12.2.09

The end of Thanksgiving Break has come upon us.

My Thanksgiving was quite eventful, actually. I had 14 people in my house for dinner. We were really getting in each other's personal space a lot but it was a lot of fun. We made a huge turkey, tons of mashed potatoes and everything else you'd expect at Thanksgiving dinner. There's also this dish that's customary in my family to make during the holidays called lefse. It's a Norwegian dessert that we make. Basically you make mashed potatoes and roll them into balls. Then you use a rolling pin and flatten them out into thin crepe-type things and cook them on a lefse griddle. After they're cooked you brush one side with butter, sprinkle sugar on it and roll it up. Then you eat it! It's really really tasty. It takes a long time to make because of all the lefse we made but it's very delicious.

Lots of families do different things with Thanksgiving leftovers; I know someone who makes a giant casserole out of everything. In my family we make hot open-faced turkey and gravy sandwiches. Yummm :)

Crunch time now, ladies and gents. I thought the week before break was hard. This week I have 2 tests, lots of quizzes and tons of finals to study for. It's going to be a madhouse. Then there's dead week with studying for finals. Fortunately I only have to take 3 finals: Humanities, Calculus and Philosophy. I can come home after my Philosophy final.

Over the break I saw some cool movies: The Fourth Kind, New Moon and The Blind Side. The Fourth Kind was okay; the attempt to make fake footage look real was iffy. New Moon was just a culmination of the pre-pubescent girl hype and obsession with fictitious characters and mythological fantasies. The Blind Side was based on the true story of a homeless high school student turned pro football player. Sandra Bullock did a great job of personifying the "Bible Belt" Southern mom, in my opinion.

Good luck on exams, everyone!

11.16.09

It's November 16th! Yay!

I don't know why I'm saying yay, but it was a good day today, so I guess that is why. One month until my sister's birthday! I still have to get her a gift....hmm...

As a matter of fact, I have to get gifts for a lot of people! I'm good at thinking of silly gifts, but not good Christmas gifts. In high school I would give people little candy doo-dads, like a penguin holding a mini candy cane or a gummy Santa Claus. Those were really good. Once I went to Godiva and got a mini truffle box (it had 2 truffles in it) and gave them to my best friends. I know, it might seem lame, but I was in 9th grade and they were delicious.

It's the week before Thanksgiving Break! You know what that means? Essay fever!!! Essays, essays, essays and more essays. I have essays coming out of my ears. They should be coming out of my fingertips and onto my computer instead. I have 5 essays due this week! It's crazy crazy. But hey if it gets me to Thanksgiving faster, then I'm all for it.

This Thanksgiving is going to be insane! I'm having a bunch of relatives flying down to stay in my house and have Thanksgiving dinner with us. And then all of my friends are coming back home for break so I'll see them too. I'm very excited, I haven't seen some of my friends since the end of summer.

One thing that I love about this upcoming break is the football games. My favored team, the Dallas Cowboys (of course), are playing Thanksgiving Day against the Oakland Raiders. Earlier in the week they're playing against the Redskins, too. It'll be a football week for sure. Which is good, I'm all for football. Football games are fun to watch, as well as hockey games. I love going to a good hockey game.

Movie time! I saw 2012 on Saturday. It's a veeeery long movie (2.5 hours), but every minute is action-packed, I guarantee you. It was kind of like The Day After Tomorrow, but longer and with more action. Plus John Cusack is in it instead of Jake Gyllenhaal. Another movie that I want to see is The Fourth Kind. It looks scary good!!! For some reason I've been seeing way more scary movies lately, I usually shy away from them. But alas, they entertain me nonetheless.

Have a good break, everyone!!!

11.2.09

Hello!

So it's the day after Halloween weekend, and I gotta tell you it has been a busy couple of days. I drove back to Dallas to spend the weekend there, and on my way I got hit by some wicked weather. It was nasty. I really don't like driving in torrential downpours at high speeds when you can't even see the car in front of you, it's not ideal. It was pretty scary!

Fortunately, the weather in Kansas City is much better. It's getting a bit chilly, but I'm used to warm weather. My friends tell me it feels great outside, they wear shorts and t-shirts. I'm the Texan in jeans and a sweatshirt :)

There are only five more weeks of school left! I can't believe it! We have three more until Thanksgiving Break, and once that is done we have only 2 more weeks of school until the 5 week winter break! I wonder if it will go by fast...

Last week I went to another $3 movie night! I saw Law-Abiding Citizen. It wasn't as good as I thought it would be, but it was still a pretty entertaining movie. It was pretty gory, actually. Lots of revenge-based crimes. Hahah one girl screamed at a part in the movie and kept screaming for about 15 seconds. It was pretty funny.

This week will be pretty busy, I imagine. Tomorrow there are dogs coming into every room to check for bed bugs.... :/ I have a test on Wednesday and a presentation on Thursday. Just lots of things to get done in a short amount of time. Better continue on!

10.25.09

Another post!

Last week was pretty fun! More Halloween festivities are occurring! I love Halloween, it's so much fun! Being able to dress up, hang out with friends, get ca

aaandy :) It's a lot of fun! I'm going home for Halloween, so I'm excited. See the family, do laundry, etc.

Things this week seemed to go by pretty quickly. Thursday I had no classes! One was cancelled and the other was moved to Tuesday. I got lucky :) The class that was moved was Business Seminar. We had a "mingling luncheon" with the faculty in the Helzberg School of Business. It was a great opportunity to meet with different professors.

Class registration time is here! Sorting through all the classes is really tough, though. Lots of the necessary classes conflict with one another because there are many times but each one taken up by another class. It becomes a game, trying t

o schedule around certain classes. Especially with a double major!

I got sick again on Thursday, it's stayed with me up until now. It might even continue! I certainly hope not, it really puts a damper on my classes, especially because I have 2 tests next week, one tomorrow and the other on Friday morning.

MOVIE TIME!

So "The Men Who Stare At Goats" looks pretty good! I saw an interview with the author of the book that the movie is based off of on the Colbert Report, and it's based on a true story! They had soldiers sit and stare at donkeys to see if they could explode their hearts. It was supposed to be an anti-terrorist training technique. "Where the Wild Things Are" looks pretty good, I heard it was awesome visually. I loved the book as a

kid so it looks very good. "Law Abiding Citizen" also

looks like a good movie, although I heard it has a pretty graphic torture scene or two. Another movie that's coming out in November, "The Fourth Kind", looks really awesome and scary. I never liked scary movies before but I was reintroduced to them and have been interested in them ever since. Well, it can't just be scary for the heck of it to appeal to me. It has to be based on a true story or psychologically scary or just seemingly real, like "Paranormal Activity". THAT was a great movie. I'd see it again if I could.

Until next time!

10.15.09

Hi guys!

So fall break is over now. I thought it was a lot of fun, I'm really glad I got to go home to Dallas. Because my car was totaled I had to fly down, which took about an hour and a half :) short flight! But while in Texas I got another car, so I drove back up. My mom decided to come with me on the drive; it was actually quite good because I slept for about 3 hours total. We also listened to books on tape! The Bourne Legacy is what happened to be in the CD Player, and I love listening to it. It makes car rides entertaining! The guy who does the voice for those is super talented; he can do SO many accents! I'm so jealous of his abilities. I always try to do a British accent and stuff, but I fail epically.

Now that we're back in classes I find myself wishing Halloween would come around. I absolutely love Halloween, it's so much fun! I don't go trick or treating or anything (unfortunately), but hanging out with friends in costumes is a blast! I'm going back home for Halloween, I'm excited :)

I saw a FREAKISHLY scary movie during break called Paranormal Activity. I saw it twice, actually. The first night I saw that movie and then Amityville Horror followed by The Blair Witch Project. BAD IDEA. I was so scared, I only got a couple hours of sleep. The second time I saw it was with my sister. She was clinging onto my arm the entire time screaming and cutting off my circulation. It was fun :)

Anyway, I'll keep you guys updated as things progress in the weeks to come!

10.4.09

Happy Sunday!

So last Saturday I had a pretty messy thing happen, I got into a car accident. It wasn't my fault, I promise! But my poor car is now dead :( Here are some pics

I'm fine, thankfully. So was the person in the passenger seat. But it was a scary thing! I have been in a couple accidents before this, but none were this serious.

I'm very happy to be going home on Tuesday! I have to fly down now (due to the previously explained reason) but I don't mind. An hour and a half by plane is much easier than 8 hours in the car. Although much more expensive. Which is why I won't be flying much.

I haven't seen Zombieland yet. And it looks REALLY GOOD. I heard it was really, really funny. You know how some movies have all the funny parts in the trailer? And it makes you mad because you expected more funniness but all you got was what you'd already seen? Yeah I heard it wasn't like that at alllllll. Thumbs up for that. I'm going to go see Paranormal Activity when I get back to Dallas, too. That looks reeeeeally scary. A friend of mine saw it at midnight and wasn't able to go to sleep until 7 in the morning (when it was light outside). Eeeeek.

I still have yet to see Inglourious Basterds and Surrogates. Both look good. I saw Jennifer's Body. DO NOT SEE IT. Oh em gee. It was scary scary scary!! And guys wouldn't like it. 6 grown men left within 15 minutes of the movie starting. It was baaaaaad. My roommate and I were covering our eyes a LOT of the time.

Anyways. I'll talk to you guys later! After Fall Break!

Byeeee :)

9.25.09

Soooo Family Weekend!

It was a bunch of fun. My family drove up from Dallas to come see me and we went to Rockhurst Day once they got in town. Now pictures!

On the left is the man on stilts. He was really funny. On the right is the golf cart parade! You can kinda see the knight that someone attached to the front of their golf cart. I don't know HOW they got that golf cart to move at all with a giant knight on the front, but hey. The weather was great for having a golf cart parade, too! Just a little breezy and mostly sunny.

On the left is a picture of my sister and me. Her name is Jessie, and she was totally stoked when she found out that the cotton candy was free. It was really funny :)

To the right of that is the soccer game. Our soccer players are intense, man. They get the job DONE. No questions asked.

The day after my family decided to do their own thing. We helped my cousins move out of their house (they said it was our service project). After that, we went to a restaurant called Accurso's. It's DELICIOUS. I love Italian food and they make it well. Once we finished eating we went to the Josh Kelley concert! He's really funny and very talented. Did you know that he's married to Katherine Heigl? Star of Grey's Anatomy? Me neither.

After that we had to say our goodbyes :( But the good thing is that fall break is only a week and a half away! I can't believe it! So exciting :) Unfortunately that means midterms are slowly heading this way.....

Anyway, homecoming is this weekend! I'll keep you guys updated next week :)

9.16.09

Hi guys!

So to me it seems as if classes are slowly starting up their engines, adding more and more work at a progressive rate. I find that a majority of my time is spent on reading and assignments, now. But that's what school is for, right?

Last night someone set off the fire alarm. Again. At 2:30 in the morning. This is the third time after midnight that I've been woken up by a piercing, shrill and persistent siren. Unfortunately for my roommate and me, we have an alarm in our room. It's actually right above my bed, so we hear it loudest and see the flashes through the pitch black of night. It would be like a techno rave if we weren't asleep to begin with. The culprit? Burnt popcorn. Last time I believe it was burnt hair (a girl was straightening her hair at 3 a.m.). But hey, this all makes for great dorm memories =)

Speaking of dorm life, I like my hall a lot. Living in the only female wing of Corcoran can be challenging, i.e. basketballs bouncing on the floor above after 2 in the morning, but the girls here are really nice. My RA is also great; the night that I came back sick from Frosh Getaway she was waiting for me and helped me settle back in. It was really nice of her.

Family Weekend is coming up, preceded by Rockhurst Day! I'm super excited for the golf cart parade, I don't know about you. I never have been to or seen a golf cart parade; it sounds like a lot of fun. The fall concert sounds cool, too. I haven't been to many concerts, actually. I know this one will be outdoors and such, and not like a headbanger mosh concert by any means, but something about lots of people listening together is really neat.

Tomorrow the film Butterfly will be shown at Mabee Theater! We have to do a report about it for Spanish class, but so far I've liked the movies that we've seen as requirements. They do all go along with the theme of justice in education, but that makes for an interesting plot line. Unfortunately this means I can't go to the corn maze! That sounds really fun, I hope you guys have a blast if you go.

Until next time!

9.10.09

Fourth post!

So Labor Day Weekend was a few days ago. I'm glad I went home to Dallas! Got to see my parents, my sister and my friends. I also squeezed some laundry in there :) I'll tell you what, though, it's SO HOT in Texas. I had some gummy bears from the drive in my car; never realized that they could melt together into one giant gummy glob. The temperature on average was about 98 degrees, which is pretty common for Dallas. This summer it got up to about 107 a few days; everyone pretty much stays home or drives everywhere all the time. Nobody goes outside. Which is kinda weird for summer, but Texans are used to it.

I drove with my friend Kate, whose boyfriend goes to SMU. We had an interesting time on the drive through Oklahoma. There was one woman who tailed right behind me. We were going 83 mph and I couldn't even see her headlights in my rearview mirror they were so close to me. Lots of hostile soccer moms swaying between 70 and 80 mph in the passing lane. Just many, many different experiences, especially during an 8-hour drive.

I saw Halloween II and Extract while I was down south. Okay I'm not a scary movie person, so when I saw Halloween I freaked out. It was bad. I'm sure my friends thought it was hilarious but I was too busy trying not to scream to pay attention to them. Extract was really funny, Ben Affleck's character reminded me of James Franco in Pineapple Express. I still have yet to see Inglourious Basterds, that looks pretty entertaining. There are a lot of good movies coming out in my opinion. There's 9, which came out yesterday, Whiteout (September 11th), The Informant (18th), Jennifer's Body (I'm still iffy about that one; 18th), Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs (18th) and Surrogates (25th). Good thing there's a $3 movie night on the 23rd!

The week has gone by really fast, I can't believe it's already Thursday. We did skip Monday for the 3-day weekend, but it's still zooming by. Tonight there's an Honors BBQ on Lower Burke that I'll be going to, and then a few of us are going to see Sugar Cane Alley at Mabee. High five for extra credit!

There's going to be a lot of stuff going on this month! We have Rockhurst Day, Family Weekend, Homecoming Week, $3 Movie Night and the Homecoming Dance! I'll keep you in the loop about these things as they come to pass.

Until next time!

9.2.09

Third post!

So last weekend I went to the Frosh Getaway Retreat. It was a blast. We got there during the late afternoon on Friday; the drive was 45 minutes to an hour away from Rockhurst. Once we arrived we did some awesome icebreakers (our own take on rock paper scissors!), then went to the dining hall for some dinner. The cooks are these two older women who are really nice and make really, really good food.

Second day we did all our activities. Rise and shine at 7 a.m., then start ropes courses at 9. I think my favorite was the wall. A giant wooden wall, probably 14 feet tall, was our obstacle. We had to get everyone from the team over the wall, but each person only had 3 "helps". My helps were saved until the very end. I lifted a 190-lb. baseball player over the wall by myself! High five to John for letting me attempt it :) From then on, I was known as the girl who lifted John. Most of our activities involved getting from one point to another without touching the ground, within a time limit and sometimes while blindfolded. I had to swing from an Amazonian village back to the Brazilian airport while blindfolded. It was scary, but the guys were there to catch you.

That night we ate dinner and had some speakers come up and talk about friendships at Rockhurst. Unfortunately for me, I got sick and had to leave that night :( I missed out on what happened the following morning, but from what I hear it was a good wrap-up. I got over my illness by Monday afternoon, but now it's being replaced by allergies. They're killing me! Hopefully they'll be gone by Labor Day Weekend.

Speaking of Labor Day Weekend, I'm glad for the break. Although 3 days doesn't seem too long, it will shorten the upcoming week. And then there's Family Weekend 2 weeks after, then fall break 2 weeks after THAT. Man we're gonna be resting up. Thankfully! My classes were easy at first, but now they're getting harder and harder as time goes on. I bet lots of students are experiencing the same thing, though.

Just a short note, I'll put pictures up once my camera starts working. The SD card is supposed to adapt to the slot on my computer but it's failing to do so. Once I fix it, you'll get some pics :)

Until next time!

8.26.09

Second post!

So it's been a week since classes first started and already students seem to be settling in nicely. We're all getting the hang of our schedules, which rooms our classes are in and how much free time we all have in between.

It seemed like the weather was really clearing up, too. Today the rain returned full force; it was pouring! It won't stop anytime soon, either. Apparently it will last for the next few days. Bring your umbrellas!

I was reading something on CNN entitled "Swine Flu Goes To College". An outbreak at KU has many people worried, including residents of KCMO. My advice? Keep healthy! The last thing we need is to get swine flu before the holidays.

One thing I've noticed since my arrival at Rockhurst is that there is always something around here you can occupy your time with. Go to the Learning Center to brush up your academics, hang out in the Rock Room and play pool, grab a sandwich from Planet Sub or attend one of the many student events around campus. If the weather is nice enough a walk around the Plaza is definitely possible, too.

$3 movie night was so much fun. I saw District 9, which was very good. Some saw The Time Traveler's Wife, and lots of people saw Inglourious Basterds. The movie selection as of late has been a lot better in my opinion. There have been more kid movies (G Force, for example), but now movies like the ones mentioned above are starting to appease an older audience. And I'm glad for it.

Until next time!

8.19.09

“This is the biggest class we’ve ever had at Rockhurst University.”

Approximately 418 students moved in between August 11^th and August 15^th. RU ready? Chyea!

Orientation was a blast, first of all. I don’t think I’ve ever seen people as rowdy and patriotic for their team as the orientation leaders were. Music was booming throughout the Convocation Center as hundreds of teenagers slowly walked through the doors, half excited and half scared out of their minds. Once we all found our teams and somehow managed to introduce ourselves, we all gathered to formulate cheers and make machines out of our bodies. That was interesting.

Sunday was the departure date for the parents. I saw guys being grabbed by their mothers saying, “It’s okay mom I’ll be back” and their eyes rolling with embarrassment. Give your mother a hug, for Pete’s sake! I know you wanted to.

Later that day was the Finucane Service Project. Free t-shirts and helping out around KCMO? Heck yes! It was so much fun, and I hope you’re looking forward to doing it again just as much as I am.

Unfortunately the weather wasn’t cooperating. The rain forced us to adjust the resource hunt and reschedule the Olympics. It’s still going, too! First day of classes, 8 a.m., I’m walking across campus through the rain. Yuck.

The rain held off long enough for us to do “Where to go in KCMO”. Photos were taken around KCMO, like in front of the Crayola store and of a KC patrol car. Our group, led by Chad and Justin, decided to do a pyramid inside a fountain. We also went to the Power & Light District, after going to Crown Center and Union Station. I’m not from KCMO like a lot of the other students so doing a tour was really cool.

Now how about that Free Stuff Fair, huh? Pretty awesome! Got tons of t-shirts, cups, those cool Rockhurst mini backpacks and even a snow cone. Delicious. After that came the Olympics! Watermelons greased up with Crisco, ping pong balls immersed in slime, water balloons filled with shaving cream and popped on your torso, tug of war and relay races, to name a few.

Finally, the finale! The comedian Buzz Sutherland came out to entertain us. He did great impressions, by the way! Donald Duck, a laughing grandmother and a cat coughing up a hairball were among the ones featured. Then he taught two unsuspecting audience members how to dance. He dubbed them Manny (this guy worked as a nanny over the summer) and Puddin’ (I have no idea). Apparently these are the four steps to dancing like a god:

1. Look confused.

2. Pretend like you're riding a horse.

3. Bob your head up and down.

4. Lose all control of your arms.

I think Buzz actually owned them both.

If my memory serves me correctly, Team 8 was the big winner. Congrats!

Good luck to everyone their first week of classes!

Rachel