December 9th, 2009

You have three more weeks before Christmas vacation, and you haven’t been home since August, because you live across the country, perhaps even on the other side of the world. You spent Thanksgiving at your roommate’s home, which made you crave your family even more. You think to yourself, “I don’t think I’m going to make it through the next three weeks. I miss my family so much.”

You can imagine your family carrying out the traditional Christmas activities without you. You can picture your dad spending the morning after Thanksgiving putting up Christmas lights with your older brother; your mom sneaking off in the Minnie van to do some Christmas shopping. You can imagine your family arguing while picking out the Christmas tree, and smell the sweet sugary aroma coming from the kitchen from your mom baking batches of Christmas cookies.

Your CHC pals, notice you have a terrible case of the holiday blues and suggest fun and creative ways to bring Christmas to Campus …

Let’s Decorate: Since your dorm room is looking kind of dreary, you and roomie decide to add a festive air to your living quarters. You guys decide to take SEPTA to Target and pick up a couple of decorative items; some wrapping paper, ribbons, a Minnie Christmas tree, and some ornaments.  Within hours you transform your collegiate dorm room, into a warm holiday oasis filled with Christmas cheer. Your holiday blues are starting to clear.

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Tagged As: campus, Christmas, Friends, hanging out, Residents Halls
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December 3rd, 2009

 I choose to give thanks to God every day, Thanksgiving was one of those days I did that and more.  Thanksgiving is a day of reflection on what we are thankful for. It seems many families experience thanksgiving with different traditions. So in the spirit of being diverse and embracing different traditions my friend Emil (BFF) and I set out on a journey to 7 different houses to shake hands, hug friends, and of course EAT!

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Tagged As: Art, basketball, Community Service, Food, Friends, Jobs, Philadelphia, Philly, photos, thanksgiving, Visiting
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November 23rd, 2009

Tagged As: classes, courses, Friends, History, Jobs, requirements, tips
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October 29th, 2008

    

What do college students do between 1:00pm-2:00pm? Go to class! I don’t think so. We take a break from our crazy college lives. How do we do this?

By playing in the leaves, of course.                                                              
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Tagged As: Chestnut Hill, Fall, Friends, shopping, starbucks
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September 12th, 2008

Luckily the friends I have made at Chestnut Hill College equally appreciate the recreational pursuits I choose to engage in; it was with the help of my roommate Alli and close college friend Justin that I was able to put together an unbelievable road trip. Together we collected our friends to travel to Chicago, Illinois in order to take part in the three day festival formally known as Lollapalooza in Grant Park. We were able to bring friends from our home-towns on the journey, which allowed us to witness each other’s personalities outside of Chestnut Hill College.

The road trip itself was a stellar experience because we needed to cram five people in Alli’s car while Justin and his friend Mike from home went in their own separate vehicle. We left bright and early Thursday morning in order to make it to Alli’s house in Glenn Ellyn, Illinois by 10 o’clock at night; the drive itself was twelve hours long! The trip proved to be a long distance, however amongst us five we were able to alternate drivers every 300 miles, which helped relieve the stress of driving for extended hours. We passed through Ohio and Indiana during our excursion and witnessed extraordinarily vast farmlands and breathtaking mountains. We traversed under tunnels to get through the Allegheny mountain region in Western Pennsylvania, where construction became heavy after each mountain we passed. I don’t think anyone slept throughout the whole trip because the landscape was simply astounding.

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Tagged As: Bloc Party, Blues Traveler, Booka Shade, Brazilian Girls, Broken Social Scene, Chicago, Chromeo, Concert, Does it Offend You Yeah, Driving, Explosions in the Sky, Festival, Foals, Friends, Gogol Bordello, Lollapalooza, MGMT, Millenium Park, Music, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Rage Against the Machine, Saul Williams, The Black Keys, The Go Team, The National, Travel, Vacation
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July 11th, 2008

Center City Philadelphia is known for its history, culture, and most importantly its art.  However, the Philadelphia Art Museum is not the only place in the city where you can witness some of the most unique and eccentric creations Philadelphia has to offer.

The first Friday of every month forty-two art galleries in Philadelphia open there doors, for free, to allow natives and tourists to see some of the city’s finest masterpieces.  First Friday caters to Philadelphia’s younger demographic and many of the featured artists are in there twenties and thirties.  The artistic style of most of the artists can be described as inventive, edgy, and contemporary.  Some friends and I were excited to hit the art scene on a cool Friday night, in the beginning of June, to check out what First Friday was all about.

One of the great things about the Philadelphia art scene is that art is not limited to a canvas.  As we walked the Philadelphia streets that night we observed young artist seated on the pavement with blankets laid out displaying jewelry and photography.  We also came across art displayed on clothing, such as tee-shirts, that were adorned with elaborate designs, and political statements.  As we made our way through the streets we noticed artists of a different kind.  Because of their talent the air was filled with sounds of drums, violins, guitars, and flutes that pleasantly guided us as we journeyed through the art world.

That night my friends and I wondered into many unique art exhibits, but there was one that I enjoyed the most, and that exhibit was called F.U.E.L.  I enjoyed this exhibit because it was all about finding ones sound.  In addition, it was an interactive exhibit so it provided the gallery visitors the opportunity to share in the art experience in an unconventional way.

F.U.E.L also was the exhibit that had one of my favorite art pieces.  This piece consisted of a huge white wall and written on the wall in bold lettering it said, “What is your sound?”  All over the wall people had written their sounds. The once white wall was covered with the unique sounds of people from different cultures, cities, ethnic backgrounds, genders, and beliefs.  It was compelling to observe how the different sounds of a diverse group of people could come together and create a unifying piece of art.

First Friday was a great experience and I highly recommend it.  It is rewarding to expose yourself to things that you are not familiar with.  The art world may be foreign to you, but once you allow yourself to taste its many flavors it is something that you will be eager to delight in again and again.

Tagged As: Art, Friends, local attractions, Philadelphia, photos, saving money
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July 10th, 2008

One the truly amazing features of Philadelphia remains its location in the state of Pennsylvania. The boroughs surrounding Philadelphia are magnificently pleasurable and the activities one can choose from continue to be endless; this coming from an individual who lived near the city for her entire life.

Last Saturday I was once again reminded of this fact when a cluster of friends and myself floated down the Delaware River. Being summer vacation, I concluded my semester at Chestnut Hill College and traveled thirty miles away towards home and to Doylestown, PA where the majority of my friends from home reside. My roommate from college also joined us in our escapade. From Doylestown we decided to head to our town’s renowned location for having a good time: High Rocks. High Rocks, also referred to as Ralph Stover State Park, is only a few miles away from town. Once on River Road, one can easily find an easy route towards the Delaware River.

So off we went to launch into the river for an enjoyable day of tubing. We decided to head farther north, past French Town in order to get to a gas station that allows “tubers” to park their cars. The car situation itself was pretty hilarious considering we were in a large group; eight people with eight massive tubes can be a complicated situation when only three cars are available. In addition, we needed to reserve one car in which to leave back South, where we planned to land and use in order to get our other parked cars at the gas station. Thus, we piled ourselves and our tubes into two vehicles and took off towards the boat launch. We made sure to grab a supply of drinks and snacks and used another large tube as our storage vessel during the journey. When we arrived at the boat launch, we quickly sped towards the waters edge and jumped onto our tubes; driving on River Road excites you when speeding past the Delaware River and we literally could not wait to start our momentous adventure down stream. Being 95 degrees that day, we really needed a refreshing ride in the fresh and cool water.

Interestingly there are many islands located in the middle of the river in which we could float to and explore. The majority of islands were covered in shrubbery and there was only minimal amounts of sand to compose a makeshift beach. Still, we saw locales paddle themselves in a raft towards the islands to use as a fishing spot. Likewise, other tubers landed on the islands to simply relax and talk in between their journey. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the calm scenery provided by the Delaware. Our journey became resplendent in the gratifying environment. I swear our laughter echoed towards the fisherman on their boats up river, where the water deepens and tubers beware.

Our travels were also extremely relaxing, as we were only going 1 ½ miles per hour (the Bucks County River Country’s website proudly announces this to welcomed vacationers). After a hard semester at college, I really appreciated the quietude of nature and the sound of the undulating waters of one of the World’s most majestic rivers. I hope to visit there once more in order to find that same serenity.

Tagged As: Friends, outdoors, summer, trips
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July 10th, 2008

Funny faces on our SEARCH retreat

I can’t believe my first year away at college flew by so quickly! I remember the day I moved in and being terrified about leaving everything and everyone I knew behind back at home. With my introvert personality, I was beginning to think that choosing a school four hours away from my family and friends was a bad idea. There was no doubt in my mind that I was going to have major issues stepping out of my comfort zone to meet and befriend an entirely new group of people. I couldn’t have been more wrong!

Right off the bat, I recognized some familiar friendly faces helping with move-in that I realized to be orientation leaders and tour guides I had encountered during visits to CHC in the past couple of months. This put me a bit at ease, and it was even harder to stay in my secluded shell once the same red-shirted students began ushering us to the activities they had planned for us that weekend. We were split up into different groups, and I never would have thought that any of my fellow group members would grow to be some of the closest friends I have today.

Throughout the year, I figured out how to manage my time wisely in order to maintain good grades while still having fun with my new friends. Sometime we’d have study sessions together to try to keep each other on track…other nights we would play pool or Guitar Hero until the wee hours of the morning after acing a major test. The music hall was also one of my favorite places to be. Whether I was practicing piano on my own or belting out Broadway tunes with my friends, I always ended up leaving with a smile on my face.

There were so many things that happened in my first year at CHC, it’s hard to choose which ones to share here. I made new friends, went on SEARCH, played in and attended various concerts, made countless trips to Wawa, cheered at every home volleyball game, road-tripped to New Jersey, and still managed to make the Dean’s List my first semester as a college student. I just can’t wait to see what sophomore year has in store for me.

Tagged As: first year, Friends, photos, transitioning
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