Academic Days, Starry Nights, and Togas.

What the heck is she talking about?  These post titles are getting weirder and weirder...

Hey!  I can hear you, you know...
Besides, I don't have to explain myself to you.  It makes sense in my head.

But I'll explain anyways.

As far as academic days go...
Classes are getting...well...classy.  And I don't mean classy as in fancy.  I mean classy as in it's not so easy anymore, because the first round of exams hit, and a pattern I've noticed in school is that up until the first round of exams, you can kind of breeze by.  But, as soon as that first exam hits, you have to be on your toes for the rest of the semester because it's really easy to fall behind on school work.  So, the first round hit...

...me right in the face.

Okay, it wasn't that bad.  But I did have 3 of them last week, Tuesday through Thursday, plus a project due on Friday, so it wasn't the most fun week I've ever had.  They weren't too difficult though, which was a plus.

Also, my kindergartners are crazy.  They're cute and fun, but when they start dropping their water bottles and they shatter and they start putting their hands in the stamp pads and getting ink everywhere, well...let's just say my patience wears thin.  I understand that they're young and are learning, but I just know that kindergarten isn't for me.  However, it is cool that a lot of the things my students are doing in class correlate to my children's literacy class, so I like being able to transfer what I learn in my class to their class.

Speaking of that class...

We've been discussing the importance of "language experience," a term that refers to giving students exposure to language if they haven't really had it before.  One way to do this is to have a student tell you a story and you as the teacher write it down and create a little book for them to illustrate, and then they can work on reading it.  Well, my professor is the type of woman who teaches us as if we are first graders since she used to be a first grade teacher.  (It's not in a demeaning way, but rather a way to model how we should act in a first grade classroom).  So, she wanted to show the class and example of how to do this.  She knew about my obsession with cats, so she had me be the example and had me tell her about my cat, Smokey, so she could write it down.  I then had to color it and everything, as if I was in first grade.  It was so funny!

As far as Starry Nights go...

Every year, one of the church organizations at Purdue puts on a super hipster art and music festival called Starry Night.  It reminds me a little of the Sugar Creek Arts Festival in Normal, but this one's at night.  The gist is that local artists set up little stands and sell the things they've created, and also some hipster bands play.  Oh, and the Starry Night name is in part because, well, it's at night, but also because they have strings of Christmas lights above it all, making it look really cool and hipster-y.  Jess, Dana, Kristen, and I went together to check it out and listen to the bands (which were pretty good!) and observe the crafts.  It was a good time if you ask me.  And even if you don't ask me, it was still a good time.

On our walk back to Shreve, we saw some guys slack-lining.  Basically, this is a tight-rope type thing that is tied between two trees and you try to walk across it.  Well, it's been on my mental bucket list to try this, so I just went up to these strangers (don't worry, I had other people with me, I wasn't going to get kidnapped) and asked if maybe I could try it.  They were kinda odd people, but they let me!  I mean, I couldn't do it without holding onto people, but I still made it across without falling!  It was a nifty experience.

Starry Night

Roomiessss

Slack-lining!

As far as togas go...

Fairway threw a toga party last night!  So, Dana, Laura, and I donned bedsheets and went to dance.  Granted, it took us a solid 30 minutes or more to properly toga up, what with trying to figure out how to wrap them, how to fold them correctly, how to pin them, what to wear underneath, and how to access the phones in our pockets once our togas were on all the way.  But, it ended as a success, and we had a good time dancing.  We also played some water-pong while we were there (I sucked), and guess what else?

I OFFICIALLY MET MAURICIO, THE ATTRACTIVE ZUMBA INSTRUCTOR.

To refresh your memory, when I took Zumba classes last semester, there was an instructor named Mauricio who was very attractive and a very good dancer and I was kinda sorta in love with him if you could be in love with a guy you'd never spoken a word to before.  I never met him, besides that time I shook his hand during church, but I quietly pined after him all last year.  Well, while at the toga party, Dana introduced us because her friend was Mauricio's roommate!  I almost freaked out.  She didn't know, however, that I was obsessed with him, so she was just casually introducing us.  But I flipped out afterwards and said she should totally hook us up on some double dates.  Uh, yes.

As far as other stuff goes that wasn't listed in the title of this post...

Meow:
My friend Kristen got a cat!  ...Except her apartment complex doesn't allow cats.  So they're keeping it there illegally, but it's super cute! ...Kinda.  It's a Persian, and seriously looks like it ran full force into a wall and its face just went flat, but a cat is a cat and I love cats.  They named it Mochi, and it was Kristen's boyfriend's cousin's cat, but they were moving to Australia and couldn't bring it with.  I decided I was going to be its fun aunt, so I went over and visited it for awhile.  It's so fuzzy!  I love it!

Parade:
Sydney, Kristen, Becca, and I went to the Homecoming parade last night.  The homecoming theme is the '90s, so there were some cool, '90s themed floats.  I got a ton of candy too because I knew a lot of people in the parade...and because I was that lame college student cheering for the Girl Scouts.  Hey, we gotta stick together, even if I dropped out after 6th grade.

Discrimination Ice Cream Social:
Shreve put on this "Discrimination Ice Cream Social" event.  They didn't give many details, but Erin, a girl on my floor, and I went down to check it out, because we were promised free ice cream.  While we were in line, Erin was trying to decide if she wanted chocolate or vanilla ice cream, but the scoopers said chocolate, because you're a girl.  We thought it was a joke at first, but come to find out, it was part of the event.  Vanilla for boys, chocolate for girls.  Caramel syrup for people wearing pants, chocolate for shorts.  M&Ms for those with tennis shoes, none for flip flops and sandals.  Sprinkles for contacts/glasses, none for the rest.  So we then found out what it meant by discrimination ice cream.  They had a debrief after getting your ice cream so we could talk about how we felt and why we shouldn't discriminate and things like that, but we ditched because we just wanted the ice cream.

The Exponent:
I worked my first 2 days as copy editor at the Exponent!  And let me tell you, what an interesting experience that has been.  Guess how many stories I'm able to edit in 3 hours?

3.

Yeah.  I know.  Talk about a speed reader over here...
Haha no, but it's not just reading through a story and making sure it sounds right.  It's reading a story and correcting it for spelling and grammar and style and are the names spelled correctly and are the facts right and are there dangling modifiers and does it even make sense and is it in AP style and is it libelous and holy cow, who knew it could be so tedious?  The sports stories are the worst.  The players and coaches' names must be spelled right, their records must be correct, the dates of the games must be right, and the statistics too.  It's rough trying to look all that up.  However, it's rewarding to see the story published in the next day's Exponent.  I feel pretty proud then.  The other plus is that it's a paid position and there's a real live old fashioned clocking in machine, which a punch card and everything!  It's pretty legit.

Another thing about the Exponent?  Every Friday is what I affectionately call "Nerd Club" where all Exponent staff are welcome to join our news adviser, Carl, in the conference room to fix the ridiculous error-laden sentences he creates.  We literally sit there for an hour and correct sentences.  On a Friday afternoon.  Hah.  But we do get candy for it, and the sentences are funny because he makes them about the staff.  My name was actually in some of the sentences this week!  I was pretty excited to be a part of the "in" crowd, even if the sentence was, "Arnett Clinic welcomes Doctor Kasey Kaisershot, expert on men and other diseases."

Annie Boo:
My friend Annie and I worked on a project together last weekend at her apartment, and since she lives in town, she invited me to her house for dinner with her family!  Hooray for home-cooked meals and steak!  Shout-out to the Dooleys for being so awesome and hospitable!  

Our project was to read a Big Book out loud to each other and film it, as if we were teachers reading to a class of little kids.  It was really funny, and we had quite a few bloopers.  They're on YouTube if you think you wanna search for them...

Family Weekend:
I LOVE MY FAMILY!!  Mama, dad, and sissy came up yesterday for Family Day at Purdue, bringing a huge bucket of cookies, puppy chow, candy, and other goodies.  We went to the NIU vs. Purdue football game (where we lost pathetically) and Kourt stood in the student section with Annie and I and some other friends.  After the game (which we didn't stay for since it was so hard to watch), my fam took Annie, Jess, and I to Chili's for an early dinner, and it was delish!  We hung out for awhile and then went to the Silver Dipper for ice cream.  I would say that I miss them already, except I will be seeing them for the next 2 weekends :)  All in all, it was a good day.  Until...

Sissy <3

Saturday night fiasco:
Since Saturday Night Live was on last night, I was going over to Annie's to watch it with her.  However, as I get in my car, it wouldn't start.  The engine wouldn't turn over.  Crap.  Annie drove over to see if she could help me jump it.  As soon as she pulled up, this is what went down:

Me: How do I pop the hood?  I can't find the latch up front here...
Annie: I can't either.  It's different than mine.
Me: Okay, got it!
Annie: Okay, jumping a car...do you know what you're doing?
Me: Nope!
Annie: Me either.  I'll Wikipedia it.
Me: Okay, I'll YouTube it.

Hahahaha okay, I know that sounds really dumb.  We both knew the basics (red to red, black to black), but we didn't know the fine details, like which order to start the cars and how long they needed to run.  As we were trying to figure this out, 3 guys came over and saw us struggling and asked if we needed help. What was their first clue...?

They hooked up the cables and were super nice, saying they were in the army and the one guy always works with engines.  However, after it didn't work, they said that it wasn't the battery that was the problem, but something else.  They were really funny and said things like, "See all these parts in the engine?  It could be any number of things wrong with it."  They were really nice and apologized for not being able to help.  

I tried it again this morning with no luck, so I tried to call a towing company to take me to a mechanic, but nobody was open and I was really frustrated.  So now I have to take care of that tomorrow...yay...

Creeper shot of the guys trying to fix my car

Hope everyone has a fantastic week!  My advice to you (and to myself!): Think positively :)

XOXO

Short Underdon't.

What...?

Didja catch that?  "Short Underdon't" is the opposite of "Long Overdue."  Which is, in fact, what this post is.  Okay, yes, that's a stretch.  Obviously "don't" is not the opposite of "due."  Sorry boutcha.

Your thoughts may (or may not) have been:

Did she fall off a cliff?
Did her homework eat her?
Did she drop out of school?
Did she get abducted by aliens?  Kidnapped perhaps?

My thoughts:

Dear goodness, there is so much work to do around here.  I don't have a second to sit down and blog.

But anyways, the reason why I titled this post the way I did is because my feelings are quite opposite of those from my last post.  If you recall, I was already complaining (is that a surprise?) about the monotony and predictability of school.  But, now that I've gotten myself involved in 80+ activities, it is no longer boring.

So, without further ado, let's dive in.

Stuff for classes:

1.  So, for my Block II class, I got my classroom assignment: Kindergarten!  First reaction: uh oh...

Many of you know that I really want to teach the older students (3-5th grades), so it came as quite a surprise to get a kindergarten classroom.  However, I know it will be an adventure, and an adventure it has been so far.

I had my principal meeting 2 weeks ago and then my first classroom experience yesterday.  My teacher, Mrs. Merryman, definitely seems to know what's up.  She is very skilled in what she's doing, so I think I will be able to learn a lot from her.  She's already put me to work!  I ran several errands for her yesterday, and even got to run a reading station where the students practiced filling in the missing letters of the alphabet!  They are so adorable and are always eager to show me what they can do.  I'm definitely excited to continue working in this classroom (every Monday for 2 hrs.) and getting as involved as possible.

2. If you read my previous post, you know that I'm taking an HONR course called the McDonaldization of Society.  So, guess what we got to do last week?  Go to McDonald's!  My professor bought the whole class lunch and pointed out a bunch of stuff about McDonald's.  For example, the back room basically resembles a factory, and there isn't really any smell of food coming from the kitchen!  Also, fun fact: for my class of 20 people to order and receive their food, it only took a little over 8 minutes.  8 minutes!!  It's crazy!  We talked about how the burgers all look exactly the same and that all the employees have scripted responses to questions that customers ask.  It's crazy!  Tomorrow we are going to Triple XXX, a famous family-owned burger restaurant in town, to compare it to chains like McDonald's.  It's really interesting.

Stuff that is sucking up my free time but I love doing:

1.  I honestly don't remember everything I said in my last post, so if I've already told you about this, disregard it.  But I took up a volunteer tutoring position at Happy Hollow Elementary!  Every Wednesday from 2:00-3:30, I work with 4th-6th grade students in an after-school homework help room.  I help them with math, spelling, and any other homework they have.  It's pretty cool, and just another excuse to get in the classroom!

2. Purdue Student Education Association is going great so far!  I'm really excited about this year.  The Education Organizations Board (EOB), which is the president and vice president of all the education clubs at Purdue, held an ice cream social event a couple weeks ago for all education majors.  The event was for students to come out and get free ice cream and learn more about the education clubs.  We were able to spark an interest in a lot of students and had a great turn out at our callout the next day!  We actually have a meeting tomorrow to discuss our fall conference (see It's A Dancing Kind of Weekend), and I think it will be a lot of fun!  Also, Purdue GetInvolved started an initiative this year where all executive board members of a club have to attend these workshops to improve your club.  I went to a goal setting one with our secretary, Kelsey, and we were kinda mad that we had to go.  But we were so glad we did!  We started thinking of all these ways we could make PSEA better for our members, so we're really pumped about this year.

3.  Remember how I did LifeGuides Sunday school teaching at my church, St. Tom's, last year?  Welp, I'm doing it again!  I'm in 5th grade again (which is what I wanted), and I'm actually the lead teacher this year!  I also have 4 awesome co-teachers, and we had our first class last week, which went really well.  I'm pretty excited for this year, although I'm going to miss Hannah, the teacher I worked with last year.

4.  As if all this wasn't enough, I decided to add another activity to my plate: I was just hired as a copy editor for Purdue's newspaper, The Exponent!  I had to take a screening exam (during which I couldn't remember who competed in the 2013 Superbowl, so I just wrote down, "Beyonce performed at half-time" which is obviously more important anyway...) and then I was interviewed and got the job!  It's a paid position and as of right now I'll be working on Wednesdays to edit the articles that the reporters write.  We had a 3 hour training session tonight, where they warned us that we might get sued for libel if we mess up really bad (no pressure).  I just can't get away from newspaper!  After having a blast with it in high school, I thought I'd try my hand at the big leagues (if college newspapers can be considered big league...hey, we're one of the few college papers with our own printing press).

Stuff I do that's stupid:

1.  So like 2 weeks ago, I straightened my hair with my flat iron.  I set it on my chair to let it cool before I stored it back in my drawer.  Well, really smart me sat on my chair, completely oblivious to the fact that I had LITERALLY JUST SET IT DOWN ON MY CHAIR, BURNING HOT, LESS THAN A MINUTE BEOFRE.  Oh my gosh, I'm so dumb.  Hmm, what's that searing pain on my leg?  DUH, IT'S THE FLAT IRON.  So, I now have a nasty burn mark on the back of my upper thigh, which, after concealing it with a bandage, proceeded to have an allergic reaction to the bandage adhesive and now it's all just a mess.  Just like my life.  Sigh.

2.  Rock climbing.  Yeah, it was actually stupid.  So I met some new friends at this conference I went to 2 weekends ago (see below) named Anne and Jon.  Both of them talked about how they enjoy climbing and I told them I had never gone before!  They insisted I go with them to climb at the Co-Rec, to which I stupidly obliged.  We ended up only doing the bouldering wall (which is the short one that is long horizontally and there are different leveled courses you practice), but gosh dang if that wasn't hard!  I did 2 V0 courses (which are the easiest), and even then I couldn't do them.  I was flailing everywhere, considering I have about, oh, negative amounts of upper body strength.  I was able to successfully (can you call it successfully if you cheated on them??) complete the 2 courses I tried.  Unfortunately, I was left with a nasty blister on my hand and calves that were so sore that I couldn't walk down the stairs without limping and actually took the elevator from my 3rd floor room in my residence hall.  #shame.

3. Jess and I have class together at 11:30 on Fridays, and after that we have an hour break before we go to our next class.  So, we usually just hang out together by the Loeb fountain on campus and read the paper and just chat while we wait.  Well, a couple of weeks ago, it was scorching hot.  It was so hot that we (okay, I) were leaving sweat marks on the ledge we were sitting on.  So, what do I suggest?  Let's go on an impromptu fountain run.  So we did.  We only ran through 1 fountain (instead of the protocol 4), but we did it in our school clothes...right before our next class.  It felt good for about 2 seconds, but then we went to class in our sopping wet clothes.  And let me tell you, jean shorts + water = unhappy thighs.  When I got done with that class, there was literally a puddle of water on my chair.  The next kid probs thought I peed my pants.

Stuff I do for fun:

1. So, as I said above, I went to a conference 2 weekends ago.  It was called the Emily Mauzy Vogel Sophomore Leadership Conference at Camp Tecumseh in Indiana.  I was nominated for this conference by my adviser, Janet, last year.  It was actually pretty neat!  There were probably over 100 sophomore leaders there, and there were actually a ton from my 4th floor in Shreve last year!  #FoFloHoRepresent!  

Before we went, we all had to take this strengths finder test to see what our top 5 strengths were as leaders.  Mine were Empathy, Developer, Maximizer, Positivity, and Achiever.  At the conference, our keynote helped us to better understand these types of leadership and how to make them better and how to use them, etc.  But the conference was also pretty fun, too.  We were all in small groups (where I met Jon and Anne) and also had a small group leader.  We did several break-out sessions with our groups, but we also did some fun stuff.  For example, we had to perform a skit with our group and buddy group pertaining to our group names (we were Those Meddling Kids from Scooby Doo and our buddy group was Tom & Jerry) in front of everyone!  It was hilarious!  We also had a mini dance party, as well as a campfire with s'mores.  Problem was, to get to the campfire, we had to walk across the lake on this rickety old bridge in the pitch black.  It seriously felt like we were walking around under the influence or something because we couldn't go straight on this bridge!  It was so wobbly and made us all feel dizzy!  The other problem was they didn't have marshmallow skewers so we had to rough it and find sticks from the woods to use.  But let me tell you, those were some of the best s'mores I've ever had!  And yes, I did say those.  I had more than one.  Judge me.

That night was pretty eventful, too.  We all stayed in these cabins, and right as we were settling into bed, I saw a mouse dart across the floor.  I should have kept my mouth shut since nobody else had seen it, but I was so surprised that I pointed it out, and everyone freaked.  One girl was so afraid that she didn't think she could sleep.  I wasn't too concerned because I think mice are cute and I knew it wouldn't do anything to hurt me or anything.  However, as I was drifting into sleep, the one girl freaked out and said she felt it crawling on her.  She ended up leaving our cabin in the middle of the night to sleep in another one.  But then, at like 2 am, I could have sworn I felt a mouse on my leg.  I flipped out and jumped out of my bed, freaking out.  As I think back to it, I'm pretty sure it was just my imagination, but it still took me a good 5 minutes to even get back into bed, and even longer before I was able to drift into a restless sleep.

Needless to say, I was exhausted in the morning, especially since we had such a busy day.  We had more speakers and got to do an obstacle course, go down some giant slides, and go canoeing!  We also did some low ropes course activities.  It was a good time overall, and it helped me to learn more about my leadership styles.

2. We also had our BGR banquet that Sunday.  Everyone involved in BGR got all dressed up and had a really yummy fancy dinner and listened to a couple speakers and took pictures and watched a memory video, and overall just had a good time catching up.  And, of course, we did the Common Bond dance together, because what is BGR without the Common Bond dance?  A couple days later, the new Student Orientation Committee (SOC, aka the big wigs of BGR) were announced, and I know several of them and am really excited!  My buddy group Super and fellow College of Education ambassador, Brad, was chosen, as well as my friends Mike Fouch and another Shrevehart Super I worked with during move-in, Reece!  It was really exciting.  I haven't yet decided if I want to be a Super this coming year or not.  Supers are one step up from TLs like I was this year...I think it would be really fun, but I have to decide if I can dedicate enough time to it!

(Half of) our wonderful family!

My girlssss

Yayy, Liz's TLs!

Dernerrr

Wut.

Paayal girllll

3. Speaking of BGR, my BGR group had a reunion this Sunday!  We all got together to order pizza for dinner and just hung out and caught up.  I was blessed with such a great group who still likes to hang out together!

Yayyyy pizza!

4. Also, I know this was forever ago, but I got to go home for Labor Day weekend!  My mama and I hung out at the pool on Saturday and got tan (and in her case, burnt) and we got to go out for dinner too.  My dad and sis were in Nebraska to see a football game that weekend, but they came home Sunday night and we got to watch the Great Gatsby movie together.  It was good to see them, as always.  Oh, and my cats :)  It's Family Weekend in 2 weekends too, so they'll be up to see the game, and the weekend after is October break, so I'll have lots of family time in the upcoming weeks!

What is going home without pictures of my cats?

That Monday, I had to head back to school, but not before I went down to Champagne to visit Katie at U of I!  She had been busy all weekend with rush events, so she wasn't able to come home, but I was so glad I got to go down there and grab lunch with her on my way back to Purdue!

5. Purdue put on a free concert at Slayter Hill on Friday night, so Dana and I went to check it out.  I mean, hey, it was free, right?  Her friend Nichol also came, so we sat and watched for awhile.  We were really into the opener, Basic Vacation (and let's be honest, the lead singer was pretty darn attractive), but the main act, Mayer Hawthorn, was sub-par.  We left early because it was pretty boring.  But I did get to chat with my friend Laura there for a little!  And even though this isn't necessarily "fun" per se, I babysat for a 2 year old little boy Saturday morning and afternoon.  He was soooo adorable!  The best part was that he was so polite!  Everything was, "Thank you, Kasey!".  He also recognized the Purdue symbol, so when he saw my Purdue sweatshirt, he said, "Kasey, Purdue!".  It was precious.

Basic Vacation-really love this song!

Yoga makes boring concerts fun, right?

6. Saturday night was the big Purdue vs. Notre Dame football game!  The atmosphere on campus was ridiculous!  There were so many people around, Purdue and Notre Dame fans alike.  Everyone was really geared up because Purdue was incredibly close to beating Notre Dame last year, so we really wanted to show them this year.  I went to the game with Annie and Jennifer Losby and some people from her floor.  Brooke and her sister also met up with us later.  It was CRAZY!!  There were so many people there, and virtually every seat was taken.  We were leading up to half time, and then, unfortunately, we let Notre Dame score a couple too many :(  However, some interesting tidbits from the game:

• At half-time, our band performed, and they glowed!!!  You read that right; they all had these glowing lights on their uniforms and instruments, and it was pretty cool.  They also got into the formation of a motorcycle, and our president, Mitch Daniels, rode out on a motorcycle.  It was pretty funny.
• Several tussles broke out in the stands.  Notre Dame fans and Purdue fans were yelling at each other, and security had to escort several people out for unruly behavior.
• At half time when the band performed, a guy began to run across the field.  He passed the drum (which, fun fact, is the world's largest drum!) and stole one of the guy's mallet and continued to sprint across.  The band member began chasing after him, but the guy, who was presumably drunk, made it to the other end of the field.  He raised his arms in triumph, and the band member caught up with him and pushed him to the ground where security proceeded to handcuff and arrest him.  Quite the entertainment, let me tell you.  

Jennifer!

Brooke and Annie :)

Errrnerrrr

Our band glows!

7. I finally got to see Alyssa!  We've literally been here for over a month and I have yet to see her.  However, we were able to meet for lunch with Jess, her roomie from last year, because it was orange chicken day, and Alyssa and I always ate orange chicken together.  It was so good to see her!  I've definitely missed her, and she said she'd be able to invite Jess and I over to her sorority house for dinner one night!

8.  Pumpkin Spice Lattes are back at Starbucks.  And our Starbucks was remodeled this summer, so now it's super fancy.  Needless to say, I've been there 3 times the past 2 weeks... ;)

9.  I got to do a little bit of crafting here!  I made Annie some canvases for her kitchen in her apartment that match the colors of her spatulas, because her apartment is so white and boring.  I took it upon myself to be her interior designer :)  I also made a Purdue collage on canvases to put in our room!

Annie's canvases! 

My black and white Purdue landmark collage :)

10.  Annie, Jess, and I are working on plans to all get an apartment together next year!  I'm super excited...talk about growing up!  And oh my gosh, I'm having a quarter-life crisis, because I realize I'm turning 20 in 6 months, and there is absolutely no way that I am almost 20 years old.  It's crazy, and I'm pretty sure a lie.

11. My floor this year is definitely not as community-oriented as last year, but I'm starting to get to know some of the girls.  One girl, Erin, asked me to get lunch with her today, and she is so awesome!  She's an El Ed major as well, and she's also a twirler for the Purdue marching band!  How sweet is that?!  But she is so cool, and we have a lot of the same ideas about things (including our dislike of a certain math teacher...), so hopefully we'll get to hang out some more this year.

Stuff about my friends:

1. So obviously Christian is not here at Purdue anymore.  I also don't think I ever mentioned, but I did get to visit him in Colorado over 4th of July weekend this summer, and it was a blast!  But anyways, if you remember me saying in previous posts, he is participating in a Gap Year program now.  So, just a couple weeks ago, he landed in the Dominican Republic, where he will be staying for the semester!  I got to Skype with him for the first time last night, and he said he really likes it there so far.  He really likes his host mom and has made friends with the other Gap Year students.  Plus he has WiFi at his house, so we can still Facebook message and Snapchat and stuff!  He's been taking a couple classes and working on his Spanish and stuff too.  I'm so excited to see where this adventure takes him!

2. Brooke is the editor of a Purdue magazine this year!  I honestly can't remember the name (sorry, Brooke!), but she's been busy with that, but enjoying it!  So happy and proud of her!

3. Annie is doing an honors contract for one of the classes we have together so she can get honors credit, and part of her project is to re-vamp the after-school tutoring program at Lafayette Urban Ministries!  So excited for her to have this opportunity!

If you aren't sick of my rambling yet...well, something is not right in your head.  But thanks for reading, and I'm sorry for all the word vomit.  I hope everyone is enjoying this AMAZING fall weather!!

XOXO

Other (old) pics:

BGR training

SHREVEHARTTTTT

WE'RE NUMBER 1!!

Fancy floor dinner

After Glee Club show

Floor 3 Shes

It's Too Easy.

It's too easy.

Much too easy.

Somehow, I have already settled back into the routine of school, and it's only been a week since classes have started.

I'm pretty sure these were my thoughts this time last year, when everything was new and cool:

Can't wait for my next class!

How the heck do I buy textbooks?  Someone come with me so I don't look stupid.

Living with a stranger is really awkward...

Holy cow, look at all the food I can eat at every meal!

Cool, college is like a constant sleepover; all my friends live right down the hall!

Hey, look at that cute guy. *Practices wink and fails miserably

It takes 15 minutes to get to class?  Ugh, that's so far!

Need to straighten my hair and put on makeup and dress nice for the first week!

Woohoo, Syllabus Week!  No homework!

Oh my gosh, where's my map?  I think I'm already lost.

The dramatic difference for this year:

Ugh, I have to go to class.

Textbooks cost $500 this semester?! I don't have that kind of money, college.

I love my roommate!

I'm already bored of the dining court.

All of my friends are living off-campus this year :(

None of these guys are attractive.

Can totally make it to class in 10. #rolloutofbedandgo

How many days in a row is acceptable to wear Nike shorts and a t-shirt?

I already have to read 4 chapter ones in textbooks...Syllabus Week is supposed to be easy.

Oh my gosh, where's my map?  I think I'm already lost. (Some things will never change)

Many of us have marveled over the maturity difference from the first year of college to the second.  You honestly learn so much the first year, both about college and yourself.

But, in case you were wondering, here's what went down the first week of sophomore year. (By the way, I'm pretty sure the more in sophomore indicates more homework.)

The week was, (how should I put this? boring? dry? monotonous? unimpressive?) average.  Nothing particularly bad happened, but nothing particularly good happened either.  My theory?  After the excitement and unpredictability of BGR, how could a week of class compare?  I'm sure for the freshmen, it was great.  So many new people!  So many different professors!  So many new buildings!  Such an adventure!  My life is beginning!  Yay college!

And as I write those "freshmen thoughts," I laugh at myself (in my head of course; Jess would be slightly concerned if I just burst out laughing as I'm typing), because I was the same way, exactly a year ago.  But I guess the novelty has worn off, and instead, I know what to expect from class.

Kasey Kaisershot's Quick Notes on Sophomore Year Classes

EDPS 23500: Learning and Motivation

• Dr. Yough (pronounced Yo, like how cool is that?) is as legit as his name.  He has lot's of energy and seems pretty cool...so far.
• This class is straight up educational psych, and a lot of it is common sense, but I think I'll be able to learn a lot of helpful things teacher-wise.

EDPS 26500: The Inclusive Classroom

• Honestly don't even know my professor's name.  Pretty sure she didn't introduce herself.  She's this short woman with really long, dark hair that she pulls back into a ponytail.  She's really dry and has a snarky sense of sarcasm, but it's not funny.  It's almost demeaning.  And let's talk about the lack of inflection in her voice.  
• What's worse?  We're in the same classroom as the class above, and directly after.  So if our prof. didn't make me look forward to the class, then the fact that we're stuck in the same seats with the same people for 2 hours does it.
• The class itself focuses on students with special needs in the classroom, which will actually be really beneficial.  Even though I'm not a Special Education major, I'll surely encounter students with special needs in my classroom, so I'm glad to be learning about ways to work with those students so they have a meaningful learning experience.

EDST 20000: History and Philosophy of Education

• Yeah, no.
• Boring.
• Both the lecture teacher and recitation teacher are TAs, not even professors.
• Oh well, at least they're cool.
• The class is self-explanatory based on it's name

HIST 10500: Survey of Global History

• The course is required, but perhaps it will be interesting
• I mean, we've talked about the Bubonic Plague, so that's interesting at least.
• My professor is really awesome. I mean, her name is Tithi Bhattacharya.  That's pretty cool.  She's really passionate, which is good.  That means I won't fall asleep during class!

HONR 19900: McDonaldization of Society

• This class seems quite interesting.  We talk about how the principles that McDonald's functions on (efficiency, control, predictability, and calculability) are permeating almost all aspects of society.
• What does this have to do with education?  On the surface, nothing.  It's not a required course for the major, but rather an honors course that's offered here.  But education is actually a McDonaldized subject we discuss!  
• The professor, Dr. La Lopa, is pretty cool, too.  He likes to provoke us to make us discuss things.

EDCI 32500: Literacy in the Primary Classroom

• We basically learn how kids read and write and how to teach them.  So far, it's a pretty enjoyable class since I love reading and writing and want my students to love it and excel at it too!
• My professor is so cool.  Why?  She used to be a first grade teacher, and you can tell.  Some people would say, "I don't want to be treated like a first grader in a college class!"   But the way she doesn't isn't demeaning in the least.  Instead, it's her way of modeling the appropriate actions to take and words to use when in a classroom, so it's cool.  Plus, who doesn't love to have children's picture books read out loud to them in class just for the heck of it?!

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is what my semester will consist of.  I'm pretty excited for the content of most, but unfortunately, the way I will be learning that content is by reading it in the textbooks.  Because here's how many of the classes are set up:

Read the chapter from the textbook, then we'll take a quiz on what you read, and then I'm going to lecture you on the exact same thing that you already read about, with no extra information and sometimes with exact wording from the textbook.  Not ideal if you ask me. But whatever, I'll suck it up.  Or complain on my blog on the daily.  Whichever.

Some other information that you may or may not want to know but that I'm going to tell you anyway:

• I'm done with math classes...FOREVER!!  I mentioned that I took a credit exam last week, and I found out that I passed and don't have to take the last math class required for my major.  Hallelujah, because I hate geometry.
• I got my classroom assignment for my Block II class.  This is the classroom I'll be visiting for 2 hours each week to work with the teachers and the students so I can practice what I've been learning in classes.  My assignment: Kindergarten at Wea Ridge Elementary, about 20 minutes away.  My first thought?  Oh no.  I don't want to work with kindergarteners!  I want to work with the older students, because that's who I want to teach when I'm older!  But I think it'll be a good experience to work with the little guys, and I'm sure I'll come away with lots of stories :)
• On Wednesdays for the rest of the semester, I'll be going to Happy Hollow Elementary to tutor for an hour and a half!  The school has a remediation program to help students with subjects/homework they're struggling with, so I get to volunteer to help them out, which will be very rewarding!
• On Thursday night, I attended the Big Gathering for the leadership conference I'll be attending next weekend.  This was essentially a chance to meet everyone who's going on the retreat and to meet our small groups.  There were actually a ton of girls from the fourth floor last year who are going on this retreat!  I'm pretty excited about it.  We also had to take this quiz thing that assessed our strengths as leaders.  Mine? Empathy, Maximizer, Developer, Achiever, and Positivity.  Also on Thursday night, the fire alarms started going off like crazy, and then we realized it was a fire drill.  So, we all filed out of Shreve a little grumpily, but all of a sudden, we saw a ton of guys run up and they started serenading us.  What???  It was the Glee Club, capitalizing on this opportunity to spread their word about the free show they were having the next night to a bunch of girls who a) love getting serenaded and b) had nothing else to do but listen since we were forced outside.  It was great.
• Friday was busy!  I got to see my friend Annie's apartment and we got Den Pops together.  Also, we had fancy floor dinner where we all dressed up, and then we went to the Glee Club's First-Nighter, which is their opening show, and it was free!  It was really good, and let's be honest, who doesn't want to watch a bunch of attractive guys in bow ties singing to you?  After that, some of us went to Fairway for their first party of the year.  Theme?  PAINT PARTY!!  It was a blast!  We were all outside wearing white and having pant thrown, squirted, and sprayed at us.  We were covered!  It was so much fun though.  We danced like crazy and had a blast.  Me at a dance party?  Who woulda thought?  #sarcasm

Alright, time for me to shut my mouth.  Enjoy this week, everyone!

Photos, yo.

PAINT PARTYYY

The aftermath

Really dark, but Glee Club serenade!!

More Glee Club serenade

Crossing the tracks from BGR...the freshman are now officially Boilermakers!

I'm Baaaaackkkkkk.

Hello hello hello!

After a long summer hiatus, I am back at Purdue, and therefore, back to my blog.  Let's play a quick minute of catch-up:

This summer I babysat 4 awesome kids, I visited my friend Caileigh at Mizzou, spent 4th of July weekend in Colorado with Christian, went to 6 Flags with the fam, went to a Maroon 5/Kelly Clarkson concert with Annie, hung out with my friends and family, and basically just watched the summer fly by before my eyes.  But guess what?  I'm back at Purdue (and have been for over a week), and there's already so much to recap.  Let's dive in.

Weds. Aug. 7:

Move in day!  I spent the entire night before running around and trying to find everything I needed to pack for school.  Little did I know that when I arrived at Purdue, I'd be missing several of the items I deemed necessities.  Oops.  Guess that's what I get for last minute packing.

We hit the road at 8 am with dad driving his car and me driving mine since I was going to keep it at school.  Somehow, we had managed to stuff a futon, a huge refrigerator, a TV, a microwave, a carpet, 2 sets of plastic drawers, 3 plastic bins, and other miscellaneous items in those 2 cars.  It was weird when we arrived because it was so quiet in Shreve!  Compared to last year where it was constantly filled with noise, it was silent.  But that would all change when the new students moved in on the weekend.

Jess, my roomie, arrived soon after us, so we all unpacked and unloaded our stuff and set up the room.  I have to say, I really like it!  There's so much room for activities! (Step Brothers reference).  We all went out to lunch and then to WalMart to pick up some of the stuff I forgot about.  Then, a little later, my parents left and I actually didn't cry like I did this time last year.  I think it's just a little bit easier this year.

Back in Shreve with Jess!

Thurs. Aug. 8/Fri. Aug. 9

Training days!  As Team Leaders (TLs) for our freshman orientation program, Boiler Gold Rush (BGR), we had to do a lot of training things to get prepared to meet our new students.  We woke up early and went to bed late every night, but it was a good time spending with my group and Supervisors. 

What did we do between training sessions? FOUNTAIN RUNS!

XOXO Shrevehart

Shey bay bay

My awesome opossum group: Keith, Lucas, me, and Shey

Sat. Aug 10/Sun. Aug. 11

Move-in days!  All the new students moved into Shreve these days, so it was our responsibility as TLs to help them move in.  If they lived on floors 1-4, we had to haul all their crap, including fridges, up the stairs.  If they lived on floors 5-8, we were able to take the elevator, thank goodness.  We worked from 8 am to 4 pm these days, and although everyone was in a constant state of exhaustion, it was really fun!  Everyone always had a positive attitude, and we also had different cheers for different items we had to move in.  (We saw a mini fridge in the trunk of the car?  "Don't drop that mini fridge, ayyy!  Don't drop that mini fridge.  Don't drop that mini fridge, ayyy!  Don't drop that mini fridge"  And if you weren't sure, this chant was to the tune of "Don't Drop That Thun Thun Thun.")  We also had to decorate the Shreve lobby with our hall team's theme, Kids At Heart in preparation for the new students' arrival.

Saturday night was the Block Party where we all went to Slayter Hill to hang out together.  Does anyone remember my post about this last year?  All the new students who moved in on Saturday, plus the TLs, gathered on Slayter Hill to listen to music and play games and just start to get to know each other.  In short: HUGE AWKWARD FEST.  There are so many people around and nobody knows each other, so nobody knows what the heck to do.  As TLs, we tried to engage the new students and dance with them and play games with them.  We went around introducing ourselves and being the protocol TL crazy.  I felt for those new students, because just a year ago, I was in the same awkward position they were.  But as a TL, you don't even have to be awkward because you actually have friends at school and you know what's going on.

Sunday night was when we got to meet our teams!  I was blessed with 14 awesome new students: Aaron, Justice, Brachston, Kathryn, Linh, Zeynep, Neil, Cody, Jesse, Abby, Danny, Olivia, Nick, and Rachel.  Everyone was really shy and quiet at first (which was totally understandable), so I had to kinda be crazy so they knew they could be comfortable here.  We played a few name/get to know you games and talked about the plan for the week.  At 5:30 we got dinner at the Boiler Bash, and then we went to Elliot Music Hall for the New Student Induction Opening Ceremonies.  We listened to Mitch Daniels, the president, speak, as well as a TL and our keynote speaker, Josh Shipp, who was really funny.  We also did shout outs, which, if you remember from last year, is a giant scripted cheer that the entire hall team does to earn points towards the interhall showdown!  I was in Shrevehart again, which is comprised of the halls Shreve and Earhart.  There is also WCW (Wiley, Cary Quad, and Windsor), HOT (Hilltop, Owen, Tarkington), McHarrison (McCutcheon and Harrison), and OhMT.  

Really awful picture, but our picture from Honduras was up on the big screen at Elliot!

Mon. Aug. 12

Breakfast was early at 6:30 am (ugh).  It was an early start to a busy day!  Some of us taught our new students the Common Bond Dance, which was a dance to the song "Good Time" by Owl City and Carly Rae Jepson.  By the end of the week, everyone knew the dance and we all did it in Elliot together!  

Then, the entire BGR ensemble paraded to our football stadium, Ross Ade, for a Boiler Up rally where we got to meet some of the athletic coaches and learn some cheers.  We also all got a free t-shirt and went onto the football field to create a giant block P.  Although everyone was confused the entire time and nobody knew where to stand, we somehow pulled it off and it looked pretty legit!

So I mean it kind of worked...

On da field

We had lunch and then went on a Traditions Walk where we went to all the places on campus that had a significant meaning, such as the Clapping Circles, the Hello Walk, the Neil Armstrong statue and the Purdue University arch, as well as some of the important fountains.  The students also got to "cross the tracks," where they all jump over the set of railroad tracks on campus, signifying their start of a relationship at Purdue.  After graduation, everyone jumps across the tracks in the opposite direction.  

Traditions walk!

Engineering fountain

We had shout out practice and then we went to Elliot for our session.  Today's session was FreeZone, which is really important to Purdue.  Basically, FreeZone is a mindset that you have where you don't judge people when you first meet them, and you recognize that everyone has a story that you should learn.  It's actually a really cool concept.  So, the students got to learn about FreeZone, watch the famous FreeZone skit, and we did a FreeZone REACTION, where we all sit in a circle and answer some prompted questions.

Dinner was next, and then we got to see the Mentalist, Christ Carter.  Oh. My. Gosh.  This guy was crazy.  He did a bunch of card tricks where he was able to know what card people picked from a deck based on how they reacted when he asked them different questions.  He also did this insane thing where he had people write information about themselves on a notecard and questions about their friends in the audience, and then blindfolded himself several times, including with duct tape.  However, he was able to pick people out of the audience based on the cards and answer the questions that they asked about their friends.  It was really funny because he embarrassed a lot of people!

UnionFest was afterwards, which was basically a giant party in the Union.  People could make crafts like waxed hands, dance in the room with a DJ (talk about a rager though), or sing karaoke.  There was a lot to do!

Tues. Aug 13

We got "late" breakfast at 7:30, then went on a Den Pop run afterwards since we had some free time.  For those of  you who don't know what a Den Pop is: the Discount Den is a little store on campus that sells different things like t-shirts and such.  However, they are also known for their Den Pops, which is just soda, but they have like every flavor.  There are different concocted recipes hanging on the wall that people have created, so the tradition is to make one of these concoctions for your 60 cent Den Pop.  It's also tradition that during BGR, the TL buys all their new students a Den Pop, so I did :)  Many of us got the BGR Den Pop, which is blue Powerade (B), Mountain Dew (G), and Red Cream Soda (R).  We had shoutout practice, went to a business fair (which is essentially where businesses around the Greater Lafayette area set up a table to let new students know about them, but the new students, and let's be honest, TLs, only like it for the awesome free stuff that gets handed out), and went to lunch.  Our Elliot session included wellness jeopardy and talks from the police and fire chiefs.  It was slightly boring, and many of us started falling asleep.  Oops.

Their first Den Pop!

At shoutout practice

Crazy TLs

After our REACTION, we had some free time.  What better way to spend free time than by going on a traditional FOUNTAIN RUN?!  I lead my group and Jess's group on the fountain run (from Engineering fountain, drink out of all 4 lion heads at the Lion fountain, jump in the John Purdue fountain, and then the Loeb fountain), and everyone had a lot of fun!  Fountain runs are a HUGE tradition at Purdue.  Who knows why...but it's a blast!

Their first fountain run!

After dinner, we had a program which was Late Night with Rec Sports.  The CoRec had a bunch of different activities for the new students to participate in.  I did some Zumba and tried my hand at learning to breakdance.  Yeahh....no.  Not pretty.  I also went to the Target Run event with Jess's group and won a $25 giftcard!  Huzzah!

Weds. Aug 14

Last day of BGR!  So exhausted at this point.  We had early breakfast again, which only half the group showed up for, but that was still a lot by anyone's standards.  I took some students on a mini tour of the HSSE library here, and showed them the creepy back room, so we had fun exploring.  There was also a scavenger hunt going on, so my group decided they wanted to be competitive and complete the 5 scavenger hunt clues around campus.  We actually found all 5 locations!  I was really proud of them for figuring it all out!  

The last scavenger hunt spot!

Awkward family photo

We then had the Academic Picnic where everyone separated into their individual schools and met with advisors and other students in their specific colleges.  There was another resource fair, and then we had an academic session in Elliot, where, again, I almost fell asleep.  After a REACTION and dinner and shoutout practice, we had the Send Off Ceremonies in Elliot.  The mayors of West LaFiesta (West Lafayette) and Lafayette spoke, we had our final shoutouts, and the Dating Doctor, David Coleman, spoke.  He's hilarious, and always a hit year after year.  The Supervisors did their tribute dances, which were really funny.  We also did a ton of dancing!  The balconies were shaking in Elliot when everyone did the Common Bond Dance together, and when everyone was dancing to "All The Way Turned Up."  It was crazy how much energy was in one room!  Absolutely amazing!  And then, the interhall showdown results were revealed: SHREVEHART WON FIRST PLACE!!!  There was so much screaming and cheering and I lost my voice and it was awesome!  Everyone was so excited!  We had our final REACTION after that, and I was just so happy because my whole group was in a good mood and was getting along and laughing together.  They all started calling me Momma Goat (because keynote speaker, Josh Shipp, thinks it's funny to end random sentences with "...and a goat"") and they were my little wombats (because I played this wombat mind game with them and refused to tell them the trick until the last day of BGR).  

@ Elliot on our last day :(

When I got back to Shreve, all the TLs were celebrating together for our success and for winning, and we had to tear down decorations.  At around 12:30, my group all signed my minion Boiler Beacon, and we had a wristband cutting ceremony because they no longer needed their wristbands to eat in the dining court.  We stood in a circle saying "Mmm chu, mmm chu, mmm chu" and saying "Cutty cutty, cutty cutty" when chopping their wristbands off.  (There's an ice breaker game we play in BGR called "Bunny Bunny" which we modeled this voodoo wristband cutting after).  Overall, it was just an amazing week!

The awesome buddy groups

My signed minion!

Before the wristband ceremony...

...and after!

Thurs. Aug. 15.

I slept late to get caught up on some sleep, and just caught up on other stuff today that I really needed to do.

Fri. Aug. 16.

I had to get up early again today because I had to take a credit exam for MA139.  If I pass this, I'll be done with math classes FOREVER!  Woot!

I then had my debut as a College of Education Ambassador!  I got my official polo and nametag (which I have been wanting since essentially the first day I set foot on Purdue's campus) and helped give tours of the Technology Resource Center (the College of Education's baby library) to all the new Education students.  It was pretty exciting!  I also got to see Laura and Kayla (friends from Honduras) and we went to Shreve's karaoke night!  It was good to catch up with them all.

College of Education Ambassadors, yo!

Okay, this post is extremely long-winded.  I know I wasn't able to get into much more than the surface level details, but there will be more stuff throughout the year.

SO HAPPY TO BE BACK!!