Hey all,

The spring semester is coming to a close and so much as been going on. Sooo… Let me recap:

First, the weekend after spring break was little sibs weekend. My sisters and my mom came out for it. We got to spend a lot of time together and enjoy a bunch of the activities that they had going on. They had a magician on Friday night and a Walshland festival on Saturday. There were many stations to create things, a cornhole tournament, and even some inflatables to race on. We had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from it!!!!

Jen racing

The 3 sisters

Jen again

Then next big event to occur was the AGAPE retreat. A bunch of my friends and I took part in this wonderful opportunity. We spent that weekend at a camp and got to know our faith and ourselves a little better. I had such an awesome small group, one member being fellow blogger Chris!!! We all talked a lot and got the most out of the retreat. It was a nice weekend to get away from school and work, not to mention that the weather was absolutely gorgeous as well.

Faye, Nikki, and I

Following the retreat was the golf team’s first tournament. And guess what! WE WON!!! We played at Mount Union’s Tournament March 27 and 28. The weather on Saturday was fine but on Sunday we played in rain and wind the entire day. It was not so much fun. The important thing to take from it though was that we kept playing and kept our heads in the game and came out on top! Our next tournament is this Saturday, April 10 at Mercyhurst followed by Gannon’s Tournament on Sunday and Monday. Look out for how we do!

Recently, actually this past weekend, we had Easter break. I went home to New Jersey with my boyfriend Brian. We had an awesome time. We got to visit with a couple of my good friends as well as spend a lot of time with my family. We spent Easter in Wayne, NJ with my mom’s side of the family and my grandparents from my dad’s side. It was a really good time. Monday was my sister Jen’s birthday. SHE GOT HER DRIVER’S LICENSE! It’s a little crazy to think about. She’s getting so grown up.

Me and Jen

Brian and I

Deanna and I

Finally, the last major thing that has been going on here at Walsh University is my induction into the Psi Chi Honor Society. Psi Chi is an international psychology honor society. In order to be recommended for it you must have taken at least 9 credit hours of psych classes, have a certain GPA and be in the top third of your class. I guess I fit all three!!! Tonight was the ceremony to be inducted where we signed the charter membership book, as well as got a tassel and metal we get to wear at graduation. Now I just have to make sure I don’t lose them.

I know that it has been a lot that has been going on, but I think that is all for now! Keep checking in for more updates!!!

Last week was spring break, and let me tell you mine was pretty busy. I left a little early in order to go on a trip with my whole family. Every year my family and a huge group of friends and neighbors go on a ski/snowboard trip to Killington, Vermont. This year was no different. We left Thursday to head up to Vermont through the rain and snow that was coming down. Apparently the two days before we were up there, Vermont got 40 inches of snow. Yeah, 40 inches! Crazy! But it led to really good conditions on the slopes. The mountain was even somewhat closed on Friday because of all the snow. They couldn’t dig out a bunch of the lifts and even had some power outages. Nonetheless, Friday and Saturday were both great snowboarding days. On Sunday, before we left, I rested in the lodge with my mom. A group of us from the trip had decided not take part in snowboarding or skiing that day and hung around talking about past trips and what was going on in everyone’s lives now.

Then Tuesday, my dad and I flew down to Myrtle Beach, SC to spend a few days golfing. We played 3 of 4 days. We were planning on playing all 4 but it rained cats and dogs and Tuesday. It felt really nice to be outside golfing. The courses we played were beautiful, but tough. I was hitting it pretty decent by the end of the week. Walsh’s first tournament is coming up in two weeks and I am super excited. Its been really nice out here recently and the range opened up so now I will be spending a lot of my free time at the range getting ready. Once it all starts, the rest of this semester is going to fly!!!

Dad and I flew back home late Friday night, getting home after midnight. Saturday was a super busy day for me. I saw a couple of my good friends from home and spent time with Mom since I was away with Dad all week. It was a really good day. I had a lot of fun.

Sunday then I drove back to Walsh. I had such a good spring break. It was nice to have a break before the 2nd half of the semester starts up with all its exams and due dates for projects. Though it may be busy, its looking like an awesome end of the school year.

That’s all for now! BYE!

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/