The University of Blog

I absolutely love my classes and I am very excited for this semester.

In my first week, I learned how to build a website out of Dreamweaver without my brother’s help (a computer science major). My convergence website has my story ideas for the semester. It is very basic, but it will get a lot better. I can’t wait to learn more.

Also, I started my job at Sycamore which is wonderful. I work Thursday, Friday on Saturday night. Food service not as bad as everyone makes it out to be. Duties include bringing water, refilling water, clearing tables and resetting tables. I love always having something to do. As a multi-tasker, it is great to be constantly moving.

And I bike everywhere, which saves an immense amount of time.  I do get scared that I will run into people or fall off, but so far so good.

Goodness, what a busy day!

It began with my News Writing lab course. We started with a classmate interview and our story is due on Thursday. It will be a lot of hands-on work, but that is the best way to learn. That is the definition of the “Missouri Method.” Then, I had my Fundamentals of TV, Radio and Photojournalism class. I will begin researching three story ideas that I will spend a majority of the class exploring. Then I had my Introduction to Film Analysis class and we discussed Mise en scene (everything that goes on in the film) in The Graduate.

Also, I filled out my paperwork for my new job at Sycamore, a contemporary American restaurant. I will begin as a busser and go from there. I will be there every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. This means that I will need to record Grey’s Anatomy and be an avid multitasker (which I am anyway).

Today was my first day and I am ready to start the semester!

My first class was in the maze of Lafferre. I think that my Advanced Spanish Composition class will be really worthwhile. A lot of Spanish reading, but at least it will be an opportunity to improve my Spanish skills. I am pursuing a Spanish minor to give me a few more options in journalism.

The next class I had was my humanities course, The Ancient Era through the Honors College. I think it will be really satisfying learning more about Virgil, Plato, Aristotle and Homer because it seems like so much is based off of the Greeks. The humanities course is similar to a “Great Books” course. After that I had a mini- break until my News Writing lecture where we discussed the importance of news.

My last class of today was my Introduction to Film Analysis. We watched The Graduate and tomorrow we will discuss it. Tomorrow I will know more about how my semester will look. I do, however, know it will be busy!

I am all moved and excited for my sophomore year. School starts tomorrow and I was enjoying my last few days of freedom. To fully kick my semester off right, I went to get free Shakespeare’s Pizza. It may have been just for freshman, but I will never pass up free food. The rain hovered over the day, but I will not let rain stop me from getting a good deal.

Then came Tiger Walk, which is where the freshman walk through the columns to start their first year at Mizzou. I was tempted to attend for the free tiger stripe ice cream, but living off campus makes getting to those events a little more difficult.

Thursday night was the Midnight BBQ with what else, free food and a DJ. Friday I went to the fall welcome events at Lowry Mall. One of these was a hypnotist. Volunteering for this event, I did silly things on stage. The funniest thing was when one guy was talking in a different language and another translated for him. I don’t think that it worked so well for me, but it did give an excuse to do silly things on stage.

I went with my family to Estes Park, Colorado on the base of the Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful area to visit. If you like outdoors, this is the place to be. We were able to horseback ride (2 hours), whitewater raft on the Poudre River (low water, got stuck on a lot of rocks), and fly-fish.

I had never fly-fished before and we went on a half-day trip with a guide on the Big Thompson River. It was wonderful. I caught two rainbow trout and one brown trout. Unfortunately, my parents weren’t so lucky. I had no idea how much skill that fly-fishing takes. We wore waders and got right into the river, and used our flies to emulate the bugs in the river. And it worked!

Estes Park is very touristy, but once we got up into the Rockies, the crowd disappeared. It was pure nature. When we got up 13,000 feet near Rock Cut in the Tundra, we saw a family of elk. We also saw elk crossing the street lower in Estes Park. They were huge!! Completely unbelievable. With all of the great food and adventure, it turned out to be one excellent family vacation.

I went to the National Network of Presbyterian College Women (NNPCW) conference (Speak Truth to Power) in Washington, D.C. at American University. We were able to go to the office of the National Presbytery and learn about such issues like the Farm Bill, reproductive rights, immigration, and healthcare. We were then able to discuss these issues and how we felt about them during a “Speak Your Mind” forum.

Every night we had different plenary speakers. One of the most interesting women that spoke to us was Mara Vanderslice at Common Good Strategies, which is a political consulting firm for Democratic candidates. She served the Kerry campaign as the Director for Religious Outreach. It really got me thinking about the connection between religion and politics. And there can be one by using faith as a “moral compass” to drive political thought. Also, by using the power of the vote as well as writing letters to representatives and congressmen, this can really make a difference.
We also learned what we could bring back to our campuses to have successful programs in which people come and care about the issues. The biggest way to accomplish this and get participants is to build relationships. We learned that this is the key to not doing all of the work ourselves.

Touring the city, we visited the National Organization of Women (NOW), which is a feminist organization working toward women’s rights. They were organized originally to help pass the Equal Rights Amendment. The other groups visited the Center for Community Change, to give members of communities tools to change their communities for the better, and the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House. The biggest thing that I took away from this conference was to just be involved and informed. Knowing the issues and writing letters is one of the best things you can do because Washington cares what their constituents think.

I worked several jobs this summer (three to be exact). My first was the movie theater that I’ve been working at since I was a sophomore in high school. There is something about being at the same place for so long that adds some continuity to my life. My best friend works there too, so it worked out. If you are looking for a great job and free movies (now that the price is going up), the movie theater is a great place. And there are three in Columbia!

I also worked as a hostess at 23rd Street Brewery, a local restaurant. The goal was to become a server, but I didn’t have enough time to train. And then I worked in childcare at my church (another job from high school). I would really like to get a job when I get back to Columbia. I know it will take a lot of work, but a little extra money would be nice. I didn’t hold down a job last year, which gave me a ton of free time and time to focus on school. We’lll see if I can get a job since it is quite competitive in a college town. The hope is yes. If I were in Columbia earlier, I would have applied early (but alas, I did not have enough time.) Today I will walk downtown and pick up a ton of applications.

This summer I took biology and bio lab at University of Kansas and Microeconomics online through Johnson County Community College. It was a great way to get some of the requirements out of the way so I could take more classes at Mizzou. And, for those seven credits, it was under $1000. The best bargain came through the community college. It was  quite a deal!

My online class took a lot of self-motivation since there weren’t any deadlines. Because of this I actually finished early. Microeconomics is not the easiest class to take without a professor, but I read and did the practice exercises before each quiz. I studied a lot for bio and finally finished. It was not the most exciting thing taking a few classes, but it was smart to prepare for the future. The next step is getting my transcripts sent to the registrar’s office at Mizzou. That way I can get the credit and enter my sequence next semester.

No more class, at least for a week.

I have one recommendation for this: start early! Moving in the dorms can be tricky with hundreds of people using the same two elevators and trying to get into the same place at the same time. We lucked out by getting a laundry cart. This is the best method for moving a lot of stuff from a car to a small room.

Have you talked to your roommate? My roommate and I emailed each other back and forth to decide who was bringing what. I brought the microwave and Kristin brought the fridge. You don’t need (nor can you have two of) these items. To save space we got a over the toilet storage unit to stack all of our food on top of the fridge. Communication is essential.

Bunking the beds add space, but who wants to climb up and down all of the time? We decided against bunking because we wanted to have the opportunity to lie on our beds (and also I store stuff on mine). We had a small tv, which was a good addition to be able to have Grey’s Anatomy parties.

Living in the dorms is a great experience. There are tons of people to meet. It is the best way get acclimated to college life and share that experience with so many others going through the same thing. I’m a fan, and I will definitely miss living in the dorms this year. I will especially miss the convenience of eating in the dining halls and having someone else cook for me.

I rushed last year. This included moving in a week early and going through the rush process. I originally decided to rush because I wanted to meet people. At the end, I decided that Greek life wasn’t for me, but I am incredibly glad that I decided to rush.
house decorations for homecoming decorated by a frat/sorority team

It is a recruitment/ mutual acceptance process. The first day we went to every house and talked to a girl there and learn about each house. Then the next day we received a list of which houses invited us back. We go to fewer and fewer houses until the end when we are invited to up to three houses where there is a preference ceremony and then we numbered the houses that we wanted.

We finally found out what houses that we were selected for during a ceremony at the quad. Each house sang their respective chant and we opened up all of the envelopes at the same time and ran to our houses. From there we ate in a relaxed atmosphere, got gifts and had a chance to meet all of the girls.

The rush experience was a ton of fun and I’m very glad that I rushed. In the end, once I was selected for house, I decided that I didn’t have enough time to dedicate to my sorority and that I had met a ton of great people already. Mission accomplished.