Winter Break and the Beginning of Spring Semester!

Whoa, this past month just flew by. So much has happened, and unfortunately, I'm behind on updating you guys! The end of last semester is something that I didn't expect whatsoever; I had so much work to do! It was like every one of my finals was accompanied by a long, detailed paper. Despite the amount of work and how difficult it was, I made it through -- ending 2012 with a 3.7 GPA nonetheless! I was so excited and so ready to gear up for the next month, looking forward to trips, seeing old friends, and of course, the holidays.
First, for winter vacation, I decided to go all out for Christmas. I've been to Manhattan before,  but only a few times. So, for this Christmas, I took my boyfriend (who's never been there in the winter) for the ride. He loved the gift. We went skating in Central Park, walked around exploring, grabbed dinner, and went to go see the tree on our way out. It was so nice because we didn't have a goal when we went, so we just relaxed and enjoyed our day. Next time I go, it's all about the museums. Haha. After that, the holidays came around the corner so quickly.
As the holidays go, it was wonderful being around my family and celebrating everything. It was all Christmas cheer and joy, visiting from place to place. But as Christmas came and went, then New Years approached. New Years is honestly my favorite holiday after Halloween, to be honest. It's a lot of fun to dress up, go out, and be around your friends (that's exactly what I did). Between all of this, however, I made sure that I was working full-time. Breaks from school are meant for that, haha! Although, working at Starbucks is my main thing, I got a really cool opportunity after the New Year. I blog and give tours at Albertus, helping out and getting involved. With everyone on break (including faculty and staff) there was a lot of catching up to do, so I got to help out in the Admissions office for about ten days before the semester started! Like I said before, Starbucks is my main thing, but I really, very much enjoyed my time working in the office. I really hope I can do it again soon and it motivated me to look for a summer job, while working at Starbucks in the evenings. But, like everything else, it came and went. Now it's the Spring semester and I'm really excited for it. I hope that I can get that GPA of 4.0 that I've been hoping for! It's not far out of reach!

Gah, Finals!

Today is the first day of my final exams, and wow. I cannot believe the amount of work I'm doing, and worth it, too. This semester I've taken a majority of my classes within my major, and I get to do some more next semester. I think I'm going to alternate in between working on my major and working on my minor every other semester. Today was my first final here but certainly not my last; it was Western Civilization and went really, really well. The test wasn't cumulative, which made it easier and better. I have so many more projects to go, but only a few tests. Tomorrow is the final exams for Nineteenth Century Europe and American Revolution. I'm really exhausted from this semester and was well worth it, because I feel like I'm on the right track and I can possibly graduate early. And with the help of Albertus honestly, I'm achieving my goal to doing what I want to professionally and as a career.

Ice skating!

Last night, looking for something to do and taking a break from finals, my friends and I decided to go to Ralph Walker rink for public skate. It was so awesome; I haven't been skating in years, or to that rink. We thought it was going to be much colder ice skating than it was. We all were having a great time racing, moving around, playing games and such. We even used the milkboxes for create-hockey with some of the staff! Even though it only last for an hour and a half, it was one of the best times I've had here this semester. Afterwards when we were finished, we went and picked up Pepe's Pizza to have while we were studying for finals.

Oomf, finals are a different story!

School just doesn't seem to want to work out, haha. It's nice having a few days off from all the madness, though. And for that, I have winter storm Athena and hurricane Sandy to thank. I stayed here through both storms and it was nuts. Luckily, the power didn't go out either time, but it was awesome being in an older house (my dorm, Sansbury) during the storms. Because the houses are built for ventilation, the wind was howling but so cool to listen, to. Unfortunately  there wasn't as much rain as I was expecting. Nevertheless, I did what I had to in order to prepare for each storm. In the days before, I got food, water, blankets, anything really that would be necessary in case the power went out. With friends though, through each storm, we watched movies and braved it together (it beats sitting in your room, huh?). We watched lots of movies and everyone came and went as they pleased. Also, we would make breakfast in the community kitchen because we couldn't get to the dining hall. It sort of reminded me of home sitting with my siblings watching movies upon movies until the time came where we could go outside again. Reminding me of home, the storm made Sansbury feel like a second home to me, and even more so, Albertus did too.

This past Tuesday (November 6) was the election for the presidency. And it was a tight race. On that night, I planned on doing nothing else but watch the results to find out who would be the next president, Mitt Romney or Barack Obama. My friends and I all paid close attention to the race, considering that it was one of the most historic elections held in the United States.
We all, on Tuesday, sat in the common room of our dorm and watched. It wasn't boring by any means. We ordered food and made bets on who would win over certain states. It took forever for us to find out who won, but eventually the news came through: Obama won! We were all so happy! It was a lot of fun watching such historic things happening. I feel so lucky to be alive during all these events.

So, yesterday, I finally got to register for classes. I was somewhat confused because I'm new and I haven't fully been able to navigate myAlbertus. It was easy, though. I met with my adviser, Dr. Imholt. He had all of my requirements that I needed to meet already laid out for me and really was interested in what I wanted to do with my degree. It's wonderful having that type of attention when it comes to something I care about so deeply. This is such a nice change from last year with registration. Even the physical act of registering was easier this year. After my meeting, I logged onto myAlbertus and found my classes already lined up for me, all I had to do was hit submit. This is so nice(:

Since the last time I updated this, a lot has happened -- including Hurricane Sandy. Everyone knew about the storm a few days in advance, and as always, hard to find water bottles being sold; I found some, though. I prepared for the storm by getting non-perishables, charging my phone constantly, and made sure everything went smoothly. However, I wasn't at school for this. Since the state of emergency got declared, I spent the ominous days ahead at my friend's house (which is coincidentally right across the street). Thankfully, for this part of New Haven, the storm did not hit that badly. It was nice coming back to school. Because of the two days off, I finally got caught up on all of my work!