have time I will add some pictures of the fun evening. :)

???

I am very overwhelmed with scheduling. I have no idea what I want to do with my life. I don't know if I should continue in the business department or switch into another major. I am interested in communications but I don't think I could find the type of job I want around the area in which I want to live in. I also love psychology but I don't think I have enough willpower to make it through graduate school just yet. To do anything substantial in pysch you have to have at least a masters degree. Then there is Spanish, which I find will be extremely useful in the future but I don't know if I should continue with that or not. I don't know what core classes I want to take either. My AP credits that transferred accounted for some of them but I feel I should still take some courses in those areas. I haven't taken a math class since my junior year of high school. If I wait much longer to take another course I will forget most of it altogether. I am very OCD when it comes to getting right what I want to do. I need to make sure I figure out something logical for next semester.

Movies of the Weekend

This weekend I watched Nights in Rondanthe and Sex in the City the Movie. Nights in Rondanthe fell very short of my expectations. The preview makes the movie look amazing but the characters relationship, which is the focus of the movie is unnatural, awkward, and rushed. Also, the movie does not end in a happily after ending, which really upset me. On the other hand Sex in the City surpassed my expectations greatly. I felt it was very well done and finished off the series eloquently. However, it was really long and I normally like movies to be under two hours. I am glad I got to see both movies this weekend.

Homecoming weekend

Homecoming weekend was really fun! My mother came up for the entire weekend and stayed at a hotel in Columbia. I thought the events were really neat. I loved the parades, the floats were all really cute. My favorite was don't wake daddy but it didn't win anything. Then I went to the fair and got two shirts, the 2012 class shirt "shake ya tailfeather" and the sock and buskin shirt "U r in etown if ..." Afterwards, my mother and I went to Burger King for lunch. In the afternoon we went to the combined coral concerts. They were really good. I used to always go watch my sister so it was nice to see some coral performance. I froze my butt off at the soccer game ( I barely made it to half time). The helicopters were a nice touch. For dinner we went to the Homecoming Buffet. The food was a little better than normal however, it was really crowded. The 15 minute intervals didn't really work. Then at night we went and saw Nights in Rodanthe at Movie Etown. It was a really good day.

dradnats ehT

Hollywood definitely picked up when we drove on Sunset Blvd. The businesses were more California like. We ate dinner at The Standard which is a restaurant in a hotel in which everything is anything but standard. When we walked in a girl was in a glass box, the chairs were cushions on the floor or globes hanging from the ceiling. The picture on the right is andrea and I in the chairs. We ate dinner out on the pool deck. Which was lit by candles and the room lights of the hotel. The food was amazing and reasonable priced. The picture to the right was taken on the pool deck overlooking Hollywood. After dinner which took over two hours we drove down Rodeo Drive and through Beverly Hills. That was probably my favorite part of the trip. It was amazing. I wish we would have had time to actually go shopping.

Pacific Ocean

One of the nights in Cali we drove to Huntington Beach. It was a rather long drive on insanely large highways. If you think there are big interstates on the East Coast you are mistaken. We merged onto and off of 8 lane highways. The roads are so big they constantly split and you constantly have to merge in order to get to where you want to go. This might be fine for a normal car but we were caravaning in two 12 passenger vans. It was pretty stressful but surprisingly we never got lost. Above is our team picture in the Pacific Ocean. I am glad that I can say I got to step in the Pacific Ocean. The water was actually really warm. Two of the girls got in. I was going to but I did not have my swimsuit on. Now I can officially say I have been as far North, East, South and West in the United States. After we took A LOT of pictures on the beach we ate out on the pier at Ruby's Diner. It was pretty amazing. I got an Oreo cookie fantasy milkshake which was possibly the bet milkshake I have drank. :)

Hollywood California

My trip to California was awesome! All the flights went well, with minimal turbulence. The hotel was amazing! We got to lay out and get some sun by the pool as soon as we got there. We played three games throughout the weekend and we ended up losing all of them. However, they were all close matches. Cali teams are simply faster and bigger. After our games we got to do fun things around the area. The last night we went into Hollywood! On the left is my friend Andrea and I on Hollywood Blvd. Hollywood is NOT what you think it is or it should be. I hate to say it but Hollywood Blvd. itself is rather trashy. It is laden with drugged out, homeless, drunk. trashy people. Worst of all it is rather dirty and touristy. However, it was still nice to say Ive been there. I got to see the Hollywood sign, the Kodak Theater, and the Chinese Theater. The walk of fame is cool and I was able to get a lot of pictures of my various favorite stars. I also found the imprints outside the Chinese theater really cool. I did not enjoy the people who pretended to dress up like characters and then demanded money from you if you took a picture of them. I was a little scared around these "characters." All in all it was a good experience. I am glad I was able to see Hollywood.

California Dreaming

Tomorrow the volleyball team leaves for Claremont, California at 4:00 am. Despite the time I am very excited because I have never been out West further than Texas. Claremont is only 40 minutes from L.A.! So hopefully I will be able to see some sites. I am a little nervous about the plane ride but only because I have only flown once and I was 9. From what I remember it wasn't a very great experience. So hopefully everything will go smoothly. We fly from Philly to Denver and then Denver into Ontario, California. Then we get to sight see when we get there. We play three games, one on Friday and two on Saturday at Ponoma-Pitzer College. I haven't started packing yet. I should probably work on that. :)

Back to School

Well, the weekend went by too fast :(. I am already back at school facing all my homework and projects. So I am most likely going to start the week off on the wrong foot because I want to be home. I am so much more comfortable at my house than I am here. I guess thats why I liked being home. Today I got to go to church with my family which was refreshing. Then my mother made us salmon for lunch which was amazing because it is one of my favorite foods. Then I had to take care of all this banking paperwork which I screwed up. I always screw up all my banking stuff and end up having to call the companies. ridiculous. I should be doing homework now but I keep running into people to talk to. I also am doing my laundry. So nothing is getting accomplished.

Maryland :)

I got home last night around 9:00 pm because my mom and I decided to stop for dinner at Burger King. On the way home I asked my brother Ben to start a campfire. It is a family tradition to have a fall campfire in which we always roast hot dogs, marshmallows, and such and just be together as a family. It is an event I always look forward to. So we got home and sat and talked around the fire. I roasted two marshmallows. It was nice. Then I gave my dad a belated birthday gift. I watched some tv and finally got to sleep in my own bed. It is really weird I haven't been home for about a month and my house smells different and feels different. It seems pretty surreal. My bed felt nice but it seemed low to the ground after sleeping on a lofted bed. This morning I slept in until around 9. Then I played some video games with my brother. He showed me the new game "spore" which is causing controversies for being "satanic". I thought the game was hilariously fun and I am already in the tribal stage. Then I have just been hanging out. I will get a nice family meal tonight and then I will get to see my brothers performance. It should be a fun evening.

Home!

I finally get to go home tomorrow! I am very excited to finally get to be back in my house, see my family, and sleep in my own bed. I called home last night and my brother answered the phone and he sounded so excited to get to hang out with me. He also said he was glad I finally would get to come see him in his band show. After coming to my games his entire life he is glad I am the one doing the watching this visit. Today I talked to my Mom and she said that he wasn't going to go to a friends party because I was coming home. I felt so special that my brother would want to see me that much. It was really nice and it helped get me through the day. Hopefully, this visit will eliminate my homesickness for a while so I can come back refreshed and ready to do well in my classes.

Wes and Johanna

Saturday night I went and saw Wes and Johanna from the real world Austin. I have never met anyone on television before so I went to say I have done so. It was a rather interesting experience. I thought they were going to talk about relevant issues of college students but instead they talked about the real world. I guess this was a bit more acceptable than saying not to drink, party etc because they still do and that will be hypocritical. Anyway it was entertaining none the less. So during the presentation you could definitely tell that Johanna wanted nothing to do with Etown because she kept checking her watch and fidgeting. I really wanted to ask them how much they got paid for coming out and talking to there "fans" about a reality television show that aired 3 years ago but I figured that would be rude. Anyway they were nice enough when I got the picture and an autograph. At least it provided something to do on a Saturday night.

Blah

I have had a hard time writing this week because nothing positive has occurred. I do not really want to make this into an emotional, ranting blog so I try not to write when I am in a bad mood. Thus, now I have only written once this week and it is Sunday. I wanted to go see Wanted this afternoon but I have too much homework to do. I have my microeconomics midterm tomorrow which is worth 20% of my grade and I haven't put forth much effort toward studying for it. :( I do feel productive though because I did all my laundry, vacuumed, dusted and organized my room. So at least I got something accomplished. I also called my dad because it is his birthday today. This is the first time I haven't seen him on his birthday. That kind of upsets me because I was only able to send him a card. I guess I will see him next weekend when I go home. I am really looking forward to finally being able to be back at my house for a little bit. I haven't been home yet and I am really starting to feel homesick. Hopefully, a visit back home will put me in a better mood.

?

So let we just finished two games for volleyball in which I did not play in again. I haven't played a full game since last Wednesday and it is really starting to irritate me. Volleyball is my passion in life. I love it and because of this I had to choose a school in which I would be able to play it at. Since I am not over 6 foot and not a volleyball prodigy I chose division three hoping to make the team and play. I have never sat the bench my entire life and now I am realizing how demeaning it really is. I want to be on the court so badly I can barely contain myself. It is a bit ridiculous. So volleyball is not going well and it consumes all of my social time. So others are bonding while I am at volleyball doing nothing. So I am rethinking my decision process in choosing a school to play volleyball. I really would just like to go home for a while and take a break.

Bus Trip=Movies

This past weekend the volleyball team traveled to Ohio which ended up being a 6 hour bus ride. We got to travel by charter bus so we got to watch a lot of movies together. On the way to Ohio we watched Baby Mama and Step Up 2. Baby Mama was actually less predictable than I thought it was going to be. It was one of the movies where the trailer doesn't really give too much of the movie away. I enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. Step Up 2 was definitely not as good as Step Up probably because Channing Tatum was not the main character. I like the plot behind Step Up 2 however I didn't like the dances as much. The last scene was definitely the best part of the movie in which there is obviously a dance showdown. It is one of those movies that makes you want to get up and dance and I liked that because we played right after we finished it. Then on the way home we watched What Happens in Vegas and P.S. I love you. I thought both of these were excellent movies. I thought What Happens in Vegas was surprisingly funny and also not as predictable as it seemed in the previews. However, my favorite movie of the weekend goes to P.S. I love you. I know I really enjoyed a movie when I think about it the next day. If I can't get something out of my head I know it was amazing. P.S. I love you was one of those movies. Despite not liking Hilliary Swank as an actress I enjoyed her performance in this movie. I think the concept is awesome, heartbreakingly awesome but what kind of girl doesn't like a good heartbreaking movie. I personally don't like to cry about movies in front of other people. I cry when I watch movies alone but usually not with other people. I can only remember one or two times when someone caught me crying at a movie. The most recent was watching the documentary series Invisible Children. It really hit home for me and I don't think there was a dry eye in the theatre. Anyway, I strongly recommend all four movies they helped the time pass quickly on the bus and were all entertaining.

Mom

You don't really realize all the things your mom, well at least my mom does for me without having to do everything without her. For volleyball we have "secret buddies" who we have to get a little gift for, for every conference game. We play Messiah this evening who is in our conference. So last night Andrea and I went out to Kmart, Giant and Hallmark to get some stuff for them. Let me just tell you how easy it is to rack up a bill on practically nothing. I tend to suffer from "throw everything that appeals to me in the cart" syndrome. This strategy isn't very practical for a college student. Anyway I didn't end up with much and I didn't find any cute little trinkets. In high school we also did buddies. However my mom put together my buddy gifts for me. Let me just tell you they were amazing. She found they coolest stuff for them for hardly any money. So I really missed her last night I struggled to put together something appropriate. Then today I check my mail and she sent me an amazing care package. I really don't know how she does it. I wish she were here.

purpose

After hearing William Glaubers opinion about daily blogs having no real point I decided this post would be about movies. Its too late to change the random aspect of my blog now so in his honor I will write about all the movies I watched this weekend because I was bored out of my mind. I had the opportunity to leave campus this weekend and I should have because there was nothing to do. It was also gorgeous on Sunday and I could have gone to the pool with my family. Instead I was here doing laundry, homework and watching movies. Great. Saturday afternoon I watched the new James Bond movie Casino Royale. Let me start off by saying the new guy they got is nothing like Pierce Brosnan who I adored. The new guy is just not very attractive. I also thought the movie just dragged on forever. I think at least a half and hour could have been cut out of the movie. Then Saturday evening I watched Charlie and the Chocolate Factory on the Disney Chanel. There is really only one word to describe it...creepy. It is so awkward and is nothing compared to the original. Why must Hollywood always try to remake the classics? Sunday afternoon I watched 27 Dresses. This was probably my favorite of the weekend just because I love chick flicks. It was decent but predictable. Sunday night I watched Oceans 13 which I have to say was better than Oceans 12 but not Oceans 11. I liked the storyline behind the movie I just felt the beginning was slow and it wasn't very comical. So that was my movie weekend. I had fun just hanging out with my friends and watching movies but I hope this weekend is more entertaining.

Athletes

Last night the we won against Dickinson in 5 games with the fifth game ending 17-15. I got to play all five games in the front row. However, I feel I played horribly which leads into the discussion for this post. My grandparents and aunts came up again to watch me play. Of course after the game I go over to talk to them and they are always like "what a great game etc." How do you honestly respond when you feel (and know) you played horrible but people still complement you. That to me is one of the most annoying conflicts of sports. I wish my family would be like yea you kinda just sucked because I think that would help. I mean honestly what do you say...thanks but that actually was terrible." I don't think I am alone on this issue. How do you show gratitude to your family for coming and thinking you played well when your pissed off because you played bad? I would honestly like to know the proper way of handling this situation without coming off as a jerk and without being complacent.

E-town

So I just thought I would write down some of my observations of how different E-town is compared to my hometown of Hagerstown, Md. First of all...what is up with the rain??? It rains here a lot and when it starts it never stops and rains all day. In Hagerstown it really does not rain that much and if it does its not all day. It will rain and then the sun comes out. I also really miss Hershey's Strawberry Milk. In PA theres this Turkey Hill craze. The milk they carry is Turkey Hill "Cool Moos" Seriously, cool moos. Anyway I tried it this morning and it is nothing compared to Hersheys. I also tried the cinnamon toast crunch in the plastic bowls from the Jay's and it tasted like plastic. So I had a rather disappointing breakfast this morning. I miss poptarts, because I can only eat them when they are toasted and I don't have a toaster. That was my randomness for today. BTW Come see the volleyball game tonight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 7:00 pm in the main gym.

Nostalgic

Last night we had our first home volleyball game against Haverford. Let's just say we lost in three games. However, I did get to start and had the second highest number of kills (spikes that aren't returned). Anyway, I was rather disappointed at the fan turnout. In high school we packed the stands every game. Even if we played a team we were going to crush we still had fans. At states last year we played at University of Maryland, which is over an hour away from the high school. Our fans are so devoted that they still packed the stands. On top of driving far away they came body painted, with horns, pom poms, and ready to scream their hearts our. The fans got into a cheering competition with the other teams fans and made up new cheers as well. Talk about devotion. I really miss that school spirit. In college we have like 20 fans total. It is rather disheartening when you look and no one is in the stands. What is more upsetting is when the gym is dead silent. Playing here makes me very nostalgic for my high school team. I miss the sheer inentsity between our rivals. I miss knowing the dirt on all the other players. I miss knowing the other coaches. I miss the familiar gyms. I miss everything... I guess every thing takes getting used to though.

Gettysburg Tournament

Friday at noon we( the vball team) left for our tournament at Gettysburg. It only took slightly over and hour to arrive. We played CUA (Catholic University of America) first. They were decent, but we took them in four games. I played middle in the front row all four games and I got to start so I was pretty excited. Then we only had a 30 minute break before our next game. So I ate a snack really quick and got to talk to my mother, grandmother, grandfather, and two great aunts who came to support me. Gettysburg is closer to my home than E-town so a lot of family got to come and watch. After the break, we played Frostburg. We were pretty evenly match and ended up losing in 5 games by two points. I knew two of the girls on the team because they played in the same region as I did in high school. I played middle again for all 5 games. After we finished playing we had to "work". In volleyball this means line-judging, score flipping, and book keeping. I line judged the first game just to get working out of the way. After we all worked we got back in the vans and went to TGI Fridays for dinner. Normally, TGI Fridays is one of my favorite restaurants but this night was ridiculous. We had a group of around 20 but the waitress had to split us up. So she took our orders by table but still charged the 18% gratuity. Our table ordered last so we waited for over an hour while all the other tables in our group got their food before we got ours. It was ridiculous. Everyone was finished eating by the time our table got its food. Then after we were done eating it took another 15 minutes to get our checks and change, which she messed up. On the plus side my Jack Daniels flat iron was delicious but not really worth the wait considering I didn't get to eat until after 10:00pm. Then we went back to the hotel for the night. It was four players to a room so it was rather cozy. We didn't really have much time to do anything so we hung out and then went to sleep. The next morning we had continental breakfast at the hotel and then made it to the gym by 10:00. We worked the first match, I flipped for the first game. Then we played and beat Randolph Macon in 4 games. I played some middle and some right side. After that game we had another little 30 minute break. This time I got to see my daddy and most of my moms side of the family. After the break we played Neuman College who we lost to in four games but we should have beaten them. I played right side for two games and sat the next two. All in all it was a pretty fun tournament. Saturday the gym was like a sauna because of the rain and humidity so that wasn't that fun. This week we have Haverford on Wednesday, and Dickinson on Friday. Both are home games so come out and support E-Town.:)

Surprised

As I was reading my You and You Tube homework about blogging, I decided I would blog about how differently I am reacting to college than I thought I would. First, you must understand that I am very close to my family. They are amazing, specifically my mother who is my best friend. I thought I would be an emotional wreck, which is normally not the case at home because I have my family to lean on. However, at college without them I assumed I would be calling home crying after a week at E-Town because I was homesick. The strange thing is I haven't really been homesick yet. I am happy here and I can't help but think maybe I just needed to get out of Hagerstown, Maryland. Granted, I do miss my family but not so much that I can't concentrate or have a good time here. Aside from this, the things I do miss are utterly random. For one, I miss my old Spanish class and Spanish teacher. I believe this is because I have Spanish this semester and it is just very different from high school. I also miss my mattress. Even with a memory foam topper the mattresses here are pretty bad. Most mornings I wake up with a backache or a crick in my neck. My mattress at home is heavenly. I tried to convince my mother that we could bring it and switch the mattresses out with no one noticing but she didn't really go for that idea. I also miss driving places. I do not have a car here and so I haven't driven in about 2 and half weeks. I want to just go out and drive around Etown but that's not really possible. I mainly just miss being different places. I am getting a little tired of being in the same five buildings constantly. Even an outing to Kmart seems enjoyable at the moment. I feel bad for missing silly things rather than being homesick because I seems like my family misses me more than I am missing them. I normally get a card or package a week. All my friends here are blown away and always think it is my birthday but its just my family being them. My mother is so amazing that she drove 2 and half hours to see me play in a volleyball game on Tuesday night. Then I told her I didn't even want to come home on Saturday night because there was a dance. I kind of feel like a schmuck. Maybe it will get worse after more time passes and I will get homesick. But for now I am doing just fine.

Obsessed with Stephenie Meyer

My 10 grade English teacher introduced me to the novel Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. The first time I looked at the novel I was like there is no way I am reading that it is way to long. So I didn't read it during the school year. However, in the summer I was bored out of my mind and decided to ask my mom to get it at the library for me (she is a librarian). Anyway, so she brought the book home one night and I started reading it around 9:00pm. At 12:30 I was still reading the novel, completely engrossed. I seriously could not put the book down. For the next couple of days it was as if the book was glued to my hands. Don't get me wrong I used to think reading was stupid and only "nerds" read books for fun but this novel changed my outlook on literature. I could not get the characters out of my head. So Stephenie Meyer kept writing and I kept reading. To continue the Twilight Series, which is vampire romance/thriller, Meyer wrote New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. Don't get me wrong I am not a sci-fi freak. Anytime I tell anyone the genre they are like....what??? But just as the common saying goes you can't judge this book by its cover or genre. These four books are all written from the perspective of the female main character Bella. Meyer was also working on Midnight Sun which is from the perspective of the male main character ,Edward. Unfortunately, an unfinished copy made it into the hands of the wrong person and it ended up on the Internet. Meyer was obviously very upset and wrote on her website that she was postponing finishing the novel indefinitely. However, she posted an official rough copy on her website. Thus, now here I am at college and should be reading all my required materials and once again I am staying up late to read for fun. I have no idea how an author writes in such a manner that is so addicting. Even her other novel The Host which is completely separate from the Twilight series was the same way. Anyway , I strongly, strongly recommend these novels to everyone. They might just change your mind about reading all together.

Labor Day

It seems very surreal that tomorrow is labor day. For the past 14 years I have always attended my great aunt Sylvia's labor day picnic. Usually, the event marks the official end of summer and the beginning of back to school for me. This year it is rather odd. I won't be going to the picnic and I am not in grade school anymore. It actually puts perspective onto the time I have spent thus far at E-town. So far college has seemed like; first a volleyball camp and second a summer camp. I have been rushing around from practice to orientation events in a manner that makes time seem irrelevant. I guess labor day puts it into perspective that this is where I am now. I am not one to go home every weekend. Don't get me wrong my family and my home are the greatest physical connection I have. I feel though now is a time for me. College is where one can figure out who they are with no other influence. I plan on using this time accordingly to figure out who I am and what I want to do with my life. I thought I would have broke down by now but I am running on a different path than I thought I would be. I like to think and plan everything out and then I normally get pissed when things don't go the way I want them to. However, college has gone differently than I expected and I am going with the changes surprisingly well. So I hope I have a fun but different labor day tomorrow.

First Volleyball Game

Yesterday I had my first two volleyball games at Etown. We traveled 45 minutes to York College in York, PA. York has a brand new athletic complex which is amazing. We got our own visitor locker room which had its own sound system. We played Swarthmore first. I played rightside the third game out of the match. I was pretty excited to finally get to play again. I haven't played in a real match since spring. We beat Swarthmore pretty soundly in three games. Then I got to hang out with my family which I haven't seen since I left on the 17th. It was really nice to be able to hang out with them. My mom, dad, brother, grandmother, grandfather, great aunt, and other great aunt came to watch me play. It worked out well because York is actually closer to my house then the school is. I got to spend about about 45 minutes with them. Then we played York which is a much better team than Swarthmore and we ended up losing to them in four games. I played some of the last game. It was really hard to be on the bench as a freshmen. The transition from being a senior in high school to a freshmen in college is pretty hard. I went from playing every minute of the game to sitting the bench most of the time. I guess I will just have to prove myself in practice to be able to get more playing time in the games. So we ended up splitting our opening tournament which isn't too bad. I am excited that I get a little break from practice today so I can rest a little. Our next game is this Tuesday at Franklin and Marshall. Unfortunately, I will miss the activities fair. So I am pretty bummed that I won't get to sign up for things. I know I am applying to join S.W.E.E.T, but I don't really know what else is out there. I guess I will have to figure it out on my own.

Shopping addiction

I honestly have no main idea or theme for this blog. Thus, each post I am simply going to write about whatever topic or issue that comes to mind at the time. Right now I am going through shopping withdrawal. I have only been at college for two weeks and I feel like I need to go out and buy things. Normally, I go to a mall at least once a week and combined I most likely go to some type of retail center every two days. However, at college I have no car and I really don't have time to go out and shop for fun. I have been in the bookstore and bought my books and a notebook but that is hardly satisfying. (Especially because books are such a rip off.) Anyway, I wanted to buy a sweatshirt today but of course they don't have my size in any of the one's I want. Thus, I came back to my room and decided to do some Internet shopping. I didn't really feel like using my credit card account because I haven't used it online yet. So my only other option is my itunes account, which just so happens to be linked to my fathers credit card. :) So I ended up buying some music. Now I am happily listening to my new purchase. It is amazing how a little purchase can bring me some entertainment for the morning. I am not going to lie I enjoy shopping but money doesn't buy happiness. I am fully aware of that however I am away from my family and friends in a foreign place. Thus, for me buying some songs provides a want that I can myself satisfy.