Hope you all enjoyed the past week and aren’t too bogged down by schoolwork.  Thankfully, this has been another week with a light workload for me, so I have definitely enjoyed it.

Last weekend actually set the tone for my week.  Friday night was our Ngoma bonding activity, which I know we all enjoyed.  Some of our members cooked and other food was bought, and we just hung out and had a good time together.  After that was Spider Mayhem, which is the annual event where the men and women’s basketball teams are introduced and provide entertainment for the UR students in attendance.  There were contests, prizes, food, and performances, all in the name of school spirit.

Saturday morning I helped out with Trick or Treat Street, a daytime event for children to enjoy on Halloween with games, food, and fun.  That night, I had a phenomenal time at the Spirit Lounge, which is an open mic event for a Christian community.  There was standing room only and an abundance of talent.  I am very much looking forward to the next one.

This weekend will be lots of fun as well because it is homecoming.  I don’t even know which events I will be attending because there are so many going on, but I will be sure to let you all know in my next post.  Until then, relax, release, breathe.

And GO SPIDERS!!!

Amani

Getting those applications ready?  Remember, if you want to apply early decision to UR, the fall deadline is November 15 (only a couple weeks away!) and the winter deadline is January 15.  Also, if you wish to be considered by the Richmond Scholars Program, the deadline is December 15.  I encourage you all to try to meet this deadline because you should never pass up an opportunity to be considered for a large sum of scholarship money if you can help it.  I am personally a Richmond Scholar with an Oliver Hill designation, and I think it is great that I don’t really have to worry about paying for college because my tuition is taken care of through my scholarship.  For more information about the UR admission timeline, visit http://admissions.richmond.edu/application/timeline.html

In other news…

I have had a wonderfully relaxing week!  I think it is very necessary to de-stress when you can, and since I had two weeks full of stress, I used this entire one to rest and recuperate.  Don’t worry—I haven’t shirked any of my academic or extra-curricular responsibilities.  I had a very light workload this week, so I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Monday evening I went out with a couple friends to the Byrd Theater (which only costs $2!) to see The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I really liked it.  Tuesday, my godmother was in Richmond, so I took her to a poetry reading on campus (since it was mandatory for me to attend anyway), and then we ate dinner at The Cellar, which is UR’s on-campus restaurant.  We both had a great time for the few hours that we had together.  Wednesday afternoon I took one of my friends downtown to get a haircut, and I spent a little time walking around the city, then my best friend and I went to her room to watch Save the Last Dance, which is always fun.  Thursday consisted of volunteering for a couple hours at Bon Air Elementary with an ESL student as well as Ngoma practice, both of which I always eagerly anticipate.

Today will be great, too, because I get to register for classes for next semester (which is a competitive race in itself), and tonight Ngoma is having our bonding activity, which will be dinner and games at a few of the girls’ apartment.  Tomorrow is the Spirit Lounge, and I am very much looking forward to it because last semester it was an amazing exhibition of talent in an open mic setting and Christian environment.

Looks like this week will be hard to beat.  I really think it might be the most enjoyable week I’ve had all semester.  I’m just trying to enjoy the down time while I can, because it most assuredly will not last forever.

I hope you all are making time for relaxation and fun as well in between all of your college preparation! 

Later…

Amani

My life at this school has been so busy!  Midterms and papers have been swallowing up my free time and social life.  I’ve been stressed out, and I’m pretty sure that the sentiment is resounding across campus.

The unfortunate events began about a week and a half ago when my teacher posted sources for our term paper due today.  As nice as it would have been to get started on that paper then, I couldn’t because I had a midterm in the class due on the Monday of Fall Break.  Yeah, I know…why would he do that to us?  So much for having a break.  Mind you, the midterm was a paper.

Ok, so after that paper consumed my entire Fall Break last weekend, I had to turn around and get started on my term paper that was due today—6-10 pages on pretty much the stuff covered in the midterm.  The point of it all?  Who knows.  But I can tell you all that I struggled.

I had been highly upset that my teacher would do such a thing as have such a weighty assignment due over our supposed break period, but I was even more disillusioned with this particular professor when I spent my entire past weekend working on this term paper.  Two weekends in a row gone to two papers which both count for large portions of my final grade.

I have never had much trouble writing papers at all, but considering the amount of mental exertion I’ve had to endure with these assignments on top of all of my other classes, I did indeed struggle for the term paper.  Every day I sat on my laptop and tried and tried to work toward my goals, but never quite accomplished them.

It was not until today at 4:45 p.m. that I finished and finally submitted this term paper.  Currently to show for my effort, I have a piercing headache and bags under my eyes.  Hopefully, however, all of my toiling will pay off with a rewarding grade.

We can only hope.

Best wishes to you in all of your current academic endeavors!  Perseverance is key! 

Amani

I think it’s high time that I fill you in (at least briefly) on my summer abroad.

As you may or may not know, I participated in a UR study abroad program called Summer in Seville.  With this program, about 25 students are selected to travel to Spain and take up to two courses in Spanish.  Two of our professors here are a part of the program, and there were also two professors in Spain that taught classes for us as well.  The program duration was five and a half weeks, although only four weeks are spent taking classes.  The program also included a number of program trips, either around the city of Seville or in various parts of Spain.  All of the students live with a host family throughout the entire time in Seville and have a roommate from our program.  In this way, we got to experience firsthand the Spanish culture in food, domestic norms, and overall way of life.  ¡Qué bien!

Upon arriving in the airport, I can say I had a bit of a culture shock—while we had flown direct from the Philadelphia airport to that of Madrid, it seemed as if there was no one in the airport who spoke English.  Yes, of course I knew I was in Spain; however, when I was desperately trying to find my way to the train station and figure out how to buy a one-way ticket on the subway (there was no English option), I realized how spoiled I am here in America.  Surely, I thought, lots of people know English, whether able to speak or simply understand.  Nevertheless, I was quite mistaken on that day, and it seemed it was that day that I needed it the most.  It is true, too, that I know Spanish, but upon reaching the country, everything seemed (or rather was) so much faster and more complex.  My Spanish brain was not exactly warmed up, either, to even begin to understand what people were trying to tell me.  The phrase I kept on running into was “No te entiendo” (“I don’t understand you”).  What a day it was!

The ironic part about that particular experience, though, is that it changed drastically as time went on.  As I got more comfortable with my Spanish speaking skills and used them more, I ran into more and more English-speaking Spaniards who decided to practice their English as opposed to let me practice my Spanish.  And that, of course, was more than a little frustrating.  Nonetheless, I can confidently say that I significantly improved my speaking skills while in the country.  The immersion experience is amazing!

Even though I would love to continue, Prospectives, I think I will stop here for now.  Just revisiting my experience in this post has reminded me how many wonderful and informative things that I can share with you all about my summer experience, as well as study abroad in general.  For that reason, instead of trying to squeeze things all into one post here (and have you all miss out on a lot of great details and pictures), I will break my Summer in Seville into sections and post about it from time to time throughout the semester.  Since study abroad is so prevalent here at University of Richmond, I am sure you may be interested in more information about my experience.  For that reason, I encourage you to check back throughout the semester (if you’re not already a regular reader), so that you can learn more about the interesting highs and lows of study abroad.

Hope you enjoyed this snapshot.  More will soon follow.

Until next time,

Amani

Things are moving right along here at UR.  I think I’m starting to get used to this schedule with my classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.  I have been making great efforts to plan out my time so that I am effective on my free days; so far I have gotten a lot of work done on those days, as well as I have been getting things done for myself with that time.  I kind-of like it this way.  I will see how it goes as the semester progresses.

One thing that I have found very surprising is that I am actually enjoying my English class that is based on the American western.  Personally, I thought I was not interested in the subject at all; however, the book that we just finished reading was something that I just could not put down.  I started reading the next book already, and it, too, is starting off in a rather interesting way.  The joy of college—finding out things you never knew about yourself by doing things you have never done. 

 Other than that, I had a little more excitement this past week.  My mom and little brother came up to see me on Wednesday night and Thursday—so I had a good time enjoying their company.  I especially had fun taking my little brother around campus—he is quite an amusing little boy.  He was telling everyone our adventure of feeding the ducks…of course adding exaggerations like, “Yep, they were about to bite my hand off.”  Gotta love children  .  Over the weekend, I traveled up to Alexandria and spent time with family up there.  Good times all around, and a very nice R&R with people I love. 

I hope all is well in the world of college prep—visits and tours, SAT and ACT registration, and of course the beloved essay-writing.  Make sure you take advantage of overnight stays and the like at colleges in which you are interested, because they can provide invaluable insight into what you will really be experiencing as a student there.

That’s all for now.  Enjoy your week!

Amani


Lil bro feeding ducks

My sister’s teacup yorkie driving, lol