Author Archives: Tiffany

Now I’m (almost) free to seee the world!

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It’s the final countdown…

I bet you guys are sick of me talking about how fast time goes by… but I’ve got to do it again: Today I picked up my graduation gown. And we had our last meeting for a group I’m involved in! What’s going on!? Ahh!!
So I am going to complain for a minute about how slow time is going by when I think about waiting for scholarship results! I feel like I submitted my application at least 6 years ago… I am supposed to find out within the next month, but I have already been excessively checking my e-mail for several weeks. :)

As usual, things are busy! But we have some really fun stuff coming up… a few of my friends and I are planning a great trip for Spring Break to the Graaaaand Canyon!! We are planning to camp and hike for the week, as well as stopping in Farmington, NM to visit one of our friends who graduated last year and works there for ConocoPhillips now! I will try to remember to take some good pictures for you guys!

Last week we had Tulsa Time, which is always tons of fun. I spent the day hanging out with prospective students and their parents, talking about life at TU. Sadly, I didn’t get to host a student overnight, but I did have a student from Houston come stay in my apartment earlier in the week. That was really fun to learn about Houston and what her school is like. She told me all about the IB program and how intense it is! (By the way, good luck to all of you IB’ers out there as you are wrapping things up!!)
Now it’s time to grab some quick dinner and do a little bit of planning for the Grand Canyon 
Until next time!

Semester 8, week one!

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Every time I start to write a blog entry, I am shocked at how fast time flies by! I’m in my last semester of undergrad? For real?

The beginning of Christmas break was amazing. Finishing finals and getting ready for a month without due dates (well, kind of) was a present in and of itself! The only sad part was that we had to bid both our friends and our Christmas tree goodbye :(


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One of our farewell dinners!
At the beginning of break, I went home to see my family and old friends for a couple of weeks. All of my sisters plus my niece were able to come for Christmas and we had a delicious turkey dinner before opening our PRESENTS! I got a lot of great surprises this year! Grey’s Anatomy Season 3 soundtrack, pretty jewelry from Macy’s, and a new winter coat were some of my favorites.

And the fun didn’t stop there… the day after Christmas I took off to Germany to visit Stefan and his family for three weeks! We spent many long nights playing rummy with his parents, and I ate a million baked goods throughout the trip. For New Year’s Eve, we were in Berlin with Stefan’s brother Oli. People were shooting off fireworks everywhere! I didn’t think that was allowed in cities, but I guess it is there! There was a huge celebration at Brandenburger Tor, right down the street (the biggest New Year’s Eve celebration in the world, I believe – more than a million people!). We walked through the area earlier in the evening but had already decided to forego the crowds and have our own party. That turned out to be a good decision since I got to meet a lot of really nice people at the party!

After we had to leave Berlin, we traveled to Karlsruhe, where we stayed for two weeks. I was going to take two weeks of language classes that I enrolled myself in over two months ago… but when I arrived at the school, the secretary casually said “Oh, we cancelled that class… there weren’t enough participants!” Unable to express my anger in German, I had to act like the passive person that I am not. I ended up switching to a different class that started during my second week, and was a level higher than appropriate for me. Boo! But I have to admit, in the end it turned out better because the course hours were nice, the class was challenging, and I saved money by only doing one week of language school.

Regarding my graduate school plans, I have a new list of things to do now that I’ve submitted my first scholarship application! I have another scholarship application that is due on April 1 (right after I hear back from this first one!). Meanwhile, I have to start preparing my application for the German university I want to attend. The hardest part will be a language proficiency exam that I have to take in June. The exam is supposed to ensure that my German is good enough to understand what is going on in the University! :/

Being back at school is great so far. Although I missed the first week of the semester, catching up wasn’t as hard as I envisioned! And yesterday morning I had a great surprise as I woke up (at 6 AM… jet lag!). We have SNOW! I anxiously fired up my computer and basically stared at my e-mail for an hour and a half, hoping for a SNOW DAY e-mail… with no luck! It wasn’t so bad, since I only had two classes, and Jordan, Stef and I celebrated the snow day in my apartment with a hot cinnamon roll party! Mmmm!

Have a great weekend!

Almost there!!

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Only two finals left. Whew. So far I’ve gotten through four exams that all turned out better than expected! Tomorrow I have a final in my database class, and on Thursday I have my last final, in operations management. I’m just now about to crack open my notebook for tomorrow’s final, but thought I would delay it for just a few minutes longer with a blog entry :D

I can’t wait for Thursday afternoon when I finish my last exam of the semester, but I am also really sad for Friday to get here! Most of our exchange students are only here for one semester, so they’ll be leaving Tulsa on Friday morning! :( We have all been trying to cram in some hang-out time before they leave, though, and I am sure I will see them again… visiting friends is a good way to travel on a budget :D

As they’re all headed home, we have been brainstorming for good only-found-in-America gifts to take back to family. It’s pretty hard! I had a couple of ideas… Dr. Pepper. Stuff from Hickory Farms (yum). Barbecue sauce. Rice Krispies treats. A Snuggie?

Okay, time to get back to studying!

The week after Thanksgiving.

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Don’t be fooled! Thanksgiving Break isn’t really a break at all. True, it’s a week with no classes, but it’s also a week that’s almost always followed by a week where every major project in every class is due! I learned that my freshman year, and have successfully lowered my expectations of relaxation and binge eating every year since :D

In addition to working on projects throughout my whole break, though, I managed to squeeze in some leisure time!

I have been working on creating a book from my blog entries I wrote while abroad… After 6 months, I finally finished it! My parents ordered it for me as a Christmas present :D It’s surprisingly affordable to create your own book and have it printed, even with a legitimate cover!

I spent some time with my family who came into town, and with high school friends. My dad and I discovered that lamb isn’t our meat of choice after we tried to make a recipe we found in Men’s Health!

And with Harry Potter still on my mind, I am pretty sure I saw Bathilda Bagshot at the local grocery store… ahhh!!! I hope you all went out to see the movie. My friends and I arrived at the Sand Springs theater at 8:30 PM to wait in line for the midnight premiere to discover that .. well, people in Sand Springs aren’t as hardcore as we are. We were some of the few in costume, and only one family was already waiting. What!! We couldn’t believe it! But we were more than happy with our perfect seats. The movie was great… I can’t wait for the last one! I don’t know what I’ll do with my life when it’s over though!!

Well, here comes the busiest week of the semester! I’m off to study for finals and finish up projects like this one…


Holiday Inn = free wi-fi!

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Hey everybody! I’m writing tonight from Norman, OK, where I’m attending a conference called the Oklahoma Academy. I got here on Sunday and will be leaving Wednesday afternoon. The Oklahoma Academy is organized every year so that leaders from around Oklahoma can discuss issues that our state faces and propose changes to our legislators. So far we have talked a lot about duties of Oklahoma’s cities and how they receive their funding. Most of the other participants are city planners or mayors, so they bring a lot of experience with them. I don’t have any really cool stories to share, but I think my elementary view of things is a nice perspective that might even help to cut out the fluff and get down to the root of problems. I have learned a lot in just one day, and have another full day in store tomorrow: 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM!
There are ten students here in total, and we each got our own room in the Embassy Suites… classy, right? That’s what I thought! There is a free happy hour every evening and the continental breakfast is unbelievable… real food, not cereal! On the other hand, the internet here costs MONEY! What?? Even Burger King has free wi-fi! In any event, I refuse to pay $10 a day for internet, so I have been frequenting the parking lot of the local Holiday Inn for all of my internet needs. Their connection is quite strong! I am just paranoid they’ll notice a strange college student loitering in the parking lot with a laptop…

Aaaand everybody get ready to celebrate, because I finally turned in my scholarship application for Germany! According to their website, I should hear back in late March/early April (ahh!). But according to random forums in which anxious college students post scholarship application info, I could hear back as early as mid-February. I probably shouldn’t have sought out that information, because it will only make me more impatient!!

Well, I’ve got an early morning so that’s my quick update for now! See you later!

Oktober… November!

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My “little sister” that I mentor at a local elementary school always reminds me how AWESOME it was to be a kid! Remember when you could be basically anything for Halloween, and somebody thought it was cool? Well those days are loooong gone! Halloween in college is a time to prove yourself… who can come up with the most clever costume? There were definitely some creative ones this year. My friend Craig was dressed as left-brain/right-brain. I saw a pre-Christmas season elf wandering around, as well as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, a pig in a blanket, and a German exchange student in a bumblebee costume! My boyfriend Stefan and I spent 3 weeks brainstorming for costume ideas… and we had nothing until the night before the big party. Luckily, it only took us one lunch-time shopping spree to pull our costume together!


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Me and Stefan: Little Bo Peep and a Sheep

pig in a blanket christian

Jordan S: Pig in a Blanket; Christian: Bumblebee

October is one of my favorite months at TU. Halloween was just the icing on the cake – we had a great football game against Notre Dame, and one of the top 10 Oktoberfests of the year was happening right across town! TU’s Student Association sponsored a shuttle service from campus to Oktoberfest so that we could avoid parking fees (and stuff). This year I even managed a SWEET discount on the ferris wheel… I got 2 people on for $1 ($7 in savings!!). Who knew you could bargain with the ride operators?


Oktoberfest

So yes, October was awesome, but November is coming in at a close second. How do I know this just 3 days into the month? Because hopefully November will bring the first big freeze!! My allergies will be put to death, I can wear all of my comfortable winter sweatshirts, and soon it will be time to decorate for Christmas. Maybe we can even outdo our holiday decor from sophomore year in La Fortune!


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Aaand to update you since my last post… I’m sooo close to handing in my scholarship application for grad school in Germany! November 12 is the big day. Right now my professors are writing letters of recommendation and I’ll soon be able to put together the application packet!

Also, the job interview in Wichita went pretty well; I managed to get the internship this summer with Koch Industries! I’ll be working in the IT department as a business analyst. It seems like it will be a really good experience, so I hope I can learn a lot while I’m there!

Welp, it’s 11:14 PM, sooo… time to hit the books! Then the hay. Until next time!

The leaves are getting crunchy!!!

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BLOG TIME! Long periods with no blogging are a good sign. Senior year is still incredibly busy, but I am doing a pretty good job of still-having-a-life while keeping up with school!

The last month has a lot of highlights.

Stefan is in town! He finished his master’s thesis and is taking a vacation here in Tulsa before starting his doctorate. Last week we went to San Francisco to visit Adriana, my roommate from Spain. I had never been outside of a California airport before (eew, LAX) so the state was all new to me. We had a great time speed-touring San Francisco in 1.5 days and tromping around Yosemite National Park for the weekend. I think half of the country of Germany was in San Francisco while we were there… all I heard around me was German talk. An old couple approached us in the street with a map (we must have looked like natives) and asked, “Do you know… the crooked… strasse… ” BAM. They gave away their nationality. They were very excited to discover we could give them directions in German, haha. Missing school for a week was awesome!! …until I came back! Oops, now I am pretty behind in several classes, but it was still great timing since I didn’t miss any tests!

The weather has been awesome lately! I can now ditch the A/C and sleep with my window open, and leaves are starting to turn :D I am a proud member of the facebook group called “Yes, I will walk out of my way just to step on that crunchy-looking leaf”, and this is prime time for leaf-crunching. It’s also perfect for running (to class, since that’s the only running I’m doing these days) and reading outside!

A couple of students and I have gotten together to create the TU German Club. Every two weeks we have a dinner, Der Stammtisch, where students can come to practice their German. The dinners are really fun and a few German students show up each time, which really helps with the conversation!

I have been spending tons of time on my grad school scholarship application that’s due in mid-November. The scholarship I am applying for is funded by a German exchange organization, the DAAD, that would pay for me to do a master’s degree in Germany. Here at TU, we have a coordinator of nationally competitive scholarships who dedicates her time to helping students win these things! Every time I meet her to work on my personal statement, I leave with even more great ideas for how to strengthen my essay. My friend Craig just finished his application for the Gates scholarship to do his doctorate in Cambridge! Now I suppose we’ll hang tight and wait for him to hear back!! Mine is due in mid-November, but I won’t have news until March or April… :/ We’ll see!!

It’s also job interview season here on campus… students all over the place are decked out in suits as they have interviews in between (or sometimes instead of) classes. I recently interviewed with Koch Industries for an IT position in Wichita, Kansas. Next week I’m headed up to the big city (I guess?) for an on-site interview to see if I can snag an internship for the summer!

Thanksgiving break plans are also underway… My friends and I would like to take a small trip from Sunday-Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We are thinking about going to St. Louis, to my roommate Kay’s house. Her house is a lot like the Weasley house when everybody is home. There is always tons of good food, her parents are super friendly and people are always talking and recruiting armies to fight the dark lord. Well, normally we don’t do the last thing, but this year we’ll be in the HP spirit since Deathly Hallows part 1 comes out NOVEMBER 19!!! Woo hoo!! We can end this blog update with a picture of me in my Gryffindor robes.

tiffgryffindor
And Happy Halloween, everybody!!!

Apartment life = minor burns.

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Oh man. Things get so busy so fast! I think I had two days of free time at the beginning of the semester but that stage of life appears to have passed by. Now days are filled with class, reading, cooking (apartment life, what???) and cramming in quality time with friends. There is no time to be wasted!

Apartment life was kind of a surprise for me! I didn’t even think about how it would affect my social life, but the atmosphere is a lot quieter. I am still getting used to it but from what I hear, I’ll get really used to having my space and never want to go back to dorm life… haha, we’ll see. It really is nice to have a kitchen, though. I’ve been doing some cooking lately. In fact, I just boiled my finger. I meant to boil some chicken (I’m making a casserole! How grown-up, right?) but I somehow, in the process, stuck my finger in the boiling water for several seconds before my body sensed pain. Owww! The other day I made some quesadillas that turned out to be delicious and I only had one minor burn!

As for the update on my academic life… I love my classes! Okay, 50% of them. But I think that’s a pretty good ratio for “love”. One of my favorite classes is about databases. Doesn’t that sound boring? Yeah, I am pretty sure everybody else in the class hates it. Therefore, they probably hate me for obviously loving it. I’m that girl!! AHH!! In any event, I think my internship this summer really helped me to appreciate my MIS classes more.

My social life has definitely picked up recently, probably due to my recent debut on Fox 23 news (watch the video), haha. I have also been taking advantage of first-week-of-school open-mindedness that allows me to question random students to find out who they are and where they’re from! Recently I made friends with a group of international students here from Europe – the Germans, Swiss and Spanish, and even a few from Singapore! They seem to be a fun group that I will hopefully spend more time with. (It was recently brought to my attention that readers of my blog must think Stef is my only friend. Does it look like I have more now?! I hope it worked.)

Well, I am almost back into my college-life sleep patterns (I even went to the gym at 10:30 tonight!) but nottt quite there, so I am signing off at 12:08 AM!!

Back 2 school!!

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I officially finished unpacking today, and I’ve got to admit that it feels good! Finally I’ll live in a place for more than 3 months without packing up and heading off to somewhere new. I’m sharing an on-campus apartment with my roommate from freshman year, Kay Sind. Apartment life is nice… we have so much space! It’s unbelievable!

My last day at ConocoPhillips was Friday, and I was really sad to leave – the internship experience was really good. I loved my position and I got to know so many really cool people. We finished the summer strong with a trip to Dallas! My friends from work (Mark and Phillip) and I drove down to Dallas Friday evening and went to a great piano bar. Saturday was full of outlet mall shopping, getting lost and the highlight of the weekend… THE GOO GOO DOLLS IN CONCERT!! I am pretty sure the lead singer was looking right at me as he sang Black Balloon… pretttty sure. I’ve been dreaming about seeing them in concert since I was twelve, so I would say this is a good start to senior year!

Being back on campus feels a little weird since I’ve been gone for so long! There are so many unfamiliar faces. I have a lot of catching up to do!!

Today was the first day of classes, which means I (as always) got up unusually early and went to class unusually awake! I listened to the standard first-day-of-class spiel from every teacher and had some delicious Chick-Fil-A for lunch. I am trying to embrace all of this random free time I have right now because I know that my schedule is about to fill up, really fast!! See ya later!

Ooooooklahoma!

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School is almost here!! The other day I realized that book listings are up, which is a very exciting time for me. I get a creepy amount of joy out of ordering and receiving new textbooks. I should have them all by next week. Haha. I am really excited to be back on campus and going to class again! I love the first week of school when there are a ton of new people on campus to talk to. This semester will be really busy between classes, grad school scholarship applications and making the most out of our last year on campus. Can we stay in college forever??

The answer is yes. If you can make somebody else pay for it. That’s what scholarships are for. I have a few on my radar that I’ll be shooting for this fall, but more on that another day. There are more exciting things going on.

Last weekend could be summed up by two words… smelly and fun. I went down Friday night for a housewarming party with a very varied crowd (grandparents, Carlos’ workmates from the library and the normal my-age partygoers). We finished the night line-dancing and two-stepping at Caravan. My skills are definitely improving. We left at 2 AM smelling like old cowboys, sweat and smoke, but decided to postpone showering since the next day was to be spent at the lake. We spent all day Saturday at Skiatook eating watermelon we bought from a truck on the side of the road! Upon our return from the lake, we were quite rushed to make it back to Caravan for more line-dancing, which resulted in more postponed bathing. We felt slightly gross, but hey, who showers before going to Caravan? Not I. And not Stef. No regrets!

Up in Bartlesville, things are going well as normal! I am on the home stretch of my internship – preparing my final presentation, finishing up small projects, trying to hang out with everybody as much as possible. Things are really busy – upcoming events include a Drillers game in Tulsa, an Oklahoma-themed night that includes a pow-wow, barbecue beef sandwiches and a performance of the musical Oklahoma! (all of my favorite things.), shopping for cowboy boots with my friend Ilona from Michigan (proof that she was really here) and watching dueling pianos at Full Moon Cafe. In the past 72 hours, I signed up for two separate races. Next Saturday is the Route 66 Quarter Marathon and in two weeks I’ll be participating in ConocoPhillips’ indoor triathlon. I’m going to try to beat the 80-year-old lady I lost to last year!