life’s not a paragraph

haha! i just got back from my last class of the semester! what a relief.

however, i am not completely done. i still have a spanish paper to write, a photo project to finish, and an ethics essay to study for. :/ haha so i’m not done. but the crunch is done. i can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

i’ve got breakfast planned with some friends, a christmas party to go to, and lots of work to do next week. its going to be a perfect balance for finals week. i talked to some of my friends from home yesterday and so now i am super excited to go back for break! it’s going to be jam packed with friends, family, traveling, non-academic books, and tons of food. hahaha

i think everyone feels the same way. everyone needs the break. to relax. take a breath. i think we all deserve it. it’s been a hard semester even though it has flown by. agghh i cannot wait!

yup. it’s crunch time. essays, last minute assignments, make-up work, and finals all mean one thing– late late nights. now i am not trying to scare you. this is college. some students pull all nighters once a week. but this is the semi-annual fiesta of all nighters.

i, personally, do not pull all nighters very much. i need a lot of sleep to function. i mean, at least eight hours a night. at least. i can deal with five hours, but that’s my minimum. find me on a day that i only got three hours the night before and i’ll either be in the corner completely spacing out or all over the place, spreading my awful mood around…. not so fun. so you can see why i try to avoid that.

i’ve gotten about five hours the past two nights and i am doing pretty well…. but i know tomorrow might start turn the corner if i don’t get a bit more sleep tonight. :/ so right after i write this, i am getting to work. i’ve got my list (color painting, drawing, compile drawing portfolio, start ethics essay), leftovers in the fridge, and an itunes account full of music. let the work begin!!

my friend alexsa told me a few months ago about all the studios and galleries in the south end and how they all open up on the first friday night of every month to reveal new works and stuff. i’ve been wanting to go for awhile now, but i finally went last night.

alexsa, a few friends, and i went and explored a bit of thayer street, which is the street with a lot of the studios. we didn’t really know where we were going (and we knew we weren’t going to be able to afford anything) so we ended up just wandering into a gallery or two and exploring some of the open studios.

the first gallery was a cuban art gallery with some pretty interesting paintings from a cuban woman. her paintings had so much texture and emotion in them. semi-connected to the gallery was a little pool hall. so we decided to play a game of pool! haha we’re all decent, but now where near professional. unfortunately, my team lost, despite the fact that i played better than i usually do.

then we crossed the street to the studio building. i don’t know how to describe it other than a dorm for artists, which they probably wouldn’t appreciate. but it seemed like a renovated warehouse, made into a bunch of decent sized studios. most of the artists had their studios’ doors open with all of their work displayed so people could walk around and look at everything.

we got their a little late, so we missed out on some of the artists. but what we did see was pretty cool. there were some really interesting pieces. there was a guy who just worked with wire. he made tons of sculptures, large and small, with one wire. it was really incredible. we talked to him before we left and he told us that he is also a art therapist, which is an upcoming field. he told us that in his sessions he talks to the kids and then lets them play with some wire (or crayons for the ones who don’t like wire haha) so they can express themselves in a different way. that would be a really awesome job.

next semester, i think i am going to go every month just to see what’s new and get some inspiration. while i was walking through the studios, all i wanted to do was find a paint brush and do something creative! hahaha

so i haven’t literally gone for a run in about a month, but even so, i feel like the past two days i have been running constantly. i need to drop off a paper here, a folder there. print out some pictures. make copies. paint. type spanish homework. print spanish homework. make dinner. go to a meeting. send rent checks. and the list goes on and on. i’ve barely had time to think.

thankfully, the latter half of today has been a bit more relaxed. i got to spanish class and passed in all the work that was due and i just breathed a huge sigh. but i was still so jittery, my friend melissa asked me if i was ok. hahahaha

i’m feeling a lot better now. actually, i am in a super mood. 🙂 i still have so much more work to do though. but the end is in sight. i can seen the light at the end of the tunnel. i can only imagine how wonderful i am going to feel after finals are over!

in other exciting news, i had my first group Alternative Spring Break meeting today! i can already tell it’s going to be great! everyone was so friendly. they just told us a bit about the trip, showed us on google maps exactly where we are going (meridian, mississippi), and some of the stuff we might be doing. the details aren’t completely panned out yet. meridian is a growing area. a lot of the families that left the coast because of katrina are now coming back, but they are moving more inland. so we are going to help build up and develop this area. whatever we end up doing i know it’s going to include lots of nails, screws, 4x4s, and work boots. i can’t wait!

i hope you all had a wonderful holiday break. i know i did. i also know that i ate A TON. literally. it was great. 🙂

unfortunately, it’s back to the daily grind tomorrow. but thankfully for suffolk students, we only have two more weeks of classes….. then one week of finals…. then break. aaaahhhhhh.

except these next few weeks are going to be quite horrendous for us college folk. i’m lucky that i only have one final. but i have a six to eight page paper for spanish. yes, it’s in spanish. :/ i’m a little worried about that. i’ve never had to write more than two pages in spanish. haha it’s going to be a challenge.

i know that most people have a lot more than me. either way, i know that everyone (professors included) are going to be stressed to the max! and let’s not even talk about christmas shopping….. i haven’t even started.

i know i haven’t written in awhile. i’ve been busy catching up with all my classes, and thankfully, i was able to!

now i am home for thanksgiving break! i just made some cranberry sauce actually. i’m also going to make apple pie, brussels sprouts, and sweet potato casserole. yumyumyum i love thanksgiving.

i wanted to talk about the tree lighting they had in boston this past weekend. i went with my friend from high school who goes to BU. i had no idea that boston had a tree lighting, but obviously they do. it was really nice. it was in faneuil hall. they advertised it as the tallest tree in new england. whether it is or not, i have no idea, but it was really pretty!! they had a band and lots and lots of lights everywhere. there were a ton of people. lots of families and little kids. it was fun. the best part was that they sprayed tons of confetti everywhere when they lit up the tree!! 🙂

i hope you all have a great thanksgiving!!

8 days of fever, 4 doctor visits, and 2 prescriptions later i am finally feeling better.

i didn’t mention it in my previous post, but i have been home for the past week with an icky virus. at first the doctor thought it was strep throat, but the antibiotics didn’t do anything. so it turned out to be a virus, which as you know, you can do nothing for. fluids and rest. that’s it.

so that’s what i’ve been doing. for 8 days. i am so glad that i am finally better.

i know that it was really good that i rested for so long, but i missed a lot of school. i’ve been kind of stressing out about all the work. i’ve kept in contact with all of my professors and asked all of them for the assignments that are due next week. i’ve made a list. and now i have a weekend full of making up to do.

as uneventful and boring my weekend will be, making up all the work now is way better than freaking out over thanksgiving. wish me luck!

so i have two little tidbits of good news.

1. i got into the alternative spring break program (asb)! yayay!! and i got my assignment. i will be going meridian, mississippi to work with habitat for humanity. we will be helping hurricane victims relocate farther inland. in preparation for the trip, my group will be meeting about once a week until the trip to learn some background information, learn about what exactly we are doing, and ask any questions we have. i can’t wait. it is going to  be a really hard week. but i know, after it is over, it’s going to be an amazing experience.

2. i figured out my schedule. technically, i figured it out last week, but i just haven’t written about it yet. i think it worked out pretty well. i almost had a problem though. leidy slept over my apartment on monday night and i was trying to help her put her schedule together. i recommended that she take the latin american fiction and cinema class i was planning on taking when i realized that i had written the days for the class wrong. since i had pretty much planned my schedule around that specific class, my whole schedule was off. thankfully, it didn’t take too long and i was able to work it out so i got all the classes i wanted and all at reasonable times.

the way that they do it at suffolk (and i am sure that it is almost the same at most universities) is you are assigned a day and a time to register on your SAIL account (an online account all students have where they can access transcripts and grades, as well as other services such as Blackboard and Communities and Clubs Announcement Boards). But before you even register, you can search for classes, find ones that work for you, and select them to your “wish list”. when it comes time to register, you check off the ones you want and then hit register/submit. it’s pretty easy, except when a class is full. :/ that happens the most to freshmen because they are the last to pick their classes. grad students get first choice, seniors then get second, juniors get third… etc. etc. i had a lot of trouble getting in some of the classes i wanted last year, but luckily once a section of a class fills up (and if there are a lot of people on the wait list) the professor/department will open up another section.

that’s how i was able to get into my current spanish class. it was completely full when i had tried to sign up, but then i got onto the wait list. they opened up another section because so many people wanted to take it. a few people switched around and i was able to get into the class i had wanted originally. it worked out great. this time, i had no problems. i had an early time, so i was able to get everything i wanted!! 🙂 love when that happens.

today is veteran’s day. most students and adults in boston had the day off in order to commemorate all those who have served and are serving our country. i just wanted to thank all of them, including my grandfather.

i spent my morning at the laundry mat. that’s one of the bad things about living in an apartment. usually there isn’t laundry in the building so you have to go to a laundry mat. i know this might sound a little strange, but whenever i go, i always feel like i’m in a movie or something. hahaha but you always see people in movies going to laundry mats, and i had never been to one before this year. so now that i am going to one frequently, i just immediately connect the place with a movie set. hahaha

after a morning of laundry, my friend sarah came over and we went over to harvard square to explore and maybe find some delicious ice cream. it was a little chilly for ice cream today, so we settled on cupcakes instead. they were DELICIOUS. the place is called sweets on mass ave. absolutely wonderful. i got pumpkin pie and she got red velvet cake. it’s a good thing the store isn’t closer, or else i would end up eating a lot of cupcakes!!

i am really lucky that my roommates are so involved in suffolk sports because it gives me an opportunity to get involved as well. my roommate alex is on the athletic committee for the university. to mark the beginning of the new winter season, she and her friend planned the rally of the rams!

it was like a pep rally. suffolk’s three winter sports teams– men’s and women’s basketball and men’s hockey– came out to play some games and scrimmages. there were raffle tickets handed out and there were a ton of prizes. my friend meredith (she’s practically my fourth roommate) sang the national anthem. she was incredible. my other roommate performed with wicked! they also had a dj that hosted the event and played a bunch of music.

how it worked was, they created a bunch of games and there were athletes chosen to play certain games. the dj picked out a raffle ticket and whoever had that ticket had the chance to win a prize if their assigned athlete won the game. did that make sense? it’s a lot simpler than i think i made it sound. hahaha but i was fun to watch.

anyways, alex was afraid that it there wasn’t going to be a great turn out, but it was really great! there were a ton of people and i think it was successful. i had a great time and i think everyone else did too!