The Dion Family Student Center.

I feel like this is much overdue, but better late than never! Today, I thought I'd share my love of the Dion Family Student Center, a new building that was built over the past year for both additional housing and academia. I spend roughly 3/4 of my life in this building, whether it be visiting friends in their dorms or doing homework (but mostly the latter), and it's been so helpful to me in just the short time it's existed.

Let me name all the beautiful things about the Dion Family Student Center for you:

1. It's new and beautiful. I mean, I know I already covered this, but come on - it has three stories with tons of room for studying and meeting in groups, probably close to a dozen new plasma screen televisions, and a cardio workout room on the second floor. This eliminates many of the reasons to use any other building on campus (which is especially beautiful in the winter time when I'm constantly cold without even going outside) and I really really appreciate it.

2. It has a pool table. I know, Eddie's has one too, but this one is closer AND it's new, and it seems to be much more popular with everyone across campus. This pool table has revived my love of pool by making it easy to play with friends and it's convenient location (just a minute walk from my dorm in Alumni).

3. It has Einstein's! At first I was a bit skeptical of St. Michael's taking out the Knightstand (a former convenience/sales booth located in Alliot) in exchange for Einstein's, the new bagel shop they built inside the Dion Family Student Center, but I've got to say I'm already really addicted. I frequently go there for breakfast sandwiches (one of my guiltiest pleasures) and strawberry banana smoothies, and while it may not be great for my bank account, it helps me get through a long night of studying!

Here are a few photos that I will use to further express my love (photos courtesy of smcvt.edu):

First of all look how pretty it is - SO PRETTY!

The beloved Einstein's  - I call all the asiago bagels!

This is the glorious mezzanine on the third floor. It's a great place to get work done in peace and quiet (but it can get really hot that high up!) 

My favorite pool table - look how new and blue it is!

So basically, if you haven't checked out the Dion Family Student Center yet or if you want to learn more about it, definitely go exploring! It's by far my favorite building on campus, and I'm glad St. Michael's made the addition.

Running!

Hey everyone!

So today, while I was at the gym, I was thinking about how much I enjoy running and how it helps me to relieve stress and forget about all of the things on my plate for a while, so I figured I'd share some fun facts about running with all of you in case you didn't know!

First of all, running helps with depression. I know, I'm thinking the same thing - I bet the last thing a person who's feeling depressed would want to do is run, but it's been proven that your brain produces chemicals that help combat depression and anxiety, making you feel much more relaxed and in control after a good run. Who would've thought?

Running leads to good heart health. This shouldn't come as a huge shocker if you didn't already know, since running is a cardio-intensive activity that strengthens the muscle tissue in your heart, making it able to pump more blood and often increasing your life span as well.

Running is freeing! This isn't something I found anywhere online about running, but I know it for a fact from personal experience. Whenever I'm running, I can feel myself forgetting about all of my worries and feeling like I was a thousand miles away, on a whole different planet with no worries to be had. It's an exhilarating and liberating experience for sure, and there's nothing else like it.

This is my roommate Jesse and I after doing the Color Run in Vergennes - we ran over 8 miles!

Running with a friend can make it that much more enjoyable too - I've also registered for another color run coming to Vermont in the summer because I loved the experience so much!

I always go running outside if it's nice enough, but in the chilly winter months like these, I usually go to the indoor track in the Ross Sports Center. It was specifically built to make it easy to track how far you've run, and I find the repetition of the track and the feeling that you're actually moving (as opposed to using a treadmill) to be really calming and satisfying.

If you wanted to know more about the benefits of running, here's an article about it! And if you don't already run regularly and you're feeling stressed and overwhelmed often, why not give it a shot? I know I'll be putting in my miles for years to come!

Mini-Break.

So as you all probably know, we got this past Friday off, and many people are taking advantage of the opportunity (even though it's just one extra day tacked onto the weekend, basically), by traveling home and seeing their loved ones. Since I only live half an hour north of campus, I figured I'd do the same and see my family and my pets (I missed them so much!) since I hadn't been home since mid-January.

Home is a magical place when compared to college. It's the land of flipflopless showers, no alarm clocks, and pigging out on whatever food you can find. I love that my house has become a sort of sanctuary because of college in some ways (mainly because I can avoid homework and do nothing), but I also love being at college because I feel so much more productive and I get to see all my friends. There are pros and cons to both I suppose, but hey I'm not complaining about doing nothing for a couple of days.

The drives to and from home may be my favorite part about going home - I love listening to my music on full blast and singing my heart out! Plus you get to see some awesome views like these :)

Have I told you all that I love cats? Because I really do. This is my cat Suri being a diva on my lap.

 And here's my other cat Troy, on the prowl for more food after he just got some...what a scrounge!

After nice drives and spending time with my animals, I got to my other favorite at-home activity - watching movies with my family. This weekend, we watched Monster's University, the prequel to the Disney classic Monsters Inc. - it was really good! I won't spoil it for you all in case you haven't seen it, but in the film you see completely new and different sides to Mike and Sully and how their relationship came to be through coming together in scaring school.

In essence, I suppose my weekend consisted of letting my 14-year-old self run free. If you don't ever do that, you should try it sometime - it's a nice way to relax and de-stress from the often stressful environment that is college.

Snow!

Hey y'all,

So since I was pretty negative about the snow in my last post, I decided I'd try to redeem myself and share some fun facts with you all about the most recent storm this past Valentine's Day and another storm that was similar in date but much more drastic - do you all remember the Valentine's Day storm of 2007?

Well if you were around Vermont (or anywhere relatively close in the North East for that matter) at the time, you surely remember it. Cambridge, VT got the most snowfall in the 2007 storm at 36" (I remember almost the entire bottom half of my front door being covered in snow!) It was a beautiful day for children around Vermont and quite possibly an awful day for adults, especially plow workers, because of their worries about work, getting out of the driveway for basic needs, etc. But since I was a kid (as were many of you most likely), I'm sure you share my happy sentiments about it and enjoyed a nice few days off because of it!

Cars off the road from the most recent Valentine's Day storm - scary stuff! Photo courtesy of the Burlington Free Press

Look at all the snow at Stowe from the 2007 storm!

While winter can be beautiful, it's important to keep in mind how unpredictable and dangerous it can be as well! Here's a link about the most recent storm for your perusal if you're interested too! Although I don't look forward to getting school off like I used to (come on, it's Saint Mike's! You know I wanna be in class), I do like to wake up to a completely new, white world of snow - something about it just makes me feel so at home and relaxed.

The England Lowdown.

So I'm sure you've all been wondering about what's going on with my England trip since my post last week about all of my classes, so I figured I'd set aside some time today to tell you all about it!

My Shakespeare class and the trip included with it came to my attention last semester, when I was looking into options for study abroad (which is required if you're a Media Studies major) and my original plan to go to the University of Leeds in Leeds, England for this semester didn't end up working out due to financial complications. I met with Professor Griffith, the chair of the Media Studies Department, about possible options and she brought up many of the trips that were going to happen in the summer of 2014, including the trip associated with Professor Clary's "Shakespeare Perform: on Screen" class to England.

As you can imagine, I was ecstatic to hear that there was going to be a school-sponsored trip that would not only make my plans that much more concrete, but it also happened to be going to England, the country I'd wanted to go to all along! I was stoked when she told me, and I immediately set up an appointment to discuss the prospect of me joining the course (since it was already full by the time I found out about it), and after a short application process and waiting time, I was accepted!

I'm not going to lie to you all, I'm not much of a Shakespeare aficionado whatsoever. I came into this course knowing it was going to be challenging and interesting to find out more about, and boy have I not been wrong. The language associated with Shakespeare's writing coupled with the fact that I'm always searching for more information to compare and contrast to his original scripts keeps me busy just as much as a four-credit course even though it only counts for 2, but I'm hoping the skills I learn in this class will help me better observe and analyze what I see in England when the plays are live and unable to be rewound and replayed.

For the trip, we'll be traveling as a class to the Wroxton Abbey, a section of Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, and staying in an extremely lavish and beautiful castle for two weeks!

A view from outside the castle we'll be staying in - it's huge!

This is the inside of the gorgeous Guliford Library - I'm sure I'll be spending a lot of time here!

This is the Above the Knot Garden on the property - it's too beautiful not to make some time to explore!

Aside from the outstanding living situation and the amazing opportunities I'll have with this trip, it gets even better - Professor Clary allowed me to extend my ticket home in order to stay for five extra days with my friend Liz at Oxford College, where she's currently studying abroad. We're going to go full tourist for this experience, and i figured since it cost me relatively nothing to extend my stay, why not?

Liz and I from last year after going to the movies - she's a beaut!

I am so thankful that this class and the trip associated with it caught my attention, and it's unbelievable how many awesome experiences I'm going to have because of it while fulfilling a variety of requirements I need to graduate! I'll definitely try to find time to post on here during and/or afterward, so look forward to some posts from abroad of my many experiences!

Well, it's time to get back to working on my presentation for that class tomorrow about Macbeth (one of my favorite plays I've read so far, I highly recommend it!)

As the English say, cheerio!

Flashback Friday.

So in order to avoid an awkward post about being single on Valentine's Day (which I wholeheartedly avoided all day by binging on junk food and Netflix, of course), I decided it'd be nice to do a Flashback Friday post about a class I took last year called Nature & Outdoor Writing (it also takes my mind off of the huge storm we just got last night which makes me cold and sad).

Nature & Outdoor Writing is a course that counts as a Media Studies elective and a Creative Writing elective as well, so it worked perfectly for my schedule while turning out to be one of the most rewarding classes I've taken at SMC so far! It's usually only offered once a year and is taught by Professor Sultze (whom I recommend highly), and it focuses largely on discussing works based on nature while getting outside, exploring the world, and writing about, drawing, and otherwise documenting everything you see - what could be better than that?

I was looking back on some photos I took for the class and all of their beautiful green-ness, so I thought I'd share them with you all (hopefully they help you look forward to warmer times to come as well!)

I love the vines that grow on all the buildings around campus - they're a little touch that makes St. Mike's all the more beautiful!

This vine masterpiece can be found right next to the front entrance of Founders. If you walk by it in the summer or fall, you can hear tons of birds chirping and moving around - it's essentially a huge nesting ground for them!

This flower (among many others) grows in the gardens next to the word garden during the warmer months right here on campus! If you've never taken a tour around there before, I definitely recommend you do - it contains tons of well-documented, beautiful flowers!

The greatest benefit to this class was definitely getting out more and exploring not only on campus, but off as well in locations like the nature trail up by north campus and down by the waterfront. It's crazy how much people are so in a hurry that they often forget to take in the gorgeous world around them and detach themselves from their technology and busy lives for just a moment.

I hope this has helped you all as much as it's helped me with dealing with this winter weather (and hey, if you're enjoying it, more power to you! I'm just not much for the cold). But if you need me, I'll be cozied up by the heater looking through some more of these photos for the remainder of the night. Until next time, adios!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Improv-A-Gasm!

So tonight I went to Improv-A-Gasm, an awesome event put on by the SMC Drama Club, and it was a blast! I went to take pictures for my Photojournalism class (the assignment was called "interaction" - I'll probably fill you all in on it later!), but I also went to see some quality SMC comedy and relax a little bit from the often daunting and stressful workload.

I got some awesome pictures for my class and I wanted to show you all!

The group playing a version of Red Rover where the goal is to stay completely serious when you're called over while everyone does silly things to try to make you laugh - it was hilarious!

This is a shot of two of the improvers playing a game where one person leaves the room while everyone else makes up identities for people to portray as "dinner guests," and the person that left the room has to guess who everyone is when they come back!

A few of the improvers laughing - I used this shot for my assignment as well!

So for all of you who liked these pictures and are interested to know more about the Improv-A-Gasm as well as the Drama Club, they usually hold Improv-A-Gasm on the third floor of the Dion Family Student Center every Tuesday night at 9! I definitely want to make it a part of my weekly routine from now on, so maybe I'll see some of you all there!

Drill Weekend.

Sorry about the hecticness of my blog posts lately, but now that it's 11 at night and I've gotten at least some homework done, I figured I'd fill you all in on why my schedule's been kind of crazy lately - a little thing called drill weekend.

Basically, since I'm a part of the Vermont Air National Guard unit, my commitment is going to work on the base nearby in Winooski one weekend per month and performing 15 training days throughout the year. As you can imagine, things can get pretty hectic along with balancing school work and a social life, but it's actually a really sweet deal that has gotten me to expand my horizons more than I ever thought possible while helping me out tremendously with school expenses - definitely a win-win!

My job is identified by the AFSC (Air Force Speciality Code) 3D131, but in English, that basically means I work in Information Technology, helping customers set up their computers, printers, telephones and the like. It's been an interesting and challenging experience to learn this job for sure, but every drill weekend that comes around is always full of complex work to do and rewarding new things to learn.

This is Chief Cody, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, giving a speech a few months ago at the 158th Fighter Wing (my base) - a really nice guy!

We work, don't get me wrong, but we like to have fun too!

My primary goal is to pass many tasks and "test" into my next training level in order to upgrade in my career, and let me tell you there's a lot to do in order for that to happen, but I've been steadily chipping away at it while juggling school full-time as well! I may make a permanent career out of the Air Force after graduating from Saint Mike's next year as well, but who knows what time will bring!

I hope that gave you all at least a brief look into the sometimes complicated world of the military, and I'll definitely be writing more about it as time goes on! 

Well I'll catch you all on Tuesday with another post, maybe I should make awkward moments a weekly/bi-weekly thing? They happen to me often enough to make them for sure...let me know what you think!

Later! 

#Awkward.

Hey everyone!

Well it looks like the Friday post didn't happen, but I'm making up for it today! Between doing my taxes, going to drill, and trying to keep up on homework and life, I finally found some time, so let's talk about the many awkward things that have happened to me over the past two days!

Yesterday, I went out with my friends Leena and Tiffany to go see the movie That Awkward Moment starring Zac Efron, one of my favorite actors/people of all time! We went to Essex Cinemas and despite the fact that I should've been getting ample sleep because I had drill early this morning to wake up to, I decided having fun took precedent over sleeping well (the college way, of course).

The movie was fantastic and featured some new actors I'd never seen in anything else, and the plot was surprisingly not too cheesy romantic comedy for me, which made the movie even more interesting to watch! I don't want to spoil it for you all, but let's just say the awkward moments in the movie make it shine when coupled with the romantic scenes in a way I've never seen done in another movie.

Here's the poster for it - you all should definitely watch it if you haven't already!

In other less comedic news (or perhaps more comedic, depending on how you view my suffering), my car window on the driver's side is no longer functional for the moment. Pretty awkward story of how this happened too - so this morning after starting my car and making my way to Dunkin Donuts for my usual donuts and breakfast wraps before drill (I'm addicted, feel free to judge me), I tried to roll down my window, but it was frozen over. When I pulled up to order, I tried pounding it a few times, not thinking I was hitting it that hard, but it wouldn't give in, so I just opened my door to order and get my food...I know, awkward. But that's not even the worst part.

After arriving on base and going through my busy, hectic work day, I head toward my car and prepare to come back to Saint Mike's for a nice dinner with some friends. When I'm about to open the door, I notice my window is down. Thinking I must've just left it down by accident, I get in my car, start it up, and try to roll the window back up...no use. All I could hear were the sounds of the mechanism inside my door trying to roll it up and down, but the window wouldn't budge.

Needless to say, I was on the phone trying to call all the auto shops I could find (I even employed my parents to help me), but there was absolutely no place open at 5 PM on a Saturday of course, which led to perhaps the most awkward moment of all - duct taping my window up from the inside in front of everyone in the Ross parking lot, in my military uniform. I'd love to say that this kind of thing never happens in my life, but I'd be lying.

Anyway, that was my weekend so far in a nutshell, and I hope you enjoyed/felt pity while reading about it! I'll hopefully remember to post something in a more timely fashion tomorrow, but if an auto shop is magically open and ready to fix my car, that may not happen. Send prayers for Lafawnduh IV (I think of odd car names, I know), and I'll definitely keep you all updated on more awkward moments in my life, which seem to come pretty constantly.

Adios!

Spring Semester Shenanigans

As promised (and a little later than I anticipated...I got a little sidetracked from a killer nap), here's a breakdown of my schedule this semester!

Management Decisions Tools - This is a required course for my business major and is essentially a class that teaches you all about excel and how to use it successfully in the business world. It's a fairly easy course if you do the homework, and I never knew excel was capable of so many things, such as entering formulas and creating graphs and charts to display your business' figures! It's first thing in the morning on Tuesdays and Thursdays too, which is a great way to start my day off with some ease.

Acoustical Foundations of Music - I'm taking this course to fulfill my science LSC, and so far it's actually pretty interesting! I have it right after Management Decision Tools, and so far it's consisted of a lot of introductory physics and a few labs with weights on springs to study the waves that sounds creates. It's been a bit of a challenge to remember physics (since I haven't looked at anything having to do with science since my senior year in high school...yikes!), but I'm glad I took it!

Film & History - This is one of my night classes this semester that takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We basically just watch historical movies on Tuesday nights, do some readings about them, and then come together again on Thursday and discuss everything we can possibly cover about it. I love this class because it offers me a chance to focus in on one movie and analyze everything about it, which allows me to take away a great deal more than I would just watching it.

Shakespeare Perform: on Screen - My other night class on Monday nights. Now I'm not going to lie and pretend I know everything about Shakespeare and understand everything about his works...I don't. I figured this class would be a challenge for me, but I wanted to take it so I could at least try to understand more about Shakespeare. There's also a second part of the class that allows everyone currently enrolled to travel to England for two weeks in May for another 2 credits to watch some of Shakespeare's plays being performed live, all while staying at a luxurious castle right near Stratford-Upon-Avon! I'll fill you all in on that trip a little later as the time draws nearer, but I'm so stoked for it!
Photojournalism - I saved the best for last, and I'm sure you must be thinking "what beats a trip to England?" but hear me out! This class is a requirement for my Media Studies major, but it's probably one of the most engaging and fun-filled classes I've ever taken at Saint Michael's. Professor Swope does an excellent job of getting you really interested in the material and encouraging you to get out there with your camera and shoot anything and everything, and this course has renewed my love for photography all over again! Before taking this class, I was basically just an instagram photographer at best (if you can even call it that), but I've already learned a great deal about the manual settings of a camera and how photography translates to the world of photojournalism!

Here are some of my shots I've done this semester for various projects so far:

This is a photograph of a woman named Alexa Rivera that I took for my first assignment - a daunting one requiring us to take photos of complete strangers!

 This one is from the same assignement of my friend's mother, Annette. She was all dressed up to go to a party - what a perfect time to take a portrait!

These four are from my most recent project about taking shots of the same object from different perspectives - I love the way they turned out!

 

Well that just about covers my schedule, stay tuned for more pictures from my photojournalism class as the assignments keep rolling in! I'll be back on Friday with something interesting I'm sure, so keep your eyes peeled!

 

Wishing you a fantastic rest of your week, enjoy!

Back At It Again!

Wow, it's definitely been a while, but I'm happy to say I'm now an official full-time blogger for Saint Michael's College!

I suppose I should start from where I left off at the end of last semester filling you all in about everything, so bear with me!

First of all, it was amazing to have a really nice, relaxing Christmas break after the complete chaos that was finals week of last semester. It was hard because my best friend and old roommate Jesse left for Navy basic training on December 13th, so I've been eagerly waiting for him to graduate so I can talk to him again! Writing letters to him has been a pretty neat experience too (you never realize how much more satisfaction you get from getting something physical in the mail from someone as opposed to just a text message). He graduates this Friday and I'm so proud of him!

Over Christmas break, I probably did way too much relaxing and not enough preparing for this semester, but now that I'm about to start week 4 tomorrow, I think I'm getting pretty used to things. The most eventful part of the break was probably the Our Last Night concert I went to at Higher Ground in Burlington - it was so epic!

For those of you who don't now them, they're a rock band from New Hampshire that I've been following since I was a freshman in high school. They put on an amazing show, and I even got to meet their lead singer Trevor Wentworth afterward!

Me and Trevor Wentworth, he was such a cool dude!

Me and a few friends from high school had a reunion at the show! (Excuse the sweat...we rocked out hard)

After the Our Last Night concert, I basically spent the rest of my break getting everything in order to come back to Saint Michael's and working at the Air National Guard base. Since I've been back, I've been jumping right into my courses and trying to find time to be more social instead of being bogged down (hopefully running this blog will help that cause as well!)

Last week, I unfortunately suffered a death in the family - my cat I've had since I was 5 named Timon. That's made things a little more hectic lately as well, but I've been dealing with it well and I'm glad he got to live a long, fun-filled life with my family who loved him so much.

This is a picture I took of Timon last Thanksgiving - he's so fluffy!

Not to make this post too long and/or sad, I think I'll stop there for now. I'm trying to maintain a regular schedule of posting on Sundays, Tuesdays, and Fridays, so be sure to stop in on those days to check out what's going on with me and Saint Mike's! This Tuesday I'll make a post about my classes so you all can check it out - I have an interesting mix this semester!

And with that, I'm signing out. Happy Superbowl Sunday!