Waiting to get our picture taken with Kathy Griffin

Sunday night that we went out

At the Museum of Natural History--we're rocking our horns alongside the triceratops

Going out for Becca's birthday

The candle plates that they used at the Indian restaurant

So classes are going well. I haven't gotten any grades back yet, but I have some stuff coming up soon. There's a ton of reading though, I'm definitely gonna be stuck in my room reading all weekend. Two weekends ago I went out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday (we didn't have school the next day) so last weekend I stayed in and didn't really do much. The weekend that we went out a lot was for Becca's birthday and we got to try this really nice Indian restaurant in Georgetown that was delicious. They served our food over candles which I'd never seen before. That Sunday Anna and her mom came to see my dorm because they were in town but we only got to hang out for like 20 minutes, but that's ok because now she finally knows what my room looks like. Later that day I went to a GW gymnastics meet with two of my friends and that was kind of cool because I'd never been to one. Although every time one girl fell or did some really crazy trick I would freak out.

So last week the best thing that happened was I got to meet Kathy Griffin!!! If you don't know, she's the most hilarious stand-up comic and she has a reality show on BRAVO and she's just the greatest. So I went to a book signing by her a couple of blocks from my school with Colin and Maddie and we got a picture with her and she was super nice! I would post the picture but it's sort of inappropriate for my blog. So anyways the fact that I got to meet her made my year, she's one of my favorite celebrities. That Saturday Leah and Colin and I wanted to do something DC-ish so we went to the Museum of Natural History, which was actually pretty cool. I'm not a big museum person but I forgot how many different parts of that one they had, like the gem exhibit and the dinosaurs and the oceans and everything.

On Monday and Tuesday I did psychology studies. For my psych class you have to participate in 3 research projects where you either do a test or an online study, so for 2 of mine i participated in experiments. they were really boring though i ended up staring at a computer screen for like 45 minutes for both of mine. Other than that I've been busy with my volunteering thing and doing homework. Although I did make time to finally watch the premiere of season 2 of Felicity, which I got for Christmas. All of my friends and I love Felicity which I have on DVD and is the best show made like 10 years ago about this girl who goes to college in New York City it's amazing. And I watched the show my senior year on DVD then brought it to school and rewatched it with everyone here, so now I've finally moved on to new episodes. And I watched High School Musical 1 and 2 with Colin, who has never seen either which is blasphemy to me. I watched the first one 33 times before I lost count, and I've seen the second one over 10. Oh and I watched Rent on Sunday or Monday, so it's been a week for musicals. Last night I went out to dinner with Maddie, Colin and Leah at this greasy pub nearby that was delicious and then we got to see some dorms for next year because I need to figure out where I'm living. Today I had Friday class and then I got lunch with Colin and then I went grocery shopping with Stef and I got soooo much food I'm so excited.

Pictures from Winter Break

I went to downtown Annapolis with my friend Spencer the week before I left for school. I'm posing in front of the water there.

My best friend Anna came to SP after New Years. We're holding up the presents we made for each other.

My friends from high school Joanna, Lauren, and I posing at a birthday party that was thrown for three of my other friends.

Cousins on the day after Christmas

Christmas

Showing off my new hat I got on Christmas

With Norman on Christmas Eve

With Grandpa on Christmas Eve

So I finished my first week of classes! I don't usually have class on Friday, its my UW20 discussion that only meets like 4 times a semester. So here's my thoughts on my classes so far:

News Writing & Reporting: It seems like a pretty straight-forward class. It's a lot of writing but they're pretty short articles so it shouldn't be too hard. My professor is a writer for the LA Times and he's seems like a really smart guy so I'm sure I'll learn a lot.

Social Psych: This class seems easy enough. My professor is really nice, she's young and super friendly. She has outlines of our lectures on BlackBoard (a website for college classes where professors post notes, assignments, grades, etc.) so we just have to print them out before each class, go to class and fill in the notes from her powerpoint. And it seems like interesting material.

Scientific Reasoning: I had this class last semester so it's pretty much the same thing. Actually it should be better because last semester was all about climate change which can get boring really fast, while this semester is more a mix of topics and he said we're gonna do more things in DC which I'm excited about.

UW20: I have a new professor for this class this semester. She's really nice and seems sort of eccentric but I like that. You can tell she knows exactly what she's talking about. We have to read a TON of books this semester though. This week I already had to read the gospel Mark and write a summary on it. These are the books we have to read (although some of the books we don't read the whole thing, just a few chapters if that):

Confessions-Augustine; Legend of the Grand Inquisitor; Notes from the Underground-Dostoevsky; Consolation of Philosophy-Boethius; One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich: A Novel-Solzhenitsyn; Letters from Birmingham Jail-Martin Luther King; poetry by Rumi; Parliament of the Fowls-Chaucer; The Prince-Machiavelli; Henry V-Shakespeare; Second Treatise of Government-Locke; A Season of Migration to the North-Salih

Intro to Political Communication: I think this will be my favorite class, which is good considering it's the foundation of my major. I've already learned a lot. My teacher is young and very energetic and uses a lot of modern examples of things we're reading about. There's a TON of reading for it though so I have to make sure to keep up with that.

Nothing extremely exciting has happened this week besides classes starting. Oooh American Idol started this week! I'm sure everyone has heard of the "Pants on the Ground" guy, if not Youtube it. It's a new classic. And apparently the guy singing it was a Civil Rights activist? It's Becca's birthday weekend so I think we're going out to a Mexican restaurant tonight to celebrate so that will be fun.

Hey everyone, I know I haven't written in over a month, sorry about that. When finals came up I was super busy, and now that I'm at home I haven't had much to write about. With the new semester starting this Monday (!) I'll try to keep up with writing regularly. I'll add that to my resolutions for 2010, along with going to the gym more often... or really at all, considering the last time I went was my second day of college back in August. That's just not healthy.

So, on the school front: I did really well my first semester. I got 4 A's (my school doesn't do A+'s) and an A- (in my UW20 writing class) so my GPA is currently a 3.92. Sweeeet. I got some of my textbooks today for next semester because I rented them from a website instead of buying them from the bookstore which saved around $100, woohoo. My classes for next semester are:

Honors Scientific Reasoning & Discovery

Honors UW20

Intro to Political Communication

Intro to News Writing & Reporting

Social Psychology

I'm most excited for my Political Communication and Psychology classes because I'm really excited to start learning more about my major and I love Psych stuff, but I'm sort of nervous for my News Writing class because I'm afraid I'll be surrounded by kids who all write for the school newspaper and are really good journalists when I don't have much experience with it. I've already taken a semester of the science and writing classes so there's not much change there, although I do have a different Professor for my UW20 class. Right now I'm trying to figure out my schedule for the next 4 years which sounds really excessive but I'm deciding how/if I can fit in grad school classes if I do a dual degree program and whether I can double major or minor in something. I think study abroad is out of the picture now-plus I can't really see myself somewhere so far away for a full semester. And I'd only want to go somewhere English speaking so I don't think I would get the full benefit of cultural immersion. When I'm older I'll just travel where ever I want to for like 2 weeks and then I won't have to worry about tests and studying while I'm there! Also, I'm looking for a work study job this semester, so that should be an interesting search. I need to get my resume together so I can find something.

So during break I really haven't been doing much of anything, but I'm enjoying it! Christmas was great, I got lots of wonderful presents and I hung out with lots of relatives. Now I've been catching up with my friends and even hanging out with high school friends that I hadn't seen since graduation. Two days ago Anna (my best friend from North Carolina) came up to visit with her sister Emma and I hadn't seen the two of them since our trip to Bethany this summer so I was really really happy that I got to see them. Today I went out to lunch with my friends Elise and Erin and tomorrow I'm going out to lunch with my friend Spencer, who's going to GW next year! I'm so excited that I'm going to have an SP friend at my school. I don't really have anymore plans for break other than seeing my close friends and hanging out with Emily, who's moving back to NY on Saturday. Almost everyone is going back this weekend like me, and I'm definitely ready to go back. A month at home is a nice vacation but I'm ready to go back to my GW home with my friends there, although I don't know if I really want to get back to all of the schoolwork.

Songs I'm Listening To (linked at bottom of page):

Colbie Caillat - Droplets

YouTube video (I put it in the link under "A Whole New World Cover":

This is fantastic. Just keep watching, once you get a little bit past the 1 minute mark you are going to laugh so hard, or stare at the screen in disbelief, I promise.