3 weeks and counting

Ah, Fridays--the start of the weekend is finally here! I had a good week this week, and I'm so excited for Halloween! My classes have all been going well--successful drafts/papers, a decent Art History mid-term grade, and swimming has difficult, but I have been able to push through. It's getting a little nerve-wracking, though, because next Monday there will only be 3 weeks left of the term--15 days! Since my school is on a 10-week trimester schedule, things move very quickly here. There are finals exams and papers to think about and what classes to choose for winter term.

However, despite all this crazy school work, this weekend will be great! Tonight I have a blind date. It's this campus-wide event in which your roommate sets you up on a blind date. Both my roommate and I set up each other. I feel kind of bad because I don't know who her date is at all! My friend on the swim team and I were complaining about how neither of us could think of anyone to set our roommates up with, and then we realized we should just set our roommates up together! I hope everything goes well...

Halloween is tomorrow, and unfortunately we have a swim meet in the morning, so I can't sleep in. It will be an invite with some teams from our conference and we will be racing silly relays, not actual regulation swim meet events. This sounds like fun as long as I don't have to swim distance tomorrow!

All in all, we've been working hard here. It's time for a little fun this weekend! Wish me luck on my date :)

BCS Bearcats

The fact that there was no homecoming dance for the weekend was interesting, but besides that this past homecoming weekend was a big success! I had lots of fun and the Bearcats won the football game. Our national championship hopes are looking better and better. If they keep playing the way that they have been then i think they will atleast make it to a BCS Bowl. The University is filled with plenty of excitement and anticipation as the regular season continues to get closer to the end. I really do hope that all ends well with the football team because I do beliveve that it can only boost the continuously building reputation of the University and that will have a positive effect on the school as a whole.

My school work continues to get better as the weeks progress. I feel that i am becoming a better student. I have to give credit to my parents because all of the advice that they have given me, I have been using in the past couple weeks. My test scores have improved significantly and i think that is because i have been stidying more now than any other time in my life. Math is starting to come very easy to me which has boosted my confidence in become a stronger student overall. It is almost November and it feels like school just started weeks ago. The quarter is going by quick as the half way point has already past. I cant wait for the weekend though, because i get to cheer on Michigan and of course the BCS Bearcats!

I wish break could last longer... so I could finish my homework :(

Midterm break was this past weekend. I got one day off--Monday. This weekend was the most relaxing weekend I've had in a very long time, especially since there wasn't any swim practice. However, the days leading up to the break were so stressful.

Last Wednesday I had two midterm exams and a paper due. The paper wasn't so bad because I had been working on it all week, and Calculus wasn't too much to worry about because I have already taken a similar class, but Art History was a pain in the neck to study for! There were 55 pieces of art we had to memorize along with their dates, stylistic periods, artists, and region. Thankfully, I was able to cram it all into my brain before the test. Even if you feel like you know the subject well, the first exam is always scary. You never know what to expect for the first test. Well, thankfully, I was wrong about the Art History exam being the most terrifying thing ever, because I thought it went quite well. I guess we'll just have to see when we get the actual results on Wednesday.

Even though I had a really relaxing weekend, I have a TON of homework that I sort of pushed aside. I'm actually nervous about when I'm going to have time to finish it all. Nothing except my math homework is due tomorrow, but I have a paper due on Friday that I should probably continue working on. I have no idea how all this work piled up! It was midterms--no one gave MORE homework--but here I am scrambling to find time to do it all.

I guess the advice I'm going to give here is make sure you look ahead and prepare--for everything. I think I should have seen these assignments coming and saved some time in the weekend to work on them at least a little bit. Hope I learned my lesson...

Because Of The Bearcats

It has officially been over a month since I've moved in and time is flying by. I did pretty good on my first math test and feel that i am starting to become a better student mathematically with all of the help that i am getting from my support system. Also, all of my other classes are going great and i think i might end up with all A's hopefully. The library has realistically been one of my best friends and it has payed off in every academic way possible. The only thing i don't like about the Library here is that they charge you to print. In high school i used to print away, but with this some responsibility has been developed in my system so i cant complain too much.

On a social positive side, our football team is ranked 5th in the nation and everybody agrees that we have a good chance of making the national championship if we go undefeated. This weekend is the homecoming game against Louisville and i feel that we will win because they are not that good, but who knows, any given day anything can happen in the game of football. I will be there cheering on the Bearcats regardless of the outcome. It's the least i can do for what this school has given me so far in my college career, and that's plenty of good memories to harp on for life. My college life seems pretty complete. I have to say it's all because of the Bearcats.

Settling In Safely And Soundly

I have been living at The University of Cincinnati for about three weeks now and it continues to get better and better. I lately have been thinking about joining a fraternity, but i am not sure if that is the right choice for me. rush week was this past week and that it when all of the fraternities host activities to get freshman to join and hopefully persuade them to become a memeber of their home. I know that fatrnites can benefit people when it comes to jobs but i do not want this commitment to effect my school work in any way possible. I think that a very safe decision needs to be made if i do pick a frat to join, but i feel that all of the fraternities here have good intentions for their fellow members.

My school work has been really good. i believe that is because of the massive amount of time i have to study and do homework everyday due to the way my schedule has been made for this first quarter. my first collegiant test is this coming Wednesday, and i feel that i will be in perfect condition to succeed. My free time has also allowed me to make more friends each day and I think that has carved out opportunity for me to network. i have always been a sociable person but this university has allowed me to really branch out and meet a lot of diverse people that have enlivened my spirit. I am settling in safely and soundly.

4th Week

This weekend was homecoming! It was quite different than my high school's homecoming though. There is not quite the emphasis on sports here at my academically-rigorous small liberal arts college that there was back home. I had a swim meet that morning, so I missed the first quarter of the game. The game was very exciting, and we almost lost to our biggest rivals, but in the end, we prevailed 17-13!
That night, I there was a dance that started at 9, but truly got hoppin' at 11:30. I found it strange that there were hardly any parties that night! Most college students would want to celebrate all night long, but there were only a few parties that ended before midnight. I thought homecoming was going to be over-the-top wild, but here it is very low key.
Sunday night was a stressful night, as always. I usually try and get some homework done before Sunday night, just so I won't have piles and piles of work to do. Well, much to my dismay, I left everything until the last minute. This was a very stupid idea because I had to wake up at 6 the next morning for swimming practice.
It was tough on Monday morning to drag myself out of bed and bike to the Rec Center. The workout set the coaches had us do were so intense! After morning practice I raced back to my dorm for a quick shower, then breakfast, then class. It's going to be hard to get used to this new schedule.
I now have swimming every day of the week except Sunday. I have morning practices on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. College sports are very intense. I was only planning on swimming for fun, but it is a lot more work than I was prepared for. I hope I can keep up my studies as well as my swimming, because I really like the team and the coaches and all the new friends I've made.
It is now Wednesday, and midterms are coming up next week already! I can't believe I've made it this far! I hope I can figure out how to manage my schedule a littler more efficiently this week so I'll be prepared for all the work school and swimming have to offer.

The Freshman Feeling

Today is Monday and normally this is a day where I feel like my life is crashing down on me with stress, but college has given Monday a new name for my educational life. It is a day where most of my room and floor mates throughout the dorm go out and get active in some way possible. I really enjoy the fact that we do this because it has allowed me to become closer to a lot of people at the university and most importantly, it has given me the opportunity to meet people who are good students. Now if I need help with anything especially math, I can get it from one of my new friends as opposed to always walking to the tutor center or trying to help myself.
So far, The University of Cincinnati has been good to me. I am enjoying all of my classes and feel that the support from my professors has helped a lot in making my pivotal transition from high school to college a smooth one. The student body is real nice and everybody seems to be having a good time with very little issues. The social aspect has to be my favorite thing about the collegiate life. Outside of hanging with my dorm mates on Mondays, there are plenty of activities to participate in and most of them are free for anyone to join. I think that if I continue to stay positive about my school work and become more and more active as the year goes on, then my freshman year will be successful but who knows what my college future will hold from this day on? Guess I have to wait and just enjoy my freshman feeling for now.