The end of February is just a week away and I cannot believe it. This past month has gone by so fast. Things have been going well though. There has just been a lot going on.

The month started off with having a few first tests in some classes. I had one in Stats and Physics. I am happy to say that I got a 108% on my Stats exam and a 92% on my physics test. YAY!!! Things settled down test wise until this past week. I had a Honors World Lit midterm last Thursday which I got a 92.5% on! Then today I had an Addictions Exam. We’ll see how I do on that one. I think it went well though.

February was split with Presidents Day Weekend the 13th through the 16th. I went home with Brian to spend sometime with his family. It was nice to get away from Walsh. We then celebrated Valentine’s Day on Monday when we got back to Walsh. We went to Wasabi for dinner and got dressed up to make it more of a special occasion. It was really nice.

This month has also been filled with lots of games. My roommate and I have become obsessed with this game called Blokus. Our friend Ben introduced us to the game a couple weeks ago and we have been playing almost everyday since. We have been including our friends in our tragic downward spiral towards addiction. Lots of times our friends will come over and specifically ask to play. The game is quite simple but tests your brain and strategy skills like crazy. The point is get as many of your pieces onto the board as possible. The problem is that you can only attach your pieces together by the corner. Its like Tetris but not exactly. Your sides cannot overlap at any point. With other people putting their pieces on the same board as you and taking turns, the board quickly becomes cramped and you must block other people from filling in spaces that you may need to put some of your pieces. It can get pretty intense let me tell you. You can often times hear someone yelling “WOW! You just Blokused me!” It is a lot of fun. We have also been playing a lot of card games. Nikki taught me Euchere sometime in the past few weeks so that has become a past time when there are enough people to play.

Besides tests and games, this month has been filled with other various activities. We’ve been working out for golf season every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We have also been watching the Olympics A LOT!!! We loved the snowboard cross, alpine skiing, and figure skating. In reality though, whatever happens to be on is what takes our attention away from homework. It is such an exciting time. GO TEAM USA!!!!

This month is ending with the start of Spring Break. I am headed back to Jersey tomorrow to go snowboarding and skiing with family and friends in Killington, Vermont. I haven’t been boarding all season so I am really looking forward to it. Then on Tuesday, my dad and I are headed down to Sunset Beach, North Carolina near Myrtle Beach to spend 4 days golfing. I have barely been able to swing a club because of the timing of class and where we can hit. I can’t wait to hopefully get some decent weather and golf! Also, it is spring break, so it’ll be nice to have some time off of school and homework!

That is about it for now. I believe that is all that has been going on this month. There is a bunch coming up within the weeks following spring break too, so I will do my best to keep you updated! Have a great day and start wishing for warm weather!!!!!

Kim

So I’ve been back at Walsh now for more than 2 weeks and so much has been going on!

The first week back, WU had a lot planned as far as events. Classes began the 11th and things were planned for just about every night that week. On Tuesday, the university theater was showing Couples Retreat. I had been planning to go and see it, but it was a full house and I ended up being in a meeting longer than expected. I had already seen it at the dollar theater though, and really liked it. I recommend it for those of you looking for a good laugh.

On Wednesday night, Walsh had invited Wayne Hoffman to come and perform. Hoffman is a illusionist/magician. His tricks and show were really neat. He did a bunch of mind reading tricks with people from the audience. It was getting really freaky. The trick he left with still has people talking. He had been drinking a can of pepsi throughout the show. He even crushed it when he was finished. He then told us that anything was possible if you believed it and had an imagination, like when we were little kids. Throughout his little speech, he started spinning his finger around an upside down pepsi can, telling us that each time his finger went around caused us to go back a minute in time. He continued to spin his finger around it and to our amazement the can uncrushed itself, resealed itself, and then ended by refilling itself. He opened the can again at the very end and poured out the pepsi. We were all stunned. My friend Alyssa was given the can and there was pepsi in it! It was crazy!!!!

Thursday night included ice skating and Center Ice Sports Complex. A group of went and enjoyed our time talking and ice skating.

The week went really well and was a lot of fun, but along with the good times comes a lot of work. Classes are officially in full swing and I even have an exam next week!!! I’ve been studying a lot to keep on top of my grades, and its hard work. But so far this semester has been going really well. I’m on top of all my classes and even getting ahead on work that is due. It is a good feeling to not have to cram work in the night or morning before class. I hope it keeps up this way! I am going to do my best.

Well that is all I have for you for now. Look for another blog soon!

Kim

In Times Square

Hey Everyone! Happy 2010 and Welcome back to another semester here at Walsh! The first week of classes and getting back in the swing of things is over, but I think I will write another blog soon telling you all about that. Right now, I’m gonna tell you about an awesome experience I got over Winter Break.

Some of the best times in life are spur of the moment things and this definitely counts as one of those. About a week or so before New Years I got in touch with a couple of friends from school. I had thought up the idea that it would be a lot of fun for a group of us to go into New York City and spend New Years Eve in Times Square with the big crowds you always see on TV. To my surprise, everyone was interested and a week later the four of us were all hanging at my house talking about plans. Brian, my boyfriend, came out a few days earlier and spent some time with my family and then Nikki and Derrick came out Wednesday.

Thursday morning when we got up, we looked out the window and saw that it was snowing, but our plans were still on!!! We talked over breakfast about what train to take into the city and what we needed to bring, after which we got ready and left. We arrived in Times Square around 2pm, and instantly began taking pictures. The crowd grew every minute and the police finally started assigning the crowd to sections around 4pm. We got moved a couple times before settling into our place around 5. We spent the next 7 hours standing, dancing, talking, and eating a few snacks.

Before we left!

The entertainment started at 6pm and then hourly countdowns happened every hour. When 11pm hit, the crowd truly began to buzz with excitement. We were so excited for midnight. When Midnight hit and the ball dropped, the city erupted in cheers and HAPPY NEW YEAR! The buildings and street and people were also entirely covered in confetti. New York drops one ton of confetti every year on New Years.

Confetti!!!

It was such a good experience and we all had a great time!!! I would recommend it to anyone who was interested to be in New York on New Years Eve once in their life. I had a lot of fun, but once is enough for me. Here are some more pics! BYE!

Nikki and me

Brian and Derrick

This week is Finals week and I thought I would take a break from studying and fill you in on the my Thanksgiving break.

I went home, back to Jersey for Thanksgiving break. It was really nice to be home. I got to spend a lot of time with my family, as well as some time with close friends.

On Thursday, we went to my aunt’s like we do every year for Thanksgiving. This year we deep fried the turkey. We have never done this in the past, but it was delicious. Good job Dave! We were all excited to see the turkey go into the fryer. It was fun with all of us gathered around it and watching and taking pictures.

On Friday, my mom and sisters headed out for some Black Friday shopping around 7am. That was way to early for me, so my dad and I headed out around 10:30 for our shopping. It turned out to be a full day and we got home around 4. We got a lot accomplished.

The rest of the weekend was spent relaxing around the house and seeing more friends. We took a good family friend out to dinner for his birthday and then all of us played Guitar Hero for a couple hours.

All in all it was an excellent weekend, and I am glad I got to spend it home. I hadn’t been home since September with the golf team. I am looking forward to having a month off of school and classes. Its been a full semester.

I will write again soon and let you know how finals went and recap on my feelings about the semester. BYE!

This year, for the first time ever in Walsh history, UPB put on a sophomore retreat. I took advantage of this opportunity and decided to go on it. We travelled an hour and a half to Pleasant Hill Outdoor Center. It was a very nice facility.

There were 14 of us retreatants. We all knew at least of each other, but this weekend was a great experience to really get to know each other better.

THE GROUP!

This retreat was structured around leadership, leadership skills, and team building. We were split into small groups to work on a couple of the activities but since the group was so small we were able to do a lot of it as one big group. It made us able to bond as a group instead of just our smaller groups. Here is my small group; we were the transformers:

The transfomers

My favorite part of the whole retreat was the high ropes course on the last day. We had to work as a team to keep everyone safe while up in the course, as well as cheer everyone on. It was a great feeling when it was over because everyone at least climbed up to the platform, even if they were scared out of their minds.

Up in the course

The entire weekend was focused around the group encouraging the group on. We grew to trust each other and the encouragement of others was a great tool in accomplishing everything we did throughout the weekend.

The retreat was a great experience and I am so glad that I went on it. We were the first graduating class of for SHAPE!! GO US!

First graduating class of SHAPE!

Menard Hall hosted an all hall program tonight. It was a Business Etiquette dinner. It went over everything from how to walk into a room to how to eat soup to topics of conversation. This program was a lot of fun for many reasons. First, Elise Francis cooked us all a bunch of food so we didn’t have to eat cafeteria food. It was delicious!!!

We started with learning how to walk into a room, and how important it is to make eye contact and look nice. You can only make a first impression once and it is important in many situations to make a good one. We then moved on to handshakes and introductions. There were so many types of handshakes. We learned ways to fix wrong handshakes, such as cold hands or sweaty palms.

We then moved on to a formal meal and the different parts of it. We started with bread. To avoid crumbs you should break little pieces off and butter each individually. Then we moved onto soup and how you should spoon away from you and tap it on the back edge of the bowl to get rid of any drops that may spill onto you.

We went through the rest of the meal and ended with any questions we had. Overall it was a good experience and I would recommend that people go to an opportunity like this in the future if it prevents itself!!! I’m glad I went.

This past Wednesday, our men’s basketball team travelled to Columbus, Ohio to play the Ohio State Buckeyes. Walsh had a bus that was transporting interested students to the game, but I travelled down to the game with Coach and Courtney. We were meeting a possible golf recruit who lived in the area.

The game was pretty neat. Coach got us good tickets and we could easily see the action. The arena was cool too. It was much bigger than Walsh’s arena, but yet OSU has a lot more students. There were screens playing ads as well as the game all over the place. It reminded me of an arena I’d go to see a professional team play at or that I’d go see a concert at.

We lost the game, which didn’t really surprise me, but it was still fun to watch. There was some good times during the game where we played extremely well. It just wasn’t enough to keep up to Ohio State.

We got back to Walsh kind of late, but it was worth it in my mind. We had grabbed dinner before the game at Applebees and then had a good time at the game. It was nice to take a break from schoolwork.

Here are some pictures from the game. Enjoy!

Last week, a Rwandan genocide survivor visited Walsh’s campus. Her name was Immaculee Iligabiza. I had volunteered to help seat people, so got to stay and hear her amazing story.

Immaculee survived with around 7 other women in a small bathroom (3 ft X 4 ft) for 91 days. This fact alone astounded me. The man who was keeping them safe fed them scraps from his table. By keeping these women in his home, he was putting his family and himself in grave danger. If the soldiers found the women, there is no doubt that he, his family, and the women would be killed. The kindness he had to put himself in this danger, and the courage Immaculee and the other women had to be quiet and cramped for that period of time just to survive is truly inspirational.

She said that the greatest power she had to keep her alive in the bathroom was prayer. She had her conflicts with God, but came to realize he was on her side and would help her get through the genocide. Immaculee lost her entire family in the genocide, and has continued on with life. The most amazing thing is that she has forgiven those who were killing in the genocide. She holds no grudges against them, and has even told the man who killed her entire family that he is forgiven.

This power to forgive such an unforgivable act is stunning. I do not know that I would have the courage or will in my heart to forgive such an act. Hearing Immaculee’s story really made me think about people and the power of prayer, as well as the goodness in people’s hearts to forgive. I wish I could have the strength to do what she did.

I think her speech to the Walsh community really impacted many people’s lives. I think it made everyone think about what she went through and the things we hold against people in our own lives. I think that Immaculee’s story is something I will remember for a long time. It was an experience I am glad I got to take advantage of.

For more on Immaculee’s story, you can buy her book Left to Tell, or visit http://www.immaculee.com/

Fall break means many things to different people. The one main thing it means is the semester is halfway over. It means its time for midterms in some classes, midterm grades come out and you are either happy with them or realize you may need to step up your studying. For some, it means time to go home and see your family and spend time with friends you haven’t seen. However, for me, it means the last golf tournament of the season and a long weekend I get to spend with my family.

This year, fall break also meant time for a new routine. On top of fall break being our last golf tournament, it also means my roommate/best friend/teammate, Nikki, is leaving for Rome soon. Another group of students is leaving for the Rome Experience Study Abroad program this Saturday. I am so happy for her to be going on such a wonderful opportunity, but for me it means time to get settled down into staying on top of my schoolwork, working out, seeing other friends, and such. It’ll be strange at first having her leaving and having no golf practice, but I am sure I will be able to fill my time.

As for an update now on how the golf season ended….. We came in 2nd at Allegheny, last Thursday, and 2nd at Wittenberg, which was this last weekend. We have improved so much since last year that it is truly remarkable. Many of us dropped our averages by at least 5 strokes, and the team dropped its average by at least 20 if not more. Our spring season should definitely hold some more great golf and surprises!

Well, thats it for now. Keep warm!!!

This coming week is most definitely going to be a testing one.  The golf team is playing 5 of the next 7 days. We have three tournaments coming up to end our season. It has gone so quickly and I cannot believe we are almost finished. We won this past weekend’s Ohio Dominican University Auld Crafters Kisor Classic! So we are going into the coming week with high spirits and a good game…. Wish us luck!

First place at ODU Classic

The one thing I am really looking forward to in the coming couple weeks is a visit from my parents. They are coming out for fall break and our last tournament, like they did last year. I am very excited to see them! Being from so far away, you learn to appreciate the times you get to spend with your family since you see them so little.

Besides golf, not too much has been going on. I have had several tests which I have done well on. Its a task to keep up with schoolwork. Unfortunately, college life provides many distractions, so it can be difficult to get everything done. But, it is possible with proper time management. One of my beliefs about college is that while it is important to do well in school, it is also important to make time for things you really enjoy doing and to have some fun!

Well, it is time to get some work done for classes before this crazy week begins. Take care!