Category Archive for ‘Sports Games’ at Ben, ‘11

Archive for the 'Sports Games' Category

What a Crazy Weekend

March 2, 2009

The past four days have been so crazy. They’ve been a lot of fun, a lot of work, and a lot of a whole bunch of other things. In fact, I hardly know where to start. I suppose the beginning would be the best place.

Friday: After a long week, I was ready for some fun. InterVarsity hosted a square dance and it was one of my favorite times this entire year. Maybe it was the endorphins speaking because I was absolutely exhausted after only two hours. However, it was an absolute blast. After the square dance, my friends and I sat around in my friend’s room and simply talked. Great start to the weekend.

My friends dressed up for the square dance

Having a blast at the square dance

Saturday: After doing a small amount of work on Saturday, I went to the Davenport North American Squash Championship. It was held on-campus and brought in many of the best squash players in the world. In fact, I believe eight of the top ten squash players in the world were here. Though it was going on all week, I only made the championship game. It was a great game and, best of all, it was free. Saturday evening, I went to the Cellar, our on-campus bar and grill, with some of my friends for great food.

The Championship Game

Sunday: After church on Sunday morning, I returned to my room to tackle some papers that I had to work on. As I was working, everyone in my residence hall started getting really excited because it was snowing. I had heard there was supposed to be snow coming, but I had no idea how much. Growing up in Wisconsin, I was used to this and didn’t really get what the big deal was, but the students from Florida and Georgia and other warm places were beside themselves. Even for Richmond, snow is a big deal. The snow came pouring down and it continued to do so all afternoon. Everyone was grabbing a tray from our Dining Center to serve as a make-shift sled. The snow continued to pile up as the night progressed. The conditions were becoming treacherous and everyone was praying that school would be canceled on Monday. Sure enough, it was. Everyone acted like little kids and became so excited. It was ridiculous.

Notice that “the University is closed today”

Monday: Today was a snow day. I don’t remember the last time I had one of those. I didn’t think eight inches of snow would cause everything to come to a grinding halt, but it did. Nothing was shoveled, nothing was plowed, and no one down here knows how to drive in the snow. Ice coated all of the sidewalks and walking between buildings was quite a challenge. Despite the perceived nuisance of the snow, I can think of 2,900 people who greatly appreciated it-the UR student body. There were snow ball fights, sledding, and every outdoor activity one can imagine. It seemed like the entire campus had been transformed into giddy little children.

Snowball Fight!!!

Enjoying the beautiful snow

Sledding in a wintry wonderland

And then there was me. I stayed inside all day working on homework and preparing for my four upcoming midterms. I didn’t really get what the big deal was. Snow was an everyday occurrence in Wisconsin. And there was also my roommate. I guess he got the memo that winter was arriving and decided to hibernate. He went to bad last night at 10:30PM (insanely early for college) and slept until 1:30PM. To be nice, I studied in the hallway (which is actually quite pleasant) so as to keep the lights off (yet also to avoid his deafening snores). When he finally woke up, he decided to watch CNN and Scrubs and “Medical Incredible” all day. He then turned out the lights at 10:00 PM (insanely, ridiculously, atrociously early) after only being awake for eight hours and has left me here, typing my blog in the darkness of my own room. My roommate and I, unlike the rest of campus, simply aren’t a good match. A limited pool of potential roommates is the price I paid for joining a Living and Learning community. Next year will be better. I have decided to room with a freshman from New York named Billy. So, I will have roomed with people from Alabama, Virginia, and New York. I’m really excited for next year. I’ll need to give you more details, but that’ll come later. Right now, I need to get some sleep and buckle down for those midterms. Wish me luck

Quote of the Weekend: “When it snows, you have two choices: shovel or make snow angels.” -Anonymous
Thought to Ponder: Why do we put suits in a garment bag and garments in a suitcase?
YouTube Video of the Weekend:

A sleepwalking dog
(video courtesy of a friend's recomendation)

Published by Ben on March 2, 2009 in Sports Games and InterVarsity. 0 Comments

First Week Back

January 18, 2009

Welcome back everyone. I’m glad to be back myself after unforeseen challenges getting back to campus. I arrived to the airport last Sunday to discover that the flight that I had booked through Expedia no longer existed. My original flight had been switched, so I was rebooked without being told which resulted in me having no way to get back to campus on-time. So, Expedia offered me complimentary flights the next day. I began my day of travel by waking up at 4:30 AM for a 7:00 AM flight. After a flight to Atlanta, delays there resulting in a three hour layover, and a flight to Richmond, I finally arrived to campus on Monday evening, missing one class in the process. What a hassle. However, I’m here now and settled in. Classes have been going on for a full week, so I’ll give you a quick rundown of my six new classes and what else I’ve been up to thus far.

I am taking three Leadership Studies courses, two Business courses, and a Rhetoric course this semester. In Leadership, I have Group Dynamics, Critical Thinking, and Research Methods. I also am taking Managerial Accounting and Business Statistics in addition to Rhetoric Theory and Pedagogy. A lot of these classes should be interesting, but will require a lot of work. The Leadership and Business classes will fulfill my major requirements, but the Rhetoric class is solely for training new Speech Consultants, such as myself, for working in the Speech Center. A drastic change from last semester is that I have a lot more group projects and also many more daily quizzes and assignments as opposed to last semester’s individual papers.

My favorite class right now is Business Statistics. It makes sense to me and I love the teacher. He didn’t like any of the textbooks on the market, so he wrote his own 180 page textbook for fun and gave it to us as a .pdf file to print off. My second favorite moment was reading my Managerial Accounting textbook. The book highlights businesses and certain practices that they do and I stumbled upon one for Anderson Windows from Bayport, Minnesota. They are huge in my area and are located just a few minutes from my hometown. It appears that it is a small world after all. It was a fun little surprise for me.

The business profile of Anderson Windows

I quickly fell behind in my homework this week. This is mainly a result of me trying to organize my life and classes in an attempt to make life easier later in the semester. So, I compiled my master calendar with every assignment for the rest of the semester. I have calculated a total of 2,454 pages of reading for this semester. That’s about200 pages per week. However, I am now caught back up and ready for another week of classes.

My master calendar

Besides classes, I also attempted to attend a lot of fun events this week. Two of these were through the Modlin Center, UR’s center for performing arts. They brought in MOMIX, a modern dance troupe, to campus as well as acclaimed writer Garrison Keillor. MOMIX was very strange, but cool. It used a lot of strange lighting, props, and dance to put together a very entertaining show. Check out some clips from the show here. Garrison Keillor, of Lake Woebegone Days and NPR fame, also came to Richmond. It was a good show and the best thing of all was that tickets for students were free.

MOMIX

Garrison Keillor

I also attended a men’s basketball game on Saturday night. We fell apart in the last few minutes and lost, but it was still a good game to watch. There was also another fun highlight. Students get points for simply attending sports games and these points can earn some pretty cool prizes. They also make you eligible for drawings and other competitions during the game. Anyways, my name was drawn as one of the five finalists for a $200 gift certificate to our bookstore. So, I went down onto the basketball court during a break in the game. I didn’t end up winning, but it was still fun to have a chance to win.

Honoring our National Champion football team during halftime

Our basketball team in action

After the game, I went to an Apartment Dance Party that I helped to organize through InterVarsity. It was fun to reconnect with everyone else and simply get a chance to hang out on the weekend. I also got together with a bunch of friends from InterVarsity earlier in the week to finally get in some volleyball. So, I played volleyball for two hours on Wednesday instead of doing homework. That seemed to be the theme of the week for me.

Dance-off at the Apartment Dance Party

Having fun at the dance party

The final thing to mention is the weather. It has been absolutely frigid here this past week. Part of the lake is frozen over and everyone is complaining about the cold. However, I can’t complain too much because I learned that my hometown is experiencing wind chills of -40 degrees. Now that’s cold.

Quote of the Week: “A lot of people ask what to call me. Mrs or Dr. I prefer Mrs because it’s much harder today to remain married than to get a PhD.” -Mrs. Hobgood
Thought to Ponder: Why do people say “heads up” when you should duck?
YouTube Video of the Week:

Dolphin Stampede

Published by Ben on January 18, 2009 in Sports Games, Artsy Performances and InterVarsity. 0 Comments

Semester in Review

Now that the first semester of my Sophomore year is officially done, I feel as though it would be a good time to give a recap of everything that I have done this semester. So, as I promised, here is a look back at all of my experiences from fall semester:

The best word to describe this past semester would be “busy”. At times, I was juggling academics, organizations, and work. I admit I tried to do a bit too much at times and that was my own fault, but I learned as the semester went on. I don’t know how I kept up with everything at times, but it all got done. It required much finesse and numerous calendars and checklists, but everything was kept straight and I completed every assignment on time. My first priority, academics, was quite tough this semester. I took Financial Accounting, Rhetoric and Public Address, Business and Software Tools, Justice and Civil Society, and Campaigns 2008. I had numerous papers, thirty hours of volunteer work at a local ESL program for my Leadership class, and a calculated 3,841 pages of reading, which made academics quite challenging, yet interesting and educational at the same time. During this semester, I officially declared my intention to double major in Business and Leadership Studies with an additional minor in Law and the Liberal Arts. I also decided to become a Speech Fellow in the Speech Center next year. Now that grades are posted, I am incredibly proud of the grades I have been able to achieve. It wasn’t easy, but it feels good to see my hard work pay off. I feel like I should mention a bit more about my classes, but don’t really know what else to say right now.

All of my textbooks from this semester

Celebrities Marlon Wayans, Jurnee Smollett, and Tatyana Ali
visited my Leadership Class to Rock the Vote

Just one of my calendars which keeps track of my life

One of the classes I took was Campaigns 2008. With this program, we were the guinea pigs for a new type of residence hall at the University of Richmond. All fifteen of us in the class lived on the same hallway and participated in outside-the-classroom activities to supplement our readings and in-class discussions including debate watches and convention viewing parties. In addition, we created our own media ads and volunteered on the presidential campaigns. We lived in an amazing residence hall and had a lot of fun. Sure, we got rather heated at times and it is difficult to have fifteen politically active students with various political leanings living side by side, but it was fun and a great semester. We created our own little family. We had hallway dinners and used the kitchen to bake and decorate Christmas cookies and then have a Home Alone party. It was a lot of fun to be in the program.

My half of my room in Lakeview

Another part of my room

Our hallway’s lounge where we like to hang out

Displaying the political divisiveness of my own suite

My ad for Campaigns 2008

Hallway dinners we cooked in our residence hall’s kitchen

Making Chex mix for our hallway’s Home Alone holiday party

Besides academics, organizations have consumed much of my time. InterVarsity has probably been the #1 time consumer. I was in charge of social activities for the semester and we had a ton that took place. So, we had a Medallion Hunt, Scavenger Hunt, Movie and Game Nights, Karaoke Nights, and so much more. They were a lot of fun and here are some of the highlights:

Watermelon eating contest at Extreme H2O

Sunrise Trip to Virginia Beach

Karaoke Night

Winner of “I can’t believe we all fit in here”
for the Scavenger Hunt

Halloween Dance Party in the Commons

InterVarsity also does some larger events throughout the semester that I participated in. I went on the Fall Retreat in the mountains of western Virginia and also the 222 Conference in Hampton, Virginia. Both lasted the entire weekend and were a lot of fun. They are a great way to escape campus for a short while and meet new people.

Fall Retreat in western Virginia

Hanging out at the bonfire on Fall Retreat

Having some fun and acting like kids

Dance party at the end of 222

The UR group who went to 222

Of course, I am in other groups besides InterVarsity. I remain President of my class and also actively involved in planning this year’s Alternative Spring Break for the Collegiate Disaster Relief Team. In addition, I was Captain of a Relay for Life team and also active in the United Methodist group on-campus. There were lots of events, but more meetings than anything else. It was quite taxing at times to keep up with everything, so I might reevaluate my commitments rather soon.

A Rockband Tournament that I hosted for Class Cabinet

Baking Christmas cookies with the United Methodist group

Some of the members of my Relay for Life team

The last group that I should mention is my Oldham scholar group. Once again, we went on a trip this November. New York City was the destination this time. The family that gives the scholarship paid for us to fly round trip to New York City for a weekend getaway. While there, we ate at fantastic restaurants, saw the opening night of “Faust” at the Metropolitan Opera, and also saw “In the Heights” on Broadway. During the trip, we stayed at a Hilton on Avenue of the Americas and right outside my window was Radio City Music Hall. It was so much fun to get to travel with friends and experience some amazing things that I would never get the chance to otherwise do.

Having fun in the subways of New York City

Viewing the Statue of Liberty

Lady Liberty on the way to Ellis Island

The set for “In the Heights”

Of course, life isn’t only academics and organizations. I also make plenty of free time to have fun with friends. There were numerous a cappella concerts, improv comedy shows, intramural sports games, movies in the Pier, and dinners in downtown Richmond. Here are a few of the highlights:

Going to an 80s-themed sorority social with a friend

Eating out at Capital Ale House for Dollar Burger Night with friends
Having Nerf gun wars across my entire residence hall

Jamming out on Rock Band with friends

An a cappella concert by the Octaves

One of my favorite activities this semester was going to the football games. We had a rough start, but ended up having a miracle season and winning the National Championship for the Football Championship Series. Despite being much smaller in school population than the other teams we played, we overcame a lot of obstacles and won it all. This was our first team title since our school began 178 years ago. It was an amazing season to watch and track all throughout the playoffs. The team created the most school spirit that I have seen since I arrived and they really added a lot to this semester.

Watching our football team do magnificently

Our football team winning the National Championship

Some of the other fun events included scheduled big-name performances through the Modlin Center and other groups. I am a big fan of these performances and their cheap or free tickets for students. This semester, I only made it to a few, but they were worth it. I saw the Reduced Shakespeare Company, David Sedaris, LA Theatre Works, Rockapella, and several other performances. In addition, Ben Lee came to campus and gave a great show.

Reduced Shakespeare Company

Ben Lee performing at the Pier

Throughout this entire semester, I didn’t go home once. I stayed on-campus for Fall Break and went to New York City over Thanksgiving Break with friends from high school. It was a lot of fun, but it was much-needed to finally get home after a long and trying finals week.

Attending the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

Hanging out with friends from high school at the Macy’s Parade

Our Times Square adventures

Hanging out in Central Park

Celebrating Thanksgiving in New York with friends

So, after all of this, I won’t claim to be the average student here. I’m pretty involved, but that’s the way I like it… most of the time. I do hope that this past semester’s blog has given you a chance to get a taste of life at UR. If it hasn’t or you simply have some questions, feel free to click the “Contact Me” link at the top of the blog and send away. Thanks for following this semester and I hope you continue for another semester. Merry Christmas.

Ben

Favorite Quote of the Semester: “It is never too late to be what you might have been.” -George Eliot
Favorite Thought to Ponder: Why does someone believe you when you say there are four billion stars, but check when you say the paint is wet?
Favorite YouTube Video of the Semester:

Published by Ben on December 28, 2008 in Sports Games, Class Cabinet, Artsy Performances, InterVarsity, Football, Student Government and Breaks. 0 Comments