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Spring break is finally here, and I could not be more thrilled! I made it through essays and tests, and now I see the light at the end of the tunnel; it is beautiful! Last night, two of my friends came over. We ordered Chinese and played games. We broke out Candyland and had so much fun! We had not seen each other much this semester, so it was good to catch up. After that, I watched some TV and went to bed.
Today, I slept in and went to my friend’s wedding party. It was so nice to meet some of her family and old friends. I also met another girl from McDaniel who was kind enough to offer me a ride. All in all, it was a fabulous day! I am sure that it will continue to get better and better. Relaxation, here I come!
 The happy couple!
 The golf course and our sledding routes.  The pattern I made being a snow-caterpillar. We had three snow days last week, which in a way were also mental health days that everyone seemed to really need. I only really missed one day of classes as I only have one class on Mondays and no class on Fridays, both days that were cancelled. Despite this, I was really glad to have those snow days because everyone was off, which meant I could drag my friends away from their books to play in the snow!
I’m still not over my excitement about snow and I might never be. Thursday and Friday were especially perfect. I’d estimate about six inches had fallen and it was all powdery and pretty. Remember those pits filled with plastic balls that kids play in? Snow is like those. You can fall into it without hurting yourself, dive bomb in it, crawl through it, spin around until you fall… everything. I definitely lose at least ten years of maturity when snow is around.
 My snow angel. The golf course provides students and local Westminster families with a perfect place to sled, and one of my friends has a few sleds. I’d been begging him forever to take me sledding but Friday was the first time that the timing worked out. I remember sledding when I lived in Canada when I was seven, but that’s a very distant memory, so this was very exciting. It was super scary, too, but I took a deep breath and tried it.
I had as much fun sledding as I did making snow angels and pretending to be a snow-caterpillar, and while my friends didn’t join me in the latter, I think they were amused at my delight at the snow. Having time to play was so much fun!
With midterms and spring break approaching, it’s time to buckle down, study, and do projects. Luckily for me, that only applies to other students this semester since I don’t have any midterm tests or specifically midterm projects.
That gives me time to do other equally important things. As an FYS peer mentor, most of my job is over when the fall semester ends. I no longer have to attend the classes or do any of the readings assigned for the class. However, I do need to keep in touch with the students from the class (my mentees) and help with other projects that peer mentors tackle, such as study breaks in First Stop.
As part of that, I have decided to make my mentees small gifts as a little pick-me-up before midterms.
These little trees are based on the Mandarin Chinese character for spring and is something made for decorations during the Lunar New Year. Since the Lunar New Year is considered the start of spring, it’s appropriate to make the small trees.
Maybe if I make enough of them it’ll officially stop snowing.
 One of my favorite classes this semester is Research Design and Methods. It is a required course for my political science major and the class reviews topics such as how to conduct research and write a thorough research paper. My professor for this class is fantastic and his PowerPoint presentations always use humor.
At the beginning of the semester, everyone in the class ranked a seemingly random assortment of topics ranging from “urban planning” to “national defense” on a scale of one to three. This Monday, our professor pulled out a huge bag of board games and revealed that those rankings were used to assign everyone a specific board game.
I was paired with three other people to play the board game Suburbia. We will give a presentation next week about how this game is a simulation in order to connect it to the current topic of creating simulations in research. This assignment epitomizes the creativity that McDaniel professors use in the classroom- we are assessing the game’s strong and weak aspects as a simulation, and we are playing a board game (in class!)
Unfortunately, Suburbia is not an easy game. Our group met and spent a full hour trying to set up the game. We did not even get to the actual playing section. We are meeting several other times, and I hope that we eventually master the game. Maybe I can even win. Maybe?
This past week, we only had two full days of school which means there were lots of shenanigans happening on the snow days. On Thursday, my residents woke and decided that it was a Toga Day. They dressed up in togas and pretended to go around conquering other suites by having everyone dress like Romans. They are the funniest group of people I have ever met. They also built a snow woman and snow dog last night! They seemed to really enjoy themselves.
 My residents taking a picture in togas on one of the snow days For the most part, I used the past couple of days to catch up on work and study because midterms are this week, I have a couple of essays due and tests coming up. However, I did have to take breaks, and one of them was a jam session in one of my resident’s rooms.
 Jamming together! They broke out their guitars and ukuleles, and we sang songs together. Taylor Swift was on the playlist, naturally. A good time was had by all. I think we all needed a mental break, and I sure am glad that we got one! Now it’s back to the old grind before Spring Break!
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