What's your favorite?

Hey all,

So, I thought it would be fun for today to give everyone a little insight into me and my personality. I know they say that you can learn a lot about a person from looking at their friends and their bedroom, but my room is a little messy right now due to pre-spring break packing and such. I was trying to think of another way to help everyone get to know me better and I thought, gee, I spend a lot of time on my computer don't I? SO, I think I'll share with you the things in my "favorites" menu. This is the stuff I look at all time time and need to have just a click away. Enjoy!

AOL.com - gotta check the email
Facebook - my page, the SMC page, and the SMC Class of 2014 group
SMC mail - campus email is a necessity
My Blog - quick and easy access
IGoogle - my personalized version of Google
SMC on Flikr - to see all the great pics we put up
SMC on YouTube - everyone loves a good youtube vid
Knightvision and Ecollege - SMC's very own class pages
Refworks - an AMAZING recource for paper references, thanks to the library
Twitter - obvi
TD Bank - I now have online banking and I LOVE it
Pandora - plays only music you like
The Oatmeal - the funniest
The Choice Blog - The New York Times' online education blog...great stuff
Post Secret - lovelovelove
Craigslist - for jobs, cars, and everything else
Robot Unicorn Attack - a new (very addicting) game my brother showed me (so mature)

And that's it for my favorites. So click away, I hope you find something you like!

peace,
-Christine

Open up the Sky

Hey all!

So I'm back from an AMAZING weekend experience on LEAP. LEAP is a retreat run through the SMC campus ministry department, and its meant for all students regardless of class year, gender, or religious affiliation. It's an amazing experience to get away for the weekend, meet new friends, share stories, and grow in your faith journey (in whatever faith that may be and at whatever starting point you're at). A lot of the weekend thrives on the secrets kept between LEAPers, so as not to spoil the fun for everyone else who has yet to go, so I won't say too much about it. What I will say is that everyone who has the opportunity to participate in this amazing expereince really should. It came at just the right time for me and has completely changed my mindset on this semester. I know now that I'll make it out alive (somehow) and that all I needed to do was readjust the way I'm looking at everything. Needless to say LEAP was just what I needed.

Here's a link to the theme song from the weekend (hence the post title; I hope it works) http://popup.lala.com/popup/504684659304571060

And here are some photos of the team and candidates taken after a gorgeous weekend here in Vermont:











So now that I'm back on campus, it's of course back to work, but today's activity was very interesting. For my Study Abroad Re-Entry Class, we were given an assignment to be a microsociologist of everyday life and perform a situation analysis. My group was assigned to a retail store, so today we took off to the University Mall to see what chaos we could cause. We were supposed to be examining things like space, objects, time, people, dress, and language. We were also told to break a social rule and make observations about it. Needless to say, we had a lot of fun re-dressing manikins, asking a lot of silly questions, and basically making fools of ourselves. We did observe a lot of interesting things as well. For example, in JC Penny, the plus size clothing was located next to the work out clothing, and the bathing suites next to the petite clothing. Very interesting way we organize things, perhaps without even relaizing.

In other great news, WE'VE GOT HOUSING. That's right. With lottery number 15 of the whole school, my group was able to secure our dream house in the 200 level townhouses for next year. We're super pumped about it. Now we're just got to make it until then. Since housing is over, typically we're now being plagued with the task of course selection for our last fall semester at SMC (gasp). But we won't get into that now, mostly because I'm in no way prepared to talk about it.

Try to check back a lot this week, because I've got a bunch of ideas for new posts (there's actually a list sitting next to me) and I want to try and do many of them before my sure-to-be-amazing spring break trip to Jamaica next week! SO come back soon, that's all for now.

Peace, love (and fuzz)
-Christine

Weekend in Review

Hey all,

This past weekend was a pretty busy one for me. After a very hectic week and an early morning exam on Friday I came home and took a quick nap. Then Dustin and I gave interviews to students applying to be new tour guides. From there I hung out for a little and went out for dinner with Meg and Amanda. It was nice to get off campus with the two of them, since we haven't spent much time together because of swimming. It's nice to have time to balance my time with all of my friends. I didn't attend any of the activities of Friday Knight Dry (I actually slept through a bunch of them) so I'll be on the look out for a blogger who did and link you to them if I can.

Saturday I woke up, got some brunch, and got ready to head downtown for the Magic Hat Mardi Gras Parade! It whas a ton of fun but I was SO COLD. However, my friends and I did love all of the free stuff we got: lollipops, ping pong balls, boloco burritos, honest-tea, and of course, BEADS! We fought hard for all of the beads we caught, too (even had to beat out some old ladies hahaha). Reese has a new post about the parade too and there are some photos up on the SMC Flikr Page. There's an album of photos up there from last week's snow storm too.

Sunday I spent the whole day with the Founder's Society Coordinators and our advisors interviewing the tour guide applicants. There were over 80 applicants for only half as many spots and it was a long day for everyone. Making decisions is definitely a really hard process and we hate to turn down people who would be great tour guides because we don't have enough room. That said, we want everyone who came out to continue to keep up interest in Founder's and represent SMC like they have been!

Today has been kind of a long day too, but only because I'm feeling a little under the weather with a fever and such. I went to my first and last classes but slept through the two in the middle. I've been resting and recovering all day so hopefully I'm feeling better by tomorrow. At the very least I need to be ready to swim lessons and the Orientation partner dinner on Wednesday and LEAP this weekend!

So that's it for now. Go check out those photos on Flikr and take a look at everyone else's blogs to see what they've been up to. And, as always, feel free to email me at camoresano@smcvt.edu with anything and everything.

Did you know that when it snows...

Hello all!

It seems like we've got a little catching up to do now that I've gotten my life back in order (sorry for the last post, it was a bit depressing haha). Swimming has ended, which I can't believe. Having just a half season really made it fly by. We had championships last weekend and I'm so proud of how everyone did. There were so many best times and I think we broke over 10 records as a team. Both the women and men placed 6th out of 22 and 15 respectively, so that's really awesome for us! Now that the season is over we're all enjoying a little extra free time and we're also back to teaching swim lessons for a few weeks, but that's pretty fun.

In other news, we got dumped on with a ton of snow two days ago. The weather, however, has been crazy here (it's doing a number on my allergies) and it's all melting in the 35+ "heat wave" and campus is really puddle-y and muddy now. BUT when there was all that snow on the ground SMC students got out and had a good time. Check out our Flikr page soon for some pics of the snow. Also check there a little later for some photo updates from out abroad bloggers around the world.

This week has been so busy and I'm glad I have a little weekend time to wind down. I banged out a midterm this morning and now I'm just relaxing a little before I go over to admissions to help hold interviews for new Tour Guides. This is the second step in the process after applications and by next week we should have a new group of fun, excited students ready to learn how to be SMC TGs!

Things that are coming up (aka look for posts/pictures):
Friday Knight Dry (tonight!)
Burlington Mardi Gras Parade (tomorrow)
I'm going on LEAP! (next weekend)
Room selection (oh boyyyy)

That's it for now. And prospective students, remember to check out all of our blogs, photos, videos, facebook pages, and twitter pages!

questions/comments? email me: camoresano@smcvt.edu

How busy is too busy?

I've been asking myself this question a lot over the last few day...or weeks really. It's not that my life wasn't "busy" while I was abroad. I was constantly doing something. I cooked, cleaned, trained for a marathon, did my schoolwork (which was pretty legit if I do say so), and constantly planned trips, packed and unpacked for/from them, and traveled. I managed all of this in my 168 weekly hours and still got at least 7 hours of sleep most nights. I was able to fulfill my duty as a traveler and study abroad student while still keeping up as a friend, sister, daughter, and girlfriend.

I've never really had trouble with my time management. Swimming has kept me in line since age 14, which is when I got to high school and about the time my neurotic sense of organization kicked in. I like to know when things are happening ahead of time so I can schedule them in. It's not that I hate surprises, I just don't like when my perfect plans are thrown off. I like to color code, file, make post it notes and lists for everything, and keep my planner full but perfectly neat.

So here I am, almost 7 years into my organizational lifestyle, feeling disorganized and lost. I'm not sure what it is that's got me feeling like I'm spiraling out of control and I think that's the biggest problem. I'm swimming, which keeps me on a pretty strict schedule, limiting my time to do school work but also making sure that I do it, as has always been the case. I'm taking classes and, though I'm taking a few more credits than usual, only one of my classes is giving me trouble. I'm working as a coordinator, but I LOVE my job and work it very easily into my crazy schedule. Swimming is ending soon and swim lessons are only once a week. I'll still need to work out at the gym of course, but running seems a bit lower maintenance. I'm hoping that I'll have more time to devote to my schoolwork, because I need time to find a summer job and to begin my search for grad schools and find out what I want to do in the next year or so. These sentences are probably becoming harder to understand if you don't know me, so I'll move along.

I'm not really sure what to do, but I needed somewhere to talk out my current life situation where I know someone will read it (and perhaps where I don't have to have a face-to-face conversation about "what's missing in my life"). At the very least, I hope this post, coupled with my overwhelming computer troubles (still no files on it because I don't have office back), will make up slightly for my neglect of you, my readers.

On a similar note, I'd love to hear some questions people are having, or at the very least a few topic suggestions. I know my fellow blogger Dustin would be upset that I'm asking other people to provide me with my voice (check out his latest post) but I think I need a little support until I can get back on my feet, though that seems little desperate sounding.

Anyway, the gears are turning on new topics, photo album ideas, and even video ideas hopefully. Until I get interesting, my deepest apologies. My search for my place post-Italy should not affect my relationship with you all, and I will do my best to see to it that I solve these problems ASAP.

Much Love,
-Christine

Slow and Steady

Hey everyone,

I know this doesn't count as a post, but I wanted to update everyone quickly. I got my computer back today with nothing on it at all...including Microsoft Office. So I'm working on getting it back up and running with everything I need but I'm not sure how long it'll take. Be patient and hopefully I can come back with some lovely blogs when its all over.

Meanwhile, I'll be staying on campus for this long 4 day weekend (though I do miss home) because of swimming. So, perhaps by the time everyone returns on Tuesday I'll be back to my normal, computer-savy life. Fingers crossed.

Just wanted to throw a quick update in there so everyone doesn't think I dropped off the planet. Oh and current SMC students, go to www.ross.smcbloggers.com and read about the new 3-4-5 contest for students. First prize is $500 so you know you want to.

K bye!
-Christine

February Blogging Contest!

You read right! The SMC Bloggers are doing a new contest. We want to know what YOU want to read about in our blogs.

Leave a comment on this post with a creative, fun, unique topic for a blog post that you wish we'd write about (don't forget name and email, so we can contact you if you win). All of the Bloggers will get together at the end of February to decide which ideas we like best. Feel free to leave as many blog topics as you want. If we pick your suggestion then you will win a fun prize! Then check back and see us blogging YOUR ideas! The contest will end on February 28th so get those creative juices flowing.

AND don't forget about our first SMC Blogger chat of the Spring Semester: This Thursday night from 7-9PM. Come chat with us about anything and everything SMC

www.smcvt.edu/bloggerchat

*Remember, only High School students can win the prizes but EVERYONE can contribute their topics!