Jessica’s USF blog

We just wrapped up another fabulous homecoming week. 

This year we took a Walk on the Wild Side!! 

Monday we kicked off our week with a party, complete with giant air-filled gorilla.  

Tuesday, our afternoon was filled with an exciting Wild Game Hunt, where students were asked to hunt down stuffed animals around campus to claim some pretty cool prizes. 

Wednesday we welcomed slam poet, Jon Goode for a night of urban poetry.  You can check out one of his performances on youtube: Jon Goode – Def Poetry Jam

Thursday was definitely a night of laughter as we watched Dan Lornitis hypnotize our peers.  Literally, students were falling off their chairs.  This was an event that no one should have missed. Check out his video on youtube: Dan Lornitis

Friday we watched as our clubs battled it out on Mirror Lake in the Little Regatta canoe race.  It ended with Film Club being the cChamps and also walking away with the prize for best dressed.  Then we hung out in the student center to enjoy hot cider and local music by The Bergamot.  Check out their music on Facebook or http://studio-octavia.com/studio_octavia.html

Finally, we finished the week with of course our homecoming football game.  We dominated, winning 63 -7 against Trinity International.  After the game, everyone headed out for some fun at our annual quarter carnival, which was full of exciting games and delicious treats.

This year I joined SAC, which is our student activities counsel.  This has been a fun experience and has kept us all very busy.  I thought I would give all of you a little update on what we have been up to:

September 10th we headed out to the Tincaps game.  It was a blast!  Glad to be a supporter of the playoff winners - Congrats Tincaps!

 

Hanging out before the Tincaps game!!

September 12th we had a SWEET RAVE PARTY here on campus.  We all headed out to the parking lot beside Clair (our gorgeous new resident hall) for techno music, dancing,  and glow sticks.  Fun!

September 20th we went to North Campus for a Matt Maher Concert.  The concert was a good start to another busy week.  His music was beautiful, but fun and some students even got a bit of a mosh pit going down by the stage. Matt Maher’s new cd came out on Tuesday – definitely want to check that out!

So that is a little bit of what has been going on around our campus these past two weeks.  Coming up:

We have movie night tonight September 25.  We will be crashing at North Campus to watch Talladega Nights.  Promising laughter and snacks.

Saturday we have our second home football game.  Come join us in cheering on our Cougars!!!

October 3 – Come join us for USF Day at the Zoo.  SAC we be helping with games and activities for children between 11-1 at Foellinger lawn.

Check out my blog in a few weeks to see what will be happening during Homecoming week….

Classes, clinicals, work, eat, sleep, repeat…This is about all I have time for these days.  College is a very busy time for students.  Students are now trying to adjust to different schedules, unlike the normal 8-3 days of high school.  Then on-top of classes, add in work schedules and extra-curricular activities.  When do you sleep?  The answer is time management.  However, I will be completely honest – I am not good at this at all.  

Right now I am trying to balance two jobs, 16 credit hours including clinicals, club meetings, and of course – social life.  This year most of my friends live in the same dorm as myself, so my social life is a bit out of control.  I would much rather stay up late watching movies and hanging out rather than spending 5hrs. reading a textbook.  However, I also know that when that first test comes, I want to be fully prepared.  My goal for this semester is to put my studies first, but also schedule time for my friends and not let work rule my life.  Wish me luck and I hope good time management skills find their way into the lives of all incoming students.

Summer: a time for relaxation, sun bathing, and swimming.  However, this summer I have been busy, busy, busy.  This summer I chose to live her at Saint Francis because I am still taking classes and working here in the admissions office.  Padua has been interesting to live in…new roommates are always fun! 

Class has also been keeping me busy with two days of clinicals and two days of classes.  However, recently we have been able to express our creative sides and put together what not to do and what to do videos, which I have posted below for your enjoyment.  Yes – we are a bit crazy, but it is all fun!  lol

What Not To Do!

Two weeks ago we were right in the middle of a swine flu epidemic (aka H1N1…which sounds like something off star wars), but that didn’t stop me from packing up my things and heading down to Guatemala for 10 days.  The trip was for a three credit Spanish class, and it was a great experience. 

It all started on Thursday April 30th with a flight from Indy to Houston and a flight from Houston to Guatemala.  I actually flew down with a professor from the University, but however our seats were not next to one another so I met a few very interesting people.  It was a lot of fun talking to perfect strangers – so much for stranger danger. lol On the first flight I met a guy who actually spoke Spanish, so he found it amusing to make fun of my Spanish note-cards that I was trying to study before reaching Guatemala.  And the best part about the flights is that they landed safely. 

After landing in Guatemala, the real adventure begins.  After 6 hours on a bus from Guatemala City to Xela, I get dropped off at my host family’s house.  I stayed here all week and my host family was awesome.  They were very kind and welcoming despite the obvious language barrier.  I was the gringa (Guatemalan for Yankee) that spoke little Spanish, who had the mantels grande (large bags). 

And my house mother announced to every new guest that couldn’t speak very much Spanish, so the guests preceded to turn, smile, and wave. lol It was a lot of fun, very interesting, but at times frustrating because I didn’t know what they were trying to tell me.  However, the whole family was very patient and tried to help in whatever way they could.  The week was full of laughs and surprises…and of course shopping!!! 



At the end of the week my birthday was coming up, so on my last night the school actually threw me a small birthday party.  The cake was a much needed delicious surprise, especially after all the beans, rice, and tortillas I was forced to choke down at times.  (The last day I’m pretty sure I ate a leaf. -yuck!)  However, the whole experience was great and definitely something I would encourage others to be a part of.

Last weekend two of my rad-tech buddies and I went country.  We packed our things and prepared for our horseback riding class.  We arrived, unpacked, and checked in for a weekend of horseback riding, square & line dancing, and campfire stories.  It was such a fun weekend and a great way to earn our physical education credit.

After we got settled in, we were partnered up and assigned a horse.  Our horse’s name was Boomer and he was nothing but trouble. lol  He was definitely out to test our patience and see how much he could get away with.  I must have tasted good because he was able to one good bite in before we even got started.  Despite this however,  Boomer made it a very interesting experience and he kept us on our toes all weekend.

That night we also got to spend some time learning how to square dance and line dance right there on the barn porch, followed by campfire stories and a couple rounds of euchre. Fun!  It felt like we stepped out of our busy lives, and jumped right into a scene from a western movie.  It was an experience of a lifetime and I would highly recommend this class.

We just finished another fabulous Spring Fling Week here at Saint Francis! Our theme was Dr. Seuss, which made the week lots of crazy fun.

Monday: We kicked off the week with a roarin’ good time as we celebrated with a birthday party for Dr. Seuss himself. 

Tuesday: We continued our fun with a lavenous magic show from Mike Super, winner of NBC’s hit show Phenomenon. He kept us very entertain through ultimate card tricks, murder mystery, and finished with a beautiful display of paper magically transformed to snow. 

Wednesday: The night was full of strikes as many students hit the bowling alley for a night of fun.  However, I was unable to attend because reality had me in my dorm room completing homework…yuck!

Thursday: One event of Spring Fling week that you don’t want to miss…THE GONG SHOW!!!  This is where Saint Francis students can come out and try to entertain with all of their hidden talents…aka talent show.  The winner sang an insanely cute and entertaining song about Taylor the Latte Boy.  The runner up was a freshman guy who excelled through Beatboxing….pretty cool! And third was singer and guitarist who got our attention through his orignial lyrics.  However…the true fun was watching the other hopefuls try to survive the gong.

Friday: Last, but not least, the dance.  There was a decent turn out as everyone was able to dance the night away with their friends or significant others.  The danced started at 8:30 and ended close to 12: 30. Fun!

Two weeks ago was Spring Break for the students here at Saint Francis.  A couple of my friends and I got to jump on a plane and head to Florida for a few days.  We had a lot of fun staying with my great-grandparents in a little retirement community.  Lots of time was spent by the pool of course!  Towards the middle of our stay we did get to hit the beach (at this point though I was completely burned and needed a little break from the sun…oh well).  We even got to do some shopping at John’s Pass-cute place with good pizza.  It was a much needed rest and relaxation

Last Tuesday well known comedian Michael Palascak visited to give us a little bit of comic relief from our crazy school schedules.  He talked about his life growing up, college, and mostly the fact that he still lives at home. It was a lot of fun to listen to his experience…of course most included a comical twist lol.  I would definitely suggest hitting up youtube to listen to some of his material. Lots of Laughs~Jess

Friday, February 20th came, and like Ultimate Road Trips in the past, the destination was still unknown…the anticipation was definitely there however.  All 50+ of us gathered in the student center at 8: 15 pm before we hopped on a bus to who knows where.  It was so exciting!  Finally at like 8:45, the destination had been drawn from the hat…WE WERE GOING TO CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA!!!!  At 9:00 we jumped on the bus and headed toward our destination.

It was a long bus ride, but we filled our time with movies, a little sleep, and even a rousing game of trivia (and there were prizes). lol We arrived in Davidson, North Carolina at about 7:00 a.m.  We stopped to eat breakfast and tried to make ourselves look presentable for the day (hehe). However, a few of us did get kicked out of CVS for taking too long in the bathroom – oops!  For breakfast quite a few of us ate at a cute little restaurant called Toast, where we got some good old southern cornbread to start the day off, followed by a delicious blueberry pancake.  Though at 8:30, it was time to hop on the bus again so we could continue on to Charlotte. 

Our next stop was the WhiteWater Center.  One word for this place -FUN!  We went zip-lining!!  It was very exciting. 1100 feet of pure thrill.  What a rush.  It was also entertaining to watch everyone freak out before leaving the zip tower. 

After we got done at the WhiteWater Center, we moved on to “uptown” Charlotte, North Carolina.  We got to spend about 5 hours hanging out and roaming the city.  My friends and I found a cute place to eat lunch at the epicenter it was called Wild Wing Cafe.  The food was extremely good, reminding me of a Mexican restaurant mixed with Buffalo Wild Wings.  After we ate, we roamed Charlotte taking in the view. 

The tallest buiding in this picture (below) is home to Bank of America, standing at 84 floors high, each floor representing a year of Queen Charlette’s reign.  The top of the building was also designed to resemble her royal tiara.  In addition, it was agreed upon that 25 years after buiding this, no other building could be built taller out of respect for Queen Charlette.  The city still has 10 years left of this agreement.

My favorite part of the whole trip was our carriage tour.  We learned so much about the history of the city from our guide.  I’m definitely glad we got decided to go on this 20 minute ride.

One of the things our tour guide showed us included the many historical houses.  A lot of these houses actually were built on plantations, but were eventually brought here so they could all be together.  Many of the houses had some pretty interesting stories behind them.  A 100 year old skeleton was found in the ceiling of one of the houses when trying to replace it. Yuck!  This pink house is actually suppossedly haunted. I guess an old women died in her house and now her spirit  lingers and will procede to cause quite a loud rucus if a candle is not place in the upstairs window. Creepy!

The tree in the next picture is actually the tree that the town used for all of their hangings over the years. Yuck!

This house is actually a restaraunt now….a very expensive restaraunt.  The woman that owns this actually grows her own vegetables and herbs.  There is a two year waiting list and the beginning price for dinner for two starts at $500. 00. Yikes!

Our time in Charlotte was about over, but we got to end our adventure at a very pricey mall.  Definitely lots of looking and no buying. lol However, we did end our day with a piece of cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory – Yum!  The trip was a blast and I will definitely be anticipating it next year.

It is Friday the 13th and many tend to be very superstitious.  It is a day that many associate with bad luck and misfortune.  In fact about 8% of the population  suffers from paraskevidekatriaphobia, which is the fear of Friday the 13th (HowStuffWorks.com).  Crazy huh?  Statistics actually show that people drive and travel less.  Hospitals do not have rooms with the number 13 on them and hotels/buildings do not have a 13th floor (Emery, 2009).

But where does this fear stem from?  Many theologians can trace back to the source of the Friday 13th phobia, but there are many different supposed origins.  The main Christian fear of 13 was due to Judus, the one who betrayed Jesus, being the 13th member at the last supper.  The main fear of Fridays was thought to stem from the belief that Jesus was crucified on a Friday, Adam and Eve ate off the forbidden tree on a Friday, and the Great Flood supposedly started on a Friday (HowStuffWorks.com). 

Well this is all pretty interesting, but do you think I can use this fear can get me a day of rest and relaxation?  Didn’t think so. lol Oh well.  Hope you all have a great day…full of bad luck! jk later~Jess

I got my info at:

Emery, D. (2009, January 22). Why Friday the 13th is Unlucky. About.com. Retrieved on February 12, 2009 from website: http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/historical/a/friday_the_13th.htm

HowStuffWorks, Inc. (2009). Why is it Considered Unlucky When the Thirteenth Day in a Month is on a Friday? Retrieved on February 12, 2009 from website: http://people.howstuffworks.com/question614.htm