Wrapping Up.

So I made it. I'm officially done with my first year of college, and I have to say I've never been less excited for the end of school. And of course I love summer, but I already can't wait for fall. Living at home is gonna be weird. Not seeing people I'm used to seeing everyday is gonna be even weirder.

It's been an amazing year and I can't believe it's over. It went so fast! (Cliche, yes, but so true).

I'd like to say I learned a lot this year. College isn't just school and homework, studying and projects. It's sand volleyball in the quad, staying up all night, playing cards in the basement, watching movies on laptops. It's living on your own and finding out who you are. It's finding your friends, meeting people who are amazing and some that are not so much. It's fighting the weather to walk to class and fully appreciating days when it's absolutely gorgeous outside. It's growing up. It's learning, but not just stuff from books or lectures.

So that's it. The end. I'm done. My freshman year is officially over, as I just got moved back home. Enjoy summer. Enjoy life.

Goodbye =)

I love college.

So once again, we're at dead week, and this semester, it actually is dead. I literally have nothing due except one 2 page paper on Friday. It's wonderful, because for once I can actually be completely unproductive and not feel bad about it. So far this week has been full of carnivals and soap carving and movies, with coloring, olympics, bike rides and who knows what else coming up in the near future. It's pretty much amazing.

Then I just have 4 finals to look forward to next week...(yeah that's right, I start summer next Friday)

After almost finishing an entire year, I've come to the conclusion that college is great. I mean, where else is it acceptable to Febreeze clothes instead of washing them? (I've actually only done this once, cuz yeah, it is a little weird). And Sunday night, there was just a random carnival in front of the union, complete with ferris wheel, inflatables, and cotton candy (and it was all completely free!) And I bet you all thought that nobody rollerblades anymore? False.

I think I'm going to miss this over the next couple months.

You know it's spring when...

It is absolutely impossible to do homework or anything productive when it's warm outside. Seriously. Why the heck would anyone want to stay cooped up in a dorm room when it's 70 degrees and sunny? There really is no good reason.

We've tried to beat the system by taking homework outside and attempting to do it, but that doesn't really work either. Once you're outside, there is literally zero motivation to do anything productive, and there are so many better things to do. Like sit there and do nothing. It's great.

The only downside to this is that teachers still assign homework in the spring, and especially with finals coming up in a couple weeks, there is a crap ton to get done. So this means that since nothing gets done during the day, everything has to get done sometime at night before class starts in the morning. This is procrastination at it's finest.

Welcome to the season of sand volleyball and late nights. It's absolutely amazing.

SPRING BREAK!

As much as I love college, spring break is the greatest thing ever. It's 50 degrees, sunny, and I don't have to wake up early to go to class.

And I've decided that spring break is meant to be epic, even if you don't go anywhere fun and exciting and far away. And so far, this has been a pretty epic break full of friends and french toast and free pie and Disney movies and Laser Quest and randomness and job interviews and wonderful things like that. And it's only Wednesday =)

And even though I'm not going anywhere super far away, spring break is also meant for road trips. Hence, Kansas City on Friday for three days of awesome adventures!

Then back to Lincoln on Sunday and class on Monday...:sigh:

Elections!

So today at the great University of Nebraska-Lincoln are ASUN elections. I think that stands for Association of Students at the University of Nebraska or something like that, but I'm not entirely sure. Basically, it's just glorified student government.

But apparently, it's kind of a big deal. I guess this is the first year with a big multi-party campaign, and the parties have been going at it since second semester started. You can't go anywhere on campus without seeing something emblazoned with Renew, N Vision, or Fusion (the 3 parties). There's been free t-shirts, keggers (yes, free beer), debates, interviews in the Daily Nebraskan (school newspaper), DailyER Nebrakan (Onion-esque school newspaper), and basically everything else designed to get attention and support from the student body. Like right now, I have a giant "S" in my window because a girl on my floor is running with N Vision and wanted to spell it out in our windows. Am I going to vote for them? Probably not, but hey, it's whatever. "FUSION" is spelled out on the floor above us.

And today, being election day, is crazier than ever. People from the parties are out all over campus in a last ditch effort to bribe people into voting for them. I've got candy from one party, and I've seen all three of them with tables set up outside the union giving out hotdogs, nachos, and donuts and hot chocolate (all free, of course). I think the hot chocolate would be a bit more popular if it wasn't like 40 degrees out, but they get points for trying.

And throughout all of this is the question, does it really even matter? I just found out last night who the current ASUN president is, so how much of an impact do they really have on UNL? I'm gonna vote and I've been telling everyone else to because I think it's important and all that, but it'll be really interesting to see if we ever hear about Renew or Fusion or N Vision or whoever wins after this week is over.

Cheers.

Dining Halls and Sleep Depravity...

These two things are absolutely disastrous when mixed.

Lack of sleep is not good, anybody will tell you that. Some common side affects: spacing out, forgetting things like when you have class or what day it is, calling your friends by the wrong name, inability to walk in straight lines or make coherent sentences, delayed reaction time, and thinking that everything is hilarious. (Note: these are not to be confused with being drunk. That is a whole 'nother problem).

And dining halls are tricky, even when fully awake. You have to navigate through food lines, salad bars, drink stations, tables and chairs, people, backpacks, Christmas trees, horse races, and who knows what else all while carrying a plate (or two) of food. Carrying drinks and silverware further complicates the whole thing, and during heavy traffic times like 11:30ish and 5:30ish, the whole thing is pretty dang near impossible.

Add in the fact that most people there are college kids that I guarantee are running on less than the recommended 8 1/2 to 9 hours of sleep, well...let's just say things get interesting.

I've miraculously managed not to break anything so far this year, but I've dropped a fair share of stuff, tripped over chairs, and run into people. Like last night, I ran into a girl and she spilled milk all over. I felt really bad. Seriously.

Fortunately, most people are not as klutzy and uncoordinated as I am, so for the most part, eating is not a major risk to your well-being. You just gotta be on your toes. And try to go to bed before it starts getting light out again.

Dining Hall Hazard of the Day: Lanyards. I usually have mine in either my back pocket or my hoodie pocket, with the lanyard hanging out. I've almost lost it a couple times from it getting caught on various things and it falling out of my pocket, and I've been closelined a couple times from getting it caught on various things and it not falling out of my pocket.

Read My Mind

I'm just putting this up here because The Killers are the greatest band ever, and this is hilarious. It really has nothing to do with college, except for the fact that my English teacher is making us blog about music videos (no this isn't it--I just felt like adding this). I have a separate blog for my English class, and I'm probably gonna pick a better music video. Or maybe not, I don't know yet. I have until 11 am tomorrow to figure it out.

Scholarship.

Ok, so I got an email from the UNL College of Arts and Sciences about a "word cloud" they're putting together to promote the college, and it asked us to write a description and send it in.

Well, I have a few choice words to describe A&S right now, and not very many of them are appropriate to send in or post on here.

Mainly just because their scholarship application process frustrates me to no end.

UNL is divided up into different colleges based on programs and departments. College of Arts and Sciences, College of Business Administration, College of Engineering, College of Education and Humans Sciences, you get the idea. Everybody is a part of their college, and their college determines how to award upperclass scholarships. Most of them you just have to fill out the application form online, maybe add in a resume if you want to be considered for certain ones, hit 'submit' and then you're done.

Of course I would be in the one that's difficult and complicated. Not only do you have to fill out the application, you are required to submit a resume, a one-page "narrative of your education and professional goals" and two letters of recommendation. TWO. And they base who they award scholarships to on GPA and "leadership outside of the classroom" like UCARE research and stuff like that.

Ok, I'm a FRESHMAN. I have no idea what my "education and professional goals" are. I'm golden on GPA, but leadership outside of the classroom? Come on, freshman don't do anything. I've only been here a couple months. I couldn't do UCARE research at this point even if I wanted to, the best I could do would be to apply for it for next year. And I got two letters of recommendation out of complete luck, because if those two professors would've said no, I would've been SOL because I'm pretty sure my other prof from last semester wouldn't remember me and my other teachers were TAs or grad students. Awesome people, but probably not the best choice for references.

So basically, I have little to no chance of getting any money for next year unless my 4.0 GPA and the fact that I'm in the Honors Program and am an ambassador counts for anything. I'm hoping it does. I also threw in there that I played intramural broomball. Can't hurt right?

Refunds.

So every once in awhile, I get student loan return checks, which basically means that they gave me more in loans than I really needed. This gives me a false sense of having large amounts of money. Because yeah, I have an extra thousand dollars in my account, but no, it's not actually my money. This makes me kind of sad because I'm going to have to save it so I can pay it back. The system seems a bit skewed...

But actually I'm probably going to use it anyways for books and study abroad stuff. It works.

So Tip of the Day: Be financially responsible. Bleh. And take out student loans.

Professors.

University faculty are known for being...well...a bit strange. And I mean, you kind of have to if you want to be a professor. I think it's just some unwritten rule somewhere.

There's the stereotypical professor--old, nerdy, boring, clearly would rather be in a lab somewhere than teaching. Then you have the borderline insane ones--genius, but their mental competency is questionable at best. And the grad students--awesome and nice, but have no idea what they're talking about. Occasionally, you get the amazing ones--interesting and basically know everything there is to know about everything.

Last semester, I had a pretty neutral bunch. This semester there's a bit more variety.

My personal favorite is English Teacher. English teacher is a grad student, but also a borderline insane one. He's got black messy bed-head hair that sticks up all over the place, complete with scraggly goatee, mustache, and soul patch. He's never been on time to class, and I don't think I've learned anything about English so far. He's crazy, all over the place, but dang, he's hilarious. And he knows his stuff. See we've learned a lot, just I'm not sure that it's English-related.

French Professor is pretty entertaining too. He's more the stereotype--old, thick-rimmed glasses, wears jeans with blazers, you know. He's a bit crazy; he'll fire random questions at us and gets really excited about technology, which makes me laugh. He's not French, but when he speaks English, he speaks it with a French accent. He also makes us repeat stuff like a thousand times until we pronounce it right. He's not boring though, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't hate teaching. I like him.

History Professor wins though. History Professor is a genius. He's the only teacher I've had so far in college that can lecture for the entire period without notes or slides. He just talks to us the whole time, and what's amazing, is that he's interesting too. He knows basically everything and is enthusiastic enough to teach it to a bunch of freshmen in a 100-level history class.

I think it's going to be a good semester.

Tip of the Day: I've been told to sign up for classes based on the instructor, not the course number. That's how I've ended up in classes like History 101 and Philosophy 110. So far, it's worked out quite well for me.

Problem Solving.

So we figured out that if things don't work, hit them and it fixes all your problems.

Like last night we were going to sleep and there was this weird buzzing noise.

"What is that?"

"I think it's the light...maybe we should throw something at it..."

WHAP!

My roommate hit the light with a giant stuffed fish. The buzzing stopped. Problem solved.

Starting over?

Ok, so this thing was gonna end after first semester because I figured I pretty much had the hang of things, but after today I've decided I'm gonna extend this out for the whole year.

So this is Operation College, Take Two. New semester, new experiences.

UNL mailed us our schedules at the end of last semester, and you would think that schedules would be pretty straight forward.

If it says "HIST 101...0930-1020AM...MWF...FERG 217" you can safely assume that your History 101 class meets at 9:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings in room 217 in Fergusen Hall, right?

Wrong. My History 101 class meets at 9:30, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings in room 112 in Hamilton Hall. See the problem?

I showed up in FERG 217 at about 9:20 this morning with about 5 other people. This was immediately weird because it's a lecture class that should have about 50-100. None of us had received any sort of email or notification that class had been cancelled, and there was nothing posted saying it had been moved. The professor is the the director of the Honors Program, so it's not really like him to just not show up to class, but a couple people left anyways. Simple solution right? Just double-check Blackboard and your email to make sure you didn't miss it.

Weirdly, none of had our computers or anything to check the internet on. The kid with a Blackberry even forgot his phone. So we wander around until we find a computer. Nothing anywhere about class being changed. Finally, we find out that they had changed it on the online class schedule without telling anyone. WHAT THE HECK?!?

So by the time we figure out we have to go to Hamilton 112, it's about 9:50. The three of us walk into class just in time for it to get over. Skipping class on the first day is not the best idea, by the way. Everybody else made it to the right place except us, and I have no idea how that happened.

But at least we will be there Wednesday!

Tip of the Day: Always make sure you have access to the internet. ALWAYS. And double-check things.