Woah…this is the end of my junior year. I’ve only got one final left between me and summer, and then it’s on to my senior year here at TU. I’m definitely not ready to think about graduating and leaving my friends…I can’t believe I only have 9 months left to spend with them before we all head our separate ways. It’s definitely starting to hit me hard. The time has flown by so fast! In addition to having to think about the friends that I have in my own class that I only have one short school year left with, I have to think about all of my friends who are graduating in FIVE DAYS. I think that’s what’s getting me the most…TU is such a close-knit campus that I have made so many friends that are both older and younger than me, and it’s sad to see the seniors go. They have taught me so much on this campus, and each and every one of them has touched my life in one way or another. They are all moving on to such amazing things, but I’ll still miss them when they’re gone! The campus certainly won’t be the same without them, but I’m excited to reach my senior year and leave my own mark on this campus before I leave. It’ll be the class of 2012’s time to shine, and I think we’re definitely ready for the challenge! =) Until then I look forward to graduation and celebrating those who are leaving, and I can’t wait for a few weeks of break at home in St. Louis before I head back here to do some research for the TURC program this summer. The 2011-2012 school year promises to be an eventful one, and I can’t wait!
Author Archives: Hillary
Come and Preview TU!
Hello!
As I hoped, it has been a beautiful few weeks here at TU! The weather has been perfect, and I have been busy as ever winding down my school year–fortunately, this week has been a lot less crazy than the past few months have been! I’m excited for this Friday, though, when we have Preview TU. We’ll have hundreds of future students and parents on our campus walking around and getting to know the University before they attend in the fall, and as President of University Ambassadors I get to spend all day interacting with them and helping them to find a niche that they love at TU just like I have! Having new students on campus is always really fun–it was the UAs at TU that convinced me of how great this University is, and I hope that I can be that person for someone else! It should be a pretty fun day, and then on Friday night the football team is having their Spring Game where they showcase all of their new coachers and players. I’m really excited to see how things go! Also, my parents are coming in town this weekend, so I have yet another reason to be excited! My mom hasn’t been here since Homecoming in October, and my dad hasn’t been here since fall of 2009! It’s definitely been way too long!
I’m looking forward to a nice, relaxing weekend, and I hope that you all enjoy your weekends, too! I’ll talk to you again soon!
Research 101
Wooo…glad today is over, although I’m really excited about what I got to do today! I have been doing undergraduate research this semester under Dr. Eduardo Faingold about the Mexican Drug War and its implications on American foreign policy. It has been so interesting, and I have loved getting to learn all about it! Today, I had the opportunity to present my findings at the Research Colloquium on campus–it’s a HUGE conference where hundreds of students doing undergraduate research at TU get to present in front of judges and share their research and what they’re passionate about with an audience. I had a really great time participating! I’m glad that all of that work is behind me, though =)
Also, this week is Springfest. We’ve had really fun activities all week–Monday they had a Battle of the Bands with free t-shirts and all sorts of cool stuff, and then last night they brought in Jack’s Mannequin for FREE! They played a great concert…they’re a band that I really love, and getting to see them free (as I do with all great concerts that TU brings to campus) was awesome! Tonight we’re decorating TOMS shoes and hanging out in Reynolds Center, tomorrow is the 1st annual Mr. and Ms. Hurricane pageant (it should be pretty funny…there’s a girl in my sorority in it so I’m really excited to cheer her on) and then on Friday is Relay For Life, which is a huge deal on our campus. I’m so excited for the rest of the week, and I can’t wait for next week which is Kappa Sigma’s philanthropy week. They have a huge dance competition that all of the sororities participate in, and it’s always so fun seeing the dances that everyone makes up. Next time I write, I’ll have to tell you all about it!
Until then, I’ll be wishing away this rainy, cold weather and hoping that some sun comes our way next week! Talk to you soon!
Spring Break!
Best week EVER, and I’m definitely not quite ready to readjust back to school mode. I went to Panama City Beach with my pledge class in my sorority, and we had the best time! We spent plenty of time on the beach, ate at some amazing restaurants, and found a few other TU students who were down there at the same time and hung out with them a lot! It was an amazing trip, and coming back to Tulsa was so hard. I’m excited to be back and finish the semester, though–there’s a ton of fun stuff coming up like Springfest and a bunch of fraternity and sorority philanthropy weeks. It will be really fun!
The ride to and from Florida (all 17 hours total both ways) was pretty uneventful, but I sure have a story to tell today! We drove from Panama City Beach to Fort Smith, Arkansas yesterday and stayed in Fort Smith at the house of one of my pledge sisters who came on the trip with us overnight to break up the drive. On our drive from Fort Smith to Tulsa today (a whopping two hours), we got a flat tire, a leak in another tire, AND our cartop carrier came unzipped and our stuff flew all over the interstate! We were able to pull over and retrieve it all–thankfully all of the cars and trucks were able to change lanes to avoid hitting any of it. I definitely never thought I’d spend my Sunday afternoon dodging semis on the highway, though! It’s definitely a story that I’ll have to tell my kids one day…followed by a nice warning that they should do as I say, not as a do. It was an experience for sure, and I’m glad that everything turned out OK. Now I’m settled back in Tulsa, unpacked, and back to the grind. I’m excited to be back on campus, and ready for the nice weather that we’ll have this week! It will be just as beautiful as the weather in Florida, which will definitely make the transition easier! =)
Spring Break…Here I Come!
The countdown has begun! Spring break is in 10 days! WOOOOOO! I am so excited for some time with no classes–these past few weeks have been so stressful for me. It’s been midterms/papers/persentations galore, and I am in much need of a break. I’m heading home to St. Louis for the first time this semester (it’s amazing how little I go home nowadays…I never want to miss a weekend in Tulsa!) to get all of my spring clothes and then next Friday it’s off to Florida with my pledge class in my sorority! We’re staying just outside of Panama City at a really nice resort, and I’m so excited for some time in the sun! The weather’s been pretty good there lately, so I’m hoping it holds up for when we head down there. It will be a MUCH needed vacation, and I am so ready for it!
I’m also really excited for next Monday, because that is the day when I receive my LSAT scores. I’m SO nervous, but I’m also really excited to see how I did. I’m anxious to start the whole process of visiting law schools and deciding where I want to apply, and these scores will determine whether or not I take the LSAT again to try to better my score (how I would love to not have to take it again…). I’ll keep you all updated on how things go, and next time I’ll be able to write all about my spring break! Until then, hopefully the weather is as nice where you are as it is in Tulsa right now so that you can enjoy the beginning of SPRING! =)
Springtime?
Hey everyone! So to follow up on the crazy snow blog from last time, we now have 75 degree weather and it’s beautiful outside! Good old Tulsa weather…after the blizzard we got four days off of school because the streets were horrendous and there was way too much snow for the city to handle, so we got a little mini spring break! It was great! After a day or two, though, I was ready to get out–I had really bad cabin fever, but I couldn’t dig my car out and even if I could the roads were impassible anyway. Finally after about a week we were able to break out and leave the house (even though Tulsa public schools got off for two full weeks!), and life began to return to normal–just with 15 feet high snow piles all over campus from shoveling and plowing! It was fun seeing the campus in such a tight-knit setting–none of us could do anything off campus, so we all hung out with each other and enjoyed each other’s company! It was a whole other side to TU that I’ve never seen before!
Now that the snow is over and it’s back to being 75 degrees again (if you don’t like the weather in Tulsa, just wait an hour), I’ve had spring fever! I know it’s not quite spring yet, but the weather has been so gorgeous that I ate lunch outside today and enjoyed walking to class because I got to see the campus in all of it’s sunny gloriousness! I’ve definitely missed blue skies and green grass over the past few weeks–there really isn’t anything that shines brighter than the Tulsa sun! Most of my midterms were this week, so now that I’m finished with those and finished with the LSAT (I finally took it last Saturday…we’ll see how I do!) I’m excited to get back into the swing of things on campus!
I hope to see most of you on campus this weekend at Tulsa Time! If not, I hope that your college decisions are going well! Come visit us again soon–especially now that the weather is nice again! Tulsa in the springtime is absolutely beautiful! =)
Winter Wonderland
Crazy 24 hours! Yesterday there was a ton of hype going on around campus because there was a blizzard warning in effect…as is typical for Tulsa, everyone was running around like the world was coming to an end. Tulsans don’t handle winter weather quite as well as St. Louisans do, so I didn’t take it seriously. At around 4 pm yesterday, though, after watching a news update, I realized that this could be the real deal. As a result, my roommate and I buzzed to Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market to get some food just in case we were snowed in for a while. Bad idea…there were no parking spaces, no carts, the food was literally almost gone, and we stood in line for 40 minutes to check out. It was the craziest thing I’ve ever seen! At around 11 pm last night it began thunder sleeting (literally a full thunderstorm but instead of rain it was sleet), and then I woke up this morning to 11 inches of snow on the ground. Then it kept snowing, and snowing, and snowing, and snowing, and snowing, and…you get the point. We finished up with between 14-15 inches of snow on the ground with drifts that were several feet high, and my car is completely buried. They had to shut down every highway going in and out of Tulsa, the Tulsa World didn’t publish for the first time in its history this morning, and the Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino’s roof collapsed! On top of that, the roads are completely impassible and the wind was blowing like crazy! The best part of all, though? Snow day today and already a snow day announced for tomorrow. SO excited! I already went out with my roommate and took pictures of the snow earlier today–it went all the way up to my thighs, and I’m 5′9″! It was really cool, and we had fun running around campus finding the tallest snow drifts to take pictures in. The campus looks beautiful covered in snow, and it was really neat to be able to experience something this big! We broke the records for 24 hour snowfall, snowfall for a single meteorological event, snowfall for a two day period, AND snowfall for the entire month of February. Woah!
Overall, I’m really excited that I got to see history made in Tulsa! I’m sure St. Louis is going to get it even worse–my brother and sister already have school called off until Friday. So jealous. We’ll see if they get more snow than us…otherwise, I’m definitely going to be bragging big time! =) I’m excited for tomorrow, though, because all of the Greeks are going to have a HUGE snowball fight on campus. It should be fun!
I’ll update you on what happens with the rest of my week next time I write. Until then, I’ll be running around in the snow!
Talk to you soon!
Another Day, Another Semester
It’s only the third day of classes, so there’s not too much to report on there. I’m really excited for my Communication classes this semester, and I’m especially excited for my Senior Project. I’m going to write about the Mexican drug cartels and their influence on Mexican and American politics–it will be awesome to be able to mix my political science and Spanish majors in my research.
The big news lately has been the weather. We got a light dusting of snow the other day–nothing to write home about (especially since my home currently has much more snow on the ground)–but the temperatures have been crazy! It’s been about 6 degrees every day when I leave for class, and with the wind chill the temperature is in the negative digits. I either want lots of snow to justify this cold weather, or I want spring to be here so I can enjoy some warmth again!
Also, I’m really excited because yesterday I got to go to a meeting with members from all of the other sororities at TU to pick a color scheme for the backs of our houses where we live! The houses are getting completely renovated this summer (it’s much needed…our houses were built in 1968!), and the renovations are going to make our houses beautiful! It was really awesome that TU gave us all a say in how our houses will look–not many universities give their students that option! It’s kind of like designing your own dorm–how cool is that?!? I’m excited to come back next fall to see all of the renovations completed–it will be neat to see the transformation!
Other than that, I’m excited to see who TU’s new head coach will be for the football team–it was great to see TU finish in the top rankings in the AP polls, and I hope that our new head coach will continue the streak! Until then, I’ll be going to as many basketball games as I can and enjoying life on campus! Hopefully it will be a little warmer the next time I talk to you, and I’ll have much more eventful news!
