A REAL Winter!

So last Saturday night Long Island experienced a blizzard. You would thinking that coming from California that this would have been my first blizzard... it was not.

I had a little experience with blizzards from the one we were stuck in in Denver, Colorado this March. We were there for a Robotics Competition, the first day of which was canceled because of the weather. We then had to walk back to our hotel, which was a little less than a mile, right in the middle of the blizzard.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the aftermath of the blizzard. Unlike my fall pictures, I was not trying to be artsy at all with these, my hands were too cold. Therefore they are also not photoshopped to make them prettier or anything.

So here is the Winter Wonderland I had for a couple of days.

Winter Break

After 14 papers, 19 tests, countless pages of reading, way too many French exercises, piles of flash cards, hours upon hours of studying, and a fair amount of coffee I'm so ready for winter break!

I'm typing, and posting this as I'm flying over Ohio. I can't get over it.

Christmas Dinner #1

So the other night Alicia, Nicole, and I decided to have our very own Christmas dinner, where would relax from all the hard work of studying for finals, catch up on things we had been too busy to talk about, spend some quality time together before we all headed home for the break, and of course, to exchange presents.

Since cooking takes way too much time and effort when you live in a dorm building, we decided to go out to dinner. Of course what better food to eat to get you in the Christmas spirit than Chinese food?! So we chose P.F. Changs, where neither Nicole or Alicia had eaten before.

Besides the ridiculously low "mood lighting" and the waiter taking his sweet time with getting us our food, the evening was great.

We were able to fill all that time between ordering and getting our food with great conversation that makes me realize how much I love these two girls!

Of course after a delicious dinner and some good conversation it was time to open presents!

I got Nicole and Alicia each a silver necklace with three hoop charms that read "faith", "hope", and "love", and Guatemalan 'Worry No More Dolls', with which you tell your worries to, place under your pillow, and the worry person will take your worries away. When I purchased each of these gifts 25 cups of food was donated to starving children.

Nicole got Alicia a beautiful silver necklace with a heart charm inscribed with a quote about friendship, it was actually the same necklace that my friend Candace and I bought one of our tour guide trainers, Jackie.

Nicole got me an adorable purple (although I thought it was brown because of the lighting in P.F. Changs) boho-chic messenger bag.

Then Alicia got both Nicole and I body spray from Arie, lotion, and some stuff from Bath and Body works.

Then we decided since it was only around 30 degrees outside, we would go and get ice cream from Cold Stone.

It was a great night!

M.I.N.D.S. Party!

So all Honors College Freshman have to take a class called Modern Condition (I this semester and II in the spring).

Basically it is a philosophy class where we read parts of the Bible, Darwin, Smith, Ford, Hitler, Dostoevsky, Kirkegaard, etc. and then discuss it.

It really is a very enjoyable class, even if it is my hardest by far. There are five different teachers who teach it, four of them are pretty straightforward with the different philosophies we read. My teacher, however, really makes us think outside of the box. We talk about how the ideas we are presented relate to our own lives, we have arguments in the class, and we are free to ask questions, no matter how off topic they are.

Basically what I am trying to say is that my Mod Con class was the best Mod Con class this semester.

Here is the proof!

Professor Costello (my professor), decided not to have a final, just to have us turn in a final paper and we would do a final discussion.

So we decided to have a bit of a party at the same time! Everything was planned without his knowledge, and we promised ourselves we would explain to him that we didn't want to interrupt the class, we just wanted to eat while the final discussion was going on.

Of course we couldn't just bring in regular old junk food! So hence, the party of the M.I.N.D.S. was born.

MINDS standing for...

Marx

I (as in us)

Nietzsche

Darwin

Smith

Our treats included, Veneer Theory Cookies (chocolate chip cookies with kisses on the inside. You know, a light happy center with a dark and cruel inside?), Nietzsche Cupcakes (cupcakes in ice cream cones, they are an illusion), Bourgeoisie Brownies (because they had a lot of sprinkles), Darwin's Evolution of the Cookie and Marx and Smith Cookies (cookies in an array of shapes, amount of cooking time, number of chocolate chips, etc. to symbolize different things like equality, competition, extinction, variation, and evolution), Ford Factory Pretzels, and of course plenty of Diet Pepsi to go around (since Costello has a cold Diet Pepsi every single day in class).

Professor Costello thought it was hilarious! He loved it! He even made the Dean of the Honors College, Dean Garner, come in and take a look. He too, thought it was hilarious.

Here is a picture of our epic-ness. Clockwise from the bottom left corner- Natalie, Me, Amina, Courtney, Greta, Matt, James, Chelsea, Professor Costello, Maddie, Kaitlin, Lara, Mayet, Raven, Marissa, and Caityn.

Most of us will be in Costello's Mod Con II class next semester, but I'll miss the people who won't be!

Who knew college would be so silly?!

Christmas Parties!

I LOVE CHRISTMAS!!!! Tonight I went to two little parties here on campus, and it really got me into the holiday mood!

First I had the Circle K Christmas Party!

Here are all of our secret Santa presents. We wrote down a couple of things that we wanted or liked on a card since many of us don't know each other too well. I drew my friend Megan's name from the hat, and bought her the book "Running with Scissors" like she asked for, as well as a pack of Christmas tree shaped peeps!

REAL NON-CAFETERIA FOOD!

Just some girls from the club!

Nicole got a nice set of gloves, a scarf, and a hat from her Secret Santa. She was very excited! This was after she didn't want to do Secret Santa at all because she didn't "need" anything. I explained to her that that wasn't the point of Christmas at all! It was just supposed to be fun! She gave in... after I filled out her card and dropped in the bucket at last weeks meeting.

My Secret Santa actually turned out to be Megan! I actually suspected it was her or one of her friends, since when we went out to dinner for a friends birthday party the other night she was asking me about what books I wanted to read. She gave me Frankenstein, because she loves it and I had told her I have never read it, and The Glass Castle, which is one of her favorites.

Then I headed back home and joined my building in our holiday party!

Candice decorated a stocking, with some difficulty.

Kim and I take pictures of each other taking pictures of each other with our Canons. <3

We take a picture of all the tour guides at the party!!!!!

Sammy and this other girl spend most of the time making this gingerbread house, lol.

And now I have tons and tons of homework to do! Please comment and subscribe!

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!