Today is the last Sunday of my fall undergraduate career. It’s been pretty fun. After going to a local church with a group of friends and being serenaded with Christmas songs, I got to practice violin for an hour (which is exciting in my case because I actually feel like I’m getting pretty good), grab some lunch and then head off to my Gospel Choir concert! This year was a change in our normal concert routine- we were in the theater instead of Big Baker Chapel, but it was actually for a good reason: better acoustics. Off we went, by ones and two to the theater- easily identifiable on campus due to the long green and gold robes we were carrying to wear.

Warming up started late as usual, but finally we were on our way, laughing, clapping and singing- and of course, gradually getting a bit nervous. I’m also in a group called VOP (Voices of Praise), which is kind of like the Madrigals of Gospel Choir- we do more modern gospel music- and everybody was getting nervous about starting off the concert. But there was no need- we sang the best we have all semester in front of our audience in the theater, and got everybody swaying along with us! We had a great time, and then the whole gospel choir got to sing with the band. My parents got to come up to see the concert which was really fun- especially since I had a solo this year! It seemed like we had a pretty good crowd come out, and singing to a full audience is always more fun.

The rest of today has been mostly studying for finals, with a fun break and the end of the evening: hanging out with friends and watching “A Christmas Story” while studying and eating popcorn. A lovely end to a productive day before finals week officially starts tomorrow morning. Tomorrow is my busiest exam day of the week: I have my Intercultural Communications exam in the morning, then my violin jury (a kind of musical level performance, where we play the pieces we’ve been working on all semester and have three people judge us), and finally my Graphic Design exam. Our professors have been really good about letting us know what to expect for our exams, and thus how to prepare for them: what to study, finish, and look for in general.

I feel pretty well prepared for all of them, but a little bit more studying doesn’t hurt and makes me feel more prepared. Onto more studying before tomorrow’s exams!

So this weekend I am home instead of on campus so that I can study for finals and work on my last final paper effectively. This week was the last week of classes and everything finished up pretty well. I got all of my papers except for the one that is not due until Monday done and turned in. It was sad that some of my classes are ending, because I have really enjoyed my classes this semester. Nevertheless, I have many of my professors again next semester and I am excited to start a new group of classes that all sound like they will be a lot of fun. I am also excited to go home and rest for a few weeks before returning to campus for my Jan term.

This upcoming week is finals. I have four that I need to study for – Poe, Politics of the Middle East, Arabic, and Environmental Policy. I am not terribly worried about any of them, but I definitely will have a lot of work to do to prepare. It shouldn’t be too bad since I have friends that I can study with and we can keep each other on topic. Plus, it means we will be more able to find ways to de-stress between study sessions in order to retain what we are reviewing better.

Also, this past week, I had a lot of fun Christmas shopping for my friends and apartment-mates. I got everyone a card and all kinds of little gifts. A bunch of us are doing a gift exchange on Monday night, which should be a lot of fun. I am gonna spend most of Monday baking yummy treats while I continue my studying. I am looking forward to the gift exchange and I am sure I will write all about it on Monday. Until then, I hope everyone is enjoying the few weeks left before the Holiday season.

Picture clear, blue waters, white sand and a tropical beach with lounge chairs waiting for you to relax under some shade and read a good book. Your only two activities for the day involve going on two dives beneath the warm waters to explore the colorful reef below ( maybe, today is the lucky day we get to go see a shipwreck), and to meet up with your team later that night to discuss what you saw. Now imagine that you get college credit for said trip. “What?”? you say? Welcome to my Jan term: Scuba Diving the World: Bonaire.

I’m a senior this year, and due to an interesting three first years of studying abroad twice in the spring, it was not possibly for me to take my required Jan term session- essentially a winter course over the break. All students are required to take one Jan term as part of the McDaniel plan, and I suddenly found myself having to take one this year, or not be able to graduate! Figured I would take one… There are two types of Jan terms you can take: ones on campus, and study tour trips that go abroad for around two weeks. The benefit of staying on campus is that your first Jan term is free (minus room and board), and you can just hang out with your friends all the time. The benefits of doing the study tour trips? You get to go abroad! I love traveling, so this is always appealing.

For me personally, none of the on-campus options intrigued me all that much, so I decided to check out the abroad options. Unfortunately…all of them sounded interesting! But for cost reasons, I decided on the least expensive option that would also fulfill a life-goal for me: learning to scuba dive! Our course is called “Scuba Diving the World: Bonaire,” and goes for two week to the island of Bonaire in the Dutch Antilles. Bonaire is in the Caribbean, just off the coast of Venezuela- a pretty tropical location that just happens to be listed as the best dive site in the Caribbean. Among the other awesome things about this trip (it’s in Caribbean for one), is that you get scuba-certified if you’re not already, as in my case. This means that once we complete the certification, we’ll have it for life and can go scuba-dive all over the world!

We’ve been going through some of the training materials before we go- reading through a book and taking quizzes as well as watching the training videos on our own time. Now I’m just getting really excited to go and actually try out everything that I’m learning! I can’t wait for January 8th!

This may be one of the most stressful weeks of the semester for every college student. Freshman have their first Finals Week fast approaching, Sophomores and Juniors are writing term papers and gathering study materials for their own finals and many Seniors are wrapping up their Senior Capstone projects. To put it simply, everyone is stressed. Luckily strength in numbers comes into effect and having a group of people stressing together, is almost a calming sensation. Study groups are formed for every class and there is almost a dead silence on every floor of the library so people can study to their best potential. Professors are even stressed. Once the student’s stresses have cleared, the professors have the glory of grading everything. Being in the English Department office is always interesting this time of year. The coffee makes even looks worn down by the end of the semester. Walking into buildings and seeing professors in their offices at 8 or 9 at night only shows their true dedication to the students. The best is when they are just as sleep deprived as we are from all the papers.

It’s weeks like this that we all support each other the most. Currently, we are all looking forward to Late Night Breakfast happening next Monday in Glar. During which, Glar opens from 9-11pm for one night during Finals and has all sorts of breakfast food. It’s completely free to the students and sometimes, professors will offer to help out and be the ones serving the food. It’s great to know that you aren’t the only one craving pancakes at 10 o’clock at night. Keeping our sanity is something we all strive to do in these last few weeks of the semester. Thanks to my 6 week Winter Break this year, I’ll be very well rested for the Spring semester. As much as I loved my classes this semester, I will be doing a little happy dance after my last final on Thursday afternoon before I bolt home to hang out with my best friend. Studying now will be cause for celebration when it’s all over.

Looking ahead to next semester is both intimidating and exciting. I’ve worked my schedule so I have some interesting classes, even if they aren’t in my field of study. However, the fact that i am taking a science class is very nerve racking because it is not one of my strong suits and I have no friends (that I know of) that are taking the class with me. Maybe it will surprise me. Maybe I will absolutely love it and look forward to going to class every day. It will be interesting to see how everything turns out. I do know though that all the Christmas money I get will be going towards books. When I added 5 classes to my schedule, I wasn’t thinking about the number of books I would have to buy. These better be some great classes. I have a feeling next semester, while challenging, will be one of the best. Now I have officially taken a long study break than I had planned so I am off to the library once again! See you at the end of the tunnel.

Here is what happens the week before exams, from what I notice.

The Library - becomes packed. People are constantly studying, and the campus gets quieter. There are fewer people shouting and not many loud conversations. Everyone is starting to study.

Casey’s Corner - is often frequented. Everyone gets multiple cups of coffee to stay awake, finishing late work, final papers, and senior seminars.

Clothing - on people changes. Everyone dresses nicely. Senior seminars are doing presentations, there are final presentations, poster presentations, and just people who dress nicely hoping to make a final good impression.

Dorms- become quiet. There are quiet hours enforced so that people can get work done, and parties for the most part stop.

The Writing Center - is full all the time. People make last minute appointments for editing papers and getting help.

Books - are everywhere. They are in everyone’s hands, and laps, and bags. Everyone is studying, or reading, or writing, and everyone has books.

While we do not have a reading period here at McDaniel, we still have classes, the week before exams is still, in my opinion, just as studious as a reading period would be (if not more so, since there is not as much time for studying).

This whole week I thought it was Thursday. Literally every single day. Just a minute ago I was also convinced that tomorrow was going to be Thursday, until I realized that it will be a glorious Friday, and the end of classes before exam week! All that to say that these last two weeks of the semester have been a little bit crazy, and the days have all blurred into one giant sleepless mess. The good news? It’s almost over!

This week I finished out two of my classes: Ceramics and Jazz Dance, which are two things off my plate. I loved doing Jazz Dance- our instructor is really fun and we always learn something new in class and try to improve our flexibility. We were also given a fun challenge for extra credit: do a dance leap in a public place and record it on camera. I did it at our pool at McDaniel- which was hilarious as several people were in the water swimming laps and there I was spinning and leaping on the side of the pool. Totally worth it though. For our last class, we were all instructed to choreograph a brief section of “Don’t Wake Me Up” by Chris Brown and be able to teach it to the rest of the class. I loved getting the excuse to do some extra dancing, and it was interesting to see how different the dances were that everyone came up with to the same song. After a few last dances, we took our version of a final, which was a sort of mini-essay on dance: what we liked about it, what moves were definitely not our favorite and what kind of dancers we enjoyed watching. A fun end to a great few weeks!

The other class that wrapped up this week for me was Ceramics, although finals also continue into next week. It’s been a fun class, though a lot of work, and it’s pretty rewarding to see your pieces improve over the semester. As in a lot of art classes, our final was primarily a critique of the work we had done this semester, and the written notebook on our pieces we’d been working on. I went to my cabinet to gather up all my various pots, bowls and mugs to show to our professor and realized I made a lot of things! …not all necessarily good things, but a lot of things all the same. The things I’ve been making in the past few weeks: mugs, a teapot, a woven basket and a bowl all turned out really nice, so I’m happy to have a good end to the semester and be able to use what I’ve learned later on if I want to! Plus, all these pots will make excellent Christmas presents!

At the end of every class, you have to fill out a teacher evaluation, a process that you can just rush through, or genuinely take your time to give good feedback, which the administration and professors all genuinely read (they are anonymous). It’s a great way to let the school know about how amazing your professor was, or…how they may have missed the mark a bit and what could have been better with the course. I love that students are able to directly provide feedback, and so I usually take my time writing my teacher evaluations.

Despite being done with two classes, I still have five more to worry about for next week- almost there!