Month: September 2007

Well, the day has come and passed. I handed in my first college paper at approximately 8:03 a.m. (I honestly just made that time up; I wasn’t that obsessed with this paper). After turning it in, I decided to give myself a little holiday because of all the hours I’ve been putting into that paper, so I came back to my dorm and just relaxed for a while. I had a meeting with Dean Freeman this morning about creating my own International Relations minor. The Center for Interdisciplinary Studies is really an awesome academic department, and I’m excited to work with them over the next four years in shaping my minor.

Aside from that, I plan on continuing to relax somewhat today, and I’ll probably head off to the library for a couple of hours of study time for tomorrow’s classes. I do promise that I have a life, and it doesn’t revolve solely around my classes. This week has just been extremely busy for my friends and me, so I don’t really have anything interesting to report about the happenings in Worcester.

Until next time!

Hey everyone! Right now, I’m attempting to finish my paper in Memorial Plaza, which is a courtyard nestled between Fenwick and Smith halls.

I can’t believe that I’ve already been here a month exactly – tempus fugit! When I first arrived, I tried to fathom what writing my first college paper would be like, and here I am, actually trying to finish it.

I have to go to my FYP symposium on Plato’s The Republic tonight, but other than that, I’ve blocked off the rest of my night in an effort to just finish this so that I don’t have to worry about it tomorrow and I’ll just turn it in on Thursday. Well, of course I’ll be worrying about the grading of it for the next two weeks or so, but hopefully I’ll do all right.

It’s only Tuesday, and I’m longing for Saturday. Oh well.

Hey everyone!

Today wasn’t too busy. I went off to my shift at Kimball at 7:00 this morning. Sometimes, I want to throw my alarm clock against the wall when it starts going off at 6:15 and I see my roommate still sleeping, but working at Kimball isn’t all that bad. My captains definitely make the job fun, and receiving a nice paycheck in my mailbox every week is definitely a plus.

After my shift, I went around to all the freshmen dorms and put up my campaign posters. It’s a great to get to know some more of my classmates, and now I’m not only known as the “blog girl,” but also as “that girl who’s running for President.”

I then went off to the library to work on – you guessed it! – my English paper. My one class, Latin, went well. We got back a quiz today that I was sure on which I didn’t do too well, but I was pleasantly surprised with a B!

Right now, I’m in the library again (I told you all – I fell in love with Holy Cross because of Dinand!), and I’m still working on this paper. I promise that I’ll hopefully have more interesting entries as soon as this paper is finished. But for now, I have to go back to Richard Eberhart’s “The Groundhog.”

Until tomorrow!

I cannot believe that it’s been a week since I last updated. I promise that this upcoming week I’ll be far more attentive to the blog! This past week was incredibly busy and hectic; this week is luckily going to be a bit slower for me.

One of the highlights of my week was attending Gen. Brent Scowcraft’s talk entitled “US Diplomacy in a Transforming World.” I really want to get into foreign relations, and his speech really strengthened my desire to enter this field. What was even cooler was that a couple of other students and I were able to talk with Gen. Scowcraft in a student-led panel. We discussed topics ranging from the war in Iraq to relations with Pakistan to the future of Russia. I could probably write five pages on the talk alone, so I’ll spare you all by briefly summing up that it was an incredible experience to have such a personal contact with an expert in foreign relations.

Aside from that, I’ve been finishing homework and preparing for upcoming tests. My first English paper is due this Thursday, so I’ve been spending a lot of time on that. This upcoming week is going to be somewhat busy, but it’ll all be worth it because this upcoming weekend is Parents’ Weekend!

Right now, I’m in the library and I probably should be getting back to my English paper. Good-bye for now!

This weekend was hectic, crazy, and certainly busy, yet it was also so much fun. On Friday, I took the free shuttle from Holy Cross to the Shoppes at Blackstone Valley with my friends Haley, Kelly, Francesca, Allie, and Jen. It was a lot of fun just to walk around and also to get off campus. We ended up spending at least an hour in the Barnes and Noble! Unfortunately, I guess that the return shuttle’s pick-up time changed. All of my friends and I had been told that we were going to be picked up at 10 o’clock. Long story short, the shuttle never picked us up again, and we got back to campus via taxi, but we had a lot of laughs throughout the night.

Saturday was Homecoming. The game was awesome, but even more so than the game was the sheer amount of spirit and purple pride. Lead on by the cheerleaders and the marching band, the Holy Cross side of the stadium was a sea of purple. And of course, when we beat Harvard, the roar of the crowd was deafening. It was a great day.

Yesterday officially began the campaigning period for Freshmen Class Officers, and my friends convinced me to run for Class President. So, wish me luck over the next two weeks!

Right now, I’m in the library about to work on my English paper again. My professor advised me to spend at least ten hours on the paper for a decent grade, and I’m definitely taking his advice to heart. Off to the realm of English!

In light of Holy Cross recently announcing that beginning in 2008 all freshmen will participate in Montserrat (a new College program), I wanted to take some time to explain what it’s been like for me in the First Year Program, or FYP.  For me, FYP was an option.  Next year, Montserrat will expand elements of FYP so all first year students will have this experience.

FYP is all about connecting students through a series of common readings while at the same time of analyzing Tolstoy’s question, “How, then, shall we live?” It really is a unique experience because I’m connected with one hundred and eighty other students who have completely different interests, yet we’re all reading some of the same works.

Another unique aspect of the FYP is that the classes aren’t all based on analyzing the book with the same mentalities. Every class approaches the common works differently. For instance, my class, Freedom and Nature with Professor Kee, analyzes the common readings from a more literary point of view. My friend, Haley, is in Made in America/Society with Professor Hummon, and her class approaches all of the common works from a sociological and anthropological point of view. When we all converge for our seminars on our most recent common reading, the result is simply stunning. For an hour and a half, there are six experts in their various fields all analyzing the reading from six different points of view; their different interpretations help all of us further analyze the book for ourselves.

In addition to the common readings, each class has specific works assigned that further extend Tolstoy’s question. In Freedom and Nature, for example, Professor Kee has supplemented the common readings with Theogeny, Nicomachean Ethics, Confessions, and The Divine Comedy.

To all prospective students – embrace Montserrat.  It promises to bring the best of FYP to all first-year students.  I’ve only been here a couple of weeks, and I definitely believe that FYP will be one of the apogees of my experience here at Holy Cross.

There’s one phrase that I absolutely hate admitting, but I constantly find myself saying quite often here – “My parents were right.” From my mother’s reminding me to eat vegetables to my father’s advice of turning off the lights when I leave the dorm room, I find myself calling my parents and letting them know that, once again, they were right.

But there’s one area where they truly have been right, and it’s definitely helped me in my transition to college. Last Christmas, my dad gave me a planner and told me to start using it back then because time management would be absolutely necessary in college. He was really right about that one.

Between clubs, classes, homework, preparing for classes, tests, quizzes, and somehow finding time to eat and socialize, time management is really critical in college life. There are times that I just want to stop translating “De Officiis” for Latin class or stop paraphrasing “The Groundhog” for my CRAW class and just waste some time away on Facebook, but I’ve learned within my first weeks here that there is a time for fun stuff. The adjustment to college isn’t all that difficult, as long as time management is a priority.

As much as I hate admitting it, my parents were right. Again.

Yesterday and today are a blur to me right now! I’ve been incredibly busy for the past two days. I started Thursday morning  waking up a full half-hour earlier than I needed to. Why, you ask? Coolbeans had pumpkin whoopie pies (it’s pretty much a cake sandwich with an icing filling). My roommate, Carrie, and I headed over there where we had a breakfast of champions – our prized pumpkin whoopie pies and coffee. After that, my day was interspersed with classes, going to the library to finish homework, and somehow finding time to eat dinner with my friends.

After dinner was the premier First Year Program common reading session. All six sections of the First Year Program were recently required to read Helen Keller’s The Story of My Life. The common reading session was extremely interesting because there were six different interpretations of the book from six different professors of different backgrounds. Dean Freeman offered his psychological analysis of the work; Professor Hummon presented a view of Helen Keller’s learning of language from a sociological point of view; Professor Kee provided insight into some of the more confusing linguistic terms within the book; Professor Ober analyzed the book from a genetic and evolutionary perspective; Professor Reno deciphered some of the book’s politics, and, lastly, Professor Dustin offered a more philosophical understanding of the work. It was definitely an interesting opportunity to see six completely different perspectives all on one piece of literature. Ah, the power of books!

After the FYP session, I headed off to a study group for the Making of the Modern Middle East. After that, I came back to the dorm in order to prepare my translation of “De Officiis” for my Latin class and also finish up for our group presentation for the Making of the Modern Middle East.

This morning, I woke up extremely early again in order to go to work at Kimball Dining hall. After my three hour shift there, I came back to finish preparing for my Latin and Making of the Modern Middle East classes. And now, I’m sitting quite contently on my bed and thinking of taking a nap.

I am quite exhausted right now! Thank goodness it’s the weekend!

Hello, everyone!

Thank you so much for taking time to read my blog about my first year here at Holy Cross.    

I’ve been on Mount St. James as a student for a little more than a week now, and I honestly can’t see myself at any other school. The Holy Cross experience so far has truly been everything that I ever imagined that my college experience would be. Luckily, my older sister soothed all of my general fears about college, but it was rather intimidating to leave my comfort zone and come to a college that is literally a thousand miles from home.

Within the first week, I have made several friends, and I’m slowly getting to know my classmates one by one. The entire community here at Holy Cross is very receptive; the faculty and staff here are always trying to help out new students. I’ve seen Dean Freeman (Class Dean for the Class of 2011) on campus many times simply talking to new freshmen. Holy Cross truly has a sense of community which I think is rather rare on contemporary college campuses.

Let me do a brief recap of my life here so far. On Saturday, Aug. 25, my family and I ended our vacation on Cape Cod and made the drive out to Worcester. Even for a girl coming from Georgia, the heat on that Saturday was astronomical. Despite the unbearable heat, move-in day was definitely an exciting day. Right after we pulled up and I got my room information, upperclassmen swarmed the car and moved everything up to my room for me. It was definitely a relief for my dad to not have to carry up my refrigerator three flights of stairs! After running around the campus for my student ID, my family and I went off to the Mass of the Holy Spirit. During the mass, I was given the instruction to remain open to new thoughts, challenges and experiences throughout my next four years here; my family was given the instruction to simply go home. Quite honestly, I didn’t really have time to say goodbye to them because I was whisked off to Orientation activities. Don’t worry – there was a tearful phone call later on that night.

During Orientation, I took part in various activities that acclimated me into college life. I met with my academic advisor, Professor Luria, with whom I made a basic sketch of my next four years here on the hill. While all the activities were a great way to familiarize myself with the campus and community, the best experience throughout all of Orientation was the Convocation on Monday. During Convocation, the Class of 2011 was officially presented to and inducted by President McFarland. During Convocation, our idiosyncrasies and talents were displayed and presented, such as an original piano composition by one of my classmates. Later on in the evening, we sat down to a fabulous meal which reflected our common summer reading, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. It was a fantastic night, and I’m quite sure that I’ll always remember the day that I officially entered the Holy Cross community.

And then, finally, after four days of Orientation, it was time for me to actually start college classes.

On Wednesday, after a nice and relaxing breakfast, I started with Intermediate Latin with Professor Vodoklys. I love the Latin language and Roman culture, but I didn’t exactly study Latin during the summer, and the first class was definitely intensive to help “clear some Latin cobwebs out of my mind,” as Professor would say. After that, I ran down two flights of stairs to Making of the Modern Middle East with Professor Bazzaz. Within the first day, I knew that I was going to fall in love with this class. I was nervous about having one class right after another, but Professor Bazazz makes her topics so interesting. Lastly, all of the students involved with the First-Year Program had an ice cream social on Wednesday night. It was a great time to socialize with our professors on the question that we will be tackling this year — “Given that we are both producers and creators, how, then, shall we live?” Of course, the ice cream was quite delicious.

        

On Thursday, I woke up extremely early to head over to my CRAW: Poetry class with my roommate, Carrie. Professor Ireland is my instructor for the class, and he’s absolutely hysterical to listen to in class. Of course, the fact that our only four grades for the entire semester are four papers is somewhat intimidating. After that, I had a nice break, and I headed up to Fenwick Hall for my First-Year Program class, Freedom and Nature, with Professor Kee. Fenwick Hall is one of the oldest buildings on campus, and, I personally think, one of the most beautiful. My walk up four flights of stairs really doesn’t bother me because of the view — antique stained glass windows, heavy wooden staircases, and vaulted ceilings are just a few of the sites that I get to see on my way to class. I truly enjoy every minute of my walk, even though I do end up somewhat breathless. In my First-Year Program class, we will be analyzing the general First-Year Program question with a somewhat retrospective analysis as we read The Republic, Theogeny, excerpts from the Bible, and many more pieces of literature.

Since then, I’ve made friends, acclimated to college life, and made Holy Cross my home. Of course, I still get lost every so often, and I definitely still have questions about the place (for instance, why is Mamie Reilly one of our fight songs? Dean Freeman doesn’t even know!). However, despite my bad sense of direction and some general questions, I know I’ve made the right decision for college.

I guess one could say that my first week here has been a success!