March 29, 2008
Howdy! This week was really crazy for me. There’s a lot of stuff going on in my life. I’m trying to balance classes, homework, my job, extracurricular activities, and time for fun. Monday through Wednesday were very chaotic and then life began to settle down again. Now, I’m finally able to get outside and enjoy the fantastic weather we’ve been having. It’s been 75 and sunny for the past few days.
The trees are in full bloom
Our geese are enjoying the weather. The one with the bump is called Tryceragoose.
The biggest time consumer this past week has been my job as a tour guide. I’ve given six tours this week. I was signed up for two tours on Tuesday, then was recruited as an emergency tour guide on Wednesday and Thursday, and also happened to volunteer on Friday for Preview Richmond as well as Saturday. I like doing it, but it does take quite a bit of time. It seems like all of the prospective students are invading campus since it’s Spring Break so it’s a very chaotic time in the Admissions Office. Also, I had the chance to serve as a panelist for a Q&A session for prospective students. Four other students and myself talked about our lives here at Richmond and answered any questions that the audience threw at us.
Also this week, I tried to sort out my schedule for the fall. I met with my adviser and tried to craft a schedule with classes and times that worked for me. After a bit of work, I’m hoping to get into Financial Accounting for Business, Justice in Civil Society for Leadership, Political Campaigns for Political Science, and Rhetoric and Public Address. I wanted to take Rhetoric since it complements my other study areas well. However, the class met Wednesday and Friday at one time and had a practicum session on Mondays at a different time. Due to my unchangeable Campaigns class for Lakeview, I couldn’t make the Monday class. I e-mailed the professor and asked if there was any way for me to still be in the class, yet avoid the problem. She agreed the time slot was not great and, within hours, she had rearranged the class times for the class so that I would be able to take it. It just goes to show how amazing our professors are.
This week also wrapped up our Collegiate Disaster Relief Team (CDRT) trip. We met with our advisers and reflected on the trip and discussed what we thought of the city, the trip, and the work. We also had a reunion get-together on Thursday night so that we could get to see each other again and hang out since we’ve returned to Richmond. Our campus newspaper actually did an article on our trip and interviewed me and several other members for it. I also believe an official air-date has been announced for our Extreme Makeover: Home Edition episode that we will be in. I believe it’s going to be May 18th. I’ll let you know for sure as it gets closer.
Student Government has also consumed a lot of my time. We’re putting together the final details for our March Madness Championship Party. We’re also looking ahead to after that event for when we partner with the Freshmen Womens’ Cabinet for a barbecue, so I attended one of the womens’ meetings. I was amazed at how efficient their Cabinet is. They have committees for everything and so much stuff going on. I’m just lucky if I get half my guys to come to the meetings. Speaking of being Class Chair, the time has come when I will need to run for re-election. So, I’ve had to attend information meetings and collect signatures for my petition. I thought about running for Senator, but no one else was running for Class Chair that I saw and everyone has told me that I’m doing a good job. So, I will need to run a campaign, which will take some time, but hopefully I’ll be unopposed and that will make it easier. We also happened to have an awards dinner for Student Government this week. It was a good meal, but it finally struck me that my first year in college is almost over and things are wrapping up. I can’t believe it.
Student Government Awards Dinner
As far as classes go, they’re still moving along. I had a Calculus 2 test on Wednesday. I’m a little worried about it, but just hope for the best. I’m starting to read Tocqueville for Leadership Studies and “Age of Iron” for CORE. My skull sitar is almost done for Sculpture and I’ll post a picture of it ASAP. I think it looks pretty cool.
Through all of this work, I did find time for fun. Four of my friends and I went to Capital Ale House again for Dollar Burger Night. It’s become a tradition now. We had quite the adventure with our fries. We ordered one plate and quickly finished it. However, the waitress never saw that we had ever received them, so she brought out another plate for us. It was much funnier than it sounds. Trust me. It was a very comical and complicated event. After that, I ended up getting some shopping done in Richmond.
Andrew decided to tackle two burgers. We were impressed.
The infamous plate of fries
I also participated in the Multicultural Student Union’s Trivia Night. It was a Quiz Bowl and I entered a team for InterVarsity with myself and two of my friends. We lost, but still had a decent time. I did win a gift certificate to Moe’s Burritos in a raffle, though. After that, we headed to a friend’s dorm to play some games, watch movies, hang out, and celebrate a friend’s birthday.
The Multicultural Student Union Trivia Night
Hanging out with my friends
Another thing that is sort of fun is that a bunch of students here at Richmond are forming a skydiving group. They’re going to go some time in the next few weeks. I’m thinking about going myself. I’m not too adventurous and crazy, but it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience and could be a lot of fun. I’ll let you know what happens with this in the coming weeks.
I will also mention one more adventure I had this week. I give myself haircuts since it’s cheap and I only do a buzz cut. I’ve had it all my life. I thought it looked fine, but apparently, I had missed a lot on the back of my head whoops. I wasn’t told this until after I’d given two tours and a full day had passed. Not only that, but I had my roommate trim my neck. He took the extension off the clippers and tried to trim it. However, something was wrong. I thought it hurt more than normal. It turns out that it was cutting my neck, so I now have quite a few cuts left from it.
My neck after getting banged up from my haircut
Now that I’ve looked back for the week. It’s time to look to the future. I now have my plans set for summer. Classes end the first week of May and then I will attend a retreat for InterVarsity called Rockbridge. It’s for all the InterVarsity chapters in the area. It’s supposed to be an awesome time. I’ll return from the retreat and work one week in the admissions office giving tours and helping out. after that week, I will spend ten weeks doing math research. I’ve selected my housemates for when I live in the apartments. However, all of these activities means I won’t be able to go home until August 1st. I haven’t been home since mid-January. That’s almost seven months, but my family may vacation out here and visit me sometime during the summer.
That’s all for this week. It was very crazy, but that just makes the time fly by. Enjoy the weather if its nice outside for you and good luck with the decision process if you’re going through that right now.
Quote of the Week: “Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes” -Oscar Wilde
Thought to Ponder: Why does Tennessee have a law prohibiting catching fish with a lasso?
Shout Outs: All my high school friends
YouTube Video of the Week:
A world record skydiving jump
