It's Been A While!

Sorry about that! I've been so busy lately that I haven't been able to give any updates. As you might have guessed, I'm home for the summer now. I'm working at a hotel in Hershey at the front desk at the time being, which is interesting in its own right. Other than that, I've gotten my grades back for the semester and I have all A's except for one A-. I was sorely disappointed. In other news, in the last few months, my floor and I had some great adventures. First of all, we found a pizza place we like in Rochester! It's a little hole in the wall place, but it's homey and the pizza is good. We also had some puppies visit us! It was everything I needed around finals time. They were adorable.

I also got to roll around in a giant ball! There was a fundraiser on campus, but I got to do it for free because I'm a student. So, it was pretty much bumper ball and I inadvertently almost won! I was one of the final two people in the game before I even knew that we were playing one. So that was tons of fun!

This is me being rolled around in the giant ball.

My floor also went on a hike and picnic to enjoy some of the only warm weather we had after winter. We walked around, had lunch, and then played on the playground for a few hours. Needless to say, the parents of the other kids on the playground were at least a little confused.

But, I'm home now for the next few months, though that doesn't mean I'm available. If you want to see me while I'm home, get in touch! I'll see what we can work out. Love you all!

Floor Fun!

Hello down there! I have recently had a few adventures that I think you might like to know about. Here in New York, we FINALLY got some snow this past week. Even more crazy, we had a snow day! We haven't had one of those in years around here, but we got a few feet over the course of the day Tuesday, so they cancelled school. I feel like I'm in high school again. So, as the mature college students that we are, my floor and I decided to go play in the snow. We made a snowman, threw snowballs at our own windows and each other, and just generally had a good time. Here are some pictures:

                 

                                

Another result of the exorbitant amount of snow was that my newly fixed car got caged in by it and I don't have a shovel. So, I dug my car out with an ice scraper.... here's what that looked like:

My car after it left my parking spot

The spot my car vacated

Finally, Last weekend, my floor went to a trampoline park! It was a lot of fun even though we were the oldest people in the place. That's all for now, stay warm!

New Semester

Hello! I've been back at school now for a few weeks, now, and nothing particularly exciting is happening. I've started new classes and we've gotten a few feet less of snow than Pennsylvania has, but I will still find some things to tell you about.

First of all, I recently had a few car troubles lately. It turns out that my front coil springs have both broken and need to be replaced. So, I brought the car to a mechanic and, upon leaving, realized that this problem is under recall for my car. Then, I went back to the mechanic and told them, but decided to try to get the dealership to tow my car since both springs are broken and I didn't want to break down on the way to the dealership. Luckily, they will tow my car and replace both springs, but they have to get a new shipment of springs before they can repair it. I'm not sure how long it will take for the parts to come in, but I guess I'm not that worried because I wouldn't want to be driving my car in the state it's in anyway.

Another mildly interesting story is that I recently got a job as a notetaker at school. The job isn't very interesting, but the process of me actually getting to work is. It turns out that in order to work for the school, I have to have some special paperwork done. However, in order to do the paperwork, I needed my passport. I didn't bring my passport, but I had copies, which weren't accepted. So, my parents decided, "hey! We'll just overnight ship it to you and then you can get your paperwork in time for the next training session." Well, that was all fine and dandy except that instead of my passport coming overnight, it came over a week late. Why, you might ask? Well, because obviously, when overnight shipping an important document from Pennsylvania to New York, it has to be shipped through SAN DIEGO. So that was frustrating.

In other news, I'm a Canadian citizen now! It's official! So even though Canada, a country, accepted a copy of my identification, my school would not. I'm a little salty, if you couldn't tell. Well, that's all I have to say right now. Hopefully next time I will have more to say. Enjoy all your snow down there!

The Rain in Spain

Hey all! Im coming into finals week now, so the stress is on, but I'm coming home soon! My classes are finishing their last lectures this week, and next week I have a few days of finals and I'm homeward bound. A few things have happened since I last posted. First of all, I visited my sister in Spain! It was my first time in the country and I had a wonderful week with my family. It was a little chillier than we expected, but since staying in New York, I've gotten used to the cold. We saw all the sights where she is studying and even got to ride some segways through the narrow streets up to some lookouts over the valley. Overall, it was an awesome time and it was nice to have the whole family back together.

Other than our Thanksgiving getaway, I have recently gotten a job! I'm working for Admissions Owl, which is a service that connects prospective students with students attending the colleges they are looking at. It is a great opportunity for me and I really think that the company can help a lot of students find the right college for them, especially those who are looking at going to colleges that are too far to visit.

That's all for now! I will be home soon to see everyone, but if I don't see you, happy holidays!

In Other News

So there are lots of things to tell! First of all, I got a new job at Admissions Owl. Admissions Owl is an online service that connects high school students to college students over Skype. It is pretty much a way for high school students to get a better feel of a campus without having to go on a visit. They're just a start up, but I see a lot of potential since there is a big need for services like this. Anyway, I'm really excited to get started!

The other news is that I was interviewed for an article for University news about my major. It's a pretty small mention, but I'm in the news nonetheless! Here's the article:

https://www.rit.edu/news/story.php?id=53999&source=enewsletter

I was also home for the weekend last week and had a wonderful time with family and friends. I picked a friend up from Altoona on the way home and we spent the time seeing all of the "exciting" sights. It was good to be home, but it definitely made me yearn for the days of no homework.

Over Thanksgiving break, I'll be visiting my sister in Spain! I'm very excited and will share pictures when I return.

Small Addition to Blog... Large Step for Lauren

So, a quick but important update! This afternoon, I signed the paperwork to declare as HCC! It was much less of an ordeal than it sounds (I only had to sign one paper), but I'm officially in the rounds for admission into the HCC program at the end of the semester. That's all, folks!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween! This weekend, I was invited to a friend's house for dinner. We had some great pizza and then decided to put some costumes on and hit the streets. Obviously, now that I'm in college, it's time for me to start trick or treating again. Or at least that's what we decided. We got more candy that I ever expected because we swept in after most of the kids had left. So, we got all of the left overs that people didn't want. I'm not complaining, though. It was a lot of fun and now I'm set for candy for the rest of the semester at least.

The notable figures here are a Hawaiian pizza, a taco, a Monty Python knight,
a gorilla with a coconut bra, a hastily-put-together Mexican, a sailor,
and a carrot (me).

After we got home, we watched a scary movie (not my idea) called Trick R Treat. By that time, it was pretty late, but we didn't want to leave on that note, so we watched some Dr. Who and headed home. Nerd school for the win. That was the extent of my Halloween. Not the most exciting, but it was my kind of party. Hope everyone is well!