Monthly Archives: November 2012

Cold and Compromise: Living with a Roommate

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Roommates are tough business. You’re cooped up in a tiny box with one for a full year and let’s face it, you could be the most unobjectionable, peaceful person and you will still want to punch your roommate in the face after a semester of daily interaction. Their stuff will end up on your side and you’ll complain about their mess, but then you’ll do the same thing a week later, one of you will want to stay up late, one of you will want to have friends over really late; there are countless little differences that will come between you and all of a sudden you’ll wonder how you ever thought living with your best friend was a good idea.

My freshman year, the guy I lived with for my first semester was a little nerdy and had an insatiable taste for Perry the Platypus, messy living habits, and an early bedtime. Now there are worse roommates out there. I hear stories of roommates who would steal and break each others’ stuff (mostly girls) because of small arguments about missing hair brushes and jealousy. Still, I had a friend down the hall whose roommate was also friends with my roommate and I proposed a switch. My bestfriend and I have a lot in common. We both love soccer, hanging out with friends, and Family Guy; yet there is still one thing that he and I disagree on: the temperature of the room.

I cannot stand being even a little cold. Temperatures below 50 degrees might as well be sub-arctic since I get the same amount of sleep as if it was -10 degrees. I think I may have a circulation problem in my legs that allows my feet to freeze before any other part of my body. In any case, my roommate sweats in his sleep even if the room is below freezing. This difference has caused many fights since he likes to keep the window on his side of the room open in order to sleep better.

Finally, the other day, we came to an agreement. I would sleep with my socks on if he closed the window during the day, and so far it has been working. I’m still cold in the room during the day because our heater doesn’t work but that is something I’ll need to take up with my RA. For now bundling up in hoodies and sweats will get the job done. Living with a roommate isn’t easy, but it is better when you come into a problem with a mind to compromise and work things out.

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Fall Fest!

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McDaniel College really cares about our well being prior to and during finals week, and they show this by planning events to help students have fun and destress a little. Tonight, the Office of Residence Life (better known as Res Life), which is responsible for housing on campus, threw an indoor carnival-type thing in that they dubbed Fall Fest.

Fall Fest took place in Ensor Lounge, which is an open area on the top level of Decker Center, the student center on campus, and I don’t think I’d ever encountered as many people in Ensor as I did this evening. It was so well attended that I often had difficulty getting from area to area of the room.

Why was this so popular? It had what all college students love: free food, chances to win prizes, and an opportunity to have fun with friends. There were stations for making Christmas ornaments, tie-dye, and friendship bracelets and other crafts. There were games too: tossing the ball into glass fish bowls could win students real live goldfish,  while other games involved knocking down pins and spinning wheels for prizes. There was plenty of free food to choose from too. There were caramel apples, fresh popcorn, tasty smoothies, and even cotton candy spun by the Res Life director Michael Robbins himself. Other activities included a pie eating contest and bobbing for apples, and excitingly, students could enter a raffle to win a NOOK.

I spent a little time at Fall Fest and enjoyed myself a lot. I made an ornament, had a smoothie and cotton candy, and had a nice time chatting with people I knew as I watched people trying to win goldfish. Eventually though, it got too crowded for my liking, so I returned to my suite. I hope that next year, if they hold this again, they’ll do it in the gym so there’s more room for people.

It’s been quite a lovely evening though. Every night this week, I’ve set aside time for lounging in my suite’s common room and decorating it for Christmas. Tonight, I hung up more Christmas lights, and then my suite mates and I spent some time watching footage of a fire on a laptop while listening to jazz music–very relaxing and super classy! It’s important not to get too bogged down in end-of-semester work. You’ll stay much more sane if you devote some time to yourself and your relaxation every day.

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Scheduling Fun

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Between all of my classes, activities, jobs, and other things, sometimes I forget that there should and could be time to just spend with friends. This slipped my mind, and I was feeling lonely, until I realized there was something I could do. So I decided to plan a party. My party is December 1st, a Saturday, and I decided to make a theme. I created my facebook event and picked out Harry Potter as a theme, I am getting very excited to see all of my friends tomorrow.

Even though I am busy I figured it would be great to unwind with people and spend some time away from cramming for exams. Plus this gives me the opportunity to bake some awesome theme food and play some fun themed games. I am thinking of playing “free the house elf” by trying to pin a sock into a house elf’s hands. For those of you who have not read the series, to free an elf from a life of servitude one must give it clothing. Anyway, I hope that people will come, play games, relax, bring food, and dress up of course!

The holidays are another great excuse for having a get together. Rather than just throw a random party, as I am doing, one can plan a holiday event. My friend is doing a gift exchange. Buy a gift (under 5 dollars) wrap and bring it. Have someone open any gift they want. The next person opens one and decides if they want to keep or exchange it, and so on and so forth. I am really looking forward to this as (another) great excuse to relax and spend time with friends. Even though exams are extremely close and it feels easy to get stressed and worried, there are plenty of things to look forward to, and if not, I can just plan some.

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Giving feedback about our cafeteria

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Every few weeks in our cafeteria, the first few tables are covered in tablecloths and reserved for students who wish to talk with our head chef, Jamie, and General Manager, Rita. I always passed these tables feeling pretty jealous, partially because the dinner they served always looked awesome and partially because I wanted to speak with Rita and Jamie about my dining experience at McDaniel.

Tonight, I finally got the chance! During the dinner, students in attendance both expressed their concern about certain elements of our dining hall while also praising the staff for certain meals that they’ve really enjoyed. There was a diversity of students with various priorities in the dining hall. For example, some students were concerned about seeing more meat during the weekends while others spoke up about wanting to see more fruit during breakfast hours.

I sat near Jamie, and he was open about his plans for our cafeteria as well as our suggestions about what we’d like to eat in the future. He said that some of his plans include adding more international foods because a lot of students have given a lot of positive feedback on nights when there are international options. For example, there was a night recently when a chef showed us different Indian recipes and we were able to sample things he made as well as various Indian spices. Jamie said we should be expecting more demonstrations like this next semester.

The quality of the food in general has improved greatly during my time at McDaniel, and I feel like this is partially due to their willingness to accept ideas from students and then use them. I can’t imagine the difficulty of serving a campus of hungry college students, but our staff seems to be doing a great job at keeping the individual in mind.

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Election Night for Gamma Sig!

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Last night my sorority had Executive Board elections. A very terrifying experience if you have never been in a situation like that before. Sitting in the crowd waiting for your position to be up for voting makes your heart pound. Last Fall semester, I was up for National Rep which is of course the last position that people vote on. So I was stuck sitting there waiting to see what happened while everyone else got their positions. This year, I was up for President…the first position elected. The vote was not in my favor but I am a strong believer of the saying, “Everything happens for a reason.” I knew the competition was tough and I had prepared myself for whatever way the vote went. I am very happy for my sister who ended up winning, I think she will do a great job and I’m excited to see what the new Executive Board does next semester. Once that position had been voted on, the pressure was off and I was able to enjoy the company of all my sisters and brothers while many others sat nervously waiting.

I was very happy that I had nothing to worry about after the first vote because my Little was up for my position, so she was freaking out the entire time. I was so glad I was able to help her calm down. She of course was voted in to be National Rep. I thin kI was more nervous for her than I was for myself. She totally deserves this position and i can’t wait to help her get started with everything. The position of National Rep has kind of become a family tradition. I took it over from my Big and now my Little is taking over after me. It’s a cute Hallmark-esque story. Sunday’s meeting will be awesome seeing the new and old Executive Board members working together to create a smooth transition of power. I can’t wait to see what the Executive Board has in store for the chapter. I have no doubt they will do a wonderful job.

Even though the meeting was extremely long, it was nice to be able to spend that time with the members of the organization. I always forget how much I love it when all of us are in the same room together. There is never a dull moment. I got a little teary eyed when giving my final report in the meeting but I know that my Little will do an amazing job and it will be nice to have my Sunday nights back. All of the change happening now is only preparing me for the drastic change I’ll be making next Fall when I travel south to work in the happiest place on Earth!

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Tip From a Tour Guide: Here’s a Tip from Matt Love!

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Tips from a Tour Guide

This week, instead of hearing a tip from me, I figured it might be helpful to hear from another tour guide.  Periodically, I’ll introduce you to another tour guide so that they can give you your prospective on McDaniel as well!

Here’s a Tip from Matt Love!

Year: Junior

Hometown: Denton, Maryland

Major/Minor: Biochemistry major, Spanish minor

How long have you been a Tour Guide?: Since my sophomore year.

What is your favorite thing about being a Tour Guide?: I like getting to interact with all of the families.

What else are you involved in on campus?: I am in a social fraternity, part of the Relay for Life Committee, a Peer Mentor, and on the Honor and Conduct Board.

What’s your favorite building to talk about and why?: Hoover Library because I really like talking about the football field and the tailgating experiences, since it is one of my favorite memories on campus and I really like to share it.

Where’s your favorite place to study on campus?: I like studying at my desk in my room, since it’s a controlled space.  I can make sure everything is tidy and it’s quiet enough.

What is your favorite resource on campus?:  I like the Center for Experience and Opportunity.  Their workshops on resume writing and cover letters have given me more confidence in the ability to market myself.

What is your tip for someone coming on a tour of McDaniel?: Make sure to ask the tour guide about their life.  Don’t just ask about the general information in the school.  You can find any facts about the school online, but you can’t get the personal touch if you don’t ask your tour guide for information.

Anything else you’d like to add?: Don’t be afraid of the Admissions process. It’s a lot more relaxed than you think it is and everyone is there to help you, not judge you.

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An Intercultural Case Study

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As a culminating project in my Intercultural Communication class, we were required to interview someone who’s originally from another culture and have them talk about their experiences and compare their culture to America. After writing a paper summarizing what they said, we also were to present to the class about our person and their culture.

For my case study, I did one of my friends, Rula. She is originally from Palestine and moved to the United States in 2001. Her mother is now one of the Arabic teachers at McDaniel. It was fascinating to learn about her life and the culture shock she experienced. One of the biggest differences I learned about what time means to each of us. In her culture, time is not important and it is normal to be one or even two hours late to something. Here, time is very important and even being 5 minutes late can be a problem. For that reason she continues to adjust to America in that sense.

With all of the presentations, it was really interesting to look at American culture through other people’s eyes. Many people in my class had studied abroad and had friends from all across Europe. I liked learning about other cultural norms and hearing about people around the world. This project was a great way to end the semester because it really applied everything we learned and helped us figure out our individual worldviews.

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Comedian

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We got an awesome break from final papers, projects, and studying: Tim Young, who has appeared on Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, and E, came to McDaniel to perform. For the students. For free. McDaniel has brought a few comedians on campus before (of varying humor) and every single one always starts the same way: making fun the corn fields they drove through to get here. Every single comedian. I don;t know if it’s a secret code among comedians to start by talking about the place they are performing, but they all do it. All of them. Every time.

Anyway, Tim started off unspectacularly, by trying to make fun of a few people in the room, but eventually found his niche: short people. He had an entire line of jokes about how a midget could never be president, and how a protest of angry dwarves (dwarfs? my computer thinks so) would just make people laugh. A bit of back story: my freshman year roommate is really short. Not midget short, but short, and he has the ego the size of Texas, which makes him seem shorter by comparison. So of course we make fun of his height all the time. Anyway Tim starts telling these short people jokes, and the whole place is chuckling but (my friends) Ryan, Becky and I are just laughing and laughing and laughing. I suppose he appreciated the laughter, because he just plowed on through. He then moved on to some other funny topics, but in my mind he couldn’t possibly top the dwarf jokes.

I had to duck out after an hour to go play soccer, but the whole experience reminded me of what my education really is. Yes we come here to learn, but we also come here to be in a great environment with other young adults. College is not designed to stress people out, it’s designed to help people learn. Events like school-sponsored comedians show me that McDaniel is not only interested in making us memorize information but also in helping us stay calm, relaxed, and laughing.

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Papers and Projects and Presentations (Oh My!)

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I love college and I love McDaniel college. But one of my least favorite things ever is coming back to campus after Thanksgiving break to wrap up fall semester. I have a lot of things that I need to work on over the next two and a half weeks. For the most part, these papers and projects aren’t so bad on their own, but because there’s so many of them, they’re all too overwhelming. But since I do have a lot of neat things to work on, here’s a rundown of what those things are.

For Approaches to Everyday Discourse, I have to write two more papers, the first of which is due tomorrow. In this paper I’m doing a genre study of articles appearing in popular news sources that are written about Facebook. Doing a genre study of this nature involves reading a lot of these sorts of articles; my paper requires me to read and analyze 20 articles selected by my professor, but in a true genre study, you can expect to read dozens more samples of whatever you’re analyzing to find shared features of a given genre.

My final paper for Discourse will involve a topic of my choice. I plan on doing research on the rhetoric of internet memes (particularly Advice Animals) and analyzing them as a genre in addition to observing what stories they tell and what it is about them that we as internet users relate to them so well.

For The Hero’s Journey, I have two projects due Monday. The first will involve a paper and a presentation analyzing the hero’s journey in a work of my choice. Though I’m not a huge fan of Powerpoint, it will probably in my best interest to make one to capture my classmates’ attentions and help them understand the movie better. My project will be about the movie Stardust. Other students in my class have presented on Across the Universe, Iron Man, and Pilgrim’s Progress, to name a few examples. My second project is supposed to be a creative project in a medium of my choice that describes my own hero’s journey. I’ll also be presenting this in class. One girl in my class who already presented described her hero’s journey in terms of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavors, which was really creative and funny.

In my Grammar and Usage class, I have to give a partner presentation in addition to doing a take-home final. The presentation will involve my partner and I discussing the grammar of the German language and how it relates to and differs from English grammar. My partner and I have taken German for years, so even though that will make the project easier for us, we’re still excited for it because we think German is a neat language and we want to share it with others.

Lastly, for The Nature of Science, I’m working with a group of three guys on a project that has involved us designing an experiment the involves some combination of sticks, boxes, balls, and string, conducting and analyzing the experiment, and presenting our findings to the class in addition to writing a paper about it. Truth be told, I’m pretty nervous about how this is going to go, and it’s the project I’m dreading most out of all the things I need to do between now and December 13, the magical day when my last final takes place and I get to go home for Christmas break. I’m not a big fan of experiments, and since we have to construct and conduct it ourselves, I’m afraid that something isn’t going to work out. I just keep reminding myself that once this class is done, I’ll have my science requirement taken care of!

Needless to say, I’ll be hitting the grind pretty hard tonight (or at least I’ll try), but not before inviting my suite mates to join me in watching the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas tonight at 8. I’ll make myself some hot chocolate and get some paper for paper chains to decorate our suite, and it will be a nice little breather before tonight’s long road ahead.

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End of the Semester Panic…Survival Tips

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Day one back from break has been eye opening and somewhat fear inspiring. With only two weeks left in the semester, students can be filled with both the relief of seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and the stress of the fact that finals are only two weeks away. Also factoring into all of this is the exciting premise of the Holiday Season which has the tendency to make us relax and not sweat the small things all the while the small things are becoming more and more important. This of course not aided by the Holiday music playing in Decker student center. In any case, this has all combined to make me a semi-efficient, slap-happy mess.

Luckily I have the advantage now, as a sophomore, having been through this last year. If you’re like me, time management is much easier said than done. And I have the basic idea down. For example, I have no classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays so I have set to scheduling the HUGE block of free-time I have in the middle of the day, dividing the time equally among all four of my main classes, to make it as productive as possible. The problem with this, not surprisingly, is 1.) sticking to your plan, and 2.) when assignments take longer than you had thought. My Lit by Women class is tricky in this sense because my ability to sit and efficiently/effectively read a text is largely dependent on my mood which is variable like anything.

As I’m writing this post I have just finished what I hope will be the solution to my problem. See the end of the term has thrown a few curve balls at me. One of which is a full-semester research paper, one that I have not started, due next week. Since it is for my SIS (Sophomore Interdisciplinary Seminar) and not a class within my major, I don’t need to stress about it, still it needs to get done. So I have made a schedule and set individual goals within the assignment. By Wednesday I need to have all my research done, by Thursday I hope to have a Thesis and by Saturday afternoon I hope to have finished writing the paper then take it to the Writing Center to have a skilled set of eyes look it over and tell me what needs improvement and how to make a it a satisfactory paper.

The best way to attack a big assignment, especially if you’ve procrastinated like we all do, is to break it up and make it seem smaller. Then be sure to use campus resources like the Writing Center because they’re students too and they understand your battle. At the risk of being too preachy, the moral is to start your work early…but if you’re like me there’s still a way to make up for your mistake if you just stay calm and organize.

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