Finals

So I can officially say that I am done with classes for a month. Three finals and I am home free. I will be honest and say it is a wonderful feeling to know that I will never have to take a speech class again. However, it is sad to think that the people that I met in my classes will not be in my courses next quarter. Its strange how much of a routine my classes have become. Almost a way to get closer to the people around me. Nevertheless, there are a few classes that I will not be missing. This last week has been extremely stressful for me, as I had a group project in my speech class that I presented today. Unfortunately, I discovered that group projects aren't much better in college than they are in high school. A few people will continue to do the majority of the work. Sadly, one of those people is me. No matter how much I may hate how little my group members do, I will always strive for that A, even if that means I do more than my share of the work. But all that frustration and stress is behind me. Why? Simply because I am done with the class, except for a multiple choice test that is sayed to be moderately easy. After that final, I will be headed home for a whole month. I have never had that much time off for Christmas, and intend to enjoy it to the fullest. That includes sleeping late, reading countless romantic novels, and eating a ridiculous amount of sweets. For once I won't be counting down the days until I have to go back to the dorms. I will truly be able to relax with my friends and family. I shouldn't get too far ahead of myself though. I still have those three finals to think of...

A Lack of Holiday Spirit

When I left home after Thanksgiving and returned to the dorm, I was under the impression that, although I was at school again, I would not lose the holiday spirit. After all, I have enough Thanksgiving left overs in my minifridge that I could have a second Thanksgiving, Christmas music is already on the radio, and I have under two weeks of school before I leave for winter break. What I wasn't thinking about was what those last two weeks of school entailed. The day after I got back on campus I had my first final, tomorrow I am giving my last speech in Communications, and then I have to start studying for my three remaining finals. Unfortunately, several of my professors are still assigning their usual amount of work, so that work load has not slowed down. I am feeling mildly stressed and am lacking some holiday spirit. Fortunately though, I only have 8 more days of this. So this year, instead of a count down for Christmas, mine is merely for Christmas Break.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break was such a great time. It was so nice to get back and see my family and friends. One of my friends had a party one of the first nights back and there were probably 30 or 40 people there and it was a blast to hang out with everyone again. It was SO nice not to have to wear shoes in the shower, have a dry towel everyday, and eat homemade food. My dad is getting married, which I am really excited about so we spent time with his fiancee and her kids as well. Thanksgiving day is always fun. We go to my dad's side for an early dinner and then later to my mom's side just to hang out. I was excited to get back to school but at the same time I know finals are coming up in two weeks and I am NOT looking forward to them. I have three finals and two papers due that week, but after that I'm home for just over a month. I got back last night and found out today that I got an A on my math test which was something nice to come back to! This week will consist of tons of studying for my finals and hopefully a fun weekend!

Corie the Fish

I come from a big pet family. Growing up, my sister and I always had a new animal, whether it was a hamster or a horse. Most importantly, I have always had dogs, and it is just recently, here at college, that I have experienced life without animals. The only pet we are allowed in the dorms are fish. So, naturally, about a month after I moved in, I bought a beta fish. Her name is Corie and she sits right next to my computer. She isn't very entertaining, and I am not particularly attached to her, but still, she's my fish. So when I asked my dad how I should bring her home for vacaction, and he laughed and told me he doubted she would still be alive, I was obviously a little upset. Talk about a lack of faith. It can't be too hard to keep these fish alive; betas are supposed to live for several years! So, after much planning, I decided to bring her home for Thanksgiving break and leave her there so that at Christmas, when I had a lot more luggage, I wouldn't have to worry about her. This is how I found myself, an 18 year old attending one of California's top ranked universities, sitting at my desk grinding a hole in a water bottle for 15minutes. My plan is to put her in the water bottle, put the water bottle in the cup holder, and bring her home. It will be interesting, to say the least. I am starting to see that freshman year of college is a year of firsts. First time living with a complete stranger, first time eating waffles at 11:00 at night, and first time transporting a fish in a water bottle.

Difficult Week

This last week was really hard. One of my friends has cancer and isn't doing well. He's going through chemo right now but keeps getting infections and a really high fever. His girlfriend is one of my best friends and it's so hard for me to see her be away from him during this time because they go to schools in different states. She has been having such a difficult time with it and I just wish there was something I could do. Along with that, there were some issues with my family that took place and as close as I am to my family, it was horrible not to be home during those times. These issues have gotten a little better, but still I cannot wait to go home and be with everyone. Chelsie left yesterday, and called me today saying she was bored already because not many people were home yet but I still wish I could've gone with her because I am only going to be home for about five days. I've been talking to my parents everyday, sometimes a couple times a day which has been helping, but there has definitely been a feeling of helplessness over the last week. I also got a D on a Psychology test which didn't help anything either. Overall, I'm doing fairly well in school but these few tests that have gone poorly have been hard for me to cope with. Hopefully Thanksgiving break will be really fun and relaxing!

Naps

Naps- something that I thought I would always hate. I don’t know what it is about them, but I used to hate the idea of them. During my senior year however, I started to realize the benefit of a small, half an hour nap in the middle of my day. By no means did I take one every day, or every week for that matter. But once in a while, when I was just plain exhausted, I just couldn’t resist the temptation. Now however, they are my lifeline. My first thought when I wake up is, “Okay, you can do this Caitlin. At 11:30 you get your nap.” Its pretty sad, I’ll admit it. But when I am going to sleep at midnight or later and waking up at seven in the morning, I find it essential. (I know that lots of people get less sleep than that and are fine, but I am a wimp. I need my sleep.) It has become my habit to take an hour nap everyday after my history class, and it’s beautiful. I would have to say it is one of my favorite hobbies. There is one danger in these afternoon snoozes. Yesterday when taking my nap I ended up sleeping, not for one hour, but for two, meaning that I wasted a good part of my afternoon. My excuse for it is that if I slept that long, I must have really needed it. I’m not sure how true that is, but it sounds pretty good to me. So now, I think I will end this, do a little homework, and maybe take my nap.

Getting Ready

I am starting to get very ready for the holidays. Not just because I am craving mash potatoes and pumpkin pie (which I am), but also because I am craving time at home. I have only gone home once, and have seen my parents twice since I moved in, but they were for such short periods that I wouldn't call them restful. When I went home I felt as if I had to see as many people, and go to as many of my favorite places, as possible. I can't wait to be home long enough to actually relax. The time my parents came up here was much of the same thing. It was last weekend for Parent's Weekend, so I wanted to show them around and introduce them to people. Because of that I didn't have much down time with them. I have 4 weeks off for Christmas Break, and I am so excited for that. I am excited for the little things, like sitting on a couch (something I didn't even realize I would miss), talking with my friends for hours, and playing a few, very competitive, games of rummy with my dad. And plus, by that time my first quarter, and first finals, will be over. That is something to look forward to!

Stress Stress Stress

Well my math test went just as I suspected, I got a big 52 out of 100; not so pleased. But I do get to retake it in a few weeks so hopefully it will go better then. School has been pretty stressful this past week, I had a couple tests and a paper due. Things are kinda coming to an end though, I have a week until I go home for Thanksgiving and then once I get back I have two weeks then finals already! I'm scared to death about finals. I have three papers due in English, my Math test will be really hard, French will be rough and Psychology isn't going to be easy either. I enrolled into my classes for next semester though, I can't wait to start fresh again. That's a stressful thing to do though, picking out classes. It's hard because there's a lot to choose from and especially if you don't know what your major is, it can get complicated. Things around campus have been exciting though because our football team is ranked in the top 5 and our basketball team is also undefeated so far. Buying tickets to sporting events is definitely something I would encourage people to do. Even if you're going to a smaller school, it'd still be fun to get involved and have a lot of school spirit because that's all people talk about sometimes. I don't have much going on this next week, academic-wise so hopefully it'll be a little less stressful!

Parent's Weekend

I am so excited for this weekend. It is Parents' Weekend, so my parents and my friend's family are coming down to visit. Because it is a long weekend, lots of people are going home also. Which means that almost everyone in my dorm will either be with their families or home. So when I show my parents around the campus, its pretty much going to look like I don't have any friends. Oh well. There isn't much I can do about that. I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long time though. I can't wait to show my parents my new little world, from where I eat to my classes to my dorm room. My sister and I having been planning all the things that we should do with them. Besides showing them the campus, I want them to see all the great things that make the town so wonderful. First I want to take them to the pumkin patch, where there is a corn maze and homemade pastries and fudge. I am also considering taking them to the drive-in movie theater one night for a late showing of "Stardust". This weekend I have a mission: to prove to my friend (who is coming down as well) that my school is the university to choose. She is a senior this year and is deciding between this college and two others. So, I want her to see everything that is wonderful about the school. Unfortunately, the school is VERY different on the weekends, as everyone is either off camus or in the dorms sleeping. However, that just makes my mission more of a challenge.
Sadly though, life doesn't stop for parent visits. I still have a huge speech due on Tuesday, which I am going to try to finish before they come. I also have a take-home test in Spanish and vast amounts of reading for history. That's okay though. Everyone is coming down Saturday and I am convinced that I can get everything done tomorrow. So, I hope everyone has a great, long weekend!

Registration

The time has come again; today is my day to resgister for my winter classes. And as much as it is exciting, it is also pretty stressfull. As far back as last week I started playing around with different classes, seeing what I needed and what would fit with what. I also made several rules. I was not taking a class on friday and I was not having a morning class every morning. Naturally, this restricted my schedule slightly. Finally though, I found the perfect schedule. No morning classes, good teachers, and perfect times. The problem was that I then had to wait my turn to register. And as I was waiting, I was able to watch all of these perfect classes fill up. That is when I started to get stressed. So last night, the night before I registered, I came up with an entirely new schedule, one that was slightly less perfect but entirely more practicle. I am now planning on taking a world history class, Spanish 2, oceanography, and a class on the economy of the middle east, which should be interesting. So keep your fingers crossed and pray that my second schedule does not fill up before 3:00 today!

Halloween Week

This last week at school was crazy. I never knew Halloween could be such a big deal. There was an infinite number of parties the weekend before and Wednesday night was crazy busy everywhere we went. One of my friends had a party on Saturday which was a blast and Wednesday we just went to a club and got all dressed up. On Saturday I was the tin man from the Wizard of Oz and Wednesday I was a cowgirl. Other than that the week was pretty low key except I think I may have failed my first test on Friday. Not a good feeling! It was my math test and I thought I had the material down but the test was nothing like what we did in our review so I'm kinda bummed about that.
Only two weeks until I go home! I'm really excited to see all my high school friends and family, and it was so nice last time to sleep in my own bed. We started a new tradition on Sundays, me and 3 of my friends are having movie day. Every sunday we're going to go to the theater or if there's nothing good out, we're going to rent one. It's kind of nice to have something planned on weekends because I think I've said before, but weekend days can get kind of long. Well I'll see how I did on my test on Wednesday, so cross your fingers!

Getting Down to Buisness

So far, college hasn't seemed too challenging. Sure I have to study, and once in a while I am disappointed by a grade I got, but for the most part it has been okay. Until now that is. Honestly, I didn't mean for it to get like this. My Communications class has been pretty laid back all quarter until last week, where I realized that I have a research paper due on Tuesday, a persuasive speech due on Thursday, and a group project due the week after Thanksgiving. I bet you can guess what I am doing this weekend. I will be hole up in my room for most of Friday, Saturday, and depressing as it might sound, probably Sunday as well. My advice is to stay on top of things. To actually USE that planner that you buy at the beginning of every year. If you are anything like me, the planner usually stays empty at the bottom of your backpack. Well, I got mine out yesterday, even though it is a little late. The plus side of this is, I have discovered how to use the library. Yesterday I went and found six books to help me on my research paper. You have no idea how intellectual I felt as I brought those books back to my dorm. I also learned how to use the library's website, which is actually quite wonderful. I can look up everything I need to without even leaving my room.
However, as I stay in my room, the world is sadly going to keep on turning. A few girls are going down to the beach to shop and then going to the school's rodeo. But I guess that just means that I will think before I procrastinate again.