With Valentine's Day coming up this week it's natural for students to be thinking about the people and things they care about: family, friends, pets, sports(ok so maybe my love of the game isn't on quite the same level as my love for family and friends.)
As I walked through the Union yesterday the line to pick up something at our Luther post office must have been thirty people long. That can only mean that something really good is waiting for all of those anxious students in their SPOs; something like homemade cookies, or candy, or better yet, a card with some money in it!
Many students are receiving care packages from home and I find it a bit ironic that now, as a college student, I look forward to some of those things from home that I used to dislike. For example, I remember getting annoyed with the kisses that my mom would plant on me each morning before she took off for work, and the conversations each night at the dinner table with the parental units inquiring about my daily activities. But now, I'll admit, I miss those things. A lot.
When I came to college in the fall it was an exciting time. I was stepping into new, unchartered territory with hopes and dreams. Now, coming back after J-break I know more of what to expect, and the newness of college life has kind of worn off. So at times I find myself wishing I had a parent around just to give me a hug, kiss, or back rub. I wish I could open my door and smell fresh waffles baking in the kitchen. I wish I could have someone inquire each night how my day was. Granted, I do have a lot of friends to support me, but it's just not quite the same as the love of a family you've had your whole life.
So, this Valentine's Day, no matter how fed up with your family at the moment, enjoy their presence and be thankful for all that they do. Take in all of the love that people send your way and don't forget to pass it on. And parents, FYI, those care packages, baked goodies, and phone calls are always welcome, even if it isn't Valentine's Day. :)
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
Friday, February 8, 2008
CAF creations
This was our first week of full classes and it was tough after 2 months of not having any homework to suddenly have 5 classes to stay on top of. So to reduce the stress that a lot of the students were feeling and to give us something to look forward to, the cooks in the cafeteria got creative. In the first week and a half of classes we've had 3 special themes: Orange Day, Mardi Gras-CAF style. and a Chinese New Year meal!
This is the third or fourth time this school year that we've had Orange Day at lunch and I think I've figured it out. It's always the first day after a break and the idea is, "Orange you glad to be back?!" Ha ha ha. For that meal the main line has tomato soup, grilled cheese, and cheetos. When I first saw that day on the menu I was a little shocked, but it's kind of fun at the same time. I just wish they had meals for the other colors too!
For our Mardi Gras dinner this past Tuesday night the main line served blackened shrimp and chicken, crawfish boil, red beans and rice, spicy cabbage, and Mississippi mud bread pudding. That night you could smell the fish from way down the hall, which made me a little wary of the meal because I'm not a huge fish fan. I did try the blackened chicken and it was actually really good. It had quite a bit of zing to it as you would expect from Cajun seasoning. The Mississippi mud bread pudding was, let's just say, interesting. The girls at my table who got it thought that it was just a brownie. When they tried it they found out that it definitely wasn't a brownie, yet it definitely wasn't pudding either. We discovered that it was somewhat like the consistency of Play-Doh and even bounced a bit!
The last themed meal of the week was Wednesday night, which happened to be the Chinese New Year. One of the exchange students on campus actually cooked some authentic Chinese food, and it sure looked really good, which explains why the lines were super long. I, unfortunately, didn't have the patience to stand in the long lines, but I did get to try some really good lettuce wraps with sauce in the salad bar. Here's what the menu consisted of: Hot and Sour Soup, Asian Mixed Green Salad, William Lu's Grilled Special with pork or beef, Fried Rice, Make your own Lettuce Wrap, Pad Thai Mandarin Orange Cake, and Green Tea Ice Cream. That dinner seemed to be a hit with most students. Too bad the Chinese New Year only comes once a year.
Normally the cafeteria food is pretty decent. There's always a main line, a salad line, a pasta line, soups, a deli sandwich line, and the cereal bar. At lunch a grill line is also open where you can get hamburgers and then usually a grilled chicken or some other meat. I've started to realize that the menu kind of recycles itself after a month or so. Not too often do the chefs get creative and brighten up the lives of the students. I really like it when Chef Nic makes his homemade soups. Those are usually really good and differ from the normal day-to-day caf soups. For example, today Chef Nic has a roasted red pepper and tomato bisque that I had. It's just nice to get a change because after a while I find myself getting the same food. For ambitious students you can always make your own stir-fry at dinner, pizza, pb&j, panini, or anything else that creative minds can come up with.
I can't wait to see what exciting themes come up the rest of the year...perhaps a wonderful, loving Valentine's dinner?
This is the third or fourth time this school year that we've had Orange Day at lunch and I think I've figured it out. It's always the first day after a break and the idea is, "Orange you glad to be back?!" Ha ha ha. For that meal the main line has tomato soup, grilled cheese, and cheetos. When I first saw that day on the menu I was a little shocked, but it's kind of fun at the same time. I just wish they had meals for the other colors too!
For our Mardi Gras dinner this past Tuesday night the main line served blackened shrimp and chicken, crawfish boil, red beans and rice, spicy cabbage, and Mississippi mud bread pudding. That night you could smell the fish from way down the hall, which made me a little wary of the meal because I'm not a huge fish fan. I did try the blackened chicken and it was actually really good. It had quite a bit of zing to it as you would expect from Cajun seasoning. The Mississippi mud bread pudding was, let's just say, interesting. The girls at my table who got it thought that it was just a brownie. When they tried it they found out that it definitely wasn't a brownie, yet it definitely wasn't pudding either. We discovered that it was somewhat like the consistency of Play-Doh and even bounced a bit!
The last themed meal of the week was Wednesday night, which happened to be the Chinese New Year. One of the exchange students on campus actually cooked some authentic Chinese food, and it sure looked really good, which explains why the lines were super long. I, unfortunately, didn't have the patience to stand in the long lines, but I did get to try some really good lettuce wraps with sauce in the salad bar. Here's what the menu consisted of: Hot and Sour Soup, Asian Mixed Green Salad, William Lu's Grilled Special with pork or beef, Fried Rice, Make your own Lettuce Wrap, Pad Thai Mandarin Orange Cake, and Green Tea Ice Cream. That dinner seemed to be a hit with most students. Too bad the Chinese New Year only comes once a year.
Normally the cafeteria food is pretty decent. There's always a main line, a salad line, a pasta line, soups, a deli sandwich line, and the cereal bar. At lunch a grill line is also open where you can get hamburgers and then usually a grilled chicken or some other meat. I've started to realize that the menu kind of recycles itself after a month or so. Not too often do the chefs get creative and brighten up the lives of the students. I really like it when Chef Nic makes his homemade soups. Those are usually really good and differ from the normal day-to-day caf soups. For example, today Chef Nic has a roasted red pepper and tomato bisque that I had. It's just nice to get a change because after a while I find myself getting the same food. For ambitious students you can always make your own stir-fry at dinner, pizza, pb&j, panini, or anything else that creative minds can come up with.
I can't wait to see what exciting themes come up the rest of the year...perhaps a wonderful, loving Valentine's dinner?
Saturday, February 2, 2008
LOST again
Thursday was not only the first day of our second semester, but it was the season premiere of one of my favorite shows, LOST. This is going to be the fourth season of the hit show on ABC and I'm really looking forward to it. I got started watching LOST sometime during the first season and now it doesn't seem possible that this is already the fourth season. The producers decided to do something really smart in order to please viewers- they show the whole season of new shows all in a row, instead of including some reruns every so often. This is great because LOST needs to be watched sequentially in order for viewers to understand the plot and backgrounds of the characters. It could be really confusing to new viewers if reruns were thrown in the mix. The only down side to this setup is that the show is only on for a limited of time. The plan was for there to be 3 more seasons of LOST, including this season, with each season consisting of 16 new episodes. Now, with the writers' strike, only 8 shows for this season are made. That is a bit disappointing but it also makes me enjoy the 8 shows even more.
So, for all of you LOST fans out there, who do you think is in the casket at the funeral home Jack goes to? As my friends and I were watching the recap of the previous seasons and anxiously counting down the minutes to the season premiere, a few possibilities were thrown out: it could be Sawyer, Ben, or even Michael. I personally think that it's Sawyer because why else would Jack call Kate to see if she had seen the obituary? Kate and Sawyer have some sort of relationship so that makes the most sense to me. Also, who do you think the "Oceanic 6" are?
I think this season will be really good since they are now including flash forwards, instead of just flash backs, to tell the story. This will keep viewers intrigued and guessing. Already I have lots of questions which I can't wait to get answered. Hopefully the 8 shows will help answer some of them.
Other than getting together with friends to watch LOST, I've been doing quite a bit of homework for my classes. Despite only having 2 days of school this week, I am grateful for the weekend to be able to get some work done. I think that my classes this term will be enjoyable, but I know it will take me a while to get used to my new schedule. This term's schedule is a lot different than what I had first term. Last term on MWF I didn't start until 11. This term I start at 8 and my last class getting done at 3:45. The plus side is that I'll be up and moving, and I'll be able to can get homework done and study between classes. I know it'll work out fine, I just need some time to get used to it.
Let me know if you have any questions I can answer, and I would really love to hear from LOST fans about what they are thinking about the season. I can't wait for next Thursday's show!
So, for all of you LOST fans out there, who do you think is in the casket at the funeral home Jack goes to? As my friends and I were watching the recap of the previous seasons and anxiously counting down the minutes to the season premiere, a few possibilities were thrown out: it could be Sawyer, Ben, or even Michael. I personally think that it's Sawyer because why else would Jack call Kate to see if she had seen the obituary? Kate and Sawyer have some sort of relationship so that makes the most sense to me. Also, who do you think the "Oceanic 6" are?
I think this season will be really good since they are now including flash forwards, instead of just flash backs, to tell the story. This will keep viewers intrigued and guessing. Already I have lots of questions which I can't wait to get answered. Hopefully the 8 shows will help answer some of them.
Other than getting together with friends to watch LOST, I've been doing quite a bit of homework for my classes. Despite only having 2 days of school this week, I am grateful for the weekend to be able to get some work done. I think that my classes this term will be enjoyable, but I know it will take me a while to get used to my new schedule. This term's schedule is a lot different than what I had first term. Last term on MWF I didn't start until 11. This term I start at 8 and my last class getting done at 3:45. The plus side is that I'll be up and moving, and I'll be able to can get homework done and study between classes. I know it'll work out fine, I just need some time to get used to it.
Let me know if you have any questions I can answer, and I would really love to hear from LOST fans about what they are thinking about the season. I can't wait for next Thursday's show!
Monday, January 21, 2008
Downside to Dorm life
J-term has been full of new experiences, some good and some bad. Over the weekend Brandt (my dorm) unfortunately experienced something that I was not fond of:
Fire Alarms in the middle of the night, 2 nights in a row!!!!
In Brandt we've had at least 6 false fire alarms this school year. On Friday night around 2:30 the alarm went off with the voice coming over the loud speaker repeatedly saying "An emergency situation has been detected in your building. Exit Immediately" while lights in the hallways flashed on and off. So everyone reluctantly got out of bed (if they were asleep at that time, which I happened to be), put on some extra layers if they were smart because the temperature was below zero outside, and stood outside in the cold for 5-10 minutes while the RA's checked the building. Not too surprising, but no fire was found. Apparently there was a fight up on 4th floor and somehow the alarm got set off. To make matters worse, the people in the fight trailed blood down one of the stairwells on their way out, which really freaked some of my friends out, because no one knew what the blood was from.
Then on Saturday night, a little after midnight, the alarm sounded again. Not only was this very agitating because we had just had one the previous night, but this time we had to stand outside for 15 minutes in the cold weather because most of the Brandt RA's were not available to search and secure the building because they were helping out with Open Mic Night at Marty's. It was not fun.
We never did get official reports of what happened during those two nights, or why the alarms went off. Typically when the alarm gets pulled and no one confesses to it, the whole building gets fined. I just don't understand why people even pull the alarm. It's not funny and now we are so used to the alarms being false, that if some situation does occur where everyone needs to get out quickly, very few people will take it seriously. I know that I definitely took my time both nights to put on layers of clothes because I didn't want to freeze while I was standing outside. It's unfortunate and I can only hope that nothing serious ever does happen in the dorms.
On the bright side, there's only 1 week left of J-term! That means only four more nights to get through without alarms going off!
As always, your questions and comments are welcome. If there's anything you'd like to know, I'd love to be of assistance!
Fire Alarms in the middle of the night, 2 nights in a row!!!!
In Brandt we've had at least 6 false fire alarms this school year. On Friday night around 2:30 the alarm went off with the voice coming over the loud speaker repeatedly saying "An emergency situation has been detected in your building. Exit Immediately" while lights in the hallways flashed on and off. So everyone reluctantly got out of bed (if they were asleep at that time, which I happened to be), put on some extra layers if they were smart because the temperature was below zero outside, and stood outside in the cold for 5-10 minutes while the RA's checked the building. Not too surprising, but no fire was found. Apparently there was a fight up on 4th floor and somehow the alarm got set off. To make matters worse, the people in the fight trailed blood down one of the stairwells on their way out, which really freaked some of my friends out, because no one knew what the blood was from.
Then on Saturday night, a little after midnight, the alarm sounded again. Not only was this very agitating because we had just had one the previous night, but this time we had to stand outside for 15 minutes in the cold weather because most of the Brandt RA's were not available to search and secure the building because they were helping out with Open Mic Night at Marty's. It was not fun.
We never did get official reports of what happened during those two nights, or why the alarms went off. Typically when the alarm gets pulled and no one confesses to it, the whole building gets fined. I just don't understand why people even pull the alarm. It's not funny and now we are so used to the alarms being false, that if some situation does occur where everyone needs to get out quickly, very few people will take it seriously. I know that I definitely took my time both nights to put on layers of clothes because I didn't want to freeze while I was standing outside. It's unfortunate and I can only hope that nothing serious ever does happen in the dorms.
On the bright side, there's only 1 week left of J-term! That means only four more nights to get through without alarms going off!
As always, your questions and comments are welcome. If there's anything you'd like to know, I'd love to be of assistance!
Tuesday, January 15, 2008
Cool Runnings
My nose is cold, my hands are stiff, my cheeks are freezing, and my legs are red. That is exactly how I felt when I finished my long run for track yesterday. Welcome to winter running in Decorah! With the high around 9 degrees and the wind chill below zero, it was not an ideal day to be running 12 miles. But we distance runners accepted our fate, bundled up in many layers and headed out in packs. It was kind of funny seeing just a couple of eyes poking out of face masks, hats, and other winter apparel. Once I got going the only bad part was facing the wind. It seemed like no matter how many layers I had on, I could still feel that wind chill. When I got back after the run, I don't know if I've ever been happier to thaw out and warm up. 
While the weather outside is pretty brisk, the indoor track season is just heating up. We've had practice for about a week and a half, and thus far it's going well. Some of the team is not here during January though, as they are taking the opportunity to travel abroad or do an internship. On Tuesdays and Fridays the WHOLE track and field team meets for warm up drills before each group, sprinters, throwers, and distance, split up to do their workouts. By meeting together as a whole group I've met a lot of people who weren't involved in cross country. I've also been introduced to hurdle mobility drills and steeple mobility drills. I'm excited to try running the steeplechase during the track season. It's a 3000 meter race (a little less than 2 miles) with 4 barriers (stee
ples) and 1 barrier with a water pit on the other side on each lap. I've always loved obstacle courses and I am definitely pumped to give this a try, despite never jumping over a hurdle, much less a huge steeple.
It is clear that all of the coaches are really excited for the season and willing to give their time to help the team continue to improve. Already a sense of unity is developing among the team. When I run a couple of strides on the indoor track while the other groups are finishing up their practices, I'll always hear a "Good Job" or "Way to Go". It's great encouragement and helps me feel more like a part of the team.
I haven't run track since my freshman year in high school and I can't wait to see what this season will bring. For now I'm going to keep warm and keep running through these chilly days in Decorah...where there's always Cool Runnings.
While the weather outside is pretty brisk, the indoor track season is just heating up. We've had practice for about a week and a half, and thus far it's going well. Some of the team is not here during January though, as they are taking the opportunity to travel abroad or do an internship. On Tuesdays and Fridays the WHOLE track and field team meets for warm up drills before each group, sprinters, throwers, and distance, split up to do their workouts. By meeting together as a whole group I've met a lot of people who weren't involved in cross country. I've also been introduced to hurdle mobility drills and steeple mobility drills. I'm excited to try running the steeplechase during the track season. It's a 3000 meter race (a little less than 2 miles) with 4 barriers (steeples) and 1 barrier with a water pit on the other side on each lap. I've always loved obstacle courses and I am definitely pumped to give this a try, despite never jumping over a hurdle, much less a huge steeple.It is clear that all of the coaches are really excited for the season and willing to give their time to help the team continue to improve. Already a sense of unity is developing among the team. When I run a couple of strides on the indoor track while the other groups are finishing up their practices, I'll always hear a "Good Job" or "Way to Go". It's great encouragement and helps me feel more like a part of the team.
I haven't run track since my freshman year in high school and I can't wait to see what this season will bring. For now I'm going to keep warm and keep running through these chilly days in Decorah...where there's always Cool Runnings.
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
The Other Side of the Desk
Since the beginning of J-term last Thursday, I've been anticipating my first day in the classroom as a teacher's observer. My J-term class is an education class where four days a week we observe and help out in an area school classroom. I was placed in a Decorah High School science class since I am interested in possibly teaching biology at that level.
This morning was full of excitement and anticipation, especially after we found out that there was a 2-hour delay due to weather. I received a call from my car pool driver at 6:10 AM telling me about the delay, and I was a little relieved. (I stayed up a little too late to watch the national BCS title game last night, and it wasn't even that close!) So after sleeping a bit more I was refreshed and ready to go. I felt so professional as I donned my black dress pants, heels, and nice top before heading out; not my usual type of attire.
Other Luther students are also placed at Decorah H.S. in other classrooms, so we all had a meeting this morning with the principal before school started. Then in we went, to meet our teacher and the students with whom we'll be working for the month. As I walked into the classroom I could tell it would be a great fit for me. The teacher is super enthusiastic and the kids were all participating and talking, and not just talking to their friends, but actually talking about the current classroom topic. This teacher really encourages discussions, interactions, and activities that help apply lessons from the book to real life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what all goes in to being a great teacher-the lesson plans, the relations with the students, relations with the other faculty, etc. It will be a great experience to see if teaching is what I'm really interested in, and it gives me an opportunity to step away from my role as a student, and try out being a teacher. It also gives me something to do during the days while all of my friends are taking their 2 hour classes and then doing homework. Last Thursday and Friday I was getting a little bored because we don't have much work to do outside of our observation.
Speaking of down time and boredom, during J-term not too much is going on at Luther other than movies on the weekends, varsity basketball, wrestling, and swimming, and INTRAMURALS! Intramurals are huge during J-term. Dodgeball, card games, basketball, indoor soccer, and much more are all offered to students. I'm playing in a 5-on-5 basketball league on a team made up of all cross country girls (we all played basketball in high school, though). Last night was our first game and it was awesome! We played a team of guys and we rocked. Despite the fact that we only had 1 substitute and non of us had shot a ball in quite some time, we did really well and won by 7. The 3's were dropping and I was amazed at how physical we were. It was so fun to play again and to see this 'baller' aspect of my teammates that wasn't apparent during XC. We have a total of 11 games in the next 3 weeks, so our conditioning will pay off.
So after a slow start, J-term is shaping up to be a fun month full of new opportunities. Not a bad way to start off a new year.
This morning was full of excitement and anticipation, especially after we found out that there was a 2-hour delay due to weather. I received a call from my car pool driver at 6:10 AM telling me about the delay, and I was a little relieved. (I stayed up a little too late to watch the national BCS title game last night, and it wasn't even that close!) So after sleeping a bit more I was refreshed and ready to go. I felt so professional as I donned my black dress pants, heels, and nice top before heading out; not my usual type of attire.
Other Luther students are also placed at Decorah H.S. in other classrooms, so we all had a meeting this morning with the principal before school started. Then in we went, to meet our teacher and the students with whom we'll be working for the month. As I walked into the classroom I could tell it would be a great fit for me. The teacher is super enthusiastic and the kids were all participating and talking, and not just talking to their friends, but actually talking about the current classroom topic. This teacher really encourages discussions, interactions, and activities that help apply lessons from the book to real life. I'm really looking forward to seeing what all goes in to being a great teacher-the lesson plans, the relations with the students, relations with the other faculty, etc. It will be a great experience to see if teaching is what I'm really interested in, and it gives me an opportunity to step away from my role as a student, and try out being a teacher. It also gives me something to do during the days while all of my friends are taking their 2 hour classes and then doing homework. Last Thursday and Friday I was getting a little bored because we don't have much work to do outside of our observation.
Speaking of down time and boredom, during J-term not too much is going on at Luther other than movies on the weekends, varsity basketball, wrestling, and swimming, and INTRAMURALS! Intramurals are huge during J-term. Dodgeball, card games, basketball, indoor soccer, and much more are all offered to students. I'm playing in a 5-on-5 basketball league on a team made up of all cross country girls (we all played basketball in high school, though). Last night was our first game and it was awesome! We played a team of guys and we rocked. Despite the fact that we only had 1 substitute and non of us had shot a ball in quite some time, we did really well and won by 7. The 3's were dropping and I was amazed at how physical we were. It was so fun to play again and to see this 'baller' aspect of my teammates that wasn't apparent during XC. We have a total of 11 games in the next 3 weeks, so our conditioning will pay off.
So after a slow start, J-term is shaping up to be a fun month full of new opportunities. Not a bad way to start off a new year.
Wednesday, January 2, 2008
New Year, New Opportunities
Welcome to the new year of 2008! I don't know how the days, months, and years just whiz by, but it seems like not too long ago everyone was in a frenzy over what would happen at the turn of the millennium. Now I'm back from Christmas break, finished with one semester of college and one collegiate season of cross country, and I'm ready to take on the new opportunities that come my way.
Looking back, my first semester at Luther was extraordinary. I can't pinpoint many things that I would want to change if I could do it over. Even finals weren't that bad, granted, I had a pretty decent finals schedule. I had 5 finals originally scheduled for that week: Spanish and Religion back-to-back Monday morning, and then my other classes had exams scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at 10:15. Luckily for me I got to take my Spanish exam the Thursday before finals started because it was an oral exam with a partner and only half the class would be able to finish in the allotted 2 hour period on finals day. So that helped ease a bit of stress, and then my last final, Honors Conversation, was a take-home final which my professor allowed us to turn in early. So I ended up with only 3 mornings where I took one test and most did not take me the full 2 hours to complete.
Going home for 3 weeks was very nice. I got to relax and do some pleasure reading while keeping busy seeing family and friends. We got a lot of snow over break, making it a little tricky to get a lot of running in, but I managed to make my way around the roads and at times I just felt like a little kid having fun in the snow.
When I arrived back to Luther today I felt like I hadn't been here in such a long time, almost as if I were moving in for the first time all over again. But, differing from when I moved in this past August, now I had friends that I couldn't wait to see and a much better idea of what college really is. As I settled in and unpacked, I realized how much of a home Luther has become for me. Yes, I still love going home to my family, but here at Luther it seems like I have another family, another routine, and it feels great to be back. I can already hear the excited commotion in the hall as roommates trickle in...
Looking back, my first semester at Luther was extraordinary. I can't pinpoint many things that I would want to change if I could do it over. Even finals weren't that bad, granted, I had a pretty decent finals schedule. I had 5 finals originally scheduled for that week: Spanish and Religion back-to-back Monday morning, and then my other classes had exams scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at 10:15. Luckily for me I got to take my Spanish exam the Thursday before finals started because it was an oral exam with a partner and only half the class would be able to finish in the allotted 2 hour period on finals day. So that helped ease a bit of stress, and then my last final, Honors Conversation, was a take-home final which my professor allowed us to turn in early. So I ended up with only 3 mornings where I took one test and most did not take me the full 2 hours to complete.
Going home for 3 weeks was very nice. I got to relax and do some pleasure reading while keeping busy seeing family and friends. We got a lot of snow over break, making it a little tricky to get a lot of running in, but I managed to make my way around the roads and at times I just felt like a little kid having fun in the snow.
When I arrived back to Luther today I felt like I hadn't been here in such a long time, almost as if I were moving in for the first time all over again. But, differing from when I moved in this past August, now I had friends that I couldn't wait to see and a much better idea of what college really is. As I settled in and unpacked, I realized how much of a home Luther has become for me. Yes, I still love going home to my family, but here at Luther it seems like I have another family, another routine, and it feels great to be back. I can already hear the excited commotion in the hall as roommates trickle in...
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