I missed my mom. I missed my dad. I missed my sister. I missed Smokey and Garfield. I missed my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. I missed my friends that I haven't seen in a couple months. I missed my neighbors. I missed my electric blanket. I missed showering without shoes on. I missed having a room to myself. I missed sleeping in. I missed Culver's, Steak N' Shake, and Chili's. I missed my mom's home-cooked meals. I missed the mall. I missed driving. I missed being around people who aren't my own age. I missed the movie theater. I missed being able to leave my clothes all on the floor in my room. I missed Bloomington/Normal.
I missed home.
It was great to be back. Despite the fact that I had to work from 10 pm Thanksgiving night to 6 am the next morning, and despite the fact I had to work on a paper over break, being home was so wonderful. So wonderful, in fact, that I had a hard time coming back. Not because I was dreading it, but because I wanted to be with my family. It'll be hard spending part of the holiday season without them. Of course, I'll have my friends here. I love them so much, and it was great seeing them when I got back. And I know I only have 3 more weeks before I'll be back for Christmas break. But still.
I love college, but I'd rather be home.
Purdue
Monday, November 26, 2012
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Eighteen Hours.
What can you do in 18 hours?
From my house in Normal, you can drive to Chicago and back 3 times, depending on traffic.
You can probably read the first few Harry Potter books (they're not that long).
You can work, eat, and sleep.
Eighteen hours is a lot of time, but it's not even an entire day. We waste a lot of time in our daily lives doing things that don't matter much.
How did I spend 18 hours of my life recently? By participating in something extraordinary with some incredible people.
Yes, I was a part of Purdue University Dance Marathon, and I stood for 18 hours for the kids that can't stand for themselves.
In my current state (less than 4 hours of sleep, sore, and lazy) I can't even think of the right adjectives to describe what it was like.
Exciting. Entertaining. Crazy. Fun. Inspiring. Emotional. Exhausting.
Worthwhile.
Despite the aching feet, the bruised knees, the sore calves, the sleepiness...it was all worth it.
So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, my PUDM 2012 experience.
Friday night was an early to bed kind of night. I had to rest up my body to prepare myself for the impending doom that was 18 hours of standing for PUDM the next day. When I woke up Saturday morning, I couldn't feel the nerves, but I knew they were there. When had I ever stood for more than a few hours? Waiting in line for a roller coaster at an amusement park is almost never more than 3 hours...this is America! We don't stand ever. We sit. And eat. But that's beside the point.
My floor decided that they wanted to play a volleyball game against the 6th floor guys at 2 (check-in for the marathon was at 3). I groaned, internally and externally. Yes, I wanted to play, but no, I didn't want to exert energy unnecessarily. But, nonetheless, I went to play. I had to pack beforehand since I wasn't going to have time to go back to Shreve before the marathon, which took place in the Dova. So I filled my backpack with the necessities. And when I say necessities, I mean I didn't use half the stuff I brought. Better to be safe than sorry!
We played a couple games of volleyball, but I sat out towards the end to conserve my strength. Then, before I knew it, we were on our way to sign in and then we were in the gym, surrounded on all sides by a horde of other dancers, all sitting around and trying to conserve their last bits of strength.
10 minute countdown.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
DANCE. (I can't help but to hear Ke$ha's voice from the beginning of her song "Blow" when I say this. If you don't know the song, don't worry about it; it's not important.)
I can't even tell you the order of events from those 18 hours. All sense of time was lost. There were no windows in the gym we were in, so the light couldn't direct us as to whether it was evening, night, early morning, or what. We tried as hard as we could not to look at our phones and watches. (A watched pot never boils; a watched clock leads to a never ending marathon.) But still we were constantly reminded of just how many hours were left.
The best I can give you is a haphazard list of the things that occurred during the night. I'll try to categorize them as best I can so your brain isn't as jumbled as mine is.
Entertainment:
To keep us all motivated, it was imperative that we had various entertainment acts throughout the night. These included the following:
Dancing:
For a dance marathon, there was surprisingly not as much dancing as one would have expected. But there was a lot.
The two most important aspects of the marathon relating to dancing that you need to know are:
1. We learned a line dance throughout the entire 18 hours, in 6 different parts. Each part had a mash-up of around 8 songs, and each part was between 1 and 2 minutes long, for a total of around a 10 minute dance I'm thinking. Again, I lost all sense of time while I was there, so I honestly couldn't tell you. There will most likely be a YouTube video of this dance up in the near future, so I'll try to post it for you when it comes out.
In the beginning, it was exciting. A choreographed dance with around 1,200 people? How cool was that?? But we soon learned that it was not all that it was cracked up to be. The first 2 parts went well...we were full of energy and super pumped to start learning. By the fourth part, we didn't want anything to do with it. We had thought there were only 5 parts originally, but when we learned there were 6, we wanted to cry. But my friend Dana and I decided that part of our 18 hours of standing should be 18 hours without complaining, so we made a pact that any time one of us complained, we'd slap each other on the hand. What did we have to complain about? We didn't have medical issues like the kids from Riley. We don't have to work to make our lives normal. We don't have children that we have to worry about whether or not they'd see another day. No, we were just standing for 18 hours. We could handle that without complaining.
2. The other awesome dance was the RAVE at 1 am. It came at the perfect time...everyone was starting to get a little worn out, but not too exhausted. We just needed something exciting to keep us going. So, at 1 in the morning, everyone began to crowd together and suddenly we were trapped in a swarm of sweaty, smelly bodies. The techno rave music came on, and we were jumping and yelling and stepping on peoples' feet and elbowing them and running into them and people were crowd surfing and it was crazy. If it wasn't chaotic enough, suddenly, glow sticks began flying at us through the air in all directions, raining down on us and smacking us in the heads. There was a mad scramble to collect as many glow sticks as possible, so we were careful to pick them up, lest we get our hands trampled by jumping people. It lasted a good hour, and it was just the pick up we needed to keep going.
Food:
Awesome meals from:
Riley Stories:
Periodically throughout the night, Riley families came to the stage to tell their stories. It was always an emotional experience because many of them had a difficult time getting through the stories. Which was completely understandable.
I can't even imagine the pain theses families have gone through, but I admire their constant hope and determination. With every story, it seemed like a never-ending chain of problems, one after another after another. There was one family with 3 Riley stories: the mom and the 2 children. There was a young girl with Down Syndrome, who also had cancer. Each story was unique, but they all seemed so strong for all they had gone through. It's amazing how positive these people could be in the midst of such adversity.
For the dancers, we had our own struggles. Each time a Riley family came on stage, we had to take a knee. At first, it seemed like a blessing. Awesome, we get to take a load off our feet and not be technically sitting! ...Yeahhhh, no. After awhile, the kneeling became more taxing on our bodies than the standing was. My knees are feeling it today.
When we registered for the marathon, we each got a hospital bracelet with a child's name and age on it. That's who we were dancing for this weekend. We couldn't give up. We had to do this for them.
Awards:
Shreve actually won an award at PUDM for participation and whatnot. It was pretty exciting to be a part of that!
I hit walls around 4 and 8 in the morning. When there was only half an hour left, we did our final line dance, all 6 parts, all together. It was really neat.
Then came the big reveal of how much money we raised. There was a lot of anticipation. Since PUDM started in 2005, each year has raised a significantly higher amount of money for Riley. And after last year's $303,000 record, we were worried we wouldn't be able to make it. So when they did the big reveal and had everyone hold up each individual number on a giant piece of cardboard, we were dismayed to see that the number read, "$328,564.67." Sure, it was a huge increase from last year, but not what we were expecting. But wait, they said. That's not right. Suddenly, the girl holding the 3 sign left and it was replaced with a 5. $528,564.67 raised?! Incredible! There was an explosion of cheering and jumping and yelling and hugging and screaming and smiles and hooray we can finally sit down because it's 10 am.
The group walked back to Shreve about ready to pass out. And that's what we did when we got to our rooms. I went to bed around 10:30 (Megan was still asleep when I got back) and got up around 2 or so. My legs and feet and knees are so sore, but at least I haven't been feeling sick like some of the other people who danced. I'll probably be feeling it in my whole body tomorrow. Thank goodness I get to see my family in 2 days! I cannot WAIT!!!
Thank you to everyone who donated to the cause for this weekend. All the Riley families were so appreciative, and I am too. I'm so glad I got to be a part of this wonderful experience.
Pictures:
From my house in Normal, you can drive to Chicago and back 3 times, depending on traffic.
You can probably read the first few Harry Potter books (they're not that long).
You can work, eat, and sleep.
Eighteen hours is a lot of time, but it's not even an entire day. We waste a lot of time in our daily lives doing things that don't matter much.
How did I spend 18 hours of my life recently? By participating in something extraordinary with some incredible people.
Yes, I was a part of Purdue University Dance Marathon, and I stood for 18 hours for the kids that can't stand for themselves.
In my current state (less than 4 hours of sleep, sore, and lazy) I can't even think of the right adjectives to describe what it was like.
Exciting. Entertaining. Crazy. Fun. Inspiring. Emotional. Exhausting.
Worthwhile.
Despite the aching feet, the bruised knees, the sore calves, the sleepiness...it was all worth it.
So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, my PUDM 2012 experience.
Friday night was an early to bed kind of night. I had to rest up my body to prepare myself for the impending doom that was 18 hours of standing for PUDM the next day. When I woke up Saturday morning, I couldn't feel the nerves, but I knew they were there. When had I ever stood for more than a few hours? Waiting in line for a roller coaster at an amusement park is almost never more than 3 hours...this is America! We don't stand ever. We sit. And eat. But that's beside the point.
My floor decided that they wanted to play a volleyball game against the 6th floor guys at 2 (check-in for the marathon was at 3). I groaned, internally and externally. Yes, I wanted to play, but no, I didn't want to exert energy unnecessarily. But, nonetheless, I went to play. I had to pack beforehand since I wasn't going to have time to go back to Shreve before the marathon, which took place in the Dova. So I filled my backpack with the necessities. And when I say necessities, I mean I didn't use half the stuff I brought. Better to be safe than sorry!
We played a couple games of volleyball, but I sat out towards the end to conserve my strength. Then, before I knew it, we were on our way to sign in and then we were in the gym, surrounded on all sides by a horde of other dancers, all sitting around and trying to conserve their last bits of strength.
DeVito dancers before the dance!
Before the dance!
10 minute countdown.
9.
8.
7.
6.
5.
4.
3.
2.
1.
DANCE. (I can't help but to hear Ke$ha's voice from the beginning of her song "Blow" when I say this. If you don't know the song, don't worry about it; it's not important.)
I can't even tell you the order of events from those 18 hours. All sense of time was lost. There were no windows in the gym we were in, so the light couldn't direct us as to whether it was evening, night, early morning, or what. We tried as hard as we could not to look at our phones and watches. (A watched pot never boils; a watched clock leads to a never ending marathon.) But still we were constantly reminded of just how many hours were left.
The best I can give you is a haphazard list of the things that occurred during the night. I'll try to categorize them as best I can so your brain isn't as jumbled as mine is.
Entertainment:
To keep us all motivated, it was imperative that we had various entertainment acts throughout the night. These included the following:
- The Purdue GoldDusters
- The Silver Twins (Purdue twirlers)
- Another twirling team
- The Purdue Dance Team
- The co-ed Purdue dance team, Dance 2XS
- The IU acapella group, Another Round, formerly known as Straight No Chaser
- The South Six 5, a band of little boys who sounded like men. It was awesome.
- The Mirror Men-former Purdue students who made the "Boiler Up" music video
- The Riley Talent Show-Riley children performed different routines, like singing and dancing and wheelchair tricks, for our viewing pleasure.
- A hypnotist
- The sororities and fraternities had dance performances called Serenades which were really funny to watch
Dancing:
For a dance marathon, there was surprisingly not as much dancing as one would have expected. But there was a lot.
The two most important aspects of the marathon relating to dancing that you need to know are:
1. We learned a line dance throughout the entire 18 hours, in 6 different parts. Each part had a mash-up of around 8 songs, and each part was between 1 and 2 minutes long, for a total of around a 10 minute dance I'm thinking. Again, I lost all sense of time while I was there, so I honestly couldn't tell you. There will most likely be a YouTube video of this dance up in the near future, so I'll try to post it for you when it comes out.
In the beginning, it was exciting. A choreographed dance with around 1,200 people? How cool was that?? But we soon learned that it was not all that it was cracked up to be. The first 2 parts went well...we were full of energy and super pumped to start learning. By the fourth part, we didn't want anything to do with it. We had thought there were only 5 parts originally, but when we learned there were 6, we wanted to cry. But my friend Dana and I decided that part of our 18 hours of standing should be 18 hours without complaining, so we made a pact that any time one of us complained, we'd slap each other on the hand. What did we have to complain about? We didn't have medical issues like the kids from Riley. We don't have to work to make our lives normal. We don't have children that we have to worry about whether or not they'd see another day. No, we were just standing for 18 hours. We could handle that without complaining.
2. The other awesome dance was the RAVE at 1 am. It came at the perfect time...everyone was starting to get a little worn out, but not too exhausted. We just needed something exciting to keep us going. So, at 1 in the morning, everyone began to crowd together and suddenly we were trapped in a swarm of sweaty, smelly bodies. The techno rave music came on, and we were jumping and yelling and stepping on peoples' feet and elbowing them and running into them and people were crowd surfing and it was crazy. If it wasn't chaotic enough, suddenly, glow sticks began flying at us through the air in all directions, raining down on us and smacking us in the heads. There was a mad scramble to collect as many glow sticks as possible, so we were careful to pick them up, lest we get our hands trampled by jumping people. It lasted a good hour, and it was just the pick up we needed to keep going.
This was just a preview of NEON RAVE!!!
Neon raveeeeee
Food:
Awesome meals from:
- Hot Box pizza
- Panda Express
Panda Express panda!
- Qdoba chips and Jimmy Johns
Riley Stories:
Periodically throughout the night, Riley families came to the stage to tell their stories. It was always an emotional experience because many of them had a difficult time getting through the stories. Which was completely understandable.
I can't even imagine the pain theses families have gone through, but I admire their constant hope and determination. With every story, it seemed like a never-ending chain of problems, one after another after another. There was one family with 3 Riley stories: the mom and the 2 children. There was a young girl with Down Syndrome, who also had cancer. Each story was unique, but they all seemed so strong for all they had gone through. It's amazing how positive these people could be in the midst of such adversity.
For the dancers, we had our own struggles. Each time a Riley family came on stage, we had to take a knee. At first, it seemed like a blessing. Awesome, we get to take a load off our feet and not be technically sitting! ...Yeahhhh, no. After awhile, the kneeling became more taxing on our bodies than the standing was. My knees are feeling it today.
When we registered for the marathon, we each got a hospital bracelet with a child's name and age on it. That's who we were dancing for this weekend. We couldn't give up. We had to do this for them.
Awards:
Shreve actually won an award at PUDM for participation and whatnot. It was pretty exciting to be a part of that!
I hit walls around 4 and 8 in the morning. When there was only half an hour left, we did our final line dance, all 6 parts, all together. It was really neat.
Then came the big reveal of how much money we raised. There was a lot of anticipation. Since PUDM started in 2005, each year has raised a significantly higher amount of money for Riley. And after last year's $303,000 record, we were worried we wouldn't be able to make it. So when they did the big reveal and had everyone hold up each individual number on a giant piece of cardboard, we were dismayed to see that the number read, "$328,564.67." Sure, it was a huge increase from last year, but not what we were expecting. But wait, they said. That's not right. Suddenly, the girl holding the 3 sign left and it was replaced with a 5. $528,564.67 raised?! Incredible! There was an explosion of cheering and jumping and yelling and hugging and screaming and smiles and hooray we can finally sit down because it's 10 am.
The group walked back to Shreve about ready to pass out. And that's what we did when we got to our rooms. I went to bed around 10:30 (Megan was still asleep when I got back) and got up around 2 or so. My legs and feet and knees are so sore, but at least I haven't been feeling sick like some of the other people who danced. I'll probably be feeling it in my whole body tomorrow. Thank goodness I get to see my family in 2 days! I cannot WAIT!!!
Thank you to everyone who donated to the cause for this weekend. All the Riley families were so appreciative, and I am too. I'm so glad I got to be a part of this wonderful experience.
Pictures:
The Fantastic Delta Fourth team
Rock on.
...And again.
"We're bringing fanny packs back, yeah yeah." -Justin Timberlake
Alyssa
3 hours in...
6 hours...
9 hours...halfway point!
12 hours...
15 hours...
18 hours! We did it!
Dana, Michael, and I.
HAHAHA this pic is ridiculous.
Zeen!
During Dancer Games, we played tug-o-war...and snapped the rope in half. Guess we don't know our own strength! Someone fell on top of Hannah in the process and she hurt her ankle and had to sit out the rest of the marathon :(
Purdue Pete as a lumberjack?
Friday, November 16, 2012
It Wouldn't Be a Blog Post if I Didn't Mention Food.
Picture this:
A cold, fall day. Almost all the leaves have fallen off the trees, and it's only a week before Thanksgiving. Students are restless for Thanksgiving break: it's apparent from the fact that there are more and more "missing class from sleeping in" occurrences. No, not from me, don't worry.
Anyways.
You're walking back from the Dova and across the street you see a huge line of people spilling out the doors of Wiley dinning court, anticipation plain on their faces. As you turn the corner and continue down the street, you join your friend and make your way to Hillenbrand dinning court. You're relieved that there isn't a huge line here, but you're taken aback when you walk in the doors to find--you guessed it--a line. The line slowly but surely creeps forward until you finally swipe in and find yourself standing in a big, dimly-lit room. Waiting for you were none other than more lines. So you make yourself over to one of the lines and join the horde of people. Suddenly, you find yourself staring directly at a Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, ham, greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls with honey butter, corn, stuffing...not to mention pumpkin pie, dutch apple pie, pecan pie bars, and pumpkin bread!
Such was my view tonight when I experienced my first Thanksgiving dinner at Purdue. They go all out. And I ate nearly everything. But it's okay, because if you noticed from my first sentence above, I worked out right before :)
\
It was so spectacular. I ate like a king. Or queen. Or a pilgrim. Point is, I love food. But it still doesn't compare to Thanksgiving with my family.
Speaking of which...
T-minus 5 days until I get to see my family and friends again! I can't wait! Except that I'll be holed up most of the time working on my 4 projects that are due the week I get back...yay...
In other news, guess who's the new Vice-President of Purdue Student Education Association (PSEA...the club I went to Indy with last weekend)??? You guessed it--yours truly!! Another girl on my floor is the President, and another girl on my floor is the Secretary! Since all four of the officers are going to be student teaching next semester, they can't be officers, so we have to take over for them. Except we've literally been here for one semester and don't know a single thing about anything really. But yay!! We were all so excited when we found out.
Have you ever wanted to dance for 18 hours straight? Wellllll, guess who's doing that this weekend? Again, yours truly. Purdue University Dance Marathon starts on Saturday at 4! It's a tad nerve-racking (18 hours without sitting? my feet might fall off!). But it's for a good cause, so it should be totally worth it. I'm just going to get 0 work done! I'll have to work my butt of tomorrow night to get some stuff done. Anywho, I suppose I should get to bed...I never seem to be able to get enough sleep!
Good night my friends! Thank you all for reading my blog! Last count I had 982 views...I'll hit 1,000 by the end of the week I bet. You guys are awesome :)
A cold, fall day. Almost all the leaves have fallen off the trees, and it's only a week before Thanksgiving. Students are restless for Thanksgiving break: it's apparent from the fact that there are more and more "missing class from sleeping in" occurrences. No, not from me, don't worry.
Anyways.
You're walking back from the Dova and across the street you see a huge line of people spilling out the doors of Wiley dinning court, anticipation plain on their faces. As you turn the corner and continue down the street, you join your friend and make your way to Hillenbrand dinning court. You're relieved that there isn't a huge line here, but you're taken aback when you walk in the doors to find--you guessed it--a line. The line slowly but surely creeps forward until you finally swipe in and find yourself standing in a big, dimly-lit room. Waiting for you were none other than more lines. So you make yourself over to one of the lines and join the horde of people. Suddenly, you find yourself staring directly at a Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, ham, greenbean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, rolls with honey butter, corn, stuffing...not to mention pumpkin pie, dutch apple pie, pecan pie bars, and pumpkin bread!
Such was my view tonight when I experienced my first Thanksgiving dinner at Purdue. They go all out. And I ate nearly everything. But it's okay, because if you noticed from my first sentence above, I worked out right before :)
\
Don't worry, the other tray was my friend's, not mine :)
It was so spectacular. I ate like a king. Or queen. Or a pilgrim. Point is, I love food. But it still doesn't compare to Thanksgiving with my family.
Speaking of which...
T-minus 5 days until I get to see my family and friends again! I can't wait! Except that I'll be holed up most of the time working on my 4 projects that are due the week I get back...yay...
In other news, guess who's the new Vice-President of Purdue Student Education Association (PSEA...the club I went to Indy with last weekend)??? You guessed it--yours truly!! Another girl on my floor is the President, and another girl on my floor is the Secretary! Since all four of the officers are going to be student teaching next semester, they can't be officers, so we have to take over for them. Except we've literally been here for one semester and don't know a single thing about anything really. But yay!! We were all so excited when we found out.
Have you ever wanted to dance for 18 hours straight? Wellllll, guess who's doing that this weekend? Again, yours truly. Purdue University Dance Marathon starts on Saturday at 4! It's a tad nerve-racking (18 hours without sitting? my feet might fall off!). But it's for a good cause, so it should be totally worth it. I'm just going to get 0 work done! I'll have to work my butt of tomorrow night to get some stuff done. Anywho, I suppose I should get to bed...I never seem to be able to get enough sleep!
Good night my friends! Thank you all for reading my blog! Last count I had 982 views...I'll hit 1,000 by the end of the week I bet. You guys are awesome :)
Monday, November 12, 2012
It's A Dancing Kind of Weekend.
Just another weekend at Purdue. But we'll start with Thursday.
Thursday:
After class, I had a Teach Learning Community event where I was in a group with a couple other girls and we had to develop a math lesson (blech) about fractions (double blech). The kids from the College Mentors for Kids program came and we got to teach them the lesson and play an online game with them. We went through the lesson a couple different times with different groups of kids. It was a good experience for learning what teaching in a classroom will really be like.
It was Jess's birthdayyyyy!! A bunch of us went to eat dinner together to celebrate. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS!!!
Friday:
Busy day! Class, meeting with my professor, and tutoring. Right after tutoring, (and I mean right after-I got picked up from the jr. high and I was literally standing outside the school as if I was the student needing to be picked up from school. Talk about a demotion of status in society) we left for Indianapolis for an Indiana Student Education Association (ISEA) conference with the Purdue Student Education Association (PSEA). Acronyms abound! We arrived at the hotel around 5:30 after a significantly awkward hour and a half car ride. (It was me, a girl from one of my classes, a senior who drove us who was really nice, and a freshman guy who was insanely quiet and 1 of only 2 guys that came to the conference). I ended up falling asleep in the car. That's how much of a blast it was. We didn't have time to grab anything to eat, so the girl who drove us, Liz, had her dad, who lived nearby, run to Hardee's and grab us burgers and fries. Thank goodness-we were famished! It was really nice of both of them. We all looked pretty spiffy in our teal club t-shirts. The night began with a bunch of speakers and ended with a dance party!! The good news: we love dance parties. The bad news: since it was an education conference, there were a grand total of about 10 guys. And they weren't cute. Boo. But it was still fun and I went crazy, especially when they played the song I requested: "Yeah" by Usher. Always a classic. I stayed in a room with 2 girls from my floor and the girl I rode up with. We crashed that night.
Saturday:
The next day we had to dress up in our teacher clothes (can't wait for student teaching and I get to go on a shopping spree for teacher clothes!) and we had a nice breakfast. We had some breakout sessions too to learn about different things, such as "What to expect your first year of teaching" and "How to land your first job" and things along that nature. Right during our final session, the fire alarms go off. "Ha ha ha," said everyone. "Fire drills for teachers." We evacuated with no panic and congregated outside the hotel, wondering what the heck was going on. After awhile of standing around not knowing what was happening, someone decided, hey, it's a good idea to go back inside a building that the fire alarms just went off in. So we did. And we were promptly shooed back outside because apparently there was smoke on the first floor. Nobody was really worried about the building. They were just worried about whether or not we'd get lunch. Then we turned it into a picture event and we took pics by the fire trucks that had since arrived. Silly teachers.
We did end up having lunch and some more speakers and then we left. Again, I fell asleep in the car. When we got back, I was so tired and lazy that I didn't even make it to my room. I dropped all my stuff into Jess and Alyssa's room and just collapsed to the floor. We decided that we wanted to see Brooke in her first ballroom dance competition through, so at 5:00 the three of us and Dana trekked to the Union to see her dance with our friend Michael from the 4th floor. They did so well! They got 2nd, 3rd, and 2 4th place ribbons out of 70+ couples in the newcomer division! It was really fun to watch, and the expert dancers were so cool too. It was just a fun time and we cheered really loudly for them.
You'd think I'd be danced out by now, but you'd be wrong. There was a Neon Rave at Earhart that night, so we hit that up in our neon get-ups, aka I wore a t-shirt and athletic shorts because I was not feeling looking good. We went CRAY. It was a blast and there were a ton of 4th floor peeps there. Some of the music sucked, but overall it was fun. They even had mocktails...they were freakin' delicious! Piña Coladas and Pomegranate Spritzers? Keep 'em coming. I had 3, aww yeahhh. But let me emphasize the MOCK in mocktails.
Afterwards, a guy from the 4th floor, Nathan, and I just chatted 'til 3:30 in the morning. No, do not jump to conclusions. We are not a thing. Chill out.
Sunday:
Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon...Saturday Night Live reference right hurrr. I got up around 10:30 and had my usual Hilly brunch with MYO pancakes and such. Went to the library to study for a few hours. Worked out. Did P90X abs with Christian. Yadda yadda yadda. Nothing special.
Anyways, gotta finish my laundry (there's nobody down here, holla at yo' girl). Talk lataaa'.
Thursday:
After class, I had a Teach Learning Community event where I was in a group with a couple other girls and we had to develop a math lesson (blech) about fractions (double blech). The kids from the College Mentors for Kids program came and we got to teach them the lesson and play an online game with them. We went through the lesson a couple different times with different groups of kids. It was a good experience for learning what teaching in a classroom will really be like.
It was Jess's birthdayyyyy!! A bunch of us went to eat dinner together to celebrate. HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS!!!
Friday:
Busy day! Class, meeting with my professor, and tutoring. Right after tutoring, (and I mean right after-I got picked up from the jr. high and I was literally standing outside the school as if I was the student needing to be picked up from school. Talk about a demotion of status in society) we left for Indianapolis for an Indiana Student Education Association (ISEA) conference with the Purdue Student Education Association (PSEA). Acronyms abound! We arrived at the hotel around 5:30 after a significantly awkward hour and a half car ride. (It was me, a girl from one of my classes, a senior who drove us who was really nice, and a freshman guy who was insanely quiet and 1 of only 2 guys that came to the conference). I ended up falling asleep in the car. That's how much of a blast it was. We didn't have time to grab anything to eat, so the girl who drove us, Liz, had her dad, who lived nearby, run to Hardee's and grab us burgers and fries. Thank goodness-we were famished! It was really nice of both of them. We all looked pretty spiffy in our teal club t-shirts. The night began with a bunch of speakers and ended with a dance party!! The good news: we love dance parties. The bad news: since it was an education conference, there were a grand total of about 10 guys. And they weren't cute. Boo. But it was still fun and I went crazy, especially when they played the song I requested: "Yeah" by Usher. Always a classic. I stayed in a room with 2 girls from my floor and the girl I rode up with. We crashed that night.
Purdue PSEA
Roomie pic!
Saturday:
The next day we had to dress up in our teacher clothes (can't wait for student teaching and I get to go on a shopping spree for teacher clothes!) and we had a nice breakfast. We had some breakout sessions too to learn about different things, such as "What to expect your first year of teaching" and "How to land your first job" and things along that nature. Right during our final session, the fire alarms go off. "Ha ha ha," said everyone. "Fire drills for teachers." We evacuated with no panic and congregated outside the hotel, wondering what the heck was going on. After awhile of standing around not knowing what was happening, someone decided, hey, it's a good idea to go back inside a building that the fire alarms just went off in. So we did. And we were promptly shooed back outside because apparently there was smoke on the first floor. Nobody was really worried about the building. They were just worried about whether or not we'd get lunch. Then we turned it into a picture event and we took pics by the fire trucks that had since arrived. Silly teachers.
In our teacher outfits.
Firetruck
Conference peeps
We did end up having lunch and some more speakers and then we left. Again, I fell asleep in the car. When we got back, I was so tired and lazy that I didn't even make it to my room. I dropped all my stuff into Jess and Alyssa's room and just collapsed to the floor. We decided that we wanted to see Brooke in her first ballroom dance competition through, so at 5:00 the three of us and Dana trekked to the Union to see her dance with our friend Michael from the 4th floor. They did so well! They got 2nd, 3rd, and 2 4th place ribbons out of 70+ couples in the newcomer division! It was really fun to watch, and the expert dancers were so cool too. It was just a fun time and we cheered really loudly for them.
The Dancing Queen!
Michael!!
Me and the girls
You'd think I'd be danced out by now, but you'd be wrong. There was a Neon Rave at Earhart that night, so we hit that up in our neon get-ups, aka I wore a t-shirt and athletic shorts because I was not feeling looking good. We went CRAY. It was a blast and there were a ton of 4th floor peeps there. Some of the music sucked, but overall it was fun. They even had mocktails...they were freakin' delicious! Piña Coladas and Pomegranate Spritzers? Keep 'em coming. I had 3, aww yeahhh. But let me emphasize the MOCK in mocktails.
Afterwards, a guy from the 4th floor, Nathan, and I just chatted 'til 3:30 in the morning. No, do not jump to conclusions. We are not a thing. Chill out.
Sunday:
Lazy Sunday, wake up in the late afternoon...Saturday Night Live reference right hurrr. I got up around 10:30 and had my usual Hilly brunch with MYO pancakes and such. Went to the library to study for a few hours. Worked out. Did P90X abs with Christian. Yadda yadda yadda. Nothing special.
Anyways, gotta finish my laundry (there's nobody down here, holla at yo' girl). Talk lataaa'.
Wednesday, November 7, 2012
Dinners, Voting, and Workouts.
Dinner:
We had our fancy DeVito Scholars dinner last night with the dean of the College of Education. What a fun experience! We started the night with all the girls meeting on the corner of the street that is a middle ground for where we all live. And we all laughed at each other for our inability to walk in our shoes. Heels+college campus=death. We walked onto academic campus where we met our professor, Janet. She drove us all in a big Purdue van. Now there's something you don't do every day. It felt like an awesome field trip, and we were all being our ridiculous selves. We drove to Lafayette to a restaurant called Red Seven and met the dean. Dinner was incredible. I had 5 cheese ravioli and it was fantastic. Then Laura, Kristen, and I were trying to decide between desserts (because there were way too many good ones to choose from), and we ended up each ordering a different one. We got one chocolate truffle cake, one cheesecake, and one "ice cream bomb" which was vanilla and chocolate gelatto (woah woah woah, wouldn't that be a gelatto bomb?!) covered in hardened chocolate. We each started with one and after every 2 bites we rotated so we could have some of each. We definitely demolished them. Nothing stands between girls and their chocolate. But the dean was really cool and nice and dinner definitely wasn't as awkward and quiet as it was with the associate dean a couple weeks ago.
When we got back to Shreve, I found a group congregating outside of my room in the hallway. Alyssa was one of them, and she was dressed up too, probably for something with her sorority. Naturally, that meant floor photo shoot. Which, of course, led to impromptu floor dance party. I swear, our floor is ridiculous. And by ridiculous I mean awesome. I don't think I've ever seen so many provocative dance moves.
Voting:
I'm only 18 years old and I suddenly have a say as to what happens in this country. I registered in Indiana about a month or so ago because it was easier than filling out an absentee ballot, so I went to the Union today after class and working on a project to perform my civic duties. I stood in a really long line behind some older lady. This is where the trouble began. She was nice-ish, so she decided that making small talk with a stranger college girl (that's me, in case you weren't sure) was a good idea. She started telling me about how she wasn't able to use her Purdue ID when she tried to vote earlier (apparently she's worked for the University for X number of years?) so she had to get her birth certificate. And she was talking about other places she could have voted so she didn't have to wait in this line, but she didn't know where those places were, so she didn't. I'm like okayyyyyy lady, I really need to read my book for my history class now. She obviously doesn't understand that when I'm standing there reading for my class, she shouldn't interrupt. Rude. Finally she seemed to take the hint. Phew.
...Cue other older woman in line 2 people ahead. "What is the title of your book?" she asked me. She had apparently been craning her neck sideways to read the spine. I was oblivious/ignoring all the psychotic people I was surrounded by. I showed her: The Devil's Highway, yes it's for school, my history class, we're talking about immigrants, etc. etc. etc. Next thing I know, I'm getting a whole story about some friends of friends of her students who were arrested at their high school graduation because their parents were illegal immigrants, even though the students were born in the US. That's awful. They shouldn't do that. It's good you're getting educated on this. Etc. Etc Etc. I was quite uncomfortable. Why was this happening to me?? Does waiting in line to vote automatically mean that they can stand on their soapbox and preach their opinions to people? I mean, freedom of speech, but really people. Tone it down a bit. Lady #1 then piped up by saying that, "Nobody should be allowed into America if they can't speak English. What if they can't read signs that say 'Danger'? I wouldn't go to Japan to study!" WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?! The darn line would not move fast enough. Get. Me. Out. Of. Here. Finally, finally, after a few more torturous and uncomfortable minutes, I was able to vote. Do I feel like more of a woman? More of an adult? More of an American? Not really. I know I should care more about politics, but it's never really been my thing. I did get a sticker though! :)
Workouts:
P90X abs. Need I say more? Christian and I did the 16 minute ab workout on Saturday, and we decided to go round 2 today after being mostly recovered. Annie joined us this time, so we had to find a new location since my room was hardly enough room for just 2 people. We ended up in the elevator lobby with the DVD on my laptop. Let's just say we got some strange looks from people walking down the hallway and coming off the elevator...
They're just gonna be jealous that they don't have ripped abs like us.
We had our fancy DeVito Scholars dinner last night with the dean of the College of Education. What a fun experience! We started the night with all the girls meeting on the corner of the street that is a middle ground for where we all live. And we all laughed at each other for our inability to walk in our shoes. Heels+college campus=death. We walked onto academic campus where we met our professor, Janet. She drove us all in a big Purdue van. Now there's something you don't do every day. It felt like an awesome field trip, and we were all being our ridiculous selves. We drove to Lafayette to a restaurant called Red Seven and met the dean. Dinner was incredible. I had 5 cheese ravioli and it was fantastic. Then Laura, Kristen, and I were trying to decide between desserts (because there were way too many good ones to choose from), and we ended up each ordering a different one. We got one chocolate truffle cake, one cheesecake, and one "ice cream bomb" which was vanilla and chocolate gelatto (woah woah woah, wouldn't that be a gelatto bomb?!) covered in hardened chocolate. We each started with one and after every 2 bites we rotated so we could have some of each. We definitely demolished them. Nothing stands between girls and their chocolate. But the dean was really cool and nice and dinner definitely wasn't as awkward and quiet as it was with the associate dean a couple weeks ago.
Waiting for the other girls on the corner.
Our 3 desserts.
No shame.
DeVito scholars!
When we got back to Shreve, I found a group congregating outside of my room in the hallway. Alyssa was one of them, and she was dressed up too, probably for something with her sorority. Naturally, that meant floor photo shoot. Which, of course, led to impromptu floor dance party. I swear, our floor is ridiculous. And by ridiculous I mean awesome. I don't think I've ever seen so many provocative dance moves.
Alyssa :)
Sexy pose...?
Laura!
Alyssa and Hannah
Christian!
Fourth Floor chicas!
Voting:
I'm only 18 years old and I suddenly have a say as to what happens in this country. I registered in Indiana about a month or so ago because it was easier than filling out an absentee ballot, so I went to the Union today after class and working on a project to perform my civic duties. I stood in a really long line behind some older lady. This is where the trouble began. She was nice-ish, so she decided that making small talk with a stranger college girl (that's me, in case you weren't sure) was a good idea. She started telling me about how she wasn't able to use her Purdue ID when she tried to vote earlier (apparently she's worked for the University for X number of years?) so she had to get her birth certificate. And she was talking about other places she could have voted so she didn't have to wait in this line, but she didn't know where those places were, so she didn't. I'm like okayyyyyy lady, I really need to read my book for my history class now. She obviously doesn't understand that when I'm standing there reading for my class, she shouldn't interrupt. Rude. Finally she seemed to take the hint. Phew.
...Cue other older woman in line 2 people ahead. "What is the title of your book?" she asked me. She had apparently been craning her neck sideways to read the spine. I was oblivious/ignoring all the psychotic people I was surrounded by. I showed her: The Devil's Highway, yes it's for school, my history class, we're talking about immigrants, etc. etc. etc. Next thing I know, I'm getting a whole story about some friends of friends of her students who were arrested at their high school graduation because their parents were illegal immigrants, even though the students were born in the US. That's awful. They shouldn't do that. It's good you're getting educated on this. Etc. Etc Etc. I was quite uncomfortable. Why was this happening to me?? Does waiting in line to vote automatically mean that they can stand on their soapbox and preach their opinions to people? I mean, freedom of speech, but really people. Tone it down a bit. Lady #1 then piped up by saying that, "Nobody should be allowed into America if they can't speak English. What if they can't read signs that say 'Danger'? I wouldn't go to Japan to study!" WHAT IS GOING ON RIGHT NOW?! The darn line would not move fast enough. Get. Me. Out. Of. Here. Finally, finally, after a few more torturous and uncomfortable minutes, I was able to vote. Do I feel like more of a woman? More of an adult? More of an American? Not really. I know I should care more about politics, but it's never really been my thing. I did get a sticker though! :)
Workouts:
P90X abs. Need I say more? Christian and I did the 16 minute ab workout on Saturday, and we decided to go round 2 today after being mostly recovered. Annie joined us this time, so we had to find a new location since my room was hardly enough room for just 2 people. We ended up in the elevator lobby with the DVD on my laptop. Let's just say we got some strange looks from people walking down the hallway and coming off the elevator...
They're just gonna be jealous that they don't have ripped abs like us.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Back In The Game.
Guess who's back, back, back,
Back again, 'gain, 'gain,
Kasey's back, back, back,
Tell a friend, friend, friend.
Please excuse my need to use some old school Eminem lyrics. But guess what? I got to play volleyball again! My friend Annie, who played volleyball in high school and helped coach her high school's team this year, put together a fourth floor intramural team, called the Fantastic Fourth. We played our first (and last) game tonight. Unfortunately, it was a single elimination bracket, so we're done since we lost. We didn't lose that bad though. But boy did it feel incredible to get back into the game! I didn't realize how much I missed how fast-paced it was and how much teamwork was required. I can't wait to get back on the court!
Last Thursday I stayed up until 4 in the morning working on a few projects. That was not fun at alllll. So Friday after class, I took a nice long nap since I didn't have tutoring. I was in bed from 2:30 until 7. It was fantastic. I also watched some movies with Jess and then Christian and Matt. It was an incredibly unproductive night but also fantastic at the same time.
Saturday I went hard working out. Christian and I went to the Dova (the rec center) and did an elliptical workout, and then came back to my room to do the P90X ab workout DVD. AKA 16 minutes straight of abs. AKA I'm really sore. It was really funny because we were making so much noise that Jess came in to see what was wrong with us because we were complaining so bad. She sat and watched us struggle through the last part of the workout. Then we danced around a little bit. Then I learned some wrestling moves. Christian wrestled in high school (and was pretty darn good from what I hear) and so he taught me the firemen's carry take down. So I had a good time flipping Christian over my shoulder and pinning him to the ground yesterday. I even had Jess screaming at me to keep my butt up, so it was like I had two wrestling coaches! After that, we went to the last football game I'll be able to see this season. It was cool because a girl I knew in high school came up to visit Brooke, so we all hung out there. Dinner after and hanging out with some girls that night.
Shout out to Jess by the way. She has a boyfriend as of today, and she is soooo adorable and happy. They met because she lost her ID and he found it and gave it to her. Then they found out they had a class together! They've been hanging out a lot, and they're so cute together :)
I've fallen in love with a new app called Snap Chat. I still don't understand the concept, but basically it's where you can take a picture of yourself or something else and send it to somebody, but they can only view it for up to 10 seconds, and then it's not visible anymore. My sister claims that it's good because you can take ridiculous pics of yourself and then nobody can save them and hold it against you. I'm not really sure, but it's so fun and I advise everyone to get it because it's so much fun. I've been sending people ridiculous photos all weekend.
Sooo...that awkward moment when your roommate tells you she's moving out next semester.
Yeah, true story. I walk in the room last Wednesday and she told me that since one of her good friends in Shreve had a study abroad roommate who was going home next semester, she offered Megan to move in. I was completely surprised and taken off guard. I thought that maybe I had done something wrong or whatever. She told me that she and her friend would be in the same major since they're both switching to Social Studies Ed and since they both go out and I don't, it only makes sense that they'd be roommates. It was understandable, but still pretty surprising. It was pretty awkward the next couple days because neither of us really knew what to say to each other, but we talked about it and we're okay now. I did find out that I'll probably have to get a new roomie at semester though, so that could be potentially awkward and stressful trying to learn another person's living style again. I guess we shall cross that bridge when we come to it.
My DeVito class gets to have fancy dinner again tomorrow night, but this time with the Dean of the College of Education. It should be pretty cool.
I met a Purdue celebrity tonight! So there's this video called Swipes on Swipes on Swipes and it's about this kid who makes fun of On-The-Go and how students go crazy over it. On-The-Go is a meal thing where you can go to one of the three OTG locations and use a meal swipe and get 3 food items. It's for people who need to eat a quick lunch or something and don't have time to eat in a dining court. They have things like sandwiches, wraps, veggies, yogurt, salads, chips, trail mix, milk, muffins, cookies, bagels...etc etc etc. On Fridays, people go crazy at OTG because it's not open on the weekends. If people have a bunch of extra meal swipes that you won't use over the weekend, people stock up on OTG food and keep it in their rooms. So about a year ago a kid made a song to it and I've watched it several times because it's so funny and catchy. While I was at Harrison Grill for dinner tonight, I saw him and just had to get a picture with him. He probably thought I was the most awkward person ever, but it was totally worth it. The video can be found below!
So the girls on my floor and I are pretty ridiculous and find it hilarious to just use our Hunger Games cornucopia decorations and carry Jess around inside all through the lobbies and all the floors of Shreve. Yeah, we're crazy, but it makes college more fun :)
Okay, goodnight all :)
Back again, 'gain, 'gain,
Kasey's back, back, back,
Tell a friend, friend, friend.
Please excuse my need to use some old school Eminem lyrics. But guess what? I got to play volleyball again! My friend Annie, who played volleyball in high school and helped coach her high school's team this year, put together a fourth floor intramural team, called the Fantastic Fourth. We played our first (and last) game tonight. Unfortunately, it was a single elimination bracket, so we're done since we lost. We didn't lose that bad though. But boy did it feel incredible to get back into the game! I didn't realize how much I missed how fast-paced it was and how much teamwork was required. I can't wait to get back on the court!
The Fantastic Fourth!
4East, represent!
Last Thursday I stayed up until 4 in the morning working on a few projects. That was not fun at alllll. So Friday after class, I took a nice long nap since I didn't have tutoring. I was in bed from 2:30 until 7. It was fantastic. I also watched some movies with Jess and then Christian and Matt. It was an incredibly unproductive night but also fantastic at the same time.
Saturday I went hard working out. Christian and I went to the Dova (the rec center) and did an elliptical workout, and then came back to my room to do the P90X ab workout DVD. AKA 16 minutes straight of abs. AKA I'm really sore. It was really funny because we were making so much noise that Jess came in to see what was wrong with us because we were complaining so bad. She sat and watched us struggle through the last part of the workout. Then we danced around a little bit. Then I learned some wrestling moves. Christian wrestled in high school (and was pretty darn good from what I hear) and so he taught me the firemen's carry take down. So I had a good time flipping Christian over my shoulder and pinning him to the ground yesterday. I even had Jess screaming at me to keep my butt up, so it was like I had two wrestling coaches! After that, we went to the last football game I'll be able to see this season. It was cool because a girl I knew in high school came up to visit Brooke, so we all hung out there. Dinner after and hanging out with some girls that night.
Me and Christian at the game
Shout out to Jess by the way. She has a boyfriend as of today, and she is soooo adorable and happy. They met because she lost her ID and he found it and gave it to her. Then they found out they had a class together! They've been hanging out a lot, and they're so cute together :)
I've fallen in love with a new app called Snap Chat. I still don't understand the concept, but basically it's where you can take a picture of yourself or something else and send it to somebody, but they can only view it for up to 10 seconds, and then it's not visible anymore. My sister claims that it's good because you can take ridiculous pics of yourself and then nobody can save them and hold it against you. I'm not really sure, but it's so fun and I advise everyone to get it because it's so much fun. I've been sending people ridiculous photos all weekend.
Sooo...that awkward moment when your roommate tells you she's moving out next semester.
Yeah, true story. I walk in the room last Wednesday and she told me that since one of her good friends in Shreve had a study abroad roommate who was going home next semester, she offered Megan to move in. I was completely surprised and taken off guard. I thought that maybe I had done something wrong or whatever. She told me that she and her friend would be in the same major since they're both switching to Social Studies Ed and since they both go out and I don't, it only makes sense that they'd be roommates. It was understandable, but still pretty surprising. It was pretty awkward the next couple days because neither of us really knew what to say to each other, but we talked about it and we're okay now. I did find out that I'll probably have to get a new roomie at semester though, so that could be potentially awkward and stressful trying to learn another person's living style again. I guess we shall cross that bridge when we come to it.
My DeVito class gets to have fancy dinner again tomorrow night, but this time with the Dean of the College of Education. It should be pretty cool.
I met a Purdue celebrity tonight! So there's this video called Swipes on Swipes on Swipes and it's about this kid who makes fun of On-The-Go and how students go crazy over it. On-The-Go is a meal thing where you can go to one of the three OTG locations and use a meal swipe and get 3 food items. It's for people who need to eat a quick lunch or something and don't have time to eat in a dining court. They have things like sandwiches, wraps, veggies, yogurt, salads, chips, trail mix, milk, muffins, cookies, bagels...etc etc etc. On Fridays, people go crazy at OTG because it's not open on the weekends. If people have a bunch of extra meal swipes that you won't use over the weekend, people stock up on OTG food and keep it in their rooms. So about a year ago a kid made a song to it and I've watched it several times because it's so funny and catchy. While I was at Harrison Grill for dinner tonight, I saw him and just had to get a picture with him. He probably thought I was the most awkward person ever, but it was totally worth it. The video can be found below!
The Swipes guy!!
So the girls on my floor and I are pretty ridiculous and find it hilarious to just use our Hunger Games cornucopia decorations and carry Jess around inside all through the lobbies and all the floors of Shreve. Yeah, we're crazy, but it makes college more fun :)
Okay, goodnight all :)
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