Monthly Archives: November 2012

We’re Not in Kansas Anymore

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Mercedes
Our fall break just ended and now it’s time to step back into reality and the life of a TU student. Since I live in Arizona I didn’t fly back home for Thanksgiving instead I drove to Wichita with my lovely room mate and met my best friend there to continue our journey to her grandparents house outside of Topeka, Kansas. We got there Friday and had more of our friends arriving on Sunday and Thursday. We spent a lot of time in the car  between driving to and from the airport which was a couple hours away and exploring downtown Topeka, but it left a lot of time to catch up with everyone! A few highlight of my break included visiting the barn cats that live in the barn behind Korynne’s grandparents house!

We renamed all of the cats and this one we called Death by Cuteness. Other names included Bob Marley, 007, and Scrappy which all fit the personalities of the cats quite well.

The scenery was amazing! We spent one morning just walking around the field and even ventured into the line of trees just to see what was on the other side which proved to be an adventure to say the least!

We decided to have a picnic at a park and of course we pick the coldest and most windy day to do so but it was still very fun.

While driving in downtown Topeka after the park we found this flag painted on the back of a building which lead to basically a photo shoot! (They were spelling out USA!)

Lastly that day we found a bunch of trains and decided to explore a little around there!

Between the laughs, nights spent watching movies, and just having a good time with great friends I was not ready to come back to school. And yet as soon as I walked into my suite I realized how much I missed it here! We even had pre-Christmas with gifts from some of the girls moms, and we spent the night watching movies and catching up! I was even excited to sleep in my dorm bed! Sometime you have to go away so you remember why you like it coming here so much and this break did it for me! I will admit I cannot wait to actually go back home for the first time, and I am not thrilled to have to be studying for finals but we’re not in Kansas anymore and for now I am very much happy to be back to my college home with the girls of suite 404!

Finals are coming!

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This week has been very hectic because it is the last week of classes before finals.  Everyone has tests and papers due this week which makes for a bit of a stressful environment, but it is interesting to see how everyone handles it.  Personally I had a paper due right when we came back and that same day I had an oral presentation for English.  The next day I had homework and a quiz in math.  Wednesday was my last hectic day: I had a 10 minute french oral presentation that had to be completely memorized.  Over the week I de-stressed by going to an event put on by one of the RAs.  She had pumpkin muffins and cider, and we decorated things to put on our doors.  I got a lot of bows, but they were all red and I decided I needed some Jewish representation because I am Jewish too so I made a “Happy Hanukkah” sign for our door to go with the Christmas decorations.  My friend, Nicole, and I also decided to make masks to destress.  They are for the masquerade function being put on by Kappa.  I made three.  I like two of them and then the other I don’t think is the best, but someone else said they liked so ehh it’s good enough. :)   Nicole who had a test and a project due the day after we made the masks said they went great, and she feels really good about them.  I think while it’s important to power through the work don’t forget to take a bit of time for yourself to relax.  It’s been a good week overall!

Arkansas Game

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Andres

I went with the band for my first out of state college football game. It was a great experience. I’ve never been inside a stadium so big and the Arkansas fans were very dedicated to their team and their spirit was astounding. We did not let them outdo us though. Though we were not the full size band we played louder than their band, which outnumbered us at least 10 to 1. I’m so proud to be a Golden Hurricane! Despite the loss the game was great and I’ll remember it for a long time.

The Perfect Balance

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Sarah
Maybe I’m a little biased, but I’m convinced Tulsa has it all. Academic focus and impressively high rankings on a national level, but also campus involvement, school spirit, and division 1 athletics that contribute to all of my favorite parts of college. The Tulsa family grows stronger every year with the new freshman class and it serves as a great reminder of the benefits of attending a small school. Everything from small class sizes, to our campus community makes TU something I want to always be a part of. We won an exciting football game today, so maybe that’s what is making me so sentimental about my school, but I’ll keep this brief. Hearing the roar of the football stadium chanting GOLDEN HURRICANE back in forth in a tense 4th quarter was absolutely incredible. We defend Tulsa and are dedicated to everything it stands for. I couldn’t be prouder to be a part of something so strong. Plus, campus is beautiful, and that doesn’t hurt one bit either.

Unexpected Joys

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Sarah
I tried to learn a lot about TU as a prospective student. I did my research, attended visit days and had even picked out certain organizations I wanted to be involved with if I were to become a student. Now that I’m a sophomore here at the University of Tulsa, I don’t have to research the university anymore. I get to live it everyday. Here are a few unexpected joys that as a prospective student I never saw coming.

You’re looking at a view of the TU intramural field. I wasn’t much of an athlete in high school (just ballet and golf), but thanks to this on-campus activity I’m able to cheer on friends playing flag football one month and play soccer the next!

Good news, folks! No. 1, there’s a Chick-Fil-A on campus. No. 2, I have this really awesome friend that uses her dining dollars to treat me and a bunch of our friends to a free lunch on occasion! It rocks.

Concerts at Cain’s Ballroom are a Tulsa Tradition and the tickets are pretty cheap! Definitely something special about living in Tulsa that I didn’t expect.

And finally, I would have never guessed that I would make it on the kiss cam at a men’s basketball game in my lifetime. Especially with David Letterman as the recipient of the kiss. Ask anyone that was at the game on Sunday though. It happened!

Tulsa Colors

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Rachel
Flaming red. Brilliant gold. Majestic blue. These are colors I’ve have become accustom to seeing on campus not only on students’ t-shirts but also in the turning trees and Fall sky. Here is a peek at the beauty I experience daily on campus.

what a gorgeous combination!

P.S.- Trees in Texas (where I’m from) don’t do cool things like turn colors. Which is why I am so excited about the beautiful Fall weather here!!

Too excited for the Holidays

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Mercedes
In my suite we get really into the Holidays. We decorated for Halloween last month but now that it’s over we needed new decorations before we hosted people for Tulsa Time! We put those gel letters on the mirror in the bathroom and so we do have a “Happy Thanksgiving” and a turkey, but since we didn’t think decorating for Thanksgiving was all that exciting we jumped right ahead to Christmas. We pretty much all concluded that we really love Christmas so off we went to Target  to see what we could find! $20 later we had an assortment of wrapping paper and bows. Between that and recycling our Halloween decorations, the paper rolls from the wrapping paper, and old paper bags we pretty much had Christmas explosion in here! We not only decorated our door, but every door inside our room, the door across the hall, a door down the hall, and the tables. Just to give you a little taste:

^Our front door!

^We gave ourselves a winter view to look at and curtains out of the wrapping paper! Also we have the little branch on the table which is our Christmas tree! It even has an ornament  made out of a life saver.

^This is our bathroom door, also known as my project for the night.

I think the main reason we are all so excited for the Holidays is that we get to go home! I am not flying back to Arizona for Thanksgiving but I will be spending it in Kansas with friends. That just makes me more excited for it to be winter break since that means I have a whole month home. College is great  and you get to do some many things don’t get me wrong but there is no place like home!

I had to pick up the last remainders of our decorating madness before we got 5 lovely ladies to host for Tulsa time!

Good bye until next time!

Hurricane Thursdays

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Thomas
Okay this post is going to be a shorter one. I just want to inform you all of something my roommate and I have recently accomplished. Every Thursday there are events at or around TU known as Hurricane Thursdays. There have been 10 so far and we have managed to go to all 10! Most of them are actually pretty fun and can range from parties to movies to bowling nights. The most important aspect of these activities is the punch card. If you get all of the punches on the card punched (a total of 14) then you are entered into a drawing for an various prizes including an Ipad and priority housing! So hopefully we will win priority housing and get a super nice apartment here next year! Another thing I will address later in the year is housing- it is incredible here.

As always thank you for reading and have a fantastic night everyone! For those of you participating in Tulsa Time, I will see you soon!

Racquet Ball at TU

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Sebastian
At TU there is no shortage of fun athletic events to partake in. Racquet ball is one such sport that I’ve been playing recently and I’ve been having a blast. For those of you who don’t know, racquet ball is a game where you and your opponent take turns using a racquet to hit the ball against a wall. I say “a” wall because you can hit ball against any surface of the court including the ceiling as long as the ball manages to hit the front wall before it bounces. It sounds easy but as you can see in the video below, it can get pretty hectic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnyXQdNsJF0

As I’m sure you can tell, it takes a lot of practice and some quick reflexes to play as well as these guys do. More than likely you’ll end up hitting yourself with the ball on your first time. Stick with it though and I can assure you, racquet ball is a fun and rewarding game. It’s also a great way to get in shape! You’d be surprised how hot it gets in that box.

My roommate’s graceful movements on the court

While I may never attain the level of skill displayed in the video above I will continue to practice at TU’s racquet ball facilities in Mabee Gym. Wish me luck!